Well Saturday's session at Woodhall Lakes was an experience I won't forget in a hurry. Like the title says if it could go wrong, it did go wrong, well the first hour or so anyway, but things soon settled down and I was able to land a nice haul of decent sized Roach with an odd Perch thrown in for good measure. There was some doubt about whether I was going to go because I really do have to sort my garden out because there is a very real possibility that I could lose one of the the younger Grandchildren, Charlie or Edith in the long grass. The eldest, Seb, would be okay but only for a week or so before he too could be lost in the grass. The plan was to get out there and blitz the lawn; I say lawn but the reality is weed filled green patch, and then, if I had the inclination, dig a border along the path and plant some of those cheap flowers you can get from one of the big DIY sheds. Thankfully it rained and so that put paid to that idea and I am eternally grateful.
Damian had suggested going up to Woodhall Lakes again on Friday when we had been working together but I told him of the plans with the garden and said that if I could get things sorted in the morning I'd be up for a few hours lakeside. However, the early morning rain put paid to any idea of cutting the grass (thankfully) and so I had a few little jobs around the house to do but I was then free for a bit of fishing. However, I broke my two pairs of specs one by sitting on them and the other by trying to superglue the arm back on and managing to get glue all over the lense. The arm is stuck on well enough but I can't see anything out of that particular side. In hindsight, this was just the start of the run of bad luck I was to go through for the remainder of the day but I soon resolved the problem by nipping down to Poundstrtetcher in Oldbury and buying two pairs of those off the shelf reading glasses. I got two pairs for £1.98, so that was a bargain and it meant I could now go fishing and see what I was doing instead of being like Mr Magoo on the bankside.
I left home at 3.15pm and shot along the M42 and M1, reaching the lake about 4.30pm. Damian was already there setting up his second Carp line and told me that we had to be off site by mid-night, so it looked likely that I was to experience my first taste of fishing in the dark. I'd never been able to work out how people fished in the dark, well not coarse fish anyway, Carpers have bite alarms which sound when a fish bites so that made sense, but seeing a float in the dark would be nigh on impossible. Anyway, that was at least 6 hours away, it was time to get serious on the bankside and so I set about getting my new 5mtr telescopic whip out that I had bought second hand from a contractor at work. I had also bought a seat box and landing net off him as well and couldn't wait to get my new second hand purchases out and in use. The kit I bought included loads of floats, reels, hooks, weights and other assorted things which I am still trying to work out, and several already made up whip rigs. I set the whip up, placed my seat box and settled down to do some damage to the shoals of fish just waiting for my bait.
It has taken me a while to learn how to fish using a rod but now I feel confident with my technique to be able to cope well enough with any fish I catch with the exception of something big, I think I may panic a bit if I hooked anything big. I had watched a video on YouTube of someone fishing with a whip and he was casting out with ease and making it look so easy, so I tried to emulate his technique. With my first cast I managed to hook myself in the shoulder, not the best start, with my second cast I felt the wind of the float and hook as it whistled within a a fraction of a millimetre of my ear, my third cast caught a reed stem just on the edge of the bank. Three casts and the bloody hook was still dry, but my next cast went without a hitch and landed in the water but it was miles from the area I had been pre-baiting as I got ready.
I thought that maybe if I tried using the whip as a pole first and feeding the rod out to where I wanted it would be my best option and the bloke in the video I watched can go and keep his technique. I got the hook, float and line exactly where I wanted it and there was already some interest from the fish as the float moved around, sank a little and came back to the original position. I waited patiently but there was no more interest so bought the line back in only to discover there was no maggot on the hook, the fish had managed to get the bait for free. No worries though, I just hooked anther maggot and placed the hook back where it had been and within seconds the float disappeared. It was at this point I realised how different it is fishing with a pole or whip, there is no reel and so it is a case of lifting the tip of the rod and feeding the pole back at the same time. It was a lot harder than I thought to do both things, but by not getting myself into a lather, I managed to get everything sorted and soon had the Perch I had hooked on the bank. Damian had been watching me as I struggled and when I had finished getting myself and the fish sorted he informed me that my line was way too long and I could have shortened it by at least 3/4's of what it was. Overall I wasn't impressed with fishing this way and after one fish decided to get my trusty waggler and rod out of the van and fish how I knew.
