Mediocre at best

Desultory couple of hours on the river to start the weekend, raging toothache, sinusitis and a painful earache not made better by endless tangles and small (tiny) dace and roach in every swim I tried. Sunday not a lot better heath wise but some nice roach, pigs and this stonking tench, all on corn in between the showers. Getting dark early these days.

Not the bag fest I hoped for yesterday and just dull nagging discomfort. Nice to get a hybrid for variety amongst the not quite netter roach. 

Boring morning behind a pair of bobbins today, some mud pig rod bending 

but the best bit was the endless tea and this egg and bacon toastie. 

The un-cremated bacon hidden from the Loafer who claimed from afar that it was almost raw. Still wincing when I eat.

Back to Blighty

Summer is over and the signs of  a mellowing into Autumn mists and the sweet damp smells of dank decay.

Tench  still occupy my thoughts and when I can on the float and a pin. I can forgive this one for picking up my down the edge wafter 45 minutes after the first slip up  to a 'proper' method. Greedy fecker.

I'm picking up 4 or 5 most short sessions  and they really do test the tackle to the limit insisting on heading for the pads every time. Love 'em

The river is still there and closer to home but the bankside vegetation is a nightmare and  if you do beat down a gap the reeds are often bank to bank. The fish are there in numbers though  which hasn't been the case for a few years. Lets hope these horrid v marks don't herald  waves of the black plague croaking in on an unfriendly East wind.

Often though the fish are scale perfect. There are roach everywhere.

Perch, chub and dace too.

'Proper' dace too, I didn't weigh this one yesterday but I'd like to catch it again in the back end of the season for sure 

Sunny climes

Two weeks in Corfu, an all in jobbie as I refuse to drive there what with it being absolutely terrifying  as the countless vertiginously perched cliff edged shrines will testify. A  shame as its a lovely island. Didn't pack any travel rods for the girls as the local area is pretty much fished out though the Ionian Sea further off shore can sustain markets and local fresh fish stalls (which are plagued with wasps and hornets).

I'm not a fan of cinnamon in savoury dishes so ate mostly fish when off site in nearby Roda.

This is one Big Fat Greek Wedding I would have liked to attend at the beachside Taverna.

Beer was plentiful on site

 and when we stepped out it was often an Alfa and a litre of rose

Good hotel complex.

, 

Albania ahoy, which like a lot of the Med was on fire for a couple of days.

Corfu Town is a lovely place

A lovely relaxing get away. From Norwich Airport too so no long drive, home in under an hour of landing.

9 years apart by chance