I had not been out for what seemed ages but in fact it was only 8 days! My friend Mike is still on my mind and there have been many great tributes and kind words from so many people from within the angling community.
A few Club members had gone out on the Kenn last Sunday in the sleet and snow. Not much was caught but bream were present in the lower part of the river with one angler hooking 2, landing one but he had lots of liners. The river was a bit out of sorts with flood water coming off the moors on that day.
I had a fair bit of worm, a pint of caster and about 2 pints of old maggots so decided I would go below Strode Rd Bridge and fish for bream. I had a look at the river first from the bridge and it did look spot on with a good flow and a tinge of colour.
I drove off and parked up at the far end of Yeolands Drive put the waders on and started to unload. I then discovered I had no ground bait. Bugger. I decided to drive back to the bridge and fish upstream to use up the maggot and keep the worm and caster for Sunday.
It took me a while to set up in the mud and although I left home at 08:30 I wasn't fishing until 10:30 after pissing about.
Waggler and Maggot Feeder set up with bait waiters out in the mud plus keep net and landing net and a few bits and pieces i.e. spare shot, catty, scissors and drink.
High tide was around 06:40 and although it had turned 2 hours later there was still a fair bit of water coming down. Depth across at the bottom of the far shelf was only just over 3 foot.
Usual approach for me feeding maggot and trotting down again and again and again, holding back and letting go. You need to be consistent when you are doing this and get a rhythm going.
It took longer than I expected but after 40 minutes had a perch around a pound, happy enough. 10 minutes later another about the same size.
Specialist angler Chris Burden came along and asked how I was doing which I told him. Chris went in above me, he targets big roach on the long rod and bread.
I kept plugging away and after an hour had a small roach. It was fishing harder than I expected.
Because the bottom is uneven and I was fishing over depth you strike at a lot of false bites and at time I have struck half heartedly thinking it was the bottom and bumped fish.
My waggler went under fairly quickly at one point and went I struck the fish went off like a train. I thought it might have been another big chub and then as it got closer it looked like a hybrid but when I finally netted it I knew it was a roach. I shouted up to Chris who came down to look at it and confirmed it was a roach, he said that's got to be nearly 3lb ! Chris said he had accurate digital scales and would weigh and photograph it for me later.
I managed a few more perch and roach plus a small tench on the waggler until I lost my gear in a snag around 14:50. I was going to pack up around 15:30 so just fished the maggot feeder for the rest of the session.
Chris came down for a walk and while he was there I had a big perch on the worm.
15:30 came and Chris came down with his scales and camera.
We only weighed the big roach and perch.
The roach went 2lb 12oz and the perch 2lb 10oz I had about another 6lb made up of the smaller tench, perch and roach.
What a month I have had on the Kenn.
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