Pond Fishing: Roach and Rudd on the Whip

A warm welcome to this weeks blog update.  I hope I find you all refreshed after a lovely relaxing weekend over the Easter bank holiday.  Myself I have been tempted by too many of the Easter bunnies chocolate eggs and am now on a self imposed chocolate detox.  Fishing wise I managed a few short sessions on the bank mainly targeting silvers and I will expand on the reasons for this later on in the update.

First things first and I start with the Canvas Design competition I was running on the blogs facebook page to win a free canvas of the winners own design.  The draw was supposed to have taken place on Friday but distracted by fishing and one thing or another it was not until a helpful blog follower reminded me late on Saturday evening the draw was made, thank you again Martin for your helpful reminder.  The names were numbered a random number generator was used to pick a winner and I am delighted to announce the winner of the first ever Danny’s Angling Blog giveaway was ADE GREEN, congratulations!!

I am currently in contact with Canvas Design about the prospect of running one on the Blogs Twitter account so if you are not already why not look out for this competition on there by following @satonmyperch.  From a social media point of view the blog is doing fantastic, on twitter it has just peeped over 1500 followers and on Facebook it is approaching the 150 mark.  I know we had the give away this week but as a rule I am not one who runs these giveaways to attract likes and views to my page preferring to have a low number of followers who want to be there of their own accord because they like my blog over people lured in with giveaway after give away, that’s my own personal stance on it anyhow.  I follow quite a few pages on Facebook and you see time and time again people being banned and some quite heated confrontations take place and I have to say I love the little corner of the world my blog holds on Facebook as there is always someone giving out some friendly advice and I always say to people to use the page for posting their fishing escapades and stories their fishing and in all in all updating the twitter and Facebook feeds is a part of the blog I enjoy as much as writing it and long may it continue.

Moving along and what a great Easter weekend it was, I have been making a conscious effort over the passed week or so to devote less time to the fishing and a little more to my home life as although the carp quest is yet to yield any fruit as in fish on the bank it has eaten up a lot of my time and it is something that I need to keep sight of and not get myself caught up in the quest at detriment to home life.  Striking a balance is important when it comes to fishing and is probably one of the parts I find most difficult as when I start something new or find a new venue for my fishing I can get really one minded and wrapped up in it.  I am very fortunate to have such an understanding partner who recognises when my time is too much towards fishing and reigns me in as such.  This weekend however I managed to get out on the bank a few times but was determined to get out with the family.

One such trip was too the local park where we fed the local duck population and was really happy to see my first clutch of ducklings of 2014.  She was obviously a young duck with little experience maybe this was her first brood as her ducking where spread far and wide right near a busy road and I did notice the local crows taking particular interest in these chicks and I did wonder if they took these ducklings as an easy snack.  Either way this video goes to show how close you can get to English wildlife if you take you time and build their confidence in you, I could have literally picked one up had I wished.

This wasn’t the first duck close encounter of the weekend either as during the past week I decided to change tactics on the carp quest pit and try for some of the bream and tench on there.  Whilst waiting for a run my new drake companion came over, as he always seems to do now, to say hello and of course our friend ship is a one way street with food overcoming his fear of myself.  I have been slowly building his confidence and I don’t think it will be long before he is taking food from my hand, up to yet we are on eating from my Wellington boot stage.

I have been a member of Warrington Anglers for the passed 5 years now and in that time I have really enjoyed reading Franks Weekly blog update where he writes about captures and developments within the club on a weekly basis.  Despite the hostility towards myself from certain high quarters amongst this club I still take time each week to read this interesting column.  I have to say though for some weeks now the updates have taken a darker tone with fish capture reports being overshadowed with a dark undertone of threats and what seems a wanting to portray a zero tolerance attitude to the club. I started to notice it a while ago when threats to ban people from the club for leaving gates open where mentioned in the odd update, this has now developed recent weeks to threats that if you are banned the club has signed up with other clubs so you are in effect banned from any clubs signing up to this agreement, a bit like pub watch.

This last week I read with astonishment as it was announced that two people found on Grey mists fishing at night without a night permit where to be banned from the club at a recent hearing at the clubs HQ.  Now I am not saying this is not a serious breech of the rules but surely asking them to pack in and a slap across the wrist to the effect if caught again without one then a ban for the season may be given is better treatment of this problem as if I have also read it right these people will now also be banned from joining any other clubs!.  I am not being funny but I have fished WAA waters for a long time and seen some treatment of fish and blatant littering in broad daylight and using the pathways as toilets that in my opinion is a far worse breech than not having a night permit that could just be a case of them not being aware they cant night fish with the normal card.   This of course is all based on an outsider looking in but to a regular reader of this update it is how it reads to me.

