stevetheangler

OK – this is a double header posting combining my two sessions of  the last week.

The first session was to the usual non-carp pool, the second to another club pool which is the club’s most distant – 35 miles from home in Church Stretton – and thus becomes a ‘day out’ event for Liz and myself with one or possibly two visits each year as its too distant for regular visits.

Session 48

This trip to the non-carp pool was made on Wednesday 18th September 2013 having been originally planned for the previous day but weather conditions led to the change of plans. However, on the day conditions were not too comfortable – cold gusting wind with a couple of small showers – but I was relatively sheltered in that swim from the worst of the wind.

I arrived at the pool at 0730 and was tackled up and fishing at 0800. Peg fished was the usual Peg 11 at the end of the island as has been the case on my past few visits. Session ended at 1500.

The tackle arrangement was per my usual – one leger rod with 6lb line and size 6 hook baited with prawn fished slightly to the right plus my float rod fished to centre and left with 6lb line and size 16 hook baited with maggot and worm. Both areas were baited up with relevant free offerings.

The results of the day were that the leger rod did not get one touch at all fro the entire session but the float rod saw a bit more activity with various bites and a few captures…. 4 chub and 2 perch. No barbel or tench this session.

Catch details:

• 4 Chub of about 4oz
• Perch of 1-2oz
• Perch of about 3oz

As there has been a distinct cooling in the air temperatures in the last week I have decided that temp recording is the norm again now until next spring…. so…….

Temps:

• 0800       Air  12.7          Water 12.2
• 0900       Air  11.8          Water 12.3
• 1000       Air  15.2          Water 12.7
• At this point I inadvertently caught the thermometer’s cable to the remote sensor on the hook and I dragged the thermo into the pool and although air temp seemed to be shown correctly the water temp started showing in the 50’s thereafter!! Abandoned temp readings. And strangely, between about 0915 and 0950 the water temp abruptly (inside 1 minute) dipped down half a degree to 11.7, remained at that for 30+ minutes and then just as abruptly returned to 12.6. Very strange!!

No pictures taken on this session.

Session 49

This trip, with Liz, was made on Friday 20th September 2013 to the club’s most distant pools at Church Stretton – there are 2 pools on-site referred to as Upper and Lower – although neither are large and would probably be best described as ‘ponds’ really. When the club holds matches at this place then usually there are 8 pegs on each pool. However, the size of the waters doesn’t mean that the fish are not good sized specimens there. The pool fished on this session was the Lower – which was a first for us having always fished the Upper on previous visits. Also loaded a new thermometer as attempts at drying out the ‘dunked’ one were still in progress and although readings improving they were still way out.

Started fishing at around 0900 and finished the session at 1600.

To start off the day we both set up two leger rods with 8lb line – one with a size 6 hook and one with size 12. Mine rods weighted with just plain 14g bombs, Liz used swimfeeders loaded with groundbait/maggot/particle mix. Baits used over the day were maggot, bread and luncheon meat.

Liz saw first action of the day with a Common Carp followed shortly after by a Mirror Carp and I then joined in the action too….

Over the course of the morning I threw/catapulted out pieces of crust to see if I could elicit some takes to surface baits – and at around 1125 a water disturbance was noted in the margins caused by a fish, taking bread that had drifted down, and which was moving up the pool towards us – so I re-wound in my size 6 hooked line, removed the leger weight and baited up with a piece of crust which I dropped on the margin about 6′ down from my position and this was almost immediately taken and resulted in the landing of a 8lb 8oz Mirror Carp.

Following this I also observed surface activity at the far (windward) end of the pool and so I wandered down there with the floating bread set up which elicited the capture of two Grass Carp – a first for this species for me and thus obviously a new Personal Best in the species for me. I took Liz down that end of the pool at that point with a floating bait set up – but believe it or not the flurry of activity around the area had ceased completely and we could not tempt a single take and nor did anything rise to free offerings… and after 15-20 minutes of trying Liz decided to go back to our swims and continue on the leger.

However, at around 1520 I spotted some surface activity on the margin at mid-point of the pool so I again removed my leger from the rod and baited with bread crust I crept up to the area of this activity – and within a minute or two was again connected to a Mirror Carp this time of 9lb 1oz. BUT…. and this is where it gets a little strange as this was the SAME (*) fish as the 8lb 8oz one caught some 4 hours earlier – see photos, same sores on side of body, identical split dorsal fin… no doubts! :) So why had the weight changed? I’d not fed THAT much bait in in the time gap :D. And nowt wrong with the scales either!!

Anyway, having landed that fish – and chatted to the farmer who arrived as I was playing that fish – it was time to pack in albeit being about 15 minutes later than intended as Liz wanted to pop into a shop in Bridgnorth before closing time at 1730 – but we made the shop OK with 15 mins to spare as it was – although the shop didn’t have the desired item in stock anyway.

Thought: with thoughts of leaving and late packing up plus chatting to farmer maybe I forgot to zero the weigh sling on the scales? The sling when wet does weigh about 8oz… which is the difference between the two different weights for that fish…. ummmmm?

Catches of the day:

Liz:

• 1lb 11oz Common Carp – maggot
• 1lb 6oz Mirror Carp – maggot
• 1lb 10oz Common Carp – luncheon meat
• 2lb 3oz Mirror Carp – luncheon meat

Steve:

• 1lb 12oz Common Carp – legered bread
• 2oz Roach – maggot
• 8lb 8oz Mirror Carp – floating bread (*)
• 7lb 1oz Grass Carp – floating bread
• 5lb 8oz Grass Carp – floating bread
• 9lb 1oz Mirror Carp – floating bread (*)

Temps:

• 0900       Air  12.8          Water 11.9
• 0945       Air  14.5          Water 12.1
• 1050       Air  15.5          Water 12.3
• 1140       Air  14.4          Water 12.2
• 1240       Air  16.1          Water 12.4
• 1400       Air  17.2          Water 12.5
• 1510       Air  16.1          Water 12.5

Pics of the day:

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