The best laid plans...

I don't think I need to mention how awful the weather has been lately and how it's messed up my best laid plans. No doubt many anglers up and down the country are having their fishing totally destroyed by the recent floods and storms that have constantly and unrelentingly battered the country. I personally am sick of it, day after day.
I had planned a Roach campaign after that elusive two pounder, but the water I wanted to target for them has  suffered from relentless flooding and colouring up. I didn't fish last weekend because of this as there wasn't really anything else I wanted to do, but frankly that drove me round the bend as I have a need to fish as much as I possibly can so this weekend I did the only thing I could and went Carp fishing at  a water that has been unaffected by the flooding problems. The water I fished is a new syndicate that has recently been formed that I was lucky enough to obtain a ticket for. The stock of fish, while still only relatively fresh and young are exceedingly good looking, and hold great promise for the future. There are also a few original fish in the lake that have been in there an undetermined amount of time and one or two that are over twenty pounds so along with the young stock fish there is an unknown quantity about it as well as some variety to keep you guessing what might be on the end of your line.

The first session was a short five hour morning one, on what was essentially a miserable, dank and cold day, but the fish fed and I managed to get off the mark with a couple of smaller originals. I set up on the back of the wind in a corner of the lake that had some calm wind unaffected water close in as I had a hunch that a few fish might well be hanging about in the area. I haven't really baited this water as such having only put a bit in on the odd occasion, but the bait I am using has an established track record for me and is a well known classic winter catcher. Around mid morning I had a take on the left hand rod placed a few yards out in around 6-7 feet of water, the banging sensation and lack of a decent fight told me that this was only a small fish, and so it turned out to be as a small common of upper single figures came to the net.

 

 

 





Pleased to be off the mark the bait went back out to the same depth as before, now I'm talking about depth more than particular spots here as the lake is actually an irrigation reservoir and as such is fairly featureless in that respect, however it is very deep and I believe it is crucial to find what depth the fish are sat or prepared to feed at on the marginal slopes of the lake. And this proved to be correct thinking on the following trip the very next day. But back to this session and less than a few minutes after replacing the hook bait I received what I assumed to be a savage liner on the same rod, however after waiting expectantly for a while no takes from fish were forthcoming and so I retrieved the bait, checked it and replaced it at the same depth again. Around 1.30pm the same rod was away again and this time whatever was on the end was going crazy making some quite fast and powerful runs, telling me that this might be a slightly better fish. The water here is very clear and soon I spotted a ghost carp battling for freedom in the deep, cold water. Moments later I slid him into the net a very nice conditioned fish of 13.12lb and with a common carp scaling.

 

 

 

 

That was it for that session but before I left to do the school run I threw on a few broken boilies as prebait with a view to returning the following day for another go in the same swim.

 

 

The following day I was full of confidence having got the same swim again as well as the morning being fine and bright and calm in complete contrast to the previous day.

I placed the rods exactly the same as I had during the previous session and at the same depths thinking that with the warmer and brighter day the fish would be bound to visit the same areas. Well it turned out I had been lulled into a false sense of security, because by lunch time the wind had picked up to a considerable speed and had also changed direction to the previous day and it became quite cool. Also no runs had been forthcoming and so I had a hunch that the fish may have been sitting at a different depth. The right hand rod was moved further out and deeper down the marginal slope as an experiment to see if my feeling was right. A while later that rod received a take proving I was justified in moving it and I landed my first of the stock fish. A very handsome and heavily scaled mirror of 14.13lb posed for some pictures in the ever strengthening wind which actually made taking the shot very difficult as my brolly and all my gear continually tried to disappear into the lake because of it !

 

 

 

 



 Once again the rod was replaced at the same depth as before and a short time later the alarm registered another take and another lovely looking stock fish slid over the net after a short, spirited fight. This one weighed 13.12lb

 

 

 



I think you will agree these are super looking fish and are typical of the fish that have been stocked here. As I said it's a new water and it is very early days yet, but hopefully with time we will have a fantastic water with some stunning looking fish of sizeable stature.









