Two lines 1 short at 40 mtr for the wag and one at 65 mtr for the 40 gram cage feeder. All in was shouted and I wasn't ready , indeed Brian had two fish before I had started and spanners was also unhooking his first.
I was quickly in and like Spanners catching steadily lovely fish all of them . Over a pound was no problem at all indeed the average was closer to 3 pound a fish. I was catching well but my bites were not all Bream it was well interspersed with Roach. Not the scabby snotty canal Roach but proper 10 oz to 15 oz beauties all like peas in a pod.
The first of the Bream were lovely but then I caught a Silver Bream, it took me by surprise really as I knew they were there but had only ever caught Bronze Bream. The banter was high , especially from me. I was ribbing Leo (Capt Slow as he was having a slow biteless start). Chris (my little pony) not in attendance today was the fella who had first called Leo Capt Slow, due to his steady driving and mature outlook. Its sort of stuck with me. Who by the way was receiving an inordinate amount of abuse for fishing for Browning. Shutler in particular was very concerned how the Argos boy was doing...... It was explained to me later about the connection in the past between Argos and Browning.
Nevertheless two grumpy blokes on the end pegs where whingeing at Spanners and myself who were catching steadily.
Spanners was annoyingly staying one ahead of me and the steady supply of Roach was nice but not helpful. Brian was getting a couple interrupted by long spells of nothing. Colin Weston was enjoying a few but had just had a really bad snarl up after playing clearly a large fish.
The average stamp of fish were beginning to exceed the 3 lb mark now for Spanners and myself . Spanners catching some big old Bream. Me well I had two in a row that were in excess of 6 lb and a third that was well over 7 lb.
One thing I had noted was you needed to ball in ( 3 balls) as well every 45 minutes or so or the grazing sheep/Bream would drift away. This was obvious as you could watch up and down the line of anglers. As my bites dried up Colin would be in . Then he would stop and spanners would catch. Then he stopped and Leo would be catching and so on. In fact Capt Slow had become Capt Fantastic as he could not go wrong. For a while there he was put the rod in the rest!!
Brian on the other hand was still 2 fish then nothing, an unusually slow day for him.
My ding dong with Spanners was becoming so frustrating I would catch and at the same time s would he keeping one fish in front of me time after time. A swap to the waggler trying to up the rate, just resulted in more perfect Roach. Leo by now had passed us both and gone from grumpy bastard threatening to knock me off my box to giggling wreck as his purple patch went into over drive.
This was great , just a bunch of mates catching fish and taking the piss, what a nice day to spend away from the office and life.
Spanners was still going well.
And me well I too was still catching every fish a lovely fat bellied 3 to 4 lb. Some of the bigger fish showing signs of spawning. The Roach especially the 12 to 14 ounce fish was as rough as sandpaper but still fit enough to fight well.
It was lunch time by the time, I caught and passed Spanners him being on 21 and me now on 22. However the Bream machine Leo was catching us both and up to 19. Colin too was catching as Spanners and I could only watch for a while.
My efforts to increase the rate , only increasing the Roach and then one 14 oz Rudd lovely. I resumed the fish over a pound race with a Tench of 2 and half; coming to treble yellow maggot. It was strange though because whilst the others were all catching on treble red. My fish would only come to worm . Anything else brought a Roach or fish under a pound.
It was with great joy that Leo announced another fish (25) to go ahead of all of us. I congratulated him and toasted him with a drink. Of which a pinkie had crawled in. Chomping in half I spat out part pinkie and swallowed the other half much to the joy of my fellow Jollee boys.
Especially had them wriggling as I tried to hack up the wriggling thing at the back of my throat. Of what joy for my squeamish friends.
As we approached the mid afternoon finish the lake was filling with Carpers and they were queing like vultures for us to depart so they could set up camp. Leo was stretching away and keeping the lead and even the banter was not upsetting his rhythm.
Spanners sneaked past me again with a pound plus Roach,
For those besotted with figures.
Leo (The Bream Machine) 37 fish over a pound. Spanners 35, Me 34 plus 22 Roach and 1 Rudd. Brian Shutler 25 fish and Colin with 10.
All of us if you consider the average 3 pound weight of Bream catching a nice bag. I was certainly happy with 100 lb plus.
Roll on the Summer League on Sunday. A big thanks to my mates from Pewsey.
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