Bream for the blackness

After deciding to give the perch on the cut a break, I focused my attention on the bream that I have heard come out to feed once the boats have stopped moving. With this in mind I ventured to the canal.
I arrived at about 7 with my attention being to feed the swim before 8 when the boats should have stooped moving. I soaked up some 2mm fish meal pellets and added some hemp and a few casters. I was convinced I had made a good job of this and by 8 I thought my prebaiting was safe for the evening, so I added starlight s to my pole floats and settled in for the sun to go down. I had set up two rods both with very similar rigs, centre pins and float rods with pole floats on. My aim was to fish bread punch over the baited area lying on by about 3 inches to prevent tow.

As I felt settled I could not believe it when a bloody boat appeared at about 8.30, as far as was aware boats have an 8 o'clock curfew on their motors??? Not only did it appear it turned around over my prebaited area......all good plans and all! I did make very obvious glances at my watch to the boat people...but not even a simple sorry! In last few weeks I have witnessed some very intersting acts by narrow boat users, including tipping the contents of thier wood burner (ash etc) straight into the canal, throwing their washing up water in, and one of the very best urinating directly in to the canal....

Anyway rant over, After the canal had settles I introduced a small amount of feed an sat it out. I was very pleased when my starlight bobbed then sank away and I was into a fish. I have never fished at night before and found it very interesting fighting a fish in the dark. A nice looking bream surfaced and was soon in the net. A fish of 2lb 14oz.

It took a while before it happen again, this tome the fish ripped line from my pin....interesting! After a very spirited fight a larger bream surfaced, I really did not think it was bream to be honest. These fish fight so much more than the ones that are in still waters. This fish scaled 4lb 10oz...a nice fish for the cut!

The next bite came almost straight away, again taking line I was into another better fish. a differetn looking bream, in fact it was almost green. Though a bit bashed up it was still a nice fish. Scaling 3lb 15oz.

I finished fishing at 10.45 and was happy to have bagged 3 fish for over 10lbs. The one thing that I did notice was their tails, an commericals the bream tails are alot smaller than these!

Will definately try this again, I really enjoyed the different sounds from the canal in the dark.

Commercial Capers..

With having a little bit of time on my hands I decided to venture to a local commercial fishery and have a play. I have recently got hold of a new long float rod, a Preston 15/17ft. Having not used a long rod before I thought a commercial would be a good place to see what sort of action the rod has and also what its like to fish with in general. I set up the rod with a pole float (garbolino Dc13 1g) with an olivette and a couple of droppers to a size 16 G point pellet hook.

I was really surprised when I plumbed up to find that the pool that I was on only had a depth of about 4ft, bit gutted at this but I had set up my gear so could not be bothered to move.

I had soaked some 2mm pellets and made up some fish meal groundbait, introducing this into my swim at about 5 metres.
I baited the hook with a 4mm expander and put my first cast out. Straight away my float sunk and the tip bent nicely, a small skimmer of about 8 oz was first in. This trend continued for the next 20 mins with a regular ball of groundbait, followed by 4-5 bream. In the first hour I probably landed 30 fish, all of which ranged from 6oz to 2lb.

This was until my float popped out of the water and I struck into a fish that took line straight away...no bream!

This was when I realised that using a long rod though very enjoyable is not really the tool for bagging zoo creatures. The action is brilliant as it has a through progressive flex that absorbs all of the kicks from the fish, but it does feel like you are towing a plastic bag in a river, and takes probably twice as long to land the fish. The fish that caused this was a mirror carp of around 8lb, a very grey fish, which may have have some ghostly heritage.

I thought that this would have messed the swim up but it had not, again the bream were back....not that I minded them but after probably 50 they were getting I hate to say this but boring?

As the light started to fall the swim changed allot with tail patterns swirling and brown clouds appearing...yes the bigger fish had moved in. To cut alot of hard fights short I had a total of 12 carp in the last 2 hours, at this point the skimmers were gratefully received as a break to the arm wrenching carp. The largest carp weighed in at 12lb 8oz and the others ranged between 6 and 10 lb. I have put some of the pictures below as I was getting fed up with getting off my box tho photograph them...lazy old git!

