Return to the Pool

Sunday 28th September 2014

What a busy couple of years, with two house moves, one job change, broken bones, and now a another little one on the way.  Finally made it back to the pool after some perch.

Had a quick session on the Warks. Avon a couple weeks ago, catching a handful of small perch roving with worms.  Still want to try a fish bait approach but the longer drive puts me off, maybe when I've gotten the pool out of my system.

Anyway, so the weather was warm, very warm for late September, and bright when I arrived around lunchtime.  There was one other angler fishing for carp behind the island.  I fished peg 11 - the deepest area and proceeded to try to catch some bait.  This was harder than the previous seasons attempts and I got the impression that the bait fish weren't yet shoaled up given the conditions.

After a while I had enough bait and proceeded to leger a deadbait close in to the left, and livebait close in next to the lilies to the right.

Suffice to say that the day passed without event.  The other angler left before long having caught a few carp.  Occasionally the livebait would go bananas but nothing materialised until later on.  Occasionally the deadbait rod would indicate a knock or pull, but it's unclear whether these were liners or perch investigations.  Either way I will persevere with the deadbait until I am convinced either way.  I do want to try the deadbait on a rig with less resistance, a float setup seems ideal in the circumstances.

Every now and then a bird that I would describe as looking like a cross between a pheasant and a turkey would come and sit near me and.. just.. watch me.  Then it would disappear into the undergrowth for a while and come back.  Weird!

As dusk fell those annoying carp started milling around, definitely causing some liners.  In the gloom my confidence grew so it was with reluctance that I wound in the deadbait rod ready to pack away.  After tidying some stuff and making everything ready, the livebait alarm sounded and the bobbin rose, the strike met resistance and a short but nerve-jangling scrap in the near-darkness resulted in a lovely long but skinny perch of 1lb 12oz exactly.

1lb 12oz Perch at dusk

That perch definitely allayed some fears about the pool and it's perch - I was worried something had changed since I last fished the place.

Some observations:

• A kingfisher was working the bank by the island.  Are there fry/small fish in the warmer shallower water?
• The bait fish are definitely not shoaled up and are spread out
• On warm bright days even lunchtime is too early, in these conditions, aim to arrive with enough time to catch bait and cast out ready for evening and dusk
• Try float fishing the deadbait, there will be more liners but also more chance of contacting any perch if it's resistance that's the problem
• The quiver section of my rods seemed to help, no 1:1 bite landed ratio so far