What Camera for blogging and Cheshire Fisheries Fun...

A warm welcome to this weeks blog update i hope i find you all well and your nets wet.  Well what can i say i had just got to the end of 3 double weekends overtime and they come along and dangle the carrot of another 3 weeks in your face.  Having moved house last year and with sights also set on some new fishing tackle it proved too good to turn down.

The weekends where overtime has been on i have managed to sneak in some short evening trips for carp and the weekends in between i have been taking full advantage of the full days fishing and hitting the local canal or commercial.  This weeks blog is the first of those longer days where i decided to visit Cheshire fisheries, my heart set on having fun.

The introduction this weeks covers a bit of info on a question i get asked a lot around what gear i use for taking my blog pictures and a change i have recently made.  The introduction also includes a huge offer sent to me by GCELL for blog readers and followers on social media to receive 20% off when they purchase the GCELL backpack!! Worth every penny in my opinion, i am constantly being impressed by this product every time i use it.

On to the update:

What Camera To Use For Blogging?

This is a question i get asked all the time by people wanting to start out writing their own blog.  The answer in most cases comes down to how much quality you are looking for in your blog pictures.  If you are looking for a blog that contains amazing photography then you would of course be looking for a a high end camera.

Myself, i feel there is more to writing a blog than just a camera and to successfully write and maintain your blog i really feel that a smart phone is the way to go.  With a smart phone you have all your pictures in one place and when you download the right aps you can easily update these pictures from your camera roll directly to your blog.

In this day and age Social Media plays a huge part in any blog and getting your work out their and noticed by as many people interested in your content as possible.  I find the smart phone here shows its worth big time as you can quickly update followers on facebook and twitter from the bank with the press of a few buttons and when sharing blog posts you can easily upload the relevant pictures for that blog post.

There is of course also no messing around with SD cards and transferring files onto your laptop then uploading them from there.  A smart phone really takes alot of the time out of the blogging process. There has also been a huge update recently to the Blogspot App and you can now literally write you blog on your phone now, upload the pictures and publish the blog post meaning if you wanted you could literally produce and manage all aspects of your blog from your smart phone.

The huge downside i have found though with just using a smart phone is when wanting to capture wildlife.  On the bank i often see beautiful sights such a kingfishers in the tree opposite or a barn own hunting the the field next to me but with only a smart phone and no zoom it is impossible to capture these sights in any detail that is worth sharing, for me, this is the only downside of not using a dedicated camera for your blogging. 

Iphone or Android??? 

Since i started writing this angling blog i have always done so using an iphone for my pictures and general day to day managing of the blog on social media and email.  Over them years the phone has done me really proud.  This year i decided on making the huge change over from Iphone to android, picking up a Samsung S7 Edge,   it was for a number of reasons:

- Quality - The camera on the android phones at the moment is drastically better than the current iphone and although content on the blog is more important i did feel i was falling behind quality wise with the pictures.  Straight away the extra quality was noticeable.

- Durability - Lets face it iphones are a fragile breed of phone.  They do not like wind when recording video, they quickly break if any rain gets into the phone jack and if any dirt gets in the charging socket it quickly reduces the ability of the phone to charge correctly.  In short they do not like the outdoors at all.

- My new Phone is water resistant to the point i can literally wash my phone after i have used it and even this yerar so far i have picked it up covering in ground bait and literally washed my phone.

- Storage - It was getting to the stage with my iphone where i was constantly deleting data to keep it below the 32gb limit and it was reducing my ability to record video and take photos.  This new phone has up to 200gb expandable memory insert so hopefully running low on storage is thing of past.

So if you are thinking of starting to write a blog the smart phone in your hand is by far the best item to be using in my opinion.

G-CellDiscount Code FOr BLog followers

So in last weeks blog update we covevered the review of the GCELL solar back pack.  The review has been really well recieved and as such the company got in touch to inform me they had opened up a discount code for followers of this blog.  Simply enter DannyBellfield on checkout to get the discount.  This product is worth every penny in my opinion and a fantastic product for anyone looking to travel lightweight with electrical devices they will want to charge, i can really see this being popular with lure anglers.

link to update: http://satonmyperch.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/g-cell-solar-review-and-method-feeder.html

On to the Fishing...

Last Trip For a While To Cheshire Fisheries...

