Thursday 21 March, I set off at 0630 as planned heading towards the pool (AA-GH) on which I found the horde of fish holed up in one corner and headed to that particular swim on arrival …
Obviously the first thing I did on arrival was to get the Deeper Sonar out and try the exact location of this horde and casting around I soon found them …. GONE! Well, no sizeable fish – I think the sonar reckons fish of around 1lb and upwards to be sizeable and worthy of individual icons – but it did seem a fair few smaller fish (show as streaks/smears) were around. Anyway, on the basis they were there before and conditions hadn’t changed drastically I thought it possible they would arrive in the area over the day ahead. Also a few fish over the area were bow waving and head’n’tailing but these were most likely carp and I was more interested in bream and so set up for those initially.
So, I baited up the swim with several spomb loads of hemp, corn and wheat before setting up the tackle, accessories and the ‘station’ (ie seat, rest, etc placements)… and discovered that I’d somehow lost my bobbins whilst on my previous visit but luckily had a couple of others, not as good though, that I could bring into service for the day.
The usual two ledger rods setup with frame feeders on 8lb line were the starting tools for the day with a size 6 hook baited with bread on one rod, a size 12 with 5-6 maggots on the other and first casts were made around 0750.
So rods were cast out and then re-wound in so the feeders could be refilled and baits replaced every 30 minutes … and this continued until around 1000 when, with not a touch having been detected on either rod and with carp swirling and taking surface stuff that had been blown across just front of me in my corner – the wind was from the west and I was in the east corner of the pool I decided to change tactics and do some surface fishing with bread… but I’d not got my normal ‘surface’ rod with me, nor my BabyBel wax balls (see *** below), so I had to improvise somewhat… Firstly I wound in my maggot rod as it would be an unnecessary encumbrance and then removed the feeder from the link of the bread rod and replaced it with a small float in order that the weight of the old ledger link and ledger stops would be borne by that and thus prevent them dragging the line below the surface… a lump of fluffy bread was then place on the hook and the line cast out about 12’ from the bank into the active area and a few loose bread pieces introduced around too…
The first carp of the day came quite quickly at 1010 – a 4lb 2oz common…
… and within 1 minute of the release of this fish and recast I was into another fish, but unfortunately I suffered a hook pull…
1200, after a few near misses, another fish came to the bank … this time a 3lb 3oz common…
… and at 1300 another fish is banked – a rather tatty mirror carp of 10lb 14oz…
… not the world’s best photo, but on the other 5 pics I had been decapitated! I use a camera that allows a ‘custom’ series of shots via the self-timer function and I have set the camera to take the first shot 30 seconds after the shutter release is activated which allows plenty of time to get from camera to the fish, pick up and pose … and then a further 5 shots are taken at 2 seconds intervals from the first one. Many cameras only have a fixed single shot self timer option, usually 10 seconds after the shutter release is pressed which is far too short usually and one finds oneself having to repeat the ‘race’ several times in order to get a decent photo … others, slightly better, allow a longer delay to be set or allow setting up of a 2-shot option … or one can also set the camera to video mode and take as long as you (and camera memory) allows to do your pose and then on return home to edit a single frame from the video via software (pros: plenty of frames to choose from / cons: need software, takes time, quality can suffer). Anyway, if at any time you do decide to get a new fishing camera for any reason I do recommend looking at ‘Canon’ … good prices on eBay, good quality pics and I do know that at least some of their models do include the ‘custom’ self timer although I do suggest you check the specs for the particular model to make sure…. only other thing then is too make sure you set the right distance between camera and posing area to avoid decapitations! LOL!
1415 … I got snapped on a fish and as I needed to pack in at1430 anyway I decided to start to pack down and whilst doing so I swung out the maggots and frame feeder on the other rod into the area I’d been surface feeding to gain a few extra minutes fishing and a possible bonus fish whilst tidying around but it wasn’t to be….
About 6 other anglers had been on the water but no-one seemed to be catching consistently and my 10-14 looked biggest from what I saw … and one guy, fishing a plug, had a jack…
As March is now reaching its end I think I need to try to one more pike session in before ‘my’ pike season of October-March closes its doors… probably Thursday 28th March as on Monday 25th Liz will possibly be out to play although she’s got a heavy cold at the moment and laid up….
*** BabyBel wax … well, the wax that encases not only BabyBel cheeses but many other cheese truckles too – a good source being from the usual Christmas cheese and biscuit table selection. The usefulness of this is that this wax floats and thus can be used to easily add weight for casting to very light floating bait by wrapping around the line a suitable distance from the hook and, if like me, you use quick change connectors for attaching hooklengths then this can help support the weight and prevent the line being dragged under . One of my club’s waters has a braid mainline ban albeit that braid hooklengths are acceptable and, as I prefer the supple feel of braid at the hook over mono for floating baits, I use a mono mainline with a yard hooklength of braid there…
JUST SEEN:
This new, soon to be released, FishSpy device that incorporates not only the usual FishSpy camera but also a sonar function that seems to match that of the Deeper Sonar.
I’ll be interested into it more when it comes available as it would mean that I’d only need to carry one device rather than the two I do now (Deeper + WaterWolf camera). I did have FishSpy camera but decided the WaterWolf was better for my needs and sold my FishSpy. But with a 2-in-1 option this would mean less bulk to carry, no need to swap over items on the line when I need to change from one mode to another… but also the cost will play an important part in any final decision. Something to think over anyway? … :)
WATER TEMPS:
9.7’C rising to 10.4’C over the day…
stevetheangler 
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