I've really done it now!

I was supposed to fish a match this morning, and against my better judgement I went. The weather, well we had all seasons in one day. One minute it is almost black overhead. Then we had snow, sleet and rain. The wind was gusting to gale force then dropping right off, only to return a few moments later trying to whip the pole around behind me.

I remained dry sitting under my brolley which was clamped to my pole seat.

Guess what, I didn't bloody care as I was catching fish like no tomorrow on strawberry flavour jelly pellets. These were fished over a bed of ground bait containing betaine, hemp and some crushed corn.

I never caught anything really big, small mirrors and commons to about 1lb and some roach.

Now there comes a time when even I need a leak and the weather conditions didn't really help. With pole shipped back, I left to stand behind my seat to relieve myself.

Whilst in mid-flow the wind caught the umbrella and the whole caboodle ended up in the lake.

One of my top kits got smashed in the process and trying to retrieve the seat and umbrella another section got brokted.

The 4 drawers on the seat all opened and their contents went in the water. With this lot went my, mobile phone, flask and other bits and bobs.

Tomorrow I shall sort out my pole seat and see if I can rescue any of my pole that has been more or less smashed, which is what I am going to do now myself.

On a positive note, if I had continued catching at the rate I was, I may have one the match.

Second, all of the float-rigs that I re-tied the other day stayed in my seat as that section was locked.

Where's the corkscrew?

thats really bad luck mate, I think we`ve all had similar sessions. One of my worst was when a tree fell on the bivvy, I was lucky to be alive.

Sorry but gotta laugh......never mind at least your ok. Seen that scenario many times...........brolly locked into a box system....get up for one reason or another and whoosh, the wind takes the lot.

Much money in the pools????????

Quote "Much money in the pools????????"

......probably less than under Ergos corkscrew

Hard luck mate, we all have little mishaps, but your's was pretty bad.

reminds me of a time in France...........

Hard luck Ergo --hope you can rescue some of your pole ...

you have all of my sympathy, i'm quite good at days like that.

Made the same mistake with a brolly myself but the result wasn't as disastrous as yours. I hope you can salvage the pole.

Sorted!! New pole coming from France next week. Garbolino Super Legion 16m. God Bless my insurance company. Replacement mobile phone already received.

Just got to replace all of those little things things that I kept in my drawers (no comments please) like, hooks, plummets spare elastics, miscellaneous tools and so on.

no wonder you're in trouble if you've lost the elastic from your drawers.

I reckon my Boss box is heavy enough to use as an anchor for the QEII and the most likely scenario would be for the wind to totally destroy my umbrella. However, I've tipped the drawers straight into the GUC before now (forgot to put the locking pin in)and you're right, it is a bugger trying even to remember, let alone replace, all the little bits that go missing.

A few years ago a friends brolly took off and skated across a huge lake in Ireland.

We were all in stiches as he was wiping his a*se at the time and he set off into the water to try and catch it with pants around his ankles and bog paper trailing from his cheeks....

Our laughter turned to sympathy when he told us his jacket was hung from the spokes and his wallet with ?180 was inside it!!

We should learn from others misadventures.

Lesson - on windy days DON'T fix your brolly to your seat box with a clamp.

When we went up to Clifton Hamden last year it was windy, but I didn't stick my nelly in the seat's clamp that time. I'll make sure I never do it again if it's windy.

Glad to hear every one is paying out though Eric. It's amazing how much stuff costs these days and those little bits and pieces add up.

Bad luck mate - but you only need to get worried when you start rolling cars into ditches, a WOL?

yup