So the rumour was that this was the last weekend that keep nets where allowed on Cheshire Fisheries till the weather cooled back down again.  Seeing the catch at the end of the session is one of the areas of fishing that i love.  Whether that's a net of roach and bream on the can, a net of dace from a river or a net of carp and silvers from a commercial all give me that buzz when you see the result of your days fishing.  I honestly would visit commercials a lot more if more allowed nets and there is no way im entering matches just for this privilege.

So the car loaded and i was again a man with a plan visiting this destination.  I had two keep nets one for carp and one for silvers and the plan from the outset was to fish for silvers till 2pm and then move over to carp as the light faded.  Armed with corn, a few pint of maggots and ground bait i was all set for a days fishing.

Arriving at the pools i had a walk round all the lakes and i was amazed to see how clear the pools where, they where so murky on the last trip, i noticed immediately that the carp seemed to be all at one end of the pool in a tight group.  I knew this area attracted a few rowdy visitors during the day so i decided to give it a miss and setup on the other side of lake 5.  A nice margin to my left and i knew i have a drop off around top four out in front or me.

I started out on double maggot and was getting a bite a chuck from silvers to the point when i chucked some bait in it was a like a frenzy of fish taking the3 maggots, whole hand fulls where being taken with none getting to the bottom.  I spent a good two hours catching silvers and i forced myself to stop, had i continued i was sure a 100lb of silvers would have been the outcome there was so many fish in front of me.

The day was a really warm one and it felt wrong to continue on the silvers line, huge nets of silvers would be nice but that amount of fish in a keep net all day was certainly not a good thing and then there was the task at the end of weighing and photographing them on my own, it just was not worth it.  At this point i weighted my net of silvers and my when you see a net of 42lb of fish in just over 2.5 hours you can see my point, silly fishing.

I decided on having a little bit of fun and with that i set up my 1.75lb shimano barbel rod, a centre pin loaded with 6lb line.  The rig was simplicity itself a pole float down to a size 14 hook with a BB weight 3 inches from the hook.  No need for a depth plummet here if the float sunk you where too shallow it made moving from swim to swim easy so off i went with a tin of corn, a net and an unhooking mat.  A good spray of Stinky Stuff over the Corn in the bait tub and i was off on my way.

Walking the pools the fish where up in the water but moving around and i targeted a little gap that joined two waters on one of the pools.  The carp moved through here regular and being only a narrow gap it was hard for them to miss the jewels of yellow corn on the bottom.  I fed the swim for a bit and peeping over i could see tails up in the causing the small vortexes on the surface.  I slowly lowered my smelly corn into the feeding fish and it was not long before the float zoomed under and the carbon in the rod had a healthy bend.

On relatively light gear and a centre pin it was great fun and with the warm sun on my back it was great fun playing the carp.  The net slipped under the first i don't know whether it was the carp who had bit or me biting into a branch of angling i have done so little of.

During the next few hours or so i caught a few carp on the centrepin and corn combo and i also lost a few and was also left frustrated as carp moved in and ate everything but my hook bait!!  I was exciting stuff and so visual to see the carp coming from a distance and then the excitement of seeing them stop as they picked up the scent and go down on the bait.  Then the will they wont they scenario where all the time you can see the fish in the swim and your float is moving from side to side a sudden jolt under and your into another hard fishing carp, it was great fun and here is a few of the carp i caught, there where more but in the end you just don't take pictures.

Two hours before packing up time i decided to feed the margins of my peg to the left of me and in went a huge amount of ground bait, maggot and corn.  I made up a rig and kept my eyes on the margins and all was quiet?? Strange i thought i was expecting instant action.  For the next hour i fed the swim by bit but the carp where strangely absent.

I decided to again put a big pot of bait in and this time put it in form a height.  It worked a treat and all of a sudden the swim was like carp soup with carp feeding hard in literally 6-10 inches of water! Was amazing to see.  The action was fast and furious and in the next last hour the fishing went mad with carp bites coming thick and fast.  Foul hooking was an issue but with so many in such shallow water i don't know that else i could do it was carnage.

The final net of car was 7 bars of gold and i must admit i was shattered.

What a days sport on the commercial, a place i will be back to for certain when they allow keep nets again and of course next year in the closed season.  It wet my appetite for the carp fishing to come and doing the carp fishing i love to do, up close and personal travelling light and seeing the fish in the swim.  Carp fishing my way and it was a great way to start the closed season campaign.

