16/08/24 - Junior Coaching - Lysander Lake, Silverlake.

It was 07:45 when I opened the car door at the side of Silverlake’s Lysander Lake and I thought, am I going to wish I’d brought a jumper with me?

The early morning breeze had a chill to it. But the weather forecast said otherwise.

27 degrees of ‘Oh my God I can’t breathe’ heat was predicted and with not a single tree for cover, it was going to be a warm one.

I have made a promise to myself that, if I find that one English person that makes the comment of ‘Well, we didn’t have much of a summer this year’, I will commit acts of violence upon them.

The lack of rain is becoming a real problem for fisheries up and down the country with water levels becoming alarmingly low. Events and matches are being affected by no water and low oxygen that I feel it necessary to consider the postponement or even cancellation of some of the events at venues like Todber Manor. We have two weeks to pray for some significant rain. Otherwise, we may be facing some unwelcome decisions for the Two Methods/Pairs/Points match and even the Senior/Junior Pairs match. The river match could be under threat too because when the rain does come (It is coming, right?), will the condition of the river be right for us?

Time will tell on all the above and there is nothing we can do about it…

It's not just the fisheries that are suffering. Mrs H has not been feeling that summery and is the reverse of those awaiting acts of violence. She wants the summer to ‘bu**er off’ or at least wind its neck in a bit. But after the summer comes Autumn, and that’s even worse for some Asthma suffers.

We celebrated our first wedding anniversary last weekend. But, if you don’t know us that well, don’t go thinking that we’re still in the first flushes of our relationship. It’s been nearly 18 years since we met, and we hold each other in as much contempt as any other ‘Old married couple’.

I jest of course.

Our last words every night are either ‘I love you’, ‘Get off me’, or ‘Will you please stop farting’ and that will never change.

Happy Anniversary my love…

I hate chatting to country folk, and before you start a mob with flaming torches and pitch forks, let me explain…

Jon, Chris and I were standing having a chat about rainbow unicorns or something like that and, all of a sudden, Jon cut off mid-sentence exclaiming that he had witnessed the flight of Lesser Spotted Green Feathery Missile. This was backed up back Chris excitedly saying that he’d thought he’d seen it too.

Old towny bloke here was left trying to unscrew my head at the neck to see what they were looking at!

Jon did this to me before at Sharnhill saying that some miniscule black dots flying at 15,000 feet were Orange Tipped Nurdle Warblers…

I asked him how he knew? He said he couldn’t be sure, but that’s what he thought they might be…

Again, years ago, travelling with friends to a fishing meeting IN THE DARK, one of them said they’d spotted a Little Owl flying by…All I saw was the glass of the side window as my face bounced off of it trying to trace the flight path of a bird that had already gone!

I don’t like Ornithology unless it’s a Kingfisher. At least they have the grace to be bright turquoise!

Stepping onto Lysander Lake is like entering a different world. We have left behind the lush overgrown fisheries of Revels and Luckfield.

Instead, we find ourselves in a rather barren wilderness.

But, it does have a beauty of its own and is actually quite peaceful. If you can ignore the trains honking at the level crossing, the cars that like to use the adjacent road as a racetrack, the howling wind that makes phones calls and any kind of communication impossible and the family screaming at their dog to stop chasing the geese, it could be a kind of paradise.

Sadly today, the other thing that found themselves at rest were the fish.

At the start of the day, juniors were shown how to make their own ‘Dog Biscuit Floaters’ using Balsa, superglue and Rich Tea biscuit crumbs. If you missed it, I could do it again or put it on a PDF on request. Fun to do and a great chance to stick things to things…permanently!

It was always going to be a gamble coming to Silverlake. Compared to our other usual venues, it is a challenge. But at least you feel like you are ‘fishing’ rather than ‘catching’.

Jaques Rixon joined us for his first ever ‘proper’ fishing session and, if he still enjoyed it after this, he is a born angler. Jaques came with friend Luke Hare, who is also a relative newcomer and together they managed to catch one of three Carp that made an appearance today.

It was Luke who caught the fish from Lucy’s Pool, but hopefully Jaques experienced enough to want to return another day. Both nice, if a little quiet, lads who are more than welcome at our junior sessions.

Jayce and Jake used their watercraft skills and headed as far round the lake as they could to get on the front of a warm breeze. It wasn’t quite warm enough for some of the Carp as they conspicuous by their absence. But they did manage a nice little collection of Perch with maggots on a float.

