Halfway, and the bloody road is blocked with traffic and jammed for miles.
WE-EE-EE-EE-EE-EE-LLLLLLLLL......
I went home. Then all the delays entailed meant not being able to go to pick it up until 11:30, drive over and back etc and all that messing about, I finally launched at 13:10, 1.5 hours later than intended.
It was down to 10 degrees. It was windy as hell. It was raining. There was sleet. The broad was choppy. The water was right up. No one was about on the water. That'll be the place all to myself then.....
I wasn't wrong. I spent an hour and a half going up the north side of the broad, through all of my hotspots and everywhere else I'd taken fish. I'd used Magnums, Super Shad Raps, shallow floating divers. Nothing. I was blanking. Headed up the river, nothing. Headed back down, after a coffee, and changed to some lures that have been effective with casting before - but never trolled well - which I'd just bought a new trio of. Shakespeare Big S are one of the classic designs and only £2.50 a throw. I put on a redhead (wasn't the day for them) and a stripey blue/black/white fella.
Shortly after I had a run. The wind picked up, picked me up as well and flung me into the side. Either the fish ran into the tree, or it was a tree all along. I think the latter but at least it was exciting.
Dusted myself off and carried on. The blue stripey then began to make some noises...
and boy was that pike annoyed
I thought it was bigger, from how it pulled, but it weighed in at 3lb 11oz and unhooked itself jumping in the net
I lifted it for a couple of snaps
and off it went. What a beautiful, streamlined fish. Not like a lake pike.
A quarter of an hour passed when up popped Jack
And duly he was invited aboard
He was all of 2lb 4oz, but fit and fast.
Not much happened on the fish front for a while then. I had rainbows
I had hailstorms and heavy rain
And I had a sunset beginning
At which point Jack turned up, weighing in at 1lb 2oz
Cut part of my face off in this as I was in a hurry. I was 'rushin'
(Hey, at least my ears were warm!)
I put the pike back and it stayed alongside, not tired out but not bothered either, and just using me as shelter. i enjoyed watching until it just sawm off
I was glad I bought the blue stripey Big S (got a second from a car boot sale too)
as this one came in at 3lb 1oz
I also bought a perch patterened one which finally caught this final fish of the day at 2lb 6oz
An interesting afternoon, a lot harder fishing than any day last week - especially as weather conditions had got far worse and the temperature has experienced a rapid drop. However, I did prevail and had a cracking time. Though things were going badly all day, and things weren't ideal out on the water either, I didn't get annoyed and was reminded of one of the signatures on here that goes along the lines of 'a bad days fishing beats a good day ashore'. It's true.
