G-CELL Solar Backpack Review and Method Feeder Madness...

A warm welcome to this weeks blog update i hope i find you all well and your nets wet.  Well we finally approach what is the final weekend of double overtime and i can not wait for Saturday and Sunday to be done and get out on bank holiday monday and hit the bank.  Location may be a b it of a conundrum as i imagine the boat traffic on the canal will be very high and with warm weather around the local pools will have their fair share of idiots polluting the banks and the serene quiet i will be craving.

I guess till Sunday evening arrives i will not know what to do, a few pints of maggots, bag of ground bait and a bag of micros will keep all my options open.  Sweetcorn of late has been a bait i have been doing really well on all over both for carp and silvers and it will be interesting to see if the fish continue to take this bait or move over to more fat filled products like meat as the temperatures continue to rise.

This weeks blog update see's me reviewing a fantastic product in the G-Cell Solar backpack.  This was sent over to me around a month ago and with such a busy schedule of reviews and work i was honest in the time scales we were looking at for this review to go live.  The great thing about this has been using such a fantastic product for so long i have been able to get to grips and put together the in depth review below.  The fishing this week is an evening session after over time where i meet up with my mate dave and i have a few hours using the method feeder.  Unorganized and over gunned with heavy line i doubted i would get a bite, lets see how i got on.

Onto the update:

G-Cell Solar Backpack Review

Product info:

link to Product: http://gcell.com/product/gratzel-solar-backpack-2
Price: £80.00
********BLOG FOLLOWERS ENTERING DISCOUNT CODE 'dannybellfield" ON CHECKOUT GET £20.00 OFF*******

Backpack:
Nylon 1680D durable fabric
21 Litre Capacity

12 Individual compartments in total

Secure 15" Laptop Compartment
Airmesh padded back and straps
Sturdy Handle and hook for hanging
Foam lined throughout
Adjustable chest strap
Iron Grey Colour

DSSC Specification

Poer (Pmax) 0.5W minimum
Operating Current 100mA
Operating Voltage 5.5V

Power Bank

Output Current 1.1A max
Output voltage 5V

Product Description:
The Gratzel Solar Backpack 2 is a collect-able all weather bag that is durable, rugged and lightweight.  This innovative design includes a Dye Sensitized Solar Cell (DSSC) that will power your mobile phone, GPS, IPod or small electronic device.  The solar cell harvests energy from the sun and sores it in the power battery bank battery (provided) for continuous access to power.

My Review

First impressions -
Upon opening the box with the bag in my initial thoughts where how light the backpack was, it literally felt like you had nothing in your hands.  The material felt really good quality and i was really shocked how well they had incorporated the solar panel into the design of the bag itself so that it was not completely obvious at first you where wearing a solar backpack.  Having a quick look through the bag it seemed to have plenty of storage and again the internal parts of the bag again seemed to be of a good quality.  My first use of the backpack came that night when i loaded my laptop to nip out to write that weeks angling blog.  Overall i was very pleased with all aspects of the product.

Day to Day use....
With so much going on with the blog when i accepted to do this review i mentioned that the time scales for it to be wrote would be a few weeks and this gave me plenty of time to get to grips with this product.  My initial use for this product was for my day to day trips to work and found it to have ample space to carry my laptop, lunch and small jacket with room in the front for the leads.  Stylish in design and comfortable to wear with its adjustable straps it was a joy to use.  Working in a office with indoor lighting the only down side i found was for indoor use the solar panel would not give you enough juice for a change when left for a few hours.

This backpack in general day to day use came into its own on a family trip to Manchester.  I forgot to charge my phone over night and after using the sat nav extensively to find the location i found myself with a dead phone.  A nice warm spring day i walked round for a hour or so seeing the sights and then managed to get a 50% charge on my phone.  Capturing this special moment below would not have been possible without the Solar backpack, lifesaver.

Fishing with the Solar Backpack
So it was time to hit the bank with this backpack and put it through its paces.  Ideally i would have liked to had filled the backpack full of fishing tackle, food and grabbed a rod and headed for a long walk along the banks of a river out into the wilderness.  I am sure this backpack would be perfect for that scenario and will certainly be how i will be using this product come the start of the new season.

