It's been and gone, and for me it was a lot more productive than recent opening days. I got down to First Plank (or should that now be Second Plank?) at five to six yesterday morning and as I reached the car park I was amazed at how many cars appeared through the early morning mist - quite a collection had beaten me to it.
Included in that number was one which simply couldn't be missed - a big white van - taking up the space that five or six cars could've used. Not difficult to spare a thought for others is it? If you agree & you know the owner of the van, explain that concept to him will you?
That lack of thought aside, I enjoyed myself on the bank yesterday morning. It genuinely was good to be back on the sluice. I elected to field-test the peg I repaired last week and it was a pleasure not to have to adjust the legs on my box (the paving slab being perfectly flat - even if I do say so myself...). I usually have to go through the torture of spending a good 30-40 seconds sorting that problem on the canal - unless I'm on a peg someone's had a spade in, but that's another story...
I setup in the mist - at times the far side was out of sight and while plumbing-up the float was disappearing too. In went three jaffas at 13m and I dusted a peg at 10m to one side. I started over that to give the 13m peg a chance to settle, but there really wasn't any need. After five minutes it was like there was a trapped frogman in there - bubbles and fizzes abound.
I resisted the urge to go out over the bubbles for 15 minutes (missing three dolly bites in succession) before sticking a worm on and going out to the other peg. Straight away, the float settled on the last dropper and slid away - fish on. Lifting into the bite, the grey hydro oozed out across the misty water and the fish was soon within striking distance of the weedbeds. I just about managed to get it turned and it headed straight for me. Elastic came back in and it was a bit of a mad panic to beat the fish back with the pole, unshipping madly. I saw it briefly (a nice Tench) before it darted off to my right and the elastic starting flying out again. After a couple of circuits, I got the landing net out as the fish tired and succombed to the net. A good male, over 4lb.
Spurred-on, I went back to the worm bucket and impaled another. Out I went to the bubbles (still there) and within a matter of 4-5 minutes I was in again - surely I was dreaming?? A very similar battle to the first encounter was had with the same result - this time a slightly larger Tench was bagged. I was starting to think this wasn't really happening. The mist hadn't even cleared and I was two-nil up on the tincas AND I hadn't lost any; relatively unknown for me.
I think the second fish must've put the mockers on that line because the bubbles had gone when I baited-up for the third time. No bites forthcoming, I went back to the short line and had a brief chat with Wrighty who was on his way back to Canope-central in Blackpool to get some work done (someone has to). As part of his roving-report he told me there were cars at the Three Pools and the ticket length so there were plenty of anglers on the bank.
The mist had gone by now, and I'd had another surprise capture - a roach around a pound on worm. Now, word had it that there were no roach in the sluice, so I sat and gave this one a long, hard stare - in a kind of psychic interrogatory way. It didn't cough to being a hybrid or an Ide, so I threw it in the net, secure in the belief that the roach really were still in existance on our beloved home water.
I lost a good Tench on the short line while Capt. Tabron was regailing me of his recent golfing trip on the phone, then it was the turn of the skimmers to have a look-in - several falling to red pinkie close-in. Once the sun got up, it didn't half get hot, but that frogman soon came back over the groundbait line, so off I went again with a bunch of red maggots and straight away another Tench was on - this time a big lolloping thing which just plodded around for a while and simply gave up about 6m out; I think there might've been some Italian influence... This thing was a little bit battle-weary and my guess (could be wrong - it wouldn't be the first time) would've been a bit over five & a half pounds.
I ran out of groundbait at 11 o'clock so went home - sunburnt, knackered but very pleased.
Included in that number was one which simply couldn't be missed - a big white van - taking up the space that five or six cars could've used. Not difficult to spare a thought for others is it? If you agree & you know the owner of the van, explain that concept to him will you?
That lack of thought aside, I enjoyed myself on the bank yesterday morning. It genuinely was good to be back on the sluice. I elected to field-test the peg I repaired last week and it was a pleasure not to have to adjust the legs on my box (the paving slab being perfectly flat - even if I do say so myself...). I usually have to go through the torture of spending a good 30-40 seconds sorting that problem on the canal - unless I'm on a peg someone's had a spade in, but that's another story...
I setup in the mist - at times the far side was out of sight and while plumbing-up the float was disappearing too. In went three jaffas at 13m and I dusted a peg at 10m to one side. I started over that to give the 13m peg a chance to settle, but there really wasn't any need. After five minutes it was like there was a trapped frogman in there - bubbles and fizzes abound.
I resisted the urge to go out over the bubbles for 15 minutes (missing three dolly bites in succession) before sticking a worm on and going out to the other peg. Straight away, the float settled on the last dropper and slid away - fish on. Lifting into the bite, the grey hydro oozed out across the misty water and the fish was soon within striking distance of the weedbeds. I just about managed to get it turned and it headed straight for me. Elastic came back in and it was a bit of a mad panic to beat the fish back with the pole, unshipping madly. I saw it briefly (a nice Tench) before it darted off to my right and the elastic starting flying out again. After a couple of circuits, I got the landing net out as the fish tired and succombed to the net. A good male, over 4lb.
Spurred-on, I went back to the worm bucket and impaled another. Out I went to the bubbles (still there) and within a matter of 4-5 minutes I was in again - surely I was dreaming?? A very similar battle to the first encounter was had with the same result - this time a slightly larger Tench was bagged. I was starting to think this wasn't really happening. The mist hadn't even cleared and I was two-nil up on the tincas AND I hadn't lost any; relatively unknown for me.
I think the second fish must've put the mockers on that line because the bubbles had gone when I baited-up for the third time. No bites forthcoming, I went back to the short line and had a brief chat with Wrighty who was on his way back to Canope-central in Blackpool to get some work done (someone has to). As part of his roving-report he told me there were cars at the Three Pools and the ticket length so there were plenty of anglers on the bank.
The mist had gone by now, and I'd had another surprise capture - a roach around a pound on worm. Now, word had it that there were no roach in the sluice, so I sat and gave this one a long, hard stare - in a kind of psychic interrogatory way. It didn't cough to being a hybrid or an Ide, so I threw it in the net, secure in the belief that the roach really were still in existance on our beloved home water.
I lost a good Tench on the short line while Capt. Tabron was regailing me of his recent golfing trip on the phone, then it was the turn of the skimmers to have a look-in - several falling to red pinkie close-in. Once the sun got up, it didn't half get hot, but that frogman soon came back over the groundbait line, so off I went again with a bunch of red maggots and straight away another Tench was on - this time a big lolloping thing which just plodded around for a while and simply gave up about 6m out; I think there might've been some Italian influence... This thing was a little bit battle-weary and my guess (could be wrong - it wouldn't be the first time) would've been a bit over five & a half pounds.
I ran out of groundbait at 11 o'clock so went home - sunburnt, knackered but very pleased.
A couple of pics of the fish (crap, cos they were taken on a wet phone)
(the first Tench)
The other fish as I emptied the net (Tench wouldn't sit still and I didn't want the rest of the silvers getting flattened for the sake of a better picture):
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