Not a fixed spool in sight!

Sunday.

I decided to spend some time cleaning up what I originally thought was an old knackered centre pin reel that my grandfather had left me many years ago amongst alot of very poor quality equipment...it turned out to be an Allocks perfection "flick-em" which after 3 hours of polishing on cleaning looks great and spins for ever. I loaded it with some free line that I received some time ago and I was ready to try it out. I set-up a very simple small waggler, lift float, to which I tied a fine wire size 12. This would be great for fishing paste at my local pools, down the indie margin.

As there was alot of carp feeding off the surface on Friday night I also included my newly acquired fly rod to have some fun with. the set up is a 8/9 weight rod, with a large 7/9 weight reel, filled with 8 weight forward floating line, with a ten pound mono tippet. To which I tied an imitation dog biscuit fly.

I got to the pools and settled down on the peg just sitting on my unhooking mat as a box and put a large piece of paste onto the hook, this could not be easier!


After about 2 minutes the waggler popped up then slid away, i has hooked my first fish on the vintage pin! A bream of around 3lb was safely netted moments later, this was then followed by 5 more bream and a couple of hard fighting tincas. I have to say playing fish on the pin is very enjoyable the reel is very responsive and makes the fight alot more interactive than a fixed spool drag set up.




After taking a few smaller fish from this swim i decided to move to a corner peg with some lilly cover for my planned fly session later, as I did not want to miss out on fishing this peg.


Again i had a couple of bream and tench from under an over hanging willow to the left of the swim, all of which fell to a large piece a bread flake., felt good catching these on the combination of the pin and bread, very advanced!


As the sun dropped lower i began to introduce some mixers to my right to get the carp up and feeding, which they did after around 10 minutes which the small rudd drawing their attention to the free offerings. So out come the fly rod, which I have to see say I am far from competent at using in fact i felt like i have never fished before as I attempted to get my fly somewhere near the feeding carp. They seemed to take all of the freebies but once again not my fly, well at least for the first hour...then bingo I hooked it a nice fish on the edge of the lillies which went mental!


I have never caught a carp in this manner and was not aware that the rod handle plays such a pivotal role in general course fishing as the butt section rests on your forearm during the fight, were as obviously a fly rod does not have the and the pressure on your wrist is staggering. Perhaps as my technical understanding improves then so will my technique of fighting the fish.


The rod dealt with the fish very impressively and the drag on the reel can be set to ensure the fish is under tension but still able to run..loved it.


Reached for my net and a lovely mirror of 12lb 7oz was capture. Not bad a double for my fish carp on the fly!



I have to say I really enjoyed this unorthodox methods used during this season, as the simplicity the tackle used, as well as it heritage and new technical aspects gave me a lot of satisfaction and a wider understanding of angling in its purest form. Perhaps I do get drawn in by modern techniques and innovations when simply ways can be more enjoyable??

After studying some pics it would appear this fish is a friend of mine!


Tight lines - oh yeh hello Owen! (my nephew)

Back on the pool...with camera

After a pleasing session last night I again returned to the Avon Hoe pool, with the same aim as the previous evening.

I selected a swim that is pegged just one before my favourite in between two willow trees that both over hang the water slightly giving a small amount of cover. I like this peg as it gives various options of marginal swims with no real snags under to prevent landing the larger fish.

I set my rigs to depth and got my "station" organised, whilst doing this I had a quick chat with Chris who was fishing the dam end who had caught a couple nice bream and tench on bread down the inside margin on a light rod with a centre pin, with his home crafted crow quill floats (which i must say look and work superbly well)

So first cast with a 6mm pellet,within 10 seconds my float had sunk and my number 11 elastic way running out across the pool....quickly i tried to ship out to stop a break up this early in the season, as I did so unfortunately I did not line my number 3 section up dead straight with my number 4 and managed to crack a section of about 5mm off the leading lip of the male 4 section...it was a good job my torrents medication had cut in! I still was able to make the joint and after about 10 minutes the fish fish of the season was netted weighing in at 12lb 7oz, not bad for 10 seconds fishing!

I quickly took a picture and returned the carp to the next peg.

I feed in some more 1mm and 2mm fed pellets and re baited with a 6mm expander and drooped back into the margin. For the next hour or so i caught steadily netting 8 bream and a tench, with the add nice roach mixed in. This was a change from the previous evening as it was predominately tench instead of bream before whereas now the roles had been reversed.

As a change I decided to try my luck with a large piece of paste to see if I could get into the tincas instead of bramas! Once again my float drifted away and my elastic went on a trip across to the centre of the pool, carp on! A very long fight of around 50 minutes was finally bought to an end when I slipped the net under a nice mirror, In fact I was using a 18" Drennan Super Specialist and the fish had to bend to get in....mind your head!

