stevetheangler

Monday, March 30th, and I was back at the pool at 0800, all prepped, tackled up and having made the first casts of what was to be my final pike session until October 1st 2015.

Again, method of the day was to be laying on but starting off with a slight change in bait choice from the recent trip when I had used sprat and smelt, this time I was using half sardines – the tail on the left hand rod, head end on the right hand rod.

And action started quite quickly with interest being shown at the right hand rod with dips and short pulls from around 0830 but by 0910 still no activity was discerned at the the left hand rod – surprisingly, as on the earlier visits the left hand rod was the ‘busy’ rod with only slight shows on the right hand one.

However, by 1010, although activity was still apparent I decided to swap the sardine half-baits to similar but with smelt halves as I’d one large smelt in an opened packet…

1020 and a good take on the right hand rod was struck into and the fish hooked – but unfortunately the hook hold gave way 10-15 seconds later and the fish was gone. Shame, as it felt reasonable if a pike – and if a chub it would have been a damn good one! And rewinding in the left hand rod I discovered the absence of any bait – I didn’t see any suggestion of a bite at any time so just assuming that it had come off the hooks on the cast and been sitting there for quite some time. So, that line was re-baited with a sprat and re-cast out.

About 1210, after a long period of no interest to the baits at all, I decided to ring home to check all was OK with Liz’s preps for a visit to her parent’s in Cyprus – and in perfect accordance with both Murphy’s (if a thing can go wrong then it will) and Sod’s (if a thing can go wrong, it will do so at the worst possible time) Laws, as soon as Liz came online saying ‘Hellooo..’ the right hand (smelt) float shot under, the line tightened, rod tip swung over and the freespool started streaming line… BUT as I’d my phone in my hand I couldn’t immediately pick up the rod – and by the time I’d managed to do so the fish had dropped the bait and was long gone…. and at 1230 the right hand (sprat) rod had a good take but a strike only met thin air…

And then, for a time, the interest seemed to switch from the right hand rod to the left with small twitches and pulls on there but nothing on the right hand one… but then one decent take occurred at the right rod, struck and hooked into a fish (felt like a chub) which was played for 20-30 seconds before the hook again gave way and the fish was lost.

At 1430, with temps dropping and rain forecast. I packed in after having only a few more minor nudges and bobs and my pike season ended on a blank …..

And so, back to general coarse fishing for me until October now. And, as I said, Liz is going away for a week – as of tomorrow and so I’ll be making use of the ‘free’ time and intending to fish at least 6 days of the next 8-9 by doing a tour of my club’s various waters (bar our river sections as obviously its close season one those now) – plenty of options as we have 8 pools and a stretch of canal to have a go at – plus I’ve a membership card for Wolverhampton AA who have a lot of canal stretches in the area too…

With so many outings in the time, my blogging for the week ahead then may consist of one blog of summaries for the week that is updated daily, and, possibly, later proper longer individual blogs for each outing may be written up – but depends on happenings, etc, of course – and if I get time and inclination!! LOL!!

TEMPS:

Time               Air                  Water

0810                 6.4                    12.8
0910                 8.4                    12.8
1010                 9.5                    12.9
1110               10.6                    12.9
1230               11.8                    13.0
1330               12.9                    13.1
1430               10.8                    13.4

WATER TEMP TRENDS: