Yes blogwatchers, the weather and the fish turned up on the wrong day at the weekend, with a nice little selection of fish turning-up on the Saturday instead of the Sunday sweep match.
I was originally going to fish the Wigan flyer at Burscough on Saturday morning as I hadn't fished one in a while, but once I'd got my gear together and actually motivated myself to get going, it was cutting it a bit fine for the draw. Instead, I decided to have a leisurely perambulate along the swamp marshes that are laughingly used as a path opposite the gallops at Sollom. I hadn't fished along there since the week before Christmas, so it was overdue a dose of looking at.
When I got there, there was already one angler setup & fishing, although he'd only just got going when I got to him and hadn't caught owt. I wasn't far off 'the stump' for those who know and once again I was faced with carved out turf at the water's edge and a stupidly long drop for my box legs to get it sat level. Why can't people leave the bloody bank alone? If you want to do some digging, rent a sodding allotment!!
The fishing was better than I expected, given that weights all around had been struggling for weeks. I was hoping for a few bites and got more than I'd bargained for - fish a chuck for three hours; even a passing narrowboat (unusually) didn't spoil the fun. Fish of the day was a difficult choice between 4 roach - all around 12-14oz, and not far off fin & scale perfect. They were gagging for the big butty - even the little flirters.
With all this frivolity going on, I was a little disturbed to hear from a walker that beyond the next ccouple of bends, there were two cormorants - busily filling their bellies. He'd been watching them for quite a while and said they were taking plenty of fish. Pretty soon, they appeared in the distance, but didn't get any closer as they must've spotted me.
Onto Sunday - and it was back to the Rufford side for another line-up. The weather had changed dramatically from the sunshine on Saturday and it was quite bitter in the cold wind. I was on the nearest end-peg at the start of the tins and I initially thought it looked promising.
My hopes were dashed with a painfully unproductive session which resulted in an early bath. I wasn't the only one either - the car park was looking distinctly 'vacant' when I got back at 2:15. Reports of the far-end peg having produced a decent net of fish, along with another 3 or 4 with comparable good catches saw several early darters. At least it was warm in the house watching the footy...
Sight of the day was Rocket Ronnie with his boots on the wrong feet. The 'diggers' had been out again on that length too, with another freshly dug 'peg' covered up with green polythene - dug-out turf discarded on the bank. Do these clowns not realise that they're actually jeopardising the lease by doing this??
Roll on some decent weather next week...
1 comment:
Saw those cormorants few days ago, can't be good.
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