Tuesday 6th September 2016 and at 0800 I’m back at the pool (GH) of my previous few sessions as I’m currently enjoying my time there with the float rod after bream and whatever else (which means as its a carp pool then its mainly carp) comes along…. interspersed with spells on my surface bait rod for carp off the top…
Again I’m on the 13′ float rod with 6lb Diawa Hyper Sensor mainline straight through to a size 10 Kamasan Animal barbless hook with a 5AAA antenna float – usually referred to as bodied wagglers these days but I suppose a rose by any other name is still a rose – but such things can make a big difference in sales…
[I was told by a tackle dealer when I enquired about the differences between a ledger rod and a feeder rod many moons ago that ‘there’s no difference at all but label as a ledger rod and it won’t sell, label as a feeder rod and they fly out the door’… and similarly with pilchard sales which plummeted to almost zero so they renamed them as ‘Cornish Sardines’ (but usually just labelled ‘sardines’ at the fishmongers) and the sales figures just rocketed…]
And I also set up my 11′ floating bait rod – 12lb mono mainline, 2′ hooklength of 15lb braid and size 4 hook – ready for action whenever it was needed.
Anyway, first fish of the day was a 3lb 4oz common carp on a small meat cube… which was followed by …
(FF = float fished, FB = floating bait)
4lb 5oz common carp (FF meat), 1lb 1oz bream (FF meat), and a small roach and a small bream (<4oz each, again on FF meat) … and then a good sized mirror carp (est 12lb+) on FB was literally lost over the net as the hook pulled free and I was unable to lift the net quick enough – due to breakage of one of the net arms on the 36″ wide mesh net I usually use I had to take my 42″ net which is not only heavier anyway but has a smaller mesh meaning its harder to raise through the water. Anyway, I continued with the FB to take a rudd of approx 4oz, common carp of 4lb 13oz, bream of 2lb 1oz, mirror carp of 5lb 4oz, common carp of 3lb 10oz – and then switching back to (FF meat) I had 2 small bream, 2 bream of approx 1lb, and bream of 1lb 12oz and 1lb 8oz.
By the way, who said bream don’t fight? I had one this session and one on the previous session both which were leaping in a way that a trout (or maybe even a marlin!) would have been proud of! :)
AND then …. I’ve fished this pool for 5 years or more now using maggot and worm baits predominantly and I also took a video of several hours with my WaterWolf underwater camera… and couldn’t recall ever catching, or seen caught or captured on video, a single perch from there – and I mentioned this to Liz over the previous weekend – and don’t you know it, after netting one of the hooked fish but what should be in the net too… the tiniest of fish but it was most definitely a perch!!
Weird how these happen isn’t it? Last year on another pool I’d said in conversation to an angler fishing the next swim to mine that I’d not caught a perch from there in 18 months and they’d been really prolific there before … and then if I didn’t within the hour not only catch one but it was also, and still is, my PB of 2lb 8oz. :)
A few comments arising on my floating bait fishing of the day…
- DON’T use Sainsbury’s own brand sliced bread! Used it before, hated it – falls off the hook even after just a quick dunk to add weight before casting and often even if not dunked! My big mistake was to text Liz the day before to pick me up ‘the cheapest thick sliced white loaf’ on leaving work … and as she works for Sainsbury’s …DOH!!!
Breads I do like and recommend are Aldi’s own brand Toastie (47p) and Morrison’s own brand ‘White Super Toastie’ (50p) … and the thick/doorstep/etc sliced Roberts, Hovis and Kingsmill loaves are good. - I tried large marshmallows – they do float extremely well and are easily visible and do attract the carp – BUT I find that in places where the carp have seen it all before and very cagey about surface baits (like this pool) that they will initially ‘play with/test’ the baits by sucking and tail smacking and once they find that they cannot cause the bait to break up and take the smaller/sinking pieces that ensue that they soon tire and move on… Small marshmallows are slightly more successful but (a) lack weight for casting and need to be used with a casting aid (controller float/bubble float/etc) and (b) soon ‘melt’ in the water
stevetheangler 
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