The more I ingest tryptamine I enjoy its effects, maybe I’m more susceptible to it being a light sleeper. You see eating cheese before bed actually helps many people fall asleep. This is due to the relatively high tryptophan content in cheese, an amino acid involved in the production of melatonin which plays an important role in our sleep-wake cycle. As someone who administers it to the eldest who has it at bedtime because he doesn’t produce it, if you’re lacking in it, you will struggle to get off to sleep.
You see I had one of those lucid dreams again I really enjoy….
Yes I was back on the stilton again this time it provided a topping for a pork pie not a sliver of Paxton and Whitfield's finest sat on a cracker. It was washed down with some stupidly moreish Plantations pineapple rum and some dark salted caramel chocolate and it finished off a nice day out with the Wife before Christmas got in to full swing and the kid carnage ensued.
Food of the Gods I tell thee….
For this off the wall dream, one of those proper out of body experience jobbies.... I was living off-the-grid in a passive solar earth house in the middle of the Amazonian rain forest. Self-sufficient, water via a well, solar and wind power and all that jazz. I was living amongst nature, canoe for transport. A real step back from life in my own primitive time capsule which would transform one’s perspective on the world.
I was a fishing guide though once in a while, and for some reason I could get 4G so could communicate with the rest of the world when absolutely necessary.
Just how I'd like it....
Drifting down river, deep in the Amazon rainforest, as a guide, surrounded by a spectacular rainforest. Macaws squawking overhead, Toucans calling to each other from the treetops, rivers filled with rocks and boulders with ancient Indian petro-glyphic markings, roaring white water over cascades and waterfalls, sandy beaches, slow stretches with deep holes and shallow, inlets and streams, primary and secondary jungle with tall fruiting trees and with such an abundance of wildlife all around.
Rod bent with vampire fish, giant black piranha , freshwater sharks and cats, oh and the big Cats, they were huge.
I was loving it, till I woke....
January and 'reigning' it in cannot can some enough however, I've definitely got my winter coat on at the minute which to be honest always seems to happen in December when the excesses seem to start earlier and earlier each year. I only have to look at cheese these days to put on weight and shifting it seems to take longer too, a proverbial pain in the backside.
So anyway, back to the fishing....
It was tough going this time last week, the snow melt causing the river to rise significantly at the tail end of a cold snap was enough to put off even the most hardy of fish from feeding. I managed a nice Chub right at the end of a three hour session on cheese paste where bites were certainly at a premium at a usually very productive area for Chevin.
They were just not up for it….
The river was fining down nicely for this early dawn session though so in theory the fish should be feeling more comfortable being out in the open water as clarity would have improved for starters but also there was less of a chance being taken out by some disturbed debris headed downstream.
So a diet of rice and beans for them last week, it was out with the bush tucker….
I’d some lobworms and chunks of steak with me and would more or less cover the same ground as last week. So the intention was to fish the features, the creases the likely fish holding spots in a roving travel light fashion. I’d changed the tip to a 2oz jobbie for this session and also simplified the rig somewhat. Going from bottom to top at the business end, size 6 hook, float stop, link ledger and that’s it.
As someone yet to register any points on the bloggers scoreboard for Perch despite catching said species I was hoping maybe a decent Perch would be up for feeding too.
Steak I’d only be using for Chub the last couple of years and I’ve had some good results with it, you know it’s still on the hook for starters unlike breadflake but even in clear conditions put a big piece of steak in-front of old rubber lips. Usually the reaction is some of the most powerful Chub bites you’d ever see, they give it no mercy, they really are not shy round the meat buffet, and you’ll know about it.
I was confident in the chosen canapés however, in my back pocket some cheese paste if I was struggling, the after eights if you will.
The river had dropped considerably over the last week when I got bankside, most of the colour had dropped out of it too, so many of the swims I could see the bottom, no problem.
One of the swims I decided to put in some chopped worm before leaving it for half an hour or so before heading back and fishing a lobworm over it.
I caught pretty much straight away after switching to lobworms after the steak was ignored from two swims.
4 Chub landed over the session the biggest going 3lb 3oz's, not the biggest of chub from this stretch but I nice stamp of fish and they give a good pull and relatively light tackle.
Back the swim where I put some chopped work down within seconds of the bait reaching the bottom the 2oz tips was getting interest and eventually went round properly.
A welcome Perch for the blogger challenge board, a fish of 1lb 11oz.
The last swim I fished a lump of paste for twenty minutes under a raft with no interest whatsoever. Lobworms were doing it today, an enjoyable morning session especially with the friendly Robin keeping me company whilst he had a couple of worms to fill his stomach.
