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I haven't fished freshwater for the best part of 3 years. Nothing too weird about that but I live 10 houses away from a river and grew up fishing rivers and lakes 2 or 3 times a week from the age of 11 until mid to late 20s. My kids are on half term and I promised them that we would fish the river Stour during this week. We popped down to the marina to get some things off of my boat at 11am Wednesday but the chance of a swift getaway was denied by the mrs who had other ideas. She had packed lunch for the kids so we got out the cushion and sat on the back of our boat in the sunshine. Pretty soon there were mullet all around us and my lad talked me into setting his rod up. 5 minutes later we hooked and landed the biggest in the shoal which was approximately 3lb. Result. Back home to sort the fishing stuff and buy a 1 day rod license. Bought it in the afternoon so we could then go again Thursday early morning (lasts 24h). A quick session in the gym followed by dinner saw us on the riverbank at 5pm. Managed to snaffle some roach and chub early doors and as the sun started going down the worms came out and we moved to a swim I used to catch Perch in 25 years ago. Bingo, 7 or 8 Perch landed in 20 minutes with a decent 12oz one for good measure. Bedtime for my 6 year old and 8 year old daughter who had come down a little later with mum. We walked back and they were tucked in bed by 20.30. I received a call from my dad wanting to plan a fishing trip on the boat this weekend so that was arranged. He asked if I had decided on a holiday for October half term because I've been talking about holibobs for 6 months but not pulled the trigger. 'We should just go carping in France' I told him. 5 minutes later and we were both searching the net for availability. Boom, there was a space at a familiar lake with nice gite for the family. This was coincidentally the last place I fished in fresh water until today. Wow, talk about signs from above. Lake and ferry booked and we're off to the place where a week saw us bank 9 30lb fish and 6 40lb carp. Calsberg don't do fishy days but if they did, Wednesday would have been one of them.

Our Fourth trip to the IOM to fish the Pokerstars Comp , and despite the weather causing the comps cancellation what a belter it was . Trustees Martin , Edward and Neil were accompanied by Richard , Andy and Stephen . Sailing from Liverpool , the now traditional pre sail beer in the cavern club was cancelled as some chap called McCartney was belting out a few tunes in there 🙂 . On the ferry , Richard spotted Max Boyce , and couldn’t resist a selfie with the bemused chap 🙄The accomodation , at King Williams college was again spot on , with full breakfasts provided at Lazer Mahems coffee cottage , a cracking venue run by ex forces personnel , and also by Iom trustee Tony’s wife with Tony hindering her in the kitchen 😁. Friday we launched at Port Erin , everyone catching some cracking pollock as well as an abundance of cuckoo and Ballan wrasse . With the Comp being off on Saturday due to gale force winds we were taken under the wing of local expert Johnathon and to the North of the island . Unfortunately with the winds swirling and shifting direction regularly we were unable to launch but were treated to a tour of the works being undertaken to restore Ramsay pier , a 15 year project. Sunday arrived with a slight hangover , and the promise of the wind dropping late afternoon . A quick trip over to Port Soderick to look at how our new training base is progressing , Followed by a trip to Port st marys to meet up with the great lads and lasses from our IOM section over a cup of tea and Beryl’s wonderful sponge and lemon drizzle cake 🙂. After much discussion we headed back to Port Erin and launched into a testing sea . The lads gained some valuable experience before catching a few wrasse and pollock in the shelter of the breakwater. And so our trip came to an end , however with the ferry delayed 2 hours we got a cheeky launch in and had some nice pollock , filleted for the trip home 😁

I seriously have them on show in my man cave, some of the Nautilus and Stella’s are beautiful engineered bits of kit. But maybe I am sad!!!!! I don’t live and work by the sea like you Charlie😩