Well, what a hectic last few days! I left off last time getting ready to head off to the South Coast to find somewhere to live before I start my new job on the 21st March, well I left home at 05:30am as planned and was soon well on my way and making good time, I even stopped for a “Costa Bucket” just off the M25 but the journey soon turned soar when I was only 10 minutes away from my destination in the form of some very strange noises coming from under the bonnet followed by a flashing oil light on the dashboard! Now I always check the oil at least once a fortnight so knew it wasn’t a lack of oil that was the issue so once I reached my point of destination I gave my mate a bell who works in the area, his thoughts matched mine……the bloody oil pump! Great!
Shortly after this I realised that my breakdown cover had expired and me being the cheap skate that I am had decided I could live without it, big mistake as I soon found out!
So it was back on the phone to my brother in law (and apprentice!) to see if he could come and get me, Martin was soon flying round the M25 with my sister in tow and before I knew it the Calvary had arrived.
Martin lifted the bonnet and turned on the ignition of the van then looked at me and just said “ouch, it’s the oil pump dude……might have ruined your engine too!”.
Following this wonderful news I decided to leave the van at my new place of work then get Martin to give me a lift to view my new home so I could pay a deposit, following this we had a walk up the beach so I could have a smoke and try and destress…….it kind of worked?!
We were then soon flying back round the M25 heading for home but didn’t arrive back until 10pm, poor old Martin had been awake 30 hours straight and insisted on driving the whole 150 miles home despite my sister nagging him to swap with me, poor fella but little did he know the events that would follow the next day down on Pete’s syndicate that we were booked on for as guests.
So the following morning lacking a van which was still down on the south coast I had to get my wife to drop me off on the stunning estate lake and before I knew it me, Pete & Martin were soon set up and moaning about the previous day events, me more so because of the pain that will be inflicted on my wallet over the next few weeks!
The afternoon passed quickly and darkness soon descended, we fired up the colemans and got the dinner sorted, our morale had plummeted somewhat as we were expecting a bit of action and we were beginning to doubt our tactics……..we needn’t have worried though as less than an hour later Martins “my apprentice” Neville was screaming for attention, he was on it in a flash and the battle began, the unseen leviathan took Martin into every snag possible but Martin stayed in control and coped well and it was quite obvious that Martin was now fighting a PB, I decided to take the liberty to tell him that during battle which made him even more on edge, but slowly Martin gained the upper hand before pulling the culprit over the net cord, we all let out a cheer as it was quite obvious that not had Martin just caught a PB but he had in fact more than doubled it!
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| Martin with his new PB! |
That fish really made the session and the rest kind of seems irrelevant but to cut a long story short me and Pete also got in on the action later that night, me with a rather old looking common and Pete with one of the nice plump mirrors.
Going back to Martin for a minute, I have to say how impressed I am with how his angling has come on, only a year ago I was teaching him all the basics but now he was taking to it like a duck to water and every aspect of his angling had improved tenfold, a massive well done mate and keep at it!
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| I managed one too, this tired old looking common.... |
I was due to fish the “Snag Pit” for the last time for a while on Monday but with a 12 week scan at the hospital booked that was priority so off me and the wife went to see the latest addition to the family for the 1st time!
The following day Pete picked me up and we headed off to a local water just to get the rods out for the last time before I moved down to the South Coast, we set up in the snags on the back of a easterly but didn’t have a sniff all morning and by 2pm we were both getting itchy feet so went for a mooch and found a couple of fish feeding, shortly after moving we had both had two takes and had both landed one and lost one and just before packing up Pete managed to winkle out his second, it was an enjoyable day and with only one other fish coming out of the lake we must have been doing something right - but I’m looking forward to getting back into my serious fishing in a month or so’s time which brings me on to the next bit nicely…..
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| A nice little mirror taken on the short day session.... |
It’s now Wednesday evening and I am moving down to the coast on Sunday, I’m not intending on getting the rods out for the next 3 – 4 weeks now as other things take priority for the time being but as long as all things go to plan my next instalment shall be about my new water in the southern half of the country and who knows there may even be news of a chunk too, he who dares and all that!
So on that note I shall say farewell for now, I hope you have enjoyed reading this blog as much as I have writing it and I shall be back in a month or so.
Until then,
Smithy
