Monday sees me try something different, armed with the seat-bag the pike gear and a 7m Chinese whip I headed off to the other bank and peg 22 (almost opposite 10) where I have seen fish scattering previously. Pike rod went out but on plumbing up with the whip, the expected 5ft of water had become 2.5ft despite the rain we had been having. I surmised that the sluice had been opened a bit too long! Added to the low level it was weedy, clear and very windy. A 1.5g Chinese float with a 0.10mm hook-length to an 18 and maggot ended in 20 rudd and no pike runs for 1-08.
It wasn’t until a week later that I returned, back to peg 10 fishing 10am-12pm. The sardine bait was put out at about 20m and I set the pole up. I had just had a couple of roach in the first couple of drop ins when another member came by and stopped off for a chat before heading to the top field. I had taken my eye off the pike rod to turn towards him when he says your floats gone! My first run of the season, in fact the first for more than a year! The top kit was put down and a strike met with a firm resistance and after a short scrap a 9lber was in the net, at which point chaos ensued- I was out of routine and forgot to pick the rod up when I started to take the pike off the platform to unhook – goodness knows what the guy thought as I must have looked a right numpty. Anyway the pike was safely unhooked and weighed with the net adjustment showing the pike was dead on 9lb. The subsequent photos did not come out well as I think I must have smeared the lens with my wet hands! Anyway there was no more pike action but 18 roach, 16 rudd and 9 littler skimmers kept me busy for a 2-12 total.
Friday sees me back at Bowood peg 10 again 10-12 but this time no pike action although seeing the egret fly past, the kite swoop overhead and the kingfisher catch fish opposite did provide compensation. The pole produced15 roach,11 rudd a perch and a small skimmer for 2-06. It is noticeable that the roach are becoming the dominant catch now rather than the rudd. The perch was also noteworthy, not because it was large but the fact that it was unusually in the 2-3oz bracket whereas the usual size for the main lake is either microscopic (size of my thumb) or over a pound (on rare occasions)!
So last day of the month and I decide to give the Pondtail a go. Well I lasted an hour on the 5m whip, the temp was 3 Celsius on arrival at 9:30 and starting at 9:45 I had not had a sniff by 10:45 despite trying worm and combinations of maggot so I packed up and am writing this instead!
December is around the corner with lots of days taken up with family things but I’m sure I’ll get a few days in!
With the up coming visit from Clive aka SidestreamBob I thought I had better return to Semington and make sure there was plenty of bank space, so I also took a pair of shears and cut a swim closer to the pump than I fished before but still close enough to Clive’s peg.
Peg duly cut I set up a single rig of a 1g homemade float to 0.14mm Tornado and 0.12mm Tornado hooklength to an 18 fishing the 2+2 line in about 6-7 feet of water. Double maggot was again the bait with two pudding consistency balls of groundbait introduced with a little maggot and chopped worm in it. This is not the typical canal approach but for this particular area it is a basic approach. First put in was 10:15 and by 12:15 I had amassed 28 roach, 28 skimmers, 5 larger skimmers, best being 1-08, 3 perch (best 0-14), 2 gudgeon and a rudd for a total of 8-08. I had lost 3 good fish to hook pulls, two were most likely big perch and one a bream judging by the slime on the line. Perch have bony mouths so a hook pull is always possible and the bream tend to have softer mouths than usual.
Anyway it looked good for Monday. Sunday I nip down to Bowood and set up on peg 10 putting the pike rod out and fishing my usual style. However I fished from 10 to 11 at which point the heavy rain got heavier and there were no signs of any pike activity, further evidenced by no slack periods on the pole – 40 rudd, 4 skimmer and a perch for 2-12.
Monday comes around and the sunny fine day of Friday at Semington is replaced by dull wet weather! Clive and I met up as arranged and I led him along the pounds to the pump and put him on the first peg I had fished as it was flatter and no vegetation in the way while I dropped in to the newly cut one from Friday. I had told Clive pole only as it was an ideal opportunity for him to get used to the pole while getting plenty of bites. To cut a long story short the day went off with intermittent rain and dry spells, Clive lost a good fish to a hook pull, possibly a big perch but did manage to get a perch of 1-04 plus a load of smaller fish for a 4lb total.I had a similar experience losing 3 good fish , landing a perch of 1-12 in a total of 8-07. The pump was active for about 30 minutes during which bites dried up significantly. However, the myth that SidestreamBob can’t catch fish is well and truly smashed after his exploits today and earlier in the season. (You will notice he is far better at taking photos than me!)
The myth breaker
Sunday is the next time I get out and this time I head for peg 10 at Bowood armed with the pike rod and 6m Chinese whip with just the haversack seat. Pike rod went out at 9 and the whip followed ten minutes later. I admit I got fed up with the small rudd, 34 of them by the time I packed up at 11:10 when the rain started again, along with 2 roach and 3 small skimmers for 1-08, not a sign of a pike or any activity.
Undeterred I returned next day to Bowood – to peg 11, yes eleven, armed with the haversack seat, pike rod and waggler. It was a very windy blowing left to right and a cold day. The peg had not been dragged at all and was weedy but I stuck at it and from 9:55 to 11:50 did not see a pike or get a run, but did get 18 rudd on the waggler for 1-10, as you can tell a better stamp than previously but still small.
