Unfortunately angling on the first
night of the season, midnight on the 15th probably will
rarely happen as it’s the girlfriend’s birthday on the 16th.
Fortunately I talked her into taking her parents dog for a walk and
where better than Frensham Great Pond. Amazingly it wasn’t rammed,
with most anglers that had fished the first night leaving in the
morning and reports were that it wasn’t fishing that good.
I was thinking of fishing the Thames
for carp on Monday night yet with plenty of swims free and a good
south west wind blowing plans changed and come 4pm I found myself
looking across the lake from the main car park. I had thoughts of
heading for the road bank yet the wind had swung and was now blowing
from the north east, great. Knowing that Frensham hates a changing
wind I headed for a swim where their was a good ripple, however I
wasn’t that confident, yet as its done before on many occasions it
decided to defy predictability and come 4.40pm I found myself landing
a tench, one that weighed 7lb 9oz! From that moment the action was
steady, yet the wind and undertow was just too strong to float fish
for rudd from dusk and into darkness. An angler to the side of me was
also catching and asked if I could take a picture of a personal best
tench which weighed 8lb 14oz! Come 11pm, a further ten tench had come
to the feeder tactics, many big sixes and one that resembled a
football, yet knowing the morning is usually better, wound in and set
the alarm for 4am. Fortunately the wind had eased making float
fishing possible, yet things weren’t as easy as expected with just
three tench and three perch falling but the feeder rod continued to
produce fish, all tench and come 9pm my tally had risen to
twenty-two, the best 8lb 1oz.
Back at home I needed some sleep so
after sorting and cleaning the kit grabbed four hours before sorting
the kit for a day out with my brother and his friends at Watmore Farm
to celebrate his 50th on Wednesday. Oh how I would have
loved to have been back at Frensham Tuesday evening, float fishing
for rudd, as the wind had died, yet a wedding appointment in Newbury
prevented this.
Wednesday dawned warm and meeting at
Watmore Farm Fishery at 7am thoughts were on a day of arm aching
action, yet it wasn’t to be as the fishing was somewhat
disappointing, probably due to the variable wind. It was good to
catch up with some good friends that I hadn’t seen for a while and
the match was finally won by birthday boy and his angling partner
Roger who’s two best carp weighed a total of around 14lb. I tried
something different for a change, zig rigs, yet it was a frustrating
day due to having around 18ft of water in front of me, yet a dozen or
so small carp came to the tactic. I have to say I was well impressed
with Nashbait’s Gyro Bug Mix that I spodded out and drove the carp
crazy.
Come Thursday I was back at Frensham
and fishing by 4pm, however once again the wind had swung and was now
coming from the south west. As I was meeting my tenching partner
Chris later that evening and with swims in close proximity in the
North east corner decided to fish the same area as Monday with the
view of moving for the following night if the fishing proved
difficult. Difficult it was as I started float fishing at 8pm and my
first bite came at 10.20pm. A flurry of bites produced five two pound
rudd to 2lb 9oz plus a good perch and a tench before things died. The
feeder rods went out yet stayed quiet and at 5.30am I was once again
float fishing, however just two tench came my way. Chris had received
a short feeding period from 11pm to 1am landing seven tench so he was
happy as it was his first ever session on Frensham.
Friday morning I decided to head home,
grab some food and return, yet this time I headed to the opposite
bank, finally setting up in a swim I had never fished before. With
the rods out by 1am I only had to wait around forty minutes before
the first tench arrived. From then on it was steady until around 6pm
when things quietened down. My dad popped down and even had an hour
with my rods taking four good tench including a personal best
weighing 7lb 5oz. Chris once again joined me, however the tench had
slowed up by now and as dusk fell the rudd moved in with a number
falling to both our rods, the best a personal best of 2lb 1oz to
Chris. The dark hours were quiet but at 5am one of my rods ripped of
and once again the action started with tench, rudd and perch picking
up the maggot. Come 9am I had managed eighteen tench, the best 7lb
1oz, seven rudd to 2lb plus two perch to 2lb 4oz with Chris taking
three tench to 7lb plus some good rudd.
Next week is going to be busy with
four guiding days, three at Frensham and one roving the river Loddon
in the hope of a big barbel.
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