A pair of gold and a bit of bully

Not much of a fishing post this one, but I thought this was worth sharing, especially as most of us anglers also have a love of the fauna and flora surrounding us whilst out fishing and in general too.

When I take my lunch break at work I sometimes pull up the car at the edge of some waste ground in between a busy trunk rd, a housing estate and some industrial units an scoff my sandwiches whilst watching the world around me.  It's a beautiful slice of wilderness slap bang in the middle of the stark contrast and bland uniformity of the constructed environment encircling it. There are people walking past usually on there way to work or into town but they don't seem to ever look up  to see what is around them, more fool them !

On this occasion I was talking to my wife on the phone when I happened to look up to see a pair of goldfinches feeding right in front of me.  I love to see gold finches as we don't get many varieties of birds in our garden except the standard house sparrow, blackbird and woodpidgeon etc. So it's always special to see some of our more colourful and rarer species.

When I looked up again I definitely wasn't expecting to see what was in front of me this time. No more than 10 feet from my windscreen were a pair of bullfinches, male and female, happily feeding on the wild flowers that were growing at the edge of the "waste ground".   I don't know what the yellow flowers were I'm afraid as I'm not too clued up on British wild flowers. Anyway I sat there slack jawed in disbelief as these beautiful birds busied themselves feeding on the white wispy seed husk of the flowers, chewing it down like candyfloss.  I've only ever been lucky enough to see one bullfinch in my life before, and that was a good 30 yards away and for only a split second or two. So, here I was treated to at least 10 minutes of this pair feeding feet away from me before they'd had their fill and flew off in search of a some other early summers bounty.

With today's modern technology at our disposal 24 hours a day in the form of camera phones I was able to take a few grainy photos and some movie footage of the birds. The photos were not too good as any minimal quality the camera possesed was lost by having the zoom at full extent.  The movie clip didn't come out too badly I don't think though.

( best viewed in full screen -click the little square icon thingy bottom right on the youtube tool bar )

The female bullfinch was hiding down in the vegetation but she flies away across the screen near the end of the clip, soon to be followed by the male (well the women always call the shots don't they) . It certainly made my lunchtime to see these birds so near, I doubt I'll ever be lucky enough to see them that close up again.

Next post it's back to the fishing hopefully .?.....with a couple of recent blanks endured, I'm looking forward to getting a good bend in the carbon and now the rivers are open I hope it won't be too long!

I did catch a nice little rudd about 6 oz recently from the tench lake and also a perch of about 12 oz which is a promising sign and a good reason to get the float rod out a bit more on there I think !

Spanish siesta..then a little Bream fiesta

Spain was my destination over the past two weeks on a family holiday to Benal Madena in the Costa del Sol. Here's a quick run down without boring you with all the details. Weather was hot from 26  rising to 32 deg C during our stay. Saw lots of fish around the Marina, from these mullet below that were up to about 3 or 4lb I'd guess. No fishing in the marina of course  although I saw a chap with what looked like 2 or 3 beach casters fishing off the outer harbour wall into the open sea. 

On our dolphin spotting trip we were allowed to troll for mackerel and tuna on the journey out unfortunately we blanked  All the luck must have being used up for the dolphin spotting as we were treated to a brilliant display from a friendly pod of four bottle nose dolphins that came right up to the yacht to within touching distance at one stage, and then enthusiastically showing off there acrobatic skills with leaps and rolls.

Of course when I got back on Friday last,  I was desperate to get out with the rod, the first half chance being when I took the kids to see the grandparents on Sat afternoon while the wife was out. As we have to pass the canal on the way home I chucked the spinning rod in the boot so we could squeze in a quick walk / lure session. It didn't do us much good though as I only managed to land this spare tyre and I've already got one of them !! The kids thought it was great though, and said it put up a good fight.

Sunday 10th June...

Finally, I got to do some proper fishing this morning in what was a pretty slow 6 hr session resulting in just the one fish, however an 8lb 13oz male bream wasn't too bad and it's even a new pb for me (just ). I hope my next bream pb will be that elusive double I am hoping for. Still it's not like I target them intentionally as such so it's a nice Brucie bonus.



Till next time ....

Worming one out.....

A couple of sessions on the tench lake again this week, the first on Sunday morning last from 6:00am. With not alot to report from that one except for the fact that despite it being mid May I was dressed in my full winter garb and felt colder than I did on days in January. With the north easterly wind cutting through and chilling my bones all morning keeping the temperature no greater than 8 deg C, by 11:30am I'd had enough.  With only one  liner to show for five and a half hours fishing I headed home feeling a little defeated. This water can be cruel sometimes the prevailing conditions seem to really effect it more than other waters at times.  The day before when it was slightly warmer the fish had seemingly been queueing up to be caught, one lad landing 12 fish plus a decent bream into double figures. Now the other two anglers and me on the lake, we could bearly raise a bite between us.

Wed however was completely the opposite with the temperature soaring up the scale to 23 deg C in the space of three days. Unfortunately this didn't seem to encourage the fish much and I struggled to get any interest. James was down again (same as Sunday) fishing the float in the next peg along but he struggled for bites too. I heard that some of the other anglers had found the going tough over the last few days also, dramatic temperature change is never a good thing I feel, it takes a few days of consistent weather the keep the fish on the feed, especially here. 

Earlier in the day while on my lunch break from work I popped into a tackle shop to get some fresh reds and decided to splash out on a shiny white smomb to see what all the fuss was about. I've gotta say within two casts of it I was converted. It flies well, feels lighter than a spod and with no spills is perfect for any bait, except for a real stodgy mix I suppose, but that won't affect me anyway.

Full darkness had descended at about 10:00pm and despite a couple of liners I'd not had a proper run yet. I saw a fish roll just further out from the baited area and wondered if they were on the mooch in my swim now?  James came round on his was back to the carpark, we chatted about tench and the usual stuff as you do, when the left hand rod suddenly screamed off on a 'proper un' I lifted into that familiar solid curve and pumped what felt like a nice fish in towards me. The fish took a bit of line so I hoped it would be decent. Then it suddenly seemed to give up in a very bream'esk fashion I hoped I might be into one of the binlids until a reasonable tench slid over the rim of the net. We both guessed a mid six based on its size but it only went 5lb10oz which goes to show how inaccurate we all are at guessing weights.

Dodgy phone cameras -better than nothing I suppose!

That was it I gave it another half hour and had one more dropped take on the worm, but no more fish were banked. The worm rig taking the only customer all evening which was interesting, I expect the fish were not around my swim in any numbers and I only managed to entice the odd passing fish to show any interest as they were moving through rather than get a decent shoal to stop around and feed.  I have struggled to get into the bigger fish so far this tench season but hopefully I can turn that around in the next few sessions.