Almost 2 years !!!!!!

Wow  almost 2 years since I last updated my blog . I have to apologize , at least 3 times I have set aside time to update but never managed to .

Obviously I cant possibly cover everything that has happened so will just do a brief cover and hopefully get back to more regular posts from now on .

News on the personal front , Well I left my job at Morrisons Bodmin at the end of February this year and moved to what on paper and after negotiations looked to be better for me , more hours , closer to home  and promise of  been treat properly plus chance to earn more money . the first 2 were true but the last 2 fell a long way short , so after only 3 weeks I left . I reapplied for my old job back at Morrisons but despite 3 applications and numerous emails , I received no replies .I then found another position , alot more money but a longer distance from home . I was offered a 3 month probation period but was let go after 8 weeks as due to my anxiety was unable to fulfill all the required duties . A day after my notice ran out I attended an induction for my original job working in home delivery at the Newquay Morrisons and will start properly tomorrow morning .

Right fishing I couldn't possibly cover everything that has happened since my last blog so will just give a very brief rundown and some stats .

After speaking to both the owner and his son regarding fish movements ( see fishing for ghosts blog ) .I found their responses both unacceptable and extremely dismissive and took the decision not to renew my tickets . I started having a good look round for a suitable venue and eventually decided on a local club who own a number of old clay works that vary in size from 1 acre up to 12 acres , all of these have some vast depths in them and 2 actually go over 60 feet .

I started on one of the medium size lakes but since it was still winter struggled a little for the carp , I did manage to stalk a 6lb common in the middle of January . I then switched my attention to a 1 acre lake that is literally 3 minutes drive from my home .There are no carp in this lake but it does hold some quality roach , rudd and tench plus a large head of bream , my biggest roach so far has been 1lb 1oz , rudd 1lb 7oz , tench 4lb 2oz and bream around 2lb .I have not fished for them yet but there are rumours of some good eels in it and also in the other lakes . I moved onto the 2nd biggest lake in mid march and obviously the water had still not warmed up but managed a 9lb mirror and 9lb 3oz leather carp in one session but decided to pull off due to the amount of lost tackle left by others both hanging in the far bank trees and in the far margins .

I then spent April fishing the original lake for the roach that it holds .On the 30th April I ventured onto the clubs largest lake that has a reputation for been a bit tricky , to the extent that at the end of my first year in the club numerous new members had left due to not having a single fish . Within 3 hours of setting up I landed one of the original carp and biggest a mirror which was also a new pb of 34lb 4oz .

At the time of writing this blog I have done 39 nights and landed 36 carp and lost another 7 , as well as the big mirror I have had 19 over 20lb . One fish I lost was particularly painful as it was the biggest common in the lake , which was last caught 3 years ago at a weight of 26lb 12oz , it was the worst kind of loss as the hook pulled as its head was at the net cord . I had one other negative experience and that was last September , when I packed up and loaded the van , I had arrived the previous evening near to dark and didnt notice all the bits of paper and rubbish in the bivvy area , having loaded everything except the rod holdall , ground sheet and rubbish bag I picked up the groundsheet and discovered the rubbish so cleared it up and put it in the back of the van and closed the doors , not realising I had left my rod holdall against the tree behind me . I drove home and it wasnt until a day later that realised my mistake , needless to say the holdall had gone , given the weight of the holdall plus the fact the venue is gated it seemed a good bet another member had picked it up and I expected to see a post in clubs facebook page but non appeared , I informed the club and the police but the police could do nothing . Subsequently a member came forward with a van and registration that had gone in the swim 2 or 3 hours after I left unfortunately the police couldnt do anything as they needed a witness to say they saw them put my holdall in the van , the club wouldnt or couldnt track the van and so £2000 of gear was gone . I didnt fish for 3 weeks and when I returned the locals told me they had been watching out for the van but that is the one and only time it has been seen .

So hopefully thats brought things up to speed and hopefully my updates will return to been more regular               

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