A Pool in Worcestershire

Went out today to a relatively small pool I'd had my eye on having heard of good sized perch. Arriving to find a fellow already fishing my chosen swim (!) I had a chat with him. A local chap who fished there regularly. When quizzed about the "big" perch he smiled and told me I'd just be plagued with 4" tiddlers. Apparently there had been some biggies but none had come to the bank in recent years. So much for out of date info! Still, not deterred I set up a waggler fishing just off the ledge about 15' out with maggots - my plan was to start attracting some small silvers and then fish lobs or prawns to sort out the grandaddies or grandmas. As an afterthought, no not really an afterthought,  because a chat with another angler earlier had told me of the nice bream - up to 9 1/2lbs and upper double carp - I put out a carp rod baited with The Source 15mm boilies.

The pool is quite small so I was able to scatter freebie boiles by hand just by walking around the bank where I'd cast.  The less said about the waggler for perch the better. The other angler was right. Fish after fish after fish came to my maggot approach but they were ALL 3 - 4" perch. So eventually I swapped the float rod for another carp rod.

I'm sure you all know that the temperature today was hovering around zero and for much of the time we had bright sunshine in this part of Worcester. So not particularly conducive to hauling.

Still, around midday I had a strong take and after a very dogged fight a 10 1/2lb common came to the bank. A very pretty fish, quite silvery rather than gold - apparently due to the light-coloured clay bottom.

I was pleased that something had found my boilies interesting.  Then around 2ish the hanger on the same rod shot up to the alarm and I was into another fish which, like the first, kept low in the water. A determined sort of fight rather than spectacular had me sliding the net under what looked to be a better stamp of common. The guy who had "stolen" my swim came around and when I netted the fish remarked that it had to go 20. He kindly weighed it and I was only slightly disappointed to see the scales register at 19lbs 6oz.

A new PB common. Well chuffed. The photo doesn't show its shoulders - well chunky. Also, when I got it on the mat I thought it had a bum problem, there was what I thought was blood coming out of  it but on closer (!) inspection I saw it was the remnants of all the Source boiles!!

Packed up around 4ish as the temperature had again fallen to just below zero. Thank god for my new second skins bought with my daughter's gift voucher for Baileys of Warwick.