I was sure Jubilee opens at 7am so, on the dot, I pulled up by the gate to realise it's 6am. First mistake. Still, I could only see 3 or 4 cars parked so I shouldn't have too much difficulty in swim choice. Island or Horseshoe? I'd spent a lot of my time at Jubilee fishing on Horseshoe and always fancied a peg on Island which was either taken, or more recently, dangerous-looking. I have to applaud the working parties over the closure weeks, they have repaired or replaced a number of platforms as well as tidying up (not shock-and-aweing) the bankside in general. The peg I wanted was the one in the corner between the 2 lakes. It has the point to its left as you sit. I'd noticed fish cruising very close in on previous trips. Also I was facing the island if I fancied its margins.
The point swim was occupied by a couple of chaps in their early 20s (?) who were obviously trying to outdo each other in the "who speaks loudest" competition. Also they were getting rid of an over-optimistic amount of spod mix - very acurately I must admit - to the island margin. However, they weren't too happy with where their leads were landing as they continued casting and re-casting. Added to this they managed to thrash the water under their feet with god-knows-what. (I didn't see them land anything while I was there. Mmnnn, wonder why?) To finish this Victor Meldrew rant, the cherry on the cake came later in the afternoon when a 4oz (poetic license) lead landed just next to the willow on my left. I politely asked if they weren't satisfied with their half of the lake and did they feel that a cast into my bit of the swim would increase their chances of a fish. Or words to that effect. At least the one who cast it/was bored/was showing off his skills apologised and went back to doing his Danny Fairbrass impersonations.
I'd tied up some sexy-looking chod rigs so was looking forward to trying them out. I re-read the "manuals" and carefully lassoed on pineapple pop ups. I had a few short sharp dinks on the buzzers and thought "must be working". Reeled in after 30 minutes just to check. No boiles! Re-attatched new pop ups making sure that the floss was really tight and cast back. Same thing happened again! After the third attempt I decided that these chod rigs aren't all they're cracked up to be. Nothing to do with my cack-handed attemts to attach pop ups.
So both rods had normal bottom baits now, one with a piece of sinking maize tipped with floating corn, nicely balanced - and the other with a Source boilie again tipped with corn. Each had a PVA stick of a mixture of crushed halibut pellet and source boile. The boile rod had absolutely no interest but the yellow-peril combination attracted the resident bream population. I finished with 8 up to about 5lbs all of which were unhooked in the net so I came home relatively stink-free.
A very pleasant day out in the sunshine. I shared my food with the duck families and was rewarded with a lovely couple of sandy-coloured ducklings playing around my rod tips, ducking (sorry) under them seeing who could knock them without the Delkims sounding off. Eventually when the larger of the two managed to disturb the buzzers it went back past the tip pecking at it as if to say "stop it".
So I left "Danny" and his mate to that end of the lake and drove home.
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