Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all our guests and friends!
Andy Knox was granted his christmas fishes during his pre-christmas short stay with us when he had more than his 12 Carp of Christmas on the bank - 8 of which he caught in just five hours! He's had such a good time he's back this Saturday.
Meanwhile I've been working on catching fish without bait this winter, getting more adept at fly fishing for coarse fish and developing my favourite lure selection.
This year I was lucky enough to receive the gift of a Sealey Mayfly rod from Matt, and a Dragonfly Imperial reel from John (Thankyou!) - both regular guests at Lonsdale, and am starting to get to grips with them. A copy of Fly fishing for coarse fish is sitting on my bookshelf from last christmas and it's a lovely book but I have to say trial and error did get me five species in two days with Chub, Roach, and Perch at Lonsdale and my first Rainbow and Brown trout at local water New Mills.
The fish at Lonsdale are particular fans of pretty much any fly with a gold head.
Roach seem to take a fly on the drop during the evening, whereas Chub prefer an almost static fly neatly flicked along a nice reedy margin just after the suns hit the water to warm it in the morning.
The eagle eyed amongst you will have noticed the little terrier with the big ears who is 'photo bombing' my shots these days. This is Mouse, newest addition to the Drinkall clan and although she never had the privilege of meeting Mansell, she seems to know just what to do when a camera's about!
And the perch? Well it was just a baby but I have plans for cat whisker lures to entice some stripey's and maybe even a few Jacks.
The Arches has always been excellent sport for Esox, and I've been playing with a few lures amongst our Jacks before I test them with a fly. You just can't beat a Rapala and our toothy beauties seem particularly fond of my countdown Perch coloured CP-7. I'm afraid there's not many pictures of my Pike because I tend to fish alone on the Arches. It's very peaceful down there and quietly exploring, moving from swim to swim around the bank is something that Mouse loves as much as I do. And when I become fixated with that perfect margin edge where esox simply has to be, Mouse is happily springing about in the wild meadow behind.
(If you'd like to bring your dog along to Lonsdale they are allowed in some accommodation and are allowed along the banks of the Arches)
However my new adventure in ultra light lure fishing started dramatically yesterday when my new straight from Santa's workshop Tronix Rockfish UL paired with an equally new pink Angry Birds Rapala lure made for a very angry Pike!
To be honest I was just playing in the edges of the swim on the Arches with my new bright pink lure enjoying it's action and working things out when at the edge of the weed bed the little rod tip arced around alarmingly and something made short run of just a couple of feet to the weed bed. Before I knew what was happening I'd made my mistake, there was a tiny crack, some great toothy jaw released its grip, and the body of a pale pink lure came wobbling upto the surface. A few seconds later I watched with horror as a small black eye and white section of carbon slid down the line to rest on the swivel of my wire trace.
Oh dear. But the realisation I still had my lure brightened my outlook.
Of course with a little help from Dad's workshop I soon had a new and "improved", slightly shorter version of the Rockfish UL. We've lost count of the rods we've repaired for our guests over the years, but this the first time I've needed to use those skills on my own gear!
From our family to yours - Season's greetings and tight lines!
