Pond Fishing: Roach and Rudd on the Whip

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And with that it’s onto this weeks fishing,

Saturday – Stealing a quick hour on a local pond.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Till next time I wash you all

Tight lines

Danny

Hardest fishing trip of the year so far...........

A warm welcome to this weeks blog update in a week that saw the England team win the Fisho-mania Home nations match at Cudmore Fisheries for the second year in succession.  I didn’t watch the Fisho-mania Final as I mentioned last week’s update I was out on the bank while that was on but I made sure I was free the following day to watch the Home nations match.

I really think the commentators did a great job over the course of the event to keep it interesting and informative as lets face it live match fishing does not have great prospects of being spectator sport for television viewers but as I have said I thought they all did a great job and I picked up loads of little hints and tips from listening to what Tommy and Keith had to say during the match.  I could think of only one idea to improve what sky sports do in this event and it is to have a few anglers available on the Red button where you can just watch that angler for the entire duration and see exactly how they feed and go about fishing a match of this calibre.

Match fishing is not something that has ever interested me to the extent where I would want to take part in one but I do love seeing these anglers applying their trade and it was great to see that a lot of the anglers on the commercial scene actually started their fishing on rivers with one of the Welsh lads holding the River match record of over 300lb of chub!!! What a haul that is a catch of unimaginable proportions.  I look forward already to next years fisho-mania final as it’s a great event to have in the calendar.

On to this weeks fishing:

To be honest this weeks fishing was really tough, there where times where I just felt like knocking it on the head and heading home to watch the fishomania final and writing the fishing off completely, it was tough both mentally and physically the toughest days fishing ive experienced since writing the blog.

All week the river had been running off nicely down to a level that would finally see us on the better stretches of the river fishing some of the lovely dace glides we discovered last year.  All week the texts where full of the joys of last years trips where we bagged up on fat dace and stream lined grayling and our thoughts turned to this years tactics and trying to lure some of the chub shoals we know also live there, in our minds we were already there on the bank, our plan was set and with only Friday to go we knew our day on the river wasn’t far away.

Friday morning and I set off from my house with that Friday feeling we all get that there is only one more day till two days of freedom. A joy that was cut short abruptly 10 minutes from work when from no where the heavens opened and it started raining quite heavily.  I at first just thought it would be a shower but it rained and it rained and it rained and before I knew it, it was 4pm and I was leaving work with the soul wrenching persistent tip tap of rain hitting my umbrella, each drop making that trip to the river even more and more unlikely.

The EA river level site was my constant companion all through Friday and it wasn’t till gone 1pm that the River Dee showed the levels increasing and that was only a minimal increase at that.  Work finished and with another update in levels due around 5pm it was off to buy the bait bought in the form of a pint of castor and maggot, that done and I was all set baring the task of cooking my hemp seed.

The next few updates showed an increase to around 5.8m and a quick check of other levels on local tributaries showed them all to be flooded so a fair amount of water was entering the system, the next morning we set off into the gloom not knowing what we was heading too.

We arrived at the tributary we fished 2 weeks ago to find the river running through fast and the colour of chocolate but we decided to set up and give it a hour or so to see what it fished like, in hindsight we should never of entertained the idea the flow was far too fast and although the levels where fishable with the river rising the flow was ferocious and after a hour or so we decided to move to the much wider and deeper part of the river hoping to find some slower water or a slack where the fish might be holding up out of the flow.

I quickly set up on a peg I had done well on in winter that I knew was relatively shallow but the flow could be relied on to be steady as it is situated between two trees with the flow running gently down to a tree at the bottom of the trot.  As you can see from the picture above the levels where up and rising with the peg already under a few inches of water.

The river as I imagined was quite shallow compared to the deeper sections and the trot was delightful with the float going down and a lovely pace that just screamed bites, as you can see on the picture above a dream of a trot but what it made up fro in looks it lacked in fish.

What became noticeable from the off was the river was rising and it was rising at an alarming rate with it almost now reaching my footplate, this was certainly not going to be a swim I could fish all day.  I continued to persevere hoping to pick up a few fish and both me and my uncle did pick up some small roach holding in the slack like the one shown below but was certainly nothing to make it worthwhile fishing a river that was certainly on the rise and we decided to call it a day and pick a still water venue for the rest of the day.

