Perching again on a different commercial.

After Andy putting me in a banker swim last week where he had never blanked and I did, never fills me with confidence.

So this was it off to another commercial about 40 miles from home. We arranged to meet at about 7.15am and it was Andy who beat me to it by a couple of minutes. Again he graciously put me into the best swim.

It was a rainy and windy day but drying out as the hours progressed towards dusk. Bait was a jumbo prawn on one rod (ledgering) and a lob worm on the float rod. I sprayed maggots out on a regular basis for extra attraction to to bring in smaller fish.

Andy settled into a swim with a willow branches draped into the lake, a sure fire perch area.

Well after 5 hours of none action it was beginning to look bleak. However with old stripy he likes to feed as dusk approaches. Unfortunately Andy had an emergency call and had to leave for home at about 1pm. I still persevered hoping that the feeding spell would come along.

Float please sail away

At times during the day a fisherman’s friend came along for a feed. These little things always know we just can’t fail to feed them a few maggots.

My mate for the day

At 3pm the float started to move away and slide under. A quick strike met with some resistance and I played the fish which didn’t fight very hard and soon a perch of about 1lb lay in the net. No blanking for me. I had one more chance late on when the float slid away again, this time I might have just pricked whatever was on the end but that was that! A lovely fishery and I’ll be back again soon.

One more venture, out on the Bristol Avon for an afternoon session saw me catch a small roach and chub on cheese paste. Paddy was fishing too and caught a small chub of about 2lbs and that was his lot for the day. I fished about 5 swims but other than plenty of small tugs and pulls the larger chub didn’t want to play ball.

Don’t know why the fishing was poor but it certainly was. The rivers have been up and down again last week and this will continue every time we have rain. With the aquiferrs full there is nowhere for the rain to soak, so the river fill very quickly. I think it’s going to be like this for all winter.

Looking back over November you tend to think that the fishing been poor, however 3 x 6lb chub plus some other good fish is not a bad return.