Pleasure chuck at Haskayne

I was in Liverpool yesterday, sampling the delights of the many chav shops in Liverpool 1 (is it Jack & Jones or just Jack Jones?)  and getting ripped off in the Gourmet Burger Kitchen (£50 for four burgers??)

Any road up, my outing on the cut this week was at Haskayne on Saturday.  I was joined on the bank by Jimmy and 'Rocket' Ronnie and we all elected to hide behind the barn from the chilly wind.  It'd rained heavily overnight so the conditions under-foot were a bit squelchy and the temperature of the water was a bit lower than I'd been expecting.  Still, the weather brightened up as the day went by, so all wasn't lost.

While Jimmy was on his weekly worm-hunt, I got fishing - not needing any wrigglers myself.  I was at the end of the brambles, so there were a few features on the far side to target - not least a few fallen branches.  Maybe it's the enforced break I've had over the last few months, but I just can't be arsed with all this pressure fishing any more.  Perhaps that will result in my going all 'Korum easy chair snooze angling' when the weather warms up.  Who knows?  All I know at the moment is that I'm quite content to turn up with a bag of liquidised bread, a couple of scoops of coloured wrigglies and picking my spot on the cut for a few hours.  Drawbags, tactics, pegs are just an annoyance I can do without right now thanks all the same.

With Jimmy opting to fish the shell for the session, I just pinned a piece of butty on the hook and dropped it in the middle.  A few minutes later I'd caught a small roach, which was joined next chuck by another - slightly larger one.  A couple of netters later & this was starting to look promising.  Jimmy had a roach on the shell after what seemed like an age, then a boat came through at a very rapid rate of knots.

After the waves subsided, I fed again and nothing stirred at all for a good while.  I pushed another couple of sections on and fed across under the brambles, where, after a few minutes dodging branches I found a clear track to fish.  A few minutes further and I'd caught another small roach - this time on red squatt.  A few more went in and more small roach followed.  Jimmy was still struggling on the shell and hadn't had another bite while I was catching.  He answered his phone and it was Ronnie, so he went to give him a lift with his gear from the car park.  Acquaintences renewed, Ronnie setup and had soon caught up with Jimmy's tally for the day.

While they were chatting, I was mucking about with one of my latest eBay 'bargains' - one of a batch of generic wire-stemmed Bazzerlas.  It was a little light for the task I'd given it, but it performed rather well - giving very clear indications of the bites I was getting off small roach on squatt.  While I was using it, I lifted into a very slow & unsteady bite which resulted in a skimmer of about 10oz on the butty.  I then lost another one next put in, but still managed to keep finding the roach which had returned to the line I'd fed down the track.

Despite the wind blowing from either side of the barn, which resulted in ripples in a tidy cross-hatch pattern in front of me, the fish kept feeding.  I retired at around 3 o'clock to go & finish the ironing; windswept but content with the fruits of my labours.  Ronnie reckoned there was a big 2lb, but I wasn't bothered - I just enjoy fishing that length, so I'll be back again soon.

I might venture further down next week, then again I might go & fish a match somewhere.  What a devil-may-care attitude to take...