Six Sessions, One Post- Close Season Catch Up

Recently it has been a bit of a struggle to find the time to fish and when I have managed to get bankside the results have been poor. I cannot find the motivation to write about fishless sessions or ones involving tiddlers so hence the blog has been quiet.

Several weeks ago I took some floaters to my favourite Carp venue. The avian life were extremely interested in my offerings, especially the goose and swan pictured and I struggled to get the same response from below the surface. One missed bite was all I could muster and I went home cursing our feathered friends.

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Session Two and some very inclement weather gave Tazzy and I a proper soaking.

The cold rain made the sport sporadic to say the least. I was targetting silver Bream but only managed a few small roach and a couple of Bronze Bream and nothing special to boot.

Session Three was good fun, got the fly rod out and chased the Carp in the local puddle. Two small battling Commons landed made for a pleasant evening distraction.

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Session Four was a blank chasing Tench, the weather was still quite chilly and I don't think the Tincas had woken up properly from their Winter slumber. Even Tazzy looked bored that day.

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Session Five and the fly rod came back into play. A social evening with the big man at the picturesque Lenches lakes chucking bits of fluff at rising Trout.

The warmer temperatures have made the fish more active and I managed a brace of Trout up to 2 1/2 pound. The first one fell for a black gnat type pattern with buoyant white wings (I must learn the proper names of these things!), the second a large grasshopper type thing, it was getting dark so needed something big that my old eyes could see in the gloom.

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Session Six saw me back Tenching but this time on a red hot day in glorious sunshine.

The Carp were thrashing around in the margins obviously starting to get amorous and they gave me a constant barrage of line bites making it difficult to tell if I was getting actual bites. The Tench were conspicuous by their absence and after five bite less hours I was beginning to get frustrated.

Finally I had an unmissable run and after a bit of trouble with a weed bed I slipped the net under by far the best fish I have caught this year. A stunning female Tench pulling the scales down to 9lb 3oz. All the frustrations of previous sessions forgotten with one fish- gotta love this sport!!

A Chip off the Old Block?

I hate this in between phase we seem to be in. When the sun shines it feels like Spring but when the wind blows it still feels 'Winterish'. The over night temperatures are low and the water temperature is still bloody cold. It has really hit my motivation (until Tench time) and with a 'not bothered what we catch' attitude I took my eldest Maisie to the closest commercial fishery and let her have a play. Sometimes it is great to go fishing with no pressure knowing we would definitely catch something and we weren't bothered what it was.

So with a few hours to spare and some worms left over from the previous Tench trip we headed down to Manor Farm and float fished our way through a Sunday lunchtime. Maisie fished the only rod, set up by Dad but every bite and subsequent fish was hers. I think she enjoyed it. I kept asking her if she wanted to go home but each time her response was in the negative and she ended the day with a reasonable bag of Silver Bream and Roach.

Best fish of the day was an 11oz Roach which she refused to hold as it kept 'flipping'.

I enjoyed Maisie catching fish as much as if I had caught them myself and the fact that she didn't want to go home and would rather have stayed and caught more made my day! A chip off the old block?- I hope so!

Blue Sunday

With only a small window of opportunity this weekend I needed to fish somewhere local. The Avon was still up and coloured so my choice was limited to stillwater and that meant either Perch or Trout. A sharp overnight frost meant the local Perch puddle was likely to be frozen over so I grabbed a fly rod and headed to the Lenches lakes.

Despite the brilliant sunshine more and more ice was forming in the margins as the day wore on but there was still plenty of spots of open water to fish.

The spring fed water was crystal clear making fish spotting simple but I didn't see a single fish the whole day. There was no lack of effort on my part as I tried several different flies and lures from small and dark to large and bright, I varied the retrieve, I fished shallow and deep in several different areas but I could not even muster a half-hearted follow let alone a bite and therefore ended the day a complete blanker.

That aside it was lovely to spend a few hours in the country at this stunning venue and I wasn't too disheartened to go home fishless, I got some pretty pleasing photos as compensation.

Coot

The fishing hut has seen better days!!