Duncan’s monthly Blog – March 2014
Without a doubt my
busiest month for a long time with my daily diary inputs showing that
I have been on the bank no fewer than twenty occasions. These
sessions have mostly been on stillwaters as the rivers were still
high and coloured and I’m not a lover of tackling a flooded river,
more for the fear of falling in than anything else. My love for
flowing water has continued to disappear and this was further
enforced during the last week of the season. After arriving early and
managing to fish a couple of swims for forty minutes or so an angler
scared the living daylight out of me in the third swim then proceeded
to talk aloud and stand sky lining the swim. My confidence dropped to
zero so I moved swims only moments later for another angler to arrive
and drop in a swim directly below me which was around ten yards away.
Having the whole of the river to choice from and with no respect for
me I picked my tackle up and left, having no desire to return till
the autumn. These twenty sessions totalled 120hrs and have been split
between personal outings (11), guiding (6) and features (3) which is
a nice balance and shows that as the weather gets better and the days
longer other anglers are dusting down the tackle and getting out,
hence the increase in my guiding days.
With Frensham
Great Pond also closing for the traditional close season my campaign
sessions have also come to a close. To be honest the rudd captures
took a turn for the worse during March, proof that a constantly
changing wind effects Frensham more than any other factor. I did
publicise my captures within the Anglers Mail and out of respect for
another anglers left it to the last minute. I also kept quiet as the
last thing I wanted was for other anglers to follow suit and spoil
the peace and quiet I found on the venue this season. A previous blog
described this campaign but in short my brother and I landed just
short of a hundred rudd over 1lb 7oz with around 50% of these being
over 2lb, the best weighed 2lb 11oz. Don’t think things were easy
as my only overnight session of the campaign totalled fifteen hours
during which time the temperature dropped to -3.5 and my only bite
came at 1.30am from a rudd weighing 2lb 2oz. Feeding periods were
very short, maybe twenty minutes or so and the most rudd I caught in
any one session was five!
The predator
season also came to a rewarding end, not for me but a lucky customer
who wanted to catch his first ever sizable zander which he did at Old
Bury Hill on the final evening in style with one weighing 11lb 6oz.
In a way I’m
glad that the traditional close season has kicked in as this removes
loads of options and allows myself to review the coming season and
start a few new campaigns. Grass carp, tench, catfish and eels will
all feature over the coming months as will silver bream. Farnham
Angling Societies Badshot Lea Big Pond is still in brilliant form
with customers taking big bags of bream and over the next few weeks
will only get better as the tench should switch on and add some
variety to the fishing.
One enjoyable
session was with the Tight Lines crew when I visited Court Farm
Fishery in Berkshire. Fishing the Specimen lake and using simple
float tactics in the margins and prawn on the hook I was constantly
beaten up by carp to around 14lb along with catching a early season
tench plus a couple of pound plus roach.
April is in my
mind the best angling month of the year so make the most of it and
get out their as everything is waking up and looking for a meal.
Images –
1. Frensham in the
winter is a cold place.
2. Simple float
tactics fouls many carp in the spring.
3. Nash ambassador
Jake with a float caught day ticket carp.
4. Martin took
this carp first cast on a heli-rig intended for bream.
5. Badshot Lea Big
Pond, a great place in the spring.
6. An early season
tench with a taste for a prawn.
7. This perch came
on a 6mm yellow pellet.
8. A cracking day
ticket roach of 1lb 10oz.
No comments:
Post a Comment