Freezer burn

With a big wind and rain forecast on Saturday I thought I'd head up to the top pool with a couple of feeder rods and appease the river gods under an umbrella whilst Bozza decided our impending lock down fate. Rods rigged, one for maggots and one for worm and caster, went to the bait fridge and saw a fine white dusting over the worm pots. Mould? Really? No, ice crystals. The worms, a pint of fresh maggots and another pint of fresh, just turned casters all frozen solid. I had to get out, and didn't find the prospect of leapfrog piking (thus no umbrella for practical reasons) down a wind swept, rain lashed river stretch. 

So I found the still banded method rods and some pellets and wafters and headed down the farm pond where I could just get away without a brolly (I hate them) in the swim nearest the car with decent overhead cover (never mind the 40 mph wind). It took several casts to get some response but by then the biblical rain had begin. I did find that my Aldi coat was surprisingly waterproof and snug and though none of the takes were converted the wind after the rain dried me up  nice and good,  and much later than planned Bozza's Lockdown appeared to give the green light for fishing to continue. Even with a Fisherman's Friend. Plastic bags procured to rescue and refreeze the maggot and caster, if only for loose feed if click and collect bait not an option going forwards. The devil will be in the detail.

Wind  remained in force Sunday, and rain cleared early doors so after lunch off to Dangling Indirect for 2 pints of reds and some worms (panic buying or hedging against a crash?) and down to the sheltered village stretch. I'd decided to bring the casters defrosted  and used these as loose feed. The maxim is that you don't start off feeding maggot if you might switch to feeding caster later. I did start on caster hook bait, but even on a fine wire #16 they'd lost their firmness  having be frozen and defrosted so over to reds on the hook. A bite a trot from small roach and the odd slightly  better dace and I did consider keeping a few back for live bait but began to get a few better roach and in a 15 minute purple patch I caught 8 netters, the best this stunning one I did weigh to see if it was brushing the pound mark. Not quite at 15oz but a scale perfect fish and a delight to behold as were it's slightly smaller pod mates, all taken at a sweet spot abut 20 yards down the trot.

    

They are plumping up for the winter.

Bites surprisingly dried up in the gathering gloom and despite switching to fed red maggot I couldn't interest what I suspected to be a pack of marauding perch to fall victim to twin grubs. If only I'd kept back some livebaits. Listen to that voice in your head. It's the voices you should ignore.