May / June 1991

No fishing last Sunday, and PC blew up so hence no blog!

May 1991 was memorable for me, it was when I met my wife for the first time, at a fishing club do!

From the fishing point of view I made one trip in May to Tiverton to fish on the canal, this was the nearest bit of coarse fishing available in the close season. I drew near Old Tivvy Bridge and I never had a bite! Not good when you've got up at 3:30 in the morning. However, I was not put off and the 9th of June saw me back on the canal again. I couldn't believe it when I drew the same area and blanked again, in the 25 pegs around me there was one 2oz fish caught. I didn't go there again for a very long time!

June 16th was a Sunday and so my first day on the river was a Bristol & West match, and I drew at Swineford one below the gas pipe. This was a chub peg so not the best place to be early in the season, but you make the best of it don't you? I started on a crowquill with bread and no feed and had 4 chub in 4 casts, and no more. After a few pups on the wag and mag the peg died and I weighed 8lb. Bream dominated the frame with 55lb from between the bridges, and 30lb at Jack Whites.

Tues 18th I fished the first of the Flowerpot evening series, I had a short walk as I drew peg 3 just below the outfall. I went all out for bream on the gbait feeder but only managed 1 plus a few other small fish for 7lb 3oz and no good. I wanted to get some practice in on the crowquill and bread so I went to Jack Whites on Thursday night. I fished for just 2 hours and it was solid, a hybrid or a small skimmer every cast and 3 bream in between. It was the best 2 hours I ever had on that method and I estimated I had 25lb. I only packed up cos it was ro dark to see the float.

Saturday saw me visiting Durleigh reservoir for the first time, I had little idea of how to fish it but had heard it was roach on the wag. I drew peg 33 and the wind (strong) was off my back so I could cast a 4AAA wag miles! I fed maggots and for the first couple of hours it was rock hard with some anglers blanking at this stage. I kept going and started to get the odd small skimmer, by increasing the amount of feed things improved and by sticking to double maggot on an 18 my catch rate improved all the time. By the end of the match I had a little audience as my bank had fished very bad, I weighed 14lb 3.5oz and the next weight was 6lb. On the opposite bank there were two better weights on the feeder, but I was really happy to come 3rd and win a weeks wages (those were the days!). The following day I was back on home territory, Jack Whites, and a peg in the middle of the length that didn't inspire me. We'd had a lot of rain overnight and the river was picking up pace and colour and that all added up to me fishing for bream! A medium Drennan gbait feeder with a 16 to 1.5lb maxima was the tackle, and 3 red maggots was the hook bait. After 3 hours I had 6 big skimmers and one eel, and after 5 hours I had exactly the same! The river really coloured up and it went stone dead, still my early catch went 15lb 5oz and that was 4th on the day.

As things go that was a good start to the season for me, and I hoped it would continue, but would it?