Last session of the Year

Well been out for last session of 2014 . It was only a quick 4 hours so decided to go back to the small lake to fish short pole with liquidised bread and punch . Due to the snow and mins temperatures we have been having I threw my heavy duty weed rake in the van which also doubles as an ice breaker .

I arrived to find about 85% of the lake frozen , the 15% which wasnt frozen was at the shallow end and the reason for it been clear was the water circulation pump was on .

I settled on a swim next to tree near where the lake was still frozen .

I set my old telesnatcher up to fish the telescopic top 2 metres to hand , as the swim was only 3 feet deep at 4m I added 2 of the put in sections , I fed a couple of plugs of liquidised bread and out went the rig . Experience has told me that if the punch is going to work it will inside the first 20 minutes , as it got close to that mark and not a sign I was starting to get a little concerned when the float stuttered and then disappeared , I lifted into a small roach and that was the beginning of constant bites , I had some hemp with me to feed a little every so often as I have caught on it before in these conditions but it started to become obvious that the temp was not rising as the water covering it kept freezing . I was having problems with the bites been tentative and the float was a little higher than I would normally like , now when I was younger and match fishing canals regular I shotted my floats with size 10 ,11 and 12 shot and at some extremes size 13 !!!! Now I can hardly see the slot in a 10 let alone the others , I tried putting a 10 on when fished this method in February and had no chance so I sought out one these handy little things , it cost next to nothing but it worked a treat today so am well pleased

 
The stamp of roach was not that big but they were regular .

I had around 15 this size but the slightly bigger ones turned up .

The fish kept drifting in and out of the swim and I saw a couple of swirls that suggested that the perch were about but I never saw one . I had a rudd of around 8oz and then added this small gudgeon .

Now I have been struggling with a virus that was making my chest tight for the last 4 or 5 days , been out in the cold was not helping and then the complex workers started burning some old trees and the smoke started coming across where I was and so decided to call it a day . I ended up with the solitary rudd and gudgeon plus at least 40-50 roach , all in just under 4 hours fishing time so was very pleased given the weather .

My first session of 2015 is the 2nd january and at the moment is to be a trip to the Trent were I intend to try a small cage feeder with liquidised bread and punch .

So will wish you all happy new year and tight lines for 2015

Tough time of year

This will be a brief update as had 5 sessions since last update and it really has been tough .
My first session was to be a perch session on club lake that had produced a couple of 4lbers to live baits that were been fished for zander . On arrival it was clear the connecting river had been up and flooded the lake again and my chosen swim was a little boggy .

I dont do live baiting so opted for legered prawn on a very resistance free rig fished over a mix of riddled mole hill soil , meaty groundbait and predator plus liquid with some chopped prawn added . the other rod was a float set up fish small pieces of prawn over the same bait . After 5 hours including 1 hour into dark I had a single bleep and nothing more .

3 days later and I was back at the same lake but was caught in 2 minds and in the end did neither particularly well . I opted for a different swim and fished the same prawn leger rig down the margin and a maggot heli rig at 30 yards as the lake has a healthy head of roach that have gone over 2lb to boilie fished by the carpers . It was a very cold day and again I never had a bleep or saw a fish of any description show .

I needed a change and to find some fish and this coincided with my mate Mark coming up from London for our annual roach session on the specimen lake . As usual maggot heli rigs were the order of the day and with a very strong wind putting big waves on the lake and a very strong under tow , things looked excellent . As it was a social session we opted to fish a double swim and sit nder the same shelter . The rods were set up and clipped at the usual 65 yards that took us into the deep channel where the roach patrol when its cold and theres a good tow on . We both put 6 feeders of maggots out before putting a baited hook in , mine were flavoured with the usual curry powder while Mark used some girly Southern flowery flavour . Now the thing on this lake is the fish moved constantly and you rarely catch all day so we knew we would be able to have a good catch up . About an hour into the session Mark has the first take but managed to lose it , some half hour later and my right hand rod sees the bobbin rising and falling about half inch , very usual and after a few seconds of this I decided to lift into it , fish but with the wind and tow it wasnt til it was in the margin did I realise it was one of the 1lb+ fish , on the scales and she went a lovely 1lb 3 and half ounce .

