Looocal Loafing

Spending a bit of time on the local big stillwater. When I say big, it's seven miles round with lots of bays and inlets.

My tench swim seems to be tenchless. This particular bay is very clear and at the moment has next to no weed growth. It doesn't fill me with confidence but it's early days.

The shallow end, on the other hand, has a bit of colour and may be a better bet right now.

Take a look at this photo, taken from the same place ten days apart. Amazing the speed stuff is growing.

I spent a bit of time up this tree not spotting any fish.

Yesterday I tried a different area, fishing for the bream. Most of the bigger fish are still not on the shallows and I was fishing in fifteen plus feet of water at fifty yards.

The first hour was biteless but soon I started getting knocks on the tip. It was a bit nippy but the wind had dropped away and as the light faded, fish started rolling over the baited area.

The indications increased and soon I was into a nice fish of around 5lb. In absolutely immaculate condition with lots of spawning tubicles and surprising totally snot free.

Half hour later I had a bigger one of around 7lb. Again, in mint condition.

I somehow managed to hook somebody else's broken off hooklink. Somehow the hook had impaled itself through the swivel eye. How the hell did that happen ?

As dusk approached, the rolling continued but bites dropped off. I packed up in the gloom, surrounded with bats hunting insects along the margins and the sound of nightingale in the distance.

I'll have some more of this very soon.