I must admit I do like pottering about on the ponds and after a winter on the canal I was really looking forward to going with the missus to a club pond that was full of the usual fare, mostly carp but also other species and given it was still March I would be happy with anything.
I wanted to get bites so maggot was the bait, there was no wind so I set up a tiny pole float, dotted it down to the tip and fished a single red on a size 18. It felt good fishing under the rod tip like this and bites were shy but there were many. The missus was also glad to be out, so much so that she had the camera out and seemed to be taking photos of everything. Hey I waffle a bit so lets have the photos do the talking for a change....
As you can see many of the fish were in perfect condition and that last goldfish was a good size. I was so grateful to be catching as most of those targeting the carp were struggling. I had over 70 fish mostly roach, crucian/goldfish, bream and rudd using less than a pint of maggots. I had hoped for some big perch but only caught two small ones all day and the carp eluded me completely. I could have caught much more if I had fished on the drop but was just happy to be sitting there watching the float go under at regular intervals.
During the five hours I fished the wind got up a little and blew all the surface scum into my little corner of the pond, as a result my presentation suffered, I had to remove a no8 to see the float tip and it seemed to become all roach so we packed up at 3 o'clock, the sun hadn't come out all day but it wasn't cold and it was hard to believe it was still March, just.
The missus enjoyed it too as did the usual suspects who were far from camera shy, a heron watched our every move from it's vantage point in a fir tree and the robin stopped by for the usual buffet
The funniest thing was despite snapping everything the missus missed the opportunity to capture the Red Arrows flying over the fishery. To be fair there wasn't much notice as a wall of sound suddenly appeared and they flew over really low in two groups of three, quite what they were doing there I don't know but it made for a fine interval during a really enjoyable day's fishing.
