Friday 15th August should have seen me back on Blue Mink for another days sea fishing, this time with first-time boat anglers Martin and his brother in law Ian. It's fair to say we had all been looking forward to this trip and with dodgy weather putting an end to his trips earlier in the week, I was well happy when I phoned skipper Andy on Wednesday to confirm it was all looking good.
Friday morning was to be an early one, with a 7am pickup on the beach meaning I was picking up Martin and Ian at 5:30, however, as I was leaving the house at around 5:10, I got a message from Andy saying that the port had locked the gates early, without explanation, and he couldn't get his boat out. This obviously put an end to the trip and gutted isn't the word. The port authorities have a lot to answer for and I do feel for Andy as weather had put an end to his trips in the week building up to this and when it was finally looking good, this happens.
Anyway, I had a sulk in the house for a little while, and following a brief consultation with her indoors, I decided that I wasn't going to let it beat me and quickly planned a trip to Worthington lakes, hoping for some bream action. So I quickly got my gear sorted and off I went to coppull anglers ready for them opening to pick up bait and day ticket. All this went smoothly and it was about 8:30ish as I started making my way to the lakes from the car park. I opted to fish Arley reservoir and on arrival I could see the water was well down from my last visit
As I went down to the peg, I initially planned on fishing on the right of the fallen tree and once I got down there I went about mixing my groundbait for the day however, my desire to get wet surfaced again and as I went down to the waters edge I slipped on my arse and started sliding into the water, and the more I struggled to get up, the faster I slid in. As my foot went in the water up to my calf, I manage to get some purchase and dragged myself out. Not too wet but fully caked in mud.
I quickly composed myself and realised no one had seen me. A quick assessment saw me change to the left hand side of the tree where the bank wasn't as steep. I was wearing my trainers when I slipped in so I ended up in my wellies for the rest of the day with no socks on as I used the local foliage to dry out my socks and shoes
Finally set up I went about putting about 10 feeder fulls of groundbait in on the tip line before spending half an hour or so on the waggler while it settled. Unlike my last visit here, the waggler failed to produce anything at all which was a bit of a surprise but as my main aim was to fish the feeder, I wasn't too bothered and soon was making my first cast on it. Second cast and the tip went and a rather weak scrap saw me soon landing a hybrid, probably around the 6oz mark. Good signs on just my second cast and I quickly got back out but had to wait a good while before anything else happened. In fact, I was actually beginning to fear the worse when on a later cast, the tip wrapped round on the drop and a roach was the reward for my perseverance. However, it was certainly not my day and the only thing that had kept me from packing up much earlier was the fact that my socks and trainers were still wet. I had been feeding the waggler line all day and kept checking it for signs but it was totally dead today and I soon made a decision to pack it away and concentrate on the feeder for the final hour or so. Out of the blue a positive bite saw me playing the best fish of the day and just to prove that it wasn't a total blank, here is the biggest fish of the day, all 8oz or so of it
Here's hoping for an improvement in fortune on my next trip.
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