Monday, February 13th, I left the house on a slightly misty and still dusky morning at 0700 heading to the usual bream/tench pool (AA-B) for a session there arriving to a deserted pool at around 0745.
The weather was actually quite mild even at that time and the car’s thermometer registered 6’C on leaving the house and had risen to 7’C on arrival.
I decided to settle in a ‘lazy’ swim a few yards from the parked car for this session and first thing I noticed was the Mediterranean blue waters in front of me … after the success of the blue dye added last year in subduing the weed growth that had become a menace in the previous couple of years the club had again introduced the fish friendly dye… and it also helps with deterring the cormorants that appear or at least make their life harder…
The pool also has a solar panel powered aerator (left upper-centre of photo) which sits on a scaffold/plank island and which has netting which drapes down from the platform into the water to provide a refuge for the fish from cormorant activity … and also ropes are placed across the pool between the swims to dissuade the cormorants too … there is one rope just about visible – the ropes are blue so its not easily visible in the photo – so there’s a bit of fun for you – a spot-the-rope competition! LOL!
So… I fed a small quantity of green groundbait with a few dead maggots and stewed seeds/grains to attempt to draw fish into the area pre tackling and setting up the usual tranklements of angling – nets, mats, chair, etc
I set up my trusty 13′ Hardy Matchmaker rod with 6lb main line, size 12 hook and a 3AAA driftbeater float per usual and plumbed up and adjusted the depth to fish my usual ‘lift method’ style.
One deviation from the standard was that my Premiere branded driftbeater float had been altered from its as-purchased build as I find their supplied sight-bobs too large and buoyant to satisfy me in that the bobs are capable of supporting a 1 SSG load on their own which could, in a wave/ripple, cause the anchor shot to rise and so the tension slacken and the float lift. So, I used a craft knife to peel off the balsa wood bob from the fibre glass antenna and then replaced it by gluing on 2 small (1/8″?) polystyrene spheres spaced about 3/8″ apart, one sphere being fluoro-yellow, the other fluoro-orange. This worked very well – the two colours make it easy to spot any movement and the decreased buoyancy increased the stability…
First cast of the day, with worm, was made around 0830, and small quantities dead maggots fed into the swim about every 20-30 minutes … and all was quiet and still and bait changes made (bread/maggot) until 1100 when the float lifted and my strike met resistance … and soon after the landing net was slid under a 2lb 4oz bream taken on a bunch of maggots…
Another quiet spell ensued then until 1350 when again the maggot bunch was taken by what felt to be a good fish and a tench at that BUT after a minute or so playing it the hook pulled free…
Following that all again went quiet and I called it a day at about 1430 as I needed to do a bit of shopping enroute home – Valentine’s card and flowers for the following day!
WATER TEMP:
Min: 4.5’C – 4.9’C
PLANNED:
Monday coming (20th), Liz and I are aiming to be back at the tench/bream pool…
Other planning in the air due to the usual medical review appointments but, I think, Thursday 23rd is a possibility and if that is so I may head to the Worcs Stour for a bit of river fishing…
OTHER ‘STUFF’:
The handwarming muff arrived and looks and feels good although not yet ‘used in anger’ as they say but expect it to be the bee’s knees! J But as usual, under the terms of Murphy’s Law, the weather will now change to become a heat wave! LOL
Last night (17th) it was the club’s AGM – a good, and very attended, night – with info on recent stockings and planned stockings, changes to the night fishing rules and some other rule amendments (mostly just to cover practices that had evolved over the years but not formally incorporated), and information on potential new waters being looked into and assessed… nothing major really but interesting nevertheless.
With the weather improving I must make time to get into the garden and do some ‘gardening’, sort some old animal runs and a bike out to sell on eBay…
Oh, and I’ve bought a garden truck for on holiday tackle transporting. I’m finding my usual fishing barrow tiring on long walks to the water – as often occurs when on holiday – with having to lift’n’push – and this will remove the ‘lift’ part of the equation.
And talking of holidays, we’ve now booked a week in Cornwall in October – at the renowned and oft-televised Parkdean White Acres site and I’ve booked a week’s angling permit that covers 13 of their 15 onsite waters – the missing two are the ‘Specimen’ waters but I’m not bothered enough about that to pay the extra £10 to access them :)
I don’t know where time is going these past few months – and I’m falling behind in reading some of the posts being made – need to go to bed earlier to get the reading done!
So, that’s it for this missive… tight lines to all!
stevetheangler 
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