Life on the Pond

The joy and frustration of fishing in a nutshell is that you never quite know what you're in for. Even when the signs seem clear, a question mark hangs over each day and just like blazing skies in April, you don't always get what you expect.
At Legge Farm, a new water, I thought I'd found a perfect little pool for a sunny morning. "Species: True crucians only" read the description. I just love crucians; when it feels like fishing is getting too serious, perhaps too much like hard work, they put some of the simple magic back into the sport.
It all looked very promising as a swim was baited on the misty pond early in the morning. The first major stumbling block was a proliferation of tiny rudd- snaffling everything you tried initially, before the crucians showed. The Crucian bite is a phenomenon in itself. Little lifts, tiny taps and minute little draws on the tip, as if the canny buggers are sending you a message in some obscure code. The pole was a decent way to suss presentation though, and I did manage a few cute, brilliantly gold crucians. The titchy average size however, along with a lack of predators doesn't suggest a great head of better fish in here. But some fun, flippant fishing all the same.

Otherwise it was a case of switching ponds and methods. Lots of nice rudd and skimmers fell to a pole approach and I also spent an hour or two fishing for carp on the fly- still a little cool at the minute and I managed just one carp on the day. No signs of the venues grass carp either, a species I've never caught. Legge Farm has just changed hands and it will be interesting to see what happens here- with a little thinning of numbers, the crucian pond ("Woodland") could become a real treat.