Tactics to start with were, garlic Spam on one rod with a small bag of bits of Spam and halibut pellet on the other with a feeder. It was a couple of hours before the Spam rod sprung back and I was into a ridiculously fit barbel that kindly showed me where all the weed beds were. A lovely unmarked fish of 7lb 10oz.
The next bite came to the pellet rod. The tip whacked over, but I failed to contact with any thing. This happened twice more before I changed to banded pellet from hair rigged. For the rest of the day I got bites like this, but never contacted with a thing. I tried pellets from 8mm to 25mm; hooks from 10 to 4; banded or hair rigged; hook lengths from 6" to 6'. I put a straight lead on in case they were picking the feeder up. At least three bands were snapped or cut clean. Small bits of Spam were tried, along with a couple of artificial maggots. I spent a while touch legering, but all I got was the same solid sharp tug. I'd assumed at first it was Chub hence the change to banded pellet, but now I've no idea.
Eventually the bites dried up, which to be honest came as a bit of a relief as it was driving me mad. Apart from a half-hearted rattle on the Spam rod, that was it for the last hour. As the clouds were beginning to get blacker I called it a day, a very frustrating day. It really was one of those days hat make you question the wisdom of angling as a pastime, but I'll be back.
Just as the rivers are starting to fine down we are now threatened with thunder storms. Lets hope the stay away from the rivers, especially the Steeping around Wainfleet or the may not get back to their houses on Friday.
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