My next venture

Three years ago I added my name to the waiting list for an allotment in Royston, close to where I live and closer to my eldest sons house, in November last year I got word through that there was a plot with my name on it waiting for me, great I thought something to keep me occupied.....oh yes, it certainly will do that.  The following pictures are a record of my work from November 2016 until now March 2017. I hope you like what I have done.

This is what I have taken over, 4 years of neglect.....where to start

First job was to start and remove the long cane like extensions of the weeds, I found a bathtub and a load of pallets, nice start

Once all the rubbish was cleared, at least I could see the floor, still loads to move but hey ho we are getting there.

 
First start on the digging, fist with the spade and then with the fork taking out the weeds as we go. Fortunately most of the weeds have a very shallow root growth and are therefore easy to remove. The dock leaves are a different story

Tried a touch of weed suppression but it didn't seem to work

                                                                                                
             

Took some time off from the digging to put up a fence and gate. must admit that it exceeded all expectations.

Shed down and top end cleared away

Raspberries Canes and Blueberry Bushes

Where we are now, half the plot has been double dug and weeded, the rotovator will be on next week so we will have an area reading for planting, left hand side needs weeding and digging over but  pretty pleased really in the space of 4 months, hope you like it.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

The next step

So having sold the house in May, we decided to look at Spain with the idea of buying a villa, short and cheaper flights would mean that we could visit more often, we had an idea of what we wanted and unbelievably on our first visit managed to get our new home. It ticked all the boxes and was near to 3 golf courses and a pub just down the road.....heaven.

Don't get me wrong, we had to do some work to bring it to our liking, but we are nearly there now and many happy times hopefully lye ahead

Wrap up and go

So the Canada experience has come to an abrupt end, whilst out for my last and final visit in 2014, we decided that the travelling was too much and that we would put the house on the market. Well whilst out for my months' vacation in May 2014, I managed to sell the house, sell the car, sell the boat and arrange for all the house items we wanted to keep to be sent home. I can tell you that by the time I boarded the plane for the final time in Montreal, I was absolutely knackered.
It was indeed a very sad time, we made many friends where we lived, the fishing was fantastic but as said earlier 19 hours door to door was just too much and we did make the right decision of that I am sure.

So as they say, one door closes and another opens. I have decided to re-start the blog and bring it up to date, I hope you will find it interesting.

Thursday 22nd June

Back up at the island view swim (why would I want to go anywhere else), water temperature was up in the low 60s, not much surface activity and no big fish showing. I finished the day at 2.30pm as I had business to take care of (more of that later) 11 fish graced the net, again mainly mid doubles with four fish of 16lbs and one of 17-4. Can't help thinking it can only be a matter of time before the big girls move in. interestingly the two lads who were on the first bridge had gone as had the anglers on the pines, so obviously those swims had not been producing. Next session will be Saturday or Sunday I think. 

Monday 19th June

An early start saw me leaving the marina at around 6am, by the time I had reached the swim and set up it was around 7.15am, conditions were very good with a west wind blowing straight into me and no rain forecast, the only concern was that the water temp was only 52 so that needed to improve. It wasn't long before the first fish came over the net and at 23-6 was the first 20 of the trip. Strangely that was the only fish until lunchtime but as the water warmed up so did the fishing. By the end of the session with the thermometer reading 60 degrees, I had caught 16 fish including another at 22-2 but as is the norm in mid may, most of the fish were mid to upper doubles, I packed up at 4.30 and the fish were still feeding but hey there's always another day.

Friday 16th May

Took the boat out as planned and pre-baited, the forecast for the next couple of days is not great fhough regarding the wind so we will have to see

Wednesday 14th May

Arrived at the swim at around 8pm  and had my first fish within 30 seconds of casting in, conditions were good  with a Sw breeze but as is the norm early in the season, the fish were slow to respond and by the end of the session I had caught  eight fish with the best going 16-2, fed the remaining bait as I left, next session will be Saturday with a pre-bait Friday.

Tuesday 13th May

Took the boat down to the marina and set off for the first prebaiting trip, 20 mins later I arrived at the swim, there were a few fish showing so things look promising. The water levels are very low at the moment which according to the locals is due to the east winds,  hopefully they will rise over the coming week.
Anyway I was able to wade out  to the baiting  area and after positioning the marker I put in a large bucket of cracked corn. First session is tomorrow, we'll see how it goes

2014 Carp quest starts here

Ok then, arrived at the house after a long day of travelling via Toronto, first job was to move the van out of the garage......well that wasn't going to happen as the battery was flat as a fart and seeing as it was booked in for an emissions test the following morning, it was to say the least, a bit of a bummer. Anyway since Friday the van has sat on the driveway fully charged but un-licenced, on the up side I have done the front garden and this morning at 8.30 we go for the test. Fingers crossed we should be up and running.

