Fishing for Ghosts

 Well here we are in the 3rd week of september and I will get to the title later but first a update from last time to the present . First big news is that I have secured the perfect job , I started work at Morrisons in Newquay in late May , picking orders for home delivery , working a minimum of 16 hours , I have had to do 36 hours for a month due to holiday makers but things have settled down now and also I have managed to get a transfer to the Bodmin branch , which is a smaller and calmer store , currently doing 20+ hours over 4 days .

Straight my after my last blog I tried my hand at bass fishing , well after 7 very pre dawn starts , it turned out I was in the right areas but was a few weeks too early but at least I got to try all the new gear and get used to it . I joined a couple of the bass groups on facebook and a group of guys got in touch offering help and even invited me down to fish a new secret spot they had found , I only managed a small schoolie but god was it fun , though the trip up and down the hill to the spot was a bit tiring to say the least , I wont name the guys as dont want them getting loads of pms asking for location of spot but thanks guys and I will be back .

This is where my bassing peaked , my next rip was to a spot near home that involved so rock climbing , on the first trip I met one of the lads and we did the climb at 3am in darkness with no issues and no fish , a couple of weeks later and amid reports of odd fish been caught we returned but at 5 in the afternoon , now up till now i had been using a shoulder bag and had already realised that I needed a back pack as climbing these spots you need balance , this was brought home to me with a bump when I was crossing a gap in the rocks and bag swung backwards , pulling off balance in mid stride and resulted in what guy with me said was me doing a backflip and disappearing off the rocks , though he remained calm he admitted some time later he thought I was a goner . I probably fell about 6 feet and landed on my head and back but luckily managed to spread myself and stop from falling off the ledge I landed on which would have been a drop of about 25 feet and a bounce of the odd stuck out rock and into the Atlantic .

I took a few minutes to recover and despite a bit of blood coming from the back of my head we carried on to the spot but despite a couple of hours of trying no fish were forthcoming and we headed back without further incident . I go Lou to take pics of my cuts and scrapes and expected to feel a bit stiff the next day but was ok .

I also had numerous scrapes down my left leg but nothing major and escaped lightly unlike a few others in the past , lesson learned , I now have a brand new bass rucksack and a few more lures and bits ,I did a few more sessions off the beaches before the tourists arrived but no more fish and took the decision to return to the lake and the carp .

I wont go in to every session but its been tough , the naturals have exploded , the tourists have hit it and bait has been pilling in I have managed a few more fish with the biggest been a 15.07 common 

  The last few weeks have seen some big weight slumps , we are now getting close to the ghosts . I bought a Free Spirit 9ft Creeper rod and a lovely thing it is , as you can imagine stalking carp in the margins on a busy lake where despite there been an alleged ban on walking round if not fishing without permission , countless folk do , so its a case of going down for last couple of hours daylight , after 3 sessions of frustration , it turned out the carp in the these margin actually nearly scrape the side of the bank , so its a case of literally last 2 inch of rod tip over water and rig no more than 12 inch out in lake 

Well I have manged these 4 fish since perfecting method , 11.00 common , 6.10 mirror , 7.08 common and 7.14 common . not huge fish but decent scrap . I have had 3 or 4 more chances ruined by the bank walkers .

Now we come to the ghosts , I will first put all the pics I have of the lake from differing angles and leave you think about this . If your going to have a new lake dug in place of the 15 small stock pools and you want a specimen carp and mixed fishery , would you use the one in the pics for specimens and new one for the mixed fishery ? I know which I would do.

 

Sadly the owner and his son have decided the old stock pond is to be developed into the new specimen lake , which is fine until you do some digging and discover that rather than buy the fish for it they have been secretly moving the big fish from this lake , in the lockdown the son and couple of his mates fished the lake and at least 6 of the biggest fish were caught and transferred and it transpires that it has been happening before and since , hence fishing for ghosts , now me been me I have confronted the owner and son on different occasions and questioned them about it .

The owner denied it outright but turned his back and changed the subject , the son said he had moved one mid 20 as it had mouth damage and did it for it to recover , that was 6 months ago and no sign of return , he denied any other moves but added , what if we have they are our carp , mmmmmmm he wasnt impressed when I pointed out they were selling both season and day tickets under false pretences in the form of website stating the stock . Its a lovely lake but thats not enough , add to this the fact that bailiff has caught folk breaking rules including the no leadcore or tiger nuts , he has also received verbal abuse and the owner refused to do anything or back him up but then its no surprise as those doing it are his sons friends .

I have sadly decided not to renew my ticket in december and will be buying the South West Water ticket and accessing the reservoirs .

