You know when you are really looking forward to something?Maybe a holiday or in my case a really special fishing trip to a venue that you know contains the fish of your dreams. Then, time seems to plod along at the pace of a snail.Yet when your are doing what you have been waiting for the clocks run at what feels like 30 seconds per minute, an it is over in a flash.This has certainly been the case for me lately,couple this with my preconception and fantasy's of cradling that monster fish with the reality of a miserable cold blank and your usually left with that feeling I would describe as disappointment.
Welcome to the world of specimen hunting! well, my account of it anyway.
I'm not an angler that turns up to a venue and expects to catch a whopper every time,that would be a stupid notion.Saying that I did fish a BLAC event up on the Thames which proved to be very tough.I blanked along with most other's but 2 exceptional Perch were caught during the match at 3lb 02 and 3lb 10 this along with the amazing news of a friend catching a 5lb 01oz triple whopper from another venue left me feeling,and I don't mind admitting, a bit sour,with myself not other's,anyway the point I was getting too was a joke I made to a competitor about turning up and catching easily.
I had just made my five thousand four hundred an fifty ninth fruitless cast of the day when a geezer dressed up as a Nazi solider crept round the bush near to where I was fishing.I turned to him with an expressionless face and said "this is rubbish, I thought Its 4lber's every time on the Thames?" he looked at me as if I had some dog shit on my chin and carried on his way probably thinking what a fool I was,I got the impression he had the sense of humour of the average twot that lives in my village but there you go.I also attended the Exeter match,which also was rock hard but I did get to spend the day in the company of Adam Kirby,who proved to be a bloody nice bloke and a top angler, and I also caught......which was nice.
your probably sensing my catch rate has not been the richest recently? that is true,I have spent allot of time on the banks suffering allot of things that rhyme with banks,tis not all doom and gloom tho,I have managed to trick a few of our finned friends, the highlight being a 21lb 8oz river Pike.But it is the striped ones I really want and I'm buggered if I'm packing away the perch gear until I get a big one!
A bit more LRF in the evenings has produced countless sprack pollack and a unusual capture of an Alice shad.
Til next time
Good luck
