25 February 2019 (Monday) - A Day's Fishing


Yesterday evening as we scoffed curry I posted a piccie of us all to Facebook. This morning I saw that an amazing amount of people had clicked the “like” button. They wouldn’t have clicked the “like” button if they had my guts this morning. They had kept me awake for much of the night. In fact the only sleep I did get was somewhat wasted on a rather vivid dream in which I was leading an expedition of several coaches of rather argumentative “Sparks” fans to a Laurel and Hardy convention. Something which (I must admit) I have never before considered doing, and probably never will. (then again…)

I made myself a cuppa, did a little CPD, posted out some birthday wishes, and then got myself ready for the off. I didn’t wrap up anywhere near as much as I did when fishing this time last year, and soon I had collected "My Boy TM". Bearing in mind that we wanted to be waiting when Hartley Lands fishery opened at seven o’clock, McDonalds was the only place open for brekkie at six o’clock. We arrived to find a large fox standing outside. He wasn’t particularly bothered by us; he was waiting for his brekkie too. A nice lady came out and gave him a freshly cooked hash brown. He liked that.
With brekkie scoffed we left McDonalds. As we drove out, the fox was patrolling the car park obviously hoping for scraps.

We got to Hartley Lands fishery at seven o’clock to find it locked. The nice man arrived to open the gate three minutes later.

As we walked into the place we were rather shocked to find several baited hooks just laying around the lakeside. Any animal or bird could have taken the baits and got into all sorts of problems. We tidied it all up as best we could and gave the lot to the bailiff. I told him exactly where we’d found it all (swim 11) and suggested he posted on their Facebook page that some lost property had been found there this morning and see if whoever was fishing there yesterday gets in touch. The bailiff said that he would, and said that anyone who got in touch would get a photo of the mess they’d left and a ban from the place. Harsh? Not really. Is it *really* unreasonable to expect people not to leave baited hooks laying around? I tidy up after myself.
The nice bailiff then sold me an O.A.P. day ticket. I was rather pleased about that. They are cheaper then the usual adult price.

Soon we were fishing. I say “fishing”; we were doing all the things we usually do when at the lakes, but the fish weren’t having it. We tried every way of fishing with every bait we had, and we even moved half way round the lake to try the other end.
In the end I caught twice as many fish as the first fruit of my loin, but that wasn’t saying much. Looking back, the trouble was that although today was like a summer’s day, it is still winter. The water is still cold.
We didn’t catch *that* much today, but it was a good trial run for my new chair, rod and reel. I took a few photos; Hartley Lands fishery is a pretty place to spend the day. And I did catch the sun.

We packed up an hour earlier than planned. Once home I walked the dogs round the block. It was hard work.
"er indoors TM" was off out to her bowling league pub meal this evening. Before she went out she boiled me up a pizza. That was good of her – if she hadn’t, my dinner would have been toast.
As I scoffed pizza I watched the film of “The Young Offenders”. It was rather entertaining…
 

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