stevetheangler

Friday 30th May 2014, and a complete change of the previous plans mentioned at the end of the last post which were either a visit to a new pool or maybe a carping session. Well, in fact, I did get my card for  the new pool in the week and on early Thursday evening that was my intended destination BUT later I became quite tired and plus the fact that my best buddy and also my weekly, and sometimes even  daily, regular angling companion of the early 60’s to mid-to-late-80’s, Terry, was intending to fish at a local pool (Himley Hall Great Pool) I changed plans to join up with him there which also allowed me an extra hour in bed… so all good!! J

So I met up with Terry at a little after 0730 on the car park – where I was surprised to discover about 6 other cars parked on arrival. Usually that time of the morning there are possibly 2 or 3 others there but more usually none. So in the few minutes while waiting for Terry I had a quick short wander to look-see what the situation was. I knew Terry had two areas in mind – the ‘spit’ and what I term the ‘far bank’, actually  the opp bank to the dam wall – but as Sod’s Law dictates both were already occupied as so we, or maybe I should say ‘I’ suggested , a couple of swims up towards the end of the dam wall (pegs 11 and 12) in the deeper end of the pool as being free and usually the ‘popular’ area… in contrast to most waters where the ‘popular’ swims happen to coincide with the proximity to the car park or other access points, at Himley the ‘popular’ section is the furthest from those places.

The day was dry but overcast all day with a cool SE breeze blowing into our faces for much of it.

I cast out my depth/fish finder and ascertained that the water sloped relatively steeply down from the bank to around 12’ deep at 2-3 rod lengths  and then more gently sloped over another 2-3 rod lengths to around 13.5’ and levelled out. So, knowing this I decided to feed and fish at the bottom of the main slope… and so before setting up I catapulted out around 0.5Kg (wet) of cooked particles consisting of maize, wheat, peanuts, hemp which was supplemented with a full catapults full of maggot and small halibut pellets into my main swim and into my secondary swim just outside my primary one  I catapulted prawns (both cooked and uncooked). I would also have put out mussel too… but (a) I’d got none because (b) having a Homer moment I’d gone to buy them from Aldi… but its Morrison’s that have them!! DOH!!!

The tackle setup consisted of two 1.75lb TC Avon rods fitted with 8lb mainline and 4” braid hooklinks affixed to the mainline in my normal manner via small swivel and links. Both rods were legered with 1/2oz (12.5g) bombs attached to directly to small swivel/links and stopped about 12” from the hooks. One rod was fished with a size 12 hook with either a bunch of 5-6 maggots or worm slid down the braid link with the use of a baiting needle with 5-6 maggots on the hook, the second rod was fished with prawn of both types and also, for about an hour during a lull, with bread flake.

OK… so fishing started with a perch on the maggot rod of around 8oz, followed not too long after with an excellent perch of 1lb 3oz, my PB being 1lb 4oz (twice)…

[Aside: Good Fish….. Excellent Fish… my definitions…
Good fish = 50%+ of PB weight….    Excellent fish = 80%+of PB weight] 

Another perch of around 8-12oz followed in due course … and another estimated 1lb’er managed to get into the lilies and shake the hook free… but then around 1100 the swim seemed to go dead for me although Terry started to get a series of ‘unmissable’ bites with bleepers going off but unable to connect despite waiting various lengths of time, detaching the bobbins and touch/feeling the line, etc.

Anyway, around 1230, Terry’s originally favoured peg at the shallower end of the pool had become vacant and so, having had just one perch and those unmissable bites he decided to venture down there to try his luck. Unfortunately, though by the time he left for home at around 1500/1530 he had not added to his tally. And for the first hour or so after his moving on, I still suffered a dearth of action but suddenly I had a take on my worm and maggot rod and a perch of around 8oz was soon landed – and for the next half a dozen casts or so it was a bite-a-chuck, several times the time going before I’d even had chance to fit a bobbin… and over that period I had 5 or 6 perch in total all of similar size, it appearing that a perch shoal had moved into the swim. And, strangely, all the bites in that period were of the fallback type – the bobbin falling on a slackening line rather than the more usual  bobbin rising on a tightening line.

Anyway, after Terry had departed the pool I fished on until 1630 but had no more bites ….

Pics Of The Day

Next plans are to visit the Newport pool, hopefully on Tuesday and, maybe, some carping on Friday.

And fingers crossed VERY HOPEFULLY for some good news tomorrow or in the following week regarding a new club… but I am resigned to accepting possible not happening this year but hoping that one’s best buddy might arrange a guest ticket on one of the waters… :)