Two rivers, four fish and a donkey

I've managed to get out twice over the last seven days the first trip of which was a another night session on my local bit of Trent. My daughter Charlotte was to join me on what was to be her first ever night fishing trip, she was very excited!

The swim I chose was very shallow but I knew from past experience that the Barbel move through there at night and seeing as its something of a natural bottleneck something would have to pass the baits at some point. Once we got everything setup and sorted it didn't take long to get a bite. I was quite surprised to get one in the daylight and the fish was proving to be a tough customer out in the flow and streamer weed. I passed the rod to Charlotte who was completely unprepared for the power and nearly let go altogether! She passed it back after a minute or so and Grabbed the landing net instead. eventually we slid the net under a very rare fish indeed, a Trent Rainbow Trout! At around 4lb it wasn't a bad un either. Charlotte had no hesitation picking it up to have her pic taken although she wasn't so keen when it flipped about!

As day became night it began to rain and we got settled in our beds, Charlotte went out like a light! I remembered back to my first night session which took place on a lake in the middle of a theme park in North Yorkshire, lightwater valley I believe it was called. It rained that night too very heavily as i remember and I certainly never had the luxury of a bivvy, bedchair or even a decent sleeping bag! I was on a sloping bank under a 45inch nylon brolly in an Argos sleeping bag and trying to sleep directly on the floor, that was a seriously long night! Despite not sleeping a wink I did catch a couple of small bream and they were PBS at the time so I wasn't put off one bit. Since then I've fished hundreds of nights and even now I still struggle sleeping a lot of the time despite having all the creature comforts.

Back to the session anyway, at around midnight the Delkim warbled urgently as a fish shot off downstream with my bait. I rushed out telling Charlotte that we've got one and she didn't even stir! After a hectic tussle in the dark I managed to net it and get it on the mat. At this point her ladyship decided to get out of bed just as I was doing some pics for the blog. "Can i get a photo please?" was all she said as she picked up the fish off the mat. I took a pic and then she announced she was going back to bed, leaving me to return the fish and tidy up! Charming!

By the time I got back to bed she was snoring again, for all her worried talk of foxes and other creatures of the night she certainly seemed to be taking things in her stride. The rain really started hammering down and I had to half zip the bivvy door down to keep it out.

At about 2ish I had another bite and went running out in just my socks to hit it getting my feet soaked in the process. The fish powered off downstream and I tried to give it the butt to stop it reaching the snags about 40 yards away. Unfortunately this proved too much for the size12 hook and it pulled. I reset everything and dug out my spare socks, Charlotte? She was still asleep!

Dawn broke and as I lay there listening to patter of the rain on the bivvy I was suddenly jolted to attention by another bite, this one on my upstream rod. I hit it and the fish immediately powered into the streamer weed and buried itself. It kicked a couple more times and then everything went solid. I tried slackening the line and waiting to see if it moved and then I tried changing the pulling angle all to no avail, I was well caught in the rocks. Braid doesn't like rocks and after a bit more tugging the line parted.

Charlotte finally awoke at about 7.30 demanding breakfast, " that was great dad when are we going again" she kept saying. Blimey she slept through most of it! Me on the other hand, I was knackered and after a quick brekky we packed up and headed for home.

I had originally planned another night the following Friday to try and even the score a bit but work got in the way and I ended up heading out on an evening session instead, my first non- night fishing river trip of the season. I didn't hold much hope for success in daylight hours on the Trent so I opted to head to the Dove instead as I'd heard some good reports of late. It would be the first time I'd fished the river with Barbel in mind for a good few years.

I got down the river for about 3.30 and after beating back the overly friendly Donkey which lives in the carpark field i made my way to the river. I didn't have any particular swim in mind and upon seeing the river in its full summer glory my decision was made even harder. Big rafts of weed intersected by golden gravel runs and overhanging trees with deep looking pools beneath seemed to be everywhere I looked, what a stunning piece of water.

