Enjoyable summer so far

Well its been a great summer so far, where i have had some fantastic catches , the most memorable 218lb at Tunnel Barns new Jennys pool. Most of the fish were caught on bronze maggot over slop shallow.

Oak ham farm

Been out a couple of times , a bit of specie fishing and a pleasure session at Oak ham farm.

Had a nice 7.5lb barbel at Morton springs to pellet feeder and a good early spring bag of carp, unbelievably for this time of year the carp fed in the margin, about 4 inch from the bank

8.8 LB common to pellet feeder. 2nd trip to morton spring

Had a match Saturday at tunnel barn farm where i weighed in 21lb 5oz 37lb won and the 3 lower 30s . If i had stayed on the silvers instead of trying for the carp in the last 2 hours down the margin i could have been in with a shot , oh well.

Morton Springs

After all the snow and cold weather it was nice to get out and be warm for once.

Decided to try something different this weekend , have a go at a bit of specimen hunting and i could not think of a better place than Morton Springs.

I settled on a peg close to the car park ,which gave me a comfortable 30 yard cast to the island and with the wind of my back it was perfect.

Started the session on the straight lead , casting about until i had some kind of indication , but after two hours it looked like another blank was on the cards, time for a change, out went the method feeder loaded with dampened micros but after an hour still nothing, last chance saloon.On went a Preston's pellet feeder , a short hook length size 14 guru QM hook and quick stop. I casted out about six foot off the island and began making some hook lengths up, when the tip went slack and the line limp , i reeled down and connected with a freight train, it took me into a weed bed about 20 metres out, i let the line go slack for a moment and then began to pump, the fish came free and i could see it was a big Barbel,, my heart began to race , again it snagged up in more weed , this time in front of me , i could see it was big, again i freed it and a nice 7.5lb fish was in the net.

Soon after a nice 4lb mirror fell too the same tactic and this was followed by a nice 6.5lb common.

Only one more bite came after this , the wind had changed and was blowing crosswind  making casting a bit more difficult, i was happy thou, what looked like another blank turned out fine and this one trip totalled more than my last 3 put together .lol.  

At the bank at last

Its great to be back at the lake side after three weeks of absence and i for one nearly cracked with withdrawal symptoms.

Me and john decided on a day at Oak ham , as you are guaranteed bites here , well if you have a little knowledge , some anglers still struggle .We set up on the old pool , John to the island and me , the stumps. Today was an all out carp attack with pellets , corn and for me, my winter favourite, bread.

I started in open water at about 8 metres , feeding about five 4mm pellets , i used a 6mm cold water expander on a size 16 barbless to 3.12 lb hook length. I had a small carp of about a pound first chuck . I knew it would be a good day but after 5 fish it went quite, i tried corn but nothing.

John was catching well to the island at about 11 metres . His attack was similar to mine but using liquidised corn as feed .

I had now concentrated on my second swim  a stump that marks out a no fishing zone, stepping up my feed to about 25 pellets and 2 or 3 pieces of corn every put in i began to catch steadily and was having a decent run of small carp averaging 12oz to a pound.

John was also bagging, but it was harder work for him as he was fishing longer as his inside line and middle track did not produce.

My swim was going quiet , i knew they had backed of a bit so i added another section , not to fish another metre but enough to get me close to the stump i mean my float was touching it. Every

time i fed, i tapped the stump with my pole , this worked wonders and bread and corn with steady feeding bought me a 66lb net of fish, John weighed a cracking 50lb 8oz . Two brilliant bags of fish for this time of year ohh and i had 3 fish on a piece of onion from a sandwich ?

 

66 lb for me                              50lb 8oz for John.

Winter Fishing , i love it.

 

Its been a while since i wrote to my blog, with the winter league and such. Also i am one who likes to add photos to my write up , i do not think it would go down well with fishery owners and match organizers , if i asked for a picture at the end.

Anyway the winter league is going a bit better than last year , with me picking up coin in 5 out of 6 matches. This year the dam wall is the place to be but unlike last year, i cannot seem to draw it at all .

It could be worse, my fishing buddy John draws the worst pegs every week the shallows where only blades seem to be this time of year and with skimmers needed to frame its very difficuilt to compete from these pegs, also carp do not count so that adds to the difficuilty.

Have been to Oakham a couple of times ,where John did a nice 50lb+ bag on corn and pellet I did about 25lb.

Me and John Telling had a day there , ice fishing , we broke through 3inch of the stuff to have a go at the Roach

Had a trip to the Warwickshire Avon Saturday again going for the Roach but i blanked ( Great start to the year ). John Dale did great fishing the bread feeder and punch , he picked up some nice Roach in the last 2 hours.