Till next time i wish you all

tight lines

Danny

Cheshire Fisheries Pool 5 - Bags of Silver And Gold...

A warm welcome to this weeks blog update i hope i find you all well and your nets wet.  First of all before we get into the meat and potatoes of this weeks blog update i would like to thank everyone who contacted me or commented on social media around the last blog update.  The comments where really nice and welcome and considering it was a step in a completely new direction for me i was really made up it was so well received.

In all i am very fortunate with the blog on social media as in the years i have wrote the blog i can only remember one occasion having to receive negative comments which is really great to see.  As a person you who updates the page on their you also see the same names liking and sharing the updates and although i try to take the time to comment on all the updates i would like to say a huge thank you to all who read, share and comment on this blog, thank you.

So onto this weeks blog update and in this weeks introduction we look at an update to my tackle i am hoping to make and any possible feed back would be greatly received.  The next part of the introduction is a quick look at my plans for the coming weeks and where i am hoping to wet a line.  The fishing See's me going back to Cheshire Fisheries but this time with a bit more knowledge and a game plan to tackle this venue, a new pool and a new challenge.

On to the Update...

The New Pole Lottery...

So a few years ago i investing in my first ever pole, a margin pole called the white knuckle by Middy, it was a fantastic introduction into the world of fishing and playing fish using elastic.  In that early period i learnt to go from buying ready made rigs to tying my own from scratch and learn the basics or pole fishing.  As any pole angler knows the use of a margin pole soon develops into the purchase of a proper pole.

So then came the purchase of my first proper pole, a MAP TKS 125, a 13 metre pole that come with a few top kits and a good reputation.  This pole has been great to use and has done me well for both silver fishing and for carp.  My time using it has allowed me to build on the middy margin pole knowledge and become more accustomed to which elastics to use and the introduction of puller kits.

This being my first proper pole it has also taught me the hard way about how much care you need to take in looking after a pole.  Grit and mud from fishing the river now being removed each time i shipped out and not cleaning the pole after fishing sessions saw me purchasing a new number 4 section.  Towards the end of last summer season an accident on the canal where my number 8 section rolled in the canal after a gust of wind saw me needing a new section.  Not needing this section in the immediate future i left the purchase of this till this season where i planned to pick up a new number 8 and a number 4 section of pole but unfortunately i have found out the pole is no longer in production and searching on line it is almost impossible to find a replacement number 4 for this pole.

So it now leaves me in the4 situation where in the coming months i will be in the market for a new pole.  All of my fishing to this point has never really seen me needing to go further than 13metres so i am happy with that length of pole and my budget for the pole is probably around the £400.00 mark.  Ideally I'm looking for a package that comes with 2 match kits and 2 power kits and ideally a cupping pot and more importantly i feel is a pole that i can get plenty of spares from or at least interchanges with other poles on the market.

If anyone can point me at a reliable pole in this range i would be most grateful.

So Many Ideas So Little Time

So the weather is really beginning to hot up and with it the fish are really spreading out on the canals and commercials alike and my head is full of all the things i want to cram into this closed season.  Sessions on the canal are calling in my ear but also there is a bit of me that really fancies some old school margin fishing for carp and tench on the centre pin right under the rod tip.  the thought of that float fished over depth right in the margin and seeing the bubbles slowly make their slow path to where your float is and then that moment of extreme excitement as the float begins to sway as the fishes flank pushes against the line and then the piece of corn disappears into the fishes mouth and that zooming bite registering on the float and your connected to an early morning hard fighting carp.

Contrary to popular belief i do actually work a 9-5 job and at times life does completely take over and starting the weekend just gone is an opportunity for two days over time at the weekend, a offer i just can not turn down.  Getting up in the mornings is going to kill me as I'm heading down the motorway with no fishing tackle in the back and the thought of a days work.  It will be worth it in the long run though and its only for a few weeks.  This will of course put hold to any fishing on those weekends as i am not a person who is going to go out for a few hours here and there, least not till the really late nights arrive.

I have been having the odd trip out to the canal with lures with little, well no, success recently but it is something that can see me getting a few minutes on the bank from time to time but i must admit i can not see me developing a love to the point i will be out all day on the lures, it just doesn't do it for me.  This may of course all change if i find lures i like to work rather than just casting and reeling in and of course as soon as that first pike comes thinks might change.

