stevetheangler

Well, after Liz losing her favoured spinner on the last session, an eBay search was necessary and we located the spinner required. The original (16.5 g Shakespeare ‘Devils Own’ in ‘Scale’ pattern – see pic in last posting) was part of a 4-unit set, with the other items being of the same type but differing patterns … but we managed to find the ones with the desired pattern available individually at £1.50 each, so 6 were ordered and the order came to £12 inc shipping…

And on to the fishing…

I went out yesterday (Friday 24th February) to a local club pool (GH) – but not the one I was referring to in the previous post and instead of float fishing I decided to do some quiver tipping – something I don’t do often, and when I do its been on a canal, and had not done for some time….

The day was bright and calm. Really a complete change to the previous day when Storm Doris hit the country and a 29 year old lady was killed 2 miles away from our house in Wolverhampton by a flying piece of debris ‘the size of a table’ (in pictures of the scene it looks a wooden framed, plywood/hardboard covered item possibly an advertising device – whatever the police are looking into ownership of nearby shops in order to pursue a case criminal negligence the owners)… It seems also that the lady also worked at Wolverhampton University where I had worked but I retired 7 years ago and she’d only been employed there for less than 18 months so wasn’t someone I know … but still not nice… years and plans ahead of her and all that .. but seemed she died instantly and knew nothing of the end happening and so no pain…

I prebaited the swim with 3 cricket ball sized balls of my usual base mix – breadcrumb mainly with crushed seed and other crushed/small additives to which I added dead maggots, hemp and wheat and a tin of creamed rice to add a ‘cloud’ effect and extra attractants- and over the day I added extra ‘golf ball’s and catapulted loose dead maggots into the swim.

I made my first cast with my 10ft ‘Des Taylor System 3 Avon’ rod fitted with its lightest (yellow) tip at 0815, fishing 6lb line, 5g flattened pear ledger and a size 12 hook (on 6in 6lb hooklength connected via a quick change connector to the main line). The reason I used the quick change hooklength in this case was due to the use of worm as hook bait – I like to put the worm on the length with a baiting needle threaded down from the tail until about half an inch or so from the head and then pulling the hook length up and through and clipping to the clip.. and then the hook is passed through the worm’s head. Doing it this way prevents the worm working its way off the barbless hook or the need to add bits of rubber, etc on to the hook bend to prevent the worm escaping. The rubber thing has never worked well for me… I find that it (even if the ‘rubber’ is an artificial ‘squatt’) tends to cut down on number of bites by around 90%.

And so I fished for the first couple of hours without landing a fish although I did have a few tentative twitches that came to nothing… and then I decided to get my dips/glugs out. I always carry 2 or 3 pots of various dips … invariably ‘Predator Plus’ is carried, the others vary from time to time but usually include a ‘worm’ one – bloodworm or chopped worm or liquid worm. On the day I had with me ‘Predator Plus’, ‘Chopped Worm’, ‘Coconut, and ‘Tiger Fish Liquid’…. So, as I say, I always have them with me (except when pike fishing when various fish oils take their place) BUT it must be 18 months or more since I last one! Why? I don’t know as I’ve always found them to improve the catch but maybe it was because I have a habit of kicking the pot over when playing a fish or going for a pee, etc! Anyway, as I say the idea of using the ‘Chopped Worm’ dip came to mind and so it came out of the bag, the worm was dunked, the cast was made and a few minutes later I was landing the first fish of the day – a 1lb 9oz bream. Not huge but satisfying to know I’d avoided a blank for the day!

Then a short while later a bream of 1lb 13oz came to the net …

A few more missed bites and I decide to change to an ‘experimental’ bait to see if any chub might be interested– basically ‘macaroni cheese’ in essence but is macaroni boiled in coloured water (I did ‘red’ and ‘yellow’ batches) until leathery, cooled quickly under cold water to prevent further cooking, and whilst damp bagged and a packet of dry cheese sauce mix added and the bag shaken to distribute over/into the tubes. I put these on the hook in ‘T’ formation, one tube dropped down the hooklength to stand vertical and the other hooked through the side and sitting on the hook’s bend. So tried this for an hour or so, both undipped to allow the cheesy taste/aroma to be predominant and also dipped in the worm dip… But after a couple of missed small pulls/twitches over the next hour I switched back to worm…

And, back on the dipped worm, the next 2 casts brought a bream of 1lb 3oz and, to me the best fish of the day, a 1lb 3oz perch…

… and this was followed later by another bream of 1lb 8oz… and a few more pulls that were missed.

As I had to get back for a club AGM – and which required more time than usual to prepare for and included dropping the car off to Liz to use to get home after working a late shift and then myself going on to the meeting on the bus – I packed in at 1430.

Plans ahead – Monday (27th), with Liz, for more general coarse fishing but at the pool which I had intended this visit. And next Friday (3rd March), due to the impending river close season starting March 15th and the fact I’ve never pike fished a big river ever before, only small streams with lures and wobbled sprats, I’m intending to visit either the Severn or the Warks Avon with my deadbaits (plus a few lures) to rectify that – hopefully whichever of those two I visit then I will visit the other on the following Friday (10th March)….