House on the Sheep's Head
I tried this spot on Tuesday but apart from one short flurry of bites that culminated in a mullet jumping all around the pool like a seatrout before throwing the hook, all was quiet.
Today conditions were more clement: sunny and occasional light cloud, and just a gentle west breeze. I arrived about lunchtime with the water still well up after a big tide.
I fished for about an hour and was slightly surprised not to get a bite. I decided to walk back to the road to see if I could spot any mullet on the other side of the bridge, but after only about twenty yards I was surprised to see a couple of big mullet circling close to the bank. I estimated them both 5lbs+, good fish for this venue.
I returned to fetch my rod and net, then on hands and knees I cleared a little track through last year's reed stems along which I could place my rod and drop the float down into the margins, followed by a few tiny amounts of mashed bread loose-feed.
I then proceeded to miss a series of "unmissable" sail-away bites!
After about six or seven, the fish had had enough and moved off. I couldn't believe I'd blown this chance, but I thought maybe if I fished a bit further out and deeper I would re-contact the fish out there.
Sure enough, ten minutes later the float slid away, and this time no mistake on the strike. I was disappointed though when a few seconds into the fight it became apparent it wasn't one of the two big fish I'd seen. To add insult to injury, later into the fight the pair briefly reappeared and followed my hooked fish for a few seconds! They were easily a couple of pounds bigger ... the fish I'd hooked turned out 2lb 15oz.
I stayed in that swim for a while but couldn't get any further interest, so I returned to my first swim so that I could fish more comfortably.
It remained generally quiet but every now and then, out of the blue, the float would dip away. There was no rhyme or reason to when or where in the swim this would happen so it was difficult to stay properly keyed up, but after a few misses I finally struck into one of these bites.
This fish was more powerful than the previous one, and I had brief hopes I'd contacted one of the big fish I'd seen earlier, but it turned out to be a long, lean 3:07.
I fished on and after a long quiet spell I started to get sporadic bites again.
As the water level dropped and water from the sun-warmed shallows further up moved through the pool, the bites gradually increased in regularity.
I landed two more fish, 2:12 and 3:04 separated by another of similar size that threw the hook after a few seconds. Number Three was still resting in my landing net when Number Four arrived, so I photographed the two of them together. Probably I could have had one or two more into the evening, but I was happy with my haul of four so I packed up in time to do the drive home in daylight.
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