This weekend was the Barclays Bank National on Bewl Bridge and won by Steve Longhurst from Thames Valley who pipped my boat partner Phil Cross by 2 ozs. I am sure this was Phils first blue trout.
The team prize went to Barclaycard who had 24 fish, my contribution to this was only 2 but a well earned 2.
The practice day was hard work with intermittent hail storms. Matt irons came and joined Mike and I and as we worked our way around the water it was great to see places i hadn't been too before and Rosemary lane looked great, even a few fish rising. We didn't end up with many fish but had a plan for the next day.
We headed straight for Canoe Bay in the corner of the Dam and too our surprise no one followed. As we settled in we were all in, except me! I was going to have to get used it. House Martins, Swifts and Swallows were skimming the lake taking the hatch of green buzzers as quick as they could. As they wizzed around it was quite remarkable how close they came and inevitable i suppose that we hooked one although that was me just the once. The hook had caught in it's wind but it didn't affect it as it kept flying. Phil did the un-hooking honours and it was amazing to see it sitting on Phil's finger before flying off.
At half time we had a great BBQ and the AGM and a good time to warm up. By now it was chucking it down with rain and it never let off all afternoon. By 5pm we had enough and came in an hour early to get changed and dry off before driving home.
An enjoyable couple of days with some good guys but it didn't fill me with enthusiasm to do more fishing.
The team prize went to Barclaycard who had 24 fish, my contribution to this was only 2 but a well earned 2.
The practice day was hard work with intermittent hail storms. Matt irons came and joined Mike and I and as we worked our way around the water it was great to see places i hadn't been too before and Rosemary lane looked great, even a few fish rising. We didn't end up with many fish but had a plan for the next day.
We headed straight for Canoe Bay in the corner of the Dam and too our surprise no one followed. As we settled in we were all in, except me! I was going to have to get used it. House Martins, Swifts and Swallows were skimming the lake taking the hatch of green buzzers as quick as they could. As they wizzed around it was quite remarkable how close they came and inevitable i suppose that we hooked one although that was me just the once. The hook had caught in it's wind but it didn't affect it as it kept flying. Phil did the un-hooking honours and it was amazing to see it sitting on Phil's finger before flying off.
At half time we had a great BBQ and the AGM and a good time to warm up. By now it was chucking it down with rain and it never let off all afternoon. By 5pm we had enough and came in an hour early to get changed and dry off before driving home.
An enjoyable couple of days with some good guys but it didn't fill me with enthusiasm to do more fishing.
