freeline-104 - Flipbook - Page 172
DAVE HYDE
i t would have willingly fo l lowe d me h o m e to l ive i n my b a i t
c u pboard. However, mug f i s h o r n o t , i t d i d n’ t re a l ly m a t te r.
T h e way I felt , it could have b ee n t h e f i rs t ti me I c a u gh t i t .
The next two hours dragged by slowly and turned out to be
very uncomfortable. The sun was shining directly into my face.
Such things as sunglasses had been thrown away in disgust, as
it had rained every day since I bought the damn things. I had
stripped down to my underpants in order to cool down from the
intense heat. In fact it was quite a cool day, but the swim was so
well sheltered from the wind and formed such a good suntrap
that it was never the place to fish on a sunny morning. I can
remember fishing the swim one day in November a couple of
years ago and having to strip down to my pants on that occasion,
the temperature in the swim being over 80F, although the actual
air temperature was only 13C.
Wasps and flies started to buzz round me continuously. Had
anyone arrived at that moment, they would have most probably
thought I was a complete loony, sitting there almost starkers
and continually waving my arms and legs around. In the end
there was only one way out, so I crawled under the sleeping bag,
setting my alarm clock for 11 o’clock just in case I fell asleep.
I was just beginning to d o z e o f f wh en I s u d d en ly n oti c e d a
s t range burning smell. Peer i n g o u t f ro m b e n e a t h t h e s l e e p i n g
b a g, I could see the lake wa s c o m p l ete ly e nve l o p e d i n a t h i c k
c l oud of smoke, and behin d m e I c o u ld h ea r t h e l o u d c ra ck l i n g
s o und of fire. My first thou gh ts , b e i n g i n a ra t h e r s l e e py d a z e ,
was that the thick copse o f b us h e s b eh i n d me wa s o n f i re ,
b u t fortunately I realised t h at i t wa s t h e s t u b b l e i n t h e f i e l d
b e hind being burnt of f be fo re I ga th e re d u p a l l my t a c k l e an d
j u mped in the lake. I mana g e d to s i t i t o u t fo r h a l f an h o u r
FREELINE 42
