So how has it been Going?
Three weeks into the challenge today and the starting tactic of filling some common stillwater & canal species in before June 16th is underway.
The main target has been stillwater fish as it's not something I've done much of in the past.
Any points scored on such venues are a bonus but the water has only just crept up to the sort of temperatures associated with catching a few fish and thus good days can be often followed by bad.
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Writing, I sit canalside, the breeze keeping the fingers moving searching for a degree of warmth. The glowing dome of the zed alarm wiggles like a florescent catwalk model in the flow of lock water.
Earlier it was exciting.
Fish came to bread and worms regularly resulting in the springtime early morning catch of around ten pounds.
The aim was a good hybrid, to 'up' the bream figures and also find some big perch.
Only the bream played ball but the fish are spawned out; battered, beaten and bruised now. The three pounder having shed at least 5ozs earlier this month.
Skylark serenade on all sides here though and whether the plan works or fails there is pleasure to be had. Indeed with the tackle neatly and firmly tucked, zipped and tied away I continue to sit. The gentle throb of the tenth approaching narrowboat contrasting an urgent, flickering sunlit ripple on the rushy bend.
Manky flotsam adorns the once uninterrupted clear surface, but that's why we're here. If the wind blows the blossom petals, twigs, ripped vegetation and crisp packet debris here then fish will be below, gleaning what nourishment they can from the propeller-scoured base of this murky water snake.
The species count is impressive given the oftdays simplicity of the approach.
Warburton's best dragging roach, silver bream and bronze bream into instant feeding activity; and worms with a trialled new perch and zander tactic slowly producing both species (in tiny sizes!) and two good bream, best just a stickleback over three pounds, the other shedding the hook of a size most commonly observed at sea.
Today the Grand Union was chosen despite being the first boat-intensified day of the little darlings' school break.
It was inevitable the session would be short.
It's now 09.30 and already the early bath & prospect of bacon beckons. Sat waiting for the remnants of the action to dry from the crusting mesh, contemplation of the traffic begins. Numerous vessels have passed and always the compulsory, every man for himself, throttle-happy nematode amongst them. It's only to be expected.
Meanwhile the sedge warbler has rattled, trilled and squeaked-out his incessant song from various perches. The sun has risen and the heat now bakes the knees through long-since superfluous waterproofs.
So the upshot is a few more bream points and likewise for perch but the latter can wait until winter.
The pursuit of summer fish that cannot be relied upon in the winter must now prevail.
Carp, crucians, Stillwater bream, rudd, etc. These must be the quarry, together with those odd species that I never fish for but are nonetheless listed and relevant in the challenge.
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The stillwater tench campaign has been a reasonable success given the paucity of local options for big fish, by that I'm thinking 7lbs or more.
Around twenty have been banked, the best this cracker of a female at 6.4
but outdone in the beauty stakes by an earlier 4.13 just two days ago.
No comparison.
Among the above fish came a complimentary roach just under a pound and a half which was very welcome, and we'll aim to beat next winter, together with decent rudd and perch, but both stand to be usurped, with any luck, later in the year too.
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The biggest challenge though will surely be the summer river period. A situation I naturally associate with small fish of many species.
THAT will need to change.
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