Readers Lake - 26/07/09

After being stuck up Sheffield for two weeks to renew my non destructive testing tickets I was itching to get back on the bank so when I got a text from a mate asking if I was up for some fishing this weekend I jumped at the chance. The aim was to meet up at 07:30 and be fishing by 08:00, the venue of choice was the always scenic Readers.

I absolutely love catching Tench and with the good old fashioned British summer still going strong I thought I had a genuine chance of a Tinca today. I decided to fish with one rod first and the setup was a pretty standard one for float fishing, Drennan Power Carp Waggler, Shimano reel, small waggler float and a size 14 barbless hook fished straight through on 6lb line. I'd brought a myriad of baits including maggots, worms, sweetcorn, soft hooker halibut pellets and luncheon meat and was confident that even if the Tench weren't going to play ball then the Carp would.

Readers responds well to fishing in the margins so with that in mind I plumbed up and decided to fish six inches over depth on the margin shelf which is where the Tench love to patrol. It was literally a bite a chuck with the usual suspects (Roach and Skimmer Bream) falling to either corn or soft pellet, with that in mind I opted to put down a bed of small pellets to try and entice the bigger fish into the swim. It didn't take long for me to hook into my first proper fish but I lost what I suspected to have been a foul hooked Carp so I decided to shallow up to dead depth. I was soon into another fish but again I lost it, from the nature of the fight and previous experience on this water I suspect it might of been a Tench as it felt more like a solid lump compared to the Carp which tend to go absolutely mental when hooked.

By this time my friend had already managed to bank a few including a fin perfect 8lb Common on ledgered luncheon meat and a 11lb Common on a fake dog biscuit so the pressure to salvage the 'match' was well and truly on. With that in mind I set up a second ledger rod and hair rigged two 11mm soft halibut pellets fished tight to the edge of the island a tactic which showed instant results with a small Carp coming to the bank within two minutes of casting out. Unfortunately there is a lot of debris around the island so not only was it difficult to present a bait but as soon as I hooked a fish it would immediately head straight for the reeds and I only managed to land one of the four Carp I hooked into.

Back on the other rod after having my float smashed to pieces by a Carp I opted to free line a cube of luncheon meat in the margins and just to confirm that it wasn't going to be my day I hooked and lost a further two Carp including a small Ghostie. Time to call it a day methinks.

For all my effort I could only manage two Carp and a few silvers, my mate finished the day with six Carp including a couple of nice lumps proving that everybody gets lucky at least once in life, it would of been a different story if I had banked every fish that I hooked.....

4-2

Curses!