Visit from fishing legend Ray Kemp - The Colonel

Yesterday we had the pleasure yet again of having Ray Kemp AKA The Colonel (made famous alongside Chris Yates) fishing here at Lonsdale. Here Ray has kindly given us an account of his day fishing.

Hello Paul

My night was filled with dreams of jagging roach, creaking cane and mugs of piping hot coffee, delivered to the swim by my trusty butler. With that in mind, I must thank you heartily for allowing me to christen the recently renovated James Aspindale 'Suredale' on your lovely Willows pool at Lonsdale. I had a joyful day. It literally was a bite a cast, resulting in a catch of pristine Rutilus gracing my net, the best being five at 3/4lb, one at 1lb exactly, one at 1lb 9oz and one at 1lb 10oz. All fell to breadflake on a size 12 barbless long shank hook, fished close to the bottom beneath a quill float and between one and two rod lengths out. Light feeding with mashed bread, of course, traditional angling at it's finest.

It took me a while to work out these fish needed to 'run' with the bait before striking. No finicky fiddling and barely detectable movements of the float here; more hard charging takes that resulted in misses if struck too soon. Putting the rod in the rest and folding my arms was the answer!!!! Another abiding memory of the day will be 'the Jaws moment', when, barely a rod length out, one of your mirror carp 'head & shouldered' unannounced, causing me to nearly choke on my coffee. I imagine it was either tearing into the shoal of fry near the surface or scoffing on the odd bits of floating bread mash; or, maybe, just saying 'hello' to the old Colonel, ' catch me if you dare'. Another day, dear boy, another day.

In all, a very fine day. So fine, in fact, I forgot how cold I was, making the regular mugs of steaming coffee you kindly supplied a real godsend. Thank you, my friend. Here's to the next time.

Best regards

Ray

Thanks Ray, looking forwards to seeing you again soon! Dad says you could give Chris a run for his money as this would be a good start to 'The Colonel's Fishing Diaries'.