Social distancing to the Island

Date fished 21/03/2020
7.30am until 5pm

Wow! Today I went outside. Ellis and I went to Moulton lane pond to target Carp, Barbel, Tench and Bream, and if we caught Roach or Perch we would be happy too!!

We had ledger gear, method hybrid feeders, pellets, maggots, guru maggot feeders and small floats should we need to target the silver's.

Starting with hybrid feeder and pellet, I fished my usual peg (23) and cast towards the aerator. Ellis arrived shortly after the frost had thawed and set up next to me. We paid our money, which was promptly swabbed down with 90% alcohol to kill germs. After a quick catch up from 6ft apart, we were soon both watching the rod not move! It was very quiet.

After a few line bites, I was not confident of catching on this method yet, so quickly changed to the float to see what I could tempt. Someone on the other bank caught a Barbel on the ledger, so Ellis stayed on this method.
I was soon getting bites and after missing a million, finally caught a Roach.

A few more (4) followed and this got Ellis noticing. He didn't change tactics, but moved swims. He noticed a deep corner that showed fish activity and was soon having line bites too.

After frustration of not being able to hit the bites, Ellis gave in and switched to the float. Ellis's swim was still alive with fish and he quickly over took me on the Roach count!!

The bailiff came round for a check, so we had a word. He told us that it was fishing well and the Island was key. I had always fished there before and Ellis fished it this morning but nothing. I bit the bullet and changed tactics.
I put back on the hybrid feeder and cast to the Island. Ellis opted to feeder fish in his new swim.
It was first chance to Ellis and he was playing a proper fish. A lovely Tench his swim move reward.

Next it was my turn, for the next 45 mins or so. My rod did not stop. It was exactly how I thought the whole day would be. I assume it took a while to warm up and the fish were now on the feed. I caught a 3lb Barbel and 2 smaller ones.

We also caught some skimmer bream as the action was hotting up.

It was not long before Ellis was casting to the Island too and we were getting bites regularly.
Ellis wanted a Barbel too but it was only bream to him so far. We fished on, giving ourselves until 5pm, it was getting cold again and self isolation at home was calling. At 16.58 Ellis's alarm beeped and his rod was away, he played the fish to the net and as fairytale would have it, it was his Barbel!!

A perfect end to what turned into a great day. It was good that we had the fall back to the silver's as the cold morning would have dragged watching motionless rods. A whole blog in this troublesome time without mentioning the C word!!

"Not seen the news, What C word?" You Ask.

Yes, you guessed it, neither of us caught the dreaded............. Carp!!

Ellis with his pants down!