Plan A - The Brick Ponds

 I'd been informed the muddy colour had dropped out of the overfull Brick Ponds so decided to give it a go. My intention of arriving at first light was cocked-up by my inability to set an alarm. On arriving at the car park I thought it best to have wander down to  the ponds to see what state they were in before carting the tackle down. The colour had dropped out but it was far from clear and it really was high. With 18" of extra water in it one of my favourite swims was inaccessible and the bankside path to the other half of the pond(s) was underwater in places.

Two float rigs were readied, one with a herring with a rather bad case of freezer burn, and the other with a small headless mackerel. The herring was placed to the left bay an overhanging tree and the mackerel over the dead/dying lilly bed. As I tucked in to a biscuit to go with my cuppa the herring float bobbed and moved away. Contact was made with a very fast fish which shot about all-over the place. It obviously wasn't heavy but did put up a great scrap for it's size. Only 64cm but fun none the less. A smelt was attached to the rig and dropped in the same place.

I'd moved the mackerel about a couple of times and found the old lily bed still had plenty of green stuff protruding above the bottom so had been shallowing up hoping the bait would just settle on top of it. As I wound the smelt in to reposition it I saw something swirl under the water as I lifted it out. I drop the bait in some three foot from the bank just over the shelf. Having finished my lunch I popped for a quick piss. As I turned came back the float by the bank shot way towards the other float. By the time I'd grabbed the rod the other float was moving away as well. Not content with this the little beastie decided to down somersaults and tangle things even more. A presentable little thing of 55cm.

 

Unclipping the traces I found things weren't as bad as they first appear and was soon back in action. The mackerel went a bit further out this time and  another smelt was dropped under the tree to my right. Around 3:45 I was thinking of packing in as I didn't  fancy the very muddy walk back in dark.As I lifted the smelt from the water the other float moved slowly across the surface. I wasn't quite sure what I'd contacted with. It felt like a dead weight that occasionally wriggled a bit. By the time I'd got whatever it was to the bank all I had was a pile of semi-dead lily bits. I fished on until I could no longer see the floats but nothing else happened. The walk back was a bit nasty in the dark but I made it out intact. Despite being small the two jacks maintained my average of two pike per trip.