Monday 26 December 2011

Swithland reservoir perch fishing - trial and mostly error!

Monday the 28th of November
After the weekends result I was itching to get back to the perch water, although we had some indications during the day it was the approach to dusk, as usually found with perch, that was showing itself to be more consistent and this would allow me to fit in short sessions after work and still be in with a chance.

Arriving at about 1.30 I set up in the same area that I had fished on the two previous days, using the same maggot feeder tactics combined with lobworm hookbaits. The feeders were refilled every 20 minutes or so for five casts just to get a little bit of bait down there after which I would slow down the introduction of feed, small fish are something of a rarity on this water and so the maggots deposited on the bottom were very likely to remain there until found by a stripey, in fact often the topic of conversation bankside is what on earth do the perch actually live on. Long term this is certainly something to worry about, it seems that each year the number of perch is decreasing, up to 200 cormorants have been counted on site in past years though those numbers are now decreasing greatly too as there is no longer the head of small fish to support them. The remaining fish may be of a very respectable size but of course they won't last forever and we can only hope that with the "black death" now reduced in numbers that stocks might increase, though of course then the cormorants may well return, a very vicious circle.

3.30 saw the left hand bobbin twitch and then shoot up to the rod, I was right on it but struck into thin air, another 30 minutes and that was repeated and right on dusk it happened yet again, that really wasn't good and I was kicking myself, part of me was saying that I could have had 3 very good fish on the bank, but there is also a strong possibility that it could actually have been the same fish with the pit holding so few, either way this needed to be sorted out.

Back at home I pondered over the situation and my first thought was that I needed a longer drop on the bobbins, the banks are incredibly awkward to fish from being rocky and so I had been using a rod pod but my thought was that the fish were dropping the bait as the line tightened up to the rod and resistance was felt. Out came the banksticks and I tied up some extra long bobbin cords ready for my next attempt.

Wednesday the 30th of November
I found myself with the chance of a quick session this afternoon though I was out of maggots and with only a short window of time had no choice but to just fish single worm hookbaits. Armed with my re-rigged long drop bobbins and long banksticks I was all set up for 2pm, with a bit of delay caused by trying to get the sticks into the rocky bank. The difference today was that a moderate wind was cutting across the bank and causing quite a substantial undertow, another possible issue to consider, the tow was causing the light bobbins to creep up and after a little experimentation I found I need 1 1/2 swan shot to hold them steady, also the line angle was being pulled to maybe 30 degrees from where I was casting which I couldn't help thinking was far from ideal for a resistance hating perch.
The lack of free offerings seemed to have little effect on activity as once again I had three bites, with a bobbin drop of 18 inches to 2 feet I hit two of those as the bobbin was climbing and still missed them, the third occured just as I was winding in after missing a bite on another rod and so that was missed too, aaaaaagh!

Time for another session analysis back at home, the conclusion I came too was that the undertow was probably to blame this time due to the bow caused in the line, apart from the increased resistance that would cause to this fish it would also dampen the strike considerable particularly considering the depth of water being fished, a difficult situation to deal with while still trying to fish a sensitive method. Bolt rigs were something that came to mind, I didn't hold much confidence in the method for a large worm hookbait but I did know that a couple of perch had been caught on maggot and a second hook fished helicopter style above the running worm rig was something that I could try.

Thursday the 1st of December
Back on the bank for 1.30 pm armed with maggots and rods changed to incorporate a short bolt hooklink set up the line to be baited with the grubs, the undertow had dropped off somewhat though I still need a swan shot on the bobbin cords. The long and short of it was not a bleep from the alarms all afternoon.

It was starting to look like we had fallen very lucky with our first couple of days on the water, on talking to the other lads fishing we worked out that a total of ten perch had been caught in something like 5 or 6 weeks, 3 at 4lb plus, one of which was the same fish twice, 5 at 3lb plus, a 2lber and my small one, an excellent average weight but very slow fishing. Nevertheless I had been getting bites and was confident that perseverance would pay off.

2 comments:

  1. Thats a great write up Rob,
    And i was interested in the invasion of cormorants, Ive seen them that heavy with fish they have eaten that they cant get there bums of the water, Its not too rare to see a cormorant take down a three pound jack pike,
    All the best,
    ,,,Paddy,,,

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  2. So many factors affect our fishing nowadays mate, we are seeing some species do very well due to outside influences and others suffering massively but the one thing thats for certain is that nothings guaranteed for the future

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