stevetheangler

Monday, April 25th, at 0630 I set off on a return visit to the tench and bream pool (AA-B) on my third visit in a row, arriving just after 0700 …. and hoping for a better results this time.

On arrival there was one car already parked up but the occupier was not immediately to be seen until I wandered up the bank a little and discovered he was seated in my swim of the previous two sessions … don’t know if he had better luck there than I’d had as he was not visible from my chosen swim for the day although at one point of the day I did spot his pole in use in the next swim for about an hour or so and then it disappeared from view again and I presume he returned to the original spot as his car was still parked up and thus he was still on the waters somewhere. Three other anglers turned up over the day, two fishing the bream/tench pool on pegs one and two and the other settled on the adjoining carp pool.

Myself, I elected to fish the other bank about halfway along the pool … a spot that last year produced Liz’s PB bream and my PB tench.

After the usual preliminary pre-feed, tackle and furniture sorting I settled down to fish as usual using the ‘lift method’ in the 4’ deep water with my 13’ Hardy Matchmaker rod, 6lb Daiwa Hyper Sensor mainline/6” 6lb braid hooklength with size 10 hook and a 3BB driftbeater float fished 12” overdepth with a SSG anchor shot.

First cast was made at 0740 with a worm bait ….

Around 0900, after no action, I switched bait to a bunch of 8 mixed white and red maggots… and at 1025 I hooked into a reasonable feeling fish but unfortunately it took me into the lily pads and refused to budge and even after allowing free line in the hope of it extricating itself I ended up snapped…

1130 … my phone rang, Liz checking how I was doing … a couple of minutes into the call my float lifted and I struck into a relatively small fish – felt about 8oz – but with one hand tied to the phone I could not take control properly and just tried to keep a tight line … but it got into those lilies again … and when I tried to recover after the end of call I was again snagged up…

1145 … another bite … and this time I had control of a bream of an estimated 4lb-5lb but as it reached the landing net the hook flew out …. and fish was gone.

1245 … another bream hooked but again hook pulled free just as it reached the landing net … about 3lb.

1410 … a fish hooked … and landed! A 3lb 0oz tench…

And at 1515 I decided to call it a day and tackled down…

So, all fish came to maggot but I did try my ‘magic’ blackcurrant jelly bread which did get bites BUT it had turned dry and was cracking up when putting on the hook and so I switched back to the maggot for most of the session.

Since my return home I’ve performed the ‘bread restoration’ trick on the jelly bread … placed in a sealed plastic bag with a piece of wet kitchen roll paper and microwaved for 2-3 minutes … and then placed in freezer unopened. It did feel better and more ‘squeezy’ before the freezer and hopefully when thawing more dampness will get sucked into the body. We’ll see! :)

ASIDES

Two other phone calls arrived whilst I was waterside …

The first was from ‘Total Carp’ magazine to inform me I was one of two winners in a competition I’d entered to win a Deeper Pro Plus 2 castable sonar (worth £250+). The nice lady was checking that I’d be at home today as it was to be despatched that afternoon and a signature would be required on delivery. I confirmed that I’d be here all day… :)

The second, as I was halfway through tackling down, was from the same lady saying a mistake had been made. No, not that I wasn’t a winner but that there had been a misunderstanding re the despatch … she’d been told that the device was at hand to send but in actuality it hadn’t arrived at their office from the prize sponsor. So, I’ll still be receiving it but it will probably be delivered next week and will still require a Royal Mail signature on receipt as it will be sent Special Delivery and so she’ll email me the delivery date to ensure that I’ll be in to sign for it.

PLANS

Off to the same pool again on Thursday, same peg hopefully but same area whatever … with the game plan changing to a more specific bream/tench targeting with bread, sweetcorn and jelly bread being the predominant baits in use…