Just like the old days

Well with the river out of sorts again I decided to go on the lake complex again but this time would be doing something I hadnt done for nearly 20 years . having just taken delivery of a new matchbox seat box .

I also went in my tackle store and dug out my old Dam telesnatcher whip thats has a 2m telescopic top 4 and then 4 x 1m add on sections and also dug out what was left of my pole rigs , now the whip I have had around 30 years and won me alot of money on matches on the canals of South Yorkshire in the early 80's to around 1990 . At that time been single I was fishing matches saturday and sunday on the Witham or Trent and midweekers on the cut .

My choice of bait was to be liquidised bread and bread punch and so on the morning I got up and to prepare my bread I cut the crusts of 6 slices and microwaved each of them for 10 seconds and then lightly rolled them with a rolling pin and then placed them into a plastic bag and seal it . As I was planning a trip to the Trent on monday , flooding permitting , I also had my match and tip rods in the van and drove to the bait farm for some maggots both for the river and as back up in case the bread failed .

I got to the complex and had a look at a couple of the smaller lakes and decided on the 1 acre one and Set about getting my gear on and getting my gear out , I took the decision to only take the whip , reasoning that way I would have to give it a good go but if it didnt work I could return to the van and get the match rod .

As I was about to set off to my chosen swim I met up with the Owner of Woodland Waters Malc and one of the bailiffs Dave and had a chat about what I was planning to do and how I would be both reporting on various web pages and of course on here and was given permission to use a keepnet which they dont normally allow on the smaller lake which I thanked them for and assured them the fish would be looked after and wouldnt be keeping them in it long .

I got to the swim I fancied ( purely on the cold wind be less obvious there and got my seat box level and got everything sorted round it .

Setting the bait tray and getting all the bits needed on it , including my old Image punch board and Drennan bread punches out I also put some maggots in a bot tub just in case .

The one thing I hadnt manage to locate was my ground bait punch with is great as it punches liquidised bread lovely into a small pellet about the size of a small egg and on landing on the water floats for a few seconds then explodes and sinks slowly through the water column . So I had to squeeze small nuggets by hand . On plumbing up I discovered I had the usual 3 feet with little variation and decided to fish at 4 meters and also feed a little down the margin for later .It took all of 30 seconds for the first bite and action was constant for the first hour but I wasnt fishing as efficient as I used to and started to adjust things and change it . I was picking roach up regularly , nothing massive mostly fish of 4 - 6 oz . The second hour I was getting more and more happy with how things were going but would have liked a rig to hand set up but didnt have one but will next time . I suddenly started to get strange bites that  couldnt hit and made a slight change to the depth and immediately started to make contact with the culprits which turned out to be skimmer bream in the 6oz to a pound . after taking around a dozen of them they just disappeared and I quickly added 2 rudd . I then lifted into something that was obviously something that was a little angrier and thought perhaps one of the stocked carp had shown up and with no elastic but a very flexible and forgiving flicktip I took my time and to my a surprise a tench of around 1lb came to the net , which looked very upset about it .

After 10 mins of no further bites I put another nugget of bait in and decided to see if anything was at home in the inside and was only using the 2m telescopic sections but had 3 quick roach and then was attached to another angry fish that I seemed to sense was one of the perch I had targeted last year that I had caught to 2lb 4oz but know have gone over 3lb and after another tense tussle I netted a lovely fish of 1lb 10oz .

I took half dozen more quick perch from the inside all around 4oz -6oz and then went back on the 4m line and began adding more roach but slightly better fish in the 6oz -8oz topped by this 10ozer .

I am pretty good at guessing individual fish weights but always have been useless at estimating my total weight much to the annoyance of folk fishing in matches near me and so after 4 hours and using 4 full slies of bread and guessing 80 bites or so to a slice a thought perhaps I had 12lb or so in the net but on going to lift it out I found it nearer 15-20lb !!!!

I thoroughly enjoyed the session and know I could have had more but was out of practice , I had discussed this time of fishing during the summer last year and how much I used to enjoy it and I was right . I am currently trying to find out if the stories I have been told about a canal near here are true and if they are I may be be back on a familar style again .

