Sunday 4th sees 31C and a trip to Zhuhai to fish the tilapia lake. I drew peg 7 in their automated peg allocation which seemed a good peg with Gareth on the opposite bank next to the bridge.
Things started well as Gareth had a 7-8 pounder second put in. Now just to clarify the rules are max 4.5m whip, two hooks, no braid and paste as bait but you feed pellet. It costs 330 yuan (approx £35) to fish for 4 hours but you get back 25 yuan (approx £3) for each fish in your net at the end. There are also some tagged fish, one which is yet to be caught is worth 1000 yuan to the captor. Now I was set up with a 3m whip that some locals prefer as it gives more control over the tilapia, line is Tornado 0.20mm and the hooks are about a size 6! Four hours later I was thinking of taking up golf! Not one bite despite following the feeding pattern of the locals next to me who caught 21 and 15 fish respectively. The only difference I could see was that they were on 4.5m whips and fishing further out. After Gareth’s start he lost a tilapia to a pull, had both hooks bitten off on another and missed two bites.
That evening we went to the main Shiqi river but only managed 30 minutes on feeders before a thunderstorm with spectacular lightning descended. In that time I had 5 casts, 3 bites and a silver bream on pieces of worm. While Gareth had 3 silver bream.
Monday 5th We returned to the Shiqi in the morning while it was under 30C. This time I managed 2 silver bream, 2 tilapia and a red belly tilapia in the short session. Gareth had double plus a small asp as you can see above. The afternoon sees us head into the hills to meet up with some of their friends at a mountain stream. What an eye opener with picnic tables set up in the middle of the water with families eating, barbecuing all the while others around them were trying to catch mini species with slightly larger nets than you see kids with at the seaside. Gareth had put in a 3m light whip and we found a slightly deeper area a little way downstream (you could still walk across the stream!) and I managed to get4 small tilapia by an outlet pipe, before moving well up stream and sneaking out 3 larger tilapia and losing a possible white trout that was too big to swing up the wall.
Tuesday 6th sees me visit a tackle shop and replenish my paste stocks! Temperature now down to 26C and we headed off in the afternoon to Zhuhai in an attempt for me to get a big tilapia. The owners to be fair must have taken pity on me as they put me on a favored peg and provided the tackle, set it up, provided the bait and pellets and showed me the area to fish, even setting up a purple floodlight when it got dark for me. I did far better this time and had one tilapia of about 8lb but lost 2 and missed 9 bites!
Final day and 6 hours at the Grass carp lake with 2 missed bites. Plenty of fish cruising but very wary and spook at the slightest thing. Next day sees a 24 hour journey home! May not have caught a tremendous amount but did I enjoy the experience – you bet I did!
