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, 2019 Part 1

So is a new year and I thought that I had better start to resurrect my blog from the perpetual abyss of internet limbo as I have not updated it for a while.  Looking ahead to 2019 I am going to be using this blog to add detail to my Vlog that can be found on You Tube so let’s start with:

Avoiding the Blank 2019 Part 1.

There was a prequel to this video that never made the final cut; I had been on a bit of a recce to my favourite club lake seeing if I could figure out a head start before the weekend as to where I wanted to fish, the answer was yes, the little lake.  After I had completed a full lap of the big lake which included speaking to one of the regular who was drying a weigh sling, I took the time for a quick peek around some of the snags on the little lake.  It was quiet as usual and it was not until I got to a renowned winter area that I saw anything, well I saw 3 common carp 2 that were big 20’s and another that was well…. Massive.  That was my plan all set for the weekend and I knew where I wanted to have a couple of baits sat for the Friday night.

So my first bit of fishing saw me setting up on the opposite bank to where I had seen the fish, the main reason being that it incorporated casting to the front of some snags so if I was fishing locked up opposite I stood a better chance of extracting the carp.  I had swapped back to 16lb Illusion Trans Kaki fluorocarbon as mainline for this fact as it has considerably less stretch and more abrasion resistance than mono. I fished an aggressive but basic bottom bait rig on both the rod cast to the snags and my other rod that was fishing a sandy bar in the middle of the lake. The night passed without incident but in the morning a fish was fizzing up beyond my open water rod, I tried a quick cast at it with a lighter lead but it did not like that and ghosted away.  Before I left I checked the area in question and it seemed to be new weed growth, which I thought was strange in late December.

My next trip was Christmas Eve and I was doing a day session with my mate, Dave.  I did have a cheeky look at the little lake but we decided to go on the big lake in the end, we set up on a point in t deeper end of the lake as it was a cold and bleak looking December day, I had seen a fish show before Dave got there but it was at the other end of the lake so we thought that we could chase them later.  As it turned out there was not a lot moving on the big lake until the afternoon and although we were casting at showing fish and also fishing on known spots no action was forthcoming during the day.  I even moved further up the lake chasing the fish later in the day but it seemed like the fish were backing off the leads.

It was few days until my next visit and I was back down onto the little lake to start, I had managed to wangle an 8pm start with the boss so I turned up onto the little lake and put the rods out onto the wrapped spots in the dark. Again it was a quiet night with nothing to show for my efforts, I did not even see anything in the morning period this time so morale was low.  I had to collect a parcel at lunchtime so I popped off and did that, when I returned I had a look on the Big lake.  As I mooched up the north bank I saw numbers of fish, some bream but a few carp in the shallow water at the top end of the lake, this was enough for me and I was soon setting up in an area that I felt gave me a good chance of a bite as the fish moved up and down the lake. As I was setting up I could see a large silt area in front of me and there were fish moving across it almost constantly, the down side of this spot was the fact that it was swan depth water so I was unable to feed until after dark.  I cast small bags of maggots with small pop up hook baits one into the weed and one onto the silt but at the end of my session even after a few recasts and trying zigs of various lengths I had managed just 1 liner. I found this amazing considering the amount of fish that I had seen.

My next trip out was a day only session on New Year’s Eve, so I went down to another club lake near Romsey called Nightingale that has a few more fish per acre in it, they go to 20lb but average upper singles and low doubles, so I had packed my 2.75lb rods and a new toy that I shall talk about more in a minute. I have fished tis lake a few times in the past and I know that one of the hot spots consists of casting under the far bank foliage, so one rod was set up under there and the other was sent into open water towards the island. Both rods were rigged with naked helicopters, Ronnie rigs with size 6 Barbless Krank hooks and 12mm pop ups.  The reason for this being that the bottom of the lake is silty in places so by using these rigs I should be able to present a rig anywhere on the lake.  It was a good start to the day and I had 4 carp to about 10lb before lunch, it was at this point that I decided to have some fun though and set up the float rod.  I baited a few margin spots in the narrow part of the lake, a couple under trees and one next to some lillie’s and I was confident that at least one should give me some action.  After resting the swims whilst I ate some lunch I tried the first couple against the trees and found them to be very snaggy and full of very small fish so I was soon moving into the lilly swim. 