In other good news i found out today that Cheshire Fisheries have extended the use of keep nets till end of April which is great news and i ma looking forward to a few more sessions for the carp and silvers on this venue.  The drive is a bit long but if you can use keep nets then its worth it for me.  So plenty of ideas for the coming weeks so fingers crossed we see a few nice fish on the bank!

On to this weeks fishing..

 Cheshire Fisheries Pool 5 - Silvers and Carp Fishing...

So the bank holiday weekend was here and it was time to make some decisions around what fishing i wanted to do over the next few days.  I decided i was not going to go out more than two times over the 4 days and the rest make the most of some family time so through the week i mulled over a few ideas and by Thursday evening at the bait shop i had it narrowed down.

Friday was to be spend either at Cheshire Fisheries or on the canal so i picked up 2 pints of maggots and a half pint of pinkie for my main bait, a packet of roach ground bait and bag of micro pellets.  With this i could decide that evening whether i wanted to go the fishery of go the canal.  The Sunday i planned a session fishing under my rod tip for carp on bigger baits, this session will not be in this update and that's purely down the fact the car is playing up again and is in the garage this Wednesday, if its off the road then i have a session in the bag for next weeks blog update.

The more i thought about the session the next day the more my head was talking me out of the canal visit.  My heart wanted to be fishing a light pinkie float on the local canal but my head was saying go the Fishery and it came down to a few points.  Going the fishery meant i could fish a swim and build it up over the session with no worry about a regatta of barges turning up at 9am, there was also no need to keep checking for cyclists, walkers and joggers each ship out and more importantly a huge part of me wanted to see just what i could do silver wise if i put my mind to it on this fishery.  The keep net in and my tactics right it could produce a nice net of fish.

So that was my mind made up and i began getting some gear ready for the session the next morning.  A few rigs made up to fish the bottom of the shelf and i was ready for a early start.  I say early it was light when i awoke which for me on a fishing day is odd.  A leisurely breakfast and a quick stop off on the way to the Fishery to pick up some corn and i was off along the A49 to Cheshire Fisheries.

By now i was set on my plan for the day and going along the A49 i began to get it all sorted in my head how i wanted to fish the swim.  I was travelling alone for this session and only had packed the one keep net so i needed to come up with a some sort of plan that would allow me to get a picture of the nets at the end without causing myself all manner of problems with getting a picture.

I decided to fish all out for silvers till 2pm and at this point i would empty my keep net, weigh the silvers, then spend the rest of the session fishing all out for the carp knowing i now had an empty keep net to put them into.  Any big carp over 1lb while fishing for silvers would be put back in and when fishing for the carp if i hooked any silvers i would then put these back to avoid them getting crushed.  I sounded a solid plan in my head and you know what it worked a dream.

Arriving in the car park i unloaded the gear and left it right in the middle of all the pools and decided to go for a walk around the fishery.  A few lads where setting up on the pool i wanted to fish and where already at this early hour making a right racket so that was a no go, i had already fished pool 3 so that was out of the question and even if i had wanted to there was already someone setting up on there, so this left pool 5 or the ones down the bottom of the hill.  Being a bank holiday weekend i decided to fish the corner of pool 5 i had a over grown marginal bank between pool 5 and the pool next to my right that looked like it was a no fishing bank and also some marginal reeds to my left if i fancied to try them.

My plan was simplicity itself and i knew the skill on the day would be feeding the swim so i kept the silvers in the swim but did not put too much in that i ended up with a swim full of carp, how odd does that sound!  A angler fishing a commercial not wanting to catch the carp!  I found the bottom of the shelf at my top kit plus my number 4 section, excellent i thought as this close in i knew if i could get them  going i could get a decent net i also had a plan to feed corn down my right hand margin every half hour right on top of the shelf and this would be my line after 2pm.  A nice quiet corner where i hoped the carp would keep come in and feel safe.

Feeding on the day would be crucial and i decided to mix up a bag of roach ground bait and added a few hand fulls of pinkie to the mix.  This would be over kill on the canal but on here i knew i had to feed the fish to keep them coming.  I was no going to feed any maggots by hand into the swim as this would only draw the silvers up in the water and the noise would certainly attract the attention of the carp.  All feeding of the swim would be by cad pot and eased into the swim silently.

