Doubles Keep Coming and Bream Delight On River

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

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

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

On to the fishing

A morning of doubles....

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A quick pic and back she went.

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

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

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

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

Bream On The Stick...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Till next time

tight lines

Danny 

Cheshire Fisheries Pool 3 A New Adventure...

A warm welcome to this weeks blog update i hope i find you all well and your nets wet.  Well as mentioned in last weeks blog the river season for me ended as drab as the season its self really with my car breaking down.  The car back on the road and a weeks fishing missed i was as keen as ever to get out on the bank.

I had been told a few times by my mate about a fishery out Beeston way that was a really enjoyable place to fish and after nipping through a week or so ago to pick up a few lures i though why not give it a go?  So with my uncle about to go into his out of river season getting house jobs done mode i managed to persuade him to visit this fishery for one session before his hibernation.

The introduction this weeks includes a little on how my two trips to a proper commercial have changed my opinion on these waters and then the last piece of the introduction is a look at a reviews away from the bank and how they have been to test and write about.  The fishing is our first trip to Cheshire Fisheries.

Commercial Appeal..

In all my blogs i have always been brutally honest on my feelings around commercials and how they have sculpted and changed fishing in the UK in only a short time span.  I still am of the opinion they are the main reason why our banks are so empty on the rivers and canals and i think that is now widely accepted as fact in the angling community.  What i didn't realise is why the people where so in love with these places that to this point, fishing flushing meadows, where as described by the masses muddy holes in the ground full of carp.

On this session i found my self on the banks of a proper fishery, one where time had been invested over the years to produce somewhere that both looked a joy to fish but also had the amenities like a tackle shop on site and even toilets!!!

The banks on both sessions where quite busy, more so on the second session, but it gave me a chance to see what type of people where attracted to a top end fishery and the answer shocked me, all ages of all abilities! And the penny soon dropped, it was more than just the fishing why there people chose to come here.  The fishing for someone who can fish is easier than most places lets not be silly about that but when you looked at it as a whole package why wouldn't people fish here?

The banks where laden with hard core, relatively flat and even and the first pool you could literally fish out of the car park.  Litter bins all over the fishery and benches to eat your lunch at and given the fact there are literally over a 100 pegs there was no fighting or getting up at 4am to get a swim like we do on one of the rivers we fish.  As one guy i over heard said "that was a cracking breakie at Toby carvery this morning set me right up for a days fishing!".  It made me realise that everyone elses idea of fishing is not the same as my get out the crack of sparrows fishing and it really did make me look at it from a different angle.

I then noticed the sheer amount of tackle some of the, i presume, match men or guys who to them this is their fishing brought to the bank and safety must come into it.  I know when i fish the local canal i lean back on my heals as each person passes in case you get that one person who thinks its funny to push you in.  Never mind the fact if you ever got your gear stolen, safely was also an obvious reason why fisheries have become to places to go for people and you know what after my two trips i can see why!!  I see it now and although i could not myself fish a place like this every week i can see myself venturing here through the year and to others similar.

As a complete package its got huge appeal.  Even this bank holiday weekend just gone i was thinking of going the canal.  Early season its never amazing fishing and then i thought about the multitude of boats come 9am and of course watching my back for bikes, joggers and dog walkers every bite of put in, in short i found myself again on Cheshire fishery, more on that next week as i was a man with a plan on that session.

Blogging For Product Reviews...

As always the blogs email and social media pages have been full of questions around all my fishing but there have been quite a few in the past few weeks around blogging and product reviews.  The past few weeks there has been a few reviews on this page and it does seem to people new to my blog that companies are lining up to be featured on the blog, this is far from the truth.  One question i get a lot is:

"I have just started writing a blog, no companies have got in touch how long will it take?"

The truth is as a blogger starting out you are in a vast world of angling blogs already and if you are setting one up just to get free stuff then you are going to be sadly disappointed  My advise is to write a blog about your fishing to the best of your ability and try and find something that will make your blog stand out form the rest, update regular and in time the companies will come to you, but never expect them.  

I get quite a few companies get in touch now and believe it or not i turn more down than i accept as a lot am and not able to relate back to fishing in any way.  For me, i love the reviews they are like the little bits of extra fun on top of a blog i already love writing but the blog is not written as a means for getting 'free stuff'.