It was not long after getting into the swim that I had a positive lift on the float but I pulled a little hard and lost the fish due to a hook pull.  Even with all the disturbance it did not take long for signs of feeding fish to appear in the swim again and I soon hooked and landed two carp on the light float tackle, it was great fun and I will be trying to use that tactic more often in the new year. As I only had a couple of hours before I had to get home for another delivery I went back to the main swim and managed another 3 carp before having to leave, all out from under the far bank trees. Once again that small club lake had delivered with a great days sport.

New Year’s Day saw a last-minute change in my plan and I was soon driving across Salisbury Plain towards Shearwater, the reason for this being the fact that my new long range rods had been delivered the day before and I needed to try them out.  I was lucky when I turned up and I managed to get onto the area of the lake known as the lawns, this looks into the deepest bowl of the lake and gives access to a lot of open water which was ideal for what I wanted to do.  I used the deeper to get an idea of the depth of the swim and also to see if there were any fish in front of me and once that was done I was able to start fishing.  The plan was simple, 20+ wraps feeding sloppy spod mix and fishing zigs underneath, I am not going to go into too much detail as it has been covered to death by lots of other people.  The day however, was slow possibly due to the hundreds and hundreds of people who had decided to go for a walk, I managed a small 3-4lb carp within the first hour and then had another foul hooker about lunchtime.  It was still a good day on the kit trying front though and I knew that I would have to work on my casting to get the best out of the rods as they are a foot longer than I have been fishing of late.

I had planned for another whole day on the bank on the Wednesday as well but as I woke up there was a cheeky ground frost and I didn’t really fancy it, I did have to pop out and grab some bait late in the day so I packed the float rod as well and decided to try Barnmoor lake at Witherington farm for a couple of hours.  I did not last long there though as although I was on carp the numbers of small fish made fishing maggot difficult and I hooked and lost several small fish before landing a 6 oz roach on a size 10 hook and 4 maggots.  I decided to pop back down to Nightingale lake and I was soon walking around its banks priming a few spots that looked good for a bite, as the weather was still cold I had decided to concentrate on the car park end as I felt it was slightly more sheltered from the cold wind.  It took a while but I finally managed to extract a carp from one of the swims and at 6lb I was very happy. 

My final trip over the festive break was off to Brasenose 2 on the linear complex, I went with my mate Jase, he wanted to get onto St Johns but as we turned up it was looking very busy in the areas we wanted to get into so we had a look around B-2.  As we were driving around the bowl a guy was packing up from on the beach swim in the bowl, I had a quick chat and it turned out that he had managed a couple of fish on his first night so it was looking better than some other places.  We moved in and to cut a long story short we should have stayed at home, I was fishing a couple of spots at 30+wraps and discovered on the last morning that it was littered with snags, I think I got done into one with very little indication.  Jase was fishing closer and had a dropped take at about 8pm but that was it really, I cannot say much more.  In hindsight we should have gone onto St Johns or Hardwicks but hindsight is the best angler I know.

Shearwater Practice

So I have a match coming up on Shearwater soon and I thought that a days practice on my normal match kit was in order, Bri was in the same mind so a date was set that we would meet up and give it a go.

We decided to fish along the road bank around the triangle as it is an area where a few bream weights had been coming out of lately, mostly at range.  I had already decided that I would be fishing a longish range method so I was quickly set up with my one rod to start with, the rig was a simple 45g Guru Hybrid feeder with a 0.19mm hooklength and a size 14 hook with a bayonet on the hair.  This was so that I could mount my boilie hookbait easily, my feed bait was a mix of pellet and some secret additives that I was hoping that the fish would like.

