Home Water
Several years ago I wrote a book about a year spent living beside a lake. I camped, fished, lounged about and generally lived the life of a rural tramp. Of course, I wrote loads during this year. The result was the book A Waterside Year. Amazingly, that was 12 years ago. Life moved on and I fell into a much more conventional lifestyle with a home made of bricks and mortar rather than canvas. But this slow 'sheltering' under a slate roof (and progressively more indoor life) didn't sit too well with me. Fortunately, my friend Bengal knew of my predicament and got searching for somewhere for me to once again 'be at home' in a waterside setting.
Bengal wrote to me asking if I knew of a secret lake just a short cycle ride down the hill from me that had all the characteristics I look for in a water: timelessness, quietness, solitude, undisturbed wildlife, a country estate free from modern agriculture, and lots of long, lean, 'Old English' carp that receive hardly any angling pressure and can be caught close in using simple, traditional tactics.
How could I have not known of this water? Maybe I'd lost my lake-hunting touch since completing my quest for wild carp in 2009? Or maybe I was gazing too far afield, expecting perfection somewhere over the horizon?
What came next is the subject of the new edition of Fennel's Gazette, which explains how I was able to secure permission to fish and camp at the lake with Bengal. Just the two of us, Kelly Kettle cooking, camping under the stars, using centrepins instead of fixed spool reels, and spending more time studying the flora rather than the fish. All the details were perfect, as was the first carp caught on opening night: a rather special 20lb common that made itself known while I was admiring a four-leaved clover found next to our camp during an earlier trip.
Lucky? Yes. Very lucky. To have found the fish, and to have a friend like Bengal who shares the same love of the outdoors as I. I wouldn't have found this lake, or be feeling so excited about the prospect of a waterside summer, if it were not for him.
May you find your perfect place where you may seek out the best of life's experiences with great friends.
Fennel
Dinner is prepared over a Kelly Kettle hobo stove
The four-leaved clover that signified my sense of luck at being introduced to such a perfect water
The 20lb common carp – first fish from my new home water.
Fennel's Gazette is provided free inside books purchased directly from us. If you like this blog, you might like Fennel's books A Waterside Year and Wild Carp. Please also subscribe to Fennel on Friday where you'll receive a weekly blog, video or podcast in time for the weekend.