A horrible day
I had a slightly later start today and went to the Cricket Field with a much lighter load. The intention was to start in peg 3 and then move down the river after about an hour in each peg.
It was a very windy/gusty day and was raining on and off. I was able to float fish between the gusts.
Peg 3
I threw in a small amount of bread mash every two or three trots through with the float. However, no bites were forthcoming so I tried a bread feeder near a downstream bush and a lobworm out into the main flow. Neither of these produced any bites so I moved on to the next peg.
Peg 4
I have never had any joy in peg 4 but a fellow angler had a 4lb 4oz Chub from that peg in Sunday’s match so I had to give it a go. i approached it similar to peg 3 and got very similar results – no signs of fish!
Peg 5
This was one of my favourite pegs last year. It appeared that the flow had changed and was now quite fast near my bank and under the downstream tree that had been my favourite place to ambush Chub and Barbel. So, I decided to forego the float and go straight on the tip with bread on one rod and lobworm on the other. It was also about lunch time so fishing the tip was good timing.
After about 45 mins I got a bite on the worm and landed a nice Perch. I decided against using my keepnet as it was primarily intended to hold Chub and stop them spooking other Chub.
I was fishing bread on my light 1oz tip and worm on my stronger 3oz tip. Because there were Perch about I decided to swap feeders/leads and hooks so that I could fish worm on the light tip and very close to the bank, under the tree.
It wasn’t long before my tip went round and I gasped when I saw the size of the Perch and it’s big gut. The result was this 3lb 8oz beauty:-
I had never had a 3lb Perch before this season and have now managed 3. Will I ever see a 4lb Perch?
I then caught another couple on the tip so decided to run the float under the tree with a lobworm. I got another Perch on the float after about 3 trots.
The weather was worsening, the bank was getting treacherously slippery and the Perch seemed to have vanished so it was time to get a photo of all of the fish and head home.
