Day 33 since release from hospital. Must say thanks to all those that sent their best wishes to me. The road to recovery is going to be long but I am on the way! I have set myself a target of taking part in the MFS Pellet Guys Pairs at Makins on June 18/19 so we shall see. Yesterday completed 2.36 miles to what the wife and I call Purgatory Peak at Bowood, the start of the first hill down to the bridge; our walk usually involves “Hell’s Hill” on the way to Bowood, Purgatory Peak and Satan’s Slope down to the parking area at the bridge (you can tell we have been watching Supernatural by the names!). The walk yesterday took as long as it used to take to walk down to the bridge and back , so still a way to go in terms of getting back to normal.

In my enforced absence from the bank side I reflected on the past season and looked at the spreadsheet I use to log my visits to Bowood (sad, I know). I made a total of 67 visits at a cost of £2.95 a visit, catching a total of 665-08 at an average of 9lb 12oz. The season was the reverse of the previous one when bream had been scarce and tench had been plentiful. I weighed any fish over a pound separately when caught, so accumulated 51 bream for a weight of 125-08, the biggest being 5-11 with 10 further fish over 3lb. The 13 tench went 46-07 with the best 5-14 and 5 over 4lb. The pike was not bad given the best part of the season for them I missed, 26 pike for a total of 226-02, this included 6 taken on the pole (best 9-04), but the highlight was the PB of 24-08 with 3 further doubles of 13-06,11-08 and 10-02. Not necessarily massive fish but not bad in terms of sport given I used the pike rod as a sleeper while on the pole.

I have also been using my time to make up some floats and will look to get them on rigs in the near future.