River Angler

Preston Innovations N-10 Hook Review

2018-12-07T11:02:00.000+00:00

After recently purchasing and using these hooks on a couple of occasions I felt compelled to write a review on them and share my honest opinions with you.
First off I would like to say I'm not one for changing things just because something new comes along, much preferring to stick with what I know and feel works for me. I only normally look at other hooks if I start having problems obtaining my regular patterns or feel the hooks I use no longer meet my requirements and the former reason was why I had to look for an alternative pattern.

Anyway being caught out at the tackle shop and with little insight into other options available I spent a few minutes looking at possible alternatives and came across the Preston Natural range and having previous experience with their PR311, 322 and 333 hooks thought I would look at the range a little closer. I wanted a nice light round bend hook for pole work on both the river and the canal mainly for Roach, Dace and skimmers and the N-10 looked to be about right for the job. I decided to give them a try and bought them in sizes 22 to 16, at this point I wasn't sure where my next outing would take me so I tied a few of each size in readiness for my next trip.

As it turned out my next outing was to the river Nene at Oundle where I fished the pole and set up 2 rigs with size 18 and 16 N-10 hooks. During the session I fished with Double Pinkie, single/ double maggot and Tares on the hook. The hooks are very sharp and give a good hook hold, I didn't really suffer with and bumped fish and I didn't have any come off when swung to hand. I caught plenty of Roach and Dace between 1 and 6oz in a 10lb catch and went home with a favourable impression of the N-10.

A couple of days later I had a short session on the river Welland at Stamford, this time I used the N-10 for Bread punch and fished 4 and 5mm Punch on size 18s and 16s again.
The hook was just as good fishing punch as it was with the maggots and Tares.
Anyway leas than 2 hrs fishing and another 6lb of Roach in the net I am more than pleased with this hook pattern and look forward to trying out the smaller sizes.

In summary, if you are looking for a fine wire hook with a round bend, medium gape and Black nickel coating that will fish a variety of small baits for Roach, Dace, Skimmers and the like on Pole or Running line then these could well suite your needs.

Hemp and Tare Fishing On Rivers

2018-07-19T21:40:00.002+01:00

Once the initial early season Bream and Skimmer catches tail off with the increased temperatures, light levels and water clarity things start to get tough on our rivers.
Yes you can still catch a few fish early and late with maggot, casters and worms but you are often plagued with Bleak which unless you are targeting them in a match can be somewhat unwelcome. When faced with these conditions at this time of year it is time to turn our attention to Hemp and Tares. These baits are most commonly associated with Roach but on some days will attract other species such as Chub, Dace, and Skimmers.

Cooked Hempseed and Tares

So lets have a look at these baits in a little more detail, Hempseed is a small seed that when cooked can be used for both feed and hook bait. It needs to be soaked and cooked to rehydrate it, turn it its familiar dark colour and make it sink.
Tares are a member of the pea family, Brown in colour and larger in size than Hempseed, they are primarily used as hook bait but can be fed sparingly with the hemp.
These are again soaked before cooking until they are soft enough to easily hook.
Both of these baits should be readily available from various places including Tackle shops, animal feed suppliers and online. You can purchase them in various forms with the most cost effective being uncooked seeds that you prepare yourself, you can also buy ready cooked and bagged fresh seeds from most tackle shop and also commercially prepared seeds in tins or vac-pac bags.

Home Bait Preparation Basics:

Uncooked Tares

The method for preparing both of these baits is broadly similar in so far as both benefit from being soaked in water for anywhere between 12 - 24 hours prior to cooking.

Uncooked Hemp seed

The hemp seed is then boiled in water for approximately 30 minutes until it starts to split revealing the White shoot. The Tare can be cooked in the same way but with this you are looking to alter the texture to make it soft enough to readily hook. At he cooking stage you can add a small amount of bicarbonate of soda to the water, this has the effect of making the Hemp shinny and darkening off the colour of the Tares although this is not necessary and down to personal choice. I am sure many of you will already be aware that the cooking of Hemp does give off a very strong aroma that if you are like me will find absolute wonderful. However please be aware this view is not normally shared by Wives, Girlfriends and partners, therefore ensure you conclude all of you cooking well before your loved one comes home and open plenty of windows. Alternatively you can cook it outside on a camping stove or similar, another good way to prepare it is in a vacuum flask overnight.
When using a flask ensure you do not overfill it as the Hemp will expand so leave room, fill to about 2/3 max and poor in boiling water. This is a great method providing you don't want to cook too much at one time. I need to add that you can also cook your tare in the same manner. When your seeds are cooked you can drain them off and bag them up and either put in the fridge if using in the next few days or you can freeze it indefinitely.
You may wish to save the cooking water and use this in your ground bait mixes as it would be a shame to tip all of that flavour and attraction down the sink.

Well that's an overview of the bait so now lets take a look at the methods, feeding patterns and Rigs we can use to fish Hemp and Tares. I'm now going to talk through methods we can employ to effectively present the bait to the fish in your peg.

Methods:
The first and main method has to be the pole, fished at distances of between 7 and 13m with slim bodied floats and strung out shotting patterns. The rigs would normally be shotted with small shot, stots or styls whichever you prefer in sizes 8 to 10 on rivers. It is far better to use multiples of small shot rather than fewer larger ones to give you more flexibility in your rigs and ultimately you can present your bait in different ways.
There are however times and situations when an Olivette and 3 or 4 droppers will work better for example when the water is deeper and the Roach are in the lower 3rd of the water. Just the other day I caught for the whole 5 hours of my session in 10ft of water on such a rig.

As for Elastics and Floats, in most situations I would use solid elastics in the range of 3 to 5 through the top 2 sections although there may be exceptions to this. Floats could be anywhere between 4x12 and 1.5gr depending on the depth of the swim or depth at which you are fishing.

The second method that can be used in favourable conditions is with a whip or fishing to hand. When using a whip for this I would normally ditch the flick tip and use an elasticated top, this would involve a shorted length of stronger elastic in the range of 6 to 8.
This would allow me to swing more fish to hand and therefore speed up the catching process. The exception to this would be if the majority of the fish were in the 1 to 2oz range when a flick tip may be a better option

Catching on the Waggler

Finally you could fish a running line float set up which can be useful if the fish are beyond pole range or have dropped further downstream due to water clarity and/ or disturbance and you can often find bigger fish hanging back from the main feed area.
I would look to use a soft 13ft to 15ft float rod with something like a 2.5 main line and floats of either insert waggler or stick floats depending on condition and flow and light strung shotting patterns to allow for a natural fall of the bait through the water.

Regular Feeding keeps them lined up

Feeding:
I will cover feeding firstly from an initial feeding perspective and then move onto feeding throughout the session.
The initial feeding can be done in a number of different ways to suit different situations and there is no hard and fast rules on this but I will go on to explain some of my thinking behind different ways to start the swim off.
The first way I would start the swim especially if I was unsure as to how the Roach would respond to Hemp because they sometimes need a period of time before they will take it with confidence would be with ground bait. This would take the form of 2 - 4 small balls of a Roach type mix containing Plenty of Hemp a few Tares and a few casters to start some activity. I would initially start off on Maggot or Caster and loose feed Hemp over the top periodically trying Hemp or a Tare on the hook and definitely try it as soon as any Roach over a couple of ounces showed up.

The second way is to start the swim with a pot full of Hemp with the same few Tares and Casters in it for when I expect the response to come fairly quickly. I would again start off in a similar way to the Ground bait approach and take it from there.

Thirdly if I knew that the fish in the stretch were well switched onto Hemp I would just start with a couple of Pouches of hemp and then start dripping it in each run through.

After the initial feed I would look to feed little and often with maybe 20 - 25 grains of Hemp every put in, when you start catching you can gauge the response and adjust your feeding pattern accordingly. Do be aware though that the fish will more often than not come up in the water to intercept the loose offering which is not always ideal and can make hitting bites a little more difficult, this can be resolved by a change to your feeding pattern. You could always choose to catch them up in the water by trying a different rig or tactics to catch them but I will detail this more a little later.

All of these approaches have worked for me on the River Nene over the last couple of weeks but this is something you will need to work out for yourself on your own chosen venue. I would say if in any doubt start with a couple of balls as above because some activity in your swim will more often than not draw other fish into the area and there is always the chance of an early bonus fish. The other week I cupped in 2 balls of Ground bait and went over it at full depth with double Caster and after 3 small fish hooked and landed a 3lb bonus Bream before even starting on the Hemp Roach.

Talking About Rigs:
Starting with pole rigs, these are normally based around slim body floats but on occasion more of a rounded body with a bulk and droppers can do the damage. If the depth and flow allow I normally use a slimmer float pattern as you can group shot to form a small bulk and droppers to start the session and then open out the shotting pattern as required. Floats in sizes from 4x12 to 1.5gr all find a place in my setup for this type of fishing.

Some Slim Pole Float Patterns I Use.

These are mostly made up on 0.12 main line because I do like my rigs a little more robust as you can find yourself swinging a lot of fish to hand. It is also slightly less prone to tangles than a finer line. I now shot most of my rigs up to .75gr with multiple stots in sizes 8 - 10 but anything heavier I incorporate an Olivette. I do however leave enough capacity for some extra droppers under the Olivette that can be used to alter presentation permutations if needed.
Hook wise you are better with round bend wide gape patterns in a fine to medium fine wire. I am sure if you asked 20 anglers the preferred hook for seed fishing you would get 20 different answers on the best pattern.
Myself I have started using Preston PR322 hooks in sizes 18 to 14 for my seed fishing and so far I am happy with them, I have used various other patterns over the years but these really suites me here and now. They are a little heavier in the wire and longer in the shank than say your Kamasan B511 but this slight loss in delicacy is made up for with the strength which is better for the way I like to hook the Hemp. I tend force the hook through the Shell without using a needle or such like to make the hole and find I can do this with the PR322 without damaging or bending the hook.
Finally for hook length I mainly use Drennan Supplex in 0.8, 0.9 & 0.10 diameter which although may seem a little heavy works well and I have every confidence in my rigs. Obviously I will reduce the line diameter if needed but generally find little need to do so these days.

