Incident at Steeple Langford Small Lake

 

I have already written about this incident in my private life memoirs I thought it was worth mentioning as most people will never see those memoirs and after all it is fishing related.

I decided to do a night stint one Autumn evening. I chose to fish the small lake at Steeple Langford. The small lake is situated at the bottom of the fishery and is separated from the main lake by a small causeway between the two. The size of the lake is only about the same as half a football pitch.

It was the shape of a figure eight. I arrived after work at about 7 pm in the evening. I decided to sit on the causeway with my back to the big lake.  The wind had died down and the lake was like a mill pond. I could see lots of evidence of feeding fish with masses of pin prick bubbles rising to the surface in clumps here and there. 

I felt confident of catching a few fish. The evening wore on and one by one the other anglers packed in and went home. By the time darkness fell there were only two anglers left on the small lake. One angler who was fishing down and around the corner to my right and myself. By that time I had a couple of reasonable sized tench in my net. It was getting a bit hard to see my float and I was squinting in my attempt to keep the tip in sight.

I made the decision to switch to a float with a little neon light fixed into the tip of it. As I was changing my tackle the other angler came over to me and told me that he was going to fish till midnight and then get his head down until 5 am in the morning. He asked me if I would nip over and wake him up at that time so he wouldn't miss the early morning action. 

I agreed and continued fishing my swim. By about 4 pm I had not caught any more fish and then I noticed that a heavy mist was rising above the surface of the lakes. It became quite thick and you could not see across to the other side even on the small lake. It had become quite cold and chilly so I put on my thick fishing jacket for warmth.

Just before 5 am, as if someone had thrown a switch, the wind got up and started to blow the mist. The mist was swirling about over the surface of the water. I suppose it was the drastic changes in temperature which caused the strange phenomenon to occur. It all felt quite eerie and strange to me.

At 5 am I made my way over to the other anglers swim. When I got there I could see him asleep on the bank. I thought it strange that he didn't have a sleeping bag or a ground sheet of any description. 

The wind was quite cold now and even with my extra clothing I still felt chilly myself. I went over and as I approached him I called to him to get up as it was time. No reaction. I shook him and called again. No reaction! I shook him really hard this time and told him wake up. No reaction! I felt his skin and he was freezing cold, so I tried to check his pulse in his neck. No reaction! I was getting very worried by now. “My God” I thought, “He’s dead”. All sorts of things started to race through my mind. What do I do now? Remember that there were no mobile phones in those days. The nearest public phone would be over a mile away.  Would it be working? Should I walk round the big lake and hope that there was another angler fishing it?

What if someone came and stole all my gear while I was reporting the death? I was really shaking by then, trying to decide what I should do. I decided that I would make a quick walk around the big lake first. I turned to begin my walk, when all of a sudden I heard a really long sigh. 

The dead body rolled over and started to get up onto its feet. He took a couple of steps and I jumped back and nearly filled my trousers on the spot. He just said, “Thanks mate”, then sat down on his fishing basket and prepared to start fishing again.

I really had thought that he was dead. 

With the fact that there was such an eerie atmosphere about the place and that I was on my own had really shaken me up. I couldn't fish on. I packed up my gear and went home a bit quick.