Hello to all and Happy Easter!

Yes, it IS me – rising like the phoenix from the flames albeit more furnace like than that of a simple fire…

Well, weather, medical issues, etc have all taken their toll on my getting waterside and DESPITE having 3 dates now for my hernia operation I’m still awaiting to get it done! Date 1 was cancelled due to scalding of my leg giving rise to open sores and danger of infection to the operation wound… Date 2 I was intended to be Feb 11th this year and actually had my pre-op done on 29th December…but on going out of the front door to attend pre-op there was a letter on the doormat from the hospital cancelling the actual operation…but I still went for the pre-op and had it done..  Date 3 given was for 22nd March with a surgeon who had started up a Sunday list of surgeries… but we were booked on holiday (Burnham) so I had to turn it down  . and now awaiting a new proposed date…

Anyway, let’s get to the fishing!

So we were in Burnham from Monday 16th March (arrival) to Monday 23rd March (departure) and had an early booking in time of 1400-1500 which was useful to unload the car, sort the caravan and give time to prepare the fishing gear ready for an early start on the Tuesday… and a quick reconnaissance showed we were just a 3 minute walk from my intended swim…

Session 1 (Tuesday 17th)

Rose at 0600. Breakfast consumed, medications taken, baits loaded into the truck and 0700 I was on my way to the water. A nice morning, calm and bright… tackling up took a bit longer than usual being out of practice and loss of routine so it was around 0800 that first casts were made.

2 rods … 8lb mainline to 8lb braid hooklengths (size 12 and and size 6 hooks)…. frame feeders loaded with the usual crumb, particle and macerated fish… the fish is usually a tin of tuna but recently I found that Home Bargains were doing 16oz sized cans of mackerel in brine for 99p and so I’d stocked up with several cans of that and so that was what I used (*** later for thoughts on that ***)

Baits used throughout the session were worm and maggot…

Small nudges/sucked maggots were the results … until I finally wound in at the end of the day (1400) and found a small (2-3oz) roach attached to the maggot rod .

Session 2 (Friday 20th)

A day session accompanied by Liz…

Off to the water at 0730 …

As the swim I fished Monday was suitable for 2 people we set up there, myself the same two rod approach and Liz a single rod with frame feeder using sweetcorn and maggot baits.

Liz was having sucked maggots … me, the same twitches/sucked maggots as on Monday. But I did have one good run but on recovery of the line I found was crossed over my other one – and they’d been a good distance apart – and fish had gone. Not sure what had happened there.

Anyway, not too much other than that…

*** THOUGHTS ON TUNA/MACKEREL ***

Well I think I may, in hindsight, have not had the best of deals…

Mackerel can is 500g … quoted weight of contents is 425g. Also contents are ‘bodies’ rather than chunks or flakes and so an appreciable space is water.

Tuna comes in 145g cans … compacted … 4 cans cost £1.45.  So you get 580g for your money…

Tuna = 0.25p/g …. Mackerel = 0.23p/g  … in theory but methinks a lot of the mackerel weight is actually water but would need to open and weigh the water and mackerel separately BUT either way I think the tuna has more going for it …

Mackerel needs to be blitzed – I didn’t have a blitzer on hol so a mashing in the hands had to suffice – usually 1x145g can of tuna is sufficient for one batch of groundbait but the full 500g can of mackerel has to opened AND even using that whole can didn’t seem as ‘fishy’ to me so don’t think using less would be much good. And to top it all it wasn’t and didn’t feel as good for attracting despite the limited trial period.

Oh well, if nothing else it can be added to my ‘chum’ for pike fishing later in the year.

PLANS

I’m intending to visit BAA’s Nordley Pools on Monday 13th March all being well….

I’ve dropped my membership of Albrighton Anglers … the main water I fished had ‘work’ done to it which in my opinion totally destroyed the ambience changing it from pleasant and relaxing to akin to anger and depression – trees taken down, overhanging brambles removed … and more to come… I’d not fished there since May 2025 for that reason. Also the club direction seemed to be moving from ‘Albrighton Anglers’ to ‘Albrighton Carp Catchers’ which is not my scene…

Around May I took a season ticket out on Kingsbury Water Park and fished there about 6-7 times until the bad weather arrived but now decided its too far : 1+ hour travelling each way plus with fuel prices recently… so I’ve not renewed.

Looked at other local places/clubs but none really appeal to me and so, at least for the moment, I’ll be sticking with the BAA waters (canals, River Stour, River Severn and Nordley Pools although I might, on occasion, visit others further away) and possibly also get Wolverhampton AA card to fish other local canals later in the autumn.