The plan – To catch a fish, any fish – 10th June
Entry posted by Paulg
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I don’t know about you, but the first session on a previously unfished, by me, venue always brings a mix of feelings. There is the sheer excitement of visiting a new water, the anticipation of what you might catch, especially if you have done your homework and know something about the fish stocks. Then there is the fear that you might end up feeling a complete noddy, as anglers to the left and right of you are catching fish, while the float in front of you remains motionless!!
It was with that mix of feelings that I set up on the lake-side on Tuesday morning, in what were gorgeous conditions for sunbathing but maybe not so good for fishing!
My usual setup of one float rod and one feeder rod, already made up the night before were soon cast out after having had a bit of a plumb around to get the depth and see if there were any obvious features to fish to….which there didn't appear to be.
Nothing happened for just over an hour, no dips of the float and no twitches of the bobbin apart from one very fast rise and drop, almost certainly a line bite, so at least I knew there were fish in front of me, although they might just be passing through the swim. A few minutes after re-casting my cage feeder, baited with a worm tail and caster, the bobbin bounced a couple of times before heading upwards. A swift, well it was for me, strike met with resistance that pulled back, and a few minutes later, my noddy fears proved unfounded as a gorgeous crucian of 3lb exactly was netted.
I think I need a new hat 
Thirty minutes, two cups of coffee, and a couple of sausage rolls, later I started to get a few dips of the float, one slow enough for me to make contact, resulting in a well conditioned 4lb 8oz tench.
The feeder rig was the more successful option today, I guess mainly because once the breeze got up it created a fairly strong undertow, and from the bank on which I was fishing it made the float drift in the opposite direction to the waves…very surreal !! The chop on the water made bite detection on the float rig difficult and I missed several bites.
Two more tench followed the first, both around the 4lb mark, both on the feeder rod, before the second crucian fell to float fished worm / caster cocktail. At exactly 2lb this turned out to be the smallest crucian of the day as it was followed an hour later by two more, 3lb 4oz and a season best of 3lb 5oz. 
Another tench around 4lb couldn’t resist the legered worm sections, and final fish of the morning, just as I was packing up, a cracking 1lb 12oz roach was taken on float fished caster.
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