Luck

I have this thing about luck. I believe your luck balances out over time, you get so much good followed by an equal amount of bad and vice versa. The only thing that varies is the time scale, so you might have to suffer a long period of poor luck before one big lucky event comes your way.

I had a particularly big river fish early this year, then a few days later I crashed my car, even-stevens you see!

I really wanted to fish the rivers this week. The weather was perfect while I was at work then the night before I was due to fish the heavens opened and the rivers were soon on the rise. That was my first bit of bad luck and I cursed it so I decided instead to get the boat out for a two-day session of deadbaiting and lure fishing.

Day one saw me at the waters edge with the boat fully loaded by dawn but the wind was a bit stiff. Nevermind, I was there and I was going to fish so I set off to a spot I often fish at the mouth of a stream where it enters the lake. Of course the heavy rain soon put paid to that. I picked up a six pounder on a smelt but the constant bombardment of leaves, twigs and weed brought down by the stream soon had me on the move.

I was limited by the wind strength to fishing sheltered areas and had to anchor up with care so as to keep the boat steady in the blustery conditions and on one occasion I managed to get the back anchor rope around the propellor. Luckily the engine wasn't damaged but the rope was and it will have to be replaced. I tied a knot it in for the rest of the trip and that did me ok.

Late in the day the wind subsided and I got to fish a spot I really fancied. I caught three further fish there, the biggest a little under ten pounds and this one had a bit of a surprise for me. As I was removing the hooks it kicked and drove one of them through the middle finger of my left hand. It was a hairy moment with me attached to one end of the trace and the fish attached to the other and thrashing wildly but I managed to keep my cool, reached for my cutters and ended our brief union. I chopped up the hooks and pulled the remaining bits of metal out of my flesh, only to prompt a welling of considerable quantities of blood - nice!

Darkness soon fell and I motored over to the bank and began to cook my evening meal, curry and rice. It took around twenty minutes to get everything cooked but as I reached down to take it off the stove I clumsily knocked the whole lot over into the mud. I had no more food and had to make do with the bits left in the pan that hadn't spilled, boy was I having a bad time. I was fed up by now and my throbbing finger and rumbling stomach nagged at me to abandon the idea of staying over and go home. I was sorely tempted but something in the back of my brain said "hold on, your luck's got to change sooner or later" and so I wearily curled up in the car and tried to get some sleep.

Next morning the day dawned with promise. Gone was the wind, gone was the rain, though there was the odd shower to remind me who was boss. I headed for the spot I fished last the day before. I had had three small fish there and reasoned that there might be a better one if I stuck at it.

With three deadbaits in strategic positions I set to with the lure rod casting a replicant. I was soon into a fish of around eleven pounds and this brightened my mood a bit. I tried to take a quick photo of the fish lying on the mat but the camera batteries were flat so I just slipped it back and changed the batteries afterwards. As I was doing so, with my attention turned away from the rods for a moment, I heard the familiar buzz of a baitrunner. Sure enough one of the deadbaits, a whole mackerel, had been taken. I pulled into what was obviously a big fish and soon had her aboard. It was all worth it after all! I flicked out the hooks and held the fish up on the scales - a nice weight and one that I'll use in a guess-the-weight at my next slide show.

Two more fish came later in the day, a jack and one of around twelve pounds and I went home a happy lad - to a big meal! Surface temperature on the day was 11.5 degrees.