Saturday 4 March 2017

Strawberry


Fighting against the fading light, desperate to fit a few more short trips in before close, struggling to see the shadows crossing the shallow gravel - three very hard fighting barbel of 10lb 10oz, 6lb 8oz and 5lb 15oz graced the landing net...

Mistakes were made. A cracking photo and a distinctive barbel - the 11lb 15oz fish from last week - I had messed up weighing her - either then or now. I sent the photo to James and he recognised he'd seen her early in the season at 10lb 15oz and at 11lb 13oz last season... Could be either weight, so I've change my records to the lower weight. And I'm normally obsessive when weighing fish!

The Flash. I'm afraid I can't recommend the Lumix DMC-FT30, once set up it takes great daylight photos - like the one above and the post below. But the flash isn't strong enough to take photos even in dusky low-light. Most of my fishing is in the daytime, but you never know when you'll find that special fish at dusk - back to the drawing board.

The Wye. I was hoping I'd be on The Wye this weekend but the river is too high and too unsettled for pike. It needs to drop at least 3 or 4 foot this weekend and stay there all week - I've checked the weather and it's raining! So barring a miracle I need a backup plan - and I think it'll be one last crack at a monster Stour chub...

2 comments:

  1. Hi mate could that fish have spawned since last week?
    Can you up the ISO on that camera for night shots. It may make the pics grainy but will expose beter.

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    1. No hasn't spawned - even though it's mild they are still about 3 months early. So unless she's been on the Slimfast plan I've messed up weighing her. And I have a horrible feeling it was the second time!

      I had the camera set on iISO, which worked really well on the previous Lumix, but I've turned that off and set it manually and a quick test in the garden looks promising (the neighbors must be wondering what I keep photographing out there at night).

      Another field test is called for but you might have cracked it - cheers Steve, you saved me from having to read the instructions :-)

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