16th June 2018

Fishing again 

After a fairly long lay off from fishing, I decided that to get back into it, another holiday was needed.

We booked a week in the Norfolk Broads at Potter Heigham in a cottage beside the River Thurne.
The cottage was excellent with all the equipment needed for a home from home stay.
We booked through https://www.riverside-holidays.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/MAIN-PAGE-DOC-2018-without-bleed.pdf  and stayed in the Haven.
It will sleep 6, at a squeeze, but was very comfortable, and roomy, for the two of us.

I had decided beforehand that I wasn't interested in skimmers, I was determined to try and just catch roach.
Fishing was to bewith no groundbait, just loose feeding with a bucket of hempseed, and casters from my freezer.
No maggots!
I bought half a kilo of dendrobaener from Worms Direct, and for a test, some of their "worm enzyme concentrate"
After the drive of about just over 2 hours we arrived, collected the keys, and paid to park for the week.
Quite conveniently, there was an old boy offering a "river taxi" service down to the cottage for £10, so all our baggage and my tackle was loaded on board and off we trundled, under the bridge and down to the cottage. It was stated that this was no more than 600 yards, I think it was more, judging by our 10 minute daily walk there and back to the village.

As stated, the fishing was literally on our back doorstep.
What I didn't realise was that the Thurne is tidal, and running through, in both directions at a fair lick!
 I decided to fish with my Drennan float rod and my Youngs Heritage, and to use the stret pegging method at rod length.

So, the first few hours after arrival on the bank, were getting the method right, fishing with worm as bait, and droppering hemp and casters doused in the "enzyme" along the run.
I thought I had the method right, as I started to hook into perch, roach and.....skimmers.
Then as it was beginning to get darker...eels! 3 on the trot up to 2lb ish.
Decision made, don't fish with worm in the early evening, so, to the cottage patio for a few drinks before bed.
For the next six days, I fished firstly from the crack of dawn, and later.... a little later, and then back again in the afternoon/evening for a few hours.
Fishing mainly with sweetcorn as bait, fortunately the roach took this bait better than the skimmers, so I carried on using it, with the occasional switch to worm when all went quiet.
My best roach was 22ozs. Roach were by far the most obliging, only one true bronze bream of around two pound, and perch upto a pound on the worm.
I should say, that my 2nd bucket of hemp/caster mix without the "enzyme" didn't bring me the bigger perch, so perhaps it deserves another try?
I  fished with worms again in the early evening, on my last evening. Who is it stating that eels are endangered?
I couldn't stop catching them, one after the other in my 30 yard stretch of river.

All in all, a fine return to my fishing experience.

Beer
When not fishing, we were sightseeing, having never been to The Broads before, timing our journeys to coincide with the appearance of a real ale pub for a lunch stop! All pre planned...of course!
Of those we tried, including the Woodfordes Brewery and pub, our best experience was at the
http://thewhitehorseinnneatishead.com/ , an excellent selection of beer, and very good pub grub.

All in one place

My articles for Fishing Magic

https://www.fishingmagic.com/forums/blogs/fred-bonney/index2.html/

Still no fishing....

2018
We've moved house, 8th December, just before the snow, we beat it by a day. Unlike our last move to Ludford fifteen years ago.
We are now living in Irthlingborough, near Wellingborough, a ground floor apartment/flat, with two bedroooms, a tandem garage, and a little bit of our own fenced garden.
Back to civilisation.

So, why no fishing ? 
Well, it takes some sorting out moving home, we got that out of the way, and in the meantime Pauline arranged for us to have 28 days in Los Cristianos on Tenerife, she hates our winters.
Off we went 10 days after the booking.
In the meantime,we arranged to have our kitchen totally renewed, including all main appliances, whilst we were away.
28 days of sunshine mostly cloudless days about 22c, plenty of seafood, I've got a bit of colour, and a bit more weight too!
We came back last Saturday, to a new kitchen, it is well up to our expectations.
New bed coming next week, so a bit of shifting to do before Wednesday!

