Avoiding the blank 19 part 2

After the last hard session on linear Jase and I decided to go somewhere a bit easier to fish and a plan was hatched to visit Todber Manor the next weekend, Jase was there first and secreted himself onto little Hayes so once I finished work I drove up to join him.  To be fair my heart wasn’t in it and I would have been much rather blanking on the little lake, but I was there so I gave it a go.  My main attack was a variety of maggot rigs and small bags of

maggots during the daylight hours and then I switched to zigs before I went to bed.  Jase had our only real action at about 10pm with a 14lb carp but to be fair we were not sat in the best pegs and we had missed the chance to get on them so it was our own fault.  Needless to say I blanked and went home with my tail firmly between my legs.

The next weekend it was back to the club lakes, I did a lap around the little lake and saw nothing so I decided to have a look up the north bank of the big lake and a bit of a think, I came across numbers of fish moving around towards the shallower end of the lake so I decided to give it a go on the big lake for the night.  Maggot rigs and small bags of maggots were fished on a silty area and also on a gravel spot I knew of and I awaited the night’s events.  I managed to land a bream and drop another bream in the night and the morning was far less eventful, in hindsight I should have sat on the little lake as that was playing on my mind again all night but I will never learn.

My next session was a fortnight later due to a spot of snow and work, I had decided by this time that a fruit machine tactic should be the way to get a bite from the little lake so I had earmarked an area that I fancied for the fish to start moving over once they decided to wake up.  I set my stall out in the swim and had 1 rod on a short range spot and the other across the far bank as I believe that it might be good for an opportunist bite across there.  Long story short was that I put 6 spombs of maggot and crushed boilie over both area and then sat back, I may have had a liner in the night but cannot be sure, the rods stayed out all night until it was time to go home and prep for next week.

Next trip was a Wednesday afternoon where I managed to get a few hours in, same area, almost the same bait as I was trying something new but no indications or signs in my short time on the bank. However I was back 2 days later on Friday, again same swim and tactics but nothing to show for my efforts, not even a sign.  I must be honest that by this point even I was questioning my sanity, but I was now targeting 1 fish so had the fish the lake it is in.

The following week it was turning into groundhog day, same swim, same tactics although this time I had 2 nights at my disposal, I may have seen a carp on the first morning at about 10am but it was hard to tell as it was a small movement under the far bank trees, but I put a rig on it just in case.  And again on the last morning as a small working group from the club I was involved in was walking around we saw what was probably a carp in one of the corners, just a swirl and some fizzing but it was hope.

That week saw a lot of plans change and I decided that it would be a good time to start a new adventure with Jase, he had already joined a club that was closer to work so I decided to join him.  My first trip was a Thursday night to Saturday lunchtime and I had the first night to myself, on turning up at the lake that Jase had suggested I managed to get a good look around and decided to settle in the shallow end for a couple of hours and to get a feel for the place. 

I had seen a few fish behind an island but the water there was only a couple of feet deep and I did not expect the fish to stay there.  I was using method feeders on carp gear for a start and after a couple of hours I was getting itchy feet, since I was one of only 2 people on the complex I set my deeper up and went for a plumb around the lake looking for any interesting features.  I found a few and I also found a pod of large fish tucked away towards a snaggy corner, so at 10pm I was soon moving my kit around to a new swim. 

The new swim was up a narrow arm of the lake and by using my 18m baiting pole I was able to place my 2 rods in likely looking area with the minimum amount of disturbance, I was soon settling down for the night. I was woken up a couple of times with big liners on my left hand rod, but nothing materialised and come the morning I was feeling quite deflated that nothing had happened.

Jase turned up mid-morning and this coincided with me moving swims one hop to my right, I had seen a fair bit of fizzing up against some bushes on the far bank so I thought that it was worth a shot and moved expecting it to be better the next morning. 
We went off for a bit of stalking in the afternoon and found a few fish in the shallows, but they had obviously seen bread before as I dropped a bit of flake in front of one and it near enough ran out of the bay screaming for its mum!!  We settled in for the night, Jase in a swim that he had fished before and I sat next to him, I had changed my rigs to naked helicopters by this point and at about midnight I got done, Jase on the other hand had 17lb and 15lb commons for his efforts.  

Late in the evening another of the club members tipped up and managed a 10lber in the early evening so even though he was fishing 4 rods in every available swim I had still messed something up and I needed a change.

I was next out the following Wednesday having decided to start focusing on other species and trying to enjoy my fishing again as chasing carp had become a bit of a chore to be fair, I went on to a water that I know has a number of tench to over 7lb but average a lot smaller and thought that I could try out some new specialist rods.  I was fishing helicopter feeder rigs and over the course of a reasonably short session had my fires stoked by a few small skimmers and rudd, but it had been great fun and a plan was getting hatched for the weekend.

Friday night I got down to the big lake a bit later than usual due to vehicle problems but I was soon setting up in open water in an area where I have caught my target species before, bream.  The target was a 6 pound bream but I had heard rumours of larger getting caught by some of the carp anglers so there was always a chance of a surprise.  I found a silt gully beside a gravel bar and tried to feed 2 pints of particle mix (dead maggot, pellet and corn) as accurately as I could through the spod in the strengthening wind.  I started with 2 paternoster rigs over the baited spot, one on worm and the other fishing dead maggot on the hook, but by 9 pm and with no signs I decided to swap one rod onto a method feeder and ping it into the middle of the lake where I had an inkling that there may be some fish holding up.

I was proved right as an hour later the baited area rod was away, as I picked the rod up I could tell it was a decent fish and a few minutes later I was slipping the net under a very decent looking bream.  As I was in the process of sorting the scales and camera the other rod was away as well and this was another slightly smaller bream, what a start to the campaign.  I weighed the second fish first and it was 6lb 8oz, a sfew quick snaps and then it was the bigger fishes turn, it pulled the scales down to 8lb 10oz and was only 2 ounces under the lake record!!  That was it I would have been happy packing up then which is just as well as I didn’t get any more signs throughout the night, I was up early though and I saw a few carp showing off to the left in the area that I had had the bream on the method the night before.  As the bream tend to hang around with the carp the method was dispatched back out in that area, I kept working the main spot but with no signs, then about 10 minutes after I had recast the method the rod pulled up tight and I was away.

As soon as I lifted into the fish I knew it was a carp, I started to worry straight away about the size 12 hook and 8lb mainline but it was very well behaved apart from swimming straight into and then out off a large snag down the left of my swim. After a bit of messing about under the rod tip a LARGE carp was nestled into the landing net and to say I was happy was a massive understatement.  It weighed 32lb 12oz and is a new PB after over 10 years.

Photos done I gave it another hour but the fish had stopped showing and with storm Hannah closing in I went home a very very happy bunny………….

So thats the story of the last month or so and you can watch it all here:

 Avoiding the blank 19 Part 2

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.

Royal Signals Coarse Angling Championships 2018

 So it was back to the Glebe for this year’s Corps Champs and in all truth I had done next to no prep on the run up to this match, all my rigs had been stored in my box since last year’s champs so I was hoping for a quiet week in all honesty and was looking forward to seeing some of the older faces.  I might as well start at the beginning so…..

Practice day 1

This was an out and out practice day for me, just to see if the old tactics were still working, it was the only day of the week that I set up a corn rig and I didn’t have a bite on it.  I drew peg 96 on lake 6 and I was just out of the corner in the lee of the wind so not ideal.  Long story short I tried feeder, pellet wag, shallow at 13m, corn and paste short and paste down the edge for a middle of the road 48Kg but I had learnt a lot. Namely that they were not eating much corn, they were responding to noise and that if you left the feeder in for longer than about 20 seconds if you had a bite most of the time they were foul hooked or just dropped off.  I was hoping that this information would put me in good stead for the next day.

