September catch up

Well it has been over a month since my last post and I thought it was only right if I caught up a bit with what has been going on and it has been a good month.

On the back of the Larford match I went straight back down to my local club lake hunting a few special carp, there had been an unfortunate fish kill over the close season, but I was hoping that there would still be a few fish left to target.  I was right and on my first walk around I could see numbers of bug fat carp moving all around the lake.  I set up in a swim that had a number of fish moving within it, in one spot I counted three fish feeding with another 3 fish cruising around them so that had to have a rod put on it, unfortunately I managed to spook the fish with a clumsy cast and they didn’t reappear.  I fed a spot on a clean bottom and the second spot where I had spooked the carp but no fish were forthcoming, I even witnessed fish spooking off my rigs more than once so something needed to change. 

Although this first session ended in a blank I had learnt a lot and I knew what I needed before my return to the lake in a weeks’ time.

Roll it on a week and after a walk around the lake, I found numbers of fish in the same area as the week before so it was an easy swim choice, this time to make my bait last longer I had decided to feed just one area and I did this as soon as I moved in with 10 spombs of hemp, corn and small boilie.

I had also changed to a fluorocarbon mainline that I was fishing naked style to a lead clip, both rods on the spot it took 40 minutes for my left hand rod to ramp off and I soon had my first carp of this seasons campaign in the net, at just over 17lb I was well happy.

Unfortunately that was the end to the action on that trip after an hour as I struggled to get the fish to go back onto the spot.  I did however, suffer from line bites all night on both rods and after a quick plumb around in the morning I don’t think that I was feeding away from the weed but in it and the liners were from fish feeding or moving through the weed.  I was not a blank but I felt as though I should have had more so the following week I was back for revenge.

This time I moved swim due to there being a meteor storm that would be seen in the north so I set up on the far bank to where I had caught the week before, due to the area that I fancied being stitched I settled for a swim in  the deeper water and went about finding a spot to put the rods on.

About an hour after feeding the swim I had my first bite and a large bream was the first to fall to the trap in broad daylight, this was not a good sign but one of the other guys on the lake took pity on me and told me about a good spot in the swim. Never being one to look a gift horse in the mouth I put a rod onto the new spot for the night with just a small stick on it and went to sleep under the shooting stars wishing for a chunk.

At 4am I felt as though something should have happened and since I was awake I decided to recast the left hand rod with a fresh rig and bag on, twenty minutes later I was landing a bream.  I put the rod back out and fifteen minutes later I was weighing this:

At over 20lb I was well happy but after this again no further Carp were forthcoming although a few bream did have a bit of a feeding spell on the shorter line.

I had discovered that I did not need tons of bait to catch since I had changed my boilie flavour so I had another string to my bow for the next week.

Which brings me to this entry, a week later after walking around the lake again I found some fish up the shallow end again and set up on them, I had hoped to fish in a reedy swim but there was a big snag so to save the worry I moved back into the open water.  This time I spent a bit longer plumbing up to ensure that I was nowhere near the weed and put two small pva bags on top of a gravel hump just beyond where I had caught 2 weeks before.  It was a good plan as again within an hour or so this was sat in the landing net at 16lb:

After that the carp seemed to move away from the area in which I had caught the fish so I set another trap on a gravel spot off to my right, again it didn’t take too long and soon fish number 2 was sat on the unhooking mat.

It weighed in at just over 20lb but its mouth was a mess and I was surprised that I had managed to hook it at all, it was an old injury probably from the days of bent hooks but fortunately it was not stopping the fish from feeding and it was proving the effectiveness of my rigs.

Unfortunately the weather changed that night and I should really have moved to stay on the fish as I only saw one other fish in my swim for the remainder of that stay, but who cares when you had managed two eh?

So to present day and I have not been out this weekend as I am up to something special this week, but more of that when I get back, my Vlogs can be found on my Youtube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCACf5q4fXGAZA5wI_P5Wn8w

I hope that you enjoy them.

What would I have done differently?

I need to become more active and be ready to move onto the fish when there is scope, and lighten up my gear!!  I am also going to go back to using my lighter rods as there is no need for the brutes on the lake.

Tackle used:

Rods: 13ft 3.5lb tc Free spirit CTX

Reels: Shimano 14000 Ultegra XTC

Line: 15lb ESP Syncro loaded changed to 16lb Fox Trans Khaki

Emergency ServicesNational,Larford

I had once again been selected to represent Fosters Team Army in what we know as the Emergency Services National, the team was myself,Gaz, Gaz, Jase and Colin with Boris chasing up after us.  We all met up nice and early and had far too much time to chat about all things fishing and after asmalldelay waiting for breakfast the draw was in full flow.

Iwas going to be sat on Speci Lake peg 32 for the day and as it tuerned out I was the end peg on the Burr bank, always nice to find out after I have walked from the main car park with my kit. AsI turned up there were loads of fish showing at about 50 yards so that would be my main line, I also decided to feed a pellet waggler line, down the edge to my right as there was noone in that dirdction and also a short line.

I was ready for the all in even after a pellet disaster, the 2mms didn't like water, and this cost me 20 minutes and £7 to rectify for sorting 4 pints of pellets.  The cure was to soak the 4mm for 1 minute, drain and then add the 2mm's dry, this made a very nice method mix.
I fed the shortline with a pot of hemp, meat and corn and then sent the methodout to an easy distance and put the line in the clip, I was only going to wait a few minutes for each chuck fot the first hour of the match.  Twenty minutes in and the tip went round with an angry carp on, by keeping the riod low I was soon netting it and sending my pre preppared feeder back out to the spot.  I picked up my catty to feed the waggler line and the tip was around again!! Carp number 2 in the net within 4 minutes was not too shabby and when the third came in just as quickly I thought that I was in for a bumper day, but as quickly as they had turned up they were gone again.  I had a brief look on the waggler and was rewarded with a carp on my deeper rig, but a dfistinct lack of any more indications and with the rain coming in it just didn'tfeel right so it was back out on the method.
 At about the 2 and a half hour mark I had another run of three carp from the method line and I am sure that by using the X-Safe feeder and getting the rig back into the water as quickly as possible was the reason for my landing three carp as others were landing the odd one.  I am pretty sure that a big group of carp were just moving uip and down the lake in front of us as people were catching in turn.
With 2 hours left I started to concentrate on the short line and the margins, this resulted in a couple of small skimmers and 2 smaller carp from the short line and one landed and two lost from down the edge, ithad been quite cold compared to recent times so that may have explaned the lack of fish down my right hand edge.
The all-out was soon upon us though and it was actually a relief, I had managed my target of ten carp and thought that they would weigh around 100lb, or so I was hoping.  I was the first in the section  to be weighed and my 3 nets came to a to total of 84lb 10oz, so my small carp were considerably smaller than I had originally thought.  I got my gear into the van just as another rain shower hit and went back along the lake to help witht he weighing in... as it turned out my weight had been enough to win the 16 peg section so in my mind it was job done, I also think it was the top weight on the lake and I had heard that the top weight off Arena was only arund 30lb so the venue had fished hard all around.
We had a burger and chips waiting for all of us in the clubhouse after the match so that we could compare our woes, and at the results it transpired that the team had done enough for 4th or 5th but it was enough for first in the money so that was a nice surprise.
Thanks to the team running it, as again it was a well run event and thankyou to the friendly stahh at Larford for another warm welcome.

What would I have done differently:

I do not think that Paste down the edge was right so I should have fished paste short, than meat and corn down the edge.  Maybe spend less time thrashing the water to a foam on  the pellet wag and I should have dropped the feeder onto the loose fed line.

