Holidays in the English Lake District.

Visited Morecambe and had my pic taken with Eric Morecambe, half of the comedy duo, Morecambe and Wise.






Not a particularly big fish but a welcome one. It weighed about 11lb or so and fell to a wobbled brown trout bait. This one caused me a bit of pain because when I picked it up the treble became embedded in my finger, followed by the fish struggling. This is the second time in fifteen years of pike fishing that this has happened to me. We all need a wee reminder now and again that hooks hurt fish. When I returned this fish to the water its jacket or slime coat came off. This happens when the water is low in oxygen or too warm. Fishing cancelled for the rest of the holiday.
Weather was mainly cold, wet and windy so spent most of the week reading and sight seeing in the rain





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Seeing this well looked after old VW dormobile reminded me of the one Sandra and I had when the kids were small. Ours was a red and white one of the same model as this one. It had a double bed and two hammocks up in the roof. We went away wild camping every weekend with it. Money was tight for a young couple so we never used campsites, mainly layby's and forest areas.


Great fun.....






It rained quite a bit back home also, and the garden resembles a jungle.

My first capsicum, first of many I hope.

Lots of tomatoes now, and I've had to freeze a few cabbages, broccoli and cauliflowers.
We have squillions of carrots, Swedes, peas, Florence Fennel, Kohl Rabi and enough onions and garlic for a good few months. The shallots are hanging up to dry in the potting shed.
All for now....

Big fish and blue green algea.

Not the best pic ever but a nice female pike of 23lb.08oz. She took a float fished brown trout, slowly retrieved 4 feet beneath a large float in 12 feet of water, charging around for a full 10 minutes before being netted by Josh.

An hour and a half later I hooked into this fine specimen of exactly 20lbs using the same method but lamprey for bait this time. This one did'nt put up such a spirited fight and I was surprised at the size of this fish when Josh slipped the net under her.

This is a pic of the bigger fish a few minutes after release. She just lay and sulked for a few minutes before swimming off.
No blue green algea this year so far, and the water is very clear. I think the cold summer last year may have had a adverse affect on it. Its been cold, wet and windy here the last few days but; Sandra and I are off to the Cumbrian Lakes for a week this Saturday, hopefully the weather 300 miles south of here will be a wee bit better. Might even catch a big pike, who knows?

Mutant courgette.

This courgette/zuchini plant has turned into a monster of the greenhouse. Today its about 18 inches long and growning an inch a day.


This is Meg, our English Springer Spaniel.

Nothing she likes better than a run through a wheat field, except a swim in a loch.


Lots of veg ready for the pot now with cabbages, little cauliflowers, baby broccolli, carrots, peas, etc.


This is part of the 45 acre field in front of the cottage. Peas this year and naturally, we'll have our fair share. Nothing like rustled pea and ham soup.

I've been putting off starting the poultry project but hope to make a start this weekend as I have three days off.

Big Fish.

I had the priviledge of netting and witnessing a good mate catching and releasing his first 20+ on Sunday afternoon. She weighed in at 22lb and 12oz. This fine lass would have been a big 20 or even a 30 in the latter part of the winter, but as she has recently spawned the weight was down.

Very difficult to catch a pike of this size at this time of year so hats off to Craig,

Well done mate!