Peaking too early?

I'd taken the day off, in part to attempt to tidy up after the handyman (take away his mess..) but also to get a few hours on the bank, nothing too planned. In to town to renew a mobile contact, a mediocre coffee and a better toast and bacon..

I had dues to pay on the hallowed turf, no stripes but neater anyway, hard work in the now humid heat but after a ginger beer I popped up on the bridge (extinction rebellion types or disgruntled locals having forced a way through  a temporary obstruction) to see the dace and roach back on the gravels, good news for another day. I am inching ever nearer to the purchase of a pair of chest waders so I can get in with them for some decent off the rod tip trotting. and maybe some estuary bassing. Not yellow strap VASS ones though and certainly not rods on rests 5 wraps out in the swim.

Back to the Pantenchnicon to unload the waggler and corn gear wishing I had a floppy or at least wide brimmed hat as the sun was high and hot in the sky. As is often the case my groundbait barrage was a bit wayward, and a bit too far out but sort of effective enough to get a few fish down in the deck of the listless surface. I did loose a decent tench to a hook pull at the stink net, you know what happens, they hang there for just not long enough to scoop them in..in this case long enough for me to identify it as a  fairly friendly  female with a St Peter's Thumbprint that can approach 7lb at the right time of the year. The scrap on the waggler gear, with "fake" dorsal pings rather than tail slaps had me thinking carp for quite a while.

I found some nice roach but no skimmers or hybrids and though nothing really troubling the pound nice enough to put a bend in the Drennan Waggler rod.

This bream however did bend the rod in a determined and dogged way. Might have been worth an out of curiosity weigh perhaps, as long as the stinknet from handle to the rim and over two folds of the mat  but not much substance past the vent/dorsal axis.

Saturday has dawned very wet and sticky, looks set in for the weekend too. Wet or not, bet the banks are empty come 8pm tonight. Now, what to do with loads of sodden timber cut offs when the eagle eyed "waste operatives" are ever ready to pounce with a Wi-Fi contactless card machine?

Saw a quite heart-breaking sight on my last trip there, a car-full of fishing gear presumably from someone  recently incapacitated or deceased being unloaded. No trading or exchanges on site was the harsh decree, and years of someone's pleasure were impounded to to be picked over and probably skipped. I'll have to leave some sort of instructions about my mountain of tackle, but the "waste operatives" are welcome to the stinknet... and probably my still by then unused Fox depth marker set as well.