River Great Ouse - Offord (26)
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Arrival time: 10:00 (at swim)
Weather: Once again a bright start but it soon clouded over and the wind freshened with strong gusts.
Tackle: 9ft Shimano Aero X1 feeder rod with 1oz quiver, Shimano Exage 1000RC reel, 5lb line with circa 3lb hook length to a 14 hook. Started with a small bomb leger. Tried float and maggot feeder before reverting to bomb leger. Also tried a micro lure.
Baits: Maggots and worms.
Fish: A good bag of perch with two notable fish at 1lb 2oz and a PB of 1lb 14oz.
With the chub proving to be a bit challenging over the previous weeks I decided to try for perch at the Top Stream at Offord Cluny. I had caught perch there before and had spoken to another angler the previous week who said he had had some success with perch and roach. I picked up some red maggots and worms on the way.
On arrival it was bright with a clear blue sky and at 14⁰C was unseasonably mild for mid November. But the wind was fresh and strengthened during the day with strong gusts. Fortunately the spot I chose was somewhat shielded by trees on the opposite bank.
I started with a light bomb leger fishing the near margin as the chap the previous week had mentioned that was where he caught. I was using maggots to start with and soon had bites that I couldn't hit. They didn't seem like perch bites.
After a while I slipped a float on and it wasn't long before I pulled in a bleak! Not wanting to dice with bleak I reverted to the leger, trying worm this time. A perch soon came to the net. Not big but it was the target species.
The Top Stream swim
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Perch 1lb 2oz
PB perch 1lb 14oz
A perch comes to the net
The unsuccessful micro lure
After this I continued to catch perch both on worm and maggots. I tried a maggot feeder for a while, which seemed to work in that I took a couple of perch in quick succession after starting to use it. But then bites tailed off and I wasn't too happy with the large splash it was making, so I once again reverted to the light leger. I continued to loose-feed maggots.
A couple of better fish came to the net before I hooked into something that felt much heavier. After a short but spirited fight a perch of just over a pound was netted. I was very pleased of course but not long after, fishing with a bunch of maggots, I again hooked what felt like a decent fish. Netted and weighed it was a PB at 1lb 14oz.
Things then quietened down a bit although a few more smaller fish were taken. I decided to try a micro lure, something I was about to do just before I caught the PB. But half an hour with the lure produced nothing. Once more I reverted to the leger but things had now gone very quiet. There were bites but I couldn't hit them. Then just before I was going to pack up a small roach was hooked, answering the question of what the unhittable bites were.
So, a great day after perch, not a fish I target that often. Perhaps I should do so more frequently.