January's gone hope things improve

Well the first month of 2014 has been and gone and am glad to see the back of it .
Usually January is my favourite month for chub as the rivers are low and clear and of course we have frost and cold weather . Not this year as we all know winter has gone mental and its mild for the time of year and very very wet . My first session of any description didnt happen til the 14th , I couldnt get my barbel head on and so decided to risk a session on the Trent after work , knowing the river was about to supposed to start dropping I chanced a cheesepaste session but as soon as I arrived I knew things were not right . The river was a good 2 feet above what the last station reading off the EA site which is strange as the stations further upstream were dropping . On looking at the river things began to take shape as the river was carrying a very brown colour and had great lumps of brown foam on it .

I have fished the Trent in severe flood conditions and seen all sorts come down it from dead animals to whole trees and even fridges and still caught but today even though it wasnt as high it really didnt look right and I could only think of 2 possible causes , 1 was the sugar beet factory had flushed its tanks out which it aint supposed to do but does and 2nd they had flushed the sewage works upstream and released all the extra water from Nottingham . Either way after 2 hours and the river coming up a few more inches I never had a sign and my first session of the year was a blank !!!!

My next chance of getting out was a few days later and the river was still high and didnt look inviting and I decided to have a session for roach on the specimen lake . I decided on a new approach , while sticking to one rod with the maggot and heli rig on my other I choose to try some 8mm pineapple boillies and a ground bait mix consisting of roach 2000 , crushed pineapple boillies and pineapple frenzy liquid .

The swim I choose was the one I had shared with Mark Reid back in November thinking that since the fish appeared t lay up there for the day I had a good chance of finding a fish to take the boillie . However things didnt pan out to well and when it got to 3.45pm and I hadnt had a sign my first ever blank on this venue looked like happening but then in 45 minutes I had 9 roach all on the maggot rod ranging between 10oz and topped by a 1lb 2oz one , I also had a single drop on the boillie rod that never developed .

3 days later and I am back at the specimen lake and on arriving we have a sharp frost which had me thinking it could be a good day for roach .

I choose to fish the opposite end of the lake where I know in these conditions the fish can come at any time due to the deeper water . While setting up I saw 2 kingfishers and my confidence was sky high . I went with the same 2 set ups as previous session and settled back and waited and waited and waited , all the time a pair of grebes worked my end of the lake and despite not seeing them catch anything its usually a dsign of fish been around but it had finally happened and I blanked for the first time on here and never even saw a sign of a fish , shouldnt complain after been on here for the last 3 winters . The only things that took and interest in my bait was a cheeky wren who helped itself to my maggots and this pair that waited for me to throw them some .

My final session  of the month was an after worker on a yet again rising Trent .The journey there was something else , I left work with light winds and broken blue sky , as I approached the hill that lead to the Trent valley the sky darkened and a few large spots of rain hit the windscreen as I hit the hill the wind went mental and sleet and hill bounced down and visibility dropped to 20 yards , it stayed like this for the next 4 or 5 miles and then stopped and on arriving at the river I was back to blue sky and no wind !!! This time I decided to fish for a bit with the red maggots I had left . I picked my swim with care and found the nice crease and slack I was looking for .

Knowing this swim from normal levels , I knew I could fish the margin just beyond the reeds sticking out and it would be snag free and fish would be laid up in that area . For an hour I cast the feeder and no sign was forthcoming I then had what can only be describes a a tremor on the quiver tip and then nothing on retrieving the rig both maggots were smashed , this happened on the next 3 casts and on the 4th I took and chance and struck and my blank was avoided as a roach of around 4-6oz was landed , not huge but welcome .

The very next cast and a slightly more deliberate bite brought me another fish but this time it was one of the all too rare now Trent gudgeon .

Thinking I might have a few more I recast and thought I felt a spot of rain and noticed the wind was picking up which would make spotting the tremor bites harder to spot but that was to be the least of my worries and the wind again went mental and spun into my face and the rain turned to torrential hail !!!!!!!!!! Now I must start using my brolly or at least taking it on these sessions and I may have been able to continue , as it was I beat a hasty retreat to the van and by the time I got there I was drenched and couldnt feel my hands . So there you have it January gone and lets hope the rest of the year improves . My next session is penciled in for 2 days time on a very high Trent but this time it will be barbel rods and garlic spam .

