Diary of an average angler

I've been alternating between Earith and Fields End since getting fishing again this spring, my other normal choice of venue, the Clay Pit, being closed for spawning. Today I was back at Earith and once again hoping for some tench. Things didn't start well when I discovered that I hadn't replaced the SD memory card in my head-cam, thus requiring me to improvise filming using my iPhone and a camcorder. When I eventually got set up my first hooked fish was almost certainly a largish carp that tore off into a large bed of lilies, leaving me attached to a lily stem. I got everything back but it wasn't a great start. I had switched from bread flake to spam which had it seems tempted the carp.

After the episode with the carp I reverted to bread. The bait was receiving attention every time I cast but getting positive bites was not so easy and it was a while before I hooked into my first fish, a bream. This was to set the pattern for the session, lots of 'bites' but far fewer fish hooked. In the end I landed eight bream, all of a similar size. They offered good sport, not being that big but sizeable enough to take a bit of playing before they could be netted.

From time to time I tried spam again and although the float registered some interest, for the most part I didn't get any positive bites that I could hook. This changed when I struck into what was obviously another large carp that set off to repeat what the one had done to me earlier. However, on this occasion the hook pulled after a few seconds so I was spared the indignity of extracting my gear from the lily-pads.

Unfortunately the tench didn't show, although I'm sure that some of the bubbling was a result of tench being in the swim. The run of bream was interrupted by a nice crucian of 2¼lbs that offered a more spirited fight. I always have a few doubts about hybridisation in crucians and although this one seemed to be the real thing, I wouldn't swear to it being a true pedigree.

The crucian was followed by another crucian-looking fish, of about the same size, but in this case it was clearly a hybrid. It did however provide a similar dogged fight.

The session involved a lot of juggling around with my iPhone and camcorder as after a while each was in danger of running out of battery. A short section of filming that focused on the float received good feedback on my YouTube channel so I must try to incorporate this more in the future. It only happened on this occasion because I had set up the camcorder right next to me, basically to improve audio capture, but it also allowed me easily to operate the zoom feature.

The next trip will probably be on a river although the Clay Pit is now open again so a trip there is a distinct possibility.