Tuesday 13th June saw Liz and setting forth to a club water with hopes for a day’s action filled sport – as usual – but it was one of those days actually met the hopes! :)
Set off from home at 0700 … arrived poolside (KF-WL2) around 0740 … baited up, nets and mats laid out, camera and scales readied and rods tackled up … and fishing by 0815…
… well, I was… Liz had already cast in, hooked into a fish, and called for assistance before my first rod was out in the water. Unfortunately, the fish shed the hook before it could be seen…
Liz fished two rods with maggot feeder and cage feeder … myself two rods straight ledgered over a bed of groundbait consisting of crumb, particles and comatose maggots using worm/maggot on a size 12 on one rod, and bread, meat, etc tried on the other…
Yep, I thought to myself the other day instead of dead maggots why not use suffocated/comatose maggots ones…. when maggots are killed by any method (eg immersed in hot water, frozen, etc) they tend to change in ‘nature’ ie elongate, cook, change colour, etc and damp … but suffocated ones (ie stored in a plastic bag with the air expelled and kept in the fridge for day or so – or even weeks and months come to that) remain natural as they are still alive. Just take them in the bag to the waterside then put into a bait box on which the lid is kept on when not accessing them to prevent air getting to them and reviving them. Being comatose at the time of use like dead maggots they will not ‘escape’ into the silt, etc in the water. They also have the advantage that they will not go ‘off’ like deads that have been thawed and refrozen – just put in airtight bag again when home and re-fridge….
So over the day we both had almost constant action with small roach, rudd and perch coming regularly to the bank… and Liz at 0900 had a new PB perch of 1lb 1oz… shortly followed at 1020 by another PB equalling 1lb 1oz’er.. then at 1150 a 1lb 0oz’er graced the net, and then at 1245 the PB was increased to 1lb 2oz…. her next best fish being a couple of 11oz perch…
As for myself, the usual small roach, perch, rudd were supplemented by a nicely conditioned roach of around 8oz – and a tench of 3lb 10oz – and a new PB crucian carp of 1lb 15oz upping me from a 1lb 6oz fish caught in the 1978/79 season at Pool Hall (or maybe it was Patshull Pool)…
So, a good day all round – with the session terminated at around 1700 and a stop off at the pub enroute home for a couple of pints of Fownes’ King Korvak’s Saga for me and a couple of pints of Thornbridge’s Hubble for Liz along with bags of scratchings, Mini Cheddars and nuts …. :)
MEANDERINGS:
One thing was particularly noticeable over the day – the number of drop-back indications I was getting despite the fact I was using 1/2oz ledger weights and light bobbin indication insinuating the weight was being lifted and moved before the line tension was enough to move the bobbin. OK, so this can happen for several reasons anyway – eg rod not pointing straight down the line towards lead (ie increased friction where line is bent at tip ring), friction of the line on the intermediate rod rings between tip and the bobbin (not much can alleviate this other than to use rings with low friction ceramic liners, etc), or line running in/over weed/rocks/etc in the water, etc. I had tried to eliminate those sources as much as possible but still 90% of my indications were drop-backs which I felt excessively high – and a far higher percentage than I ever recall having before – and then I noticed at one point, with the line out of the water for re-baiting with the rod tip elevated, that the weight had not slid down the line as far as it should but seemed suspended – and an investigation seems to have highlighted a flaw in the tackle and, in particular, the fitting of the ledger weight to the line… which was via a plastic ‘run ring’ of the type pictured below which I obtained via eBay and then fitted with a quick change snap link on the ‘V’ section to facilitate changing of weights.
The problem was due to the line wearing, over a period of time, a groove into the plastic due to the repeated ‘cheesewire’ like effect as the plastic slid up and down the line. Liz and I carry our rods ready made up in a quiver and between Liz and I we have 50 rods all pre-tackled up ready for action and just pick up which ones we need for the day ahead – so we don’t tackle down at the end of each session and the only time we remove/change/add terminal stuff on the line is if we suffer a break or the line becomes too tangled to unravel or if it looks frayed, etc – so hooks, shot, and run rings may sit on the line for months or even seasons – plenty of time for these grooves to be made…
So…. been back on eBay and ordered some ‘Big Ring Swivels’ to replace these plastic run rings as the metal won’t groove…
OK… as Friday is the ‘Glorious 16th’ when the river season re-opens I’m planning on a trip to the Warwickshire Avon in search of bream mainly but if barbel, chub, carp, etc want to play then who am I to argue…? :D
stevetheangler 
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