I managed a quick session on my local water today and it occured to me that I havent had a single carp yet this year! To be fair though I havent really had chance to put the nescesary time in either. This time I at least managed to get myself and my car to the lake without incident. I picked a swim in the furthest corner and decided to drop one bait in the corner against a reed bed to my right and the other slightly right and tight to weed bed. As a bit of a distraction I also set up a float rod with a single magot on a size 18 hook under a small insert waggler.
The float rod was a minor success from the word go bringing small roach and perch to about 4oz and a couple of small skimmers to 8oz.
The weed rod gave a couple of line bites before finally screaming off. Even though I was on the rods the fish was well into the weed before I was bent into it. Predictably with my luck a few moments of holding it hard the hook hold gave and it was gone. Should I have given some line and tried to win it back later or hold it hard?
After recasting both rods I was seriously contemplating recasting the bait against the reeds into a bay in the same weed bed as the other when the swinger twitched and dropped back. On striking I thought I'd managed to miss it but on winding in I discovered a bream of just short of 5 lb had taken the bait.
The reed rod was duly recast to the weeds and shortly showed a rapid line bite. It wasnt long again before another screaming run developed out of nowhere. I picked up the rod and struck.... nothing. I rebaited and was just about to recast when I remember something that Pete R had told me about a recent trip of his. On checking the hook point I found it turned out. I could have kicked my self and as far as I'm concerned that would have been a fish on the bank.
One day I'll remember to check all the small things that make for a succesfull session. Lesson learnt, THE HARD WAY!
Friday, 31 July 2009
Monday, 27 July 2009
sell sell sell
I've got my cynical head on today. If you read back through some of my ramblings you'll find me ranting against real tree cam and such like and I'm afraid I'm at it again.
I was reading through the Angling Times today and finally reached crital mass against advertisement dressed up as advice. Des Taylor and Martin Bowler are the two culprits who spring to mind but there are plenty of others.
Now we all know someone (not just in fishing) who will buy, go or do anything that is recomended, in angling its worse because we have such little time on the bank that we want to try to eliminate any dead ends to maximise our precious free time. The part that really annoys me is that angling journalists drop sponsered products into articles disguised as good old free advice. Mr Bowler went through a phase of recomending anything produced by Drennan, even floats. Now call me a cynic but providing it floats its a float. Good old Des is constantly plugging his own bait line. Now not only are these people pulling the wool over our eyes but theyre on a double whamey earner to boot. They get paid to write articles by the publication and in doing so also get paid by their sponser to get their products named and recomended.
Phew I'm nearly done. Dont get dragged in to following names and trends, take the methods on board, use them as part of your armourey and shop around. I'll give you one last tip, in the late 80's and 90's there were at least a dozen brands of line all advertising and drawing you in, but there were only 4 manufacturers producing them. Look around your tackle shop, the same item in the same design and many manufacturers but whats the difference between the most expensive and the cheapest? NOT A LOT!
Spleen vented.
I was reading through the Angling Times today and finally reached crital mass against advertisement dressed up as advice. Des Taylor and Martin Bowler are the two culprits who spring to mind but there are plenty of others.
Now we all know someone (not just in fishing) who will buy, go or do anything that is recomended, in angling its worse because we have such little time on the bank that we want to try to eliminate any dead ends to maximise our precious free time. The part that really annoys me is that angling journalists drop sponsered products into articles disguised as good old free advice. Mr Bowler went through a phase of recomending anything produced by Drennan, even floats. Now call me a cynic but providing it floats its a float. Good old Des is constantly plugging his own bait line. Now not only are these people pulling the wool over our eyes but theyre on a double whamey earner to boot. They get paid to write articles by the publication and in doing so also get paid by their sponser to get their products named and recomended.
Phew I'm nearly done. Dont get dragged in to following names and trends, take the methods on board, use them as part of your armourey and shop around. I'll give you one last tip, in the late 80's and 90's there were at least a dozen brands of line all advertising and drawing you in, but there were only 4 manufacturers producing them. Look around your tackle shop, the same item in the same design and many manufacturers but whats the difference between the most expensive and the cheapest? NOT A LOT!
Spleen vented.
Thursday, 23 July 2009
Trent
Its been a funny old day and it will come as no surprise that although I managed to get onto the bank it wasnt a raging success. On my way to the River Trent above Long Eaton a car cam out of a side road and clipped the front of my van. And so the theme for the night was set and it didnt put a smile on my face. Now much as I rattle on about enjoying being on the bank a little success wouldnt go amiss. I opted for an open ended feeder with a pellet sandwhich and a 12mm halibut pellet on the hook.
