In the teeth.

It's typical isn't it, the one day I'm able to get on the bank and we get the worst weather for a while, heavy rain and strong wind. I'd been watching the forecast for a few days and things appeared to be changing for later in the day so I picked Barry up at twelve and we headed off through the rain to our destination. The venue was completely devoid of any angling activity (don't know why?) so we had the choice of swims.

Having fished the same place for the previous two weeks I had a plan in mind but it put me in the teeth of the wind and driving rain, the brolly was first up and rods were soon out. The outlook for the afternoon looked good and it wasn't long before the rain eased and turned to light showers, it wasn't just the weather on the change, things were brightening up for Barry as well, a small Pike graced the bottom of his net and put him in the lead.


The sun put in an appearance and grey turned to patches of blue between showery clouds, Barry's rod was away again, almost literally as he was re-baiting his predator rod and had an unexpected take on the float rod that sent the spool spinning, he grabbed the butt and held on as a Carp made a bid for freedom, it was touch and go at times with only a five pound hook length but gently pressure tired the fish and it soon slid over the cord, fish two for Barry with a lovely mirror at eleven pound twelve ounces.

In the lead with eleven and three quarters

I was playing catch up but knew my baits were in the right place as I'd lost a lump off one of the spots the previous week so it was just a matter of time. A few bleeps signalled the take and I lifted into the fish on an already tight clutch and took a step back to keep it away from the snags, luckily it kited away and into open water, it wasn't a big fish but it was a good scrap and put a healthy bend in the rod, Barry did the honours with the net.


A duck for this one.

It was another mirror of a similar size to Barry's earlier fish but went a little more a twelve and a half. I was a bit upset to see bite damage on the tail of this fish, I had heard of Otters in the area a few weeks earlier and it was the first evidence we'd seen. I did the best I could for the fish and treated the wound before returning, hopefully it will recover.

B******'s!

At the end of the session I was awarded the Duck and as we started to pack away the now dry gear and just to put the icing on the cake the heavens opened and threw everything at us, rain and hail and all in driving wind, I've never got wet so quickly from a shower of rain, I got to the car and when looking for my keys found a drowned phone in my pocket, it's still drying out in a bag of rice.