Pilgrim’s Progress – read it every Thursday! Number Thirteen…Lucky For Some
Like most of you reading this, I’ve struggled recently on the fishing front. Certainly as my current target waters are rivers, the odds have been stacked against me. I think the problem could be summed up in one word – floods! I don’t think I need to elaborate on that point any more. Only someone who has spent the last few months on Mars will need further explanation.
As I’ve been sticking it out for decent fish, I’ve been experiencing some lean times. In fact I had accumulated a run of twelve consecutive blanks. I felt like the angling equivalent of Accrington Stanley! Added together, and taking into account I often fish with two rods, I spent about five solid days staring at a rod tip or pike indicator without so much as a nod or a drop back. Like I said to Mrs Sedge, that proves I’m committed. She said it proves I need to be committed…
As an optimist, I knew that I would soon break the curse of blanks. Mind, I did wonder what the record of fish-less sessions is, and it did cross my mind that I might end up in the Guinness Book Of Records. I’m not the superstitious sort; I walk under ladders, don’t throw salt over my left shoulder if I spill it and I never read my horoscope. Still, going out on my thirteenth session without a fish made me think. But at least it was a Monday, not a Friday…
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Stewart and his
blank-breaking 4lb chub |
I don’t want to keep you in suspense, so I’ll let you know that I broke my run of blanks with a chub that weighed in at just over 4 lb. It was well worth the weight (sic) to see the needle on the scales pull round to a very respectable reading. In fact, following on from my recent personal best chub of 4lb 2 oz, this is the second fish I’ve had over the 4 lb mark this winter so far. As both fish came from the upper stretches of the River Mease in Leicestershire, they were indeed good fish. Rivers like the Mease are a real godsend for the running water fisherman. If my river fishing depended on waterways like the Severn, I’m afraid I’d be a frustrated angler indeed. However, the Mease will run off quickly and not have the same problem with floods as the Severn.
On the day in question conditions weren’t good. Not for me anyway. It was extremely cold, with a maximum high of 6. It was cold enough during the day, but once the sun set it was absolutely freezing. There was a dense, hanging damp mist that enveloped all around, visibility was down to a minimum. The meadows were still like a big over-saturated sponge, consequently I ended up wet and muddy.
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| The River Mease |
But although conditions weren’t too favourable as far as I was concerned, as far as the chub in the river were aware, they didn’t have a problem. Or so it seems, because one of my favourite swims produced a few taps on legered bread, letting me know that there were some hungry fish beneath the cold and coloured water that flowed in front of me. After a dozen blanks it was actually inspiring just to get a bite!But I didn’t want bites, I wanted a fish. And sure enough, just as I was squeezing out the last few moments of daylight, the tip pulled round in that unmistakable manner that meant one thing – a chub had taken the bread and was now well and truly hooked.
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| Waiting for the tip to go |
A short and spirited fight was put up by the fish, but with 6lb braid mainline to 4lb Sufix Invisiline hook length and a size 8 hook, the odds were always stacked in my favour. Certainly the advantage on a river like the Mease in winter is that a hooked fish doesn’t have the same amount of cover to bolt into as it does in the Summer. At the height of Summer it is difficult to find places to fish sometimes, as the reeds, waterside bushes and water plants go overboard as far as growth mode is concerned. However, come winter and all this vegetation has died off giving the angler a much easier time when a decent fish is hooked. So with great joy I slipped the net under the fish, only to experience a last minute fright. Just as the fish entered the confines of the mesh, the hook slipped. A split second earlier and instead of a happy angler on the bank, there would have been an extremely unhappy camper! We talk about ‘luck’, that was a stroke of the good sort, so I’m not complaining.
I didn’t go on to catch any more fish, but a contented angler drove home that night down the A38. Number thirteen definitely wasn’t unlucky for me. I was just glad that a dozen blanks hadn’t become a baker’s dozen!
The Reverend Stewart R Bloor
Sedgley International Christian Ministries
PO Box 1216, Dudley. DY3 1GW.
Telephone : 01384 – 828033
Web site : www.sicm.org
e-mail : missionscentre@sicm.org
