Just Getting Out There

It been a good month since I last posted on here. What with holiday, decorating, illness, socialising, there has been little time in which to wet a line.

The current weather has helped either, sunshine, rain, cloud, more rain and more sun, the weather patterns have been quite odd at times.

I was due to fish on Saturday as usual, but with going out to the Theatre the night before and the heavy rain that lasted 99.9% of the day, I wisely put it off until the Sunday.

For the last week however, I been deliberating what to fish for with the season starting to charge from summer to early autumn. So was it to be tench and bream or roach and perch.

A roach or perch session was beckoning and I was eager to try out the new Drennan Avon rods and the new Shimano reels, but it didn't feel like roach or perch weather, so the bream/tench rods came with me for what maybe the last time of the summer.

I arrived it good time and after what I hoped was the last rain storm of the weekend I got out of the car. No cars were in the car park, so I knew I had the choice of swims on the water, or more importantly, my favourite bream/tench swim would be vacant.
The barrow was loaded up and after for puffing and panting I was at the swim and soon unload the barrow with all the gear.

Soon I was setup and ten balls of a new ground bait mix were going in at about 40 yards out. The normal rigs were out. Method feeder, "The Rig" and a margin bolt rig.

The morning was warm but dull, there was a lingering feel of rain in the air as the wind blow into my face, but it was all very pleasant and it had a feel of a breamy day. The water was chocolate brown, which is unusual for this lake, but perhaps with all the rain we had had the previous day had stirred it up.

I only had to wait a few minutes before the first roach started to attacked the various rods and the bobbins below were twitching.

After an hour all rods were wound in, rebaited and recast, this is when I found a tiny skimmer bream had impaled itself on the hook. It was so small, it didn't even register a beep or a pull on the line. But at least I hadn't blanked!!!!

The morning soon came and when, midday came, lunch was consumed and all . The rod remained lifeless. Even the pair of carpers who had arrived halfway through the morning remained in there seats.

It was a strange session, roach were topping, carp would pop their head out of the water like a whale, but the alarms stayed silent. After lunch and a recast, I had a quick look at the next swim, this look appealing and would mean I could fish the deep going of the lake.

With a more in mind, the method rod was away, the alarm beeping steadily and the baitrunner started to click. I struck into the running fish and connected. A steady tussle commenced and after a short but determined fight a bream was in the net. Result, nothing huge, but a nice bream for this water. It was soon unhooked and returned.

The method feeder was recast and no sooner had I turned away from and settle in the chair, it was away again. This was a sail away bite an the bait runner was signing its sweet tune. Another steady fight and a slightly bigger bream was in the net. This was soon slipped back into the water and the "the rig" rod was away, but this turned out to be a nice roach. Sensing that the bream had finally turned on the feed, I swapped the "the rig" for a method feeder and cast this back out. Again, the bobbin was soon rising steadily up and the baitrunner tune began once more, another bream was on and was soon plodding about in the margin, but as I went to net it, the hook pulled and it slid beneath the waves.

Not deterred, the rod was out again and I didn't have to wait very along for a more bream to grace the net. A further three bream were caught, another lost and a final roach to finish the session.

Looking at the photos, the last few fish were the old warrior of the shoal. Dark brown flack and fins, with battle scars for years of spawning battles.

In the end, the day turned out all right, six bream between 4 and 5lb isn't bad at all for this lake during the day. I fear I really should have fished here late into the summer evenings and during the night to have had a chance to catch the bigger ones that reside in its depth. But there is always next season, or maybe next week.

TL