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