BiOrbalicious…22/06/13

BiOrbalicious…22/06/13 I had told my wife that if I woke early I’d go fishing for a couple of hours, a recce on the River Hundred nearby to see whether it was worth launching the yak in the week most likely. I did wake early, at five, but it was raining so I binned it and went back to sleep. I don’t do rain. Si woke me just before seven with a text to say he’d dumped his fish tank outside on his way to work. I went down and brought it in – a 30 litre BiOrb that is destined for pond-dipped sticklebacks. Then I went and wasted some time on facebook. Coming down for breakfast the girls had excitedly put the tank together. We still needed to discuss where it’d go but they didn’t care. The official reason behind it was Eloise wanting some sort of horrible bug things as a pet and like this we could see if they could look after something for the month before they go to France for the holidays. Actually though, I have always wanted a tank, specifically one with native fish. Of course we had to go to the pet shop, a replacement filter and air stone were required and then, after lunch, Eloise and I intended going to take a look at the Hundred now that the weather had improved… Then Flo needed my car, hers playing up. So she left, we filled the tank and put the water treatment stuff in and hey presto, it was up and running. A few hours later we were bored so went half a mile to the closest Park to see what was about now it’s been cleaned up…we forgot the camera though but this is the kind of thing we used to do years ago so here are a few old snaps from when we’d go out and see what we could find in any bits of water around, gratuitous snaps from the family album: Well, you’ve got to really. So we pitched up at the park. Two inch rudd straight away but not after we’d tried to tempt a decent carp on the maggots we had with us to no avail. Sitting there in two feet, ten feet from the bank. Laughing at me. We tried for some more rudd, had a couple each and then went on a wander to see what we could spot. Hmm. A dead carp. Some sticklebacks (!). Got chatting to a bloke, said there were plenty of carp in here now but they were all dying from white spot, twenty or so have gone in the last couple of weeks, not good. Heard there were tench in there too, and roach, could be a reasonable spot? I launched there before a few years ago, had a few rudd, a handful of footballs and a bunch of floats…watch this space. We went back and had some more rudd, couldn’t tempt the goldfish, tried for five carp sitting in front of us and although two inhaled a bunch of 3 maggots they spat them out without being hooked. A kid was fishing with some swan shot and getting weeded every time so I gave him some floats and maggots, showed him how mine was set up (12 inches of line below the float) and he tried again. I watched carp or tench of a few pounds leaping out of the water on a couple of occasions – a new one on me - and we caught some more rudd before, insistent as she was, as unargumentative as I was, we brought the last one home, a small one of 2 inches to go into the BiOrb where it seemed to settle okay. Well, Fenny as it was named, seemed fine in the morning, swam around, breathed okay, didn’t look stressed but wasn’t very active. Presumably bored and lacking company (other than the girls and I) I decided we’d have to pop in a second rudd for company. But first…pond dipping for sticklebacks! Not just the three of us, we arranged to take some friends as well and make a repeat of years before: First up, a stretch of water under a road – The River Hundred. Clear water, big lillies, no fish but billions of tadpoles around. I fished out three decent snails for algae control and, with two tadpoles in the net decided they could come home too, just to observe before releasing into a friend’s pond once they become mature and no longer suitable for a tank. It was good practice but we had plans; over to my parents to dip across the road where I’d fished with nets and buckets for days on end as a child… Huh? Private? Keep out? Right then, over the marshes to where I used to fish with rod and line and had my two best pike, both twenties: A few tiny sticklebacks but nothing too exciting…in that case we’d best head to the new sticky mark halfway across the marsh, not initially visited because of the parking situation but I couldn’t disappoint the kids. We crossed and started with the net, Abigail first. A few dips later and she had a reasonable one – now the other day they were in their hundreds, not so today. I must have timed it right for the line fishing! We moved further up and the others tried. They all managed one before we headed back towards the car. I still wanted to try for male so popped a maggot on the rod and dangled it. Immediately there were a couple for fish, then three, behind it and one went in the net. We dipped twice more and had one each time before the net snapped – that 99p lasted well! To be fair to it we’d been dragging it right into the reeds so it was bound to happen sooner or later…we had enough though with eight of them, some mayfly nymphs and the suchlike not to mention a nice piece of weed for the tank. Back home they all went into the tank carefully and seemed at home immediately. Talk about a joy to watch! The children wanted to go to the park and fish though so, with a friend required for Fenny we set off to catch Parky, all having a go… Easy fishing and two minutes from the door; into the jam jar and away, slightly smaller than yesterday’s too so distinguishable. We returned, rudd number two went in and immediately Fenny perked up, having a friend gave it reason to swim around more, being a shoal fish and the pair of them patrolled the plants and stones, dodging sticklebacks and passing snails. The former were happy, swimming around or finning in one place, the latter were crawling on glass, stone and leaf and were rather interesting to watch in their own right, the tadpoles were stuck on the plantlife…and having spent hours over the course of the day enthralled by them I think I’d have noticed any problems! I’m now in trouble with my wife though, the girls and I are just not paying attention to anything else… Oh yes, one more thing as Columbo might say…I have to go stickybacking again. Amongst the eight little fellas are two of the nine-spined variety and I’ve only had three-spined on the hook so far