Drop shot

The hemp had been burning a metaphorical hole in  my bucket since yesterday. A good handful of Saino's basic prawns out to defrost and a last cup of tea. Now the oily, chilli kicked water was getting browner by the minute. Jobs jobbed it was down to the pond by 4.

The usual struggle with the padlock and gates. Yes, gates. We put in a serious otter and scrote fence and a series of gates round the Pond  a couple of years back. Hours of hard work and  good few thousand less than having it done commercially but apart from a couple of scrotes letting their mates "guest" all good so far. A fence good enough to prevent climbing back out in most places so not somewhere to forget your torch for the fumble with the combination after hours...no signal to ring out either!

I had put the rake through a couple of spots yesterday. The plan was to freshen up with a couple of pulls through to give the fish something to look through, top up with the chili hemp, do a  tour to see what was what then in with the gear. Standard Captains float set up, Kevin Ashurst 12' match rod, a functioning and trouble free Cardinal 154 and 6lb straight through to a lovely, curved Drenan Sedge #8. A small waggler and the lift shot that I thought was 2 swan to  get through the rudd.

Speaking of 2 swan..quite well behaved today

First put in and the big grey common briefly spritzed through the weed and did several slow languid turns round the baited area before smegging off. Most casts seemed to miss most of the remaining weed over the very silty bottom. A small cluster of bream bubbles (slow, large, not fizzing) and rather than lifting the red tip slid under and away. On long enough to indicate not a mudpig, then the hook pulled. Enjoyed the kingfisher sound and sight display including a mid pond hover. As the sun slid behind the treeline behind me the rudd had obviously become emboldened by the lack of bream activity, first of all giving some classic lift bites then taking the prawn on the drop. Previously I had used 2 x2swans to get through them but as before not today.

Perseverance paid of as I was down to my last two prawn hook baits, the classic "bream" bubbles, a proper lift and then this.....

A bit on the hollow side and also stange polyps or possibly lice round the head and deformed gill cover (never seen such obvious gill rakers on a tench before) and with much smaller fins down the right side. A lovely yellow gold on the underside.