Carp Fishing: Flushing Meadows Storming Session

A warm welcome to this weeks blog update and this week we move into the last few days before the start of the River season.  I am just about there and apart from a few bits and pieces from the bait shop on Fathers Day I am all set to hit the bank on the opening day.  Myself and my uncle walked the banks of the River Dane last Saturday scouting out swims and likely looking areas and I have to say we found a few spots that look to have the potential to throw up a few fish.

The river fishing arm of my angling life is one that i have most confidence in and an area i feel we are spoilt for choice and that only comes from the amount of hard work we have put into it the past few years.  We have travelled to out of the way swims, suffered the emotions of a blank and the excitement that comes when you find a new area of river or even a completely new river and it all comes together and you uncover a gem.  I guess all the fishing I involves a huge sense of adventure into the unknown.

The season just within touching distance its a good time to reflect on last years river season and I must admit writing this blog doesn't half give you a wealth of information to look back on, I mean how many people out there can at any moment look back over the venue they fished, time of year, picture of the final net and in most cases the conditions during that session,  I may not earn any money from writing this blog but what it offers me back as an angler is priceless.

Looking back to this time last year our journey started travelling down the disgraceful track down to the Warrington Anglers River Dee water at Worthenbury, this trip threw up a few dace for myself and my uncle but the journey was not worth the effort it took navigating the lunar like track. The next day i headed to the River Dane and was rewarded with a chub and a hard fighting grayling, a proper way to open the season.

Moving into summer we began to discover a brand new river, clear conditions provided us with proof of its barbel and chub stocks and the motivation to keep going when sessions got tough.  We visited this venue a few times and even spent my first night session on its banks, an interesting session to say the least and not for the fishing, well worth a read. Link: http://www.satonmyperch.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/my-first-night-session-night-to-remember.html

In keeping with the discovery theme we continued to travel the length and breadth of the River Dee and found some quality Dace shoals and some very good pike spots on our travels.  Autumn into winter saw us travel to the river dee where we expected to spend the next months prowling her banks and like bears waiting for the salmon run we waited for the cold to arrive and the mighty dace shoals to move in.

Little did we know that on the last week of November would we be travelling to the River Dee for the last time if the season, three months of rain and flooded rivers saw me go on the pike hunt but river wise it was two weeks before the end of the season we got back on a river.  Two sessions on the River Dane and one on the Weaver is where we left our story in march and three months on west stand on the eve on the adventure continuing, i cant wait......

The past few Fridays i have gone out on a long walk with the dog with my work friend Ian and last week it was a a joy to witness some sublime scenes on Appleton Res as the sun sunk behind the trees we got a chance to spot some of the carp moving into the shallows and it was amazing to see people carp fishing with no activity around them and the fact if they had just walked round the lake there was a huge group of fish waiting to be caught.

Appleton res, a beautiful evening water.

on to this weeks fishing.....

Carp Fishing: Flushing Meadows Storming Session

Speaking to my uncle late on Friday night we decided on visiting Flushing Meadows for our fishing this weekend , at this time the sun was beating down and the temperature was really pushing that mercury and you could have been fooled into thinking we were in for a day relaxing in the sun the net day but a quick glance at the weather.revealed heavy rain and thunder storms for  the next day.  Waking up the next morning the air was stifling and very close and it was so warm that whilst walking back to the pool after parking the car up the noise of carp sucking in the margin of the disabled pool could be heard.

We decided on Flushing meadows fishery on the day as one of their pools is quite secluded with trees on one side giving protection from the wind and also with it being down a hill you get some protection from the wind in the other direction as well.  These trees offer protection but through the gaps we could quite clearly see the clouds of change approaching and had the gaps not been there the rumbles of thunder closing in would have let us know.

The arrival of the thunder and lightning brought with it a coolness that was more than welcome and not only from a comfort point if view as the arrival of the cold weather saw me and my uncle into the odd small carp.

