Not Quite to Plan

 Today was a slow day, I couldn't get out of bed. It was a lot cooler outside than expected, so I had to revise my plans.
I had wanted one final crack at the bream and tench, but with a cooling wind and temperatures low, it seemed a good idea to start the perch fishing a week earlier than planned.

I did want to start on the bream and tench water that I had been fishing all summer, but a new smaller water was calling to me instead, so it was there that I headed.

The car park was empty, so I had the choice of swims and opted for one where I could fish both the deep margin on three banks including the island.

It wasn't just a new water, but a new pair of rods and reels for the smaller species that I'm targeting over the autumn. So out came the Drennan avon rods with the small front drag Shimano reels for their first proper outing.

Once on the bank, I quickly setup the rods, one was to be a straight ledger and the other a float rig.

Float fishing is something that I rarely do when targeting bream and tench, so it was nice for a chance to be shotting up a 4BB float to just touch bottom.

I baited up the two area, one with a mix of fish pellets, caster and chopped worm and the other was with a worm crumb mix with a hint of crushed caster.

It didn't take long for the fish of the lake to move onto the baited areas and soon both areas were fizzing with activity. It was was the ledgered bait that was away first and the bobbin quickly rose to the top, but my strike was met with a very solid curve in the rod. Oh heck, this is no perch!!!

The carp ran me around the lake, and the rod and the line were singing in the wind, this could end well. Alas it did and soon enough the hooklink parted with the carp and it was gone.

In the margins the fizzing was all around the float, and soon enough it dipped and I was connected with a fish.
The fish soon broke the surface, but to my surprise I had a small crucian carp on the end of the line, this wasn't what I expected, but it was a welcome sight.
This was soon joined with a second, and a third crucian carp, this being a very plump fish of 12oz.

Mid morning came and when with no signs of my quarry, but I did manage to wangle out a couple of small tench and some roach.
A change was required and out came the whole worms. The bites did dry up for an hour or so, then the perch came on and it was a perch a cast. Nothing huge, but it proved that the perch were there in number.

After a couple of hours of pulling out tiddlers, I did manage to latch onto a couple of better fish in the 8-10oz, but they were no where near the sizes I was hoping for.

It looks like I will have to return and fish all out for the perch using either roach/perch deadbaits or even some air inject large lobworms or some other wonder bait that will be ignored by the other species that inhabit the lake.

TL