I eventually settled in a swim with a tree downstream, the weather was very muggy but there was rain in the air and I was fully expecting a deluge. I wished I hadn't brought so much stuff with me though because with the river being so intimate, a mobile approach would've been so much better. Within about 20 minutes of casting in I received my first bite and hit into a fish. Although powerful this was no Barbel but I wasn't complaining as a nice chub slipped into the net. At a tad over 5lb it was my first decent one of the season and I returned it hoping the rest of the session would be as productive.

No more bites occurred in that swim over the next hour or so and I decided to move to a deeper slower pool which shallowed up into some extensive beds of streamer weed at its tail. No sooner had I cast in however then the farmer decided to come into the field to round up his cows for milking. Round and round the field he sped in his 4x4, hand permanently on the horn and revving the hell out of his engine. Obviously that must've done wonders for the fishing in my swim and not surprisingly I never had a sniff there in nearly two hours. Oh well, the next spot was beckoning.

By now the wind and rain had actually started to get quite ferocious and after casting out I cowered under my brolly praying no trees would come down on top of me! I suddenly became aware of a buzzer sounding out in the maelstrom and looked out to see my upstream rod bucking violently. I hit into the fish which weeded me quite badly but steady pressure won in the end and a lovely golden Barbel was soon posing for its photo. Not huge but a nice fish in what can best be described as challenging conditions!

After returning it I was just preparing to recast when my downstream rod gave the old three foot twitch. I quickly dropped everything and hit it but I bumped it on the strike unfortunately. That was all the action I was to get over the rest of the trip. The weather continued to deteriorate badly and I packed up at about 8.30 having had a right skinful of it. The friendly little donkey was waiting for me back at the car and I swear it would've got inside with me if I'd let it!

 

Posted with Blogsy

A new season begins

I was literally chomping at the bit to get fishing back on the rivers as the new season approached. I'd been down strimming pegs in the run up to the big day and the river looked absolutely cracking. Id already made the decision to focus almost exclusively on the upper Trent this year as I think I've spent too much time fishing the Soar and Derwent in recent years for what is probably a smaller average stamp of fish. I'm determined to crack the 13lb barrier this year and I really think the Trent can do it for me. A trip or two to the Dove isn't out of the question either as I've not Barbel fished there nearly enough.

June the 15th finally arrived and I was riverside and setting up in preparation for the midnight kickoff by around 2pm, i was well keen! I wasn't the only one there though which made me feel a little more justified!

I'd picked what was to be a new swim to me and I spent a couple of hours plumbing and pruning in a bid to get it just right. There was more flow in the swim than I would've liked due to the rain of the previous couple of days and river had around 6-8inches on it. It wasn't long before I had done all I needed to except casting in and this left me with a good few hours to kill in the meantime.

This is where my problem began. All that spare time allowed for plenty of thinking and as usual something triggered the seed of doubt in my mind, in this case it was the extra flow. A couple of exploratory casts with a 5oz lead had me struggling to hold bottom and I didn't fancy recasting every 20 minutes or so through the night. There was an area upstream I knew well and had caught well from in the past, would that be a better bet? Godammit! At 11.30pm I decided to move.

By the time I got re-setup midnight had come and gone and had a nagging feeling I'd just made a complete pigs-ear of things. As it turned out no Barbel put in an appearance and the session was saved when my only bite resulted in that 3-4lb Chub which seems to follow me everywhere I go. At least I hadn't blanked.

Having booked some days off work I resolved to return on the Monday evening and I had a plan to bait the hell out of a swim to see if it made a difference. Again I chose a spot with past form and set about implementing my plan. I had rigged up the bottom five sections of an old fibreglass pole with a length of rope which was knotted at 12 inch intervals and a giant bait dropper was attached on the end. This setup is great for finding the depth of ones margin spots quickly whilst enabling me to put a great deal of bait down with minimum fuss and disturbance. I put 8 droppers of hemp laced groundbait ( which equated to about two pints) out in 4ft of water in less than two minutes. That was my banker rod!