 Fishing in a thunder storm is not a good idea at all and to fair when the storm was over head we did pack in for a few minutes while it passed over.  The early exchanges where hard going with none of the proper carp showing for either myself or my uncle and what carp where about seemed to be up the other end of the pool.   This fishery has 5 pools on it and all have a good head of carp and are absolutely stuffed with silver fish to the point it makes a mockery of silver fishing for them so when we go now we just go with the mindset of targeting the bigger carp.  The video below taken at the end of the session showing just how many silvers are in this venue and this does not take into account the fact there are some really big roach and rudd in there and the countless skimmers if you fish on the bottom, it does make you wonder how they all get enough food to survive.

It does get to the point where you have to say catching silvers on venues as heavily stocked as this teaches anyone learning the art of angling nothing but how to unhook fish and bait a hook, ridiculous really.  The morning moved on and as it did so the better fish moved in on my swim, first a rogue tench and then the better carp.

We continued to plug away and in keeping with the conditions our success levels where changeable from hour to hour with flurry's of bites coming and going as quick as the rain showers.  My new umbrella up it was great fun playing the carp on the rod and centre pin.

The result of this video was one of the most stunning carp I have ever caught, beautiful markings with a full linear line down its flank.

My uncle was also into his fair share of carp on the opposite side of the pool but with the heavy rain it was hard to get some pictures, this one below one of many he caught on the day.

All in all it was a session we both enjoyed with a few carp on the bank.

Till next time

tight lines

Danny

Margin Carp on the Pin and Rixton Litter Email.....

A warm welcome to this weeks blog update and if it is anything like the weather this week then it certainly is a warm one. I start this week with the great news that RiverFest 2014 has officially sold out completely meaning all pegs for all matches are now sold, great news for the organisers and great news for river angling in general.  This year the Riverquest competition will take in all types of river venues around the country from matches on fast flowing rivers where trotting a float will be key to slow rivers like the river weaver where pole fishing will come into its own.  Although i did not enter the competition this year i am hoping to get down to the weaver to see the Riverfest qualifier. Good luck and tight lines to all that entered this year.

In keeping with the start of the river season i was busy this week scouring the Internet for the best deals available for bulk purchases of hemp seed.  My river fishing is predominantly hemp and either castor or maggot based so splitting the purchase of a bulk order with my uncle can see us saving a good deal of cash especially as we both do not mind cooking it ourselves.  The river weaver is going to feature a lot this year and it is a river that can demand a lot of feed so i am also looking at bulk buying some brown crumb to bulk out ground bait mixes, storage is going to be one of the main issues i will face though.

The opening weekend of the season can be a big let down for rivers but fishing it is a tradition i have kept up since i started fishing the rivers a few years ago and to be honest in that time we have built up a great portfolio of river venues to choose from so on the opening day i will be spoilt for choice on where to actually visit.  The past few years i have visited the river dee and the river dane and done OK on both venues but this year i think the opening trip should spell out a president for the season ahead so i am thinking of starting on a new water and begin the adventure of discovery from the opening weekend, start as you mean to go on.

last year opening weekend trip: http://satonmyperch.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/river-dane-chub-delight-and.html

Moving along and this week amongst other emails i received from people who read the blog was a very unique email from a person who has nothing at all to do with angling but shares a very special venue in rixton clay pits with anglers to pursue his passion for wildlife and who can blame him rixton clay pits has to be one of the best places around for all types of wildlife.

The email was sent to me after he came across one of my previous blog posts whilst searching for information on Rixton.  The blog post i wrote was around litter left by anglers around this venue and how it put angling in a bad light.  The blog post can be found here for those wanting to read it: http://satonmyperch.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/the-good-and-bad-of-rixton-clay-pits.html#comment-form

This email starts off with praise for myself in dispelling the myth that not all anglers out there dump litter and do not care about the environment around us when we wet a line and moves on to mention some of the disgusting sights he has witnessed while wandering round the lake we fish from bin bags hanging in trees, wellingtons boots and broken fishing brolly's dumped in the bushes too the litter just dumped on the pegs fished by anglers.

