Well what a week!

The severe gales hit us on Monday much like most of the South coast of the UK,  and with them bought yet more torrential rain.

Iain returned  home from the UK on Wednesday with the car loaded with our bait for this season but there
was no time to put his feet up and we set about clearing branches that had blown off and generally clearing up after the gales.

Good news is that the almost horizontal tree in the corner which provided the snags when fishing
from Blue Camp has now been cut back so there are now no branches in the water.  The rushes and reeds have started growing in the margins and the first lot of trees have broken into leaf.  We can now believe that spring is ALMOST here.

While working around the lake yesterday we walked around the dam corner by the gate towards Goffees

we saw the most spectacular sight & to say we were both gobsmacked is an understatement

A catfish was in the shallow water head toward the bank with a handful of small fish that it had

herded into the corner.

The whole back of the catfish was visible and it was absolutely massive…. gobsmackingingly massive

at over 6 ft long!!!!!!!!!!!!

We both looked at each other, mouths open…… Iain muttering……. ‘We need a bigger catfish sling….’

On the good news front the carp are already on the spring feed and its obvious that the catfish have woken up!

Just thinking of Iain today at the 5 lakes carp show wondering if he managed to meet up with our various friends who visit us every year.  Also trying to decide what ‘necessity’ he has just ‘had to buy’…… hmmmm !!!! Its strange I, as I suppose so many ‘carp widows’ had very little idea of just how much money our men folk actually spend on carp fishing and the numerous amounts of stuff that the big manufacturers try and entice them with!

Have been spending some time thinking about the food menus for this season….

I know so many of you have your favourites,

but I  have come up with some more scrummy dishes to tempt you with!

Looking outside as the rain trickles down the windowpane I wont be doing any more shovelling today..

Ah well theres always a bar of chocolate!!

Well work continues on the swims…. Blue Camp is now finished as is Stumps. The paths to each side of the lake are completed and gravelled.

We have made another entrance and parking area to the lake which makes ‘Bin There’, now a big double, much closer to parking and will be a much more ’sociable’ swim this year.

The anglers room has been repainted and recarpeted and is very ’homely’ now with the tv, dvd,

sofa, 2 freezers & 2 fridges, new curtains, library with loads of carp books & magazines.

The front car park has been regravelled so we are beginning to look very spruce indeed.

Iain is off to the UK next Thursday to visit the Carp Show at 5 lakes and also to collect our mountain of bait from Frank at Catcherbaits. He will be wearing his Rushes Lake shirt so if you see him please say hi…. Im sure you will even manage to prise a beer out of him!