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 .