Last saturday Himley Hall (Near Dudley , West Midlands).

[barbelblanker]

Well I hadn't been so excited about a days fishing since I was 12.

First trip to a major lake since I dusted off the rods and came out of coarse fishing retirement. So off to Himley hall then.
Plan was to just fish for what came along on two major lines of attack.
One was maggot up against the "crucian carp have got to be here" lilly pads and another a bit further out with hemp and caster.

Weather was calm so no major wind tow problems to contend with, bright but not sunny, has been very wet (and this is news Pete?).

Long and the short was the caster line never came to life but the lily pad provided on and off sport with small roach and perch. At one point it went dead, then came back to life. Then I noticed the mottled looking carrier bag under the lily pads. The one that was not there earlier. It looked like a pike but was totally still so I thought nothing more of it till I dropped a roach back in the pool (maybe carefully placed would have been a better description). No sooner had the little blighter started swimming than WHAM! that carrier bag went from still to sonic in the blink of an eye.

So I was playing catch the perch and do not feed the pike for the next few hours.

Nothing of any note happened ( caught a few perch, probably a couple of dozen maybe, optimistically but I did not truly care too much. It was just great to be back on the banks of a lake and fishing again.

A few notes.

Himley does open at dawn (I got there at 6:45 only to find the park locked so went home and came back at 8), turns out I missed the warden by a couple of minutes.

The warden was really friendly and was a fisher lady herself. I always think this means they are able to do their job much better.

This looks like a challenging venue, I don't know too much about it but I'm guessing the rewards are going to be worth future effort.

And don't them carp boys carry a lot of gear , wheel barrows and all. I half expected to hear "Beep beep beep , this angler is reversing" , some things have changed. For the better ? I don't know.

It's all coming back to me, maybe not in the floods I was hoping for but it is all coming back.

And boy does it feel great to get that nervous anticipation back , the reason I started and continued to fish all them years.

[Greenheart]

Welcome back to the Dark side mate & a nice report. I always carry a wire trace & a couple of treble hooks in my normal coarse fishing box just for those occasions why an un-expected Pike shows up. No need for a specialist pike rod. I just rig up a heavy feeder rod. Loadsa fun...

[fishypaul]

glad you enjoyed it BB

[BaggieRich]

Sorry Pete, must have missed this mate. Shame the Pike effected the swim so much, but it sounds like you had a good day anyway. Great report and really good to hear of some of the places near my old stomping grounds.

I didn't fish before I move from the area, but I've been to Himley, the Stewpony and the like many times.

Keep them reports coming! I'm loving them here.

Rich

Beer1

[Fishing Forum Admin]

Well done mate

[pingu]

sounds a lovely day


dave

[Twiddler]

Oops, sorry, looks like I missed this thread too

Well done BB and welcome back to the darkside of fishing
Sounds like you are going to have a few more sessions in the future