Cloonahee Slider pt 2

Cloonahee Lake

Sunday was a total washout with very high and cold winds coming from left to right making it virtually impossible to fish the slider with any sort of comfort. Callyn had changed a worrying colour so we called it off and was home for dinner!

Tuesday on the other hand was a bit better, the winds were still high and cold but it had eased enough to fish a slider at 35 turns, i opted for a 16g Zero Slider to give me the weight to punch out through the wind with accuracy, the bulk was set approximately 1m from the hook and 40cm off the bottom, the micro swivel and 2 number 8's spread evenly laid on the bottom seemed to be enough to slow the rig down.

As i was the only one on the venue i chose to feed a pole line at 13m in the hope the fish will return to the area, too much bank disturbance will send the fish away for a while until you have settled and remained on your box.
 You can guarantee if you have a keep net with a few Roach in a Pike will pay you a visit at some stage so I had a Pike rod on hand for a additional bit of sport.

My super cool diagram!

Initial feeding comprised of 6 balls laced with Squatts fed in a small cross formation, 1 at each point and 2 down the middle, this forms a 'grazing' area and can be easier to pick off Roach from the edges when they are still a little cautious. From previous experience i wasn't expecting any bite here for at least an hour, and as it was a planned day for the slider i will be hoping not to use this line at all...

Groundbait for the slider was the same mix, 50/50 Secret and Blackmagic, laced with squatt with the addition of a small amount of caster and hemp, 12 sausage balls went in straight away in the hope that any fish that turn up will stay around.

 It took 40 mins before i got my first bite on the slider, during this time i loose fed the pole line with hemp only and tried it 3 times but still nothing there, i continued to catch on the slider and a fairly steady rate with some nice fish coming to the net.

4th Roach

After about 40 mins of catching it started to slow up so i fired out 5 more nuggets and came in on the pole line, at this time of year it is best to feed what ever line you are on and move to another for a while, for some reason they do not like it on there heads on this venue when its cold and will back off for a bit.
It took a few minutes before i had a bite then they came steady while the slider line rested. I noticed my keep net twitching so knew i had a visitor at my feet. it took less than 10 seconds after the Pike float hit the water for it to sail away....

I cupped in a particle rich ball back over the pole line and then continued to fish the slider till lunch time catching continuously and nipping a few fish from the pole when i fed the slider, the weather got up and it was too cold by 2pm so called it a day, 4 hrs fishing and 3 hrs catching in high winds and low temps produced just over 4kg at a guess..

A 4kg guess

I'm looking forward to a day where i can sit on the pole line and not freeze my arse off and have to lean into it to hold it still :-)