Roy & Gina at Lonsdale
Park
8th to 22nd
June 2013
After a long non-stop drive from Kent it
was nice to be greeted by Paul, Val, Julian & Matt. While dipping our nets & mats we sat with
Paul over a “brew”. Having not seen each
other for a year seemed weird so it was great to catch up face-to-face while
Gina was putting the world to rights with Val!
We were in Swan
Cottage (3) this year, which was a strange but pleasant change. It was good to be back and to see my old pike
rod on the wall outside the whirlpool bathroom.
We settled in and said hello to our friendly neighbours then caught up
with our old Lonsdale friends Colin & Wendy, they were there for our first
week (in week two we’d meet up with old pals Jack & Terry). Eventually it was time to sort out the tackle
then cast out from our cottage peg and to chill out, which was our main aim
after what had been a tough year. Then
to bed zzzzzz
I woke early to a
glorious sunrise, with a mist on the water, oh it looks fishy today:
We loaded the tackle
on the FishMobility Buggy and headed for one of our favourite places, Deer Lake,
there was no one else to be seen:
Gina found a peg
in the sun & saw a Ghostie just a few feet from the bank, what more could
she want. It wasn’t long before her tip
zipped round and the Ghostie was on:
Having not fished
for a year, Gina looked a natural as she played it to the net, the Ghostie was
hers:
More were to
follow over the next 2 weeks. It seemed
every peg Gina chose to fish would have a Ghostie in front of it, unfortunately
she didn’t capture the big one this year but had plenty of good fish & a
few feathery friends:
Roy had set
himself the challenge of pole fishing and developed a bespoke system to manage
it with just one hand, you’ve got to see it to believe it!
We fished the
newly re-landscaped and re-stocked Birch Pool, where Gina caught a gorgeous
mirror carp that impressed Paul so much he grabbed it for a photo opportunity:
Not to be outdone
(well slightly!), Roy caught a smaller and not quite so pretty one:
Many fish were
caught over the 2 weeks including these two from Lonsdale Lake on a carp rod
using Lonsdale’s Snail & Frankfurter boilies (yep real snails & German
sausage) over balls of a 50-50 mix of their Halibut & Carp
groundbaits. The first is a 17lb 6oz
common only 6’ out & 15’ along the bank, the second a 15lb Mirror from 6’
short of the reed island, proof that you don’t need to cast to the horizon!
Gina nabs a
clonking roach from The Arches, then as the sun begins to set on our 2013
holiday we are already looking forward to our return next year.
Thank you Lonsdale Park, see you in 2014
Roy & Gina
