stevetheangler

Monday 22nd March, 0730, Liz and myself headed back out to the pool I previously visited last week (AA-B) and notoriously got the car bogged down in mud when time came to leave. So, as a result of that occurrence plus the desire to fish what was a favourite area of ours on the pool but one which we’d not visited for a few years.

Liz had been a member of the club from 2011 to 2016 but 2016 we had an offer of a place at another club after having been 4 years on their waiting list. For me it was not a problem I simply retained my membership and joined the new club but for Liz, who works full time in the week, it just wasn’t cost effective being a member of two £100/annum clubs due to the limitations to her fishing time and so she dropped her membership to the club in favour of membership to the newer club.

However now, for me with my health issues, the new club’s waters weren’t good in terms of access and my needs and so we decided to give up our memberships there and Liz has now rejoined the original club this year, their waters being ideal in all ways for myself and Liz only ever fishes alongside me…

So, for Liz this was a return to ‘old’ waters – and it was her choice of venue … and it was a good one for us both!

The weather was also perfect on the day – warmer and with very little breeze, the water having a shimmer rather than a ripple. Previously this year the wind movements have been detrimental to fishing results, northerly, easterly or a combination of both and, as the old the old sayings go – ‘When the wind’s in the east, fish bite the least’ and ‘When the wind’s in the north, fishing’s not worth (it)’ – the latter is made up by me as I don’t know of an official couplet for the north wind scenario although it is well known that its not good for fishing. However, on this day the breeze was predominantly westerly with slightly fluctuations towards the south – and therefore the best directions one could wish for as ‘When the winds in the west, fish bite the best’ and ‘When the wind’s in the south, the bait’s blown into the mouth’… :)

Plus, the usual wisdom is to fish into the wind – the main reason being, I think, is that surface food stuffs get blown across and end up on that bank. Others might quote ‘thermoclines’ as a reason, a condition in which the wind drag across the water’s surface causes a tilt in the water layers such that the warm water is deeper at the bank facing the wind. However what is usually meant is a ‘tilted thermocline’, a ‘thermocline’ being a band of water whereby the temperature drops quickly from top to bottom throughout that bands. However, in waters of lesser depth than 30’-40’ the water is generally all mixed by natural occurring currents and so the water is virtually a constant temp throughout the whole of its depth and only in the deeper waters of 20’+ is there any likelihood of a thermocline at all, much less a tilted one. Anyway, we were on the east bank with the west wind in our faces :)

All looking good – and not even unloaded the gear from the barrow yet!!!

So, swims chosen, we tackled up… myself choosing to floatfish by the lift method with maggot, and Liz with a maggot feeder although about an hour so later she switched to the float rod and lift method float with maggot too.

We made our first casts at 0850 … and at 0855 I had my first take which I lost unfortunately, the hook slipping within a few seconds but only felt like a  small silver.

First fish landed – by me, a roach of around 3oz, was at 0920

Next fish was better – and, in fact, was a PERSONAL BEST!!! :) A tench of 5lb 2oz!

It was at around 1030, that Liz having been biteless, decided to switch to her float rod..

..and 1100 she was in action landing a 2lb 5oz tench…

1115 …. Liz another tench … 3lb 10oz

1120, Liz was again in action … 3lb 7oz bream – PERSONAL BEST beating her 2lb best of 2011!

1215 – Steve, 6oz Bream

1220 – Liz, 8oz Barbel

1230 – Steve, 3lb 8oz Tench

1235 – Steve, 3lb 15oz Tench

1250 – Steve, 3lb 12oz Tench

1255 – Steve 3lb 4oz Tench 

After that it went quiet with only one more fish being landed (a small roach at 1355) by me until we departed for home, a shower and a visit to the chippie for our evening meal! BUT there one strange thing before we left the poolside…

We arrived back at the car to load up and as doing so Liz said ‘Is that a bird tail sticking up on the opposite side of the car?’ ,,, I looked round and there was a small blue tit looking as if it was trying to gain access to the car … it was flying between front and rear side windows, landing on the frame/glass and trying to peck through … and was doing this all the time we were actually loading up the the car quite unperturbed by our movements and noise for a good five minutes or more until we actually drove away. Maybe it could see its own reflections in the glass and either trying to get to the ‘phantom’ to either court or deter?

NOW ADDED – “BLUE TIT: THE VIDEO”  – AT BLUE TIT: THE VIDEO

PLANS:

For me, a trip on Thursday 25th to a club pool I’ve not fished yet. It’s a pool the club acquired at the start of the 2020 season and we were actually supposed to be able to fish it/them from that April… the date of access got delayed due to Covid, mainly down due to the exchanging of contracts, and so we eventually got the go ahead to able to fish from 1st July. Actually there were two pools involved but then the owner decided to keep one of the pools (the carp pool) as a wildlife pool with no fishing … but has agreed to install 20 fishing platforms on the pool that we can fish – used as an irrigation pool it’s 35’-40’ deep with the water right at your feet at 18’-20’ and 6’ down from bank level! However, I was not able to visit until November and when I did so I was unable to gain access through the padlocked gate – the lock was broken or the combination didn’t respond to the club’s code. I know a few have fished to now inaccessible carp pool but I’ve  heard of one angler having actually fished this pool though since we’ve had it and he lure fished without success. Some peoplke I’ve spoken to about it have said ‘too deep for their style of fishing’ others that they’re afraid of falling in as they can’t swim…’, Anyway… the club changed the locks to the new season’s code on 1st March and also put new locks on all the venues so fingers crossed I can access – can climb gate OK but with a barrow load of gear is another matter. I hear from the days when it was a day ticket water (closed to all fishing from 2013 up to our taking it on) that it produced slabs of bream, big perch and carp up to 30lb … so I’ve my fingers crossed for Thursday to go in similar vein to this last session!

TEMPS:

AIR:                  MIN:    9.1’C      MAX:  12.0’C
WATER:            MIN:    8.0’C      MAX:  10.4’C

WATER TEMPS:

AIR TEMPS: