Friday 1 January 2010

Of Ice & Men

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How typical it is that when you get a few days off work, conditions just don't cooperate. Ice has been the main trouble- short of smacking a whole in it, it makes life very difficult. A visit to Tiverton Canal with Ian turned into a real battle- forget finding fish, we had enough bother finding water!
True to our never say die attitude we did give it a good try- shameless optimist that I am, I even tried casting a fly into gaps in the ice. Deadbait seemed logical in the end, but even this didn't earn a result.
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(Above: "Duh? Why has the water gone hard? And why do the local kids try and feed us bricks?)

I always enjoy Ian's company though- we had a good laugh at the annual game of see what you can throw onto the ice, a favourite of local kids. Sticks, stones, bricks, planks, a dead rat... you name it, they'd chucked it on the ice. A bit like a crude science experiment I guess ("Wayne throw rock, rock make ice break"). Most curiously of all, someone had lobbed some money onto the ice. In fact, we were wondering if this is some kind of local pastime of sliding coins onto the ice to lure local peasants to their doom.
No fishing today however, mainly because I have a stinking hangover from the whole carnage of a very boozy New Years celebration. Still, a good excuse to laze around thise morning and indulge in another kind of vice- the one I use to tie flies with. Here's one called a "Lucky Bugger" (if you can't be good, be lucky I always say):
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And then we have some bass patterns. Great, except that it'll be a small eternity before they see the beach:
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A very happy new year to everyone! Hope 2010 is a good 'un for you.

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