When tallying up last season's totals I was a tad disappointed to have only gone 27 times, I guess that's still once every two weeks but I knew I had been all work and no play for large chunks of the year. Could this new season be different? Perhaps a challenge was needed for motivation so I set myself a quest to get as many species as possible on bread, hopefully a few specimens, and moreover this will make me get out on days when home comforts would seek to temper the adventurous spirit.
Today was one such day. Having spent the week gardening in fairly sunny weather I was going on my day off no matter what, however today was cold, windy and overcast. I knew the night would be warmer with no frost due to the cloud cover and this would make everything mad for my bread, this I told myself, not really believing it, especially when I turned up at pond stuffed with rudd looking totally lifeless.
A quick dabble in my favourite spot saw my pole float getting owned by the wind and even round the corner the tow on the small pond was enough for a change to waggler, not my favourite method on bread but needs must. A few lillies were starting to show but the rest was open and susceptible to the gusts coming through the trees, at least I had the place to myself as I dropped into a third spot after an hour or two with no bites.
Naturally I had fed these spots with tiny bits of bread prior to setting up, using the map in my memory to negate fishing over new lily growth and hopefully beside enough cover to hold fish, although even the rudd hordes weren't showing. I sat on the unhooking mat (as I sure wasn't using it for fish) to get out the wind, but I do think I'll get too old for sitting like a kid on the floor, not yet though.
With my tub of bread one side and a freshly poured coffee the other, the float seemed to move as I was taking my first sip, typical I thought but it sure went under properly soon after. A fish was on and I didn't care one jot what it was, I had hoped for tench as bread is the best bait for them however this felt like a bream, then got a bit too solid and sure enough a tench came into view twisting and turning in the clear water below my feet, still all sluggish mind so it didn't trouble my light set up, but looked a decent fish.
At 5lb I was over the moon, even though I had to sit on my seat from now on like a normal angler would, my unhooking mat finally used for the right purpose and wet. I finished my coffee, poured myself another all happy with proceedings and watched the birds trying hard to add colour to the backdrop.
No more bites followed, I had lunch and moved out of the wind to the sheltered corner, in lieu of a slight hill where deer are often seen, it was just nice to be out of the bitter chill. When the sun is out this time out year it's like spring has truly sprung but a cloudy day like today reminds me of chub fishing weather, mind you the river season was only two weeks ago, so early days. It wasn't super cold but I think we've been spoiled of late and it was a hood up, big coat day.
There were more signs of fish in this corner with the odd rise and that familiar twitch of the bread as it fell through the layers each time. Not the mental rudd fest it will be in a few weeks but enough to keep me busy before I finally hooked one, a sorry looking thing that left me thinking there would be better examples to use should I tally the species up at the end of the season pictorially.
It was the end of the day for me though, I had the pond to myself for just two fish, but a good early tench is such a fillip. I packed up for the relative warmth of the car not realizing it was only 1.30pm but it was enough, a deer bolted behind me as I got up to leave, the white underside of its tail flicking like a piece of bread hammered by rudd, which is a scenario no doubt I'll be seeing a bit this season.
