On 29 november 2021, last Sunday, went fishing on a pond in which I've fished previously. We arrived there at ~7 am. The morning was rainy, the day before was rainy. It rained for almost ~2 hours, after that the weather calmed down, but it was cloudy.
The place where I've fished:
On the right side is a fallen tree, the water was changing as, around 9 am, the water retreats due to the pond being connected with a dam. There, when the water falls back, the depth is at most 1 meter. I've fished at a distance of around 4-5 meters.
I've tried to fish with a match rod and a float fishing pole, the pole had a length of 3.60 meters and it was too soft for my tastes as I've coudn't place the float where I've wanted to.. maybe the float was too light - 0.40 grams. In the end, I've fished only with the match rod. I've also tried to fish for a bit for perch with soft lures, but I've gave up after I've realized that there were many weeds and I didn't have enough patience and space to properly try for it. I think that someone caught a palm size perch at natural baits (maggots/worms).
When I've first arrived I've feed the swim with 3-4 orange size pieces of mamaliga (mashed corn), which I've defrosted 1 night before (I've put it in the fridge at the past fishing sessions, when I didn't use it).
The polenta/mamaliga/mashed boiled corn flour, after defrosting, was heavy enough to throw it and remaind in the area of fishing. I think that, in the water, it slowly released particles. I've tried to bait the fish by placing the bait closer to the tree as the water, to my surprise (I've realized later) was tricky, it changed a lot and it was hard to guess where the water currents were; I suspect that my bait was feeding the swim of other anglers, on my right. Coudn't check those places.
After few minutes, after I've added some buyed groundbait, that I've had buyed some months ago, but I coudn't use. Unfortunatelly, I've had some problems with some beetles which infested my bait. Nowdays, I'm trying to use what bait remained. I've wet the groundbait with old milk and little pond water.
I've fed the swim intending to catch some bleak and crucian carp. Unfortunatelly, I've mainly caught small roach, palm size, around 10 centimeters which I've released as soon as I've caught them. The fish were bigger (medium length) than in the previous fishing sessions and they were really active, they were biting almost as soon as the float was stabilising itself in the water. I've used a single maggot on a Gamakatsu hook.
In the image is another hook, intended to fish for crucian carp with small mamaliga cubes anison flowerd (the angler told me that he added semolina and anison when boiling the corn flour)- an angler gave me some that could be used on hook. The roach was ,,hiting" it up and I've caught 1-2 small size ones, after I've got tired of that, I've used maggots, but with slow results. The roach wasn't biting too well and I've caught 1-2 bleak. The hook is too big for fishing for bleak.
Usually, when I fish for bleak/silver fish I use small hooks. Unfortunatelly, I coudn't find in the local fishing shops some Katana/Maver fishing hooks which I like to use due to their durability so, nowdays, I tend to fish with Gamakatsu hooks - they are okay, small enough, but they get dull after ~20 fish; they are really thin and I doubt that you can catch some bigger size fish if your tackle isn't good enough.
Usually, I like to use thin fishing lines, in this fishing session I've used a 0.08 fishing line.
I like to fish for small silver fish, like dace, bleak, gudgeon. Due to the season being winter, the fish aren't so active and they bite in a shy way - some angler on my left side caught small crucians (<8 cm) at sweet dough, the kind that's used by pastries. He also said that he added some flavours like Cola. The crucian bite was very soft and he had to hook them fast enough as they didn't rise, nor did they go with the bait.
I've caught my first crucian carp on that pond, a 3 centimeters one, which I've gave to another angler.
I've also caught 2 chub, at most 15 centimeters long, One chub was caught at the fishing pole, when I was checking the margins on my right, at a distance of at most 1 meter from the pond bank (close to the fallen tree). I've forgot where the other chub was caught. The chub were released; the bite was at maggots.
What's curious is that the bleak weren't on the swim, they were at few meters aways, I've checked the margins, but they weren't active. I'm not sure why that was happening, maybe my bait was too compact and there weren't enough particles to bait the bleak shoal? There are some really big shoals - thousands fish. At around 1 PM I've could see the fish coming really close to the pond bank, at a distance of at most 1 meter, you could've see them shining in the water. Aaand they were pretty big.
I've kept most bleak, those who were big enough. Even though I've caught +30 roach, they were too small.
There were 2 boats on the pond, one angler caugth some nice crucian carp.
From a friend I've heard that the next day few anglers caught big crucian carp close to were I've fished. I wonder, maybe my bait ,,activated" them?
I'll try to fish in the next fishing session at that place with a feeder, on the bottom.
