Merry Christmas

To one and all, may all your hopes and dreams be fullfilled and if not just get pissed and eat too much

It's not impossible

Now it's not that often that a programme comes on the tele that blows me away, but it did last week when I watched my first episode of Martin Bowlers Catching the Impossible. What an absolute credit to himself and the world of angling this is, no swearing, no blatent plugging of DVD's, brilliant narration from Bernard Cribbins and photography to make the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end. I can't wait to see the remainder of the series if its half a good as what I have watched already.

Come on England

With the 2nd Test due to start in Adelaide tomorrow night our time, it is refreshing that we go into it neither 1 nil down nor as the underdogs. For me the aussies are mediocre at best, their attack bowlers are lacking in the threat department and were it not for a bad umpiring decision in their first innings, they would have been lucky to reach 250. Gone are the days where Ponting could throw the ball to Warne, McGrath or Lee and say ' win me the match' and invariably they did.......oh no not now and we are maybe starting to see Ponting in a different light and under pressure. Botham was enjoying every minute of the 5th day in Brisbane, constantly commenting on the lack of support from the aussie fans and when he was joined in the box by Shane Warne came up with line which went something like ''I have seen people come to matches in fancy dress, but never dressed as plastic chairs''...........priceless. Get stuck in England, there's nowt better than seeing the aussies close to tears.

Fore

The weather today was lovely, after a frosty start the sun came out...............time for a game of golf I thought. Nipped down to the local club and after a practice on the range I went out for 18 holes, unwisely I played off the back markers which, due to the wet conditions was a real test of my long game but was thoroughly enjoyable if a tad tiring. I was round in 3 hours and back home by 4.15pm.........time for tea.

Final Fling

Decided to have a last bash on Sunday evening, prospects didn't look good to be fair as the air temp was deteriorating day by day but, as they say, you never know. Anyway I got to the dam at around 3pm, Peter a local carper was there and had caught 2 fish during the day. I fished from 4pm till 8.30pm and had 1 run which resulted in a carp of 19.3/4lbs, the air temp at packing up time was 3.8 degrees, I must admit that I felt a slight amount of satisfaction in that I had caught in difficult conditions.

A lesson from the master

Fished last evening from 4.30 to 8.30 with Jeff who owns the Canadian Carp Club in Long Sault, me, well I had the first run but lost the fish to a broken hook length (first time ever) after that it was the Jeff show as he banked three fish of 12, 28 and very plump 33.5, an excellent performance in such a short session. The temperatures are set to drop from now on so the rods may get put away till next season but we'll see.

What a strange session

click on photos to enlarge

Tuesday afternoon saw me heading down to the Power Dam, the weather forecasters had got it spot on, after a cloudy start the sun had started to break through and it was getting much warmer. I arrived at my drop off point as due to the walk being fairly long we drop the gear halfway before parking up the car. The fox sorry walmart barrow comes in useful here. On arrival at the swim I took the water temp 12.4 degrees with the air temp coming in at a sultry 23, not bad for October. I set up the mountains of gear and prepared myself for what I hoped would be a good nights fishing. I didn't expect action straight away, but the occasional carp showing on the surface did get the blood pressure rising, After approx 2hrs I picked up the rod to recast and felt something pulling back, thinking I had foul-hooked a carp I brought the fish to the bank only to find a 8lb musky had attacked the yellow boilie on the retrieve...............well at least a blank had been avoided. The rest of the afternoon was uneventful other than a couple of locals fishing for walleye, then at 5pm I had my first run but lost it to a hook pull (bugger) then lost another one shortly afterwards and a third well into dark went the same way. It was my intention to have a rod out through the night but around midnight the rain started so I made the decision to reel in and fish at first light.

7am and after a night of heavy rain and strong winds, the bivvy had passed with flying colours and there was now a lovely sunrise to behold. Within 15 minutes I had a run, picked the rod up and it was soon evident that this was a good fish, taking line at will and it was a good fifteen minutes before it was ready for the net.............oh yes it was a good fish but unfortunately hooked in the tail, I weighed it at an ounce under 30lbs, took the customary photo and sent her on her way. I fished on until 11am but with no further action decided to pack away and go home as I had been invited for dinner by friends across the street later that evening, on the way back I made a slight detour to see Jeff who runs the Canadian Carp Club, he had just returned from a trip to the Frazier River sturgeon fishing. We made arrangements to meet up Thurs evening for a session on the dam into dark.....here's hoping