Apart from the wind and rain I can’t remember much about this encounter now........
What I can remember was vowing last year after successive matches that resulted in two trashed brollies that ‘I’d never fish in the rain again’
So what was I doing here on this latest grueller?
Well I’m gunna blame Heinzer.
On Thursday he asked me if I’d put him down for it. ‘Nope’ I told him.
‘You’d better put me down then’ was his retort and he added ‘Can you get us any caster?’ So the caster was duly ordered with the Warburton King........
Friday saw 80 mile an hour winds, but the promise from the forecasters was that they’d die down overnight........
Roll forward to 7am Sat.......weather didn’t seem so bad.
Dry and didn’t look too windy. Till Heinzer rolled up to pick me up – just as we pulled away, tell tale spots appeared on the windscreen.
Well the one saving grace was that Big Col T was gunna peg out, so I wouldn’t get soaked sorting that out.
As I sat in the car by the side of the cut, Big Col T returned back a ‘little damp’ with the news he’d ‘pegged the boats out, there’s just a nice ripple down there’. ::) ::) ::) Big Col T, our benevolent match sponsor once again had donated a cock-a-doodle-doo that was going to the person catching a ‘mystery’ weight today.
Well it wasn’t that mysterious as I knew what that weight was,
but kept on the QT in case anyone ‘doctored’ the contents of their net at the end to suit
Pegged out, I sauntered with gear down to New Pelsall Rd bridge and the draw was conducted under the shelter it provided. To be honest, draw concluded, I didn’t wanna move – never mind having to hike down to peg 9. Everyone wandered off to their respective pegs and after 5 minutes contemplation I decided I’d better follow them.........
On my way I passed the usual drawbags
on the early numbers
........ and started setting up in the threatening rain. Just a couple of rigs were set up – they would have to do today as with 10 mins to go the heavens emptied – the brolly was futile as the wind was whistling through.
The off and a look at the punch short. In fact although i plumbed up ‘long’ as well – well at about 9 mtrs, 99.5% of my fishing for the next 4 hours was on the short lines and I only had one look longer.
A few punch roach put in an appearance and after about an hour on fish no12 I decided to do an ‘Olly and OBI’
and ‘adjusted’ the rig cuss things had slowed down........... and it immediately ‘burried’
But not the rutilus I was expecting
..........as a micro kinver tiger had taken a liking to the punch. Ditto fish no 14 !!!
With no more wasps showing it was back to the original depth and fish 15 to 18 went into the net
It was slow, so a look on the short chop line...........dragging, lifting finally enticed a bite as a 3oz kinver took a liking to a 1” piece of worm. This was followed by another 5 or 10 mins later, but these were obviously lone rangers as no more bites followed
At about 12.30pm a critical moment...........back on the punch and a bite, lackie came out and a 12oz skimmer surfaced.
Shipped back to take two sections off and as I was picking up the landing net a gust nearly snatched the top 3 out of my hands
........with the result that the snottie ‘came off’.
‘Ah well’ or words to that effect I thought as I went to add another piece of punch only to find the end of the PR31 had snapped off in the process.
Well it seemed to take an eternity for me in that wind and rain to get another replacement hook out and tie it up..........by which time that shoal of snotties in front of me must have moved off, cuss I couldn’t buy another bite.
With the rain having ceased for a bit I decided to get the lens out and take a picture or two of those guys fortunate to be on the sheltered mill pond pegs
at the far end who were reported to be bagging up
Sitting on a(nother) flyer was our benevolent poultry farmer, Big Col T
OBI having a dip into the secret bait box
KOD on the wag
TrevorB was snaring a few
Back on peg 9, with just another 4 fish put into the net in that last hour I was glad to hear the whistle and see the scales come down...........
PEG
2 HEINZER 0.13.8
3 COTTI 2.15.0
4 MIKE E 2.0.4
5 OBI 2.0.0
6 KOD 0.12.13
7 BIG COL T 1.3.6
8 BIG COL 2.13.4
9 TK 1.15.8
10 TREVOR B 1.2.4
Cotti had found some nice caster fish late on, whilst Mike E latched into, and landed, a 6lb essox lucius on his favoured chop
And hats off to TrevorB who’s persevered on the gruellers and came up trumps with a new P B
Meanwhile, who won their Sunday dinner..............?
Twas KODadoodledoo