Well what a dire Christmas break we're having weather wise ! Things started off looking good at the start of the holidays and I had planned a specimen Roach campaign over the festive period, but it's all gone a bit wrong !
The lake I was going to target has suffered badly from flooding, and whilst the water level itself isn't so much of a problem, it's the colour of the water that is. The lake has turned a very muddy brown compared to it's usual clarity at this time of year and realistically this will ruin the Roach fishing. So I have been scratching around a bit trying to find something to do and have ended up reverting back to a bit of Carp fishing on a more heavily stocked 'hungry' club water on which I had a very good session using a new method to me, zig fishing. I had always planned on getting to grips with this method of fishing with this time of year in mind as the Carp can usually be sat off the bottom for long periods of time in the slightly relatively warmer layers of water that can form, known as thermoclines. Being a reasonably deep and featureless water that I was fishing I decided to give it a go. The day was bright, and a rare break in the stormy weather of late. I had to search around a bit in order to locate some fish but once I got the first bite, sport was quite hectic, especially for the time of year. I fished two different colours of foam on the hook and though I did catch on both colours, one stood out head and shoulders above the other. The baits were fished at about half depth and within the same area as each other so the comparison was quite a fair one. Though the fish in this lake would be classed as 'hungry' they are no push over and the zigs certainly caught them off guard, and interestingly to prove this a fair proportion of the fish were in double figures which is not something that happens when bottom fishing here. Usually in a multiple catch you may get an odd better fish, but normally the only other way to get through to them is with pre baiting. Zigs are certainly something I will be playing around with on other waters in the future, especially when the bottom bait fishing is slow.

I started off well with a number of Roach of this stamp during my first couple of sessions, then the lake flooded !

 

 



Zig caught 16lb'er part of a catch of a dozen fish on the method, not too shabby for 29th December !

 

 



To conclude this entry, This morning I decided to try another club water that may hold some better Roach, in an effort to continue my campaign for the species, but unusually for me I packed up after only a couple of hours having not had a single bite...the water is shallow and a lot of cold water has gone in lately and this can be the only reason why the fish were showing no interest whatsoever. Again this is what you would class as a 'hungry water' and does have a large head of silver fish, so to not even get a liner within a couple of hours is quite staggering...
Hopefully the Roach fishing will pick up again if this foul weather ever abates, and I will be able to get back to chasing specimens of these lovely silver fish, until then I guess I will be scratching around doing whatever suits the conditions. Hope to report back soon !

More Winter Perch fishing

Had another couple of days Perching at the weekend, this time on a different water with a lower stock of Perch but where the average size is slightly better. The lake resides on the same club complex as the one I fished last week and is the same lake I fished throughout the summer and Autumn for Carp. I have always felt that this lake may hold some very large Perch due to the lower stock. There is just as much food available to them in the form of small silver fish as there is in the other lakes so there is no reason to believe otherwise. The fact that the average size of Perch is better is a good indicator of the potential top end. Most of the fish caught here seem to be over 2.5lb many being upper two's and low three's. There is a sprinkling of fish of under a pound that occasionally take the bait, but these are clearly a different year class to the bigger fish, whereas in the other lake I fished last week the fish seem to be of all sizes with the majority of the better fish being of low 'two's, and yet the lake has also produced some 'three's for me despite the higher numbers of Perch.

Back to the two day's fishing and over the course of the two sessions I fished the same swim but the two days proved to be entirely different in the way the fish fed. The Saturday started of quite bright but did cloud over later on, but the light levels were still high despite the cloud and I landed four Perch and a small Jack Pike over the course of the day. The Sunday however proved to be a far more productive day, with the cloud cover being much denser and the light levels far lower than the previous day. This facilitated a much more productive session and I landed around seven or eight Perch including my first 'three' of the winter, and another Pike. Incidentally due to the fact that this lake holds Pike, it is necessary to use a wire trace when fishing for the Perch, and I managed to find some AFW ( American Fishing Wire ), trace material in a 6lb breaking strain which is very fine and clear nylon coated. It is extremely supple and is knotable which is a huge bonus. The wire doesn't seem to bother the Perch as it behaves much like mono and has a dull camo finish. Overall I am very pleased with the results I have had using this wire and as such would wholeheartedly recommend it.



After a good run on the Perch fishing I think the next few sessions will be for Roach, especially over the Christmas period as I can Target a water close to home for some short day trips in search of some silver specimens...I'll come back to the Perch of course but I find it pays to mix things up to keep the interest piqued at this time of year !

