Coarse
Sometimes when hopes are high there is always a danger of a venue not living up to your expectations. For me, managing expectations can sometimes be a problem, I am always confident of the best possible result and when fishing a new water with a reputation for bagging up on Crucian Carp and Tench I was always bound to leave the house with high hopes.
I met Marius at the front gate at just before 4am, it didn't take long to load the car and we were soon on our way to a venue called the Klišupė near the small town of Draverna.
The Klišupė is a short finger of water that branches from the Curonian Lagoon and ends just short of the Wilhelm Canal. In fact they are so close that where we parked, had I have sat next to the car, I could have cast into the Canal on one side of the road or the drain on the other.
There were two swims at the end of the drain right next to the road and these may have been a good choice. A gusty wind whipped along the drain towards us so if the fish were following the wind we might well have bagged up but I wasn't keen on the idea of having a strong wind in my face for 6 hours and I also didn't fancy being so close to the road. So swapping boots for shoes we ventured along the side of the drain to see what we could find.
Exploring the banks of the Klišupė is not far removed from how I imagine it might be to explore a jungle. Reeds climbed high above us on both sides while at times the floor dropped away flooding the path with up to a foot of water. It was impossible to see anything other than the way ahead and at times that really wasn't that clear either.
Occasionally there would be a break in the undergrowth with a small clearing extending to the water side forming a swim. The water was filled with weed and lily pads which we would stop for a moment and admire although in reality it was more for the chance to rest, than anything else. Then still determined we would push on again submerging ourselves into a dense green forest of foliage in search of the 'ideal' spot.
In the end we settled for two small swims quite close together about 200 meters from the road (it felt more like 200 miles). The swims were tight, weeded and looked promising.
My first cast hit the water at 5am, the sun just poking from behind a tree opposite. I had elected for a feeder baited with corn to the middle of the drain and my usual waggler fished on the deck tight in against the pads.
At first action was quite swift with small Rudd and Bleak coming to hand with every cast but after the first 40 minutes or so things really started to ease off. I tried everything, rotating the baits through meat, worm, maggot, caster, corn and various cocktails. I also adjusted the depth of the waggler coming up a little at a time until the bites did at least start to come although only very slowly.
At 11.00am we decided to call it a day. I had just 80 fish made up mostly of small Common and Silver Bream, Perch, Rudd, Roach and Bleak. Marius managed 32, another very creditable result as the fishing was very hard and this was still only his third session using 'English methods'. The venue hadn't lived up to it's billing but this was the third hard session I have had in a row, all at different venues, so think it may be more down to other circumstances than to do with where we fished.
It is a pretty spot and you certainly feel isolated from the rest of the world, even though we were close to the road it felt like we were in the middle of nowhere. As always the company, the environment and the wildlife around us was more than enough to compensate the lack of sport from the Tench and Crucians.
SUPER LEAGUE CHAMPS 2007 
