Getting there

Tuesday night saw me back on the Trent. It was a lovely evening and I had already decided to dedicate all my time and attention on the carp rods leaving the float rod at home. I baited 2 areas with hemp and corn and placed a halibut pellet hook bait over each. Recasting every hour or so with a topped up feeder to keep the bait going in. An open ended feeder with small pellet and ground bait plugs was the method used to introduce the feed and keep cost down. Basically for duration of the short evening session the swingers failed to move. Now the doubts crept in - are there any fish here or do they just pass through, am I on a working bait, is my bite indication correct? The local canoeing club didnt help, they must have passed in both directions within inches of my rod tips. Fishless and frustrated I packed up.
Thursday saw my return to the river, yeah I know..... another early finish! Back out with the same set up and baits. About 7 pm my mate Pete rang and as is always the case while I'm in conversation the downstream indicator crept up, phone in one hand and rod in the other I missed it completely. 'Have you only got pellet?' he asked. 'Afraid so' I replied. I could see his reasoning, if pellet isn't working try soming else.
Shortly afterwards I went back to the van to get some more pellet feed, while rumaging around for the pellet my hand came out with a tin of corn I didnt know I had. Back on the rods I changed the up stream rod to 2 rubber grains of corn on the hair and replaced the pellet feed with corn. A few twitches occured but nothing to change my lack of optimism. Aroud 9 pm I was seriously thinking about packing up when at last the upstream rod swinger dropped right back and I hit it, the feeling of a series of thumps on the other end was such a relief. The fish kited down stream then held its ground before kiting back upstream again. I quickly slipped the net under the still unseen fish, pulled back the mesh expecting to see a small carp, barbel or reasonable chub and was surprised to see a large bream. Yes, a bream which actually fought! The hook had come out in the net and he looked about 3 to 4lb. I quickly recast and a a few minutes latter the same rod was off again, this a small bream about a pound had taken the bait.
Now it really was time to leave and as I did so I pondered the lessons learnt.
1. Dont place all your bait eggs in one basket unless youre confident in the bait.
2. Accurate and regular feeding is required. Although I was fishing fairly close in a piece of tape on the main line would have gaurenteed the same spot every time
3. Dont fish the Trent embankment on a tuesdat night, you'll never compete with the canoes!
I do feel I'm getting closer to the carp, bream take the same baits from the same swims as carp and ussually where theres bream the carp wont be far away. I also have more faith in my set up, though maybe the pellet hook bait might be back on the subs bench.