In anticipation of a weekend session on the Avon after a fat dace or two, early Friday morning I took a stroll to Tusses Tackle for a pint of maggots. This walk takes me across a set-aside arable field whose ruts and ditches were now full of standing water; evidently the overnight rain was far heavier than I'd thought it to be.
Monday, 25 January 2010
Carp Fever Nostalgia
The two pictures posted below of ancient carp captures have been hanging around in our bedroom for some time, subject to the little shop of chemical horrors that is a woman's toilet, and so I thought I'd scan them (and remove to a safe place) and show you the only proof extant of my fishy adventures prior to moving to Coventry in late 2008.
Thursday, 21 January 2010
Small Stream Adventures - Flotsam and Jetsom
A brace of brook roach...
An afternoon opportunity arrived quite unexpectedly, the tinkling brook, the local cut, now which was it to be? Both were now quite fishable, the flood had long subsided, and all the ice had all but gone, a small matter undecided...
OK. That's quite enough of that nonsense...!
An afternoon opportunity arrived quite unexpectedly, the tinkling brook, the local cut, now which was it to be? Both were now quite fishable, the flood had long subsided, and all the ice had all but gone, a small matter undecided...
OK. That's quite enough of that nonsense...!
Thursday, 14 January 2010
Small Stream Adventures - Devil in the Detail
A fabulous catch of brook roach...
I'm never the pessimist when it comes to my fishing. I don't set out the door believing that I will not catch good fish, that some circumstance or another is already pitched against me, that my chances are anything other than fair to good, and on occasion excellent, or that luck has anything whatsoever to do with it, and so, despite failing to catch on my second trip to the brook I still had very high hopes as I set out upon my third.
I'm never the pessimist when it comes to my fishing. I don't set out the door believing that I will not catch good fish, that some circumstance or another is already pitched against me, that my chances are anything other than fair to good, and on occasion excellent, or that luck has anything whatsoever to do with it, and so, despite failing to catch on my second trip to the brook I still had very high hopes as I set out upon my third.
Saturday, 9 January 2010
Slushy Mush
A few difficulties in the snow...
It's a pity that the temperatures have risen just enough to sustain a very slow thaw, because the canal was becoming so hard frozen that a few days ago I ventured out upon it to see if it would hold my weight, and it did...!
It's a pity that the temperatures have risen just enough to sustain a very slow thaw, because the canal was becoming so hard frozen that a few days ago I ventured out upon it to see if it would hold my weight, and it did...!
Wednesday, 6 January 2010
Small Stream Adventures - Significant Accumulations
A startling catch of roach...
I do get loved up with proper cold weather and especially if I can get out and fish. Take today for instance; overnight we'd had 'the worst snowfall in living memory' (to those under 20 years of age) across the entire nation and are now 'enduring the worst winter for 30 years' according to the rags and are in line for 'the worst winter in a century' and so forth, so of course, this morning I was scouting about for a fishing opportunity so that I could enjoy the very, very 'worst' of it, head on.
I do get loved up with proper cold weather and especially if I can get out and fish. Take today for instance; overnight we'd had 'the worst snowfall in living memory' (to those under 20 years of age) across the entire nation and are now 'enduring the worst winter for 30 years' according to the rags and are in line for 'the worst winter in a century' and so forth, so of course, this morning I was scouting about for a fishing opportunity so that I could enjoy the very, very 'worst' of it, head on.
Monday, 4 January 2010
Our Fishing Challenge
I just love it when Christmas is finally over and done with. This year it went on much too long for my liking and all because New Years Day fell on a Friday therefore appending an extra two days to the fag end of festivities before we could resume la vie ordinaire. I do love a well crafted Christmas Day though
Sunday, 3 January 2010
Off the Blocks
T'other night I made the grave error of going out for a booze up with Keith, Danny and Pete. I got fairly plastered it has to be said; unfortunately I'd been on the vino for most of the day and because wine and beer is decidedly queer in my (honestly) vast experience, every single inch of ale imbibed from thereon in was to result in a country mile of fucked upness. I never learn...