New Blog Supporter....Welcome Fishing.TV

A warm welcome to this weeks blog update i hope i find you all well and your nets wet.  We will get straight into the blog update this week as there is quite a bit i want to cover.  There is some fishing at the end of this update but it is more of an update about a blog supporter and myself than the fishing this week. 

On to the Update...

Welcome Fishing.TV

Some of you may have noticed new advertisements on the side panel of the blog and i am really pleased to announce that as of a week or two ago Fishing.Tv is now officially a supporter of Dannys Angling Blog.

Fishing.TV offers a wide selection of fishing based programmes that can be rented out for a set period of time.  You purchase coins from the site and each programme costs you a certain amount of coins to rent.  I have been playing around with this over the past few weeks and i have found it to be really enjoyable.

The best feature for me has been the fact that the company not only has a website but also has backed this up with Apps on your phone.  This meant that if i was on the laptop i could watch content on there but also if i had a spare bit of time of an evening or even on my dinner break in work i could quickly get my angling fix at the touch of a button.

The content they offer is amazing quality, being available in HD, and the content on offer i found very varied covering Match, Fly, Carp and Predator fishing, with match and predator obviously grabbing my attention. The content available on there looks to be very varied within the Genre and the programmes i rented where both as informative as they where action based.

Check out their website for yourself using any of the links on the blogs side bars.

Hows the Vlogging???

I have to say i was very very apprehensive when i set up the blogs Youtube channel.  In general i am quite a shy person and although come out of my shell when i know people well it does take me time and as such was very unsure about even doing this venture at all.

So there are around four or five videos on the blogs youtube channel now and i have to say i have loved every minute of it so far.  All things start of small,  i love that,  as you can see the development of yourself and your content over time.  Even early on now the videos have gone from around 3 minutes long to one of the upcoming ones touching 10 minutes.

The actual recording of the blogs is quite addictive if i Am honest and i am slowly learning little tricks to speed up the editing of the blog as well.  There has also been plenty of positive feedback in the comments section and on websites around areas i can improve them and slowly and surely they have been Incorporated into the blogs.  The main additions being the addition of music, less talking on the intro and more information on how i catch the fish.

The content so far has all been pike based buit i can see next spring and summer carp trips and trips to the river and canal also getting a look in.

Please take a second to subscribe to the channel here:

Dannys Angling Blog Social Media......

The social media side of the blog has really grown over the past year and depending on what format you are on you can keep up with the blog on all formats on line now.  Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Youtube are all formats now where content is posted on a regular basis.

All can be found on the following links:

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCogqlnE3gK_Re7vdU5bv8sw
Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/DannysAnglingBlog/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/satonmyperch


On to the Fishing...

Cold Snaps Produce Mixed Results...

When a venue gets under your skin it can be very hard to motivate yourself to go other haunts you have been and fished before.  We again headed for the venue we have fished the passed few weeks and the hope was that the cold snaps would condense the shoals and also bring them hard on the feed.

A change of venue or scenery was needed but also was the urge to suss this new venue out remembering once it was sussed it would form part of our venue choices from season to season.  This blog is a living document for anyone in the world to see but it also acts as a detailed diary for myself to look back on and look where we did well and where we did bad in years gone by.

The leaves all around now are a array of coppers, browns, dark greens and amber's as the trees all begin to shed their summer blankets.  We are well into the change now form summer into winter and for me this is the time i get excited and as the days get colder i wake up happy at that nip on my feet as i walk on the kitchen floor.  All around people wrapped up in thick coats and the odd scarf, all add that little bit of cheer to the ordinary commute to work for me.  My wait now is for that first morning when that first hard frost of the year nips hard at my nose as i open the front door.

Arriving at the venue it was bitterly cold and from the look all around it was not getting much warmer.  The sun rising over our shoulders did little to warm the air where we sat beneath a thick blanket of trees.  The skee tex thermal boots where a necessity on this session and come the end i was glad of their warm company.

Its safe to say that you look back on sessions and sometimes you can pin point your error and i think on this one i made it very very early on.  Having fished the area heavily over the passed few weeks i again mixed up a good amount of ground bait with the usual addition of mole hill soil.  In went 5 balls on the line and i have to admit at the time i expected to go straight over the bait and catch.

I did this quite well and in no time i was getting steady bites from roach that occasionally where of a nice stamp.

As normal i continued to feed with the swim with maggot and back this up with a ball of ground bait every 15 minutes.  The bites continued and i continued to feed for that first hour and then the swim died and i could not get a bite.  We had seen no activity in all the trips from pike on here so i ruled this on out quickly but thinking better fish had moved in i continued to feed the swim.

The swim declined then and for a good few hours it was a case of a odd fish here and a odd fish there but there was no consistency to it.  I stopped feeding the ground bait and going to a completely opposite stance i started up a new swim and fed it lightly with just pinkies.

This change to a completely negative approach worked a treat and i began picking up some nice fish on double pinkies.

I dont think i would have got away with this as i did had i not been fishing in such a depth of water.  The last two hours of the session till 3pm we both picked up some fish and it seemed as the day went on the bites came on better.  It got us thinking that maybe this place is worth trying into dark on an afternoon session.

The final net showed how sport had been hard to come by on the day with our joint net going around the 20lb mark when on previous weeks the individual nets had been around that mark.

till next week i wish you all

tight lines

danny

23lb of River Roach On Bolo & Canal Tinca......

