My monthly fishing diary…
Week 1
Undergoing a transplant has taught me that there are some amazing people in this world, and there are some despicable ones, too. I cannot go into detail, other than say I’ve instigated legal proceedings against a third party and it is likely to prove rather expensive for one of us.
For two months my car has been trapped behind a locked gate, meaning I’m having to borrow a vehicle to go fishing. The stress is impacting my recovery and it came as no major surprise when my kidney function slumped from 46% to 20%. Next thing I know is I’m experiencing the symptoms of a mini-stroke necessitating multiple MRI, CT and ECG scans and hospital visits galore. My care team were concerned I may have to undergo a biopsy.
Touch wood, I’m now on the mend again, approaching 40% function with fingers crossed.
Even so, I received an unexpected phone call at 7pm asking me if I could come into the stroke unit immediately for emergency blood tests and then hang around while they were fast-tracked through the lab. Turns out if one of my readings had been just 2% higher they would have kept me in overnight.
Not surprisingly, I couldn’t get out on the bank in Week On,e but I did manage to squeeze in a trip each week thereafter. Never mind, as it’s given me an opportunity to include a reflections piece from the exact same month on a different year. It’s tagged on the end – Ihope you like it.
Week 2
My first trip out after the health hiccup saw me going for what I expected to be the easy option. I was heading to Alderfen’s Pads Lake, a carp runs water where the owners are relocating hordes of small roach in a stock pond as part of their fishery management strategy. It holds a fair head of roach running to over 2lb but it’s almost impossible to target them due to the sheer volume of tiddlers.
The weather was far from promising, with strong winds and rain expected, so I sheltered behind a brolly and took the easy option of fishing a waggler over loosefeed. Twenty pounds of roach was the least I expected to catch. How wrong could I be!?
My first cast produced a 12oz roach. The second, one of around 8oz. This was promising, but from there on in the stamp got smaller and smaller until I was catching half-ounce tiddlers, and most of these bounced off the hook. I had a bite a cast all day long and barely put 40 fish in the net. It was a nightmare and what made matters worse was the predicted rain failed to materialise so I could have fished right next to the car with the wind in my face and caught off the rod end. What a plonker!
I did hook and lose one carp, but they were noticeably absent. I reckon they would have been lined up along the windward bank. These are