I also took the time this week to read that the club has admitted to the fact there was discussions on them turning Sandiway lakes into a Syndicate part of the club.  I sincerely hope this remains the case as it is my money as well as many other anglers money that has been put into this club to fund the incessant stocking of carp after carp into these waters, to then not be able to fish these waters without signing up and paying more money on top to then fish for fish that I have already paid into the club to stock is not only wrong but a disgrace should it go ahead.  In the piece I read the club had said it would not happen and fingers crossed it is never even thought about again, it’s a terrible idea that not only segregates the club but also is totally wrong for the reasons mentioned above.

The stocking policy of this club this year still is based around stocking carp into the clubs waters I see from the introduction in the licence.  It is obvious to myself that although this club is not a money making organisation aimed at profit that profit margins are looking to be widened in the long run, carp is a popular arm of fishing, bigger carp in large numbers attracts more anglers in turn equals more licences and then in turn as its carp anglers the purchasing of night cards is increased, it makes sense but leaves the average silver angler wondering just what he gets out of this stocking policy, apart from being snapped to pieces by carp when fishing light for pristine roach on his local reservoir. 

I finish this introduction with a story that I feel proves my point I made a few months ago before I was kicked off the WAA facebook page for having an opinion.   I said at the time that the stocking of High Legh fisheries after its fish kills was a disgrace.  After a complete fish kill the club bought 80 3-6lb carp from winsford anglers and this was seen as a great stocking by the club, hailed as the club devoting money to their waters.  I said at the time that the stocking of carp was all well and good but the club also needed to stock silvers as well unless you will be left with a water that only fishes in warmer months when the carp are active and the water will become a waste of time in the colder months.  In this time of our waters being abused by poles and cormorants I believe our only defence is anglers being on the bank all year round, if this was a great silvers water as well as containing carp it would attract anglers all year round and see the banks regularly visited and deter these problems.  I logged into a second facebook account I have on WAA Facebook recently to see a number of anglers complaining at fishing this water and blanking and not even getting a sign of a bite after a few trips, complaining at the lack of bites and captures, well had the club stocked silvers there is the option to fish fro roach, bream, perch hell even gudgeon that will feed in this winter to spring period, it is really simple to anyone that actually fishes the waters all year round and when you think a few hundred roach costs about the same as one of these 20lb plus carp they are stocking it really is a sad state of affairs, my point proven? I have also been told by a mate that fishes there that a few fish are looking a bit battered now from repeat captures, well with only 80 fish in such a small water they are not going to look well around their mouths for long.

All in all there are a lot of people in this club who fish for silver fish in both our rivers and lakes and I think its about high time some of them found their mouths before this years and many more years to come licence money is ploughed into creating carp runs waters and possibly an elite carp lake for only the elite to fish. 

And with that it’s onto this weeks fishing,

Saturday – Stealing a quick hour on a local pond.

As the years pass writing this blog you begin to get to know your waters in more detail and begin to build a picture of waters you know will fish in certain conditions and times of year.  I had planned all week to get out fishing but knew I would only have a short hour to hour and half long window to get my fix in on Saturday; location was paramount in getting a net together.

As I have mentioned in other blogs I dedicate most of my dinner hours to searching for new little ponds or areas of local canals that may through up a fish.  This searching of canals can prove very productive when it comes to the pike fishing especially as so many fish right next to the access points near the car park when if they only took a second on the internet they would see a lovely reed bed or permanent barge mooring just around the next bend.

The pond I chose to fish is a real place of unknown potential, every time I fish it I am taken back by the quality of the roach and rudd and you never really know once that bait settles in the bottom what you will catch.  In the passed we have caught tench, golden tench, crucian carp and some nice perch, so it can be a real place of adventure into the unknown and in truth I think the reason I love it is the fact it takes me right back to a kid fishing ponds and canals with my dad where the magic of what you will catch next burns bright inside.

I knew I only had an hour but was I confident? Course I was the sun was burning down and I knew those rudd and roach would be there for the taking on the drop.  To maximise my chances of putting together a decent net I set up my old whip I have had since a kid, I think it cost me 25 quid at the time and is a whip or a “snatcher” as we used to call it in the real sense of the word as it is not elasticated in any way and the line simply ties to the eye at the end of the pole, fished the full length of the pole to hand it’s a deadly way to put fish caught on the drop in the keep net fast.