The river looked a bit dead to be honest, all the colour had dropped out and the level was down to somewhere near normal. I had a couple of taps and pulls but nothing like the three foot twitch I was hoping for. Just before dark a series of repeated taps on the boilie rod had me bring in a chunky roach of around 12oz, obviously it's eyes were bigger than its belly!

The night wore on with no action and I was starting to contemplate another barbel free night. I heard a couple of heavy sounding splashes out in the darkness so there was obviously something sizeable out there in front of me. It was around 3am when a couple of bleeps on my banker rod jolted me out of my slumber. Five minutes later the alarm sounded again, something was showing an interest. Ten minutes later I found myself drifting off back to sleep then suddenly the baitrunner went into meltdown and the delkim warbled its lovely sound, Barbel on! The fish pulled like an absolute demon, I'd forgotten just how well they scrap as it'd been so long. Soon enough it was lying on the mat though and at 10lb4oz it was a great way to open my Trent Barbel account for the season. Nothing else happened for the rest of the session and I packed up with plans to try another area the following evening.

The new area was a bit of a walk and considering the thermometer in the car read 23 degrees upon my arrival I was absolutely soaked in sweat by the time I got to a nice looking swim. I say swim but it had to be beaten out first, it didn't look like anybody had been and fished this area for a very long time indeed.

Using my plumbing/baiting pole I found I had 5ft of water over clear gravel underneath my rod tip which shallowed to 3ft over heavy streamer weed around 30 yards downstream. I decided to place my bait around 10 yards upstream of the weed, it looked textbook for Barbel.

The fish seemed really active in the run up to darkness, it was incredibly muggy due to lots of cloud cover but the fish, small and large alike were showing every five minutes, it was like a different river to that of the previous couple of days.

Despite the activity there was a noticeable lack of action on my rods, I hadn't even had a sniff as darkness fell but I was still very confident. At around 11pm I finally had a couple of indications on my downstream rod, just plucks enough to sound the buzzer a couple of times. The great thing about Barbel, especially unpressured ones like these is that they arnt exactly dainty creatures when it comes to eating and because they have great big sticky-outy fins they usually give their presence away near the bait in the form of liners and twitches. And so it was to be on this occasion, a couple more bleeps preceeded a truly savage take and I found myself connected to a decent fish. I could tell it was a goodun because I got it out in front of me and it continued to swim upstream as if it didn't realise it was hooked. Much of the fight took place upstream of me which meant the fish was fighting the flow as well as me and it wasn't giving up easily. The power of these things never ceases to amaze me. Upon lifting the net out of the water I knew it was a lump straight away and once on the mat I was confronted by a huge framed fish. At 12lb2oz it wasn't quite as big as its looks suggested but it was still a fantastic catch and I was well chuffed.

I didn't waste any time getting back out there and although I was knackered I was buzzing too much to sleep. Some heavy crashes in the water nearby told me there was still a few about. It was 2.30am when I began to get the twitches on the line again and I sat there expectantly. The inevitable take was a similar affair to the previous one and although this fish certainly felt smaller it simply refused to give up. Every time I thought it was ready for netting it would shoot off again and it got to the point where it was starting to get ridiculous. I found myself getting more and more brutal with it just to try and get the net under it, eventually I managed it but the fish still decided to beat the crap out of me on the bank, was it on steroids or something?!

At 10lb6oz it was my third double of the season and even after the weighing and the pics it was still full of life. No coaxing this one back, it didn't need recovery, as soon as it went back in the river it left me dripping as it showered me with spray as it powered off back into the depths, unbelievable!

Soon enough daylight arrived and with it the chance of any more Barbel action lessened significantly. A tiny 8oz Chub fell to my rod as I packed up but I was a happy man regardless. The upper Trent doesn't have the sheer numbers of Barbel that the middle and tidal does but what it lacks in quantity it certainly makes up for in quality. What a great start to my Campaign, I just hope I can continue in the same vein throughout the summer.