I was fishing before Bri, but it wasn’t as quick as I thought it was going to be, it took around half an hour for my first bite but then they started to come with a bit of regularity and most casts I was bringing in a bream of between 1 and 3lb in weight. I was experimenting with the bait around the feeder and the hookbait colour and to be honest I don’t think it made a lot of difference as Bri barely 10 meters away could not buy a bite.  Now, I was fishing clipped up at 72 meters at this time, I know this as I had used my distance sticks at the beginning to ensure accuracy, to see if it was the distance that was giving me the bites I got off my box and set up a rod to fish closer, well 50 meters to be precise, again clipped up on the distance sticks. 

It was around 12 o’clock at this point and I had 20 bream under my belt in around 3 and a half hours fishing, first cast and the tip flew round and I struck at a massive liner, same on the second cast and on the third I had a skimmer of about a pound and a half.  I was getting worried but I was soon back on status quo with decent bream coming in one a chuck although it was taking them longer to find it.

I gave the short line a couple of hours or so and managed 8 bream on it, I even tried the big wag over the top of it for a10 minutes to see if there was anything lurking in the surface layers but the answer was no.  (Bri was a bit shocked when I was fishing a waggler on his feeder line thoughJ)  Back to the long line and the fish were still there and it was steady away, the fishing had slowed so I went out to 80 meters and again had a couple of quick bream before they seemed to back off, but by this time it  was getting dark and time to go home.

It had been a very good day with plenty learnt and plenty of casting practice, I ended up on 35 bream to Bris 8, whether that was the distance, swim or bait we are not too sure as I was catching on my shorter line quicker than Bri so it may have just been where I was sat.

I am looking forward to the match now and there is a high probability that I may be back soon.

What would I do differently?

I should have started short and then pushed out longer and I wish that I had tried the waggler short with either maggot or corn, always next time.

Tackle used:

Feeder long:

Rod: Browning Black Viper 13S

Reel: Shimano Ultegra 5500 xtd

Line: 8lb sensor, 0.19mm powerline hooklength

Hook: 14

Feeder: 45g Guru Hybrid

Feeder shorter:

Rod: Drennan Matchpro medium feeder at 11.5ft, 2oz Glass tip

Reel: Daiwa 4012 TDM

Line: 6lb Drennan feeder and method, 0.19mm powerline hooklength

Hook: 14

Feeder: 36g Guru Hybrid

Waggler:

Rod: Drennan Acolyte Carp wag 12ft

Reel: Daiwa 3012 TDM

Line: 4lb sensor, 0.17mm powerline hooklength

Hook: 14

Float: 14g Drennan XL pellet wag

Shearwater Match, 24/2/16

So it was another days leave so that I could go to Shearwater and fish a match run by my mate Mark, so after a quick pit stop for breakfast and a pretty easy run down I was soon at the draw paid in and ready to go.  We had a pair of carp anglers turn up as we were gathered in the car park, but they found a gap on the dam wall so it was not as bad as it could have been.  I spent most of my time trying to get into Johns head after the trouncing that he had given me last week, I also fancied drawing on the road bank as I wanted to try and fish at range all day, well I got my wish and peg 9 was my destination for the day. 

It was basically the peg that Pez had won the group match from a fortnight ago so I was confident of a few fish, my confidence increased when I had John drop into the peg to my left and Gary to my right, so the same three people adjacent to each other two weeks on the bounce.   I at least knew that there would be some fish about with these two around.  I went about setting up a cage feeder rod and method rod both clipped up at the same number of turns, I decided to start at 65 turns (68 meters ish) and I would see where I would go from there.

This time I was almost ready for the all in, unlike Gary, and I was soon sat on the method for no indications in the first 30 minutes, a swap to the cage feeder was no better and I found an early foe in the form of a light breeze into our bank that was making hitting the clip accurately difficult when it gusted.  The banter was in full flow along the bank which was handy as unless you were Mark the fishing certainly wasn’t.  Mark had a great start to the match with about 10 bream in nearly as many casts. For the rest of us though it was a bit slower but they soon started to get caught and I soon had two in the net both taken on double dead red on the cage feeder. John and Gary were also catching odd fish but I was slipping behind so I decided to change to the method, this had the desired effect with two quick fish that were both of a very good average size, but I was soon left scratching my head again.

