Whelming…25/08/2013

Whelming…25/08/2013 Night off. Recovered from four shifts, two with little sleep beforehand and two that were manic and the day was spent recovering through sleep and listlessness. It took until late afternoon before I was ready to do anything. A nice evening though and Ellingham would be easy; I wanted to try the 2-16g rod again with hopefully a better fish. I left home earlier than normal for this spot and started fishing while it was still light. The water was very high and the pumps were running, draining the river through the weir just upstream. A couple of bits of sweetcorn on the hook once I’d anchored and I sat back to await events. I waited a while. I chilled. Not much happening. Fish on the surface and a few bubbles but the first fish hooked took half an hour or more; good scrap though and I soon had a decent chub alongside. Returned, I put some more corn on and threw some more in. Again bites were slow in coming. I missed a few too before I got a reasonable rudd. Another followed, then a chub. Then another and another pair of chub. This was over a couple of hours so isn’t as much as it sounds. I kept missing bites, dropped a couple and as it started to get dark I dropped off two good fish, felt like decent chub to me, big chub over 2lb at least. It wasn’t my evening though. More corn went in, it got properly dark and I waited and waited as the bites died away. I only wanted a quick session and now I only wanted one more fish; it was getting on for ten o’clock and then, finally, a good pull, a solid hookhold and a good struggle… Great, another bream, bigger than the last and a definite pb, weighed at 2lb8oz. Super job, I could go home now! Whelmed, not over and it’d be rude to say under with quality fish. Just whelmed will do.