Rigs for the whip are broadly similar to the long pole rigs but generally a little heavier in capacity to allow for an easy swing out, these are normally only deployed when the fish are really on it, in range and conditions allowing.

A selection of sensitive wagglers

Finally we can have a quick look at running line rigs, these come into play when the fish are further out or down the peg than comfortable pole range will allow or just because you prefer to fish a float. Wagglers would normally be of an insert type waggler or a slim antenna pattern to allow for registering bites as the bait falls through the water. Main line is normally 2.5lb Maxima, still one of he most reliable reel lines available, strung out shotting with 8s and 10s and hooks in the range 18 - 14.
Stick floats are normally lighter versions again with a strung out patterns and the same size hooks as the other methods. I'm a firm believer in having rigs shotted with plenty of small shot as this allows you the maximum different presentation options and reduces the number of rigs you need set up, keep it flexible and simple and you shouldn't go far wrong.

This grain wasn't even split open when I hooked it

Hooking Hemp:
This has to be the single most difficult aspects of fishing Hemp and one that is responsible for putting most anglers off, I know plenty of people who fish Hemp and Tares but rarely put hemp on the hook.
There are numerous ways to hook it and many schools of though on the matter but I will describe in more detail how I go about it.
The way I prefer to do it is to actually put the hook through the seed so that it will stay on after missing bites, move around less on the hook and possibly catch more than one fish on each grain of Hemp.
After selecting a Grain I hold it so that the indentation where it was attached to the plant is at the top and the split side away from my fingers. Then I pierce through the top of the shell and bring the point of the hook out of the split (even if it hasn't opened during cooking). Before using my current hook choice I used to prick a small hole I the top as it is quite tough, I used a little needle type tool I made for the job. But now using the PR322s I can do this with the hook itself without damaging it which is possible with some finer patterns, this method also means that the seed fits tightly around the hook shank and pretty much stays were I put it rather than slipping around on the bend and detracting from the amount of Hook gape left available for a positive hook hold.

Tares offer very few problems with hooking due to the softer texture of the bait so I don't think there is much I can add to this other than I will often undercook them slightly. This makes the bait a little more durable and stays on the hook better with repeated casting and striking.

Some Common Problems Encountered during a Session:
I suppose missed bites has got to be right up there and some days it can be infuriating to say the least. The best way to overcome this as with any problem is to try and understand the cause. This is not always easy but worth giving some thought to in the search for a better understanding of what is going on. A few possible things that can be causing this are that your rig might need fine tuning for example it is often advantageous to have a little more bristle showing rather than striking at every dink on the float thus only striking at proper bites. When fishing Tares on the hook you can attract the attention of Dace which are well known for lightning speed bites and are notoriously difficult to hit, a change to Hemp on the hook will reduce the number of bites from these fish.
Sometimes false bites occur when the fish take the shot on your line, to test for this is really simple, just run the rig through a couple of times with no bait on and if you are still getting bite. This can be helped by grouping shot, moving them further up the line or even shallowing up so that fewer of the shot are amongst the feeding fish.
Quite often the fish will come up in the water which can cause problems but this can be helped by either trying to get them back down lower in the water or using a lighter rig fished shallower. The other day on the river I had them boiling the surface every time my feed landed and it was akin to feeding time at a Trout farm. Often Increasing the feed amount and double pouching can take them back down but on this occasion I stopped feeding for a few minutes and only started again when the fish dropped down and bites became hitable again.
Changing your hook size can often lead to a better hit ratio and often going down a size will see an improvement and it is always worth checking that your hook point has not dulled.
Finally you need to ensure your elastic is of the correct grade and set to the right tension to ensure good hook setting. Also that it is not allowing your line to go slack when shipping back. I see so many people fishing with too strong an elastic or one that is set overly tight which really doesn't allow it to perform as it should, when you hook a fish you want some elastic coming out of the pole tip and preferably more than a couple of inches, again this could form another topic in its own right so I will leave it at that and look to expand in a future article.

When you get it right you will have a bumper days sport

Although I have tried to be fairly comprehensive in this article I am sure I have overlooked and omitted things, to be quite honest very soon after starting to write this I got the feeling that I was going to struggle to fit everything into an article. It probably needs a book all to itself, well maybe that can be one for another day.

I will end by saying thanks for taking the time to read this article, I hope that you have enjoyed it as much as I did putting it together and found it informative with points you can take away and use on your next fishing trip.

Good Luck and Tight Lines

Mark

Opening Session of the River Season 2018

2018-06-28T18:50:00.002+01:00

After what seemed to be a very long three months away from the river, June the 16th finally arrived. Having Joined the newly formed Nene Anglers Club a coming together of 2 existing clubs namely (Black Horse and Warmington AC) I planed to start my Season on the River Nene between Elton and Nassington. The weekend before I had joined a working party clearing some swims along the stretch and was almost busting a gut to get at it.

The morning of the16th and I was out of my bed at 2.45am arriving on the bank at 4am just as dawn was breaking. I planned to fish the river upstream of the car park at the far end of the old railway line and was surprised that there was only one angler on the bank when I arrived. I stopped and had a quick chat with him to find out what he had caught before heading off slightly further upstream, it transpired he had only had the 1 Bream. Anyway I decided on a lovely looking swim on a slightly wider section 5 pegs upstream and set about cutting out a few reeds and lily pads.

The plan was to fish a groundbait feeder for Skimmers and Bream so I set up a medium feeder rod of 12ft coupled to a 4000 size reel loaded with 6lb mono. The rig was a simple semi fixed paternoster using a homemade feeder link running up to a no6 stot that was paced against the knot of my 4" twizzled loop with a small float stop above to allow me to turn it into a bolt rig if required. To the twizzled loop I attached a 60cm hook length of 0.15, 4lb Drennan X Tough hook length line with a size 14 Drennan Wide Gape match hook.

I had a few exploratory casts as I was aware there was some streamer weed in front of me and soon found it was a lot worse than I had expected. Never the less I did find a relatively clear area 3/4 across and slightly to the right of centre.

I started with 4 large feeders full to start the swim and then planned to cast at short intervals for the first 30 minutes or so to lay down some bait.
The groundbait mix was 1/3 Brown Crumb, 1/3 Pro Natural Bream and 1/3 Pro Natural Dark, to this I added dead red maggots, Casters, Micro Pellets and Chopped worm.

I switched to a medium plastic open ended feeder of 20gr and baited with 3 dead Reds before making my first proper cast of the new season at exactly 5am. I sank the line and set the tip with a slight curve and sat back to contemplate my 5 minute casting regime figuring I would start leaving it longer should no bite be forthcoming in the opening period.
My contemplation was very short lived as on 2m 30 sec the tip moved an inch and then dropped back....I picked up the rod and was surprised to feel the reassuring nod of what could only be a Bream. Within the next minute or so I had My first fish of the new season safely in the net.

I quickly re baited with 3 maggots and cast out, perfect I was right on the money and after all of 2 minutes I was in again and Bream no2 was mine. I though I need to get the camera out and get some footage of the session but 2 more casts resulted in 2 decent skimmers both over 1lb.
At this point I decided to get the gear out and start doing some filming as I do like to share my adventures by various means. On re casting I was into a bream in no time at all and as I got it to the middle of the river I could feel I was dragging it through the weed and You guessed it goodbye bream! The next cast resulted in another lost fish but this one came off shortly after it was hooked and I did have to wonder if it was spook the shoal?

Anyway the next 3 cast passed without a sign and so I changed to a grain of corn on the hook and promptly had another bite and claimed another fish but this time it was a very angry Hybrid of about 1 1/2lb. I carried on in this manner changing bait between Maggot, Corn and Worm and various combinations of these catching a couple of fish and losing a couple of fish until I packed up at 9am.
I finished up with a nice net of fish for 30lb plus but would have had double that had I not lost so many fish to the weed mid river. Yeh yeh I know the one that got away!

Anyway a great start to the new season all be it a short 4 hour session and Im looking forward to getting out again soon.

Please have a look at the video of the session below and feel free to like, Share and Subscribe

cheers Mark

Ground bait Review - Bait-Tech Pro Natural Range

2018-02-23T15:42:00.002+00:00

Well I have to admit to being pretty much unaware of Bait Tech before the start of this current river season and having pretty much exclusively used Dynamite baits ground bait for a good few years. Yes I had seen the name about but assumed it was just another supplier of Carp baits. Anyway having seen a couple of videos on YouTube while searching out info on The Great Ouse and Middle level main drain a certain Steve Cowley, AKA Steve's Fishing Channel kept referring to Pro natural ground bait.

This led me to look into Bait Tech and their product range, I read various articles and watched all of their YouTube output until I was fairly familiar with what I thought I could incorporate into my own fishing.

As I generally fish natural venues I was fairly confident that this range would meet my needs and i invested in a couple of bags of Pro Natural and Pro Natural Dark which I mainly used on the river Nene at Oundle. The early results where inconclusive as I was only really introducing a few balls to start the swim off and then pretty much loose feeding over the top for the remainder of the sessions but it seemed on par with other similar products.

I then purchased a bag of the Pro Natural Bream as I was planning a trip to the Middle level which is full of Skimmers and Bream. I used a mix of Pro Natural Dark and Pro Natural Bream to great effect introducing 5 medium sized balls containing Casters and Squatts at the start and topping up with a ball every few fish throughout the session. Things started pretty steadily but the session got better and better as it went on. In the end I had 35lb of skimmers up to 2lb and could have probably carried on for a good while longer.

A very positive session and my impression of Bait Tech was very favourable.

I have carried on using this range pretty much exclusively all season also incorporating Pro Natural Extra which is a stickier mix with good binding properties for when I am faced with deeper venues or stronger flows.

This range of Grounbaits mixes very easily and I have used it with varying amounts of water to achieve the perfect consistency for all of my needs.

