A disaster but if could have been much worse

4.30 am on Wednesday morning. We were up and ready for the off with plenty of bait ready, this was going to be a serious session. We drove down to the Motel and picked up the boat. The forecast was for the winds to increase during the morning so I decided to launch the boat at Dickinsons as it was sheltered and closer to the area we intended to fish......what a mistake this turned out to be. We left the Motel and turned into the parkway.....as I drove along I kept glancing through the mirror to check all was ok when suddenly to my horror the boat had somehow come off the ball and was rearing up behind the car. Now in hindsight I realise that I should have coasted to a stop but in the heat of the moment rationale doesn't kick in and I braked. Yes I stopped but the boat didn't and smashed into the tailgate of the car, we jumped out to be met by carnage, half the tailgate was pushed in and there was a puncture through the skin of the lid made by the initial impact, unfortunately the connector for the electrics had not come apart and that had helped to keep the boat in tow behind the car. Gutted to say the least, we re coupled to boat and went back home via the Motel. 4hrs later and after a couple of estimates, it was apparent that a new tailgate was required at a cost of $1500......... deep joy.
Hours later when you think about the events that unfolded, it starts to sink in that actually things could have been a lot worse......no-one was hurt but what if the boat had come off and hit an on-coming car or a pedestrian, what if we had been on the main road, the list is endless. What I really wish is that the wind had have been calm and then we would have launched from the marina, but it wasn't and we didn't so I must take the consequences. Lessons have been learned though and measures will be in place to ensure this doesn't happen again.
Anway I'm off to bed now as it's golf tomorrow.............bugger the fishing for tomorrow anyway.

Messing about in the boat

No fishing on Tuesday as we are continuing to bait a swim ready for the weekend, the weather is great to be on the water so we spent the afternoon running around with the fishfinder. Joe took his ring with him with the intention of being pulled behind the boat, didn't work out that way though as he was uncerimoniously dumped in the drink within a matter of minutes.......I promise I did not laugh at all. When we got back to the marina, Jeff was there and asked us if we wanted to go out in his proper boat......how could we refuse and what a trip it was, there are fish everywhere but when will they get their heads down if at all, it is all very frustrating.

Sharing the river with carp killers

Couldn't get on the bridge on Monday afternoon so we went into the parkway, the going was tough but I did manage 1 of about 12lbs. At around 4pm we decided to go back to the bridge to see if the swim was vacant, it wasn't as a family of chinese were still there. We decided to fish across from them and in the next three hours they proceeded to catch 3 carp which, having been landed, were taken under the bridge presumably to be despatched for the journey home....now bearing in mind that they had been there all day I dread to think how many they actually killed. It is unfortunate that at he present time they are doing nothing wrong.....hopefully this will change in time. Oh we had one of 17.1/2 lbs. Not a good day really.

A nice short session

Fished running water at the first bridge on saturday evening 4.45 till 8.30, we managed 7 fish to 17 lbs and lost 3 (Joe had 4) which was a decent session despite the horrendous weed coming down, one reason for this could be that the carp have spawned again and the size of the fish are generally much smller than usual. The big girls must be out there though and we intend to give it another go on Monday evening....fingers crossed.

It started with a.................................blank

Fished this morning 7am to 12 noon, only 1 run to me and lost it (on the right hand rod Dave), the temperature was just hitting 29 degrees when we packed up with the water not much colder. Fish were showing but not feeding and evidently it was the same all over, never mind tomorrow's another day so they say.

We've arrived.....well nearly

As I type we have just left Toronto Railway Station (wonders of wifi) on the last leg of our journey, only the small matter of a 4hr train ride and we will have arrived in Cornwall. Got to the station and called in at the baggage dept to enquire whether I could take my bivvy box on the train due to its size and there being no baggage car, no problem, a porter was called and not only did he take both bags on board early for us but reserved our seats as well......$10 tip well earned i'd say.

Counting down

Next Tuesday 20th sees me and Joe back over the pond for 5 weeks, can't wait to get back into the carp fishing and pottering about in the boat. Temps are going to be high but certain swims have the deep water and will produce. We are going to do a couple of overnighters this time which could be fun and it will be interesting to see how the area fishes in the dark....watch this space.