As you can see from the picture above the river had rose significantly since my arrival and with my uncle fishing an even more precarious swim upstream we decided to admit defeat on the river and headed for High Legh Fishery on the Warrington Anglers Card for the rest of the session, no one can say we don’t try!!

When you arrive at high legh you go thorough a farmer’s gate and the fishery is in the middle of the field, there is a gravel track covering half of the field and the rest is across rough ground.  The rough ground is exactly that and we decided to park the car half way to the fishery and not risk the path.  Anyone who wants a true idea what to expect from access tracks to Warrington anglers waters need look no further than this picture below, deep ruts that would certainly see your car stuck and need pushing or pulling out, no wonder the fishery was empty.

We walked the small distance to the fishery and I decided to set up and fish a method I had not fished in a long time in the waggler and my uncle fished the pole to some reeds in the margin.  Feeding castors regularly over the top via the catapult with the odd pouch of hemp I was straight away into rudd both on the drop and on the bottom.

The greedy rudd kept me busy for the whole day greedily hovering up my free offerings as they kit the surface.  As the swim progressed I began catching some lovely small tench and I fully expected the swim to keep developing and for the carp to move in but alas it just never materialised for me but I thoroughly enjoyed my dad fishing for bits on the waggler.  The one strange thing was I didn’t catch one roach or bream all the silver fish where rudd.

My uncle, also on maggot and castor, was picking up small fish but was also hitting the odd carp which, on his light gear was making short work of his hook lengths so he stepped it up with impressive results with him taking 6 carp in total with the best ones shown below.

That was it for the day really and I have to be honest one of the hardest days on the bank for me I really cannot wait to get back trotting on the river I just hope this weekend we have a change of luck and we can get into those dace shoals on the River Dee.

Till next week

I wish you all tight lines

Danny

Jubilant Weekend of Discovery and Fun

Welcome to this week’s angling blog update and this week’s angling adventures where based around discovery and having fun!!  With a bumper 4 day break from work I had planned to try a few venues on every day but that ultimately turned out to be rather ambitious and I actually only got out on the bank two days over the bank holiday weekend.

Living on the banks of the River Mersey and being in such close proximity to the local canal I spend a lot of my time walking the dog along both of these wildlife rich venues and it was during one such walk I not only came across this pair of beautiful swans who in the early morning light looked so majestic as the eased through the calm clear water on the canal but it was while watching these birds my eyes came across a pod of carp and nice size ones to boot.  Many of you may think well what is so good about that, carp in a canal are a perfectly normal occurrence and you would be right in your assessment.

 To see the importance of this pod of fish I take you back 10 years to when the canal suffered a massive carp fish kill where it was thought the total population of carp where lost, reports of fish dead on the top stretched from Waterloo Bridge in Runcorn to Daresbury Labs and it was a really heart breaking thing to see having admired the beautiful carp in the canal for so many years and on the odd occasion chased them armed with a loaf of bread.  Being a young child these craft carp where too clever for my clumsy tactics and evaded capture my whole childhood.  To see these fish back in enough numbers for them to be spotted in the early morning light brought me great pleasure and keep an eye on my quest for a 10lb carp mini blog where these fish will be targeted.

 More good news this week is I finally managed to get round to sending of my Abu 706 reel and I was well impressed with Fosters of Birmingham Angling shop’s customer care, one phone call to explain the problem and was told to send it off in the post which I did the next day, within 48 hours I received a parcel containing a brand new reel.  I know they are obliged by law to do this as its in warrantee but its just great to get a hassle free service in this day and age, great to see and fingers crossed this one has a bit more backbone.

This coming week should welcome the arrival of my first bit of bait form Halfbean Baits so I am looking forward to testing that out on the bank to see how it does on the bank, as of yet I am undecided as to where to try it out and I may well save it till the weather warms up with one of the baits being a paste bait, fingers crossed for some sun!! That just about sums up where I am up to at the moment away from the actual angling on the bank part of things and I have to admit I have never felt so good about my angling as I do at the moment, the river season is just in touching distance and with the warm summer to come I have a few ideas for some fun sessions ahead.

