Signs of life

With three individual mothers day stops to make this weekend there was no chance of getting out and having a session Sunday morning.

So I briskly dragged Jacky around the town on Saturday morning to enable me to get out for afternoon session. Though everyone I know has been desperately trying to cram as much time in on the rivers before they close, I was steering well clear! As the last fish i caught on the river was a good way to finish and another session would inevitably ruin that for me. So a few hours at Ryton seemed a good option.

It was meant to be sunny all day with temperatures of 10-11c, but as per normal the met office proved to be less than useless and it turned out to be overcast, windy and a little cold. Even with this i still felt that i had decent chance of a run or two considering that with every day that passes the cold winter fades away and the signs of spring appear. When I arrived Ryton was unusually busy so after settling in the only peg I fancied, I cast out my normal two rods.

Like most others fishing I was getting touches but nothing I thought justified a strike. After a little rig tweeking I again cast out, but this time the rig modification worked a treat and one of my bobbins kept twitching enough for me to be confident there was a fish on my bait.

I was hoping it was a carp but the lack of fight indicated a smaller culprit. After a short somewhat understated fight i was made up when my first Tench of 2010 was in the net. The rig modifications have made me think! How many of those odd bleeps have actually been fish and how many have mouthed my baits not even registering on the bite alarms.
 I fished on till dusk came and finally the cloud cleared and the last few rays of sunlight lit the woods on the far side of the lake a beautiful burnt orange. A bit of sun and a tench in the bag; me thinks that spring doth approach. Roll on summer when the tench and carp will be in full swing.