Thanks to the virus, today, was going to be my first fishing
trip of the season. Traditionally, my first outing is designed to get rid of
the cobwebs, therefore I decided to go to the club’s mixed fishery at Nursery
Fields near Edenbridge.
As this was only the third day since the water opened, I
decided that an early start would be the wise thing to do. The alarm went off
at 4:20. Just before 5am the car was loaded, and I was on my way to Edenbridge.
When I arrived around 5:40 there were 5 cars already in the
car park. My plan for the day seemed to be working.
With the trolly packed, I headed off to the top of the lake
which is the home of my favourite swim. There was a slight mist coming off the
water. I passed 4 or 5 carp anglers before I arrived at my vacant swim of
choice.
Set up today was 1 rod, my 12’ match rod, 4lb main line, and
similar sized hook lengths. I intended to start the session on a size 18 hook.
For bait I had brought, sweetcorn, meat, and an assortment
of pellets.
First task was to mix the ground bait so that it could sit
for a bit while I set up. Halfway through setting up I fed the swim with three
or four balls.
I was ready to make my first cast at 6:47. My starting bait
was sweetcorn.
If the swim behaved as normal, I was expecting the first
action to be with the lake’s small roach. Today, it was not the case, the float
disappeared and as soon as I struck the rod bent round and the fish was off to
the right. My luck was out as a few seconds later the line slackened, and it
was gone. The hook had come out.
I recast and ten minutes or so later the float dived under
again. This was not a small roach. The fish shot down the lake,
unfortunately across the next angler’s two lines. As I began to turn it the
hook length broke and the carp escaped. Strangely, I felt good as I took this
to be an omen for the rest of the day.
I went round to the other angler and apologised for running
over his lines. Thankfully, he was fine about it.
The swim then went quiet. There were no tell-tale signs of
any fish, large or small, which I found strange. Around 9:30, I did manage to
catch my first fish of the season, a 4 oz roach.
An hour later a bream had been added to the virtual net. I
began to suspect that the extremely hot weather was affecting the feeding habits
of the fish.
I had to change my tactics on the grounds that I had nothing
to lose. So, it was out with the corn and in with the meat. Almost straight
away the float disappeared, and I was into a nice fish. This turned out to be a
tench of 2lb 15oz.
The hour from 11:49 to 12:49 proved to be my most productive
of the day. I had been feeding the margin swim to my left for most of the
morning. I decided to have a quick look to see if anything was there. I was in
luck, there was at least, 1 tench, and an ide. The main swim produced 2 ide, all
caught on meat.
By 13:50, the virtual net had increased by two more tench,
one of them tipping the scales at 2lb 14oz. The afternoon was now extremely hot,
and I began to think that if the fish were truly going to come on the feed it
would now be in the late afternoon.
The next hour only produced one ide and the sun was really
doing me in! How I wished I had remembered the sunscreen!
Due to the light on the water, I changed my float, which had
a sensitive tip, to one that had a thicker tip so that I could see it a lot better. This change seemed to work as another ide and bream made the virtual net in the next hour.
Just before 5pm, I caught my last one, another ide with a
liking for meat.
I tried the margin swim again, but with no success, until 18:20
when I decided to call it a day.
In conclusion, it was my first trip of the year and I had
caught 13 fish. None of them were tiddlers but then none were giants either. I
had been out in the fresh air, as evidenced by my current impression of a
lobster. I had enjoyed myself and that is all that matters at the end of
the day.
No comments:
Post a Comment