Finally we fished...

After weeks of planning, it finally happened, two blokes went fishing! 

 

Sunday morning. I opened my eyes, squinted at the clock radio (I don't sleep with my glasses on!) and it was reading 5:46, I think! Hummm... another few minutes and I will....zzzzz... Oh! bother! (clean version) 6:38!!!

Say hello to Tim...

The plan was to pick Tim up at around 8:00. As he lives about an hour from here, and I need to sort the tackle out while Sue makes the pack lunch and fills the flask with coffee, I am never going to get there by the agreed time. By the time I had eaten breakfast and implemented the daily ablutions, it was getting on for 8:00.

The car was covered in dew, wiped off with the worst of it with the knackered (can I say that?) old squeegee, got in and set the sat-nav to see what time I would get there and it read 8:57. Only an hour late... Look up and guess what? The inside of the car has fugged up. Don't you just love this time of year. Clean up the windscreen and now the dew is back. Finally get going, turn left at the end of the road and head East - guess where the sun is. This time of year is so low in the sky, when we are promised a fine day there is nothing to soften its glare. This morning it was so bad I had to pull over and wait until the demister to warm up keep the window clear...

Just under an hour later I am ringing Tim's doorbell. Down he comes, phone and diary in hand - "What's that for, taking notes?" Turned out he wanted to follow up on a quote...

On arrival at Bax Farm we stopped off in the car park to visit the shop to pay for our day ticket, buy some bait and pick up a new catapult - the old one was not very accurate. Besides, Tim needed one as I had forgotten to buy one on Friday night when I went to Hemmings Tackle.

One of the things I like about Bax Farm is the simplicity. Even their list of rules does not get into double figures. This very nicely written sign board is plain and to the point. It must be a few years old as the layout has changed slightly since it was made.

We unpacked and set up the tackle. Fished for a few hours on maggots - nothing. Changed position and plumbed the depth only to lose the plummet and the hook-length... Today was not going well. Looking around nobody else was catching anything either other than the guys from the shop who came out for a few hours and managed to catch a couple of fish each - what do they know that we don't?

Look Tim I caught something!

Later in the day we reverted to sweetcorn. I managed to catch a lump of weed. Tim did suggest we might have more luck if we left the corn in the can and threw it at the fish... He was joking, I think. as the day went on this was looking to be a fish-less day but just as we were about to give up Tim got a bite. Alas, the 24 pounder "It Was a monster" he had hooked was too powerful and took the hook-length as a trophy - yeah right!  Personally I think the loop he had tied failed - but I will let him have his fishing story of the day.

Still Waters Run Deep (Four Tops) not here!

Although there were no fish, that's right no fish all day, we had a great day by the water. The weather was fine all day and pleasantly warm. There was very little activity on the lake and at times the water was mirror flat and still. Even the moorhens got board and walked off! 

Bye!

We slogged on for a few more hours, Tim got a bite after we changed to sweetcorn but as, I said above, it got away. That was the highlight of the day. Eight and a half hours of sitting looking at still flat water was obviously taking its toll. Do you remember the Morecambe and Wise gag where Eric shows Ernie a framed blank canvas, "What's that?" asks Ernie. "It's a cow eating grass" came the reply, "Where's the grass?" - "The cow has eaten it" "Where's the cow? It's gone to find some more grass." 

To paraphrase Eric Morecambe - It's a fisherman catching fish

Oh well, maybe next time.

Ralph.