Apparently (thanks to an anonymous French source) I have Two Bites Taylor to thank for the graffiti on my winnings from last night. I have absolutely no idea why six £1 coins have HB on one side and M on the other, but they're legal tender so they'll be getting spent.
Last night's sweep match turned out to be a bit of a grueller, and for long spells I thought I was knackering the job rayt up on peg 1. Thankfully the wind wasn't blowing all that shi'ite back at me like last week, so I was able to have a bit of a fish for a change. With five barrow-loads of stuff nicely filling the hole next to the concrete there was somewhere to put my bag too. The bites weren't exactly fast & furious, but a couple of skimmers and a small hybrid in the first twenty minutes convinced me there were actually a few fish knocking about.
With a wassum line already fed on the far side (yes, I know - 11m is usually too far for me...) I stuck half a dendy on and dropped it in about a metre from the reeds. There was plenty of ducking & diving, weaving and writhing of the float going on, but whenever I lifted it out, there was nowt there. Deciding that the owd 1-2-3 routine was needed, I sat on my hands and counted - out loud - the next time the float slid away. Sure enough, laccy shot out (making a strange noise - must check that out later) and the chase was on. It had to be a tinca and it wasn't best chuffed at being pinned to my hook. I got it out of the reeds with minimal fuss but then it decided it wanted to re-excavate old peg 19 and set off downstream - heading for the plank at a rapid rate of knots.
It was at this point (stood up - trying to keep the butt sections of my pole out of the nearside reedbed) that I realised the owd Spectroid probably wasn't the best choice of tinca-trap for the Sluice. I tried to shed the silvery bits to make it easier to manoeuvre (that's the same as 'move about a bit' in R4 lingo, Rob) but the bend in the pole stopped me taking the sections off. By this time I was stood up and had the pole over my head - the tench was in the nearside weed and I was miffed. A lot. I decided that it had to come out the same way it went in, so gave it a good old heave. Nothing happened. Fearing another expensive carbon-related 'incident' I gave it another slightly less energetic pull (the pole, Rob) and the fish gently moved into the open water. Whether it was the weed all over its face I dunno, but it came across sideways like a wet sack and flopped into the net; a cheese-eating surrender monkey of a tench.
That was quite enough excitement for me and in any case 'I'm Sorry I haven't a Clue' was starting on the radio, so I calmed down, adjusted my earphones for optimal clarity and rebaited. Bubbles were still rising on the far side (wacko Jacko did a good job teaching that monkey to swim underwater...) but no more tench showed. I had to content myself with a few skimmers and a couple of roach caught on the shell halfway across. The tommies never go away on there too, do they? Buzzing around like sub-aqua bluebottles, they always give bites like pirahna and shove all the deflector shields out to make it look like they're ten times bigger when you're bringing them in - nature's worm thieves - that's what they really are; you never get a full one back off a tommy ruffe.
The french lad was on the bonus peg (3) and wasn't a happy trawlerman. - perhaps it was the pressure of having all those 50p pieces riding on his finishing weight.. At the end of the match, it seemed that apart from Hodgey next to me, everyone had struggled. Gord (I can't have drawn peg 4 AGAIN can I??) Burton chucked his fish back as did quite a few more. Graham Johnson was third with 1lb 8oz, Dave Hodge was second with 2lb summat and I squeaked it (!!!) with 5lb 12oz. thanks to that scrapping tinca. Cue booing & hissing to the accompaniment of words of derision all round...
NEWS FLASH - according to red leader (while I've been wiping away the tears of mirth from my trousers typing this up), the markings on the money are to denote who it was won from. I hope all the cans in the cupboard aren't marked with A for Aldi, L for Lidl and N for Netto; labelling-up the bog-roll with a permanent marker would also be fraught with jeopardy - but that's a whole different problem altogether...
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