Lewy's Lines

In the project team there are a few anglers: Old Skool - Foxy, not fished for over 10 years Nails - Aimee, fly fisher and shooter extraordinaire Padawan - Jack, new to the sport and is totally "hooked" and of course, me... I'm now officially an old guy! We had been talking of an evening session somewhere local to us all, where better than Tees Valley Lakes, guaranteed bites and fish for few hours after work. The date was set, the temperature wasn't quite to Foxy's requirements but he was excited and had removed his vintage gear from his carer's garage (circa 1981 box), re-elasticated his whips, grabbed some new line and rigs in readiness. Jack had purchased a new elasticated whip together with his guru whip, re-tied the rigs he had busted up on his last outing and had grabbed 4 pints of maggots for us all. Aimee, went to co-op, grabbed some food (I missed the text, otherwise I'd have requested chocolate bars!) and was borrowing gear from us all. The Pegs

June's venue for fishing was back to a commercial after the wild, natural waters of Lake Semerwater.  Only two of us available for this outing so Rich picked The Oaks at Sessay.  It's been over 11 years since I'd been here and with this weekend being free from big matches as ideal chance to pick on of the snake lakes and get some pellet and F1 bashing done. The Draw We had a wander around Maple, just behind the cafe and then walked over to Cedar via Oaks and back via Willow (the specimen lake). Both Maple and Cedar are about 14 metres wide and ideal for a pole only attack. We ended up selected pegs 13 and 14 on Maple where there wasn't an advantage over each other and made the fishing social. Set-up I'd only packed the pole to be honest and set up the following lines: 13 metres across - full depth Top 2 and 3 section off to my left - full depth Shallow rig Bait was extremely simple.  Fishery 4mm and micro pellets together with some 4mm expanders prepared the nig

In a break from the normal commercials and after sorting all the the fishing gear out and finding a load of distance feeders that simply had not been used I decided it was time to tackle a large, wild water close to me. Searching YouTube and finding some videos by Jamie Harrison and Lee Kerry, Lake Semerwater became the target.  I roped in Patrick from work and Mr Curry an old friend I've not seen for quite some years.  The target was set, the prep was done and it was a very early start from sunny Stockton to drive to the beautiful Wensleydale and Lake Semerwater. Arriving at the farmhouse for 6am and catching up with Rich we headed down to the parking areas to be treated to fish in the shallows and a fabulous morning view. Patrick arrived about 30 minutes later and we tackled the bumpy 100 metre walk to where the stream fed into the lake. The Draw Rich as he was first to arrived went next to the stream, I went in the middle and Patrick on the right hand side.  Comfortable close

Back to Tees Valley Lake for myself and Jack.  Unfortunately Patricks good lady was suffering from overindulging the night before and he was playing nurse. So we've now got Jack kitted out with rod, reel and all the terminal tackle he needs for a waggler session including purchasing a new Guru whip.   The Draw Arriving at Yarm Lake, I decided that we should fish pegs 5, 6 and 7.  Jack on 5, me on 6 and Patrick would have been on 7. Peg 5 was ideal for Jack, plenty of open water to cast to and he'd been there before in February so it would be familiar. Set-up We had set the waggler rod up a few days before going through the different knots and how to get all the gear onto the line.  A 2g Drennan Visiwag No.2 was selected and we'd put some shot on the line previously. A lesson in plumbing the depth and Jack was away with his share of the bait, a pint of red and white maggots.  I'd kept the casters back for the moment. My plan for Peg 6 was to fish across just up the sh

After Jacks first experience at Tees Valley lakes on the waggler he was pretty keen to get out on the bank again. With the expected weather we were thinking of a day on the feeder rods however the weather surprised everyone and turned to a lovely weekend, so the gear was switched out for the pole. Today was only going to be a morning session so we were at the gate as early as possible. The Draw Not quite a draw, the lake was empty so I took a walk around the lake thinking where we could potentially fish across to the island once Jack got used to the pole at longer lengths.  I was also looking for a swim where the sun would get to in order to warm the water.  Peg 2 was ideal giving us plenty of water to go for and the island was close. Set-up Two main pole rigs a heavy 0.8g rig and a lighter 0.4g rig.  Yellow 4-6 Matrix slik elastic and 0.16 main line to a size size silverfish maggot and 0.10 hook length. We went through plumbing the swim to find the near and far shelves however the