Not again!

My intention was to try out my new groundbait today, but it was not to be. From here, in my part of London, there are not many venues locally to fish. Our small local river is only just about fishable, and although better than nothing, it is limited. The next best thing is Oakley Road Fishery that is about half an hour's drive away in traffic. The trouble is Oakley Road is small, and they have a few rules that will restrict my plans to test my new bait. There is no swinging to hand at all, not even tiny fish, which virtually scuppers the use of whips. And they are not keen on the use of groundbait anyway. I get that as the lake is not very big and does not have a flow as it is fed from run-off.

All this means that if I am going to another commercial, I need to leave early just to be clear of the morning traffic, as we live just inside the South Circular road.

Midnight and it is not looking good...

I am the first to admit that I am not keen of fishing in the rain or traipsing through the mud. After a spell of beautifully dry weather, perfect for me, where work had prevented me from going fishing, I had made up my mind to go today. Last night it started to rain it was pouring down. Okay, perhaps it will clear, was my thoughts. I decided to wait a while and see how the night developed before making a decision. By now it was past midnight, and if I was going to go, I needed to get some sleep. I can make do with four hours if needed. I had virtually decided that all this was getting too much and thought I would see what the weather was like in the morning.

If that were it, I would probably be out fishing right now instead of writing this, but at about 03.30 I was woken by all the windows in the front of the house resonating in tune with what sounded like a slow running diesel engine.

The gasboard are digging up the road and have narrowed the entrance to the road opposite meaning it's hard to emerge into our road. Stuck across the street wedge between the barriers, a telegraph pole and a parked car is a long rigid refrigerated lorry, slowly shunting back and forth attempting to get around the corner.

As I was wondering if I can help in any way, the driver had apparently given up and proceded to demolish the barriers and cones to make the turn. To my amazement, he stopped (in the pouring rain) and re-erected the entire barrier system.

That was it. I had managed to get a couple of hours sleep, and now I was wide awake with no chance of getting back to sleep. With less than an hour to go until I would have to get up anyway, yet again I abandoned all thought of getting out early to go fishing. 

I have now just received a call from a friend of mine who needs some help tomorrow (instead of the pre-arranged Monday), which now means that tomorrow is out for an early start.

I give up. Well, for now anyway.

Maybe I should just get on with it and go come rain or shine; I don't mind fishing in the rain, it is the setting up and putting away in bad weather that I hate. Being a 100% townie, I also have an aversion to mud!

Ralph.