Crazy Coots

I arrived at my local water in the drizzle on monday, and set up feeling fairly confident. I elected to fish a rod down each margin and a third rod about 25 yards straight out. I baited up with the usual DNA Baits Secret 7 boilies and made a step too far and scattered a mixture of sweet corn, pellet and hemp over the left hand margin rod. I say it was a mistake as a family of coots spotted me baiting up and would not leave that spot all evening, they even managed to snag my lead up twice in a row. As a result I ended up moving a little further out. I had suffered a couple of blank sessions so I was determined to have a successful night, around 8pm the right hand rod raced off and a common of 12lb 10oz led me up and down the margin before slipping in to the net.

I was just contemplating packing up and the rain was falling when the left hand rod sprang into action, after a short fight a small common barely into double figures graced the net and it was a job well done.

Boat Fun

I acquired an inflatable boat for diving and fishing and got my first run out on the river yesterday. The boat is a 14ft Zodiac Futura which needed a lot of TLC, infact most people doubted it would ever hold presure. The engine is a 1981 Johnson 25HP Thunderbolt which I changed the gearbox oil and plugs a few weeks ago. Against better judgement I left the water pump alone as it was pushing plenty of water. The boat inflated and stayed inflated and the engine started first pull and ran smoothly, we pulled off the slipway with me still patting myself on the back. They say pride comes before a fall and sure enough 5 minutes up the river the water tell tale started belching steam. I can only imagine that the water pump stopped effectively doing its job and the engine over heated and boiled off the remaining cooling water. Does anyone have any inside information? As an old boss of mine said 'all boats sink' and as someone else said 'boats are just holes in the water that you throw money into' Anyway tommorow at work will mostly be spent ordering a new impeller and gaskets.

Secret 7 Does It Again

I managed a short after work seeion last week but didnt arrive on the water until nearly 5pm. I set up following the usual rule by fishing into the wind even though I hadnt seen anything moving. Although fishing in to the wind is the usual plan after an hour or 2 I saw fish moving almost anywhere except in the windward area where I was, however I didnt feel that I had enough time to move so I decided to wait out and see what happened. Around 9 pm my middle rod rattled off and after a brief fight, mostly under the rod tip, I slid the net under a fat mirror of 15lb 7oz.

Capenwray 2

As expected there are still some very nice fish harrassing the divers.

Capenwray

Well tomorrow I will be switching perspective and joining the fish in their own realm. We're heading over to a flooded quarry called Capenwray for a day of diving. I only mention the fact because of the fish that we will encounter, double figure trout, large perch, sturgeon and most notable of some enormous roach. Underwater, because of the way that light bends in water, objects always look bigger, however even taking this into account some of the roach must be pushing 4lb. Divers often take bags of sweetcorn and and pellet into the shallow training areas and all the easy food and complete lack of angling presure mean these fish all seem to beof a good stamp. Funnily enough though I havent seen any fish on the bottom at 60 foot and very few beyond 20 feet.

A Touch of Wind

My local hole in the ground responds well to wind, espescially a warm wind, but the question is when is it warm enough? Well last night I got my answer and its errrrrmm now! I arrived and decided to fish into the teeth of a strong wind, I find it tricky at times but knowing its the right place to be makes you just get your head down and crack on. I fished 2 rods about 20 yards out and one at the foot of the slope about 10 yards to my left. Both rods were on 15mm Secret 7 boilies over 20 to 30 15mm and 12mm Secret 7 boilies. I had to wait about 2 hours before the margin rod raced off, after a dogged heavy fight Kev slid the net under a tubby common that pulled the scales down to 21lb 13oz. To say I was chuffed would be an under statement. So the evening wore on and I was happily thinking about packing up when the same rod raced off again, after another dogged fight I slid the net under a long mirror of 18lb 2oz. On any session they'd be a brilliant pair for the north east, even better on a 6 hour session and perfect after 3 previous blanks. I still havent managed a fish on coated braid yet, I know its not a new piece of kit but I still havent had a fish on it and so I still havent got any confidence in it.

Slow Start

Well after all the anticipation over the winter the annual campaign at my local water has gotton off to a slow start. So far I've done an over night session, a day session and an evening and not caught a single fish. My old pal Jay managed a mirror of 19lb on our short evening session which was a lovely fish. As always I need a few fish under my belt before I get some confidence, I think maybe I have been getting a bit ahead of myself and need to simplify things a bit.