The opportunity to avenge an angling battering from my dad is not usually swift these days, as we don't get to fish together as often as we used to. In the week, however, I managed to wangle a day off and we both headed over to the Wellington Basins for round 2. I like these two little ponds and have known of their existence for more than a year now, but still haven't fished them properly. The last visit was cut short by severe weather, but threw up a surprise pike.
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The above photograph is slightly deceptive and my dad looks a fair distance away, but I could probably have clonked him on the head with a ball of groundbait if I really fancied it. The water was clear and, being a public park, I really fancied a netful of roach on bread as I'm sure plenty of the stuff gets chucked in there for the ducks. Things started well, and despite taking longer to set up, I had four nice roach in the net before my dad had his first bite. I put the bread line in too close though, as it dried up within twenty minutes and then I never got another bite on it. My inkling that the pond holds some decent perch wasn't proved today by my results on a chopped worm line to a weedbed, which only threw up the odd 2-3oz perch.
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The successful tactic today was pinkie and red maggot over groundbait at 13 metres, with my punch rig doubling up perfectly to catch some quality ronnies on the drop on a single pinkie. Conversely, my heavier 4x14 rig, touching bottom or just over, didn't bring anything larger, and bites were far less frequent.
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I didn't have any bream but dad again found them, catching four between 1lb-2lb, in what turned out to be a slightly deeper swim and probably the prime point for duck-feeding on the lake. Not that he caught any of his fish on bread, instead using red maggot over groundbait. After five hours we agreed to declare myself the winner before lifting the keepnets from the water, so there was no weigh-in and I was able to salvage some pride after last weeks trip. Oh, and it was flippin' freezing, to the point where my hands felt like I'd buried them in stinging nettles, when feeling did eventually return to them in the car.
Yesterday my day was taken up with a trip to Taunton to purchase a new cricket bat from the county ground shop, but after feeling slightly self-conscious picking up bats and playing my imaginary cover drives whilst Arul Suppiah and James Hildreth looked on, I dropped in on the Tiverton Canal for what I'm now starting to think is a guaranteed pike. In a couple of hours I had four pike. Three of them the usual twelve inch critters, and a realtive monster for this end of the canal; a fat fish of about 4lb, and of the most beautiful emerald sheen. I also had another four or five missed takes.
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Despite a positive weather forecast a few days previous, it continued to turn cold, with my mat freezing together several times. Further proof that any forecast more than two days in advance is not overly reliable, though they are generally accurate the day before. Even more disappointingly, I returned at midday today to find the canal frozen over more or less everywhere.
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Eventually I located a clear area where the wind was gusting through the arch of a bridge and set about preparing three rigs to search out the central track primarily, with no far bank cover worth fishing to. Chopped worm and caster was fed sparingly thirteen metres down the peg, on the line of the dog bin in the picture. I then put some liquidised bread in, a section past the weedbed to my left, although I later moved this round to one o'clock, to make things easier in the wind and started another chopped worm line by the weedbed instead.
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Well, what can I say, it was a fantastic session. I had roach throughout on bread, though they were generally on the small side, aswell as some quality perch, and a real bonus for such a harsh day in the form of a 5lb 10oz pike on the chopped worm. Just shy of 13lb in total in five hours, and plenty of bait left over for another day off work tomorrow.
The above photograph is slightly deceptive and my dad looks a fair distance away, but I could probably have clonked him on the head with a ball of groundbait if I really fancied it. The water was clear and, being a public park, I really fancied a netful of roach on bread as I'm sure plenty of the stuff gets chucked in there for the ducks. Things started well, and despite taking longer to set up, I had four nice roach in the net before my dad had his first bite. I put the bread line in too close though, as it dried up within twenty minutes and then I never got another bite on it. My inkling that the pond holds some decent perch wasn't proved today by my results on a chopped worm line to a weedbed, which only threw up the odd 2-3oz perch.
The successful tactic today was pinkie and red maggot over groundbait at 13 metres, with my punch rig doubling up perfectly to catch some quality ronnies on the drop on a single pinkie. Conversely, my heavier 4x14 rig, touching bottom or just over, didn't bring anything larger, and bites were far less frequent.
I didn't have any bream but dad again found them, catching four between 1lb-2lb, in what turned out to be a slightly deeper swim and probably the prime point for duck-feeding on the lake. Not that he caught any of his fish on bread, instead using red maggot over groundbait. After five hours we agreed to declare myself the winner before lifting the keepnets from the water, so there was no weigh-in and I was able to salvage some pride after last weeks trip. Oh, and it was flippin' freezing, to the point where my hands felt like I'd buried them in stinging nettles, when feeling did eventually return to them in the car.
Yesterday my day was taken up with a trip to Taunton to purchase a new cricket bat from the county ground shop, but after feeling slightly self-conscious picking up bats and playing my imaginary cover drives whilst Arul Suppiah and James Hildreth looked on, I dropped in on the Tiverton Canal for what I'm now starting to think is a guaranteed pike. In a couple of hours I had four pike. Three of them the usual twelve inch critters, and a realtive monster for this end of the canal; a fat fish of about 4lb, and of the most beautiful emerald sheen. I also had another four or five missed takes.
Despite a positive weather forecast a few days previous, it continued to turn cold, with my mat freezing together several times. Further proof that any forecast more than two days in advance is not overly reliable, though they are generally accurate the day before. Even more disappointingly, I returned at midday today to find the canal frozen over more or less everywhere.
Eventually I located a clear area where the wind was gusting through the arch of a bridge and set about preparing three rigs to search out the central track primarily, with no far bank cover worth fishing to. Chopped worm and caster was fed sparingly thirteen metres down the peg, on the line of the dog bin in the picture. I then put some liquidised bread in, a section past the weedbed to my left, although I later moved this round to one o'clock, to make things easier in the wind and started another chopped worm line by the weedbed instead.
Well, what can I say, it was a fantastic session. I had roach throughout on bread, though they were generally on the small side, aswell as some quality perch, and a real bonus for such a harsh day in the form of a 5lb 10oz pike on the chopped worm. Just shy of 13lb in total in five hours, and plenty of bait left over for another day off work tomorrow.