Arriving at the pond I passed a few other pools and to my amazement they were all empty, as a kid we would have been up in the dark to get the best spaces on these ponds that are jammed with silvers but jump forward 20 odd years and the age of computers and commercials really has put the local ponds right down the pecking order of things to do as a kid, a real shame as what for the price of a whip (15 quid) some line, hooks and float (5 quid) and half a pint of maggots (a quid) there is hours of fun to be had for free on many local ponds in the country.

Anyhow back to the fishing and with the whip set up with a really light float that takes 4 number 10 weights and a size 20 guru hook I began to fish a swim I had been drip feeding with maggots since my arrival.  Already while setting up I had seen a few swirls giving away the presence of some nice roach or rudd up in the water so in knew a bite would not be long in coming and so it proved, you cannot complain at that for a regular stamp of fish from a pond can you?

The action on the drop was fast and furious with roach and rudd coming at regular intervals.  Anyone who has done any amount of this type of fishing “on the drop” knows it is almost impossible to keep going long term as the fish either spook of move to cover.  There are a number of ways to get around this and the one I adopt is the principle the fish move further out beyond where you are feeding so with that I began flicking the line out in front instead of to the side and the bites continued to come again.

This type of fishing is up there with any fishing I do and in honestly the stamp of fish are of a standard that some people would pay good money to fish a commercial for in my opinion.  This water is in the middle of nowhere, open to all the predators that can easily land on its waters and get an easy meal, or can they?  This is where some clubs fail in the fact they pay to stock fish but fail to devote as much money to providing a safe habitat for the fish.  There is a good reason why these fish are thriving here in these ponds I fish and its cover, most of the pond is covered in thick blanket weed and lines with reeds offering these fish a mountain of invertebrates to feast on, a place to spawn and of course a place to hide from predators.  Build the habitat and then stock the fish and you will find yourself with sustainable water where you can stock any species of fish you like and don’t need to use avian predators as a reason not to stock.

I was only on this water for a short amount of time, around hour to hour and half and put together a reasonable net of fish in that time.  I am hoping to get back on here for a full day soon to see if I can build a swim and get some bait on the bottom to see what else lives in this quiet pond.

Till next time I wash you all

Tight lines

Danny

Pond Fishing: Pristine Rudd and Canvas Design Review

  A warm welcome to this week's blog update.  A few weeks ago i was approached by a representative of a UK Canvas company called Canvas Design asking if i was interested in writing a review of one of their products on my blog.  I receive quite a few emails asking me to write features on the blog, some obviously angling related, others not so and for me it has to be in some way linkable to my blog and as each of my updates contain a number of pictures this fit the bill perfectly.

Based in Darwen in Lancashire Canvas Design began producing canvas's in 2004 and since that can boast some high quality customers including DVB, BBC and 60 minute makeover.  There canvas's are produced from 380GSM pure cotton and is stretched over a 18mm or 38mm deep profile pine frame.  All kits come supplied with a hanging kit and the company aim to deliver your order with 48 hours. 

With all the dealings i have with companies around product reviews i base my initial opinions a long time before i see the specific product and its around how the company are to deal with and communicate with, this makes up a huge part of my opinion of the whole package involved with purchasing from this company.  I have to say the representative of Canvas designs i dealt with was professional in her introduction email and her help in subsequent emails was above and beyond what you would expect from a company, so much so they agreed to allow me to not only run a competition on the the Blogs Facebook page for a chance to win a Free Canvas of the winner's own design but also sent me a discount code allowing all the blogs followers who purchase canvases from them a 15% discount by entering BLOG15 in the discount box on checkout. 

Follow the blog on facebook here to find the competition in the coming days:  https://www.facebook.com/pages/Dannys-Angling-Blog/282860255069146

The company then asked me to send off an image i would like on my canvas and after some deliberation over some of the pictures u have of the rivers i fish i decided to go with the picture of my uncle fishing the sankey canal at sunrise, very atmospheric and a picture that brings back memories of early mornings in the pursuit of angling dreams.  After i sent the picture off i received an email thanking me for the picture and asking if i wanted to also send another picture in of me holding a fish and they would send me both of them, again as i have said earlier top quality customer service, you cant knock that. 

The next i heard was 24 hours later i received a text informing me that my order would be delivered the next day and also a number of automated options for me to delay delivery to another day.  The next morning i received another text informing me of the exact hour my parcel would be delivered, both are shown below and i have to say as a person who works 9-5 it was a touch i found most useful as i could nip home on my dinner hour to take delivery, again all aimed at a good quality customer experience. 

