This was supposed to track my fishing history. It was supposed to diarise my chronicals in the art of wetting a line. I guess I forgot to ever start it.
Well, lets put that right!
Friday, July 8th 2011.
I took the day off work and joined the old man in a day ticket session at Arrow Valley Lake.
We knew it was going to be tricky, the weather forecast was not good. Rain. And lots of it. But we are nothing if not determined and so we made sure we took my bivvey. That, at least, would shelter us from the worst of the down pours.
It wasn't too wet to be honest, we got there and set the bivvey up and moved all the gear inside it. Then went about setting the rods up. We were both fishing with 2 rods, one float, one ledger. The ledger rod would be cast out the the island and the float rod about a rods' length in front of us. Bait for the ledger would be either a boilie, or some flavoured luncheon meat (strawberry!). Both float rods would be using either maggots or sweetcorn. Ledger rigs were simple and rudimentary, inline lead, hair-rig. Simple and usually effective.
I was a difficult session. It didn't rain all day, infact, when it wasn't raining it was sunny. But this proved to be problematic. Changes in weather conditions stop the fish from feeding, and as we all know, fish need to feed in order to catch them. Just as they were getting used to one type of weather, it changed, and they switched off.
All in all, neither the old man or I had even a nibble on the ledgered lines. The float lines proved to be little better. I don't know how many fish we caught, but it wasn't many. Maybe a dozen perch, roach and bream between us.
But you know what? It doesn't matter. Catching fish is only a part of enjoying fishing. The whole thing of getting into the fresh air, being a part of nature, that is what makes fishing special. Pick the right location and you can see and here some magnificent things. I've seen kingfishers, herons, all manor of birds, water voles, and of course, fish. There is something special about seeing a carp jump out of the water!
So, next time then, we'll hopefully be heading to a new water that neither of us has fished before. That brings it's own challenges and I'll try and remember to update this with how it goes.
Tight lines,
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