Losing the Will, Time and Drive....Then a Fire is lit..

A warm welcome to this weeks blog update i hope i find you well and your nets wet, to say i have tried this blog more than once would be a lie its more like 5 or 10 times.  Many regular readers of the blog will remember most of them where wrote from my desk in work on my dinner hour and this one i no different.

So where have i been? Well simply put dragging myself out fishing is the truth, when its hard to get yourself motivated to get out on the bank then its even harder to get ti down on paper, today it came together in my head.  This blog was always my place to put in words how i feel and as such i find myself needed the blog for my own release more than anything right now.

In a time where the fishing has never been better and opportunities arising from the youtube side of the blog greater than ever, what with people asking me to fish their lakes, ponds and cards and other bigger projects with magazines in the pipework its a time where if find my blog flourishing.  You would then wonder why an angler would not have the wind in their sails and striding ahead into angling.

Truth be told i found myself struggling for motivation and a get up and go to go fishing, many mornings i found myself getting up looking at my fishing gear and umming and argghing as to what to do and in the end i did nothing and either went back to bed or made plans for the day away from fishing.  Fishing has been my life week in week out for near on 10 years of blogging now i would say and in that time either through written or video format i have put something out on a weekly basis and i just think at that stage i had lost my way big time.

Waters i would visit where once before i was having fun i found myself catching fish i recognised, nice to say hello and know old friends are well but that adventure had run its course.  Feeder fishing for roach sparked a rise in interest but for once in my fishing the blog ruled my fishing and you cant make a feeder fishing for roach video week in week out especially on the same venue, or can you, i doubt on youtube you can.

The nature of youtube means its very easy to get ahead with the videos, make two in one weekend and you are sorted for two weeks content as such so this did little to spark me to get out around this time i was about 3 or 4 videos ahead.  It was about a month ago all this changed and fishing showed just how magical a passion it is and how it can grab you and take you places you never imagined.

My mate, Mark, was on the canal night fishing for carp and i nipped up to see him and chew the fat, he said in the night they got quite a few bream before they refined tactics to avoid them more and i should nip out next time they are out.  Normally i would pass but i decided to take him up on the offer and next time they where put i did a few hours into dark and nabbed a few bream. 

I really enjoyed it and after taking a taste of the apple i decided to take a full bite and the next time brought along my camera and blogged it.  Little did i know it was the start of an adventure, i wont spoil the blog but a certain fish being caught took me right back to fishing the canal as a kid and a fire was lit to hunt an elusive canal carp of my own..

Part 1:

I will leave this short blog here but this session not only got me back into the swing of the adventure to catch a canal carp of my own its pushed me to try all manner of new things, hopefully the blog will see me fishing lures and chasing barbel in the coming months.

Thank you all for the nice messages i have received while not doing the written blog and lets get this blog back on the road again

till next time

tight lines 

Danny

The Reservoir Diary Part 1 - A New Challenge...

One of the aspects of fishing i love more than anything is the diversity of the adventures that can be created under the umbrella of the word "fishing".  A man or lady mentions they are an avid angler and from that one sentence all manner of species, methods and locations can begin to sprout in all directions.

My journey, until around 2 years ago, never really involved the pursuit of carp but in the past two years i have slowly started to dip my tentative toes into the world of carp fishing.  A few sessions on a small local water chasing carp on floating crust and on the method feeder allowed we to gain some confidence in catching carp to high upper doubles and allowed we to gain confidence and an identity within carp fishing of how i would want to approach this branch of the sport.

I soon discovered i was never going to be an angler who would be bivvied up for over night sessions, i found enjoyment in short morning and evening sessions adopting and developing the mentality of a little bit of bait in the right spot over sitting over a lot of bait and waiting for the carp to find me approach.  I will never rule out the possibility of this journey winding with me delving deeper into carp fishing and the longer sessions but these short sessions on the small and intimate water and the lovely captures like the common below served the purpose of gaining confidence in my approach wetting the appetite for greater challenges.

Sometimes we set our sights on a venue and others we arrive on them by chance, this adventure began with the latter.  Myself and my mate Garry where talking about new venues and we decided that we had nothing to lose in trying a local reservoir.  Knowing the venue was quite a large one i scaled my gear right back for the trip taking only the bare essentials.  A rod bag with two rods, a bucket containing rig bits bait and my licence and a large unhooking mat with a landing net.

We arrived at the venue around 4pm and we decided to give the more well worn pegs a miss and opted for the more uncomfortable, quieter and ultimately less fished peg.  A steep slippery bank down to a flat bank of around a foot or so provided just enough room to get bank sticks in. The green untouched banks testament to the lack of occupation in the swim and i instantly liked the look of the place.

Its weird with fishing how you can instantly like or dislike a venue just by the feel and ambiance of the place and i instantly liked the look of this water.  It of course had plenty of nice pegs with features galore where you could lay out a bed of bait and wait for the carp but it also had plenty of those uncomfortable out of the way quiet pegs where i knew the carp would be found at times of high pressure.

