The Scout Leaders and a few parents decided that after the manic few weeks we have had that they needed some me time, so they booked in a weekends camping and fishing at Cottington Lakes*. However, they then started to quiver at the thought of nothing Scouty for a weekend, how would they cope? Lets do the Anglers Badge was the cry, so on the Sunday they invited the Scouts out to start the badge.
I am writing this from my kitchen table on the Saturday night so you have probably worked out that things didn’t go quite to plan. The day started with a few showers, we could cope with that, but as the day went on the rain got harder, the wind got stronger but the fish got bigger so at 6 o’clock with everything soaked we decided that putting up tents in a down pour was not the best idea when home was only 25 minutes up the road. So we returned home for a hot shower and a warm bed. I cannot speak for the others but Kaa was not happy she thought she had a night without Gadget snoring!.
We will return in the morning with the Scouts and will continue the saga.
So, the story goes on ……….
We arrived back at Cottington Lakes on Sunday morning with the rain throwing it down and the wind blowing a gale, sound familiar? We headed for the Match Lake and setup shelters, bivvies and brollies ready for the Scouts arrival. The Scouts arrived at 10 o’clock and were kitted out and setup ready to go but with the showers continuing all morning the fishing was a bit slow although the end of the lake sheltered from the wind did produce a steady supply of silver fish all morning, and a large carp to Radar just before they all arrived. After lunch the clouds cleared and the sun made an appearance. Along with the better weather came better fishing, the sheltered end housing Point 5, Radar and Geena continued to fish well all afternoon with Geena topping the Scout list with over twenty fish. At the other end the fishing wasn’t as prolific for Coach, Gadget and George but they did mange a few decent ones over the afternoon, they were going for quality not quantity. Yeah right! The swims in between stayed quite until Bob had a couple of nice carp just before packing up. The Scouts that had not caught anything moved down to Point 5, Radar and Geena and I think everyone had something by the end of the day bar one.
The look on the face of a Scout as they caught their first fish made very minute sitting in the rain worth it, it was the only thing that could have beaten the sight of George trying to land a carp on a small 3 meter whip! It turned into a brilliant day and it must have been good as they all want to go again, think Geena would still be there now if we had not made her go home! Well done to Aidan, Tom, Sam, Geena and George it was a great day. We will try and sort another day in the summer.
I’m sure when those that didn’t want do it see the pictures and hear the fisherman’s tales they’ll be there next time.
A big thank you to George for being fish photographer for the day.
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