Tackle used:

Pole short:

Elastic: Green Colmic hollow

Line: 0.19mm to 0.17mm

Hook: 2 T175

Float: 0.6g Drennan Carp 4

Pole dobbing:

Elastic: blue Colmic

Line: 0.19mm to 0.15mm

Hook: 18 Guru Pellet wag with baitstop

Float: 0.4g Crystal dibber

Pole Margin:

Elastic: 17H yellow

Line: 0.19mm to 0.17mm

Hook: 5 T175

Float: KC Carpa Margin 4X10

Method:

Rod: Drennan 11.5ft medium feeder rod

Reel: Daiwa TDM 4012

Line: 8lb sensor to 0.19mm

Hook: 14 QM1

Feeder: 24g large guru method feeder

Pellet Waggler deep:

Rod: Drennan 12ft Acolyte Carp waggler

Reel: Daiwa TDM 3012

Line: 4lb sensor to 0.19mm

Hook: 16 Guru Pellet wag

Float: 6g Preston thin pellet wag

Pellet Waggler shallow:

Rod: Drennan 11ft Team Daiwa pellet waggler

Reel: Daiwa TDM 3012

Line: 4lb sensor to 0.19mm

Hook: 16 Guru Pellet wag

Float: 3.5g unloaded drennan crystal pellet wag

Royal Signals Championship day 2, 21/07/16

This was a case of the morning after the day before, I was off to a new lake called the Grebe where all I had heard was tales of monsters, so since I had only picked up 3 points the day before I was going to target the aforementioned monsters.

At the draw it soon became clear that some people had golden fingers as all the section winners from the day before pulled out the pegs that the other section winners had had before!!  I had peg 1 in my hand and that was received by lots of groans, by everyone else and I was told as usual that it was a flyer.

I got to my peg and discovered that it actually looked very good, I had a small bay to my right that I would be fishing on the far bank off, there was a nice margin under a tree to my right and loads of open water to my left that was alive with chunky carp.  The plan was a method to the far bank, short pole to the left, margin to the right and I also decided to fish shallow at 13m towards the open water as alot of good sized carp were cruising in the area, being helped by a pleasure angler fishing floaters in front of me.  I also set up a mugging rig as it would have been rude not to.

I had my tackle and bait sorted and ready for the all in and the match started, my day went according to plan almost with around 12 carp coming on the method, although none of them were any size. The margins were a let-down with only crucians to show on paste under the tree. I only had small fish on the short pole as well, but I did manage to mug a couple of bigger carp shallow.

Comer the all-out I reckoned that I had around 120lb of fish and since I was on scales we would find out last, Jenks had been in my section although I had only been able to watch the wrong half section because of where my peg faced, he was admitting to another good day, which to be honest was a bit of a worry.  His nets went 42.750 KG and that was a good net of fish, again he had kept it simple and it had payed off for him.  He was the best weight until we got all the way back to my peg, I was out slightly on my guesstimate though and only weighed 46Kg, so it was still enough to pip Jenks…. Sorry mate.

Overall it was not enough for me to save the two days as both Greg and Craig had perfect 2 point scores , Greg pipped it slightly on weight, then it was Jenks on 3 points, then Kev, Me, Adi and Alfie all tied on 4 points with count back and weight deciding the order.  Greg also took the team trophy with Pez so it was a good championships for him.

Thankyou DJ for running it with you capable team and well done with the last minute change of venue.  Roll on next year now so I can win the trophy for a 4^th time.

What would I do differently?

Shallow fishing was not the way to go on that lake and I spent too much time trying to make it work,that said though I did win my section and come second on the lake so it wasn’t all bad.

Tackle used:

Pole short:

Elastic: Green Clomic

Line: 0.19mm to 0.17mm

Hook: 5 T175

Float: 4X10 Big H paste

Pole dobbing:

Elastic: blue Colmic

Line: 0.19mm to 0.15mm

Hook: 18 Guru Pellet wag with baitstop

Float: 0.4g Crystal dibber

Pole Shallow:

Elastic: blue Colmic

Line: 0.19mm to 0.15mm

Hook: 18 Guru Pellet wag with baitstop

Float: 0.2g Crystal dibber

Pole Margin:

Elastic: 17H yellow

Line: 0.19mm to 0.17mm

Hook: 5 T175

Float: JON Margin Paste 4X12

Method:

Rod: Drennan series 7 10ft carp feeder

Reel: Daiwa TDM 3012

Line: 8lb sensor to 0.19mm

Hook: 14 QM1

Feeder: 24g large guru method feeder