In keeping with the start of the river season i was busy this week scouring the Internet for the best deals available for bulk purchases of hemp seed. My river fishing is predominantly hemp and either castor or maggot based so splitting the purchase of a bulk order with my uncle can see us saving a good deal of cash especially as we both do not mind cooking it ourselves. The river weaver is going to feature a lot this year and it is a river that can demand a lot of feed so i am also looking at bulk buying some brown crumb to bulk out ground bait mixes, storage is going to be one of the main issues i will face though.
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The opening weekend of the season can be a big let down for rivers but fishing it is a tradition i have kept up since i started fishing the rivers a few years ago and to be honest in that time we have built up a great portfolio of river venues to choose from so on the opening day i will be spoilt for choice on where to actually visit. The past few years i have visited the river dee and the river dane and done OK on both venues but this year i think the opening trip should spell out a president for the season ahead so i am thinking of starting on a new water and begin the adventure of discovery from the opening weekend, start as you mean to go on.
last year opening weekend trip: http://satonmyperch.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/river-dane-chub-delight-and.html
Moving along and this week amongst other emails i received from people who read the blog was a very unique email from a person who has nothing at all to do with angling but shares a very special venue in rixton clay pits with anglers to pursue his passion for wildlife and who can blame him rixton clay pits has to be one of the best places around for all types of wildlife.
The email was sent to me after he came across one of my previous blog posts whilst searching for information on Rixton. The blog post i wrote was around litter left by anglers around this venue and how it put angling in a bad light. The blog post can be found here for those wanting to read it: http://satonmyperch.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/the-good-and-bad-of-rixton-clay-pits.html#comment-form
This email starts off with praise for myself in dispelling the myth that not all anglers out there dump litter and do not care about the environment around us when we wet a line and moves on to mention some of the disgusting sights he has witnessed while wandering round the lake we fish from bin bags hanging in trees, wellingtons boots and broken fishing brolly's dumped in the bushes too the litter just dumped on the pegs fished by anglers.
The person in this email goes to show just what an effect litter has on the reputation of angling and how the sheer lazy act of dumping litter or not taking it home shows not only all of us who wet a line there but angling in general in such a bad light. Don't get me wrong littering is not just confined to the angling world and is a problem in society in general but i do think it is a problem in angling that should not be there at all as it is as simple as taking a carrier bag and of course remembering to take it home with you and if you are taking tins of sweetcorn or luncheon meat for bait then open them at home and take them in a bait box. And as for cans of lager and leaving the packaging on the bank then that is just beyond unacceptable on a water that is a breding ground for so many water birds.
As an angler i feel privileged to fish some beautiful venues and Rixton clay pits is up there with the best of them that i have the pleasure to fish on. The blog posts i update on my blog for Rixton are always popular updates and i have no doubt that these attract the attention of some of the people who do leave litter. I am not a person who uses my blog to preach my beliefs on the right and wrong ways of fishing but if you are one of these people who does leave litter on the pegs or in the trees or even in the car park please take take some responsibility and think just what a bad light it puts angling in when you leave litter and PLEASE take it home with you. Rixton Clay pits are a SSS! (Site of Special Scientific Importance) and as such we should be doing all we can not to put our angling rights on this magnificent place at risk.
In keeping with wildlife this week's fantastic weather gave myself, my partner and our little girl plenty of opportunities to get out in the nice weather. Trips to the local park saw us hounded by countless inquisitive squirrels, who i have to say absolutely love Cheesy Wotsits to the delight of the children feeding them, not their natural diet or pine cones and nuts but given they live in a public busy park I'm guessing they see their fare share of fast food!
Later in the week we went out to the local park and was delighted to peek though a gap in the reeds as see a swan on her nest incubating her eggs and in typical urban fashion a wooden pallet was used as structural support. Fantastic how nature adapts and fits in to the world created by ourselves, utilising every opportunity no matter how unnatural it may seem.
on to this weeks fishing.....
