It seems like an age since I last sat down and wrote a piece for this blog, in fact it must be nearly 3 months since I actually graced the bank which is the longest in my 20 year angling career! You can imagine how stir crazy it has made me especially considering less than 6 months ago I was doing 3 – 4 nights a week. But since working in the Bait industry time is definitely at a premium especially considering the long hours involved not to mention working away from home 5 days a week, come the weekend all I normally want to do is relax with the family however all of this is about to change with the arrival of our new son/daughter this week (I’m pretty certain it’s a girl but didn’t want to know at the scan as they got it wrong last time!) so I made the extra push to get on the bank this weekend!
After arriving back home from work at a reasonable time on Friday it gave me plenty of time to sort out the Kit and replenish stock so to speak, I loaded the van early and relaxed for the evening. The plan was to get up early and watch the Rugby (which was terrible for those of you that didn’t watch it!) then make the short journey to the next county and get down the snag pit.
So with that I arrived down the pit about lunch time, and had a good mooch about. The place had changed dramatically since I had been away and it looked stunning in all its summer glory.
With little fish sighting to go on I decided to get on the end of the ever strengthening south westerly that had sprung up.
I placed two rods on the edge of a weed bed at 40 yards range and baited with a couple of handfuls of my “secret snail mix” the third rod was placed on a clear spot at 30 yards range and baited with my new “choco nutz”.
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| My "choco nutz" mix |
I sat back and just took in the atmosphere, it was great to be back on the bank, if I caught or not was irrelevant I just needed some peace and had most definitely found it again on this magical water.
The afternoon passed quickly and before I knew it the sun was starting to drop below the tree line. Just as I was started to think about getting some dinner on, Pete “the cooonnnnntttt” arrived carrying two white plastic bags which can only mean one thing! Chinese!
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| It was great to be back under the Oval! |
So with that we sat under the oval and devoured the small banquet and talked anything and everything carpy. We chatted late into the night before Pete headed off about 11pm.
I sat on the bedchair looking and listening for anything carpy but saw little so called it a night about midnight and retired to the bag.
I slept well despite the howling wind and awoke much later than I normally would but I did need the kip and felt much better for it, nothing had occurred in the night and with only an hour left before I had to pack up it didn’t look likely. I fired up the coleman for the first brew of the day and just sat admiring the pit for a while before eventually starting a very slow pack up.
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| Reflecting on the short but magical session.... |
As I left for home, I took another look at the pit and just smiled and said “I shall see you again very soon” then departed.
On the way home all I could think about was my next session, although I’m not sure when that will be what with the baby coming this week, but one thing you can be certain of now is as soon as that spare moment arrives l shall most definitely be paradise bound…….
Until then,
Smithy
