19/01/2012 - River Soar

Set the alarm for six so I could judge the conditions before committing my hard-earned flexi-time. Wandered downstairs and outside onto the patio to find it wasn't a.) freezing, or b.) windy. Good enough for me! Loaded up and headed off for the same section of the River Soar I fished last week. Got there just as it was getting light and wandered up to my starting point, spotting a few fish topping around the boats as I did so. Hopefully a good sign? Dropped float-legered deadbaits down the side and in the middle as before. Fished "to the clock", leap-frogging the upstream rod downstream every 15-20 minutes. Was an hour into this when the float in the channel set off towards the boats on the far bank, resulting in a nicely marked, fat fish about 7lb (it's already looking as if there's quite a few of this size about!).

Fatty 2

Wind had started to gust by now and was blowing straight in my face. The sky had also cleared. The resulting bright and sunny conditions probably weren't the best for deadbaiting in a clear river. However, continued leap-frogging the rods downstream and had nearly reached the bottom of the section when a chap walked up with a lure rod. Exchanged pleasantries and then watched him disappear around the corner, thrashing the water to no avail as he went. About an hour later he walked past again with nothing to report. He'd been gone 5 minutes and I was just contemplating my final move when the float on the mackerel rod bobbed and trundled off. Hit the fish, got it into the margins and briefly saw a spotty flank before it "unhooked" itself. Bugger! Popped a fresh bait on and dropped it in the same spot in case he had some mates with him. Didn't have to wait long as a few minutes later off it went again. This time it stayed on, but was just a small jack. Unfortunately work was calling by now, so packed up and yomped back to the car where I caught sight of myself in the relection in the window. My face was even redder than last week. Thankfully, it had calmed down a bit by the time I got to the office!