Diary of an average angler

Arrival time: 10.30
Weather: Chilly start but bright sun and very little wind all day.
Tackle: Greys 12' Prodigy VX Rova Specimen, Shimano 5000 RE baitrunner, cage feeder, 8lb main line with 5lb flourocarbon hook length to 10 eyed hook.
Baits: Maggots, bread & corn with hemp-based groundbait & hemp feed.
Fish: A small rudd and a reasonable perch.

A return to the 20ft drain to try a different approach, having been advised to try a feeder and groundbait. I hadn't bought proprietary groundbait for years and chose a hemp-based mixture with worm meal. I also mixed in some sweetcorn and hempseed. In high anticipation I cast in and sat back to watch my low-tech cork bobbin. And not much happened!

Conditions were similar to those on my first visit the previous week. It was a much colder start but there was hardly any wind and bright sunshine. With clear water such bright conditions were obviously not ideal. Once again it was an idyllic setting, very peaceful with dragonflies flitting around all through the session.

I started with maggots and after a short while hooked a small rudd that had taken the bait well down. With a 10 hook this wasn't good news and although I managed to remove the hook, there was some blood so I decided to change to bread flake. I treated the bread with an attractant, more by way of an experiment than anything else. And I was soon to get a good bite that lifted the bobbin positively and even flexed the rod tip. But I didn't connect. On reflection I think it could have been a tench, as I didn't get anything anywhere near as positive after this. I'll never know but it was a disappointment.

I stuck with bread for a while but didn't get another bite. Thinking back, I realised that I didn't apply the attractant on my subsequent casts with bread. Perhaps I'm just a bit dubious about the effectiveness of such things but the fact is that I didn't do it, and I will now always wonder whether applying the attractant would have made any difference.

In the end I reverted to maggots, having first tried a boillie for a while with no success. I really don't do boillies but I had some in the garage that I had been given a couple of years previously, so I gave one a try.

Back on maggots I eventually got a bite that I could hit and it turned out to be a reasonable perch. Certainly good enough to break what otherwise could be regarded as a blank - one small rudd hardly counts!

I had now been putting groundbait in for about three hours by way of the cage feeder so I decided to change to a simple bomb leger, as I thought more than enough feed had gone in. I stuck with maggots hoping to get another perch or two. But it wasn't to be. In fact things went completely dead.

In the end I sort of regretted not using a waggler, especially when the bailiff arrived and told me he had taken a lot of fish from the swim I was fishing 'on the waggler'! I much prefer the float and while I don't doubt that the feeder is a good method for these drains, it's not a technique that I favour.

So, another challenging visit to the 20ft drain. But I won't give up. However, I think for my next trip I'll go somewhere a bit less challenging.