The Stump!

It's peg building season again. I've been asking a few questions about the peg we've put in at the back of the island for a while and it was about time that it went in. The sand bank now has two pegs, the original peg at the bottom of the sandy slope faces the island but we've now added another peg to the right of this that faces the road bank.

Tree's cleared.

We had the platform structure, the legs and a load of other timber and tools to shift and typically the peg we were building was at the furthest point away from the pound. We were going to have to do several trips back and forth carrying arms full of wood and tools, that was until Barry found and old shopping trolley tucked away in a corner, it was put to good use shifting the gear over to the far side of the pool and was nicknamed the 'Hurdy Gurdy', she served us well.

The Hurdy Gurdy

A few tree's had to be taken out and a rather tricky tree stump had to be chopped into to make the wooden platform fit, typically the stump was at an awkward angle to get at from the bank, waders had to be put on and into the lake I went to tackle the stump head on. The water infront of this peg has a good depth and was right up to the top of my thigh waders as we sawed and hacked at the stump. I was a bit concearned that the length of the legs being hammered into the lake bed at the front of the peg were not long enough to make the peg sturdy but once the platform was fastened to the legs and the shuttering between the bank and the back legs were filled in with rubble and sand the whole structure firmed up, it ain't going anywhere!

 

I made one classic error after rolling down the waders to collect some more gear from the pound, I jumped back into the lake and only realised they were still rolled down when they filled up with chilly lake water. It soon warmed up.

View of the finished peg from the road bank.

It takes the weight.

The finished peg looks rather nice and gives fishing access to the fronts of the now closed pegs along the section of road bank beyond the point, it's a tricky cast to be up close in front of the tree's so clipping up is advisable.

 

we came up with the pegs name, 'The Stump', for obvious reasons.

Tench save the day.

Still no Carp showing at Ryton and boilies had been dispensed with in favour of a few grains of maize with the hope of bagging a Tench or two. Barry had handed over the ducks at the beginning of the session but only one of them was heavy enough to sit beneath my pod in the strong wind.

 

Barry was first to bank a small Roach and he enjoyed letting me know that he was once again ahead on the duck challenge. It wasn't long before I had a slow take which resulted in a Tench in the net, the duck turned to look at Barry!

A nice example of a Ryton Tench.

The session was a bit of a slow one and ended with Barry catching one Roach, one Perch and a very nice Rudd, I don't think I've ever seen a Rudd with fins as Red before. My tally was Two nice Tench which out stripped Barry's bag so sadly the ducks never visited their new house and had to be taken back to Barry's again.

Barry, bring them with you next time?

Since last week, the Carp have woken up and a few have seen the bottom of a landing net.

 

Bit short notice this one, a couple of new pegs are going to go in over the next couple of weeks at Ryton so if anyone wants to give a hand your more than welcome, bring sledge hammers and spades.

Give 'em up!

Looks like the weather is breaking at last so roll on those warm summer evenings with a fish or two on the bank. A couple of weekends ago there was a brief spell of sunshine that saw us head off to a stretch of water for another round in our duck challenge.

 

It was late morning by the time we got our lines in the water and sitting in the sunshine was very pleasant, if it wasn't for the five layers of clothing it could have been mistaken for a normal spring day! It didn't last long, a large patch of black cloud moved over and it started to snow. It was during this snow shower that I saw Barry lift into a fish, "the jammy little" I thought and went over for a look, he'd had a small Bream on maggot and this seemed to be the way to go as big dead baits weren't being picked up.

First fish to Barry, a Bream.

 

then another Bream

 

and a Carp!

 

Several snow showers later, with a little bit of sunshine in between, I still sat there fish less willing one of the alarms to signal a take. Barry was bagging up on the opposite point with Bream, Carp and Ruffe and it looked as though those Duck's were coming home to roost at mine.

 

Even though those Ducks are officially mine, Barry seems reluctant to give them up? It's been nearly a week and a half since they were 'won' and they still haven't been handed over.

 

C'mon Barry, give 'em up!