Carpin on the Pin at Flushing Meadows Fishery
The weekend just past i was sat deciding where to fish and really could not decide what to do, my head wanted me to go spend a day for the carp on the carp quest but my heart wanted to have some fun in the sun and knowing how finicky the carp are on the carp lake i knew in the heat they would be up on top swimming round in the middle all day. With this in mind i decided to visit a fishery i have not visited in a few months now in Flushing Meadows Fishery.
Arriving at the gates at 6.30am it was not long before i was joined by a growing line of cars waiting for this fishery to open, a sight that emphasises the popularity of this fishery. I am not an anti social angler but its safe to say i like my peace and quite and with this amount of attention i was eager to get my own little area away from the groups. The snake lake and the canal are always choker and i i was pleased to see the cars pulling off the main track in all directions behind my car as i headed along the track, one by one the queue dispersed till there was just me and a small overgrown pond left.
Fun was the order of the day so i came armed with only my 13ft float rod and my centre pin. The carp in here range from ounces to over ten pounds but a good fish is normally around the 8lb mark, in all my time fishing here i am yet to catch a double, so i picked my pin loaded with 5lb power silk line.
When i do fish this place and decide to fish a pond or lake with other anglers i am constantly amazed by how many plumb up one or two rod lengths out in the deepest water and feed it heavily, sometimes with two tins of corn, believe me it happens and some people have no problem of doing it yards from your swim, these people then wonder why they sit looking at a still float for hours, another reason why i seek solidarity on this place.
In reality the fish in here can be caught on a single grain or corn or meat or maggot (if you can get it through the silvers) just inches from the bank. The picture above showing the maximum i ever fish out on this place as the fish are literally under your feet. This place is a very easy fishery indeed but it is only easy if you are quiet and light footed around the banks and are putting the bait in the right areas, presented correctly. The bait in a known spot it was not long before the float shot under an the first fish was on the bank, a small palm sized carp, perfectly proportioned and mint condition.
With this fishery containing so many fish you never really know what the next fish will be and even using bigger baits can see you connected with smaller carp and sometime believe it or not roach. During the early part of the day i found it hard to search out the bigger carp as my bait was snaffled by small carp. Moving around the pool it was amazing to see that in one swim i caught around 10 crucian carp on the bounce and this was the only swim on the small pond i caught crucian carp from all day. Each swim i left i popped in a small hand full of bait so i could fish the swims in rotation but not enough to ruin the fishing should someone else turn up and want to fish the swim.
Sneaking round the different vacant overgrown swims i soon got to the last swim in the corner and a few tell tale swirls in the margin gave away the presence of some better fish so dropping the float in the margin i sat like a patient heron while the line tantalisingly flicked off the feeding carps fins. Eventually the float shot under and a massive swirl erupted as the carp shot out of the margins.
the noise of line coming off a centre pin takes some beating in my opinion, although this will certainly need some oil before the river season.
eventually a nice 5lb carp was on the bank.
The bites where none stop all morning as i moved between the swims picking up the odd carp from each swim along with a rogue tench.
As the morning lazily moved on towards midday the carp started to show in the margins as they basked in the scotching heat, a new challenge now presented itself as floating baits are not allowed in this fishery so pieces or meat where teamed with bread crust so the meat fell slowly as possible through the water columns and proved to be a meal the carp could not resist.
the targets..
on the bank
I only had till around 1pm and thoroughly enjoyed catching a number of smaller carp on the drop over the next hour
1,30pm came round and it was time to pack in the knees of my jeans stained with mud and my arms red with nettle stings i looked like a ten year old kid and felt like it, it was great, fantastic in fact. I walked back to the car past two ponds full to the brim with anglers all hunched round one lake, fighting for room and the fishes attention. I left a happy angler, worth every penny of the 7 pound day ticket, did i have fun? You bet i did.
till next time i wish you all tight lines
Danny
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