My tactics for the session was my trust method feeder filled with a mix of dampened micro and 2mm pellets with the added attraction of Cheshire Particle Hemp Oil.  The hook bait the ever reliable Bait-Tech The juice dumbells, a combination that had done we well all spring and summer and i am know that confident in it i leave the rig out there knowing the only factor in getting a run is if a fish comes across the trap.  I know if they do then they will eat the bait its that simple ion my head now such the results its produced.

Casting around to find the gaps in the weed i soon found a clear patch out in front of me and another to my right, you could tell instantly when you had hit the spot as taps on the feeder from the roach would be instant.  I didn't mind these at all as a crowd attracts a crowd as such and i knew if the roach could find the bait then so could Mr carp.

After hooking into a few roach i began to feel the pellets where not hanging round long and this trap does reply on the carp fishing the pellets dispersed from the feeder and you bait and more importantly your line being covered by the pellets so regular and accurate casts where the order of the day.

The taps stopped and i remember watching the tip fall silent, a large line bite gave away the presence of a larger visitor to the swim, another long pluck and half way through the tip resetting it wrapped round and the delkim alarm screamed into life.  Lifting into the fish it was all heavy as the fish dived straight for the nearest weed bank.  A sustained pressure on the fish saw it come free and a wallowing almost bream like fight ensued until the fish was coming up the shelf and as it did panic stations began to kick in and the fish went on a number on long deep runs.  It was a fantastic fight.

Thankfully it was a fight that went in my favour and with an aching and relieved arm the fish slip over the mesh, a lovely dark mirror carp of 16lb 10oz1!

Whilst playing the first fish the other rod screamed off and for some time both me and Carry where playing carp.  Unfortunately a hook pull on Gary's fish put pay to a fantastic double fish brace shot that would have really set off the session.  The rods back out the taps from the roach continued and the rod tips danced almost as to the beat of the lapping waves as they washed over the rod tips.

The clouds moved in and with them so did the light rain but this did not deter the carp as again the right hand rod pulled round as the fish was hooked and bolted for the nearest reed bed.  Strong tackle and gentle pressure the fish was back on the move and it soon became apparent that these carp where fine wallowing in 10ft of water until you started to bring them up the shelf.  That part of the fight the carp where going mad and making long hard runs pulling line from the reel but soon a nice upper single figure carp was gracing the net.  Two fish on the first session i was made up.

The next hour or two passed by with nothing of any note on the carp front, roach still continued to come in spells , but it was not until right on last light that my rod again sparked into life.  I am always a great believer that when on a social its always more enjoyable when you all catch and my mate Garry had sat through the rain and the roach with me for the passed few hours so i allowed him to take the last run of the evening.

It turned out to be another fantastic low double figure fish.  The clear water giving the fish a lovely dark back that gave way to yellows as you scanned down its flank.  They where lovely looking fish to catch and this one certainly put Garry through the mill as it came up the shelf with some long hard runs.

The gear packed away it was time to reflect on the session and what a first session it had been with 4 runs and 3 fish on the bank.  We had arrived on the venue not really having any expectations but had left with the grit between our teeth for more.  This venue certainly captured me and i could feel the start of another adventure taking hold.

The full session is available in video format the blogs you tube channel here: 

Top Stick Float Tips, River Season Hopes and Reflections..

A warm welcome to this weeks blog update i hope i find you well and your nets wet.  Planning for the written blog is going well, i find myself on my dinner hour again putting together this written blog and so far so good, i am half way through the first paragraph and writers block has not set in yet. There is time.

So i thought it would be good in this blog update to have a look at my hopes and ambitions for the upcoming river season and at the same time a bit of reflection on the 3 month closed season.  What went well and what i could have maybe done better.  The blog update finishes with a session in search of tench, a species its been far too long since it featured on my blog.

Top 5 Stick Float Tips...

So this week the second video in the midweek vlog series went live on the youtube channel.  I had received a question in around my tips for stick float fishing for someone new to the rivers and as its my main type of fishing i thought i would devote on midweek blog to some basic river tips.  Stick float, rod and line choices feature as does some tips on plumming up the depth and some basic watercraft at the end.

If you read this blog and like the river fishing but are a bit daunted by the thought of fishing a river then give this midweek vlog a watch and get yourself out on the bank, you will not regret it.

A Closed Season With Cheshire Particle Hemp Oil..

So here we are at the end of our three month exile from running waters and the freedom and tranquillity they bring.  I am far from anti social but at the same time i can only take so much shouting and "banter" when i am fishing and i have to say thet my listening to "banter with mates on the bank" from the anglers around me is just teetering on the edge of madness.  That said though i have had to endure far worse closed seasons with regards dealing with idiots on the bank and this season they do only seem to have arose on the commercial scene.

