2018 A New Start...Winter Pond Fishing For Silvers...

A warm welcome to this weeks angling blog i hope i find you all well and your nets wet, wow its been too long since i wrote that line! Just over a year ago i made the huge step of beginning to document my adventures in video format on Youtube and when i did i never imagined that one i would enjoy creating the content this way so much and two that this page would continue to be so popular given the lack on content.

Over the past year i have had loads of emails asking if the written blog would be making a come back as they enjoyed the weekly blog. All through last year i tried and tired to put blogs together but lack of time to do so and also a lack of inspiration, the words just would not come if you get me.  Over the new year a spark lit with me and this sudden urge to get back blogging kicked in, so here we are the first full week of the new year with a blank canvass so lets get this show back on the road.

Changes -

These really come down to yourselves the readers and you getting your thoughts out there on social media and in the comments section below as to what you like and what you dont like about the blog.  In the past it has had many identities and themes from me answering questions i receive in to me posting my thoughts on things i see in angling, rants and all, before getting into the main part of the blog the fishing.

As a content creator if none are forthcoming then i  am thinking of the blog being more like a written diary, just the fishing sessions in written form trying to capture the sessions that i fish, the sights and the scene and the session as a whole.  Either way i want it to be something that you yourselves want to read so let me know please.


So lets get straight into it:-

Winter Pond Silvers on The Waggler...

Friday morning and with the incessant rain still tapping irritatingly at the window of the living room i sat, feet up, watching yet another repeat of Home Alone on the box.  A great film no doubt but after a long Christmas period rocking around the Christmas Tree has just lost its appeal and truth be told the sound of rain incessantly falling had me feeling more like banging my head against the Tree than dancing round it.

Cabin fever well and truly set in i just had to get out and wet a line the next day so plans with my uncle where made and we made one promise, we would find somewhere to wet a line.

Saturday morning and a clear crisp morning met me as a loaded up the car for another adventure.  The rain had meant silver fishing really had taken a back seat of late as the ease and versatility of conditions you can pike fish in had seen me targetting these camouflaged predators more often than not, it meant me delving right to the back of the fishing room for my box and drennan acolyte rod.

Our journey to the river my heart sank as we passed all the local ditches and run offs that where grey and carrying plenty of road run off.  I knew then the river we where travelling too would also be "on the edge".  You can look at the charts on the rivers all you want but the simple equation is, if the side streams and upper reaches are a mess then the main river is also going to be similar.

Arriving at the river as day light broke we could see straight away the over night rain had really come into the system in a big way, no way would we be float fishing today.   A quick chat and a video of said waterway done for the blog we decided to drop back on a small pond.  When picking winter venues to fish its never easy but one thing i would say is always looks for one with some depth and as small as possible.  Simple physics then mean fishing the deepest but you are not too far away from any fish.

The pond surrounded by by old trees their forks bare from their summer foliage and the pond now also free from the chocking summer weed had a black tinge to its crystal clear depths.  A tough day was in order for sure with such clear conditions but i set my sights on 10 to 20 fish.  A solitary fishing topping right in the middle of the pool sparked some excitement as it meant the fish where at least on the move.

Tackle for the session was my 14ft Drennan Acolyte coupled with a shimano Techium reel loaded with 4lb drennan float fish line.  A simple waggler was attached via a float rubber to the line and this all lead down to a 1.7lb Bayer Perlon hooklength and a size 18 micro barbed hook.   The shotting pattern was strung out number 8 shots.

My bait choice was simple in the form of around a pint and half of white maggots that i planned to drip feed the swim with.   The swim in front of me was like any pond, shallow margins dropping into a deep bowl, i plumbed up at rod tip just where the bowl levelled out and spent a good amount of time making sure the float was shotted down as much as i could to register even the faintest of bites.

The first cast and the float settled nicely with just the bristle breaking the glass surface of the pond.  More fish began to top around the pool but my float remained stagnant in its position.  I kept feeding the swim with two to three maggots and on every few feeds recast in the hope the fish where intercepting the feed on the drop.

Eventually the first bite came in the form of a small roach and despite the air being quite comfortable the roach stung my palms as it graced them such was the harsh coldness of the fish, bitter! I knew there and then bites would be at a premium and feeding had to be careful as these fish, although feeding, would not need much to be overfed. 

It took around half an hour for the first bite but then like the kingfisher that past me so came a flurry of bites as the first fish was followed by two more.  Many who will have watched the videos on youtube will see my thoughts on feeding and with a few bites like that it is easy to think they are having it but you have to be restrained and not go mad and over feed so i continued to drip feed the swim with 2-3 maggots at a time.

By midday a pattern had shown in the fish would move in, you would catch one or two and then would follow a period of quiet before their return, i was happy with this on the day as a good bit of banter was had with my uncle during the lean spells, i would say by midday i had around 10 plump roach like the one below in the net.

Into the afternoon and the swim completely died for a good hour and all signs of fish in the pool seemed to cease as an eerie silence came over the pool the birds seemed to have lost their voices and even dying reeds to my right ceased their whistle as the wind dropped.  A solemn calm in a world crammed with impatient people clambering to get their mundane tasks completed, a moment of utter peace and tranquillity in the middle of an urban landscape, a world few of these people who partake in this modern rat race stop to even acknowledge.

The calmness was broken when my float slid away and likes its action the whole swim descended, into chaos that is, as the drennan acolyte bent smoothly into a better fish.  The camera grabbed to capture this moment on film it was utter shock when up through the clear depths came the olive green flanks of a tench!!, The camera went down and all that mattered was sliding this fish into the waiting net.  A winter Tinka a real surprise given the cold conditions.

The tench was a real surprise on such a cold day and i guess goes to show that these species do not just sit there dormant all winter till spring comes, a nice addition to the days sport.  The disturbance of this fish did kill the swim for a bit but eventually a few roach moved back in but in reality it was not until the sun sank down onto the horizon and its oily watery winter gaze jeweled through the trees that a few better roach started to top and out of the blue right on last knocking a real beauty of a roach made an appearance,

The roach was a fitting end to a nice day on the bank with my uncle and hopefully the net below goes to show that you dont need 20lb nets of roach to have a good day on the bank, a few bites with a mate can lead to some of the best and most memorable days on the bank.  A special session on a special water, see you in spring.

Till next time

tight lines

Danny

You can watch a video of the session on the blogs youtube channel on this link below

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