As I was having lunch, in the top swim, the lamprey at the bottom of the shelf moved away. As I lifted into it I thought I was snagged, but it soon came adrift. With no more lamprey I put on a mackerel tail and out it went. By two there was enough heat in the sun to warrant taking the big coat off, which entailed removing the camera harness as well. Just as I got the coat off the float went under with a bit of a pop. I lifted into something heavy and fast moving. It took the best part of twenty yards of line before I could turn it. It doggedly stuck to the bottom, raising occasional clouds of bubbles, as I pumped it back. A large fish with a red looking tail, it then did the net dodging dance as I got stuck in the now thawed mud. Once on the bank it was remarkably well behaved, maybe he soothing effect of my unhooking glove, which I'd remembered to bring for a change. 21.63 on the scales, minus 1.64 for the weigh sling, so a 19.99lb pike. Taking the height above sea level into account I think we can call that a twenty. My efforts to film an underwater release were thwarted by the speed with which she swam off. I've fished that swim for X years (where X is quite a large number) and never caught so a twenty was quite pleasing. One strange thing though, was the number of intact casters in her throat. There were no other anglers about, that I could see, and oddly they were floaters as well.
After another hour and a half it was time to put the big coat back on as the sun disappeared behind the trees and guess what, the float shot away. This time I lifted into a lunatic of a fish. It fought like a large summer jack, apart from a lack of acrobatics, it wa all over the place. The sticky mud again made life a tad awkward as I was landing it. Kindly it ejected the barbless hooks in the net. I still had a look down it's throat in case there was anybody else's lost rig in there. At 104cm it was just 2cm short of the twenty, but weighed in at 17lb 10oz. Again I attempted to film some underwater shots, but she got her teeth into the net. As I slipped my hand under the gill plate to open her mouth she flipped and shredded my knuckles on her gill rakers. It looked like I'd been attacked by piranha the amount of blood in the water. I remember my unhooking glove and still end up with piker's rash.
I chucked out half a herring next which sat there for another hour or so with out any action. The roach, which I was told was the top bait hereabouts, had not been touched all day. Not a bad day. The twenty would have done me as a river twenty is always a special fish, nut adding a high double was the icing on the cake. Apart from my failure with the underwater shots the only other calamity was scolding my thumb with boiling water when I sneezed pouring it into my cup. The swim was a absolute horror of sticky squidgy mud after the sun got to it and made landing fish a bit of a mare and didn't help when packing up as everything seemed to be covered in it. It was not unlike the mud you get on a tidal river at low tide. How I didn't end up losing a wellie I don't know.
One strange thing I only noticed when I got home was the pictures of the fish look like they were taken in fog. Yet others were clear. they didn't look fogy on the screen as I was taking them and the lens was clean. Oh well. Storm Ciara is due to arrive as I type this. What havoc it will reek on the rivers we'll have to see.
Music while typing this provided by Copperplate Time
Love the title.....takes me back
ReplyDelete"Two packets of lager and a pint of crisps" - as one slightly worse for wear friend once said. It actually came on the jukebox not so long back, when it was just playing random songs.
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