Practice day 2

I managed to draw peg 22 on Lake 1 for this match an area of the lake that I really enjoy fishing.  It was time to hone the plan, so feeder for the first stint whilst feeding the short line every 20 minutes with half to a full pot of 6mm pellet, corn and hemp.  Then I would swap to the short line and paste which I was fishing at 2+3 in this swim to find a suitable area of bottom and I also plumbed up both margins and found two areas that were about the same depth so I could fish the same rig on both.  The match started well with me getting a few fish from behind the tree on the far bank on the feeder early but I soon noticed that even with my very rapid casting I was getting runs of 3-4 carp and then quiet spells. This told me that they were coming in in groups, clearing out the bait and moving on, I tried increasing from a small to a medium feeder but to no avail so I decided to have a look on the paste line.  It wasn’t solid bit it was quicker than the feeder line and I started to prep my margins at just over half way through the match.  I was feeding my groundbait mix, that I was also using for the feeder, it consisted of 1 part groundbait: 1 par pellet: 1 part water, all chucked into the bucket as soon as I got to my peg and then left to sort itself out until I would ruffle up the mix about 20 minutes from the all in and then add a handful of hard 4mm pellet.  Anyway, I was balling 2-4 balls in on both margin lines and it didn’t take long for signs to start, I still waited a bit longer to build their confidence and this seemed to work as in the last hour I had a very good run of fish. (so good I tipped out 10lb of silvers as I thought I might be getting close to being over the net limit in both my nets and started using the silvers net for carp)  At the all-out I knew that I had a half decent weight and my net went 88Kg 300g (194lb 10oz) which was enough to comfortably win the section.

Master Clubman Match

I was paired up with Maggsie for this match and we drew pegs 17 and 18 on Lake 1, it looked like a good area and there was a big overhanging tree in the middle of us that looked good for a few fish, I let Maggsie have peg 17 as it looked like the better margin peg, whilst I sat on peg 18.  The plan was the same again and I showed Maggsie a few things and then we got down to business, the day panned out pretty much the same as the day before with the exception that I only had one margin line and this was down to my right away from the tree.  The fish turned up strongly in the last 30 minutes or so and I fed a handful of 8mm pellet after every fish to try and ensure that I did not have to wait long after landing the fish and shipping back down the edge.  It worked as most of my bites were coming within 30 seconds of the rig settling proving that I was doing something right again. My feeder line had been less strong in this match, I think it was because I was aiming down the lake slightly to give Maggsie some room and the wind was proving troublesome when I came to trying to be accurate.  This was academic however as I managed another big weight of 80Kg 550g (177lb 9oz) for a section win, Maggsie had about 50Kilos I think but in the grand scheme of things we were well off the Pace as Chris and Ritchie on lake 5  had a great day to win the Master Clubman trophy.  Well done gents.

Royal Sigs Champs day 1

So it was time for the main event, I was drawn in B section and tis meant that I had managed to avoid all the other ex-corps champs and the majority of the army team, still if I wanted to do well then I would need to get 2 section wins and catch a lot of fish in the process, due to this I wanted to avoid lake 4 at all cost as it had been providing the lowest weights of the week.  Evo was tasked with drawing for me as I was sat behind a board and he did me proud, not that I knew it at the time as he put me on peg 76 on Lake 5.

This saw me sat in the peg that had provided the master clubman champions from the day before and as soon as I looked at the peg I could see why, there were loads of fish in the swim, I had a cheeky looking margin off to my left that was also the windward end of the lake so it was looking very good for a few.  The plan was the same again with the feeder across for the start and then paste short and down the edge later, there was a pipe on the far bank and Ritchie popped down as we were all setting up and he told me that he had caught most of his fish from there so I ran around and did a little bit of gardening to make my life easier and hat was that line sorted.  I plumbed my short line up at 2+2 straight in front as it was a good depth and I would not be winding my feeder over the top of it, I also tried to resist the draw of the left hand side of the peg as the reeds had a few rigs in them and I didn’t fancy a frustrating day of losing fish.  My margin line, however, was plumbed up to the left again at 2+2 short of the reeds, the fish in the lakes were hungry so I was hoping to draw them away from trouble with a bit of grub.

The all-in was called and out went the feeder, I sat on this line for about an hour too long as I had been watching Pete and Ivan to my right catching carp on their short lines from the start, I was struggling to put any numbers of fish together, so with only about 30lb of fish on my nets an hour and a half into the match I had a look on the short line.  It was a master stroke and I have to say that it was all down to Ivan catching on paste early, the next 2 and a half hours or so saw me click 150lb of fish into my keep nets, the bites when it was good were happening within 5 seconds of the bait hitting the bottom!!

