The Glorious Sixteenth

At a work party on my river syndicate last week a member (no, not me) unceremoniously decended a tree whilst attempting to trim a branch, somewhat faster than he had climbed it..if you get what I mean.
 Far from receiving the sympathy and concern of his fellows, he was met with raptures of laughter and applause.
 The syndicate leader, a chap of deadpan, dry wit was grateful, "Thanks for that my old mate " he said, "You have entertained us greatly and for that we will name that swim in you honour." The poor chap seemed to cheer up on hearing this, only for the syndicate leader to shoot him down again with, "There you go then members, this here is now "The C*** Swim"...To more raptures of laughter.
 Oh how it would've been a delight to spend the opening night/day on that glorious river The Gt. Ouse, it was not to be.
 My quest continues with abandon at the home of 'The Common' but in the last few weeks a veritable festival of Tench has descended upon me, not such a bad thing I hear you say but the pleasure is curtailed by the heavy tackle I am using due to weed and the possibility of monstrous Catfish.
 The weather seems to go from the sublime........

to the ridiculous...........

and all in a days fishing.
 The "Glorious Sixteenth" found me then, near a public path, beside the park lake that is 'Her' home. You know the kind of place...where men go to shout at their dogs, or get shouted at by personal trainers.
 Visitors arrived at my side at a constant flow as I attempted to set up my home for the night. Some were welcome, my parents, on the look-out for a Kingfisher (which did turn up about twenty minutes after their departure), some were unwelcome, the gossip-mongers, ready to stab a fellow piscator in the back at the earliest convenience, I'll have no part in that.
 Darkness fell and the Bats, at first seemed reluctant, there don't seem to be as many mosquitoes about for them this year...yet.
 They soon put on a fine display of aero'bat'ics, I do love the little critters.
 Conditions have changed on the lake bed and I had decided to try different rigs to my usual, and as if to sign in the new official season, at midnight exactly my right rod was away resulting in quite an impressive Tench and probably the biggest from the lake this year, the lack of sporting battle and lack of a decent photo dictates that it would be pointless to say its weight, but, it was BIG.
 With the rig and bait back on the spot I soon drifted off to sleep dreaming of early season Barbel and Chub, how I miss them.
 At 2am the same rod leapt into life with what can only be described as a tanking run. I struck and the rod arched over, I could feel the fish thumping around, a long way out in the lake.
 Constant pressure soon had the fish heading in the right direction and after about 10 minutes the fish was in the net, a stunning Mirror, not a stockie, but one of the characters, these fish aren't huge but I believe they have age and guile, I was happy.

By 4am the lake was alive with 'boshing' fish, many were Carp, perhaps the Lunar Eclipse had cast some unseen spell on them, I just new that I'd get a run and sure enough I was in again.
 This time the battle was a more dogged affair, until about fifteen minutes in everything went solid.
 I know the routine well, give constant but not heavy pressure for a while, it wasn't budging...Put the rod back on the rest for as long as takes for the fish to find it own way free,, an hour later and no movement...Last resort, straight line, walk backwards slowly, the fish started to move and the fight was back on.
After another ten minutes or so a Mirror of 20lb+ was thudding around in the margins, as I guided her to the net she seemed to look at me knowingly, the hook pulled and she waved me 'Goodbye'.
All in all an eventful night which has helped in taking my mind off of that river for a while yet.
I packed away and headed home a content fisher.