(5) Shallows December Stargazer

Once again i got the chance to spend 24 hours at the lake and once again i took it, this time i decided to fish on a lake i had not bothered with at all this winter, i have no idea why i had not fished it till now but something made me want to jump on the shallows, it could have been that i could see the clear spots so didn't relay have to spend time finding them, or it might have been that i was fed up of having to cast 20000 yards to set the traps where thy needed to be who knows what it was but im glade i did.

Me and Micky where planing to get to the lake in the light on the 22nd of December that fell on a Friday so he was hoping to get off work by 1-2pm, well this didn't happen and he couldn't make it to me till about 5pm, by this time dark had all ready fallen so didn't feel the need to rush, matt was all ready on the big lake shacked up in snags and had called me letting me no he had lost one and there was loads of shows thru the day so i was pretty hope fall on hooking a fish of some sort, i say this because there are allot of bream/tench in the shallows as well as some real cracking carp, i do like a tench and you might not beleave this but if you have been following my blog you will understand my next comment, i would have been happy with a bream if i hooked one at this point as at least i would know that my traps where set right and the bait was working.

We turned up to the lake at about 5.15pm and took a walk to the chosen swims to set up, it had been a real calm and mild day that day and by the time i got the roads out i was sweating like a pig, at this point i popped to see how mick was doing and found him trying to fit his bivvy in his swim, it wasn't going to well even tho he only had a one man it was going to be real tight, we got there in the end but it wasn't easy, got back to my swim still sweating buckets, i looked down to the rods then to the sky then to the bed chair and decided that it was warm enough and mild enough to just not bother bivvying up and just do a night under the stars, then realised that it would stay over cast and the clouds would have to do.

An hour or so past and i got a text from patty who wanted to pop down, he arrived and we ended up having a bit of a social in my swim we sat chatting for a couple of hours and just to take the chill off i had the Colemans running with my heater fitted on top, we had already gone thew 3-4 cups of tea with my trusty old winter jacks in it that i got form my little girls for Xmas, and i was half way threw a pot noodle still chatting when my left rod started come to alive, now it didn't scream off and nothing was melting like you would think you would here in a blog post, it was deffo a very nice sound to here after all the blanks and it did also prove that the rigs and end tackle set up was working, i got up and hit in to it, then felt the head shake and bam (nothing), gutting wasn't the word i was pretty pissed that it spat or worked it lose but i had no time to be threating about it, got it in baited back up and got it back out on the spot hoping the fish was still in the area and that he might come back for seconds, this was the last bit of action i would see tonight, pat left and we stayed up drinking tea jacks till about 1.30am before hitting the sack, i say hitting the sack but i was still wide awake and didn't get to sleep till about 3.30am as i was a little to warm with my layers and sleeping bag with peach skin.

So after spending 2 hours trying to get off to sleep i finally cracked that one and didn't get up till about 10am the following morning, 1st thing i do when get up is check my phone to make shore the family is all ok at home so i picked it up and had a msg from matt and me being half asleep only took the last msg he sent in to my brain and that was as follows "you coming over to get some shots?" i had said to him that i would try and pop over to him the night before just to get some shots of his set up and some trick shots of the swim and so forth so i was thinking this is what he wanted me to do, i had just awoke so sent him a text saying i just got up and would be there soon. Micky had made sausage sarnies and i had them and a cup of tea, reset the rods and was just chilling when another text from matt come thru, "packing up now mate", so i got the cam out and headed over hoping to catch him before he finished but was to late he already had his kit on the trolley and was bringing his rods in,

After 10 minits of chatting i was getting rely confused with what he was saying and then i herd him say "its in the retainer", whats in the retainer i asked, he said "the fish i had this morning i did text you saying one in the net" now i didn't remember seeing this text he sent and i was shore he had sent it to some one else so i got the phone out and there it was (Matt: one in the net :) ), i truly didn't see it till that moment, we wasted no time in getting some shots done and getting it back in the water, and here she is,

After this i said my good byes and heading back to the shallows to work out the plan for the rest of the day, when i got back i decided to head over to the other side of the lake and kill a bit of time getting some shots of where i laid my head the night before as i know i would not get the chance to have a night like this again for a very ling time if ever, i mean it was 3 days till Christmas day and i was set up on the bank with no bivvy and was to hot to sleep, i for one didn't think this would ever be the case in Britten, i mean you would think i was somewhere abroad if you didn't no any better and i wanted to make the most of this and if i had not got photographic proof then many wouldn't beleave me, well on my travels threw the jungle i keep'd my eyes on the water in case any monsters want to show there faces, as i was heading back i just happen to see a dark shape in the water followed by 2 others, i followed there route till thy past the other side of a little inland, i rushed back around to see if thy might have stopped for munches and as i hit the other side thy where gone only to be replaced by 2 sightly smaller carp in the reeds, i wasted no time getting back to my swim and informing Micky of what i had just seen, we then proceeded to pack up and go back for a little stalk, both armed with some bait and a single road each we headed back to the spot thy where seen, we got there only to see 1 fish with the shoulders of a rugby player slowly disappearing between the islands, this was still enough to think this was a place that thy would petrol we got the rods out and sat for the next hour and a half watching the water and waiting for them to come back,

The time we had just was not enough get another glimpse of the monster we had seen but there will be other days and other monsters im shore so an till then we would have to wait as we had family's waiting for us to get back home and still had the rushing about of Christmas to deal with.