Two big jaffa sized balls of ground bait in and i left the swim to settle while i paid my day ticket and while i did i got speaking to a cracking chap from the Fishing in the North West Page on Facebook.  Turns out he was the angler on pool 3 and after chewing the fat about some pools we both fished we went our separate ways and agreed to meet up around 2pm for a catch up.

The ticket paid i made and straight away the silvers where onto my double maggot on a size 16 hook.  The roach to begin with where only small but i knew better quality fish would move in.  The hope was to catch roach and rudd steady through the session and hopefully try and get some of those skimmer bream into the swim that would boost the weight.  The fishery all around me began to fill up a little but i still had my little corner and all around me it seemed people where all out for the carp.

I was in my head talking to myself to keep concentrated on the fishing and not look around at others and i was surrounded by anglers but for me there was only that float right in front of me.  I fed the line with a ball of pinkie laced ground bait by cad pot so i knew i was right over my bait all the time and after catching well for the first hour the skimmers began to move in and that's when it felt i was putting some serious weight in the net.

The bream moving in the swim was great news and they began to really show up in between the roach at this point.  I had no doubt that if i began feeding by hand i would get the fish competing up in the water.  I also knew though that the extra noise would certainly attract the carp.  The float was not settling long before a bite and to be honest i missed loads of them.  This frantic action i knew was silvers in the swim feeding on the maggots but i knew eventually this amount of feed would attract some attention.

The bites died and the float settled in the swim for longer than a few seconds, lifting the float and dropping it back in again saw the float settle again.  I moved a few extra feet past the feed and picked up some roach that had backed off but thus then died.  I fed a big ball of ground bait and fed my inside line for the carp later on and settled back on my top four line.

Looking back at the session i knew what was happening and i should have made a move there and then to another line.  The inevitable followed and a succession of carp to 6lb came to the bank, a few silvers also but it was clear the carp had bullied their way in.  I had managed a good amount of time though on this line and i was proud how i fed the line and got the most out of it before they did take over.  I felt i fed that swim in a way that i got the maximum out of the silvers.  Could i have used corn to single out the better silvers? Or would i have ended up with the swim i had after 2pm?

It was clear the margins close in where not seeing carp moving along them as although not gin clear i could see the bottom slightly and there was no clouding up.  I made a bold move and found a slight shelf right under my feet on my top section of pole.  I fed this swim by had and mixed my ground bait sloppy so the roach felt confident moving so close in, it was a good move and it was a bite a chuck fishing for the next few hours until the stamp of fish completely went and most of the fish where small rudd like below.

The time 1.30pm i decided enough was enough and having hit some more proper carp close in and returned them i knew the time had come to weigh my net of silvers and return the net ready for a hour or so after carp.  I went to lift my net out and i knew I had made the right choice there and then as had the carp gone in it would have been impossible on my own.  The net in the 30 inch rubber mesh net it was a sight to behold and on the scales went 45lb.

Astonishing fishing and shows how many bites are there if you want some constant action through day, i had set out to see just how i could do if i set my stall out for them and fed in a way to try and just get the silvers, barring a few intruders i had done it.

I fed the line again down my margin and put my keep net back in so there was no disturbance on my return back to the peg.  A stretch of the legs and a good chin wag with the guy i met earlier on, he was also catching well.

A return to my peg at 2pm and i was ready to go all out for carp.  I went straight down the edge on a few 3 sections of pole to a plateau i had fed all day with corn.  The float remained still, i was shocked!  I expected the float to go in an instant but there it remained, stubborn and irritatingly visible.  A look to my side table and i had quite a big amount of maggots left and some ground bait.  I made a change that saw my fortunes change dramatically.

I fed a swim with the cad pot right under my feet on the top section of pole, heavy with maggot and corn.  I then added loads of water to my ground bait so it was close to being water in texture.  I cupped this into the swim causing a huge cloud under my feed and put the corn in over the top.  The float barely settled before it was away and i was into my first carp.

There is not really more i can say here other than over the next hour and half till i packed in a 3.30pm i rinsed and repeated this tactic of heavy feeding and cupping in this watery ground bait over the top.  It was a carp a chuck.  I caught most of them but also lost a few as well but it was fantastic fun.

