Losing my head

Had a wander around the lake yesterday. Strange, some days the bushes and trees are a cacophony of bird song whilst at other times they are all but silent. Yesterday was a quiet almost sombre day except for the liquid trill of the occasional robin and a blue tit or two, it made the place feel isolated and a little lonely.

As I squelched down a slippery path I noticed a badger's skull in the undergrowth, further examination uncovered the rest of the skeleton. Its not often you find one of our larger mammal's bones and I couldn't help wondering just how it came to meet it's demise. I've found a couple of badger skulls before but never the whole skeleton, I decided to just pocket the head and pass it on to Neil who has a little collection.

A little farther along I was casting an eye over the coloured water for any signs of life when I caught my foot on a stick. Unfortunately it was quite a long stick buried beneath leaves and was pointing
directly ahead of me so my stumble didn't move it at all, it just stuck there and over it I went - splat!

I lay on my back staring at the sky through the tree canopy and did that little two second assessment of my well being - all systems 'A' okay and up I jumped. I looked for the skull which had been in my hand, I had tossed it to the side as I did my pirouette so it couldn't be far away. Well, ten minutes later after searching high and low I had to give up. Just where that skull went it a mystery, I really did hunt hard. I figured that the woods were not ready to let it go and I wouldn't be surprised if it were to turn up back with the body.... although I didn't look there - just in case.

Today I had another walk along soggy fields to the river. I'd done the same walk last Sunday but the river was just too high and there was nowhere to shelter from the extreme force of an angry Wye, today though, things were much better and there was merely 4' or so extra water rushing through.

The difference in level from last week to this.

I put a few free offerings of cheese paste upstream of a sunken tree where the water looked level and steady compared to much of the surrounding river. Out went a lump of paste on the hook and four smaller pieces on a PVA stringer, I sat back on the treacherous bank to await action. It took just a minute before the rod banged down and I hit a chub of about three and a half pounds.

A good start but it didn't continue, I tried a few more swims ending up on the inside of a bend where I had a violent take which I missed  My instincts make me think it was a trout due to the speed of the take

but I'll never know for sure. The amount of debris I was picking up was getting to me so I called it a day.