A war welcome to this weeks blog update i hope i find you all well and your nets wet.  A few days booked off work last weekend and to start it off was a session on the river.  We knew little about whether the fish would be shoaled up on the spots but after a few hard weeks we knew it was time to go all out and see what was on offer and what a session awaited us.

The second part of the blog is a session i did recently on the canal where i decided to target an area with the idea of maximising the fish i could catch.  More on my thought processes and reasons in the update but lets just say one fish had me walking up and down the bank.  We start this update off thought with a bit of an introduction chat on the upcoming pike season that is well and truly in my thoughts right now.

On with the update..

Piking Just round the Corner...

So chilling out this week i get a message of my piking buddy Garry asking if i wanted in on our usual annual bait order and i have to say the text had me checking the calendar and low and behold we are just over a month away from the start of the pike season.  My god this has sneaked up on my and to be honest it just does not feel right just now to be even thinking about pike, least not on days where the mercury is creeping up to 90 degrees.

The order does need doing though and after two years pike fishing i think i am starting to develop confidence in certain baits as this years order, without the value back,  does only really contain around 3-5 species of dead baits. I will of course go more into the bait order when it arrives in a future blog but i thought i would just touch base with it here to let the blog know that piking is well and truly starting to weigh heavy in my thoughts.

Of course last years pike season was well documented in this week by week round up here: http://satonmyperch.blogspot.co.uk/p/201516-pike-seaon.html

One thing is for sure in this pike season and that is the fact there will be new adventures on new waters to me and with some big pike under my belt and nothing to really aim for the pressure is off and its time to build on past seasons and take this to brand new areas to see if i can tempt the odd big girl.  As mentioned previous more on my hopes and aspirations closer to the start of the season.

23lb River Roach On The Bolo....

The passed few weeks have been really tough for me and my uncle on the rivers with low clear conditions on one river seeing the bites die as soon as the sun come up and the other river we fished being a bite a chuck but swims begin ravaged by pike and killing any sport.  In short i had a choice to make i could either be selfish and go back the smaller river and try all out for barbel knowing i would be in for a shout but my uncle would be enduring a pike ridden time in a swim or we could go all out on a whim and try a completely different river all together and see if the fish had arrived in their summer and autumn haunts, we decided on the later.

The above paragraph illustrates just how fishing together you have to be a team and think of each others fishing.  The river was a good walk from the parking spot and involved the odd hilly climb and a short section of dense brambles, it was clear no one was fishing these spots recently, just our cup of tea.  We finally arrived in the swims and we decided to both fish the same swim, i was on the bolo and my uncle was going to try and fish the pole and stick float.  The ultimate aim of the session was to get the odd bite and be close enough have a natter.

I shocks me when people email me saying they live near a river but are unsure how to fish it as it looks complicated when the truth is river fishing is so basic and simple in its design and the true learning of the art form comes form repetition and putting the time in to learn how to read a river and run a float through. A quick look at my side tray shows how simple the gear is i use, 1.7lb bayer perlon line for hook lengths, size 16 hooks 3 gram bolo float and some everyday weights.  This in its entirety covers everything that goes on the line from top to bottom.

To those interested in fishing a bolo and wondering how you set it up i plum the depth with no weights at all on the line to get a true depth and then fishing a hook length around a foot long i place 3 number 8 droppers evenly spaced on the hook length.  Above all these i put most of the weight in a bulk to cock the float so only the red of the float shows, doing this you leave enough weight to place a small number 8 weight beneath your float.  This weight servers two purposes in of course stopping the float sliding on the line and i find it begins the settle the float as soon as it hits the water meaning its easier to pick up those bites on the drop.

Catching a lot on the river does not have to be expensive at all, you can make it expensive when you go down the ground bait line, but in general i take 2 pints of maggot and a pint of hemp for most of my river fishing, a great days fishing can be had on around 6 quids worth of bait it really can.

 The swim was around 8 feet deep and was of a similar depth along its length till it felt like it shallowed up at its tail.  Plumbing up a bit further out it did drop away again by a couple of inches but my initial thought was to see what i could catch on the deck and then see if the fish further out would have it just off bottom.  It is sort of killing two birds with one stone way of working out how they are feeding better.

The first few trots down went by without a tap but then slowly the odd bite started to develop with a small billy perch and the odd small roach.  A severe upstream wind was meaning the float was holding back lovely in the swim and on the day i think this certainly helped the swim.

Bites then started to come thick and fast as it was clear a big shoal of roach had moved into the swim.  It seemed bites from smaller roach where hard to hit and i missed loads of bites on the day but when the float buried with a proper roach there was no missing the bite and on some occasions i cast in, fed with the catapult, saw the float go under and still had time to grab the rod and strike.

After the first hour the swim was alive with roach as time and time again the bolo would slide away.  I knew with so much prey about a pike would soon be attracted and no sooner had i mentioned this fact to my uncle than a flash of green appeared under the surface as a small jack nailed a nice roach.  I could see the jack pike and it was no bigger than the roach.

On the day it shocked me how the swim recovered after the pike attacks, this pike would nail the odd fish but being too big to swallow it would let go and in would come a roach with a small half moon crescent bite on it.  He was on me all day but thankfully it didn't seem to bother the swim.

As the session wore on a pattern began to emerge and i started to notice that the bigger roach where holding just that bite further out than i was feeding my hemp.  A few of the better ones below.

You would nail a couple on the bounce and then a move back into the nearside line would see you pickling up an average stamp roach of a few ounces.  As the session wore on i could feel i was putting a decent net of roach together and chatting to my uncle he was sure i had over 15lb in the net as the average size of the fish was steady.

I actually ran out of hemp on the session but kindly my uncle provided me with a nice top up for the last hour.  I did think about changing over to corn but in my head i was thinking "why change anything? i am catching steady and a nice stamp"  I guess a bigger bait like corn might have picked out these better roach time and time again but given i was a bite a chuck i felt i needed not to change anything in my approach.

As with all memorable river sessions it all went by too fast and before i knew it the sun had come over and it was time to pack in.  It is always a killer packing in when the fish are still having it and i am sure had i fished on into the evening the fish would have come on even more and we would possibly have been looking at a very special net indeed.

The final net went 23lb 8oz! and was mainly made up of roach with the odd chublet, hybrid and 1 dace!

All in all a very special session on the river and although as i write this now terrible weather is battering at the window i can not wait to get out tomorrow morning back on the river and this time armed with more bait i pray i find the fish hungry, although in these conditions a fish might be a result.

Bridgewater Canal Fishing Session - Battles with a Tinca.....

A warm day previous saw me arriving on the canal to be met by one of the most beautiful red skies i have ever seen.  When people ask what will you miss most about fishing if you packed in tomorrow i would certainly say the special moments you experience like this when you know the world around you is asleep and there in that moment you are completely worry free and in ore of mother natures beauty.

First things first and it was as always mixing up the ground bait so by the time i had set up it was ready to be riddled.  Swim choice on the day was a bit factor for me, in the stretch there is no shortage of cover and fishy looking spots but on this session i was a man with a plan.

I walked the length till i found what i was looking for and i found it just after a boating dock.  A canal boat on the far side and the fact the canal narrowed slightly here meant i could fish a line on only a few sections of pole and be right by the boat and i could also fish another line on the 2m whip under feet.  My hopes for the session where to really be aggressive and attack the swim to see how much i could catch before the boats started up.

Over the far bank line went 3 big balls of ground bait laced with hemp and red maggot and i left this to settle while i fished the whip close in.  Feeding small balls of slop i was soon picking up roach a chuck under my feet and i would say in that first hour i picked up a steady weight of fish with the odd better roach.

The swim under my feet began to slow down, this is normal for the canal it seems, so it was time to try over my far bank line.  The float slid away straight away with a nice skimmer so i straight away went in with another big ball of ground bait.  My hope was for the better bronze bream to settle in the swim and the extra feed to keep them there.

Fishing maggot i knew i would be picking up anything that swims and it was literally a bite a chuck on the far bank line as the float slid away each time it settled.  For a canal it was fantastic fishing and thoroughly enjoyed the early exchanges.  The swim did die momentarily and with fish up in the net i am sure i was visited by a toothy visitor but never actually saw any signs.

The far bank line then again come alive and it felt like the swim had breathed a huge sigh of relief.  Steady bites continued and you can imagine my surprise when i lifted into a fish and it all went sold and then the elastic went zooming down the canal, a carp i was sure.  The fish went right into the thick week and all went solid, shipping back to my top kit i felt sure i was about to be ducking out of the way of a float and hook coming back at me but then something gave and the fish came free, it was still on!

Up and down the canal i walked trying to tire the fish out on a light elastic till eventually i managed to slip my net under a beautiful tench.  A perfect sight on a perfect morning.

The tench in the net i settled back into catching the silvers and it was good fishing till the boats revved up around 9am, one at first and you can cope with them when they come every 10 to 15 minutes one at a time but when they where coming along in threes and fours every five minutes i knew time was called.

A cracking 16lb canal net was my reward.

I think my only regret on this session was not taking corn as i think a bigger bait might have nailed more bream and maybe more tench but still 16lb in only a few hours on the cut i left a happy angler.

tight lines if you are out this weekend and stay safe,

till next time

Danny

First Barbel Trip, Canal Roach and The Hiden Jewel of the Lake!!

A warm welcome to this weeks blog update i hope i find you all well and your nets wet.  The weather has finally turned and we have gone from flooded banks with minimal options to a take your pick type situation with all rivers in fine fettle.   Again we are still in a back log situation with the blog, not helped by me getting out three times this weekend.  Last weeks blog format was well received with it being all about the fishing and with very little to talk about in the angling world for an introduction i reckon the same approach is worth another go.

This weeks blog update see's me hitting the bank for my first ever session just aimed at catching barbel,  we then jump into a pole session on the canal in a swim with plenty of features and we finish it off with a bumper session for carp where believe it or not i catch my 50th carp of the season (still shake my head as i type that as i can not believe i have actually caught some carp on this blog lol) in a session where it certainly was quality rather than quantity.

Sit back, grab a brew and a chocky biscuit, its what i do when i read blogs and lets get right into this update...

First Barbel Session.....

At the start of the week i had decided  to get my act together with the barbel fishing and as with all aspects of fishing preparation is the key.  I knew evenings would be the best time for a bite but i also knew that such a session was never going to happen after work as it stood right now as i had no hemp seed prepared and no meat hook baits prepared either.

There was always the option to go to the tackle shop and just buy loads of tins of hemp seed and pre prepared luncheon meat but come on have you seen the price of these products?? Yes they are convenient and i wont argue in the fact the missus wont kill you for using her best pan to cook your hemp or for turning the house air green with the smell of boiling hemp, but, when you do the sums you realise just how much money money is added to the price of the raw product of hemp seed when you buy it in this form.  Maybe I'm just tight but doing the sums a 20kg bag saves you at least the price of a new fishing rod and on the odd occasion i have bought a tin of hemp i found these tins don't even contain a pint of hemp!  Well in a blog with no introduction we snook a rant in somewhere ha-ha.