I went up the bank and put the net onto the longer grass to cushion the fish, scales and sling ready....17lb 4oz. Not bad considering she has obviously recently "spawned out". I would have liked to have got a better picture of me with this fish as it is one of my largest on the pole, but Chris was fighting his own personal battle with a carp and the other anglers where way to far away! The fish was returned back to water as she slowly swam away.

This fish was follow with in 5 minutes by another a common of 8lb 9oz, this fish felt like a dream to land compared with the two fish previously.

I then decided to go back to fish a smaller pellet as to be honest fighting fish for hours in not really my style and was not what I had set out to do.

4mm expander on and see....my float started to bob and dance, perhaps roach I though...no its those little pixies! I landed 7 small crucain back to back in around 20 minutes which I was quite pleased with, as I find them beautiful and indeed a challenege to catch.

At around 12 o'clock I decided to pack away and view my catch, all in all I had 17 bream ranging between 2 and 4lb, four tench of around the same mark, 7 crucians, 25 roach and of course 37lb 4oz of carp so again a nice season inn which around 100lb of fish caught. Happy Days!

I aim to return tomorrow evening with a slightly different approach!

Tight Lines.

Avon Hoe pools for the first time this season

I have been a member at the Avon Hoe pools in Church Lawford for many years now and they still abide by the closed season so after my exploits on the river earlier in the week I decided to give the pools a go on Friday evening.
I fished a peg that I know quite well with a bed of 1mm and 2mm sinking feed pellets (Findlay) and the 4mm and 6mm expanders fished over the top, with some fishmeal paste also in tandem for the larger fish. I fed both margins to my right and left and a 'long' swim at 10 metres. All of my rigs where set about 1 inch over depth with the full bristle showing as alot of the time the bream to give line bites.
I started to my left as this for some reason is my preferred side, I do not know why...
Straight away I started to catch roach of about 6oz on the 4mm pellets with the odd skimmer mixed in up to about 1lb, in fact I quickly racked up about 6lb of silvers. i then decided to go onto the 6mm pellets, my float was in the water for no less than 30 seconds before sliding away to a lovely 3lb tench, which tested the number 9 hollow Preston elastic that i use for crucian fishing at Snitterfield to its full in fact it went out about 30 yards which surprised me!
This continued then for about an hour with both tench and bream taking the larger pellet, up to and around the 4lb mark, then my rhythm was interrupted, by a lump. The elastic controlled the fish at a distance for a good 45 minutes, before unfortunately giving way as went to net the large fish which as clearly over 20lbs in fact it would have been my largest carp caught from this venue and also on the pole. I was very disappointed not only to loose this fish but also due to the issue of the rig being still attached to the fish, though i realise that is would throw the barbless hook it still something that I hate to do , this is the reason why i fish a 2lb 6oz to ensure this does not happen,but unfortunately the elastic must have had a weak link as it gave way.
I had another top section set up with number 11 elastic so was quickly back in the water. I decided to try the paste instead of the pellet for the remainder of the season and caught tench and bream steadily until 9.30 and my local Chinese was calling. In the end I spent another 40 minutes playing a lovely common carp which tipped the scales at 14lb 4oz which with the additional of 12 tench that ranged for 2lb 8oz to 4lb 10oz, 7 bream between 2lb and 4lb 2oz, 6lb of mixed Roach, Rudd and skimmers, oh yeah and one brown goldfish and gudgeon!
All together after 5hrs I was very happy to have caught around 65lb of fish...not bad for my fish season back on the lake...to think some people were commenting on the fact that is not fishing well!
I will be back on the lake tomorrow this time I will take my camera, I know a blog with out pictures is boring! Will pack the pair next time...least it stopped the phone calls asking me when I was getting home! xx

Tight Lines

Using my loaf!

With it being the opening day of the season, I decided to walk a stretch of local river in the search of some chub.

My tackle was extremely complex in total consisting of 5 pieces of kit, these being a rod, reel, line, size 8 hook and bread! oh yes and a landing net!

On arrival I walked the stretch and cleared a couple of likely spots in which I have seen fish rise throughout the close season. This is needed as the swims/pegs are very overgrown in fact it was alot taller and thicker than I had first predicted... After cutting a couple of pegs I tackled up amidst the rushes well out of site of any fish eyes.

Put reel on rod, take line through eyes, tie on a size 8 strong hook...simples!!

Once tackled up I feed some more pieces of bread and could see a couple of fish taking it confidently almost immediately. Time to have a go, nice large piece of flake under arm cast into the flow and straight away the larger of the two fish took the bait..only for me to strike to quickly and pull out of the fish, causing it to blow all of the bread that it had previous eaten into the flow, almost projectile! Bugger!