 

Posted with Blogsy

The early bird catches the fish

The bright sunny conditions predicted for this weekend were going to make fishing something of a grueller especially on the clear water lakes I've been targeting of late. My wife had taken the kids away to visit family in Scotland for the weekend which meant I had a totally free couple of days fishing in front of me. With the weather in mind I planned a couple of early morning sessions to try and snag a few fish before the sun got to high.

My first trip was to the Bream lake and although it wasn't quite first light when I arrived (I overslept) I was still early enough to witness the morning rollers. Great big black backs silently broke the glasslike surface of the lake in front of me and I feverishly setup in anticipation of some lumps. After last weeks pest control episode would today be the day I landed amongst the big girls?

Within minutes of the groundbait bombardment I had fish showing over the baited area and I began to get liners practically from the off. A solid bite after around half an hour saw me land a small male Bream of 7lb, not a bad start. A lost fish shortly afterwards seemed to quieten things down a bit.

Time was starting to get on a bit and the sun was beginning to burn, the fish had long stopped rolling and I thought my chance had gone. Another bite suddenly occurred and I landed a slightly larger Bream of 8lb, nice but where were the doubles I saw the pictures off and indeed what i saw rolling in front of me earlier?

 

At least I can catch em now!

 

Another carbon copy came to the bank within minutes of the previous fish and that seemed to signal the end of the days action. I packed up just before lunch and as I made my way around the pit back to the car I came upon a small group of very large Bream in the shallows which looked like they were thinking about spawning. They were easy doubles and were a timely reminder of why I was there, I resolved to return once the spawning was done.........

On the way home I had a sudden urge to catch a Tench and after much thought I decided upon a dawn assault on another club water which, despite being fairly prolific for the species is very much underfished. There's nothing huge in there and they average around 3-5lb but they are lovely dark coloured fish due to the water being quite peaty. It's the kind of water where all the fishing is at close range due to the thick weed and, being shallow it really lends itself to the classic swim raking and lift method approach. I was hoping to give my centrepin a good workout as I haven't used it for over a year and this place was ideal for it.

 

Wtf??

 

I set off mega early in order to get setup and fishing for first light, I looked down at the clock in the car and realised that I really need to get my head tested at some point cos going fishing at half three in the morning can't be right surely? I got to the lake and assembled my kit, it was still too dark to see my float but I was itching to get started as fish were splashing everywhere!

Eventually I got set up, plumbed up and baited up and all was good, I just needed some Tench now. It didn't take long for the bubbles to start appearing over my bait and my float began to bob about all over the place as the fish brushed the line as they fed. The float suddenly slid away and I struck and bumped something, a little green scale on the hook told me I'd just struck a liner.

 

Bubbles.....

It quietened off a little and suddenly I was plagued by tiny Rudd, every time the maggot hit the water it was gone in seconds so I quickly switched to corn and this seemed to solve the problem. After around twenty minutes the float lifted and lay flat, I didn't give it chance to slide away and hit into my first Tinca of the day. It was only small but it was very well proportioned and a great sign that the species is spawning well in the pool.

Miniature perfection

 

A couple of missed bites which I suspect were liners followed before I struck into a proper Tench. The centrepin hissed as the fish made for some trees to my right before shooting out into a weedbed in front of me. What a great battle I thought as I netted it. Again it wasn't huge but it's fighting prowess on the light gear certainly brought a smile to my face.

Another day, another awful pic.......

That pretty much brought the session to a close, after about 7am I couldn't buy another bite on corn and I didn't fancy sitting there catching 2-3oz Rudd all day on the maggots so I packed up and headed home for brekky. It was a really enjoyable trip because my whole approach was different to what I normally do and it's a water I've rarely fished in the past. I'll certainly fish it again in the near future though.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Taking the hint

With it being a sunny bank holiday I had to think carefully about my choice of venue as everywhere would be pretty much packed. I had originally planned a night session on Redhouse lake, a large local pit with form for some big bream but due to the venues popularity with Carp anglers I figured it would be packed out with long weekenders. I wasn't wrong either! Reports filtered through that there was dozens fishing so that crossed that one off the list. Another lake nearby that's usually good for a day session was a non starter too as its in the middle of a housing estate and people's gardens back onto it. With the sunny weather I could almost smell the BBQs and hear the loud music echoing across the pool, sod that!

