Even More M'thud and Float Fishing

 I was quite surprise when I arrived at the gravel pit to find three other anglers already there and three more arrive through the morning. This meant all bar one swim taken. I'd come up with a cunning plan for today. Along side the method feeder out on the bar I's feed two swims for the float. One close to the tree roots was fed chopped worm and one further out was feed groundbait and maggots.

The day was not a sunny as previous and a chilly wind was blowing into the corner I was fishing. Definitely not T-shirt weather as I had to put a fleece on. Bites were scarce today, for me. Other were taking a few roach on feeder or float tactics. While other had even less bites than me. The far swim produced the most fish, all roach. The inside swim didn't until afternoon and then it was to maggots. Occasionally a couple of squabbling wrens to chase about to my right. A large crow kept landing in a tree opposite looking rather ominous. Plenty of alder beetles about again. A very noisy robin that seemed to prefer worms to maggots kept defying my attempts to photograph it.

The method rod was ignored again despite a fair collection of baits been tried. As mentioned earlier I couldn't get a bite on worm but maggot produced a small perch over the chopped worm. By mid-afternoon the wind had dropped and changed direction slightly. So the debris which was piled up in the corner started to drift about over my swims, but I persisted. I thought I'd hooked another jack at first, but the head thumps suggested a decent perch. After a brief battle and a couple of close shaves with the tree roots a nice perch estimated at 2lb graced the net. Weighed later I was surprised to see it turn the dial to 2lb 9oz. A couple more small roach came from the groundbait swim but what few bites I was getting dried up.

Despite the perch I really don't think I'm getting the best out of the swims I'm fishing. I also think the few stillwater floats I have are a bit ion the light side and need to invest in few heavier ones. I also need to tie up a better selection of hook lengths.