It was quite obvious that it was not just me struggling with the breeze as almost everyone along our bank had cracked off once, (some more than that hey John!) and it was at this point that I decided to concentrate on the method for the remainder of the match as it was easier to accurately hit the mark. I swapped my 14ft rod to the method to make it easier and added 5 turns of line to the cast.

The result although not instant was promising with another 3 fish coming at between 7 and 9 minutes after the feeder had hit the bottom, I also found that a 6mm yellow dumbbell was getting me all my bites, but Gary had been catching well and John was close on 8 smaller fish and some back up silvers.  With about an hour to go I decided to go balls out and try to snag a carp, they had been boshing at range so I unclipped the feeder and unleashed it.

In this time John had a few more bream 6-7 and Gary had about the same to give him 20 bream plus backup silvers, I unfortunately managed only 1 bream in the last hour and didn’t see hid or hair of the carp I was after, I had wasted the best part of the day on a pipedream and knew it.  The all out was called and I decided that no matter what I was staying on to try and get a carp.  As the scales came down John was the first of our little pocket to weigh and he had managed 32lb, my 8 bream went 24lb!! I would have only needed three more of my stamp fish to put John in trouble!  Gary had 50lb dead, and this was enough to give him 3^rd in the match as well.  I paid the double nugget to john….Grudgingly.

Thankyou Mark for an excellent couple of days on the bank, I look forward to trying to do it again next year, well done to Steve for winning with 80lb, and Rob for 2^nd with 61lb.

What would I do different?

Although I think I had the right idea I should have fished a line at 60 meter to start as this would have been easier to cast to and I could have worked on my accuracy and building the swim.  Once again chasing the fish didn’t work, Gary plugged away on the same line as for most of the day and John regretted trying longer.  So the moral is again pick an easy distance and stick to it the bream will come.

Tackle used:

Feeder Cage:

Rod: Browning Black Viper 14ft Feeder rod, 3 and 4oz quiver.

Reel: Shimano CI4 Ultegra 5500

Line: 0.205mm Colmic feeder line 0.13mm hooklength

Hook: 16 QM1

Feeder: 40g small Kevin Leech feeder later swapping to a Large 42g Guru Hybrid feeder with Black elastic

Feeder method:

Rod: Browning Black Viper 13ft (S) Feeder rod, 4oz quiver.

Reel: Shimano CI4 Ultegra 5500

Line: 8lb sensor to 0.19mm hooklength

Hook: 14 QM1

Feeder: Large 42g Guru Hybrid feeder with Black elastic

Shearwater Match, 17/2/16

I had taken leave for today so there was no surprise when the weather man predicted rain all day, I stopped off at the Golden Arches for breakfast and had a trouble free run down to the lake, so I was around 45 minutes early!  I started to bump into some friendly faces including my old mate John from Blandford, and as we were catching up Mark collared us to peg the road bank….again. On the bright side we did find the peg that was left behind last week on the army match, oh and a new feeder for me.

As ever it was soon time for the draw and there were more than a few known faces within the draw queue, I managed to get my grubby mit into the box and pulled out peg 22 and this put me onto the peg to the right from where I was last week on the lawns. Coincidently John had pulled out peg 23, so a quid side bet was waged and banter was guaranteed.

As you can see it is a popular swim  so there was tons of mud so with that and the weather forecast I decided to only take kit out of the van if it was going to get used to try and keep some of my kit a little dryer and cleaner. I set up 3 feeder rods and prepped some pellet, dead maggot and groundbait and then faffed around for the next 30 minutes so I was just ready for the all in.

As it was a 6 hour match the plan was to catch a carp long and then put a hit of bait in on the shorter line and then empty the lake of fish, the reality was a bit different with no indications on the long line for the first 15 minutes, then I fed 6 feeders on the short line and went long for another pointless 15 minutes.  By this time John on my right had managed a roach and now a skimmer, so I came in on my short line and proceeded to have a frustrating hour with only a missed rattle to show for it. Then about an hour and a half in the tip rocked and I pulled into fish number one, but a couple of seconds later it dropped off and I was left cursing my luck, fortunately a few minutes later I had a positive drop back and Bream number 1 was soon nestled in the landing net. 