There was interest from the off but it took a while for the tip to wrap around with any conviction, I struck...... and nothing. I reeled in and lifted the rod tip when I guessed the feeder was a rod length out, There was a lange bronze swirl and then it was gone. I dont know if it was a chub or a barbel but I guess it was swimming directly towards me, in an instant it was gone.
And that would be it for the evening, well almost. There was almost constant activety on the tip with some sharp raps but nothing else. A series of raps made me strike again only to find a bream about 8oz had manged to squeeze the size 8 hook into its mouth.
The swim I'd chosen appears to be full of snags and I lost 2 feeders in the proccess of the evening and was forced to switch to a lead and PVA bag approach. Interestingly the action seemed to stop when the feeders were no longer beeing used.
So, any lessons learnt? Well a couple I suppose, open ended feeders created more interest than pva bags, large pellets are a nightmare to keep on nylon hairs (I ended up threading on a piece of silicon tubing between the pellet and the stop), dont forget your torch and if you need to move.....move.
Grrrrr next time!!!
There was interest from the off but it took a while for the tip to wrap around with any conviction, I struck...... and nothing. I reeled in and lifted the rod tip when I guessed the feeder was a rod length out, There was a lange bronze swirl and then it was gone. I dont know if it was a chub or a barbel but I guess it was swimming directly towards me, in an instant it was gone.
And that would be it for the evening, well almost. There was almost constant activety on the tip with some sharp raps but nothing else. A series of raps made me strike again only to find a bream about 8oz had manged to squeeze the size 8 hook into its mouth.
The swim I'd chosen appears to be full of snags and I lost 2 feeders in the proccess of the evening and was forced to switch to a lead and PVA bag approach. Interestingly the action seemed to stop when the feeders were no longer beeing used.
So, any lessons learnt? Well a couple I suppose, open ended feeders created more interest than pva bags, large pellets are a nightmare to keep on nylon hairs (I ended up threading on a piece of silicon tubing between the pellet and the stop), dont forget your torch and if you need to move.....move.
Grrrrr next time!!!
Monday, 20 July 2009
Darn it!!
I managed to grab a couple of hours on my local water tonifgt and came over all Mr Crabtree esque! I settled on fishing a waggler lift method style against reeds in a corner. Only, unlike Mr Crabtree I blanked! I did get a couple of lifts and dips on the float but I'm guessing they were just small stuff licking the bait about. Anyway back to semi fixed leads next time!
Friday, 2 January 2009
Everyone needs goals
Heres just a thought on what I'd like to achieve this year. Whilst I try and not focus on wieghts too much (mainly because I'd be constantly dissapointed) heres some targets.
Barbel, having never caught one any will do but I'd like to aim for 8lb
Carp, it shouldnt be that hard to find a 20 these days should it? More than that though I'd love to bank a river carp........ any river carp.
Bream, my local water holds em up to 8lb so that seems a realistic target.
Perch. A 2lb perch from either the trent, my local water or the new lake I've come accross is easily on the cards.
Tench. The north East isnt renowned for its tench but the new water does hold a couple, 4lb would see me grinning.
Pike. I've already had an 18 from the trent so the next logical step is a twenty, not an easy one though.
Roach. I reckon this couldbe the hardest of all and I'm going to keep it realistic and say 1lb 8oz.
Chub. At just over 5lb my pb isnt massive but I reckon many anglers wont have seen one, I'd be happy with anything over 5lb 8oz.
I wonder what I'll be thinking looking back from the end of 2009?
Barbel, having never caught one any will do but I'd like to aim for 8lb
Carp, it shouldnt be that hard to find a 20 these days should it? More than that though I'd love to bank a river carp........ any river carp.
Bream, my local water holds em up to 8lb so that seems a realistic target.
Perch. A 2lb perch from either the trent, my local water or the new lake I've come accross is easily on the cards.
Tench. The north East isnt renowned for its tench but the new water does hold a couple, 4lb would see me grinning.
Pike. I've already had an 18 from the trent so the next logical step is a twenty, not an easy one though.
Roach. I reckon this couldbe the hardest of all and I'm going to keep it realistic and say 1lb 8oz.
Chub. At just over 5lb my pb isnt massive but I reckon many anglers wont have seen one, I'd be happy with anything over 5lb 8oz.
