Searching for inspiration

A cool Friday evening saw me heading down to a little pit I rarely fish armed with a lure rod.  As strange it may sound I wasn’t really trying to catch anything, I use the lure rod ‘baited’ with a Springdawg to check depths and weed growth.  I cast out, count it down then skim it back quickly.  The area I had in mind has a shallow plateau with a bit of weed growth stretching away from a bed of Norfolk reed and after half an hour I had learnt all I needed to know.  I clipped on a glide bait then done a quick lap of the pit, nothing interrupted the lure.

The following morning I was up at the crack of 5am, this time with the intention of trying to catch Tench.  Had I known I’d find ice on the windscreen I wouldn’t have bothered getting out of bed!  For a moment I considered going back but no I’d done the hard part so what the hell.  The clear sky and cool temperature didn’t fill me with confidence though.

By 0545 I had two rods fishing with 10mm boilies tipped with fake corn on short hooklengths.  Both had small PVA bags full of pellets attached, one was dropped in the margins and the other cast onto the plateau at the edge of the weed.  I then sat back in my comfortable chair, well wrapped up against the chilly morning and watched the mist drift across the pit.  After a while I dozed off.

I would like to say I was stirred by a screaming bite alarm but it was the sun creeping above the tree line that got my flickering eye lids open again.  With the sun out the temperature rose quickly and I started to feel I might be in with a chance.  A fish of some description rolled on the weedline and the Grebes were having no problem catching small silver fish.  Tits flitted in the budding branches, (now there’s an image…) and it started to feel like spring.  I wound in the weedline rod only to find I’d misjudged the cast, removed the weed and put it back out in the right spot this time.  Something rattled the reed stems, my margin rod was close by, things were looking up.

Time passed and I grew into the realisation that a blank was on the cards but this didn’t matter.  With all that’s going on in Norfolk I’d lost the fishing mojo of late but on this morning I enjoyed myself.  Also I’ve not been sure what to do this spring; should I brave the crowds and target the Carp that are everywhere in this area?  No, this spring I’m going all out for Tench and happy to do so. Unlike most waters around these parts the pit was quiet and it’s good to have a new challenge to go at.  By 1100 I was on my way home content with my blank and knowing what I’m going to do this spring.