"Cheshire Particle Hemp Oil The Find Of The Summer"

With the closing of the river season I normally move over to the canals for my fishing but as you have all read and witnessed on the youtube blogs fising has led me down a different path this closed season.  The finding of my Drennan Puddle Chucker and my unexpected thirst for wanting to get to grips with commercial fishing has seen my canal fishing plans fall by the side.

This diversion onto commercials and method feeder fishing has seen my use of hemp seed in my fishing go with it too but what this change did do is highlight to me the fantastic Cheshire Particle Product that is Cheshire Particle Hemp Oil.  When this oil is added to their fantastic hemp seed before a session it can be hard to judge how much impact the hemp oil is having, this last 3 months has shown me just how much fish pulling power this oil has.

Added the oil to my pellets after they have been prepared ready for the method feeder has provided me with a pungent heady hemp based pellet mix that when tested in the margins leaked for well over 50 minutes off one small nugget of pellet.  This fantastic addition to the pellets along with watercraft in placing the bait in the right place has seen me cross paths with some fantastic fish this spring and early summer.

Below just a handful of fish i have had the joy in sharing a few special moments on the bank side with..

In short this summer has shown me how good this hemp oil is on its own so when the season arrives for the rivers and its added to the fresh hemp seed Cheshire Particle are famous for it will be done with 100% confidence.  A little goes a long way and at just over 4 quid a bottle it will last you ages.

Grab a bottle here:https://cheshireparticle.com/collections/liquid-range/products/hemp-oil-250ml

The Season To Come...

The season is now literally days away and the reels are loaded with new line and the tackle box has been given a nice tidy up and organised.  The bag of hemp seed has been split down into pint session bags and i am all set for the season to come.

Early season will be all about getting back into the groove of river fishing with a few stick float sessions on the smaller rivers but this year i am alos going to try my best to devote time on the bank to targeting the barbel.  The barbel is a fish that has featured very sparsely on the blog and i have tried on one or two occasions to change that but not being really close to a barbel holding river it can make finding time very hard.

So barbel are certainly on the agenda for sure and i am also hoping as the season goes on to also delve deeper into a bait that i have never fished before in tares.  A lot of rivers i fish are abundant in roach so it would make sense for me to try and expand into this area to try and get the best from  the river i fish.

Fishing for me is all about learning and trying the develop my knowledge of all aspects of fishing so i can try and be the best anger i can be and along the way share that learning journey with yourselves through the blog.  This year has plenty of promise and i am excited to see what adventures lie along the way.

Summer is far from finished and i am hoping to also get out on the bank still for the tench and carp as i have really loved the adventures so far this year.  On that front a 20lb carp would be a lovely milestone to achieve and is at least a possibility now with the waters i am fishing, so that might happen any time which is exciting.

With regards content on the blog i don't think the blog has ever been so diversified with regards species and content as well as formats to follow it on.  I am hoping to introduce more live streaming on the blog on facebook so that's something else to look out for.

A Tench Session On The Tip....

All spring and summer i had spent time on the bank targeting carp on method feeder tactics and over that time i had began to notice a few things that worked with regards my baiting approach.  The hook bait aside for now and talking about the mix of pellets i had noticed that the micro pellets along brought bites but the addition of  4 mil pellets into this mix certainly brought the better carp onto the method.

Additives to the mix over this period have been stinky stuff sprays and Cheshire particle hemp seed oil and i have found both to be beneficial in attracting fish into the swim and are additives i certainly have confidence in when i cast them out.

The main feed sorted i now look to hook baits and one bait has been doing the business for me this season and it has been Bait Techs's the Juice dumbells.  What can i say about this bait other than it has caught me so many fish it is untrue.  It has caught me fish on commercials and natural waters.  So in these two paragraphs lays the trap i have been setting up till about two weeks ago for all my carp fishing.

A new card and a chance to try new waters and early on Saturday morning i found myself on the banks of a new club water.  Out went a method feeder and with it out went an approach i have so much confidence in.  The bait presented in an area i seen as a patrol route for fish and where they would feed confident in feeding i was out to play the waiting game and leave the feeder there until the tip pulled round on my drennan puddle chucker.

The sun creeping over the horizon to my right and its rays just starting to illuminate the bank behind me i sat listening to the early morning bird song.  A heron circling above out looking for its breakfast soon landed a few yards down the bank, good enough for him good enough for me.  A tap on the feeder alerted me to something in the area and over excited i went to grab the rod.  It can be hard to sit on your hands with this but you really have to wait for that wrap round.

Eventually it came and lifting the rod i was instantly locked into a battle of wills as a fish made hard for the reeds.  Persistent pressure soon turned the fish that by now knew it was in trouble and made for the lillies.  At a fair distance it was a tough battle but soon the power in the puddle chucker brought the fish into open water and then i knew, baring a hook pull, a fish would soon be on the bank.

Played out nicely a lovely tench was soon posing for the camera.

The fish returned i was straight back out and knowing how fast the bite had come i was optimistic of more.  A passer by stopped by for a chat and he was lovely to speak to and was intrigued by how the method feeder works.  The mechanics explained the wrap round on the tip soon showed him the results and what a fish to show someone how good a method feeder can be as though us both laughing at the battle this fish gave me as it went hard for any dark snags it could find.

