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.

Autumn at Snitterfield.

Well i thought it was about time too post something to my blog, i have been fishing but got a bit lazy with updating the blog. Anyway me Pete and John had a visit too the reservoir at Snitterfield and to say it was hard, would be an understatement.

We met at about 6.15 outside fishermans , took the motorway to the junction with Stratford road, where, we stopped off for breakfast,  which i must say , was great, there  is something about a good breakfast that sets you up for the day.

When we arrived at the reservoir it looked like it was going to be a good day, quite a few carp were cruising near the surface which is unusual at the back end of October but it was not the carp we were after, silvers were our quarry, Roach and Bream.

Pete settled on peg 2 , my favourite summer peg, John next too him and me 2 down from that. Pete and John fished the pole for Roach and i the feeder, i wanted to try dead reds. Pete and John both weighed 2lb 13oz as Roach sport was slow but as i found the Bream were not in a feeding mood either, i had 4 fish for 8lb 4oz.

 

Me and john telling had a day there in September and both caught well .

Jubilee pools “ in the shadow of the tree”

Its been a while since i wrote to my blog and has usual i have had good and bad trips.

A few weeks ago went to tunnel barn farm , top pool , peg 28 and had a gut busting 137lb but as usual, the weekend after, had a match on the same pool and weighed 30lb but still enjoyed it. John came 2nd with 48lb something , i was 5th.

Today went to Jubilee pools at Ryton and like a fool fished under a great big willow, the sun didn't reach me until it was time to go home, i was chilly all-day .I fished most of the day for big bream but they did not show , i had a few skimmers and Roach for 14lb , John to had 18lb of silvers to the waggler.

Aden fisheries foxes pool

Me and John had a session on foxes pool , Arden fisheries and to say i was disappointed is an understatement. Yet again the weather changes the day before the trip, A week of warm sunny weather gave way to heavy rain and it killed sport dead.

John did great with 42lb compared to my measly 14lb , mostly on paste but saying that , i foul hooked and lost 15 fish, why god knows but it was a poor performance yet again, this year as been so bad , i will be glad when its over.

Johns 42lb                              My 14lb

Oakham match lake

What a great day, one of the best so far this year, well for commercial carping anyway.

Had a day on the match lake at Oakham and believe it or not, had the whole lake to myself, everyone seems more interested in the top pool, why, because there are bigger fish supposedly but ive found that this pool as large fish of its own and its not to far to walk, last wek was a killer.

Started the session at 6 metres in about 3 foot of water, you dont have to go to far out here, the fish come right under your feet, i have had them to 9lb, in 6 inch of water.

I had a few on the soft expander, but was missing a lot of bites , i bannded the pellet and began to catch steadily but a lot of fish were boiling on the surface , time for the shallow rig . I kept the pellets going in and was catching well but im sure the float was spooking them, so tried something i have never before, a rig with no float, this was great and the fish hooked themselves.

Through out the day im also tried the margin rig with catmeat and had a few but a spectater walked right up to where i was fishing and spooked the fish .

I ended the day back on the surface and had a lot of foul hookers , i think the fish were turning at the last minute, maybe spooked by the pole over their heads?

At the end i had a nice bag of 91lb but with the fish i lost it should have been 140lb easily.

I was on my own so the picture of the net was all i could take and there are no bricks in there hehe.

Oak ham top pool

We

Fished the top pool at Oak ham, its the 2nd time i have fished this pool we thought the ton up was on, but it was not to be.

We fished the east bank using pellet , paste, meat and bread ,but could not settle for one method, it was trial and error and i am sure if we had stuck to one bait , maybe the ton+ would have been possible.

John Dale weighed 79lb , John Telling 73lb and me 67lb 8oz.

The next time we fish this pool it will be winter for the Roach , i couldn't do that walk again this summer phewwww .

  Johns second weigh                My second weigh

  We both used two keepnets these are the 2nd lot.

2 weekends of contrasting weather.

 

What a difference a week makes, i mean, last weekend we fished in temperatures above 20c and this weekend it did not go into double figures, last week the sun was out , this week , we got soaked.

Me and John Dale had a trip to the reservoir and even though sport was not hectic ,i really enjoyed it. I fished peg 3 and John peg 2 , my favourite on the lake. I gave floating crust ago but the wind was making presentation awkward, so that went out the window, John meanwhile was having a few shallow and even fished beyond the weed bed but the fish were smaller here. I started having a few close in and with constant feeding had Roach right into the edge in about a foot of water and because it was so clear i could see the fish taking the bait .

  By the end of the day John weighed 21lb 10oz and i had 13lb dead so all in all not a bad day and Johns net was excellent.

  The following weekend , well yesterday to be exact me and John Telling had a trip to Jubilee pools , we fished the large speci lake  as i wanted to target those large Bream but as is common the weather had took a turn for the worst and it was hammering it down , it had since yesterday and it did not look to good.

