Well, it is Saturday and time to update my blog and I have just realised that I made a mistake last week by publishing my blog entry as a page, which no-one can see, so I have had to include it in posts so it now appears that I have posted two blog entries on the same day, which I have but I didn’t mean to! Anyway we are now at the end of October and I had an entertaining day’s fishing, thanks to Ben!
As the forecast wasn’t too bad for today compared to the rest of the week I took the opportunity to go fishing. I continued my plan of visiting all the Club waters and arrived at the venue to find a square irrigation reservoir surrounded by trees. Well, not quite surrounded as on one side they were cutting them down and all kinds of machines were at work making a racket and spoiling the peace and quiet!
I arrived at the same time as another guy who had all the gear, a trolley to put it on with matching bags and also his son, who was four years old. As a newbie I asked my fellow angler’s advice, socially distanced of courses and we ended up fishing in neighbouring swims. I soon found that Ben, for that was the lad’s name had a love of fishing and liked to help his dad, he was also a right chatterbox!
I soon began catching small roach on my float rod, which was tricky to handle as the swim was about ten feet deep or more. Ben noticed me catching.
“Dad! Dad! He’s caught a fish, I’m going to see!” And he was off! It was then that I realised that four year olds don’t have any idea of Social Distancing! Ben was quickly followed by his dad who wanted to keep him out of my way but every time I caught a fish the attraction was too great! Soon he was holding my fish and putting them back in the water!
After a couple of hours with nothing on my carp rod and nothing on Ben’s dad’s we had a chat. He told me that the fish were swimming in mid-water, which explained why I was catching nothing fishing on the bottom. He had a fish finder echo sounder device and could see them, I told you that he had all the gear!
I decided to change my rig to fish off the bottom and about half an hour later the bite alarm sounded and I was into a carp.
“Dad! Dad! He’s got a carp!” but this time dad was not letting him come over and get in my way.
“Dad, he’s got a fish! We haven’t got a fish, why haven’t we got a fish dad?”
I manage to land the carp and had him on the unhooking mat and both Ben and his dad came over to see, as you do. Ben was very keen to stroke the carp and to have him weighed and he came in at just under seven and a half pounds. Ben helped me put him back by holding the end of the landing net handle.
Then it was their turn to catch and Ben helped dad by getting the landing net. I wandered over for a look.
“That’s my rod.” Said Ben although it looked to me that Dad was doing all the work! Ben was very proud that his fish weighed a pound more than mine.
Then it was lunchtime and I was confident that I would get a bite with a sandwich in one hand and a cup of tea in the other but it was not to be. I decided to have a change from the float rod and fish with a feeder and a quivertip to try to pick up some bigger roach on the bottom. Time passed and I did get a better fish.
“Dad, he’s got a roach again!”
Then the tip pulled round quite quickly and I was into something totally different! On light tackle it was giving me a fair old fight and as it got nearer I could see that it was a carp of two or three pounds. I managed to land it and had it on the unhooking mat and the hook had fallen out by itself. I was just getting my phone out for a picture when the alarm on my carp rod started beeping! A quick shout to my neighbour.
“Can you put this one back for me? And that was the last I saw of it. I was back to my carp rod and into another nice fish, a bit smaller than the first one. Ben wanted to help me land him but dad kept him out of my way until the fish was safely landed. We didn’t weigh him this time and Ben helped me put him back by holding the handle of the landing net again.
After that it went quiet, then it started to rain and I pondered the wisdom of leaving my fishing umbrella in the car because I had too much to carry, perhaps I need one of those trolley things! I covered up all my gear as much as possible and I had waterproofs and wellies on so was OK although I did go and stand under a tree for a while.
There were a few smaller fish and Ben came and “helped” me with them. One of them had swallowed the hook and I was taking a while to get it out with and Ben was watching me intently.
“We say it’s a pain in the arse when they do that!” I had to agree but was laughing inside, I don’t think dad heard him or would have approved! Then it was starting to get dark, time to pack up, go home and get the dinner. “Are you going home? We’re going home soon!”
I wandered over to say goodbye to Ben and his dad. I had been impressed with the way dad involved him in their fishing. Ben obviously liked fishing and spent six hours on the bank being well behaved and interested in what was going on, even when nothing much was happening.
Dad had had no more bites, I felt a bit sorry for him but at least he didn’t blank. He told me that was the worst he had ever done here. I told him I had beginner’s luck! I don’t know if that made him feel any better!
Then it was back to the car, struggling with all my damp gear and home to spread it out in the shed to dry. The Missus said.
“Did it rain much? We had a few drops here.”
A few drops! I was only three miles away and it poured for twenty minutes! Of course if I had taken my umbrella to the swim then it would have stayed dry all day!
Never mind, that was another venue ticked off the list and although I caught a few it was far too noisy with the tree felling. I have more places to fish before returning.
Love this! ????