PICK OF THE CROP

     So, how do you pick out the best fish from a lake that contains specimens of all sizes and on which every swim is regularly fished. There is no night fishing allowed and every conceivable bait is used in quantity every day. That is the conundrum that faces Pete and I every time we turn up. We might just have learned something this week.

     I'd just returned from a miserable couple of days fishing the Arun estuary with just a couple of crabs to show for the inconvenience of lugging my tackle a couple of hundred miles. With some half decent weather on the cards, Jubilee would surely produce and in an unexpected way it did.

     I fished sweetcorn on the float alongside an overhanging willow, maybe two rods out. I favour my Rodrill light carp rod for marginal tench, so I had strapped on a Mordex Merlin with 8lbs line and a 6lbs hooklength. With the bait anchored by a single AA shot, it is an easy rig to set up and I was soon fishing.

     It didn't take long at all. By 10.30, I'd landed six tench to just over three pounds and a small bream. It was all rather pleasant, but after losing a good fish in the middle of the swim, sport died a death.

     Pete on the other hand kept it going all morning fishing tiny pieces of meat barely even a rod length out, much closer in than I was. This was the interesting thing for me, he had six superb crucians between 1-5 and 1-14. A combination of fishing very close in and much smaller meat baits than most would use did the trick and offered considerable food for thought.

     Today we fished the same pegs with the same baits for a couple of bites apiece. I tried to emulate his catch of crucians by fishing much closer in to little effect, my only fish being a foul hooked tench. A season's best of course at 4-3. Pete didn't do a lot better, but the meat scored again with a 1-2 crucian rather mocking my suspicion that how close in he was fishing rather than the bait was the reason for his success.

     It's hard to understand why today was so unproductive given that conditions were, apart from a mid morning downpour, much the same. It is back to the drawing board when it comes to catching the better fish but I guess that's what keeps bringing me back.