On The Lash!!

For a while now a few of us northern monkeys have been planning a piss up, a sort of White Acres reunion, in the shape of a nights boozing and womanising. I was working on Saturday, and with just a knock up on Sunday at Lindholme Lakes, it seemed a perfect opportunity to give the ball a kick without lasting implications in any league matches the following day.

Joe Carass, Ben Fisk, Ash Clemence and James Dent had all fished Lindholme on the Saturday as well, so they came to ours to get showered and shaved, before heading off for some tea at Wetherspoons. A mixed grill and three Carlings later and we were straining at the leash, ready to be set loose on the fair maids of Sheffield town!

The biggest problem we had in the early part of the night was getting Denty away from the bar, he was very generously buying everyone plenty of drinks, the £1000 he got for winning the Gold Festival at White Acres obviously burning a hole in his pocket!

We managed to find a few girls to torment, but I have to say my memory goes a little blank through the rest of the night. I can remember getting to the nightclub and not having to queue, and then buying a pizza with Ash in the kebab house after, and making everyone cups of tea back at mine. We lay up talking for a bit, and I looked at the clock and it said 6:45. The next thing I remember Matt was banging on the door at 7:15 and it was time to go fishing!

After plenty of Redbull we arrived at the venue, and a breakfast made me feel a lot better. I must have still been pretty drunk, as I asked this bird in the café (who I have been fancying for a bit) if she wanted to go for a drink after the match, and latterly if she would marry me. Turns out she has a boyfriend (or at least the said she has) J.

I let Bev draw for me, and she pulled me out peg 20 on Bonsai- not a good peg! Johnny Kenning had it the week before and struggled for 4lb, but the water had coloured up since then and it was warmer, so I hoped for a few bites, though I wasn’t really optimistic of beating the better pegs in the 40s.

The only good thing was I had Joe Carass on the next peg, who was just as pissed as me, so a £1 side bet was duly arranged. Ben and Matt had drawn slightly better pegs, as had Ash, but given the night before, the question was whether anyone would capitalise on the draws!

I opted for to fish maggots long into the open water, and also up to an island in around three feet of water. After about an hour neither me nor Joe had had a bite, and things were looking desperate. Soon after it was first blood to Joe however, as he slipped the net under a big old F1. Minutes later, my float slipped under and I was off the mark.

I caught steady from this point on, and though I wasn’t pulling any trees up, the float was going under and I was happy, it was like a few fish had moved around the island. As we went into the last hour, I felt the swim moving away from me, and so I decided to try my shallower island line, and my catch rate improved notably- Why didn’t I try it earlier!

I ended up with 33lb, there may have been enough fish in front of me to catch the 43lb required for fourth place, but I doubt I could have caught more than 50lb, which I would have needed to make the top three.

The only good thing was I managed to take a £1 off my long time hero and mentor Joe Carass, as he struggled, and spent much of the day wandering around. Ash Clemence was third in the match with 56lb, and Ben Fisk 4th with 43lb, proving it is possible to pick up money with less than a hours kip!

This weekend, my serious head is back on, with round three of the Ranskill teams of four league and the sixth round of the Lindholme Winter League.