The Welsh Weather and Animal Rescue

So.....have I intrigued you with that heading?

I met this past weeks freezing temperatures with great anticipation.  The weather was cold, very cold but at the same time dry - something this part of Wales hadn't seen for a while.

Once again, I put plans in place to take Friday off work and try some Czech Nymphing.  Thursday night came and once again so did the rain.  It rained very very heavily and when I woke on Friday morning it was still raining.  A quick walk down the river confirmed my fears, the river was running very high, very faster and had already managed to drag the mud from the upper reaches of the Wye and from the Ithon!  I've certainly had enough of the rain, lets hope 2013 is kinder to us.

Another day spoilt???

When the rivers are out of condition, the next option is generally a stillwater.  Too late to travel to Garnffrwd or Llyngwyn so I thought I go for a drive up to my syndicate lake.  The lake has not seen much fishing over the past six months as we have had a tremendous amount of trouble with Cormorants.  However, having heard from my mate Lee (and Meg the dog) that the week before he had fished it and there were no signs of them pesky birds and even better he had taken a lovely little Wild Brownie on a Cats Whisker.

Wild Brownie - keep an eye on things Meg

Why have the Cormorants gone (not that were complaining)? Could it be that the cold weather has driven them into town? Don't know for sure, but having spoken to the lakes owner, I have been informed that he and his son have been up the regularly shooting the ducks.  Maybe this is what has driven them away - shoot on boys, shoot on!

The rain was still coming down fairly heavy as I made my way to the lake, so parked up on the gravel track and tackled up.   As always, it looked good up there.

Herbie

One thing that caught my eye over in the shallows by the big tree where we've tied up our kayak was a Swan - who I have named Herbie.  He wasn't really doing anything and as I approached he didn't move on, something wasn't right.  As I got closer to the water I could see the problem, he was stuck in ice.

I managed to break some of the ice in the shallow margins and (continuing to break up some of the ice as I went) made my way out to him.  The closer I got, the more he hissed and flapped his wings.  How do you convince a Swan your there to help? Naturally I was weary! I broke up the ice and eventually broke enough for him to free his leg.  On the plus side, wasn't much chance of an attack, especially when you saw him slip sliding across the ice to his mate! Have you ever seen a Swan stuck in the ice? He didnt even say thank you the cheeky frigga!

Checking around the lake I could see the extent of the freeze - the whole lake was frozen solid, a good two and half centimetres thick!
 

The only part that wasn't frozen was above the dam!






 

Once again, a fishing trip without a fish but once again I didn't care.  I did my good deed for the day and managed to get a couple of nice pictures.  Sure beats working!

Herbie there in the background, free to roam

Until next time...