Winter Perch fishing

This weekend I fancied a change from Carp, and as the weather has taken on a proper chill of late I decided to target some winter Perch. Fortunately as a by product of my local fishing clubs stocking policies, several of their waters hold an excellent head of big Perch, with many of them running to well over two pounds and a small number surpassing the three pound mark. I made it a social event with my son and his friend so they too could enjoy the good sport that is on offer. As it turned out conditions were not ideal for our target species as the sun decided to put in an appearance, and as anyone who has any Perch fishing experience will know, Perch do not feed well under a bright sky. Despite the far from ideal conditions we were still hopeful of a few fish, as we knew that once the sun set later in the day we would have around an hour when the Perch would take advantage of the falling light conditions and have a good feed. As it turned out, a band of cloud came to our rescue lowering the light levels and triggering an early feeding spell. Both the boys and myself managed a few nice fish with each of us landing specimens over two pounds, my son managed the biggest of the day at two pounds seven ounces.

Number one Son showing his skills with a 2lb 7oz specimen

 

 

 



We returned the following day, just my Son and I for a Dad and lad day and again we managed some cracking specimens to over two pounds. Bright conditions again made the sport patchy until later in the day when the light levels began to drop. The last hour or so was just crazy, and wherever we lowered the baits in they were almost instantly grabbed by a Perch. The fish must have fed well into dark as we were still getting takes when we could barely see the floats anymore and I daresay we could have carried on catching, had we the means of seeing the bites. This might be something we have to experiment with as it may be the case that the really big fish, the three plussers will come out after dark. Perch being a predator, like their Saltwater cousins the Bass, have incredible eyesight, far superior to that of their prey which gives them the advantage in low light conditions, and like Bass they are able to spot prey far beyond what you might believe. I may go into more detail about the set up I like to use for Perch at some later date, but basically I like to use a float paternoster set up with one or two little personal touches that I feel work well for me.

Pick of the bunch for me, but we had many fish of a similar size over the two days.

 

 

I'm looking forward to having a few more goes to see if I can net a three pounder, I know they are there to be had because I've caught some from these waters before. I will of course still be having a dabble for the Carp now and again over the course of the winter as I have a target of a 20lb plus winter Common...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 







I think we can safely say that winter has now arrived. The summer bird species like Swallows and Swifts have migrated to the warmer climes of north Africa, and have been replaced by their more recognisable winter counterparts such as Pied Wagtails and the ubiquitous Robins that sit on your rods cheekily begging for boilie crumbs or maggots.  

Fishing wise we can now expect things to slow up somewhat, and indeed this had been the case for me recently on the water I was fishing throughout the summer and autumn. Being a shallow water with an average depth of no more than 4 feet or so it responds very quickly in changes to the temperature, and so with the sliding mercury things have been very different to what they were a few weeks ago and I have experienced several blanks at this particular water. In contrast I have dabbled on another water that is much deeper and so is less directly affected by changes in temperature. With an average depth here of 10 or 12 feet it has taken longer for any changes to take effect, and thus I have had some recent success at this water. Fishing my usual short day sessions I have managed to land 5 fish, three of which have broken the twenty pound barrier and two of which are the largest known fish in the lake. I'll let the pictures do the talking and the weights are listed underneath each one. A simple and actually a bit of an old school fruit seed mix boilie was the successful bait, fished on a straight forward bolt rig set up, consisting of an eight inch hooklink, a two ounce custom made lead and around four feet of leadcore.

21lb 12oz Mirror

 

 

This beast weighed in at 32lb 3oz and is the largest fish in the lake

 

 

At 27lb 2oz I was over the moon with this stunning creature !

 

 

So as you can see, a bit of a result, the two biggest fish came during the same day session and is my biggest ever brace of Carp.

Although I may have caught the lakes two largest 'known' residents, they are not really my target for the water. These fish are all Mirrors and there are a few other nice Mirrors that I would like to see in the bottom of my net in the next few months, however there are also some very nice Commons which are my main target and these tend to be much more elusive than the Mirrors. One particular Common I have seen on occasion has caught my imagination, and whilst I think I may have a rough idea of what size it could be I can only confirm this by putting it on the bank....
Both the waters that I am dividing my time between hold some good looking, twenty pound plus Commons, so I will alternate between the two depending on weather conditions in the hope of achieving my goal.

I also have another water in the pipeline that I shall be dallying with from time to time, it's a water in it's infancy as it is a brand new syndicate, but it does contain some original fish that run to over twenty pounds as well a some stock fish that have been in there for about a year and were stocked at doubles, so it will be interesting to see how they have done. All in all I have plenty to do to keep me busy over the winter period and it should also take me through into the spring of next year. Each water has it's own little challenges and targets for me to go at and hopefully I will enjoy my time at each one even if I don't manage to achieve all my goals.

