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37oc & Climbing?

Posted: 7th Apr 2013

Well the temp in the Title is not a lie but the real Temp was "41oc BELOW"!! It has been bitter all week with such a cold N/E wind hacking down the lakes keeping the weather feeling like mid January more than April. Most nights it has been -4oc and not much better in the day with the sun shining very little. On the Tuesday we had almost a flash freeze in the early hours and it froze Pauls pop-up testing tank solid, which is a 4" deep rectangle, which you would be hard pushed to do in a chest freezer in 6 hours!!

Karl, Paul & Mark in pegs 1,2,3 had brought the biggest Marquee/Bivvy I have ever seen, it was more like the main stage at Glastonbury and you could stand up inside it without your head touching the top and I'm 6 foot 6"!!!! The lads had planned to use it as base camp on the top path for cooking and having a social in the evenings when it was chucking it down, this really kept the guys good spirts up, and it was a fantastic idea. With day after day of cold weather the lads decided "bollocks to this" and cranked both cooking burners up full blast after tea and said "lets see what temp we can get it up to" with the digital thermometer climbing by the minute it peaked out at 37oc with them all sat in their underpants with a Pina Colada in hand!!!! Happy days.

 The bulk of the fish held up in front of peg 3 and a group in peg 2, odd fish were at either end of the lake but with the water gin clear you could see most areas in peg 5, and ony a small group of good fish could be seen under the trees on the far bank.

Despite the conditions the lads picked fish off slowy throughout the week and some good fish where caught with the averages being very good. Karls first fish was the best of the week at 49lb 9oz, but Roger in peg 5 was not far behind with his first fish going 49lb 4oz. Mark in 3 had a pb of 47lb and Paul managed fish to 44lb 10oz so they all had cracking fish. Week total was 25 fish and 7 over 40lb-49lb 9oz. The bulk being 13 fish of 30lb+ with half over 35lb+ and two fish of 39lb+ finished off with 5 20lb+ and a couple being 28lb+. All fish were in stunning condition and still holding winter colours and fighting like animals, The Legend that is "Cockney Roger" had a couple of fish battle for 20 minute plus and for him to say they were the fight of his life says it all!!

The first Cuckoo arrived at the beginning of the week which is only 2 days behind last year, the Hoopoe can be heard calling and the Nightingale will be here in the next month, so despite the weather the animal world is getting ready for Spring, great stuff.

It's forcast to be a little warmer this week but wet so we shall see what's in store for another regular group of ours. This morning while dropping breakfast off Graham in peg 5 had a 39lb 11oz on the mat in stunning chesnut colours so it's the first in the bag for this group.

I have attached the only picture I took last week of Paul in peg 2, other pictures to follow when Karl pulls his thumb out!!!

Over & Out

Team Sanctuary