Whilst on a weekend away.....

Friday evening and after a last minute decision to head to the in laws caravan in Lincolnshire for the week end, I was soon sneaking a few bits of kit in the back of the car between bags of clothes and beach towels.  First thing Saturday morning and I was up and about looking at a dyke !



With rudd topping all over the corner in front of me, I baited up with some crumbled bread and small pellets, then proceeded to drop a link lead over the top with a pinch of bread folded over and hooked through the fold in the way Jeff showed me on the Warks Avon a while ago. (Try it, it really works & no more agonising if it's still on !).

The first bite was missed but soon after the second pull was struck in time finding a hefty resistance that I wasn't really expecting. I was hooked to something that had the ratchet on the pin singing and my initial thought was small carp. The fish headed straight into the near margin reed line then tried to bury itself on the bottom some 8ft down sending up a fizzy cauldron of bubbles from the silty clay. I guessed it might be something else which was soon confirmed when a tench rose to the surface before sliding into the net. A nice short fight was had on light gear with a 4lb fish, the biggest landed on the new (ish) 9ft feeder rod so far. The rod easily subduing the lunges made by the fish admirably, giving me great confidence for the small stream chub fishing I purchased it for.

Sunday mornings session and I was out again to fish the other dyke to the left. A local angler I spoke to yesterday at dyke one told me that there were some good fish to be had in both waters, particularly the roach, bream and tench. Fishing armed with some corn and spam form the local shop now I was hoping to draw the bigger fish in. Unfortunately in dyke no two it was not to be. Despite seeing some nice fish roll I only managed a small skimmer / bream.  The water was gin clear and I suspect the fish were not too used to seeing much bait thrown in. However the ever faithful corn did the job on this occasion.

That was it for my total of 4 hours on these water, the promise is definitely there for some decent fish and I look forward to trying again next time we're in the area.