Now that
fishing season has started we are getting out and about again. Had a good
day on Monday; went to a lake we hadn't tried before, Thorpe Lea. Was
suppose to have a good head of carp in it, and it does. Overcast all day
but at least no rain and not too cold, so was nice to be
out.
Had a
couple of strikes that we lost, then my rod went and I found myself playing what
felt like a really good fish.... it was taking me all over the lake. My
arms started getting tired so I passed the rod over to Steve and he played it
for a good long while, never getting it in close. Then, what anglers
dread most, the line went slack and we'd lost the fish... or so we
thought. No sooner had Steve finished reeling in the loose line than a
guy, who was fishing about a hundred yards to our right, comes walking up with a
nice carp in his net and asks did you lose this? ROFL.. at some point our
fish had crossed his line and tangled it with ours. So some of what we
thought was the fish fighting at the end of the line was this guy pulling
back. He said he thought at first he had hooked the fish but when he
finally landed it he realized it was our hook the fish was on. Very kind
of him to bring it over. Most anglers are pretty decent like that. A
little while later and Steve landed another nice fish of about the same size, in
the range of 12 - 15lbs.
We also managed to hook,
net and land one of these.... not something I would recommend.
Silly duck was
diving near our bait... and somehow set the hook into her leg, just above
the foot. She was a real mess to reel in, you'd be surprised how strong a
little duck can be. And this one, not actually the one in the photo, was a
juvenile Tufted Duck... smaller even than the adult. No harm was done, the
hook came out easily and only her dignity was damaged.
The ducks all cleared off
after that... except that a while later a lone Tuftie male came back and kept
staring at us. I'm sure he was plotting revenge ....
We were
kept company a good part of the day by a baby Moorhen that seemed to like
our company. It hung around and would run up the bank near us to avoid the
ducklings... I think the Moorhen was a bit of snob, lol...
The
Mallard ducklings were nearly twice the size of the Moorhen, so that may be part
of the real reason it was avoiding them.
In all it was a really good
day and we are looking forward to going out more often once Steve is on holidays
in a month's time.