Calling it a day around 3.30 i weighed the net of carp and again i was shocked at how many you could catch right under your feet.  It was obvious on the day who the anglers where and who the day trippers where on the lake i was on.  Nothing to do with angling skill or technique the anglers who where catching where quietly going about their business where as the ones blanking and sharing sly remarks about the ones catching where loud and stomping along the bank.  They wonder why they don't catch, nothing to do with gear as i proved that i was using my top kit.  Some people just do not know how to be quiet.

All in all i left feeling on top of the world in i had set my goals and stuck to my guns and it had all gone to plan.  A thoroughly enjoyable days fishing.

Till next time

tight lines

Danny

Cheshire Fisheries Pool 3 A New Adventure...

A warm welcome to this weeks blog update i hope i find you all well and your nets wet.  Well as mentioned in last weeks blog the river season for me ended as drab as the season its self really with my car breaking down.  The car back on the road and a weeks fishing missed i was as keen as ever to get out on the bank.

I had been told a few times by my mate about a fishery out Beeston way that was a really enjoyable place to fish and after nipping through a week or so ago to pick up a few lures i though why not give it a go?  So with my uncle about to go into his out of river season getting house jobs done mode i managed to persuade him to visit this fishery for one session before his hibernation.

The introduction this weeks includes a little on how my two trips to a proper commercial have changed my opinion on these waters and then the last piece of the introduction is a look at a reviews away from the bank and how they have been to test and write about.  The fishing is our first trip to Cheshire Fisheries.

Commercial Appeal..

In all my blogs i have always been brutally honest on my feelings around commercials and how they have sculpted and changed fishing in the UK in only a short time span.  I still am of the opinion they are the main reason why our banks are so empty on the rivers and canals and i think that is now widely accepted as fact in the angling community.  What i didn't realise is why the people where so in love with these places that to this point, fishing flushing meadows, where as described by the masses muddy holes in the ground full of carp.

On this session i found my self on the banks of a proper fishery, one where time had been invested over the years to produce somewhere that both looked a joy to fish but also had the amenities like a tackle shop on site and even toilets!!!

The banks on both sessions where quite busy, more so on the second session, but it gave me a chance to see what type of people where attracted to a top end fishery and the answer shocked me, all ages of all abilities! And the penny soon dropped, it was more than just the fishing why there people chose to come here.  The fishing for someone who can fish is easier than most places lets not be silly about that but when you looked at it as a whole package why wouldn't people fish here?

The banks where laden with hard core, relatively flat and even and the first pool you could literally fish out of the car park.  Litter bins all over the fishery and benches to eat your lunch at and given the fact there are literally over a 100 pegs there was no fighting or getting up at 4am to get a swim like we do on one of the rivers we fish.  As one guy i over heard said "that was a cracking breakie at Toby carvery this morning set me right up for a days fishing!".  It made me realise that everyone elses idea of fishing is not the same as my get out the crack of sparrows fishing and it really did make me look at it from a different angle.

I then noticed the sheer amount of tackle some of the, i presume, match men or guys who to them this is their fishing brought to the bank and safety must come into it.  I know when i fish the local canal i lean back on my heals as each person passes in case you get that one person who thinks its funny to push you in.  Never mind the fact if you ever got your gear stolen, safely was also an obvious reason why fisheries have become to places to go for people and you know what after my two trips i can see why!!  I see it now and although i could not myself fish a place like this every week i can see myself venturing here through the year and to others similar.

As a complete package its got huge appeal.  Even this bank holiday weekend just gone i was thinking of going the canal.  Early season its never amazing fishing and then i thought about the multitude of boats come 9am and of course watching my back for bikes, joggers and dog walkers every bite of put in, in short i found myself again on Cheshire fishery, more on that next week as i was a man with a plan on that session.

Blogging For Product Reviews...

As always the blogs email and social media pages have been full of questions around all my fishing but there have been quite a few in the past few weeks around blogging and product reviews.  The past few weeks there has been a few reviews on this page and it does seem to people new to my blog that companies are lining up to be featured on the blog, this is far from the truth.  One question i get a lot is:

"I have just started writing a blog, no companies have got in touch how long will it take?"

The truth is as a blogger starting out you are in a vast world of angling blogs already and if you are setting one up just to get free stuff then you are going to be sadly disappointed  My advise is to write a blog about your fishing to the best of your ability and try and find something that will make your blog stand out form the rest, update regular and in time the companies will come to you, but never expect them.  

