You know it's proper winter when you have to carve the ice off your car on a daily basis. After a few abandoned plans due to frozen waters things are slowly starting to thaw out and having lain about digesting the stone or so of christmas stodge I was itching to get back out to Bratton water and try a catch and release ticket.
No rising fish or hectic action on this occasion however and it really was a case of going through the card, from buzzers and bloodworms to mini lures. Strange how the plan that works one week can be close to useless the next! It was movement the fish seemed to want in the end, perhaps the best option when little is hatching, and the lures won out, with rubber daddies and small, glitzy lures finally making an impression for a hat trick of rainbows.
I guess I do find the slow sussing out of trickier days enjoyable in itself though- and even lure fishing can prove a challenge in finding the right pattern and retrieve on the day. For example, I spotted several cruising fish later in the day that would follow a big fritz every cast- but a fish was only hooked when a much smaller version was offered. Remarkably picky for "stupid" stocked fish! Today was one of those perplexing sessions when you get a fish on a particular pattern but then not a touch until something else is tried. Working on the answer is rewarding in itself though- wouldn't want it to be easy now would we?
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