Locally that pretty much left me just the hard pit if I wanted another big Bream to add to last weeks haul at Haversham. With its recent form the chances of catching might be slim but at least I'd have the place to myself with plenty of peace and tranquility!

I got to the lake at first light and I barrowed my kit straight around to my favourite peg. The conditions were horrifically bright and the lake was flat calm, it didn't look good. It looked even worse when I got to the swim and found that a large tree had blown over right across it since my last visit making it completely unfishable! Due to the lakes overgrown nature, swims which enable you to reach certain areas are at a premium and this fallen tree had effectively blocked off about a quarter of the lake, the best quarter of the lake in my opinion!

I stood there feebly pulling at the tree whilst pondering my next move. I'd had a plan in my head of how was going to hit the lake as I drove there and now that was in tatters. Maybe it was a sign I should be elsewhere on the pool? At this point a Heron flying across the lake caught my eye, it alighted in the only fishable swim on the far bank and in an instant my mind was made up. If the fallen tree was a hint then so was the Heron! Fifteen minutes later I was stood in the Heron swim, sweating my ass off after fighting through the undergrowth and now surveying the water in front of me. As ever it looked dead.

A quick bit of marker float work showed an impressive drop off slap bang in front of me at about 40-50yards going from a steady 8ft on the right of me down to a flat 13ft on the left side over a distance of about ten yards, that'll do! I balled in around twenty jaffas across that line and cast a rod in at each end. The sun was really burning now and there wasn't a cloud in the sky.

I set up my bedchair and got comfy, I was already well prepared for the blank especially after the last half a dozen I'd previously suffered on there! As I lay there catching the rays I suddenly became aware of a cool breeze starting to blow in, over the next hour it really began to gather strength, cloud too was coming in, things were looking up. Even though it was still very bright a good ripple can make all the difference and this ripple was certainly a goodun!

My left hand rod in the deeper water suddenly burst into life and signalled a stuttery take. Even as I picked the rod up I was scanning the water for signs of tufties just in case but upon striking I knew I'd finally hooked a Bream and it didn't feel like a bad fish either. Seeing the big hump back roll out in the waves certainly got the excitement going and I have to admit that after all the effort I've gone through previously on the lake I was actually shaking as I slid the net under the fish! The relief was immense!

It wasn't quite a double at 9lb10oz but to be honest it didn't matter, I'd finally got one on the scoresheet and I was over the moon. I set the camera up to take some pics and ,unbelievably, I'd literally only taken one photo when my right hand rod decided to go into meltdown! I was forced to quickly slip the Bream back and hit it. There was nothing there! It was a similar story to some of the bites/liners we'd had on Haversham the week before. To make matters worse the one pic I'd got of the Bream I'd just had was absolutely god awful, the camera was at the wrong angle to the direction of the sun making everything appear white, gutted!

I recast both rods and within minutes I hooked another Bream, this time it was probably the smallest in the lake at about 3lb. A couple more savage liners occurred over the next hour before I hit into another fish of around 7lb. I couldn't believe I was fishing the same lake, I'd had more action in an hour than I'd had in my last six trips!

I obviously had a few fish on the bait but apart from the action on the rods you would never have known it. Not a single fish had showed, no rolling, bubbling, nothing whatsoever. The bobbins didn't stay still for more than ten minutes and two more Bream followed in quick succession. I didn't weigh them but neither were bigger than 7-8lb, not that I was complaining! A lost fish shortly afterwards seemed to quieten things off a bit. One thing I did notice was that all of the fish I'd landed so far had been males covered in tubercles, I actually cut myself on one of them.