I was pleased to learn of the recent introduction of the new Pro Natural Fine Lake Dark which will be ideal when a reduced feed content is needed in the winter/canals.

I currently sieve Pro Natural Dark for my canal fishing but find I am loosing a fair percentage in waste doing this so look forward to getting hold of some of this new mix real soon.

Apart from being a great product range that will cover all of your natural venue requirements it is also very cost effective to use. Each bag is 1.5kg and only currently cost £3.99 which equates to £2.66 per kg which is remarkable value for money.

I have use this range of Groundbait in many situation On rivers, Drains, Canals and Lakes.

I have balled it, Cupped it and used in various feeders and can only praise the work that has gone into this very versatile range. If you have already used it I'm sure you will agree and if you haven't then give it a try.

Bait-Tech do a full range of other Groundbaits with many Fishmeal/ commercial products that mix perfectly with the Pro Natural Range.

I would like to state that I am in no way connected to or sponsored by Bait-Tech and this review is based on my own personal use of this Product range.

I have included some links below for you to find out more info.

Tight Lines Baggers

http://www.bait-tech.com/portfolio/pro-natural/

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=steves+fishing+channel

River Nene, Stibbington - 5 March 2015

2015-03-08T20:46:00.000+00:00

Well as luck would have it the weather was good for my midweek trip to the Nene at Stibbington although a little windy. On arrival I had a quick look off of the bridge and as I suspected the river looked in great shape with some flow and a nice tinge of colour. The wind was from the WSW and so would be pretty much in my face so I figured that I would sit either just up or downstream of the bridge as this area is the most sheltered. Anyway after a quick look I decide to sit just above the bridge as this was by far the most protected from the wind.

My Office for the day

I planned to keep it very simple today as I just wanted to enjoy myself and didn't see the need for complications, so it was to be the pole. I set up 1.5gm Tubertini river float on a top 4 and found about 8ft of water at 9m, the rig comprised of a bulk with 2 droppers and a size 20 hook. I mixed up Dynamite Roach groundbait with some Brown crumb and added to this some mole hill soil from the bank behind me, the plan was to feed hard balls of ground bait with pinkies and a few big maggots in it. I kicked off the swim with 4 balls cupped in for accuracy and planned to top up with another small ball every 15 minutes and see how it went.

1.5gm Tubertini float

With the groundbait in I organised the rest of my tackle and gave it a few minutes before my first run through with double pinkie on the hook, holding the float back slightly I edged the rig down the peg at about half the speed of the flow. It was on the third run that the float buried and the first Roach of the day was hooked and although only a couple of ounces it was a positive start to the session. Before my next put in I adjusted the number 4 elastic to be a little softer and gave it a good dose of lube which improved matters and allowed the smaller fish to swing comfortably to hand. I was getting a bite most runs through and connecting with most bites so was confident that I would see double figure unless I got Piked out or did something really wrong to balls it up.

Small hard balls to keep the swim fed

The session progressed nicely with most fish between 1 and 3 ounces with a few 4 to 6 ounce fish making me wish I had brought some Hemp with me but alas I only had 1/2 a pint of fluro pinkies and a few big maggots. The feeding plan was working fine at 15 minutes between top up balls but if I left it much longer the bites started to tail off. Anyway I had only just been thinking to myself that I was lucky not to have had any pike trouble when the inevitable happened and a Pike of about 5lb snaffled a Roach as I shipped the pole back but this was short lived as the hook length soon parted.
The Pike had various other attempts but failed to get hold of any more of my fish even resorting to following them out of the water as I swung them out on the top kit.

Although not big this was one of my better fish on the day

On about 4 and a half hours I snapped my hook length when swinging a fish in and decided that I would call it a day as I was more than satisfied with how it had gone, I had had a lot of fish and it had been steady fishing without being too frantic.
When I pulled out my keepnet I decided to have a quick weigh in because it did feel a little heavier than expected, to my surprise I had 18lb so by my reckoning I would have probably done 20lb if I had changed the hook length and given it the full 5 hours. I had a great day and really enjoyed the fishing, here's hoping I can get back there before the end of the season.

Cheers Mark

No complaints from me today

River Welland Stamford 15th Feb

2015-02-17T21:01:00.000+00:00

Well its been a very long time since I last shared my exploits with you so apologies for my absence but in my defence I have been though the mill recently. Hopefully that is all behind me now and I can get on with my life and of course, the fishing.
So with the weather on Sunday not to bad for the time of year I decided to have a short session on the Stamford Meadows section of the river Welland.
On arriving at the river it had a lovely green tinge to it but it was hardly moving at all so I wasn't sure how things wood pan out. Having very rarely fished this section before I decided to head to the downstream end of the stretch and away from most of the people that were about enjoying the pleasant afternoon sunshine.

A lovely Green tinge or what...

The river at this point was about 14m wide and after a few minutes spent plumbing around I had about 5ft of water mid river with slightly more on the inside. I had very little in the way of bait with me but this included a small amount of liquidised bread, some ground bait and a few old pinkies. So it was to be bread down the middle then and with a 0.5g Drennan Roach pattern float and size 20 hook at the business end I set about trying to snare a few of the local inhabitants. It wasn't too long before the float buried out of sight yielding a small Roach of about an once which didn't come as a surprise as there are plenty of small Roach in the river.

Anyway bites and fish were coming steadily throughout the first hour and I thought I would try double Pinkie just in case the Roach would prefer a live offering. Well I can tell you here and now that next put in the float went under but I had missed the bite or did I.......WTF!
It was however no missed bite but in fact a Minnow that had somehow managed to get one of the Pinkies and the hook into its tiny mouth.

A WTF or sometimes called a Minnow

I gave it a couple more runs with Pinkie and only managed 2 micro Dace to show for my efforts and so went back onto the punch and in an effort to avoid these really small fish. This was all that was needed to see the Roach return and the stamp of fish started to improve, I had a good last hour or so and included a few fish close to the pound mark.
Anyway things came to a natural conclusion as I ran out of Liquidised bread and with no feed going in the bites dried up.

All in all it was a pleasant short session with a few pounds in the net and some cracking Roach from this often overlooked venue.
Cheers Mark

I'm back

2013-10-04T07:55:00.001+01:00

Well it has been quite some time since I last posted anything on here mainly due to the fact I haven't been out too much since the end of last season. The fishing locally hasn't been too good and I haven't really been enjoying it if I am honest but over the last few weeks things have picked up and I have rediscovered my love of angling.
My most recent trip was to Ferry Meadows lakes in Peterborough which as most of you know is home to some huge shoals of Bream. Having not fished there for a number of years it was almost like going to a new venue, anyway I decided to fish peg 32 on the high bank on Gunwade lake as there had been reasonable catches of Hybrids from this area recently.
Fishing the waggler at about 16m over groundbait I was soon into a few fish and although I was not setting the world alight it was steady sport non the less.
After a couple of hours I probably had 5lb in the net and decided to do something different to improve my catch rate, I started loose feeding with maggots and casters and altered my shotting pattern to give the bait a slower fall through the water. It wasn't long before the float started holding up as the hybrids were coming up in the water to intercept the loose feed and I soon started slaughtering them. The average size was about 4oz with the odd better one up to 12oz and if you start to catch a few of these the weight soon builds up. Anyway my rhythm was soon broken by a Mallard grabbing my baited hook as I cast in and me having to set up again but this time I set up a lighter rig and set it up shallower. It was only a few minutes before i was back in the swing of things and after another hour or so I decided to call it a day.

19lb of float caught Hybrids and Roach

The end result was 19lb of float caught Hybrids with a few Roach putting in an appearance and all in all not a bad day, interestingly there where 3 anglers fishing the feeder and all struggled for a few fish and none caught a proper Bream. It just goes to show there is more to the lakes than just the Bream that most people go there for, why not do something different for a change and you never know you may just like it.
Cheers Mark

Grand Union Canal - Sunday 16th Dec

2012-12-20T10:38:00.000+00:00

Well with all the recent rain and my local rivers being flooded it was a simple choice for me and the Grand Union Canal it was to be. It was a full three weeks since I had last wet a line and I was looking forward to this as I really do love canal fishing.
I set off at 7.30am and arrived at the canal about an hour later only to find that parts of it were still frozen over so obviously the water was going to be cold, it would be interesting to see what effect this had on the fish. I was travelling light today as it was a good 20 minutes walk from the car to the area I planned to fish and by the time I arrived at my peg a was pretty hot to say the least.

11.5m to the bush and 2' 6" of water ideal

I was going to keep it simple with just 2 lines at 9 and 11 metres straight in front of me and take it from there, starting with a small ball of bread at 9m into 4 feet of water I left this for a few minutes before having a look with a piece of punch on the hook. It was only a few minutes before the float moved very slightly but I missed the bite, I had a few more small indications before I hooked my first Roach of the day.
I carried on with the punch for an hour or so getting the odd fish but the bites were very tentative with the float hardly moving before deciding to cup in some dark groundbait and putting a pinkie on the hook. This resulted in a more positive bite but after a couple more fish I bumped something a bit bigger (probably a Perch). I then had the first boat of the day come through and although it did slow down when passing me it went right over my baited area the area and the bites just dried up.
I then decided to to have a look at 11 metres as I had been flicking a few pinkies over the line since I had started again it was a similar story to the 9m line with the odd couple of fish then nothing for a while. The canal seemed to switch off completely at 1 o'clock and after another hour trying both lines and a third line I decided to call it a day. I finished up with a couple of pounds of Roach between 1 and 3oz which although not great was ok considering how cold it had been.

Nice stamp of Roach from the canal

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Sunday 11th November -River Nene Oundle

2012-11-15T19:24:00.000+00:00

Its been a while since I have written anything for you and although I have been fishing most weekends I have struggled to find the time to tell you about it, so its time to get back to it.
Sunday saw myself and my fishing friend Graham heading for the river Nene at Oundle, we had had some rain in the week and as expected the river was nicely coloured but the overnight temperature had been pretty low.