A had said moments earlier if i hit a carp it would be interesting and so it proved as one hell of a tussle was played out in front of us both.  A lovely dark common carp of 9lb was my prize.

It was a fantastic start to my first session on here and i was pleased my confidence in my set up had come through.  Confidence in angling is huge i feel, it means you leave the bait longer in the good spots you find and you know that time is the only deciding factor in getting a bite.  The time it takes a fish to find your trap.

Over the next few hours a few more tench and bream fell for the trap set, check out the video below for the full story and the end of this adventure.

Till next time,

Tight lines

Danny

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

Fishing Republic Theseus Carp Cradle and Weigh Sling Review....

Hello and and welcome to this product review of the Theseus Carp Cradle and Carp weigh sling currently on sale from Fishing Republic.   These products where sent to me a few weeks ago for me to use and review on the blog.  After extensive period of use across many different types of fishing please find the review below of both products and a review video i have posted on the blogs you tube channel.

Youtube video review:

Theseus Carp Cradle and Carp Sling Review..

Product info:
Name: Theseus Carp Cradle
Dimensions: 115cm long x 55cm Wide x 26cm high
Link to Product: THESEUS CARP CRADLE LINK
Price: £25.00


Product Info:
Name: Theseus Carp Sling
Dimensions: 125cm Long x 60cm Deep x 45cm Wide
Link to product: THESEUS CARP SLING LINK
Price £25.00


Review

The Carp Cradle -

When the carp cradle first dropped on my doorstep and i opened it up i was genuinely shocked at two aspects of this product from the outset, one was how light the carp cradle was and two i was really impressed with how neatly it was all packed away.  My expectations all week had been for a large heavy and quite bulky product.

The actual cradle comes in two parts, a padded base and then the cradle with a mesh bottom and both fold in half and are held securely in place by two straps at either end which wrap completely round both produces when placed side by side to hold them securely.  I will go more into this feature later as this i found hugely beneficial when transporting both products together.

The water i chose to put this item through its paces was a local pool with a good head of small carp and a few bigger originals into double figures.  This pool i had fished for the past few years and i had used a small cheap unhooking mat during that time and i had found it really difficult from a blogging point of view to "process" the carp from catching them to unhooking them and then keeping them under control on a slippery mat with no side. at times it certainly made for a frustrating experience.

"From a Blogging point of View the Cradle has been a God send"

The biggest compliment i can pay this product is how it has revolutionised my experience on the bank fishing for carp and blogging.  The fact the fish can be placed inside this padded cradle and i feel confident the fish can come to no harm encased inside its sides.  The fish has plenty of space to move and the well padded bottom and sides ensure no damage to the fish.  As a blogger it makes the process of unhooking the fish and holding it up for a photo a very smooth process.

As regular blog readers will know i am not a angler who is going to catch a 20 to 30lb carp any time soon but i wanted to also show how this sling can be used in other ways and with that i went down the road of using it as a piece of apparatus that has its uses in match fishing.  On a recent session on Cheshire Fishery i knew i was in for a decent net of carp so i brought the cradle along for the final net shots to show the catch.

"My fishing might not see me put a 6olb carp in the cradle so i filled it with 60lb of carp"

Again from a blogging point of view this kit came up trumps again for me.  Many times when i have large nets and a good days fishing i can find dealing with the net at the end very hard work and the true scale of how good a session i have had can be hard to capture.  On this session i had over 60lb of carp and the cradle and the sling made light but quick work of the final nets.

The matt had more than enough room to fit all the carp and its high sides and fish friendly material ensured no damage to the carp when i took this quick photo.  This certainly could have benefits for those anglers looking for good shots at the end of their commercial fishing sessions.

The final good point i found with this kit was the material it was made from.  We all get it in the ear when our kit comes home smelling of fishing but this material meant a quick trip to the hose in the garden when i got home and it was easily cleaned and did dry quite quickly.

The Carp Sling -

This piece of kit i feel completes the package and I do feel to get the most out of them you do require them both.  The sling fits perfectly into the cradle so when i had a fish i knew i wanted to weigh the sling sat nicely over the edges of the cradle and the recess in the middle was created for the carp to sit in the middle.

The material inside the sling felt of a high quality and the mixture of mesh and material with holes in ensured the water drained quickly when you wanted to weight the fish and also the holes and mesh meant that water could completely fill the sling and allow a flow of water through the sling when it was submerged with the fish in the margin.

"With Plenty of Holes and mesh it allowed for the free movement of water through the sling for resting the fish"

A complete wrap round zip ensured the fish could not escape and although i never night fish so did not ever need the rest a fish in the sling for any amount of time to get pictures i did testing and the floatation tops on the sling ensured the sling held in place.  A huge amount of space in the compartment to hold any size fish you are likely to encounter i tested the sling with weights up to 60lb and straps coped with it easily.