At lunchtime I hit into another substantial fish which was certainly no Bream, this one took line! My first thoughts were of Tench but when a Pike suddenly burst out of the water tailwalking in front of me I was certainly a little surprised! I didn't think I'd land it but I thought I'd give it a go anyway seeing as it had stayed on for so long already. I eventually netted it to find the hook was neatly out of harms way in the scissors and quite why it decided to pick up three red maggots is beyond me but at 10lb on the nose I'm to going to look a gift horse in the mouth!

An hour later I managed to hook and lose a nice looking Tench at the net which was a bit disappointing as they run to a good size in there. That pretty much rounded the session off because I had all but ran out of bait. I left with plans to return the following day......

...... Plans which never came to fruition. I awoke the following morning to torrential rain and seeing as the hard water involves a pretty brutal walk through waist deep foliage, I couldn't muster up the motivation to attempt it. I'd have been soaked before I even started and decided to hold off till next week in the hope they'd still be having it.

A snap decision to go Carping on another local pool saw me back on the bank again. A couple of laps of the lake revealed a few small carp moving in one corner and not much else so I setup nearby to allow me to put a bait on them. A screaming take after an hour showed me just how small they were as a little mirror of about 4lb found itself on the mat, obviously one of the new stockies. It saved a blank though bless it and after losing a Tench in a weedbed I decided to head home to the dry as it hadn't stopped chucking it down all morning.

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

A Result at last

This weeks session was one I'd been looking forward to for a while and was to be the first two night trip I'd had since last years Orchid Trip. Catfish were originally on the menu for this trip too as I'd arranged to join the lads from the Milton Keynes specialist group for a get together on Great Linfords Parc farm 2 lake. Everything was all set until around two weeks ago when we found out that we had double booked with a help for heroes fish- in on the same pool and as such a change of venue and species was called for. A fortunate turn of events kicked in at this point and It just so happened that a friend of mine had just had a nice catch of big Bream from a water called Haversham lake just up the road from Parc farm 2. I knew that some of the MKSG lads were on the syndicate there and seeing as my Bream head is well and truly on at the moment I suggested a possible trip there instead. A guest trip was quickly arranged and before I knew it I was meeting MKSG member Paul Howkins at the gates to the fishery full of anticipation at what the next couple of days might hold.

At around 65 acres its not a small lake but its extremely well maintained and with the Great Ouse flowing alongside it makes for an awesome setting in which to wet a line. It's a tricky water and I was under no illusion that a blank might possibly be on the cards, in fact Paul informed me that a chap had just done a three day session on there without a bite prior to our arrival. nevertheless we headed around to Pauls fancied area and got setup. The next couple of hours were a flurry of tying rigs, preparing bait and spombing the hell out of the lake. It wasn't in vain though as fish began to show in front of us almost straight away.

It didn't take long for the first line bite to occur and what a liner it was, we both thought it was a proper bite but Paul struck into thin air. This set the precedent for pretty much the rest of the day. Paul's swim seemed to be alive with fish and some of the line bites he had actually had the bait runner spinning! I too struck at thin air on several occasions, it was proving to be very frustrating!

I should mention that although we didn't catch any fish early on, Paul managed to hook and land a PB Grebe! Neither of us had ever seen such an occurrence before but after a few dicey moments trying to avoid its razor sharp beak it was quickly released without harm. This wasn't to be the only avian encounter of the session but more on that later.

By late afternoon the novelty of the line bites had well and truly worn off for both of us so I was taken somewhat by surprise when I hit a particularly violent liner and met solid resistance! A typical Bream tussle ensued with much head nodding on the fishes part and not much else and soon my first Haversham Bream was lying on the mat. At 6lb12oz it was quite possibly one of the smallest in there but I'd dodged the blank and the pressure was off! The fish was rough as sandpaper and went some way towards explaining why the line bites were so pronounced, the fishes body was a line magnet!

The liners continued unabated and the Bream continued to porpoise out in front of us. Eventually I managed to hit into another fish which went 8lb on the scales, at least they were getting bigger! After that the lake went flat calm and darkness fell. Still the liners continued! We couldn't for the life of us understand why we weren't catching more fish as there was obviously an awful lot of them out there.