So with the hemp cooked in 2 pint bags and the luncheon meat happily marinating in my spicy mix it was a simple case of getting the bait out of the freezer before work so i could hit the bank right away that evening.  A quick check on the EA levels at 4pm showed the river dropping and about foot max above summer levels, this was at 2pm on my break.  I rushed home at 4pm grabbed the gear and then fought my way through rush hour traffic finally arriving on the river banks at around 5.15pm.

Opening the farmers gate i could see the river, odd i thought as you can not normally see her till a little more along the field.  Getting closer i could see she was well up and very very coloured.  I walked the banks to find most of the swims unfishable due to the bottom of the peg being submerged.  The only bit of the stretch that was fishable was the peg i fished the opening week on the stick float where the risen bank i was stood on had created a slack on the inside.  Down the middle it was bombing through with all types of stuff coming down.

I fed the inside heavy with hemp seed trying my best to judge the flow so the hemp was staying in the swim and nog getting washed away.  I set my stall and in went a big pieces of smelly meat.  Sat back well up the bank i was fishing my first ever barbel session on a rising river and although the text books say this is the best conditions, for me, it was a baptism of fire and i was using all my watercraft to try and read a river rising fast, i felt i was in the right spot.  If i was going to get one it would be here.

Bot long after casting in i began to get a few taps on the rod tip, then a few more and the excitement levers rose, i was at least in a spot where fish where holding.  The taps continued until the tip tap round and remained round, i stuck and there was a fish on!! in the flow it felt ok but soon up came a slimy slippery eel!  Not the species i was after but the blank was saved and i felt i was in the right area.

The next few hours i really questioned my sanity as zero taps on the rod and the sight of whole trees coming down the river really did have me thinking of packing in and calling it a wasted trip. A stick in the water was my marker and the river had fully submerged this as was the rise.  9pm and the flow on the river seemed to change and settle and the streams of rubbish had stopped coming down.  Being a stick float angler i rarely see the river in this state so i imagine this was when the river hit its peak and leveled off.

Thew light levels began to go and calm was all around me, it felt right it felt bite time and as soon as i thought that the tip wolloped round, a bite like nothing else i had ever seen,  grabbing the rod i was bent into a fish that felt massive in the flow yet it went from one side to the next effortlessly before coming into the middle of the river and again making hard runs, i felt sure it was a barbel.  It certainly was not a chub,too strong.  Holding in the flow and the fight i felt getting into the middle stages the line come flying back at me as the hook pulled!!    Writing this now the feeling i felt then comes flooding back, i was gutted, i sat there and in short was amazed how the fish had gone on such hard runs but when seemingly under control in the middle of the river the hook pulled.  Fished on into dark but nothing came but the extra time saw me reflecting on the situation.

"my first ever barbel trip on a new river in flooded conditions and i had read the river, fed a swim and got a bite from a barbel.  Yes i was gutted but there where more positives than negatives to take form this session."

Early Morning Canal Session - Bridgewater Canal

A stifling day midweek in work and i decided to escape the beige brick wall i face in work and escape for an opportunistic hour lunch break.  A short drive and i was soon heading down a narrow road leading to a humpback bridge.  A tight turn and i was literally along side the canal looking at a swim that was to die for reeds lined the far bank and all along the length there was sunken trees and surface lillys.  It screamed fish but alas my destiny that day lay back at my desk dreaming of the swim i had just been eating my sandwiches in.

Saturday morning arrived and in the dark i loaded the car and made my way to the swim.  I loaded in my MAP TKS 101 2G pole with two top kits and bait for the day would be ground bait and red maggot.  As regular readers will know i follow a set routine with my canal sessions and the first thing to be done was mixing up the ground bait, this is my opinion, when prepared in the right way, is the key to success on the canal.

I fed the far line just off the cover heavy with two big balls of ground bait loaded with hemp and castor and introduced one ball on my near side line just over the inside shelf.  The inside line was good from the off with skimmers and small roach and perch coming regularly.  Whilst catching these fish i kept the odd pouch of maggots going over the far bank line.

This really is a game of patience on the canal and judgement as the longer you leave that far bank line before fishing it the better the fishing will be but you don't want to leave it too long that the boat traffic starts not long after feeding it.  I think the beauty of this far bank line is the face its settled with no disturbance and there is a bed of bait on the bottom for them to settle over.

With canal sessions i think you get the best results early morning so i get out of the mindset that i will be fishing all day, all my canal sessions are form first light till around 10 to 11am max, earlier if boat traffic is really really heavy.  Early on the inside line fished well but as bank side disturbance grew i knew the fish had backed off and it was time to go over to the far bank.

The far bank line was instantly a bite a chuck and it was not a surprise with it being so close to the cover.  Bites would come on the drop mainly but a better fish was always the result should the bait settle on the bottom, a caster session on this canal is well over due.

Keeping the bait going in saw fish coming regular to the net and at times some quality roach would nip in and these are of course the jewel in the crown for any canal angler.  The session was the relaxing session i had craved in the week, a polar opposite form the beige wall i stared at all week long in work.  A 12lb net was the end outcome of lovely silver fish.

As with all fishing we should leave the banks how we find them, foot prints, spilt bait and the depression from my basket the only sign the bank had been visited.

Doubles Doubles and the Hidden Jewel Of the Lake....

