Thursday 24 March 2011

Time for the tip

The Pike rods are packed away and it was time to blow the cobwebs off the tip rod. This is what I love about fishing - just as one door closes another one opens.

A sunrise session on a misty lake was a fine start to a new campaign. It was time to see if I could catch a Tench or Bream awakening from it's winter slumber. I fished the Tip and I also ledgered one rod on a bite alarm.

There wasn't too much sign of life on the water, spare some inquisitive fry hanging around the margins.

The tip rod wasn't responding too well on the maggot feeder, in around two hours of fishing only one Roach made an appearance.

The ledger rod was better, three fish came in total. The first a Bream around 3lb's followed by one slightly bigger at perhaps 5lb's. Then came my first Tench of the year. I took the trouble to weigh this one, 4lb 2oz not a bad fish.

As this rod was producing I switched the tip rod over to the same bait. It lay motionless for around an hour when I got a whacking take. I hit into it and felt a good weight at the end, a hard fighting Tench led me a merry dance.

I'd forgotten just how well these little fella's can fight, pound for pound they'll give any fish a run for their money and at 5lb 6oz it was a decent sized fish, certainly worth unzipping the Reubens from their pouch. A good days fishing, and it was nice to be back on the tip, to me that means one thing... Summer is coming!


5lb BreamFirst tench of the year
Immaculate 5lb 6oz