stevetheangler

Tuesday, 25th July I set off at 0600 for a solo visit to the Mike Day fishery’s mixed fishery, AA-B. Usually it would have been on the previous day but the weather wasn’t promising then … and as was the Tuesday was a bit damp at times too.

I arrived around 0700 and found two others already in situ but they were on the other bank and thus had no effect on my swim selection as those occupied swims would never be in my sights as not my cup of tea as they say… however, I might have selected a different swim to the one I elected to fish had I not forgotten to take my loppers with me to trim the twigs and branches and the reeds neighbouring the swim a bit … and my drag/cutter to trim the lilypads a bit too… but next time J

So, I elected to fish the swim that Liz had fished on our joint visit a couple of weeks ago…

Usual setting up of nets, seats and other accessories plus pre-feeding of the swim with 5 orange sized balls of particle laced cereal with hemp infused oil and molasses were done and then the rod for the session was tackled and baited – as usual my 13′ Hardy Matchmaker, 6lb Daiwa Hyper Sensor main line terminated with a 6″ hooklength of braid to size 12 Kamasan Animal hook set to fish lift method style utilising a 4AAA Premier driftbeater float albeit not a modified one…

[Seems the only 4AAA driftbeater that I’d got was an unmodified one ie had the original sight bob still in place rather than replaced by my polystyrene ball sighted version. I had some new Premier driftbeaters on order but they hadn’t been received seemingly the usual victims of Royal Mail inefficiency – why do people use RM instead of reliable services like Evri, Yodel, DPD, etc?? Anyway, the  supplier of those floats have refunded me but seems they were the only place that sold the floats individually rather than in sets and so, this very morning, I’ve ordered similar type floats but made by Drennan].

First cast was made around 0725 with a worm/maggot cocktail bait … and first fish came at 0732 … a small perch of around 2oz-3oz…

… and throughout the day, until 1530 when I tackled down, another 22 perch of similar size came to hand, all on worm/maggot cocktail. Really the maggot was only there to keep the worm on the barbless hook as worm seemed to be the bait – and the ONLY bait that worked as I tried maggot, bread and sweetcorn and not one of them even induced a flicker on the float. The fact that the worms weren’t in the best of order didn’t seem to deter the perch either – the medium I’d got them in – the ‘soil’ from the breeding container in fact – was very soggy making the worms very soft and limp along with a few fatalities too – at the end of the session I threw the remaining worms in the pool and I’m intending this weekend to clean out the wormeries using the current worms, hoping for them to recover and hence to start up afresh…

As I said, the day started well weatherwise with bright sunshine … with a forecast of clouding over around 1100 … a bit of rain around 1200 drying up around 1300 … but in fact the 1200 rain lasted longer than that and heavier too … and I ended up with the dreaded ‘soggy bottom’ as my seat collected up the rain … and I’d not set my brolly up either.

It seems the couple fishing the island did OK – had a lot of bream and tench inc a 6lb 8oz tench.

PLANS

Its looking like a Tuesday trip (weather permitting, not looked at forecast yet) as Monday I’m expecting a phone call from the hospital for a review chat with the doctor regarding my HepE … all should be OK as when I last heard my liver enzymes were heading still in the right direction and I’ve not heard anything following my last blood sample taken last week. No news is good news… :). If not Tuesday then possibly Thursday BUT forecasts are predicting very heavy rain for almost two weeks – inc today but itt is bright and sunny at the mo! So, no definites yet… take it as it comes.