I have started to set my rod up out the back of the van because of the nice flat surface available, it is out of the wind and if I drop anything it is usually quite easy to find, so it was a mixture of relief and annoyance when I tried opening my split shot container and hundreds of little No. 8 shot cascaded over the wooden floor of the van. There would have been no way of finding any of them at the peg, but at least in the back of the van I could see the majority of them and picked them up with no problem. I set myself up and made my way back to the peg to plumb the depths with my newly purchased weight where you thread the hook through the eye and then fix the point into a strip of cork at the bottom. You then cast out and adjust the floats position on the line accordingly until just the top of the waggler is visible and then remove the plumb weight from the hook. You are then set up for fishing, simple really.
Since starting to fish, I have very much been a margins fisher, catching regularly from the edges of the lake around the margins where a lot of the smaller fish hide from the predatory species. They have also worked out there is a lot of free food when anglers dump any unused bait into the edges when they pack up, however, today I wanted to be a bit more daring and fish further out in more open water. I cast out and waited for the splash of the weight on the water but it did not happen, there was no splash. Confused I began to look for the line to see where it had snagged, it had to be caught up on something, but where was a mystery. I followed the line upwards from the tip of the rod only to see it disappear into the canopy of the tree I was fishing under. The lowest branches must have been between 15 and 20 feet directly above me, and there swinging amongst the branches I could make out the unmistakable bell shape of my weight, my problem now was how do I retrieve the said weight. I thought about reeling the line in but I didn't know if it had wrapped itself around the branch, I couldn't just yank the rod and line for the same reason, there was no way I could climb the tree and I wasn't going to cut the line and leave the weight, float, swivel, shot and hook up there for the squirrels. The laughter from the next peg indicated that Damian had seen what had happened, and so I had to do something, anything.
I decided that maybe the best option would be to flick the end of the rod and hope that it would indicate whether the line had wrapped itself around the branch it was hanging from. The wave caused by the flick on the line would stop at the branch, or it would continue over the branch and move the weight so I could then confirm it hadn't. I flicked the rod and watched in horror as the weight came plummeting down towards me. In a fraction of a second I had to move my head or be hit right between the eyes by the weight. The laughter continued from Damian's peg but at least I had a free line.
With depression you can easily fall into the depths of despair when faced with small minor problems like this, but if you notice how people who always look on the bright side deal with challenges, even minor ones, like not being able to find a parking space, and then think about how you would react in the same situation, you can develop strategies to cope. Even if you have to pretend, try to adopt their optimism and persistence in the face of difficulty. Also surround yourself with people you love and trust. These people don’t have to be able to fix you; they just need to be good listeners and laugh along with you and not at you in situations like this. You may have retreated from your most treasured relationships and friendships, but they can get you through this tough time, just as Damian, Luke and Richard do when we're out fishing. They don't allow me to take myself so seriously and laugh at my mistakes and encourage me to do the same, and it works, it really does.
After the line in the tree episode I thought my run of misfortune would have come to an end, but I managed to hook myself on the shoulder again, hooked my finger countless times when trying to put a maggot on the line and made the schoolboy error of not having my landing net ready before starting to fish. I finally settled myself down and began a great session that resulted in 32 fish being caught in open water rather than on the margins. The fish were of a much better quality than I had been catching as well with several being over 8 inches in length rather than the 3 to 4 inch types I usually catch. I was casting and reeling in one movement at times after I had fed the swim little and often as described in an article in the Angler's Mail. The fish were waiting for the bait to fall and were taking it on the drop.
