Exploring New Waters Part 1

As I hinted at in my last post, I managed to fit in a short exploratory session today. It was a bit of a bonus session due to various things I had on and I wasn't expecting to wet a line this weekend. I was secretly a bit miffed about the prospect of no fishing, given the favourable weather.

I'd done a bit of further work the previous evening when I got on my bike and went for a bit of fish spotting on local ponds. The missus knows me too well now though. Whenever I get the bike out, it invariably results in me heading off for some kind of water and with ulterior motives. Still, it all helps with the fitness - that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!

Anyway, things fell into place and at 3-45pm on Sunday I finally got the all clear to head off fishing. The waters I wanted to fish are two ponds that Jeff (Idler's Quest) had fished last year. I didn't realise that they had been plundered by a fellow blogger in the past until Jeff mentioned them in his most recent post.

The plan was to split up the short session into two parts, trying both ponds. I took the hike down to the furthest pond and found it was empty and looking rather pleasant. It’s more secluded than the larger pond and it looked very fishy. Due to this being a very unplanned session, I didn’t have a lot of bait with me, so this was going to be a simple approach – either they eat maggot or sweetcorn, or they go hungry.















The plan was to kick off with a simple maggot approach over a few small balls of corn laced groundbait. I figured I’d catch Roach or Rudd fairly easy, as there were plenty of small fish topping. From there, it would be a case of switching to corn to see if any bonus fish were around.

30 fishless minutes later and things were not going to plan, but I persevered and eventually a small Perch obliged.















Another 5 followed over the next 30 minutes, all of which were very dark in colour - presumably something to do with the gin clear water. I was then nearing the point when I was going to make my move. The next fish was a small Common Carp of about 8oz, which was a welcome change and prompted a change to corn. Next cast saw me bank another similar sized fish – this time a small Mirror Carp. Maybe I should have been bolder and gone with corn from the off I thought?















Those sentiments were still ringing in my head when another fish took the bait about 5 minutes later. This was another Common Carp and a bit better at 2lb 13oz. I know it’s not a monster, but on light tackle in weedy water, it was good fun. At this point I decided that I would stay put and see the session out on this pond.















A further Common probably just over the pound mark came out fairly soon after wards. I thought I was in for a hectic session, but the next hour proved to be frustrating. The bites went very finicky. It was a combination of bites starting, but not developing enough to warrant a strike. Those that did develop resulted in missed strikes. I started to question my approach, but it was certainly delicate enough. I was set to pack in at 7-15, but I wanted to winkle out one more fish and there were several last casts. About 20 minutes later I finally hooked a fish and it turned out to be a small Roach.















I shall definitely be back for another go – possibly a different pond next time. Having spoken to an interested passer by as I packed up, it seems that there are (or maybe were) some decent fish across 4 ponds in the area. I do find myself doubting people who talk of Roach between 2lb to 3lb though! However, if we apply a bullshit factor of a massive 50%, I’d still be overjoyed at the prospect of a free water within walking distance, holding Roach in the 1lb - 1.5lb class. I can live in hope for now, or is it ignorance?! Time will tell.