John by this time was on number 4, and I was struggling to be fair, I had another spell of missed bites and liners so I decided to put the method out onto the short line, this resulted in 3 fish in about a 45 minute spell, but then I decided to put some bait in and then fish long for a while as I needed a miracle to get back up on the fish count.

I cracked off the topping up feeder on my third cast so went long for thirty minutes with no indications. During this time I had set the open end feeder rod back up and run it back out the 12 wraps to be in line with where John was fishing, by this time he was motoring and on around 20 bream!

Back on it I tried with the standard feeder again for 30 minutes and I managed a fish on it with a positive pull round, and a swap to the method in the last 30 got me another and I dropped one with 5 minutes to go so that was the end of my day.

It had been miserable, the guy on the end peg to my right had managed a carp and a handful of skimmers for 21lb, then there was a 20lb weight, then John with 58lb, I had 6 bream for 14lb?ish and then Gary the dark horse on the next peg had managed 5 bream but some clonking great roach for another 20lb bag, all on the feeder and bomb.

John won the match and Ben from the road bank had 2^nd with 57lb, then there were a few 30lb bags and the rest, the dam wall fished hard with 18lb winning that section.

So I owe John a quid as I didn’t have one in my pocket, fortunately we are going double or quits next week, lets hope I don’t blow another flyer.

What would I do different?

Next time If I draw there I will pick a line and concentrate on the one line as the fish seem to be concentrated in that area anyway so trying to cast to the horizon is casting over the majority of them.

Tackle used:

Feeder Long:

Rod: Browning Black Viper 14ft Feeder rod, 4oz quiver.

Reel: Shimano CI4 Ultegra 5500

Line: 0.205mm Colmic feeder line 0.18mm hooklength

Hook: 14 QM1

Feeder: Large 42g Guru Hybrid feeder with Black elastic

Feeder Short standard:

Rod: Drennan Medium feeder at 12.5ft, 2oz tip.

Reel: Daiwa TDM 3012

Line: 6lb Maxima 0.13mm hooklength

Hook: 16 QM1

Feeder: 30g small Kevin Leech feeder, used a large to top up still 30g

Feeder short Method:

Rod: Drennan Medium feeder at 12.5ft, 2oz tip.

Reel: Daiwa TDM 3012

Line: 6lb Maxima 0.19mm hooklength

Hook: 14 QM1

Feeder: Small Guru Hybrid feeder, Black elastic

AAF Gp2 Match 4, Shearwater

Today was a momentous day for me as it was my first ever match on Shearwater, now I have been against this match since it was first suggested last year, my reasons are based around the size of our group and how much water we would require if everyone was to have a good day, also the venue doesn't shut to pleasure anglers so pegging could have been a nightmare.

My day unfolded a bit like this, I picked Craig up at dark o’clock and after a bit of breakfast at Maccy D’s we were soon looking at an empty Shearwater, that was my first worry dealt with so we cracked on with pegging as best we could for 45 anglers.  We were trying to avoid using the areas with fewer fish in so a lot of people were getting sardine especially along the better road bank, but that was a small price to pay as the other option would have been more blank nets.

Pegging went without a hitch, although the last two pegs and first two were a bit of a worry, but that’s fishing, Craig and I got sorted in the car park and bar one nice guy asking where was available for him to fit in and pleasure fish the draw went without a hitch as well.  Well apart from having lost the die of doom so we had to improvise with golf balls.  Craig had C8 pulled out for him and fortunately I had C9 pulled out by Pez for me which was handy.

As usual it was open water fishing so the plan was chuck a method long and see what would happen for the first 15-30 minutes then decided whether or not to feed any bait on the shorter 45 turn line. It didn’t take long to set the rods up from scratch so I also put up a waggler to fish at about 20m to the left of the swim, I tried it several times and didn’t get a touch.

My bait was 1 part 2mm pellet, 1 part 4mm pellet, 2 parts groundbait and 2 parts water that I mixed as soon as I got to my peg, I made a similar mix so that I could put a quantity of bait onto the short line if I decided to do so.

I was ready for the all in just and as Craig called it I launched the long range rod to around 80 yards and started the stopwatch, I was hoping for an early carp but after 5 minutes I had to settle for a 2lb skimmer, not a lot seemed to be happening around the lake so I decided to lay a small bed of feed on the shorter line, only six big feeders but it was laced with 2mm pellet and dead maggot.  Then it was back onto the long line for another hour or so, I was leaving the feeder in for 15 minutes at a time and on my third cast just close to me winding in the tip went around again.  Bream number two was soon in the net but by now Craig had managed a couple of Bream and a carp on his shorter line so I decided to have a look with the open end feeder.  To be honest not a lot happened over the next couple of hours, I rotated through all my rigs on all lines and Craig had a few more bream off the next peg I wasn't too sure what else was happening as it was a struggle to see but one of the guys to my right came around for a quick chat.  He said that a couple of them were on about 10lb but that he had managed a quick run of fish straight after putting a hit of bait in, so as he left I fed another 6 feeders on my short line and followed it straight up with the open ended feeder. It took three minutes for the first bite that was a Hybrid of about 2lb and the next cast it took the full 5 minutes that I was leaving the rig in for now, but then the swim went quiet.  There was an hour remaining now and Craig was on seven Bream to go with his Carp, since there was a quid on it this was the only part of the match that mattered.  I decided to look beyond the feed so I lengthened my feeder rod to twelve and a half feet and took 5 yards off the reel before re clipping it.

This definitely worked as the next five casts saw me hook 5 bream and land 4; one came off when I hit the bite a little early, something I have always struggled with to be honest.  Craig was worried for a few minutes but as quickly as the run started, it finished, and even adding more line and casting around the area didn’t yield any more fish.  With 15 minutes to go I unclipped the long rod and spanked it as far as I could, this later turned out to be just over 100 yards, but it stayed motionless to the end, were as Craig managed a few more bream in the last 30 minutes, much to my despair.

The scales showed that Bri to my right had managed 13kilo+, Craig had 14Kg and Mike on the dam wall had 15kg, he did have a 5kg carp that he managed to extract on his roach rig as well so good angling there mate.  My 8 Bream went 10kg and a bit that was enough to squeak 4^th in section, Pez managed to win the match from the road bank with 19kg and Pete also had 5kg so all of the team had caught which was more than could be said for some people. 

It had been a nice day for Craig and I sat in the sun with the wind deflected by a large tree, the road bank and dam wall looked to take the brunt of the cold wind, unfortunately there were a lot of DNW’s but that’s winter bream fishing I am afraid.  I learnt a few bits on this match that should sort me out for the next couple of Wednesday matches where I am off to Shearwater again on a couple of friendly matches.

What would I do different?

I wish I had clocked the hit of feed earlier, I was aware of it, but I feel as though I was quite lack lustre trying to get the shorter line to work today, I also think that I should have plumbed up a bit more on the tip as my original short line was very rocky, which is possibly why the method didn’t work there.

Tackle used:

Feeder Long:

Rod: Browning Black Viper 14ft Feeder rod, 4oz quiver.

Reel: Shimano CI4 Ultegra 5500

Line: 8lb sensor 0.18mm hooklength

Hook: 14 QM1

Feeder: Large 42g Guru Hybrid feeder with Black elastic

Feeder Short standard:

Rod: Drennan Medium feeder at 11.5ft to start but extended to 12.5ft later in the day, 2.5oz tip.

Reel: Daiwa TDM 3012

Line: 6lb Maxima 0.19mm hooklength

Hook: 16 QM1

Feeder: 30g small Kevin Leech feeder, used a large to top up still 30g

Feeder short Method:

Rod: Drennan Medium feeder at 11.5ft.

Reel: Daiwa TDM 3012

Line: 6lb Maxima 0.19mm hooklength

Hook: 14 QM1

Feeder: Small Guru Hybrid feeder, Black elastic

Waggler:

Rod: Drennan Acolyte 14ft.

Reel: Daiwa TDM 2508

Line: 0.16mm Mainline, 0.1mm hooklength

Hook: 18 B911 F1 QM1

Float: Dave Harrell 3AA sensilite waggler, only two no9 shot down the line.

Shearwater Practice

I had a spare place in the van and Craig hadn’t fished Shearwater before so off we went.  I gave him the grand tour before we started to set up on the road bank opposite the lawns area, the reasoning being that there was decent depth in that area and the weather had been colder of late. I decided that I would mostly be practicing the long range method and clipped my long range outfit up at 75 turns of my reel, this equalled approximately 87 yards (Big reel), and my bait was 50:50 groundbait and pellet in a 45g Guru Hybrid feeder.  I cast the rod out as I started to set up my waggler rod for later and as I was treading the tip section the rod went round with an angry carp attached.  It put up a good account for itself but was no match for the gear that I was using and a low double was soon nestling in the net, I would have got a photo but I dropped it whilst trying to show it off, Ha poetic justice I suppose.  No harm was done to the fish as it landed in a foot of water and was swimming as it touched the water.

Back to the fishing Craig and I had been joined by Pete before this and the other two were raring at the bit after my early success, and soon we were all getting stuck into the massive bream stocks within the lake, the other two were catching a lot of fish and their clickers soon showed that they had turned me over so I set up a shorter range method rod and started a new line. Again the fish were quick to respond and I was soon keeping up with the other two, but even though it was just for fun the bragging rights would have required a monumental effort on my behalf.

We all steadily caught and we all tried our short pole or waggler line with no bites for any of us, which was a surprise, back to the long range rod though I had another quick carp and then decided to put on a head cam for a couple of hours, the video can be found below.

Shearwater Practice

All in  all it was a great day, Bragging rights went to Craig followed by Pete both with over 90lb on their clickers, mine read 70lb but I had managed to try some things out and also tested my long range rods against each other.

What would I do differently?

As I have a group match coming up soon on the venue I would have to say use strawberry crabsticks as bait because that’s what Craig told me he was on?!?!?!?  Seriously not a lot I need to work on my accuracy at range so I can see a few more trips down there in the near future, I am also going to add some more weight to a couple of feeders to see if I can get that extra 10 yards.

Tackle used:

Feeder Long:

Rod:  Browning Black Viper 14 or 13ft

Reel: Shimano Ci4 Ultegra 5500 XTC

Line: 8lb sensor mainline, 0.19mm hooklength

Hook: 14 QM1 with a baitband

Feeder: 45g Guru Hybrid with black hydro

Feeder Short:

Rod:  Drennan 12ft 6inch Medium feeder

Reel: TDM 4012

Line: 8lb sensor mainline, 0.19mm hooklength

Hook: 14 QM1 with a baitband

Feeder: 36g Guru Hybrid with black hydro

Wagler:

Rod: Drennan Acolyte 14ft

Reel: Daiwa TDM 2508

Line: 0.18mm Supplex to 0.10mm hooklength

Hook: 20 B560

Float: 3BB Dave Harrell Insert waggler

Shearwater in the Angling Times

Please follow this Link to see the article.

Holidays Catch up

Well as the title says this is a bit of a catch up from the last couple of weeks, after the Todber Christmas match a few things have happened that have not been for the better but I have managed to get out on the bank quite a lot (when the wife has been at work!!)

I started on a trip along the K&A canal chasing carp and trying to become a video blogger, I had now decided to concentrae on some pounds in the town itself as it is walking distance from my house, thus saving time and fuel.  The first trip saw me sat on a likely looking swim with an overhanging tree.

The carp had other ideas and it was a blank with nothing seen or heard but I learnt a bit about the day to day life on that stretch of canal so was ready for the next time.

Travelling light was the key as it was a 25 minute walk.

My next trip out was on Christmas day to take the wife for a walk and to do a cheeky pre-bait on a few spots, it was a nice walk with plenty to see.

I was back down the canal a couple of days later to fish over the pre-baited spots and I managed to get 3 bites and loose all three even after diving in to try and free one of the carp from the snag it was wrapped around. I will say at this point thanks to the lady who was trying not to laugh too much as I froze in the 4 degrees water, it is NOT reccomended that you just jump in to a canal to free a fish, I thought I may have a chance of getting it un looped from the snag it was in but I was wrong and it could have gone pear shaped very quickly.  Anyway it was the lowest I have felt in a long time to have finnally found the fish just to loose 3 and the weather decided to try and cheer me up by snowing at dusk, it failed.