Here you go matey

picture of Joes' p.b. 8lbs - 4ozs as requested Steve, keep in touch mate,
Holds a fish better than me that's for sure

And it came to pass......a damp squib

Well it started raining Tuesday evening and Joe said that if it was raining hard on Wednesday morning he wasn't bothered about getting up. As it turned out that was a good call as wednesday morning came and it rained and rained and rained all day and into the evening. Unfortunately this put a damper on proceedings and with it an end to Joes' holiday. Although the weather had been poor for the majority of his trip and we didn't catch as many fish as the week before, I do think that we did ok for quality with two 30s and 2 new pbs. Final totals for the week were as follows:

32 carp caught in 5 sessions

14 x 20lb +    7 for Dave and 7 for Joe

2 x 30's         pb's of 35-4 for Dave and 32-6 for Joe


Bait tubs emptied and washed, corn in the freezer and another season passes by.

ROLL ON NEXT YEAR

Dam................................yes that could work

Today (Monday) we decided to fish down at the power dam and what a good idea that turned out to be with seven fish  over 20lbs and a new personal best for me of 35 lbs 4 oz. Joe had a back-up fish of 28.0 and we finished the day with 15 fish.

Hopefully we will be back here for Joes final session of the holiday tomorrow

Sunday 9th June

Fishing was a bit better today although not by much and by the end of the session we had five fish, three for Joe and two for me. Two fish were 20 plus the best being 23 lbs 4oz to Joe.

Saturday 8th June

Today we went to the island view swim again, the weather was cold, wet and windy and the fish just didn't want to know. I had the only run of the day which accounted for a fish of 25 lbs 12 oz. We fished until early afternoon and then called it a day and made our way home.

Just gets better for Joe Thursday 6th June

We arrived at the swim at around 7pm and started fishing at 7:30 conditions were not favourable as there was a cold east wind blowing, the water level was slightly up but dropping, however  between 7.30 and 11:30 am we managed to catch 8 fish. Top prize once again went to for Joe who caught another new pb this time 32 lbs 6 oz, I had a backup fish of 28 lbs 2 oz, at 11:30 the swim died and it turned very cold, it was raining so we decided to make the trip home. We won't be fishing on Friday I don't think, so the next session will be Saturday

It was during this session that we encountered an Health and Safety issue with the weigh scales in that yours truly nearly knocked himself out, however after a meeting the necessary alterations were made

Before

After

Ding ding....round 2 Wednesday 5th June

Due to the fact that Joe didn't arrive until midnight yesterday, we decided to make an afternoon start on his first day and arrived at the island view swim at around 1 pm. The water level had dropped considerably,  however by the end of the

session we had caught three fish and lost three, joes first fish of the holiday was a new PB of 29-2 and I had one of 22-4 . Tomorrow we will be making an early start for a full days fishing and the carp are now starting to spawn in some of

the bays

Monday 3rd June

Monday


Today was the day that Dave returned home so we decided to go to the Power Dam for a few hours before he had to go to the airport.

Water levels were lower than I have ever seen them but it did nothing to deter the fish, or the quality. Usually the water is up to the top of the concrete

Dave managed 8 fish to my 2, 5 were over 20lbs with the biggest weighing in at 24lbs - 8 ozs, a great days fishing by any standards I'm sure you will agree.

We finished at 3.30pm and by 6 we were heading for Montreal airport.

Final totals for Daves holiday were:-

117 carp caught in 6 sessions

19 carp over 20lbs (12 to Dave)

1 x 30lb carp to Dave

Sunday 2nd June

Guess where we are heading this morning, well catching carp is why Mr Wass is over here so question was would the swim produce again??

Well conditions were right and we did catch a total of 23 fish but only one fish went over the 20lb mark, not that we were complaining though, at the end of the day we retired, totally knackered, back to base camp. Ordering in tonight, no cooking required

Saturday 1st June

Saturday

Up bright and early, we were down at the marina by 6am and in the Island View swim by 7am. Water levels were very high so it was chest waders on and most of the gear left in the boat, although we were able to use our chairs which was the main thing. I really wanted the swim to show what it was capable of as I had been continually ''bigging it up'' to Dave prior to his visit. The swim is only 4ft deep at around 20 yds with a sand and rock bottom, so it was the polaris float which we decided to go with. Action started quickly and the fish fed intermittently throughout the day, final totals were:-

48 fish caught

9 over 20lbs

Biggest fish 29lb - 12ozs to Dave

Highlight of the day had to be when Dave landed a 29lbs-8ozs fish and the very next cast landed the 29-12, not bad eh.

Friday 31st May

Today Friday we went down to the first bridge basically it was very very slow until around 6 pm when I started to get a few fish however the highlights of the day was a 30lbs carp caught by dave and I had one that weighed in at 22 lbs 12 oz, the weather was very very hot as the temperature soared to 34 degrees,

by the end of the session we had caught 11 fish