Dr. Jobling's Prescription For Happiness.

Thursday 22nd July, 16:30 - 22:00hrs. Napton Reservoir with Danny. E switching to NE blow but warm. Heavy rain from dusk onwards.

Now then young man, come come, do sit down. You seem a little unsettled right now. Uncertainty in the global economy is it? Hmmm? Interest rates? Uncertainty at work perhaps? Well, let me see what I have in my bottom drawer here for occasions such as these......yes....... just the ticket.....this will fit the bill. Take one of these at least once a week - that should keep you on the straight and narrow whilst things straighten out.

It's not a complicated remedy you see, hmmm? Been around for dogs years you know. An elixir if you will, a panacea for modern living. Take a good dose of an English summers evening, throw in some fishing and good company (preferably someone who knows what they're doing), and a game plan to get amongst some quality bullheads and perch and you'll be right as rain. Let me know how you go, hmmm?........ I'll see you in about three weeks.

And that's when the fishing started............

With Danny riding pillion we headed to Napton reservoir with grand designs on it's bullheads and perch. My game plan had been four days in the brewing and was bursting at the seams to see the light of day. It was a three pronged attack.

Big Prong 1, and the most ingenuitive strand of my tactics was to scale down my zander rig in order to present a worm to the perch. Not only did it give me an excuse to break out my sensitive Shakespeare wand again but it also used up some old 10lb fluorocarbon I had left over from salmon fishing from three years ago.

With no expense spared I have used a cutting edge CAD package to represent my rig here:

A suspended worm rig.

Enormous prong 2, to fish a whip down the edge amongst the rocks which make up the bank here, to snare a prized bullhead.

Prize prong 3, to feed and fish light and shallow to encourage the small fish to feed up in the water in turn attracting the big sergeants in for tea.

We started fishing in the centre apex of the large reservoir but the wind was blustery and only a few chobbles resulted.

I followed Danny to the causeway as it was out of the intensifying wind. I immediately deployed my whip, and fed a thimble full of groundbait and maggot onto my bullhead line.

I started to get indications as soon as I'd cast out a worm on the scaled down zander rig and soon I was on the receiving end of some thumping bites on the light quiver. I missed the first two but was sure they were from good perch.

I connected with the third tip lunge when I heard line being pulled from the lightly set reel as I was casting out the float rod. The fish felt a good size and plodded around for a while on the light hook link. When it surfaced it turned out to be a tench around 3lbs. I made sure it remained safely in the net and that it remained clear of the rocks for unhooking and photos. It had taken a worm suspended about twelve inches off the bottom.

Fishing shallow on the waggler soon turned into a no-no as this years young ducks were frenzying on the loose feed which was going out. I dropped the depth on the waggler to the deck - about six feet - and fished red maggot on the hook.

I had just the one perch on red maggot at 4ozs.

The suspended worm and the maggot waggler secured me ten tench up to 4lb+ over the next few hours. Great sport in great surroundings. No true angler could turn his nose up at this, even if the prongs on my plan were coming loose.

Danny was getting amongst the tench and perch too on his 'bullhead line' on the slope of the causeway. 'Ooh 'ello', was regularly heard as he lifted his pole into a fish and then had to dip the tip and follow it quickly as it tore off somewhere the light bottom and elastic weren't quite geared for.

At dusk the weather decided to put on a show.

We heard the rain approaching behind us before it arrived.

The sky looked very moody.

It battered it down.

The light values never recovered once the rain started.

I concentrated on my bullhead line as dark approached.

The deluge put an end to the tench sport. I'll let Danny tell you about his Perch exploits.

Me? Well, I went to bed and slept the best I have all week. No challenge points, no (big) perch, no bullheads but happy.

Cheers.