Monday, 19th August, saw Liz and I head off to a club pool in Shropshire (KF-VV) for a spot of angling.
Setting off at 0700 we arrived at the pool around 0740 and were initially disappointed to find another car on the car park expecting to find our chosen swims already taken but a quick walk up the dam wall art the rear of the car park soon allayed our fears – it seemed someone had been night fishing but had bivvied up on the opposite bank to the area that we had hoped to fish (big sighs of relief! LOL!) which is an area known as ‘Chub Alley’ within the club – a spit of mainland sticks out into the pool and one side of it faces an island. The island extends parallel to the spit and thus there is a channel of about 8-9 yards between, the mainland bank mainly clear bar for tall grasses, the island bank heavily bushed with overhanging branches – a perfect haven for the chub that it is named after…
As an aside, on the day, a mink crossed the bridge from island towards mainland but I didn’t see it leave the bridge and a later examination showed that it possibly lived under the bridge as there was a small burrowed hole on the corner where land and bridge met and also a slotted gap between the bridge and the land. Also, I had a sparrowhawk land and perch on the bridge for a minute or two.
Liz fished twin rods with feeders across to the end of the island for the day whilst I elected to start fishing (laying on) on the float across to the bushes in front of me using my 13’ ‘Hardy Matchmaker’ clone with size 10 hook with worm/maggot baits on 6lb line with a 3AAA driftbeater.
I took first blood with a small (<1oz) perch …. followed by another 4 of similar ilk … and then I became the victim of misfortune or, more honestly, failure to check tackle properly, as the float shot under and I struck into a decent fish which shot off and … Well, I ALWAYS play fish from the reel and backwind (or just loose the handle completely if necessary) if the fish needs to take line and consequently the drag on the spool is always screwed down tight and won’t give one millimetre of line even if 100lb line is used … HOWEVER, when I last used the rod I must have slackened the drag to assist tightening the stored line up tidily by rotating the spool to take up any slack line AND not have tightened it up enough after doing that … so, fish shoots off I hold back on handle and fail to notice until too late that the spool is giving up line by which time fish has managed to travel under the bridge and probably is somewhere around the far side of the island … and line snaps on some obstruction…. lost float, etc… I kept a watch out for the float all the rest of the day but no sign of it ever appeared…
So, I re-tackled again and continued…. but eventually I miscast into the edge of the bushes on the island and snapped, the float falling free but being drifted under the island bushes where it was unreachable…
At this point there were several fishing cruising along and under the bushes – and one carp actually slurping from the surface not 3 feet away from me in the margin. So, rather than re-tackle the float rod I unpacked my floater rod – 11’ 1.75lb TC rod, 12lb greased mono and size 2 hook and I baited this with crust and flake… and very soon I was netting a 3lb 11oz common carp…
Meanwhile, Liz had bagged 2 skimmer bream, a small roach, a small rudd, and a 1lb 8oz fantail goldfish all on maggot…
I continued with the floating baits and had another 2 carp – 1 common, 1 mirror – of 5lb 0oz and 5lb 4oz respectively…
At this point, I had another fish on which took me into the bushes and despite the 12lb line, and allowing a period of slack line, it was not extractable and I had to pull for a break …
So, rather than re-set that rod up I decided then to get my quivertip rod out and light ledger maggot on a size 14 hook to see if I could catch one of my original hoped for target species – perch and chub. I had no such luck – but I did catch a rather nicely coloured common carp of 2lb 12oz with very golden edged scales but the photo does not really do it justice…
… followed by another two 3lb 7oz common carp.
Liz meantime accounted for a 1lb 4oz bream and a skimmer bream, a 2lb 2oz common carp (on boilie), another small roach and a 2lb 12oz tench.
And at 1530, per usual, it was packing up time and a visit to the local on the way home…
So it was a good day all in all – although the expected chub nor the hoped for better quality perch didn’t show up.
Currently I’m not sure about my next outing as we are planning a last minute long weekend camping trip – if we can get a pitch anywhere due to our late decision and it being a bank holiday weekend too!
STOP PRESS: An update as to next outing has now been added as a comment – due to a last minute camping weekend decision to a site with a fishing pool… :)
stevetheangler 
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