I wonder what I'll be thinking looking back from the end of 2009?
December
Well its been a while since I either wet a line or managed to get 5 minutes free totalk about it!
I DID get acouple of short sessions on the bank of my local water back in september. I picked the corner furthest away from the enterance and fished one bait down the margin to a reed bed and the other straight out to some weed. The reed bed rod could be walked down to reeds then passed back up the bank and around a tree back to the peg. It was obvious by the undergrowth that no one had done this in a long long time.
Within an hour, as happens in carp fishing, an old mate turned up out of the blue. We'd been chatting for half an hour when the reed bed rod signaled a big dropback,after a short and dogged scrap my first reservoir carp for 20 years and a personal best of 17lb 2 oz was in the net. Not only that but a mate from my early days was there to wiegh and photograph it. Fishing is full of surprises!
My next trip and I tried exactly the same tactics, the result was the most perfect common I've ever seen. At only a shade over 10lb it wasnt going to set the world on fire but I cant wait to meet up again in a few years. On a subsequent trip I noticed the grass where I pass the rod back around the tree trampled, ever get the feeling you've been rumbled?
My final trip of the year was squeezed in inbetween Christmas and New Year. To say the least it was bloody freezing and I was almost without confidence. I decided to hedge my bets and put 2 carp rods out and a light ledger on lob worm for the perch. Other than a linebite towards the end of the session on the left hand carp rod and a screaming unmissable take on the lobworm, which I missed, it would be fair to say that I blanked. In mitigation I must add that mid afternoon I came under heavy barage from a pheasant shoot, got showered with hundreds of lead shot (remind me why anglers cant use lead shot but shooters can?!) and finally had an over eager labradour swim straght through my swim..
Ah well as they say "here comes the summer!"
I DID get acouple of short sessions on the bank of my local water back in september. I picked the corner furthest away from the enterance and fished one bait down the margin to a reed bed and the other straight out to some weed. The reed bed rod could be walked down to reeds then passed back up the bank and around a tree back to the peg. It was obvious by the undergrowth that no one had done this in a long long time.
Within an hour, as happens in carp fishing, an old mate turned up out of the blue. We'd been chatting for half an hour when the reed bed rod signaled a big dropback,after a short and dogged scrap my first reservoir carp for 20 years and a personal best of 17lb 2 oz was in the net. Not only that but a mate from my early days was there to wiegh and photograph it. Fishing is full of surprises!
My next trip and I tried exactly the same tactics, the result was the most perfect common I've ever seen. At only a shade over 10lb it wasnt going to set the world on fire but I cant wait to meet up again in a few years. On a subsequent trip I noticed the grass where I pass the rod back around the tree trampled, ever get the feeling you've been rumbled?
My final trip of the year was squeezed in inbetween Christmas and New Year. To say the least it was bloody freezing and I was almost without confidence. I decided to hedge my bets and put 2 carp rods out and a light ledger on lob worm for the perch. Other than a linebite towards the end of the session on the left hand carp rod and a screaming unmissable take on the lobworm, which I missed, it would be fair to say that I blanked. In mitigation I must add that mid afternoon I came under heavy barage from a pheasant shoot, got showered with hundreds of lead shot (remind me why anglers cant use lead shot but shooters can?!) and finally had an over eager labradour swim straght through my swim..
Ah well as they say "here comes the summer!"
Sunday, 25 May 2008
Farlows
Well it has been a while since I last got a line in the water so I made the most of an early finish at work and headed off to Farlows. As usual I dropped on to the motorway bank for ease of getting back to the car once the gates were locked. I planned on dropping one rod out against an inaccessible bank about 30m away and the other flicked around a bush. As I scanned the water I saw fish roll over both my chosen marks. It seemed that this was going to be too easy. I really must stop saying that!
I chose to fish running leads on both rods to give myself a good indication of any impending action. PVA bags of pellet and broken bollies were attached to both rigs and the closer rod was chucked over a bed of hemp, pellet and more broken boilies. All I had to do was wait. It wasn’t long before the bush indicator started giving some twitches, see I told you it wouldn’t take long! Then off it went pulling line off the baitrunner. Too easy. I hit it hard and……..nothing! Not even a slight bump. I rebaited and recast, topping up the loose feed too and it wasn’t long before the same rod rattled off again. Once again I hit the run and resulted in grabbing fresh air. A change to semi fixed leads made no difference and the runs proved un hittable. Anyone got any ideas?
