Over the weekend I joined James for a couple of days stalking rudd on the Fens, my target was a two pounder - and surface fished bread was the technique. The weather looked great (although probably too hot for fishing) and I was looking forward to floating about in James’ boat, the HMS Rudd.
What we didn’t anticipate was the unrelenting wind, it made fish spotting and presentation almost impossible. Without being able to target larger fish we were into the smaller ones, loads of roach and rudd, and even a little perch on bread. Lots of fun but not ones we were after.
We did watch pike swirling at the small fish and I was resisting the temptation to get the pike gear from the van at our lunchtime pitstop, sticking to the target in hand.
Then disaster; while parked up and enjoying a burger and a pint at a riverside pub a posh d*ck, eager to get to the bar, crashed his yacht into our moored boat - smashing James’ rod. I really though James was going to push him in, but when everyone calmed down the guy paid for the rod (an expensive trip to the pub for him), we cut the rod down below the broken section and continued fishing…
We couldn’t escape the wind and as the day wore on we only caught more small rudd, we couldn’t tempt the bigger ones into revealing their position in the choppy water. And earlier than we expected we headed back to shore.
Well, we ran out of battery and had to take it in turns rowing the last two miles upstream, and with no seat it was pretty uncomfortable - the B&B and a nice pint was a welcome sight!
Day two and after a Full English we headed off to explore some drains we’d seen on the map. The first one we couldn’t find - so it turned out to be a nice walk in the countryside, the next looked devoid of fish. And the third provided a brief hook up with a carp for James - finishing off what was left of his rod - not the best morning!
The afternoon saw us back on the boat, even if we couldn’t catch anything at least we’d be on the boat! I would have taken pike kit this time but James was using my light lure rod as a float rod, we’d have been down to sharing one rod had I not taken it.
It was the same story as the day before, the wind was spoiling our plans - we couldn’t locate the bigger fish in the chop. But then, with two hours of daylight left the wind stopped and the water looked like a mirror.
Time was against us as we threw out handfuls of crust and waited for the bigger rudd to reveal themselves. We floated downstream and eventually saw the swirl we were after. We’d found some larger fish and we were sure our target was with them, but unfortunately we were running out of light.
We managed a few, a better stamp of fish but nothing over a pound - out of time the rudd had won. We chugged upstream in the dark making plans for a return visit.
Although the fishing was a bust the boat is great fun, we’ll watch the weather and hope for a windless couple of days for a return visit. And I’d love to target a pike from that little boat - just imagine a double pulling it about..!