For the next few hours I sat happily fishing to my hearts content with my new second hand keep net out ready to accept the fish I caught, I had good company and lovely weather, life doesn't get much better than this. The evening passed and I was kept very busy with my fishing, forgetting about all the trials and tribulations of my normal life and I think it would be fair to say that I was as happy as I have been for years. The only time I was a little upset was when Damian told me what he was using as bait, hemp and chilli flavoured boillies. Now any normal person would have left it at that, but not me, oh no. I put some on my hook and cast out to see if there were any fish who fancied trying a bit. As we waited for a bite I noticed that the oily residue was on my fingers and the smell was rather appealing. It was at this time that any sane person would have cleaned their hands, but not me. I licked my fingers instead. At first it tasted spicy, no real taste as such just a warmth on my tongue, but then it kicked in and I was coughing and spluttering wishing I could scrape the first layer from my tongue. It was an appalling taste combined with a very hot chilli sensation. Now I love spicy food, I love a Vindaloo or Madras curry, I can even eat Jalapenos raw and the seeds, but this was something else...It was a fierce heat and I wished to whoever that I hadn't done it. Of course Damian was his usual helpful self and could just stand there laughing as I tried to relieve myself of the taste.
Just as the light began to fade we were visited by Amy and Evie, and my task was set to catch a pink fish for little Evie after she had seen the fish I had in my keepnet. The pink fish was a compromise really, because at first she wanted a mermaid but not just any mermaid, it had to be Ariel from Disney's 'Little Mermaid', but she soon changed her mind and settled on a pink fish. I caught two while she was there and the disappointment in her voice when they weren't pink would have made even the hardest man in the World cry. However, despite not being able to catch her one, I have ordered one from my son's fiancée and mother of my grandson Charlie, who has her own business for soft furnishings and toys so I can keep my promise to Evie now. (Thank you so much Sophie Best)
With the fading light I was unable to see beyond the end of my nose and had gone back to hooking my finger on a regular basis. Damian did let me use his head torch but even though I wasn't hooking my finger anymore, I was struggling to see the float in the water. Damian was trying for Carp and so I said I would pack up and watch him for a while, but because he didn't want to leave with a dry net he said he'd take over on my float rod for a while and got himself 8 decent Roach and Perch within a few minutes of fishing. Meanwhile I had started packing my gear but left the landing net and other bits Damian needed to fish and it was about now that my decision to stop when I did was confirmed. As I went to land a fish for Damian with the net, I tripped on a tree root and nearly went on a header into the lake. Of course this bought howls of laughter from Damian who told me that if I had gone in he would have been unable to help me because he would have been rolling around on the floor and most likely would have wet himself. It's so nice to have a mate you can rely and count upon.
That kind of did it for me and I was ready to leave, Damian still held out hope for a last minute catch but the Carp were not having any of it and so he packed up as well and we left at 11.30pm. The darkest I had ever fished, the latest I had ever fished and the furthest out that I have ever fished. A day of firsts for me then....
I left home at 3.15pm and shot along the M42 and M1, reaching the lake about 4.30pm. Damian was already there setting up his second Carp line and told me that we had to be off site by mid-night, so it looked likely that I was to experience my first taste of fishing in the dark. I'd never been able to work out how people fished in the dark, well not coarse fish anyway, Carpers have bite alarms which sound when a fish bites so that made sense, but seeing a float in the dark would be nigh on impossible. Anyway, that was at least 6 hours away, it was time to get serious on the bankside and so I set about getting my new 5mtr telescopic whip out that I had bought second hand from a contractor at work. I had also bought a seat box and landing net off him as well and couldn't wait to get my new second hand purchases out and in use. The kit I bought included loads of floats, reels, hooks, weights and other assorted things which I am still trying to work out, and several already made up whip rigs. I set the whip up, placed my seat box and settled down to do some damage to the shoals of fish just waiting for my bait.
