Well I’m not out on the bank, but things like this don’t happen every day, so I thought it was worth a share.
For a start, as I walked out of the office door into the lobby at the top of the stairs, I thought someone had thrown something up the stairs at me which missed me but hit the window. Not the case.
We join the action just after I did the double take at the tit on the window sill and opened the window to guide it out >
I’ve experienced a few precious moments like this over the years, but where in the past (without camera phone) I couldn’t help wondering if people believed the stories I was regaling, this time I actually have proof 😁
“Oh this world is a crazy ride, so take your seat and hold on tight.”
10/5/23 – Kirton Hall Lake
Well, it’s certainly been a while! My last session was actually 14/7/19. During that lay-off much water has passed under the bridge, some of it troubled.
A house move, involving some considerable downsizing and life laundry, a worldwide pandemic and the ensuing ‘squeaky’ times at work, plus the passing of 3 family members, the last of which was my father last November. I’m sure amongst some of my fellow bloggers, I’m probably late to that party, and if so, I feel for you. It’s a particularly deep cut, that I’m still smarting from daily. He was a wonderful man who loved the outdoors and I would have loved him to accompany me on just one fishing trip, but he was also a headstrong individual and fishing was not his thing, although he was always interested to hear about my trips and successes. R.I.P. Dad. Miss you more than I can say.
And so, back to business –
Despite my absence from the bank, that didn’t mean my next trip was far from my mind, and I never missed an opportunity to stop and gaze across any body of water I happened upon. I’ve also picked up a bargain along the way and managed to upgrade my Saber S4 alarms to a set of brand new 3x Wychwood AVX-S alarms plus receiver, for 45 quid (normally £160). Not that I was unhappy with the Sabers, but I love Wychwood gear (and I’m a magpie/sucker for beautiful packaging) and just couldn’t pass up the deal, and you know that when you’re not fishing, just buying gear can make you feel closer to it.
After booking a couple of weeks off work, the date was finally set to get back out there, and so began the internal wrangling that generally comprises location and potential rewards vs past success rate. This time it was pretty short lived however, and sanity prevailed due to my length of absence and essentially the need (despite the blog moniker) to ‘slide at least something over the net cord’.
Kirton, the site of my last trip, has always been a favourite location of mine and although it certainly doesn’t hold the biggest carp in the area, there is something special about it’s allure, and for me, it really is the whole immersive ‘at one with nature’ experience. It’s a well run and maintained natural stream-fed lake of approx 6 acres, nestled down amongst some beautiful oak-lined scenery. A lot of Carp-based fisheries these days, seem to be extremely character and feature-free functional affairs.
From Kirton’s website – “Stocks of fish include Carp to 25lb+, Tench to 9lb 12oz , Bream to 7lb. Good sized Perch, Rudd, Roach, Crucian Carp and Skimmers also provide a fantastic days fishing.” The larger carp here still elude me though and I think the largest I’ve had was a 16lb ghostie about 10 years ago. Also on the wish list are a couple of stunning albino grass carp, which are now pushing the 25lb mark.
I opted for a slightly later start as it was a mid-week session and I thought the lake wouldn’t be too busy – I left the house at 08:00 and arrived at the lake about 08:20, just as someone was choosing to set up in the peg I was hoping for (that’ll teach me). Anyway, there were about 7 anglers already pitched up and with 54 pegs in total, there was still plenty of choice. I opted for a peg halfway along the lake with no nearside pads and plenty of space to cast freely and keep my options open.
Peg 14Rod pod set upJust checking everything is in order
Unfortunately, somewhere along the way, with the house move and subsequently having to store all my gear elsewhere, I seem to have mislaid some of my gear including my main tackle/rig box and all my pots of pop-ups and wafters. Because of this, after ‘making do’ with what I had and sending both rigs out to the edge of the far pads, I really didn’t feel too confident. Generally I like to balance my hook offerings so they hover just above the hook but with no buoyant baits this was not an option. The weather was clear, wind was low and the sun was about to break through the cloud so I had a surface rod set up ready to go at any point.
I’ve looked at clouds from both sides now
As soon as the carp were taking the biscuit, I immediately brought one rod in and switched tactics. I’ve bought many new-fangled ‘controller’ floats but for some reason I still love an old skool bubble float. I think it took all of 5 seconds after splashdown before the surface erupted and I had a bend in the rod.
