Popped into Blean Tackle today and picked up a few tips and a pint of red maggots.
I found a likely looking spot just outside the city with a longish stretch of gravel just off my rod end and started trickling in small pellets while I tackled up. I also introduced a few maggots occasionally. After a few minutes, a pair of eels arrived. Great! Then a silvery barbel slipped out from under the weeds and began hoovering up the pellets and occasionally rising up to snaffle a few maggots.
I introduced my hookbait (a 12mm halibut pellet) and waited... When it first went in, the barbel drifted back under the weeds, but it soon came back out and continued feeding, but wasn't interested in my pellet. I kept trickling in pellets and maggots and before long I had several largish chub in the swim too.
None of them showed any interest in my hookbait, so I decided to try a change of tactics and got out the float rod + centrepin, fishing a small stick float with a size 14 hook and three maggots at about 2ft depth.
First run down, one of the chub grabbed the maggots and I struck. Fish on! It had a good strong run into the weeds but soon succumbed to pressure (I was fishing 10lb mainline, 8.5 hook length).
Of course, all the commotion killed the swim and I couldn't tempt the other fish back so I packed up as I didn't have much time anyway.
Great fun watching the fish feeding in the swim though - total opposite of my normal fishing in the Yorkshire Ouse!
I'm hoping I might get chance for another session before Tuesday.
R.
R.
