Its May but not as we know it!

The British weather eh, dont you just love it? Weve recently had what seems like weeks of  non stop heavy rain and although now it appears to have eased off a bit, the air temps have dropped to the extent where we actually had a light frost this morning here in darkest Leicestershire. The air temps are more akin to March than May and as you would expect the fishing has suffered considerably as a result. Looking back over previous blog entries and old diaries for this time of year i should be out there in shorts and a tshirt by now bagging up on Tench, not huddled up under a brolly in my winter woolies!

So what of my recent Fishing exploits? well, the rain hit my fly fishing aspirations pretty hard and as a result ive not really been much. I did get out for a couple of hours the other day but other than a couple of follows it proved to be pretty fruitless excursion. Instead ive been trawling the net for bits and bobs to tie some flies with. Ive now built up something of a passable fly tying kit and have been practicing my tying skills hard whilst watching the drizzle outside roll down the windows. Im a bit limited on colours at the moment but im confident the flies should catch me something at least.

I promised my lad Lewis that id take him out to catch a fish as soon as the weather lifted and the chance eventually came on Saturday morning. After a quick trip to the tackle shop to aquire some bait we headed to a tiny club pond where i knew wed get a few bites. The wind was surprisingly cold and all the other anglers on the lake had setup with their backs to it which meant we had to sit facing it. We made our way to a likely looking swim and Lewis's teeth were chattering already, this wasnt going to be a very long trip!

I expected bites from the off but it was nearly twenty minutes before the bait was picked up by a tiny Perch. A couple of missed bites over the next half hour had me thinking about packing up as it was becoming a real grueller. Normally the lake is a bite a chuck and you never know whats going to pick up next but today, even the other chaps were struggling with just one gudgeon to report between them!

The trip was rescued in the end though as suddenly the rod was nearly pulled off the rest and after a frantic scrap, Lewis, with dads assistance, finally landed a small mirror Carp of around 4lb. Job done we scurried off to the warmth of home as quickly as we could! 



On Sunday i decided to head to the Tench water seeing as i have managed to renew my ticket. I awoke to another light frost and when i got lakeside the wind was still just as bitter as the previous day. I set up, spombed out some maggots and then positioned my baits on top. Sport was proving to be extraordinarily slow and nothing was forthcoming for the first three hours whatsoever. I was kept well entertained however by the celebrity Blackbird which has featured in other peoples blogs recently, he robbed me blind at every opportunity!



Eventually i recieved a drop back on the maggot feeder rod and a fish was hooked. A brief tussle ensued and soon enough a small male Tench was netted, unbelievably the first of its kind ive landed this year, i cant believe its taken me till May to get one!  I thought this fish might signal a change in my fortunes but it was another couple of hours before i recieved any more action. My next bite resulted in very unusual capture for the water, at first i thought id hooked a baby Tench which would in itself have been unusual but i was even more surprised to see a spiky dorsal fin break the surface as a nice Perch slipped into the net.

Other than Tench, Bream, Carp and Pike there are hardly any other species present in the water, certainly not in any numbers and that Perch is the first ive heard of being caught there in all the time ive fished it. I stayed on for a few more biteless hours before finally admitting defeat and  heading back to the car.



With the Monday being a bank holiday and being a glutton for punishment  i was back down at the Tench lake for first light. The wind had swung around to the opposite direction of what it was on Sunday so i opted to fish the same swim only this time the wind would be off my back. Cloud and rain was due to roll in as the day progressed but first thing in the morning i was greeted by bright sunshine and a frozen windscreen.

Within minutes of setting up i was into a Tench and although small at around 4lb it provided a promising start and an hour later the other rod was away and an identical fish . That was all the action i was to get for a while and other than the odd gentle liner my bobbins remained motionless. Mid morning arrived and so did the cloud and wind, as it did i recieved a searing take on my left hander and managed to land a slightly bigger female Tench which took the scales around to 5.6.

After that i still had internittent liners but no more bites until i decided to pack up some time around 3ish. As i was doing so i recieved a drop back and hit into what felt like a small Bream. I was less than impressed however when a particularly scrawny looking tufted duck broke the surface and flapped its way angrily towards me, fortunately it was hooked cleanly in the beak and was soon drop kicked er.....released unharmed back in the water. There endeth my session and the rest of my weekends fishing, im getting the Tench bug back now big time and im hoping to get back down for a couple of evenings this week all being well.