Tuesday 20 June 2017

Top Stick Float Tips, River Season Hopes and Reflections..

A warm welcome to this weeks blog update i hope i find you well and your nets wet.  Planning for the written blog is going well, i find myself on my dinner hour again putting together this written blog and so far so good, i am half way through the first paragraph and writers block has not set in yet. There is time.

So i thought it would be good in this blog update to have a look at my hopes and ambitions for the upcoming river season and at the same time a bit of reflection on the 3 month closed season.  What went well and what i could have maybe done better.  The blog update finishes with a session in search of tench, a species its been far too long since it featured on my blog.

Top 5 Stick Float Tips...

So this week the second video in the midweek vlog series went live on the youtube channel.  I had received a question in around my tips for stick float fishing for someone new to the rivers and as its my main type of fishing i thought i would devote on midweek blog to some basic river tips.  Stick float, rod and line choices feature as does some tips on plumming up the depth and some basic watercraft at the end.

If you read this blog and like the river fishing but are a bit daunted by the thought of fishing a river then give this midweek vlog a watch and get yourself out on the bank, you will not regret it.


A Closed Season With Cheshire Particle Hemp Oil..

So here we are at the end of our three month exile from running waters and the freedom and tranquillity they bring.  I am far from anti social but at the same time i can only take so much shouting and "banter" when i am fishing and i have to say thet my listening to "banter with mates on the bank" from the anglers around me is just teetering on the edge of madness.  That said though i have had to endure far worse closed seasons with regards dealing with idiots on the bank and this season they do only seem to have arose on the commercial scene.

"Cheshire Particle Hemp Oil The Find Of The Summer"

With the closing of the river season I normally move over to the canals for my fishing but as you have all read and witnessed on the youtube blogs fising has led me down a different path this closed season.  The finding of my Drennan Puddle Chucker and my unexpected thirst for wanting to get to grips with commercial fishing has seen my canal fishing plans fall by the side.

This diversion onto commercials and method feeder fishing has seen my use of hemp seed in my fishing go with it too but what this change did do is highlight to me the fantastic Cheshire Particle Product that is Cheshire Particle Hemp Oil.  When this oil is added to their fantastic hemp seed before a session it can be hard to judge how much impact the hemp oil is having, this last 3 months has shown me just how much fish pulling power this oil has.

Added the oil to my pellets after they have been prepared ready for the method feeder has provided me with a pungent heady hemp based pellet mix that when tested in the margins leaked for well over 50 minutes off one small nugget of pellet.  This fantastic addition to the pellets along with watercraft in placing the bait in the right place has seen me cross paths with some fantastic fish this spring and early summer.

Below just a handful of fish i have had the joy in sharing a few special moments on the bank side with..




In short this summer has shown me how good this hemp oil is on its own so when the season arrives for the rivers and its added to the fresh hemp seed Cheshire Particle are famous for it will be done with 100% confidence.  A little goes a long way and at just over 4 quid a bottle it will last you ages.

Grab a bottle here:https://cheshireparticle.com/collections/liquid-range/products/hemp-oil-250ml

The Season To Come...

The season is now literally days away and the reels are loaded with new line and the tackle box has been given a nice tidy up and organised.  The bag of hemp seed has been split down into pint session bags and i am all set for the season to come.

Early season will be all about getting back into the groove of river fishing with a few stick float sessions on the smaller rivers but this year i am alos going to try my best to devote time on the bank to targeting the barbel.  The barbel is a fish that has featured very sparsely on the blog and i have tried on one or two occasions to change that but not being really close to a barbel holding river it can make finding time very hard.

So barbel are certainly on the agenda for sure and i am also hoping as the season goes on to also delve deeper into a bait that i have never fished before in tares.  A lot of rivers i fish are abundant in roach so it would make sense for me to try and expand into this area to try and get the best from  the river i fish.

Fishing for me is all about learning and trying the develop my knowledge of all aspects of fishing so i can try and be the best anger i can be and along the way share that learning journey with yourselves through the blog.  This year has plenty of promise and i am excited to see what adventures lie along the way.



Summer is far from finished and i am hoping to also get out on the bank still for the tench and carp as i have really loved the adventures so far this year.  On that front a 20lb carp would be a lovely milestone to achieve and is at least a possibility now with the waters i am fishing, so that might happen any time which is exciting.

With regards content on the blog i don't think the blog has ever been so diversified with regards species and content as well as formats to follow it on.  I am hoping to introduce more live streaming on the blog on facebook so that's something else to look out for.

A Tench Session On The Tip....

