Long Time Away

Its been well over a month since I wet a line due to ongoing work,life, home balancing act that us anglers have to endure, so it was finally nice to get to the bank.

I had set my stall out for a afternoon/evening session on a local water in the hope that the tench would still be about in the weed beds, so a banquet of spomb mix was mixed up the day before and left to ferment in a sealed bucket ready for bank side.

Upon arrival, there was only one car parked up and I hoped that it wasn't a lone carper with their lines spread all over the place. Thankfully it was a single rod pleasure angler who was happily catching on the float rod.

I setting into my usual swim and started the sweet, sticky spombing process. The spomb is underhand swung out to about 5 rod length out into the weed bed abit like a bait dropper but on a grander scales.
Ten spombs later and the bucket is 90% empty and I can rest the swim before putting the hook baits out over the top.

After a cuppa was brewed, drunk and a chat with the old boy along the bank, the rods were finally baited and placed out over the dinner table. First out was the inline feeder with the fake maggots attached, then the double hair rigged boillies on a bolt rig, with a pva bag with a few free offerings.

I noticed on the last outing that a number of the rigs hooks had become blunted or the link a bit frayed, so it was time for an overhaul.The evening before and whilst home alone, I had decided to ditch the year old tied rigs and re-tied a whole set of new ones in braid, stiff and supple hooklink material in various length, hook sizes and fake bait.

The afternoon was a mixed bag of wind, rain, sun and more rain so the brolly was erected to make the affair more comfortable and allow the stove to cook my lunch of rice and chicken in white sauce.

The third rod was kitted out with a float on the lift method, this was to be fished a couple of rod length out with abit of corn on the size 15 hook. I was hoping that if the tench got muscled out of the baited area that they might be up for taking small morsels of bait closer in and away from the masses.

With the baits out and the sun on my back it felt quite pleasant bar the odd spot of rain, infact it was so nice the Ray Band copies had to come out!

The first fish of the day fell to the float rod and the float lifted like a rocket and lay flat on the surface. I struck and a fish was on, but it wasn't a tench but a plump roach which was quickly subdued and netted. Not exactly what I was after but rather nice to see.

The fish roach was quickly followed by a second and third before the rain came and I decided to sit under the brolly for a bit. The rain fell heavily and ironically the bites started on the maggot feeder rod. The bobbins danced around for a bit before being swiftly lifted to the top and the baitrunner churned. The rod hooped with progressive curve and the fish on the other end made an attempt to pull my string, alas it wasn't big enough to take line and plodded about before hitting the surface and coming in like a wet sack. Alas no tench, but a reasonably sized bream which was unhooked in the net and release without getting covered in slime.

The feeder was refilled and cast back out, whilst I got steadily wetter in the heavy shower, hopefully this was only a passing shower and not a prolonged thundery storm as forecast by the Met men.

Rain was still falling when the boillie rod was away and just as the kettle was boiling too.
The baitrunner was churning nicely and I thought my luck was in with the tench. Again the rod hooped over and again something pulled back, but again the fight was short and un tench like and again it was a bream.

The bream had mashed the double boilies and they were unusable so were replaced with a fresh pair from the pot and cast back out to the dining area.

By this time the rain had abated and I pulled the seat out from under the brolly and recast the float out whilst settling down with the cuppa tea after reboiling the kettle.

I love float fishing especially on the lift method and it fills me with alot of joy, I'm just abit lazy and when the rod was a three piece it hardly came out of the bag. So with the new rod effectively being a two piece, it stays tackled up in the quiver so it can be thrust into action more frequently.

The float settled nicely and I scattered bits of corn around the tip of the float and waited. I didn't however have to wait to long and a small hybrid was soon swung in, unhooked and returned. This was followed by a couple of 8oz roach before things settled down.
The rain came again and went again, this was to be the pattern for the afternoon and  whilst I did land a few nice roach up to 1.1/2lb, no real monsters appeared. As with all roach fishing, the commotion did grab the attention of fishing with a predatory nature and whilst playing a 12oz roach a pike bolted out from the cover of the margin bushes to grab one for their dinner.

More bream came came to the boillie rod and maggot feeder, but alas no tench. But they did give their presence away with some area of pin sized bubbling, so they are still about and feeding.

The bailiff came around for a chat too and he confirmed that the tench were still coming out to the carpers and in particular to higher protein fresh baits which he rolls himself in various sizes.
Upon packing up, a damsel baring gifts appear at the umbrella, the bailiff had sent her up with a kilo of frozen boillies to try on my next session.

They smell quite good, so I look forward to giving them a try.