So yet again the surface tactics won out. 7 carp landed, with two more lost close in .
I still kept the original rod out for the majority of the day, trying different positions and blagged a couple of pop-ups from a neighbouring angler to try and ease my lack of confidence in the rig, but other than the odd knock here and there, I just couldn’t buy a bite on the deck. Not that I’m complaining. I was kept busy enough with the surface activity, and floater fishing is certainly not a relaxing activity!
Overall it was a beautiful day and without any shade in my swim, I even got a little sunburned. Unfortunately at the exact point I decided to pack up the heavens opened up and there was what I can only describe as a massive deluge of heavy rain which soaked through absolutely everything. If I’d only done it half an hour earlier everything could’ve been packed up bone dry. Still, I did say my parade couldn’t be rained on and I stand by that. It was great to get out once more. Hopefully it won’t be too long again until I’m back bank-side. Potentially next month there could be an opportunity. We’ll see!
Now, I’m not promising anything, or putting any timescales on things, but it’s a start.
I’m still living vicariously through the other fishing blogs I follow and would love it if the regular and not so regular posters reading this could/might re-post their favourite old post of theirs (for whatever reason that might be – either your ‘best’ or most memorable session, or your favourite just from a composition point of view).
Look forward to seeing your re-posts. Have at it, I’ll be back…soon
You don’t need to love fishing to appreciate ‘Gone Fishing’s’ simple beauty. Perhaps just an appreciation of Britain’s breathtaking countryside and waterways, or a warm affinity with a colourful camaraderie between two old friends. Failing that, just a gentle soul should suffice.
Granted, it won’t be absolutely everyone’s flask of tea , and perhaps if you are under the age of 20, have never fished, and are also completely unfamiliar with the not insignificant respective back catalogue of the programme’s two protagonists within the arena of comedy and entertainment, then indeed, it may not catch your attention enough for you to allow yourself to fall under its charm. But, as I swear I’ve heard somewhere before, the programme is not really about catching fish.
“Look to your health; and if you have it, praise God and value it next to conscience; for health is the second blessing that we mortals are capable of, a blessing money can’t buy.” – Izaak Walton
The series (now in it’s third season) started out for the two friends, as a vehicle for them to compare and share their life changing experiences, stemming from a pivotal time in their lives when, within a few years of each other, both underwent a series of major surgeries due to heart related illnesses.
Many of the filming locations are a wistful trip down memory lane, revisiting childhood haunts, primarily for Paul (the true, seasoned angler and long-suffering mentor to Bob and his child-like exuberance in his eagerness to learn more about the pastime and the different fish they pursue each week). Bob’s role, in addition to instigating some of the more irreverent banter and providing regular pratfalls, is the organising of the couple’s (usually highly varied and often unconventional) nightly accommodation and accompanying culinary creations.
What Mortimer, Whitehouse and the production crew have actually created is a wonderfully picturesque bromantic field trip, while all-too-fleetingly tackling topics from the puerile to the profound, but both with equal measures of rigour and candour.
The show is like a real life ‘Detectorists’, but where the hidden bounties they are attempting to uncover are not just their elusive piscine quarry but perhaps the slightly more intangible answers to the age-old questions surrounding life, love, loss and our own mortality.
Mortimer and Whitehouse: Gone Fishing – available on BBC 2 i-player
So the house move went pretty smoothly in the end despite being a colossal undertaking involving downsizing from a five bedroomed, double garaged house on three floors, to a two bedroomed bungalow with a single garage, hence why all my fishing gear is currently residing at someone else’s house.
You would not believe the amount of ‘stuff’ we’d accumulated over the last 13 years and it took some pretty ruthless life laundry to even stand a chance of making it work. (Three overflowing skip loads to be precise.)
Aside from the move, work has also been manic, but along with the usual bread and butter jobs, the occasional treat does pop up –
Van wrap for Spotted FinOn it like a car bonnet
Got the chance to design and install the graphics on Spotted Fin’s new van. They’re a great bunch of guys and things have really taken off in a big way for them over the last few years. If you’ve been to any shows recently, you’ll no doubt have seen them selling out of everything.
