stevetheangler

With Liz now ensconced in the climes of Cyprus I am free for the week – or rather the car is more available as no longer needed to get Liz into work…

So first trip was back out to Marsh Pool 1 again.. setting off at around 0600 and arriving probably 0645.

Two cars were already on the car park but the occupants were on Pool 2 it seemed … and around 1100 another car with 3 appeared and again they carried on to fish Pool 2.

As advised by Clive [aka Sidestream Bob] photos taken to also assist in knowing where I was and when!! LOL!!!  As can be seen a few patches of weed [elodea, I think] appearing…

I went to my usual peg … deciding to leger again in a clear triangular area between the weed patches  … so set up rod and ancillaries, baited up with a 6 balls of the usual cereal + particles with added crushed fennel seed to add an aniseed aroma. The balls were made up with my Nash 40mm Ball maker, something I’ve possessed for quite some time along with its 20mm smaller brother but hadn’t used as I had problems with getting it to work properly – but after using it on the last session and it working perfectly, I got it out again … and perfect! Don’t know if I hadn’t been using correctly previously or if my current dry mix is more conducive to its use but … I’m now considering getting the 60mm version as the thing is that with the firm balls I can now easily catapult bait far further than possible by hand and saves the use of spombs, etc to perform the job.

At 0745 I cast out with worm on the size 6 hook and it was bite a cast after with that cast actually producing a small rudd BUT so much so that I felt it was all due to a shoal of those small rudd … and so after about 20-30 minutes I switched to using 4-5 grains of sweetcorn … and tried bread coated with Primula ham&prawn spread which I’ve had success with previously. Both corn and Primula bought bites, less frequent but felt to be due to the same small rudd really. I switched back to worm for a couple of casts but I was getting indications before the bait even hit bottom.

From around 1100 – 1230 I had a couple more rudd, a bit bigger than the original at around 4oz …

… and hooked one far better fish (not huge though) which after about 15-20 seconds shed the hook… a bit disappointing!

At 1300 I decided to pack in and head home in order to prepare my tackle for a planned visit to the Worcs Stour … which I did … but didn’t go and still at home typing this! Very gusty and heavy drizzle put me off … and the necessity of driving across to the far end of a field to where I wanted to fish was a bit questionable due to the wetness and possibly problems driving back across if the rain persisted – which it doesn’t seems to have done the gusts and rain wouldn’t have made the start pleasant to have been in. Maybe make it there on Monday as the weather loks far better… all gear and baits are ready, just need to transfer to the car up really.

PLANS inc MORE PREPPING FOR PIKE SEASON

This weekend planning to do some more pike bait acquisition inc a visit to Lidl for sardines as advised in a comment posted on my last posting… hopefully find some sprats too (if in season but did some at Brum fish market) … and the Polish shop in Wolves centre will be tried for fresh smelt which in the past they’ve had.

I did visit, on the way home from seeing Liz off at the airport, the ‘Wolverhampton Fish Market’ which is a shop actually not a market … strange experience really, guy in there didn’t appear to have heard of sprats or smelt when asked he pointed me to the prawn/shellfish counter and on perusing the counter and freezers I don’t think I recognised one species apart from, possibly, a barracuda! Oh well, one place I’ll never need to add to my future searches it seems! :)

As said, I was planning to visit the Worcs Stour today but rain stopped play so possibly do that visit on Monday … and Tuesday off to a club pool but which one is undecided as it stands.

Wed night/Thurs morning – pick Liz up from Brum airport …

Then 2nd week of October is our usual October break at Burnham-on-Sea with a couple of fishing sessions on the site’s pools.