The Competition

Image Above: Homemade Balsa and Bamboo Skewer Floats

I took a break from testing lures this morning to do a bit of float fishing. My motives were not entirely pure I had an idea to check out the competition; the bait fish that compete with my lures for the pikes attention. I really wanted to catch a roach or a small bream as I hope to make a similar shaped and coloured lure.

On the way to the lake I stopped at the petrol station and bought a small can of sweat corn to use as bait. Without homemade lures for company I would be fishing with homemade floats made from balsa and bamboo skewers. The lake was still and I set up a rig and plumbed the depths so the bait just lay on the bottom. My reactions were a little slow and I failed to strike as the float dipped at least half a dozen times. Quietly the float sank away and this time I hit it on the nail and felt the tug of a fish. It seemed I had hooked something a little larger than I had expected as rod arched and the line ran away. When it broke the surface I was little shocked to see a large freshwater eel wrapping itself around the line and float. It got more than a little slimy and rather than attempt to remove the hook from deep within its jaws I cut the line and tossed the fish back. Eel slime is not dissimilar to snot and by the time I had rigged up again I felt like I had blown my nose without using a tissue.

A little later when my reactions had warmed up I caught a small roach and spent almost too long a time admiring it. The scales were a thing of beauty, each one a little piece of crystal artwork and as I turned the fish over an iridescent sheen washed over them. I thought about my own lures and felt a little like Dr. Frankenstein realising that by comparison to this little fish I was creating monsters.

Image Below: A handful of Roach

Heat 7am The Flash

Image Above: Pike caught on a Hybrid Casting Spoon

Even before the sun had made it out of the trees the day had warmth about it almost as if the afternoon was already underway and morning had been passed over as an irrelevance.  The lake shimmered despite a breeze that pushed and pulled at its surface until water rolled and broke lapping at the grass and soil of the banks. It seems summer has been so long in coming.

Second cast, first fish a small pike. I stayed long enough to catch a second, a larger animal before the thought of chillier cabinet cola, sandwiches and driving with the window down began to occupy my thoughts.

I started out making a film about one thing and ended up with a film about something else, sorry about the junk. The music was composed and performed on a Gameboy by a friend and film maker Ewan Brown., what a guy. Cheers Ewan