Spot the difference

Date fished 7/4/2023

7.30 am until 2pm

More of the same at Tilcon today. Looking at the match results from Sunday, 19lb won it. Been a while since I caught more than 19lb in a session. 

I have been thinking of bringing the kitchen scales so I can weigh some of the smaller fish for some time, but always forgotten. I don't know how much they weigh, the fish not the scales!! Today was the day I found out....

I had dead maggots, worms and sweetcorn along with the float rod. I caught on all three, but the better stamp (accurate, because I know) came to sweetcorn. 

Not wanting my blogs to be the same, I wont give a blow by blow account of todays trip, I will just highlight the differences, and provide you with some (small) weights!

3.7 oz

4.3 oz

5.0 oz

7.5 oz

4.6 oz

3.6 oz

So, what did I learn? 

Pretty much that my general estimates are "accurate", but as with bigger fish its quite hard to be spot on. 

I would like to do this again and catch some of the micro perch, as I am sure they weigh next to nothing! 

Secondly, I learnt that I won't be entering any matches soon! I watched a host of much better than I (match) anglers today fishing the pole. They smashed it, really good fishing. But I enjoyed myself, and incidentally there were no differences worth highlighting! 

Fool

Date fished 1/4/2023

8.15 until 14.45

A day after my birthday and I decided to brave the rain. Fuelled by child made Choc mint cream cake for breakfast, I was up early and ready to hit the bank. I wanted to float fish, there will be plenty of ledgering time on this lake soon, so I thought I would start with float watching. 

Arriving at the lake, I went and chatted with the angler already fishing. He was actually just leaving, having just popped down for a short session before work. That's the way, I thought! 

We had a good chat. Introductions were short as Phillip said " I know who you are!" 

Fortunately this was followed by "I read all your blogs!" 

Phew! I thought, my reputation preceeds me, but only with McDonald's eating apparently! 

I jumped in the vacant swim, already pre baited and set up. 

The drizzle was annoying. That fine stuff, that looks OK but gets you absolutely drenched. Anyway, under the brolly I was mostly dry, so I fished on. It wasn't long before bites came. A few small perch and some very welcome gudgeon. 

The wind was calm and the lake was like glass. 

There is something about watching the float, and soon I was happy. Thoughts were gone and I was hypnotised by the orange blob. 

A change from dead maggot to sweetcorn brought an immediate bite. This was a different culprit. Am gonna say Ide. But if I am wrong, that's OK. 

The carp were crashing around in the reeds  opposite, they will soon be thinking about spawning. The bites kept coming and sweetcorn brought a better stamp of fish. 

Four good fish soon followed and I was probably on double figures. It didn't matter, no one was counting. 

Not sure if I have fished on April fools day before. I don't claim to be a fool or a prankster. But my experience of April fools day is as follows: 

For years my sister got me with the same prank. She would tell me there was a parcel for me. Having had a birthday the day before, this was quite likely. So, off I would go to see my parcel, only to be greeted with sweet fanny Adams! 

It's because of this, I didn't try to claim I caught this mud pig....