Tinca Stick MKII Test & The Maiden Voyage of A Merlin Mordex Centerpin.

Got a pass for Sunday so, a quick word with my old man and we settled for fishing " The Cut " which is an Unsworth Anglers club water - He was following me up later as he had a few to many pints of Joseph Holts mild the previous night and felt a bit rough......the poor lamb.....LOL.

I reached my  peg in good time and luckily for me the rain gods kept their distance.

I set up my Conni X and fited my "Merlin Mordex Centerpin real ".This was its maiden voyage as well and I was looking forward  to having a play with it as well as assessing the new " Tinca Stick "

Now, bait for the session was 6mm pellets -  de-frosted - and chopped meat & a little hemp to hold the fish in the swim......I also had some skanky maggots that had been in the fridge for about two weeks and most of them were casters but Salford Pete was on a maggot run and would be here shortly with fresh bait.

The MK II Tinca Stick took 4BB plus to cock it, which is what I was expecting and I also nipped on two no 8 shot to fish on the drop for the rudd, but also, as tell tale shots for the lift method in case any tench or bream showed.

First chuck in on maggot and I had a bite....missed it ....." bugger " reeled in re-baited........and another bite.......missed it again......this happend 5 times and I was more than a little miffed so i put double maggot on this time. I  was rewarded with a nice roach. I realised that if I fished single maggot the hords of small rudd and roach would suck it to death and give me missable bites all day long so it was double maggot from then on.

I hardly put any maggot in and just fed hemp with a little chpped meet and pellet and after an hour I had them queing up. Lots of nice roach and rudd were gracing the net and it wouldn't be long before the F1's moved it for the free grub.........

Just before the F1's bullied all the other fish off the feed I started getting very odd bites. The float would bob, lift , settle, then bob and that was it.......very odd.....!!!!!!!!!.....but knowing there were crafty cucians in this water I placed yet another no8 shot to join the other two about 10 cms from my hook. My next bite paned out exactly as I had hoped.......a little bob and then the Tinca Stick lifted to the the black whippin cotton, a crisp strike from left to right and I was into something a little meatier.....after a short but determined fight a lovely little bar of gold with scarlet fins slid into my waiting landing net. IT WAS A BEAUTIFULL SITE. I had to get a picture of this next to my new Tinca Stick and Merlin........That alone made the day worth while.

Next cast and exactly the same kind of bite..........and I missed it.....Bo**ocks....I cursed.....I new it would have been another Crucian.....I cast in again straight away....and the same kind of lift bite......This time there was no mistakes and another crucian gave herself up......Two in one session....fantastic.......but unfortunately that was it for the Crucians....but I'm not greedy ....very happy with two of these little darlings.......

It went quiet then for about 10 minutes. " Are you baggin " came a voice from behind me " ....My dad had turned up with his gear......and more imlortantly .....bait.....lol. He set up on my left and gave me half a pint of maggots and started to set up. I looked for my float at that point and couldn't see it so i struck......My float was miles away from where I thought it was but I had connected and it was a decent fish. It took me into some weed and it went dead.......I didn't wait I just gave it some wellie.......it freed it and with a short fight a small tench poped into view............happy days.

A few of these followed in quick sucession along with the odd perch and Rudd. I even had half a dozen gudgeon which are always welcome. Gudgeon always saved the blank when I was a kid. They are lovely little fish with beautifull colours. 

By this time my dad started catching. He is still a bit rusty but with words of encouragement & a few tips from my he was soon into the silvers and swearing to himself everytime he missed a bite........There was a lot of swearing.......lmao.

It was around this time when the F1's moved into my swim. On our water the F1's move in feed like there is no tomorrow and then move away only to come back at a later time if you are lucky. I was very lucky.......They  stayed for about 40 mins so I filled my boots. All F1's bare a few where caught in the drop at a distance of two rod lengths out. I think I had around 18 up to about a pound and a half.........

Not bad for £25.00 a year .

Salford Pete was catching me up . He was using my Grandads Intrepid Elite reel which he has refurbished himself, with no small help from Graeme Pinkerton.....Thanks G. He started off catching skimmers , rudd and perch all to about 10 oz and then th F1's moved in on him to and gave him his first good scrap on his old reel.

We had a chat about the old days when 12 gudgeon was a good day . Talked in detail about the performance of the Tinca Stick MK II , possible improvements, and took some pictures of our catches.....

We both looked at each other and smiled . We hadn't fished together in the " Cut " for almost 35 years....

Lets not leave it another 35 years before we fish on here again I said.....

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If you would like to look at all of the hand crafted floats I make please click on the link below and it will take you to my float page.

http://purplepeanut007.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/hand-crafted-floats-float-making-by.html?m=1

TTFN,

Peanut