Fished 31 Dec 2021:
Had loosely agreed with @warrington63 for a session at Sandford, fishing the boat channel of the Thames.
Alarm went off, and I could hear the wind and rain and decided to stay in bed, so sent him a message saying I was crying off.
By 07.30am I was loading the car as it was now dry and I decided to make the effort.
First time I've fished it this season and I'd heard that there was now paid parking with NPR in the pub car park. I went to check it out, and it was pay by mobile, and parking was a max of 3 hours. So I headed over to the other side of the river and parked up in Sandford Lane which in hindsight is probably an easier walk (no locks to cross) and its still free.
Set up on my usual spot, just up from the pub. Set up a Shimano 13ft XM with a 506m, 2lb maxima fishing a 3aaa wagger and set up my old Silstar pole with a .5gm float that I'd been using for hemp fishing in the summer.
Fed a few small nuggets of liquidised bread at about 7 metres and starting firing maggots over the far side. It was an upstream wind, and the maggots were not really landing very accurately, but I could keep the bread and maggot lines separate.
Started on punched bread on the pole. Started to nick the occasional micro roach, but it wasn't right, so changed to a heavier 1gm rig with an olivette and started to get more frequent bites, but nothing of any size, until out of the blue I hit into something a lot bigger than I was catching and I pulled in a bream. Unfortunately that was the only time I used my landing next on a fish during the session.
Mark showed up and we spent a couple of hours catching up and discussing his new pet mice. Wind was gusty, but was getting stronger and stronger, but I decided to have a few chucks on the waggler, and started to nick a few larger (2-3 oz roach), but it was hard going to get the presentation right in the conditions.
Packed up about 2pm after loosing the hooklength in the tree opposite, probably fished for 4 hours in total, but in all honesty I didn't fish it well.
Improvements:
I should have set up the heavier pole rig from the off, but I was at the point where I just wanted to get fishing.
Probably should have had a look on the waggler earlier, but I wasn't feeding it consistently from the off.
I need more line on my maxima spool, I think its been on there for a couple of seasons, started off with 70 turns of the handle, but loosing a metre here, metre there has resulted in only about 35 metres left on the spool! I'm doing that as soon as I've done this write up.
Had loosely agreed with @warrington63 for a session at Sandford, fishing the boat channel of the Thames.
Alarm went off, and I could hear the wind and rain and decided to stay in bed, so sent him a message saying I was crying off.
By 07.30am I was loading the car as it was now dry and I decided to make the effort.
First time I've fished it this season and I'd heard that there was now paid parking with NPR in the pub car park. I went to check it out, and it was pay by mobile, and parking was a max of 3 hours. So I headed over to the other side of the river and parked up in Sandford Lane which in hindsight is probably an easier walk (no locks to cross) and its still free.
Set up on my usual spot, just up from the pub. Set up a Shimano 13ft XM with a 506m, 2lb maxima fishing a 3aaa wagger and set up my old Silstar pole with a .5gm float that I'd been using for hemp fishing in the summer.
Fed a few small nuggets of liquidised bread at about 7 metres and starting firing maggots over the far side. It was an upstream wind, and the maggots were not really landing very accurately, but I could keep the bread and maggot lines separate.
Started on punched bread on the pole. Started to nick the occasional micro roach, but it wasn't right, so changed to a heavier 1gm rig with an olivette and started to get more frequent bites, but nothing of any size, until out of the blue I hit into something a lot bigger than I was catching and I pulled in a bream. Unfortunately that was the only time I used my landing next on a fish during the session.
Mark showed up and we spent a couple of hours catching up and discussing his new pet mice. Wind was gusty, but was getting stronger and stronger, but I decided to have a few chucks on the waggler, and started to nick a few larger (2-3 oz roach), but it was hard going to get the presentation right in the conditions.
Packed up about 2pm after loosing the hooklength in the tree opposite, probably fished for 4 hours in total, but in all honesty I didn't fish it well.
Improvements:
I should have set up the heavier pole rig from the off, but I was at the point where I just wanted to get fishing.
Probably should have had a look on the waggler earlier, but I wasn't feeding it consistently from the off.
I need more line on my maxima spool, I think its been on there for a couple of seasons, started off with 70 turns of the handle, but loosing a metre here, metre there has resulted in only about 35 metres left on the spool! I'm doing that as soon as I've done this write up.
