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.