Whilst I believe that we create our own luck, I love surprises. I don’t know if you’re the same but for me fishing is a win win situation and by that I mean, if I bag up I can’t wait to go again to try for a repeat and if I should blank or have a small catch I can’t wait to go again to put things right.
At the approach of the new season, yes I still think in those terms even though I fish year round, I made up my mind to target a 2lb plus roach, my biggest to date was not much over 1lb. I gave it quite a bit of thought venues, river or pit, tactics, equipment, end tackle and reading and had pretty much decided that I was going to target the local rivers. I’m fortunate to have the river Severn on my doorstep, the Teme and Wye also being close by. I figured I should have a pretty good chance.
With such great rivers at my disposal you would be forgiven for thinking that I should already have achieved this goal. Well I’ll explain, its simply that I may be quite a rare breed when it comes to fishing , unlike so many anglers that I read about . Fishing for me is about solitude, immersing myself in the environment of course I want to catch loads of fish but that’s a bonus. I have to compete everyday of the week so why would I compete for the best swim or the hottest venue. I want to leave the rat race behind for a while. Therefore I tend to fish less popular stretches and swims and rarely target specific species or weight, I’m usually happy with what comes along.
Anyway, fresh from my success with the gorgeous common, like I’ve said above, I can’t wait to get back and repeat. So it was that after about a week I was back at my local pool with my OF monster crab soft hook pellets, expecting more of the same. As you know that doesn’t often happen, at least not for me. I arrived at the pools headed for the same swim only to find it occupied, first disappointment, ok ,what next, it was quite busy that day and even thought about leaving it for another day, other swims I knew were also occupied and being a small lake, didn’t leave much for me. However I also had the knowledge that most of my fellow anglers would be gone by six. Mmm , never understood it myself, but that was good for me, thinking that I could just move when MY swim was vacated.
In the meantime I chose one of the end pegs it drops off to 8ft to my right shallowing up to 5ft to my left. I set up with the shallower margin in mind, didn’t take me long as I used the same pole and a similar rig to last time, it worked for me then, so why not now. Once again getting off to a flying start with lots of good stamp roach to llb, this in itself was a surprise because hitherto 8oz was the upper range from this venue, they had either grown on really fast or this bait was bringing out the biguns, which I wasn’t even aware were in there.
I was focussed on this day and previous days events were just memories. I was catching through the card you might say. Good roach of course tench to 4lb and carp to 6lb, even bream to 3lb showing up great fun. However time was moving on it was about 7pm and bites had slowed but I suppose I had taken a leaf out of the matchman book and was feeding two lines, not that they were far apart. But I know from my experience at this place about this time the dinner gong sounds for lots of fish, as this is when many anglers are packing up and emptying their remaining bait in the margins. So I kind try to fool them a bit by replicating this. I usually sit well back from the bank and always very quiet, this is generally good practice but never more so than when margin fishing. I become one with the surroundings and this makes the fish confident enough to come very close in. I shortened my rig about six inches and the float was on a half lob so to speak and stuck on two of the pellets, a few twitches later and the float glided away smoothly , I flicked the tip a made contact with the fish. I could feel it was a good stamp but after a couple of dives gave up fairly quickly. When it came to the surface I couldn’t quite make out what it was, perhaps a small common, I wasn’t sure.
I netted it, and kneeled down to remove the hook and couldn’t believe my eyes. It was a MASSIVE ROACH. By this time I was shaking like a schoolgirl at a Robbie Williams concert. I just kept saying “ no it can’t be, must be a hybrid, or chub. So disbelieving was I that I charged round to a couple of fellow anglers and said “what do you think this is mate, I think it’s a roach.” They both checked it out were equally impressed and confirmed it was a roach. Later, to further ease my mind, I checked with the owner he also confirmed there were no hybrids or chub in this pool. I weighed it at 2lb 9oz. But you’ll have to take my word for it, my camera batteries were out of charge.
So I had been blessed with my seasons target fish, and smashed my personal best for this species. I couldn’t help smiling at the irony as my PB had been right under my nose all the time. I also managed a lovely 12lb4oz mirror not long after, but the roach will stay with me for a long time. Although conditions were great , I’d fished good conditions before, so I’m sure it was the change of bait that made the difference, way to go OF. |
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