Waggling A Slider

A trip to one of the deeper sections of a local river was the plan for Friday. In order to avoid the bleak and minnows that normally pester you down there I intended to fish sweetcorn over groundbait. After a bit of balsam bashing to create a swim I got set up. Plumbing up showed the swim to be just over fourteen foot deep. Because of the downstream wind my usual bolo style slider was ruled out in favour of a three and a half gram peacock waggler. 

While I mixed up the ground bait I tossed out a feeder rod with some hemp in a blockend feeder. Having mixed up the groundbait I wound in to find a tiny dace had managed to hook itself. I chucked it out again having thrown in several balls of groundbait. I'd just finished setting up the float rig when the tip whacked round. In came a feisty little chub.

I continued on with the feeder for a while longer but attracted nothing else. I then changed to the float. It was quite a while before I got my first bite. A respectable roach. Another one followed next cast. Followed by another three of four casts later. I had eleven over the next ninety minutes before things went quiet. I tossed out some more groundbait and let things settle while I had a cuppa as it was now rather worm and sunny. Even the wind, which was getting stronger, was rather warm. The bites came a bit quicker over the next couple of hours with eighteen similar sized roach coming to the net before things went quiet again.

The last of the groundbait was tossed out and after another cuppa I trotted the float down again. The float had barely settled when it shot away. At first it felt like I'd hooked a small pike but it turned out to be a rather large perch which came adrift just beyond the net. I continued on for another half hour with out any more bites on the float. I tied the feeder for a whole but nowt was happening. Time to pack up I thought. Not a bad haul and a lot more pleasant than striking at maggot stealing minnows and bleak.