So, after a long weekend away in a lovely converted barn last weekend with some friends and our dogs, walking on Dartmoor and some trips to Cornish beaches, it was back to fishing and I was looking forward to this after the wet, but decent days fishing I had last round.
First time in the Well at Shepton Mallet since it was done up, nice breakfast, but the service is a bit slow, but there was no danger of missing the draw. I collected my casters from the shop and joined the queue for the draw, with the mostly jovial, piss taking throng. Can't say I was filled with joy when I saw 121 drawn out for me by Steve, last round Ricky Mills was on there and he beat 2 in the section. But its a different day and I was sure that the overcast, settled weather would see the skimmers in rapacious mood.
I trundled my gear past the beaming anglers who had drawn the plum pegs on Cary, as well as Gabe on 74, who was most despondent, I did try and cheer him, as I could truthfully say the peg usually throws up one section win a series. Back to 121, apart from the fact it hasn't got much history as a silvers peg, it is a nice peg to fish, a new platform, that hasn't got steps to it and a splendid view of the lake.
I did have a waggler rod and a feeder rod, but I decided to leave them in the bag and concentrate on the pole, so two rigs for 14m, one 0.4g bulk and the other 0.2g strung shot. A Chianti to fish short through the water for roach and a rig to fish either edge. So with that set up and bait sorted - which was 4mm meat, soft pellets, micros, caster and maggots along with a few worms, but they were only for the hook, I had time to wander round for a chat.
On the all-in I fed micros at 14m off to the left and GB/caster to the right at the same distance, before starting at 6m on the 4mm meat, nothing on that in 20 minutes, so I ditched it and switched to the caster short, this did bring a couple of small roach, but it was a case of catch one or two and then twiddling thumbs until the next bite, they certainly weren't lined up....
I had a look on the micro line with a 4mm expander on the hook, didn't have as much as a tremble of the float bristle, I gave that 20 minutes and decided I best get a dead maggot on the hook and try the GB/caster line. I expected the float to go under, but yet again, it resolutely sat there, I red the line and went back to the roach, even though the rate of catching them was probably less than 1lb an hour.
At 12:40 I had a skimmer, then at 12:50 another, optimism was rising, but that was quelled after another spell with no bites, including a look in the edges, before I went back to the reluctant roach, but the pattern was the same every time, catch one or two and you'd have to either wait ages for a bite or try something else.
At 15:10 and 15:20 I had two more skimmers on the GB line, once again the two skimmers brought hope that a shoal had found the bait and were settling down for a banquet of casters, but this once again was a false dawn and I didn't have another bite off that line, I had converted the micros line to GB and this was a complete write off, never had a bite over it.
I managed a 1lb+ hybrid and a couple of 8-10oz perch from the edges in the last 20 minutes, but it was a most unproductive day. I hooked and lost 3 carp, so there weren't even loads of them around, after one of the carp took a hook I put a 22 to 0.06 on and that made no difference. Oh well, here's hoping for a better draw next round.
Well done to Paul on the win from Cary, using a 40+ year old rod - has there ever been a better skimmer rod made than the original Normark Microlite? I don't think so.
No comments:
Post a Comment