Finally pulling off the motorway I decided to give the Avon another try, though the little voice was telling me it was a mistake, but we'll see. As I pulled onto the car park, there was a maroon Mercedes estate already there (there's a reason for mentioning this...). What's the betting he's in the swim I wanted? a trudge across the water logged fields proved me right, the person in the merc was in the spot I wanted, no major problems though he was throwing a feeder about so I guessed he'd be gone before dark. I settled into a temporary swim a little downstream. by 3pm he was packing up to leave, so I readied myself to move up. As he loaded his car I picked up the gear to make the move, but noticed a white plastic bag where he'd been fishing. When I reached the swim there was more than a white plastic bag, bits of catapult elastic and a empty bag of carp pellets left lying on the ground....
Now of course the first thing I did was pick them up and put them in my rucksack but lets face it how difficult would it have been for him to do that? I know it's unlikely but if you read this your a disgrace mate. I wont refer to you as an angler because your not one. How difficult is it to clean up after yourself?
Anyway rant over, swim cleaned up and two Roach deadbaits cast into the river one nearside shelf the other far side shelf, and the wait began. The river looked almost still yet it was carrying a fair amount of colour. I'd prefer more of a ripple but I was confident that the Zander would put in an appearance. (How wrong I was!)
The hours ticked by without so much of a bleep, Then at a little after 6pm the left hand indicator let out a few bleeps, and stopped, no movement to the rod or line followed so I left the rod, semi-expecting it to come to life again in a few minutes. It didn't happen so another cup of tea was poured from the flask and the waiting resumed. 18:50 and the middle rod's indicator came to life with line steadily being taken, I wound down and set the hooks. Whatever had taken the bait had some weight, but there was no fight, the fish was just hauled in like a plastic bag washed in during the recent floods. "Must be a big Zed", "got to be a big Zed"... a few short bursts at the net and she rolls into the folds. Quickly onto the scales and she went 13.13, not Zed though Pike!
A few odd bleeps followed during the last couple of hours but no more fish, where are these Zander?
Maybe I should have allowed myself to be lured by Sabrina?
