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.