Sunday 29 July 2007
Chasing carp
Work is a bit thin on the ground at the moment which apart from the obvious financial drawbacks means its good news for fishing.
Last week I hit my local venue just after dawn, I arrived to find that I had the whole place to myself and was supremely confident. I picked a spot with a short cast tight against a weed bed and the second rod walked down and placed in front of a bed of reeds. Both rods were armed with small PVA mesh bags and surounded by a bed of pellet and broken boilies. I've recently switched from placing the lead and hook link into a bag along with the freebies to a tube and stocking arangement. The larger bags I found floated too long and melted on or near the surface dropping their contents over a larger area. The new ( to me ) system is smaller in volume and sinks faster. My only reservation is I'm not confident that merely hooking the bag is secure enough for anything more than a gentle lob, hence I use a small piece of PVA tape to secure the bag to the lead then pass the hook into the mesh bag.
So with Mainline active 8 and halibut pellets I went to work! Other than the odd twitch against the weed bed my rods stayed silent untill about 3 pm when off went the weed bed rod. At first I thought I'd missed the run untill I saw a flash of silver and a bream rolled just under the surface. The venue does quite well for bream and many of the old fish reach double figures athough this one was somewhere around 3lb. And that was that for the day.
I'm fairly sure that it was just a case of no fish in my swim as untill I was nearly ready to pack up there was no sign of a carp anywhere near my baits and certainly no line bites.
If the lack of work persists then I'll be back on wednesday for another go only this time I'm going to fish black eyed beans on one of the rods, I remember 2 very good friends of mine doing very well on the venue with them albeit nearly 20 years ago.
We'll see!!!
Last week I hit my local venue just after dawn, I arrived to find that I had the whole place to myself and was supremely confident. I picked a spot with a short cast tight against a weed bed and the second rod walked down and placed in front of a bed of reeds. Both rods were armed with small PVA mesh bags and surounded by a bed of pellet and broken boilies. I've recently switched from placing the lead and hook link into a bag along with the freebies to a tube and stocking arangement. The larger bags I found floated too long and melted on or near the surface dropping their contents over a larger area. The new ( to me ) system is smaller in volume and sinks faster. My only reservation is I'm not confident that merely hooking the bag is secure enough for anything more than a gentle lob, hence I use a small piece of PVA tape to secure the bag to the lead then pass the hook into the mesh bag.
So with Mainline active 8 and halibut pellets I went to work! Other than the odd twitch against the weed bed my rods stayed silent untill about 3 pm when off went the weed bed rod. At first I thought I'd missed the run untill I saw a flash of silver and a bream rolled just under the surface. The venue does quite well for bream and many of the old fish reach double figures athough this one was somewhere around 3lb. And that was that for the day.
I'm fairly sure that it was just a case of no fish in my swim as untill I was nearly ready to pack up there was no sign of a carp anywhere near my baits and certainly no line bites.
If the lack of work persists then I'll be back on wednesday for another go only this time I'm going to fish black eyed beans on one of the rods, I remember 2 very good friends of mine doing very well on the venue with them albeit nearly 20 years ago.
We'll see!!!
Monday 23 July 2007
Farlows, July part 2
It appears the gods were still shining on me because the next evening brought a similar early finish and good weather.This time though, still with no bollies I knew it was tench I was going to target. I still Favoured the bottom corner because its close to the gate where my car would be and while talking to one of the regulars he recomended a peg opposite a reed bed. I set a ledger rod on a sliding paternoster and a float rod both baited with corn. The ledger rod was positioned against the reeds while I fished the float rod off a large bush to my right.
Right from the off the light wieght bobins were on the move but eventually I got a positive bite and hooked into something reasonable. Tench? Small carp? Within a few seconds the fish managed to shed the hook in some submerged weed and was gone.
A few small bream came to the float and fought reasonably on the light tackle along with a couple of roach.
Around mid evening I started to see the reed stems moving, a sure sign a carp or 2 had found the bed of corn freebies. Sure enough a few minutes later the indicator whacked into the rod and a bow wave made off down the reeds. as soon as I conected with the fish the hook came adrift.
The reed line never recovered from that incident and although I took a few more bream I again had that wasted opportunity feeling. Oh yeah and still no tench.
So, any lessons learnt? I was fishing 2 rods and with activety on both rods I feel my attention was divided, maybe I'll stick to 1 rod next time. Secondly I feel I was fishing a bit light for what may come along so I'll upgrade to 6lb line with 5lb hook link. I also seemed to get my ledger bait twitched and hung up in the weed stems so I'll use a float instead.
