Done my weekend fishing this afternoon. Fished one of the arms of a large lake. There is no night fishing in these areas so they don't get fished as much as the main basin.
Started with swingtip and cage feeder and had loads and loads of bites that never developed. I'd forgotten my maize and so was using artificial maize and maggots and the fish weren't interested. every cast resulted in a few plucks but no proper takes. I scrounged a few bits of real maize from the groundbait mix but this didn't help.
After about three hours I switched to float tactics using a JW Travel Avon and large porcupine quill float fishing about 20yds out over a couple of big balls of groundbait. First cast resulted in a good fish that obviously wasn't the roach I was after. It took a lot of line and I couldn't really get any proper pressure on it with 4lb line and the light rod. I'd got the rod compressed as far as it would go without having any effect on the fish. Eventually I had it to almost within netting distance where it stayed for well over 5 minutes while I never quite managed to get its head up. The barbless 16 hook pulled out before I tired it out. A long, lean and very light coloured wild common of about 16 to 18lb that would have tested the spoon net I had.
Then I started catching the roach I was after although they weren't quite the 12oz to 1lb stamp I usually get from this swim. All took scraps of maize scrounged from the groundbait. The rain on a flat calm surface made watching the float difficult and it was one of those occasions that called for a black tipped float hadn't got with me.
It had been raining heavily for the last hour and after packing up it stopped for long enough for me to walk the dog before setting off home.
As I pulled out of the access lane at bang on 8pm the sky was so dramatic; all yellow and blue to the west with a huge fluffy white cloud shaped like a flying saucer hanging under the main cloud cover. There was a vivid rainbow arching over the whole lake and as the sun dipped under the clouds everything was bathed in a golden light. I couldn't take my eyes off the sky and by coincidence the CD was playing Mars from the Planet Suite which enhanced the experience. It was like watching a Sci-Fi film in 3D.
I'm going to have to do something about getting another camera. Little Wife now has my phone as hers broke and I'm using a 10 year old phone without a decent camera.