Largest of the carp at 12lb 8oz

Amongst the bream and carp, I had a very welcome bonus first for the challenge. A crucian carp of 2lb 1oz, though I am sure there are bigger in there it got me a grateful 45%! If fact I actually lost a much larger fish when the hook pulled, due to me giving it to much pressure whilst some of the local "burberry boys" were watching me. ...bugger!

(Incidentally they sat a couple of pegs down from me for the whole time, behind buzzers shouting at each other and saying that there was no fish in lake...interesting)

Pretty pixie at 2lb 10z

The pictures do not do this little fella justice but I did what I could.

By the end of session I had roughly caught around 60lb of bream and silvers, over 100lb of carp and my bonus little pixie!

Not bad for a play on the new bit of kit!

Evening back on the cut.

On monday evening after doing some housework, I decided to nip back to the cut and have another pop at trying to catch a larger perch. After having a few nice fish and a couple of Zander I called it a day. I had a net of perch which went to 8lb 6oz.

Few of the larger pose for a piccy. Though I have enjoyed fishing the canal for perch I have now made the decision to target some different species...what next?? I am also planning to visit some local fisheries that have perch but are not really targeted by many. Might also start thinking of tincas and bramas soon?? Tight Lines

Can not get out of the terrible twos!!!

Having missed my regular dose of canal I felt that I had to get my hit on Sunday. I have heard of very good silvers being taken from the area that myself and Danny have been targeting for predators. With this in mind I set up a light pole rig with bread punch being my approach fished over liquidised bread. It was my intention to fish for a few hours to see if any silvers came my way, then after I had bagged up on them focus on the preds that may have followed them in....all good plans and all!

Well after fishing hard for three hours my float had not even dipped through the interest of a fish! So I decided to introduce so pinkies and a little choppy to an area to my left. Hoping to get the perch feeding. Soon my chubber bobbed then dived under, a perch of 1lb 3oz was quickly netted, a fat little lady. I then had a surprise as a roach took my boat of about 8oz...all day on the bread with nothing then a silver on the pinkie! Soon after I lost a Zander on the worm, but it soon returned as they always seem to do, a fish of just over 2lb's, it always surprises me how large Zander can be but weigh very little. I forgot agian to take a photo!

Perch 1lb 3oz

Dan arrived soon after at this point I had very little news. Few small perch with the largest being 1lb 3oz, a Zander and a roach...not exactly bagging time. Ironically at this point the barge that was next to me moved and left the stretch free from my water going friends. This I feel had a big impact on the fishing, as immediately the fishing improved with a perch of just under 2lb's taking the worm very soon after. Then a few more of around a pound followed.

Another perch of just under 2!!!

As the evening grew closer we decided that we would split and fish different areas, using the walkers to send messages to each other of record breaking fish!

After an hour I had banked 5 perch over a pound but nothing of real size, the largest being agian just under 2lbs.

Another perch of just under 2!!!

This was until my chubber buried and i was into a much better fish. This was a bigger fish...but how big?

On the unhooking mat it looked very good..perhaps a pb? I could not believe what it weighed! When Dan came over I got him to check the fish..he was impressed by it size, as I knew he had bagged a fish of 2lb 6oz it was interesting to see his reaction. He as I thought it was a big un...and also could not believe it only weighed bag on 2lb!!!! Gutted!

This photo really does not do this fish justice..buit only 2lb!

Must have been a male fish as it was very thin and empty, if it was female I feel that it would have been considerably heavier....my quest goes on!!

First visit to Snitters of the year...

Sunday myself and Danny decided to meet up at Snitterfield Ressie and target the roach that have in previous seasons fed well in Feb/March, with the average stamp being around 8 oz it makes for some pleasant fishing. We had also heard of some slightly larger fish coming out so might be interesting...

