On Wednesday and Thursday this week I completed the summer holiday coaching package with PAYP Slough but before I could do that I had to take on a major servicing project with the fixed spool reels we have been using this summer. These four reels have had some rough handling from inexperienced fingers and the line which had already been renewed this summer was past its best.
I spent most of one evening this past weekend stripping, cleaning and lubricating the reels prior to replacing the line. In the past I have used a co-polymer type line from various manufacturers but have found that they all suffer from line twist due to the overzealous use of the slipping clutch by youngsters who cannot grasp the concept of not reeling in when the drag is paying out line.
As you can see from the above picture, I have decided to fall back on an old favourite -Maxima- in the hope that this robust line will deal with this problem better.
The two coaching sessions went quite well despite the one on Wednesday being blighted by very hot weather, the bright sunlight having an adverse effect on the fish. The Twynersh bream made a showing on both days to the delight of the youngsters.
I know these are not big fish as bream go, nor are bream hard fighters or even difficult to catch at this size but for a novice angler with little or no fish playing skills as yet they are the ideal quarry. Even a small bream looks like a big fish due to their body shape and they are unlikely to cause the novice angler any embarrassment by breaking the line or pulling out the hook with excessive struggles for freedom.
They do have one disadvantage as a target for the budding angler and that is their slimyness. I am sure that my name is mud in at least a couple of Slough households as after the triumphant photo session the pupil’s t-shirt is often coated in bream slime. In the warm weather we have been subjected to this would have stiffened nicely by the time the student got home and begun to smell. Sun baked bream slime has a piquancy all of its own.
Remind me to give parents’ day a miss!
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