Sod's Law

[Chris Plumb]

Why is it I can sit for 3 hours poised over my quiver tip being mesmerised in the dark by a perfectly still isotope only to get a bite the second my back is turned??

 

Last night was such a night - One where I fell to the dreaded curse which befalls all anglers - the need to urinate!

 

I debated long and hard about going - river temps. have dropped 6ºF over the past week - but I reasoned the welcome weekend rain might have tempted the odd barbel to feed.

 

By 7.30pm I'm settled in my swim - one which has proved to be succesful for me over the summer. Cold mist is rising off the fields and I'm thankful for my thermals.

 

For three long hours I stare at that green glow at the tip of my rod. For three long hours there's not the hint of a flicker. Bats are swooping out of the trees - but, unusually, not one crashes into my line giving me a false thrill. The crayfish stay away - prefering to stay in their holes rather than inspect my hair-rigged halibut pellet. Even the floating leaf litter avoids my line. No, for three hours my isotope is as still as a sentry at Buckingham Palace.

 

By 10.30pm the contents of my Thermos are a distant memory - one, however, that is being remembered by my bladder! I need a pee...

 

Well you can guess what happens next. I fumble with my flies and turn to enthusiastically water a bank of nettles when out of the corner of my eye I see the rod twitch and bounce off the rod-rest. I desperate lunge saves my rod from disappearing into the drink - the fish alas is long gone and I'm left with a warm, damp sensation down my left leg...I pack up in disgust.

 

Someone down there as a sense of humour. What are the odds of that happening. Well lets do the math. 3 hours fishing equates to 10800 seconds on the bank. Say 30 seconds for a pee that's a 1 in 360 chance that you'll get your only bite when you can't hit it.

 

Sod's Law alright.....

 

Chris

[Hereford_angler]

Its happens to us all. I have been out carping with alarms before and had similar luck. I had been drinking coffe all morning and i needed to go to the little boys room! I turned around and walked about 20 paces. As soon as i started that natural process of releaving myself an alarm went off. I ran back to find the reel backwinding like never before. I struck into her and pulled out the nice 12lb common. Then i did my fly up .

[dave_h]

Or when you sit behind your buzzers all day and then 2 go off at once!!

This happened to me recently whilst pouring a cup of coffee, the coffee went flying into my tackle bag!! the chair into the mud!! i struck into both of them and my mate came running over to play one!

And guess who ended up with the biggest fish?

YEP! you got it!

[Leon Roskilly]

I once had it happen when I was piking.

 

I was perched on an unstable pallet, 4ft of mostly semi-liquid mud at the back, and the pallet resting on a relatively stable reed bed, but only just.

 

The lake was by the road, but completely hidden, and although quite a large shallow water, the margin mud let only 2 fishable swims, so I was alone.

 

The need to pee had me dangerously perched at the back of the pallet, peeing toward the bush when the drop back indicator let out a scream.

 

I believe in setting trebles immediately, so no time to pull up my waterproofs or zipless trousers.

 

I struck into the fish and played it, off balance and with every movement of the unstable pallet threatening to pitch me and my gear into the lake, or worse the mud.

 

'Excuse me!'

 

I heard her coming through the bushes.

 

'Can you tell me......!'

 

That's just what I needed.

 

A lost guide leader, with a bus full of girl-guides, spotting my parked car had stopped to see if anyone was nearby who could guide them!

 

She found an angler in his underpants, with trousers around his legs, standing gyrating on a pallet.

 

I think that we were both very grateful for the screen of bushes protecting the eyes of the girl-guides from that sight!

 

Tight Lines - leon

[Bluey]

ho Leon ROTFLMO

Oh thanks for the mental picture!!

I tell you something else that happens or not as the case may be, having cast out dead baits into the selected area of Sywell res. many years ago my mate sat back and waited.

We had been told sport was rather good that day, and so we continued in good spirits to wait, my friend having missed his brekky was feeling rather peckish so poured himself 1 cup of HOT coffee, and placed cup on his knee, poured himself 1 cup of HOT soup and placed said cup on other knee with slice of buttered bread on top of cup, and yes you guessed it he was just screwing the cap back on his flask and turning back to put it away in his bag when a totally inconsiderate pike of 16lb took his deadbait like Linford Christie running for a bus.

Coffee, soup, bread flung everywhere he dived for his rod, slipped, went thro' a bunch of muddy reeds coming out the other side mud on face with the breadslice stuck to his glasses

I tell you he was more concerned losing his refreshment than he was catching that pike.He did however bring a small platform to put his drinks on after that.

 

Bluey

[davidP]

A friend of mine got caught in the same situation, but in trying to dash back to the rod managed to slip and land face-first (and willy out) in a patch of nettles. Not a happy bunny for several days! We didnt laugh much

 

Ohh Doctor, can you remove the pain and leave the swelling!