Small Victories - 1st July 2012

I'm all for adding a little variety to my fishing - it's all too easy to fish the same venues in the same way and, frankly, catch the same sort of fish. Now I'm not saying I don't like bashing out a big bag of match carp on the pole, because I do, but from time to time it's nice to mix it up a bit and remind yourself that there's more to fishing than just one thing. 

So, with two hours to myself early on Sunday morning I decided to do just that. Something a little different. 

Armed with a pint of maggots and my usual traveling light gear, I decided to dig out my 5 metre whip (something I don't think I've used for 5 years or more) and head to one of the lesser fished waters of my local club. 

It's an unusual water - a few years back there was a major fish kill (caused by icing over I believe) and now it's an intimate little pond with no more than 10 pegs, complete with plenty of weed and a few surprises. However, it is rarely fished and this was only my second visit. 

I quickly set up on one of the deeper pegs and found 3ft of water and weed at 10 metres out. So I shortened the whip down one section to find the a spot where the weed had been cleared. So that was the plan, a 0.3g float on 0.13mm line to a 0.10mm hooklength and size 20 hook, set just 12 inches shorter than the whip. 

A few maggots had been fed during the set-up and I got to work. First cast, bite, 3oz rudd. 

Stamp rudd - lovely clean colours

Second cast, bite, crucian carp. And so it went on. 

How can you not be delighted to catch a crucian like this?

In the first hour it was mainly rudd varying from 1oz to 3oz, a few crucians and a couple of tench. All delicious baby fish up to 3 or 4 oz mostly, immaculate condition and starving hungry for maggots. 

Tench like little bars of soap

After an hour the rudd seemed to back off and I started to put a regular run of crucians and tench together, the size didn't get any better, but it was great fun to fish and catch such miniature beauties. I had to wait a little longer for bites, but frankly I didn't care - it was a great way to spend a few hours. 

Eventually I managed to hook one of the resident carp - all 4oz of it - but this was the only example that appeared in the session (my previous visit had produced many more), but you cant complain. 

My only carp of the session

So after 2 hours it was time to go. 75 fish for about 8lb, but more importantly, a really enjoyable session. 

I don't know when I'll go back, but it made a really nice change to do something a little different. 

Catch list:

Rudd - 39

Tench - 20

Crucian carp - 15

Common Carp - 1

Total weight - 8lb