 I started at 10 metres , looking to catch some of those large Bream that go well into double figures but after 2 hours i knew it would be hard. The angler next to me was also struggling , he was after the Bream and a couple of days ago he had 160lb of them of the same peg but all he had today was one carp close to double figures.

John was bagging again on the waggler, so i set up a Roach rig shallow and began to feed half a dozen maggots every few seconds , it did not take long for the Roach to arrive . In-between the Roach line, every now and then i gave the Bream line ago but it was empty.  John finished with a cracking 22lb 2oz bag of Roach i weighed 15lb 13oz . If i had stuck to this line 30lb would have been easy, but i like to try different things, thats the enjoyment i get ,experimenting with flavours , rigs etc. You never know what can happen thats why i love fishing.

Worse weather Wednesdays !

 

Why is it that whenever i have a Wednesday off, the weather always changes?. They did a study once and found on average Wednesdays were more likely to be the worst day of the week weather wise, something to do with people not working Saturdays and Sunday , the earths temp slowly decreases  and by Wednesday it is lower, just my luck this is the only day the  wife does not work , so i usually book it off, have a day fishing , no need to rush back.

Any way yesterday was one of those bad weather Wednesdays. It started ok ,but as always as i was setting up it began to rain and by the time my rig hit the water it was pissing it down and blowing a gale . The brolly went up for the first time this year, i hate fishing under brollys .

I was on the bird nest peg , i have always fancied this peg but have never fished it before, it is always out of bounds due to , birds nesting in the tree that hangs in the water.

I potted some ground bait laced with pellet at 8 metres, left this line to settle and fished 5 metres with red maggot dusted in atomic cloud  strawberry red. The fishing was slow , when it rains here combined with a temperature drop its always the same. Anyway the Roach line was slow but i could see the fish taking the free offerings but not the one with the hook , so frustrating. It was time to concentrate on the Bream line. I fished with pellet on the hook over Silver x Bream ground bait, which is a deep red and my hands looked like i had been in a slaughter house, thankfully most of it washed off. Anyway i had 4 Bream on this line and funnily some nice Roach too 6mm pellet.

My final weight was 11lb 8oz and John fishing waggler weighed 11lb 13oz, yet again a great performance on the wag.

Snitterfield 23 may 2009

  Well i had another trip to Snitterfield reservoir today, i felt i had too after the disappointment of last weekend.

I settled for peg 2 , one of my favourites , i like this peg because you can drop your tackle right in but more importantly, its got some nice weed features within easy reach of the pole, i am always more confident when i can reach such features comfortably.

The plan was to try and catch shallow and with the weather looking warm it was looking good. Started by potting in 3 caster and pellet laced ground bait near the weed bed, this was for later , my Bream and Crucian line. The other line was at 5 metres with maggot and caster, the maggot to start off the swim , caster if i start to get pestered by small fish. Pestered by small fish i was, little Perch, lots of them, i do not recall there being this many over the last few seasons. As i was feeding half a dozen maggot every 30 secs i began to notice boils and swirls with the occasional flash of large Rudd  and Roach. I put on my shallow rig , about 18 inch deep but could not get a bite , i noticed the swirls were less frequent, the pole was casting a shadow on the water , so on with a rig similar to hand to line , this did the trick and i started to catch some quality Rudd and Roach but those little perch still got there first this was the signal to change to caster and it worked, i still had a few perch but not as many.

So i had a great days fishing and ended up with 21lb of Roach , Rudd and small perch great stuff, the only downer on the day, was  when a message came through on my phone, it was Jades football coach , as i  held the phone my top 3 was pulled from between my legs i managed to grab it , but in panic threw my phone on my side tray, straight into my water soaked casters, SHIT ……! and i lost what ever was on the end.

Snitterfield reservoir

At last summer is nearly upon us but we still are having unsettled weather and it was just like that, on my second visit to the reservoir this year, but who cares, its great to be there, whatever the weather.

The day started well enough weather wise but the wind was a bit blustery and like a fool i fished straight into it ,with no cover .

Pete James, who came with me and John , was on the nice corner peg ,where he could reach the weed bed and was sheltered from the wind , John settled just around from him and i next to John.

By the time we set up the showers started and this coupled with the wind made presentation difficult. Fished red maggot at 5 metres but sport was slow and small perch were becoming a nuisance , for me and John but Pete was catching well to white maggot , quality Roach.

The long Bream line only produced one fish, but lost a carp on the flake. John had a couple of Bream and a good net of Roach along with Pete's quality net of silvers it was a great day. I weighed 9 lb and Pete and John 17 lb 10 oz dead, great nets between them.

canal match

Last weekend i was luckily enough to be a guest on a canal match, on the grand union at catherine de barnes and tio say i enjoyed it would be an understatement. The last canal match i had a couple of years ago was a disaster to say the least, but this time i stuck my head down , i even ignored a phone call off the mrs and thats a big no no.

