Mild morning brings the fish out to feed

I have been out this morning fishing a dyke in Horning as I have been on and off for the last two and a half months. During the week the temperatures here were around the 4 or 5 degree (centigrade) mark, but today it is a balmy 12 degrees. The sun was out and there was only a light wind.

I have been out fishing today (between about 10.30 and midday) using very light float tackle. I have a cheap (£15) pole rod that I use for the purpose. This is a Middy Battlezone 4 metre Carp Margin Whip that was already elasticated and came with a pole rig. It is easy to get set up and is ideal for fishing around the boats that are moored here. For the last few days, whilst it has been so cold, the fish have not been feeding well and I have only been able to catch a few small roach and perch close in under the boats. Today things improved with the warmer weather.

I have been using maggots on size 14 hook and today I made a bit more of a concerted effort to feed the fish with the hook bait, just a few every time I caught a fish or had to change the bait. I started off catching a few small roach and then I began to hook a few perch including this nice specimen:

The disgorger photographed is 12.5cm long and so this fish is about 22cm in length (or about 8.5 inches). There was probably a small shoal in my swim as I had about three reasonably sized fish but this was the largest. A bit later I caught the largest roach I have had since I have been down here on these waters:

Unfortunately, this fish wasn't in such good condition. As you can see it has an injury of some sort on its tail and is also spotted with some sort of black parasite (if that is what it is). This fish is about 23cm in length (or about 9 inches). If you look at the length to weight chart for a roach at the Idler's Quest, such a fish will weigh between 9 and 10 ounces. So not bad. The perch probably weighs a bit more, perhaps around 11 ounces.

All pictures and text copyright Duncan Hale-Sutton 2016.