Trip #109 – Lockdown Leviathan

Highfields Dairy Farm

Not exactly the first post of 2021 that I expected to write.

National “Lockdown“ is currently in full swing. There is an easily transmittable global pandemic, the likes of which has not been seen in my lifetime. I have been furloughed since March and with the schools closing shortly after, I have also been looking after our son a lot. 

He isn’t 5 yet, but he is starting to ask questions about catching fish. Maybe it was time, time to seize on that moment which every angling parent thinks about. The day they take their child fishing “properly” for the first time. Fishing had previously been restricted, however with the numbers starting to look more positive some restrictions are being lifted. This was it then, the hallowed ground, one of the most important moments I had waited for so far in my son’s (and my) life. Time to go fishing. I immediately over thought everything and realised pretty soon I would have to manage my own expectations. There would be no pole fishing (sob). Probably no feeder fishing either. Taking a step back I started to think. What would any 4-year-old like to do if they had to go fishing? Watch a float go under. OK. Not big fish either they are too troublesome, I needed lots of silverfish. Got it! – Highlands Dairy Farm. Let’s roll.

We arrived at the venue laden to the brim with snacks. Malt loaves, sandwiches, crisps, raisins, you name it we had it. Frustratingly the lake (Kingfisher) I wanted to fish was closed off. It had been booked out for a “carp fishing” weekender, looking down the banks they were now complete with numerous beer cans. Never mind – Mallard was chock-a-block full of fish, particularly silver fish. I emptied the car of equipment and we wheeled around to a peg large enough for us both to fish on the bank closest to the road. I noticed a few old boys with rod pods on the opposite bank. Not to worry, we wouldn’t be going for carp today, just silverfish.

We were set up relatively quickly and the boy was merrily munching away on an oatie bar when I started to show him what to do. “Just gently lift the rod when the float goes under” … “Ok?”… “Yep!” Unfortunately, we didn’t have maggots, just pellets, corn and bread, so the bites weren’t immediate on corn and after a very patient 10 minutes I could tell this was not the start he (or I) had expected. What to do??? Ok, try pellet as bait. Nothing. Bugger. Ok, I’ve never been keen on using bread as bait, but desperate times and all that. I punched some bread, and gently flicked it out. Immediately the float dipped under. “Lift!”. We were in, a writhing little Roach was lifted out of the lake by about 6 inches and, plop! off it came. Time to try again. Fortunately, bread seemed to do the business and before long he was swinging in these little fish for me to unhook. We hadn’t gotten to the handling stage yet (completely fair enough). After 10-15 fish I also remembered I had 4 and 8mm expander pellets in my carryall, so we had a few more options if bread began to fail.

I’ll be completely honest and say I had wondered if any bigger fish were lurking in the corner. So I fired a few 8mm hard expanders over towards the far corner, where they floated for a few minutes, before I heard it – Slurp…  After 15 or so Silverfish I asked if it was time to try and catch a bigger fish. “Ye- lets catch a big one!”. You don’t have to tell me twice. I pulled the pellet waggler out of the rod bag, and set up a short hooklink off a pre weighted float. Banding on an 8mm pellet I flicked it out towards the corner, there were line bites almost instantly, but after 30 seconds the float slipped away and I was in! This wasn’t a roach, and the cheers that my son bellowed out over the lake made the chaps opposite look up and have a grumble. It had been a fair while since I had caught anything remotely this size, and it was also mildly nerve wracking that I was going to mess it up and lose the biggest fish of the day.

Fortunately after a solid performance and a few last minute dives for the reeds I managed to net a long thin common nudging the scales just over 7lb.

There was a certain amount of pride in catching (as my son put it) the biggest fish he had ever seen (I assume he meant caught by a person as he’s seen the sharks at Bournemouth aquarium!) – but I’ll take it none-the-less. 

We continued to fish for the next 2 and a half hours with many more silverfish to follow, but as anyone with a small child knows, nothing holds a 4 year olds attention for long. So we started to pack away after a fun and successful few hours fishing. What had I learnt?

1. In future take maggots!
2. Although he claimed to enjoy it, my son probably was a bit too young, even still he liked seeing the fish.
3. Fish somewhere where there are big spacious pegs. I have mentioned it in previous posts, however a small amount of work would pay huge dividends at venue such as Highfields. Allowing the banks to grow wild, makes it a difficult task to effectively set up in some locations.

The venue was great fun however and will most certainly be heading back out there. For a previous rating please see here.