I get quite a few companies get in touch now and believe it or not i turn more down than i accept as a lot am and not able to relate back to fishing in any way.  For me, i love the reviews they are like the little bits of extra fun on top of a blog i already love writing but the blog is not written as a means for getting 'free stuff'.

On a product review front it has been a really exciting period with the octoplus box review not live and the stinky stuff one in last weeks blog.  I am currently reviewing the GCell back pack and its already saved my blushes on a recent family trip by charging my phone up so we could get home, of course as soon as a review a back pack with a solar power source a storm hits!!  Still the sessions i have planned reviewing it as soon as the sun comes out will be interesting.

On to the fishing..

Cheshire Fisheries Pool 3

Driving down the A49 at first light we turned off at beeston as the busy A road gave way to a long winding country road that wound its way to a quiet fishery lying the the shadow of the historic castle.  With a back drop if ravens or crows ringing in the early morning air we walked around the fishery.  To be honest most of the pools looked very similar apart from pool 3 that had a high thicket fence behind it and a tree that was submerged in the edges.  

We made our way back to the fishery shop to pay our day ticket and had a good chat with the people on the till who where really helpful with their information.  In short all the pools hold good heads of silvers and carp, all have big carp in and fishing maggot and corn the word was we would have a busy day.  Great we thought as river anglers who fish mainly for silvers we are always happy with the float going under.

Me and my uncle decided to give pool 3 a go and we set up either side of the sunken tree with the plan being that if the wind arrived on this really open fishery it would be over our shoulder and the fence would offer us some protection.  My bait for the day would be around 3 pints of maggots, corn laced with stinky stuff and micro pellets also loaded with cray fish stinky stuff. 

As with all fishing the most important part of the session is the first 10 minutes where you plumb the swim.  I found the bottom of the shelf quite close in at my top section plus my number 4 section and i also found the same depth at my top two plus two sections of pole level with the end of the tree.  My plan was to fish maggot and pellet close in and while i did this i planned to feed the far out line on just corn and micro's.

In keeping with fishery rules i did away with my trusty size 20 micro barb hooks and replaced it with a shark hook sized 16 barbless hook with a 2.7lb main line.  From the first put in i was straight into roach on my near in line and i was shocked at the quality of the roach i was catching from a swim that had literally only had two cad pots full of bait.

A lot of the bites at this early stage where in the drop and even at this early stage i was thinking i would be on for a nice weight of roach if i kept the quality of roach coming for a prolonged period.  My uncle on the peg next to me was fishing caster and although he was waiting a little longer for bites he was also getting a good stamp of roach but the castor was also picking him up the odd carp.

I then struck into a weird bite that saw the float move along the top before sliding under.  To my amazement up came a crayfish!  I had been told about these but i have to be honest i never expected to see one come up in my swim when i lifted the float.  No sooner was it on the bank than it fell of the line and shot back in the pool!  No sooner had i let it go than my uncle latched into one as well, the kray brothers!

These where to be the only two crays we caught all day, thank god, horrible things and what shocked me more was the fact the water was tick quite cold yet under its tail it was loaded with black eggs.  At this stage i was feeding the swim by cad pot each put in and was literally filling the pot full of maggots.  The bites kept coming on the silver line but did eventually slow down and despite little tricks like moving a little past the swim and altering my shot the silver action slowed down.

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At this point i moved over to my corn line off the tree that i had primed all morning and took a carp quite quickly, only around the 2lb mark but it was a carp.  This close to the tree it made me think about my choice to bait up so close.  I did not have a puller kit and was on a doubled elastic so it was not a cast of moving them away from the swim more of a case of having no back bone once close in to stop the fish getting into the huge sunken tree to my left.

The time around noon i was sitting it out on corn in the deep water with little success apart from the odd skimmer and roach so i decided to have a plumb around the margin to my right.  I found it went from really shallow close in, inches deep, to around a foot and half on the picture below.  Nicely lined up with a molehill!!  This gave me a cracking point to line up with and i fed on the inside of this mole hill and from previous experience on Flushing meadows in this depth i knew the feeding fish would gradually push bait down the slope so i fed quite a bit inside the mole hill and to kick it of put in a good spread of micro pellets, maggots and corn.