Well thats it for this time but I promise a better read next time ,

Tight Lines and stay safe everybody  

 

Mixed Feelings

This update is long overdue but folk who know the full story will understand , I originally wrote a long explanation but know it would have been misinterpreted by some and cased more problems .

On the 27th of march just 5 weeks after his  27th birthday my son Joseph passed away in Sheffield of 2 brain tumours , just 9 weeks after been diagnosed , obviously due to lockdown I was unable to attend the funeral and with other things in the background I may not have been welcome . this left me devastated and on the da of the funeral me and Lou took the 10 mins of the time of the funeral to stand quietly and reflect . I am planning to do some sort of a memorial to him in our garden at a later date but bought this plaque to stand in it for now .

Anway on to the fishing , this may not make full sense as I lost my notes and have had to use my memory .
I left my last blog as I was about to embark on my first session on my season ticket lake , there is not much to report other than the area I decided to fish meant I had to use my barrow for the first time in 6 years plus due to the rain we had had the track was abit like the somme .
2 nights of rain and mud and not a sign of a fish but I felt comfortable on it .
After been offered bits of info , I went on to do 3 more 2 night sessions and a single one without a sign . To put this into perspective in the time I had been on the venue only 3 carp , a few bream and 1 tench had been caught .

A rethink was needed and I went back to my rigd from the tricky gravel pit and played around with balancing baits .

These changes proved a revelation , my next 2 night session I picked 3 spots and put a rod on each and all produced fish with commons of 18.09 , 15.15 and 13.06 and a mirror of 15.07

 


My next session was a week later and me being me I moved to another swim , still a barrow job and still a bit damp , again 3 spots chosen and all 3 produced the first within 20 mins of putting rod out , this time I ended up with commons of 13.10 and 9.14 and a small tench around 2lb .

My  last session for carp to date was the following week and again moved swims but back the other side of first swim , sticking to same tactics again proved spot on as all three rods produced inlcuding my first 20 off here in the shape of a 21lb common which was backed up with 2 other commons of 14.10 and 12.01 and another mirror of 15.02 .

The carp in this lake fight like crazy and look forward to adding more to my album . Due to a couple of appointments the following week I did 2 day sessions , the first was using my specialist rods with heli rigs fishing for tench and crucians , I managed one crucian around 1lb plus half a dozen small roach and a couple of skimmers .

What was to prove my last session was a couple of days later and I just took my specialist tench float rod and chose the shallow side of the lake , first put in and I hooked what was either a good tench or a small carp that ran me through a sunken tree branch and transferred the hook , I ended up with numerous roach between 6 and 10oz , all in immaculate condition.

Then of course came the lockdown and all we can do is read and watch videos , as I type this there is a chink of light as lockdown is been reviewed in a couple of days with strong rumours that some non contact sports may get back to some sort of participation .

Also while lockdown has been on it has given me the chance to sort out some shore lure fishing equipment as I will be venturing along the coast when we can . Hoping for a bass or 2 plus anything else that comes along , I have used Google Earth to pick a couple of likely spots to recce once were allowed .I have also joined B.A.S.S , The Bass Anglers Sportsfishing Society and already read Hooked on Bass , The Lure of The Bass , A bass anglers life and The Song of the Solitary Bass angler and currently reading Bass and B.A.S.S .

Finally a small tackle review .

The NGT rechargeable head torch , it has 2 buttons on top that have the following functions , first button is for white light and has 3 brightness's , thr brightest is spot on for walking round lake and the other 2 for doing stuff in the bivvy .The other button has 2 different red and green lights and are perfect if you need light to net fish without causing problems . I have used this so far on roughly 20 nights and as yet have not had to recharge it and at around 15 quid its a bargain .

Well thats all for now , hopefully will be able to enjoy some fishing of some sorts before too much longer and mabe next time i will be sharing pictures of more carp and other course fish and who knows maybe even my first sea bass.

Take care and stay safe   

The End of an Era

I had hoped to do this blog update before we moved but I could never settle down to do it , so here I am sat in my new fishing and entertainment room in our new home .

This blog wont be as long as normal as I have managed to lose my notes and will be picking bits up from memory and will probably miss something out .

After my last blog I went back to my original lake to do a few last sessions .

on my first one I dropped into a swim I know well and that with the wind banging into it I frelt confident of action . the first 5 hours produced 8 bream between 3 and 7lb . Early the following morning and my first carp arrived in the shape of a 20lb 8oz common , this was followed just on dark of a 16lb 4oz common and nothing further .

2 weeks later and me and Lou are back on the same lake but different area , this was Lou's and as it turned out my last session on here .
We had an enjoyable 48 hours having the obligatory catch of bream between us . On our final night just after 1.30am one of my rods went into meltdown , Lou joined me while I battled the fish that took out my other 2 rods and generally beat me up , eventually I netted a big common carp , I decided to put it in the retainer for a couple of hours til light and went back to bed , around 3am and Lou shout4ed she was in and again following a spirited fight she netted a nice mid double common , with only a couple of hours til light we sacked it up with the opportunity of us getting a pic of us both with carp .6am and I carry my mat , scales and camera to Lou's swim and set everything up for a shot of both fish together , I started retrieving my retainer and could tell something was wrong , the zip and had not meshed together right on one side and the fish had forced it open and had gone , I was gutted as was Lou , it was certainly over 20lb but no pic or weight means it dont count , we returned to Lou's swim and retrieved her sack and her fish was still there but was playing dead til I unzipped the sack and it made a bid for freedom , which I stopped .On the scales it went 14lb 6oz I believe .

I know decided it was time for a couple of final sessions on the river , hoping for a final barbel , roach and chub . Now am sure you all know how wet its been for last 3 months and catching the Trent fishable for anything but barble has been impossible .

I manged one short session with bread but could not manage any chub but took 6 roach all around 8oz .

I decided on a few hours barbelling next which for the last 3 seasons have avoided .
With the river carrying 5 feet of muddy floodwater , I picked a swim I knew well and with 20 mins of putting out a lump of meat I managed a 6lb 10oz barbel , deciding another 3 hours maximum due to river still rising rapidly and very slippy banks with 20 mins left I hooked a bigger sample that gave me an epic scrap , snagging me in first in the rocks and then a nearside reed bed I eventually coaxed my last ever barbel into the net at 11lb 7oz it was a fitting end .
As I left the Trent I felt very emotional as I have fished both the tidal and middle river since I was 12 years old , some 45 years . I was hoping to get a chub session in but sadly the river was never right before I left to move here .

My last 4 ir 5 sessions have been day sessions trying 2 different venues for big perch using lobworm , sadly despite landing 12 perch none were over 12oz , I managed a couple of nice looking carp , 1 a nice 6lb mirror and the other a common that due to me only having my small species scales with me that went to 12lb I had to call it 11lb 14oz as it well bottomed them out . I also had a bonus 3lb tench , all very enjoyable on my tench rod , centerpin and goose quill float.

And so my time to move had arrived . Now I have been involved in numerous charity events But in october I met up with a bunch of guys who had set up a special charity that I have now committed myself to .

#abiteoutofcancer 

It's a fantastic cause and got some great people involved in it , please take a look .

And finally tomorrow I will be doing my first overnight session since I moved here 2 weeks ago , I picked my ticket up last friday and walked the venue , I wont say too much about the place but its got lots of surprises in .

So thats it for now , thanks for reading and tight lines to you all

Not what I expected

Well its 2 months since I promised to update this and that it would be different to normal but as you will see things have not gone as planned .

I spent my time straight after my last update fishing 4 of the clubs venues for tench , due to wanting to get this done I wont go into details but it was a very successful campaign for them this year , I had 38 over the 2 months I targeted them .

I fished our new lake for 6 sessions which resulted in 34 of them between 3lb 6oz and this the biggest at 4lb 12oz

I then moved onto the clubs estate lake for what was to be a one off visit and after sitting through freezing fog all day I was rewarded with a very late take and a tinca of 5lb 15oz came to the net

My next tench was a bit special as it came out of our special tench lake plus was the first on my Free spirit tench float rod and weighed 6lb 2oz

I moved onto another one of the clubs lakes and again worked very hard for one bite but a pristine 6lb 5oz specimen

My final tench was a bit of a fluke as there a very few in this lake but do run a bit bigger and so was not complaining when this 8lb 2oz beauty showed up

It was now time to switch my attention to the clubs tougher carp but never in my wildest dreams could I imagine what would happen .

My first session was with a mate over 2 nights , sadly he had to leave after the first as an emergency involving work called him away . This session saw a rare thing for me in that I forgot my camera but figured my mate could take any pics , so when he left I knew it was down to improvising with my mobile if the unthinkable and I caught happened , well it did happen and after receiving a ridiculously fast take and a monumental battle I netted this 20lb 6oz common and thats when the fun began as balancing my mobile on my tripod and having to use a torch as a light I managed to take probably the worst picture ever .

I returned to the lake a week later but since my visit someone had posted a fish on clubs page and lake was busy , such is the nature of this lake that get 5 or 6 folk on and unless there is an end without anyone on the pressure puts them off , so I took myself off the the biggest lake on the complex .

