Tuesday 27 December 2011

Wet!

Another in a Series of Irregular Blogs.

(Maybe, just maybe, the blogs will get more frequent.)

Had been looking forward to a trip...to anywhere! Needed to escape the shopping and the Xmas preparations, so, a couple of days ago, I set out with minimal gear and aimed for a water in which I suspect there may be good perch.   The lake had a major drift on it from left to right, carrying with it a fair amount of floating grangle weed, and made any form of bite indication dodgy, to say the least.
The presence of those good perch remains as a definite maybe, for apart from a couple of probable bites, little was happening below the waves.  Cormorants and grebes dived incessantly, and one carp showed on the surface out of casting range.  

The rain however was a major event, starting moments after I arrived bankside.  It remained a deluge throughout, and the day was thoroughly miserable, so miserable that, when a jetskier arrived to belt up and down the lake, at leger distance, and at maximum speed, it was almost a pleasure to watch him.  As usual I hoped his machine would have a catastrophic and explosive failure, and as ever, it didn't,  but after a dozen runs each way through my swim and directly over my bait he cleared off.  Dog walkers abounded, and I found that, at 5 inches range, my ultrasonic dog scarer did not.
The rain became very fine, that invisible drizzle that saturates all it comes into contact with. Wetter than the lake that stuff is. My maggot tin gathered enough wet to allow the contents to make exploratory trips outside the tin. 
I did the same, and explored the way home. It was still daylight and the rain then stopped during the journey home.   The new "waterproof" jacket has yet to convince me that its label was anything more than a pack of lies.   It feels distinctly damp, despite the umbrella.  Maybe waterproof means that the wet only gets part way through.  The camouflage failed to hide it from the rain.