stevetheangler

Monday May 13th, Liz and I set off for a week at the Haven site in Burnham-on-Sea, Somerset leaving the house at 1130 and arriving on site at 1430 having stopped at the M5 Gordano Services for a mid-trip coffee and ‘relief’…

Our official booking in time was 1600-1700 but you are allowed to arrive up to 2 hours earlier and access the site facilities (bar, etc) whilst you wait for your caravan to become available around your official time … and it was a good surprise to discover that our van was actually all ready to inhabit, and so we drove directly there and started the unloading of the car and loading of the van… that completed I had a quick wander to the lakes (a 2 minute walk) to discover very few fishing J, very promising for the next morning’s planned short session… So the rest of the evening was taken up mainly by prepping the tackle and baits for the morning.

Session 8

Tuesday, 14th, I rose at 0515, dressed, had a quick coffee and bowl of cereal and made a flask to take with me and took baits from the fridge … 0615 started the trek to the pool arriving at 0617’ish and finding my desired swim free … but to be honest *ALL* the swims on both pools were free at that time! LOL!

So, I set up the rod pods with alarms and my two ledger rods (8lb mainline, 6” 8lb braid hooklengths and size 10 hooks, frame feeders stopped to give tails of around 24”) and arranged all my other kit to be convenient.

0700 first casts were made with worm on one rod and bread on the other … and frame feeders loaded with the usual mash and particle mix which also included a liberal addition of molasses to attract the bream…

I fished until around 1130 … and in that time I managed one bream of around 1lb despite having had interest in the worm bait for the whole session. Bread was a flop as I did not even one tweak at all.

Session 9

Saturday, 19th, Liz and I set off for the pools again at 0730 hoping to fish some pegs that I had previously believed to be in a private area but had discovered were not. However, on arrival the pegs had already been taken and we had to retrace our steps and ended up in the swim where I’d fished on the Monday – a large peg so it accommodated us both easily…

I used the same setup as for the Monday – Liz was similarly equipped but used only one rod and fished maggot on a size 12 hook.

First blood came to Liz with a small bream and this was followed by several small roach over the session … my first fish was also a small bream, followed by 4 eels (up to 1lb 3oz) and a perch (a species not shown on the ‘species present’ board).

A lot of entertainment was provided by a ‘carper’ who we watched for casting for 3 hours … yes, almost non-stop casting for the full three hours (cast, wind in at high speed as soon as the lead hit the water, repeat) although for ONE 10 minute spell he let the line lie … and there was also the spell when he made about 20+ casts with an EMPTY spomb! Still cannot figure what he was up to in his head! Then somehow he actually caught a carp, not sure how big but I don’t think he’d heard of ‘playing’ a fish … just heaved and heaved … at one point he was angled at 45 degrees pivoted on the back of his heels, rod bent double … if the line had snapped (and just what was the BS of that line??) he’d have ended up on his back at a rate of knots!

Around 1600 thunder was heard in the distance but watching the clouds they were passing away parallel to us some way away and soon it became bright over there … however, I think there must have been a circular air flow up in the heights as the skies darkened over us from the direction the storm had previously passed to … and we decided to call it a day … but too late as before we were half packed up the skies opened and we got drowned… and in the rush back to the van the tackle truck toppled over … twice!

Even now, a week later, some of the tackle bags are still damp!

Other Stuff

Whilst out in the town, visiting charity shops, I came upon a pair or packable waders for £5…..

Hoping now to get out fishing on Monday 27th, venue undecided … and on Thursday 30th to Kingsbury Water Park, Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham.