Red Letters

After an initial success on the new bait the next session drew a blank but then again so did everyone else so I put my confidence crisis on hold. Due to a family comitment I didn't make it back on to the bank until last night. It was a warm day but without ripple but I still felt extremeley optimistic. By dusk my confidence was on the slide and had to work had to remind myself that the session was still young. Shortly after dark the right hand rod raced off and after a good plodding fight a mirror of 15lb 1oz slid into the net.

Feeling very relieved I recast and sat back to take it in, an hour later the left hand rod went off and the fish stayed deep. The fish managed to stay deep and despite back leads picked up the centre line dragging the lead completely out of position. A mirror of 17lb 3oz was a really nice bonus and incidently came on a S7 glugged in Pure Krill.

So there I was with gear in dissaray and baits pulled out position feeling relieved and fully over the moon and coming to the conclusion that it may be time to pack up when out of the blue the centre rod flew off. I was amazed, the last thing I imagined after having the bait and lead dragged across the bottom was to have it picked up. It was then I realised I'd left the net next to my unhooking mat at the top of the bank. after some deft shuffling and back winding I had the net in the water with a 15lb 4oz in it

So 3 good fish in a short evening session, I'd call that a right old result.

After the Dought

To further muddy the water I visited my local water armed with my new bait. I managed to land 2 carp to rapturous applause from a sympathetic Kev. The first pulled the scales to 14lb 15oz and the second was a common which may have struggled almost to double figures.

After tying a brand new wallet of rigs, changed bait and rethought my tactics it came as a huge relief to bank a pair of fish in a short session.

The Great Bait Debate

Its an age old discussion that's heard on every venue....Bait and does it really have a massive impact on someone's catch rate? Up until a few months ago I would have agreed that if you put a good quality bait in front of a feeding carp and it hadn't been caught more than once or twice on it then there's no reason it wouldn't take it. That was before I came across Trigger with Blue Oyster. No one else has any trouble catching on it but I can't get so much as a twitch on it. On the plus side my good friend Scotty has supplied me with a some new DNA baits secret 7 and a big bottle of Sticky's Pure Liquid Krill. Lets see if that ends the blank spell.

At Last

I've been fishing now for somewhere around 32 years... maybe more. A few years ago I set out some targets and monumentally failed to hit any of them. Once again I ended up on my concrete hole in the ground and arrived to find a warm wind blowing into the east bank, I grabbed my holdall and dropped it in the middle of the bank and returned to fetch my rod holdall from the car. as I returned I saw at least a dozen fish packed into the corner I was passing. Now once I've set my mind on a swim I find it very hard to change but this was irresistable. I dropped a rod into the corner on a running lead and continued to set up, within minutes the swinger raised steadily up and the free spool raced off. After a steady dogged fight I had the fish under the rod tip and by the way it still hadnt come off the bottom I knew it was better than average. When she finally slipped into the net I knew it was the biggest fish in the place and turned out to be an easy PB at 23lb 8oz it was also my first 20.

And that would have been easily enough, just as it was getting dark the swinger of the centre rod rose steadily and I managed to hit it early. After a good fight a long lean mirror slipped into the net and pulled the scales down to 12lb 3oz.

Perfect evening session.

No Such Thing As A Bad Move

So the world cup is on and everyone seems to be staying indoors to watch the beautiful game, I on the other hand was out trying to catch some carp. I chose my favourite local concrete hole in the ground and set up in a corner with a warm wind blowing straight into it, baited up 2 margin spots and a spot at the bottom of the slope and sat back to wait. It didn't take long before the expected happened. Without warning a young lad set up on the next peg right over a margin bait, when I suggested that I had a bait right in front of him he replied 'its ok I'm casting out there!!'. The final straw came when a guy sat on top of the other margin rod. I wouldn't have minded but the rest of the place was empty. So with typical huffing and puffing and my bottom lip firmly out I stompped off the far side. The move, as it happened, turned out to be a winner with a 6lb common and a 14lb 2oz mirror falling to a Blue Oyster boilie on an inline lead. WINNER!

And the words of the day are ....

It may well be April first but I managed to make it onto the banks of my favourite concrete hole last night which by my reckoning made it still only march. I picked a corner out of the wind, chucked one into the corner near some old reeds, one down the margin and the other into deeper water. As the light faded the wind dropped and so did the temperature, a thick fog filled the whole place and I started to doubt the wisdom of placing two of the three rods down the margin. In these low temperatures surely the fish would be staying clear of the shallows until the morning and the chance of some sun. 9 pm came and went and I was considering packing up and calling it a night when the corner rod something most interesting, against all the odds the swinger limbed all the way to the top and stopped. Suspecting a bream had snaffled the bait I wound up and lifted into the fish which kited out of the corner and wallowed in front of me with not even token resistance. I was amazed to see the bream change in front of my eyes into a carp. I suppose with hindsight I'm lucky the fish wasn't up for a scrap as the quick release clip holding the hook link to the main line snagged on the net leaving the fish on the outside. Luckily for me the fish waited patiently while I scooped and twisted the net and finally she was mine. She pulled the scales down to 12lb 10oz and whilst not a whacker was certainly more than welcome for a short session after work And the words of the day? Tungsten tubing. I fished a 2 ft section above the hook link to help keep the line down. Ease to fit and quite effective. Well it never did me any harm. Finally the guys were working hard fitting an otter fence to keep the vermin out when I arrived and I can only hope it works. Until next time ..

Another Year

< So here we are half way through the year and I've just managed to get onto the bank. I managed a night on my local water. It wasn't till after dark that I got my first run from a margin rod in the corner reed bed. At around 7lb the little fella managed to go through my other two lines and did a knit one pearl one into a big knotty jumper. Worst part of the night was snapping the tip off my barbel rod in a tree. I was gutted! I tackled up again and sat on my rods for another half hour or so before calling it a night. No sooner had my head hit the bed chair and my other margin rod was away. After a short charging fight this mirror slipped into the net, at just under 15lb my barbel rod was all but forgotten.