A rather sad looking version of someone I vaguely recognised as Martin Roe, sat in a heap in the sunshine. Martin, like Mrs H, is an Asthma sufferer and did well to last the day. Probably helped by the breeze keeping the temp down to be honest. He was spotted laying on the ground like a dispatched Elk at one point. I don’t know if he was suffering from his condition, or just from terminal depression at not having caught anything and being one down to Josh who had.

‘Hughes Junior’ had bagged a lump at around halftime. Sadly, his landing net was given more than enough time to dry out by the time it was time to leave.

Freddie and Aaron were bunked in at around peg 7 at the end of the first island. Despite everyone dropping in to offer advice and encouragement, he remained fishless by the end. Not everywhere is easy. I wouldn’t want a fish fest every session. But it is still tough for me to see juniors go home without catching anything.

Another junior in ‘Blanker’s corner’ was Alexander. With no fish offering themselves to some pretty robust casting, he was left to amuse himself by rolling stones down the bare slope (Lakebed) into the water. If nothing else it would go some way to helping the water level rise, all-be-it artificially.

Alexander’s patience had worn out before the end and he and Charlie left earlier than the rest. But the little man did very well to last as long as he did considering the circumstances.

I was next and having moved from the far end, I set up on the outside curve of the lake.

Crispy (Chris P. (Painter) get it?) the coach said I was setting a bad example by fishing in a spot where there was no peg. The look on my face was enough to end this part of the conversation, so that was that.

The fish were nowhere to be seen. Only towards the end did a few cruise past the rod tips of one or two anglers.

(Top excuses from a former match angler incoming! Watch and learn kids!).

I was using one of the coaching feeder rods instead of one of my own because it was new and I didn’t want little trotters all over it! Because it wasn’t mine, when I did hook a Carp, it went for a little run (swim). I followed it with the rod expecting the clutch to gently pay out line as my own reel would.

It didn’t…

Both Crispy and I felt that nauseous feeling of a once tight line now gone slack, and a Carp had a temporary new piercing to show off to his or her friends.

Until they got home and mummy Carp told daddy Carp about it, there would be a row about it, and the bejewelled Carp would storm to their room screaming that it was a barbless piercing, that all their friends had one, and that they hated their parents!

How quickly things spiral out of control!!!

I did have another big line bite, but that was my account for the day. Jon had set that rod up, so it was his fault!!

Thomas Millard had caught a lump.

I have to say that in no way did it go to his head.

He never once mentioned the fact that he had caught one and the lead coach had not.

He would not have dreamed of asking the lead coach if he’d caught one after every single cast.

He offered only encouragement and support to everyone else on the lake.

At no point did his confidence boil over causing him to challenge the lead coach to a one-on-one match at a venue of his choosing.

The lead coach did not say that such a challenge be seen as abuse to a child if it were to take place.

Only one of the previous seven sentences are true.

Please your answers to:

1 Child is going to get shouted at Lane,

Ifhedoesn’tbeltupsoon,

Silverlake,

Warmwell…

Thomas had a fish and that was one more than I.

There’s a first time for everything…

So, there it is…

We did Silverlake.

Was I disappointed?

No, not really.

There were more bodies round that lake than it had seen during the previous week, may be two.

The water level was so low (as it is everywhere), probably two metres down from previous levels.

The stocking level of the lake is still not ready for group events like this. Something that will be remedied in the future.

I think I expected the outcome to be what it was and that is not necessarily a bad thing.

Not everywhere is Todber Manor.

Some places need angling skill and watercraft to catch fish.

Silverlake is somewhere between the two. You need it to be quiet to catch, and you need to know where to fish to catch them.

We will get there…eventually.

Big thanks to Jon Bass, Tim Broughton, and Chris Painter for their help today. Good job gentlemen…

The next event for the kids is the final of the knockout on the 22nd at Revels on Dead Tree Lake.

(Finalists only).

Hopefully, we will be going to Todber Manor for the match on the 30th. A full description of the events there has been posted on WhatsApp, and I can’t be bothered to write it all out again here. If you missed it or were not part of the group at the time, let me know and I will forward you a copy.

Please, please, please get out and do some rain dancing so my stress levels can return to a high level instead of stratospheric!!!

Take care everyone,

Juniors Sec…