stevetheangler

Monday, August 5th, it was back to the Mike Day Fishery and Barlow’s Pool at my more usual 0600 departure from home… but on my last trip (with Liz) the car had developed a rattle/shudder which seemed to come from various places at different times and so a bit wary with the driving but all went ok on the travel there and back…

[UPDATE ON CAR: I got it booked into ‘my man’s’ garage to be looked at today and good news – seems the Barlow’s pot holed track had given the exhaust a bump and broke something at the front end and its now been fixed for the princely sum of £25 :) So off on the bus shortly to collect – and later to collect Liz and help with the weekly shopping]

So, I made it back to the pool, unaccompanied as Liz decided to do housework…

I was first there, as I used to be, although another did arrive a little later in the day and, having a walk around the pool to decide on where to fish he stopped for a short chat before moving off … and I never saw him again that day until I drove down to pool to leave and he was just loading his car to leave too so I unlocked the gates and he re-locked as he followed ….

A change of swim for the day this time – I’ve been fishing the far bank, mid-pool, recently but I thought I’d give my old opposite-the-island swim a go … the island suffered a clearance a little time back whereby all the vegetation bar the taller trees including the overhanging bushes and brambles had been removed – a bit scorched earth really and didn’t appeal at that time. However, time and nature have had time to cure and it’s looking a bit better again now.

So with the island in front and lily pads to the left it was looking good… :)

I used the usual lift method set up (6lb main line, 6” 6lb braid hooklength, 2.5SSG driftbeater float, size 14 hook) and maggot and worm baits.

Usual prefeed with maggot and particles and a small amount of groundbait (left over mix from last session) prior to prepping tackle and auxiliaries was made.

First cast was then made at around 0735 with maggot bait..

Plenty of quick lifts/dips of the float ensued as, seemingly, small fish nudged and generally played with the bait but it was at 0815 the first proper lift and glide of the float occurred … resulting in a nice 1lb 10oz bream … however, no pic as I’d failed to set up my tripod/phone-cam :(

After that, continuing with maggot I started to catch small perch … at the rate of one an hour until 1130 when I switched to worm and over the next 3 hours I had 6 perch and another bream of around 1lb 4oz.

The weather had been good all through the day…