Esox and Avocets

Oh yes, last day of January, onwards and upwards dear friends. Nice quick session yesterday when I took The Turdster for a bit of river piking.

Beautiful frosty morning, freezing cold until the sun rose and then we basked in glorious sunshine.

Didn't have to wait long for a bit of action. The float gave a slight bob on the flat calm water, the rings betraying the unseen toothy villain ( bit of Crabtree for you ).

Turdster was on it in a flash and a spirited pike gave a good account of itself before hitting the net. Cracking looking fish in immaculate condition. Great start.

I recast and much fat was chewed. Death was one of the topics discussed, not in an entirely morbid way. Hard to get your head round isn't it. You know it, but it's incomprehensible. Turdy promised when I croak it my headstone would have " He won't be happy about this " emblazoned on it. 

Billions of planets without intelligent life and we exist. Now. For a blip in time. Get your head around that. Or don't and just try to catch a few fish.

Twenty minutes later the float was away again, quicker this time, sliding under with speed. A short fight with the fish zipping about and a slightly smaller, but equally lovely looking pike posed for a photo with The Mighty Turdster.

We tried another swim without success, but my stomach was agitating for a proper breakfast and by eleven o clock I was back home tucking in to egg, bacon and coffee. With cram, not milk of course.

In the afternoon I grabbed the bins and had a walk along the estuary and watched a huge group of avocets grazing in shallow water, a lovely sight.

Birds are a bit like fish, they have favoured places where you can be ( almost ) sure they'll be at certain times. Watercraft my dear boy.

All in all, a damn fine day.

We're Off !

The darkest day hath passed, 2021 is no more and Christmas is just a memory. Let's crack on then.

Got a smegging leak in the camper, appears to be in the seal from windscreen. Hopefully anyway. Need it fixed because there's plans afoot for the spring.

After plenty of rain the river has been in flood for several days. I've been watching it and each day it gets a bit better, slowing and clearing, slowly but surely.

A few days ago with the river still in flood, me and Cocksy fished the dyke, an offshoot of the main river where the fish pack in during high water conditions. As expected it was a bite a chuck. Three otters went through my swim and the fish continued feeding a minute or two after they passed.

Today I fished the main river, the flow having eased and the colour absolutely perfect. I set up a wire stemmed Avon float and first trot down the float buried and a chunky roach hit the net

I had hardly any maggots so couldn't really feed properly but it didn't matter, almost every trot resulted in a bite. Mostly good sized dace and roach, with the occasional perch. I only fished for an hour or so but had a cracking session. It really is hard to beat a nice bit of trotting in perfect conditions.

I think I might try for a chub or two on a different stretch tomorrow. Boootiful.

Needs Must

On 58 species for the year and I needed a dab and a rockling to make it 60, so off me and Cocksy went to Harwich. We had some revolting bait, frozen lug, half dead ragworm, very dead ragworm and salted ragworm.

First drop down amongst the jetty supports and the rod tip started bouncing. Double shot, a flounder and a dab. That's target number one sorted. Whether the bait was dead, alive or salted seemed to make no difference. Handy if salted baits work though, no need to take up freezer space.

Next hour resulted in loads of dabs, whiting and flounders for us both, but no rockling. I'd not normally target these hideous slimy turds, but I've sold out to the species hunt and needed one quickly.

A change of venue five minutes down the road, with Cocksy putting me in "the swim" and second cast  very welcome slug hit the shore. Wunderbar, job done.

One was quite enough and we bogged off home as the light started to fade, the lights at the port of Felixstowe twinkling in the distance across the flat calm water.

A nice afternoon chewing the fat and tiddler bashing.