More Gravel Pit Nonsense

Another trip to the local gravel pit on what should, according to the weather forecast, have been an overcast day. I'd decided to just stick with the float rod to see if I could put a decent net of fish together. I was to be fishing match hours. Things didn't get off the a flyer  when the end of the landing net handle broke as I was screwing the net on. Thankfully I had my faithful storm pole with me which makes a reasonable landing net handle. For bait I had red maggots, worms and a rather fetching red groundbait. The repaired rod was on it's first outing after the mishap. A 3BB insert waggler with the shot initial bulked about two foot from the hook completed the business end. A couple of red maggots on a size 18 for hook bait. Chopped worm was added to the ground bait along with a few maggots. Four golf ball sized balls went in.

It took a little while for a bite to come from a little perch. A couple more followed before things went quiet for a while. I then had a couple of little skimmers before foul hooking one. As I dragged it towards the net the hook came adrift launching it up into the tree. Pulling the rig out of the tree it came free intact, but the bulk shot rattled my knuckles which smarted a bit. After another quiet spell a couple of reasonable perch turned up. A few more anglers turned up after lunch. By now it was nice and warm but the lovely sunshine really put the fish off from feeding. I managed the occasional little perch throughout the afternoon. The other angler near me was having the same problems. A couple of fish then nothing for a while.

Through out the afternoon I was pestered by a robin which probably got more maggots than the fish. I spent some time faffing with the telephoto option on the phone to see if I could get a decent picture. It appears that it needs to be quite bright to focus properly and also has to be given a few seconds to focus as well. Still it was something to do while the float sat stationary apart from when I wound it in to change the depth. None of which made much difference.

I probably should have had a couple of swim baited up. One further out in the deeper water. There again I may have mad things worse by flitting between the two and not achieving anything. I don't fish stillwaters very much these days, apart from a bit of pike fishing so really need to up my game on them.