Ice hole “ pt 2 “

Well it was cold again and yes, Oakham like everywhere else was frozen. We ended up at Oakham because the winter league match was called off, a burst pipe or something. Any way, i for one was secretly pleased, a chance to catch some fish.

Me and John met at 7.15am and had a pleasant drive to Oakham, it was nice because the sun was rising and it gave the impression it was going to be a nice day, eh wrong , well weather wise any way, it was bloody cold.

We fished the lake to the right , the same one as last week but different pegs , we fished the east bank , it would make a change , we already knew we would catch where we were last week, where would the challenge be then. John started with a small ball of groundbait, i decided on liquidised bread again , but fish red maggot instead of punch,  feeding pinkie. I started well and had about 10 Roach before John had his first fish. All was going well for me but a bit slower for John. John decided he wanted to fish to the island but with the ice it looked impossible, how would he break the ice at 9 metres. On went his pole cup and he began to tap the ice, breaking a small hole near the island, surely he was not going to fish it , he was. Over went his rig and he slowly lowered it into the 6 inch diameter hole and had a roach straight off, he played it then began to drag it over the ice, i thought it was hilarious , i had never seen anything like it, the next put in a carp, his no2 elastic stretched under the ice, he eventually got it tio the surface and struggled to drag it across the ice, this was not right , so he got his cupping kit and filled it with hot tea, trying to make a small channel to play the fish in, god it was so funny, but it worked and using is cup again tapped out a nice small channel. John began to fish the pellet and began to get the odd Carp, i was plodding along nicely with the Roach and the odd Carp.

  The day passed quickly and we both put a nice bag together, but with John feeling ill , i might have got a few more than him, alas he weighed a great 7lb to my 6lb, we still enjoyed it , even though the weather turned really cold.

My 6lb  = 102 Roach, 4 Carp          Johns 7lb mostly Carp.

Hole through the ice “ Eskimo style “

   Well its been a bad winter weather and fishing wise, not doing too well in the winter league,  struggled  on a few venues and fed up with this snow, but still , occasionally you get it right and you begin to love fishing again and this weekend was the case in question.

Got up at 6.30am and arranged top meet my mate john at 7.15, outside fisherman's friend . We got up to –3c and it didn't look good, even john, in fisherman's said “ There are always a couple of fools “ and it looked like he might be right. Even the drive to Oak ham our venue today was a bit treacherous, as my car slid on the black ice , which worried me, it felt like my tyre was flat.

We arrived at the lakes to a picture card winter scene, crisp snow  the sun breaking through and a frozen solid lake. Me and john grabbed a length of scaffold pole and began to break the ice , creating to fishable areas about 3 ft across and 7 ft long , just enough to give us a bit of depth, about 3.5ft to be exact. We then spent another half an hour netting the broken ice out of our swims, but at least we were nice and warm.

We both started on the punched bread and john had a fish straight away, it took a little longer for me to have one , i think john had 3 fish by my first, but we were catching.

John began to have a better stamp of fish on the red maggot over the liquidised bread, i gave pinkie a go as it was quicker to mount on the hook than punch, i to began to catch quicker. John gave me a few red maggot to try and it did seem to pick off the better Roach.

 

As always i wanted to give the Carp line ago so went over on pellet over micros, but was only having little dips on the float, i gave the water a tap with my pole and the float buried , carp on. This happened a couple of times, who would have thought summer tactics in the depth of winter. Anyway i took 4 carp on this line and all the while John was bagging some nice Roach. I eventually went back on the Roach line and began to catch again. All in all i had 5 Carp and 102 Roach for about 6lb John had a heavier bag of fish with some quality Roach ,not far of the pound mark , what a great day, i do not know why more people do not venture out in winter and even if a lake is iced over , depending on your choice of venue, you can still catch after all the disturbance of breaking the ice, I'm sure the fish respond to the commotion.

2 holes in the ice                                       Johns near 7lb bag

Just over 6lb i think.

