Between Two Rivers: Autumn Roach Diary Week #2: Mad ducks and leaves

This week's first session was at Lake 2. The wind from the previous few days had brought down copious amounts of leaves which seemed to have collected almost exclusively in the area in front of peg 12. As I didn't want to sit there all day picking leaves off the hook I decided to give peg 3 on the motorway side a try.
My set up for the day was a Mitchell 300A with 2.6lb line, a homemade antenna float, size 12 hook with either bread flake or small discs as bait and a Hardy Match Roach 11 foot cane rod. This rod is a recent acquisition and has whole cane butt and middle sections with a spliced in split cane tip. I believe it was made around 1949 and has been refurbished by one of the country's master rod builders. It is a thing of rare beauty and using it reminds me in many ways of the fibreglass Sportex Mamba match rod that I used for many years when I first began fishing in the 1970s. It's probably a bit heavier than the Sportex but it has the same tippy action which I hoped would help when trying to hit some of the lightening fast bites I seem to get.

Hardy Match Roach

My first bite of the day comes after two or three casts. It's a positive take and soon I'm connected to something resembling a speedboat. I can do little but let it take line from me. After a few minutes it slows down and I gradually bring it back from the middle of the lake. I had hoped it would be one of the decent chub that are in the lake but I now know it's a carp. With only light line all I can do is to slowly and gently try and bring it my way. I succeed in getting it within a rods length of the bank after around 10 minutes. It's a real battle now and the big question is who's going to get tired first. My arm feels like it's about to drop off but the fish, although it's slowed down a bit, is resolutely refusing
to come to the surface. Eventually I get it in close enough to almost reach it with the net. I can see that it's a common of around 6-7lbs but try as I do it's impossible to get him up to the surface without risking breaking the line. We reach an impasse so I decide to try and force the issue. The line doesn't break. It's the hook that pulls out and so ends the fight.
I re-bait and cast back out. The swim is quiet for around 15 minutes so I pass the time with a coffee and a roll-up. Another bite and I'm reeling in what resembles a wet sack. It's a bream of around one and a half pounds that fights more once I have it on the bank than it did in the water. After much flapping I get the hook out and slip it back into the water.

A bream in very nice condition

The next bite produces a tidy roach of 12 ounces. Some days it seems to take forever to catch what I came for. Around this time 10 ducks decide to invade my swim. They're taking off, landing again, chasing each other and generally being a complete nuisance that I consider moving to another peg.

So common, yet sometimes so hard to catch

Finally the ducks move away and I switch to maggots as bait. I've added turmeric to them in the hope that it may prove to be the miracle ingredient. It is! However, it's small perch that they seem to be the killer bait for. I catch at least 10 of them plus a totally unexpected trout. Only a little chap but I suppose with the lake being stream fed not a complete surprise.

I tried a short session of three hours or so on the canal later in the week but the strong wind whipping down the canal in the same direction as the flow made my usual approach very difficult. I have four spots that tend to produce fish but even these were only giving up one or two small roach and the odd skimmer. A change of approach may be the best way to deal with the canal. I've experimented recently at Lake 2 with legering with a swing tip and it would perhaps be the way to go on the canal as it is generally quite exposed and affected by wind.

My roach fishing has taken a backseat recently as the need to earn a living, poor weather conditions and an exciting trip to Dubai have dominated the last few weeks.