On a product review front it has been a really exciting period with the octoplus box review not live and the stinky stuff one in last weeks blog.  I am currently reviewing the GCell back pack and its already saved my blushes on a recent family trip by charging my phone up so we could get home, of course as soon as a review a back pack with a solar power source a storm hits!!  Still the sessions i have planned reviewing it as soon as the sun comes out will be interesting.

On to the fishing..

Cheshire Fisheries Pool 3

Driving down the A49 at first light we turned off at beeston as the busy A road gave way to a long winding country road that wound its way to a quiet fishery lying the the shadow of the historic castle.  With a back drop if ravens or crows ringing in the early morning air we walked around the fishery.  To be honest most of the pools looked very similar apart from pool 3 that had a high thicket fence behind it and a tree that was submerged in the edges.  

We made our way back to the fishery shop to pay our day ticket and had a good chat with the people on the till who where really helpful with their information.  In short all the pools hold good heads of silvers and carp, all have big carp in and fishing maggot and corn the word was we would have a busy day.  Great we thought as river anglers who fish mainly for silvers we are always happy with the float going under.

Me and my uncle decided to give pool 3 a go and we set up either side of the sunken tree with the plan being that if the wind arrived on this really open fishery it would be over our shoulder and the fence would offer us some protection.  My bait for the day would be around 3 pints of maggots, corn laced with stinky stuff and micro pellets also loaded with cray fish stinky stuff. 

As with all fishing the most important part of the session is the first 10 minutes where you plumb the swim.  I found the bottom of the shelf quite close in at my top section plus my number 4 section and i also found the same depth at my top two plus two sections of pole level with the end of the tree.  My plan was to fish maggot and pellet close in and while i did this i planned to feed the far out line on just corn and micro's.

In keeping with fishery rules i did away with my trusty size 20 micro barb hooks and replaced it with a shark hook sized 16 barbless hook with a 2.7lb main line.  From the first put in i was straight into roach on my near in line and i was shocked at the quality of the roach i was catching from a swim that had literally only had two cad pots full of bait.

A lot of the bites at this early stage where in the drop and even at this early stage i was thinking i would be on for a nice weight of roach if i kept the quality of roach coming for a prolonged period.  My uncle on the peg next to me was fishing caster and although he was waiting a little longer for bites he was also getting a good stamp of roach but the castor was also picking him up the odd carp.

I then struck into a weird bite that saw the float move along the top before sliding under.  To my amazement up came a crayfish!  I had been told about these but i have to be honest i never expected to see one come up in my swim when i lifted the float.  No sooner was it on the bank than it fell of the line and shot back in the pool!  No sooner had i let it go than my uncle latched into one as well, the kray brothers!

These where to be the only two crays we caught all day, thank god, horrible things and what shocked me more was the fact the water was tick quite cold yet under its tail it was loaded with black eggs.  At this stage i was feeding the swim by cad pot each put in and was literally filling the pot full of maggots.  The bites kept coming on the silver line but did eventually slow down and despite little tricks like moving a little past the swim and altering my shot the silver action slowed down.

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At this point i moved over to my corn line off the tree that i had primed all morning and took a carp quite quickly, only around the 2lb mark but it was a carp.  This close to the tree it made me think about my choice to bait up so close.  I did not have a puller kit and was on a doubled elastic so it was not a cast of moving them away from the swim more of a case of having no back bone once close in to stop the fish getting into the huge sunken tree to my left.

The time around noon i was sitting it out on corn in the deep water with little success apart from the odd skimmer and roach so i decided to have a plumb around the margin to my right.  I found it went from really shallow close in, inches deep, to around a foot and half on the picture below.  Nicely lined up with a molehill!!  This gave me a cracking point to line up with and i fed on the inside of this mole hill and from previous experience on Flushing meadows in this depth i knew the feeding fish would gradually push bait down the slope so i fed quite a bit inside the mole hill and to kick it of put in a good spread of micro pellets, maggots and corn.

The feeding was not chaotic as in hand fulls of bait, that would come later, it was still a measure amount as i did not know if i would even get a bite down there at this point, remember i had never fished here before so it was all new.  A roach was quick in coming and then a few more came and of a nice quality as well and i was happy that one i would get bites here and also in such a shallow depth my bait was also getting to the bottom and not intercepted on the way down.  It didn't take long for me to strike a zooming bite and the whole margin to boil as a carp angrily left the swim.

