After another poor showing on a pool, I'll be glad when the rivers open. Not that I'm going to turn into some bagging machine on the rivers, but I'm just more at home on them. 18 days and counting...
We decided on a leisurely start to the day on the basis of the weather forecast, which suggested wet weather would strike in the early hours and the situation would improve early afternoon. I figured that a lazy start would allow the worst of the weather to go through, but it backfired. The rain was just kicking off as we arrived at the venue and stuck with us for several hours on and off (mostly on though!). This pair were happy though:
The pools were fairly empty when we arrived and we opted for the smaller Horseshoe Pool. We found a couple of comfortable swims with plenty of shelter and we were optimistic enough. This is not a water I'm overly familiar with and so it was just a case of scratching around on one rod, while also employing a sleeper rod to see if anything big would play ball. A third rod would target any surface feeding Carp that came into range.
I put a decent bed of bait down into 8 foot of water and then spent what felt like an eternity setting up my rods. It took a couple of hours before I started to get indications on the waggler rig and I proceeded to miss bite after bite. They were very finicky bites and I felt that whatever was responsible would be pretty small anyway.
Eventually I connected with one of the culprits and sure enough it was a small Perch. Another one followed next cast before something a bit more substantial grabbed the bait. The fish tore off and my lightly set clutch did it's job perfectly to avoid an unwanted break off.
I'm starting to trust the clutches on reels a bit more these days. To be fair it's quite a decent reel and I shouldn't expect any less really. Although I still tend to play fish on the backwind, it's nice to have that extra security from a trustworthy clutch.
After a fair old scrap the fish finally gave up and surrendered into the net. It was a welcome Tench (female) which is actually my first of the year and it went 3lb 11oz. Excuse the photo, but she was a spirited little bugger and would not stay still for long.
Things didn't take off though and despite alternating between maggots, corn and pellet/paste across both rigs, I struggled to find anything more than small Perch and Roach. There was one exception though which came in the form of a Bream of 3lb 5oz on the sleeper rod:
A slightly better photo, as this fish was a bit more placid. However, unbeknown to me, someone appears to have slipped a pair of comedy breasts beneath my jumper!
Brian had a bad day at the office with nothing of note. A couple more points in the challenge pot for me though.
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