Friday, 5th August 2016, Liz and I again visited one of our clubs’ mixed fisheries (VV) for a good day’s fishing being the first arrivals at around 0730 – and were also the last to leave at around 1715 – and we weren’t the only ones there during the day with another 5 or 6 arrivees later in the day. So, being first there, we got our first choice of swim, much to the disappointment of the following ones I think as they came to look if the swim was free and had to turn back.
Anyway, Liz and I both elected to start off on the float … Liz with her newly ringed rod which now allowed that passage of a small Gardner float stop – the original rings having been so tiny that even a stop knot made of 8lb line with 1″ tag ends left on still caught/snagged/jarred in passing through the 1.6mm ID tip ring. However, as I say the new 6mm tip ring and the graded intermediates worked admirably…
My own set up was 6lb mainline, size 10 hook, and a 4AAA bodied waggler set so the bait just tripped bottom at around 4′ deep – and Liz used a similar setup but with a size 14 hook.
Baits for the float fishing were maggots, worm and sweetcorn … and I also tried a ‘new’ paste from a recipe in John Wilson’s book ‘Baits and Artificial Lures’, Sadza Paste, made from 3 cups of yellow maize flour, 1 cup of plain flour, and 2 eggs which are mixed and then added to 1.5 pints of boiling water – flavour/colouring can also be added either to the water or the dry mix, in my case I’d added 2 teaspoons of liquid Butterscotch flavouring to the water … However, this was not really a great success as, although the paste was fine when originally made and rubbery but soft as described, it didn’t seem to keep those properties after storing in cling-film in the fridge for a few days and on the bank it was very sticky and difficult to mould to the hook. Maybe I need to take out the other balls and add extra flour to stiffen the mix… but saying that, although I didn’t catch anything on it, I did have plenty of interest and suspect it was pecked away by small fry before the more sizeable fish could get a look in, something that the stiffening may help prevent in future and so it is something I’ll re-try in the future.
A bit later in the day Liz switched to a swimfeeder – so she could eat her lunch! And, as there were a lot of cruising carp in the vicinity and I’d been feeding them dog biscuit, I decided to give floating baits a go and set up my floating bait rod with bread crust. However, after a comment made by Liz as she looked at my set up – ‘Are you using braid?’ something made me log on to the club web site and check the rules for the water – and ‘No braid main lines’!!! ARRGGGGHHH! So that was that, the rod was put away… although technically I could have argued that I was using a 150 yard braid hooklength as the spool of line had some 30lb mono on as backing… LOL! So before I set out again I need to strip that braid off and replace with mono … and possibly a short (1 metre?) braid hooklength …
So ‘scores on the doors’:
Liz: had 2 chub of 1-15 and 2-02, plus a dozen or more roach and perch, some of them of very reasonable size … and she also lost a few good fish, mainly to hook pulls, and a breakage.
Myself: common carp of 5-11 and 3-11 on worm, a common carp of 2-08 and a mirror carp of 4-03 on floating bread, also quite few perch and roach, a gudgeon and a skimmer bream of around 1-00 all on worm.
Future – Tuesday, I’m hoping to get to the small river that I’d intended to fish last Tuesday and Thursday I’m thinking of returning to the pool I actually fished last Tuesday but fishing an area I’ve only pike fished in winter before but I think its where the bigger bream may hang out – but I may change my mind on that one and maybe go on a 70 mile round trip in search of grass carp …. :)
stevetheangler 
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