Wylands Farm - House Lake 14th March 2009

When the alarm went off I looked out the window expecting to see overcast skies and probably rain especially as Bill was fishing today. However I was happy to see blue skies and the sun trying to peek through.

By the time I arrived at Wylands the cloud cover had rolled in and the drizzle was beginning to come down, I just knew Bill was somewhere close to arriving. Sure enough a few minutes later he turned up to be met with just a few words regarding his status as a total and utter jinx on the weather.
I was hoping for a decent draw today so was pleased to find peg 7 in my hand, halfway along the road bank, a comfortbale swim to fish with reasonable depth close in and an inviting looking margin to my left. Fortunately Bill's effect on the weather hadn't worked as by the all in the drizzle had stopped and it was turning out to be a nice day.
You always know on a MD's day out that something out of the ordinary will happen and today was no exception, poor old Disco managed to let his pole slide in to the lake, not just one sction but the whole thing. Spamwham tried to help with a few suggestions one of which was that Disco should strip off and go in, Disco however, wasn't so keen on this idea as he'd gone commando today and was obviously ashamed to show off his tackle. Being the nice guy that I am I grabbed my camera to record what followed.

My plan of attack today was two fold, firstly the pole fished at 6 metres at the bottom of a small shelf I found when plumbing up and the waggler to fish at about 10 metres with a strung out shotting pattern to give a nice slow fall through the water. Trevor had told me before we started that the waggler would be a waste of time so just to prove him wrong I started on it. First cast and the float buried and I was attached to a decent skimmer. 2nd cast and the same happened so I decided to stick with it. The first hour went well with with 8 good skimmers, 2 roach and a small perch finding their way to the net. Thrioughout the frist hour I'd also been feeding the left hand margin swim and had noticed the odd tail swirl so baited with 3 red maggots and dropped it in tight to the stick ups. Within seconds the float sailed away and I was attached to something somewhat bigger. With only an 8 elastic I was not surprised to see yards and yards of elastic stretching from the pole and came to the conclusion it must be one of the resident Carp that run to 15lbs+. Unfortunately I never found out as after a minute or two the hook pulled and I came back with a very large scale attached to the hook. No more bites followed so I left the margin to settle again.
Back on the waggler and for the next hour and a half things were looking reasonably good, the main thing was I enjoying the day and catching plenty of fish. Things though were going to change as the wind picked up a bit and changed direction which made the presentation a little difficult so I went out on the pole line.
For some reason the bites just weren't positive and I kept bumping fish so I threw the pole up the bank and had another look on the margin line. Baiting again with 3 reds I dropped in again and immediately the float disappeared. This time the fight was completely different and suddenly a cracking perch broke the surface. Safely netted it must have been getting on for 2 pounds.Next put in and another perch followed this time around a pound.
I once again left the margin to settle and went back to the waggler but things had got harder with bites having dried up. I carried on till 2.45pm before packing up early as my son was in his first drama production, Wind in the Willows, and of course I wanted to be there to record it for posterity. He was brilliant and as a reward I've promised to take him fishing, as long as he promises not to catch more than me.

All in all I had a fairly good day ending with 18lbs 13ozs, if only the bites hadn't dried up I just wonder what I might have had. I saw from the results when I got home that most on my bank struggled so I didn't feel so bad.

Thanks to Mark for his organisation, and Keith (Disco) for the entertainment and also thanks to Mick 'worzelgummidge' Chippy for keeping the ducks away.

Congratulations to Bill on his win, a fantastic weight, the only sour note today being the fact that Peter's another £1 richer.