Over the next hour or so i slowly picked up roach and the odd carp and at this stage there was little to give the presence of when a carp was there away.  Till around 2pm i was happily picking up the odd carp and enjoying the fight form them, i lost a proper nice one as well, i only saw it once on the top and it looked 10-12lb and i had it on for ages to the point my arm was aching and under my feet i tried to get its head up and was all going well till it saw the tree and it was good night Vienna  The carp to this point where around the 2-4.5lb mark.

After 2pm all changed in the swim i began picking up fish quite quickly after catching the last one and sometimes while playing one fish i would see swirls and tail patterns down my margin to the right as another carp was on the bait.  Missed bites at this point where seeing boils going out the swim as carp spooked in the shallow water and the margin that was, not clear,  but had some clarity was now very coloured up.

At this point i was still feeding by cad pot and was getting to work out the swim.  Pot in some bait and i was laying the rig down the swim to try and avoid the line bites.  It seemed to work a treat and by 3pm i was starting to get a little shocked at the fishing.  The carp where being caught amongst other carp but the swim was just a jacuzzi of boils and tail patterns as the carp with their heads down vacuumed up the bait.

At this point i did away with the cad pot and i was literally throwing bait in by hand, a hand full at a time.  As mat Hayes would say "it was like feeding the monkeys at Dudley zoo".  The bait going in the size of the carp was getting bigger with the fish in the last hour before we packed in all averaging 7-8lb.  Exciting fishing and all on two and three sections of pole.

As time went on i began to think  about how i was going to weigh and photograph the two keep nets i had in.  I knew i had a decent net of silvers already and although these carp where coming one a chuck i was starting to think about the sheer amount of carp in my carp net.  My uncle at this point came over and had a few fish in the swim and even he was shocked at what he saw, it was crazy fishing.

My uncle on the other side of the tree had caught steady all day and he suggested we called it a day as it was heading into the not being able to lift my net territory.  We looked at my uncles net first and when he lifted his net and i saw him get to the cod end of his keep net and he strained to lift his net of silvers i began to think about my net 15 yards away.

I always carry an unhooking mat with me now and my 32inch rubber mesh pike net so with two of us there it was simple to move the fish from the net into landing net.  On the scales it went a barmy 27lb of mainly silver fish with the odd carp.

We then moved over to my swim and we started with the silvers net and repeated the procedure we had on my uncles swim.  The fish put into the large rubber net over an unhooking mat it was quick operation to weigh the net and take a quick picture for the blog.  A 17lb net of silvers and for me had that been all i had caught i would have been over the moon as that alone to me was a cracking days sport.

17lb silvers

We then moved over to the carp and we tried to judge the weight so my scales did now completely bottom out, i was really intrigued to see just how many fish i had caught in those last two few hours.  We weighed the first few carp and took a picture and the net went 37lb.

 37lb carp

We then let these rest in the margin in the big net before letting them go and then brought the keep net out and weighted and photographed the remaining carp.  This second net went 22lb so in total nearly 60lb or carp.

In summary it blew me away completely i was knackered and gobsmacked at what had just happened.  Some regular commercial anglers will probably look at this and say "wow excited over only nearly 80lb of fish" and this might be a poor day for commercial fishing i really don't know.  What did scare me more than anything was the fact that had i carried on fishing till dark the weight it could have been!  Those fish where heavy on the feed and averaging a nice weight  I am sure that would had continued after the light fell and i am confident that 3-4 more carp would have come to take the total on the day to 100lb.  Who knows it might well of died and not got another bite, that's fishing i guess.

My first trip to a proper commercial and i left having gained a new insight into this part of fishing and if I'm honest a greater respect for it.  The fishing was easy at times but looking on the other pools it was quite clear this was not the session going on around the complex so how i fished and fed the swim must have had some impact.  It left me feeling knackered but excited to return and have some fun with this venue before the keep nets where banned for summer.

Till next time i wish you all tight lines

Danny

p.s I slept like a log that night

Bridgewater Canal Fishing On The Waggler...

A warm welcome to this week's blog update i hope i find you all well and your nets wet.  The weather of late has been so up and down it has been a lottery deciding what area to target.  On this weeks session i was looking to change things up a little and fish the waggler instead of the pole and for this i was hoping i would get a nice calm day and this horrible wind would drop a little.  It would also be good to see the difference in results from the pole to the waggler.

