Had a dabble.

In the valley

I decided at the last minute to have a dabble down in the valley. On arrival I picked on the first lake  and fished from around 5pm to7:30.

As a result of my late decision, my bait consisted of sweet corn and dendrobaena. Every thing else that may have been of use, ie maggots, hempseed and bread were still in the freezer.
As it's harvest time I made a decision to take the "no heavy lorry" track down to the fishery, sods law I bumped into farmer George in his big tractor and trailer on his way to load up from the combine harvester.
I got in his way a bit on the narrow lane, he didn't look too happy, so an appreciative thumbs up was all he got!!
I fished with a three piece, all different lengths, cane rod I had picked up recently, it's not perfect but I thought I'd give it a test.
My reel, one of the two Young's Purist ll's I have.
Sweetcorn was the feed and I fished over it with the worm and occasionally corn
During the first hour or so, I was constantly alerted to kingfisher calls and managed just one distant shot.

Fishing was slow, but I didn't mind. 
I actually enjoyed my couple of hours or so, being serenaded by the birds, and from time to time, being kept company by a little owl just behind me in the wood.

The catch was a number of small rudd,roach and just the one perch. I also landed a small tench of about a pound, well known to me and probably the only one in the lake!
The carp were quiet,I hit two but was only on light line and both snapped me when I was trying to get a view of how the rod handled 8 lb fish.
It looked ok and certainly held them without any creaking.

As I headed back, guess who I bumped into again ? 
Yep, it was George, well it was his wife, headlights blazing down another little wooded track on the different way out.
 I couldn't see what she was trying to do,or that it was her, so I reversed back and as she passed with a smile I could see she was towing a truck. 

It was George's old, now clapped out by the looks of it, Toyota something or other...he didn't look amused....again!





After that an uneventful mile or so home,well apart from a sighting of both a stoat and a weasel.
I got home checked on my shares and decided to have a cup of hot choccy out of our new Tassimo coffee maker and type this off the top of my head. 
Excellent bits of kit these Tassimo by the way, serving consistent coffee and chocolate, to us confirmed tea drinkers.