With 2 hours to go I put in my 4^th keepnet and over the last 2 hours which saw the swim slowing I still put about 80lb of carp into the final net.  Most of the fish had come on the 2+2 line but I did have a few from the edge when I was resting the short line, feeding was key this time and the fish were responding to loose fed 6mm pellet, once I had a bite and hooked a fish I would put in 2 lots of 20-30 pellet, if the swim slowed drastically I fed half a pot of pellet, corn and hemp from a height.  This saw me feed 6 pints 6mm pellet, 4 tins corn and 3 pints of hemp on the short line alone. It was worth it though as I weighed in 126 Kg 550g (278lb 15oz) for a new PB match weight that I think may take a while for me to beat.  Pete had caught well all day and had also managed a double ton and a new PB but it was enough for me to win  the section and pick up the super pools for the day

Royal Sigs Champs day 2

It was back onto lake 1 for the final day of the champs and as I was sat on the boards again my Evo my team mate drew for me again, he had managed a second in section on day 1 so we were in a strong position for the team champs going into the second day, but to be fair I was only looking at winning the corps champs back again after the day before.  Evo pulled peg 28 out of the bag for me and I knew that I was in with a chance, I had Adi and Alfie for company to my left and Ritchie was tucked away in peg 30 to my right.  Plan was the same again, I clipped the feeder up next to some overhanging Purple loosestrife and then plumbed my short line up in 4ft of water in front of an overhanging tree to my right. I also put in a margin line to my left but in all honesty I was hoping that I would not need it.  I started on the feeder again casting every 20 seconds and it was actually quite good, I had 40lb after an hour and the pace continued for the second hour.  I was suffering a bit from liners and foul hookers but I was soon able to sort that by changing from a wafter hookbait to a 8mm pellet. All the time I was watching to my left as Adi could have ruined my party from his swim but fortunately for me I was the only person on the tip for about 5 pegs!!  At about the 3 hour mark the feeder line had become very iffy, I also could not get a bite on the short line so I had another quick look shallow at 13m as there had been a few fish cruising but nothing happened so I de3cided to try and force the short line.  I fed half a pot of bait and went straight on it, I had indications almost straight away and that was the start of a fluffy of fish, again I was feeding pellet after every fish was hooked and I was getting an indication every 20 seconds or so once the bait had settled on the bottom.  I wasn’t hitting all of them which was making me think that they were off the deck slightly, but by being patient they soon settled back on the deck and turned up in numbers.  The last hour was going very well until the elastic which had been in my pole for a year parted about 8 inches up from the stopper bead, a quick re rig of the margin top and I still managed a few fish before the end of the match.  I had also put m,y 4^th net in with an hour and a half of the match remaining as I had been catching well and was struggling to guess the weight of the fish well, it was just as well.  I put 97KG 675g (215lb 5oz)of fish onto the scales for another section win and second in the match, to say that I was chuffed was a huge understatement, nearly everyone else in the section also managed over a ton so the venue had fished brilliantly

As we all grouped up for a cold drink waiting on the results it became clear that I had won the title for the 5^th time, Well done Daz and Ian for keeping me honest in 2^nd and third respectively, all of us on 2 points and overall weight decided it at the end of the day.

Overall

1^st Ben                  2 pts      224.225Kg

2^nd Daz                  2 pts      174.900Kg

3^rd Ian                   2pts       138.825Kg

On the team front Evo and I managed runners up in the Team cup behind Daz and Ian.

Many thanks to Louis and his team for running the event and also to Roy for allowing us to use his fanastic fishery, I look forward to seeing everyone next year back there.

I used the same rigs every day:

Feeder 1:

Rod: Drennan S7 10ft Carp Feder with 1.5oz tip

Reel: Daiwa TDM 3012

Line: 8lb sensor, 0.19mm powerline hooklength

Hook: 12 QM1

Feeder: 20g Guru cage

Feeder 2:

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

Reel: Daiwa 4012 TDM

Line: 8lb Daiwa sensor, 0.19mm powerline hooklength

Hook: 12 QM1

Feeder: 20g Guru Cage

Waggler:

Rod: Drennan ultralight 12ft

Reel: Cadence CS10 4000

Line: 4lb sensor,

Hook: 18 Guru pellet wag pre tied to 0.17mm

Float: 3g Drennan pellet wag or 2 swan Guru pellet wag.