This year has been a huge time of change for me and my family and only now does it seem to be calming down a little so in this weeks introduction we look at what my plans are for the coming months with the blog, some good news around me getting some of my fishing gear replaced and fixed and then we look at plans to drastically change a local water to me as the concrete jungle closes in.  As mentioned above the session is a quick morning on the canal fishing the Waggler.

On to the update.

Getting Back Into The Swing...

The passed few months i have been really struggling balancing moving house, work, devoting my time to my family and also keeping my standards up with regards the how in depth my blogs on here are, you then add to that other commitments to companies like Pondip its been a real strain.  It may not seem like much has been going on as i think the last few weeks blogs have been some of the best i have wrote but it really has been hard work finding the time to put them together and to be honest there have been times when i have thought about just putting the blog to one side for a few weeks and coming back to it when the river season opens. 

I am so glad i stuck at it and stayed up late at night making sure i got the weekly blog out as you really do get out of the swing of blogging when you take a gap, it can be really hard to get back going again.  This past week or so though as we have moved into June i really am beginning to feel like the new routine is falling into place and it is so far so good with this week already getting out my monthly blog for Pondip and also a little surprise that might be coming in the next few months with Pondip so keep an eye open for that.

So all in all there is a lot to look forward too in the coming weeks and months with both things settling down and the new river season opening and then beyond that the start of the pike season.

Replacing Some Gear...

As i said above i am just coming out a mad few months and during that time money has been really tight indeed, canal trips have really helped with the saving on petrol with them being local and the bait costs being really cheap.  With that it has meant any accidents that happen can not just be as simple to remedy as just going online when you come home and buy a new one as with a house to decorate you can not justify £60.00 on a replacement section of rod.

In the past 3 months i have manged to snap the tip off my 17ft trotting rod and also seen my number 8 section of pole go rolling into the drink on the canal so its not been a great time for me trying to keep costs down and look after my gear.  These two items will both send me back over £60.00 so when i chance of two days overtime came up- last weekend i jumped at the opportunity, both days battered it meant no fishing but as it has meant i have been shattered all this week so that session on Saturday can not come soon enough on the canal.

The Ever Encrouching Concrete Jungle...

I logged into my own personal facebook this week to be met with the news that a local water is being ear marked for further land development.  The venue is Pheonix Park on the Warrington Anglers Card and although it is already situated in the middle of a densely populated suburb these plans show development will be right up to the waters edge.

Looking at this it is going to almost certainly mean more development all around this lake till the whole bank is houses and although there is huge demand for housing it just seems that the little oasis's among towns are now being eroded away. 

There is of course always two sides to the story and i can also see that these houses are needed on a national level and maybe it is better to build within the town boundary than encroach further out into the countryside.  There is also a part of me that looks at theses and thinks. well they are getting built anyway what a house it would be for an angler as you could literally fish on your front door step! Deep down though i would much prefer it to be the green area it is now.

On to this weeks fishing..

Waggler Fishing on the Bridgewater Canal

Fishing the canal as a kid with my dad all our fishing was done on either a small whip we called a "snatcher" or on the float rod.  Poles where in angling at this time but where a far cry from the poles we see today that are built for taming big carp.  The modern day poles we see today actually hold their origins in the match fishing scene where they where built for catching roach on the canal and this is where they got their name "roach pole".  A few anglers around our area had poles but they where very expensive and me and my dad certainly never fished on the pole.

This session i decided to go back to the old ways and leave the pole in the holdall and go all out for a session on the waggler.  I knew results would not be as good as on the pole as you lose all the accuracy you get with the pole as you can feed right on the same spot every time and then lay your bait right in the middle of that small patch of feed every time and this just is not possible with the waggle where feeding is a lot more spread out and you certainly lose accuracy in where you fish each cast.

Casting in with the float meant a move of swim for this session for a section that was a lot wider which allowed me to cast right against a far wall between a willow and a overhanging tree and then quickly sink the line and fish right up on the far bank shelf.  The bait for the day was maggots left over from last weeks session and in all honestly this session was a spare of the moment session on the bank that i only settled on the night before.  Like all previous sessions it was a early morning session from sunrise till around 10am.