All went quiet for me but Mark was getting regular indications he managed to land 3 one of 1lb 1oz and the other 2 around 10-12oz but also lost a couple . The only action I was seeing was from this cheeky chap who kept heling himself to my maggots .

We sat and talked about why Mark was seeing the most action and reasoned it was probably due to the undertow taking most of the bait to his left hand rod which was the one getting all the action . Around 3pm and the mad frenzy we come to expect arrived . I added 4 more roach between 12oz and 1lb 2oz in the space of around 10mins while Mark had 5 more including 2 of 1lb 7oz in the space of 10mins which are his new pb .He also added what we thought must be a record roach but turned out to be a 4lb 4oz bream . The action stopped as suddenly has it had begun , we stayed an hour into dark but no more action followed .

My last 2 sessions were supposed to be roach and chub on the maggot on the Trent but on arriving for the first one I found the river up about 4 feet and a horrible grey colour .

The swim above has a lovely crease across the front which is more pronounced with extra water on , it took me 2 hours to get an indication a single tap that I left for 10 mins before reeling in with no other sign , to find both maggots looked like they had been hit with a hammer , a typical sign of roach . I shortened the hooklink and recast after 20 mins without a sign I retrieved the rig to findone maggot had been nipped on the end . I recast again and watched the tip intently , I noticed it looked to slightly tremble and decided to hit it the result was everybodies favourite fish a gudgeon .

I added 4 more gudgeon over the next 2 hours before leaving .

My last session was yesterday and I spent a good hor looking at swims on 2 stretches before ending up close to where I fished my last session , the river was up another couple of feet but the colour looked better , a very strong in your face wind ruled out fishing the same swim so I moved a few swims round the bend where I knew there was another small slack the result was another gudgeon haul this time 8 of them , I also missed so very unmissable bites which are a mystery . After going years of not seeing the once prolific Trent gudgeon it seems they are making a comeback , which is great news .

What a week !!!!!!!!

I start this blog with a small piece on last saturday and my attendance of an AGM of group I am a member of , to my mind the best group there is . The meeting was superb but the social after started off ok but I made a mistake with an over zealous prank and have spent the last week regretting it . Pm's having been going back and forth between myself and various members including the other person involved and while its now been cleared up and its been said to move on but a conflict of views from a couple of people have at the moment left me confused but am sure it will clear soon .

Right 2 sessions to report and only going to be short . The first was another attempt at catching a carp from the club lake . I picked a swim that meant I was well clear of the lake as there had been a bit of rain over the previous few days and since lake is connected to the river I didnt want a low level swim just in case . In short rods went out around 9am and at 7pm I had a drop back on the 22mm boilie rod and the result was another 5lb bream !!!!!!!! . I hate bivvying up at this time of year as it gets dark at 4pm and dont get light until 7.30am , on the plus side I got a good nights sleep as nothing happened .

When I awoke and went down to my rods the scene that met me were a little bit of a shock as when I set the pod up the front leg was just touching the water but when I looked this is what I found !!!!

That ended that session , my next one was to be another 5 hour session on the Trent and this was eventful but not all for the good . I dropped a dozen homemade boilies about 2 rod lengths off the near bank and set about sorting my rod out , when it was ready to go , I got all the unhooking , weighing and photoing gear ready and sent a 4oz straight lead with a homemade boilie out into the river and returned to the van and got the stove set up in the back and everything arranged round it as rain was predicted I decided to fish from the back of the van so I cold make a quick and easy getaway when time was up with minimum kit getting wet . I sat in the back of the van with a brew and noticed a few angler on the far bank and the antics of one was typical of the anglers that fish that side , 2 barbel rods out and then walked 5 yards upstream and sat on a small box and started fishing what looked like a small feeder rod and cast out , within a minute or so he hooked what was either a chub or roach of about 12oz and rather than go down to the water and net it he lifted p over the rocks and unhooked it and then threw it back , lots of swearing under my breath but karma turned up for a visit and his next cast he obviously had line wrapped round the top of the rod as they was a loud crack and the top 6 inches of the rod snapped off , he stomped off and literally threw the rod in to the back of his car :) .

