Chasing dreams

The only time I'm ever consistently close to achieving my dreams is when I'm asleep! The stark reality is that I set my sights very high and come up short at every twist  and turn. It's not a major issue - it's why I'm allowed to dream. The point at which dreams become reality are few and far between -  but on those rare occasions, when they are realised, should be savoured with every bit of pleasure that can be derived from the experience. My first twenty plus pike, since 16th January 1990, a few days after Mum died, is one such event, the Kilchurn Bay 24.10 another milestone moment. Emotional  - these rare occasions are very special, intense and personal - life is, for a very short while, almost perfect?

Pixies Mere, Herts, 16th January 1990 - 22lbs 3oz of pre-historic, looking, esox!

20lbs 9oz of perfection. A few days after my Mum died, fated? I have no such belief, but
it was an intensely emotional experience.

So how does anyone define perfection? - To me it's that gleaming red eye in the olive flanked masterpiece of a big tench, the sun rising over the mountains, of Kilchurn Bay, to illuminate the mist shrouded loch below, or the simple delight in an accurate, first time, cast of a baited hook into the path of a feeding carp, yet it could just as easily be the smile on my grand-children's faces when I appear - priceless and yet free! (I must add that I only get this reaction because I'm a bigger kid than they are and I'm usually bearing "chocky") Our perception of this concept is an incredibly individual thing - guys that I work with can see it in an old motor scoter or VW Camper - wasted on me, but that's of no importance.

I would like to hear the arguments against a Spitfire being close to perfection!

Yeah, perfect - when things can't get any better? If this were so, then my moment has been and gone, yet I remain confident that I can still improve my life, and enjoy more events/experiences which are but a, short-lived, glimpse into Utopian bliss.
For the past three weeks I seem to have got stuck in some kind of mental loop? I want to catch a tench, but caught carp instead, but I still want to catch a tench, yet caught even more carp - and so it goes on. The reality is that I'm now carp fishing, which I probably was from day one, hoping to pick up a tench! However, something else has happened, which might throw a whole new "spanner in the works", as I was pre-baiting a swim a couple (?) of days ago. The un-mistakable spiny dorsal, of a decent sized perch, came scything through a shoal of fry in the near margin - I hadn't even thought about this species until that moment. What if I adopt a different approach - fish two different methods; two different rigs and baits? What else is there to be caught out in these desolate venues? There is only one way to find out and that's by trying it! Eels will definitely be a problem because I'll be using worms as bait but, as I've already decided that I am going to have a crack at them anyway - maybe things will turn out OK?

 

Simon with the largest perch I've ever seen!

I'm going to revert to single sticks, buzz bars not being suited to the situation, the 10' Bruce & Walker Mk IV is back out, with a Mitchell 300 fitted, so let the fun commence! I should be able to get a session in before the weekend? I'm baiting three different drains, at the moment, surely one of them will deliver the goods?