On to this week’s fishing,

As the title of this week’s blog update suggests this past weekend was a weekend of discovery and fun.  I start with the discovery side of the weekend and we decided to visit a venue that we scouted out a few weeks back on the way back to home from that dreadful blank on Budworth mere, this venue being High Legh fishery on the Warrington Anglers Card.

To give a bit of history on this venue I take you back 3 years when I first fished this venue, well groomed paths and reed lined banks greeted you as you opened the gate to this fishery and the first thing that caught your eye where the massive orange shadows of the ghost carp cruising around the fishery, you could not miss them.  We fished the venue once or twice and caught mainly small tench and roach with the ghost carp never really showing much attention in our baits.  Dreadful news hit the winter before last during the really prolonged cold spell that there had been a total fish kill on this venue and all the fish had been killed.  This summer marked the first re-stocking of this venue with a number of carp purchased form the yearly thinning of the carp from Winsford Anglers prolific Ocean water.

Reports in recent weeks from Franks Column Suggested these fish had begun wakening from their winter slumber and anglers where enjoying some good catches of these carp that run to around the 5lb mark.  This blog’s primary reason for being set up was to give anglers on the Warrington Anglers card more information on the waters on the card from an everyday anglers point of view so it was with great anticipation we set of on Saturday morning to try this “new” venue.

Upon arriving at the venue it was immediately evident the place had woke up from our last scouting visit.  The water was alive with bubbles of fish rooting in the silt on the bottom of the pond which was in stark contrast to our past visit where we saw no signs at all that the water contained fish, in fact the water looked dead, so much so we didn’t even fish it that day and carried on to fish a local pool.

We had a quick chat with a guy already set up and fishing and he had caught a few tench and some of the new carp and engulfed with excitement we headed over to some likely looking swims on the far side of the pool that just screamed fish.  My dad and uncle both set up on the float rod and I decided to fish the pole with all of us using either maggot or corn on the hook.

I started on maggot and was soon into bites from small roach and rudd, good signs for the future and that not all the silvers where lost in the fish kill.  The fishing on this pool was really exciting you can see the bubbles of better fish moving into your swim and feeding.  At times the swim resembled a Jacuzzi more than a pond swim but every time a bite was forth coming they were so fast I missed them and just wasn’t connecting with the fish.  My uncle had chosen to fish the margins and my dad had got into a few small silvers on his rod.

My dad continued his great form of late in connecting with the first carp of the session and what I fight it put up.  The carp on flushing meadows fishery put up a decent fight for their size but this carp my dad was attached too fought like crazy and at times had my dad in all types of trouble, diving for the bank side roots which saw my dad nearly loose the fish.  Luckily my dad managed to steer the fish from danger and landed the fish, as you can see these fish are a different strain than what we normally catch on flushing and what shoulders they have!! In time these fish will grow on to be really special fish in this water.

After this fish coming to my dad so early on in the session and on maggot me and my uncle had very high hopes of connecting with some carp ourselves and both of use upped our interest in our swims.  I made up some heavy ground bait to try and get some more bait on the bottom through the silver fish to try and attract some of the carp in and I also made some modifications to my rig to make it more sensitive to pick up the tiniest my shy of bites.  This change instantly revealed what had been bubbling in the swim all this time and it was a biog surprise to me to see a really small tench break the surface.  Once I had the method and rig nailed it became really easy fishing and the tench came thick and fast.  Warrington Anglers rules state no tench of any size can be kept in a keep net so it is hard for me to get across just how many tench we caught like the one below but what I can say in my me, my dad and uncle had them coming all day long.

The day wore on and mine and my uncles optimism of catching a carp slipped slowly away to the point like it never felt like it was going to happen.  I connected with a carp which again put up a great fight and just when I was about to net the fish the barbless hook slipped out of the carps mouth and with it I felt my hopes of catching a carp went with it.  What was noticeable was the magnitude of bubbles we had seen when we arrived that we presumed where carp where actually the small tench feeding.

