Well it has been a struggle to find the time to fish so far this season but I have been out a couple of times just lately to the river Welland. On Monday I decided I would have an early start and get a few hours on the Deeping section near where the cut comes into the river, I arrived just as it was getting light and the river was alive with small fish topping everywhere.
I set up my medium feeder rod with a paternoster rig and a small open ended feeder and after having a few casts I found that the bottom was quite clear about 2/3 of the way across the river so I clipped up at this range. I baited up with 3 dead maggots on a size 16 hook and and loaded the feeder before making my first cast towards a marker on the far bank.
The rig had only just hit bottom before the tip started to move and I struck into what turned out to be a hand sized skimmer and the following hour followed a similar pattern with lots of missed bites and odd similar sized fish before it went quite.
I wondered if it was because some Bream had moved in but this wasn't the case and I soon found out as I struck into a bite and the fish ran off at speed, hmm Tench!
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| A pair of River Welland Tench |
After a few minutes I had a Beautiful Tench of about 3lb in the net and with no time to waste I re baited and cast out again to see if there were any more about. I waited about 15 minutes before the tip hooped around again and I was into another one of a similar size.
For the next hour I only managed a few more small skimmers before the sun came out and I decided to pack up and go home foe some breakfast.
Tuesday 21st:
The following morning I arrived at a similar time and sat in the peg below the one I fished yesterday and assemble the feeder rod as the previous day. A few quick casts and I found that the swim was a little weedier than yesterdays one but found a fishable area just past the middle.
Today started off a lot slower than the previous and it was a good half an hour before my first bite and nearly an hour before my first fish. After an hour and a half and only 3 small skimmers so I set up a waggler with a view to fishing about 12m out into about 4ft of water and I caught a few skimmers on the drop, in this time I had noticed a couple of Tench roll at about 10 m.
I decided to drop the feeder short and see if I could tempt one, I changed to a size 14 hook and loaded it with a couple of worms before flicking it out under arm and sitting back.
It was only a few minutes before the tip moved and then dropped back, I struck and at this time all hell broke loose as the fish screamed off down the river quite some distance before I stopped it and started to regain line. The fish made a couple more bids for freedom before I managed to get the net under it, now at this point I knew it was a decent fish as I struggled with the landing net. I must admit to being a little surprised when I saw how big it was after initially thinking it was about 5lb but it was bigger than this and went a full 6 1/2lb.
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| Perch 1 1/2lb and Tench 6 1/2lb |
Next cast produce a Perch of 1 1/2lb and this was followed by another big tench which came off the hook so I decided to call it a day.
I finished off with 10lb and thoughts of a more targeted approach for the tench of the River Welland.
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