Karma was about to visit me as one of my mates had called to see me on his way home a guy on the opposite bank had a screaming take and as we watched he managed to lose it , I laughed and remarked I hadnt lost a fish all season and had not blanked on the river , off went my mate and as the light started to fade my patience was tested again as despite it not been dark the head torches started coming on , one in particular who was slightly upstream on the opposite bank had one that would have made a good search light and he was constantly wandering around and lighting the entire area round me up , I kept my calm and he turned it off , within a couple of minutes and my rod arch round and the baitrunner and alarm sang out , disengaging the baitrunner I was attached to what felt like a decent fish , I gained line and brought it back towards me and had it thumping a rod length infront of me and then karma turned up and the hook fell out !!!!!!!! Now normally I am confident of another bite but it was getting late and and I only had an hour before I had to leave . The rod was recast and the light show started again on the far bank grrrrrrrrrrrrrr , with about 20 mins before I was due to leave the rod ripped off again , now my way of playing fish in the dark is to do it without a light on and not put my red leds on until the fish was safely netted , as I was almost ready to net it the idiot on the far bank shone his head torch straight into my eyes , am afraid that was it and a volley of abuse was launched at him and he gave me some back , luckily the fish went in the net first time and on the scales a lovely barbel went 8lb 7oz .

As I slipped the fish back the light show kicked off again and I checked the time there was only about 10 mins til the off so I called it a day early , now normally i try and ignore the idiots and muppets I encounter but the guy on the other bank with his search light had really annoyed me so when I came to leave I spun the van round and pointed directly at him and put the full beams on and shouted across to him , nah then cunt can tha fucking see better now !!!!!!!!!!! Not normally my way but what the hell !!!!!!!! . My next session is 4 days away and is set to be a perch session a club lake .

Til then tight lines and watch those head torches :)

Back in the Groove

Back to the Trent for another dinnertime til dark session . Arrived at the river to find it up about 10 inches and on getting out of the van it was spitting with rain so on went the gortex jacket and had a walk up to the end swim where an angler was bivvied up , he reported he had a small barbel and a bream during the night but other than that no sign , he also told me the river was dropping . At this point the heavens opened and I beat a hasty retreat to the van and the rain turned to hail . Jumping in the van I chucked the gortex jacket on the passenger seat and discovered my norgi shirt had been below the jacket and was soaked , off it came and on when the van heater to dry it , the wind was coming across the river into my face so decided to sit it out in the van til the rain eased which took around 45 mins , up went the brolly and the essentials were placed under it , I opted to fish just one rod and went with my home mades which have been producing consistent action . In went 10 boilies a rod length off the overhanging tree . Everything set and out went the rod . I had to wait about 10 mins for the first bite which brought me a nice 3lb 8oz chub that been in the wars .

All went quiet for the next couple of hours and I had a nice chat with an angler who had travelled up from Hampshire , we talked about big roach and chub .He went to find a swim and about 10 mins later Mick the bailiff turned up . I can honestly say that he is the best bailiff I have ever met , he makes everyone brews and has even cooked folk meals , he treats everyone the same and dont put up with anyone breaking the rules . He had brought me my big water carrier that i had managed to leave in his swim a couple of weeks ago and also a new sleeping bag to look at that he couldnt get on with , which I snatched his hand off for a bargain price . Mick had just left me to set up when off went the rod again and this time it was obviously a better fish when it came over the rim of the net I thought it might beat my current pb for chub of 5lb 12oz but it fell a little short but was a superb 5lb 6oz and think before the end of the season it will make 6lb .

 

I recast the rod and knowing they take time to settle from margin swims I didnt expect anything to happen but as I glanced to see how Mick was getting on with his setting up as I know he needs a hand with his huge gas bottle I heard a beep from behind me and the rod tip bouncing and discovered the culprit was a bream around 5lb . I took the decision to put another half a dozen baits in and leave swim for half hour while I had a brew with Mick and help him finish setting up .

We had a good chat and a brew and I left him to it under instruction that I return for a brew before I left for home . Back at the swim the rod was put back out and I stood looking at the river when the visiting angler came past as he was leaving to got to an angling talk near by . As we had another chat off went the rod and I was in again and again it was a chub this time a scale perfect 4lber .

I put the rod back out and just dropped another 4 baits in and made a brew in back of the van as the sun dropped and darkness started to decend I had another bream of around 3lb . I looked at the swim and just got a feeling there was one more fish to come , so I txtd my wife Lou to say I was staying for another hour . Rod out and another 4 baits with it and I settled down with a brew to watch the last light fade .

Sitting there I started to feel like I really was back in the groove after my meltdown in August . I was starting to look like my feeling of one more fish was wrong when the rod went mental and what was obviously not a bream or a chub tried to empty my reel . On disengaging the baitrunner it stopped the fish dead in its tracks and it came back upstream but held out in the flow and plodded , 3 times it came to the net and made deep powerful runs , it went through my mind that it could be my 2nd double off the stretch but on the scales went 9lb 6oz , a lovely looking fish .

I decided to call it a day and packed my gear back in the van and went and had a brew with Mick and decided that my next session will be back on the lake to try and catch one of the elusive carp . 

Tight lines and thanks for reading 

You never stop learning

The title says it all about what follows but could also have " and never stop making mistakes " added to it .

As I said at the end of my last piece my intention is to do a full night for carp one session and a short river session next . Well my last session on the lake was another bleepless blank but I made a couple of mistakes , firstly with low temperatures and possible frost predicted I totally picked the wrong swim , it had no cover and I really should have gone for one of the swims with overhanging trees with the chance of deeper water and also the temperature be a little higher under cover . I picked 2 spots to put my rods on , one was put on  a gravel patch at 25 yards and the other up the margins on the edge of a small patch of lilies . Despite watching the water all through the day until dark I never saw a sign of a fish of any species .
The following morning I decided to gamble and put the lily rod at distance , as I wound in a fish crashed out at 90 yards and I immediately put the rod on the spot , within minutes 2 more fish crashed in the same place and my confidence went up then my 2nd mistake became apparent as either a large perch or jack pike crashed through some fry next to the lilies , at this point I regretted not bringing my lure gear . Despite leaving the rods out til the last minute nothing happened .

3 days later and I decide on a river session that was to be short one of just 4 hours . On arrival I found 3 anglers already on the stretch one of which had been there overnight and not one of them had managed a single bite !!! . I took myself into an area with no one near me and having surveyed the swim and conditions I decided there was room for 2 rods , one was to be fished with some cheese squabs I have decided to try the other wold have my home made boillies on . Everything set up and a dozen baits pt on each spot at this point the wind was starting to get a bit strong and swung straight into my face . About an hour in and I get a bang on the boilie rod and then it went over after a spirited scrap a beautifully conditioned chub of 2lb 6oz was landed .

The rod was re-positioned and I settled back in my chair at this point the weather took another turn for the worse as the wind moved slightly round and started hitting the inside of the brolly , I made the decision to put the brolly away and put everything in the van and sit in the back of it , having just got the brolly down it started spitting and hurriedly got everything into the van and settled to sit in the back now it looked like this would be ok but the rain got heavier and was swirling round so I spun the van round so I could sit in the passenger side and see the rods . The rain was now at its heaviest and the wind was rocking the van and completely out of the blue the boilie rod alarm went on a one toner I leapt from the van and expected to be connected to a barbel but it was thumping and plodding in front of me , then my mistake of the day occurred there was room for 2 rods as the tip of the rod I had the fish on caught the line of the other , it took at most 5 seconds to free it but in that time the fish had dived into the reeds in the margin and appeared to be stuck fast , releasing the pressure and suddenly I spotted a nice chub flashing just below the surface , I could work out why the fish was not taking line as it seemed the lead was snagged and I was using my usual running rig , I tried going above and below the fish to free the lead but to no avail , as a last resort I decided to try handling while having the landing net nearby as my fear was that if the line broke the fish would be tethered . The rain was now bucketing down and making my hands numb I began hand lining and suddenly the snag began to move the fish got close enough to get the net under and as I it went in the hook fell out , putting the net with the fish in safely in the margin I continued hand lining and out came a large tree branch , lifting it out I put it at the side of the rod rests and then set about sorting the fish out which turned out to be a scale perfect chub of 3lb 15oz .

Having returned the fish , I set about sorting the tree branch out , now we all know how good chub are at shedding hooks and leaving you attached to weed or snags , well this one had somehow in a matter of seconds wrapped the braid hooklink round the lead swivel and then the mainline round the tree branch about 5 times . Had the hand lining not worked I had already decided I was going into the river to free it .

I recast the boilie rod and wound the other one in out of the way . I made a brew and sat in the van as the rain continued after about half hour the rain eased and I decided to call it a day and go home .

Bad weighing or downright lying 

You will see that my biggest chub weighed 3lb 15oz , not 4lb as some wold have claimed . Now this has been going on for years but over recent months it has become almost standard for some to either make a mess of weighing their catches or deliberately lie . Now we all make mistakes but not to the extent of some of these guys , 20lb barbel that at best are 13lb , the only way you can do that is have scales that have multiple rotations and misread but a discrepancy of that much wold be obvious , not deducting the weigh sling can add a couple of pounds , to make matters worse these fish are been sent to the weekly magazines and are actually winning awards and cash prizes , why the people at the magazines accept these is a mystery . Any one on any of the forums or facebook will have seen the debates and even people defending these people but for me there is no defence and this wont ever stop until the magazines grow some balls and refuse them , if they opened their eyes they would see its one of the main reasons why people like me refuse to buy them.

Stealing ideas and passing them off as your own.

Most of you will know where this is coming from and thats people who come onto forums and ask advice and then pass it off as their own ideas . Over the last 4 years one particular individual has not only done the above but has also used bait recipes given to him in good faith and not just used them but started marketing them as his own , most of the baits have been successful but he started trying his own recipes which dont work too well but he has testers who have the same standards as him and catch fish on other baits but state that they have been caught on his . Any questioning of him is met with derision and people are blocked then slated with no chance to reply . I have at times got too involved in trying to expose him not out of jealousy as he and his testers state but since he charges more for his baits than proper more reputable bait makers do , I feel ripping honest hard working anglers off who are looking for an edge but for the most part are been duped needs exposing .

There yo are a some what different blog to normal but I felt I needed to say these things .

Til next time tight lines to all

   

Long overdue update

Well I cant believe I have not posted since May but I have been having a strange time . This update will not be the usual but just a brief account of the highs since the end of May with just the odd picture .
Following my last blog I hit a very nice high , I returned to Sywell and finally caught my first tench from there , in fact after 90+ hours of no sign I had 2 in half an hour , I actually made a massive effort and barrowed my gear for a mile and a half to an area that wasnt been fished save for one swim and made a very small one away from this . the full story of this session is actually been published ( my first ever ) in the November Tenchfishers Bulletin , below are the pics of the 2 tench of 7lb 10oz and 8lb 7oz

I had one more session on Sywell but blanked but am afraid its a venue that really has hooked me to the extent that I wasnt bothered about the rivers opening . due to another shift pattern change my fishing was about to become complicated . I was working the day that season opened at midnight but went straight to the Tidal Trent from work and had everything ready for 10pm and so had a chat with a couple of other anglers before casting out at midnight , I had a pretty successful opening night having 9 barbel , 2 bream and 2 roach over 1lb , the biggest barbel went 9lb 7oz and is pictured below.

I fished this stretch for the next 3 weeks and caught well on all visits but the antics the on opposite bank of the Eastern European poachers made me move off , you can only watch every species of fish be slaughtered and at times just slung up the bank while those responsible continue to drink and throw rubbish about and abuse anyone who dare question them , I contacted the controlling club but had no response . I have since been told that it was sorted out for a couple of weeks but they returned with more friends and started up again I have also since heard of some accessing the side of the river I fish and have no immediate plans to return as my temperament does not allow me to not do something .

I returned to the Middle Trent and have had some good and bad sessions including a session in the stick float that produced this catch of around 20lb of roach and perch.

