Day 4 : River Ijssel - Railway Bridge

Sat 4th April

Nicer weather today

We fished the same 2 pegs as our previous trip. Hopefully I could hit more bites today.

I fished at 7 x 3M wraps today (21M) whereas I had fished at 27M three days earlier. I got bites straight away and, yet again, I missed a few. I now decided to hit every movement of the tip, however slight, whereas I had previously waited for a definite pull. To facilitate this I lifted the butt of my rod onto a raised rod rest (behind me and inline with my elbow) so that I could rest my forearm on the rod and be ready like a coiled spring (I previously had my rod butt on my knee).This upped my hit rate noticeably.

I was able to use a 60g legged feeder and it just held. I stuck to 2 minute casts loaded with the usual hemp, caster, mashed corn and chopped worm. The bites came in bursts with long periods between them. 

Today we both decided to introduce 5 to 10 large bait-up feeders to attempt to lay a bed of particle (if that is even possible in that flow). It did seem to do the trick and the bites resumed for a while then dropped off again. We repeated this later in the day when we had a particularly lean spell and the bites resumed again.

Garry was having similar lean spells but was catching a better stamp of fish than I. I did weigh one of my Roach as it felt like my biggest so far. It went 1lb 2oz so equalled my PB. Bertie showed me they can go much bigger at Mad German the other day - I really want one of those.

At one point I needed to hop off my box to get more groundbait from the car. I had a thought "I wonder what will happen if I throw in without bait in the feeder" so I put on a piece of corn and it was hit as soon as it hit bottom. This continued for 5 or so quick fish before the bites slowed - all good bites and all hit. I did not want to go too long without introducing more bait but it had been interesting. I wonder if the loaded feeder provided too many distractions and a single bait had them competing more. I would try this again later.

Garry in deep concentration

The winds were lighter today and we had some warm sun

The fish kept coming in bursts and yet again Roach dominated the session. I had nothing but Roach. Garry had 3 Ide amongst his Roach. No skimmers or Bream.

I did try the baitless feeder again and it worked again. I also tried a 2oz flat lead (same weight as the legged feeder). It did not hold bottom and was through the peg in no time. So I swapped to a 3oz flat lead and it held about the same as the 2oz legged feeder. So, it shows that those legs really do allow a lighter feeder than would otherwise be the case.

The weigh-in

There was a pattern emerging where Garry got off to a slow start most days but then had a good afternoon and seemed to be catching bigger fish. He ended up with 2 PBs, a Roach of 1lb 10oz and an Ide of 3lb. He had a total weight of 36lb 9oz.

Garry's nice net of fish

I ended up with 60 Roach for 27lb 11oz including that PB equalling 1lb 2oz Roach.

It was a lovely days fishing with much more pleasant weather. I just wish we could have kept the bites coming all day.

Current tally is Gary 2 wins, me 1 win.

Tomorrow

Apparently the UK had been slammed by a storm today whilst we had the nice weather. Unfortunately it was heading our way overnight so tomorrow will be a challenge.