Wonder what time we'll get finished this week!!
Right from the off the light wieght bobins were on the move but eventually I got a positive bite and hooked into something reasonable. Tench? Small carp? Within a few seconds the fish managed to shed the hook in some submerged weed and was gone.
A few small bream came to the float and fought reasonably on the light tackle along with a couple of roach.
Around mid evening I started to see the reed stems moving, a sure sign a carp or 2 had found the bed of corn freebies. Sure enough a few minutes later the indicator whacked into the rod and a bow wave made off down the reeds. as soon as I conected with the fish the hook came adrift.
The reed line never recovered from that incident and although I took a few more bream I again had that wasted opportunity feeling. Oh yeah and still no tench.
So, any lessons learnt? I was fishing 2 rods and with activety on both rods I feel my attention was divided, maybe I'll stick to 1 rod next time. Secondly I feel I was fishing a bit light for what may come along so I'll upgrade to 6lb line with 5lb hook link. I also seemed to get my ledger bait twitched and hung up in the weed stems so I'll use a float instead.
Wonder what time we'll get finished this week!!
Farlows, July
Last week for once work was kind to me and I managed to get two early finishes and with Farlows only being around the corner it was a simple choice. All day I had struggled with the choice between carp and tench, the descision of where to fish was fairly simple as the gates are locked at 8 pm and I wanted an easy walk out as my car would be on the road so the bottom corner it was! Carp were rolling off the tip off one island and instantly the scales tipped in favour of carp. I rushed to the on site shop to get some bollies only to find it had shut!! At this point I should have re-thought my plan but foolishly I didnt. In my bag I always keep some meat and some corn so although I had no faith in the meat it went on as bait. The whole rig plus corn and pellets went into a PVA bag and was cast towards the island.
All evening I got small twitches but nothing more and I came to the conclusion it was only small fish pecking away atthe bait. And so it was at dusk that I packed away kicking myself over a wasted fishless evening.
All evening I got small twitches but nothing more and I came to the conclusion it was only small fish pecking away atthe bait. And so it was at dusk that I packed away kicking myself over a wasted fishless evening.
Monday 2 July 2007
Perch and more perch
Its been over a month since I last wet a line and a trip has been long over due. I managed to snatch a few hours tonight at my local venue, the reservoir. With the venue selected ( its closest! ) all I needed to do was decide what I was going to be chasing. In a round about way Pete and little Jim decided for me, they are currently in in Germany chasing huge carp and have taken my swingers and optonics so it was a fairly easy choice to go for perch and what ever I could muster on a float rod with magots.
A large lob worm on a size 12 finished off a sliding paternoster rig ang and this was fished against a likely looking weed bed, an optonic and ultra light bobins were the final touch. I also fished a float rod to see what else might come my way and this was baited with 2 maggots on a size 16 hook.
From the word go I had action on both rods with small perch on the maggots and more small perch harrassing the worm. The bites on the ledger set up were fairly wild though the amount i missed led me to believe they were only small perch scurrying about with the worm. My plan was to wade through the smaller fish in the hope of picking up some better ones but alas it never quite worked out and the best I managed was a couple of fish about 6 to 8oz.
I had been feeding a small amount of corn and pellet alongside the maggots on the float line and mid evening the float slid away again but this time it was something a little different. I managed to gain a little line but then the fish turned and ran leaving a huge bow wave and me minus a hook.
The small perch kept coming untill nearly dusk when both rods went quiet. All in all it was a great night and felt great to be back on the bank.
A large lob worm on a size 12 finished off a sliding paternoster rig ang and this was fished against a likely looking weed bed, an optonic and ultra light bobins were the final touch. I also fished a float rod to see what else might come my way and this was baited with 2 maggots on a size 16 hook.
From the word go I had action on both rods with small perch on the maggots and more small perch harrassing the worm. The bites on the ledger set up were fairly wild though the amount i missed led me to believe they were only small perch scurrying about with the worm. My plan was to wade through the smaller fish in the hope of picking up some better ones but alas it never quite worked out and the best I managed was a couple of fish about 6 to 8oz.
I had been feeding a small amount of corn and pellet alongside the maggots on the float line and mid evening the float slid away again but this time it was something a little different. I managed to gain a little line but then the fish turned and ran leaving a huge bow wave and me minus a hook.
The small perch kept coming untill nearly dusk when both rods went quiet. All in all it was a great night and felt great to be back on the bank.
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