Wil’s choice of venue today, so we ended up at Jonko’s, Tri-Nant, on Mallard Lake, his favourite fishing spot. Fishing is usually a friendly competition between the two of us, one that Wil inevitably wins, but today we decided on a competition between his tried and trusted pink wafters versus my newly found scopex wafters that had been successful only two days previously at Hazel Court.
On reaching Mallard it was clear that Thursdays were busier than our usualTuesdays. Anglers were spread around the lake and, as usual, nobody seemed to want the peg under the oak tree, where underarm casting only is available, and you have to look at the wagglers stuck in the trees all day.
We set up site after three or four trips each from the car, Wil with his two rods on method feeders, pink wafters, and pink haze over the sticky pellets, me with my two rods on method feeders, each with scopex wafters soaked in scopex bait booster, and with scopex haze over the top of my sticky pellets. Wil chose two swims, one half way from the bank to the island, the other in his right-hand margin. Both of mine were sent underarm towards the island, landing some two or three feet away from the trees and maybe in snag territory.
Wil’s lucky red rod, in the midway channel, alarmed first and in came a bream of three pounds, although he looked bigger. He looked as if he'd suffered a bit on a fin and his underbelly so he received our antiseptic spray before slipping back into the water,
Next, the same red rod of Wil's alarmed for a common carp of four-and-a-quarter pounds.
At two nil, I was wondering why my scopex wasn’t working after it being so successful at Hazel Court but I beat the blank with a common carp of four pounds.
That took us to midday and Mallard often goes quiet around that time, but today the quietness of bites went on longer and at four o'clock we decided to pack up. While taking boxes of weights and baits back to the car I had to call Wil to tell him his margin rod had alarmed. I’d lifted it, and I was holding it for him to play the fish. It gave him a battle as it had stripped line and headed for deeper water and when it did come to the net, the common was a chunk at six pounds.
So, Wil won three-one, not unusual. The pink wafters won three-one over the scopex which I did think was unusual. So, what does this all prove? Wil reckons, with a cheeky grin on his face, that it proves that he is the better angler. Maybe though it proves that scopex works at Hazel Court Pleasure Pond but the fish on Tri-Nant Mallard prefer the pink wafters. Or maybe it just proves that the pink wafters are superior. There is an argument of course that different colours work on different days and we should be willing to change throughout the day.
When we arrived home, I discovered that my new feeder rod had arrived, complete with one ounce and one point five ounce tips. I wonder how long this one will last.