Been a couple of weeks since I last posted anything here, mainly due to a few trips away and lots of changes around our household too.
So I'll start with the changes......As many of you will know I have been a self employed courier for one of the big parcel delivery companies since 2015.
This has had it's ups but I have to confess it's had more of the downs. The industry has gone through many changes since Covid 19 and albeit a terrible global situation, it was actually hugely beneficial to the delivery firms. The roads were quiet, customers were forced to stay indoors and they had nothing better to do than sit around ordering shite they didn't really need on their phones and computers! Lots of work for us guys and girls. Since then, things have obviously gone back to some normality but with the war in Ukraine, massive cost of living hikes and the biggest hit for vehicle users being the huge hikes in fuel prices!
This has utterly destroyed the likes of many drivers lives, including my own. I actually couldn't afford to run my van to go out delivering! The costs started to out way the profits considerably and said company refused on at least 5 attempts to give us even a hint of a pay increase to cover our expenses, which were now hitting over £2K a month before making any profits.....impossible to continue. So, after massive debate with myself, family members and friends, I have made the jump to go back into full time employment.
It's not something I thought I would ever do as I value my spare time and being able to pick and chose time off, to an extent etc. I'm 47 years old, with no pension, no real career and an aging body that lifting a tonne and a half of parcels a day cannot withstand much longer. Therefor I have taken a job back in the motor industry working for VW.
I will be training up to work in the parts department and to be honest I have trepidations but I am also very excited to finally be using my mind again for something other than 'drone' work! I will more than likely have far less time to fish from now on but I hope that the weekends and odd holiday days will feel much more valuable to me. So, that's the news part out the way! Let's get to the fishing!
A fortnight ago Chris and I met up with our good friend Nick and his mate Jack for a week away at his lake 'Carp Hunters' near Chateauxbriant in France. A venue we visited twice last year....The aim of this trip was to get lots of works around the venue completed alongside a bit of fishing as well!
The ferry over was rather rough and the Portsmouth to St Malo 11 hour crossing spent in our bunks was an interesting affair. I had the lower bunk on our last trip so drew short straw of top bunk on this trip....needless to say it was a tad uncomfortable at best!
The ship was in a 10-12 foot swell over 8-10 secs which meant I was either ten times my body weight being pulled into my bunk as we dropped into the waves or weightless as we crested and peeling myself from the low ceiling!
The journey couldn't be over soon enough and before we knew it we were in France and on our way down to the lake.
First morning was spent getting the houses up and then we went on our first mission to clear some leaning trees from recent storms. I went hell for leather with the chainsaw and Chris was on retrieval duties. It pissed it down and the wind howled but we cracked into it and got finished by 3pm. Time to get the rods out. Chris and I opted to fish either ends of the lake with Jack doubled up next to me in the middle. Jack was first up to catch with a small double figure mirror.
I cooked up a lamb Balti and we headed to our swims for the night. Chris bagged another stunning mirror around 1.30am and Jack had a nice fish over thirty as well.
I had yet another quiet night with just a small common around 9.30am before we started working again. Once again we were on repair and rebuild duties and the bankside I had started to repair back in July last year was next on the agenda. More corrugated sheets were inserted and some more poles placed into the lake bed before back filling behind the sheets with rubbles taken from another local fishery friend. The lads put together some new Rattan furniture for the balcony and I made a Red Wine Stew with potatoes before we were free to once again fish the night. I had a slightly better afternoon with 4 fish finding the net including a brace of mid twenties before darkness fell.
That night there were a few good fish caught for Jack and Chris bagged a new PB 39lb 14oz mirror known as Louisa! A great capture and awesome fish! I had a couple more mirrors and 2 small commons before daylight. With just a few hours left I was feeling a little deflated due to still not catching a fish over thirty from the venue and the others catching 5 over that weight so far that week!
Jack and Nick were heading home on the Friday night and that left me just one more throw of the dice. I baited up for the night as I had been with Infusion 18's on the hook and a scattering of the same around the area before settling down for the night for an early start back at the ferry terminal.
I was starting to feel like the venue was becoming a bogie water for me! I was top rod for the week with 19 carp but the other two had more bigger fish....guess you can't win em all? There's still lots to do around the lake and I'm hoping to get back out in July with Nick again to complete some fencing and the bankside repairs.
On my return I had the interview with VW and obviously got the job which starts this Wednesday. That gave me this weekend free to take a brief trip down south to a new club venue that opened it's doors for the first time in over 16 years.
The complex has seen just a handful of anglers in this time and it's completely unknown what stock levels are left in the 14 lakes.
The majority of the anglers turning up chose lake 2 which was the only weed free lake on the complex and clearly the water with the majority of fish still left in it.
The others were all very quiet and just a few of the stock seem to remain. The club have their work cut out I feel but with the team they have in place, it won't take long for them to get the place back up and running into a wonderful complex again.
That said, we did see a couple of quite large mirrors, commons and a couple of chunky grass carp too. I fished one of the more out the way lakes and after spending 6 hours clearing 3 small areas of weed, I presented 3 spinner rigs and pop ups into the cleared spots.
I knew it would take a while for the fish to come back into the swim after such commotion from the raking etc but that night around 1am I had a reasonable take on the middle rod which ended in a brief battle with a chunky bream of 10lb 5oz.
I had to pack up in the morning due to unforeseen reasons and headed home Sunday afternoon. Well, that's it for now! I may try and squeeze a few hours in tomorrow down my local lake before starting the new job on Wednesday! Wish me luck......Tight lines all
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