Grab some of their new Classic Corn boilies which are really tearing things up at the mo. I’ll defo be giving them a go (if I ever get a spare minute again)
My second trip in 9 months! I toyed with the idea of a potentially fruitless ‘Monster Carp’ hunt, but when you’ve been away from the bank this long, sometimes you just need a dead cert to ease you back into things. Aside from that, a house-move on the not so distant horizon means that funds are tight and as I’ve already paid membership for Kirton, well … you do the math.
Despite a fairly late start (9am arrival) I discovered one of my favourite swims (peg 6) was still free. Result. It was a warm day and pressure was fairly high, but this is the shallow end of the lake and i was determined to catch off the bottom today, as it seems like a lifetime since regular tactics have paid off, so i just needed to prove to myself that i haven’t completely lost my touch. Both rods were started on the deck. One to the pads (in the swim to my left) and the other to the far reed line.
Half hour passed before the first bite from the pads, which resulted in a snapped hook link. Soon after that, the swim was taken so i moved both rods to the far reeds. I lost another fish on the right hand rod and then decided to try the floater rod for a while, as they had started taking some freebies. It proved hard work though due to the bird activity today – a full compliment of ducks, moorhen, coots & gulls, all trying (and managing) to beat the fish to it. So I persevered on and off, switching between surface and bottom tactics.
It seemed like the surrounding pegs were also quiet but the silence was finally broken at about 2.45 with a hard-fighting fish from the far reeds. The noise attracted the angler to my left who thankfully was able to help untwist both rods (as i some how allowed the fish to go under my other line close in, despite having back leads on) and we performed the maypole-style rod dance to free things up. Once the fish was in the net and the second rod back on the pod, the second alarm started chirping. Too much to be the rig re-settling I couldn’t ignore it and lifted into … something anyway, and as long as it takes to wind a rig straight in, a 1.5 lb bream dangled above the water. I unhooked in hand and went straight back to the carp in the landing net.
It went 11lbs and thanks to my fellow fisherman for the photo. Good to know my bottom rigs do still work.
Action was slow after that. I pressed on with trying to work the surface on & off and after fowl play had died down a bit i whacked out a few bread crust casts, finally resulting in a last minute take and a 9lb common, the speed of which I’ve never seen before. I mean, it was ridiculous. One minute it was out on the surface in front of me, and within a second it was in the next swim!
Great fun.
And to round off again, another pheasant arrived for a feed.
It’s been exactly eight months since my last trip. Eight months! Fucking ridiculous. Not by choice i should add. An ‘imperfect’ storm of work and personal commitments. I think it’s safe to say that there’s no time as slow as that between fishing trips.
Back to the job in hand. Facebook page posts weren’t saying anything so i was praying that the carp had finished spawning as the prospect of wasting my first outing in 8 months didn’t bear thinking about. Upon arrival, bankside reports confirmed they were all done but unfortunately the peg i was hoping for today was taken.
I settled halfway along the lake where there seemed to be plenty of fizzing plus a few fish cruising on the surface. On my last few trips here I’ve struggled to catch off the bottom and today I couldn’t risk blanking so it was one rod on the deck and the other would be on top with dog biscuits. I baited up an area and started the bottom rig about halfway across but conditions dictated that the fish were probably all in the top half of the water column. If i was sensible and more disciplined/organised, then i would have changed to some sort of zig, but that’s not the way i roll.
I later moved this rig to two more ‘squeaky-bum-pin-point-perfection-casting-long-distance-far-margin-spots’ before the sesh was over, but none of them produced even a knock. The surface was where it was at for me today. I kept the floaters going in to the left of me covering a reasonably large area, as the fish were constantly on the move, and i just waited till an area was busy with a few fish before introducing the hookbait. It was hard work battling with old dog biscuits which seemed to only keep their buoyancy for about two mins plus the fish seemed wise of a squared-off brown pop-up so i was having to use and constantly replace hair-rigged biscuits. I might have to invest in a fake dog biscuit or use some king of cork insert (any tips welcome).
Nevertheless i managed to land six fish and lose two. All ranged between about 7 & 10 pounds. I started off trying to take timered selfies but gave up after seeing that the photo of the second fish (& obviously the biggest) was utter shit.
As is normally the case with me when surface fishing, i barely sat down all day, but the rain held off and it was absolute heaven just to be back bankside again.
As an extra little treat, just as i was packing up (after about a dozen ‘last casts’), i had a visit from this confident little fellow. What a perfect return it was and I look forward to being able to do the same again very soon.
notaboutcatchingfish 
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