Pole Paste:

Elastic: Preston 17H

Line: 0.21mm to 0.19mm Powerline

Hook: 5 T175

Float: 4X10 Big H Paste

Pole Margin Paste:

Elastic: Preston 17H

Line: 0.21mm to 0.19mm Powerline

Hook: 5 T175

Float: KC Carpa Margin 4X10

Pole shallow:

Elastic: White Hydro

Line: 0.19mm to 0.15mm Powerline

Hook: 18 Guru pellet wag

Float: 0.2g Drennan crystal dibber

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

AAF Gp 2 Match 3, K&A Sells Green and Foxhangers

It’s that time of year again and I was starting my quest to do well in group 2 again and I am not sure if I will even be able to fish 5 matches again this year, but this was my first.  It was off to the K&A again but this time on a stretch that I have only every carp fished a few years ago, so I popped down over the festive period for a couple of cheeky practices.  The first went well in a pound behind the Barge Inn I managed around 8lb of small skimmers and roach over groundbait, the next day I went along pound lane and struggled in atrocious weather conditions for 4 small roach and 3 waspie perch.  I knew where I didn’t want to draw.

Back to the day in question and we all met up in Devizes for the draw, pleasantries were passed and we were soon to business, there was a section around the marina at Foxhangers, a section down the straight and a final section behind the three magpies, as long as I wasn’t in B section along the straight I would be happy.  I waited until last out of the bag and peg A6 was waiting for me, which was the last peg before the bridge at Foxhangers, I was quite happy.

  

As I got to the peg I had a massive 10 meter walk from my van to my peg, and then it just got better as I had all the boats moored up to my left and I knew that this was a good holding area for fish.  My plan was simple, two groundbait lines one at 11 O’clock and one at 1 O’clock both at 13m as the bottom was nice and flat there, a method cast down towards the boats and finally a worm line that I would fish along the wall to my left.  I was almost ready for the all in, I am quite rusty at getting ready in time but as soon as it was called I fed 3 balls to the left and 1 ball to the right on my groundbait line.  My groundbait was a mix of black canal and lake with a few dead pinkies and caster in it, and then I cast the method down toward s the boats and set my stop watch for 15 minutes.  The plan was to try and mug a carp from down there but I decided to use dead maggots as hookbait so that it shouldn’t put off any skimmers from picking it up.

The first half an hour was uneventful so I was soon having a look on the groundbait lines, the right hand swim was the best at the start and I managed 5 small roach off it before it died and a short time later I bumped a skimmer off on the left hand swim so It was time to rest it and look elsewhere.  I had a look on the worm line for a small perch and another blank 15 minutes on the tip before having a look on the left hand groundbait line again.  This time the float dipped within seconds and skimmer number 1 was soon in the keep net and at nearly a pound it was very welcome.  But long story short at this point I refed my groundbait lines once too often and killed them both off so although I kept on looking I only managed another couple of small roach off them for the rest of the day.

I kept on having the odd look on the method and through the course of the day I was rewarded with 3 nice skimmers and I lost one but enough of that as it was a case of casting and if they were there I would get a bite pretty quick, if not it was a long 15 minutes.  The worm line produced 4 small perch throughout the whole day and at 1 point I plumbed a bread rig up to fish towards the boat at 14.5m, I was able to get a bit a chuck on that line but the fish were transparent so I discarded that and sat it out for bigger fish on my other lines.

I kept my tip rod in until last and had most of my kit packed up by the all out.  I only had my net and flask out still when Bri and Pete walked down with the scales and wow it had fished tricky for most.  I started to hear stories that along B section there had been a number of blanks, we walked up to the Crabtree part of the section and the guy on the end peg had managed a kilo and a half ish then there were two sub 1kg weights.  When the scales got to me I thought I had 3.5-4lb of fish, I actually had 2.1KG which is about 4lb 8oz by my dodgy maths so I was well happy.  Following the scales up Bri was the last to weigh and he had nearly a kilo and a half but had lost a big perch in the last 10 minutes, so I had managed to win the section so I was well happy.  When I got back for the results it turned out to be enough for 2^nd in the match as well so not a bad day in all.

Thankyou Bri and your team for the seamless running of the match.

What would I do differently?

I should have started on a bread line and also possibly fished just 1 groundbait line further over towards the boats so that the fish had some shelter overhead.  I could have cast the feeder closer to the boats perhaps but there were people ion them and the last thing I wanted to do was hit one of the boats by accident.