We didn't get much sleep with the buzzers sounding every twenty minutes and it must've been around midnight when Paul latched into his first fish of the trip, an absolute cracker of exactly 12lb, again covered from head to toe in tubercles. The rest of the night passed fairly uneventfully apart from the wind swinging around directly towards us, it was bloody freezing!

When dawn broke the next day the fish had completely stopped showing but we still had the odd liner so there was fish in front of us still. This was borne out when I hooked another fish, this one definitely felt heavier and I was pleased to net my first double of the session at 10lb8oz, they were getting bigger!

This seemed to really kick things off in front of us as over the next few hours we landed a succession of fish between us. The sailing boats were going right over our baits and we were still getting bites. After a night of very little sleep I was knackered and really ready for a good kip but it seemed every time I tried to get my head down something would happen to stop it. At one point, I was just drifting off when my buzzers went mad, I jumped out expecting some fish action and was surprised to find that a low flying Tern had somehow managed to hang itself in my line. This one was much more flappy and pointy than the Grebe so it was some relief when it managed to free itself as we got it to the bank.

Over the course of the day I managed another five Bream, two Perch and a stockie Carp of around 4lb, Paul also managed a Carp, a Bream, a couple of Perch to 2lb12oz and a surprise Rudd. Paul has fished the lake for a long time and has never seen or heard of a Rudd being caught and at around 12oz it wasn't exactly tiny either so it could bode well for the waters future. The carp were a bit random aswell seeing there was only 50 stocked earlier this year. The odds of catching two of them in 65acres of water must be pretty slim I'd have thought? It was Another of the days happy coincidences anyway and considering 24 hours previously I was braced for a blank it had become a blinding session. A 9lb10oz Bream to my rod brought the days activities to a close at around teatime and we had no more action going into the night.

I awoke the next day having had a much better nights kip, the liners had completely stopped and the fish weren't showing at all. I recast and then had some breakfast, the lake was very misty but flat calm and the sun was just starting to appear behind the tree tops.

The lack of action in the night made me think that the lake had given us all it was going to but suddenly a couple of bleeps on my left hander and a slight twitch on the bobbin had me bending into another Bream. It didn't look much bigger than the previous fish in the water but upon getting it on the mat it was obvious that I was looking at a very good fish indeed. I weighed it on my light scales which go up to 12lb and was stunned to see them bottom out! I wound them back a pound and reweighed to record 12lb14oz, two other sets of scales gave the same result and new PB was in the bag, over the moon was an understatement!

After the action over the last day it was almost like the lake had saved the best till last and that fish was meant to be. As it turned out That wasn't to be the last of it though. I recast the rod to the same spot and as I set my bobbin the line suddenly pinged out of my fingers, I must've cast right on the fishes head! I struck and soon enough another decent looking slab was rolling into the net. At 10lb8oz it crowned the session off nicely.

A mid morning Perch was the last bite I had before packing up time and I was well chuffed with our result. It had been a great session in great company, Pauls a top bloke and I can't thank him enough for giving me the opportunity to fish the lake. Catching some doubles was nice but to get a new PB into the bargain was way more than I'd hoped for. Definitely a trip ill remember for a long time to come.

As bit of a footnote, seeing as we were there, Paul took me to have a look at the Ouse at Adams mill after we'd packed up. What a stunning piece of water it is and much smaller than I imagined it to be. Paul talked me through some of the swims and historical captures and Its easy to see why it used to be such a special place. You couldn't ask for a more Barbelly piece of water and its an absolute tragedy that the Otters decimated the place, we didn't see a single fish of any description whilst we were there, not even a Minnow.

 

Posted with Blogsy

No light at the end of the tunnel, yet

These blog posts are getting all too infrequent these days although to be fair I've not had anything of interest to blog about. Since my last entry I've had four trips to my new Bream water and apart from losing one three trips in, I'm yet to bank a fish of any description from there. Nobody else is on the pit so I can't gage my results against those of other anglers and the fish hardly seem to even show themselves so confidence is becoming a real issue for me.

