Emma's Catch Up Page

Tuesday, 25 June 2013

Roy & Gina at Lonsdale Park

8^th to 22^nd 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!