As you can see from the swim pic above the canal was in top condition with just a tinge of colour and i was hopeful for a few bites i did however know from experience that the overhanging willow was a magnet for small jack pike in the 1-3lb bracket so i expected a few visitors during the morning.  As always the early exchanges where dominated by smaller fish and it seemed a good while the roach fed in the swim

I was catching steady over the far bank but the quality of fish just was not there.  I was not expecting monsters as i was fishing maggot but some of the fish i was catching were the stamp i would expect on a pinkie line and not a far bank maggot line.  I began to feed right far over against the wall almost and the stamp of fish improved.  It was really hard fishing as it meant casting right over tight and then quickly mending the line and winding hard to sink the line.   It seemed the better roach and odd bream where right over tight and when i got it right i was rewarded.

The session was no where near as prolific weight wise as previous pole sessions but in all honesty this session was not about that.  This session was a session back watching a self cocker float dotted right down shoot under and  strike into a fish, on some occasions.  It served its purpose as well and while the net dried i managed to get a few shots for a upcoming blog for Pondip so i left the bank a happy angler.

A typical mixed canal net that fed my angling addiction for that weekend and the weekend just gone where i was on overtime.  I hope this blog shows you don't always need a pole to catch a few fish on the canal.

Till next week its tight lines from me,

Danny

Two Trips to the Pond and Springwatch Fever

A warm welcome to this weeks blog update and i have to admit to having a wee bit of trouble putting together last weeks blog update.  I walked the dogs with my good friend Ian on Friday evening and full of inspiration after seeing some spectacular wildlife in the form of Pheasants, rabbits, herons, finches and even some early evening bats i departed for home and loaded laptop, could i write a word? No, not a single paragraph I sat there till midnight with a blank document in front of me and despite getting out the notepad and jotting down some notes I could not get it down on paper right.

The time was 1am and I was due to meet my uncle at 4am maybe a days fishing would wet my appetite and the blog would come easy Saturday evening.  I went fishing, had a cracking laugh and a good session in fact but sitting down on Saturday evening i was still looking at the blank screen.  This continued all this week until today in work, sat at my desk on my dinner a light bulb came on and said stick to what you know and be honest and get it all down on paper and the rest will come, well here's the honesty down on paper I am now praying the rest will come..

The past few weeks you will have noticed that i have not really mentioned the carp quest and to be brutally honest it is because I am waiting for June the 16th, not for the rivers, but for the waters that have a closed season to open so the idiots on the water i am currently fishing move on to bigger and better things.  My time this year on a proper carp water has in all honestly has thrown up some of the most shocking experiences in my fishing life.  The only way to describe some of these people i have met is childish and down right rude, basic simple manners seem to be missing and my past drop in was the nail in the coffin a simple "hi mate much doing?" being met with "F$$K Off, does it look like" was enough for me to give this place a miss till later on, i am not saying all are like this and there is good and bad in all branches but it seems this water attracts i higher proportion  of these people, I have said it before on here and i stand by it, I am yet to meet an angler on the banks of the river that has been rude and unapproachable.   So keep an eye out for more updates on the carp quest in the coming weeks.

The past two weeks the upcoming river season has been at the forefront of my mind and you will remember i mentioned about the financial benefits of bulk purchasing hemp seed.  This week i took delivery of 20kg of hemp seed and 20kg of brown crumb and a long evening was spent splitting the 20kg of hemp seed down into session sized pint bags.  All said and done it split into 66 pints of hemp seed so 33 pints each and considering the whole bag cost us 30 quid with delivery we both saved a pretty penny when you consider that the local bait shop is selling it at £1.50 a pint.  The cooking of hemp is seen by many as a difficult process that involves standing over a pan for hours, in reality is is not and i will be covering how i cook mine in an upcoming update.

The past two weeks i have loved watching this years Springwatch.  I must say the improvements in technology with the crispness of the images and some of the positioning of the cameras is amazing.  It was great to see the legend that is Bill Oddie back as well for a cameo role in this series and hopefully we will see more of him in future years as he really did offer a unique way of presenting to this program, maybe coming back to replace the packman who i think has gone a bit too far with his Bitten obsession this year.  I must also say to be slightly shocked at some of the footage shown in this years springwatch with scenes of crows taking and attacking rabbits and then the jackdaws and magpies raiding the rabbits nest in the hay stack.  I personally am OK with this viewing as it is nature in its rawest form and in a way nature as i see it when i am out on the bank, my shock come from the fact the BBC shown in at 8.30pm slot on television, I bet their complaints line was bust the next day.