Nice colour and flow on the Nene at Oundle

We picked the stretch between Ashton footbridge and Ashton weir with me about 3 pegs below the weir, the river wasn't very wide at this point but had a reasonable depth of around 10ft.
I decided to start on the feeder and see how it went from there, I rigged up a simple running rig with a 40gr open ended feeder and a size 16 hook. I then made a few casts to the middle of the river to get some bait in the swim before slipping 3 Red maggots onto the hook. The bait hadn't been in the water very long when I started getting the first indications on the tip, these were typical roach bites and difficult to hit but it wasn't long before I had my first fish. The first fish was a pristine Roach of about 6oz and the very next cast produced one of 4oz and this was the pattern for the rest of the morning with plenty of missed bites and the odd 1 or 2 fish coming to the net. Graham was 2 pegs upstream of me but was struggling with only 4 fish to show for his efforts and was planning to have a go on the float but I had a feeling he wouldn't do a lot better with that. Anyway I went back to my swim and it wasn't long before I was into something more substantial and after a spirited fight I slid the net under a 4lb Chub.

A nice 4lb Chub from the River Nene at Oundle

The afternoon was quite a bit slower than the morning had been but I was still getting the odd Roach or 2 to keep me interested. Graham had however moved swims and was now 3 below me and plugging away on the stick float and all he had to show for it was a couple of Roach and an odd missed bite.

A quality Roach on the Feeder

I ended the session with about 9lb which wasn't too bad but I think if it had been a little milder over the previous couple of night we may have seen the Bream on the feed and things could have been very different. Lets hope the river can hold some colour for next weekend as I would like another go on my favourite river.

A couple of early morning session on the Welland

2012-08-22T09:37:00.003+01:00

Monday 20th:

Well it has been a struggle to find the time to fish so far this season but I have been out a couple of times just lately to the river Welland. On Monday I decided I would have an early start and get a few hours on the Deeping section near where the cut comes into the river, I arrived just as it was getting light and the river was alive with small fish topping everywhere.

I set up my medium feeder rod with a paternoster rig and a small open ended feeder and after having a few casts I found that the bottom was quite clear about 2/3 of the way across the river so I clipped up at this range. I baited up with 3 dead maggots on a size 16 hook and and loaded the feeder before making my first cast towards a marker on the far bank.
The rig had only just hit bottom before the tip started to move and I struck into what turned out to be a hand sized skimmer and the following hour followed a similar pattern with lots of missed bites and odd similar sized fish before it went quite.
I wondered if it was because some Bream had moved in but this wasn't the case and I soon found out as I struck into a bite and the fish ran off at speed, hmm Tench!

A pair of River Welland Tench

After a few minutes I had a Beautiful Tench of about 3lb in the net and with no time to waste I re baited and cast out again to see if there were any more about. I waited about 15 minutes before the tip hooped around again and I was into another one of a similar size.
For the next hour I only managed a few more small skimmers before the sun came out and I decided to pack up and go home foe some breakfast.

Tuesday 21st:

The following morning I arrived at a similar time and sat in the peg below the one I fished yesterday and assemble the feeder rod as the previous day. A few quick casts and I found that the swim was a little weedier than yesterdays one but found a fishable area just past the middle.
Today started off a lot slower than the previous and it was a good half an hour before my first bite and nearly an hour before my first fish. After an hour and a half and only 3 small skimmers so I set up a waggler with a view to fishing about 12m out into about 4ft of water and I caught a few skimmers on the drop, in this time I had noticed a couple of Tench roll at about 10 m.
I decided to drop the feeder short and see if I could tempt one, I changed to a size 14 hook and loaded it with a couple of worms before flicking it out under arm and sitting back.
It was only a few minutes before the tip moved and then dropped back, I struck and at this time all hell broke loose as the fish screamed off down the river quite some distance before I stopped it and started to regain line. The fish made a couple more bids for freedom before I managed to get the net under it, now at this point I knew it was a decent fish as I struggled with the landing net. I must admit to being a little surprised when I saw how big it was after initially thinking it was about 5lb but it was bigger than this and went a full 6 1/2lb.

Perch 1 1/2lb and Tench 6 1/2lb

Next cast produce a Perch of 1 1/2lb and this was followed by another big tench which came off the hook so I decided to call it a day.
I finished off with 10lb and thoughts of a more targeted approach for the tench of the River Welland.

Not a Good Opening To My Season

2012-06-24T18:00:00.003+01:00

Well I have eventually got my season started and as seems to be normal these days it has been a bit of an anti climax to say the least. Having missed the start of the season due to work commitments I was really looking forward to getting out by the water, I had a look at the Nene but it was pushing through quite hard with all the rain we keep getting so I decided to have a look at the Middle Level Drain. When I arrived it was quite windy blowing down the drain but at least it was dry, I set up a feeder and proceeded to have a a few cast to find my range before clipping up and starting to put some feed in. A few cast later and I baited up and had my first cast of the new season and with the feeder only just hitting the bottom before the tip started showing the first indication which turned out to be a 2oz Perch. A few more casts and a couple of missed bites later and the heavens opened and the wind gusted strongly, it was all I could do to hang onto my umbrella.

This was after 20 minute and it had eased up considerably

After about half an hour it stopped raining and the wind dropped but by now I was ready to go home although I decided I would give it about an hour to let everything dry out a bit and see if I could get a few bites. The following hour saw 3 more Perch and 4 hand sized Hybrids but alas these had done nothing to cheer me up so I called it a day and set off for home to clean my gear and plan my next trip.

A few chunky Hybrids did nothing to make amends

The only good thing about all this rain is that it will hopefully flush the Lower Nene around Peterborough after the major chemical escape in the week. The section from Orton to the Dog in a Doublet has seen thousands of fish killed.

The Sun Sets On Another Season

2012-04-07T08:55:00.001+01:00

Well that it for another river season, I have had a busy last few days although I haven't had much to show for my efforts. I had taken time off work as normal for the last days of the season and planned to fish Sunday to Wednesday to make the most of the time left and the following is a brief account of how it went.

The Sun sets on the River Nene at Wansford for another season

Sunday 11th:
I fished the River Nene at Elton near Peterborough 4 pegs above the road bridge, I had fished this peg a couple of times before and fancied it for a few fish. The river had a nice tinge of colour and it was a lovely warm day and I went about setting up the pole to fish at 13m and also a heavy stick float so that I could search further down the swim in case the fish dropped down the peg. Starting off with a couple of balls of ground bait I wasn't too long before I had my first bite and started catching a steady stream of small Dace, Chub and Roach before getting plagued by Bleak. I Stuck at it for a couple of hours just feeding Hemp in the hope that the Bleak would drift out of the swim but the downside was I hardly got another bite.
I ended up with about 4lb of bits for my trouble and left feeling a little disappointed but there's always tomorrow to make amends.

Plenty of bites but no better fish

Monday 12th:
Today I was going to have a couple of hours on the river at Wansford as I hadn't fished it for a few weeks as it had really been poor of late but I thought I would try my luck anyway.
Well I set up a waggler rod to fish 3/4 across on peg 16 and started over a couple of small balls of groundbait with maggot on the hook and caught a Bleak first chuck which really pissed me off. Anyway for the next 2 hours all I caught was a string of Bleak with an odd small Chub and Dace for variety, all in all not a lot of fun and I was happy to pack up and go home. That evening I got an email with the match results from the Sunday match and it was grim reading and if I had have received it on Sunday night I probably wouldn't have gone.

Tuesday 13th:
I decided to have a look down the wide Welland and was pleased to see it had a decent colour in it for a change and after standing and watching some decent Roach topping at the footbridge decided to give it a go. I sat on the East bank as the wind was better for presenting a float but after 3 hours I hadn't had a single bite, I was right were the fish had been topping and had played it cautiously with the feed but to no avail. This river will drive you mad, there are still 1000s of fish in it but for the best part they wont feed , I had a similar thing at the start of the season when me and my mate saw 70 or 80 Bream roll in the evening but couldn't get a bite!
On the way home I dropped in on the North Bank of the Nene at the Millenium Bridge and saw it was Black with so many Roach it was unreal but a couple of hours with only 12 fish was enough for me as I had been deluded into thinking I was going to empty it.

Wednesday 14th:
It was the last day of the season and I have to admit that I was pleased it was nearly over as I had put in a lot of effort for very little reward. Anyway because of the fact that we didn't know were to go we went to Wansford again. It was a similar story to Monday with mainly Bleak, small Roach, Chub and Dace with a few chunky Gudgeon thrown in for good measure, the weather was nice so it made it seem a little better and I sort of enjoyed being there but it had been a disappointing end to the season.

I hope yours went better than mine
Cheers Mark

Ravely Drain, Round 6 Deeping Individual League

2012-02-28T19:01:00.002+00:00

This Sunday saw the final round of the individual league fished on Ravely drain and it also included the second leg of the Newman Trophy which is an inter club match fished against yaxley.
After my win last week I was happy to be heading the league going into the final round although I still thought that it was going to be a tall order having not seen the venue for many years.
I started my match preparation by popping over to the venue midweek and having a look and a walk along the match length along with reading any recent match reports. One of these was written by Bob Nudd from a recent match where he came second with 549 fish, now this was ok but it left me with as many questions as it did answers so I emailed him to see what else I could learn. Now I wasn't sure I would even get a reply but towards the end of the week he sent me a reply giving me some useful info that left me feeling a little more confident in the plan I had put together.

