Winterlong

The Winter seems to have blown itself away with extremes of rain and wind and now we find ourselves on the cusp of Spring with the traditional season's end imminent. For the last few months I seem to have found more joy in reading other people's fishing blogs than in writing my own. I've discovered new favourites like By Jayz and continued to enjoy the likes of the Sweetcorn Kid. I've stolen their ideas for baits and approaches, marvelled at their ability to catch out of season carp and tench and become enamoured with prawns as a bait for large perch.
 Of course I have fished a bit myself with some degree of success. In November and December I tried a few times on the canal at my favourite spots but there seemed to be a complete absence of fish. It's rare not to see at least one small fish break the surface, but alas there were no such signs of life. With my club membership having expired at the end of December and no available funds to re-new it at the moment I have turned my attention to Lake 2, the day ticket water that offers the chance of a good roach plus a decent head of chub and some bigger perch.
In fact chub have given me the best sport in the last few months. They have been my target species along with the roach and perch and I have generally split the sessions into two distinct approaches.
For the chub I have been ledgering luncheon meat close in to a bank side bush and for the roach and perch I have float fished either bread, worms or pieces of prawn.
 My ledger set up is a simple swan shot link with a size 10 hook and 5lb line straight through. To fish this I use an Ambidex Mk6 or a Mitchell 300A and my favourite cane rod, The Wye by Hatton's of Hereford. This is a 10 and a half foot Avon style rod that has been refurbished using Hardy salmon blanks and is a joy to use and great for the hard fighting chub that head straight for the underwater branches of the bank side bush the moment they feel the hook.

You can see that my bite indicator is a homemade climber type affair which was made by a school friend of mine more years ago than I care to remember. It's a plastic tube with a paperclip forced into it and you slide a hair grip through the one end - this is what the line passes through and tie the string to the other end and attach that to the rod rest. Simples! 
Very Heath Robinson but it works.
I tend to start the sessions ledgering for a couple of hours and then switch to float fishing through the middle part of the day and then go back to the ledger for the last hour or so before dusk.

 I adopted this much heavier ledgering approach as I was finding that on each visit I would get pulled into the bushes and broken by what I thought was either chub or carp. With float tackle and 3lb line it was I suppose, inevitable that there would be some fish that I just couldn't stop. Of course there were exceptions and I have managed a few chub up to around 2lb with my lighter float set-up.
For my float fishing I've been using my 11 foot Sealey split-cane Octofloat with either an Intrepid Elite or the 300A. I like the Elite a lot and have a couple of them that I let see the light of day when the mood strikes me. A classic piece of British fishing tackle engineering to my mind and perfectly adequate for close in roach fishing with bread plus it matches the rod well both in terms of look and balance.

January 23rd:
This was the first time I'd switched to the heavier ledgering approach. A showery day with temperatures around 9 degrees. There was a massive hail storm in the middle of the afternoon.
These are the three fish that fell to ledgered meat.

Not  a bad day all told- 7lb common carp, 3lb 1oz chub and 7lb 4oz mirror. The last fish being caught after the hailstorm. You can see the hail stones on the grass in the photo.

February 19th:
 Ten fish caught today, a mix of roach up to 6oz, three chub including another 3lb one plus  a completely rocket powered mirror of 4lb 11oz. The ledgered meat again taking the chub and carp.
It was a very mild day with little wind plus some spells of sunshine making it warm enough to take off my coat at last. I caught the mirror on the last cast just as the light was starting to go hence the flash photo.

February 24th:
Another mild day with a gentle breeze and the first time that I tried prawns as a bait with the hope of tempting a big perch. Of course the first perch I caught was only around 2oz. Much to my surprise I then began to catch roach on the prawns and this approach finally brought me a splendid 1lb 2oz specimen. My first over the pound mark this year and a very plump fish.

 

March 8th:
A whole Saturday to myself to fish as the children had gone to their grandparents. It was meant to reach around 13 degrees today but there was a sharp and blustery Southerly wind blowing straight at me all day making it feel a lot colder. The fish didn't want to play either and it turned into a very slow day. I couldn't buy a bite on ledgered meat so spent most of the day float fishing either prawn or bread. Only six fish caught all day with three roach up to 10oz and three perch, two tiny ones and the best fish of the day a 1lb 5oz sergeant. At last the prawns caught what they were supposed to. My biggest perch for some time.

 

So there you have it, the edited highlights of the last few months. There have been some beautiful sunny Spring days this week, the daffodils are out and a magnolia tree I watch is very slowly coming in to flower. I've been thinking about tench fishing a lot recently and wondering if I will finally manage to tempt one from the beautiful tarn that draws me back each year but ultimately never gives up any of her special fish. The tench seem too difficult to catch in June and July and the days can be frustrating when the perch that are also present snap up any maggot or worm baits. This year I plan to try in April and May with hope that they will be less cautious prior to spawning. Of course even if you do manage to hook one the lily pads that adorn the lake may still be your downfall, but you can live in hope...