Much to do about nuffing....

[John_Moore]

With much to do about nuffing and with this crona 19 thingy going on, well....
I'm 62 now and my brain along with my still working parts don't work as well as they once did so I can only relay this story as I remember it....
It was 49 years ago when a couple of friends and I set of on our usual weekend fishing trip. This would have been around the time Chris and Rod were taking things a bit more seriously, while us lads were just fumbling through trying to gain any info we could by pestering some old boy on the bank or through the weekly Angling Times or Mail, I was a Times lad myself.
Flying out of school at 4.00 grabbing my cycle from the school bike racks, taking the two mile journey home, peddling up the hill as fast as young legs could go I would get the Evening news delivered to around 60 homes, (Friday night was pay night so all was good in the world), gobble down some tea and sort out the tackle.
We all lived on a mobile home park out in the middle of nowhere and the walk to the small back water we fished , (or what we then thought was fishing) was over 3 mile's, so the little homemade trolley was loaded up, or overloaded, with seat box, including every bit of tackle I had, which was compulsory for a 13 year old, food bag, a couple of bottles of water, frying pan, a small kettle and my dad's methalated spirit burner, Oh and one of those cheap fold up books metal seats, you know the cheap stripy nylony ones which had a comfy back to rest on. My mate Pete had the executive model with the wooden arm rests.
Rod bag with, 36" brolly, landing net, keep net, bank sticks and oh yes my rod a 11ft three piece, whole cane butt and mid section with a glass tip, alas this rod was swapped along with a one pound note the following year for a 13ft Kingfisher (which I do still have) - bargain!
We picked up some maggots from the tackle shop enroute, walked across the road then across to the far side of the field and set up camp for the night.
We fished until we fell asleep probably netting a couple of small perch or roach which was our norm.
Up Saturday morning after a couple of hours sleep we cooked some bacon & eggs for breaky with a cup of tea, got the rods out for a few hours, arguing about who caught what on what to pass the time and by mid afternoon it was time to visit the tackle shop and the corner shop for more supplies.
The tackle shop owner told us "your in for a storm tonight lads" . But we're we botherd or did we listen, we were fishing?
We set camp with brollys up on the far bend by some lily pads. I had got a packet of spratts from out trip to the tackle shop so I tackled up with my trusty yellow & green pike bung, a treble hook and my spratt about 12 " below.
It was starting to get dark when I cast my bait out again to the edge of the lily's, it was starting to rain so under the brollys we perched squeezed in with all our tackle.
It would have been about 11.00pm, I was dozing in and out of sleep as the rain pelted down and the thunder & lightening broke up the dark sky when all of a sudden my pike bung started to move along the surface and then disappeared under the lily pads. I grabbed the handle of my rod an pulled up, slip sliding down the bank in my wellies I was into something bigger than I had ever felt on the end of my line....I hung on to the rod as Pete shone the torch and the 4lb line peeled from the spool of my new Intrepid Extra reel, I had no idea what to do but it's all part of learning I suppose, and then, yes you can guess what happened, ping....
The thunder and lightning, and rain carried on as I reeled in my lucky pike bung with no hook or spratt left on the trailing line.
Wet through I put the rod behind the brolly for the night, stripped off and climbed into my sleeping bag. I guess it was a few hours before I got any sleep going over the short battle in my mind time and again.
At daybreak I put my shirt and jeans out in the morning sun to dry, cooked some bacon for a quick breakfast sandwich, and tackled up with another spratt and cast out to the lily pads.
But nothing had happened by mid afternoon and it was getting towards the time to pack up the tackle and trudge the 3 mile's back home.
Like I said "it was much to do about nuffing"....
Best wishes to all and stay safe.
John.

[Barbellina]

Thanks for that, I enjoyed reading it. Brings back some memories for me too......

[Dave Burr]

Lovely, you captured the live for the moment attitude of young, and not so young, anglers.

[Pallenpool]

Great - very enjoyable read - certainly reminded me of some early fishing exploits.