With that not an option for a review i decided to spend a day walking the banks of the canal lure fishing for pike.  Starting at first light i hit the bank with a lure rod, landing net and the rest of the gear was in the backpack.  I was genuinely shocked a the amount of storage this backpack offered. As you can see from the picture below if easily fit in four lure boxes and all my tools to unhook the pike with plenty of room in the front compartment for a nice bottle of water.

In the later afternoon i had walked a fair few miles and i guess the warm weather meant the pike where spawning so my phone did not see much action from fish capture shots but i decided to see what energy had built up on the power bank during the day and sure enough upon connecting my charger to the power bank the phone began to charge up.  I know some anglers who like to listen to music while walking the bank pike fishing and do put more of a drain on their devices than i do when i am out so this product would also be great for anyone who like to take small electrical devices with them when fishing.

Summary..
All in all the month or so i have spent with this product has been fantastic it has slotted in nicely to all aspects of my lifestyle form a secure and padded back pack for transporting my laptop i blog from, my commutes to work, family day trips out and of course long sun drenched days walking the banks of my local canal.  It has been a product that has genuinely impressed me in all its aspects with a superb sleek stylish look and excellent build quality its been a pleasure to review this piece of kit and i highly recommend it to all anglers looking for a lightweight back pack to store a day trips worth of gear in whilst having the added peace of mind you can charge you devices when needed.

Method Feeder Madness...

So with overtime taking over my whole weekend i found myself in work daydreaming about being on the bank.  The hours in work seemed to take an age and out of the window the sun was beating down hard.  I just had to get out.  The extra hour had been added to the clock a few weeks previous and i meant i would get till around 8pm before i lost the light.

Overtime complete i raced out of work at 4pm and in no time found myself on my way to a pool with the car loaded with a few bits a pieces.  I honestly did not care if i caught a fish or not and to be honest i didn't give myself much hope as with no live baits like maggots in i had literally grabbed a tin of corn and a packet of micro pellets. Tackle wise i had my carp rod, landing net and box a plan to chuck out a method feeder and fish on the bite alarms.

The truth be told i invested a lot of money a few seasons ago in a pair of carp rods, reels and delkim alarms with the hope of catching some carp.  These plans never developed as i found carp fishing was not for me at all, i just didn't enjoy anything about it and least of all the noisy banks i found myself on.  The rods and bite alarms as such have seen more action from pike than carp, my hope was to change the scores a little.  Reels loaded with 15lb line i did think i was heading for a big blank.

I was joined on the bank by dave, a mate i had done some piking with over winter, but also a seasoned commercial angler and i must say roles reversed a little as he described how well this tactic would work.  I had set up a float rod on a centre pin to fish the margin but it soon became impossible to fish as line bites started registering on the method feeder rod.

Tactics where simplicity itself method feeder free running on the line down to a korum quickstop bead with a 4 inch section of line to a quick stop hook.  Squeezing a hand full off dampened micro pellets around the feed, add a hook with two pieces of hair rigged corn on and then a top layer of pellets.  All this then cast out it was a case of waiting for a carp to find the pile of pellets and the bright corn hook bait.  My type of fishing,  simple tactics and relying on watercraft to place the bait where i thought i would get results.

It took a while for the first signs of fish in the area to develop into a run but when it did it was electric!  The rod tip hooped over and with line ripping of the bait runner and the delkin screaming it was a far shot from the usual lazy single beeps of a pike pick up.  Lifting the rod i was a bit flustered with what to do and it took me a few moments to get the drag set proper once the bait runner was disabled.  With this method it seemed like once the fish took its fate was sealed as despite my messing around and slack line the fish was still on.

A nice carp and a start to the session.

Returning the carp back i loaded up the feeder again and cast it back out.  Almost instantly the line bites started to come and it was like the beeps where building over time till again the rod hooped over and the alarm was again screaming as another carp fell to the hair rigged corn.

