Weather wise the thing I was worried about today was rain rather than the low temperature as the sky was very cloudy when I left the house at around 6:20.
I arrived at the fishery dead on 7 am which was great because that is the time the fishery opens. I had to wait a few minutes before I was let in. The mile or so bumpy drive to the lakes passed quickly and I was soon at the car park.
There was one other car parked by the gate, a very flash BMW whose owner I never saw all day. There are three lakes at this fishery that I like to fish, Silver, the match lake, Hare, the mixed fishery and Swallow which has an abundance of small carp. Today I chose to fish Silver.
Peg 1 has always been my favorite as it is a corner peg surrounded by reed beds. You don't have to be the world casting champion to get to the likely fish haunts. There is also plenty of space on the nice flat platform for all my gear.
Just the one rod today. A waggler set up with 4 lb main line and a size 18 hook. Initially I started on a single maggot but hoped to progress to corn if the fish were biting.
At 7:50 after ground baiting the swim I was ready to make my first cast. At this time there was no wind but there was a chill in the air.
I didn't have to wait long for the lake's small silver fish to arrive. Nine fish in the first hour, seven roach and two small perch.
For the last fifteen minutes of the hour I did try a piece of corn but there were no takers.
The second hour was almost a repeat of the first, eight small fish caught. No perch this time however a rudd or two did make the net.
Hour three brought nine more fish, eight roach and my first gudgeon of the season, a mighty devil of at least half an ounce! I was still trying corn for the last fifteen minutes of the hour. Unlike the previous hours I was successful this time. The hungry critter was one of the aforementioned roach.
The next hour brought another six fish, Five roach and another rudd. This time I caught two of them on corn.
By 13:00 I'd added another eight fish to the net. As well as roach there was a perch and a gudgeon, When the gudgeon came in I switched full time to corn. This accounted for five of the six roach caught.
The first hour solely on corn brought four roach. These were slightly bigger than the ones caught on maggot.
Three more roach came in on corn and then just before 15:00 my first carp of the day fell victim to a piece of corn. It wasn't huge barely 2 lb but at that point it made my day.
Since midday I'd been loose feeding halibut pellets into the swim with the intention of trying for the lake's bigger carp using banded pellets later on in the day. I'd also set up my Shimano float rod with 6 lb main line to hopefully cope with anything that took the bait.
At 15:00 I made the switch to pellets. The first hour was quiet although I was getting knocks all the time. My assumption that it was the small roach was borne by the fact that I did catch one fish in the first hour and that was indeed a small roach.
About twenty minutes later when the float went I struck expecting another roach, so imagine my surprise when the fish shot off to the left taking line easily from the reel. I managed to turn it and was slowly bringing it back when the hook was spat out. I was gutted.
After another small roach I had a long wait until my next true bite. When it came it was my second smallish common of the day. This was followed at around 18:00 by my third and final carp, a mirror of about 2.5 lb.
I ended the day with a total of 52 fish, the majority were roach however I enjoyed myself which is the main thing.
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