Evening frogging session with Neil

On Wednesday I upgraded and bought a new camera as my old one has a scratch on the lens and it was spoiling photos. I opted for a Nikon L810 bridge camera. A little bulkier than a compact camera but I do like a nice camera and since I can't afford a proper photographers camera this one is a decent one to settle on.

Me and Neil nipped out for a bit of surface frogging last night. There was a bit of wind giving a ripple but eventually it calmed and we had good enough conditions for it. I had a take very early on, I saw the fish, it swam away with my lure, but I know I struck too soon and didn't hit hard enough for frogging and it got off. Neil had a good hit but the hooks didn't stick on that one either. Some of the swims looked fantastic and we thought we were nailed on for a fish but most of them didn't produce.

There's not a covering of weed but plenty of lilly pads coming through and some places looked really good.

We had a few more hits along the way but just couldn't get one to stick. They were all small fish so no major loss but then we had come expecting just small fish so we really did want one or two of these. I had a play with the camera and was hoping to get a shot of a fish on the take, though we both knew that needed either loads of luck or plenty of perseverance. I eventually got half a take, nothing spectacular but it was as close as I was to come.

I got back fishing and we missed a few more, had a couple of follows and also had a few pike crashing around us. On one deeper part I switch to a crank bait and had a few hits from small perch, then had one on and it dropped off just as I was lifting it up out of the water. Time was knocking on so I switched to one of Mark Houghtons little twitch baits and then got a pike second cast. Neil owes me a twenty and he has repaid that now with my fish today which was knocking on a twenty, twenty ounce, but it saved me a blank. We didn't do anything special on the fish front but we had a laugh and it was good to be out on a nice night.

We had to hop and skip sharpish back to the car in the end as we didn't realise the time, but I got a few sunset photos. Here are some of my favourites.