Sunday 6th Dec
Unusually had a free Sunday evening and decided to have a short recce (plus wetting a line) for tomorrow's outing. I couldn't decide (for tomorrow) whether to fish a swim on the free stretch which is generally supposed to be good when there is a fair flow, or to fish one of the lakes. One problem with the Kennet free stretch swim is that the car parking charges now are horrendous, so fishing after dark when you can park for a pound is one option. So I set out at 5.30pm for a swim where West Berks Council kindly supply the lighting, and was pleased to see there was no parking charge at all on a Sunday.
The bad news was that someone else was in my swim! A couple of other anglers, plus many swans had taken the other good swims, and I didn't want to fish the other side and have the wind in my face. Had an interesting chat with one angler, though, who had had some bream and a good trout. He recommended maggot feeder after dark for the roach. Interesting, though I don't understand why - unless they are flavoured - as I had always thought the fish found a big smelly bait more easily after dark. But this guy was speaking from experience, and I think I will give it a try some time.
In the end I decided to cross the river and fish an eddy in a sidestream where I had some nice roach one year - they just happened to have sheltered there for the winter, think. It's the sort of place where you normally catch something reasonable, be it a one pound perch or a two pound bream in a few minutes, plus a chub from the faster water, but then they spook quite quickly as you're fishing under the rod tip. When I caught the nice catch of roach it was in a thunderstorm and maybe that made me a bit less visible. But I've tried it before at night, hoping they'd spook less easily, and for some reason never done any good.
That's how it was tonight. Fished maggot feeder for nearly an hour. One bite very quickly then zilch. Actually it was a bit 'up and coloured' even for this swim, as was the main Kennet in my view. Fishable, but not ideal, so I think I'll fish a lake tomorrow. A blank, but in a sense 'mission accomplished' as I got the info I needed re tomorrow.
0 Comments
Recommended Comments
There are no comments to display.
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now