Tockenham Reservoir, Wootton Bassett – Southern team coaching
This months Talentpathway Southern team session was down at Tockenham Reservoir, Wootton Bassett, so a trip down on Friday night to make sure we were there for an 8:30 meet.
Methods:
Pole to 5m and 13m
Rigs: 06 to 1 g , Bulk with two or three droppers, .08 – 01 hooklength 15cm , 18-20 hooks Barbless.
Waggler : to 30m plus
Insert wagglers, Straight & Bodied, Loaded, 3lb Main, hooklength , 01 20cm with size 20 Swivel plus 4 no 8 or 10 Droppers.
After a cold night with a little snow and 40mph winds, it was likely to be a bit tough. Pegs were from 9-17, and Ryan drew peg 10.
Feeding an 11m line with 6 balls of groundbait hopefully for some skimmers, the inside lines would be loose fed with maggot/castor and pinkie. Fishing started at about 9:50 on his 5m line with pinkie, and a feeding a few loose maggots. He sat on this and a line nearer to the margin under a tree for the first 45mins, but not so much as a bite. So trying out on the 11m line with a single maggot, he was struggling with the gusty wind, as were all the lads, so he fed another ball of groundbait and came back on the short lines.
A matter of swapping between all lines throughout the day to see if he could tempt a bite, but all proved to no avail. The fish just didn’t seem to be there !!!! Packing up at about 2pm, there had been a grand total of 2 small perch caught from the far end pegs between all 9 of them, and things had got that desperate, that one of the lads had even put out a feeder.
A real shame it was so bad, as there was not a lot the coaches could do without any fish showing. Next session is in January where they will be learning bloodworm & joker fishing. Off home on the long journey to get warmed up 🙂