It turns out it is very similar to avenue we have used before - the Carp societies lake at Lechlade. It is a very big gravel pit with very clear water and masses of weed. The place was crawling with boilie queens washing up after their morning fry up. Some were friendly enough to pass on info on the venue, and we soon formed an Carpers opinion as to the best swims.
From a Carpers point of view the Tench and the Bream seemed to be a nuisance, but by all accounts if you had a Bream under 10 lb then you were unlucky. Equally bags of Tench to over a 100 lb were quite possible. It seemed spodding masses of hemp and corn over known gravel bars was the only real chance of catching anything.
Of course the Boilie queens didn't have much info on anything else. One very nice chap (turned out to be bailiff) separated us from our day ticket money and realising what we were after explained a match man had caught a lot of Rudd earlier in the week. So Chas and I chose the same area and settled in. Choosing different methods we set about our research
Before long we were both experiencing similar problems in heavy silk and Canadian pond-weed. So set about finding a way around with different tactics and different baits. I soon started catching and was pleasantly surprised at the quality and regularity of Rudd and Roach that came my way. The clear water in front of me was a mass of minnow sized fry. As Chas said handful of bait wait and scoop with a large net and you could potentially catch a pound of fry every-time.
Not sure that's cohsure so we stuck to normal methods and before long I was one a chuck. Chas was going well and had also had a lovely big Perch. A one point I was taking 5 seconds from the float hitting the water to it disappearing and reeling in a lovely Rudd or Roach. Quite a few of the Summer League lads turned up to practise, and it was clear that local knowledge will be an asset come the match.
They sat and watched as I bagged the fish then the lure of doing the same themselves pulled them away. And so it was the day was punctuated by flotillas of pristine white swans and golden fish. We had started at 9.30 and by 12 the fish every 15 seconds had slowed to one every 5 minutes and by one o'clock one every 20 minutes.
A change of tactic was required. I duly obliged and after half an hour was bagging again this time some real clonkers. It truly was developing into a red letter day.
I have in my time caught specimens of many fish. A 26 lb Carp a 10 lb 12 oz Barbel, a 3 lb 3 oz Perch. A 29 lb 10 oz Pike, 5 lb Eel and Three Roach over 2 lb ( 2.1 2.3 2.4)but I have never caught a Rudd of 2 lb or more 1 lb 14 oz being my best.
Although I didn't today there is a real chance this place would produce one. Typical though I had no phone or camera today to take Piccies, but Dazzer got a pick of me catching Rudd he had missed my best fish of the day which was on my digital scales 1 lb 12 oz. 2 ounces of my PB. In fact by the end of the session at 2.30 I had had 13 fish well over a pound and at least half of them were pound and half.
All in all 237 fish for around 35 lb. Excluding the only Tench of the day (the only lost fish of the day) which shed its hook at the sight of the landing net. That 3 to 4 lb fish would have topped the day but I wasn't angry. Today was red letter day that doesn't happen very often
Thank you God
Back to Pewsey Lake next week for another round in the club Championship. Thanks to Google for the image of one of Gods greatest creations.
No comments:
Post a Comment