stevetheangler

So, it just had to happen at some time – after an extended absence from the banks of any water I finally made it back!

In the day between storms ‘Dudley’ (THAT was a storm!) and ‘Eunice’ (but as I write this at 1030 it is supposed to be a storm but its actually a bright but overcast day with a moderate breeze) I ventured out to Pike Water 1 with the pike rods and supplies of sardine and small horse mackerel to act as deadbaits…

I arose from bed at 0600, looked out of the window and all seemed fine out bar still dark and so I dressed and loaded the car up and then went back in for breakfast … and the weather changed with quite a heavy downpour at 0645 which didn’t look like good news to me … but 0700 the skies turned back to blue and all started to brighten up and little breeze so 0715 saw me head away from home…

On arrival at the pool there was already one car on the car park – but I spotted its owner fishing well away from my intended swim.

I decided to just fish one rod on the day – quicker to set up – and to pack up in a need to leave quickly but as it happened all was good with me …

I took some blitzed and chopped up old fish baits to use as a ruby-dubby/chum and I used my spomb to put those out into my fishing area while I set up and baited my rod – homemade (in the ‘70’s) 2.75lb TC progressive action based on a Northwestern blank. Line was 40lb braid terminated with standard 30lb wire trace snap tackle made with 2 size 6 double hooks and fished ledgered with a 3oz lead on a free running 6” link of 20lb mono.

First cast was made at 0830 with a static sardine and later in the day the bait was popped-up by the addition of an inserted balsa stick and the amount of pop-up was adjusted from time to time to heights from 6” to around 30”…

However, by the time I packed in at around 1330 I had not had one single touch … but by that time around 6 others had arrived on the pool – carp fishing all those others I think – and only fish had been had between them, and also seemed to have been the only bite too, although I was told that on the day before ‘Dudley’ that the fishing had been very good.

Weather had been generally good, sun and blue skies mainly with a couple of light showers (one of 5 mins, the other around 20 mins but, as usual, started when packing up but all cleared by the time I was back at the car).

TEMPS:

WATER (‘C):                  7.0  –  7.5
AIR (‘C):                         6.7 – 10.1

TEMP TRENDS:

PLANS:

Monday of next week, 21st February, Liz and I are planning to fish at Nordley Pools near Bridgnorth.
A Birmingham AA venue there are 6 pools (one of which is more a small duck pond really that is covered in duck weed in the summer but the other 5 pools are ‘proper’ pools). We’ve not fished there for several years so looking forward to the return visit. And Friday, 25th, is the club’s AGM which includes a raffle and, as is usual, the free – and truly excellent – buffet following the meeting. I suspect a tinge of sadness at the meeting too as the secretary of the club (35 years a member, 22 years the secretary) had announced in the annual newsletter (received at the beginning of January) that he was standing down due to health issues … and on the 16th January he passed away… :(

PET STUFF:

Cats: we have two cats (Ollie and Mollie) who were due their annual booster vaccinations at the beginning of January – but due covid there has been a shortage of the vaccines since last August … not due to ‘the covid’ in itself but due to lockdown there was/has been a huge upsurge in people getting pets meaning there have not been enough vaccines available to cope with the enlarged demand. The problem that lay ahead of us is that we are going away early May and the moggies need to go to the cattery – and need to have their vaccinations up to date.

[Regarding booster vaccinations, there is a 12 week allowable period beyond the actual date that a booster is due on in which to get it done – any longer and the vaccination regime has to start from scratch ie 2 vaccinations, 3 weeks apart. BUT if animals are being housed (cattery/kennels/etc) then the establishments are NOT allowed to take in animals that are not fully inoculated ie the 12 week grace is of no standing.]

As I say, we are away in May – which would have meant we needed to get the vacs done – booster or fresh start – by the end of March and so, on the advice of our cattery, we’ve been looking into locating alternate vets to the one that our cats are registered with to try to find possible sources of the serum our cat’s are done with or for compatible ones and without too much joy …. until last week when we heard from our own vet they have now had some supplies in and we’ve booked in our pair for next Tuesday (22nd)!! All’s well as end’s well! :)

Ferrets: Not so good news … one of our ferrets passed away at the weekend, Heather, our sable, was found passed away in the ‘bedroom’ of the hutch on Sunday morning when I went out to fetch the ferts in for their ‘playtime’. She’d been seen running around in the run areas of the hutch on Saturday too. Looked as if she’d passed peacefully in her sleep, bless her. So now we’re down to the two ‘white boys’, Hedwig and Howie – can’t tell them apart these days (would need a microchip reader really to be able to do so) but when we had them from a ferret rescue, along with Heather, Howie was the smaller of the two but since then Hedwig has grown but Howie’s grown even more….. so both get called ‘White Boy’ these days… Reminds me, back in the ‘old days’ in our gatherings there were three guys all named ‘Phil’ and in order to differentiate between them we called them Phil, Will and Bill … worked fine for humans but wouldn’t be so good for others…