Thursday 27 May 2021

The Last Cold Day In May

 Well there's a bold statement in the title but given it will soon be June and it's warming up at last I thought I'd go out on a limb. We will look back at this month in future years and remember the cold May we had in 2021.  We'll probably be wearing T-shirts and getting carp off the top, thinking how the hell could we possibly be wearing our winter gear this time of year.

I had my winter jacket on Tuesday and it didn't come off as I positioned myself in a sheltered corner of the pond, once again picking a swim I had never fished before on the basis that it offered some protection from the wind. I viewed all the other anglers who were pretty motionless aside from two chaps with poles shipping them out to the maximum, no one was catching as I set up my stool next to my rucksack and filled my bait bib up with reds, these maggots will get bites, I knew that much.

There is part of me that likes this weather as going out on single maggot on a size 18 usually gets plagued by small stuff but the fish were still in winter mode and bites were rewarding. Simply fishing a rod and a half out got a bite, either on the drop or just within 5 seconds of my tiny pole float settling, this saw a succession of quality roach hit the landing net. Then I get my first real bend in the rod and it's a tench, it may have been missing half it's tail but it was my first of the year and it went well.

Then the only carp of the morning lead me a merry dance on 0.12mm but it lead to enquiries from others as to what bait I was using, as I sat there with a well earned first coffee of the day, warming up nicely.

A good mix of species followed before it became cru' O'clock as a succession of crucians appeared (It would appear cru O'clock was 11.15am today) Now these chunky chappies really are fun on this gear.

Ok some of them were brown goldfish but catching is catching and I was having a purple patch which could switch off any minute.

The sun almost came out so I kept feeding and more quality roach came before it was time for lunch.

Lunch was good, I could see eight other anglers most of whom were setting their stall out for carp, one of the pole guys just had his first whilst a couple of old timers had changed to maggot and were catching small perch in the margins, the others were motionless save for the occasional foray to the toilets, it did look colder on their side, it was late May after all.

I fished an hour after lunch trying a different tack to get more cru's and it worked, by feeding two maggots every ten seconds the crucians came back along with some rudd, which no doubt will feed like mad when it warms up. The last fish was a chunky gudgeon, almost as if to remind me the river season is coming. 

I ended the day with 9 species and about 20lb of fish in 3-4 hours. People are saying this pond is fishing hard at the moment but I'll take that any day - Maggot magic!

Now where's my T-Shirt and shorts? I may need them next week