Yesterday I went back to the swims that Chris Clark had shown me at Royal Berkshire Fisheries but this time I left my pole fishing kit at home. I wanted to catch some more big roach but this time on a rod and centrepin combination as the big roach seem to inhabit the margins on this fishery and this makes it suitable for the centrepin approach that I so love.
I set up the Harrison 15ft GTI match rod with a lightweight Youngs centrepin loaded with two and a half pound Maxima, the float was a Drennan stillwater blue carrying 3BB and a size twenty hook to a two pound hook length completed the set up. I intended to fish single maggot or caster so I began by feeding hemp, maggot and caster a little at a time as I set up and for a half an hour whilst I had a cup of tea and a smoke.
I was fishing about five feet deep two rod lengths out very close to an over hanging bush and I had set the float to fish with about six inches of line on the bottom. The casters had been frozen so very few were suitable for hook bait (the freezing seems to make most of them burst) but they were fine for loose feed and I was catching straight away with maggot or caster on the hook. The small fish showed first but clouds of mud in the shallow water warned me that the weather was mild enough for the carp to feed and sure enough I hooked something that took me straight into the roots, my tackle being too fine to stop it.
I set up my Harrison Interceptor stepped up float rod with a youngs purist centrepin loaded with six pound Maxima and started to feed a little sweetcorn with my loose feed. The result was this common carp which put up an excellent fight in such a confined swim. It took double sweetcorn on a lift rig, a method I use a lot for tench but it works on carp as well.
I switched back to the lighter rig with double bronze maggot and soon started to catch the better roach, the best of which weighed a pound and three quarters.
Just before dusk as I was thinking about packing up I caught a perch that weighed exactly two pounds, good fun on light tackle. I am beginning to like this fishery and hope to be able to include it in my coaching portfolio.
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