Roger Dodger Strikes Again
Posted: 7th Oct 2012
A last minute booking for this week just gone was made up of one of our regular lads Roger, and two other chaps on their first trip to France.
It was a strange week with ups and downs but I do think the weather played its part again over the course of the week. It's very mild at the moment and temperatures has been fluctating each week, with mild lovely warm days of 22oc+, it has also been dropping down to 3oc one night and then up to 15oc the next, this in turn I think unsettles the fish due to the shallow water being affected quite quickly.
The lads this week fished pegs 2+3 with the old boy in 5. Now Roger has been around a bit over the years and these days has no interest of taking pictures anymore, so he lifts the fish straight into the cradle and only takes one of each side of the fish in the cradle for my log, and like he says " I have no one to show them to and the wife is not interested" Quality!!!
I'm sure Mike & John will agree that they are still quite inexperienced, so it was a learning curve for these guys but Pb's were smashed for both the guys and with a 42lb mirror gracing Mike's net in peg 2 the guys did very well. The fish did seem to prefer the warm sunshine at the begining of the week, then mid week it went cold and cloudy and the fishing did switch off for 24hrs apart from Roger in 5 sneaking them out consistently over the course of the week.
Just like most of the year the fish scrapped like tigers again, and 20-30 minute battles with plenty of the fish were common place, with Dodger in his thick cockney accent saying " Cooor they're pulling my arm off these fish, what you been feeding em on".
The week ended on 22 fish with the best going 42lb 8oz followed by another brace of 40lb+ fish, 15 fish of 30lb+ (including 6 of 35lb+, 1x 39lb) 2 grassies of 30lb+ and 2x 20lb+. Some of the lovely young scaley fish also saw the bank this week and they are slowly creeping up in weight and looking stunning.
I have now finished the stock ponds, all Zander removed, limed and redug in a few areas to give me around 8 feet deep for the extra water through the warmer months. I had a fantastic encounter while just catching my breath for a split second talking with my mate Steve at the end of the day, we had just harvested the fish and the light was fading when a shorteared Owl came gliding by right past the tip of our noses and gave that piercing glance as we met eye to eye for one hundreth of a second, than as quick as he arrived he floated over the dam wall and away, magic moment. We also had a female Goshawk fly over the lake this week, scanning the hedgerows along the stream edge and giving the local Corvids something to worry about, this bird is such a ferocious predator and is like a Sparrowhawk on steriods. Hopefully another encounter may arise soon if I'm lucky.
We have a new group on this week of experienced anglers so lets hope the fishing hangs out, along with the weather for the next few weeks to round the season off nicely.
We will be back soon with a midweek update and I should able to start posting pictures this week with each blog instead of using Facebook all the time. We now have access to the gallery page which has been updated with new pictures from this season of both fish and the lakes.
Over & Out
Team Sanctuary