Now I dont know much about this lake so had a good lead round , I found a spot at about 30 yards that where a foot deeper and clear of weed , so 2 rods got put out onto it with a big scattering of boilies , for my other rod I found a small hump at 90 yards , so 3rd rod went onto that and I scattered half a kilo with my throwing stick . Over the course of the next couple of hours leading into dark I was getting the odd bleep so turned in confident of action at around midnight I was awoken by several bleeps and I landed and returned a bream of around 6lb , strangely enough I dont remember anything clear about it . At 5am the other rod on the spot ripped off and I connected with a very angry carp which shot towards the margin to my right which actually went behind me , there was no way I could get into the water at this side and the fish hit the overhanging marginal trees and became stuck and after trying everything I could to free it the hook pulled , knowing this was a tough lake left me gutted , I slumped on the floor in front of my bedchair and stared at my rods , when out of the blue the left hand rod at 90 yards took off the tip flew round towards the left margin and by the time I lifted into the fish it was already in the margin trees on the opposite side to the last one but this time I could get in the water but not before struggling into my chest waders , I could see the branch the fish had wrapped the line round and began edging my way towards it ducking under other branches and finally getting to it I realised I couldnt wade close enough to it as the water was lapping the top of my chest waders but having struggled all this way not just with the rod but also the landing net I wasnt giving up and managed at full stretch to free the line the the landing net pole , I reattached the net to the pole and set about guiding the fish which had laid sulking a few yards further down the margin , it gave me no more trouble and I only wish I could have taken a picture as she came over the net cord and near eye level .

Back on dry land , it wasnt as big as it looked at eye level but I was more than happy with a lovely pristine 15lb 6oz common .

If I thought I couldnt top the last session I was completely wrong . My next session was to be back on m first choice lake plus my mate was back joining me , the first night was horrendous we endured torrential rain and gale force winds and on waking up I discovered that once again the clubs less than considerate members had driven their vehicles into the swim and the result was some nice ruts that had filled with water flooding my bivvy , I ended up having to scrape drainage channels with a back stick to free it up .

The wind continued to be very strong and we still had odd heavy showers and no action , now the spot I had my main rod on  was one I had been prepping for a few weeks by using a castable weed rake and regular top ups of bait to prime and this was my first time in it .

By the 2nd morning I was into my last lot of dry clothes and out of the blue my banker rod screamed off into the middle of the lake I lifted into it , the rod hooped over and sprung back , I retrieved the rig to discover my hooklink had cut off half way along . I stood and stared and thought not again , checking the time there was 3 hours of the session left and as unlikely as it was I decided it was worth putting a new rig on and recasting . The lead hit the spot right on the money and having sorted the captive back lead out , I set the bobbin and started to walk away just as I got level with the rod buts the rod incredibly was off again , from the moment I connected to the fish I just new it was special as it tested my CTX to the limit and after a good 20 minute battle I netted my first mirror from the lake . I put in my retainer and went to get my mate who was having a lie in and never heard my shouts for help . As soon as he saw the fish he said thats a 30 . Well on the scales she went 31lb 2oz a new pb and my first 30 , my mate did me proud with the pics and as is tradition with a pb when fishing with anyone I got a bucket of water over my head while returning her .

My last session to report is another happy event . I dropped into the same swim and incredibly after no action for 24 hours the same spot that produced the 30 again produced a bite and after another epic fight I netted a nice looking common . If breaking my mirror pb the previous week I was  shell shocked to find I had now netted a new pb common and 23lb 9oz .

Right now comes an unexpected end to this blog . I first went to Newquay when I was 19 and loved it and for the last 15 years I have been there with my lovely 2nd wife Lou , we love it down there and have spoken about wanting to retire down there . This year we went down and decided to just check out our options , we spoke to the lovely Liz a local PCSO about the good and bad areas and came up with a 5 year plan to find a suitable area and place . Well on the last day of our holiday we found the perfect place and suddenly our 5 year plan became a soon as possible plan . We returned home and sat down and worked some figures out and decided to go for it . The house went on the market , expecting a bit of a wait we were pleasantly shocked as it sold within 2 weeks , added to this the day after we agreed a price for our new home just 7 miles from Newquay and are now just waiting on the paperwork and contracts to be sorted . Theres a good chance that my next update will be from Cornwall .


Well thats all for now ,, I do have a 3 night session planned with my mate at the beginning of september a last hurrah before we move , plus a few shorter sessions which will be reported next time until thanks for reading and tight lines to you all