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Down to Earth

 BUMP - that was a sobering day out.

Got there early full of optimism on a chilly and breezy day, quick chat in the shop revealed that the water temperatue had dropped significantly and the fishing had consequently got a lot harder, never mind we thought (myself and boat partner - BP from now on) we had a fantastic day here last October so should be able to tempt a few fish.

Started off essentially drifting down the Farnborough Bank from the pontoons me on a 10ft sink tip with Cormorant, Red Diawl Bach and Zulu, BP DI5 sweep and Orange Blob

No activity at all and the wind started to get up and the temperature fall so we quickly decided to head for some shelter in Biggin Bay (along with every other boat on the water it seemed)

There were 1/2 a dozen boats anchored at various points in the bay and so we started a drift from around about Buoy D down, got all the way down to Lincoft point without so much as a sniff (I had by now changed to a DI5) but just at the end of the Drift BP briefly hooked a fish but lost it within a couple of seconds

Discussed whether to anchor up but decided not to (in hindsight we possibly should have as it would have given us more control over depth) so pootled back up to around D buoy and started again

Other boats starting to leave Biggin Bay just as we started the drift and BP finally hooked and landed a nice fish, he was still on the DI5 sweep and caught it on a Humungous Booby (Black+Silver)

I had now changed to a DI7 as we continued the drift down (BP nearest the shore), at the end of the drift close to Lincroft Point BP landed another

Changed point fly to Humungous Booby/ Cruncher in the middle and muddler on the top but stayed with the DI7 for a while

No interest whatsoever for me but BP got another but this time to a diawl bach.

Changed back to DI5 with Humungous Booby (from BP) on point, Cruncher in middle and Orange FAB on the top 

Decided to leave Biggin Bay and go round the corner to drift down to Toft Shallows - still largely governed by the shelter available as really very chilly and choppy once out of the shelter of the bays

BP hooked and landed another (I am now starting to get irritated) on the Humungous Booby but I did finally manage to get a fish on the Orange FAB - hurrah

Continued the drift all the way down to toft shallows without any more interest and went back to the start at Lincroft Point.

Couple of fish rising every now and then and BP had yet another on the Booby but nothing for me.

Arm and hand have been suffering for the last couple of hours (lack of practice at casting with 11 hpurs of casting and retrieving BP got cast in a tangle so decided to head back at 18:00

A fantastically enjoyable day as it was the first time out on the water for 6 months but chilly and tiring at the same time - need to have a bit of a rethink I think about tactics/flies etc



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