July 06 - Orchard Lakes
Today we fished a venue called Orchid Lakes. We
fished there last year and Steve wanted to have another go. It was
here last summer that I caught my first (and only) Tench, a lovely, finely
scaled fish with, what Steve calls a "teddy bear" eye.
Our friend, Phil, came along with us. It was he
who got Steve back into fishing last year. Phil is an avid match fisherman
who uses a pole, rather than a rod and reel, most of the time. Match
fishing is a contest where you put every fish you catch (no matter what kind)
into a keepnet in the water and at the end of the match your day's haul is
weighed. The fish are then released. Whoever has the most fish by
weight is the winner.
We set out rods to the
far bank for Carp and waited. I found the willow next to me fascinating as
it had skirt of fine roots on the water side.
Orchid Lakes is a great place for taking bird photos. I
managed to get a pic of the beautiful blue lobed feet of the Coot.
The bird books say that Coot have 'greenish' feet, but these
looked blue to my eye and they showed up blue in the photos, as well.
Maybe Orchid Lake Coots have feet befitting the exotic name of their home?
I got a nice photo, at a distance, of a parent Coot feeding a
youngster. It isn't the best of images since I had to crop it to focus in,
but again you can see blue feet.
Next we had the customary "Swan In
Your Face" visit. Fortunately this pair had no cygnats and they did not
stay long.
By now I decided that I would try a little
float fishing. We'd had nothing on our Carp rods, and Phil had nothing on
his pole rig. He was float fishing a couple of feet out from the
bank. I liked the look of the bank next to me, and tossed in some
bait. Steve threw in a few maggots and away I went. Soon a little
Roach was in my column... before either of the guys had a bite. It was too
small to take a picture of... as, it turned out, all mine were titchy little
things that day. It was followed by a Rudd and then a little Perch.
Still nothing to the guys. So I photographed the Ducks...
... and the Canada Geese... This one seems to be the Sergeant
Major, calling out orders....
EYES LEFT !!
Well... most of them appear to have been listening, lol.
Then Phil changed over to the center of the lake.... which is
long and very narrow... like fishing on a canal, really... and he started to pull
in some nice Bream. Not exactly huge slabs, but not little skimmers,
either. Ok... so weight wise I was way behind Phil... but I had more
specimens. I bagged another little Roach. Actually it was more
embarrassment than fish.
One of the young Coots finally came in close enough that I got a
decent shot of it's face, which was just beginning to show the identifying white
forehead shield.
In between taking pictures I landed another nice little Perch... the biggest fish I'd had so far today, but still not big enough to photograph as it was only palm-size. While we were admiring it I dropped the hook, which still had bait on it, back into the water. It was just under the surface and before we had a chance to return the Perch to the water, an eensy weensy Roach grabbed the hook. So my last fish of the day was accidental and very very small. I decided to give up float fishing for the day.
A female Chaffinch got up the nerve to come down and pick up lost bait....
I got several good shots of her on her return trips...
One thing I noticed was the Chaffinch has very tiny feet compared to the Robin, which is about the same size, maybe smaller.
The day was nearing it's end and Phil just had to
go one better than me. He hauled out a little Perch that was smaller than
my tiniest fish of the day. It was not even as long as his little finger
! So I couldn't even win on having the smallest fish of the day. I
didn't win on weight, but I think I did beat Phil on actual numbers AND variety,
lol. Unfortunately Steve didn't land any Carp; the fish were there,
knocking the line on numerous occasions, but never taking the bait. Oh
well, that's fishing for you.
As we were packing up for the day... I
snapped Phil and his gear... if you look closely you will see there is more still in the bushes behind
him....
Anglers have tons of gear... multiply what you see Phil has by
two, for us... and it gives you some idea of how much stuff we were dragging
around yesterday, it just barely fit in the back of our little Ford, with one of
the back seats folded down. It's a good thing that Orchid Lakes keeps a
little truck on hand to haul it's clients out to the lake and back. If we
had to carry all that stuff, it would have been a long walk indeed.