Gary's day

After a bitterly cold week that left all the lakes in the area frozen it was the Backwater for us this Sunday - the second time in a week for some.  It was a good choice as the trees kept the worst of Storm Isha at bay.

Out of the bag came peg 12 for me, with the pegs in either side that does not leave you with a lot of river to play with but you do get a gap in boats across from you.  A pike swirling at fish as Rob on 13 was setting up made it clear there were going to be some pike problems today.

A start on bread punch gave me a sail away bite on the first drop in which I completely missed.  A few runs through later I had my first fish; a very small dace.  Around me everyone else was having a slow start with just the odd small fish coming out.  A swap to maggot did not improve the quality but at least I got a few chances at hitting the small and quick indications I was getting on the float from the small fish.  As expected Fred, Rob and Mark all had run ins with pike and there were so long spells without bites as they were hunting in my peg.  About 12 I hit into something that was not the tiny fish I had been catching - was it pike or perch?  After extracting it from a weedbed I thought the job was done but a roll near the surface let it shed the hook before it was in netting range.  The flash I saw of it was looking a lot more perch than pike and a good one at that.  

2 1/2 more hours of chasing bites saw about 70 fish in the net but they were mostly very small and did not even make 2lbs on the scales.  Over on peg 6 Phil took out the match with 3lbs 13oz of good perch and plenty of smaller back up fish.  A dozen or perch and small fish for Fred got him to 2lbs 5oz with Rob and I both with 1lbs 13oz of small stuff.

Pic today is Tony doing the rounds with the scales and Rob looking like he is about to take a dive into the River.