Last weekend I spent a pleasant afternoon on the Linear complex, the conditions were absolutely perfect for a bit of floater fishing – hot, muggy, a bit of sun and a nice very gentle breeze.
After a quick walk around a few of the lakes, St. Johns seemed the obvious choice. It was strangely quiet for once and there were loads of fish cruising just under the surface.
Within no time I had a sea of mixers and floating pellets littering the surface around 50 yards out with a few fish showing an interest fairly quickly.
I opted to use 10lb Syncro XT mainline, which despite being a sinking line, with a quick spray of match anglers line floatant helps to keep it on the surface with no problems. Hook link was 5ft length of 12lb Zig and Floater mono with a size 10 Cryogen Classic and a trimmed down pop-up sat tight to the shank. As the fish seemed more confident at range I chose a large inline bolt-style controller to allow me to over cast any feeding fish with ease and gently tease it back into position without spooking them.
After maybe an hour and a half of casting, feeding and a few aborted takes – and obviously feeding off the hoards of gulls, I finally worked my bait into the perfect position. It was right in the middle of a little group of fish all pac-manning and a big mouth and set of shoulders engulfed the bait without hesitation.
After a decent battle on the light gear, bogging me down in multiple weed beds a nice dark common sat sulking in the net. On the scales she went 25lb 4oz, not bad for a few hours fishing and despite losing two others to hook pulls I was still more than happy.