A quick look at the weather shows the
start of the week to be very cold with snow forecasted on Monday and
a chilly day Tuesday so both of these were spent producing yet more
European predator articles, this time on critically, slow sinking and
popped-up deadbaits.
The rain/sleet forecasted for Wednesday
is forecasted to come in late afternoon so knowing that the river Wey
was at the top of its banks on Monday and would now be fining down
felt that I might just get conditions spot on. Arriving at 8am I
found the river lower and clearer than what I would have liked, yet
knowing the fish would be hungry headed for my favourite swim.
Setting up with a 13ft float rod, 5lb mainline, a 2.8lb hooklink with
double maggot on a Kamasan B525 under a 5x4 alloy stick I soon found
myself having to scale up as the first three trots saw fish lost from
hook pulls. The flow was certainly faster than first anticipated so a
size 16 Drennan Super Specialist was tied on to the 5lb mainline.
This did the job and although more fish than I would have liked were
lost, mainly due to the unforgiving nature of my closed face reel,
nineteen chub were landed ranging from 8oz to 3lb along with
twenty-eight net dace to 10oz and three wild brown trout, Fifty-one
fish from one swim on such a tiny river is amazing and just goes to
prove the importance of getting the conditions and location spot on.
It was one of my most memorable sessions on the float for many years,
certainly not as easy as some may think with nearly all the chub
coming first, then the minnows became a problem so I upped the feed
and made sure that my hookbait headed downstream bang in the middle
of these. Once this change was made the dace responded yet they were
much further downstream in the shallows than the chub, probably due
to them being spooked. I could have caught more, but I had only taken
three-quarters of a pint of maggots with me and paid for three-hours
parking, yet with a mixed catch of over 30lb in the net I left
thinking that the barren spell might just be a thing of the past.
Thursday a warm weather front descended
on the country bringing heavy rain overnight yet after dropping the
lady of at work I found a few hours to cast out a couple of popped-up
sardines in a local lake. I only fished three hours and should have
recorded three pike, yet two runs were strangely missed, the other
producing another good double. The reason for the short session was I
had planned a whole days perch fishing with my father on Friday so
had to get the tackle and bait sorted, yet during the hours of 4pm
and 7pm I started to get a painful ear and having lost so many weeks
last year with ear infections took no chances, cancelled the outing
and headed to the doctors first thing Friday morning, returning with
another dose of Penicillin! Fortunately the ear hasn’t got any
worse so with the weather nice and mild I headed of to a local lake
for what might be my first whole night in ages. Arriving at 4pm I
managed to get both rods marked up at the same distance as the spod
rod and after depositing some hemp and maggots dropped helicopter
rigs over the top. Darkness arrived yet nothing happened, so instead
of working the rods I decided to leave them out until some action
came. At 8pm both rods are away, the first was a small fish that came
adrift, the other a lovely winter tench. Four more fish followed, yet
due to somebody creeping around behind me I felt unnerved and decided
to call it a day at 10pm. To be honest I was happy to get home, but
gutted to have to cut short what could have been a good session, yet
with the ear still painful and the temperature dropping below
freezing, I probably did the sensible thing..jpg)
Next weekend 23rd/24th
February sees another major fishing show open its doors. This time
it’s The Big One at Farnborough Airfield. I will be attending and
working on the Nash Peg One stand where I will have a few signed
copies of my book – Obsession of an Angler so if you haven’t
bought one yet, then popped down for a chat.
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