"The Sun shines on the righteous" - Christian Anglers Retreat (day 2)

Day two of the retreat saw welcome rays of sunshine breaking through the early morning cloud as the campsite stirred into life. Anglers emerged from tents, coffees were made and drunk before a short "service" (well, it was a Sunday) at which I gave a brief talk about spiritual lessons drawn from using fake sweetcorn for bait (I guess you "had to be there"), followed by some prayers led by a few of the other campers before we headed off for the second of our venues for the weekend, Spring Grange Fishery in Beeby. ( www.springrangefisheries.co.uk )

 

 Another favourite venue for the Leicester based Christian Anglers, we were keen to introduce it to our travelling club members. Although some might argue that it's technically a "Commercial", it neither looks like one, nor is it managed like one. John and his wife, Anne, have lovingly nurtured the two lakes, which are surrounded by mature trees and vegetation and created a top class environment for fishing and an oasis of tranquility. They'd also allowed us to book the Coarse Lake for our exclusive use, and cooked and delivered to our swims their rightly lauded "triple decker breakfast sandwiches".

 

We spread out around the lake, and soon a variety of techniques were being employed to try to fool the lake's inhabitants. Some of our number were on bolt rigs, boilies and PVA bags, others were float fishing with maggots, some fed hemp and casters, while yet others tried floaters or opted for the ubiquitous Method and pellet or mini boilie approach.

 

 As on the previous day at Homeclose, carp were caught (and in greater numbers), but not as prodigiously as they sometimes are at Spring Grange. David and Mick had one apiece on surface baits, Pete managed one on the Method, Jez landed a brace while float fishing and Roy and Greg had three apiece, Roy's on the float, Greg's on the Method. The pictures below show Greg and Jez displaying, gripping and grinning before returning their prizes to the water.

 

 

Several carp were lost, some within seconds of being hooked as they careered for safety towards the bushes and tree roots in the margins, one (for Mick) sickeningly right at the net, and most unlucky of all a hook pull for James after playing the carp for what seemed like an age on the pole. Sam repeated his feat of the previous day and landed a pole caught carp after several minutes of adding and subtracting sections and "letting the elastic do the work."

 

 

It wasn't all about the carp. Pete, Keith and Roy all managed to land roach in excess of a pound, and lovely golden rudd with extravagantly coloured red fins, such as the one displayed here by James, were in plentiful supply.
 

Perch were also much in evidence, and the perch of Spring Grange exhibit the bravura swagger that is a defining characteristic of the species, as shown by this spikily indignant little fish, one of many that greedily swallowed my double red maggot.

Roy had tucked himself into a pretty little corner swim with a a cluster of lilly pads and used a jigger float, match rod and centre pin to conjure out a succession of quality fish including a staggering half dozen crucians of over 2 pounds each.

 

 One or two anglers struggled in relative terms, but although not all of the fish were monsters, most of us caught somewhere between 40 and 70 fish. I gave up counting somewhere in the "high 30's", as did James, but we both estimate that we caught about 60 plus fish each, and although neither of us landed a carp, when you're catching regularly in beautiful surroundings and in the best of company, who's complaining? Quite simply, it was another perfect day.

 

 And so ended the first ever Christian Anglers Retreat. Friendship, faith and fishing: it's not just what we do, it's who we are. After all, wasn't it Jesus who said "go fish"? ( Matthew 4:19)