Tackle used:

Feeder:

Rod: Drennan 10ft Series 7 Carp feeder.

Reel: Daiwa TDM 3012

Line: 6lb Drennan feeder to 0.19mm powerline

Hook: 14 QM1

Feeder: 24g small Guru Hybrid

Pole Groundbait heavy:

Elastic: 5 slip

Line: 0.11mm powerline to 0.08mm Colmic Stream

Hook: 20 Polemaster wide gape

Float: 0.3g Drennan AS1

Pole Groundbait light:

Elastic: double 2 slip

Line: 0.11mm powerline to 0.08mm Colmic Stream

Hook: 20 Polemaster wide gape

Float: 0.2g Drennan AS3

Pole worm:

Elastic: Yellow vespe through 1 section

Line: 0.19mm powerline to 0.11 Powerline

Hook: 16 B560

Float: 0.3g Frenzee FP500

Pole bread:

Elastic: 5 slip

Line: 0.11mm powerline to 0.08mm Colmic Stream

Hook: 20 Polemaster wide gape

Float: 4X10 Carpa F1

End of year catch up 2017

Well that was 2017 then, out of all of my gaols for the year I managed to achieve 1 in that I won the R.Sigs Coarse Angling Champs again and came close with another by coming second for the second year running In the R.Sigs Carp Champs.  I did get to fish both in both Corps teams though, however, I don’t feel like I have had the rub of the green this year and it has been a series of near misses and calamities.

So to the last couple of weeks, my traditional end of the year usually sees me slogging it out on a carp lake somewhere hoping for a rod to rattle off, well this year I thought I would catch some fish.

I started on the Dorset Stour at nutford, it kind of summed up my year really, I spent loads on bait, carried too much kit to the river, then proceeded to break my cupping kit whilst balling in  only to find that the roach were not there and I ended up on a mighty blank….. So enough of that.  I even moved swims to one that looked bob on for a perch to sit there for 3 hours without a sniff on worm!!

The next day I popped down to the Nadder as I had heard that some good weights had come off a couple of pegs at the top of the stretch, I fished my little cotton socks off for a small chub and some bits in 3 hours before a dog walker came past and told me that a couple of guys had emptied it the day before…… I am spotting a theme here.  Anyway I moved to the last swim above Harnham mill and proceeded to get a few nice roach and a hybrid lined up until a massive essox decided to eat everything that I hooked.  I packed up early and went home with my tail between my legs.

It was Thursday now and I was allowed out for a couple of hours in the morning, off to the Lords walk I went and had a lovely few hours annoying the small dace along that stretch.  I bumped into another club member and he told me I wouldn’t catch anything big on maggot, so I stopped off at Tesco on my way home and blitzed some bread for the Friday….

Reinvigorated and with my kit stripped down even more I pulled up at the River Avon upstream of Salisbury, the day was brilliant as I had a few hours in the morning catching roach to 10oz and Dace to 8 oz on my 17ft float rod and a small crowquill trotting breadflake at them. 

Unfortunately a pike moved in again so I decided to move downstream a bit where I fancied it for a chub.  Same tackle and tactics and I was rewarded with a small chub and a lovely net of roach and dace.

My next trip out was after Christmas and I had to endure waking up to a mini blizzard, still I had things to do so I ignored my nice warm bed and drove up to Swindon to get a new cupping kit from Lee and then doubled back to Great Bedwyn to try and snag a big perch or two.  The drive was horrendous, it wasn’t the snow on the road but the trees that had given up under the weight of the snow that was causing the issues, I made it to the canal at about nine but because my man flu was making me feel the cold I was off by one in the afternoon.  I had managed 10 roach, a waspie perch and a small skimmer so at least the float had gone under a couple of times.

New friend!!

Next day out was the Friday again and I decided to try the other bank of Lords walk, it was a nice few hours but quite frustrating as the wind was horrendous, I had a few trout trtotting bread flake but had to set up a light bread feeder to catch a Grayling.  I enjoyed it none the less.

So that’s it 2017 done, I am still trying to beat my PB carp that has stood for 12 years now and I will be trying hard again to do better in the Army angling groups both match and carp.  I will also be trying to keep this a bit more up to date although “I went to the lake and blanked!! Again!” is all you may get.

I hope that your 2017 was a good year and lets all hope that 2018 is better.