Monday, May 14th, and I set off at 0545 …. but not for the pool I’d originally intended as I decided to go closer to home to a mixed pool (AA-B) – in fact to the pool I’d intended for Tuesday’s outing. And then on my return home, it having been a hot and very sunny day which had ‘done me in’ I decided that an early rise the next day, fishing, and then having to drive to the airport to collect Liz at 0200 wasn’t the safest thing to do given how tired I was likely to be… so I cancelled thoughts completely for that second planned trip out. And hence I’m now writing the blog for Monday instead!
Anyway, as said previously it was a beautiful day – bright sunshine and calm and the pool looked far better than my previous trip there when, after a long bout of rainy days, it looked like chocolate soup – now a lot clearer with just the right amount of colour.
I had intended to fish the far bank but decided, based on the previous few outings, that although sunny and bright it may still be a little chilly in the shade especially if a breeze picked up. WRONG!! Blazingly hot all day… but I may return on Friday and fish that swim… As it was, I mainly fished just off a nearside swim with a patch of lily pads out to my left, pre-feeding the swim per usual with crumb, hemp, wheat, 2mm pellets and dead maggots and fed with a few maggots every cast but I also had a ‘switch’ swim out to my right that I occasionally switched across to.
I float fished, initially ‘on the drop’ with the float set to fish the bait at full depth once it had settled but later I switched to the ‘lift method’ ……
Bait throughout the day, all but for an hour in fact, was mainly 2-3 maggots on a size 16 barbless hook – and the hour was spent using a yellow flavoured (BS) paste for 30 mins (with no interest shown in it at all) and bacon grill for 30 mins (small nudges but when wound in after 30 mins there were no ‘nibbles’ evident on the bait at all.
From the first cast, I had bites virtually every cast on maggot – and I was landing perch in the 3oz-6oz bracket – and had 40+ over the day with only 5-6 under the 3oz mark. Not huge but certainly bigger than the average ‘smallies’ used to be – a good sign. I switched over to the paste/meat to see if I could entice anything bigger – the pool holds good sized tench (normal and golden), bream, barbel, chub, crucian carp, etc but I it seemed only perch were around – or at least interested in feeding. The pool is very moody at times and can be a ‘warm weather pool’ with little caught in colder periods…
Anyway, around midday, the club secretary arrived on the site with a number of fish for stocking into the pools – there are two pools on this site, the pool I was fishing which ‘was’ a non-carp mixed fishery and alongside is a ‘carp and chub only’ pool. I say ‘was non-carp’ about the pool I was fishing but we have had a lot of trouble with cormorants decimating the pool (despite ropes across to make landing/takeoff harder for them) and the EA advised that we add ‘cormorant resistant carp’ meaning carp of around 3lb so now the pool will no longer be carp free… however, there have always been a few carp in the mixed pool and a few non-carp in the carp pool probably due to the fry from each pool passing through the pipe and filter grids that connect the two pools … In essence the non-carp pool water is fed by a pipe from a brook that passes by, at the other end of the pool another pipe connects across into the carp pool and at the far side of the carp pool the water flows back out into the original brook. Also there are overflow pipes set just above the desired water levels so water goes straight back to the brook in case the pipe between the pools gets impeded. Anyway, the fish being stocked were ghost carp, all mirrors, of 2lb-3lb – and absolutely gorgeous looking! About 20 or so were released into the carp pool and the secretary said that the greater bulk had already been put in the non-carp pool before he spotted me to show them to me…
And …. after returning back from the release into the carp to my spot to continue my fishing … first cast, maggot, I had a nice tench of 3lb 12oz…
… and shortly later a rudd of about 4oz came to hand just to add another species…
And there the tale ends – but with a bit of a sad ending – got into a tangle, spent 10-15 minutes trying to unravel it before succumbing and cutting the tangle out and re-tackling up – only to immediately get in a knot again… at which point, and time was getting too close to re-start tackling, I decided to pack up and sort out the mess at home – which I did – and already for the next outing now – which will probably be a return to this pool on Friday 18th…
stevetheangler 
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