After a lay-up post surgery, my friends took me on a 48hr trip to Park Farm Fishery in Bedfordshire. We arrived on Friday evening. This time the Vita X was left at home as we could park next to the swims so no hauling kit long distances. As the toilets are a fair hike, the Vita Lite was my scooter of choice this time. I have a two-man bivvy which allows me to park the scooter undercover overnight rather than loading it in the van and as the Lite is more compact, it allows me so much more room than the X.
The weather was windy on arrival, but it was warm and the signs were good as the guys leaving had caught a couple of fish each. We selected our swims and got the rods in first before setting up camp for the weekend. We fish as a group of four and my friends don’t let me carry anything. They set up my bivvy and anything else that needs doing to aid my comfort and enjoyment. The fishery is well off the road and the peace puts everyone in a good mood the moment we arrive. Matty is into a decent fish within the hour quickly followed by Dave and then Gaz. As the sun sets over the lake, it all goes quiet. I won a new bed with sleeping bag on a competition site and decide an early night is in order to test it out and it isn’t long before I’m sound asleep.
1am and my bite alarm screams into life and after a 5-minute battle, my first fish is in the net. Now we are all even and after weighing and a quick picture we slip it back into the water. I wake again around 08:30 to find Matty had banked another fish in the night. It was yet another 20lber – a great start to the weekend. I nip down to the toilets to freshen up and change clothes on the Vita Lite which handles the grassy terrain comfortably. A bacon and sausage bap cooked on the barbecue and I get the rods out again to what would turn out to be a red letter day with non-stop action. I banked another 12 fish of which all were over 14lb and several over 20!
The boys had a few but most of the action was at my end. Although they net, lift, weigh and return my fish for me I was exhausted and decided to pull my rods out for the night. The new bed is fantastic and well worth the price of a few raffle tickets for something I’d never have justified spending the full price on so to say I was happy was an understatement. After another barbecue breakfast, I decided to move my rods over and let Gaz fish my swim as I was too tired for another hectic day. Gaz had caught three fish up to 19lb to this point and went on to bank the three biggest fish from this swim including our first ever 30lb fish.
We all had a few more and the final tally was 35 fish. We had 18 over 20lb, 1 at 30lb and the rest all over 14lb – except a new personal best Tench for me at 9lb 13oz. This is a big weight for this species and consequently they decided to give me a soaking to celebrate with two buckets of water over my head as I held it for a picture. What a brilliant weekend is all I can say. 4 new personal bests, great company, good food, awesome surroundings and plenty of fish. The Vita spent most of the weekend parked up but it’s still invaluable and enables me to get out to places like this as I don’t have to rely on anyone else for those calls of nature. It also gives me the sense of security in the knowledge that it will get me to where I need to be. A big thanks to the boys and I look forward to our next outing.
