Last four fishing days - day two - morning

The weather forecasts suggested that today would be like yesterday - really hot from mid morning - but I was somewhat surprised to find at 5:30 that there was a thick, damp fog. If this took time to burn away, fishing could be better today than I was perhaps expecting.

Today's plan has yesterday's FFS2 as today's "Float fishing swim 1" and I have a new FFS2 further downstream. Visibility was just 30 yards or so as I walked across the fields to the downstream end of the fishery. Hemp and corn into the two prospective float fishing swims, hemp and boilies into five others for later.

I had really enjoyed yesterday's float fishing so it was with some excitement that I started this morning where I'd caught the 4-15 yesterday. But for some reason I don't get a bite in the first hour - maybe the two swans that went through the swim as I was pre-baiting the other spots had an adverse effect. So off the FFS2.

This next spot is a far more challenging float fishing proposition. The focus was on a huge raft on the far side of the river. The main flow is about 3/4 across the river, and a cast here should ensure that the float travels just past the raft, maybe just inches away from the trailing branches. Baiting is a bit tricky as the corn tended to disperse in the air and land all over the top of the raft. But there isn't much I can do about this. After half a dozen casts I have worked out how to manouevre the float just past the raft, letting it move down past 10 yards of hanging branches. I am rather impressed by how well I seem to be fishing this. I am even more impressed when I hook a fish about half way down the raft and, after quite a tugging battle on the light-ish tackle, I was rather pleased to land another 5lber on the float. It was quite a short fish, but had a very solid stomach (early spawning?) and went 5-02. No further bites in the next half hour so I thought I would rest the swim and have another go at FFS1, where I blanked again in the next hour.

Back in FFS2, the wind had changed a litle and I could bait a bit better. Not sure how much difference this makes, but after 20 mins or so I had a bite at the downstream end of the swim and landed another chunky fish, this time 4-07. I was thinking of packing up for the morning then as I had to get back to check in with Jerome and in any case I was running low on bait. But I decided to give it another half hour and was rewarded with a third chub from this swim around 10:30. I thought this would also be another 5lber but it was actually4-15. A really nice fish though, in great condition.

So I baited the five swims again and returned home to make some more bait and have some food and drink. I planned to be back around 4:00pm.