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