Saturday, May 10, 2014

Chips and no fish

I must have my fishing head on again because late yesterday afternoon I set off to the chippy with my gear in the back of the car. The sun was shining and the wind blowing. Those tench had to have found my feed from the day before and be ready for more. I rushed to the swim and sat down in the lee of a hawthorn to eat my chips. Then I got set up.

The wind was cold in my face but I was able to catapult out a load of pellets to the spots I had cleared. With no maggots or hemp the pellets and bag approach had to be tried. One rod fished a couple of grains of plastic corn on a heli-rig, the other a pellet on an in-line lead. The wind was that chilly I put the brolly up to hide behind.


Once more I sat and waited in vain. At least this was a shorter fruitless session. It wasn't until the wind died away towards dusk that I saw any fish activity. Not the sort I was hoping for. There was no fizzing or bubbling. Small carp were leaping and a better one took something off the surface. A few small fish splashed and got chased by predators of some sort.

It was nice to be out watching a great tit busily hunting for food to take to its nest, and a male whitethroat making his noisy songflight. All around birds were on the hunt for food to supply their hungry broods. If only the tench were as hungry. This is starting to get frustrating. Three blanks on the trot means I ought to do something else. I could scratch around with maggots for anything that comes along I suppose, or it might just be a change of swims. I want to stick to my plan of fishing for tench until they spawn before starting eel fishing, so a change of target species isn't on the cards - yet.