There was no escaping at this point that early morning quick sessions for carp where flowing through my veins.  The sessions where both fun and whats even better, cheap, some sessions costing as little as 35p for a loaf of bread.  The tackle costs where just as minimal with one packet of hooks still going strong with a few left from a pack of ten.

To this point i had been taking two rods with me with one on the bait alarm on the bottom and one on the top with bread, never fishing both at the same time, but alternating between the two.  As the sessions went on it soon became noticeable that fishing a bait on the bottom was just too easy.  I don't say that in a cocky way but once i had found a clear spot, near cover, i found the fish would come and come and come and it was getting a little silly.  I had broke my personal best and i felt that i could possibly break this again with one big fish spotted but i was at the stage where i didn't want to plough through runs to catch one fish i wanted to go for a few hours and have some fun.

That said i started just going with one rod, a net, a bucket with my loaf of bread and unhooking mat in and my licence of course.  Free lining bread on the surface was what i wanted to do and it was such fun.  On this session the morning was very dark and there was plenty of cloud cover as i arrived and i doubted whether i would get the carp up on top at all.  Had i bitten off more than i could chew in taking up this fun challenge.

A few free offerings put in the margins and some in open water i waited with bread in hand ready to make my first cast.  Time would tell if the fish would come up on top.  After what seemed an age....Slurp! and then another Slurp, it was like music to my ears.  The fish was taking right close top a big snag but it was taking the bread down well so i knew if it saw my offering i would have him.  Sure enough up he came and with such a gentle take the bread disappeared, line tightened and i was into my first carp, a nice small common to open my account.

This fish was fish 48 of the season for me and i was hoping for the morning to bring me over the 50 mark.  The carp released i could see a carp taking some bread right on the edges of my baited area.  Using braid certainly caught me this fish as this fish came and looked at the bread and moved on but being able to quickly lift and mend the line as it turned I'm sure the better presentation fooled it as it had a second look.

A 10lb 9oz Carp was the reward and what a reward a stunning double figure ghosite.

I had been drip feeding some bread under my feet for a while and the natural tow of the lake was taking the bread over to the far bank just off a overhanging tree.  To this day i don't know how on earth a damp free lined piece of bread one, managed to stay on the hook after the cast and two managed to land inches off the over hanging tree on the far side.

Land it did with an ever so inviting plop and no sooner had it landed than a huge set of rubber lips rolled on the bread and nailed it.  No strike was need as the rod was nearly pulled out of my hand in a run of pure power!  The line cut across the surface as the fish bolted for open water and keeping deep i was luck it did.  Had it headed for the big snag i would have been in all kinds of trouble.

The rod hooped over it was a fantastic fight that i enjoyed, i don't think i would have been so relaxed had it been my PB a few weeks earlier, now i had a few doubles under my belt i was enjoying the battles more and there where little nerves.  Sliding the net under the fish i peered in and she was a nice common carp.  On the mat peeling back the mesh revealed a stunning fish and i mean stunning she was fin perfect.  Her mouth was clean and her scales immaculate, lifting her dorsal fin revealed, well i will let the pictures below do the talking.

14lb 8oz of pristine common carp, what a fish to bring up the 50!

The fish admired and returned safely back to the water i had a quick coffee break and while i did i fed under my feet again.  All this bread going in i had acquired myself a little pet carp under my feet, i don't think she knew i knew she was there, but i did.  She was there taking the odd piece of bread thinking she was getting one over on me and i hadn't seen her, unfortunately i had.  It was time to cash her in.

Coffee drank i stopped feeding bread for a few minutes  allowing her to mop up the bits as they went passed.  The next one down was the one with my hook in and good as gold she came out of the bank side reed cover and took the bait.  Now bear in mind i had seen this fish quite a bit taking bread but what i had not realised was she was quite a bit carp.  In fact she was one of the better specimens in the lake and she made me know it with a bruising encounter all under the rod tip.

Sliding her into the net i felt like my arm was going to fall off, another common and my third double of the morning at 16lb 10oz.

Two smaller carp got in on the act after this fish and i had noticed when these whipper snappers move in its a sure sign the better fish have moved out.  A quick change of swim i dropped back into a swim close to the car and just before leaving a managed a final double of the morning in a 10lb 6oz mirror carp.

I left around 9am having caught a few fish and certainly had my string pulled.  Home in time for the family to be waking up and ready for a day ahead spent relaxing with the family.  My mind occasionally drifting back to the lake that morning and that magical 14lb pristine carp, the hidden jewel of the lake.

Till next time

tight lines

danny

Acolyte River Fun, Margin Carp Stalking and Canal Roach.....

A warm welcome to this weeks blog update i hope i find you all well and your nets wet.  It has been a mad week or so in work so finding time to blog has proven difficult to come by.  Again plenty of content to catch up means i have no end of trips to choose from and rather than write an introduction around topics in the angling world that have taken my fancy i have gone with a different update this week, all out fishing trips.

So in this updates its fishing trips from start to end and i still do not think i am going to be anywhere near up to date.  I guess with the car in for a job for the next two days and the idea i might not make it out this weekend if the job is not done then this is not such a bad situation to be in at all.  All i will say before we get into this update is my fishing at the moment is some of the most exciting fishing i have done.  Searching out new rivers, carp on the top, carp on the bottom, canal session and of course a cheeky few trips out for barbel.  Its been a great adventure.

So on with the update, we start on the banks of a river in search of anything that swims, any fish would be a bonus on the new drennan acolyte rod.  We follow this up with a one cast one fish carp session where stealth was the order of the day and we finish up with a trip to the canal on the pole.