Again as a package the sling slides in between the base of the cradle and the cradle to make the package easy to carp and transport to the bank.  I like to be mobile when fishing and these two going together so easily made it easy to move around swims and never felt like i was over burdened and not wanting to move with a view of the gear being a problem.

Final thoughts

All in all two products that really surprised me, i am not going to lie it presented some real challenges to incorporate it into my fishing but with a little thought and imagination i found products that dovetailed nicely and will certainly be a piece of kit that will feature in many more of my photos and sessions for both carp and pike.  Being a blogger i saw huge benefits in me dealing with fish on the bank and having more control of the fish when on the Matt, the camera set pics where obtained or video pieces recorded in quick time.  One bloggers life made a lot easier, now to catch a carp to fill them both :-)

Check out the video review for more info.

Roach Pole Fishing and Autumnal Carp Hunt..

A warm welcome to this weeks blog update i hope i find you all well and your nets wet.  Writing this angling blog over the last few years has been such an enjoyable experience, going fishing then sharing my adventures on this format.  Finding the words to say without sounding repetitive is a constant challenge but i think over the years i have managed to keep it all both interesting and varied.  I just wanted to say a huge thank you to all the people who have ever taken the time to read the blog and a special thank you to the ones who religiously come back to keep up with the adventures.

This weeks blog see's the pike blog go live and with it a few videos to kick start the Youtube channel and i will cover a little bit on why i write the blog the way i do as it has been a subject that comes up quite a bit in the comments and on websites.  The fishing is a session for roach, cant have too much of a good thing right? And then a chase for an autumnal carp to end the season on.

Lets get into the update....

Pike Blog 2016/17 Goes Live....

As you can see form the top bar of the blog the Pike Diary 2016/17 is now live to view.  It will again run in a rolling format reading top to bottom with new trips added as it goes down.  Its a format i have found works well in previous years and with the odd video log added in it will also act as a kind of archive and play list location for these videos.

link to Pike Diary: http://satonmyperch.blogspot.co.uk/p/pike-diary-201617.html

I know the writing is not for everybody so i have set up a Playlist on the Youtube page so if you just want to follow the VLogs then you can watch them all on the play list or subscribe and they will fall into your subscription box as and when each goes live.

I have set up a spreadsheet for this years piking so i know exactly what trips i have done on, what i have caught and what trips i have video logged and uploaded.  This should mean the pike diary this year will certainly be a lot more structured in the updates.  I am thinking of weekly updates on a Friday night and trying to include a video every 2 weeks.

There is currently 3 sessions live now on the youtube page and i have done this to kick start the channel, get a bit of content on there and then settle into a structured format.  Lets just see where this new part of the blog takes us and if it is feasible to continue both given amount of time and effort it takes, especially if vlog lengths increase.

For those looking to subscribe a link to the Channel is here: https://www.youtube.com/feed/subscriptions

Lets Talk Locations and Secret Squirrel Blogs....

So this week i have again been defending my stance on not sharing my locations i am fishing and again been met with accusations that i just write my blog to show off and believe it or not "make money".  I can assure you there is no money to be made in blogspot for writing an angling blog so we can clear that one up right away.

Locations i fish, i do not share them for a number of reasons and i will cover them now.  The first reason i dont share exact locations on my coarse and pike fishing is fish safety, i believe the Internet is the prime area for people poaching our waters to find the good places to go and catch fish for the pot.  I have no problem in people sharing the locations of when they have fished a commercial or a syndicate water as these waters are well protected and it is in the interest of the owners to keep it that way, its their lively hood.

As you will see looking back over the last few years of blogs i am an angler that tends to avoid the popular spots and the places where its like a circus of anglers and prefer to fish the canals, lakes and rivers getting right out of the way.  As such i do fish waters where i see evidence of this poaching and fish being taken, a few years back i witnessed the decimation of the pike stocks on the Dee and right there and then i promised myself my blog would never be the source of this disgraceful act.

Sights like this now are rare on the dee:

We then move over to actual time and effort i put in, i put a huge amount of time and effort into my fishing and subscribe to the moto "fail to prepare, prepare to fail".  If you are willing to put the time into you fishing then you will get the results and this blog proves that, how long is it since i wrote a blog on coarse fishing and blanked?

Roach fishing is a common blog of late on both the rivers and a huge canal that's 22ft deep in places, the blogs show the final result, methods used and a recap on the session but what it doesn't show is the week i went without a dinner hour in work looking on google earth for accessible water and places to park the car, the trip then to the bank at 6am on a Sunday morning to see if any fished topped to give the location and in some cases even the presence of fish.  Then comes the risk and sacrifice, do you not go a water you know you can catch this time of year on in favour of possibly walking a few fields with your gear to blank?  The inner angler in me is an explorer and always want to chase that new adventure.

