Red Letter Weekend at Smeatons!

Well, its been a while since my last entry on here so i suppose i had better try and make this one worth reading.

Smeatons Weekend.


Saturday-Intro.

It was Midday by the time i finished work on saturday, it was cloudy, it was raining, and it was downright miserable to be honest... Got home and was told by the parents that we wouldnt be going till about 3 o clock as we had to pick up the new car, so of we went to the bait shop.

Ended up spending 25 quid, on line, bait and groundbait.

My plan of attack for this weekend was to fish the Waggler on both days in the hope of catching some Roach, Bream and Tench. I had with me, a pint of casters, numerous pellets in various sizes, a bag of aniseed atomic cloud and some Sensas magic Groundbait, also had some VDE Gold Pro and supercup left over from a few weeks back, combined with a few tins of corn and Hemp i was ready to go.


THE FISHING.


It was 4.30pm by the time i got fishing, i got set up on the feeder on Reed Pond, the deepest of the 3 lakes and the most open to the elements. It was blowing a gale, i found myself chucking out the feeder and having to wind back nearly in front of me just to get my line from bowing. In the end, it was impossible, i packed up and went for a curry at about 6pm.

after my Curry, i looked out the Caravan windown and could see a small bay in the corner, Reed lined and flat calm, with my waggler rod set up, 4lb line a size 18 hook, a pint of maggots and a bucket of groundbait i set off round the corner. Have to say, this was one of the nicest short sessions i have had in a while, it was about half an hour gone when i had my first bite, i found i was having to feed a golf ball of groundbait every put in just to keep the Very small skimmers on the Deck. ended up catching about 15 skimmers to 6oz in about 2 hours. Very enjoyable.

Sunday- Burrows Pond. Roach Galore.

On sunday i awoke at 8 am with not much intention of going fishing, the weather was glorious outside but i just couldnt bring myself to set up.

A dog walk later and a look at Burrows pond made me change my mind, fish were topping all over the place, it was flat calm and i had the perfect peg lined up, a peg with 2 sunken trees either side and a lovely piece of open water straight out ahead.

This weekends main aim was to fish simple and to enjoy it, i had bought with me my 12 foot Ron Thompson match rod, it had to be 10 years old, but its still going strong. My setup was not much different from the night before, i had 4lb Ultima Power steel line ( which i have to say i was incredibly dissapointed with), to a size 16 hook and a 1.5g+2bb Waggler.

I plumbed up straight in front of me and found a ledge which dropped to about 8 foot, i fished about and inch overdepth and started with 2 balls of groundbait laced with caster and 3mm Betaine Micro's. It wasnt long until my first bite came along and i landed a lovely 5oz Roach. I continued this way for the best part of an hour and a half, feeding casters little and often. I had a little trick up my sleeve though, for the last hour i had been feeding 6mm pellets next to the tree on my right hoping to draw in a few bream and maybe some Tench, the depth was much the same so i slinged out my double casters and ended up catching plenty of bigger roach up to 1lb. it was then i realised that the Roach werent having the Caster, they were bloody Pellet Heads.

For the next 6 hours i fed 6mm pellets straight in front of me, about 5 every cast with a banded 6mm fishmeal pellet on the hook, the bites were finicky but easy to hit and i ended the day with about 15lb of Roach averaging about 6oz. the bream did not show up but i have to say this has been one of my most enjoyable sessions ever on simple rigs, old rods and a lovely venue.