stevetheangler

This is a two day report of a day of pain followed by a day of pleasure…

PAIN… Sunday 25th March 2018

The first of the two days wasn’t really a ‘fishing’ day… it was a work party day spent at my club’s new crucian carp pool. Its a pool that the club took on a few years ago – and was totally fishless at the time being a new quarry excavation. However, a couple of years ago it was stocked with 100% pure bred crucian carp and tench. It is intended to maintain the population of pure crucian carp – a species that is becoming rarer than hen’s teeth these days due to them freely hybridising with common carp (the result being the ‘F1’ carp that are much beloved by commercial and match fisheries due to their willingness to feed all year round) – by ensuring that only species that will not interbreed will be introduced (if any at all) in the future. Personally, I feel that some sort of predator (eg perch or chub) will need to be introduced in the future in order to (a) deal with any sickly fish to control spread of disease and (b) to limit numbers once the fish get into breeding in numbers – obviously this may be a while as the introduced stock will need to start to settle and for proper breeding to get underway….

As can be seen from the pictures it is a wonderful looking pool and it will be opened to members to fish for the first mid-June this year – and I’m looking forward to getting on there, rod in hand, in the very near future…

And the pictures illustrate the work done on the pool over the day – previous to the photos being taken the pool was almost completely surrounded by small trees/bushes with a lot of them trailing over and into the water leaving very few spaces to actually fish from – so a lot of clearance of these was performed and also the water cleared with grapple irons to remove submerged loose branches, etc. My particular job was to strim, and rake the perimeter of the pool to create a clear 6′ path all round for ease of access – and as a sedentary person normally – the type who calls a taxi to get to the bus stop – it was hard work and I suffered bouts of acid reflux as well as an aching back which was only 80% cured by an hour of soaking in the bath when I got home… Well worth it though!!

PLEASURE… Monday 26th March 2018

Well, pleasure in as much as it was a pleasant day, warm in the sun but turned quite chilly really when the sun went behind the clouds especially as I’d shunned the last of my winter thermal layers when dressing. And the fact I was actually fishing – and the previous day’s aches had resolved themselves overnight.

I fished with Liz at one of the club’s pools – the smallest one actually, more ‘pond’ than ‘pool’, but has reasonable sized carp and other species and nice for a float fishing session.

We arrived around 0900 and were soon float fishing with maggot but sport was slow with just a few small perch and rudd between us although Liz lost a decent perch (probably would have been her PB) when it threw the hook close to the bank and rolled in front of us. I caught most of my fish – 9 or so small rudd and a small perch (3-4oz the biggest, most 1-2oz) in the last half hour of fishing by fishing around half depth close to a bush that overhung and trailed into the water… as in the 2nd picture below…

And highlight of the day was, after packing up at around 1630 and heading back to our local hostelry, that they had Titanic Plum Porter on tap!! A pint and a half of that, a bag of nuts and a bag of teeth smashing scratchings and you find all is well in the world!

So … tomorrow as I type this (ie Thursday 29th March) I’m off on a last pike fishing session of my season (October to March) – but the club, who’s water it is, has, from this year, introduced a pike fishing ban on all its waters from the beginning of April through to the end of September anyway in order to protect pike stocks. Last spring, the ‘monster’ of the <2 acre pool, caught last at 39lb, was found demised in the shallows presumed overcome by spawning rigours and the club is now keen to protect the rest of stock (which still includes at least 4 known 20+lb pike) as best as they can. So, I’m hoping to go out on a swansong… Fingers crossed!

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