(Slightly) new horizons

Before I buggered off to the Balearics I had a little go at the top of the tidal, nice trot  down the back eddy. some obliging dace then these two knobs pitched up. Plonked their gear down nosily just where I'd got the fish feeding confidently. One even spent half a hour chucking a rake about. And he had poxy bite alarms he kept "testing".

The non-tidal is very overgrown and even more so on my return but Id seen some fish on the gravels from the Noddy train bridge so gave it a go. The fish were mostly on the far run so it would be a small chubber and the fixed spool, a little rear drag Shimano 1000 size.

The narrow bank behind me would mean needing standing to fish and tucking as much away from the busy footpath as I could. I fed over for a while, in between the very frequent SUPS and poached a few fish from this near bank run  whilst the fish over gained confidence.

Every trot fish darted out to attack the pretty useless Dangling Indirect maggots (sawdust, no maize meal)  but they'd only drop a little way back down the run. Dace and gudgeon  though the gudgeon were micro ones.

It was obvious the SUPS were going to be up and down all the time so I began to fish the far run and had a really good hour. I'd put a few in the landing net then put them back when I had to move the net handle to let passers-by negotiate  the narrow slippery path so here's a couple more net shots to give an idea. Had just one roach and a perch amongst the dace.

I've also stopped off  a couple of times on the fish soup village pond and have even evaded the ticket man though I did get robbed in the Dabbling Duck, 8 quid plus for a pint and a packet of scratchings (a mere 35gm too) so I have at least  put something back into the village coffers.

Went with maggot first time as there has been an explosion of tiny carp and I like tiny versions of big fish, carplets and  tenchlets particularly. First fish was indeed a tiny carp then several scale perfect roach.

Of course the "bigger " carp moved in, great fun on the light float rod.

Next hour session after the shocking bar bill was with soft hookers over 4m pellets, First cast and a string puller really gave me a tour of the pond. Plump but not all down it's length.

Then a succession of hand sized ones to keep me busy before  I slunk off, a bit less guiltily as my litter picking was acknowledged with a cheerful thumbs up from a passing car. 

A strong showing of swallows stocking up for the incredible journey ahead of them and faint wisps of bonfire smoke. I'll have one more go I think, when as the conkers are falling properly  and see if  can get the roach going with slightly more selective tactics. Before the inevitable....... 

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