stevetheangler

Monday 20th April I returned to Nordley Pools, and again fished Pool 1.

Setting off on a fine morning, albeit there was a thin icy layer on the car, at a little after 0630 I arrived at the car park probably 45 minutes later to find one car already there … but again the occupant(s) were nowhere to be seen and were probably after carp in Pool 2 (I think I mentioned in my last posting that recently Pool 1 had been netted and all the carp had been transferred to Pool 2?)…

So a wander down to peg 7/22 (depending on the direction around the pool that you count) where I fished the previous week…

I’d decided to float fish this session having determined via my Deeper Sonar that the depth of the pool was around a pretty flat 2.4 metres within the range of my scanning and so I’d preset my float rod to around that depth ready to go… but then disaster struck … don’t when or how … possibly as the line was wrapped around the rod’s top section as whilst trying to unwrap I’d trod on that section as it dangled around … only other possibility was that I’d dropped a heavy bag on top of my quiver when loading the car but I’m 99.9%  sure that wasn’t the case … and as I plugged the top section onto the second it flopped over mid way down the section due to it having been crushed! :(

As there was nothing I could do to rectify this situation my session was spent legering instead…

[Update … on return home and after viewing the damage closely my hopes to be able to effect a repair by whipping over the crushed material were equally crushed, the damage being too great :( However, I loved that rod, a 13 foot 1970’s Hardy Matchmaker, a rod that I feel has never been surpassed nor ever will be … and that led on to me perusing the pages of eBay … and found one for sale for just under £80 and fairly locally too in Ironbridge … which I have purchased and have arranged to go and collect this Sunday – and hopefully use on Monday :)]

As for the fishing – with the delay caused by the need to put away the float rod and set up a leger rod it was about 0920 when I made my first cast … but that also included the usual pre-cast setting up of nets, pre-feeding,…

My terminal tackle then for the day was 8lb mainline, 8lb braid hooklength, size 6 hook (as mentioned previously the size 10 hook that I’d used the previous week was far too small to suit the 3 worms I was baiting with) and a 1/2oz sliding bomb stopped to give a 24” tail twixt hook and lead. Bait as previous week was worm for 99% of the time with macaroni cheese tried for the 1%.

Worm led to plenty of tweaks and nudges and also light speed smashes and drops, all impossible to connect with except on 3 occasions when almost microscopic were landed … doubt whether the 3 together would register on anything but a 4 decimal place analytical balance!

So that was my day … two other guys arrived whilst I was there … one went down to Pool 2 … the other walked Pools 1 and 2 (possibly also 3-6) but there is a long gap between 2 and 3, etc so unlikely and then left without fishing..

 PLANS

As I said, I’m hoping to return on Monday 27th to Pool 1 … a visit of great significance as I heard at the end of last week that I’d a pre-op to attend on Wednesday just gone, and an operation date for Wednesday 6th May!! :) I’ll have an overnight stay (at least one) due to the size of my hernia and it being a major surgery.

So that means I’ll be out of action for a few weeks recovering thereafter but I’m hoping to make it to the water’s edge at the start of the new river season … travelling light and with Liz along with me to a small river… but we’ll see what is what at the time I suppose.

At mo trying to do jobs around the house needed to be done before I go in… :)