In The Edge

I arrived on my local water complete with a fresh bag of S7 and set up with the a strong warm wind blasting straight into my peg. I flicked my left hand rod to a small patch of lilies a few metres away and my right hand rod under a tree tight into the margin. I thought long and hard about my rigs (for a change) and swapped my lead clips out for inline leads for my margin rods and allowed the line to lay completely slack. After a pair of small stock fish from the lilies the rod tip pulled around again and on striking I mistakenly thought I was into another small fish. While bullying the fish away from my other 2 lines it suddenly occurred to me that I was into a better carp. It was with great relief when I slid the net under a 17lb 7oz mirror. Half an hour before packing up and while I was catching forty winks the right hand rod flew off and after a short fight another mirror of 14lb 6oz ended up in the net. The irony is that I ended up getting snagged up and losing the end tackle on my carefully thought out right hand rod, with time getting short I tied on a lead clip and quick release clip and got the bait back in the margin and it was shortly after that I got the second carp. It just goes to show that sometimes you can over think things.

Tails Like Paddles

I made it down to my local water as usual last night and ended up in the same swim as last week, although I am a creature of habit this time I chose my spot spot based on a gentle breeze that was blowing into the corner again and more importantly it was as far away from another angler as it was possible to get. As usual I managed to get bothered by the stock carp until I lengthened the hair on my rig and critically balanced a 15mm S7 boilie with a trimmed down 15mm white Nash popup. There was just enough buoyancy to lift the baits but leave the hook laying flat on the deck. Shortly after recasting at dusk the line screamed out and a good deep fight ensued before I slipped the net under a 15lb 2oz mirror with a tail like a paddle steamer. So lessons learnt, always try something different (I'd never had much luck on the water with popups), be careful when taking pictures in the dark (this one is the best by a long long long way) and think carefully about where you intend to cast.

Strange Night

I was back on my local water on Tuesday night and really looking forward to it. I picked a corner that last autumn I had quite a lot of success in, its a little bit shallower than the rest of the water and is the scene of an old weed bed that was removed several years ago. When I arrived there was a warm breeze blowing into the corner and a group of decent carp were lounging in the sun. As soon as I dropped a lead anywhere near them the fish disappeared and that was the last I'd see of them. I had a run of small stock fish and couldn't shake the feeling that the small fish were ruining my presentation and cleaning up my free offerings and my enthusiasm started to slide. At one point the little blighters had all my rods out of the water and it was long before my usual packing up time when I called it a day.

I'm Back

Its been a good few months since I was at my favourite concrete hole in the ground but I made my return last night. It has been warm and humid all week and I set up into a warm breeze. I got the first rod set up and flicked down the margin before casting my second rod with a bare lead to check the drop. The place was stocked with quite a few carp in the pound region and as they're growing they're now becoming a bit of a menace. As I was casting my bare lead I got a few bleeps and pulls on my margin rod and then noticed the line had kited out slightly so decided that the small stock fish that had picked up my bait almost immediately would have to be dealt with. On lifting the rod it was a great surprise to see a decent bend pulled into the rod and a dogged fight under the rod tip ensued until with great relief I slipped the net under the mystery fish. It had stayed deep all through the fight and as I opened the mesh it kind of grew and grew. The batteries in my all singing all dancing fox scales let me down at exactly the wrong moment so I fell back on my faithful Avon set for a bet of retro weighing. The needle swung round to 19lb 10oz and after 5 minutes of fishing I was a very happy angler.

The venue always fishes a lot better in autumn and the stiff breeze and warm weather coupled with a good fish at the starting gun led me to believe it might be a very busy evening. However after 3 stockies upto around 2lb and a bream it occurred to me that it wasn't going to get any better. With a fish knocking on for 20lb already in the bag its hard to do anything else but smile.

Perch in Strange Places

After a series of unfortunate incidences I ended up diving at Ellerton water park with my eldest daughter today. The visibility was rubbish, the bottom mostly silty and very weedy and the day would have been wasted if not for the resident perch. As I've mentioned before they grow very large in this particular lake but today they ranged from clouds of fry up to around a pound. It was interesting to watch a small group of cannibal larger fish lounging in close proximity to the fry. They both seemed almost indifferent of the other until they drifted too close then it was back to business as usual. A little later we came across one of the lakes scenic additions in the form of a rusting car which turned out to be full of perch.