Becoming Obsessed....

Following on from the Bank Holiday adventure I didn't manage to get out lakeside again until the 7th June, nearly two weeks without any fishing, so when Damian suggested we tried a place near him in Nottingham I jumped at the chance and we went over to Woodhall Lakes at Bulwell.  He had been bitten by the bug again and had come out of a self imposed retirement from fishing and was becoming borderline psychotic about beating his personal best catch for a carp.  The weird thing was I could understand how he was feeling because fishing had become the main thing I thought about as I drove around the country for work.  My thoughts had now become filled with how should I set up my waggler floats for the best results, should I invest in a pole, what will my next purchase be and daydreams about a day sat bankside just relaxing.  It was then that I realised just how important fishing had become to me, it was providing me with a release from the depressive feelings that have plagued me for years, it removed the disabling self pity and it occupied my mind with thoughts that were far more positive than they had been for a long time.

An important thing to accept is that there are usually no instant solutions to problems that life throws at us from time to time. Solving these problems involves time, energy and work, and when you are feeling depressed, you lose the will to tackle them , you lose your focus and you lose motivation for almost everything and there is no energy or motivation to work, look after yourself mentally or physically, personal hygiene becomes a chore and some weekends I would go all through without washing or brushing my teeth until Monday morning. It was an easy trap to fall into and although I disgusted myself by behaving this way, I just did not have the energy to change it.  However, when you have a purpose and something that interests you, the motivation returns and you just do them as a matter of course, it starts to get back to being part of what you do each morning.  This is why, if you are able to take an active part in your something you enjoy, it will help your situation.

I was up very early and got ready, I was looking forward to doing a bit of fishing and spending some time with someone who has become the type of friend you regard more as family.  We squabble, take the piss out of each other, play pranks on each other and developed a really strong bond.  He may be a right twat sometimes but I do love him to bits and would do anything for him, Amy (his long suffering partner) and little Evie (his stunning 2 year old daughter).  As usual with Damian, he changed his mind at the last minute about where we were going to fish, he had wanted to go to some carp lake over by Holme Pierrepont but now he was on about Woodhall Lakes, so I set off for the new venue.  By the time I arrived Damian was already setting up so I found my peg and got ready.  It was a bit cold in the shade and I was glad when I heard him moaning about being freezing because he put on his jogging bottoms and hid his knee length jeans (which made him look decidedly camp) and pale white calves.

He was on a mission to catch a big carp and had spent a fortune on bait which absolutely stunk so I was half expecting to get some thrown at me or sneakily dripped down the back of my neck.  Instead he was focussed and concentrating on getting his big fish and was filled with a determination to beat his personal best.  I just wanted to catch fish, any fish, big or small, I didn't care.  I got everything ready and settled down at my peg and made my first cast with my new float rod that I had bought the day previously.  My float had hardly had time to settle before I was reeling in my first of the day, a small perch, who must have been hiding in the reeds to the right of my peg.  He had the bait 'on the drop' as anglers say and had greedily swallowed the hook right down his gullet which meant I was going to have to use the disgorger to free him.  This is one part of fishing that I don't like because I hate having to push the disgorger down their throats and if it takes too long there is a danger of the fish dying.  This time it was a relatively stress free unhooking, but there was worse to come.

The lake we were at was crystal clear and big carp could be seen sunning themselves just under the surface or patrolling the weeds in packs.  There must have been 25 to start with and as the day went on, but more came down to our part of the lake and lay on top of the weed beds about 25 to 30 yards from Damian's peg.  To say he was excited would be a bit of an understatement and he was casting his new stinky bait out right in front of them but they were having none of it.  They would come over, nudge the bait with their mouths but then swim away, once or twice they would suck the bait in but spit it out straight away or they would just ignore it.  As the hours passed and with no fish taking any of his bait, you could see the frustration building in Damian.  He would sit down for a while, then be stood up, then off to his van for something, then sitting back down, then up again but it was all to no avail, the fish weren't playing by the rules.

Damian (looking less camp) watching the carp play with his bait

In the meantime I was happily sat there fishing the margins and catching fairly regularly even though it would have taken four of my catch to make a fish finger.  This fact had not gone unnoticed by others and I was subjected to abuse from the Frustrated One about my eagerness to catch 'sticklebacks'.  I refused to bite (just like the carp he was after) and happily continued with my fishing.

My new rod was performing well and I was landing loads of small perch and roach but then disaster struck when I cast my line out and suddenly the rod felt a lot lighter and when I looked out at the water, there floating about was the top half of my new rod.  I thought Damian hadn't seen what had happened but of course he had and the laughter coming from my left had been the give away that he had.  I reeled the line in and the top section was retrieved but it was far worse than just the end of the rod coming out of it's socket; the bloody rod had snapped.  I was gutted to say the least, but thankfully I still had my big 12' Carp rod that Luke Smith had given me so wasted no time in getting that set up and I was back fishing.

As I mentioned earlier, I hate it when the fish swallow the hook because then you have to go through the drama of shoving a piece of plastic down the fishes throat to free the hook and my next little Perch had taken the bait and hook deep inside his throat.  I got the yellow disgorger, threaded the line down the slot on the end and pushed down inside the fish.  One of the alarming things I find are the noises the fish make when you are trying to free the hook, it's like a gurgle sound and very off-putting when you first hear it. I tried several times to free the fish and felt myself getting warmer and warmer as I tried in vain to get the hook out, but then the end of the disgorger was covered in blood.  What damage was I doing to the poor creature ?  The blood then started to come out of the gills and my hand was covered with the stuff and I was fast approaching panic mode, but then suddenly the hook was out.  I looked at the poor listless fish and thought he had died, but then his gills started moving and his mouth was opening and closing.  There was still life there I thought, and dropped it back in the water.  Unfortunately it sank a few inches, turned over and floated to the surface, I was devastated and felt immensely guilty about killing it, but then a quick flick of the tail fin and it was off, albeit upside down.  I have to say the relief I felt was huge and I continued fishing, vowing never to put a fish through that experience again. Damian had come down to see what I was up to and he really cheered the situation by telling me that it was going to be eaten by a bigger fish anyway so not to worry about it.  A few minutes later I heard a splash right in front of me and when I looked down to the water's edge, there was the same fish upside down and clearly struggling to cling onto life.  I couldn't look at it, I tried to ignore it, but it would make a splash every so often as if it was mocking me and making me witness it's demise.  It lasted about ten minutes before it made one final effort to swim away, never to be seen again.

Damian was still having no luck with the big Carp and so he decided to get his float rod out and catch something, anything, just so he didn't draw a blank.  His first fish was a small Perch which did the same thing as the one I had murdered, and it took the bait and hook deep inside it's gullet.  He was struggling to free his fish as well and it wasn't long before the hook was out, but there was no hope for the poor creature.  Of course knowing how upsetting I had found having to watch my fish meet it's maker, Damian thought it would be such a jolly wheeze to throw his back right in front of me and make me watch the death throes of another fish.  This one was a bit more acrobatic than the first and swam around upside down in a circle while corkscrewing through the water until that to disappeared from sight.

The day came to a close and I headed off home shattered but happy thanks to a days fishing.....