I got there before Danny and started to set up at on e of my favourite pegs, I say set up it was more like a full on fight with my on box which was being decidedly awkward, as the footplate had dropped out and for the life of me I could not get it to set level...sometimes more tackle and kit is more of a pain in the arse, than just a chair and rod! Just as I finished the duel, Danny arrived and set on the peg next to me.

On arrival he said that he had something for me....I thought this was going to be another sample of the cookies that his girlfriend makes for us on a regular basis..but no! He reminded me that on a recent visit to the Windrush when we met up with David to target Grayling, we had agreed on the "pound for the biggest challenge"! On this occasion I won, with what has to be said was a very small specimen but on a hard day was the only one caught..David prior to departing walked over to me and paid he way....but Danny I thought was trying to relent on his bet! This was until he produced "the pound for the biggest award". After receiving this illustrious award from Mr D Everitt from The Lure of Angling, we got down to fishing...for which we agreed the award would be straight back up for grabs with roach being the target!

I had set up my pole with two swims, one at 10 meters with a deep pellet rig consisting of a Drannan 1.0g Lake float, olivette and size 16 G point pellet hook, my tactic on this swim was going to be to cup some 2mm expanders in then fish a 4mm over the top. The second was a top three kit for the inside line, with a Drennan 0.5g pinkie float with number 10 shot shirt button style for on-the-drop fishing to a size 22 team England hook. On this line my tactic was going to be to start with liquidised bread with punch, then introduce pinkies at a later stage.

The other rod I set up was a light feeder with 5lb line onto which I put a Preston Pellet feeder with a long link to a size 16 pellet hook, on which I would use the 2mm in the feeder on the 4mm on the hook as the bream in the ressie love those pellets!

I was struggling to settle on the inside line as it did not quite feel right and though I did snag a few roach after an hour or so, it did not really kick on and bites were extremely quick and finicky.

So, I tried the feeder and had an instant response by bagging a few nice bream which averaged out at about 1lb 8oz and some very hard fighting roach/bream hybrids. But, with roach as the target I knew I would have to do something different to catch them.

Hard fighting hybrid

I changed my light inside line rig for a blob float with only one number 10 shot on, focusing my efforts on bringing the fish up in the water at 10 metres by spraying 5-10 pinkies over the top every 20 seconds. Again this was met with some interesting results as it became evident that the fast bites were Rudd, doing a hit and run on the bait. After a while I had bagged some very pretty fish that were fin perfect. Including a nice Rudd of about 8oz and a roach of 120z, which ended up being this fish that retained, "the pound for the biggest" award!!!!

My best roach of the day

The major award

At dinner time we called it time and though the conditions had been great for roach and silvers we were a little disappointed with our haul, I ended up with just over 10lb of silvers...not bad for march but should have been more! Did not take a bloody picture though!

Jeffs advice pays off!

After putting on yesterdays blog that my girlfriend would kill me of I fished tonight, I decided to take Jeffs' advice and dance with death...it proved to be good advice. I have a hospital appointment this afternoon in which they have decided to extract 3 off my wisdom teeth in about 7 weeks...great news! But it did enable me to be home for just before 4pm. With the though that my local pools will close today I only had one thing in mind...apart from the fact that my boxer had left me a present in the conservatory!

I headed to the pools with carp on my mind and had packed a very light set up to hopefully do the job. Two Avon rods with 1.5lb tips, 12lb line on a pair of baitrunner 5000s, a couple of Preston method feeders, a mould, a pack of size 8 hooks to nylon with hairs at 4 inches, some ready made method 3000 by Sensas, baiting needles, a meat punch, unhooking mat and landing net....I think that was it! oh and my chair!

I quickly got mt rigs into the water in a peg that is called suicide corner as for most of the season the carp are very difficult to get out of here due to the over grown reeds and vegetation etc, but at the moment it is ok and with the water temperature not that high I thought it was worth a crack.

