Life Getting In The Way

Horses , dogs , chickens , ducks , kids , mortgage. A recipe for a lack of fishing , all at some point wanting your time , and some your money , and most both . This in many ways dictates the way we fish , and where. The problem of short overnighters was solved by the hotel vectra . Sue was the brains behind this , and we have spent many nights in it, saving time , and money . Feet up on the back of the car in the evenings , watching the stars eating out of a takeaway carton , although we did not have much of a summer , I will remember that.

We had quite a few fish up until our holiday at the end of September. Some good fish as well . We were lucky size wise , as often we fished with the sectary of the club water who would catch the average stamp of fish , and a few times he watched as we had 8 , 9 , and 10lb fish , just shaking his head!. Both Sue , and I had fish just over 10lb , with mine a jammy capture with it being the first cast into a swim we had not fished before . I was also lucky enough to catch the same 9lb + fish twice in a week, about a quarter of a mile apart . We did our usual way of fishing two stretches in the same day on many occasion's , catching a fair amount of fish .But the day we had of fishing the kennet with our mate Coilin , then driving across the country to the Teme was the best, with 10 fish for our efforts . We also did a wedding in Barnsley, out of the reception at 11pm , and a drive down , and across to Worcestershire to sleep in the vectra, fish till the afternoon , then home to bucks , knackered.

This led up to September,s holiday , staying in the cottage we use , and love in Severn Stoke .This gave us the opportunity to fish like a local , relaxed starts , home at the end of fishing in no time , oh to do that all the time. We drove through an absolute down pore, to find the river spot on , even managing to get Mr West out of out fav half a dozen swims !!!. Trev West has been guiding on our club stretch , which had mucked us up a couple of times , making our way to the top of the stretch to find him , and a couple of clients baiting , and fishing swims we were heading for .We got round this by looking for his van , seeing if he was there,then knowing where to head for . But in this instant , with prospects good we went for it , catching in most of the swims we went into , finishing early , then up the takeaway for dinner in the cottage . The teme severn lamprey liquid realy came into its own , with bags dipped / soaked in it producing the most fish . Condition eased off as the week went on , but it would be boring to just fish , and we had a day round the antiques shops , and the last day was spent at Malvern show ground for the autumn show . We also managed to have an evening meal with the club sec , and another barbel angler in the club , and wives .A realy nice night , showing you can make friends on the net , and on the bank. By the end of the week we were sight fishing , watching fish pick up baits was top stuff. New swims were made / fished , and we even put bait to fish to watch them , and it seemed a shame to put the rig in , so we just left them to it .

A nice week , and almost up to date , next , the snag day , and poachers .
Hatterbarbel