Aquarium. Again...

Not quite in the league of Loafer's big rudd boat but sometimes in the winter a real bonanza of a place. I'd packed the chub gear from yesterday as well as the pin rod and getting to the carp park and seeing swimmers and all sorts nearly set off up the path but in truth I'd rather give it a go up there with some regular baiting and the small feeder approach.. I think some of the fish in the Aquarium head back on to the river at dusk once the  cormorants have buggered off. Evil, hateful things. One other on the Aquarium for a short while and later a decent bloke trotting the main river. He has whetted  my appetite for some proper roach.

This is not to say there aren't proper roach in the Aquarium but it's pic'n'mix down there and dropping a bait down in to its variable and often considerable depths is a bit like pier fishing. Using a pin under the rod tip is ideal for control, but it's not trotting, or light tip fishing which is what I like best. Speaking of variable depth I've ditched pinching on an SSG to plumb with an actual plummet. I've also started to dot right down on the Aquarium as I've not been seeing all the bites. These days I need some float out of the water to see it but here is really close up.

 

The decent dace which were present on my first couple of trips this winter seem to have moved out and this was the only one of the afternoon.  

Corn on a 14 did the business again and this was the smallest roach I had.

Some real beauties amongst them in the end.

        

Not dank, dour or dark today, but colder for sure. Work tomorrow.

Dank, damp, dour.

Breakfast out with the Brother then a nice pint in the Swan. All the way from Lewes in Sussex. The pint, not the Brother.

After that met up with the Loafer fresh from his Fens escapades. A very dank, damp and dour late December afternoon. River being run several feet down. Found  a few 'deeper' spots, second one and something took an interest in the flake. Not big, tiny in fact but you can't beat a chub bite on the tip. Top mate and top angler. Shite with a DSLR. I expect he'll blame the camera being lugged round in the Big Green Bucket without a lens cap. Another bungled bite was my lot.

A most obliging species

 Legals and lunch done in Ipswich then a battle through the tail back from a  carriageway closure at the A14/A12 interchange meant I was late for a meet up with The Loafer, up from his lergy bed after  a prolonged lay off. Chub on the menu, buckets in hand, annoying folding seats in the car boots. 

Pathetic little slices in this Warby blue loaf,  selected to cut down in bulk in the big green bucket, Two baits to a slice and mean thin slices too.

As his his way the Loafer had a chub almost before I'd sprawled myself, chair less on the bank.

As he passed for swims afar I moved into the next swim down and first cast the tip  relaxed slightly, tapped then jagged round. In and out of near bank snags, and that lunge they do into the waiting net. A  plump chub #6 hook looking small in it's big, slobbering gob. Standard chub size for this lower end of the river. We sniggered about reported 6lbers in the "new club stretch" above the Mill.

 

One more for the Loafer, standing heron-like to fish before we trudged back to the cars. That sickening moment when you can't find the car keys in the key pocket. Is the car locked Loafer? No, and there, blinking accusingly were the Loafer's keys in the ignition barrel. Phew as Wordle has it when you crack the puzzle on the last line.

10 foot down

Had a load of in and out of the freezer several times corn and hemp to use up and some reds on the turn so headed for the Aquarium. It was free, and plumped for  a spot where the wall is recessed for the lock gates.

Got fed up with the line getting caught up in the trees with the  the 15 footer so broke out the shorter waggler rod, not ideal fishing bottom end only so close to the rod tip and I had a loaded waggler so not much weight down  (I like to get the bait on the deck quick 10 foot down here) but the (mainly) dace didn't mind double caster or corn and I amassed a tidy bag, every drop a coconut in an hour in the gloom.

Back the next day, intending to try a spot at the tail of the adjacent mill pool but it was being used by the Coastguards for training  and the Aquarium was free. I had moved the pin on the 15 footer to a shorter rod and with weight down now plumbed a bit more accurately, packed with fish again as they were taking the SSG I was plumbing with. Corn straight away, and this time it was mainly roach, with a few dace and chublets. Coconut shy again. Happy days.