I have just read the excellent Binka post above and I can't help thinking that if budding young fishermen read this, and many of the other posts on this Thread, how much knowledge they could gain via this proper 'hands on' fishing....(who knows, perhaps they do....)
Reading Binka's two opening paragraphs, I could easily be accused of plagiarism as this report, which apart from minor details, is virtually identical, well identical until we include the fish count.....
Anyway, my outings for the first three days of this week also centered around a small still water where I tried a number of swims of varying depths. I also went for a light waggler set up, with red/white maggots the primary bait. For the most part I used an 18 via 1,5lb bottoms although I did drop to a 20 Drennan maggot hook when things got tough.
I varied the consistency of my minimal Van den Eynde light ground bait mixture from very wet to quite firm for the deeper swims.
In the main I caught fish very much of the 'Binka' stamp, but still suffered this 'roach x a few', followed by 'small perch x a few' so I was never sure of fish type with any form of bite, regardless of depth, be it up in the water or flat on the bottom, or indeed how many maggots where on the hook !
Being a 'busy' angler (sometimes a failing!) and with the sun on the water as the morning(s) wore on, I decided to give hemp a go, purely out of interest to see if the roach would respond in the first place and in the second to fool the perch. Initially I didn't bother changing the end tackle and after only 10 minutes landed a pretty 9" roach, followed by another a little smaller.
Unfortunately, after this the fish started to annoy me with unhittable 'speed bites' ( most of which I missed ) so I changed to a float with a longish antenna and shotted to show most of the antenna (2") above the water. Not ideal under most circumstances, but fishing very close in, in benign conditions, it can give what I call ' above the water ' bites, where the antenna (seemingly) drops a lot slower to a bite, (again, seemingly) with the strike being made before it reaches the surface.
Probably sounds a little bizarre ,BUT it certainly had the desired affect and I caught a steady stream of average roach, until that is, a charming little cross wind caused the antenna to wave around.................I dotted down with the same float but eventually the bites petered out..........
Overall, three good days in variable conditions with some great fun fishing with the promise of some better roach with hemp (and tares, once cooked !) over the coming weeks. Bread will also come into it's own again and I'm thankful for that !
Pleased to say I didn't venture out today, which is just as well as it's absolutely peeing down in south Bucks but tomorrow and Sunday look promising...........................
ps To show I don't spend all my life fishing the wife and I are of to see some form of exhibition at the RIBA building in London on Saturday which will include lunch (at a reasonably priced) restaurant. It goes without saying I shall be home in good time for tackle prep and thoughts about the following day, not to mention an early night to be fresh for a 6am start.............................
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