It has taken me a while to learn how to fish using a rod but now I feel confident with my technique to be able to cope well enough with any fish I catch with the exception of something big, I think I may panic a bit if I hooked anything big. I had watched a video on YouTube of someone fishing with a whip and he was casting out with ease and making it look so easy, so I tried to emulate his technique. With my first cast I managed to hook myself in the shoulder, not the best start, with my second cast I felt the wind of the float and hook as it whistled within a a fraction of a millimetre of my ear, my third cast caught a reed stem just on the edge of the bank. Three casts and the bloody hook was still dry, but my next cast went without a hitch and landed in the water but it was miles from the area I had been pre-baiting as I got ready.
I thought that maybe if I tried using the whip as a pole first and feeding the rod out to where I wanted it would be my best option and the bloke in the video I watched can go and keep his technique. I got the hook, float and line exactly where I wanted it and there was already some interest from the fish as the float moved around, sank a little and came back to the original position. I waited patiently but there was no more interest so bought the line back in only to discover there was no maggot on the hook, the fish had managed to get the bait for free. No worries though, I just hooked anther maggot and placed the hook back where it had been and within seconds the float disappeared. It was at this point I realised how different it is fishing with a pole or whip, there is no reel and so it is a case of lifting the tip of the rod and feeding the pole back at the same time. It was a lot harder than I thought to do both things, but by not getting myself into a lather, I managed to get everything sorted and soon had the Perch I had hooked on the bank. Damian had been watching me as I struggled and when I had finished getting myself and the fish sorted he informed me that my line was way too long and I could have shortened it by at least 3/4's of what it was. Overall I wasn't impressed with fishing this way and after one fish decided to get my trusty waggler and rod out of the van and fish how I knew.
I have started to set my rod up out the back of the van because of the nice flat surface available, it is out of the wind and if I drop anything it is usually quite easy to find, so it was a mixture of relief and annoyance when I tried opening my split shot container and hundreds of little No. 8 shot cascaded over the wooden floor of the van. There would have been no way of finding any of them at the peg, but at least in the back of the van I could see the majority of them and picked them up with no problem. I set myself up and made my way back to the peg to plumb the depths with my newly purchased weight where you thread the hook through the eye and then fix the point into a strip of cork at the bottom. You then cast out and adjust the floats position on the line accordingly until just the top of the waggler is visible and then remove the plumb weight from the hook. You are then set up for fishing, simple really.
Since starting to fish, I have very much been a margins fisher, catching regularly from the edges of the lake around the margins where a lot of the smaller fish hide from the predatory species. They have also worked out there is a lot of free food when anglers dump any unused bait into the edges when they pack up, however, today I wanted to be a bit more daring and fish further out in more open water. I cast out and waited for the splash of the weight on the water but it did not happen, there was no splash. Confused I began to look for the line to see where it had snagged, it had to be caught up on something, but where was a mystery. I followed the line upwards from the tip of the rod only to see it disappear into the canopy of the tree I was fishing under. The lowest branches must have been between 15 and 20 feet directly above me, and there swinging amongst the branches I could make out the unmistakable bell shape of my weight, my problem now was how do I retrieve the said weight. I thought about reeling the line in but I didn't know if it had wrapped itself around the branch, I couldn't just yank the rod and line for the same reason, there was no way I could climb the tree and I wasn't going to cut the line and leave the weight, float, swivel, shot and hook up there for the squirrels. The laughter from the next peg indicated that Damian had seen what had happened, and so I had to do something, anything.
I decided that maybe the best option would be to flick the end of the rod and hope that it would indicate whether the line had wrapped itself around the branch it was hanging from. The wave caused by the flick on the line would stop at the branch, or it would continue over the branch and move the weight so I could then confirm it hadn't. I flicked the rod and watched in horror as the weight came plummeting down towards me. In a fraction of a second I had to move my head or be hit right between the eyes by the weight. The laughter continued from Damian's peg but at least I had a free line.
With depression you can easily fall into the depths of despair when faced with small minor problems like this, but if you notice how people who always look on the bright side deal with challenges, even minor ones, like not being able to find a parking space, and then think about how you would react in the same situation, you can develop strategies to cope. Even if you have to pretend, try to adopt their optimism and persistence in the face of difficulty. Also surround yourself with people you love and trust. These people don’t have to be able to fix you; they just need to be good listeners and laugh along with you and not at you in situations like this. You may have retreated from your most treasured relationships and friendships, but they can get you through this tough time, just as Damian, Luke and Richard do when we're out fishing. They don't allow me to take myself so seriously and laugh at my mistakes and encourage me to do the same, and it works, it really does.