The person in this email goes to show just what an effect litter has on the reputation of angling and how the sheer lazy act of dumping litter or not taking it home shows not only all of us who wet a line there but angling in general in such a bad light.  Don't get me wrong littering is not just confined to the angling world and is a problem in society in general but i do think it is a problem in angling that should not be there at all as it is as simple as taking a carrier bag and of course remembering to take it home with you and if you are taking tins of sweetcorn or luncheon meat for bait then open them at home and take them in a bait box.  And as for cans of lager and leaving the packaging on the bank then that is just beyond unacceptable on a water that is a breding ground for so many water birds.

As an angler i feel privileged to fish some beautiful venues and Rixton clay pits is up there with the best of them that i have the pleasure to fish on.  The blog posts i update on my blog for Rixton are always popular updates and i have no doubt that these attract the attention of some of the people who do leave litter.  I am not a person who uses my blog to preach my beliefs on the right and wrong ways of fishing but if you are one of these people who does leave litter on the pegs or in the trees or even in the car park please take take some responsibility and think just what a bad light it puts angling in when you leave litter and PLEASE take it home with you.  Rixton Clay pits are a SSS! (Site of Special Scientific Importance) and as such we should be doing all we can not to put our angling rights on this magnificent place at risk.

In keeping with wildlife this week's fantastic weather gave myself, my partner and our little girl plenty of opportunities to get out in the nice weather.  Trips to the local park saw us hounded by countless inquisitive squirrels, who i have to say absolutely love Cheesy Wotsits to the delight of the children feeding them, not their natural diet or pine cones and nuts but given they live in a public busy park I'm guessing they see their fare share of fast food!

Later in the week we went out to the local park and was delighted to peek though a gap in the reeds as see a swan on her nest incubating her eggs and in typical urban fashion a wooden pallet was used as structural support.  Fantastic how nature adapts and fits in to the world created by ourselves, utilising every opportunity no matter how unnatural it may seem.

on to this weeks fishing.....

Carpin on the Pin at Flushing Meadows Fishery

The weekend just past i was sat deciding where to fish and really could not decide what to do, my head wanted me to go spend a day for the carp on the carp quest but my heart wanted to have some fun in the sun and knowing how finicky the carp are on the carp lake i knew in the heat they would be up on top swimming round in the middle all day.  With this in mind i decided to visit a fishery i have not visited in a few months now in Flushing Meadows Fishery.

Arriving at the gates at 6.30am it was not long before i was joined by a growing line of cars waiting for this fishery to open, a sight that emphasises the popularity of this fishery.  I am not an anti social angler but its safe to say i like my peace and quite and with this amount of attention i was eager to get my own little area away from the groups.  The snake lake and the canal are always choker and i i was pleased to see the cars pulling off the main track in all directions behind my car as i headed along the track, one by one the queue dispersed till there was just me and a small overgrown pond left.

Fun was the order of the day so i came armed with only my 13ft float rod and my centre pin.  The carp in here range from ounces to over ten pounds but a good fish is normally around the 8lb mark, in all my time fishing here i am yet to catch a double, so i picked my pin loaded with 5lb power silk line.

When i do fish this place and decide to fish a pond or lake with other anglers i am constantly amazed by how many plumb up one or two rod lengths out in the deepest water and feed it heavily, sometimes with two tins of corn, believe me it happens and some people have no problem of doing it yards from your swim, these people then wonder why they sit looking at a still float for hours, another reason why i seek solidarity on this place.

In reality the fish in here can be caught on a single grain or corn or meat or maggot (if you can  get it through the silvers) just inches from the bank.  The picture above showing the maximum i ever fish out on this place as the fish are literally under your feet.  This place is a very easy fishery indeed but it is only easy if you are quiet and light footed around the banks and are putting the bait in the right areas, presented correctly.  The bait in a known spot it was not long before the float shot under an the first fish was on the bank, a small palm sized carp, perfectly proportioned and mint condition.

With this fishery containing so many fish you never really know what the next fish will be and even using bigger baits can see you connected with smaller carp and sometime believe it or not roach.  During the early part of the day i found it hard to search out the bigger carp as my bait was snaffled by small carp.  Moving around the pool it was amazing to see that in one swim i caught around 10 crucian carp on the bounce and this was the only swim on the small pond i caught crucian carp from all day.  Each swim i left i popped in a small hand full of bait so i could fish the swims in rotation but not enough to ruin the fishing should someone else turn up and want to fish the swim.

Sneaking round the different vacant overgrown swims i soon got to the last swim in the corner and a few tell tale swirls in the margin gave away the presence of some better fish so dropping the float in the margin i sat like a patient heron while the line tantalisingly flicked off the feeding carps fins.  Eventually the float shot under and a massive swirl erupted as the carp shot out of the margins.

the noise of line coming off a centre pin takes some beating in my opinion, although this will certainly need some oil before the river season.

eventually a nice 5lb carp was on the bank.

The bites where none stop all morning as i moved between the swims picking up the odd carp from each swim along with a rogue tench.

As the morning lazily moved on towards midday the carp started to show in the margins as they basked in the scotching heat, a new challenge now presented itself as floating baits are not allowed in this fishery so pieces or meat where teamed with bread crust so the meat fell slowly as possible through the water columns and proved to be a meal the carp could not resist.

the targets.. 

on the bank

I only had till around 1pm and thoroughly enjoyed catching a number of smaller carp on the drop over the next hour

1,30pm came round and it was time to pack in the knees of my jeans stained with mud and my arms red with nettle stings i looked like a ten year old kid and felt like it, it was great, fantastic in fact.  I walked back to the car past two ponds full to the brim with anglers all hunched round one lake, fighting for room and the fishes attention.  I left a happy angler, worth every penny of the 7 pound day ticket, did i have fun? You bet i did.

till next time i wish you all tight lines

Danny

River Fest 2013 Date Released And A Fun Day Out

A warm welcome to this weeks blog update and as I promised in the previous update I bring some more information around the River Mania Idea of Dave Harrells.  First of all the name the angling trust have come up with for the competition is River Fest 2013 and here is the press release that was issued earlier this week with venues for the qualifiers and dates.

ANGLING TRUST RIVERFEST 2013 - WHAT'S IT ALL ABOUT? 

A brand new competition, which will carry the biggest ever individual river competition first prize of £10,000, plus more big main list and section cash prizes in the final gets underway in July.

RiverFest 2013 is the brainchild of river expert Dave Harrell who has been working closely with the Angling Trust to put the competition in place. Twenty qualifiers of 60 anglers on various river venues around the country will see three anglers from each match qualify for a two-day weight aggregate final on the fish rich River Wye at Hereford on the weekend of November 2nd and 3rd 2013.

Dave Harrell said: “While it’s been great to see some big money events created on commercial fisheries over the past few years, natural fishing has been largely ignored. This new competition is an idea I’ve been thinking about for a while and it’s now going to happen thanks to the involvement of the Angling Trust.”

“The response to date has been fantastic as river match organisers from all over the country have come forward, keen to get involved with the competition. We’ve got 20 qualifying matches this year and it is the Trust’s intention to make the competition even bigger in the years to come."

"We gave a lot of consideration to the choice of venue for the final and eventually settled on the River Wye as it’s a place that lends itself to various skills and methods. We felt this was important, as we didn’t want to alienate anyone who qualified by putting him or her on a venue where they had little or no chance of competing. With a two-day total weight final as well this will make it much fairer for everyone to compete. The main target species in the final will be chub, barbel, roach, dace and perch and approaches will include both float and feeder tactics depending where you draw.”

“We are now actively looking for a sponsor for the competition as we have a lot to offer in terms of company, or product exposure and promotion. Any interested party is invited to get in touch with me through my email address at: info@daveharrellangling.comin the first instance.”

Mark Lloyd, chief executive of the Angling Trust said: “We’re all very grateful to Dave for spearheading the launch of this new competition and for helping us launch it so rapidly. It’s an exciting new addition to our match calendar and we hope it will recruit some new members to the Angling Trust to support our work fighting to protect fish and fishing and recruiting the anglers of the future.”

From Tuesday 14th May entry forms to apply for the qualifying matches will be available from the Angling Trust, and a coupon will also be available in the two weekly angling publications. There will also be further details and entry details available on the Angling Trust website at www.anglingtrust.net

QUALIFIER DATES AND VENUES

JULY 20TH – RIVER YARE
JULY 21ST – GREAT OUSE, LITTLEPORT
JULY 28TH – RIVER CALDER, MIRFIELD
AUGUST 4TH – BRISTOL AVON, NEWBRIDGE AND SALTFORD
AUGUST 10TH – RIVER TRENT – TORKSEY, NORTH CLIFTON, SOUTH CLIFTON
AUGUST 17TH – RIVER SWALE, MORTON
AUGUST 18TH – RIVER URE, RIPON
AUGUST 18TH – RIVER TRENT, BURTON
AUGUST 31ST – RIVER TEES, BOWESFIELD
SEPTEMBER 1ST – RIVER DERWENT – BORROWASH AND DERBY.
SEPTEMBER 14TH – RIVER SEVERN, BRIDGNORTH
SEPTEMBER 15TH – RIVER SEVERN, BEWDLEY
SEPTEMBER 21ST – RIVER CALDER, ALTOFTS
SEPTEMBER 21ST – RIVER SEVERN, UPTON UPON SEVERN
SEPTEMBER 22ND – WARWICKSHIRE AVON, EVESHAM
SEPTEMBER 28TH – RIVER TRENT, BURTON
SEPTEMBER 29TH – RIVER THAMES, MEDLEY
OCTOBER 5TH – RIVER SEVERN, SHREWSBURY
OCTOBER 6TH – RIVER TRENT, LAUGHTERTON, NORTH CLIFTON
OCTOBER 12TH - WARWICKSHIRE AVON, EVESHAM

Please 'share' this on your own page and spread the word to your friends. And remember, Tuesday May 14th is the day that tickets go on sale!

There has also been a Facebook page set up on this link: https://www.facebook.com/AnglingTrustRiverfest

You can also follow the River Fest on Twitter by following @ATRiverFest2013

I was hoping to participate in this competition but looking at the venues on the list there isn’t a single river I have wet a line on.  I was hoping the River Dee or the River Ribble might have been on the list so I could enter a match with a bit of confidence.  The rivers above all seem to me like big fish rivers and with my river angling being mainly for silver fish like dace i could well turn up and draw the best barbell peg on the stretch and not know it sat happily fishing for dace.   I am going to give it a big mull over before the day the tickets go on sale so don’t be surprised if I change my mind.

On to this weeks fishing:-

For some time now there has been talk of my cousin and his mate coming fishing with us but each time the trip has failed to materialise for one reason or another but that changed this week when myself, my uncle Azzer, his eldest Alex and his mate Ric all decided to make the short journey to Flushing Meadows.  The angling experience ranged from my uncle who has been fishing for years to Ric who had never been fishing in his life before, we guaranteed him before we left he would be fed up of catching by the time 4pm came around.

We opted to fish the deep Marl pool at the far end of the fishery as there are only a few fishing pegs on here so by us spreading out a bit we would hopefully put off any other anglers and have the whole pond to ourselves.  I treated the session as a practise to make sure my carp rigs are working as I was lacking confidence in them due to the lack of runs on curlston mere so I decided to pretty much stick to fishing the carp rod on a bite alarm for the whole session.   My uncle was armed with a pint of maggots and luncheon meat and alex and ric the same and all had aspirations of catching a few fish. 

We arrived at the pool and whist setting up was treated to the sight of a hare crossing the field behind us and upon reaching half way across the field it must have noticed our presence and it bolted for the hedgerows, I nnever knew they were so large luckily I managed to capture this video below.

I had a rig ready-made so it wasn’t long before I was fishing and Alex was not too far behind me.  The job of setting up Ric landed in my uncle’s lap and he set him up on a small section of pole to fish close in for some silver fish and in no time at all he had opened his angling account with a nice roach.

Alex was also not far behind him with getting a fish on the bank.

Both alex and Ric continued to catch these roach at will with Ric having a particularly “cracking” morning on Azzer’s newly shortened pole and Alex becoming more extravagant with his casting into, sorry close to the trees.  As the morning progressed so did the quality of the fish and Alex started to get into some of the smaller carp in the pool.

After setting ric up on the rod and also untangling Ric’s rigs my uncle finally managed to get in some fishing and picked up this lovely tench early on in the session.

With all of us picking up some carp now Ric wanted to try his hand at trying to catch a carp so I sat him down on my peg and began to show him how to go about catching carp on the pole.  This is the first time I have showed anyone how to fish and I thoroughly enjoyed it from showing him how to set up to how to play this fish it was all good fun.  The swim ric was in had a big snag in under his feet so it was a real tough swim for a beginner to attempt to catch a carp from and together we proceeded to lose 3 carp to the snag but each time Ric picked up a bit more knowledge and was really learning how to play the fish and when to really apply some pressure.  The forth carp was not so lucky and with some really good angling Rick managed to land the best carp of the day and as you can see from the picture below he was over the moon and so was I, I never knew someone else catching a fish could give you so much pleasure.

As the session continued all of us picked up more carp and I personally was made up that the rig I was testing out was doing the business and catching me some carp, I think I ended the session on 5 or 6.  Below are some more pictures from the session.

I can honestly say it has been a long time since i have enjoyed a fishing session so much the banter was spot on with everyone taking their fair share of stick (well maybe Ric copped the lions share) and a good laugh was had all round and to top it off plenty of fish were landed, great session and i look forward to the next one.

Tll next week I leave you with a sunset picture from a after work session this week in pursuit of the carp, no one can say I don’t put the time in!

Till next week I wish you all

Tight lines

Danny

Carp go mad for maggots on Flushing meadows

Sorry for the lack of updates lately i have been mad busy and this past week have been knocked off my feet with a virus that really knocked me for six, thus this weeks update will be more of a drop in than a full blown blog.

On Saturday we decided to visit our local commercial, flushing meadows, situated in Acton Bridge.  all the rivers in the land were flooded and most of the ponds around us we also under a few feet of water, this coupled with the freezing cold temperature saw us opting for the highly stocked commercial.

with the weather cold and with winter drawing in fast we knew the fish would not be up for big baits like corn, meat and prawns so we opted for a few pints of maggot.  This bait is so under rated on commercials, possibly due to it being hard to feed off the silvers, but we knew the carp would be feeling the cold and would soon see off any rudd or bream.

Well what happened over the session was a joy to behold, i took over 35 carp in total throughout the day and thoroughly enjoyed myself.  I fished a secluded peg as far away from the carp park as possible and it is a swim people dont look at twice due to its isolated situation but carp love these quiet spaces on commercials so i was confident of a few fish but certainly didnt expect to catch as many as i did.

I have put the session together in this short video below

Halfbean Paste First Outing and Mixed Day on The Dee

A warm welcome to this weeks blog update which comes after a week of torrential rain that saw most of the rivers in the North West of England either in full flood or in some cases bursting their banks.  The dangers of being by the river were highlighted all too well by the Environment Agency on Friday night as they released video after video of the River Irwell being turned into a raging brown torrent, a far cry from the placid scenes we are used to seeing. Twitter is a great place to keep up with the work the Environment Agency do and with the current Flood warnings in place as they regularly tweet about both a great tool for keeping abreast of things as they arise.

The fishing this weekend might not have been the best ever but I bumped into a few anglers on the bank this weekend that recognised me from writing the blog, it was great to meet both anglers I had never spoke to before to anglers who I have met previously on the bank and spoke to on Facebook.  It was great too speak to you all and have a nice chat on the bank, I look forward to bumping into you all later on in the season to discuss how we all have got on, anglers truly are a special breed of people and I am still to meet a unhelpful angler on my travels and long may that continue, thanks again to you all.

