River Great Ouse - Offord (58)
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Arrival time: 10:30. (Chatted in the car park for a while)
Weather: Cloudy start but becoming quite warm later.
Tackle: 14ft Shimano match rod, Shimano Exage 1000RC reel, stick float, 4.4lb line, 3.8lb Supplex hook length to a 12 eyed hook.
Baits: Maggots, sweetcorn, hemp, worms
Fish: Two very small chub and a small perch
Back to Offord after a disappointing session the previous week. This time I decided to try for silvers and started in a swim in the Car Park Pool just below a small weir. I had caught roach there before so thought it might be a good bet. But I struggled to get bites. A couple of quick dips on the float were missed and I only finally caught a very small chub when the float deviated slightly sidewards. After a while I decided to move up to the Top Stream to try for perch. It was only a short move and I settled into a spot where I had had success with perch in the past. It wasn't to be my only move!
I immediately got a couple of tentative bites on the Top Stream, which was encouraging, and my first fish was another small chub, almost identical to the one I had caught earlier. But no immediate signs of perch. I tried changing the set up by raising the bottom shot to allow the bait to move around more freely near the bottom. This didn't improve matters. So I next anchored the float in slacker water near some margin reeds, hoping that a more static bait might do the trick. I had been using maggots up until then but a change to worm didn't yield anything either. It was time for another move!
First swim - Car Park Pool
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First of the small chub
Second swim - Top Stream
Third swim - Car Park Pool
The small one and only perch
I moved down to the Car Park Pool again but this time on the car park side. I had caught bream there in the winter but had never fished it for silvers. I set up fishing about 20 feet out in what was again deep water.
Fishing maggots I still didn't get a bite and had become almost resigned to not getting any more fish when the float disappeared and a small perch was on the line.
I changed to worm hoping for more but it didn't happen and that one perch turned out to be all I was going to get.
Thus ended another very disappointing session.