Isabel playing a fishEyebrook boat competition 2-3 October 2004
As a grand finale to the WEFF club’s boat fishing season, club dictator Hughie O’Reilly decreed that there was to be another 2 day boat competition at Eyebrook this year. The biggest fish caught over the two days would win its captor an all expenses fishing trip to Ireland in 2005.
I was helping Isabel move house the two days before that, so we were a bit shattered by the time we reached our B&B in Caldecott, on Friday evening. A blow-out on the M6 motorway did not help, but we made it after a quick tyre change in the dark.
Saturday
After a splendid breakfast, our host David took my damaged tyre and got a new one fitted while we were fishing. If you want a B&B close to Eyebrook, give David and Jenny a ring. They are at Meadow Farm B&B, Mill Lane, Caldecott, Market Harborough, Lincs. Tel: 01536 770343.
The weather outlook was not promising. We had strong winds and dark clouds and the forecast was even worse for Sunday. Isabel agreed to partner me in the competition and was not happy about getting wet or cold. She grumbled like a camel being loaded up all the way to the boat.
I let her have my Shakespeare Aerial travel rod and Cortland camo intermediate line. I tied on 7ft of 10lb fluorocarbon leader for her, with an alexandra on the point and a diawl bach on a dropper.
For myself, I used a Sharpes Aquarex rod with a new Snowbee white floating line and 20ft of 8lb fluorocarbon leader. I had a black woolly bugger on the point and because of the awful gusting wind, just one dropper, a deer hair sedge pattern to create a bit of surface disturbance, 5ft from the point.
There were a few boats attempting to fish at anchor, but conditions were ideal for short-lining, so I put out a drogue and we drifted from the bay by the jetty across the bowl. I had a fish on around 10.30am, and another half an hour later, both on the woolly bugger. Being a smart thinking fellow, I then gave the fly to Isabel, thinking if she caught one, she would cheer up and I’d get some brownie points.
It wasn’t long before she boated a fish and then missed a couple of takes. Continuing the drift along the main bowl, Isabel took another fish. This one was proving a lot harder to bring to the net. After about 5 minutes, she finally got it under control and boated a red over-wintered fish. By then, we were drifting close to another boat anchored up, so I started up the engine to take us clear of them. About the same time, the wind gusted hard and blew both our lines overboard, guess where? Hearing a reel scream, I shut off the engine, but it was too late. Both lines were chopped off by the propeller.
Isabel playing a fish
This was the cue for Isabel to declare it was time for lunch. The days of me fishing hard all day and forgetting to eat or drink are unthinkable when she is around. The lodge has a nice eating room and even a kitchen for anglers to use. We had soup, bread and cheese, cake, fruit, chocolate and a bottle of red wine with amaretti biscuits to follow.
It was not until 2.30pm before I could persuade her to get back in the boat.
Inspecting the two cut lines, I realised to my intense relief that only a foot or two had been taken off them both. They were still fit to use.
We motored back to the start of the drift and as I was throwing out the drogue, she squealed, “I’ve got another one, on the first cast.” “Oh yeah” came my cynical response. I turned around and to my disgust; her rod was definitely bent into a fish. Hughie’s prophetic words came back to haunt me: “You are going to have your ass whupped, I’m telling you.”
I changed droppers several times, with red holographic diawl bach, hares ear, beetles, bibio, and hoppers, to no effect. I then changed to a different black woolly bugger and had a couple of takes, but no hook ups.
Around 4pm, Isabel had another fish and after landing it, declared it was time to go back to the B&B to get ready for dinner. All our fish weighed under 2lb, so we were unlikely to win the competition on today’s performance.
Isabel with her 4 fish.
At least I didn't blank
The dinner was at Choi’s in Uppingham and they had no problem catering for our party of 25 people. Hughie had ordered a banquet which took some getting through. The food was a lot better than your average Chinese too.
We compared stories and results with the other anglers and I was relieved to find there were others who fared worse than me. Most had tried buzzers or traditional loch style wet flies. A few had blanked or had just one fish, but I believe Isabel actually caught more fish on the day than any of the other 22 anglers. Beginners luck? She has managed to whup me every time we have fished together and I am getting worried.
Geordie had taken a lovely fish at over 7lb around 7pm, but it did not count for the competition as it was caught well after the weigh-in at 5pm. Barry had the biggest official fish at 4lb 8oz, but there was always tomorrow.
Sunday
The promised storm and heavy rain were not evident this morning. They were still forecast, but maybe later. Isabel was still expecting to get wet, but I think she was also keen to carry on fishing, but she wanted reassurances she did not have to fish in atrocious conditions. She got none from me.
Ten minutes after starting the first drift from the dam, she was getting takes on the black woolly bugger, while I was getting peeved and not a nibble. I could see the writing on the wall and hear the sniggers of my angling mates. I was going to get a proper thrashing, no doubt about it.
The same pattern was doing nothing for me, so I took it off and replaced it with my own gold head cats whisker. It weighed a ton and felt like I was casting a parrot. The good thing was that it kept catching Isabel on the back of the head. She could tell I wasn’t really sincere with my apologies.
To rub it in, around 11am and on my third cast, I hooked a very nice fish. It felt good and was putting up a hard fight, shaking its head, diving under the boat and circling it, jumping out of the water and thrashing about on the surface. I put a lot of strain on the fish as I didn’t want to lose it, but it would not come to the net that easily. I finally netted it after nearly 15 minutes. It looked bigger than I first thought and I realised it was a contender for the best fish. Eamonn pulled alongside soon after and weighed it at 4lb 12 oz on his spring balance. Definitely bigger than Barry’s fish then.
As we passed Hughie and Joe, I called out the weight. Hughie’s response was “Feck, that means I may have to put up with you in Ireland.”
We had no more fish after that, although I had two more pulls right in the middle of the reservoir. At 12.30pm, I was told it was time for lunch.
Back at the lodge, I weighed the fish. It was 4lb 13 ½ oz and witnessed by Andy the bailiff. We heard rumours that Torsten had a good fish and when he came in with Geordie we waited with trepidation to see it weighed. Phew, it was a nice fish, but was 3lb 11oz. Torsten had to go home then, but Geordie carried on fishing.
The winning fish
We had another long lunch and didn’t get out again until 3pm.
The black woolly bugger was not working for Isabel today, so I tied a cats whisker on for her, but she found it a bit much to cast, so changed it to an olive woolly bugger. Some of the others had caught on olive patterns.
Things were very quiet all afternoon, but just before 5pm, I had another fish on a gold tinsel and hares ear fly. This was a smallish stockie. We then packed up and motored back to the lodge to see the weigh in. Andy had just pipped Barry by half an ounce, but his fish was 5 oz lighter than mine.
I then realised, it was the first time Isabel had failed to whup me fishing. Can you imagine the consternation in the club if she had won?
Hughie was relieved. He thought it was bad enough having to go to Ireland with me, but the thought of going with Andy was more than a soul can take.
The bad weather never materialised. We had a bit of drizzle, but not much wind, just enough for a good drift.
Geordie ended the day with 6 fish, caught mainly on bibios, I believe.