The feeding was not chaotic as in hand fulls of bait, that would come later, it was still a measure amount as i did not know if i would even get a bite down there at this point, remember i had never fished here before so it was all new.  A roach was quick in coming and then a few more came and of a nice quality as well and i was happy that one i would get bites here and also in such a shallow depth my bait was also getting to the bottom and not intercepted on the way down.  It didn't take long for me to strike a zooming bite and the whole margin to boil as a carp angrily left the swim.

Over the next hour or so i slowly picked up roach and the odd carp and at this stage there was little to give the presence of when a carp was there away.  Till around 2pm i was happily picking up the odd carp and enjoying the fight form them, i lost a proper nice one as well, i only saw it once on the top and it looked 10-12lb and i had it on for ages to the point my arm was aching and under my feet i tried to get its head up and was all going well till it saw the tree and it was good night Vienna  The carp to this point where around the 2-4.5lb mark.

After 2pm all changed in the swim i began picking up fish quite quickly after catching the last one and sometimes while playing one fish i would see swirls and tail patterns down my margin to the right as another carp was on the bait.  Missed bites at this point where seeing boils going out the swim as carp spooked in the shallow water and the margin that was, not clear,  but had some clarity was now very coloured up.

At this point i was still feeding by cad pot and was getting to work out the swim.  Pot in some bait and i was laying the rig down the swim to try and avoid the line bites.  It seemed to work a treat and by 3pm i was starting to get a little shocked at the fishing.  The carp where being caught amongst other carp but the swim was just a jacuzzi of boils and tail patterns as the carp with their heads down vacuumed up the bait.

At this point i did away with the cad pot and i was literally throwing bait in by hand, a hand full at a time.  As mat Hayes would say "it was like feeding the monkeys at Dudley zoo".  The bait going in the size of the carp was getting bigger with the fish in the last hour before we packed in all averaging 7-8lb.  Exciting fishing and all on two and three sections of pole.

As time went on i began to think  about how i was going to weigh and photograph the two keep nets i had in.  I knew i had a decent net of silvers already and although these carp where coming one a chuck i was starting to think about the sheer amount of carp in my carp net.  My uncle at this point came over and had a few fish in the swim and even he was shocked at what he saw, it was crazy fishing.

My uncle on the other side of the tree had caught steady all day and he suggested we called it a day as it was heading into the not being able to lift my net territory.  We looked at my uncles net first and when he lifted his net and i saw him get to the cod end of his keep net and he strained to lift his net of silvers i began to think about my net 15 yards away.

I always carry an unhooking mat with me now and my 32inch rubber mesh pike net so with two of us there it was simple to move the fish from the net into landing net.  On the scales it went a barmy 27lb of mainly silver fish with the odd carp.

We then moved over to my swim and we started with the silvers net and repeated the procedure we had on my uncles swim.  The fish put into the large rubber net over an unhooking mat it was quick operation to weigh the net and take a quick picture for the blog.  A 17lb net of silvers and for me had that been all i had caught i would have been over the moon as that alone to me was a cracking days sport.

17lb silvers

We then moved over to the carp and we tried to judge the weight so my scales did now completely bottom out, i was really intrigued to see just how many fish i had caught in those last two few hours.  We weighed the first few carp and took a picture and the net went 37lb.

 37lb carp

We then let these rest in the margin in the big net before letting them go and then brought the keep net out and weighted and photographed the remaining carp.  This second net went 22lb so in total nearly 60lb or carp.

In summary it blew me away completely i was knackered and gobsmacked at what had just happened.  Some regular commercial anglers will probably look at this and say "wow excited over only nearly 80lb of fish" and this might be a poor day for commercial fishing i really don't know.  What did scare me more than anything was the fact that had i carried on fishing till dark the weight it could have been!  Those fish where heavy on the feed and averaging a nice weight  I am sure that would had continued after the light fell and i am confident that 3-4 more carp would have come to take the total on the day to 100lb.  Who knows it might well of died and not got another bite, that's fishing i guess.

My first trip to a proper commercial and i left having gained a new insight into this part of fishing and if I'm honest a greater respect for it.  The fishing was easy at times but looking on the other pools it was quite clear this was not the session going on around the complex so how i fished and fed the swim must have had some impact.  It left me feeling knackered but excited to return and have some fun with this venue before the keep nets where banned for summer.

Till next time i wish you all tight lines

Danny

p.s I slept like a log that night