This week I decided to publish a page on Facebook dedicated to the blog so if any of you are currently on facebook and would like to know when the blog has gone live I will be posting the weekly update link on the page. I will also be using the page to post live on the bank (where connection allows) and also publish any pictures that don’t make it onto the weekly blog.
The line to the page is here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Dannys-Angling-Blog/282860255069146
This time of year is a time I look forward too so much as it’s a time where it feels like all around you is bursting with new life. In work the local magpies outside my window have diverted their attention from searching from food to the repairing of their nest form last year in preparation of the arrival of this year’s young. This family constantly amaze me throughout the year and I only hope I am as lucky this year as I was last when I witnessed them making their first flight form the nest.
The trail I walk every morning with my canine companion, Pippa, is now etched with all the colours of spring with bright yellow Daffodils contrasted with the vibrant blue of what I think are bluebells lining our route and although a lot of the trees are still to fill with leaves there is a few trees along our route laden with blossom and as you pass you cant help but smell the beautiful honey like aroma they give off filling your nostrils with the scent of spring.
The changes brought on by spring are all around us even in our man made towns and cities but there is no better place to be than on a farm at this time of year to truly see all the changes of this season and on Sunday I was lucky enough to be on such a location and what a magical place it was with the family of buzzards in full flight and this years beef cattle in their fields. One task that is completed by the farmer and this time of year is ploughing the fields ready for this years crop to be planted and this picture below I think sums up spring time on a farm for me (that is till the rivers open and we see all of this years lambs in the fields).
Although this is a blog about my fishing adventures one of my aims over the next year is to try and incorporate a lot more pictures of the nature I see while on the bank. This is a lot easier when fishing the pole but I must admit when trotting the river it can be more difficult to grab the camera but I am really going to try and make a concerted effort to try and capture the feel of what its like to be on the bank of the locations I fish.
On to this week’s fishing
After a late night the previous evening celebrating my brothers 21st birthday party both me and my uncle arrived on the bank of our chosen venue a little worse for wear but excited for the day ahead. Our chosen venue was our local commercial Flushing Meadows and after the week leading up to Sunday being so warm with bright sunshine the prospects of catching our first carp of the season where high.
I arrived at my chosen peg which was and end peg on lake one the snake lake which I had looked at last week before leaving the fishery. My plan of attack for the day was to pick two lines and stay disciplined with what bait I was feeding in each swim and also be accurate with every piece of feed I was putting in by using the kinder pot on my pole for all my feeding.
After plumbing up I found a shelf up the margin to my left where my plan was to fish meat and I found the bottom of the nearside shelf on my top four sections where my plan was to fish solely corn and micro pellets. I set the top four swim of with 3 kinder pots of corn and began fishing meat up the left hand margin.
I really stuck it out on the meat line and continued to feed the corn line every 15 minutes with a few grains of corn to keep it ticking over. By 10am the meat line produced nothing at all, not even a knock of the float so I decided I had gave the meat a good go and without any signs decided to change tactic on this line and fed it heavily with castor and micros and left it to settle while I tried the corn line in front of me with an instant result of this slimy skimmer bream.
The swim continued to produce these skimmer bream but it was very slow going so I decided to move back over to the castor line and I tried to feed the swim in a way that the castors would get to the bottom and not attract the hordes of roach and rudd that reside in this pool. This plan was good in theory but in practice there was no escaping the silver fish and like last week the bites where none stop with quality roach coming all morning on the castor and micro pellet margin line.
As the morning wore on sun burnt away the morning mist and we were all basked in glorious sunshine and all three of us where keeping an eye out for any carp moving in the margins or basking on the surface but there was none showing at all which really shocked me given the bright warm sunlight.
The margin line went from strength to strength and the quality of the fish also improved with ide moving in from time to time to add a little excitement as they really do go some once hooked.
The morning came and went all too quick and I lost count at the amount of silvers I had caught. The other anglers on the pool seemed to be struggling and I guess from the lack of sport they were mainly all out for the carp which were still not showing at all and as the afternoon wore on the prospect of catching one also faded away so much so I actually moved over to a lighter elastic such was my feeling that none would show.
The quality of silver fish in these commercials is the one thing that amazes me all the roach we caught where decent fish with very few showing any scale damage at all although we did catch a few silvers with mouth damage.
The afternoon also saw the farmer begin ploughing the rest of his field and this saw seagulls appear from all directions and converge on the field behind us it truly was a sight to behold and just goes to show how clever these birds are at adapting to the world us humans cultivate.
As the afternoon moved on I expected a few carp to be moving in so I began to again feed meat into the swim which did produce a carp, only not of the size I was expecting but it again showed the variety on offer at this fishery.
We all continued to fish on till around 4.30pm and as we were leaving we spoke to a few of the anglers around the pool and it became apparent that sport for the carp had been none existent with only one carp caught between the anglers which were left.
All in all it was a good day on the bank and if I had one criticism of the place it would be the fact you can’t use your keep net on there. If you could just use it for silvers alone it would be worth any extra money it would cost but I can understand why fishery owners don’t allow this as managing such a rule would be a nightmare as you will always get that one angler who will put carp in there net and run the risk of not being caught.
Next week we will hopefully be on a new Stillwater but till then I wish you all
Tight lines
danny
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