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Martyn White | Thursday, 28 April 2022
A quick one from me this week, we're in a bit of a slow period here with the bass spawing and the carp getting ready to. This weekend also marks the start of "Golden Week" a set of 5 public holidays at the start of May-I'll not be fishing that week. The ood thing about the holidays is that it usually marks the start of the warm water fishing round here.
On Monday I took Canadian John out again. I decided to show him how to catch carp on surface baits, so I dug out my old John Wilson Avon and baitrunner, grabbed a couple of crusty loaves and a box of dog bicuits and we headed out in search of some fish. The main reason I thought foater fishing would be good is that it's pretty simple from a gear standpoint and it's something he can easily get his kids doing. Plus it's nice and visual to keep them entertained. What I didn't count on was how pleasant I'd find the whole thing.
We couldn't have asked for nicer weather, sunny with high clouds and a balmy 29 degrees. We certainly didn't have to wait long for the fish to start responding to the feed. It was harder to make John wait for the fish to get confident and start competing before he cast. Once things got going, I let him flick a bit of bread-crust out among the loose offerings and it didn't take long before he was missing fish left, right and centre. Eventually he managed to get a hook in a fish, then another couple followed before we decided it was time to head to the pub to rehydrate.
Not at all what I normally do, but it was a nice day's fishing and certainly came with a pleasant feeling of nostalgia. I won't go back to bait as a regular choice and definitely not when fly fishing (although many do when it comes to carp), but maybe a day or two a year with the Avon special wouldn't be too bad.