Venue : Docklow Pools Herefordshire - Mickey Mouse Lake
Tackle/Bait : Daiwa Tournament Pro X Pole. Silstar Match Team line, Drennan Maggot Carp Hooks, Jim Standish Pole floats.
Fishery 2mm Pellets, Red Maggots, Dendrobena Worms, Casters, Marukyu JPZ, Marukyu SFA 450 Liquid Krill.
The Session :
Spring and Autumn time is normally my favourite part of the year as one of my favourite baits comes into its own .... worms!
Its the last week in March and officially Spring time, but with these Arctic conditions we have been facing it doesn't feel very springlike with cold easterly winds giving the daytime temperature around -3 chill factor. With snow melting into the water I was wondering if I would get any bites, let alone demonstrate catching something.
The water in the Mickey Mouse lake at Docklow normally has a nice tinge of colour to it at this time of the year and the fish will usually feed as they think about Spawning. But the water clarity is very clear and I imagine spawning is the last thing on their minds.
In normal conditions I would look to fish a mixture of Chopped Worms and Casters with a glug of Liquid Krill around 8-9 metres in a nice flat area to try and kick start the swim and get some fish in the net. I would also loose feed casters regularly at around 5 metres at an angle and look for signs of fish shallow.
Today is a different beast with the weather as bad as it is....indeed the Docklow Classic Final was fished the previous day on the adjacent Match Pool and 20lb was all that was needed to win. So today I will look to fish long. 13 metres is fed with Fishery Micros and a few red maggots. 9 Metres for the worm and caster at an angle away from my main long line. One thing I always do is take a reading of the water temperature. And despite the freezing conditions I was surprised the water temperature was 7 degrees, which gave me some encouragement.
The thinking behind the 9 metre line was to feed regular maggots over the top (3 or 4 every minute) and gauge how the fish were feeding. Worms and Maggots are relatively instant baits and it would give me a good idea. 2 rigs were made up for the 9 metre line both .10 main line to 0.8 hooklength. The first rig was for fishing on the bottom an inch over depth and was a Jim Standish Chianti Style float of 4x10 in 3 feet of water with the shot strung out, aiming to search the whole depth and find the fish, this was connected to Pink Hydro.
The 2nd rig a 4x8 Float set 18 inches deep, just in case the fish were sat mid-depth connected to doubled Preston 4, nice and soft as I do not want fish splashing on the surface if I did find them shallow.
My Long line contained a 4x12 Jim Standish Slimzee with a slightly larger 18 B911 F1 hook fished on 0.10 straight through to Blue Hydro. This line I was hoping to attract some Skimmers and better roach over the Pellet and catch on the bottom, maybe even the odd F1 would make an appearance. Regular small toss pots of micros would be introduced and I would then feed to bites (If I got any!)
First put in over the worm and I caught a small chublet on a single red maggot. A good sign if the chub arrive in numbers, but they did not. Despite plugging away regularly loose feeding maggots to keep a trickle of bait dropping through the water, I could only manage 3 more chublets and a small perch...I knew it was going to be hard. In normal conditions I would have expected to catch Roach towards the bottom over the worm and a better stamp up in the water later.
After 45 minutes or so it was time to look over the pellet line, again things were slow, but by plugging away I found a few Roach and Skimmers and started to put some fish in the net, with a few fish there I put some of my chopped worm mix in over the pellets and a couple more better Skimmers were tempted. I also like to chop up JPZ into almost Mis-shaped pellets which tempted a couple more bites, this trick has caught me a few extra fish over the Winter.
I did bump a large Skimmer which I thought had spooked the shoal and a 10 minute quiet spell began...until I then pricked a carp which tore off through the swim. After 2 hours of sub zero temperatures I called it a day and was just glad to put a few pound of fish into the net.
Light lines, frugal feeding and long pole lines are still the order of the day despite it being "Spring" Keep things tight in this Weather and it wont be long until the good old "Choppy" gets the silvers going again.