I still wasnt feeling comfortable on the river in fact I didnt want to fish at all and it came to a head in september when after contact with another Yorkshire Specimen Group member I feel broke , I was on the river and had set up for the night and just cast out and after receiving a txt message I reeled in and packed up , I was done . Now as a founding member of the group the decision I came to was gut wrenching and I informed the group I was leaving as I wasnt prepared to be in the middle of a one sided squabble . I received lots of messages speaking of the sadness at me leaving but I had to do it , since then things have come to a head with those involved and have been told the door is open if I want to return which I have not ruled out but not in the immediate future . I took 2 weeks off from fishing and started visiting the bailiff on the club lake who helped me get my head clearer and since then I have been on the lake , originally I was fishing one rod for bream and one for the elusive carp , I have now switched to 2 carp rods , the bream are suicidal in one 6 hour session I had 21 between 4lb and 7lb 9oz and I very rare capture from this lake which is connected to the river in the form of this 8lb barbel at 2.15am , this was only the 2nd to come out of this lake and the other only came olut 4 days earlier at 11lb .

I am still to catch a carp from a 15 acre lake with a high population but then again the bailiff has fished it since 1982 and is on a season high of 42 since January 1st and he does 3 nights every week !!!!! . I suffered 4 night sessions without a bleep but woke up to this sight one morning.

The next session I suffered a strange bite off of a single bleep drop back and then had 3 bream on 2omm boilie . the next session was the night of the high winds off the back hurricane Gonzalo , yet again I suffered another bite off and again took 5 bream on 20mm boilie inlcuding this 8lb 7oz one that gave me a real one toner and tore ,ine off the baitrunner .

To bring it up to date I couldnt have a full session on my next day but had to go and meet a mate who had picked me up some new bait to try on the lake and as he was on the Trent I thought I would have a couple of hours with one rod and half a kilo of my homemade boilies .
I cast out at 2.30m and packed up at 6.20pm with the result of a 2lb 10oz chub , 2 gudgeon , and 2 barbel of 7lb 11oz and a season high and my first double not only of the season but my first of this stretch at 10lb 14oz .

Well there you have it a miss mash of sessions and at times I forced myself to go and really didnt enjoy it , I have never targeted carp directly before and never thought I would but thats way its going right now but only on the one venue , my plans are to continue doing full nights for the carp and my short sessions one rod on the river and hopefully we will get a nice cold dry winter and I can give the chub a proper go

Oh where are the Tench ?

Right well since my last blog I have had 4 sessions and failed to land a single tench but heres a very brief run down on the sessions . The first 2 wont have much content as they will featured in a future Tenchfishers bulletin . Right first session was to be a 48 hour session and my first ever visit to the once famous Sywell reservoir for the Tenchfishers Midland's region 60th Anniversary fish in and what a fantastic time it was . I fished on the west bank along with 6 others the result was none of us had a bite and on the east bank and a further 9 anglers suffered the same fate while 3 anglers in a row shared 8 tench while 2 had one each and the guy in the middle had 6 . the fish ranged in size from 5lb 4oz to 7lb 1oz . The weekend had loads of laughs and food delivered both nights in the form of chips and fish friday and a curry saturday plus a special cake made for the 60th Anniversary .

Heres my set up from the session

Think I am ok showing the cake but feel sure I will be told if not lol

My next session was a 24 hour midweek one back at Sywell , which has got under my skin as apart from the odd ignorant dog walker is a fantastic venue to spend time on all be it very challenging .

I changed my set up slightly for this visit by using tungsten tubing and flying back leads to pin my line down .

As the hours passed I still saw no sign of a fish and got my head down for some sleep unfortunately it was a full moon and a clear night , the temperature plummeted plus it was so light that the birds started the dawn chorus at 3.30am and at 4.06am this was the seen .

I made a brew and sat on my bedchair watching the lake for signs on life and shortly before 5am my left hand rod bobbin bounced and then pulled up to the blank I was in and lifted into what I thought was to be my first Sywell tench errrrrrrrrrrr wrong I had infact caught my first Sywell Coot !!!!!!!!!!!! and that was that .

I decided I needed a confidence boost so a few days later I was on the match lake but was to find out that the tench were in a very finicky mood and had been going days without been seen , I took a very slow walk round with my polaroids on searching for signs and finished up in a corner I had never fished before .