A New Stretch A New Challenge....

We hit the banks as always at the crack of dawn hoping to find out normal haunt on the river at a nice level to fish.  We was met with a river in spate and totally un fishable on the stick float.  We had a back up option and this was to try a new stretch much further up the system where we hoped to find some clear water.

We arrived at the stretch and made the long walk to the bank expecting to find head high balsam and nettles.  What we found was quite well walked in paths and some nicely positioned swims, a luxury for us considering the past few months making our own swims with shovels before fishing.  Back to the car to collect the gear, again i traveled light with my octoplus box and minimal gear in my holdall, contained within the holdall was my new 14ft Drennan Acolyte Ultra rod and i could not wait to get out and give it a go.

The swim a gentle run with a sunken tree on the far bank it screamed fish and although it can be the wrong thing to do before you plumb up and run through i couldn't resist feeding the swim as i set up.  Holding the new rod in my hand it lived up to its name it was so light! Adding the shimano reel just balanced it perfectly!  The line threaded through the eyes it was clear that care was going to be needed with the ultra light tip section of this rod.  Red maggot and hemp where the baits of choice and i was soon ready to make my first cast in earnest.

A small river but plumbed up i found around 6ft depth in front of me and on a hot day was glad of it.  The first trot through brought a small chublet.

Trotting right down the middle of the river i soon found out that there was some streamer weed or a snag right on where i thought my hemp was settling.  Always the way eh.  A quick change of line and i found around the same depth at rod tip so i began feeding this line.  It was a harder trot involving me to hold back to get over what i think was a rock in the swim but doing so saw me picking up small roach and chublets at a steady pace.

The swim then died completely and i knew it was either big fish or a predator had moved in.  Till i see signs of predator activity i am always reluctant to try for the pike so i worked on the assumption it was a bigger fish in the area.  I then bumped a better fish right on my hemp before then striking and making contact with a better fish the very next trot down.

The acolyte i have to be honest felt light weight in power during this battle but being so light it might have been down to the fact i didn't know at this stage just how much strain i could impart on the fish.  A long tussle later a nice perch was in the net and surely this was the reason the "snack sized " roach had decided to vacate the area.

After the perch was caught i settled into a steady routine of trotting and feeding the swim and i caught steady but in spells if you get me? Long periods with no bite was followed by a good spell of steady bites fishing down the inside line.

The final net will not set any records but as first sessions go it provided something to build on and with my uncle hitting a nice bream on the feeder it provided plenty of food for thought.

Margin Carp Stalker...

A deluge of rain over a three day period saw me travelling to the lake not knowing that the level had rose a good few feet and the pegs where now under water.  Luckily for me i had donned my usual wellingtons so i was well equipped for the situation.  Access to many pegs was almost impossible so i set up on the banks of the first peg and contemplated whether or not to even set up.

Scanning the water for signs of fish i noticed movement right on the edge of the peg, carp being inquisitive they had obviously moved into the margins and onto the grassy areas looking for worms and insects caught out by the rise.

Feeding some corn and micro pellets close in i soon saw the water close in look agitated and what i call nervous water.  It was clear a carp had moved ting under my rod tips onto the bait.  A tail then come clean out of the water as a decent carp tipped up on the bait.

A method feeder loaded with micro pellets and corn on the hook all sprayed in Bubblecream Stinky stuff was carefully lowered onto the spot.  Short steps into the flooded peg the operation of placing the bait on the spot with little disturbance was achieved and the rod placed on the rod rest it was a waiting game.

It took a while but eventually the rod hooped over as the carp bolted out of the swim heading straight for a margin Lilly bed!  Straight onto the peg and into the water i went to apply side strain on this fish.  All my battles with the better carp in here had been played out mostly in the middle of the lake with a bit of a scrap under the rod tip, this was far different,  huge hard lunges for snags tested my gear to the max and it was pure power each time the fish went.  I can remember early on in this fight my arm aching and we thinking i was in trouble on more than one occasion.

The fish eventually began to tire and taking a huge breath of air i knew the time was close for netting,  Into the carp net she went and thank god for the flooded margin to me left as i left her in the net in the shallows while i got my breath back.

A nice carp of 13lb 8oz was on the mat and what a lovely prize she was...

She turned out to be my only fish of my 1 hour short session but i left grinning like the cheshire cat as i headed off to work for overtime.

MAP 101 2G Pole First trip on Bridgewater Canal...

The day previous i had been on the river using my new drennan acolyte but with a good pint of maggots left i just had to give the local canal a go early doors on the Sunday.  A early rise i was soon on the short drive to my peg and for some time now i had my sights set on fishing this bit of canal but with only half a pole i felt it not worth while as i always like to fish a line well over out of the boat lane.  With this new pole i could not do that and what a fantastic canal swim i had chose to christen the pole in.

A lot of reasons you hear fro people not fishing the canal is accessibility and where as this can be true on some canals on the bridgewater canal if you do your homework you can get close to the water and in this session i was closer than you would get on most commercials.

I only had a few hours and with only one match kit set up i decided to go all out right across the canal up near the boat.  I fed some ground bait and a good bed of red maggot via my new cupping kit, what a revelation this is, but i admit i had made a cardinal sin.  I fed right away without first fishing the swim for a bit and i could not for the life of me get the float to settle.  I knew it was shotted to go down to the tip but it would settle on one put in and not the next and others i would go solid then pull off.  After a hour or so of messing around i had put a few small roach in the keep net.