Brief and to the point

As the year comes to an end I feel I should write about my last 3 sessions but 2 were practically write offs . The first was a short after work session for chub on the Trent , now as you will have read previous my style of steak and mince fishing is different to most as I only add predators plus and plug the feeder and use the blood and predator plus to seep out into the water , after having a chat with Lee Swords and watching his video I decided to try a similar approach in that I mixed the mince and predator plus with some groundbait to break up the pieces of mince which stopped it clogging in the feeder .I also moved to a swim new to me and spent 2 hours fishing before I had a savage take that found me attached to a large fish for all of 2 seconds when it came off , on retrieving the rig the hook had gone and on inspecting the line it looked like it had been bitten off , dont often have this happen but sometimes chub are good at it . that was all the action I got despite trying a couple more swims .

My next session was looking like a big bonus as my wife had suggested I have a few hours after work on xmas eve , now I was on an early start than usual which meant been at work for 3.45am but would be done for midday and at the river for 12.45 ish and planned to fish til 5pm ish , well the best laid plans and all that , now I can cope with fishing in high winds but I had been fishing in a gale force downstream wind for around half an hour and had one tentative bite that I missed and even had a couple of fish top in the area my bait was in but then the sky went black and yes rain dont bother me either despite no brolly but when the wind spins round to come straight in your face and the rain is horizontal straight at you its time to quit , the 50 yard walk back to the van was ok from the front as the wind and rain was on my back but god was I soaked .

Yet again the weather would play a part in my last session .I had a choice of 2 venues both involving different approaches . I have been a member of Newark and District Piscatorial s for the last 4 years and while I have fished some of the stretches of the Trent I have never even seen the stretch of the upper Witham but was hoping to change that unfortunately the weather again played its part , high winds greeted me when I left the house and not knowing the stretch decided not to risk been able to find a spot and took myself off to the small pond that I had my perch from at the end of last year and also some good roach , I settled on a swim that had the very high gusty wind on my back .

I had planned if I was on the river to fish liquidised bread with crushed hemp in a cage feeder with bread flake on the hook . I decided to stick to the bait plan but to float fish it and use bread punch , my choice of float would normally have been a bottom end only one to combat the wind but I had some floats that were made by Robert Lancaster of the ARA and decided to use of them . From the off I was catching small roach .

I had taken some prawns in case the perch put in an appearance but as the day wore on and the roach continued to come and get bigger I decided to stay with the punch .I must have finished with close to 100 fish with most 4-6oz but also a good number around 12oz and have since found out that some where roach / rudd hybrids .

.

I had nice enjoyable day and will be out for my last session of the year on monday 30th december and again have a number of choices .
I have some decisions to make about what tickets I will be getting for next season as I am dropping my Ashfield ticket for a number of reasons including the fall I had fiasco . I have 3 or 4 options and will be taking up at least 2 of them .

High winds and a heartbreaker

What follows is been written early as out for another go tomorow but really wanted to get this out of the way . Thursday 5th december and 70mph winds forecast but was planning on an after work session on the middle Trent and decided to give it a go , now arriving at 3pm after battling side winds that rocked the van and dodging bits of tree on the village roads I found the wind coming straight into my face as expected .

I wasnt sure the picture would do it justice so shot a short video .

Now I'd love to say that my efforts were rewarded but unfortunately it was one problem after another , I had opted to try liquidised bread and flake in the hope of either a big roach or a chub . first cast and the wind is shaking rod all over but its supposed to drop around 4pm , the tip suddenly pulls slowly round and lifting into it thought for a second I had hooked a fish but no thumping just a dead weight and retrieving line by pumping it in a large plastic bag is wrapped round my feeder  because of the weight the hook trailing behind snagged and broke off , on getting hold of the bag it turns out its been filled with water and knotted at the top , some morons about !!!!!! . Now tying a hook on is usually easy but not in this wind and I end up going up th bank and sitting in the van to do it . On getting back out of the van I take the decision to move swims to where the wind my be coming at a slightly different angle , load van and a short drive down stream and set everything up just as the light starts to fade and I find out that I can find the isotope for the rod tip so its even more f a struggle . I gave it another hour and with the wind showing no sign of dropping and me starting to get a massive headache as a result of been battered by the wind I call it quits knowing I would have a full day tomorow .