Out went the float and and I missed a bite first cast , the weather was red hot and there was loads of pollen and seeds in the air and in the water as you can see round my float .

In the next couple of hours I caught around 20 roach between 6oz and 1lb and then hooked a better fish which turned out not to be a tench but this fully scaled mirror of 8lb 11oz.

My last session for this blog was yesterday and things have not got any better . I fished a new venue that I have driven passed hundreds of time but it cant be seen from the road . Its a syndicate but they have day tickets so after swapping a couple of emails with the Syndicate organiser I was given information on swims and seemed that my method laying on with the float was the way to go . forecast for the day was for heavy rain all day but worse if all was the wind would be straight into the swims I had been advised on . When I arrived it was teaming down and the wind was making it impossible to fish in those conditions so off I went for a walk , after an hour of looking I settled on a swim in a small bay that looked ok and when a fish topped as I was about to get my gear from the van then that sealed the swim choice . On plumbing up I discovered it was around 4 and a half feet deep and so set up laid on and put a small amount of bait in , while plumbing up I also discovered there was a bit on weed growing up to with in a foot of the surface but had found a clear spot which negated me going back to my van for the weed rake .

The rain began to increase but under the brolly it was ok plus my confidence was still high as had seen more small fish show and also had seen some very strange bursts of large bubbles in various places in the bay which suggested fish movement . The rain was so heavy that the drops were bouncing higher than my float .

What happened next still has me shaking my head , my float slightly lifted and then slid away . I lifted into the bit and felt resistance but no kick and started to retrieve what I thought must be a  piece of weed but no it turned out to be what I have been told is a yellow bellied slider turtle !!!!!!

As you can imagine this didnt inspire me and less so when I released it and it absolutely shot off and caused the exact same bubbles from earlier and I decided to call it a day and go home . I loaded the van and sat and reviewed my last few sessions and came to the conclusion its was just a slight slump and it would end soon . I plan another go at this last venue and in 3 days I am having another 24 hours on Sywell which I doubt will be any different to my other 2 sessions but you have to try , I know to 5 guys who have done between 24 and 72 hours over the last 2 weeks and one fish has been caught but they have to feed some time :)

I have to appologise to John Mcadam as he actually took this picture of me with a common mudpig of 7lb 12oz though I deny giving it a kiss lol .

Tench time

Well  after the season it was time to think about my plans for the close season . A year ago I joined the Tenchfishers a great set of guys and full of knowledge and only too willing to help fellow members . Last years tenching was a struggle due to the cold wet spring and only managed a handful with the biggest was only 3lb 14oz so given the slightly drier and milder spring I felt the chances of better tench fishing looked good . My first session was on my usual tench water the match lake , I have fished the float numerous times but fished a delicate fixed float and have had some success and also fished method feeders with similar results , the thing about this venue as with most still waters these days is that you have to out up with carp turning up and just keep at it til the tench show . This season I have decided to fish a little different in that while still fishing the float I am using a drennan drift beater on a sliding set up as the swims are between 13 and 16 feet deep and laying on 2 inches of line so and having a large shot that takes the whole of the insert of the float down to sight blob so that bites will be either the usual sight blob disappearing or if the fish lifts the bait up the float will rise out of the water .

I was originally intending on fishing hemp and sweetcorn but after missing several bites and then landing 3 skimmer bream to around 3lb I decided to try a 3 maggots on the 14 hook and after again missing a few indications I connected with my first tench of the season and after a spirited fight I slid the net under this 2lb 3oz specimen .

I carefully weighed and photographed it and gently slid it back into the lake I rebaited and cast out and quickly added another skimmer bream , there then followed a brief quiet period before the float disappeared and I was attached to what felt like alot better fish and it gave a good account of itself but eventually another tench succumbed and slid over the net and what a fabulously immaculate looking fish it was and pulled the scales round to a satisfying 4lb 10oz .

I was now happy with both my set up and with what I had caught already , my time was running out and despite adding 2 more skimmers no more tench showed and I packed up and left for home .