A swim there somewhere

Maybe with these vlogs i might look for a water and vlog the amount of effort i put into it and have that water as just one water that when its location gets out its done and dusted but it will show the amount of effort i put in.  why should i then just from someone putting a comment on facebook saying "where" give all that effort away to someone who can not even be bothered to say nice net, well done just a "where".  They then proceed to call you all the names under the sun when you don't share it.

Rant over ha ha its been a while and i am still waiting for this person to post their net up as they where adamant my help was not needed and they could use their own water craft and match my nets....i feel i may never see the fruits of their Internet fishing labour....

i feel liberated now lets get into the fishing...

Roach On The Pole...Never Too Much of a Good Thing...

This new area certainly has produced the good the passed few weeks with mid teen nets and a 28lb net for me last week.  When you suss a venue like this the challenge for me then comes in trying to get the best i can out of the venue.  The first week i fished castor on the hook and did not really get a better stamp of fish for my efforts than my uncle on maggot,  I fed little ground bait on this session and did feed heavy on the hemp.   Last week i decided to try and get the bream so i went heavy on the ground bait but i packed the ground bait full of maggot, hemp and micro pellets.

This week i toyed with the idea of again taking castor but decided on a different approach.  I decided to mix up a greater amount of ground bait adding a full kilo of Van Den Enyde Roach to the bucket and riddling before ten adding to it around 3 pints of mole hill soil.  It gave me a lovely fine but heavy mix containing the attraction of the smell of the ground bait but with the fact that at least half of the mix in the moil hill soil was neutral, e.g contains no feed content at all but would add colour.

The mix ready it was time to answer the call of nature and what a view i was met with as i walked the bank, a beautiful morning to be on the bank.

Back to the peg i set up the gear while the ground bait settled, i added a small amount of maggot to the mix as i hoped to attract the roach in with smell but them find my bait quickly.  This week we had moved down stream slightly and was in a new swim.  I got to work with the depth plummet and found the same depth as i had last week on a general slope but it was five sections of pole out and not the three i had fished the previous week.

My uncle had come with a altogether different approach as he decided to fish the whip to hand.  Madly enough we fished around 10 yards apart on this session and it took me right back to when i was a kid on the canal watching him fish the little whip snatcher to hand as so many of my early trips with my dad where on such a pole.

The session started off and i fed three balls of ground bait into the swim, it being a new area i didn't want to ruin it before i started.  My uncles fishing closer in was feeding sloppy ground bait with maggot on the hook.  He was soon into fish which was great to see in the new area.  My swim was really quiet though as i waited it out, my float was set a floats depth over depth to hopefully pick up a bream but for the first part it seemed like i would be lucky to get a bite.

I made a slight change and came up a float depth so i was literally dead depth bit the bottom on the venue and straight away i was into razor blade roach. It really is amazing how much a small change like that can make, from no bites all to literally a bite a chuck!

For the first part of the session the fish where quite small in size but every so often a better fish would show its head.  I was soon into a rhythm of catching roach steady and i was keeping to a set routine of feeding three big balls every 30 minutes and i was feeding a little top up ball every 15 minutes in between like the one shown below.

Keeping the feeding accurate on the spot the fish kept coming and form thinking i would be lucky to get a bite i was soon moving into the afternoon thinking i had into double figures in the onion sack.  My uncle catching steady on the whip was madly enough 10 feet away also bagging up, huge amount of fish in the swims.

As the afternoon wore on and the feed built up my average stamp of roach grew in size and i would say most put ins i was coming back with a roach around 4oz and knowing how the weights last week had come around due to average size and numbers of fish i was confident of a ok net.  My uncle was knee deep in fish and was also getting the odd better roach and a lovely bream around 3lb mark, the challenge now is to work out how to get the shoal in to feed.

As the afternoon wore on towards packing in we had both had a cracking days sport and it was noticeable this week that the fish had kept in the swims all session.  Previous weeks i was adding a section of pole here and moving closer in there, feeding two lines etc etc to keep fish coming but today the fish where in the swim and hard on the feed.

I think this was sheerly down to the drop in temperature this past week and the fish have really sensed it and got their heads down on the feed. We have a new venue to try next week but i am sure as the weeks tick on the fishing will go from strength to strength here as the cold kicks in and the fish come hard on the feed.  I am sure the bream will start to show in more numbers and i am sure this venue has a surprise or two in store for us.

We finished up with two fantastic nets both we agreed where over the 20lb mark and we left made up

my net

uncles net

The Hunt For Autumnal Gold.....

So a week or so back i set off on a little adventure to try and catch one more double figure carp to finish of the season. The water in question holds a lot of singles a sprinkling of low and upper doubles and of course the rumored "twenty pounder".  It was one of these mid to upper doubles i was targeting to end my season.

Arriving at the water there was no signs of fish on the top so i went with my trusty micro pellets and corn approach with an added liberal spray of Stinky Stuff Crayfish.  The swim soon was a jacuzzi of bubbles with a number of carp in the swim on the feed and in no time i had a few single figure carp on the bank as the delkims danced a merry carp tune on a regular basis.