Part 2.
A few days latter and back on the same bank but a peg or 2 further up I was back for another evening session. This time I went for semi fixed leads straight away with short hook links and 3 or 4 bait PVA stringers. This evening there were even more fish moving, spawning or post spawning troughing session? This time to avoid a complete blank I also set up a float rod to try my luck on the corn for roach and skimmers.
The first problem I found was that a family of Moorhens locked onto my bait and over the next 2 hours repeatedly raided my trap nicking every last freebee, from time to timeI even got a twitch as one of the adults tried and thankfully dropped the far hookbait.
Meanwhile to lift my spirits out came the light float rod with a 2.5lb bottom and size 16 hook. To begin with all went well and despite a difficult cast (well it was for me) I got a steady stream of bites from the margin under a tree catching roach and bream upto about 8oz. As usual the float wavered, lifted 2 or 3 in and slid away, I struck and hit bottom then the bottom moved slowly and deliberately off towards some tree roots. Carp? Tench? Either way my light tackle was no match and I mentally kicked myself hard for leaving my avon float rod and 6lb line in the holdall. Amazing my self the fish turned, now if only I can get the fish into open water I might stand a glimmer of hope……..oops no now it headeded into the tangle of branches. More pressure and the hook link parted. Flip flip flip!
Annoyed with my lack of fore thought I put the float rod away and dropped a running lead with a boilie and stringer on the spot where I’d been feeding the corn. Just after dark this 3rd rod slowly lifted the ultra light bobbin to the butt. I wanted to hit it early before it developed into a screaming run straight into the snag. True to form I lifted into the fish and once again found fresh air. It wasn’t too long after that I packed away and went home.
2 short sessions a real dilemma about my tactics and no decent fish to show for my efforts. The only saving grace was that on both occaisions the bailiff failed to relieve me of my day ticket money! I need to put some fish on the bank and soon.
I chose to fish running leads on both rods to give myself a good indication of any impending action. PVA bags of pellet and broken bollies were attached to both rigs and the closer rod was chucked over a bed of hemp, pellet and more broken boilies. All I had to do was wait. It wasn’t long before the bush indicator started giving some twitches, see I told you it wouldn’t take long! Then off it went pulling line off the baitrunner. Too easy. I hit it hard and……..nothing! Not even a slight bump. I rebaited and recast, topping up the loose feed too and it wasn’t long before the same rod rattled off again. Once again I hit the run and resulted in grabbing fresh air. A change to semi fixed leads made no difference and the runs proved un hittable. Anyone got any ideas?
Part 2.
A few days latter and back on the same bank but a peg or 2 further up I was back for another evening session. This time I went for semi fixed leads straight away with short hook links and 3 or 4 bait PVA stringers. This evening there were even more fish moving, spawning or post spawning troughing session? This time to avoid a complete blank I also set up a float rod to try my luck on the corn for roach and skimmers.
The first problem I found was that a family of Moorhens locked onto my bait and over the next 2 hours repeatedly raided my trap nicking every last freebee, from time to timeI even got a twitch as one of the adults tried and thankfully dropped the far hookbait.
Meanwhile to lift my spirits out came the light float rod with a 2.5lb bottom and size 16 hook. To begin with all went well and despite a difficult cast (well it was for me) I got a steady stream of bites from the margin under a tree catching roach and bream upto about 8oz. As usual the float wavered, lifted 2 or 3 in and slid away, I struck and hit bottom then the bottom moved slowly and deliberately off towards some tree roots. Carp? Tench? Either way my light tackle was no match and I mentally kicked myself hard for leaving my avon float rod and 6lb line in the holdall. Amazing my self the fish turned, now if only I can get the fish into open water I might stand a glimmer of hope……..oops no now it headeded into the tangle of branches. More pressure and the hook link parted. Flip flip flip!
Annoyed with my lack of fore thought I put the float rod away and dropped a running lead with a boilie and stringer on the spot where I’d been feeding the corn. Just after dark this 3rd rod slowly lifted the ultra light bobbin to the butt. I wanted to hit it early before it developed into a screaming run straight into the snag. True to form I lifted into the fish and once again found fresh air. It wasn’t too long after that I packed away and went home.
2 short sessions a real dilemma about my tactics and no decent fish to show for my efforts. The only saving grace was that on both occaisions the bailiff failed to relieve me of my day ticket money! I need to put some fish on the bank and soon.
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