Packington – 21 March 05

This fishery is set in the grounds of a Meridian hotel, close to Coventry. There is a 10 acre day ticket water, Cocks Corner, which you can fish from the banks or from punts.

 Cock's Corner       Close up of the same shot

Isabel and I went for the punt idea and it was not too long before I was hauling on the oars for the far side of the lake. It was quite hard going, with the punt responding reluctantly to the oars. As we reached the far end, we anchored up 70 yards from two other punts.

It was quite late by then, but Isabel takes some getting out of bed. There was a good hatch of black midges going on and trout were rising all over the water.

  Isabel tackling up

We had been advised to try intermediate lines and small black and green lures or damsels. I tied on a black woolly bugger for starters and then switched to a montana with a dunkeld on the dropper.

Two chaps on the left bank were taking fish every half hour, but the boats seemed to be getting nowhere, despite fish rising all around us; very frustrating stuff.

Our punt was whirling round and round on the anchor, making it really difficult to fish. Everyone else appeared to have two anchors and stayed in one position. I then remembered we had left a block of concrete back at the landing stage.

I then changed to a floating line with a black buzzer on the point and a royal wulff on a dropper, 2.4 metres further up the leader and settled down to lunch. We started off with a proper pork pie from John Taylor’s butchers shop at 126 Newcombe Road, Earlsdon, Coventry, West Midlands, CV5 6NL. It is worth making the pilgrimage for good meat and pies.

After the pork pie, I started on a chunky smoked ham sandwich.  Now why is it that trout know when you are eating and likely to be less alert? With the sandwich in my left hand and the rod in my right, I was at a real disadvantage, but this time I had the benefit of experience. I know they know I am eating, but now I make sure the line is trapped against the rod by my index finger.

I didn’t see the royal wulff disappear, it just sort of wandered off. I lifted up the rod gently and tightened into a solid trout. Then the fun started as it swam straight for the boat. The sandwich was quickly put down and I had to strip line quickly to keep in contact. 2 metres from the boat, the trout stopped and realised its mistake. It did not feel very big, but it put up a very good fight.

I landed it as quickly as I could and released it immediately. It was a nice looking fish, full fins and tail and not too fat. It recovered in a couple of seconds and swam off into the depths.

After another effort rowing back to the lodge to pick up the concrete block, I spotted another block hanging over the stern of the punt in the water. No wonder it was such hard work.

Back at the other end, Isabel was trying out her new Fulling Mill river rod and getting out a reasonable line, despite having no real casting ability. She had a couple of takes after I’d tied on a bloodworm pattern, but neither connected.

We had a long spell where nothing seemed to happen before I noticed a few fish rising close into the far bank. I switched to an all gold nymph pattern I’d used successfully in Ireland on wild brownies. On the second cast, a nice fish took it and raced about madly, before jumping out of the water and throwing the hook.

We had to leave early at 3pm, but in retrospect, I should have tried some suspender buzzers or klinkhamers today. I forgot to bring the klinks and didn’t notice the buzzers until too late.

We will probably try again as it is a nice enough spot to fish and quite relaxing in the punt, once you put two concrete blocks to keep it steady.