Monday the 5th of December
Back to the stillwater perching
today, once again arriving at about 1.30pm, all rods now fully armed
with a running worm rig on the end of the line and a short hooklink
fixed between float stops and baited with maggot fixed 18 inches up from
the feeder. The wind was favourable and so undertow wasn't going to
cause an issue which allowed me to dispense with any additional weight
below the bobbins, my general feeling was that I had ironed out a few
things in my approach to the water, method and tactics and that now I
was going to get stuck in, a bite was all that was needed.
Confidence
means a hell of a lot in angling, if your not confident in your
approach, bait, tackle and location you can think yourself out of fish I
always think, but no I was happy with everything, now it was just a
matter of time. Unfortunately time ran out twenty minutes or so into
full darkness with not a sign of a bite and the same went for Trevor
fishing just along from me.
Tuesday the 6th of December
I shan't try to pad this out, just read yesterdays piece again and add in a 2 inch lift on the bobbin!
Thursday the 8th of December
I
had been keeping an eye on the forcast for several days in anticipation
of a long awaited murky day, there had been far too much bright sunny
weather for my liking lately, not generally conducive to good perch
fishing, though to be fair not much else seemed to be helping either.
From the start of the week Thursday had been looking very much the day,
Wednesday had been wet which after this year was something of a turn up
for the books in itself and it all pointed towards the weather mans
prediction coming good and so I had a longer session in mind. Nine am
saw me in the tackle shop for a pint of red wrigglers and by 9.30 I was
next to the lake, I knew that strong wind was going to be an issue from
the forcast but had it in mind that I would initially stay mobile until I
found an area with a bearable amount of undertow. Starting in the
middle of the favoured bank it was obvious within minutes that it was a
no hoper, three swan shot may as well of not been clipped to the bobbin
cord for all of the good it did, move along fifty yards and try again
where the wind was slightly less and it was almost as bad, another fifty
yards and still no better and I had virtually run out of bank that I
wanted to fish. Leaving my kit where it was I decided to just take one
rod around to the bank running at ninety degrees to me and see what the
tow was like. First cast at maybe 30 yards and the feeder hit the bottom
much sooner than I had expected and also picked up a fair amount of
weed, one more cast a bit further out and if it was no better I would
move along the bank and try again. Giving it just a bit more welly at
the second attempt and it all went very wrong with a crack, half of a
rod followed the feeder and it was pretty obvious from the sound that it
hadn't just come apart, in fact it had snapped just below the joint and
on the butt section, goodbye Grauvelle twin tip! As you might imagine I
was less than chuffed at this stage, I'd about seen enough and decided
to cut my losses, go home for a cuppa and calm down, and then pick up a
tip rod and head for the river.
Back at home I checked
the EA river level website and even though we had received a reasonable
amount of rain it wasn't looking too bad, worth a go and certainly
better than sitting at home having wasted a day off work. While I was at
it I had a quick look on Ebay and luckily found a rod to match two
others I own that would partly replace the broken one and at a bargain
price and so that job was sorted out too.
Arriving at
the Derwent I had a walk up to the river before unloading and wasn't
exactly chuffed at what I saw, more water in than I had expected and the
colour was about as much as I would have wanted for perching, in fact
in all honesty it was too coloured but as I stood there the bailiff came
along and between us we managed to talk our way around into there being
a chance and so I made my way in the pouring rain back to the van and
loaded up before making the long walk up to my favourite perch swims on
the stretch. Dropping my kit into my favoured swim I spotted a brolly
just upstream and on wandering up for a natter found Roger sheltering
from the elements, moaning about drifting debris, and reporting no
activity, not entirely unexpected to be honest, nevertheless I was here
now and I'd give it a go, and as a bonus Roger had baited my swim for me
already bless him!
A couple of hours later and I was
also moaning about the drifting debris, every cast was picking up weed
and without the slightest indication on the tip I decided to break my
golden rule and abandon a perch session before dusk, Roger had fared no
better and the sky was looking decidedly iffy as I packed up, in fact
for once my timing was perfect as within seconds of shutting the van
door it was battered by a torrential downpour, almost horizontal in the
strong wind.
Sometimes you really should just accept
the fact that you've been dealt a bad set of cards and give up,
unfortunately my stubborn streak tends to tell me to push my luck at
such times even though almost always it ends in disapointment and
frustration, you live and don't learn eh.
Saturday the 10th of December
With
the dreaded decorating looming at home I didn't expect to get out today
but with a bit of lightning fast brush work (in other words I missed
more wall than I painted) and a bit of sweet talking in the direction of
'er indoors I managed to wangle the late shift back after that
increasingly elusive stripey. It was particularly bright and sunny today
and I really did think if I got a bite it would be right at the last
minute but despite pushing my luck and hanging on well into dark I once
again found myself packing up without the slightest indication.
Tuesday December the 13th
I didn't
get to the water until 2.30 but still worth a trip to cover the
witching hour, the wind was upsetting things again and two swan shot
were needed to hold the bobbins in place, far from ideal but what else
to do? No indications whatsoever at the rods and then wound in to pack
up and found two out of three worms missing, sometimes it really does
feel like they are taking the mickey doesn't it.
Time
for some more thinking, the undertow is certainly a big problem and one
that I find it very difficult to come up with a solution to, my only
thought was to fish the tip, that would allow me to hit the first
indication of a bite. The top hooks baited with maggot hadn't been
touched though I did feel that it was still worthwhile persevering with
them, lets face it with the fishing this hard anything was worth a shot.
My other thought was to look at bolt rigging a lobworm hookbait, I
really wasn't happy with a whole wrom on a hair rig due to the chances
of the hook becoming masked but I did feel that there could be some
mileage in a hair full of worm sections
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