Up the next morning and sort flask out and make sure my only spare isotope is in my bag I set off for the bait farm as want some maggots to give the float ago as the wind had dropped . Now the bait farm is about 25 mins away from where I live so you can tell that when I arrived 45 mins after leaving home that I had problems . The main one been that as I approached the slip road to get off the A1 a car transporter in front of me was indicating it was going to pull out in front of me so slowed down only to see the slip road going passed and then spotted that the transporter wasnt indicating but one of the cars had its hazzard lights on , surely illegal ?. Eventually got to the bait farm and picked maggots up and had a good chat with owner and then on to the Trent . On arriving I had a quick look and picked a nice glide with the intention of fishing the float until an hour before dark and then move to chub swim . Set stick float rod up and on went the bait apron .

My last few trips have led to some great bags of roach on the float but today whether it was a severe drop in temperature the previous night but 2 hours of running the float through and altering depth and using pin to vary speed I couldnt buy a bite and took the decision to try the feeder to see if they wanted a static bait . After 3 or 4 casts I started getting quick jabs on the tip that were unhittable but on retrieving rig maggots were either stunned or smashed completely so started altering the length of the hook link and immediately had a chub of around 12oz , in the next hour I added 12-15 roach of around 6-12oz and one specimen of 1lb 4oz .

Now after a couple more raoch and the light is starting to fade so its time for a move to one of my favoured chub swims , after loading the unhooking , weighing and photoing gear into van I go down to get the landing net , ait , chair and rod and decide to have one last cast on maggot feeder , my history on this stretch is that it has produced nearly all my 5lb +chub and also  my pb off here and had decided that I want my first 6lber from here and know to 4 definite 6's coming off it so spent the last 2 and a half winters on here although last year was a write off with the floods . Out goes the feeder and within a minute of it settling a couple of taps a a slight pulled round and I strike into what feels like a good fish that has a good shake of its head and then a short run and I think small barbel but after a few more shakes and 2 or 3 mins of fight the fish is nearing been read for the net as it surfaces I see a big bronze flank and the unmistakeble big white lips and its in the net lifting the net out I gaze at the biggest chub I have ever seen in he flesh in fact after unhooking in the net I check its not a common carp !!!!! Now I have a dilemma in that all the weighing and photoing stuff is in the van behind me , normally I would place the fish in the margin in the deep specimen landing net I normally use but due to having a lot of hooks snagging in the mesh recently I have switched to a rubber pan net , so do I take the fish with me and leave it on the grass while I sort the stuff out risk it in the margins in a shallow net , well its a no brainer fish welfare comes first and its placed in the margins and I go off up the bank and just as everything is ready I turn to see ripples coming from where the landing net is and my heart sinks as I see the chub as done what chub do best a escaped !!! Gutted dont do justice as to how I feel , I sit down on the wet grass and sulk in disbelief  for about 20 mins . I eventually shake myself from this and reason that moving seems pointless given the fish i have just losted from a swim with no form of chub this size .
In to the back of the van again and out with the isotope which it turns out I should have checked as the holder is broken but today I refuse to give in and after using one piece of rubber tubing to hold the holder on and then super gluing another piece that will hold the isiotope into the first piece I have something that looks awful but that works .

Change my maggot feeder for the cage feeder on goes a size 12 hook and a 15 inch 4lb hook link and its steak and mince time . Takes me another hour to get an indication , which is normal on here if you return or lose a fish , I'm now at the point where one fish and I'm off as I'm still numb from losing what must have been a new pb and probably that first 6 . suddenly the tip pulls round and I'm connected to another chub and its soon in the net and no messing about this time , its weighed and photoed at 3lb 6oz not massive but heals my wounds a little .

I pack up and leave and vow that it wont change my challenge despite offers of information as to where I have more chance of that 6 or bigger , I will nail one from here .

I get home and find loads of commiserations on my facebook wall plus the odd comment describing me in terms that I had already called myself , thanks everyone yeah I'm a knobber Stewart lol but given what the fish did I hate to think what would have happened if it had done its escape trick at the top of the bank .
Fish Welfare comes first !!!!!

I was hoping to make this a separate blog but for what it was worth , I decided just to add it briefly here .

