Blythe Waters with Pete

Thursday 27th August, 16:15 - 19:50. Blythe Waters Home Pool with Pete. 18C, dry with SW 10mph.

Pete and I fished Blythe waters after work this evening in a joint attempt for Roach / Rudd. It's been a long time since Pete and I have fished together and although we are both seriously competitive and talk at work almost exclusively about our shared plight to catch a wide variety of big fish this year none of this angst was present once on the bank together.

We both fished up in the water on light float tackle. We were both after either a good Roach or Rudd. I already had a decent Roach in the bag and a point scoring Rudd, Pete was on the board with a Roach but had not had a Rudd and so was always the more likely to come away with something this evening.

I fished a centrepin newly loaded with 2.6lb line to a 1.7lb hook length and an 18 hook on a 14ft Fox Match rod and 4x14 pole float. I was flicking the line out overhead into the calm water in the lee of the wind. We both sprayed maggots out lightly throughout the session, trying to bring the fish up in the water. We could see fish 'swirling' at the loose bait pretty much from the outset.


We both caught continuously but strangely I had far more Rudd than Pete and he far more Roach than I. We both caught our share of Perch and Hybrids. I've learned this year that Roach / Bream hybrids scrap really well which is surprising as you would think that a fish which has anything remotely to do with a Bream would give up almost instantly.


Pete caught a 9oz Rudd which earns him bronze points. He also had two, yes two, 15oz Roach! If either had been an ounce heavier he would have had more pointage. I laugh loudly.

Once again I took only a few photos but this time the excuse is that the fishing was so intense there was hardly time to pause for thought. It was a case of finding the rhythm of feeding, casting, and unhooking, and once found you couldn't break your stride. It would be like stopping for a beer mid jog - you would never start running again. We both missed calls and left text messages unanswered for fear of losing focus. Pete even skipped his seven o'clock cup of cocoa and waved his hemorrhoid treatment in the name of fishing.

I'm still scraping it;

Cheers.