One Of Those Days

Despite storm Agnes heading this way the weather forecast didn't look too bad for most of the day. A tad draughty and, maybe,  the odd shower. I had a cunning plan to protect me from the worst of the wind. I would try the brick pond as the wind would hit the woods first so shouldn't affect the water too badly. I'd also acquired some 5AA insert wagglers which were nice and long so I should be able to counteract any drift. Having not been there for quite some time I was shocked to find that only a couple of swims were fishable. The rest had lilies growing in front of them. Oh well.

After a bit of plumbing about I found a clear area six foot deep in front of the Arrowhead. Further out I found a deep spot  at some eleven feet roughly half way across. I set up a 2½AA insert waggler For the inside and the 5AA insert waggler for the middle. Maggots over hemp for the inside line and breadcrumb laced with maggots and fishmeal pellet for the middle. It seemed my bait chucking skills had deserted me. Whether throwing groundbait or catapulting hemp I really struggled to hit the target. In the end I was just glad it hit the water. If I'd been playing darts I think I'd have ended up on double one.

First cast to the near line produced a bite on the drop. A tiny perch which fell off as I swung it in. Next cast i was bitten off when a jack grabbed a the fish. Things then went quiet on the inside line so I had a chuck with the heavier rig to the middle. Unfortunately I miscast straight up into the tree above me. I got a tangles mess back minus the hook. Back on the inside while I re-rigged. My feeding of hemp and maggot got a bit more accurate but it was still over a larger area than I'd of liked. The float dipped under the surface and out came a small roach.

Out it went again and there it sat for twenty minutes with out so much as a chewed maggot. With nothing on the inside line I went back to the middle, or I tried to. For some reason I'd now lost the ability to cast. Eventually I managed to get the rig where I wanted it. After a few minutes I was into something small that was grabbed by a pike as I wound it past the lilies. As the pike turned I was bitten off again and the float etc. shot into the tree again.

This seemed to be a good time to partake of luncheon. I'd been trying to fish for two and a half hours at this point. I chucked out more feed to somewhere in the vicinity of both swims and settled back with a cuppa and lunch. Suitably invigorated and with the heavy rig redone I started in the further swim. The wind had now changed direction slightly and leaves were starting to drift into the swim. After half an hour with nothing forthcoming I moved to the inside swim. The leaves were now a bit problematic as I seemed to either land the bait or the float on one. Once I got the bait through I did manage to catch half a dozen roach before and other pike attack scattered them.

Back out to the middle. All was quiet for about twenty minutes before a small roach dragged the float under. I then managed to drop three while swinging them in. The next fish in was a rudd taken off the bottom in eleven feet of water. The threatened shower finally turned up so up with the brolly. This made casting a problem again but I somehow managed to land the float in the vicinity of the feed. Four more rudd followed each taken after the bait had settled on the bottom. All bites stopped as the rain got heavier.

Looking at the rain radar showed a gap in the rain around half three before heavier rain was due along with stronger winds. The moment rain stopped I got packed up as there was a fair walk back to the car and I didn't want a soaking. I just got everything in the boot of the car when the heavens opened.  Eight roach and five rudd for five hours fishing isn't brilliant but I'd caught. One problem I did have on packing up was two of the wagglers were too long for the tackle box so they had to be wrapped in a towel and carefully tucked into the corner of the rucksack.