Wednesday 5 August 2009

03/08/09 - Winterbourne Duck Pond

Weight – 45lb 1oz
Catch – 52 Bream, 3 Carp, 1 Hybrid, 1 Roach
Weather – Mostly cloudy and windy.
Water Temp– 18.0c > 18.5c

This week I was suppose to be at Stafford Moor, however I still decided to take this week off as holiday, particularly since I’m waiting for decision about who my future employer will be.

Despite being my day off, I still attended the last consultation meeting and when it finished I set off the short distance for the duck pond.

On arrival the water looked a lot clearer than expected, which was a concern. Instead of setting up on the usual bus stop swim with the wind off my back, I decided to try the swim opposite where the water appeared to be a little more coloured.

The intention was to fish the waggler down the left hand side of the island and the pole at 11m down the left hand margin. Starting on the waggler, I had to skimmer straight away on maggot, but I wasn’t happy with my presentation. The gusting wind meant accurate casting was difficult and I knew I would hook on the islands willow tree sooner or later. Also the strong wind was pushing the waggler towards me, despite fishing overdepth.

Therefore decided to fish the pole instead at 11.5m, loose feeding 4mm pellet. The first hour was a little slow, fishing double red maggot and it wasn’t look before I switched to 6mm expander. After an initial run of fish decent skimmer, the average stamp began to reduce, so I switched to corn, which doesn’t normally work that well here, but today I started regularly getting better skimmers again. Whether it was due to the clarity of the water or the fact the corn sat better in the tow I’m not sure.

Based on my 3 previous visits, I have only managed to catch 1 small carp, so today, due to the strong wind and the usual lack of carp, I decided to use a soft 6 elastic to avoid bumping too many skimmers. So I shouldn’t have been surprised when I landed a 3lb carp. A 5 pounder hooked an hour later however took a little longer to land, it just wont give up!

The left hand margin only produced a handful of skimmers, but with the weather closing in I decide to pack early. This was in fact my 2nd best weight from the pond, which for free fishing isn’t bad at all. Once I put my i-pod on, you tend to forget about the traffic.

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