Stewart Bloor

Field Tester

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This is a very busy time of the year for me, from a work perspective. Head of media at The New Saints FC, the champions of Wales, involves a massive spike in terms of travelling, admin and responsibility. Not that I’m complaining however, as it’s football and all good. What I have to do though is push myself to make the most of the time available, as far as fishing is concerned.

That was the case in the session for this month’s blog entry. In between trips to Kosovo and Denmark in the UEFA Champions League, I headed for a favourite venue of mine, an estate lake in the English county of Shropshire, after tench. I enjoy being in the press box across Europe commentating on games but I’m most definitely in my element sitting next to water with a rod out.

Fishing a swim that has been cut out from a dense reed bed, you know that any hooked fish will instinctively head for cover. Reed beds, along with overhanging trees and lily pads are natural snags and therefore if you are fishing alongside them you need the appropriate gear. On this occasion, although the tench don’t go to record-breaking proportion, nevertheless I fished with a barbel rod and 8lb line.

Once you hook any fish of size, you have to be in control as much as possible, especially when snags are involved. Although we had our battles, I’m happy to say that I lost no fish as a result of them burying themselves in the vegetation. The size 10 hook did its business as well. The lead was a free-running 1oz (28.35g) bomb.

Throwing out balls of brown crumb and sweetcorn by hand, I was fishing just a couple of lengths out from the bank. Like lots of angling situations, you don’t always need to cast to the horizon. The all-important business end, as far as hook bait was concerned, was an SBS corn shaped boilie.

These are great and firm favourites of mine. The venue in question is populated with masses of small rudd and roach and natural corn is often reduced to a shell within seconds. However, the boilie ensures that in spite of the constant plucks, you can leave the rod alone, knowing that it will remain intact. Until a tench picks up the bait, that is.

Enjoy the rest of the summer, I’ll be back in August with more SBS Baits tales from the water’s edge.