Thursday, 25th May, I had had four destinations in mind – three club waters and one BAA water – and in the end I decided upon a club water (AA-HP/I)  that I’d visited probably six times and not had a single nibble in all that time. A glutton for punishment? Well, I’d heard it was fishing well and so thought perhaps ‘the duck’ could get broken…

Setting off at a little after 0600, I arrived at the pool around 30 minutes later and had a little wander up the bank to chose a swim … not a rush as I was the only one there then although around 1000 another member arrived … deciding on peg 4.

As it was quiet I decided to put my Deeper Chirp into action and check out the depths and contours – and around where I was I had 15’/16′ in the middle and then level until about 10 yards out rising up to a narrow plateau at 3’/4′ or so and then a rise to the bank itself.

I put out 5 or 6 large spombs of feed (crumb, particles, dead maggots) towards the depths before tackling up my two leger rods with running frame feeder setups. Hooks were size 8 (bunch of worm/maggot) and size 6 (mussel, squid, prawn)…

I also had with me my WaterWolf underwater camera which I plopped out to my left just beyond the submerged marginal reeds – the edited to remove the empty boring bits of the video can be seen on YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5xveuiLDQQ

Anyway, my first casts were made around 0745 … and almost immediately I was getting beeps on the alarms and lifts and drops on the bobbins… but possibly most were ‘liners’ as typically quick lifts of 12″ or so followed by a quick drop.

Whilst fishing I had also been catapulting maggots and putting in small balls of feed just off the reeds to my right as I had seen movements of those reeds … and at 1100 I swung out my worm baited rod into the area and about 10 minutes later the bobbin lifted and a strike connected to me to a rudd of around 6oz.

It was then I realised I’d not picked up my Korum Fast Mat for unhooking purposes – not a problem with the rudd as unhooked in the net and laid on a damp towel for a ‘quik-pik’…. so now I had a dilemma as to what to do if I needed the unhooking mat! After a quick check at the car to make sure I’d not just left it in there I was sat contemplating whether to pack up and go home when I noticed the pannier type bag on my trolley – same material as a mat … and padded too … so I reckoned it would serve well as an emergency cradle..

… and so I continued on …

At 1140 the ‘seafood’ rod’s buzzer sounded and a strike met solid resistance … a determined slow pull away led me to believe it could be a much desired large bream … back in the day until 2016 the pool was a day ticket fishery and produced good numbers of rudd and carp and also big slabs of bream and large perch … from 2016 it was closed to fishing by a new owner and then unfished until the club took it on in 2021 (IIRC) … since the club acquisition it has had stockings of carp, F1s and, I think, small bream … however, when landed the culprit was proved to be a common carp of 4lb 6oz the unhooking of which worked well in the cradle substitute.

The worm rod was laid down soon after as the hook encountered a reed stem on route back to the bank on a wind in which resulted in a broken hook length .. and I couldn’t be bothered to replace it to be honest…

I fished on until around 1400 when I tackled down to return home and get myself ready to pick up Liz from work at 1800. It always early to pack down but by time the tackle’s dismantled, the car’s been loaded up and driven back home, tackle all unloaded, bait sorted and stored as necessary, sandwich box and flask emptied and washed, had a  shower and change of clothes there’s barely time to grab a quick cold drink before heading out for the pick up…

PLANS

Could be more than a week before I get out again … we’ve the kitchen man coming to decimate (ceiling down, walls stripped back to brickwork, etc) and then rebuild it all back with new fridge/freezer, cooker, downlighting, painting, new door, walls tiled, new cupboards and cabinets, etc. He reckons on 2 weeks of work to do… So definitely not out next week but a slight possibility for the following Monday (6th) when Liz will be home with any needs but that also depends on the access to prep my tackle…. We’ll see… but in the mean time it’s going to be Just Eat (although next Sunday we’re meeting for a get together with bro and sis for lunch in Bridgnorth), microwave meals, and clothes washing by treading in the bath it seems!