Black Pool

After a few days in over the festive season I had suffered from the onset of cabin fever so snatched a few hours on Sunday morning lure fishing on the Black Pool. This water has a reputation for holding a few predators of moderate size so I thought it was worth a chuck what with the Dove still fining down after the recent rain. It was quite mild day very different to last Christmas when we were in the grip of winter.
As well as the pool there is also the stretch of the canal which is on the DRAC ticket. Spinning was a handy method as it obviously requires little organisation in terms of buying bait and also keeps you on the move searching out different stretches.
My set up is a little agricultural for fishing small lures as the only spinning rod in either mine or my Dad's collection is an old telescopic glass Silstar 9' suited to casting 30-40 grammes. I will keep my eye out over the next week or so and see if I can pick up something a little more suitable for flicking smaller lures, perhaps a Drennan spincast 7' if anyone has any suggestions then please post a comment.
Anyway back to the angling I'm afraid the skinny jack below saved my blank and was taken on an Abu Sonnette. I've been reading up on the net on ABU tackle over Christmas as the 'Tight Lines' catalogue was one of my treasured possessions as a boy. This lure is stamped Sweden on the blade and apparently ABU moved lure production out of the home country in the late 70's/early 80's so is a vintage spinner!
I carried on fishing down the pool from the Weston end to the Swarkestone end but no more takes were forthcoming so had a wander over to the river which was pushing through quite heavily so I gave that a miss. One of the nice things about Weston Cliff is the contrast available in the angling so it was back over to the canal and I fished back down to the bridge. I saw one other angler who had made a good showing of pole fishing a snag on the far bank with a good mixed net of fish. So much more pleasant with the reduced boat traffic in the winter. An interesting couple of hours angling and I hope to get the hang of this lure fishing a little better my next steps will be to try some of these soft plastic imitations.