Well despite over sleeping by an hour following a hard first week back at work, I was pulling into the country park a mere 10 minutes after getting out of bed, it was great to be angling so locally!
On arrival, the gate to the over flow was locked and stupidly I had forgotten my key, so I loaded the barrow in the public car park and began the long barrow journey towards the top of the Pit. I was greeted by a strong South Westerly which was gathering in strength by the minute.
I stopped a couple of times to look in a few likely areas but in the end settled for a swim that gave me the command of a large expanse of water and also had the added bonus of being slightly hidden down an incline right by the water’s edge which was well out of the way of the busy park track, my idea being that I wouldn’t be bothered by every Tom, Dick & Harry asking the same old “are you fishing?” “Caught anything?” questions, oh how wrong I was!
I quickly set about getting the rods sorted, all three were fished on chods with my ever faithful Northern Specials but getting the rigs out there was slightly tricky due to the canopy of trees 6 ft above my head but with a bit of bending in an awkward way and a slight bit of cursing I soon had two rods out at about 60 yards range and one down the left about 20 yards out.
I settled back in my chair and put the coleman on for brew, within an hour I had all kinds of dogs bounding through the hedges into my swim, some bloody great things and others which to me looked more like rats – are they supposed to be fashionable or something?
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Trying to hide from every Tom, Dick & Harry… |
Just after 11am, an old friend called Jamie who I haven’t seen for over 12 years got in touch through Facebook and popped down to see me. It was great to have a catch up and a brew together and it transpired that since we last saw each other the Big Carp bug had really bitten him and whilst chatting he told me that he loved the Park Lake I was on and fancied a ticket, he’s hoping to join me for a short day session next weekend…..small world eh?!
After about an hour we bid each other farewell and he set off for a walk round the Park with his daughter, I fired up the coleman once again and sat back with a brew.
The old park lake was really pulling me in, something about it grabbed me - my mind was racing with thoughts about what it could hold and my excitement was building by the minute.
Whilst sat there trying to unravel the mysteries of the park I heard a scrambling of debris behind me, I turned around and was shocked to see a little old lady stood right behind me. I don’t think she had ever seen a Carp Angler before and looked quite intrigued, she didn’t say a word just smiled and stumbled back up the incline and wandered off……was she a ghost??!!
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Hoping for a glimpse of an Old Warrior… |
I just chuckled to myself and started humming the song “Park Life” by Blur, time was now getting on and I hadn’t seen a thing, not that I expected to see much, despite the mild temperatures it was still only early January.
I went and sat down by the rods for a few minutes hoping to get a glimpse of what the magical pit held but unfortunately my time ran out so I started a slow pack up, leaving the rods out right until the last minute before heading home.
Since I left the Park yesterday I have discovered that the Club who control the Park are giving up the fishing rights in mid-March due to the 80% price rise in the lease owned by the local council, which won’t affect my mini campaign too much as I plan to be elsewhere by then but what it may affect is my chance to go back in the future to pit my wits against the 30 – 40 magical old warriors that inhabit the 80 acre Park Lake. I’m hoping another club takes control or the council sells season tickets as it obviously wants the revenue, hence the price increase in the lease so I can’t see angling stopping on there full stop.
So with that my thoughts are now with returning to the Pit next weekend, I have already sorted the Kit so with a bit of luck I shall be pulling into the Park at the crack of dawn as long as I don’t over sleep again!
So until then, be lucky
Smithy