Taking delivery i was taken back at the exceptional level of packaging on these canvas's they where well packaged and well marked as fragile giving no doubts as to how delicate its contents where, inside the layers of card board each canvas was protected by its own individual bubble wrap and protective crate paper.

I had my apprehensions with the canvas's around the quality, not with the product but with the quality of the images i sent in, writing this blog i literally am one man and his iphone and sometimes my proper camera and opening the canvas's i was amazed at the quality of them and how well the images looked, i was over the moon with them and was really happy to then see all the bits and pieces you need to hang them included in the package.  The quality of the canvas's i was really impressed with and being able to look at that pike from the winter deadbaiting sessions on a daily basis will inspire me every time i leave to go fishing.  

In summery the person who wins the competition on facebook will be receiving a top prize in my opinion i have nothing but good words to say about this company, a joy to deal with, nothing was too much trouble and the product they sell is equal to this standard, thank you for asking me to review the product on my blog and good luck for the future. 

you can check out the Canvas Design page here: http://www.canvasdesign.co.uk/

Both pictures now hold pride of place in my house.

on to this weeks fishing:

Pond Fishing: Google Earth Finds and Pond fishing delight. 

I am a great believer in angling you get out what you put in and any one who has wet a line will vouch i certainly put the hours in away from the bank, many dinner hours have been spent researching waters in preparation for future trips but one of my favourite activities is to search out little ponds, some nothing more than a spit of water in a field and then going out there to investigate.  Sometimes your heart sinks as you find another angling clubs signs all over it bit other times you find a real gem, this is a fishing trip to one of those hidden gems. 

This session started with us visiting the Trent and Mersey canal by the Little and Big Billinge waters, turning up i expected to see the far bank lined with overhanging trees like i had seen on Google earth but was horrified to see the banks had been hacked to death with every inch of overhanging cover cut right back.  I have no doubt there is a very valid reason to be put forward for this by the agencies involved but from a fish point of view given the pressure from predators our stocks are under i can only see this as a destruction of habitat, how can young fry and big fish be expected to have a chance to find safety from these predators with no cover to hide in. 

Cormorants are the biggest threat but this grebe in the video below shows how exposed these fish have been as this grebe just casually dived along the whole length taking a few fish in the time we was there.  Not the best signs for what i read is a really good area for fishing.

We fished for around a hour or two but will an endless line of gudgeon to show for our efforts and no sign of anything better showing, possibly down to a harsh over night frost, we immediately made tracks to a small pond that holds a good track record for some surprising fish that wake up from winter early each year. 

Arriving at the new location we could already see a few swirls from fish feeding on what looked like a small fly hatch, a sight that filled us both with confidence although the dark clouds building in the distance had us a little worried.  My past experience on this water saw me setting up my lightest pole float i own, i think it takes 3 number 10's.  My thinking? i wanted to fish on the drop and wanted the bait to sink as slowly as possible and i also plumbed up so i was dead depth so i also could be in with a chance of picking up the odd bottom feeding fish. 

I started of just over the edge of the weed, great cover hiding me from the fish, so with just the tip of the pole poking through the reed stems i knew i was in prime position for catching a few fish.  The first fish took a while in coming, a small roach, but it soon was added too with a lovely perch.

The pond, well i say pond, its a spit of water most would walk past, is usually synonymous with big roach but in the early exchanges it was a case of quality over quantity as i took a few of these pristine roach shown below, fin perfect.

The close in line continued to build and it culminated in a lovely palm full of skimmer bream.  This for me was the highlight of the day as we both caught plenty of tiny skimmer bream which means the bream are breeding well in here and really does bode well for the future of this pond.

The weather that had threatened on the horizon all morning arrived with a earnest as both wind, rain and hail stone combined to batter the side of my umbrella.  This weather you would feel sure would ruin the fishing but the place come alive.  My uncle was first to try the open water a bit further out and i noticed him pick up a few fish so i decided to chance my arm and the results even shocked me and the fishing took off with quality rudd coming one a chuck, bolstering my keep net.

The fishing when its as good as this can only last so long before the fish spook off and so it was the case as the weather passed and the sun returned so the fishing slowed down and we decided to call it a day on the session both happy to have had a few bites.

my net

uncles net

Well that is it for another weeks blog, i hope you enjoyed following my weekly adventures and don't forget to enter the facebook competition for the canvas.

till next time, tights lines

Danny