As well as bumping into to some anglers on the bank on Saturday we also crossed paths with some old feathered friends of the blog in the form of the pair of swans we were following last year.  They did not have any young with them on Saturday but I know exactly where they nest so hopefully when the rivers drop a little whey will get down to building their nest and we will have another generation to follow this year, I just hope the mortality rates of the cygnets is lower this year as a lot of last years brood where lost along the way, the reasons for this are a mystery a lot would say the local mink but I am sure one of the parents would see of a mink with how protective they are of their young, time will tell how they get on this year but I will enjoy keeping up with them again.

On to this weeks fishing:

“Halfbean Carp Hemp Paste Review and Outing”

I start this weeks blog update with a trip that didn’t make last weeks blog due to me concentrating on the opening on the River season and I believed this trip, although short, deserved a bit more than just being a few lines and pictures at the end of last weeks blog update.

I received my first delivery from Halfbean Baits around d 2-3 weeks ago in the package was a tub of Halfbean Carp Hemp paste and a bottle of the Hemp Carp Goop.  I covered what I have been using the Carp Goop for in last weeks update but I have been longing to get out on the banks of my local commercial to give the paste a go.  Unfortunately the bait has sat in my freezer since it arrived as the weather has simply not been warm enough for me to warrant a trip out for the carp.

As you can see from the picture Halfbean baits is a fledgling company so don’t be expecting your bait to arrive covered in logos or spiel around the edges of how this bait will lure fish in from miles around and get them into a “feeding frenzy” that you see on so many baits from the shops.  The bait when it arrives has a very homemade look to it and I must admit to being a bit set back at this at first, but that all changed when I opened up the products.  Obviously as time goes on and the company develops I would expect the quality of the packaging to do so as well but for now I was more bothered in the fish catching potential of this bait.

I will just be covering the Carp hemp paste in this update and upon opening the paste I was amazed just how oily the bait was it was literally oozing with help oil.  Pushing my thumb into the product left an imprint in the paste that soon filled up with the oil, there were certainly no qualms about the quality of the product from my point of view and I couldn’t wait to get out on the bank and try it out.

As I touched on before the weather really hasn’t been up giving this bait a proper review and I am also really struggling at the moment to fit my angling in with all that is going on over the past few weeks.  Knowing how fresh the bait was and the fact I could not see me getting out on the bank any time soon to try it out I quickly dropped the guy an email and he advised that the bait can be frozen and keeps very well indeed, so in the bait freezer it went.

Last Tuesday I received the text I was waiting for that my uncles mate was going to fish the commercial the following evening and with the weather report forecasting bright warm weather the time had come to give the bait a try and this would be my first ever trip fishing paste, it is a bait I have read a lot on but never ever tried so I spent Tuesday afternoon in work mulling over my attack for the next day.

Wednesday in work flew by and I was soon sat on the bank of Flushing Meadows armed with two baits, one a tub of Halfbean Carp paste and the other a pint of hempseed I had prepared the following evening.  My plan was to feed the margin at my feet on my top two sections and introduce the paste via a kinder pot so it didn’t fall off the hook which I read can be a problem with paste.

As you can see I was literally fishing in the edge but in my experience it is a place where if they are having it you can really bag up.  Scanning the water it seemed like all the carp where up on the top basking in the sun which after further inspection into their behaviour soon turned into them chasing around in groups, it was obvious from this the fish were due to spawn any time soon, it was going to be a tough session and my chances of a fish would come as the evening cooled.

It was time to put myself and the product to its first test and it was my tactics that failed for the first hour as I missed bit after bite after bite, the float buried time after time but striking meant a bare hook coming to the top, fish where obviously on the bait but I was doing something wrong indeed a look at my rig and the answer was staring me in the face, size 18 hooks are not the best for paste fishing, so a quick upgrade to a size 14 and an increase in the size of the lumps of paste I was using was made and it was back to it.

The bait when you increased the size of the paste you was using produced a massive slick of oil to come to the top above the swim which I must admit gave me confidence that the bait would be attractive to the carp if they were on the hemp seed I was using to feed.

