Where are the mirrors

Hopefully this blog will make sense and if not I can only apologise . The reason for this is that I have had a relapse in my mental health and have been signed off work initially for 4 weeks while my increased in strength meds take affect .

I will start off from where I left off last time . My next trip was after the tufty had become my first bite , settling into a new swim and using my marker float , I found 3 nice spots for my rods , 2 were bottom baits and the 3rd was a chod rig put into some light blanket weed surrounded by Canadian pond weed .

During the hours of daylight I received a few liners but saw no other activity , at 5.30am the following morning my middle rod gave out a few bleeps and on getting to the rod found the bobbin rising and falling , lifting into the culprit , I was relieved to see no birds around but the fight told me it was one of the lakes large bream and so it proved as 10.15 slid into the landing net .

The clarity of the lake was already starting to increase .

My next trip and again I started in a new swim , risking spooking any fish I had a good lead round and found a nice silt patch with a bloodworm bed . 2 rods were placed on it and then just to be different I placed a rod right in the left had margin near the bankside over hanging trees . I scattered 3 or 4 broken boilies and 2 handfuls of hemp in the margin and set my bivvy up well back from the waters edge .

At about 2.30pm the left hand rod in the margin absolutely shot round and the alarm screamed , after one of the best fights I have ever had from a carp and eventually lead a pristine common over the net cord . On the scales she went 20.04 .

No further action occurred on this session . My next session was to be more a few hours leading swims as I didnt have the night to play with , half way through my 3rd swim and signs of rain started , rather than go straight home I dropped in to the swim where I had the common and just put one rod down the margin . The wind suddenly increased in strength and swung straight at me and the rain went nuts , climbing into the back of the van with my receiver I shut the doors and sat to wait it out , I had 2 bleeps on my receiver and that was it , the rain eased and on getting out of the van the rod tip was bent round tight to the right , lifting the rod I could feel my lead running down the line then nothing , winding in I was gutted to discover I had been cut off on the margin zebra mussels .

My next 2 trips were in new swims that produced nothing , the lake was starting to fish even harder .

Success on my next trip though as dropped into a swim with some very deep water , 2 rods put on one spot and bait spodded over the top , the other was a chuck and chance it , hi viz pop up launched 70 yards into open water all on its own .

Nothing happened until 8.30am the next morning when I received what looked like a typical bream bite on the pop up rod but on hitting it , it became obvious this was no bream and after another epic fight another nice common slid into the landing net .

On the scales she pulled the needle round to 21.15 and a new pb !!!! A very happy Bob packed up a couple of hours later .

2 days later another new swim but no success but I did have some good fortune in that I met another member and after a long chat we agreed to help each other out through the winter .

A week later back over to the end of the lake I had the last common from but a new swim facing the same area of water . While setting up I saw half a dozen fish show , not all carp but a few bream as well plus some bubbling .

I decided to fish 2 rods on my normal tactics and the 3rd was deployed using a method similar to the ones the other member had mentioned . no action occurred til       when the bobbin did a yo yo impression and this time it proved to be another one of the lakes big bream that tipped the scales at 11.04 .

 I took a week off due to other commitments but on my return settled in to the swim the pb common swim . 3 different approaches , 1 rod hi viz pop up , 1 fished bottom bait over half a dozen broken boilies and the 3rd was the same as had produced the bream on the last trip . With no sightings of fish and no action all day I was just in the middle of a call to my wife Lou when the bream rod bleeped and the bobbin pulled tight and held there , after a wet sack of a fight I netted another bream that was obviously an old fish and didnt look its best that weighed 9.04

All was quiet and I retired to my sleeping bag , a single bleep around 10.30pm saw mr sit up and watch the bobbin pull quickly up the blank and the baitrunner ticking , bream or so I thought but no it was another common , that yet again went mental , relieved to get it into the net , up on the scales and 19.10 and just like the other 2 absolutely pristine .

My last trip was a 2 night affair that resulted in a blank but not before I lost an unseen fish that may have been a bream .

That brings this upto date , I am unsure of my next trip as I am concentrating on getting my head right but hopefully a nice quiet session at the lake will help .