This carp turned out to be the biggest carp if the session at 7.6lb and certainly put up a good account of itself during the fight.  I was still in amazement that this robust set up was working.  I am an angler that fishes as light as i possibly can and even on the rivers hook lengths of 1lb7oz are common, yet here i was fishing with 15lb line.

The third carp was no far in coming and boy was it exciting stuff, only small carp but each one was causing the alarm to scream.

There was a bit of a pattern beginning to show.  I would cast in and for around 10 minutes i would get the odd line bite but then for the next 5 minutes tugs on the line would get more violent till eventually the line would scream out and a one tone buzz would come from the alarms.  Sitting on your hands was a hard lesson to learn but once i did i was rewarded with two stunning carp in a ghosty and complete linear common that is certainly the most beautiful carp i have caught.

With work the next morning i had to drag myself away as dusk approached, i knew had i stayed bites would have continued.  Stories where reaching me of a number of doubles coming from here and i felt certain that if i put the time in my PB of 10lb 4oz would be broken.

what am i saying, of course i had one more cast!! :-)

Till next time i wish you all tight lines

Danny

Stinky Stuff Review And Final Rive roach Session

Stinky Stuff Review - 

Product Information:
Link To Site: http://www.stinkystuff.fishing/index.php
Price: £9.99
Available Flavours: Original, Crayfish, Bubblegum cream, Original Sea and Peeler Crab.
100ml Bottle

Little info on Stinky Stuff: 

Stinky Stuff has been in development for the past two years. Starting from a concept of breaking down other baits and finding the core amino acid from each bait that was attracting fish to feed.We also looked at the natural environments of fish, natural food sources and circumstances that trigger a fish to feed. These circumstances are not always associated with the actual food or bait, they might be climate or other chemical and nutrients in the water. All of this information was collated into a database, now locked away in safe.

We are proud of the fact that Stinky Stuff has gone through in depth research, development and testing and through to achieving an off the shelf product. Stinky Stuff is aquatically safe, environmentally safe and in balance with a fish' digestive system.

My Review:

'Impressed with Development"

For my review i requested a bottle of the Crayfish Stinky Stuff.  This was down to the fact i planned to test this bait spray for chub on a river and this river also contains crayfish.  As with all product reviews i do some research on the product before writing the review on it and i was shocked when reading up on the Stinky Stuff just how much effort went into making this spray and more importantly all the science behind how this bait works.  Seeing the bait being developed in a science lab really added that layer of depth to how much time and planning went into this bait enhancer.   Time science behind what they where trying to achieve is broken down well to allow understanding at all levels and i though this was a excellent way of getting the message across.

'All About that Smell'

So as you can imagine with a bait called STINKY stuff the product has to have a bit of a smell to it so i was eager to get my nostrils around this bait enhancer.  When i got home and saw the parcel on the floor of my hall i was dying to see what it smelt like.  I had seen this product getting a lot of attention online and there was plenty of fish captures already coming in so stood in my hall came the first smell test!

"Smells like an Explosion at a Beef Monster Munch Factory"

Before we go any further with this review i would like to add my partner is now speaking to me.  So in the hall i spay the can and straight away it hit me, literally right between the eyes!  This bait is so strong it smelt initially to me like the small you get when you open your bait box on the bank that is full of freshly cut up luncheon meat you know that really heavy meat smell.  Commenting on the products facebook page i saw the quote above and it really does hit the nail on the head, an explosion at a beef monster much factory.  The stuff really does stink, but in a way only an angler would find appealing.

So the spray test done i set about my normally after work routine and it was not until around 2 hours later my partner came home, walking int he door she straight away said "what is that smell".  There and then i thought this has got some potential. It was then i noticed on the products webpage a funny story about the bait in development where people trailing the product had got it on their hands and rang up 3 days later saying they could not get rid of it.  

This product for me was ticking all the boxes for me, a strong meaty smell that we know fish from carp to roach love and whats more for my river fishing a long lasting one that just had to leak of smell over a long time.  It was time to get this product out on the bank.

