John Bailey – The Kingfisher Diaries
May 11th 2010
A Fabulous Twelve Hours.
If we take the period from late evening 5th May to the mid-morning of 6th May, some great fish were caught by a number of people down on the Kingfisher Lakes. In all probability, the capture of these and many other fish were down to a change in the weather. Let's not forget that Bank Holiday Monday saw bracing northerly winds bringing showers of sleet across the lakes. Temperatures were down as low as four degrees in the early afternoon. Then, blessedly, high pressure.
During the period we're talking about, the wind dropped almost to nothing. When there was a breeze it came much more from the south. Temperatures rocketed. Fly life simply swarmed form the lake at time. The swifts were back, enjoying the feast. So, too, our population of terns.
And when the birds are happy, the fish are happy, too. Plentiful insect activity is good for fin as well as for feather. So, in these happy few hours, rods were seriously bent. In the late evening, Sarah, aided and abetted by Steve Martin from Total Coarse Fishing, landed her personal best tench. It made the wine seem all the sweeter up in the Clubhouse.
Then, during the night, Dominic Parr from Norwich took a superb twenty-seven pound common. A short, deep and gloriously conditioned fish. So many congratulations there.
Then in the early hours of the 6th, Gerry hit into his first ever freshwater fish, let alone his first tench. The guy's a natural angler, though, very much at home on the sea and very much used to bass, pollock and turbot. So he had no problems with his first tinca but he certainly appreciated the scrap.
Next up is Steve Martin himself with a PB of seven pounds ten. His previous was seven four which he also went on to beat a couple of times during the morning. And then, finally, your Fishery Director himself...after being led a merry dance by a rangy eight pound male, I hooked into this superb, massively long female. My first double? Forget it. Nine pounds twelve ounces. My thirteenth over nine but you won't catch me counting myself unlucky!