July started off with an evening session and my first visit to the mere for a fortnight. One angler (the only other angler present) had just caught a tench on bread as I arrived at 6pm and I stayed at that end of the lake and set up in front of some lilies, the first time I’d fished this particular swim. Plumbing around I found four and half foot just off a weed bed so I concentrated the float rod there and cast a boilie rod across in front of more lilies to my right.
I stuck with corn on the float rod there but there was not a lot going on so after an hour I pulled the rake through the swim a few times and introduced some home made groundbait laced with hemp and pellets, topping up with a few pieces of corn and the odd pult of maggots.
An hour later, still nothing. The other angler had packed up by then and came around to let me know he had three more fish up to low 5lb. I clearly need to change something, these fish are feeding but I was not getting a look in.
Slightly to my left was a massive tree stump in the water, on the other side of which was another, tighter swim between two beds of lilies. A quick cast with the plummet showed six feet of water and it just felt better so I shifted my seating position slightly and started to explore the new area.
I fed lightly with the odd pult of maggots/corn and a nugget of groundbait and after about 20 minutes my instincts were proved right as the float buried and I was in! It buried itself in a weed bed but I kept good contact and felt in control, keeping the pressure hard down to my right I made a bit of leeway then had that sickening feeling as the line went slack. I subsequently find that the hook length parted just below the knot, gutted!
I tried one more cast in the hope of pinching a last minute draw but to no avail, I fished like a n*b, the tench fed hard and I blew my one chance totally…
I was back in the same swim less than 36 hours later, at 4.45am, to be greeted by a proper tenchfisher’s dawn and although the weatherman had predicted 15 degrees C (my backside) it was only 9C when I arrived.
I set up a float rod alternating between bread and corn and fished this in between the two beds of lilies with the 2nd rod comprising a semi fixed lead and a boilie hookbait, just off more lilies to my right.
I introduced a few small nuggets of groundbait to the float swim and topped up regularly with the addition of some hemp and the odd grain of corn. After getting a bit of a kicking on my previous outing my aim was to be a lot more proactive, the fish were feeding and I needed to catch one!
Within half an hour the float swim was fizzing and at 6am I was into a fish, having my waders on I was straight into the shallow margins pulling the fish towards the lilies/weeds and that had the desired effect with the fish moving away from the weed and out into open water where I could play it more easily then, after 15-20 seconds, the hook pulled out… Gahhhhh!
I inspected the hook and it was still ‘sticky’ sharp so I recast into the swim that was still very much alive and fizzing and watched in frustration as the float danced around, without actually sailing away.
An hour later I got a dropped run on the boilie rod which and in all fairness with the quality of some of the silver fish present experience told me this could well have been a decent roach or skimmer, but at the time it felt like a missed chance.
At 8am I swapped the rods over and dropped the boilie/lead rod in the float swim and fished the float out into more open water, whereupon the corn hookbait was immediately savaged by hordes of 6-10oz bream and roach. I tried to fish through them but to no avail and as I was considering abandoning the float a 6oz skimmer got snaffled by a pike of about 6lb that held onto it for a good 20 seconds or more but eventually let go, however the damage had been done and flesh had been torn from both sides of his rear flank.
I considered playing ‘God’, although I already had done that to some extent, but decided to give him what slim chance he had and returned him – but upon his return the killer was waiting and even without Polaroids I saw the silver flash as the bream was grabbed for a second time, then further flickers of silver and white as the pike adjusted his hold before ghosting off into deeper water – totally merciless.
A short time later I dropped the float rod totally and changed to the method feeder on rod number two as my eyes were tired and concentration waning.
At 9am the Delkim sang as the boilie was taken and I hooked a fish in the float swim. After a short fight a 4lb male tench was landed, he was well beaten up, with a scabby mouth and red blistered fins – definitely not the norm for this particular mere.
Forty five minutes later I hooked a second fish and after a bit of fun under the rod tip, landed it successfully. Again it was on a boilie but this time on the method rod, and it was the darkest tench I had ever seen, a jet-black male, which weighed in at 4lb 11oz, I was on a roll!
I give it another hour to see if it was the start of a prolonged feeding spell, it may well have been but come 11 bells hunger was getting the better of me and with no more indications it was time to go.
I viewed the session as a positive, not a massive success by any means but a few fish at dawn in a potentially difficult swim was not to be sniffed at, especially given the previous session and earlier lost fish.
A few days later and I was back again, another perfect dawn and a 5am start and at 15 degrees C it was clearly going to warm up very quickly. A different swim this time and I elected to start with the float using casters, corn or bread and a boilie/leger rod with a view to swapping the float rod for the method feeder later on when my concentration started to dip.
As I was fishing at really close range I decided against using groundbait and fed a mixture of hemp, casters, maggots and corn in the float swim and boilies in the other swim. This decision possibly cost me as the particles attracted nothing but a succession of skimmers and roach which prohibited the use of caster or maggot and although they did not take the corn or bread as readily I still caught half a dozen or more in the five hours I was there.
At about 6.30 I heard a roar that sounded like something from Jurassic Park, 30 seconds later I heard it again, this time it got closer, then I heard kids’ voices, “There’s someone down there fishing!”
I looked up and a few hundred feet above me was a hot air balloon, and right over my swim as well, thoughtless ***t! I got the phone out and considered texting Mrs C something witty about a virgin and used balloon but decided against it. A few minutes later a low flying helicopter followed the balloon, my mind wanted to believe that the noisy kids were really boy spies from a rogue state and an airborne assassination was in progress, but sadly I hear no gunfire or explosions and my mind went back to the fishing.
By 8.30 something had to change so I switched rods, dropping the boilie in the float swim and I cast out a method ball, but despite this switch working on the previous session, today my indicators remained motionless and I left tench-less at 10am.
My gut feeling is that the use of some groundbait may have made a difference. Did I feed too much particle and draw too many small fish into the swim? Did this put the tench off? I never had them fizzing but was this one of those things or was it an incorrect feeding strategy?
After a blank I always need something to change or consider for the next trip and my thoughts are that maybe I over did the particle feed and that I should have gone heavier with the groundbait; I’ll never know for sure but it’s a possible starter for ten come my next trip!
