A quick fix

The beauty of lure fishing is its simplicity. A few items and you're out and fishing and that was the logic behind my latest trip. With the rivers clearing and returning to normal levels the 'barbel' window was closing so my thoughts returned to drop-shotting. A few weeks a go, I managed to break my drop shot rod by folding the car seat on it. After I had got over the initial stupidity of my actions, my attention switched to a new rod which duly arrived just as the rain did. Therefore, it's spent the last 10 days untouched as I pursued Barbel instead. However, with this being the final week before the clocks go back, I was keen to try the rod out so I managed to squeeze in about 90 minutes of fishing on a marina after work.

With gale force winds sweeping the nation, I couldn't have chosen a worse time to be fishing. The wind was freezing, taking all feeling from my exposed fingers. Add to that the loss of control every time the wind gathered strength and you get the picture. But if I'm anything then it's determined and I was adamant that I would not be going home without christening the new rod. Eventually, a cast into open water finally provoked a take and I was able to reel in a small fish. It didn't have the dogged fight of a Perch and at first sight I could see it was no Pike. The culprit in fact was a small Zander,
my first on the method.

As night draw closer, the wind dropped a bit and there were plenty of fish topping but none of them suggested the bigger Perch were on a feeding rampage. I did manage a chunky looking Perch in near darkness but that fish pretty much signalled the end of the session. It was short and sweet and I managed to get the rod some action although I'm sure there will be better to come.