All spring and summer i had spent time on the bank targeting carp on method feeder tactics and over that time i had began to notice a few things that worked with regards my baiting approach.  The hook bait aside for now and talking about the mix of pellets i had noticed that the micro pellets along brought bites but the addition of  4 mil pellets into this mix certainly brought the better carp onto the method.

Additives to the mix over this period have been stinky stuff sprays and Cheshire particle hemp seed oil and i have found both to be beneficial in attracting fish into the swim and are additives i certainly have confidence in when i cast them out.



The main feed sorted i now look to hook baits and one bait has been doing the business for me this season and it has been Bait Techs's the Juice dumbells.  What can i say about this bait other than it has caught me so many fish it is untrue.  It has caught me fish on commercials and natural waters.  So in these two paragraphs lays the trap i have been setting up till about two weeks ago for all my carp fishing.

A new card and a chance to try new waters and early on Saturday morning i found myself on the banks of a new club water.  Out went a method feeder and with it out went an approach i have so much confidence in.  The bait presented in an area i seen as a patrol route for fish and where they would feed confident in feeding i was out to play the waiting game and leave the feeder there until the tip pulled round on my drennan puddle chucker.

The sun creeping over the horizon to my right and its rays just starting to illuminate the bank behind me i sat listening to the early morning bird song.  A heron circling above out looking for its breakfast soon landed a few yards down the bank, good enough for him good enough for me.  A tap on the feeder alerted me to something in the area and over excited i went to grab the rod.  It can be hard to sit on your hands with this but you really have to wait for that wrap round.

Eventually it came and lifting the rod i was instantly locked into a battle of wills as a fish made hard for the reeds.  Persistent pressure soon turned the fish that by now knew it was in trouble and made for the lillies.  At a fair distance it was a tough battle but soon the power in the puddle chucker brought the fish into open water and then i knew, baring a hook pull, a fish would soon be on the bank.

Played out nicely a lovely tench was soon posing for the camera.




The fish returned i was straight back out and knowing how fast the bite had come i was optimistic of more.  A passer by stopped by for a chat and he was lovely to speak to and was intrigued by how the method feeder works.  The mechanics explained the wrap round on the tip soon showed him the results and what a fish to show someone how good a method feeder can be as though us both laughing at the battle this fish gave me as it went hard for any dark snags it could find.

A had said moments earlier if i hit a carp it would be interesting and so it proved as one hell of a tussle was played out in front of us both.  A lovely dark common carp of 9lb was my prize.



It was a fantastic start to my first session on here and i was pleased my confidence in my set up had come through.  Confidence in angling is huge i feel, it means you leave the bait longer in the good spots you find and you know that time is the only deciding factor in getting a bite.  The time it takes a fish to find your trap.

Over the next few hours a few more tench and bream fell for the trap set, check out the video below for the full story and the end of this adventure.



Till next time,

Tight lines

Danny






Monday 5 June 2017

New River Season, Commercials fun and New youtube Series...

A warm welcome to this weeks blog update i hope i find you all well and your nets wet.  Sat at my desk in work and these very dinner hours will now be the time where i sit down and devote some time to the written blog, lets see how we get on! I must say it does feel good to be back at the screen putting my thoughts down on paper rather than worrying about lighting and if i have the shots needed for the video of the session.

So lets get right into it,

The River Season Looms...

We are now in touching distance of the new river season and i have to say this closed season has flew by in the blink of an eye.  A trip last week to the bait shop to pick up a new licence saw me sneakily nipping down to the river for a look, she looked low and very clear of course but boy did she look beautiful.  The air was fresh and the banks willd from the 3 month exodous.  The angler inside me knew where the swims where hidden, i made most of them after all, it was not long till i was stood in familiar swims throwing floating crust down to obliging chub.



The river alive with fish a few bits of bread threw in the margins soon attraced some attention as roach and chublets moved in on the free offerings. As you can see in the short clip below, a low and clear river but a river full of life.



I left excited for the river season to come and the trip to the bait shop saw me picking up some tackle for the coming season as the thoughts of casting a feeder and running a float through still flowed through my thoughts.

New Youtube Series...

So recently i sat down and thought about all the things i do with fishing away from the bank and got down on paper all the ideas i have got coming up.  Future content for Warrington angling centre and Cheshire Particle and some ideas for the Youtube channel and for this written blog.

Some exciting stuff made the spider diagram of ideas and one such one was a new midweek series on Youtube.  A short video each week containing all things fishing, my upcoming fishing that weekend, my thoughts on the previous weeks and some Question and Answers i have received on social media.