As the sun came over the water and finally began its decent leaving only a mottled light through the brown and orange leaves i spotted a few nice fish up on the top, they where all nice fish and all in the target bracket.  The long summer of being caught had took its toll on these fish and they where in the area full of snags with deep undercut banks and tree roots providing ample areas to relieve themselves of my hook.

A crust of bread was my approach and there was no feeding up to be done here i was hoping to catch the group of guard with one morsel of bread cast in their patrol route.  The first fish came up and turned away, a nice common as well, the next two swam ignorantly under the free offering......"mud pigs?" slurping up anything they can find? not exactly fitting that profile here.

At the end of the group appeared a dark shadow and like as if laser guided it came straight up and took the bait.  Instantly my line went tight and the rod hooped over and in seconds all was solid.  The line whistling in the wind and that awful feeling of line grating against a snag.  Braid was great for floating on the water but i knew its abrasion qualities where not as great.

A change of angle and i felt a kick, i was still attached, i let all go slack for a second and used the oldest trick in the book to wait for the fish to think it was away and swim out of the snag.  A good minute i waited before he line headed out into the middle and the fight continued.  I had the advantage now though as lunges for the same snag where prevented and eventually i slipped the net under her golden autumnal flanks.

A perfect end to a perfect summers carp fishing...

Till next time

tight lines

Danny

Doubles Keep Coming and Bream Delight On River

A warm welcome to this weeks blog update i hope i find you all well and you nets wet.  In life it surely is true that it is impossible to find balance in all aspects of life and boy is that a stage i am going through right now.  I normally split my life into three areas, homes life, fishing and work and you find that at no time or should i say for such a very short time are all three all going well at the same time.  Right now? i would say we are hitting the mark with two of them, in short work is as about as depressing as a job can get, new desk facing the beige wall i talked about in last weeks blog is lets just say not inspirational one bit.  It does serve one purpose though in making you really appreciate the other two aspects, walking out of work and home to the family it really increases that sense of excitement knowing your going home to a happy home and of course when fishing comes along at the end of the week, well lets just say i could not wait to feel that fresh air against my face on Saturday.

Situations like this do also focus the mind and as always i find solace and a sense of escapism from writing these weekly musings, however ironic it might be that most of them are wrote at beige HQ.  Speaking of the blog it really is going from strength to strength under its own steam and on social media it really is being well received with the blogs Twitter account now passing 2k followers and Facebook quickly closing in on 750 likes.  Where this long road of blogging will end god only knows but all i can say is thank you to all those who come back each week to read it and in a world where we have celebrity anglers pushing their sponsors products at anglers in the weekly repetitive mags maybe amateur bloggers portraying their fishing adventures will be where its at in the coming years.

On to this weeks blog update and its just the two trips in this update but when one of the sessions contains over 10 carp then there is going to plenty of pictures for those who just like to flick though the pictures on the blog. The second trip is a trip to a new part of the river searching out unfinished swims along over grown banks.

On to the fishing

A morning of doubles....

Travelling to the lake i had began to get a feel for where the carp would be and more importantly where to present my baits.  The shocking thing i was finding was how quiet the banks where.  Arriving at first light i never really had to worry about getting in a swim or the bread drifting and ruining someone else fishing.

On this session it was a period of warm weather and i knew, like most of my sessions for carp, it was going to be a short session but i hoped a for a fish or two.  The warmer weather i knew would see the fish come up into the layers a lot quicker than previous sessions where the mornings had been quite cool.

Arriving i was glad to see the ducks had moved on and i fed quite a bit of bread under my feet, in the snags and off them as well.  The thinking here was to quickly get the carp up in top and confidently feeding and then pick out the ones taking the bread confidently.  What i got truly shocked me as the carp where straight up on top and in good numbers. In went a piece of crust sprayed with Bubble Cream Stinky Stuff and I quickly picked up a nice double to kick off the session.

As i have said regular on these carp sessions it was all about fun for me on these sessions now hence the floating crust.  I also on this session decided to use my 1.75lb test curve barbel rod and as i said on the video the carp where taking off the top and it was not long till the carbon was bent again.

The second carp again falling to the bread sprayed with stinky stuff was another double at just under 14lb.

After this double a six other carp in single figures slipped up on the floating crust and it was clear the carp where up for it as all the carp where slurping down the crust.  The best of the carp a lovely marked fish below.

These carp i have never come across before in the sessions but i was grateful to have found them and what lovely markings.  You can imagine my excitement when i slid the net under my third double and 9th carp of the morning when it had similar markings, a lovely 11lb common.

Casting the bread right over the far side i got a take from a fish and it did not fight at all, it came in like a wet lettuce if i am honest.  It was a carp and a double figure one at that and it looked to have a lovely dark colour.  The fish on the bank was very calm and if i am honest weird for carp.  All the other carp had been a real battle on the mat but this one just lied there.  I gave the fish a quick look over but could see no obvious reason for it.

A quick pic and back she went.

