Another glorious, unscheduled trip to Wessex.

Hurriedly packed the car on a Monday morning and I was off. Arrived late Monday night in order to fish my lake early Tuesday morning.

Woke up at 05:30 to leaden sky’s and torrential rain. Needless to say I did not rush out too the lake. Instead I had a spot of breakfast with a pot of tea. Around 09:00 the sky’s cleared enough for me to gain enthusiasm again to get fishing. Had a lovely morning and fished until lunch catching 4 cracking Roach in the process. And I saw a Kingfisher this morning

That evening I was kindly invited by friends to fish a small commercial fishery that I know well now.  My intention was to catch my first Carp from the surface of the season.

I had brought along with me on this trip a surprise for everyone as I had packed a pot of my ‘July Jam’ and a couple of bottles of Elderflower Champagne. I had also bought some fresh scones and a pot of the finest clotted cream, so we had a proper cream tea before the fishing began in earnest

I was very fortunate to land this double figure mirror, not the prettiest of fish but it went like fury. We fished on until after midnight and saw many shooting stars as it was very clear sky that night.

The following day saw me back at my lake.  It was amazing the amount of ‘champagne’ bubbles round my float, classic Tench, but all I kept hooking were Roach.  Although I have never experienced a Roach that ‘ran’ great fights they put up in shallow water. By lunchtime I had caught 5 in total, what a great morning.

That evening I took up the kind offer by some friends to join them at a free stretch of river to go Barbel hunting. We had a great time although non of us caught, maybe next time…