Pilgrim’s Progress

He is also a very keen angler, having come back to the sport in 1995 following a break of several years. In this regular column he will tell us about his progress as an angler – his thoughts about the sport, what he learns, the fishing trips he makes, the anguish, the humour, in fact everything he experiences as his angling career develops.

Pilgrim’s Progress – read it everyThursday!

Stewart’s Serious Suffolk Specimen Session – Part 1

One fish that I have not had a serious campaign for so far isbream. Although I’ve caught a lot in terms of quantity, the watersthat I’ve had them from have not had the potential to produceanything really big. In fact my biggest bream to date was 4lb 5oz,caught from the lower Severn in 1996. I’ve fancied having a crack ata decent bream for a while now, so with that in mind, I selected awater that held some specimens, booked a week in my diary, pointedthe car eastwards and set off. I had a couple of targets in mind.First of all, I would like to simply extend my personal best. Butsecondly, in for a penny, in for a pound, I wanted to catch adouble.

Sunday

I took the morning and evening services at a West BromwichPentecostal Church. As it is close to where I live it meant I wasable to spend the afternoon at home, putting the finishing touches tomy preparation for the week ahead. It also gave me the opportunity tocheck, double check and check again that I had everything I needed.I’m sure we have all had the experience of arriving at the banksideonly to realise we’ve left something important behind. That’s afrustrating experience when we’re out for the day and close to home,but I was going to be off for the week and 169 miles away, so Ineeded to make sure I had everything I required.

Arriving home after the evening service it was a change ofclothes, a quick bite to eat, load the car, and on my way by 9.45 pm.Loading a disk into the car CD player I’m greeted by Stevie Wondersinging ‘Superstition’. Not the best way to kick off a week offishing, so I hit the ‘random’ button. And guess what comes on? Yes,the same song. Hoping that it’s not an ominous sign for the weekahead, I continued my journey.

With not much traffic on the road I reached Suffolk by Midnight.Driving through the night meant I also missed the tractors andcombine harvesters that would normally clog the Suffolk road network- you know, ‘ooh agh, ooh agh’ and all that stuff. An hour later I’mpassing through the town of Woodbridge. In a classic word associationexample I started to think about the famous tennis players, ‘The TwoWoodys’. With Wimbledon about to start, quite a topical thought. Butwhat would the week ahead hold for me? Would I have the anglingequivalent of being knocked out in straight sets, or would I serve upa netful of aces?

Monday

Arriving at the pit in the early hours of the morning I wasgreeted by a bivvie in each of the swims I had planned to fish.Confidence is a big part of swim selection, but I did manage to dropinto a peg that I felt reasonably happy about. Managing to set up indarkness, I cast out ‘blind’ and settled down to sleep at 2.45 am.After a long day, that bedchair looked so inviting.

The weather forecast for the week was temperatures in the upper20’s, so it was going to be hot, hot, hot. I spent Monday daytimeeating, sleeping and sunbathing. Oh, and not forgetting it was afishing trip I also spent time getting to know the contours of theswim I was in by dragging a lead across the bottom and by the use ofa marker float.

Examination of the swim revealed a very slight gravel bar about 50metres or so out. Positioning a marker float meant that accuratecasting and baiting was possible. I fished with fruit-flavouredboilies and deposited these on and near to the bar by using both acatapult and a Fox Boilie Rocket. As evening came, big fish startedto roll. As I lay on the bedchair dozing off I was confident thatsoon I would be woken by the sound of a Micron bursting intosong.

Tuesday

My confidence was confirmed when, at 12.45 am, my beauty sleep wasinterrupted by the left hand rod letting me know it had connectedwith a fish. A short fight resulted in the first fish of the week – acommon carp that registered at 7.7. Putting it back into the waterand watching it swim away I smiled to myself at the irony of thecatch. Here I am, after bream, and I land a carp. Of course it’susually the other way round. The carp anglers are the ones who catchthe ‘nuisance’ bream. But, at this point, let me add that in no waydid I consider this an unwelcome fish. I was happy to break my duckfor the week and hoped this fish would be the first of many. Breamthat is, not carp.

The rest of the night proved uneventful and I spent the daysleeping, eating and sunbathing. The only action came when Iwitnessed an angler having some difficulty casting in. I couldn’t seewhat the problem was from where I was fishing, but obviously he hadcome to the end of his tether, as he threw his rod and reel into thewater and stormed off into his bivvie, I thought to myself, if anyanti’s come bothering me, I’ll send them to him, he’ll sort them outas he’s obviously a man with a short fuse.

As Tuesday drew to a close, in spite of the tablets I was taking,hay fever kicked in big time. My eyes were so swollen, I looked as ifI’d done 10 rounds with John Prescott. If you’re wondering whathappened to the rod that was thrown into the water, Mr Angry wasfishing with a friend who came to his rescue. He salvaged the rod,cast out and set it up on the pod. Now that’s what I call afriend.

Wednesday

As Tuesday became the early hours of Wednesday morning the weatherwent through a metamorphosis of Jekyll and Hyde proportions. As Idozed off I was woken abruptly by the loudest clap of thunder I hadever heard. It sounded as if someone had pulled the pin on a grenade- next to my ear. The storm that followed had me tucked up nice andcosy inside the sleeping bag, feeling eternally grateful to whoeverinvented the fishing shelter. Mr Bivvie, wherever you may be, Isalute you.

The only excitement during the night, unfortunately for me, wasthe weather. I woke at 7.30 am, not even having so much as aline-bite during the night. And by now I was really suffering with myeyes. Good news though, the pegs that I had originally intended as myfirst choices became available, so lunchtime a quick removals job sawme bedded in and ready for action. I spent the rest of the daysleeping, eating and sunbathing, but I was so excited about theforthcoming evening, I actually felt pregnant withanticipation……..

Finding the gravel bar 50 – 60 metres out that I knew was in thisswim, I positioned the marker float, and backleaded the line so thatit would not cause any problems. Late afternoon, I catapulted out alarge number of groundbait balls. My mix was brown crumb, white crumband fishmeal, mixed to a ratio of 5 : 5 : 2. Added to the groundbaitwas sweetcorn and broken boilies.

Casting out and placing my baits at strategic places on and nearthe bar, my faith was rewarded at 8.15 pm when I caught the secondfish of the session. As soon as I struck into the fish I knew that Iwas connected with a sizeable bream. Weighing in at a shade under7.13 I had reached the first target I had set myself, which was tobeat my personal best. To say I was happy was an understatement.Minutes later the buzzer went again. This time I knew that a betterquality fish was on the end. Unfortunately it came off. Still, youcan’t win them all, I thought to myself.

But I won the next one. An hour later and I extended my personalbest bream again, as a fish just over 8.8 was landed. I was now on aroll. But as I totted up the time spent so far on the lake, I workedout that I had fished for more than 42 hours and caught 1 fish, andyet in the last hour I had three bites and landed two decent bream.That’s fishing….

The rest of Wednesday proveduneventful. But what about the rest of the week? Check out‘Stewart’s Serious Suffolk Specimen Session – Part 2’ nextThursday and find out.