It did not take long before my left hand reel started to pay line and I was into what felt like a good fish.. after a very spirited fight I slipped the net under a very long and think mirror carp, which I was very pleased registered 14lb 10oz...more points on the percentage chart! She was a nightmare to photograph but I think they came out ok?

I have made this all sound very easy, when in actual fact as I lifted the fish out it managed to snap my landing net head at the spreader so I was a little bit up the creak now!

I was quickly back in position wondering what to do if I hooked another carp...soon I found out, when my tip bent round again and I was into another solid fish. This one though was somewhat sluggish compared with the last and came up quite quickly. At this point I got nervous as a man had appeared behind me to watch me land the fish....but I only had a broken net head....trying to act relaxed I asked if he would mind assisting me as I had just had an accident...I knew he was a member of the club so pushed my luck a bit...he willingly accepted and in a flash he was lying face down on the platform with his arm outstretched into the lake with my broke net head in his hand....I had a Gilly!!! I guided the fish in his watching grasp, and was very pleased to see a beautiful fully scaled common carp. these fish are not like the name suggests in our club waters as the predominant carp are mirrors. On the scales she went 11lb 3oz. A real healthy looking female in prime condition, a bit a of a shame I could not get a good picture with her. I thought about asking my Gilly but he had walked off.....sacked!

After I had taken two fish on my left hand rod it was the turn of my right. But this was a different type of bight with a couple of bangs on the tip then a steady run, the culprit was a male bream of about 4lb ish with his breeding bumps and lumps all over him.

Though my girlfriend did arrive with a replacement landing net head it was not needed as after these fish no more eat at my table. Very pleased with three fish in just over 32 hours fishing, but sad to see the pools close....it will soon be the 16th!!

Tight lines

Strange session on the river and pools

Today I had decided to focus my efforts on the river avon, in an very close to some pools that I fish. I had a fair amount of liquidised bread that i had left over from an earlier river season at Lucys Mill, so not to waste it I opted of a simple running cage feeder and bread flake.

After about 30 mins I had a good tap on the tip then my rod slammed round and I was in to a chub that went berserk trying to and succeeding in running me into the reed bed that was on the near side bank. From the picture that I have included you can see how tight and weedy the small swim is.

As a result I had to let the line go very slack and hope for the very best....which was the fish swimming into mid river all of its own accord! result...

After a short battle a pristine chub was banked. At 3lb 9oz it improved my percentage by a couple of ounces...

After this I knew that the swim would take a while to settle so I decided to go up to the pools and try my luck. After changing the hooklink to a light 3lb bottom and a size 18 I was getting regular bangs on the tip, which evidently where small skimmer bream, of which I netted 5 in a short period of time. As quickly as they came they went...odd I thought, until the tip slammed round and I was into either a carp or tench. Unfortunately I gave this fish to much respect with the light link and it managed to find a snag only metres from my feet...bugger! The fish was lost...c'est la vie!

At this stage it started to rain and the wind got up right into my face..not very pleasant and comfortable, so I moved up onto the middle of the three pools. I set up a float rod to aim for some silvers, which immediately started to show with regular bites from roach and rudd of around 6 - 8 oz. This was until I hit into something that did not want to come in...the culprit was a male tench of 3lb 7oz ... Shortly followed by a fish that could have been his twin brother!

Peas in a pod!

Whilst fishing for the silvers and tench I had thrown some bread in on my left hand side...which was being sucked up at regular intervals by feeding carp....interesting for March! I could not sit and watch this without having a bash. So I changed my feeder rig to a size 8 straight through free line style. It did not take long before I watched a dorsal find breakthrough the surface seconds before my line went tight and I was in to a carp.

5lb 3oz off the top in March !

Though I do hope I catch a larger one for the challenge. It made my day include the following ...chub, perch, roach, rudd, bream, tench and carp. Nice for my last session before the end of the season on the river and the pools.....Unless I can get there for a couple of hours tomorrow, but she might kill me!!