Not long after a guy come along, thank god he did, as he mentioned that it was good that they had been along and cut the weed back.  Apparently the weed on the far bank had covered a third of the canal recently and it seemed a lot of it had been left under the water.  All the float not settling made sense now but luckily it was not to late to re plumb up down the middle and feed the deeper line with ground bait and maggot.  On the session i found feeding two large jaffa sized balls from the off then little nuggets here and there was the way to go, a clear canal i think the colour in the water really helped and as the swim grew so the better roach showed.

Feeding lightly with hemp seed seemed to get them going again when the bites died but i was really impressed with the average stamp of roach on the day and fantastic to see such silvers are there to be caught if only people would go out and fish for them.  I continued to pick up roach steadily over the ground bait and it was great fun on the new pole.

The pole itself is certainly lighter than the old model and seems a lot stiffer, one thing that i thought would do my head in was the side puller elastic being visible on the side of the top kit in my eye line but i have to say i did not notice it and actually when the elastic was loose after a better fish it was simple to tighten it back up on the side pullet than looking for the internal puller kit on my old one.  The pole i am sure will do me fine for my fishing and i cant wait to get some elastic in the power kits for some fun with the carp.

The final net was a 10.7lb net of silvers and a fantastic few hours on the local canal.

Packing up it was a joy to be joined by a lovely family of swans and their cygnets, fish and wildlife on the local cut...bliss.

till next time i wish you all

tight lines

Danny

Rivers Open: Cracking Chub On The Stick Float...

A warm welcome to this weeks blog update i hope i find you all well and your nets wet.  The river season is well and truly open now and Facebook has been awash with mainly flood water barbel pictures.  The rain kept on copming down till late evening on the opening day and the only highlight was getting home from the carp to catch England pip Wales in the football.

We knew opportunities to get out on the river come the Saturday would hinge on a dry day on the Friday and with that we said a little prayer to the rain gods and prayed for a window of opportunity, in all honesty i feel like i am writing a winter blog here not a summer one, ridiculous weather we are having.

On to the update:

New River Season Preperation..

I have to say with all the stuff going on in work with over time and loads of jobs being done in the house the new river season really did creep up on me.  This season is without doubt the most unorganized i have ever been for the start of the rivers, normally by now i have spring cleaned my tackle box, replaced some weights and give my reel a through clean.

The beauty of the rivers is in their simplicity and in short its only a few components that come together to make up the stick float rigs i use so much and with my gear levels looking in an ok state i think i was only a new packet of weights away from being ready to go, so not too bad.

Although time to prepare for the season has not been there physically the mental thought processes have been working for some time and i did have a few changes i wanted to make in how i approach the rivers this season.  The main one is cutting down on the amount of gear i take with me, it has been ok carting my big Preston Onbox with its metal footplate to the banks of the river Dane these past few season as the walks have been quite short.  This season will be a lot different and long walks over rough farmland terrain are looking like being the norm, a wild river with wild surroundings will mean i will be lucky to have the luxury of having a peg where i sit on my basket at all.

The cutting down of gear started with me utilizing the Octoplus infinity box i was sent to review a few weeks ago, this box bos light and robust will be ideal for those river trips.  Its deep storage will spread the load i carry more evenly between my box and my net bag and should mean a more enjoyable walk to and from the river and if a swim is box friendly then i have a nice comfy box to sit on.

Of course terminal tackle would be an issue and i invested in a small tackle box above and in it is all the terminal tackle you need to fish a stick float.  This box will of course be built upon or joined by another box when we hit areas where bigger fish like barbel might be on the agenda but for my first session out this little box was ideal.  A huge reduction in weight carried losing the huge heavy box and the mountains of terminal tackle i carry but never use when fishing the river on the stick.

A Stinky Delivery...

I have really enjoyed the passed few weeks working with Stinky Stuff Bait Spray and incorporating it into my fishing for carp has been very interesting and rewarding.  Sessions where the flow on the lake has been towards the snag it gave me the confidence to know that smell was lapping into their hiding space and hopefully drawing them out.  Future blogs will show just how good this bait has been for the carp and it was great last week to receive a delivery from Stinky Stuff of two more bottles of their other products in the Stinky Stuff Match and Stinky Stuff Bubblecream.  The bubblecream is a really interesting one having spent most of my childhood next to a sweet making factory it brought back quite a few memories of summer nights where the streets where full of this sweet smell.

Excited to get out on the bank and a little teaser of sessions to come the Bubble cream is just as good as the crayfish for catching carp.

Glorious First River Session - Chubbin'

As mentioned in a previous blog June 16th passed by for me on a local lake fishing for carp, not the ideal way i wanted to spend the glorious 16th, but with rivers flooded it was better to be catching fish than struggling on a swollen coloured river.  Truth be told i had a nice day catching carp and thoroughly enjoyed my morning fishing for them and that will be covered in an upcoming blog.

Thursday gone and it was straight into a days work on Friday.  Looking out of the windows in work it was hard to judge temperature, dam air con, but i could see that the sky was cloudy but thankfully we had received some strong winds that kept the clouds passing over us and not dropping their rainfall.  It filled me with hope for the rivers the next day.

Fridays for me normally follow a set routine that see's me nipping into Widnes Angling Centre for my maggots and terminal tackle bits and pieces but seen as i already had 2 pints of red maggots left from the no go session the previous day it felt weird to fall out of this routine and not nip into the shop on my way home.