Until next time when I hope to report my first December carp .

Take care and tight lines

Moving on and new beginnings

Not sure if anyone will read this but.........................

Well its been 10 months since my last blog and the promise of more regular updates has not happened as alot of things have happened .

This will be a brief summary to bring things up 8 weeks ago and will contain no pictures ...After I will tell you about the last 8 weeks and what promises to be an interesting and new beginning .

Well from october til xmas I was on the river chub fishing and catching a few upto 5lb 10oz and added bonus was avoiding the barbel and only catching 3 x 9lbers .

The xmas arrived and so did the rain , the river was in flood in conditions that wasnt conducive to chub fishing and not wanting to fish for barbel I opted to return to the lake and try for a winter carp .Over 10 sessions where the lake was constantly in flood , with it been connected tot the river , including a couple where I was nearly under water before I left . Unfortunately the carp never turned up and the sessions I did catch it was usually just a couple of bream .

As the river season ended the lake was still high but it was low enough to get to some swims that had been inaccessible til now and I finally managed to finally catch 2 carp within half hour of each other , both commons going 17lb 8oz and 10lb 6oz .
This proved to be a false dawn and it was back to bream again , It took me til mid may to catch another carp and again it was a pair of commons of 16lb 4oz and 14lb 8oz . Up until my annual holiday in july it was just the odd bream , just before my holiday I did 5 nights and due to various reasons spread it across 3 swims , which resulted in just 2 bream . For the last 2 nights of the session Lou joined me and within 12 hours of getting there she managed a lovely 14lb 14oz common .

Now from the season ending til this point despite the club having a very positive AGM desnting voices were rumbling in the background . Certin people were feeding rumours to others who then passed them on to me and others , this came from people I thought I could trust. While I was on holiday the hot weather was affecting  peoples inability to think and fish safely . On returning off holiday we took the decision not to have our usual 3 nights on the lake due to a mixture of the weather and the still rumbling politics. I did do an overnighter on the river and managed a 5lb chub and 2 bream .


At this point it all blew up , after been told more things and allowing myself to get wound up and I made a post on my Facebook page about someone connected to the club without naming them . The next thing I know the chairman contacts me saying someone had forwarded  my comments to the committee and would be facing some kind of punishment .

The following day I went in the tackle shop and was met with a comment from the manager " whats this about you been banned from fishing club " . I left it a week and then contacted the chairman , I learned 2 things , firstly the person I had blamed was wrong and secondly I wasnt banned but was on a final warning as the chairman had actually stood up for me , I thanked him for that . I had up to this point virtually decided to leave the club and was on the waiting list for a couple of syndicates waiting lists , I reflected on this and made a decision with Lou that we would stay in the club but wouldnt be fishing the lake and stretch of river any more .

 This decision was taken after discovering that the person who reported me was actually someone close to me . I am not going to try and find out who despite now having a good idea who it was and as I have moved on . Now I had more decision to make and it was helped by a chance conversation with a really nice guy I have fished with a couple of times who pointed me in the direction a couple of lakes with a stretch of river nearby , following a 6 hour walk round the venues , yeah they are a bit bigger than the last one and also having a go with marker rod I seemed to have been put onto perfect venues for me , weedy , low stock of good fish and not just carp , full of features , not easy but just right for me .

I had intended to leave it here but have managed 2 x 36 hour sessions on one lake and have managed 1 tufted duck so far but already feel at home . I also managed a couple of hours on another lake with my float rod and caught 23 roach all around 8oz to 12oz but discovered its got lot bigger ones , major bonus there , I then spent another couple of hours checking the river out and caught more roach to 12oz . My last session was a trip back in time as I fished a stretch of the Trent I had not been on for 30+ years , it had changed in the shape of alot of bottom weed but was obviously still full of quality fish , sadly I wasnt properly prepared but learned alot for next time and it will probably be my first choice for winter chubbing .

I will leave it there for now but will do my best to update my journey more regularly . At present only people who have seen me on the venue know I am on there and I wont be telling anyone but am sure it will come up soon .

Tight lines to you all