End of summer finale

The last few sessions have seen me bank several twenty pound fish to finish off my summer campaign. It's been an interesting re introduction to my Carp fishing this year and I have thoroughly enjoyed every moment of it. The flurry of twenties has been the icing on the cake after having applied a bait all summer to the water. I have to say that my whole ethos towards my fishing has also changed which has enabled me to fish in a more relaxed manner and yet still fish in a very effective way. Having banked a large number of fish from the water including a few of the better specimens I am pretty confident in the way that my whole approach is working. My rigs have evolved over the course of the season to the point that I have no concerns whatsoever about their effectiveness. The fish in this lake may not be big by national standards and the water may well be regarded as carrying quite a heavy stock of fish with an estimated number of around 120 Carp in a couple of acres, along with a large head of silver fish, but believe me when I say they are some of the cutest Carp I have come across. Their ability to rid themselves of an anglers rig is their party trick and it became apparent quite early on in my campaign that I was indeed being 'done' regularly by these clever Carp. I knew they were eating my bait and I was catching a few fish but I was also getting indications on the rod tips and alarms that led me to believe that some of the fish were indeed dealing with my rigs. The final conclusive piece of evidence was when I reeled in several times to find the blow back tube up by the eye of the hook.....
This led me to make some very small  but important changes to my rigs, and I now believe that the majority of the fish that pick up the rig are being hooked and if they should still be able to deal with it then at least the rig will still be fishing effectively once rejected, offering me the chance of hooking the next fish that should pick up the bait...

One I'd been hoping to bump into.

 

 

Last fish of my summer bait campaign.

So the seasons are now moving on and summer has turned to autumn and this in turn will take us into winter and it's time to change my approach. The bait I was using, while still one of the most effective baits I have ever used in colder water temperatures, and indeed one of the best baits I have used full stop, has come to the end of it's usefulness in catching Carp as we move into the twilight months of this year. A change of bait is in order to something more suited to the colder water temperatures, and early results on another water suggest that I am on the right track with my new bait.

Early result to my winter bait from a different water.

 

 

 

The Carp are now getting their winter condition and colouration and I am really looking forward to hopefully banking a few in the coming weeks and months. It won't be easy but it will be worth the effort to see them in their glorious winter coats. 

Friendly Ghost !

It's been a little while since my last blog entry, so here's a catch up....

At the moment I'm still Carp obsessed, and I've been doing quite well on my local water that has been my focus of late. I'm guessing that around 70 fish, give or take have come to my net during the short day sessions that I fish. Regular application of bait has ensured the runs keep coming with only a short interruption of the action when the temperatures took a sharp drop a couple of weeks ago. Obviously it took the Cap a few days to adjust but now they have, one or two of the better fish have graced me with their presence..

This Ghost Koi is one that I had in mind as a target as I had never caught it before but I had seen it on the bank a couple of times to my mate. The fish weighed 22lb 3oz and is quite a character.

 

 

 

It can often be seen cruising around near the surface and will frustrate the hell out of you by cruising just inches from you hookbait without showing any interest whatsoever !

 

 

 

Bizzarely I had the same fish again less than a week later.....

 

 

 

Obviously it's decided it likes the bait !

 

Last weekend, I concentrated on an area between two islands, that supports a large stand of Lilly pads. The pads themselves are now starting to deteriorate as we move into Autumn and as such are no danger to fish to now from a fish safety point of view, and they easily dislodge if anything so much as touches them. The spot produced six runs over three short day sessions with all six fish landed safely. The best fish was a surprise 20lb plus Common at 22lb 14oz, a surprise because up to now apart from the Ghost Koi, all the bigger fish have been Mirrors, and I'm not sure how many twenty pound Commons may be in the water. I have witnessed one other twenty plus Common a few weeks ago to another angler and this one I had is definitely not the same fish being much longer and darker in colour than the other one I saw, so there are at least two that I now know of.

 

 

A nice long lean specimen of a Common at 22lb 14oz

 

 

 

 

 

Lastly one other twenty pound plus fish was this Mirror of just over 20lb a couple of weeks ago.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So that's it for the catch up for now, hopefully there will be a few more decent fish to report before winter sets in.