I'm fishing the unknown and all I have to on is the word of a good mate who discovered the water a couple of years ago and some tantalising pictures of what he caught. Theres nothing whatsover on the internet about the lake and even the locals who fish a couple of ponds nearby swear blind the lake is barren of fish and not worth bothering with. The fact I've had the whole pit to myself on every visit so far despite the warm conditions speaks volumes and The whole thing has been made ever more difficult due the fact that other waters are switching on good and proper now with some great catches coming from all over the place. The temptations there to go elsewhere but all my efforts so far will have been in vain if I do that so I need to focus on the job at hand.

Because of the lakes remoteness there is never a shortage of wildlife to look out for down there but I did spot something unusual the other day. There was a black shape swimming right across the middle of the lake and the geese seemed very agitated by it. There were all following it about twenty yards behind making a hell of a racket, at first I thought it was an Otter but it seemed a bit too small and I can only conclude instead that it was a large Mink. It was right out in the middle of the lake and I had to use the camera on full zoom to get any kind if picture. It was strange because I've never seen one swim across such a distance of open water like that before.

Spotted at 90 yards, Is it a Mink or the Loch Ness monster?

 

The lake has also given me several encounters of the tufted kind aswell and the one in the pic below really had me thinking I'd hooked a bream until it surfaced at my feet. The bloody things must have gills considering the amount of time they can stay underwater!

 

These have been a bit of a pain lately!

 

Before moving on its worth mentioning a new bit of kit I've recently discovered from the Nash stable. It's called the Nash Deliverance ball maker and I've acquired the 40mm version, it takes loads of hassle out of making 'jaffas' to ball in when baiting up and because it makes them all the same size it's easier to group the balls into a tight area with catapult, very useful indeed.

 

Trouble free balls!

For my most recent session I was given a pass to night fish and seeing as nights aren't allowed on my new water I decided to fish a lake on my club ticket. Upon arriving though it was bivvy city as every man and his dog were out taking advantage of the great bank holiday weather. The lake next door was completely free however and after being joined by Phil we opted to fish there instead. Some good bags of bream have been caught in the past there yet its very very underfished and is another water which has a reputation for holding very little, a reputation that's thoroughly undeserved I feel.

I opted for a boilie approach over my usual maggot one because there are quite a few small roach and perch in there and I didn't want to be winding those in at 3am!

Fish began to show in numbers as soon as the light began to go and there looked to be one or two nice Tench amongst the Bream aswell. It wasn't long before I began to get some really strong liners and some actually pulled line off the baitrunner and had me striking at thin air. I really had to sit on my hands and a proper bite finally occurred at around 10pm which resulted in a Bream of around 4-5lb.

The liners continued and kept me awake most of the night until i lost a fish to a snag in the very early hours after which they seemed to tail off a bit. I did eventually manage to get a little sleep but was soon awoken at first light by a turbo charged Tench which was more fin than fish and would've struggled to go much more than 3lb but it was in great condition though.

 

Paddles!

 

After that I noticed the Bream were rolling much further up the lake and some them looked quite sizeable. I didn't hold out much hope for any more bites so I had a pot noodle and went back to bed. The sun was well up by the time I was jolted back to reality by another bite. A slightly better bream of 6-7lb was soon landed and brought my session to a close. After my struggles on the other pit it was nice to see the bobbins moving again anyway, back to reality next week though, bring it on!

 

Nowt wrong with a bit of advertising!

 

Posted with Blogsy

That new water feeling

I had a first look at my chosen Bream venue yesterday evening and it certainly got the old juices going. A wild and windswept gravel pit with a reputation for being something of a challenge. Every keen angler knows the excitement which comes from fishing a new water, casting into the unknown and not being quite sure of what might be swimming out there in front of you, I can't wait to get stuck in!

There's a PB out there somewhere........

Posted with Blogsy