Pewsey Lake - The Harvest sun shines on my little Pony.

The Championship chase resumed for a few at Pewsey today and with the weather ahead for the week looking unsettled I too was fidgety partly wanting to practise Barton Farm ahead of next weeks 100 pegger, and also not wanting Simon and Brian to stretch to an unassailable lead in our club Champs.

The August Harvest sun shone on the Pewsey Vale and the musty smell of harvested crops filled the otherwise perfect air of a Wiltshire sky.

The farmers in a rush against the inevitable unstoppable rhythms of nature.  Not quiet making hay as the sun shone but close enough. The juxtaposition of course was the rest of us also willing those same rhythms of nature to slow whilst we completed an exercise in stillness at the lakeside.

Well not quiet stillness but certainly a gentle less hurried pace, as float would dip and we would pull from the volume of water in front of us a fish to gaze in wonder and awe at what we had caught.

Some of you may have read in these pages before my wonderment at fishing.  Still after all this time my joy and expectation at what would be witnessed waterside.  As said before the weightless buoyancy of water can produce extraordinarily large specimens of species.  When the average Roach is 6 to 8 ounces to catch a 4 pound fish is possible.  Equate that to land based animals average elephant 15,000 lb. Same equation imagine an elephant 5 times as big 120,000!!  Just not possible.

Still not a day for wonderment, or maybe it is as the only poem from my English O level I can recall comes to mind.

What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep or cows.

No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.
No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night.

No time to turn at Beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.
No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.

A poor life this is if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare. 

William Henry Davies

Enjoying the slower pace of life other road users let the warm gentle breeze of an August morn ruffle their hair as they ignored the rattle and hum of the internal combustion engine.  I love this, and struggle to absorb moments like this more often. In fact the penultimate lines (italics) of the poem above gave me a longing for my wife as the words of that verse always remind me of her, and I almost turned around and went home to spend the day with her.  

But that would be soft, wouldn't it?

Seeing the Pony, brought me back to life with a bump from poetry romance as I couldn't help but think of our very own "my little pony" Chris Rushton  - oh god take the bad mans image away.   

But sure enough Chris and all the others were there to greet me as I rolled in on time but later than normal. Music drifted from the speakers.  Ram Jam and Black Betty was giving way to Peter Green and Black Magic woman; and it would have been nice to kick back and let the vibes wash over me.

Right , concentrate.  Get your best drawing hand on and see if you can draw a peg at the Carp end of the lake. Hand in , prayer to gods and.................... Peg 4!!! Really, just about as far away as possible from the fish as possible. The Pony , well as normal end peg 3!! 

The handsome and talented Mark Russ on the other side of me drilled home there are no easy draws, so suck it up princess.  The club champ points looked good for Championship leader Simon Burden, flying Peg 12 and the man of the moment Brian Shutler on 11.  Oh dear god I have upset you haven't I.

Mark hiding amongst the purple loosetrife and nettles.

Still give members their due, they recognised a long time ago the unfair nature of the lake in its delivery of fish and dwindling attendance resulted in changing the points system from 15 points for a win to 8 points for a section win.  Something I found hard to come to terms with but as I haven't drawn that end of the lake in 15 months I am glad of it now.

In essence it breaks it down to two matches those after the money and those after a few  champ points in each section.  So lets get to it. First mistake no worm. Second mistake left stots and stot clamp in the rig room at home.  Never mind get to it.

The whistle goes and before I can finish baiting up Mark is in on my right and Chris is being towed around the lake by a large Carp.  Yes Carp. After 10 minutes his rig parted company and I tried to show empathy saying "oh what a shame mate" but to be honest it didn't come out sincerely as I couldn't contain my joy.

Despite the obvious horse jokes like "why the long face" He got the bit between his teeth (another horse gag)  and give the Pony his due though, head down and straight back into Skimmer, Perch and sure enough on a day without worm. Worm was doing the business for him at least.

Funny girly yelp from Mark on my right as the top 4 sections of his pole parted company as he drew his fish in.  Jammy git got his kit and the fish back though. Me I would have said goodbye to my kit and the fish.  

After watching Chris hang a waggler or feeder or two in the bushes and get them back I couldn't help but pile on the abuse.  It did me no good though as I too eventually lost 2 floats chasing those tight to the bank Chubb and Carp.  Mark too, hung up his feeder trying to do the same.  As did Jimmy,Gary and several others in the first section lower pegs.  We were of course chasing those in Carp heaven at the other end who were no bagging regularly.

Chris now also lost his top kit trying to pull in a fish, but my laughter at these Key Stone Cop antics was short lived as he too got it back and he too also got his fish.  These guys must have done a deal with the Devil.

Mark and I went through a very dry period of 1.5 hours as Chris kept them coming. Jimmy, Steve, and Roly were netting small skimmers but at least catching. I scaled down to a 24 and chased squat fish three to an ounce just to keep something going in the net and by the time of the all out I was worried that I had been pummeled and had lost ground in the points war.

My nets looked scant.

Would my little Crucian and little stockies make a difference we will see.

 Packed away and went to witness the heavy weights of the far end.  Neil Pegrum was not weighing in having been battered but Nic Worters was the man to beat for the second Lake match in a row drawing well and weighing in 18 lb +. 

Will Tapper had his inevitable meat fed Carp, and then it was Championship leader Simon on the flying Pipe peg 12. Two of his fish below from several weighs that gave him 54 lb +

Next Brian Shutler and he to hauled out 22 lb + of Carp and some silvers to go with it for second place so far.  

Into our section and Martin starting it off, he had at least hooked and lost 3 Carp and weighed a bag of tiddlers for 14 ounces.

Then Gary P and Jim and the weights creeping up a bit to 1 lb +, and on to Steve Hiscock bucking the trend with 2 lb and 1 and half ounce., Roly also weighed in 1 lb 14.5 oz.  Now Mark and he had a little less than Roly and now me I was a little worried nothing less than 7 points for second would make me happy.

Phew my nets crept up to 2 lb 10.5 ounces. Just leaving Chris.  He weighed in 4 lb +.  He could have doubled that on the whip he had so many in front of him and he admitted to me he had fished it wrong as he took a quid of me.  Its 6 months since he took a quid from me so fair play enjoy your moment and keep it warm I will take it back.

Its a bitter sweet feeling at these matches. Simon, maintains his lead with 8 points for a section win and Brian 7 points second in section.  Chris picks up a point on me with 8 and I match Brian being second in my section with 7.  If you can get over having an ice cubes chance in hell of getting money if you draw in section one, then the points can soften the blow.

As you have probably gathered I have a new camera as the last one went to the bottom of the canal; and on that subject you will imagine I don't think anyone will ever let me forget it.  Even the picture above shows a life bouy on the right.  Chris said it was no good though as I was too fat to fit in it; but as I said his mouth is so big at least he could swallow it!

New Camera but same faces Nic left, Brian middle and Simon right.

As I type Ella Fitzgerald is lulling me into a happy mood with Sam Cookes Summertime . " 

" It's summertime and the living is easy

Fish are jumping and the cotton is high

Your daddy's rich and your mama's good looking....................."

The Sun is setting like molasses in the sky, as it fights the incoming cloud that heralds the changeable weather of tomorrow and Monday morning blues.

See you next week at Barton Farm.................... and Airsprung Angling.