Last day of the month and a dull very windy start that would turn into wet and windy later! I decided to head for High Penn as there were water mains repairs on the road to Bowood and they were working right by the entrance which made things awkward.I decided to take the haversack seat and just a waggler rod although I opted for a 15′ Filstar Premier Match that is at least 12 years old teamed up with a Kastking Sharky reel with 0.16mm line to a 0.12mm hooklength and size 18 barbless hook. Float was a homemade peacock quill taking 4AAA with 3AAA and a BB locking the float with a number 1 shot about 2 feet from the hook and a number 4 about 9 inches from the hook. Heavy set up but in reality needed in the 10’+ of water at 16m and the heavy wind creating a flow. I fished 9:40 to 11:30 when the heavens opened for a second time but fed sparingly, simply loose feeding 20 or so maggots every time bites slowed after an initial two helpings. The rod needs a bit of explaining as it is not like the ultra slim rods available today, it is noticeably thicker and heavier but has a very nice soft action in the tip which allows you to feel even the smallest fish whilst retaining a lot of backbone further down the rod. I was thinking this gave me the best of both worlds given the number of carp in High Penn.It was bites from the off with 15 perch, 16 rudd and 4 roach coming to hand, nothing bigger than 3oz, for a 2-06 total.
Taken during one of the calmer periods (there weren’t many!)
November awaits, will it bring a pike from Bowood?
Sunday 11th sees me back at Boddington for the first leg of the North Wessex Summer League with 10 teams taking part. I drew A section, permanent peg 12 on the dam wall which I was not unhappy with.
Setting up a 5m whip, pole and waggler the plan was to start on the whip move further out on the pole and use the waggler if struggling. It was hard! The wind was blowing off the dam wall down to sections C and D and despite ringing the changes I ended up with my worst ever weight at Boddington 3-01 comprising of 18 roach and 2 perch , 5 on the whip, 6 came to the pole and 9 the waggler. The section was tight but I ended up with 9 points, beating the angler on the right by 12oz but losing by 11oz to my left. The team bombed out and were 10th.
Rolling on to the 20th I find myself getting up at silly o’clock to get to Monkhall near Bridgnorth for the MFS three day festival which once again I was charged with running. We had been allocated Lark and Owl on the Tuesday, followed by Buzzard and Hawk, then Swallow and Hawk, with the proviso that if you fished Hawk on Wednesday then Swallow was for you on Thursday. Money taken in, pegging sorted the draw takes place with fishing from 11:30 to 4:30. Last peg in the bag places me on Lark 7, the one lake I have not fished before and the peg that is furthest from the car park, added to which once again the wind was blowing to the other end of the lake which had a nice ripple while peg 7 was like a mirror!
The peg did look nice with inviting margins and I set up a shallow rig (for the hell of it!), a paste rig for 2+2, a pellet/corn rig for 10m and a margin rig. It has to be said that I did not intend to fish the shallow rig as I know I cannot compete now in a fish race and my line of attack was to target the carp on paste and then the margins. Well things did not go to plan, firstly the fish were not really feeding properly due to getting ready to spawn again, so it was a frustrating time with tails visible in the margins but only weighing in 36-13 while losing at least three times that with foul hookers both on the 2+2 and margin line. Needless to say last in section, I know my place! To rub salt into the wound the heavens opened with half an hour to go!
Day 2 sees me on Hawk peg 3, a peg I have drawn before. Set up as before, paste on 2+2 line, corn and micros in margins and micros long. First put in a carp of about 4lb on paste before anyone else had caught, then a series of missed bites and foul hooked fish. I managed to land a couple more before looking in the margins but had to fish very short (next to platform almost) to get proper bites, again lost 10+ carp and weighed in 56-11 which amazingly was not last (last but one!)
Final day and Swallow 8 called but again the weather gods had a joke and the wind was going down the far end of the lake so it was another case of fishing in a mirror!
Similar approach with the addition that the pellet rig now became a far bank rig as I was on the corner of the island. Again I was off to a flier on paste but it was a case of rotating around the swims, taking a couple of fish then moving on. The right margin produced nothing but the left margin seemed to be favoured by the carp. Far bank I fed with maggots via a toss pot with double maggot as hookbait that produced a fair amount of action but was difficult with the corner and snags. I managed to weigh in 56-06 despite losing more than 10 carp again. Colin Mercer on peg 6 said I had beaten him but I knew he had beaten me as was the case. Last again.
On to Sunday (25th) and round 2 of the Summer League at Walters lake South Cerney. Talk beforehand was that it would be hard as it was not fishing at all well pleasure fishing so a match was bound to be difficult and so it turned out.I was drawn on B1 (scales) which was permanent peg 16.
I set up a hybrid feeder, a margin rig, one for the 2+2 line and one for 10m. Bait was to be maggot/caster/worm/pellet/corn – anything I could get a bite on! Three balls of F! Sweet groundbait mixed dry were deposited on the 10m line laced with casters, a single ball was cupped in on the 2+2 with a pinch of casters fed every couple of minutes. Red and white maggot seemed to attract some attention and 4 fish in the first hour meant at least I avoided a blank! Things went downhill, next hour saw no bites on any of the areas. Re-feeding the long swim saw a couple of small skimmers but I was struggling. I then decided to put in a toss-pot of chopped worm with a few casters and began repeating it every 10 minutes with half a small dendrabena on the hook – finally some response – a small perch but then a bite that pulled the elastic out – a bream. The match ended with that bream, 4 small skimmers, 3 roach and the perch for 4-06 and 6th in the 10 man section. The team improved coming 4th on the day.
Last action this month sees me return to Rowde on Tuesday, same pound and swim, partly because although it is wide it is a short pound and realistically only two could fish it and I picked the flattest area that gave a stable sitting position for the seat-bag. Feeding the remnants of the groundbait and casters from Sunday on the 5m Chinese whip and rig I was soon into fish. Fishing 9:18 to 10:59 I had 20 roach, 16 skimmers, 9 rudd and 6 perch for between 4 and 5lb (I don’t bother taking the keepnet) before the boats and the CRT workers cutting the grass around the locks made it an easy decision to pack up.
wheatnotcasters 