During the closed season hemp seed has featured in my canal fishing but i have to admit that despite having close to 10kg of hemp under my stairs i did take the easy option and buy some tinned stuff.  It splits nicely and is convenient for the canal sessions where you are not really using that much hemp seed.  The rivers are an entirely different animal and less care needs to be taken in the preparation for the rivers as i dont use it on the hook.  This coupled with the fact the batch we have at the moment is terrible and will not split well for us meant that come Friday night the kitchen was "high" with the smell of hemp seed on the boil.  I have to admit though i was in bad books as upon finding half a packed of chill mix in the cupboard and dded said mix into my hemp i was was soon busted by her in charge who had that put away for Saturdays tea!! House stinking like a drug den and using spices ear marked for meals i was not in good books, if the chub liked it though surely its acceptable. :-)

A quick sort of the tackle box and all the essentials loaded into the Octoplus box it was a chance to make up a few hook lengths and get the gear in the hall ready for a 2am wake up call the next morning, no rain i was excited to say the least. Over the past few years we have really put the time and effort in and now have quite a large portfolio of waters to choose from.  Time spent on these rivers in both high and low water and also time spent away from the bank studying how fast these rivers drop all pays dividends in the end when it comes to the fine lines between un fishable and fishable levels.  This info can not be gleamed just form the EA chart as it only gives you a number which means very little if you have nothing to refer that too as in how the river will be and fish at that level.

From huge spate rivers to tiny brooks all where looked at and we came to a decision to fish a river we knew would hold its colour and have some pace but we could also find a few fish willing to take a bait.  The walk to the river was quite a long one and i instantly felt the benefits of the new box, so much easier and lighter to carry than my preston seatbox.  Looking at the river in the darkness we could see she was still carrying a bit of pace, unexpected pace if we were honest, but we knew as the morning would draw on this river would drop and with it the pace would settle.  Setting up on opposite inside bends of an "S" shaped bend in the river we both had slack on our inside with the river moving fast around the outside bend.   It presented us with 2 main areas to catch, one just off the main flow as the river would naturally flow and two in the deep er inside slacker water under our feet, both i knew would bee good areas.

Setting up my 13ft Korum float rod i fed hemp right in line with some overhanging brambles as this is where i thought maggots fed at the head of the run would reach bottom.  A few hand fulls of maggots i knew would get the chub on the feed and in the flow, this huge influx of bait does quicken the process i have found on this river.

The set up a dave harrell 6 number 4 wire stem  stick float was the chosen float and with the extra turbulent flow i went with the dome top as i felt this would give me more control in the flow.  A size 18 hook to a 1lb 7oz hook length i was all set to go and it came a no surprise that second trot down the float buried and i was rewarded with my first chub of the season, it was great to be back on flowing water.

The chub in the swim and having had no pressure over the passed months i felt sure the next chub was not far behind.  Low and behold hald way down the run i was again into a aggressive and hard fighting chevin that made for the overhanging cover time and time again before giving me plenty of grief under my feet,  not a huge chub but two in the net in the first 10 minutes it was a great start to the session.

When the chub are in the swim every thing else barring trout i have found clear off and it was the same on this session you could tell when the chub had spooked or moved out the swim as i started to pick up smaller chublets and dace.  These are great to see as these are the next generation of fish coming through the ranks and although they dont always show its reassuring to know they are around and ready to make the jump into the main chub shoals when big enough. 

The dace and chublets came and went like the wind and after a few trots though without a knock i knew the chub had moved back in.  It took a few goes down but eventually i sussed it out and just holding the bait back slightly on my hemp would see the signs of a bite develop with shudders on the float, letting the float go would see it sail under with unmissable chub bites.  I can only liken chub bites on the stick to the bites you get from carp on commercials.

The action from these chub then was solid taking four on the bounce in what was crazy fishing as the cub really bullied in on the swim.

Fishing the swim i did i knew i was fishing for one shoal of chub as there was no way a shoal was moving through the rapids above and below this deep run.  The chub went and in came the dace and chublets again until eventually bites dried up completely.  My uncle had the same issue just down stream and had also had some chub and some nice roach.

The session finished for me with a 18lb9oz net of chub, dace and chublets and it was an excellent first session on the river.  Plenty of bites and had a few chub pull back so i left a happy angler.

Early Morning Carping Fun off the top......

The next carp session i got out was just after my 18lb pb and at this time i was treating carp fishing as something i would do when i wanted a challenge but at the same time some fun.  Armed with a loaf of bread and my floater rod i headed off to the lake.  Arriving at first light it was cold and many would be forgiven for dismissing floater fishing but i knew the carp would be in the shallows form the previous evening and being shallow i knew there was a good chance of them finding my free offerings of kingsmill.

upon arriving i threw in a few bits of bread all over the swim and under my feet.  Setting up the net and the floater rod it was a case of waiting for the carp to start taking.  Sure enough the rods was not even of its rod wraps before i heard the first swirl and slurp as a carp came up for its break fast.

I arrived at the water at 4.30am and i had to be leaving at 7am to get back, washed and showered before a full days overtime in work so it was a short session.  These short approaches seemed to see me do well with the early mornings also keeping the ducks away as they didn't seem to come to life till later in the morning.  The water colored i sprayed the crusts with some stinky stuff bubblecream to add some extra smell.

A cracking hour or so's fishing later i was leaving for work with 4 carp under my belt to just over 10lb.

Well thats another few trips on the bank caught up with and this format i think will continue for the next few weeks with carp trips added to the end of my other fishing,  I guess it adds loads of diversity to the blog as if you like rivers or carp fishing there is something there for everyone.

till next time

tight lines

Danny