THE BOURNEVILLE

     It's been a tough old week, Pete ducked out on Monday due to the weather forecast. I decided to give a recently re-finished Mk IV kit rod by Walkers of Hythe a run out. Fishing for carp is my default method for foul weather. I can tuck myself right under the brolly and watch the world go by. That's all I did do, the ducks cleared up my bait faster than I could throw it in and I blanked. The weather was not as bad as they predicted which was a bit annoying.

     Pete made me look even sillier than usual on Wednesday with nice net of roach on maggots, while I managed a couple of fish including my second roach of the campaign at a meagre four ounces or so. Fortunately a single three pound bream took my bread to save the day.

     Actually, bread has proved to be better at catching bream than roach to the point where I was on the verge of switching the focus of my little campaign. Fortunately Friday's catch suggested that it might be worth continuing. I had a new pole to christen. Bought at the Redditch vintage tackle fair last May, there was nothing special about it. Just another dust covered, found in the attic job, but cheap enough. It did have one interesting feature in that some of the sections were whipped in brown, black being the usual colour. It was rather attractive, I thought, so after repairing the obligatory splits and lose ferrules, I cleaned it down, re-whipped it in brown, and re-varnished it. It looks great and as it's maker is unknown and its value minimal, I've named it 'The Bourneville'.

     It has a much stiffer tip than my other poles, the built cane element just a foot long and spliced into whole bamboo. Back in the day I believe this would have been designated a 'bream tip' and with both bream and tench likely, I stepped up the elastic tippet to a number 8 from my more usual 6. It worked well and its duck was broken by four bream to 2-4 and finally, on my last two casts, two roach, the best being 13 ounces. Small steps definitely but hopes revitalised somewhat.