stevetheangler

Friday 14th October saw Liz and I head off to Burnham-on-Sea on our annual Sun newspaper £9.50 break – well, was a bit more than that as (a) you have to pay for at least 4 places (so £39 it works out at in reality for the Monday to Friday break) plus (b) there is a service/entertainment charge of £6.25 a night to be added so making an additional £25 to be added which makes for a total of £64 – which is about the cost of a hotel double room for one night -and I’d much rather have a caravan than a hotel room even it it was £64 a night anyway! Plus we extend our stay by booking a tag-on weekend directly with the site itself which adds another reasonable £100 – for which we get a 6-berth static caravan (and this year’s appeared to be absolutely brand new), evening entertainment all week with a decent bar, and use  of the site’s own fishing lake that is only fishable by residents…. plus we usually get money back via the nightly bingo – last year, Liz’s brother accompanied us and between us (mainly Liz actually) the bingo winnings not only paid for an Italian 3-course meal each in a top of the range restaurant but also left us £60 each in our pockets… but this year Liz and I had to settle for a mere £115 in winnings… :) We did well in the games/quizzes too – we ended up runners-up in the week long Quiz League after a poor first night left us in 4th place, and in 1st/2nd places in most of the other games although we didn’t manage to win any actual prizes…

Session 56 – Friday 14th – Luring

Anyway, as usual we set off from home early so that I’d get a few hours on the lake with the lures before the caravan became available and we arrived at around noon with the caravan becoming available at 1500 … so we popped into Reception to announce our arrival and to show our Environment Agency rod licences which is necessary to be able to fish the lake. Following that we headed to the lake and after a short spell Liz adjourned to the bar whilst I carried on for an hour or so… not a touch so I joined Liz in the bar for a beer.

Session 57 – Saturday 15th – Short Ledger Session

I headed down to the pool with the ledger rods/pods and buzzers at 0630, fishing with frame feeders and maggot/worm/meat and paste baits. Packed in around 11115 without a single bite. The depth/fish sounder couldn’t find anything in the 5′ of water either! Water temp was a reasonable 17.5C

Session 58 – Monday 17th – Another Short Ledger Session

In the same swim as Saturday as I’d put out a fair bit of bait then and hoping it had attracted some fish into the area. Fished from 0700 again and ledgered the same as Saturday. Things looked promising when within 5 mins of the first cast the bobbin on one rod twitched and rose with the buzzer emitting 3 beeps – however, nothing further ensued for the next 4 hours or so. So at that point I decided to start tidying up ready to tackle down, head to the caravan and get ready to go out for the afternoon… and I was in the process of rinsing out the groundbait bowl when the buzzer of the worm baited rod sounded and the bobbin started rising steadily… a strike met resistance and FISH ON! The fish was played ready to net- surfacing a few times in the meantime and was seen to be a pike of around 5-6lb – but, as I reached for the net, the line gave a few inches from the hook and the fish was gone. Water temp had dropped around 4-5C since the Saturday visit and was around 13.5C.

Session 59 – Wednesday 19th – Day Session

Headed out, this time with Liz for a longer session, arriving at the water at around 0730. The swim I’d intended to fish (ie the same as the previous 2 sessions) was already occupied so we set up on ‘the point’ – the swims that are usually first occupied – both of us fishing ledger style in 7′-8′ of water – me with the usual frame feeders, Liz with an open end cage feeder. Anyway, not a lot of action – zilch in fact – until 1430 when Liz decided to pack in and headed back to the caravan to nurse the severe cough/cold that she had – and in fact still does. I decided to stay on until 1600 – and managed one 4oz’ish bream. However, Liz’s vacated swim was taken up by another angler who within the next hour or so landed around 6 x 4lb+ bream :) However, he was using a method feeder/small hook with sweetcorn/quiver tip and a hooklength of around 3″ and casting over to the far bank which is not my style of fishing so don’t really think I/we missed out on much – and was perfectly happy with my 4oz jobbie! :). Water temp had dropped another degree down to 12.5C.

Anyway, back home now and looking forward to the next trip out – which was hoped/planned to be to the Warks Avon on Tuesday 25th but due to car problems (brake warning – check pads – light came on as we left the house to travel down to Somerset – and we’ve done probably 500 miles with it showing since) I’ve had to book it into the garage to get checked over that day. So now, it seems that next session will be to a pool with the pike gear on Friday 28th and the Warks Avon visit the following Tuesday…