My Favourite venue “ Snitterfield reservoir”

Here is a collection of pictures from Snitterfield reservoir

 

13.5lb mirror on the candle                    The rest of the bag

A nice silver bag for John        A double figure bag of Crucian

A early spring bag

The Avon at Wasperton

  

Well the weather is still cold and the fishing is still dire, well for me anyway. Me and John had a trip to the Leamington AA  stretch of the Avon at Wasperton and settled for two swims nearest the car park. The opening bet was waggler and maggot but after 2 hours nothing was happening . John had already tried the maggot feeder but too no avail. I decided to give the mashed bread feeder a go and with a tasty looking rubbish raft to my left, i was confident. No fish on that either. After making a fool of my self and casting the feeder right over a branch as two anglers stopped to chat, i gave up.

John had moved to my left where he found some slack water and using his pole took two small fish, i decided to poach and john was a good sport and let me , i had 3 small fish in all , john five, so we did not blank and all the Pikers had no action at all. Role on the summer and here are a few pics to remind me i can catch fish

1 33lb of Bream and Crucians Snitterfield reservoir

2 36lb skimmers jubilee pool

3 14lb on the bowl in December

4  A good bag of fish from silver pool Arden fishery in winter

Stratford “ The lido “ River Avon.

Got up early for this trip and was really up for it, but even noticing the temperature on the car was –7c i was still confident.

I met John at 7.15am and decided to have a hot sandwich on the way, this turned out to be my best and only bite of the day.

We set our gear out in the bay and i noticed how clear it was and looking back this was not the right swim choices as you only have about 2.5 ft of water at 12 metres.

John was lucky to have 1 Roach after trying all sorts of methods, i had even tried the bread flake, in the hope of catching a rouge Chub, but all was in vain.

After the session, we both realised that we needed some heavier wagglers to reach the main flow of the river, but only after a angler turned up and began to catch from the off. You can still learn from your mistakes even after 30 years of fishing.

The cold and clear Avon

solid with ice

  Hi all.

john and i had a trip to Oakham this weekend , targeting the Roach on old pool .

The overnight temperature had dropped to minus 4c and it was still below freezing when we arrived at the fishery, but even i was suprised to find the old pool frozen over. We still decided to give it ago and after an hour breaking the ice with a 8 foot piece of fencing post we had cleared enough ice to fish 3 sections of pole.

Both of us had about 3feet of water , enough for the silvers to feed comfortably. John started on the punch, feeding a tosspot of crumb each put in and caught from the off, i meanwhile fed some canal black and fished the bronze maggot over the top but had no initial response. John was having a fish nearly every put in and he showed me why. He had rolled his bread and used a cloudier crumb, i changed my set up and used some of johns bread and began to have a few.

Now was the time to try something different and have a bit of fun, we both tried feeding more pinkie for john and maggot for me and began to have some better fish , then i tried a big piece of flake on a 22 hook with no chance of ever landing a rouge carp on 5 elastic with  1 inch thick ice in front. John tried white pellet on a 3 elastic. I would have loved it if he had a carp on this set up.

Anyway we had a bit of fun and considering the commotion breaking the ice plus the conditions,  we had some nice fish. I reckon john had 6.5lb of roach and myself, about 4 lb 10 oz so was pleased

Johns net                                  And me frozen

A bad couple of trips ,,,,5 actually.

  

Well be out a few times and fished like a total twat, sorry but its true. Had a session on orchard at Arden fisheries , hooked a lost one fish, that was the extent of my action. John on the other hand fished great and took a nice bag of Perch . Well done.

  The weekend after fished a match at woods and drew peg 5, a good island peg , again i blew it , i tried the bread flake approach , just for the carp, but no show and there seemed to be  a lack of silvers in front of me , thats my excuse anyway.John fished great again and came 3rd, missing out by a few ounces. Oh i had 2 fish ?

The weekend after was the start of the winter league ,at lower park. (the winds got up again). John laughed as i pulled out peg 15 the peg i hate , its so deep and a full face on wind seems to always hit this bank. Again i tried for bonus fish and never had a bite, but i am glad i stuck to my guns and was disciplined in my approach.

John finished joint 1st with 3lb something , a nice bag of silvers, well done again.

   Now this weekend was a disaster, it rained non stop and after a bite less couple of hours ,the top lake burst its bank and a torrent of water came rushing down the hill. The lake we fished on began to rise rapidly and me and my other friend John began to panic as the water rushed over our bank , flooding my tackle bags( see pics) and flooding the field where our cars were parked. I have never packed away so quick.