Time slipping away I head the noise of a reels drag ticking over from the peg next to mine, my uncles peg, a quick glance over showed my uncle was indeed into a carp on his float rod a and I wasted no time in getting over there and trying to get some of the fight on film.

As you can see the fish didn’t half put up a fight and again a fin perfect fish was the result.

I returned back to my peg reminiscing on that lost carp earlier on when my float descended into the dark depths and I connected with another carp, this time I was not going to lose it and played the fish really lightly as to not pull the hook gently using the pulla kit on my pole to keep the fish under control and although it lacked the fish of the previous fish I was sure more than made up with it once it got on the bank and yet another stocky fish.

On reflection this fishery has got so much potential to be a top fishery in the future with the right stocking and right amount of bait going in but I cannot help feeling that once winter comes a day’s fishing on here could be really hard work with only a few silvers to be caught if it is too cold for the carp and tench.  The next stocking I think needs to include more carp and also some quality silver fish like bream and maybe some perch and chub to keep it interesting all year round.  All in all a great fishery for a summers day and I urge anyone that has not been yet to give it a visit.

Monday 04^th June – Flushing meadows Fishery

I spent Sunday watching all the festivities that went along with the Queens Jubilee and with more planned on the Monday evening at my uncles street party I only left me a the morning and a few hours into the afternoon to get onto flushing meadows and catch a few fish.  I had to drop my fiancé off at work in the morning so it was gone 8am when I arrived on the banks and straight away went to the canal pool to find it packed to the brim with anglers with only one peg free, a quick scoot to the other pool car park saw only three anglers on the island pool so I decided to jump on there.  Whilst setting up the place packed out as more anglers turned up on the island pool and a mother and father and his kids packed out the quiet pond towards the back of the fishery, the place was rammed.

I am far from an antisocial angler but this type of fishing just isn’t my cup of tea I like to find the secluded parts of fisheries where I can be alone in the pursuit of my quarry and I suppose that comes from me being a river angler and the isolation that comes with that type of fishing.

I had already set out a plan in my head before I left the house and it was to target the bigger fish in the venue and this was down to a very informative email I received from a blog follower and I thank you again for your help it is certainly helping me in the pursuit of these bigger carp. 

So armed with some big bait all that was left for me to mention was the terminal tackle and fun was the call of the day so I set up my 13ft korum float rod with my centrepin reel loaded with 5lb line and as I was only fishing the margins I teamed that up with some really light pole floats.  My other rod was my barbell rod set up to fish on the bite alarm at intervals throughout the day.

Until recently my entire barbel, tench and carp fishing has been done using korum quickstop hair rigged hooks and this year I decided I was going to get to grips with the tying of my own hair rigs and I cannot believe how easy it all was.   This session today would be only my second session with my own rigs on the carp rod and I was hoping to get at least on carp on this rod throughout the day, this would have been an achievement for me on the day.

From the off there was mountains of bait being introduced by anglers sharing the pool in one bait up I am sure a whole tin of sweetcorn went it, I looked down at my tub of luncheon meat and remember thinking any self-respecting car would be on that mountain of feed being thrown in, I need not have worried so much as my sleeper rod had hardly rested when it show off and I lost the fish to a hook pull, back in it went and over the next hour I lost two more carp, screaming runs but I just want connecting properly with the fish, a change was needed, I re tied the rig with a smaller hair and a shorter hook length with instant results the rod zoomed off and I connected with a lovely carp of over 6lb this bigger baits tactic was surely getting me the better fish.

After I didn’t get any more runs on the carp rod but that might have been down to me not fishing my float rod and carp rod on at the same time.  I persevered on the float rod with the centre pin and my efforts were rewarded with the carp and tench below and what great fun they were on the centre pin and a setup I will definitely be using again.

I left happy with the short session on the bank and looked forward to the evening at my uncles street party where strangely enough the blog turned up in the conversation during the evening, if only I had practised my autograph eh haha

Looking forward to the river season opening this might give you a clue for what species I have in mind for the coming few months on the river.

Till next time I wish you all

Tight lines

danny