I went out again on monday 9th and I thought things couldnt get worse but they have , I called a stretch of the Tidal Trent to have an hour lure fishing and going down one of the swims I slipped and finished up going up in the air and coming down on my back and on to the top of a scaffolding pole that the club use to construct steps from which was lucky because had I gone the other way I would have gone on the top of a wall and dropped 6 or 7 feet into the river !!!!! At the time I didnt feel lucky as it knocked the wind out of me and left me feeling nausea's . After resting for 15 mins or so I had a go at luring and nothing . Driving onto the middle Trent I discovered a guy who had done an overnighter for barbel and he had managed one chub of around 4lb . I started on bread flake and after an hour switched to maggot feeder and for 2 hours I tried everything I could to convert the bites into fish all to no avail . I moved swims for the last 2 hours and switched steak and mince which produced 2 tiny taps . Speaking to a couple of other anglers who had dome the full day revealed not a single fish had come out which given decent conditions was a real surprise .
I feel on reflection that the fall knocked the stuffing out of me and am now still struggling to sit back as my back is very sore but hey ho as someone said its better than been dead lol

So many sessions and need to catch up .

Since my last update after roach I was shocked to see I had done 6 more sessions !!!!!.
The first was to be an after work session on the Trent after chub and also had my new scales to christen which a delayed birthday present from my wife Lou .
Arriving at the river just after 3pm I had a chat with one of the regulars who was barbel fishing , he didnt have any but lost 2 and netted 2 bream . I settled above a fence end with a small raft off it .

You can just make it out where there is a flat spot to the right middle . As the weather had turned a bit cooler it had to be steak and mince with my usual feeder set up . First cast and within 10 mins I had a decent rap that I managed to miss but next cast I made no mistake and my new scales showed a chub of 3lb 3 and a half ounces .

My next cast was to turn my session upside down and actually nearly ruin it . A few minutes after recasting I seemed to get a slight tap and then the tip pulled round about 2 inch and held there , only one thing to do HIT IT !!!! there was definitely something on the end but no thump suggested it was not a fish and as I had to pump and reel whatever was on the end grudgingly came towards me , now when my feeder appeared and there was some line round it things started to become clear , grabbing hold of the line and getting it from round my feeder I started to hand line it in it went solid now this line was about 6lb at most and whatever was on the end was snagged solid . I had to get up and walk down the bank to almost where I was fishing and eased things towards me it suddenly freed itself and large branch suddenly bobbed to the surface with all manner of leaves and rubbish on it and off it went downstream straight through my swim !!!!! A few expletives later and I retrieve the last of the line , which ended up been about 40yards and on the end a lead clip with a 6oz gripper lead on and a mono hooklink of about 3lb and 6 inch long with a tiny hook on it , I had to take the pliers to the lead clip to get it off and get the lead free . The bailiff was just down the bank with the other guy and off I went to show him the sort of idiots fishing , he wasnt surprised .

I decided to have a walk and leave the swim as all that rubbish going through it would have moved anything that was still there . Half hour later and into dark I make another cast and after several more and an hour without a sign its looking bad as I have to be leaving in the next 10 mins or so . Just as I'm thinking about reeling in a guy who had been fishing well upstream suddenly appeared at my side and as he did my tip pulled round and held again I lifted in to the fish and it gave 2 thumps and just held there I began reeling in and it just started coming towards me as a heavy lump , thinking I had lost it and got some more rubbish I stopped reeling in and got another 2 thumps and then nothing again I began winding in again and it just kept coming , now I was thinking this could be a good chub , I pushed the landing net out and as the feeder appeared was all set to net a special chub , now I never put my head torch on until the fish is in the net but the guy who was stood with me stuck his on and all hell broke loose !!!!! my chub had turned into a barbel after probably 4 or 5 mins of mayhem into the net went a nice barbel that pulled the scales round to 8lb 3oz and was a nice finish to an eventful session .

My next session was to be the following day and after thinking it through I decided on a stillwater session after roach on the specimen lake . On arriving I was to find half a dozen of the local season ticket holders were already on including the guy who was complaining about lack of fish on my last visit and yet again he was complaining about there not been enough stock in the lake , he didnt seem impressed when I said its a specimen lake its not supposed to be stocked to the gunnels . A quick wander round and all the others were blanking and added to this there were 6 carp anglers on the same bank so I took myself off to the opposite side at the end I hadnt fished before .

