Fishing opportunities have been a little curtailed over the past week where I've struggled to get out on the banks again. The weather had been milder over the past couple of days so I thought I need to make it happen. Fishing books to read (which I can do now with ease thankfully) from the makeshift office in the kids play room was my fishing fix, but a door opened luckily but more of that later.
Anyway those very few windows of opportunities for nights out with the significant other needed to be grasped firmly with one hand and planned out in military precision before the task can ultimately be completed.
This time round two PCR tests required in one week where the second if it didn't come back negative with less than 24 hours on the countdown timer the evenings revelries would never have happened.
Ok a lot could go on before now and then but any shoulder brushing with that omicron uninvited, would go down as well as if it appeared at the head of the table for the carving of the turkey or the butchering of the rib of beef.
Luckily it came back clear around 18 hours later so after we whisked the kids off with their overnight bags where they would go to the pantomime for the afternoon, we were checking train times and were looking where to end up for the first port of call.
A couple of trains had been cancelled already due to a shortage of staff but one looked ideal where we'd be sipping the first beverage at around 3.30pm, with the table booked at meat feast Fadenda at 7.15 pm where we would enjoy continuous tableside service of the finest grilled meats.
Obviously a few bars in-between there and some good red wine to accompany the meat(s) but it was good to see, despite the voices of doom from the media and those paid for by the public purse.
There were many like us enjoying a good night out to match those cheese and port consuming ravers at No10, you know those that are passing laws at the thin end of an authoritarian wedge.
Anyway enough of that, the highlights well the burnt ends of a garlic infused picanha which is top sirloin cap really was fantastic as was the marinated chicken hearts (yes really) and the cordeiro which is a lamb rump.The only problem is my appetite is certainly not what it used to be and we were both properly stuffed well before we had to vacate the table. Turkey can do one for Christmas dinner, a decent aged piece of beef with the fat rendered nicely is something to be appreciated with a decent glass of red, it packs flavour a piece of turkey could only hope for, no need for cranberry sauce here.
Anyway on the opposite end of the meat scale spam was the bait choice for this session where I'd try and winkle out a barbel in these milder conditions especially as it coincided with the river dropping. The barbel I was hoping would join the chub party and give the barbel rod a decent bend more suited to its 1.75lb test curve.
A simple cage feeder filled with pungent groundbait, small bits of meat and some small garlic flavoured pellets would add to the attraction. I didn't have long as per the norm but I'd target an area that often does throw up Barbel and this like many of my sessions would be a quick smash and grab affair.
The water temperature looked ideal at 9.4 degrees when I got there and the river looked in fine fettle. An angler just leaving had caught a couple of chub but was obviously in a rush as he wasn't up for a chat. So three swims around half an hour in each and the last swim I'd fish till curfew.
Curfew here is half an hour after official dusk and having fished this stretch now for years thats usually when the action happens. The first swim I'd fish lobworms I'd left over as I've done well here for lobworms but despite the steady flow and decent depth a couple of nibbles that was it.
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