No Fishin'

(Just a word for Damar, if comments go on after the post has bin up for a week then they automatically have to go for moderation)

Any road up, I've not fished since the end of the bloodworm league but it's not for the lack of wanting to. Banksy booked two Sundays down at the Catteries so last Saturday I went down for a ramble to see if owt were afoot. Remember the weather last Sat'day? I got there and Tommy F was sat in his van thawin' out, grown men were crying it was that cold and if it hadn't bin for his wife's undies Danny would have had frostbite all the way up his legs :) The rain was coming down like needles and to be honest I didn't fancy sitting in that for 5 hours. There was a rover match on and there were bits coming out of the old lake, in fact one bloke had a tench first dob but all in all it was hard going. Banksy said the Sunday match would go ahead but I gave End-peg a buzz and we decided it was daft so we ducked.

 The next day I did set the alarm and got up bright and early at 7.00 am but my front drive was like an ice rink so I climbed back in and warmed the old feet up on 'er indoors, hehe :) Later on that morning after I'd cleared the drive and gritted it for the umpteenth time that weekend I wandered down to the Catteries to see what was happening. There were 6 diehards, or loonies, who had turned up, one of 'em had a bite first chuck which resulted in a carp of 3 lb and that was that. Not another fish was caught, one or two reckoned they'd had a bite or two but I reckon they were hallucinating :) The weather was actually pretty good, the wind had dropped, the rain had stopped and the sun was coming out, it was turning in to a nice day. But the fishes had other ideas and definitely weren't coming out to play today. Banksy said he would see what the weather was like during the week before deciding on what to do for this weekend.

 Well, I was working way down south all week, hence the Isle-of-White ferry, hehe :) It was nice down there, very dry but very cold too and every stillwater I came across was frozen solid. The outlook was gloomy to say the least. I'd had a text from Banksy saying that the match wasn't going ahead tomorrow because the weather forecast was for more freezing temperatures and everyone was crying off, so it's another weekend without dangling a line. There's summat to be said for giving January's a miss, even the Wigan DAA matches on t'cut have been cancelled for the last two weekends and the Liverpool ones too. It must be bad, ha!

 So to today and when I got up first thing lo and behold we had a power cut. It must have gone off during the night and it only came back on at 6.30 pm, had to go and watch the footie at a mate's house! After that I drove down to the Catteries again and there were the usual faces just loading their gear into their cars. They'd had the usual Saturday rover, Banksy, MarkE, Grizzly, CarlR and Ditch were there and they'd all opted to fish the old lake. They'd all had bites and I think they said just over 4 lb had won it, mainly small roach, not bad though if the old quill is going under. I was quite surprised how little ice there was over all three pools, I was expecting them to all be solid. I bobbed in at Orcheton after that and had a quick chat with Richard. There was no ice at all there and they'd just had a match too. Single figures had won it but Richard didn't have the exact weights.

So that's all I have to tell you. A disappointing couple of weeks but it is February when all's said and done and it certainly ain't as bad as last year by a long chalk. I heard Tabbers is running a match on t'Rufford arm at Solom in the morn and the Sharks are up at Fir Tree so good luck to all who take part. Take a big flask!
I also heard that the Teams-of-4 due to start soon is a bit slow on the uptake and if there are less than 6 teams eneterd it may be scrapped? It's too bleedin' cold !!!
Anyhow, if you're going dangling a line I wish you very good luck, 'till next time .... tight, if frosty, lines :)