Another mate dies!
My old mate Mick Huckle, a Yorkshireman who I met and played darts with from about 28 years ago, at our local pub in Castlethorpe. 
He is the third of my six, younger than me team mates to die since we left that village 15 years ago.
He and his wife Denise retired, and followed us across to Lincolnshire after his parents died, they took over their bungalow in Withern, about 20 minutes from us.
We took up our darts partnership again, and I started to play golf with him.
Mick was one of the most competitive of people I've known in my life time, he just had to win. 
He also called a spade a spade, probably why we got on so well. 
We challenged each other!
Some of my old readers may recall, Denise died some 8 years ago.
In the last 6 years Mick found another love in his life, Keren, and was due to be married later this year, alas this was not to be.
Anyway Mick died on the 24th January aged 66, and we got notice of his passing while we were away in Tenerife.
His funeral was yesterday, he had no religion, so the ceremony was conducted by a celebrant.
Mick's choice of music started with us following his coffin into "the chapel" to  In the air tonight . After the welcome, we sat in silence  with our memories listening to Knights in white satin.
After a good few laughs, and even some heckling during the eulogy, personal tributes, and reflections on Mick's life from his son, Simon, believe it or not, his next choice of music was Firestarter, yes The Prodigy hit. 
https://youtu.be/wmin5WkOuPw
It wasn't played at full blast, as it often was in his car though!
This was followed by personal tributes by his oldest friend from Keighley (Mick's hometown) and his fourteen year old grand daughter, Ebonnie.
Then came the committall, and our exit past his coffin to the sounds of  Stairway to heaven.
His sense of humour showed through in his music choice!

        Rest in Peace Michael John Huckle: 
          9th June 1951- 24th January 2018




Next ?
Who knows?
I've got myself one ticket for fishing this year, so far, and
I need to get out, and see what chub we have in the local rivers, but only after a chat at the tackle shop.

It's been a long time

2017

Well, that's almost a year gone by, and I haven't been slightly tempted to write down my thoughts.
Things are changing though, we've had an offer for our house, and solicitors have now been instructed for about 2 months.
We've also had our offer accepted for a ground floor flat/apartment in the town of Irthlingborough.
So, all things crossed, our new life should start in the next month, or so.
More funds for the holiday pot!
Fishing
My last expedition was on the 15th March to the middle Trent! 
I've was not tempted to fish the stillwaters down  in the valley during the close, and so it would appear my mojo has left me, all sorts of excuses not to go, mainly the marketing of the house leaving us in a state of limbo.
We'll see how it goes, but if anybody knows the Irthlingborough/Wellingborough area, they will know the possibilities are huge. The rivers Nene and Ouse being close by, with even Adams Mill is looking like it may be worth a  return visit after many years away.
There's plenty of stillwater too, right on the doorstep.
One thing for certain, this is my last year as a Barbel Society member. 
I may well tell my readers about it, nothing to be bitter about, just
from my point of view the organisation is treading the wrong path.
Travelling
We did not loose the mojo for getting away though.
January started with us having 6 weeks self catering in an apartment in sun at Benalmadena, Southern Spain.
March found us celebrating my birthday at The Crab & Boar in Chieveley for a couple of nights. This included a day at Newbury races where I got the better of the bookies.
Very good, despite the fact that the landlord had done a runner leaving his staff, unbeknownst to them, in charge.
April gave us a special long weekend in Dubrovnik, flying out of Humberside on a 50 seater jet after a champagne breakfast and enough wine during the flight to keep us all going.
A lovely city for the early May bank holiday weekend. 
Loads of food and drink and meeting like minded people. 
One couple we met, and have kept contact with,were definitely of a like mind to us, but younger. 
We've since been out with them for dinner in Cleethorpes and hopefully will again before we move away.
In June we had a week in the Old Manor Cottage, Halford, on the banks of the Warwickshire Stour. 
I took the rods, but they didn't leave the car for our entire stay.
An excellent cottage with all mod cons in good riverside gardens to rest in and play tennis if you felt energetic!
July found us having a night at The Bull, Stony Stratford, where we celebrated the life of a young, old friend and colleague, Nalini, taken from us at the age of 50 by Lupus!
A good few of the old Abbey National friends were also there, so reminiscences were the subject of long conversations into the night.
The remainder of the year had been somewhat put on hold for house viewing appointments, and visiting various locations around the country for our new home.
That was until October, we did a last minute booking of guided train journey's around Switzerland to celebrate our 45th wedding anniversary and Pauline's birthday on the 6th.
This entailed, starting our train journey's at Newark, into St Pancras,  via Paris and Strasbourg, to the small town, our base, of Tiefencastel.
We spent 8 days, and in total 26 separate train journeys, around the Swiss Alps including into Italy and Liechtenstein.
To say we needed another holiday, is an understatement....knackered.
We will try and book another warm winter break for January to March, once contracts are exchanged. 
Pauline fancies somewhere in the Canary Islands. She really doesn't like the dank, dark winters of home.
She has however, lined us up for a river cruise in Cambodia and Vietnam for our next wedding anniversary!

The future ?

We shall see, I may well keep my readers up to date with my 


Experiences
Some of this and some of that......and maybe some fishing.