The series for me though has been so awe inspiring and thought provoking this year with such a wide variety of species and so far i have to say seeing the Eagle in relation to the buzzards i see week in week out just made me sit and think how big these birds must be as they dwarfed the buzzards then we had the urban foxes living under the boarding in someone's back yard and who could forget the story about the introduction of beavers to Scotland and on this one i can't wait for the report to be published in a years time to see if the Scottish government approve their reintroduction or decide they cause too  much damage and remove them from their habitat, a big decision and one that could effect the introduction of this species across the UK.

On to the fishing:

Saturday 24th April -Local Pond - Uncle Returns

With both my uncle and myself still to purchase our Warrington Anglers licence and the fact we both liking to include our keepnets in our fishing where possible we decided to save some money on petrol and not visit a Northwich water but to head back to a pond I had fished and had good results for silvers on in previous weeks.

My uncle having been missing from the bank for a good month or so was dying to wet a line and i must say i was glad to have him back in the fold.  I don't mind fishing alone but when you have fished for every weekend for the past 3 years with someone you do realise when their not there, banter on the way to the bank and someone to have a laugh with and compare tactics with through the day, so to have him back again was great although the plant life behind my peg may think different with the extra watering they are about to get.

There is not really much i can put up on here that hasn't been said about this pond before, it is small, weedy and holds an incredible head of silvers and some top quality Roach and Rudd.  It also holds a great deal of mystery with no one really knowing the stock and species present in the pond.  In the past we have caught orange tench, green tench, nice perch, bream and crucian carp but rumours of other species are rife when you bump into the odd person you see on this derelict pool.

We both set up on the same bank utilising a big gap in the weed to present maggot and corn and despite a small amount of raking before hand to move some big clumps out of the swims it did not take long for the first roach to move into our swim.  I got of to a brilliant start catching a good number of roach on the drop on both corn and maggot while my uncle waited it out on the bottom for a chance at a better fish.  After a hour or so i was catching the odd fish on the drop and my uncle had moved over to the pole where he could present a bait easier than on the rod.

As the morning wore on the fish seemed to spook off my area to the solitude of the weed cover and this lull in both swims also saw us both snapped by bigger fish on a number of occasions.  The scenario is a hard one to work out as if you go big line big bait, which you would need to single out the better fish and also have a chance of stopping them before they reach the weed , you then cut out all the action on the silvers line so it is a tough one to work out.  Removing all the weed on the pool is also not the answer as this is thick cover is the reason these roach and rudd thrive here, removing this would open this place up to cormorants in a big way.

In the summer our sessions normally run from first light till around 2pm and this session was no different.  The nets where photographed and weight and i was more than made up with my 13.5lb net and some decent sized roach.  My uncle also took a fantastic mixed net of fish weighing 10.5lb which also included some lovely crucian carp.  All in all it was an average session on this fantastic little pond.

my net:

uncles net:

Saturday 31st - Second Visit to Pond

Friday night and i found myself at the side of the pond rake in hand and a pile of pond weed piled up next to me as i attempted to clear a small swim for the next mornings session.  The rake was not the best but it did the job and in 30 minutes i was bringing the rake through the now cloudy water with no weed on the other end and in my eyes it was job done.

While i was doing this my mate turned up who i go walking my dog with on Friday evenings and he said there is no way any fish would be on this side of the pond after all that commotion and he laughed as i said that i reckon you would catch a fish from there within 30 minutes and we would catch the next morning.

The next morning and we both settled into our swims, me in the swim we both fished last weekend and my uncle in the newly created swim made the previous evening.  The weather on the day was a lot different to the previous weekend and the bright sunshine had been replaced with a overcast cooler day.  The plan for the day for me was to feed ground bait laced with the maggots left from the previous week that now contained a fair number of caster and also i popped in a few grains of corn hoping to attract in some better fish.

The roach were showing in my swim from the off and the swim was building nicely before it completely died, after a few minutes the float shot under and in one hard run i was snapped by a better fish, it was frustrating to say the least but i had tried to combat this by using my stronger white hydro elastic but it proved to still be not power full enough.  My uncle was also picking up roach and the odd rudd but was also experiencing the same lulls and tussles with better fish but he was getting his in with two tench in the net one green and one golden.

As the afternoon went on we both caught fish but the action was no where near as good as the previous week.  I was made up with a nice perch and my first few crucians from this pool while my uncle had also picked up the odd crucian and some lovely roach.

The final nets we were both made up with considering it is a mere pond.

final nets

till net time i wish you all tight lines

Danny

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