After a quick lead around I found a nice area to set my stall out and awaited action and waited and waited . Now I know that when its like this that dusk can usually bring a fish or 2 . The guys in the other side did what they always do and left before 3pm . To be honest even I was getting worried when my mate rang to fill me in on his predator exploits on another lake but while we were talking the kingfisher shot passed , now if you have read my other blogs about this lake you will know I dont blank when seeing one and sure enough 10 mins later one of the rods signaled a take and I was soon netting a roach of 1lb .

I had 2 more takes that I managed to miss before calling it a day and I still aint blanked on this lake .

The reason I choose the lake for this session was that I had monday free and was off to the middle trent to show what its capable of  regarding roach and so took myself off to the bait farm and bought 4 pints of red and white maggots and then on to the trent to have a day trotting the stick .

I choose a swim with a nice even steady flow but my only problem was going to be the wind which was downstream and into my face .

I set up my stick rod and choose a 6 no4 one of the new Dave Harrell ones I recently got and cant praise them or the wagglers he sells highly enough . A couple of runs through adjusting the depth til the float dragged under . I fed a pouch of maggots and sent the float down the run and was immediately was into a roach after several more the wind increased and controlling the float became difficult so I started experimenting with back shots and settled on a bb which worked a treat . roach came constantly for the full 4 hours I was able to do and other than one bream of around 2lb and 2 x 6oz dace the rest of my catch was all roach of between 4 and 12oz which resulted in around 15lb of roach plus the bream . Not bad on a river that has no silver fish left in it .

A couple of days later and onto the trent again after work for another steak and mince session .

The session went like a dream and resulted in 4 chub of 1lb , 12oz , 2lb 5oz and 3lb 11oz , I also lost a small one and missed a few bites .

Things at least quietened down for a few days as work took over and I was able to take stock of these sessions but the respite didnt last long as I had 2 days booked off for fishing related stuff including 2 sessions of fishing and a charity night .

1st session was to be a social with Mark Reid , now Mark had been down to the specimen lake the day before and was told that there had been no fish caught for weeks , when he told the guys telling him this that his mate had not blanked they all replied "I bet its the guy in the red van " Lol . Needless to say they all blanked but Mark had a run of fish on dark in a 45 mins period .

When we arrived the following morning the lake was flat calm and we had a good look round , we spoke to the bailiff who offered the advice that the swim we were stood in would produce but we needed to cast 90 yards now as the bailiff left we looked at each other and then the lake and saw a roach roll just about where he had said to cast , now hitting the distance would be no problem but signs suggested the breeze starting to blow would be in our faces and it had a chill to it , so we did the obvious thing , we drove round to the opposite side of the lake which meant a gentle lob of 50 yards would see us reaching the spot . We shared a swim as it was easily big enough for 2 and it was a social .

Now I had never fished this area or even close to it and so didnt know what to expect , what happened was quite unbelievable given no one was catching , Within 10 mins of casting in we both had fish and for the next 5 hours we could hardly keep our 4 rods in the lake as bite after bite came , we missed a few and had between 40 and 50 roach between us , most where 8-12oz and around 8 around 1lb 2oz . The session was so hectic I dont remember sitting down once !!!!.

The following day was to be something of mixed bag as I was attending the first Yorkshire Specimen Group charity night a write of which it on the link below . As this was to take place in Doncaster I had to take a shift off work and as I didnt have to be there til 6pm I took myself off to the Trent with a couple of pints of hemp and maggots and just my tip rod and bag . Now I expected a few fish but nothing prepared me for the 3 hours that were to follow .

Set up a small feeder and filled it with maggots and fished 2 on the hook and first cast a roach of around 6 ounces came to the net . I continued fishing this way but also started putting a pouch of hemp in front of me on the line my feeder was on down the margin , fish after fish came to the net between 6oz and 12oz and finished with around 60 plus a bream of around 1lb and this absolutely pristine roach of 1lb 7oz .

