Going down the drain - Sunday 2 January

  

Well with all of the ice melted around Peterborough I thought I would have a quick look along the Glassmore Bank section of Bevills Leam. This is a venue I used to fish a lot a few years back but as with many of my local venues have neglected for far too long. This is due mainly to me spending most of my summers on the Middle Level main drain and 10 Mile Bank and my winters split between the river Nene above Peterborough and the Grand Union Canal.


The forecast for the day was for sunny intervals and a light NW wind with a high of 3 degrees, so obviously it would be quite cold but pleasant all the same. After driving the whole length of Glassmore bank I elected to fish just the other side of Ponders Bridge on the opposite bank just in case the wind did pick up as I didn't fancy a cold wind in my face.
I decided to sit on the second peg above the bridge to give myself a fighting chance of a bite as I wasn't overly confident at this point but just as I got my box level a small fish topped to my right so that was a good sign. I decided that Bread would be a good starting point as although the drain had a tinge of colour I could see a few feet into the water, I plumbed around and found around 5' 6" of water from 8 metres out and set up 2 rigs. The first was a Drennan Pinkie 0.75g with an Olivette and 2 droppers and the second Drennan Roach pattern 0.5g for on the drop, both rigs finished off with a size 20 Mustard Wide Gape Match hook.

I started proceedings with a small ball of VDE punch crumb containing a few grains of Hemp and watched it form a cloud as it went down out of sight. I thought I would give it a few minutes before I started fishing and decided to measure the water temperature and have a quick coffee to give the fish time to find the feed. I was a little uneasy with the very low water temperature but dropped the rig in knowing that there were fish in the area, 15 minutes later and not a sign of fish I started to think about a plan B. I lifted the rig out to confirm that the punch was still on the hook and dropped it back over the feed and 5 minutes later the float just slipped away.

Panic over and a 1 oz Roach was the prize, this was followed by a steady run of similar sized fish over the next hour and then out of the blue a 4 oz Roach put in an appearance which was very encouraging as I had been loose-feeding a little hemp every 5 minutes. I carried on with the punch for a while longer before having a go on the seed and continued to catch small fish up to a couple of ounces. On 2 hours I tried Hemp on the hook and waited 10 minutes before getting a bite which I promptly missed, I gave it another 10 bite less minutes before going back on the punch. At this point another 4 anglers arrived and sat a little to my right and after slow starts they also steadily caught small fish on both punch and a couple of them fished Pinkie although this was less successful.

Anyway after 4 hours I decided to pack up having caught about 80 small Roach for about 3 1/2 lb and although the fish had been on the small side and the catch rate only steady I had really enjoyed my few hours on a wonderful venue only a few miles from my home. The venue is fishable on a £3 day ticket or a Whittlesey AA season Ticket.

This is a read out of the water temperature in the margin, its a shame I only have 1.5 metres of wire on the sensor as I would love to know what the temperature was near the bottom at 8 metres. Perhaps I will make one with 10 metres of wire in the future who knows?