Coming Up Short

Due to ice on the water I left it to later to arrive. The ice was thawing quite rapidly when I arrived and after doing a bit of bank work I started setting up. As I was doing so, a few hand sized roach scattered in front of me. I throw a similar sized dead bait out suspended about three foot below a float. With little or no wind it drifted very slowly across the area. In the mean time a flung a roach swim-bait about for a while, which resulted in a follow. A change of colour and the bait was fallowed again, but no take. After  half an hour with nothing else to show I lowered the suspended bait down to six foot and chucked half a sardine over onto the shelf to my left. A small smelt was dropped in to the right, which quickly resulted in a small jack.

 











Just after casting another smelt back in a few roach scattered to my right and the float was away moments after which resulted in an even small jack. I moved the suspended bait down, in three foot intervals, until it was on the bottom, then back up again. Despite the occasional roach scattering near the float nothing seemed to like the dead-bait. I kept having a chuck about with the lure and managed to elicit the occasional follow, but just couldn't get them to attack.

 








Again I was informed a twenty had come out mid-week, lending credence to my belief that the big ones don't feed on a weekend.