I have 2 sessions planned for later this week , the first I intend to do an after worker with liquidised bread and flake as I feel it could produce some better roach and even the much sought after 2lber , I will also be taking the steak and mince as a back up for an hour or so into dark . the following day will be another go with the stick float and maggot . Till then thanks for reading and hope you enjoy the write up for our charity night .

http://yorkshiresg.wordpress.com/2013/12/01/the-y-s-g-anglers-evening/

First Roach Session of the Year

Friday the 8th of November and its my birthday , when I was around 6 or 7 years old my granddad said to me that " you dont work on the day your born and you shouldnt on your birthday " Dont know how much he meant it but it has stuck with me all my life , I never went to school on my birthday and have never worked on it and over the last few years ( cant remember how many ) I have gone fishing on it , regardless of the weather . I was fancying a chub session on the Trent but after been invited to join The Association of Roach Anglers I felt it would be fitting to have a session on Woodland Waters for a redfin or 2 . Now I dont normally go on there until we have had a few proper frosts to ensure the smaller fish and carp are less active and to increase my chances of the bigger roach . According to information we have gleaned over the last 2 years there have been half a dozen confirmed 2lb+ roach caught , all but one by carp anglers .As you may have read on my previous blogs my best from the venue is 1lb 12oz backed up by numerous 1lb+ fish .

Now due to the nature of the venue and where the fish hold up in winter its helicopter rigs , alarms and bobbins . So arriving just before 9am to find 5 other anglers already on the 12 acre specimen lake , I did my usual walk round ( though I already know the swims I fancy ) no one had seen a sign of a fish of any description but thats not unusual as the locals tend to fish well short of the areas the roach seem to patrol . Dont get me wrong they do pick up the odd fish but usually when they do that then the areas I fish tend to produce alot of fish .

I unloaded the van and went to a swim I have fished a few times and luckily had no one within 3 or 4 swims of me either side , I can be very unsociable at times and like to be left alone .

First job put the brolly up as rain was forecast for later and wanted to keep all my gear dry plus I had taken my stove to make drinks as opposed to my flask that goes on the Trent when roving .I got the pod up and the rods set up and then made some casts to get my distance set . Now the distance I fish here is around 60 yards , most of the locals fish 30 yards maximum and think this is more to do with it been a comfortable distance than any sound angling reason , my reason  for fishing the distance I do is that there is a deep channel at that distance and there is a stream runs through the venue and we all know these features attract roach . Now conditions werent the ones I wanted as the venue fishes better with a good blow on it but always feel confident of a fish . Once the distance was set on both rods I put 6 feeders full of the red curry flavoured maggots I have found to work best . Out when the rods and on went the kettle . I know from the past that in these conditions ( we had blue skies to start ) bites early on would be few and far between .

When after 4 hours I hadnt had a bite and the rain started I feared the worst but then my mate the kingfisher turned up , which on here means I will catch as I have only blanked once on the entire complex and that was the only day he didnt turn up . I had a visit from an old guy 3 swims away who reported that still no one had seen signs of a fish and when I said I thought they might show up on dusk he retorted he woudlnt be giving it that long and off he went . Now the rain had got serious .

Something I noticed was how many leaves were still on the trees as this time last year most had already fallen a sure sign of it been warmer . Just as I was thinking even the kingfisher had failed me things went mental .
It was 4 pm and the right hand rod gave one bleep and the bobbin hit the floor . I lifted the rod and felt a nod that signified the blanked could be avoided if I could keep the fish on ( barbless hook rule ) . The fish came to the net without any trouble , it was only around 6oz or so but it was very welcome.

The rod was recast and I had literally just finished when the other rod gave a few bleeps and the bobbin dropped and then slammed into the alarm , on lifting into this fish it was obvious it was a bit bigger than the first and in the net I could see it was a good lb or more and the scales confirmed it at 1lb 6oz

Back out went the rod and I noticed the light was starting to fade . it then went even more mental as the right hand rod went again and another roach was hooked and netted and the rod recast I turned to go and get the camera and the same rod went again and a roach of nearly the same size joined the one still in the landing net form just a minute or so earlier both around 10-12oz .

The rod went back out and no sooner had it been set than the left hand rod went off and another good roach was in the net , before I could recast the right hand rod was away again and yet again I ended up with 2 fish in the net , weighing 1lb 3oz and 8oz

I was by now soaked to the skin and it was nearly completely dark and decided to call it a day as wanted to get home for my birthday meal . I checked the time and I had gone from blanking to having caught 6 fish in 35 minutes . The next time I fish there I'm hoping for a decent wind on , failing that I have just bought some Drennan Windbeater floats and may give them a go .