Sunday 11 November 2012

Leaf me alone

Perch were the target of this weeks 'sesh' and Willow Farm the venue. I have caught two pounders from here in the past but there are rumours locally of much bigger fish occasionally landed by pleasure anglers fishing for bites. Fifty Lobworms and two bags of Prawns would be bait. I had a plan.
I set up two float rods carefully plumbing the marginal shelf so I would fish at the bottom of the drop off feeding mashed Prawn, cut up Lobworm and red maggots steadily throughout the day to attract the Stripy Sergeants. There was just one aspect I had not counted on, the late fall of Autumn leaves. There were literally thousands of them coming off the various types of Willow that line the edges of this lake.
There was only a gentle to light breeze but it was constantly changing direction. The leaves would blow in, blow across and then out again in a never ending cycle. I kept adjusting the float position and it would be ok for a few minutes and then the leaves would attack it and again and again I would have to move the float.
It took me about two hours to get one bite, the first fish falling for a Prawn. It powered off. At first I thought I was attached to a giant Perch but the fight continued too long and soon I realised a Carp was the culprit. I was just beginning to get control on the light gear when the hook pulled.
The commotion killed the swim and it took another couple of hours before any more signs of life. Next bite came to the worm but I bounced the fish off on the strike, the worm had masked the hook point. Between the worms and the leaves I was starting to think I was staring a blank in the face when the float sailed off while the worm was on the drop and I hooked a fish. It was not the target species but there was an air of relief when I netted a decent Roach. It was an old fish, only one eye and one pectoral fin, I almost felt sorry for it so I took a quick photo of it's best side and put it straight back.
That was the end of the action for another week, a familiar pattern is beginning to emerge to my sessions, nearly blanking with a late fish saving the day. Need to try harder.

5 comments:

  1. Joe, that sounds about as successful as my Perch session there a couple of weeks ago, although I managed a few small ones. I'm sure they're there somewhere. Lee

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    1. They are but I don't think they are vast in numbers, maybe live baiting would be a way forward?

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  2. Hi Joe, I really like these blogs. I'm a big fan of willow farm even though it can be a tough venue. I had my first session for 3 years there in Oct and had a great bag of Roach and Perch despite everyone else blanking. Despite all the gear and tactics, a 4m whip and continous maggot feeding did the trick. Just goes to show sometimes you need to go back to basics.

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    1. Thanks Peter, any size to the Roach and Perch?

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  3. Biggest Roach was around a pound but only small perch. It was clear no big perch had turned up and the roach pushed the small perch out eventually.

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