My maggots had been sitting in the fridge saying "Use me" for the last couple of weeks, or rather sending a message in the form of a scent too strong to disguise with repeated doses of flavouring. So I racked my brain on where I could go that could be comfortable in this relentless wind we have had of late.
I decided on a pond, where I could sit in the corner tucked away and fish alongside a platform in a recently discovered perch spot hoping for a big stripey to start the year, failing that my usual remit of anything will do, would do.
Following the rains the pond and it's platforms were under water and my little pole float looked strange as it bobbed along in the chop next to a platform that had more water over it than some of the rivers did this summer.
I fed my old smelly, over spiced maggots at regular intervals but the float remained motionless aside from the aforementioned wind induced bob, after an hour of nothing doing I was the one that needed to move. It had been a cold night and I was in the shade getting colder as I wasn't as out of the wind as I thought I would be, so off I went to somewhere sunny to stretch my legs and warm the joints.
I moved round to the tench pond just for a bite from the hordes of hungry rudd as I was now well into the 'anything would do' stage, only to be greeted by a chap on the pole who was on a blank bemused by the lack of bites but pointing to a cormorant he saw as the main reason. As a result of this info I ventured to another corner and we both agreed to holler in jubilation should either of us get a fish no matter how small.
I tried two swims to no avail before doing a reccy of the pond throwing a few maggots here and there from my bait bib. Into the clear waters they went before slowly hitting the bottom untouched.
Where were those fish?
On walking back I finally spotted some fry right under a platform in tight ball and sure enough my loosefed maggots started to dart about so off I went to get the gear as If I had spotted a pb carp or tench. I lowered my float set pretty shallow and it dashed away as a tiny silver looking rudd broke the blank. I called out to the pole angler who was so wrapped up in his woolly winter wear he couldn't hear a thing, I felt a bit daft yelling 'fish' with such a token offering so I just left it to the coffee break to have a chat.
An hour later he passed me on the way home after blanking and watched as my float dipped time and again with small rudd, seeing the funny side as I was too. I was also conscious of how it can pay to be mobile this time of year, something that suits my style of fishing anyway.
However it wasn't long before I was getting bored with these ruddlets with nothing else showing aside from one rogue roach, but the confidence of blank avoiding tiddlers cannot be underestimated, with this knowledge that they are feeding I ventured back into the wind to try for another hour where I started on the main pond.
With new found optimism and the water hopefully warmed up a little my float was back by the submerged platform with the tow taking it away into the direction of the wind, a tactic that worked well in this swim that last time I fished it also on a blustery day. The float went under almost instantly and I played something decent before the head of an F1 appeared and the hook somehow came out, I couldn't recast quick enough and sure enough the next one was soon in the net, a small F1 that was twice the weight of all those rudd combined.
Next bite was another similar sized fish but it felt more 'jagged' and a flash of green signaled my quarry was on, I could see it was a nice one as I struggled in the wind and spray to net it, my persistence was rewarded with a cracking perch, my quarry for the day.
Bites followed at a really good frequency although they were tiny dips and very hard to hit in the wind despite being under the rod tip, I also lost an unusual amount of fish, once again the combination of the wind and the shy bites leading to a bit of foul hooking I suspected, proved by the next small carp hooked near the tail that went up and down on the spot making the water boil like a weirpool.
The shy bites didn't stop me getting more F1's and carp nor did having to wade out onto the flooded platform right above where I was fishing, sloshing along in my wellies to land each one being careful not to over step the edge. I had hoped for another perch but when the carp were as pristine as they were today I didn't mind one bit.
Getting around 30lb of fish in the last two hours after scratching all morning for tiny rudd made the day more memorable. A brief chat to another who struggled revealed the lake was fishing hard and a recent match was won with a similar weight so all in all the day turned out pretty well. I imagined me sitting there on my little stool fishing a match, catching loads but putting them straight back, although the more likely scenario would involve me looking equally ridiculous catching tiny rudd with a smile on my face like I was earlier in the day. I left with both the sun and that smile on my face for the drive home.
A few days later the wind was still howling and I got to a river in the afternoon thinking I was mad with the few others who had braved the elements in the sheltered swims nearer the bridge, I was dying to run a float through some pacy water, once again anything would do but a nice roach or chub would be more than welcome, or even a bream or barbel, but not tiny rudd this time please. I set up different float to usual, a 4 no4 float that somehow took 4 no1 instead, not sure how that works but the extra weight lessened the effect of what was the worst kind of wind, blowing downstream across, in the face and flipping cold. Throw in the bright sun and the high river this could be a test, bring it on I thought as it's better than being on a low river and at least it's not raining for a change.
It was awkward fishing as I needed to stand to get the feed out into that wind, not ideal in such a narrow swim but the water had enough colour to hide my haphazard attempts at finding water instead of bank with my loosefeed, as for the float well it hit the spot and I mended the line the best I could, holding back now and again which resulted in a plump roach early doors.
Then more fine roach followed, with quick bites in the boily water that were hard to see as the low sun flickered through the trees opposite, so much so that I had to take a no6 off to see the float, far from ideal but a compromise on presentation for visibility, It's no good getting bites if you can' t see them. The roach on this river aren't caught much and pull like chub in the fast current, rewarding me for sticking with a set up that was probably too light for the conditions.