If you enjoy reading the channel and watching the content and have any questions on my fishing or anything in the fishing world you would like my views on then post them in the comments on here or on social media and i will answer them on the blogs.

The first one went live last week, check it out below, any feedback is welcome!!



Closed Season Commercial...

So the closed season has flown by in a flash as said above and i have to say i have really enjoyed it.  I started off hoping to fish the odd commercial and then move onto the canals but isn't it amazing how fishing has this habit of sending us on its own little adventure.

We start of down a path and like the very rivers we are missing fishing takes us down its own meandering route.  This closed season has saw me splitting my time really between two ventures, firstly a series called "the hunt for the Gems of the Lake", a series where i target a water full of small carp but within its depths lies a few original carp that go up to around 18lb and are in fantastic condition.  A quest to catch these gems was started and i think has nearly come to its close during this closed season, A link to the playlist is below.

The gems of the Lake Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCdCawZSE3o

The rest of my time has been spent really on commercials and i decided very early on that this closed season i wanted to get better on commercial fishing and learning the different methods of catching fish on these venues.  It was an area i felt i was turing up and catching the odd carp or silvers but i had very little understanding of the how and why i was catching and i really wanted to improve my knowledge on these.

I started of fishing for silvers and had some lovely nets of roach over 2olb and then as it warmed up so the carp moved into play and time was spent learning margin fishing, fishing on pellets and finally fishing the method feeder.  All these areas i felt i was very weak in and although i am still learning i am certainly more confident now on going a commercial than i was before and feel i now can tackle these with a set game plan.

So really in that closed season i achieved what i wanted from my fishing and i now move onto the rivers and canals.  The canals did not feature but i am hoping that will change over the coming weeks as i spend less time on the commercials and more on the canal.

So that pretty much covers some info on where i am at now with the fishing and a bit looking forward, lets get into some fishing...

Puddle Chucker Fun....

So a few weeks ago i was back at my dads house and sorting out some of my old fishing gear and i came across a rod holdall that had a good thick layer of dust on it.  Closer inspection revealed it to be my old Drennan 10ft Carp Puddle Chucker feeder rod, a rod that had now seen any use for a good 3 to 4 years at least.

I had recently been watching a guy on youtube called Jamie Harrison, a Bait Tech sponsored angler and a feeder fishing guy and watching his videos i thought hey why not get it out and give it a go, it proved to be one of the best decisions i have made and the sight of this became common place as this my laughing with excitement at some of the battles i had with fish using this rod..



The session below is one such session:

Arriving at the lake i was armed with only my seat box, a landing net and my puddle chucker.  I had literally a few hours in the morning and i just wanted to get a bend in the carbon.  Work had taken its toll during the week and i had put many of the household jobs on hold till the weekend, this meant a severe lack of fishing time!

The bait for the session would be simple, micro pellets with a few 4mm mixed in coated in stinky stuff with Bait Techs the juice dumbells as a hook bait.  It had worked before and i hoped it would work now.  Captures on this combo this summer have surely got me confident in this set ups ability to catch fish for sure.



"Small Margins Matter In Fishing"
The more i fish the more i am convinced that small margins in fishing make a huge difference.  On this session i was fishing to some reeds and i took my time to clip up so the feeder was landing bang on in front of these reeds.

The reeds moving violently ave the game away and i knew it was only a matter of time before one of the carp came across my carefully laid trap.  Well that was the plan anyway at least in my head.

An early set back came as the tip wrapped round and a fish bolted hard for the base of the roots.  It was a short battle but as soon as the line went slack i knew the hook had pulled.  In a morning where i might only get one chance it was a real set back.  I just had to hope the commotion had not ruined my chances.

A fresh hook length put on, not that the previous one had snapped, but i always do this to put my mind at rest that the best rig possible is out there working for me.  The feeder still clipped up i was soon back on the sweet spot and if another fish did turn up i would be ready.

Like a coiled spring i waited for the tip to go round and when it did it was a lovely slow pull and i was onto the rod like a hawk,  A huge boil off the reeds told me this was a better fish and i think the slow take ave me the early momentum to turn the fish and get it out in open water.

A reed bed near by offered the fish a dark safe home to bolt for but again the puddle chucker shocked me as its power through our the rod kept the fish under control.  Slipping the net under a beautiful dark common it was mission completed.


A perfect common of around 14lbs i think it was and it felt good in the palms, well rested i returned her to the lake and thanked her for her time with me.

A short video of the session is here:





Till next time

tight lines all,

Danny