***ROD BENDING ARENA ACTION***

After our recent stock taking program on arena was complete I'd promised myself that over the next few weeks I'd have few hours on there myself before the weather warmed up and the masses arrived. So last Thursday I armed myself with my trusty waggler rod, feeder rod, half pint of dead reds and a bit of groundbait. I spent 30 mins making regular casts at roughly 2/3rds of the way towards the island with a very small cage feeder. I started to get liners instantly but nothing was really getting its head down. I switched over to the waggler which I'd plumbed up to be just off bottom at exactly the same distance as I was fishing the feeder. I knew the float would drift from right to left through the swim but that's what I wanted it to do. I wanted the bait to tease the fish rather than sit on the deck. The carp obviously liked this as I had two carp on my first 2 casts of the waggler. I had half a dozen more chucks but nothing happened so I went back onto the feeder. After a few more 3-4min chucks the liners started again. To cut a long story short I was using the feeder to bait a small spot and to draw the fish in but they wanted a suspended bait rather than feed off the bottom. I managed 6 carp in a few hours on the waggler but then the carp obviously felt like getting their heads down at the end as I managed 3 quick bites on the feeder.
All in all it was a plesent short session and proof that arena is a great all year round water if you are willing to think outside the box a little.

Here's a few short clips of a bite or two incase you need a little encouragement to get back out on the bank!

Tightlines,
Steve