Blooming May

Late May is the only time I have any real colour in my lazy garden....

Be prepared

Be prepared? I wasn't. Got to Captains, and couldn't quite decide bream or another go close in for carp in Charlie's swim. Didn't really matter as the largest hooks I had were 12's and no bobbins of any description..   Fumbled up a hair  (haven't used a hair rig for several years) and fished a small pop-up over pellet hoping Liam would be down soon so I could go back and get some bigger hooks. He was, but quite a bit later so hunkered down sheletering from the rain. Two slight indications that something was over the bait with a couple of dips on the float and some bubbles. That was it.....

North Nofolk spring

Changeable spring weather on the usual Sunday morning drive to get little'un to sleep today...

Bluebells near Ebridge Mill

Grey over Walcott

Ramsons in woods, Ridlington 

Bingo time down the right wing, bingo time

"Bingo time down the right wing, bingo time" so quoth the thinking footballer's tv pundit Garry Nevile. It's the same down on Captains with two big carp out in two days to the boys. Gorging on tadpoles. I'm getting me some hemp tomorrow  to cook off and try out a few spots round the pond fishing a little bit different to the rest. It's all coming right down on there after some barren years. Only a mile and a half from door to swim. Shallow, silty, weedy and acidic but a picture in the right light. Here comes the summer.

Bank holiday musing

We've kept the weather. Had a quick look at the Yare today around Harford Bridge and Keswick Mill

Had planned a short trip on Captains after tea, got there to find I'd left  a reel behind and luckily had a 5m telescopic flick-tip in the holdall. Not quite the range of hybrids on display as I had planned though this one is a bit suspect......

I think this one is genuine..

A  bit of a tussle on the pole ( no elastic) and 1.7lb line staight through from this bream which had lost it's top lip at some point.

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First fish since the 14th..

After a very warm pre-Bank Holiday Sunday headed off to Captains  as it cooled. Decided to ball in some feed and fish red  maggot until the bream arrived.(Or not) Catapult a goner but rigged it up with some nylon and a link  swivel but not a great job so little and often was not achieved with much grace. Ubiquitous small rudd but often beaten to the bait by some hand sized chunkier rudd,roach and the odd roach/rudd or roach bream hybrids. Fish warm to the touch and splendidly coloured.. A metallic roach blue  and glorious red fins featured fairly  heavily what ever the "species"excepting the more obvious roach/bream hybrids which had the cadual and anal fins tending to dark blue and some of the rudd retaining golden flanks.

After a lull and a few  sporadic bubbles struck into another rudd on the drop and was backwinding into something that was bending the Drennan Waggler rod left for me by Shanus before he headed off to Canada impressively whilst making sedate progress. Didn't wake up and storm off like a carp  or tear round like a tench  and sure enough a bream rolled into the net. Some already have their spawning tubercles but this didn't and was quite chunky across the back. Chunky enough to weigh and at 5lb 11oz and the biggest of the few bream I've had from the pond so far. No more bream tempted.

A few fish moving , mainly bream rolling in the thinner weeded areas and several off the island so that's an area I'll try again, probably with pellet and meat. A few more carp like rolls  of the 2nd jetty.Was fishing off one of the jetties, and my dislike of being so visible (though I do like showing off a bended rod when cars are sweeping down the hill) and the dodgy catapult meant I didn't feel I'd fished as well as I should have done but caught a few fish none the less. Plan to have a late hour off the dam tomorrow just concentrating on maggot close in and see if I can get a few shouts of some of the hybrid varieties.

Mice problem

I wondered how sometimes I seem to have broken line and lost floats in transit from water to garage until I found both drop-off lines had been cut and  the polyballs  were in the bottom of the holdall, in a very chewed state. Checking the garage I found a mess of chewed polyball and fluro paint . Micey had been busy...

Wensum meadow

Bucolic scene on River Wensum at Lyng behind Square Meadow Lake

The world is still turning.

Sitting in a marquee overlooking the beautiful Wensum valley around Drayton this afternoon on a solemn corporate occasion I was noticeably startled from my reverie by the first cuckoo heard of the year. Can't wait for the scream of the swifts scything through the air on those dark sickle wings.

Perhaps a few hours round Ringland with the fly rod soon?

I need hemp

Very different conditions on Sunday evening for an even shorter trip on Captains. Wind  coming off the dam, and a few spots of rain, no where as near as cold as yesterday.

No hemp so put in more meat and prawn but only minimal interest in the hour and a bit I fished. Several carp bream and pike moving elsewhere. Frozen prawns do sink slowly but don't stay on the hook..... Always end up eating too much bait  if it's "edible".