As the tail end of Hurricane Bill descended upon the northwest coast, and bringing with it some pretty strong winds and very heavy showers. I in my infinite wisdom decided to once again pack the rods into the van and descend upon the Sluice for a spot of fishing. (I just can't seem to keep away from the place, most normal people after looking out of the window would have gone back to bed) We hadn't been there too long and Mo who had decided to join me on this session was in the process of setting up when the mother of all showers opened up and unleashed it's wrath. I though tucked away quite nicely in my JRC shelter was perfectly fine, Mo on the other hand got a good soaking. "I'm packing up mate" were the words he mumbled as he climbed into my dry sanctuary. These of course were the last words that I wanted to hear, who could blame him though as he was only wearing a fleece and combat trousers. Of course I did the decent thing and refused his request and made him stick it out until I was ready to pack up, according to my iphone weather report, the worse of the storm had passed through and after 9am the forecast was given to be a bit better, it was right, the showers pretty much died away but we were constantly battered by relentless winds. I kindly offered mo a fishing lifeline by setting up one of my Pike rods, It was left to me then to bag some live baits, not an easy task, I managed to catch around half a dozen Roach the whole session. Despite the conditions, I was still confident that if we could get a bait in the water we'd hook into a Pike, and indeed we did, well Mo did, as in a completely unselfish act (Unlike me and it did cross my mind as to what my reaction may have been if it had been a big lump, images of me pushing him in were playing through my head.) I stepped aside and let Mo take the fish. "It's only a little one" he proclaimed, "Nonsense! It's swimming towards you mate" was my reply, then you guessed it, it was showtime. A respectible Pike of around 8 and a half pounds was duly photographed and released. So my stubborness in not packing up had paid off, and if I told Mo once that "I bet you're glad we stayed now" I must have told him a dozen times. The moral of this story is this, it doesn't matter how bad the weather is as long as you're prepared for it!
Worth getting wet for mate?
A sample of the weather
