Boot open, plip pressed, Fleming’s left hand rule energised
The garage roller shutter judders in to life.
It’s half way up its travel, the PIR activates and the bright LED light tube illuminates up the space.
Buuuuuuzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz !!!!! Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz !!!!!
“What the f**k is that?”
A flying insect of gigantic proportions has just entered the garage.
It’s light bound and sounds angry.
My eyes focus, it’s a Hornet, a size which I’ve never seen before.
It’s huge, with my calibrated engineer’s eyes, 38.5mm in length.
Now unlike the Wife who has a rational fear of wasps, they don’t really bother me, but this thing looked like a wasp on Stanozolol with a sizeable venom sack, the contents of, I’d rather not experience.
I did think about dumping the tackle quickly, getting the hell out of there and keeping one’s mouth stum for the Wife to deal with it in the morning but my conscience got the better of me. She would have had a heart attack.
I had to deal with it !!!!
It’s hovering in and around the lamps shade, bouncing off the perspex in a cartoony motion.
Then, the door in to the kitchen opens, the Wife emerges, wine glass in hand.
“Oh Hello, all ok ?, “just emptying the washing machine”
Then before I could say anything the Hornet which appears to be in a distressed state, is in motion again and boob bound.
The Wife appears to have just stared death in the face as her eyes show a distress I’d not seen before.
She screams at the top of her voice "AAAAIIIIEEEEE” !!!! "AAAAIIIIEEEEE” !!!!
The fire door slams the Wine surprisingly held upright, but the Hornet has been caught by the commotion. Now it’s angry !!!!
About-turn it is now headed my way,pace quickened, eyes focused on the target.
I’m out of here !!!!!!!
I’ve pegged it out the garage with sweeping brush in hand, the Hornet in pursuit….
I spot one of the neighbours peering through their side door….
“Hello Mick, everything ok”
“Yeah fine thanks, I’ve not murdered the Wife, I’ve just made a rather large Hornet angry”
“oh, ok” “ just making sure everything’s ok as I’ve just heard some loud screams”
“yeah, sorry about that”
Luckily it’s vanished, never to be seen again.
Sometimes spending hours during the day sat behind ones rods leads to diddly-squat, however the hour heading up to dusk when the bats come out and the light is lost can be very productive indeed.
So this session was a quick one, there would be no messing about....
....a quick snatch and grab for a dusk Barbel.
There isn't much science to it, rock up after work, reccy the area,in goes a dropper of hemp with krill pellets and crushed boilies, twiddle ones thumbs, then lay the trap and wait for the unmistakable bite.
The rig is simple, a running rig with a couple of small boilies attached to a decent length hair. As usual it's a matter of sitting on ones hands and ignoring the Chub twangs and rattles and wait for the rod to go properly over and the centrepin ratchet to sing. A PVA bag goes out with the bait so there is always a carpet under it.
As soon as the light was starting to go the river came alive, fish topping everywhere and some decent sized ones too. As the switch was pressed the previous motionless rod was now having some pulls, twangs and bangs. Some were outrageous too but hey, got to wait, no need to strike. That's why I like hard hookbaits as you'll always be wondering if the bait is still on or not.
Martin who was fishing upstream texted me to say he had a 5lber with a lovely black back as a result of of the sun and the clear water and no sooner as I put the phone down, my rod tip was headed riverward and the centrepin was signing and I was in to a fish.
You can see why us maggot danglers love catching Barbel as lb for lb they give a right good scrap as this one was talking me all over the river. Unusually it gave up early and was quickly in the net. Probably one of the smallest Barbel I've caught but a welcome sight all the same.
It was quickly returned and another short smash and grab session worked as they usually do. With the baits still intact I returned the bait to the river and after 15 minutes I had another wrap over that unfortunately didn't connect to a fish. Dusk was now here and time to leave.
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38.5mm ...... you mean 38.1mm the old inch and an arfff.
ReplyDeleteSomething like that. I designed some press form tools for some aircraft parts a few years back and had to use imperial measurements, eventually got my head round it :)
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