Carp Quest Blog Completed and Rixon Clay Pits tenching

A warm welcome to this week’s blog update and what a week as the blog’s mini quest to catch a 10lb+ carp reached its climax on Wednesday night and what a relief it was to finally complete this chapter in my angling life.  To whole quest is now complete and you can access it from the main tool bar at the top of the blog or on the following link.

Link to mini blog: http://www.satonmyperch.blogspot.co.uk/p/10lb-carp-mini-blog.html

Thank you to all the anglers who have contacted me via email, on twitter and the blogs facebook page with their tips and support it has been really appreciated and has helped me in a bog way to keep going on this quest and keep my focus.

The blog last week was set in stone as it was always going to be the week the Calor Grill to go review was to go live but there was a major incident that happened last week I was wanting to cover and that was the disgusting robbery at gun point if an angler on Grey Mist Mere.  The lad just pursuing his hobby was robbed at gun point and his all his tackle and mobile phone stolen, just what is this world coming too when someone fishing a venue in the middle of a housing estate with a secure car park is not safe. 

As readers of the blog will know I was on Grey Mist Mere on the Monday evening when I had a nice tench and I loved the place it was a venue I felt quite safe on and with a good number of passers bye I felt quite happy.  I was looking forward to many more visits to this lovely venue but I have to say this incident has put me off big time in my opinion gun crime pooping its head up in our industry marks a whole new low in our sport and I hope the people who committed this atrocious crime are caught and the lad involved isn’t put off enjoying his hobby.

On to this weeks update

This week’s update will be short compared to normal as I only managed to get out on the bank for a short 4 hour session on Saturday when I took advantage of a short window to try and get a fish on the bank.

The missus making sure I don’t go thirsty with my very own coke for the fishing trip J.

The venue I chose was Rixton Clay Pits as I was fairly confident I could connect with a tench on Rixton given the amount of time had at my disposal.  The seat box, holdall and keep net bag where all left back at home as I decided to take the bare minimum of kit with me as I fully expected to have to walk a fair distance to get a peg with me arriving in the afternoon.

I arrived at the secure car park to be met with only a handful of cars and was really pleased to bump into a long term follower of my blog for the first time on the bank and was pleased to hear he was having a steady day catching some nice bream. After chewing the fat for a while I began my hunt for a free peg and my hunt did not take long as I spotted a peg free not too far down the track.  Setting up took a matter of seconds as my rod was already set up and baited so it was only a case of putting the two halves of the rod together and placing them down on the bite alarm , a scattering of bait and I sat back to enjoy my few hours on the bank. 

This is a swim I have fished before so I knew where to cast to but just as a back up I placed a small hand full of bait in a margin swim.  One of the beauties of this place is how the fish let you know they are on your bait by sending up plumes of tiny bubbles up to the surface as they feed and may times I have seen a line of bubbles go all over the swim and the rod rip off as soon as they reach where I have cast, it does however mean this place can have you tearing your hair out it the bite doesn’t come.

The rod had not been in more than 30 minutes when it screamed off and I lifter into a fish that made a steady run to the right before the line went slack and the hook pulled.  I inspected the line to see that like last week the line was cut clean half way down the hook link material, not another pike surely, what was the chances of catching a pike on a boilie in two separate swims a good 200 yards apart?  I could offer no other explanation so I tied up another rig and cast it out.

Rixton clay pits is one of these venues where if you get the bait right and the feeding you can almost guarantee some bites and again the tench in this venue could not resist as in no time at all I was playing another fish.  The fish came right in under the rod tip and fought link stink but did come up to the surface during the fight to reveal it to be a nice tench around the 4 or 5lb mark.  The fish was nearly beat when it turned suddenly and the line snapped and flew back at me and upon inspecting the line again it cut half way down the hook length so after all the wracking my brain it turned out the 10lb shimano Antares line I bought last yeah has failed and for some reason has become really brittle, luckily I have some ESP striptease so I tied up another rig using this material.

The ESP braid line is a line I use mainly for my river barbell and chub fishing and I was really apprehensive about using it as it is in a weed green colour which I didn’t think would be concealed well on a clay bottom.  The next hour of so trundled by and I say back and just relaxed and took in the peace and tranquillity that comes with this venue and let me not forget my new friend I made on the session in this feisty little fellow, i know robins are really territorial but this guy was seeing off everything!!.

It was during watching Mr robin see off another foe the bite alarm went off again and this time I played the fish really light as I was desperate to get this fish in but like all tench it was not playing by the book at all and put my 1.75lb test curve rod to the test.

Eventually the fish tired and like with most fish as soon as they are up on the top taking big gulps of air they are as good as yours.

The fish went an impressive 6lb 7oz on the scales and is a seasons best for me so far.

This sole fish was as the last of the action for the session and after an interesting chat with Ade about his river Wye exploits I made the short journey home.  My number one job for thi week is to sort out some fluorocarbon line to replace the line that has failed on me this week as I really do have more confidence in it as opposed to the braid for my carp and tench fishing.

This session wasn’t the only time I got out over the weekend as I hit the bank once over that weekend in pursuit of my first double figure carp, please take some time to check it out.

Till next week its

Tight lines

Danny