Avoiding the Blank 19 part 5

First trip out this month was to the runs water, once again I took my Aircurves with me so that I could get used to catching more fish on them, I was using conventional rigs on leadclips for the majority of the time and had about a dozen carp that ranged from 2lb to around double figures.

13lb common from the 'Big Fish water'

Next stop was onto another lake on the same complex that is supposed to hold some bigger fish (Gonna call it ‘the big fish water’), I was using wafters and Ronnie rigs over a little bit of bait and managed a single bite in the early hours that resulted in a low double.  Jase who was with me had one in the evening so we decided to had a bit of fun on the runs water before we left, this resulted in us both having a few but it certainly wasn’t frantic.  It was fun though and that is the whole point of going fishing with your mates.

The shallows at Shearwater

A few days later I was back out on the banks of shearwater but I was using my lighter rods so it was fishing at closer range than what I would usually d in that area of the lake.  I had a few on the bottom, one on floaters and a couple on zigs but due to the fact that I had been feeding small baits I was plagued by bream, I must have had 30 of the blighters when I didn’t want them.

A rare pretty one from Shearwater

The following week it was back off to the big fish water in search of a bigger bream, I had heard rumours of bream to 8lb so it would be good for a night on the light kit.  I had worm, caster, dead maggot, hemp and corn at my disposal and this was getting fed in an open end feeder pugeed with a fishmeal groundbait with a few pellets in it.  I got indications almost straight away and after only a few hours I started to realise that there may be a problem as I started to catch eels on maggot and worm hookbaits, I persevered but the eels were that aggressive that nothing else to get a look in.  I switched to feeding corn and using double corn on the hair for the night but still they would strip the bait off the rig with the minimum indication but as the sun started to glimmer lift light levels in the pre dawn I finally hooked and landed a 4lb bream… Honour satisfied.  I started working hard again and the eels were still everywhere, but after switching swim for the umpteenth time I had a proper bite when I had given up hope in the mid morning and it resulted in a 6lb 1oz bream.  I packed up soon after to get some sleep.

Good to see so many of them.

6lb 1oz Bream at last

Last trip out for this installment was to Orchard Place farm in Kent for another Army Match,  I was partnered up with Chris and we came out the draw in the bottom half so opted for a swim in which we had seen a few fish the day before, we were tucked into a corner on the back of an island.  Chris took the corner and open water going around the island I had the back of the island, It took less than an hour for me to catch a fish and it was small.

Small fish tactics

 I ended up having to use some interesting tactics to convert the bite and long story short, we had 20 carp for 70lb, this was enough for second in the match behind Matty and Joss who were on front point and they had 350lb for just over 20 fish. Meh.  It was fun catching up with a few of the old and bold and definitely an experience. Anyway I am going to wrap thei short and sweet blog up now and Iook out for the next one very soon.

My biggest of the match at 10lb!!

Avoiding the blank 19 part 4

First trip away this month was a day session with Jase on the ‘Runs’ water, I had decided to use my long range rods as  had a match coming up where I would have to use them so getting used to playing fish on them seemed like a good idea.  It was an eventful day with plenty of banter and fish, I ended up with 10 carp to 13lb and Jase had a few less, again method feeders seemed to be the better tactic on the day.

My next trip out was with another mate, Dave, to a small group of lakes called the retreat just north of Romsey, they are small and were ornamental ponds now open on a day ticket, I was hoping for some tench or the like but my plans were scuppered very quickly, I started on the float against a tree where I had seen some bubbling as I walked around and within a minute of my treble maggot hitting the bottom I was attached to a small carp.  This continued throughout most of the day, I moved lakes and swims a few times to try and start again and it wasn’t until just on dusk that I managed a double figure carp from in the margins over what groundbait I had left.  I had seen a few better fish throughout the evening as I was floater fishing but it transpired that there had been people fishing for them all weekend before (hence bread in all the margins) and the owner doesn’t understand skylining….. Dave also had quite a few carp and rudd but his biggest was probably 7lb, still it was a fun day out.

It was now mid april and I still had not seen hide nor hair of a tench, I started putting feelers out on some of the club waters to try and get a hint and I was told about a small pond next door to the runs water.  I went out on a Friday night for a look and to be fair with the small size of it I really did not fancy it for a tench of any size so I went bream fishing on the runs water instead.  I started on open end feeders with worm and maggot hookbaits but it was a slower start than I was expecting even with the cracking weather we were experiencing (read strong winds and rain).  Up until 11pm I had had a small carp on double dead maggot and that was it, so I decided to try a switch to the method feeder, I think the line angle was wrong for the paternoster, anyway within 10 minutes I had a 19lb common on the bank and this pattern continued with a steady run of carp until about 3am when I wound the rods in.

19lb 'Runs water' common

Come the morning I fed with a big bait up feeder a small amount of bait and then went straight back over the top and at last some bream started to make an appearance through the carp.  I ended up with 10 carp and a handful of bream to 4lb ish, so not a complete failure.

I was back on the tench hunt the following week again on a water I have fished a few times in the past but has apparently been ottered, long story short I caught some nice rudd on maggot feeders in the afternoon and that was about it, bites stopped when it got dark and the fish never returned, but I did have a pike eat a feeder so that may have had something to do with it.

 My last trip out was again an Army match this time to the Quarry Lake at Baden hall fishery, I had been looking forward to this match for a while as the chances of a big fish are very good providing you can draw on them,  unfortunately for me I failed on that first job.  Andy and I ended up pegged in the bay pegs 17 and 18, over the 48 hours we had a couple of chances and had a few fish on us but it never felt like we came close to be honest, I had a massive liner wipe out a margin rod that saw me wish that I had set it up washing line style even though I was not supposed to.  Oh well sometime rules are sent to try us when we are fishing venues like that.