I’ve fished Southend Farm only once before, this was earlier
in the year when things had not warmed up properly. I managed a nice double
figure carp on the pole and a couple of smaller fish on the pellet waggler to
add to a few skimmers. However armed with only 4 and 6mm pellets had made it
difficult to fish. The neighbouring angler who was properly set up was bagging.
I hate being outfished in this way, but I put it down to lack of 8mm pellets
and duff information. This return visit was an attempt to exorcise these
ghosts.
Arriving at 7am ish, I had a quick chat with the owner. It
was still dull, but due to brighten up later on. The advice was fish the pole
for skimmers and go out on the tip - don’t bother with the pellet waggler.
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| My peg for the day |
I set up the on peg 20 on the main lake near the car park
and decided to fish pole at 11m while pinging 8mm pellet at distance. The
skimmers soon responded to some cupped in pellets and bites slowly appeared on
8mm banded pellet, small expanders worked too, but there was lots of time
wasted from liners and lost soft pellets. A few fish in and I hit something
more solid, after a brief but solid fight and 11lb mirror appeared in the
landing net –a nice start and a pleasant change from the small carp of the previous
day which set off like lunatics when hooked.
More skimmers followed up to about 2lb, but the majority of
fish were 4-8oz and I continued to ping out the 8mm pellets. Eventually there were
some signs of life and I took the decision to set up the pellet waggler. (I’ve
been dying to give my new Drennan puddle chucker a good work out).
A few casts later, the float disappeared, the lined
tightened and I was in. 6lb of mirror in the landing net. Result.
I should explain at this point that I am not an experienced user
of the pellet waggler. This has got something to do with my love of pole
fishing and the lack of suitable venues for that method nearby. I’ve given it a
blast at Boddingtons a few times, but results have been pretty poor, so this
session was very much aligned to catching a few fish and trying to work a few
wrinkles out.
More bites followed, but try as I might I was losing fish at
an embarrassing rate – at one point losing 2 fish for everyone landed, and
there was a moment at 2 rods lengths out when the hook seemed to pull
regularly. I was using B911 in a size 14 as the hook, and to be honest despite
all the good press about them I don’t have a great deal of confidence in them. Then
when one of the fish did me around the water pump and the main line seemed to
have lost all of its strength (it snapped whilst I adjusted the float), I
decided enough was enough and whipped off the match reel. And put on one of my
trusty 6010 baitrunners with stronger line, and a larger hook in a stronger
pattern.
This had a small negative effect on bites, but I was landing
a lot more fish. And then it went a bit quiet.
It was hard work, I could get the odd bite and twitching
worked too – but every now and again it would go dead. And so it was, a little
run of fish (including a 1lb goldfish and a 3lb skimmer) and the odd carp.
Every so often the weather would brighten and I’d get a few bites, then a lull.
If it had been a match I’d have done something else, but this was a pellet
waggler session, so the idea setting up a tip rod didn’t really appeal to me.
By 1 o’clock I’d caught about 60lb of fish and it went very
quiet, so I gave the pole and the inside line a look. A few small skimmer showed
up, but that didn’t really work, so I went back on the waggler. I gave myself
30 minutes - If I couldn’t get them
going then I’d set up a tip rod for the last 2 hours.
Well, slowly they turned on. I lost a few fish, caught a few
bream and for a magic 15 minutes caught three doubles on the bounce – a 15lb
common (that fought like a demon and looked a lot bigger in the net), a 10lb common that came in like a sack of
potatoes and a 12lb mirror. I topped that off with a couple of smaller fish and
that, was that. 116lb was my final tally, but I probably lost
a similar amount due to hook pulls etc. As a proper introduction to pellet
waggler fishing I think I did quite well, now I need to get it working on a different
venue – maybe another trip to Boddingtons would be a good idea.
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| 15lb Common Carp that fought like an absolute demon |
Catch List:
Mirror Carp: 9
Common Carp: 5
Goldfish: 1
Bream: 18
Roach: 1
Total weight: 116lb
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