stevetheangler

Sunday 30th June, Liz and I set off on our annual pilgrimage to the ‘secret water’…. Actually, its a pair of pools that are unfished except for 4 weekends (I think it used to be 6 weekends a few years back) of the year when the owner invites one of my clubs to send up to 6 anglers each Saturday and Sunday in return for a £10 donation per person per session which goes to the local church. Liz and I have been virtually every year – and last year we booked 2 sessions each but one of the years we had a problem accessing the water due to a change in the gate locking and eventually went elsewhere. I did arrange a new date but Liz couldn’t make any of the alternatives so I had to fish on my own. As I say there are two pools available, the one we fish is the ‘mixed’ pool with the usual carp, tench, bream, silvers, and perch. The other pool is carp only, anyway I think so, but over the years we’ve fished there (7 years now) I’ve only ever seen anyone on there once …  and after a couple of hours without a single bite they moved on to the mixed pool.

The day, as it had been for the previous few days, was a scorcher although the cloud kept most of the direct heat off us. Also the water level, considering that it wasn’t long ago we were deluged and floods all over the country and that other pools I’ve visited since have been virtually brim full, was lower than expected albeit slightly higher than previous years.

On arrival I spombed out about 10 large spombs of particles (hemp, wheat, turmeric rice, grated meat, grated cheese, dead maggot, etc)  between our ‘pegs’ as an attractor whilst we prepped our areas and tackled up…

Both of us on two ledger rods each (8lb main line), Liz starting with frame feeders on both rods and using bread, maggot and corn baits, myself with straight 1/2oz (14g) Arlesey bombs hoping for the spombed feed to make the need for a feeder unnecessary, and over the day I fished chili sausage, worm and bread/crust.

It was just 0730 as we made our first casts and we were soon getting ‘knocks’ on sweetcorn baits and on worm … and then at 0800 Liz had a good take on her sweetcorn, struck and was soon playing a very good tench BUT as it came to the net there was a hook pull and the fish was lost … and that unrepeatable word echo’ed from the lips of Liz! The loss being greater than the fish itself – and it was thought to have been a potential new PB for Liz – as that is the species that we are hoping for mainly on this venue and the past couple of years they’ve been scarce if not non-existent.

So, still stinging from the loss, Liz rebaited and fished on and soon landed a common carp of 1lb 12oz on maggot….

… then over the next hour followed a small roach … and another good fish threw the hook … frustration increases…

And, as by 1000 my own bite rate was minimal and certainly getting nothing worthy or possible to strike at, I decided on a ‘if you cant beat them, then join them’ approach and mixed up a bowl of groundbait and changed my leads over to frame feeders… and 1005 I landed an 8lb 11oz common carp taken on worm…

… then 1050 … another fish falls to one of my rods, this time to crust set to hover about 6” or so off bottom above the feeder… another common carp 6lb 13oz …

1110 …. Liz hooks into a good carp … I’m not quick enough to move her second rod away and a tangle ensues … line snaps, fish gone … Liz … ‘Dont say anything!’, sits down with cig and a cup of coffee and calms for 10 minutes … then a cutting of the tangled lines and complete re-tackle is undertaken…

A few small silvers then fall to both our rods plus I have a small perch….

1320 … a mirror of 5lb 12oz falls to my worm baited rod …

 … and at 1345 I have a common carp around 2lb…

And then Liz gets some action AFTER having a bite, striking and then discovering that somehow the line has been wrapped around reel and jammed …. whereupon she flings rod to the ground in anger whilst using another naughty word … and whereupon I now run after rod that is being dragged into the water by a fish that is definitely still attached … I hand rod back to Liz … and she lands a 5lb 3oz common carp …

… however, just to make her day complete … literally minutes before packing up … I have a tench! Not huge, 1lb 3oz, but a tench nevertheless….

BUT I was also not without my frustrations…. twice during the afternoon I’d had good takes, struck, felt the fish and the line snagged in the ‘U’ of the bite alarm and snapped – meaning I’d left fish with possibly 20-30 yards of line attached. I’m sure the fish would have shed the hooks (barbless) and line ok but it will still be in the water somewhere :(

And it appears that I contributed to the fault that caused this to happen…

As you can see in the picture the bite alarm (Leeda Rogue) has a rim around the top of the ‘U’ shaped reel seating … Other similar looking alarms (ie NGT VS) to my knowledge do not have this rim and the ‘wall’ is perfectly smooth…

I’ve taken the picture at a slight angle to show the ‘lip’ protruding on the left hand side but it is indeed actually flat and in line with the lower part of ‘the wall’ as per the right hand side and previous to a ‘mod’ I did there was never a problem.

So what did I do? Well, in the picture you can see, around the roller in the centre of the picture I added a soft rubber ‘O’ ring into what was originally a ‘V’ groove. Why? Well I thought the ‘V’s between the soft rubber ring and the hard plastic roller would grip the line better than just the ‘V’ in the hard shiny plastic…. but what it also did was locate the line against the edges of the roller rather than in its centre and thus closer to that protruding rim on which it started to catch… but whilst it was central in the unmodified roller there was no problem … And I’ve added a rubber ring to the roller of most alarms I’ve had with no problem and positive results previously.

So, a couple of refinements have now been carried out…

• Removed the ‘O’ ring … and I’ve now painted inside the roller’s groove with a very light covering of Copydex which is basically liquid latex which should add some friction ….
• Filed down the sharp corners of the rim to prevent any chances of the line being caught up again…

Plans for next outings… well, I had intended to go barbel fishing on the Severn … again … but again other plans have taken over. In this case I’ve decided I’d rather try to increase my PB bream and so now the plan is a visit to the Warks Avon on Thursday… Next Monday, still under consideration and depends on Liz, if she’ll be fishing and if so, where? A couple of venues in the melting pot on that one.

Possible visit soon to a club ‘tench’ water which has been fishing well – a National Trust water and adheres to the traditional March 15 – June 15 close season so fishing restarted there 2 weeks ago – and in the last week a member fishing there went home after 4 hours as he’d had 64 tench!! And they average 4lb+ (3lb-6lb with the odd 7lb and 8lb’er showing up too)…. will have to be in the next couple of weeks though as when school holidays start then the dog walkers, ramblers, sightseers, etc are supplemented by screaming hordes and far too noisy for me …… Attempts are being made to the NT to allow all year fishing though…