A view looking towards the sluice

Match day arrived and there was a reasonable turn out with 20+ anglers in attendance with our team drawing the even numbers and from our envelope I drew peg 18 which was the peg to the left of the bridge. Lady luck was smiling on me again as this was one of the hot pegs or at least it normally was. My plan would be based around 2 lines the inside line at 4metres with a 1gr float and a second line at 9metres, I also set up 2 shallow rigs as this was the method that had done the damage in the recent HAJAC match. At the all in I introduces 2 balls of groundbait over both lines and then started on the 4 metre line, 10 minutes and not a sniff and it looked to be the same story for every one else. It was another 10 minutes or so before the float went under giving me my first fish, a Roach of around 1/2oz. I thought my match had just started and re baited and dropped the rig back in expecting a bite but nothing happened and so after a few minutes I had a quick look on the far line to no avail. About now the angler the other side of the bridge caught his first fish but still most sat bite less, after the first hour I had 3 small Roach for my efforts. I was wondering what I could do when I noticed a pike smash through some Rudd to my right 2 metres out from the bank so I picked up a whip with an Image waggler set to 2ft and flicked it to my right. Within no time the float started moving and I was into my first micro fish of about an 1/8 of an ounce so plan B would be to catch these tiny Roach and Rudd until things picked up so I set about catching a few fish while watching what every one else was doing.

Great floats for whip fishing

As the match went on most people started to catch a few odd fish tight across but all of us to the left of the bridge just couldn't buy a bite like this so I reverted back to the whip along the margin but even this was patchy with the fish moving in and out of the peg. I was relieved to hear the final whistle as this had not been my kind of fishing at all but needs must and all of that, at this point I knew I had done ok on what had been an awful match but had it been enough to win me the league.
I had weighed in 128 fish for 1lb 7 1/2oz which gave me 4th place overall but more importantly 3rd place in the individual league round giving me enough points to win the league by 3 points.

A lot of fish for 1lb - 7 1/2oz

Well what a return to match fishing after a ten year absence, I had thought long and hard about what club to join and Deeping St James AC was a great choice and provided me with some stiff competition from a number of good anglers. I think I will take next week out for some pleasure fishing and give some thought to what new challenges I set for myself. I may even have a go on a few commercials in the closed season to keep my hand in.

My League results: Final League Standing:

Round 1: 2nd - 9 points 1st Mark Horsley 40 pts
Round 2: blank - 0 points 2nd Andy Wison 37 pts
Round 3: 7th - 4 points Stu Redman 37 pts
Round 4: 2nd - 9 points
Round 5: 1st - 10 points
Round 6: 3rd - 8 points

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Individual League round 5

2012-02-22T22:33:00.003+00:00

Well this weekend saw a long awaited return to action after the last 2 weeks had been wiped out by the weather and the matches cancelled. This week was the re arranged Several Fisheries Trophy match, it also incorporated round 5 of the individual league and was to be fished on the clubs section of the river Welland through Deeping St James. There were 14 anglers at the draw and the venue had been pegged to try and put everyone on fish as the river was low, Gin clear and lacking any real flow with certain areas completely devoid of any fish. I had however visited the river on the Friday afternoon to have a couple of hours and I had managed 2 1/2lb of fish from a swim 2' 6" deep and as clear as tap water so I was reasonably hopeful.

High Locks at Deeping St James

I was second into the bag and was quite relieved to pull out peg 14 which was one of the 3 best pegs in the match and directly below lock at the top end of the stretch with a good depth of water.
I arrived at the peg and set about tackling up deciding to set up 3 top kits for the pole and a 4 metre whip, the pole was to be fished at 8 metres into 6ft of water with a 0.5g rig set to fish 4 inches off the bottom to avoid the weed and a 4x12 float set at 3ft to fish up in the water. The 3rd rig was set up for a chopped worm swim by a tree to my right and the whip was also set to fish just off the bottom. With the water as clear as it was I planned to start off on punch and take it from there and at the whistle I introduced a ball of bread with some hemp and gravel in it and as soon as the float settled I had my first bite. My match was under way as I unhooked a 2oz Roach and for the next half an hour it was a fish every put in before I topped up with some more bread. The fish were coming fairly regularly but I was concerned that the other 2 anglers near me were also catching but fishing whips and I thought that they may be able to catch quicker than I was so I kept a close eye on their catch rates.
On the whole I was keeping up with them which wasn't bad going as I was having to ship and break down the pole and so I decided to stick with it. After 2 hours I had a go for 5 minutes under the tree on worm to see if I could boost my catch with a bonus Perch but nothing showed and so I decided it best to just get my head down and stick with the small Roach on the pole.
In the 3rd hour of the match I kind of lost my rhythm and was loosing ground on the other anglers around me but I finished the last hour strongly and although I wasn't sure if I had done enough to clinch it I though I had probably framed.

At the weigh in it turned out that most anglers hadn't even had a bite and so it was the 3 of us up by the lock and 1 angler downstream who had caught some better Perch in the running. Anyway the three of us at the locks had all finished within a few ounces of each other with me taking the win with 6lb 1oz of small roach and second place coming of the next peg with 5lb 14oz.
I have been very lucky at the draw bag today with some decent anglers falling by the wayside but I guess its all part of match angling but no complaints from me as the 10 point for the win has put me at the top of the league going into the final round next week.

Next Sundays match is on Ravely Drain which has been fishing very well for small fish of late so I am expecting it to be a fish race but we will see soon enough!

Stretton Lakes, Round 4 Deeping Individual League

2012-02-02T13:35:00.005+00:00

Due to the fact that most of our local river venues are very poor at the moment the decision was made to switch round 4 of the individual league to a commercial fishery. I for one was not looking forward to this at all as I don't really fish this type of venue very often and had never even seen the chosen venue before. Anyway Stretton Lakes it was then and after a quick look on the internet and asking a few local anglers I was still none the wiser and so I resigned myself to going in blind.

In the week before the match I made myself up a few rigs to cover both Carp and Silver fish, I also sorted out a couple of power kits with suitable elastic in the shape of a No9 hollow and a No12 solid for Carp and for the silver fish I would use a match kit and a No 6 elastic. Bait wise I planned to use Maggot, Casters, Pellets and a little groundbait with a few Pinkies in it but as for a plan I thought I would make it up when I arrived at my peg.

Match day arrived and after the 35 minute drive from my home in Peterborough I arrived at the venue to find quite a few anglers had braved the cold, 16 in all so not a bad show at all. The weather was overcast and 3 degrees centigrade with hardly any breeze on the water but there were small fish topping all over the lake which by the way was a long strip with islands all down the middle at around 13m. The club had done the sensible thing and missed out every other peg so everybody had a full island feature to fish to. After the normal pre match banter that we all know and love it was time for the draw although at this point I couldn't really see any advantage in any peg as they were all very similar. I drew peg 11 which was mid point along the bank and suited me fine as it was right behind the parking area.

Peg 11 showing the 4 lines I fished

I assembled my tackle and then went about having a plumb around the peg to see what depth of water I had and starting from the inside, at 3m at the bottom of the near shelf it was about 4ft deep. As I worked out towards the island I found the bottom to be very even in depth all the way out to 11m where I found a steep slope rising up to the island and so I initially set up to fish at 7m in the open water and 11m at the bottom of the island slope. I also set up a second rig to fish closer to either end of the island at 13m half way up the slope at about 2ft deep.
At the whistle I cupped in a ball of groundbait containing a few Pinkies at 7m and a few micro pellets at the bottom of the far slope. I baited with a single maggot and lowered the rig over the near line half expecting to catch Roach from the off only to spend the first10 minutes watching the 2 anglers opposite me catch a couple of 2lb Carp first put in.
Although I couldn't tell where I knew they were fishing across to the island and so I added sections and went over at 11m and for 20 minutes all I could do was watch the anglers across from me continue to catch. I was a good half an hour in and had not had a bite and although I was not alone I needed to make something happen and fast so I cupped a ball of groundbait and a few pellets in at 11m and went back over again on the same rig with a single Red maggot on the hook.
The float had only just settled and as if by magic it slipped under the surface and on lifting the pole the re assuring sight of a few feet of my No 6 elastic coming out of the pole tip was the signal that a Carp had taken my bait. After a couple of minutes I slid the net under a small carp of a couple of pounds and although I was a good 5 fish adrift of the opposition at least my match had started. I re baited the hook and loaded the toss-pot with a few micro's and 5 Red maggots an then carefully shipped the pole back out toward the island, after tipping the contents down the same hole as the float I only waited a couple of minutes before my second bite. This fish turned out to be a similar sized fish to the first one although I seemed to have played it to the net a lot quicker than the previous one. The next couple of fish turned out to be a small Roach and a Skimmer for about 6oz but the next drop in the float dipped and the elastic streaming out of the pole signaled a better fish. This one gave my No6 elastic a good test and after what seemed like an age a Carp of about 5lb gave itself up to my landing net and gave me a bit of a leg up even though I was still trailing the anglers across from me.
The next couple of hours was really tough though with just an odd silver fish taking my single maggot but most of the other anglers I could see were only catching odd fish as well. It was now time to have a look at the left hand far line and so I changed to my shallower rig and slipped on a 4mm hook pellet and and fed a pinch of micro pellets and within a couple of minutes I got an indication that fish were in the swim and very soon afterwards I was into another Carp.
The fish was landed quickly and I was soon back in as I really needed a few fish to get into the frame and I was not long before the next fish was in the net.
I re baited with another pellet and popped a few feed pellets in the pot and this time I decided to just have a look to the right hand side of the island and again I didn't have to wait to long before gettin a surprise in the shape of an 8oz Goldfish which made for an interesting addition to my net. I caught a couple more Skimmers before switching back to the left hand line and managing one more carp before the whistle went.
As I was packing away I was trying to work out in my head where I thought I had come in the match and I had awarded myself about 5th place as a conservative guess. Anyway at the weigh in I acted as scales man and it became apparent very quickly that I may have done a little better than I had first though. Stu Redman pegged opposite to me had walked it with a creditable 31lb 12oz and the only other notable weight being 16lb 12oz so I thought I might even manage 3rd or 4th.

Stu Redman with his winning catch

When it came to my weigh in I had underestimated my catch by a couple of pound and was more than happy to see my catch record 17lb 4oz and secure second place and more importantly 9 league points.
This result has put me up into 4th place in the league and so its all still left to fish for with a number of anglers still in with a chance of taking the league and 2 rounds left to fish.

My catch including a welcome splash of Colour

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Two weekends and not a single Bite!

