An ill wind

On arrival at the lake this morning one thing was noticeable, anglers were littered in little green tents all along the east side chasing the carp that inhabit the 9 acre pit. It was from this side of the lake that the wind was pushing so as it turned out, myself and my son Jason headed down the west side to a swim named "killer cat"!! We were armed with the usual feeder rods and an array of bait. Maggot, hemp and worms were the order of the day.

Once settled in it was soon noticeable that someone was cooking bacon on the far bank, all we had was a flask of tea, some chocolate biscuits, 2 bags of beef monster munch and a pepperami each!!

This was the busiest I'd seen the lake for a good couple of months and even the birds couldn't work out what the hell was going on!!

Back to our day and as expected the usual pattern followed with a quiet first hour followed by regular bites occurring. Many a small roach was hooked on the maggot feeder rig and as Jason was just chilling back and trying to keep his hands warm by resting them in his pockets, his 10ft rod arched round and a slightly bigger roach of about 12oz was slid into the waiting landing net. From this point onwards this said fish turned out to be his vocal abuse for the rest of the day... "It's not as big as mine Dad" as every time I swung one in he'd remind me that it was smaller than his!

Still, it was a joy to see his face and brings back distant memories from my boyhood days when I too can remember the feeling and the buzz they'd given me, each and everyone of them.

We were catching steadily and i even managed a little jack pike that took a liking for a double red maggot feast! Both of us missed a few chances with the hookbaits coming in looking like a sucked sock!! Roach were the main build up of our catch but we also managed a handful of immaculate rudd.

As I was just pouring us a tea to share from the flask, from the corner of my eye I saw a 10ft length of carbon whip upwards and to the right, "Blimey Dad, this feels better", "Take your time mate and play him in gently, if he wants some line let him have it" I replied. All went to plan and soon we had a stripy perch lying in the net of about 14oz that was fin perfect.

Well that was it now... Iwas getting all manner of remarks thrown at me, but at the very least it had taken our minds away from the the easterly wind as we sent abuse backwards and forwards to each other.

For the last hour i decided to bin the maggot attack and go all out for the big one just to shut him up!

I was just gathering some tackle together and having a bit of a tidy up when my whole lobworm offering was hit by something that had decided to keep going until it had pulled the rod from the rest! A short battle followed and on Jason's first sight of the trailing pike as it hit the back of the net all I heard from his lips was "Pike don't count dad". I chuckled to myself as I thought...... God he takes after me!!

With that capture we decided to call it a day and nipped round to the sunny side of the lake that was two overcoats warmer and scrounged a fresh brew from a carp angler that could've been sitting there in shorts and flip flops it was that hot, while we were wrapped up like kippers thanks to the "ILL" wind that blew from the east.