John goes to Newlands

Went to Newlands on Monday for a quick dip of the rods. Only a one nighter but a chance to catch a carp.

I set up around 10am. I finished the bivvy and recast the rods to their proper spots about 11.45am. I was knackered. I'd just finished nights that morning so I thought I'd get my head down for a while. I slept like a log for 2 hours. Trouble is, I'd stiffened up while I was asleep and my joints were in agony. It took about 10 mins to get loosened up and back to a semblance of normality.

I didn't have a spod mix with me, only boilies. I'm useless now with a catty, only able to get the boilies around 20-30 yds. So I decided I'd spod out about 4-6 boilies at a time. This seemed to work quite well as I could spread the boilies around my swim quite easily and at greater range. Another plus was the fact that I wasn't plagued by the rats with wings! (seagulls!) while I was putting out the boilies, I'll have to remember to do that more often.

So evening comes and only a couple of knocks on the bite alarms to show for my efforts. I enjoy a glass of pear cider and a bottle of stella to see the evening through.

By 22.00 I'm in my bivvy and fast asleep.
By 23.30 I'm pacing up and down the road outside my bivvy trying to walk off the stiffness in my joints. I manage to get back to my bivvy around 23.55 and nod off once more. I was up within the hour walking the road again. This went on throughout the night sleeping for around 1-2 hours then walking off the stiff joints for around 10-20 minutes. By 05.40 I'd had enough and decided to stay up. I watched the morning sun appear and saw a few movements on the lake surface as the fish basked in the early morning sun.

At 07.30 (ish) my bite alarms sounds and I'm into a small tench. Its not what I wanted but at least its not a blank session now! I land and release the tench and hope for better things to come. Sadly, it never did.

Steve came around 10.00 and we had a chat and he threw some boilies in. He left around 12.30 and I packed up and left at around 14.30.

Don't know when I'm going fishing next, so watch this space

John