2012-01-24T17:15:00.000+00:00

Well what can I say, that's 2 weekends, 3 sessions and not a single bite so mildly disappointing to say the least. Sunday last week I had planned a trip to the river Glen with my son as he hadn't been for a while and I thought we could get a few bites on this narrow Fenland river. But it all went wrong when the Deeping St James AC changed venues at the 11th hour from the town Welland to the Glen. They put their match on the West Pinchbeck section and although there were other sections of the river available we didn't see any fish top other than on the match length and so we didn't bother fishing.
On the Monday I decided to have a look at the river Nene at Wansford but after a few really cold days the water temperature was down to 3.5 deg and I tackled up almost with an acceptance that I wouldn't get a bite. This turned out to be the case and after 3 bite less hours I called it a day, I did have a chat to a couple of other anglers before I left and they were doing no better at all with neither of them having a single bite. I was booked into a match this weekend just gone but withdrew myself as I just knew it was going to be hard, this turned out to be the case with only 4 of the 15 anglers catching. The winner had 5oz followed by 2oz and joint 3rd with 1/2oz with most of the catches made up of Minnows.
Anyway I had decided that a trip to Ten Mile Bank on the Great Ouse would be a better option but after 3 hours on the pole and an hour on the feeder I called it a day and made the trip home wondering where my next fish was going to come from.
The forecast for the coming week doesn't look great and the planned league match is up in the air with the club leaving it as late a s possible to choose a venue but we live in hope.

A bad day on the river is always still better than a good day in the office though!

Cheers Mark

River Glen, Round 3 Deeping Individual League.

2012-01-15T20:28:00.000+00:00

Well this Sunday saw me on the river Glen for the first time this season in round 3 of the Deeping St James Individual league, the club had fished it the week before and although I couldn't fish I had been told it was a good match.

We all met up at the Fisherman's Arms pub at Pode Hole at 08.00 for pre match breakfast and banter before driving the mile or so to the river for the draw, I was 4th into the draw bag and pulled out peg 9 which was about the middle of the stretch

The River Glen at West Pinchbeck

The river was quite clear and so I decided to start the match on punch and take it from there, I started with a small ball of liquidised bread with a few fluro Pinkies and started with punch on the hook at 4m to hand. First put in and the float had only just settled before it went under and I swung in a 1/2oz Roach, second put in on bread I hooked a huge Perch that looked to be around 3lb but unfortunately I just couldn't hold it on the whip and the hook length parted.
Now that was a real bummer and it turned out to cost me both money and league points, anyway I carried on catching small Roach on the whip in a steady fashion and I was at least level with the best of the rest at this point. I decided to try a Pinkie on the hook to see if I could save time on re-baiting after every fish as I was with the bread and soon found that the fish were just as happy taking Pinkie and it wasn't too long before I hooked a nice Perch of around 1lb. This was just what I needed but just as I went to draw it over the net the bloody hook pulled out and I watched the fish swim away, now this really finished me off as I had now lost about 4lb in the first hour. Quite a few anglers had put in a chopped worm line but unfortunately I had left my worms on the garage floor and still managed to loose a couple of decent Perch. Every now and again I would notice other anglers netting big Perch but all I could do was plug away on the whip although I knew it was futile as I just couldn't get enough fish coming. Anyway after 4 hours the whistle signaled the end of the match and after the weigh in it was apparent that the 6 anglers that had beaten me all had bonus Perch in their nets, 7lb 10 oz won the match on the day with my 4lb 5oz giving me 7th place.

Festive Fishing Exploits

2011-12-28T17:18:00.000+00:00

Fishing and Shopping:
Well I don't know about you but I have been fortunate enough to get some fishing in over the festive period. It started on the Wednesday before Xmas with the wife suggesting that I have a mornings fishing before we went and done the final present shopping, I didn't need telling twice and jumped at the chance as I had blanked in the previous Sundays Match.
Anyway I made amends and caught a few fish on what was a bloody cold morning and included some decent Roach on Caster trotting some 20 yards down the swim.
Later that day we went over to Springfields shopping centre in Spalding and just as we were walking back to the car I walked past a shop full of fishing tackle. I thought that's strange as it wasn't there the last time I had visited and on looking up I saw the sign Dragon Carp, now having seen their adverts many times in magazines but never actually visiting any of their shops I just had to go in and have a look. I am not normally really interested in budget tackle but I was intrigued to see what kind of quality the gear was as it was very cheap. I had a quick look around and decided most of it was probably worth the price if you were on a tight budget but not really what I would buy. Just as I was about to leave the shop I noticed the centre pins and just had to see how bad they were for £30 and £40 respectively and so I asked if I could have a closer look at them. Now to say they would not appeal to the purist float anglers would be an understatement but at the price they were definitely functional pieces of kit that I thought worth taking a punt on as a second reel. I paid my £40 and off I went, when I got home I decided to have a closer look at it and compare it to the Okuma I already own. The first thing that I noticed was that the reel would spin for as least as long as the Okuma although it was not silent with some noise coming from the bearings and a little play in the spool. Next I removed the spool and had a look at the pathetic ratchet mechanism and decided that it would probably fail very early on so I decided to remove it along with the line guide. Well at least I wasn't going to be pissed when something broke or fell off as there isn't a lot left to go wrong, I loaded it with some 2lb line and put it with my tackle ready to field test the next time out.

More Fishing and Tackle testing:
Christmas eve is upon us, the shopping is all completed the presents are wrapped and so a quick trip to the river is the least that I deserve and it will be a chance to test the cheap Chinese pin. On arriving at the river I am a little disappointed that the wind is howling downstream so presenting a stick float other than straight off the rod end was going to prove tricky anyway I set up a 15ft rod and attached the centre pin.
The first problem I had was how to stop the reel over running when threading the rod now that I had discarded the ratchet mechanism, this was solved with a small piece of foam placed between the rod handle and the spool.
Well I must say that the cheap pin worked a treat and I spent the next couple of hours working my stick float through the swim taking Numerous small dace on hemp which by the way was the only way I could avoid the millions of Bleak I had in front of me. All in all I am pleased with the budget centre pin that cost only £40 and feel the mods I have made have improved it to suite my needs.

A very cheap but functional reel

Ivan Marks - The Peoples Champion: I received this as a Christmas present from my wife Michelle and just thought I would recommend it as a very interesting read for anyone that was a fan of this great angling legend. It is mainly made up of column article he wrote for the Angling Times in the 70s, and apart from being an interesting insight into Ivan at his peak a lot of what he says is as relevant today as when he wrote it.

An interesting read

Tuesday 27th on the bank again:
After sitting around the house for half of the morning my wife suggested that I take myself of to the river for a few hours as I would be back at work Wednesday, I didn't rush to get out of the house and got to the river at about 12.15.
I spoke to another angler who was just packing up and he told me that although he had struggled most of the morning he had ended the session with a few better Roach.
I decided to drop into a peg half way along the stretch and with very little wind I decided I would fish a stick float down the middle of the river as I t was not too wide at this point.
After plumbing up I put a single maggot on the hook and had a few runs through the swim before putting any bait in, The float was slightly overdepth but inched through the peg without finding any snags so I introduced 2 hard balls of dark groundbait.
Second trot through and the float disappeared and I had my first Dace which was follows by a succession of similar sized fish. I topped up with a hard nugget of groundbait every few casts and this kept the bites coming until the inevitable happened and a Pike put in an appearance and swam off downstream at a rate of knots.

There were plenty of bites from small fish like this one

This upset the fish and they seemed to move further down the peg which didn't help as it gave the Pike more time to snatch my fish while I was retrieving them, anyway I persevered for a while longer before calling it a day. I finished the day by seeing what would attract big perch into the margin at the end of my keepnet, and there was a definite attraction to noise as every time I dropped a hard nugget of groundbait in a big Perch would appear and take an odd maggot or pinkie and then skulk off again out of site. Anyway the time I spent was really valuable in helping me come up with a plan to catch them the next time I have a match as they don't very often show during the matches and as yet I haven't had much success on the chopped worm so we will have to see next time out.

Not the greatest catch but things could be mutch worse at this time of year

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River Nene - Wansford - Monday 12th December 2011

2011-12-12T19:21:00.000+00:00

Today I visited the River Nene at Wansford as I had a day off of work and was hoping for a few fish after blanking on the canal on Sunday. I arrived at the river at 9am and the temperature gauge in the car was reading 2 degrees and with a cold breeze blowing from a westerly direction it was less than inviting.
I decided to fish peg 16 for no other reason than I had never fished it before and the angler below me on the same peg in the last match had only weighed about 2 1/2 lb and I wondered what I could manage.
Anyway I levelled my seat box and sat looking at the peg for a few minutes looking for any signs of fish movement as the water was very cold and clear, I could see the bottom about 5 meters out in 8ft of water.
I set up the pole first and had a plumb around the peg and found 9ft of water at 11.5m which would have to do as fishing any further out would have made presentation difficult with the wind blowing downstream. I also set up an elasticated whip at 5.5m with a 2gr rig for fishing Maggot and Caster over Groundbait.