I was out again a few days later this time with Jim on a trip to Todber manor, we had decided to fish Wadmill so I could chuck a couple of carp rods out and hopefully get a bite whilst he fished the pole, we didn’t however count on the weather.

We decided to fish even with the ice and Jim managed to put a few small fish together fishing maggot on the pole, I tried everything I could but didn’t feel as though I was anywhere near where the carp would be.

In hindsight I should have smashed a channel out into the middle of the lake as soon as we got there and then gone for a walk smashing more ice with the breaker to try and get the fish moving around.  Might have worked?? (might also have annoyed a few people!!)

It was a nice day out with good company all the same, Jim was soon bagging with the best of them and I managed to get a go on his box and show him how to catch quicker (and avoid another blank).

Next stop was back up to Shearwater with Daz and Ben, they were setting up on the dam wall as I arrived and even after I asked if we could go to where I thought would be better for the carp we ended up sitting on the wall. I was a bit perturbed as I had packed my longer range carp gear with me and a quick marker up in front gave me depths of 23-25 feet.  I decided that zigs would be the way to go and set up a couple of Zig floats, I spodded out some cloudy groundbait with a little bit of food at 60yds but only managed a couple of bream and hybrids on them.

Daz and Ben both managed to catch a few bream and I even bumped into Rob Hughes as he was drop shotting for perch, it was another good day with plenty of banter…well mostly me moaning about being sat on the dam wall but never mind.

This takes me up to my latest trip which saw me going up to a new complex of club lakes looking for some very special carp, I fished for about 24 hours on one of the lakes for one liner and a few bubbling fish and I took a tour of the others.

It looks good and I cannot wait to get back up there especially since I learnt far more walking around the lakes talking to people rather than sitting behind motionless bobbins.

Until the next time my last 3 solo carp trips can all be found at this link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1EqN4Ee5ug

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZUyL9JTLvU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JL-PvZBZLT8

Shearwater day out, 22/12/14

After my bad day at Todber I had arranged to meet up with Daz at Shearwater to get rid of some bait, with a stiff westerly forecast I got there early to reserve a couple of slightly more sheltered swims opposite the boathouse.

I had decided to fish a groundbait feeder at around 30yds but those plans were scuppered when I broke my quiver tip on the third cast, I wasn't happy. Fortunatly I had brought a few spare rods so I banged a banjo feeder out 65 turns of my Ultegra 5500XTC, the hook was baited with 3 dead reds and it didn't take long for the fist bream to hang itself on the 45g feeder.

I got bored of this after the 4th Bream and decided to set up a waggler to get rid of all the spare maggot that I had, I used a 14ft Acolyte rod, a 4AAA insert waggler with 5 No.8's down the line in 6 feet of water.  I decided to fish quite heavy due to the hoped for bream and had a 0.10mm hooklength to a size 18 B911 F1, I threw in a few balls of my groundbait that I had mixed for the feeder and then started loose feeding maggot over the top, all the time I was fishing the long range feeder for a few more bream and a shallow wag at 40yds to no avail.

It was soon time and out went the waggler baited with double maggot, I missed the first couple of indications but hen hit this pearler of a roach:

After that it was near enough a bit a chuck and the trick became hitting them in the choppy conditions, I found that I could miss a bite at the back of the feed and then get a skimmer at the front and I soon got into the swing of things. I was also having to feed two whole pouches of maggot to keep the fish down in the water.

Daz was also having a great day and he ended up with 31 bream to 4lb all taken on the method feeder in line with the buoys, I don't know how many I caught in the end but I had roach to over a pound, perch to a pound, a few rudd and lots of bream to 4lb all on the waggler I also managed a dozen bream of 3-4lb all on the long range feeder.  As I was packing up my kit I started a new line at 85 turns and had a few off this as well, no carp though.

Once again Shearwater has come good and I cannot wait until I go back, I might even try the pole!!