Bait test #2.... More jacks

Back to my difficult water on Thursday, targeting the tench and hoping to tempt one on my homemade bait. I also took a lure rod as I had entered a 'jigfly' competition on a local forum and I had been in possession of the lure for a while without catching.

Tactics were similar to my previous session, but this time I was going to fish two rods on the pod for the tench and the lift method in the margins. I arrived slightly later than I wanted too, for no reason other than I was dragging my heals. I decided on a few casts with the jigfly before getting the tench gear out, third cast and the lure was nailed by a small jack.

Finally something on the jigfly, nothing of size, but it now means that the lure has been posted to the next angler 

Lure rod away, tench rods out. Although this water can be extremely weedy, a bit of time spent casting a lead around the swim revealed a few weed free patches that I would be baiting up and fishing over.

2 tench setups, 1 with homemade boilies and hemp, the other fishmeal boilies with mixed pellets in a solid bag

The morning passed quickly, nothing on either tench rod and the float fished worms also went untouched. I had the occasional cast with the lure rod, (a salmo slider this time as I didn't want to risk losing the jigfly as I needed to post it on) two more jacks were landed, again nothing of size and by the looks of one of them it had been fortunate to escape from a recent attack, most probably an otter.

As midday came I packed the float and lure rods away, as I was content relaxing in the sun watching the water instead of a float. The occasional liner on the tench rods and the sighting of a large mirror carp cruising the warmer surface water, kept interest levels up, however time was passing by and I wanted some action on the tench rods.

I noticed a patch of bubbles beyond my right hand rig, probably about 15 yards or so and over the next hour these gradually crept closer to my baited area. The bubbles just started to creep into my baited area as I needed to pack away and rush back home for the school run, typical!

I'll be returning to this water next week, possibly an evening session and I might put a rod out for the eels as well. If there is any eels left in this water, they should be on the move by now.