Not to be out done, I re-baited and started the procedure again it took them about ten minutes to come back into the swim and onto the free offerings. Right then try again this time I watched the smaller fish take the bread and sit motionless in the clear water with its thick white lips champing and gills blowing obviously eating the flake, instead of striking immediately I waited until the line began to tighten and as the fish started to move away, then struck and fish on! In fact the larger fish followed it during the fight almost all the way to the net, interesting as this could happen in cloudy water and I would never have seen it.

I was using a soft action float rod so with the 4 lb line was able to maneuver the fish quite quickly into the landing net. As I picked up the net I could see that the fish was larger than I had first though, and indeed in superb condition perhaps it had never been caught previously.

I was very pleased to see the scales register 3lb 13oz, not bad for a tiny bit of river and my second cast of the river season! With such complex tackle as well.

Big cake hole!

Due to disturbing the swim with netting, i walked 100 yards further downstream underneath under growth to a very nice swim that is at the end of patch of weed with a small shoal of chub sitting waiting for me that had moved onto the bread that the pair of chub upstream had misses,

Another bit of flake and cast number 3 , once again the bread was hit straight away...wait..wait.. strike...fish on!

This time the fish swam straight towards the bank so it made things alot easier for me, net out fish number 2 in the bag!

This one one slightly smaller weighing in at 3lb 2oz but again another very pretty specimen. This took the total to 6lb 15oz!

As i returned the fish it pursed and then decided to disturb the whole swim by swimming straight along the river bed churning up all the silt off the bottom! This sending all the other fish off and turning the swim brown.

I tried for another 30 minutes but could not get them back onto the feed, the also tried my first swim but could only get one very small chub to show. this was slightly disappointing as though i am not in the fish challenge that a group of other bloggers such as Dan, Keith and Jeff compete in, I was aware of there target of 9lb 6oz for chub, then I could let Dan know!....one more fish and I might have cracked it. But still happy with 3 casts , 2 fish better strike rate than the England team!

I stopped of briefly at the club pools in Church Lawford for a chat with a couple of members and the bailiff before getting home in time for tea!

Session on pools this week me feels!

Tight lines.

College pool and it p***ed it down!

After fishing Snitters I decided to give college pool a go on Tuesday. I had decided to try and fish the "Polaris" slider float with a cage feeder into the centre of lake over a bed of corn and pellets with some fishmeal ground bait mixed to try and pull in and hold the bream that I know are in the pool. As well as this I took my pole for and inside line.

I arrived to an empty pool so walked around to see where the bream might be feeding. After ten minutes it became evident that they were all over with fish topping and producing feeding bubbles almost every where I stopped. So I decided to fish about half way down the right hand bank with a slightly overhanging tree situated.

I mixed my ground bait and participle first of all to ensure the bream had time to move onto the bait prior to the introduction of my hook bait. Using the Polaris float as my marker I balled in 5 oranges into the swim. also introducing a couple down the inside line at only 4 meters out, under the overhanging tree.

I baited the hook with corn and caster and introduced the rig to the baited area, to say it felt strange feeder fishing with a float was an understatement. With the water being so deep and not wanting to have a tight line going through the swim I saw it as my only real choice.

Whilst that settled I rigged my pole on the inside line...getting a huge surprise when I discovered I have to fish 8 metres to hand in order to hold bottom. Very weird way of fish the pole at just 4 metres out! To ensure that my bait found the depth I set up quite a heavy pole float at 1.5g with an olivette at 15 inches above my hook with two number 9 dropper shot.

On completing this my polaries float shot up nearly lifting completely out of the water, so I wound down to find my first bream of the had taken the bait. Looked like I way in for a good day at the point....

I quickly re-baited and returned to the abyss...where it remained for quite some time! There were fish feeding around my baited area but they just were not taking my bait....?

I decided to try the pole down the near edge and hit another bream straight away, not quite what I was expecting....

The rain then decided to test my resolve for the next three hours giving me an absolute soaking..I could be in a hot bath!

As the rain stopped I started to notice that there was still fish feeding on my baited area so to change I swapped the polaris set up for a method feeder in an attempt to try a different style of presentation. Once again after only 5 mins I had another bream, this was to be my last taken from the centre swim.

The next 3 bream all came from the pole swim, falling to soft expander pellets. Overall not to disappointed with 6 bream for over 30lbs of fish.

Over 30lb of bream.

Largest pair at 7lb 4oz and 6lb 8oz

After getting so wet sitting still I decided to have some fun with the angry little carp that live at each end of the lake. Every put in get one of the little carp to bite, they must be very hungry. But as they are so angry I would urge people to tackle alot heavier than normal as they do not like being hooked.

One of the angry little folk at about 5lb

Will look to try and do some canal carpin soon.