Sunday was spent
earning some brownie points and Monday in the office catching up on
the paperwork that was piling up, yet the rest of the week was to be
spent on the bank fishing, albeit mainly with customers. The weather
however was doing its best to spoil the fun, yet a day on the Itchen
with young Jake was rewarding with plenty of fish coming to his net.
Unfortunately the river is really high and racing through and
although Jake persisted using the float and centrepin, it was obvious
that the feeder would score better and after taking around ten fish
which included grayling to over the pound as well as trout he swapped
to the feeder in the afternoon. Fishing one of my favourite swims he
was soon into fish, the highlight a personal best grayling weighing
1lb 13oz, or was it the very large pike that struck a grayling on the
far bank, three times (one for the future).
The following day
I was meant to be back, but with the fishery closed for its annual
Christmas shot, Adrian and myself headed to another river, this time
with dace and roach on our mind. The weather took a turn for the
worst, yet we luckily managed to avoid this and come the end of the
day Adrian had been rewarded with numerous quality roach to 1lb 7oz
plus the occasional dace. The great thing again, was that Adrian
wanted to use the float, so being a traditionalist I set him up
initially with a centrepin which he mastered superbly, before
reverting to an old close faced reel due to the lack of flow. Once
again when we found the fish, predators were lurking and a couple of
times one would be seen chasing the roach as Adrian hastily would it
in.
Thursday the
weather was diabolical and having two youngsters to watch over headed
to Gold Valley in search of perch. Jake was once again with me along
with his friend Simon and I had visions of the day putting them of
fishing, it was that bad. Fishing the main lake we decided on a
specialist approach and used either prawn or lobworm on running
feeder set ups. The bleeps soon came, however these were from small
fish but finally the bobbin started to head skywards, but Simon’s
strike met thin air. The second chance wasn’t missed and he landed
a personal best weighing 1lb 8oz. Although the rain was relentless I
headed to another swim and started to drip feed this with red maggots
before dropping a lobworm within. A couple of small perch raised my
hopes but it was the silver fish flashing about that made me change
the hook from a size 8 to a small 18. The pole float constantly
disappeared and knowing I could catch the youngsters a few fish let
them take turns. Jake being the gentleman he is always lets his
friend have a go first and with Simon catching a few good rudd
finally handed the rod to Jake. It wasn’t long before Jake called
for my assistance and seeing the rod bent over fully expected to see
a carp on the other end, so when a big perch surfaced quickly dropped
the net underneath it. I could see the joy on his face as perch have
been the one species that have eluded him and when it went 2lb 9oz
knew he had broken the spell. As the light faded more perch followed
and come the end of the day when it was time to wind in I could see
that neither wanted to.
I was hoping to
head to the river Wye on Friday, yet I don’t think I’m destined
to do this, this side of the New Year so will just have to wait, but
with loads of things to catch up with, spent the day doing just that.
Wishing everyone a
fantastic Christmas and rod bending New Year.
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