Flat-calm and full sun made for a pleasant day and few fish |
The day started with a van covered in dew, thankfully not frozen, and a full tank of diesel meant there was no need to stop. The first half a mile was spent trying not to breath for fear of misting up the screen while the demisting fan was struggling to keep up. It never fails to surprise me just how many vehicles, of all types, are on the south circular at that time of the morning. The traffic is being 'channelled' along the main route by the introduction of so-called traffic calming measures. The traffic congestion on the south circular has undoubtedly become worse, over the past few years, as my local council (Lewisham) has introduced speed bumps on every road they own in the entire borough. Recently all the roads in the borough, including fairly busy main roads, have had a mandatory 20mph speed limit applied. It is ridiculous as there are short sections of road that cross the borough's borders at one end and join a Highways Department owned road at the other, that have very short sections where a 20 mph speed limit has been applied. Now, call me a cynic, but how long is it going to be until they apply speed cameras to those sections?
Local road rant over, the rest of the journey was reasonably clear. A lot of traffic on the southern section of the M25 was relieved by the mile long slip-road to the A22. I arrived at Beaver to be the first in the queue and observe the new winter gate times posted on the gate and sign; 6 PM. No sign of the cat, it must be cold. I bet he is sitting on top of the portable gas fire in the office, sensible cat.
Winter is here |
At the all in, nobody was catching immediately. After five minutes or so, I saw a landing net being deployed on the opposite bank. Just as I was thinking "Here we go again" the rod tip slammed around and I had a fish on. Nice F1 as I had expected. For the first hour or so I caught several fish and I was starting to think that maybe this was going to be my day. That was just wishful thinking. By 11 AM the fishing had dried up completely at our end of the lake. It was not only me, one of the better anglers and lake record holder, who was in the peg I had last time, had nothing.
I was happy to come 7th, only a few ounces behind 6th! Sorry about the poor picture, the lens on my camera misted up in the cold after being in my pocket |
A small bag of very lively fish |
I am sure the dark green groundbait mix gave me an edge and the choice of hook-bailt was also a good move. I will try the green Surf 'n' Turf feeder mix, over the cooler months, and see how it performs.
Ralph.