More Max Fishing

My blog is in danger of being completely taken over by a small boy whose passion for angling is showing no signs of waning. He has however started his own blog now, check it out.
Thursdays (cut short by the weather) afternoon session again at Willow Farm was highlighted by Max's first Carp. A pretty apple slice scaled Mirror that led him a merry dance. Max float fished maggots while I plonked a prawn down by the lilies to give us a back-up option. The Carp picked up the prawn and made the boys day.

His next session was scheduled for Saturday but we gave storm Brian a wide berth and postponed until Sunday morning. The wind was still blowing a hooley so we kept the rod tip as low as possible while feeder fishing maggots. The swim took some getting going but after an hour or so the fish started to oblige.
Ever since our first session Max has had a weird obsession about catching an Eel. I have told him that the time of year meant that it was unlikely and that the numbers of Eels are not what they used to be, trying to soften the blow of disappointment. Well I shouldn't have wasted my breath. We had already landed a quality netful of Perch, Roach, Dace, Chublets and the biggest Bleak I have ever seen, when the rod bent over and stayed bent over. Max laid into the unseen adversary, I thought he was attached to a decent Chub so imagine our surprise when an Eel appeared at the net. Excited high fives followed. It was not going in the keepnet so we weighed and photographed it and put it straight back.

Max insisted he was going to hold it for the trophy shot, he obviously had no idea what is involved in holding an Eel. His expressions speak a thousand words.

Eventually he got it under control.

And it took him about half an hour to get the slime off his hands.

Posing with the biggest Perch of the day was much easier!