Finding a Perch

I woke on Saturday with a choice between perch fishing on the decoy or pike fishing on the pond. I looked out of the window at 5:30am and saw a very heavy frost and was very close to say bollocks to either types of fishing and going back to bed.
But I did and slowly gathered the perch  gear together and headed off to the local tackle shop to buy a few bits and piece as well as the lobworms and Denbrobaena

By the time I got to the water it was 8am and it was still just below freezing, but only just. I walked the bank looking for signs of life on the water. It was crystal clear and I could see that there was still an abundance of lily pads and cabbage. So armed with some knowledge of likely wintry spots from members of the pit, I setup on one of the pegs. The peg was a nice spot and would grab some of the morning sun and hopefully a bit of warm on the back.

The first rod was soon out baited with a big fat air injected lobworm on a running feeder rig. The feeder was packed full of chopped worms and red maggots. The chopped worms would help to lure the perch in.
I decided that the second rod would be put into action with some lures to see if the perch wanted a moving bait.

After an hour of trying every perch type lure I had in the box, I decided that I would revert to plan B, that was to wait it would for the perch to come on the feed.

I reel in the worm/feeder rod and rebait, the 2nd rod was then put out which was as the first rod.
Both where fished in perching looking areas on the far side, but one was on the marginal shelf close to the old lily pads and the second was in the deeper water just in front of the pads and I sat back to wait them out.

As I waited for the perch to smell out the juicy lobworms, I noticed that I had a companion for the session.

The robin had obviously seen the bait box of red maggots wiggling about in the emerging sun, so and he was waiting patiently and hadn't helped himself, I fed him a few.

It as one of those days when I should have had the better camera with me because, the resident fisher was soon darting about and diving for fish on the landing stage. The tree's above me were alive with the chirps and tweets of a gang of long tailed tits would were in and out of each and very tree and bush on the lake eagerly looking of any insects that might be about. A grey squirrel was out on the ground foraging about for acorn and across the far side a larger mammal was moving about. At first glance I took it for a big cat. No not a leopard or black panther, but a big ginger cat. It was not until it came out into the open that it became clear it was as a fox. The fox seem to be in good condition, especially as for the location. The fox mooched about the far bank stopping every few yards to sniff the air. I was staying very still and being down wind of him, he didn't even notice me. He linger about for a willing obviously looking for a meal, but as nothing was on other he jogged off into the woods in search of a rabbit or pheasant.

The fishing was slow. The air temperature was no higher than 4 deg C even in the sun and I could feel the cold starting to get into the tips of toes and fingers. The rod remain quite and I decided that I would try and new approach. The float rod was soon put together and a rig set up for the close margins. Remembering what the depth was in this swim from the summer, I set the float for 13ft, just so the bait was tripping bottom. I cast out and fed a mix of chopped worm and red maggot and sat back.

After an hour on the float, the feeder rod alarm gave a couple of bleeps and the light bobbin shifted a little. For my winter setup, I have changed the fox specialist bobbin to a gardener bug. Much lighter and if this only moves a bit, it is probably only the worm wiggling on the hook.

The float was starting to show signs of movement too, as after what seemed like an age it started to twitch and dip. I lifted into one of this bits and a fish was on. Was it a perch. I'm afraid not, it was a greedy roach. This was soon landed and the float was rebaited and recast. The bait had only just settle and the float started to twitching and dipping again. I lifted into another of this bites and it was a rudd. About the same size as the roach and this too was soon landed, unhooked a told to stop snaffling the worms. They were for the Sargent Major!!
I'm afraid the message didn't get over very well and I was soon being pestered by various size of roach and rudd to the point were I even tried feed them up on maggots to get rid of them.
Soon I just got fed up of the pestle roach and rudd and as I could not longer feel my toes at 2pm,  decided to packed up and heat for home.