This double was followed by three more smaller carp and it looked like the doubles had spooked off the area altogether.  I have noticed once the sun gets to a certain point in the sky the carp turn off.  I knew my time on the lake was almost coming to an end.  One more cast i thought and i knew to get a take it would be down to getting a carp that was sitting just under some overhanging trees to come out.

A peach of a cast, well a lucky cast, saw the bread land just on the edges of the leaves.  It was one of those takes where you don't see the bread get taken as all you see is line stripping along the surface of the water a quick lift of the rod and i was connected to another good carp that decided she wanted to go back to her home under the trees.

The rod was bent right over and with my hand on the reel giving no inch i managed to stop the initial run.  As soon as you stop that initial run the carp do seem to slowly move out into the lake and this is when you can really just enjoy the battle.  Taking line and making long surges with the reel ticking over it was a good fight and i was mad up to slip the net under the biggest carp of the session in a 15lb 10oz common.

All in all a great mornings fishing with 5 doubles on the bank and like the previous sessions i left to the sound of people arriving in their cars and the sight of carp all over the top basking.

Bream On The Stick...

It feels great again to be scouring Google Earth looking for new virgin waters to fish.  We have dedicated so much time to one area of river that we hit the same areas time and time again trying to work the river out, most of the time in the same swims just different conditions.  So this week it felt good to be zoomed in on the river and following her every twist and turn to find the deeper runs and then of course the dreaded task of finding a place "close" to park the fish mobile.

A bit of likely looking river found it was a case of parking the car and making the walk to the river.  Down the first field and into the second we where greeted with livestock, never my favourite sight i can tell you, but these where horses, a new animal to share a field with for me, they seemed ok.

In hindsight my green ground bait bucket did me no favours at all and i guess the smell of sweet ground bait that lingered around it also added to the attention i was getting.  Across the fields and along the river they followed till eventually we left our "friends" behind.  The river looked deep and had a gentle pace across its width with trees lining the far bank it screamed fish.  A nice gap between us both we set up full of expectation and this was heightened when a big carp jump clear of the water just down stream, i had no chance of landing such a prize but proved this area held fish.

Early trots down i clipped the bottom a few times and i guessed this was down to streamer weed on the bottom, this would be a problem all day.  Knowing we had caught bream on other bits of this river i decided to mix up a good amount of ground bait.  The first few trots down and eventually i started catching the odd small roach.

Once the line i was going to fish was established i made my move and in went 3 big balls of ground bait laced with maggot and hemp seed.  This is entirely new to me in i never normally feed ground bait on the river but it is a branch of the sport i am trying to learn.  The feeding of the bait is easy its getting the "mix" right and also how much to feed i need to master and i have to be honest when i fed the three balls i knew nothing as to if it would kill of make the swim.

The swim continued to produce the roach and the odd chublet till it died completely and i mean it was like a light switch going off.  I trotted through the swim time and time again for around 15-20 minutes and then all of a sudden the float buried and my 14ft drennan acolyte hooped round.  It felt a huge fish in the flow and it just held there for a moment before moving over to the far tree line.  Turned it then came into the middle again and then up came a huge bream.

I don't quite know how to put in words the fight of a bream i guess if you have ever caught one you will know where i am coming from.  They kind of twist and turn in the flow in a horrible erratic way and i did struggle to get the fish upstream but eventually she came up and into the net,  buzzing the ground bait had certainly worked its magic.

The fish in the net i was straight back in and you can imagine what was going through my head when on the very next cast the float buried again and i was playing another nice bream.

Two bream in two casts and i was at a cross roads with the swim, do i feed more ground bait or do i fish it out? I decided with two of the bream there that size that there surely could be more so in went another two balls of ground bait.  If i was going to learn it was going to have to be a case of suck it and see.  If i hadn't of fed again and not caught then i would have walked away thinking what if i had fed again, did they clear me out and move on?

The second trot down after feeding the ground bait i again hit another bream and my excitement levels hit the roof and i am not going to lie here thought of a huge net of bream where flying through my head.  I think rightly so as well with 3 proper bream in 3 casts who could blame me?

The third bream in the net i settled back in and weirdly i started picking up roach again and some nice chublets

Around 9am i felt this burning on the back of my neck as the sun came up over the trees and slowly it rose till it was completely on the water.  This was the kiss of death as both mine and my uncles swims completely died.  The beauty of two of you fishing is you know if its a predator or not as if your mate is catching nicely and you are not then you know something is not right but as soon as that sun hit the water it killed both swims dead.

We called it a day around 11am after two hours with no bites but we both left having fished a new area of river.  We both took away how important ground bait was going to be on the river and again how much this river will be impacted by hot clear days.

I felt i learnt a lot in feeding the ground bait and getting the mix right.  On top of that i think i learnt that i need to get the bream out of the swim as soon as possible as i think on that last bream it certainly flapped about alot right in the swim which could have spooked the shoal prematurely.

All in all a nice quiet day on the bank and good to get amongst the fish.

Till next time

tight lines

Danny