Not long after making the changes to the hook and the bait the float buried and I was connected with my fist carp of the session so that was the first and most important question I had about the bait answered, does it catch fish?? Yes it does.

The session in reality was more of a learning curve for me in paste fishing as it was a real test for the bait, I missed so many bites and was in hindsight probably striking at liners or smaller fish pecking at the bait.  I ended the session with 5 carp in total on the bank in total which I was really proud of.

REVIEW

In review of the product so far, I was impressed with the quality of the product and the amount of oil it contained.  The fish certainly liked the bait and I can see the bait working on the bigger fish when they get their heads down.  The packaging could be improved and could be seen as a downside by some anglers but it didn’t really bother me once I saw the quality of the bait.  My plans for the future with this bait include using it for future trips to my local commercial and using it as a bait paste wrap for my barbell fishing sessions on the River, so look out for it featuring in my future river articles.

I hope you enjoyed my honest and open review of the bait in the conditions I used it in and I think I covered the good in the product and where it could improve a link to the halfbean baits website can be found in the right hand side of my blog so please feel free to check out these products and the other products in his range.

“Ruffe Conditions on the Dee”

With reports coming in all Friday night of rivers around the northwest bursting their banks I spent most of the night, after I had cooked my hemp, with my eyes fixed on the EA site waiting for an update on what the River Dee was up too.  The final report came in around 10pm showing the Dee was high but no where near the level as the previous week and with no flood warnings in operation it seemed the EA where confident she wasn’t going to rise too much over the next few hours.  Confident we would find somewhere to fish we set off determined to fish our beloved river dee if it killed us.

As normal with our river fishing it was a very early start and we arrived at our destination to find only one car parked up.  When the river is in this state where it is carrying a fair bit of water safety has to come into it so we chose a venue with good pegs and safe banks to reduce the risk of us encountering any problems, gear was kept to a minimum on the actual peg just in case the unthinkable happened and we needed to vacate the peg quickly.

In all honesty we fished for around 4 or 5 hours with next to nothing to show, the river was really deep and although we could fish on the bottom with our long rods there just wasn’t a steady trot to go down, the flow kept changing and it made fishing really difficult.  I changed over to the feeder for the last hour and picked up a nice roach and what has been later confirmed as a specimen size Ruffe.

Nine o’clock arrived and after a long, informative chat with the guy pike fishing the next peg we decided a move was in order to at least try and find a steady bit of water.  We arrived at another local venue on the Dee and decided to fish one of the tributaries that run into the Dee to see if there was any fish about. 

The trot was long enough for us both to get a line in and leave a decent trot for the upstream rod.  The bank side foliage was “pruned” to make enough room to sneak my basket in and I was away.  The first 30 minutes passed by with not much action but eventually we started to get a few fish with dace coming to the net first but there was a long wait between bites, It really didn’t bother me though as I was just glad to be picking up a few fish and have a trot where I knew the bait was going down in a straight line and not being taken in all directions like on the last peg.

I took a few more small dace and a nice roach/skimmer bream hybrid and I decided to increase the amount of bait I was introducing which saw a few chublets turn up in our catches, only a few ounces but I was more than pleased to see them on such a drab day.

As you expect with the river sport got better as more bait went in my Uncle had a few grayling and chublets to supplement his dace captures along with the obligatory pike turning up as well taking one of his fish as he was bringing it in, only a small jack but these fish find us wherever we go on the dee it seems, summer or winter.

The day wore on and after a chat with the two anglers I mentioned earlier on in the piece I connected with my best fish of the day in a small brown trout which no doubt had latched on to the increased bait being introduced into the swim.

All in all it was great to be back on the banks of the river Dee catching some fish and what this net lacked in quantity and quality it certainly made up for in diversity it was a real mixed bag of species including dace, roach, roach skimmer hybrid, chublets, grayling and trout.

This week will hopefully see me fishing the canal for carp in the spot I have been drip feeding now for 3 weeks so I have my fingers crossed for a result there, check my mini blog for information on that and all being well we should be back on the river as well this weekend, weather permitting.

Till next time I wish you all,

Tight lines

Danny