stevetheangler

Wednesday 23rd April, it was back to the tench pool. And the title alludes to the actual approach on the good half-a-mile or more of dirt track once you leave the tarmac road which, as the people who know the pool already know, is normally a test for 4-wheel all-terrain vehicles with plenty of reject factory tested Land Rovers strewn all down the hedgerows… OK, I might have over-exaggerated there a bit but… :). Anyway, today it was more undulating than back breaking with good souls having filled in the pot holes with hard core… :)

Anyway, to the fishing….

I arrived earlier than normal today as I needed to to go out this evening and had several jobs to attend to (some of which my lovely partner, Liz, rang me to say she’d done for me before she left for work :)) but also needed to put tackle, baits, etc away, bath, and prep/clean equipment I’d borrowed from a friend in order to return tonight. So, as it was, I had baited the swim and was tackled up with my float rod to make my first cast at 0730. Usual swim, peg 11, usual setup – lift method float, 6lb line, size 12 hook. Baits today were worm and worm&maggot cocktail.

The day started off sunny, still and quite warm…

… but by 0830 the skies had become cloud laden, blocking the sun, and a cool breeze started up and it felt quite chilly despite an actual air temp of 14C all session long.

First bite of the day, leading to the only fish captured, a tench of 2lb 13oz, was experienced at 0915.

After that, action was very sporadic with possibly only 6 or 7 more, missed, bites occurring until 1300 when I packed in for the day – a little earlier than the 1400 planned but a light shower along with a dark sky approaching led me to think that showers forecast to commence at 1600 may be arriving early and as the action wasn’t exactly heartstopping I decided to pack away whilst all was still dry…

It was a quiet day in more ways than one too… Wednesday is notoriously ‘Pensioner’s Day’ – a day that all pensioner’s seem to ‘do their thing’ – eg weekly get together in the pub, go to theatres, and, errrrr, possibly go fishing even? Not here… not another soul spotted all session long. But then again, a couple of weeks ago I fished several of our pools over a week, actually fishing 5 days out of a possible 7 … and I did not see one other angler in that whole week either.

Don’t know when I’ll get out again – kitchen redecoration to be continued plus shortly off for a week’s holiday so we need to sort out the tent and check its all OK, sort out the gear needed for that week – inc sea fishing tackle – but thinking maybe a short canal session may be in the offing before the canals become a watery M6 with the summer weather arriving….