Little n often

And that's not just referring to the feeding regime.
Last weekend saw us back in Kildare and heading for a repeat visit to last weeks venue.
On arrival we were greeted by a horrible wind blowing waves up the canal in the opposite direction to the flow and a quick look had us deciding on a change of venue to somewhere we hoped would be a bit more sheltered. A couple of miles back to the town, a quick phone call for the access code and we were soon setting up just one swim,  in what we hoped would be a good and more sheltered spot for a few bites.
The venue is well known for it's winter fishing and regularly throws up good bags of good silvers.
Everything we're doing for now is based around 4 hour sessions to CIPS rules and that's for Rob to get used to fishing that time frame.
We took a swim on the far side which was empty and got the pole set up to fish at 9M.
Four balls of Sensas Black Roach and Lake mixed 50 / 50 had a few handfulls of caster mixed in and were cupped in to kick it off. The wind was harder than we thought so a .75gr Tubertini float was chosen and sorted to a top 3 with no 4 elastic fitted. The first 20 minutes didn't see and awful lot happen so we made a few changes as one of the lads right opposite was catching well and we figured if he was we should be too.
A slightly heavier 1gr rig with the same float pattern was introduced, we shallowed up by a couple of inches
and the bites started coming. As soon as we started getting bites we began to feed one handed small balls after every fish and boy did that get them going. Very finicky but regular bites became the norm and allthough we were only getting small roach and dace they were regular and quick enough to keep us busy and happy.
If ever there was a demonstration of the importance of making changes there it was.

Tidy

The bites were coming on every put in at this stage but no sign of any decent stamp fish, perhaps we should have upped the feed and cupped in some more bigger balls but with everything going so well decided not to.
On a blustery day that occaisionally saw the pole being blown hard to the left and pulling the float out of position, it was enough to be getting bites and be able to keep things together.
At some stage we were joined by Ollie and The Carlow Mafia who elected not to fish but to sit and
discuss all matters fishing related. As ever we sorted out all angling problems while Rob kept swinging
roach and dace to hand.

And the crowd cheered on...

With a half hour to go he was on 70 fish and it was a case of ship out, feed one handed ball at the float,
bite, lift and ship back and swing to hand. Credit where it's due it was all very tidy and a decent four hour
practise session on a cold and blustery day ended with 81 fish in the keepnet, good job.
Quote of the day from amongst a load of possible winners goes to Rob, who in an instant answer to a
general question that was something like "whats the problem with match angling" answered "to many auld fellahs standing round talking shite and not actually fishing". nuff said........................