After working hard for several months, with hardly any chance offishing, the wife and I decided to give Waveney Valley Lakes a call.They had vacancies for the lodge, so I sent them the money. The timeto go came round very slowly, but at last it arrived and I saidgoodbyes to mum and dad, said see you next week, and off we went.
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On arriving at the lakes we unpacked and settled in. I then fishedto 11 pm with no luck, but I was too knackered to do the night so Iwatched some TV and went to bed.
At 3.30 am there was a big ‘knock, knock’ at the door. When Iopened the door two big policemen stood there asking if I was DavidWhite.
I said I was, and with a million different things going though myhead, they said that my sister had been trying to get in touch as mydad had been rushed into hospital.
On checking my mobile I found I had no signal. Nor had my wife’smobile, so the police let me use theirs.
My sister told me dad was not too good, but was waiting for a callfrom the hospital from my mum.
We decided that I should wait until morning and phone at 8am. ThisI did and my mum answered and said he was a lot better and not tocome home but try to enjoy the rest of the holiday .
We decided to do some shopping and have a look around the localarea.
We got back that evening (I had made several calls home throughthe day and news was getting better). I thought I would fish for afew hours, and then, at about 9pm, someone from the site office comeround and said I had to phone home.
I was told that my dad had suddenly taken a turn for the worse andhad died.
I left the next morning for home but left everything in the lodge- tackle, clothes, the lot. I just didn’t feel like packing.
The funeral was arranged for the Thursday and afterwards I leftthat evening for the lodge to pick up all the gear I had left.
I got to Bury St Edmunds when the car computer told me to stop andcheck coolant fluid. This I did, but on pulling away I noticed thetemperature gauge was too high .
I thought, “sod it, I’m 25 miles away and I’m going. If it blowsup I’m in the RAC any way.”
It didn’t get any hotter (I had the heater on flat out and it was86 that night) and I made it back to the lodge.
It was just getting dark and I had already decided to fish thenight, so I quickly set up and put five pieces of sweetcorn on eachrod and then put a tin of sweetcorn around each bait in the margins,one to the left of the lilies, one in the middle of the lilies, andone to the right.
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At 5.30 am I was woken by the right-hand rod screaming off and Iwas quickly up to hit it .
The result was a 32lb 8oz mirror by the name of the big orange. I got my wife up to take pics but realised I had left my camera at thefuneral.
A nice man next door said he would take some for me. He took twoand run out of film, so another nice man named Mark took some morefor me. Finally, I put the fish back none the worse for itsexperience.
Later on I called out the RAC and he said my water pump had gone.Then he said he couldn’t take me home because I didn’t have recovery.He then took me to a garage where the chap knew the RAC man and I wasquoted £ 188 plus vat.
An hour later I decided that I would drive it home at 50mph withthe idea that the nearer home I got the cheaper the tow home wouldget. Anyway, I got all the way home okay, and the next day I broughta water pump for £ 34 and fitted it myself in less than an hour.
CAKEY
PS: Thanks to my wife for her support, andthanks to Mark, Sarah and David for photos. I dedicate the carp to mydad.
