...And the wind cries.....

well, it sure as hell wasn't Mary!

I like weather, all sorts of weather. I like snow...I like cold bright frosty days, I like soft gentle rain, I love a good thunderstorm when the rain is battering down, I like foggy days when it's like you're wrapped in a soggy blanket, I love the Sun and heat, I loved the minus 30 temperatures in Siberia, I even like hailstones.....but I bloody hate the effing wind!
Today we drove 40+ miles (plus 40+ to get back home) to fish a highly recommended commercial fishery with promised weights of between 40lb and 100lb, we paid £7.00 to do so, plus £5.00 stake money. We bought lots of baits to attract the big fish, special pellets, sweet corn, maggots, luncheon meat....hell's teeth, Shaun even cut a tin of luncheon meat into 1/2 cm cubes, gave them to me, I mixed them up with All Spice and Garlic, bagged them, put them in the freezer and took them out at midnight so they would thaw out to be used today. We even got up at 5.30 this morning.!!!!

And it was bloody windy....not a gentle zephyr....not a light breeze....not even a stiff breeze....no, a full blown 20 miles an hour, gusting to 35 mph, howling chuffing gale!

When we got to the water not only was it blowing up a hoolie, it was blowing straight down the ribbon lake from left to right (you can see the waves in the picture, just in front of the bowed over trees). So, there was no way any one (unless Superman has sudeenly stopped saving the world and taken up fishing) could hold a 14 metre pole across to the far bank where the big fish cruise, not for more than a few seconds at a time anyway, or without causing serious spinal damage!

Ah, but I had a cunning plan (Baldrick),.......don't use the pole....use the tip rod! Now for those of you who don't go fishing, let me explain....a tip rod is a thing of simplicity and elegance...........it has several interchangeable tips of varying weights and stiffness, so you choose your tip and put the rod together.......you thread the line through the rings on the rod, you tie a hook on the line and then...and heres's the clever bit, you clip a weight (a sinker...as hook, line and sinker) onto the line about 9 inches above the hook. Then you cast to where you wish, the weight sinks the bait to the bottom and you turn the reel to tighten the line. This puts a graceful curve in the tip of the rod...which you watch like a hawk. If a fish picks up the bait it will either move away with it, in which case the curve in the tip increases, or it will move towards the weight, in which case the rod tip will straighten. Either way that's the signal to strike...pick up the rod and pull in one smooth movement, then use the reel to bring in your catch.

Except it was blowing a bleeding gusty wind (as I may have already mentioned) ....so the tip bounced around like something in the throes of a terminal event..... I lost count of the number of strikes I made to nothing....I lost count of the number of bites I missed because I couldn't tell if it was a fish or the wind moving the tip.........I know I only caught 7 fish in 5 hours and none of them very big.

So I left at 6.30 this morning, I got home at 5.30 this afternoon and all I have to show for it is a disgruntled feeling...not helped by the fishery owner saying "Ah, I thought it might be a bit hard on that lake today lads".... (I mean, he only had three others he could have let us go on)....and a stiif back and shoulders.

I'm telling you, I've earned tonight's beer with D, so no sarky comments please (esp Lady L).

Das vidanya moy padruga.