My next session was to be a short morning session on a new venue the Grantham Canal , I had previously only walked the venue once and had been given information about my prospects .
My first job was to drag the swim as had been warned about the weed and that it attracts the tench .

I had mixed a small amount of ground bait consisting of grilled hemp and Sensas Tench ground bait and put 4 tangerine size balls into the swim . My tactics again revolved around the float and laying on but switched to a smaller insert waggler . I spent a very frustrating 3 hours trying to avoid hordes of rudd between 4oz and topped with this 10oz sample .

As you can see in the picture it had escaped a pike attack which the canal is full of and I even had what looked a mid double laid in the margin at my feet for a few minutes before it startled as I moved and roared off . Suddenly the rudd vanished and my thoughts were the pike had spooked them but whatever had happened it allowed some skimmer bream to move in and I added half a dozen before again it went quiet . With my time running out I finally connected with what was obviously something a little better and my first canal tench slid over the rim of the landing net . On the scales a weight of 2lb 9oz was recorded .

Time for one last cast and the float disappeared and I was connected to another tench this time a smaller sample of 1lb 10oz

My last session for this blog was yesterday and after just completing my first set of 3 x 12 hour shifts I had decided on a dinnertime til teatime session again on the Grantham canal but a different section , however I was greeted with heavy rain and the forecast was for most of the day and the thought of driving for 35 mins to sit in the rain for only a few hours , I did a quick venue change and went back to the match lake , now I had over heard talk of an 8lb 7oz tench coming out since my last visit from only a few swims away from where I had been last time , however on arriving and walking the lake in the rain the strong gusting wind was going straight into those swims , now while I dont mind wind or rain together they are pain and so ended up in a area I had not previously fished . I got my gear to the swim and put the brolly up which seemed ok until the wind began swirling and the brolly looked in danger , oh well the rain had stopped and I felt it worth the risk so took the brolly down . Now the 3 pints of maggots I had left from my previous trip had now become 3 pints of casters but teamed with the 3 pints of hemp I had brought I felt this wouldnt be a problem . I set up the slider and off we went , now I was still unwinding from my shifts and so spent the first 3 hours or so fishing like a noddy , double caster was producing bite after bite , which I was missing and getting shelled . I eventually started connecting with the culprits and they turned out to be roach between 6oz and 1lb 3oz .

I upped the feed and finally got my head going and put a buoyant fake caster on the hook and then added a real one which meant if I missed a quick indications there would still be bait there , I added a couple more roach before they disappeared and I soon found out why as I pulled out of carp , oh bugger had hoped to avoid them again . Next cast and I'm in to a another fish but this time its my intended quarry and a tench is soon on the mat and weighs 3lb 6oz .

Within a few minutes I am attached to another carp with again sheds the hook which didnt bother me til I remembered I needed a mirror and common carp for the rod race . After a 15 minute period of nothing I add a 2nd tench of 3lb .

I then added a skimmer around 3lb before getting broke by a carp and so reluctantly upped my hooklink from 3lb 3oz to 5lb 14oz and promptly added a common carp of 3lb 1oz and the next cast a mirror 6lb 15oz

It suddenly started going dark and decided it was time to leave , within seconds of me beginning to start to pack up the heavens opened and by the time I made it to the van you couldnt see and I was drenched .

My next session is in 3 days and feel I must do the match lake again . I have also got the Tenchfishers fish in to look forward to at the end of April which is 2 days at Sywell Reservoir .

Well I decided to add a brief  update to this as was out yesterday for my last session before Sywell . I decided to try an afternoon session and again fished a sliding windbeater rig . After getting a little bait in I had my first fish this lovely roach of 1lb 4oz

I then started suffering bites that I could connect with and so made various adjustments before landing a tench of 2lb 15oz

I quiet spell followed and I then hooked a carp which I managed to lose at the net but as anyone reading this will know is not a great loss to me . I then had a perch off 1lb 1oz but unfortunately didnt get a photo of it . With time running out I managed to add another tench of 2lb .

I am still hoping to catch one of the alleged bigger tench but have now been told that there aint as many in there as people are saying but will be back on there after my visit to Sywell for the Tenchfisher 60th anniversary fish in .