stevetheangler

OK, as I write this it’s the evening of Tuesday, May 28th, 12 days since I last took the rods out to the water due to the replacement of our entire bathroom as described in my last missive – and it seems like 12 years! BUT there has been some enjoyable ‘fishy’ stuff going on in the meantime which have led to new decisions and new future plans and may actually lead to getting out of a bit of a rut I’d not actually realised I was in! So new avenues – or rather a return to some of my ‘historic’ paths – could be ahead!

OK – bathroom. Has now turned from a basic demolition site with a loo sitting forlornly in a pile of old plaster in a room with bare brick walls and the bath, shower, cabinets, etc all removed lying in a skip on the front lawn into something taking a proper shape with the walls now plaster-boarded awaiting the tiler to arrive tomorrow, and the bath, shower tray and loo at least in situ although not fully plumbed in yet so there’s hopes that it may be ready by the weekend or the early part of next week as Liz’s parents fly in from Cyprus at around 0100 on Thursday 6th June. Fingers crossed!

Sunday 26th May – Liz and I visited the Barbel Society’s ‘Barbel Day’ in Telford – a few stalls of tackle there and so a few odds and ends purchased – along with 4 new books for my angling library inc Billy Lane’s ‘Float Fishing’, a celebration book produced to commemorate what would have been Dick Walker’s 100th birthday on May 28th 2018 and a meet on Redmire, also ‘Willow Fishing IV’, a book with various contributing authors with perch as the species, and, finally, the 2nd report of the ‘Predation Action Group’ who campaign to get our fisheries protected from cormorants, otters, goosanders, etc. The highlights of the day, however, were the talks given by Dr Paul Garner, John Bailey, Bob James, Phil Smith and John Costello – and these were the initiators for my new found enthusiasm for a return to some of my ‘old’ paths – basically river fishing in its entirety and barbel fishing in particular… both of which, when I have partaken, have been very much of ‘Oh its September, I better get on the river before I start my piking’ and consequently only fish for barbel 2-3 times a year. But come June, when the bathroom is complete, the parents returned home and the river season re-opened I hope to do at least 3-4 river sessions per month and probably more…. And even Liz, who has not been a great river fan (‘I lose too much tackle’) has gained a little excitement … and I’ve even ordered a batch of Korum’s River Feeders after watching Ade Kiddell’s barbel fishing on the Severn video – its my ‘home’ barbel water but I’ve really only fished the ‘Middle Severn’ apart from a couple of ‘Lower Severn’ sessions in my life but hoping to change that especially as my club has a couple of L Severn stretches which I’m hoping to visit… plus I do fish the Warks Avon for bream but our stretch of that river is not a prolific barbel water, in fact, the Barbel Society did have the stretch directly above my club’s but let it go … anyway, I love bream fishing there anyway! So, my pool fishing this coming season will be matched 1:1 with river trips I hope.

And today, I had to go into Wolves to do some shopping, and popped into a couple of charity shops on my tour around … and emerged with another two books – at £1.50 each! Both John Wilson books – ‘Coarse Fishing Method Manual’ and ‘Go Fishing Year’ – the former especially being an excellent book detailing all sorts of setups from all the stillwater float fishing methods, river float fishing, ledgering, pole, predator, etc, etc with excellent diagrams etc and this will be my bedtime read for the next few nights! :)

AND, THE BEST NEWS … Liz says I need to get from under her feet on Monday (4th June) as she starts hoovering and polishing away the dust of the bathroom refurb … so being the very good boy I am I’ll be sorting some tackle out in the meantime in order to make my disappearance useful!

Not sure of the destination for the day but at the moment its weighted very much towards the larger of my new club’s pools which is only 10 minutes from the house anyway – and is a glorious place to be even if nothing gets caught on the day. I do need to check the forecast for the day though….

Next outing after this day is unlikely to be before Thursday 20th June and thinking of the Warks Avon for that, and then the following Monday on the Severn with Liz who will be looking for her second ever barbel … the first having been a pool fish anyway. And she watched Ade’s video too!! :)

So… tight lines to all those reading and getting out there, and I will update with Monday’s session asap afterwards!