november-2026-free-line-part-2 - Flipbook - Page 75
FREE LINE / FIELD JOURNAL
JAMES COTTEE
FIELD NOTES
2018 was a rather surprising year for me, I can remember setting up on
Springate s Point down at Wraysbury 1 on a lovely spring Friday afternoon
when I received a rather shocking yet wonderful phone call from my
girlfriend. I could hear in her voice something was up, but I never in my
dizziest daydreams expected that she was calling to let me know that she
was pregnant. Now I know what you re all thinking and what half of you
have already told me that s it no more fishing, sell the gear, that s the
end of that venture. Well you d be miserably wrong! I consider myself a
very lucky man to have such an understanding missus that actually gets
why I go fishing, although I knew some things would unfortunately have
to change.
It wasn t until later on in the year that an awesome lake close to home that
had been a day ticket for a couple of years was taken over by a new owner
who was also going to revert it back to a closed syndicate, as it had been
for many years previously.
I d only ever fished the Quarry on a couple of social sessions with friends
when it was a day ticket, so when I saw that Stewart had taken over the
lake, I just had to send that email and see if I could get myself a space
in the syndicate. As luck would have it amongst the thousands of emails
Stew received mine had been picked out, and I had been asked for a walk
round. Shortly after I had paid my deposit no questions asked. That had
to score me some brownie points for when I was allowed to go fishing
15 minutes from the house rather then the 80-mile slug around the M25.
It was a no brainer.
Obviously going from a day ticket to a syndicate, there was a lot of work to
be done, which led to Stewart having lads down there working most days
and weekends. It wasn t until he posted about the new track going around
the lake inside of the new otter fence that he needed a few extra hands. I
jumped at the opportunity to meet some of the new members, and to be
honest just get out of the house (although my raking is shocking).
FREE LINE
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