All in a day’s fishing!

Thursday October 20, 2011

Matt (my son) and I went up to fish Tiln Lake at about 1.30 pm. The weather was moderately warm with some cloud cover but occasional bright sun and a firm breeze blowing from left to right down the centre of the lake.
We fished our way round the far side then worked the margins where odd fish moved, down the near bank and to the head of ground which pushes out into the lake some 50 yards to the left of the entry gate.

We both noticed something swimming up the centre of the lake into the stiff breeze. Neither of us could identify what it was. It appeared of darkish colour and protruded only a small amount from the water. It was far too small for a bird [even a little grebe] so we were totally nonplussed as it continued a slow but determined ‘chug’ up the lake. After it had gone about 150 yards we lost sight of it then mystified we returned to our fishing avoiding the 2 adult swans an 3 sygnets on the headland near us.
Some 10 minutes or so later, much to our astonishment, the ‘thing’ could be seen returning not only down the lake but also straight towards us. It eventually left the water some 15 yards infront of us, disturbed the swans who arched their necks, hissed but backed away, and then it proceeded to walk unconcerned between Matt and myelf at only 5 or 6 yards distance.

As it reached ground with moss and some short grass, it pushed itself partially under the cover and lay there shivering and totally unconcerned as we took one or two photographs of it from about two yards away using my ‘phone camera, the results of which are not top quality unfortunately! I pulled a piece of long grass and actually stroked its back with it to see if it responded. Nothing at all! It simply curled up into a ball and shivered.

We left it to its ‘slumbers’ and resumed fishing. 10 minutes later we watched it run energetically  further up the bank into long grass and cover where it disappeared.

The ‘beast’ in question was a weasel, small, perhaps 6 or 7 inches long with a white front but not ,as far as we could see, a black tip to its tail which I believe a stoat has.

Do weasels swim? Most definitely and very well too. Why did this one swim up and down the lake? We have absolutely no idea.

To cap a strange day we were also visited by an Osprey which flew twice round the lake then disappeared. We were surprised as we thought they would have already have flown back to Africa by then. Additionally we were asked by a gentleman if we had seen a crashed plane! It turned out that the model ‘plane flying club had lost a power glider 3 weeks previously so we spent a little time helping him look round but to no avail.

We did manage a trout each in between all the other distractions.

Who says fishing is boring!

Pete Aldwinckle