Proof is in the pudding: 

Stinky Chubbin'

This river season has been the worst season so far and its all about taking small windows of opportunity so with that in mind i headed off to the river with a tin of luncheon meat and a bottle of the stinky stuff.  I only had an hour on the bank and the river was carrying colour so it was ideal conditions as the chub would not be feeding on sight.

It took literally a minute from placing the rod on the rod rest for the tip to tap once and wrap round and i was connected to the solid resistance of a chub.  This chub in the net as to not spook the shoal it was back out with another piece if meat sprayed with stinky stuff.  Again it seemed like no time before the tip shot round again and the second chub had fell to the link ledgered luncheon meat. 

I then lost two chub on the bounce and this is normally the kiss of death for the swim on this river for a good hour and half in some instances.  The swim did die but after around 30 minutes the tip again wrapped round and the third chub of the session was in the net.  I only had a hour for this short chub session and i left with 5 bites and 3 chub.

With product reviews on bait its always a hard review to write as there is no solid facts you can work with as to if it was the bait why the fish took the bait, all i can say is i know this river well and 5 chub in a hour is good going and the fish did come back on the feed a lot quicker than normal after a lost fish.

Something a little different..

So the river for chub was a completed mess every weekend i planned to get out so and i really had to think on my feet as to how to test this product.  Fishing a local commercial for carp on meat i would catch a lot nice roach so i decided to see how if this would be any good in catching roach from a river mixed in with the ground bait.  I mixed my ground bait up as normal, mixing it slightly in the dry side before spraying a liberal amount of the stinky stuff spray into the mix and giving it a good mix.

I fed the swim with a few large balls of ground bait laced with pinkie and fished a morning session using maggot as a hook bait.  As expected the river was carrying a fair amount of colour from recent rain and again i think this is where this bait comes into its own.  It will of course attract fish in clear conditions but i feel its edge will certainly be seen in waters that are coloured.   The fishing was really good and the ground bait fed in small nuggets kept the roach coming.

Summary:
-
There are many different bait additives out there on the market and by design this steps outside the box being in the form of a spray.  The smell of this product and its long lasting smell has got to add something to your fishing.  I can see this being a bait that would do really well in my local commercial for carp in the margins and next season when i hope to target barbel.  The proof really is in the pudding and there are already some fantastic fish being caught using this product.  Thumbs up!

Last Session of the River Season -  Stinky Stuff Roach....

So the end of the season has been slowly creeping up on us for a few weeks now and with one week still to go of the season little did i know on this morning i would be on the banks of the river for the last time this season, my car breaking the following Thursday putting pay to my final week river plans.  The river i was fishing was not my initial plan for the session, i had planned a nice day fishing for chub with meat and a can of stinky stuff. In an ideal world i would see how the bait enhancer did over a full session for chub and give me some ideal opportunity to test it out for how i intended to use it, for chub and carp.

Rivers are wild beasts though and over the years i have learned to take no planned session for granted.  The day before the session it had rained none stop and even waking up in the morning of this session there was still some rain around.  The chub swim i had intended to fish was a complete mess and un-fishable with a torrent of filthy water pushing through and the odd unfortunate sheep to boot, it was a no go.

Thinking on my feet and with time on the river season running out i came up with the idea to hit the banks in search of roach again and lace my groudbait, like last week, with stinky stuff.  The water had plenty of colour but i felt i had more chance of catching roach on this day than a chub on the other river.

I mixed up the same ground bait as i normally would then left it to settle and when i come back to it it is always slightly dry this is when i gave it a good blast with the stinky stuff and this really mixes in well and gives the ground bait a unique smell and texture before i added some pinkie and balled it up.  In went 4-5 good balls of ground bait and i left the swim to settle while i set about setting up my stick float and pole line.

From the first run through the fish where lined up in the swim, small fish at first and then the better stamp began to muscle in on the lose fed maggots.  The roach where certainly on the feed and in the murky water they where picking out the maggot hook bait with ease as time and time again i went through the swim and come back with a bar of silver.

