Fish are fussy about bait

Well it's been a very eventful fishing weekend, loads of highs and lows, lots of fun and certainly a very steep learning curve in the art of fishing over the winter period!  The venue started with the fishing fools heading out to Whinwhistle Fishery - had a really good morning catching small carp ( < 1lb ) on one of the swims on the top river stretch, due to a tip-off by the owner John Hardeley  must of caught around 40-50 carp....it was truly insane...at times there was an orderly queue for the landing net.  It was interesting to see how the fish were biting allot gentler in the colder water, it made judging a positive bite on the float a real challenge, you had to look for the smallest of signs be it bubbles, swaying, or faint bobbing movement - the definite float under water from a few weeks earlier was a thing of the past...Oh...and the casting...got a top tip on how to do the underarm cast...I really like it...looks very pro, reduces the splash as the float enters the water, and so far no floats stuck in trees  Also got the opportunity to try out the pellets, along with the hair rig setup - what a fiasco that was....All the information on the Internet/books makes it look sooooo easy...you just slam the pellets onto the hair rig, flick it in the water and then real in your 10lb carp - well that didn't happen for me... I really didn't get on well with the hair rig setup and pellets, it felt like a step to far from the hook and maggots, so I'm sticking with what I know for the time being...

 

The second venue was a trip down to... Ringwood, to the day ticket Hurst Pond - very exciting - this was the fishingfools first attempt fishing outside the controlled environment of a fishery - It certainly was a completely different experience ! the basic float fishing that had worked so well at fishery's seemed very lacking on a large pond..trying to cast the float seemed insignificant (even with allot of wellie behind it) barely making it past the margins ! After several hours of catching nothing apart from small fry, drastic measures were needed so the ledger + float combo were bought out - WOW - was instantly able to cast right out into the middle of the pond...resulting in lots of small bits, until eventually I landed the mother of all fish on my line (no it wasn't a shopping trolley)...was so excited ...my rod was nearly bent over in two, the brake on the real was constantly letting out more line..the adrenaline was pumping, and I was fighting with this beast trying to land it...until....ping.....the hook flies out of the water...was so gutted...however, I can now appreciate the sentiment behind the "one that got away" stories"

 

The float ledgering definitelylooks like it's going to be something worth pursuing...all the excitement of float fishing, with the advantage of being able to use bombs and feeders...I've done some initial searching on the Web and it looks like some custom floats called "Polaris" are available, which are aimed at float ledgering - I think I'm going to get some of these bad boys, and give them a go on some wider expanses of water and will let you know how they go.

 

Any way, kind of babbled on a bit here...catch ya later

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