After the line in the tree episode I thought my run of misfortune would have come to an end, but I managed to hook myself on the shoulder again, hooked my finger countless times when trying to put a maggot on the line and made the schoolboy error of not having my landing net ready before starting to fish. I finally settled myself down and began a great session that resulted in 32 fish being caught in open water rather than on the margins. The fish were of a much better quality than I had been catching as well with several being over 8 inches in length rather than the 3 to 4 inch types I usually catch. I was casting and reeling in one movement at times after I had fed the swim little and often as described in an article in the Angler's Mail. The fish were waiting for the bait to fall and were taking it on the drop.
 |
| Concentrating hard and trying not to hook my finger |
For the next few hours I sat happily fishing to my hearts content with my new second hand keep net out ready to accept the fish I caught, I had good company and lovely weather, life doesn't get much better than this. The evening passed and I was kept very busy with my fishing, forgetting about all the trials and tribulations of my normal life and I think it would be fair to say that I was as happy as I have been for years. The only time I was a little upset was when Damian told me what he was using as bait, hemp and chilli flavoured boillies. Now any normal person would have left it at that, but not me, oh no. I put some on my hook and cast out to see if there were any fish who fancied trying a bit. As we waited for a bite I noticed that the oily residue was on my fingers and the smell was rather appealing. It was at this time that any sane person would have cleaned their hands, but not me. I licked my fingers instead. At first it tasted spicy, no real taste as such just a warmth on my tongue, but then it kicked in and I was coughing and spluttering wishing I could scrape the first layer from my tongue. It was an appalling taste combined with a very hot chilli sensation. Now I love spicy food, I love a Vindaloo or Madras curry, I can even eat Jalapenos raw and the seeds, but this was something else...It was a fierce heat and I wished to whoever that I hadn't done it. Of course Damian was his usual helpful self and could just stand there laughing as I tried to relieve myself of the taste.
Just as the light began to fade we were visited by Amy and Evie, and my task was set to catch a pink fish for little Evie after she had seen the fish I had in my keepnet. The pink fish was a compromise really, because at first she wanted a mermaid but not just any mermaid, it had to be Ariel from Disney's 'Little Mermaid', but she soon changed her mind and settled on a pink fish. I caught two while she was there and the disappointment in her voice when they weren't pink would have made even the hardest man in the World cry. However, despite not being able to catch her one, I have ordered one from my son's fiancée and mother of my grandson Charlie, who has her own business for soft furnishings and toys so I can keep my promise to Evie now. (Thank you so much Sophie Best)
 |
| My haul from Saturday night |
With the fading light I was unable to see beyond the end of my nose and had gone back to hooking my finger on a regular basis. Damian did let me use his head torch but even though I wasn't hooking my finger anymore, I was struggling to see the float in the water. Damian was trying for Carp and so I said I would pack up and watch him for a while, but because he didn't want to leave with a dry net he said he'd take over on my float rod for a while and got himself 8 decent Roach and Perch within a few minutes of fishing. Meanwhile I had started packing my gear but left the landing net and other bits Damian needed to fish and it was about now that my decision to stop when I did was confirmed. As I went to land a fish for Damian with the net, I tripped on a tree root and nearly went on a header into the lake. Of course this bought howls of laughter from Damian who told me that if I had gone in he would have been unable to help me because he would have been rolling around on the floor and most likely would have wet himself. It's so nice to have a mate you can rely and count upon.
That kind of did it for me and I was ready to leave, Damian still held out hope for a last minute catch but the Carp were not having any of it and so he packed up as well and we left at 11.30pm. The darkest I had ever fished, the latest I had ever fished and the furthest out that I have ever fished. A day of firsts for me then....
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