Line 1 breadpunch at 11.5m and line 2 Casters at 5.5m to-hand

I wanted to try bread punch today but getting the liquidised bread down in the flow was going to be tricky, anyway I had a quick look around and found some suitable sized stones. I planned to form balls of bread around the stones to get them to go down to the bottom as quickly as possible and it worked a treat as I watched them go down.
After a couple of golf ball sized balls of bread were cupped in I baited up with double punch and shipped out the pole and laid the rig in downstream inching it through the swim. The rig had only travelled a couple of metres down the peg before the float slid away and I was into the first fish of the day which turned out to be a 5oz Roach. Over the next half an hour I was getting plenty of bite and catching the odd 2-3 oz Roach before the inevitable Pike strike, I didn't get to see it but it was definitely a large fish but thankfully the fish come off the hook and the Pike went with it. Oh well in with another ball of bread and then first put in I had another fish so at least the fish were still there and feeding but it would only be a matter of time before it returned.
The head Bailiff Ray walked up behind me and while we were chatting I had another bite and wham as I was shipping the pole back the Pike grabbed my fish, because he was standing on the top of the bank he got a good view of the culprit and estimated it at 20lb.
I thought he was probably exaggerating a bit although I knew it was a good size and wasted the next 10 minutes playing the bloody thing before my hook length gave way.
I decided that I had better do something else as there was no way I could beat this Pike to the draw and so came on the inside at 5.5m to hand on an elasticated whip with a No 8 elastic in it.
This would at least allow me to swing fish up to 8oz to hand and hopefully avoid the pike, after a slow first 10 minutes on the whip I caught a small Roach of around an ounce on maggot.
I was feeding a small nugget of groundbait every couple of put ins and started to get into a steady rhythm with small Roach and Dace but decided to try Caster as I had been loose feeding a few every put in and I wondered if there were any better Roach there.
First run through with a Caster on the hook resulted in a 4 oz Roach and then another couple before I had a little run of 3 oz Dace, I then hooked a Roach of 6oz and just as I was about to lift it out of the water the Pike made a grab for it. Now this time I got to see the beast in the flesh as it was only 4 metres from the bank and it was a bloody monster of a fish and I had to admit that the estimate of the bailiff earlier was no exaggeration at all.
I carried on running the gauntlet for the next hour before deciding to pack up as I was getting quite cold siting in the shade and exposed to the wind.

A decent catch in a few hours on a very cold day

On inspection I had managed about 5lb of fish which with all things considered wasn't bad at all with the weather conditions, water clarity and the Pike causing havoc.

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River Nene Match 4th December

2011-12-07T22:55:00.003+00:00

Having just returned from a week in sunny Fuerteventura with the wife I was keen to get back on the river and the timing couldn't really have been better. Deeping St James AC had a sweepstake arranged on the Nene at Wansford on the Sunday and so I made the call and booked myself in. On arrival at the draw I noticed that there were a few anglers less than the last match I had attended before I went on holiday but never the less there were 14 of us which was good as it would allow some of the lesser pegs to be dropped from the match.
Into the draw bag and out comes peg 15 which was about mid point on the stretch and was a park and fish peg not that any of the pegs have much of a walk which is great for match fishing.
The river was very clear and had little flow but there were plenty of fish topping although I suspect most of them were Bleak.

The view from peg 15

I decided to set up the pole first with a 1.5gr Tubertini float and on plumbing up I found I had an even depth of about 9ft all the way from 9 to 13 metres. However I planned to start off at 9 metres as the wind was gusting quite hard downstream and I didn't want to bait up further out and find my presentation was difficult further out.
I also decided to set up an elasticated whip at 4.5m to hand just in case I could get them going close in or I got plagued by Pike.

At the whistle I introduced 4 small balls of groundbait made up of equal amounts of Dynamite Baits, River and Black Roach and to this I added a little Hemp a few Pinkies and some Casters.

Maggot, Caster, Wheat, Hemp and Dynamite Bait Groundbaits

I baited up and ran the rig through the peg about 5 times before the float went under and I promptly missed the bite but at least there were some fish over the feed. The next run through I made no mistake and was I rewarded with a small Dace of around an ounce to open my account. I must admit that given the conditions I thought that 5lb would be a decent weight on the day and decided to adopt this as my target for the four hour match, anyway I got into a steady rhythm catching small Roach and Dace regularly and after an hour I was confident that I had about 2lb in the net already. It hadn't been a bad first hour but the bites were tailing off so I cupped in another couple of small balls of groundbait but it didn't really make any difference so after 10 or so minutes I decided to give casters a try to see if I could find any better stamp fish.

Well funny old thing I had a bite and and I netted a 4oz Roach so I thought that it could be worth a little time to see if I could entice anymore as you don't need too many of them for a pound. After half an hour I had only had 2 more similar sized Roach but I was aware that there was a Pike in the swim and so dropped a small ball of grounbait on the inside and spent the next 20 minute on the whip. The fish were probably only averaging half an ounce but at least they were coming at a steady rate and they all count at the scales.
I then Introduced another couple of balls on the pole line and caught a few fish before the Pike would unsettle the fish again and this was the pattern until half an hour from the end when the Pike grabbed a Roach I was bringing in and after a couple of minutes it broke my hook length.
I know it would have been simple enough to put a new hook on but I decided against it and just came back on the short line too hand. I finished up mainly catching Bleak of about 1/4oz with and odd 1oz Roach amongst them until the final whistle, at this point I didn't really know how I had done but I knew that I had beaten the 2 anglers upstream of me.
I quickly packed my gear away and set off to have a look at the weigh in, I was shocked to see that over 7lb had come off of peg 4 but it looked a different story with the other pegs up to me and nobody below me was admitting to much more than 3 or 4lb.
At the scales I was pleased to see 5lb 5oz register which was enough to put me into second place and with only one more angler breaking 4lb it was enough to secure the place.
All in all things have started off pretty well for me on my return to match fishing with a 3rd and a 2nd place in my first two matches and although they are only club matches there are some good anglers at the club so I am going to need to draw and fish well to maintain this kind off form.
I am not fishing the club match this weekend coming as it is on a commercial so I will probably take a ride over to the canal and see what I can catch this weekend.

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My Return To Match Fishing

2011-11-22T22:40:00.001+00:00

Sunday saw my return to match fishing with this to be my first match in 10 years and I must admit that I had mixed feelings about the whole thing. I had been contemplating taking in a few matches for some time now and had been looking at the local clubs and their match fixtures trying to find one that I thought might suite me. After a lot of thought I decided that the Deeping St James Angling Club would probably be the one for me as they have what is probably one of my favourite stretches of the Nene along with some other sections of river that they hold club regular matches on throughout the winter months. I made the phone call to the match secretary and after a brief chat I was booked into the match which was also to be round 1 of their Individual league, so my timing was spot on and I entered myself for that as well.
I had looked at the reports from the previous 2 matches to get an idea of how the venue was fishing and who the form anglers were and I even had a few hours fishing it in the week prior to the match.

I must admit to not really fancying the draw

Match day arrived and I got to the draw nice and early so I could get to meet a few of the regulars and perhaps glean any information that might help although I already had a plan of sorts that I could adapt depending on which peg I drew. There was a good turnout of 20 anglers and they seemed a good bunch and most of them looked like they could fish a bit too. I had been told by someone in the week that I would really be up against it with the top anglers in the club which was funny as the person didn't even know me but hey I wanted some competition and that was the point of fishing the match. I was about 5th into the draw bag and pulled out peg 18 which wasn't what the regulars thought of as being a good peg as the last 2 matches had seen the better weight come from the low numbers with peg 4 winning both previous matches.

When I arrived at my peg I must admit that I was a little disappointed as it was a little wider with the flow none existent on the inside so with this in mind I would look to fish the pole at 11.5 - 13m into the flow and I would also set up a Waggler to fish further across.
I set up the pole and had a plumb around the peg and found that the water was the same depth from 5 - 11.5m at about 8ft but at 13m it was starting to shallow up and was about a foot shallower. The run through at 11.5m was reasonably even but did shallow up a few inches toward the end of the run but the bottom was clear and there were no real snags to worry about.
Well that was the pole line sorted out and so I set up a 3AAA insert waggler to fish 3/4 across in about 6 1/2 ft of water, it was just a few minutes before the all in that I also decided to set up a rig to fish at 5m just in case I was struggling.

Most fish came to Red Maggot on the day

The whistle sounded and I started with 3 hard balls of dark groundbait cupped in on the pole line and a couple of pouches of maggots on the far line and nothing on the inside until I got a feel for what was going on. I shipped out the 1.5g rig and layed it in upstream so that it was fishing at depth as it passed over the groundbaited area and first pass the float sailed away and I was into my first fish which turned out to be a 3oz Dace. I re-baited and layed the rig in and as if by magic the float just disappeared again when it got over the baited area, this was a great start to the match and it carried on for the first hour before the bites tailed off a little. At this point I introduced another couple of small balls of groundbait via the cup and set off into a reasonable rhythm again but this time I started loose feeding a little Hemp and Maggot over the top but by the end of the second hour bites had slowed right up. The good news was that it slowed for the others around me as well so it probably wasn't anything I had done wrong and at about this time one of the fancied anglers from the favoured pegs came walking down and said that they were struggling at the other end and that he had only had 1 Gudgeon. I had however been loose feeding a few maggots by hand on the inside line for about 20 minutes and thought that I would just have a look and see if there was anything about. I dropped the rig in and it went straight under to my surprise and I hooked into a Perch of about 8oz and this was followed by a few small Roach, dace and Gudgeon and over the next 40 minutes I added another pound or so while others around me couldn't get a bite. I was aware that a couple of anglers downstream of me had also been catching quite well but I had no real idea of how that compared to me.
Anyway the last hour and 20 minutes was a bit of a scratch around and I switched between all 3 lines to take what I could which included a number of small Bleak and even 4 Minnows along with a couple of 6oz Roach. At the whistle I was happy that I had done reasonably well for my first match in a very long time and thought I had about 6lb or so in the net. I watched the weigh in and when I weighed in was pleased that I had under estimated things a little and had in fact got 7lb 6oz which put me in 3rd place. As the weigh in continued the weights were considerably lower and I was safe in 3rd place which I was more than happy with as I really didn't expect to frame first time out. This result also gets me off to a great start in the individual league and sees me start the series in second place although I am sure I wont stay there for long but then again with a few good draws who knows?

I even had 4 Minnows

River Nene Wansford - Mon 14th Nov

2011-11-18T18:11:00.002+00:00

After reading a couple of match reports from Deeping St James AC club matches on their water at Wansford and another really tuff session on the Grand Union Canal I decided that it was time to venture onto my local river Nene. I had taken the day off work at short notice and was really excited at the prospect of fishing some running water but must admit to being a little concerned when I saw the river as it was quite clear and was flowing slowly and only averaging 7ft or 8ft things looked dodgy.
I was aware that both of the club matches had been won from peg 4 and so decided to fish at the other end of the stretch on peg 21. I had a narrow boat moored across for me and the shadow it cast on the water was great to see your float against, I decided that I would fish the pole and after plumbing settled on 11.5 metres which was just past the middle.