I caught four Roach down the track to punch until it died, where i went far across to a lovely looking reed bed where i continued to catch small roach, perch and the darkest chunky gudgeon i have seen in ages.

Any way finished 3rd out of 14 and John dale finishing 4th . A few ounces seperated us yet again and this time i was at the top end for once.

My beautiful teenage daughter.

Self portrait and edited by me.

Snitterfield reservoir

  Well summer is nearly upon us and i for one cannot wait for those long , hot sunny days.

We had an early trip to Snitterfield reservoir after stories of good catches for this time of year, as always the weather leading up to the fishing session was perfect, until the day of the trip, heavy rain !.

  The day started badly, with a heavy shower and i and John got soaked, as we did not have our waterproofs on. Also a match was on and we had to fish a different area than i would have liked, but still that's fishing , nothing  ever goes to plan, well not for me lately, I'm beginning to think I'm cursed.

  I started with a nice Roach of a pound, it looked more like a pound and a half. This was followed by a nice hybrid, of about 1.5lb but it was slow as always the heavy rain dampened it a bit. Both Johns were catching well , John Telling on waggler and John dale the pole. Eventually the day came to an end, even thou sport was not hectic i still enjoyed it, i always enjoy the reservoir so was not disappointed

   John Dale weighed 10 lb 4oz and John Telling 9lb 10 oz and me a measly 4lb 12oz

The end at last (pheew)

Horray the winter league is over and i am so happy. Its been a bad one for me and i have not really enjoyed it this year, with today being no exception.

Pulled peg 17 , on that dreaded dam wall. ( Again).

Fished straight lead to start the first 45min, not a touch, tried corn, pellet and maggot but nothing. Came in on the pole line just off the ledge with pellet and corn nothing for an hour, then hooked a lump. It stayed low, bearly moving, then gradually moved to the left , where it snagged me!!!! I was hooked up and had to pull for the break.

Went onto the pellet feeder with a short 3 inch hooklength , and had 2 fish horray.

I weighed 2lb 2oz and was beaten to section win by one ounce.

John dale fished another great match to win and give him the league which he deserved. He fished a great league from start to finish and those blades helped him in the first few matches where we all sat it out for speci,s.

Well done John.

Heres a pic of 14lb of Roach to hemp and tare, on the river avon ,near Stratford 1993.

winter league last but one

Well another catastrophe, picked dam wall yet again, peg 15 i may as well set up residence in this peg , i live on it, at least i had the rigs this time, just a pity the fish didnt know that.

I tried groundbait feeder, method , pole and straight lead, which eventually gave me a solitary carp 12.5oz, oh i did foul hook one on pole and the number 5 stretched to oblivion until the hook pulled.

9lb something won it and my mate John came 3rd with 8lb odd.

So just to cheer myself up , heres another photo from when i could actually catch fish, a 3lb golden orfe.

Oakham Farm

Hooray a bagging session already. I had a day at Oak ham Farm today and fished the oak pool, this is the old pool too the right, next to the converted barn.

I fished the bank in the trees where i had 2 lines set up, one at 5 metres and the other to the island .I started on the 5m line, feeding micros over banded pellet and had the first fish in 5 minutes , after that, i caught on this at a steady pace until i was amassing a nice weight.

I now wanted to give the island line ago , fishing flake over micros in about 1.5 ft of water, but it was difficult because of the sudden gust every now and then , but i had a fish first put in , the biggest of the day at 4lb . The next put in resulted in a big fish taking my 13h elastic round one of the wooden stakes in the lake at 11metres , where it snagged me, thank god for pulla bungs as submersing the tip i was able too safely retrieve my rig, without fear of being spiked by a float disguised as a missile. A few more fish followed but it was too windy so i returned to the 5m line and put a nice run of small Carp and two nice Roach together, the Roach weighing 1.5lb and a pound, lovely fish. I ended a great day with 104lb and it made a nice change to the ounces i have been accumulating lately.





9LB Stillwater Barbel makins in 1998, sorry about the tosh.

winter league

Well another weekend and another winter league match out of the way, thankfully there are only two left, because i am bored of them now. Summer is just around the corner and its bagging time , also time to renew my Leamington licence, in readiness for the reservoir , which excites me more this year than ever before. Any way too the winter league. John deservedly won the match with 9lb something but it was much more than this with all carp weighing 2lb. He had a couple of nice fish around the 6lb mark. Martin (the venue expert ) came 2nd and Keith to my left 3rd, i luckily and to my surprise won the section for the 2nd week running, i weighed 1lb11oz.



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