The River Welland
I must admit that my first outing of the season was a complete let down, having elected to start on the river Welland. I looked at various points along the river and eventually found a tinge of colour at Four Mile Bar footbridge. This tinge of colour then continued all the way to Spalding which gave me a few miles of river to go at and I decided to sit just around the bend upstream of the bypass bridge (not sure of the peg number). Starting off on the feeder I had ten quick casts to get some bait out and then settled down to recasting every 5 minutes or so until the fish found the dinner table.
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| The river Welland |
I kind of expected to give it about an hour before I got a bite and so I was surprised when the tip jerked around on 35 mins and although I missed the bite I was encouraged by this early sign. I eagerly re-baited and and re cast but after another hour or so I had only had one other bite. I had seen a few small fish topping closer in and so I decided to have a look on the pole and after plumbing up found 7ft of water at 11 metres. I set about trying to break my duck and introduced 4 balls of groundbait and put a Red maggot on the hook, after 25 minutes of waiting the float slid away and 4ft of No5 elastic came out of the end of the pole.
Oh yes the season had now started for me and I was rewarded with a 6oz Perch, now at this point I have to admit to being somewhat disappointed as I really wanted a Roach or a Skimmer but hey what the hell 2 hours and I had my first fish of the season.
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| The first fish of my season |
Middle Level
I had wanted to have a go on the river Nene but had received reports from a friend that the river looked awful being Gin clear and being full of weed. Ok plan B it was then, the middle Level main drain is a venue that I do fish a lot through the summer as it full of Skimmers and Roach and doesn't really suffer from weeding up but I don't normally visit it until about mid July.
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| The Middle Level Main Drain @ Pingle Bridge |
Anyway it was decided to travel out there and have a late afternoon session, when me and my fishing companion Graham arrived at Pingle Bridge there where a couple of anglers there and one of them was just packing up. After getting some info out of him we watched him return the best part of 20lb of Skimmers caught on the feeder and double Pinkie and at this point we both felt confident that we could emulate his catch. I sat in the peg downstream of him and Graham went 2 below me, Graham chose to fish the feeder and I fished the pole. I had 13ft of water at 9 metres and started with double pinkie on the hook over 6 balls of groundbait and I saw my first bite after 15 minutes which resulted in a 5oz Skimmer and I followed this with a small perch a Roach and a couple more skimmers in the next ten minutes before the bites dried up. I introduced another ball of groundbait and followed this with a couple of quick fish and then nothing, this was a pattern that continued for the rest of the session. I did try fishing up in the water as there are normally plenty of Roach and Rudd sitting around mid depth but again I would get an odd fish and then nothing. Graham had struggled on the feeder and only managed a couple of Skimmers for his efforts which was a little strange after what we had seen caught earlier on the same method. It was getting near to packing up time and I hooked a 4oz Roach and as I was shipping the pole back a Pike snaffled the the bloody thing and destroyed my rig in the process.
So had this Pike been upsetting the fish in my peg for the last 3 hours? that I don't know but its a distinct possibility it had played a part in the patchy sport.
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| One of many comfortable pegs on the drain |
Well I ended up with about 4lb of fish for my troubles which by the standards of the Middle Level is not very good but after the River Welland I was happy to have had a few fish to get my season well and truly under way
Fact File:
This section of the drain from Pingle Bridge through to the pumping station at St Germans is controlled by the Kings Lynn Angling Association, day tickets are available on the bank.
Most of the fishing is within a few pegs of the bridges with most having purpose made platforms although you can walk much further should you wish but expect to have to cut/dig in.
This is a deep venue and you will be hard pressed to find less than 11ft of water at 7 metres and depths to 18 feet further out.
Species include Roach, Skimmers, Bream, Tench and Perch with Zander and Pike for the predator angler.
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