Half term review

I have the week off for half term , I will update this post as and when I get out. I am hoping to do a bit of salt water stuff as well later in the week.

Saturday 16th February.

Had a quick session Saturday morning ,and managed to find a bit of action , 

two fish on the bank, and another three fish struck at the lures. 

As you may see I have left my unhooking mat somewhere,(probably in some car park or field ) 

so I had to utilise my coat and a weighing sling as a temporary mat, it worked quite well too,

it may be a bit pongy to use all the time,so I will have to purchase a new mat, 

this will be the first piece of new kit that I have bought in 2013!

 The fish above took a fishunter shad on the drop 

This fish took a crank bait, as you can see this water is suffering from an algae bloom, I am told that it may possibly be, from all the recent heavy rain boosting the nutrient levels of the water.

Sunday 17 th February.

Managed to get a three hour morning session in ,before having to complete some household chores. not a sign of a fish at all. Went through the lures and varying retrieves, but nothing doing.
I feel a lot more confident with the bait casting gear now, and can throw left and right sided casts, still got the pitching or flicking to master though.

Tuesday 19 th February

I left the lure rods at home today, as I wanted to catch a couple more species for a species hunt, that I am involved with on a fishing forum, my targets were chub, perch and gudgeon. I had my trusty Avon and  centre pin set up ,and a quiver rod. Baits were worm, prawn, bread and I had a tin of sweetcorn if needed. 

My first swim was the bridge swim, as I call it

This is my starting point,I always fish from this side first ,into the small pool below,before going over the bridge to the other side. 

It is fairly overgrown and has its fair share of snags,(I must be near to clearing them out by now though :) ). the main flow takes you down into the bushes at the far end, I hold the float back at the end of the run and get it into a nice little back eddy on the left , where I normally pick up a few fish.

Just over the top of the green stuff on the right, there is a slack pool of slightly deeper water,where a fish or two hole up.

I started trotting a wire stemmed stick float with bread flake and caught my first target species almost straight away, a small chub.

One down two to go !

A few trots down later, and a nice roach came to the net.

After that I could not get another bite, so I made the move over the bridge, I had to do it in three trips as the bank side vegetation is still fairly abundant and continues to snag on to everything.

 Any way onto the next swim;-

A nice pool with a steady flow, just this side of the centre. I had caught a few perch from here before, so I was confident of getting one or two. I had an occasional knock on the worm , and absolutely zilche on prawn.

But I did get a few more roach ,about 20 or so, but they were mostly very small, there were a couple 6-8 oz, and I managed to pull out of one bigger fish.

I am fairly certain that I saw a bat, fly up the river ,which I was quite amazed to see at this time of year and during day light hours, I thought that they hibernated. I saw a Kingfisher diving in a couple of times, but it was so fast I could not see if it had any luck.

The snowdrops are pushing through nicely and I did not have to pack up until getting on for 5.45, so spring is definitely on its way, at last.

Wednesday 20 th February 

Only managed to fit a short two hour session in , hooked up with one fish(which felt quite decent) on a 6" plastic shad , but it was off after a few seconds, despite casting back to the area repeatedly , I had no more joy!

I really feel that I am beginning to get to grips with using a bait caster reel now, I managed to get all my casts in the right direction ,and without to many of the dreaded overruns.I have nearly mastered setting the braking system,I just sometimes forget to adjust it, if I change a lure or jig head  

I am also managing to cast accurately over both shoulders,now that I have worked out the right grip and wrist action.  

I must say that it is beginning to feel right, its just another confidence thing I know, but I think that I am working the lures more effectively, its just that the fish have not noticed it yet !

I am having a clear out of some tackle, mainly rods and lures that I rarely use,with the money that I raise I am hoping to upgrade a couple of items,but not to sure what yet !

Saturday 23 rd February

I had a four hour session with the lures today, hoping for a pike our two.
The complex that I fish has four pits and a small stream, so there is plenty of choice,
if one is not fishing well, however today all four were not fishing well or maybe it was me. 
I tried all the regular winter spots, but could not find a lurking fish.

I used a variety of soft lures, from shads and grubs to eels, but nothing doing.

So I went onto the small stream again ,to try to catch the perch that had alluded me on my last trip.

I tried a few different spots without any luck, the rings on my rod were beginning to freeze up and hindering casting
so I thought that I would pack up and head home.
On passing over the small bridge over the stream, I decided to have one last cast into the nearside pool,
and was rewarded with the object of my desires, a battle scarred little bruiser.

They really are my most favourite of all fish  

Another thing that I have come to appreciate when using a bait caster is, I have much more and easier movement of the rod, as my wrist is in the upward position it is easier for me to rotate it and certainly less tiring