The view from peg 21

I introduced 4 balls of groundbait squeezed quite hard and containing a few Pinkies and some hemp and then left it for a few minutes while I arranged the rest of my gear and had a quick cuppa before I started. I dropped the 1.5gm rig in upstream so that it was fishing at full depth by the time it reached the baited area and wallop the float disappeared without a trace and I lifted into my first fish of the session which turned out to be a nice Dace of about 4oz.

Dace like this made up the bulk of my catch

It was all going too well with another 6 Dace a Roach and a couple of Gudgeon in the net in the first 20 minutes when I got snaffled by a Pike while shipping back a small Roach, it was around 5lb and I had it to the net in no time and just as I was about to drag it over the net it rolled over and my hook length snapped. This slowed things down a bit and I was only getting an odd bite, most of which I missed but after catching a couple more fish the bloody Pike came back and had another go but this time let go of the fish earlier and I retrieve both my hook and a Gudgeon. Anyway this was the pattern for the next 1 1/2 hours with a couple of fish and then wham another hit from the Pike, after the 6th time things seemed to settle down with the pike probably moving out of my swim. I slowly got the swim back with regular loose feeding of maggot and Hemp until I was getting bites most runs through for the rest of the 5 hour session.
I wasn't really sure what I had in the net but thought that it must be about 7lb, so it came as a nice surprise when I pulled the net out and decided to have a weigh of my catch to find I had managed 9lb 4oz.

My Catch

The catch consisted mainly of dace between 1 and 6oz with a few small Roach and a handful of chunky Gudgeon, so all in all not a bad return considering the Pike trouble I had early in the session. I am so keen to get back on there I have entered the match there on Sunday which should prove interesting as I have not fished competitively for over 10 years.

GUC Theddingworth

2011-11-07T21:55:00.003+00:00

This Sunday saw us at Theddingworth on the canal, We decided to try a new area that was over 1km from the nearest access. After a brisk walk we arrived at the area we had picked from the map and found that it was well sheltered from the worst of the wind which was a little cool as it was from the North. We both settled for pegs with a far bank feature in the shape of overhanging tree's and went about setting up the gear. I set up 2 top kits with a view to finding 3ft of water and a further line another section over. I found the first line at about 9m but on adding another section I could only find 14 inches of water across and I was not really comfortable with this and so didn't plan to use this line.
I started off with a small ball of liquidised bread at 9m and went in with bread punch on the hook, It must have been about 10 minutes before my first bite which resulted in a Roach of around 1oz. In the next half an hour I caught another 6 similar sized fish in a steady fashion and Graham had caught a little better and had about 12 fish. Anyway just as we are starting to get things going the wind gets up and manages to blow every leaf that was floating on the surface of the canal into my peg making it all but impossible to get my rig into the water without hooking one of the bloody things. Anyway I decided to up sticks as this was ridiculous and I wasn't keen on my far line either.

I had about 1lb before having to move swims

I headed back up the canal and eventually settled on the first peg by bridge 50 which I have fished before and done alright on.

My second peg with no leaves on my 2 lines

The second peg was clear of leaves and with the wind in my face any that did fall ended up at my feet out of the way. I set up 2 rigs, the first was a Drennan 4x12 Roach pattern and the second was a Drennan 4x10 Pinkie. The Roach pattern float was fished on line 1 in 3ft of water with big maggot on the hook over the top of a couple of small balls of groundbait and then a few maggots were dripped over this with a small Toss-Pot. The second rig was fished on the far line into about 2ft of water tight against the bush on the far bank with maggot of Pinkie on the hook and this line just received a few loose offerings via the catapult.

Big maggot on the hook

4x12 Drennan Roach float slightly over shotted with a little grease on the bristle

First put in on the shorter line resulted in a 3oz Roach which was an encouraging start to the proceeding and I followed this with a Perch of 4oz. I then had a couple of small gudgeon and an odd small roach of about an ounce before I had to let a boat come through, the boats do not pass directly over this line as they have to get to the centre of the canal to line up with the bridge and so disturbance is kept to a minimum. When the boat had passed I topped up the swim and had a quick look on the far line to see what was about and I saw the float disappear almost immediately. I had a number of small Roach of about 1/2oz over the next 10 minutes or so before having a look back on the main line. The return to this line gave me a run of Perch up to 4oz and a fair few small Gudgeon before Graham came walking towards me, he had been fishing a couple of hundred yard away and hadn't done very well and so with this I decided to call time on the day.
I had manages about 2 1/2lb in a couple of hours an so I wasn't too disappointed but again the canal was not really fishing as well as I would have expected at this time of year.

Next week we plan to have a look at the Kilby Bridge stretch as it has been recommended to me by someone who read a previous post so it will be interesting to fish a new stretch.

Until then I will occupy myself with a few pole repairs to keep me out of trouble

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Commercials And The Canal Are The Only Option

2011-11-01T21:58:00.003+00:00

The last couple of week or so has seen the sport on the rivers drop off with a couple of light frosts any faint hint of colour has well and truly gone. This was quite evident on Sunday 23rd when we went over to Ten Mile Bank on The Ouse, the river was like tap water and 2 of us didn't have a singe bite and that was from two different locations. The previous weekend had seen the Skimmers go on a feeding frenzy but this time the same pegs were all but dead.
We could really do with a few days of heavy rain to put some colour and flow into the rivers but I guess that we have more chance of winning the national lottery but until then I will have to find other ways to keep myself fishing.

The Grand Union Canal is one venue that we often use throughout the winter period when the rivers are out of sorts but even this has been a little below par. I have been on the GUC twice this week with the first visit to Theddingworth on Tuesday, it was a bit patchy but I managed
2 1/2lb of bits but with nothing over a couple of ounces. The second visit was to South Kilworth on Sunday, this was really hard going and I didn't even quite manage a pound even though the canal looked mint the fish just didn't' feed.

I have also had a couple of visits to commercial fisheries this week and although my first love is always natural venues they have provided me with some much welcome sport.
On Monday I visited Westons at Peakirk near Peterborough and had just under 40lb of mainly big Skimmers with a couple of 3lb Carp thrown in on the pole and pellet which I really enjoyed as these Skimmers fight like Carp.
Friday saw me at Kingsland Reservoir on the bigger Carp Lake catching plenty of small Carp from 6oz to a couple of pounds on the pole and pellet and a lump of 12.5lbs that really gave the No 11 Preston hollow elastic a work out.

This low double capped a great day

Although I am not really up to speed with Carp and Commercials I had a couple of decent catches and really enjoyed myself and will deffinately consider further visits until the sport on the rivers picks up.

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Skimmers Go On The Feed

2011-10-18T06:55:00.000+01:00

I must admit to getting it wrong this week because with the weather cooling down considerably and the skimmer sport dropping away over the last few weeks we had planned to have a go at the Great Ouse Roach. As usual we stopped at various points along the Kings Lynn AA stretch of the Great Ouse to see if there were any signs of fish moving about. We had seen quite a few Roach topping at three locations between Denver and Danby Drove but could make our minds up which area to try and so we drove the whole length again to decide. There were plenty of locals between the chapel and Modney bridge that made us think that they probably knew something that we didn't but it was getting busy along there so we thought we would give it a miss. We carried on and as we got near to the piggeries we bumped into Les the bailiff and had a chat with him to see how the river had been fishing in the week and it was a chance comment from him that made up our minds where to fish. With that we bid him farewell and set off to the area we had seen Roach topping when we were looking there earlier.

Map of Kings Lynn AA stretch of the Great Ouse

By now time was getting on as we had spent so much time messing around trying to decide where to fish and although we had Roach in mind on the pole we thought we would have a start on the feeder just to see if there were any Bream or Skimmers about. Anyway by the time I had set up the pole and feeder it was 10.50am before I launched my feeder 3/4 of the way across the river and unusually I had baited the hook which I don't normally do until I have made a few casts. I let the feeder sit on the bottom for about 20 second and then struck to empty the contents ready to cast out the next feeder full and hey presto a 4 oz Roach had taken the double Red maggot. I then followed this with four 2oz Roach, another of 6oz and a couple of 8oz Hybrids in the first 15 minutes before it went quite for the next hour or so but in this time I did have a couple of liners which had me thinking I should stick with the feeder for a little longer.
It wasn't too long though before the tip pulled around and stayed there and I struck into a decent Skimmer that was close to 2lb, at this point I went to 3 maggots on the hook and the next 40 minutes saw a number of skimmers between 12oz and 1lb come to the net before they seemed to drift out of the swim. The Roach soon moved back after the bigger fish had gone and I had a few Roach of about 4 -6oz before the swim went quite again which signalled that the Skimmers had come back into the swim. The next hour or so was a little slow and although I was picking off odd Skimmers here and there I decided to have a quick look on the pole line to see what was at my feet. It wasn't long before the pole float dipped and I had a small Roach, anyway to cut a long story short I had about 1lb of fish in 20 minutes but had seen Graham catch 5 bigger Skimmers in this time and decided to get back on the feeder. After a slow 20 minutes back on the tip I got the fish on the feed again and for the last hour and a half caught mainly better quality Skimmers of 1lb + in what was the best period of the session. When I pulled my net out I was pleasantly surprised at the catch as I had lost track of what I had actually caught but I just knew that Graham had done even better than me.

31lb a great catch of Skimmers and Roach from the Great Ouse

I finished the day with 31lb of Roach and Skimmers which is not bad for a days fishing on a river but Graham did me by a clear 10lb with a catch of 41lb 4oz. On the way back we stopped at the chapel as there were still 3 anglers there but it had been a real struggle for them with only a very few fish coming to them, so maybe taking our time today had paid dividends, who knows?

41lb 4oz a great autumn catch from the river

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