18/06/09 - Winterbourne Duck Pond

Weight – 33lb 9oz
Catch – 54 Bream, 2 Hybrid, 1 Roach.
Weather – Cool, cloudy & windy.
Water Temp– 18.5c > 18.5c

Absolutely fed up with work. Nearly 2 weeks ago, it was announced my department would be sold to a 3rd party, which means more uncertainty. Normally, change doesn’t bother me, since I have been through this process on a number of occasions, however this time around, if the rumours are true, about how is buying us, it could mean the end of time at my employer. Ideally, a healthy redundancy package would be welcome.

Since I found myself getting more & more wound up, I decided to take a day off and settled on a visit to the duck pond, simply because it was local and cheap.

When I arrived there were a few carp slurping in the scum that had blown into the road wall, so I was hopeful of catching a few. I started on the pole at 10m along the wall, feeding micros & 4mm pellet. I also started feeding 4mm towards the island ready for the waggler, as well feeding pellet into the corner – right in the middle of scum.

I had my 1st fish on the 10m line after 15 minutes, but it was slow. A switch to the waggler was also slow, but eventually a few skimmers turned up on double red maggot and later 6mm expander. After nearly 2 hours I had 25 skimmers, with nothing bigger than 1lb, but the waggler swim was fading.

The 10m didn’t produce much and I eventually gave up on it. However the corner swim was a surprise. The hoped carp didn’t turn up, but I started catching some bigger skimmers, plus a 1lb plus roach, all on pellet.

As the session progressed I simply rotated between the waggler and the corner swim, catching mostly on the pellet. This despite the attention of some of over enthusiastic on lookers. Although I had to smile to myself, when 1 bloke turned with his son in his push chair, proudly saying he fished my swim yesterday, fishing the same way I was (I was in the corner when he arrived) and he had 12 skimmers in 4 hours. He then asked how I was doing, "35 skimmers in 3 hours" was my reply. He then hung around for 1 hour asking all sorts of questions about fishing. Just as well I wasn’t expecting any peace & quite.