Like previous weeks i kept on feeding the swim every so often with a small nugget of ground bait and pinkie.  Once you get into a rhythm with stick float fishing you begin to get a feel for where the fish are feeding in your swim.  You ideally want them between 10 and 15 yards down stream as this gives you bait enough time to get on the bottom where you want to be catching the fish and also enough time for your float to settle and mend your line ready to hit the bites.  Too far down the swim and through the course of the day you wont draw the full potential from the swim and too far up the swim catching the fish is a nightmare.  This is where time on the bank is essential as you learn just how much to feed the swim to keep the fish where you want them.

The river during the session was falling slowly and as it did so i could see the clarity slowly dropping from the water and with clear bright skies now over head i knew this would present a new problem.  I made a huge change and added extra ground bait to the mix and then a lot of water and a good spray of stinky stuff.  The mix was really wet and almost sloppy and this was purely down the toe fact i no longer wanted the ground bait to draw the fish into the swim, i was confident the smell and bait on the deck was doing that.  I now wanted the ground bait to cloud the water up for me and keep an almost artificial cloud in the water.  I fed this into the slack so it was not washed away so fast and i am sure it got me a good hour and a half extra fishing from the swim during that time some nice roach showed up.

The final net was a nice way to send of the river season and i left happy with my efforts and happy i made the right choice.

Looking back over the sessions i fished with the bait i am sure there are not many people out there writing reviews who have used it the way i have and sometimes thinking out side the box can prove to be the best thing and i think in this case it showed how versatile this can be.  I will be of course using this bait mixed with meat and corn in the coming sessions for carp on commercials and i can not wait to see what it can do.

till next time

tight lines

Danny

Aldi Specialbuy Comp and River Dee trip

A warm welcome to this weeks blog update i hope i find you all well and your nets wet.  A special update to the blog this week as i am again proud to have been asked to work along side ALDI with regards to them launching their fishing range this Sunday 02nd August. In this update i will be product reviewing two of their products with a further two to come next weekend and there will also be a very special on line competition for all followers of Dannys angling blog on facebook to enter and be in with a chance of getting their hands on some Aldi fishing tackle.  The fishing this week See's us visit the River Dee for the first time in a long time and although low and very clear one or two dace did show and also the odd small perch.

On to the update

Online ALDI Fishing Tackle Competition!!

This Sunday ALDI are are launching their Special Angling Event across all their stores nationwide.  I have personally used their tackle in the past and i was genuinely surprised by the quality of the tackle and price.

Check out the tackle on sale at ALDI stores nationwide here: https://www.aldi.co.uk/en/specialbuys/sun-2-aug/

Working with ALDI and their team has been a real dream i have found their representatives to be fantastic to work with and share ideas between ourselves.  Early on ALDI agreed to run a competition on my blogs facebook page for a carp angling set up but after hearing about my hopes of getting a new angler hooked up with a starting angling set up they also agreed to help promote anglers to fish their local ponds and canals by running a second prize aimed at float fishing.  This for me shows great commitments by the team at ALDI who could have just agreed to the really popular carp angling prize.

The two prizes on offer are as follows:

Carp Prize:  Carp Rod and Reel, Buzz bars and bite alarm and landing net

Float Prize:  Float rod and reel and keep net

Entering the Competition is simple!!, Simply click the link to my blogs facebook page here: DANNYS ANGLING BLOG PAGE

once on the page simply like and share any of the competition posts on there to enter.  The winner must have liked and shared at .least one competition poast and also LIKE the blogs facebook page.

The Competition ends Midnight August 6th..............................Good Luck!!!


ALDI Product Review

Keep net Review

Product Info:
Price:£7.99
Specifications: A Fish Friendly 9 ring safe net for freshwater catches. Features Soft mesh to eliminate damage to your fish.  Suitable for Bream, carp, perch and silverfish. Adjustable tilt mechanism.

My Review:

I have to say the email from ALDI came at a good time for me as i had returned from the trip on the river dane having had my keep net attacked by a pike leaving ti with a big gaping hole.  The list of reviews to choose from the keep net was always on the list and this net joined me on the bank last weekend on the river dee and also on my daughters first fishing trip to a local pond, more on that in next weeks update.

My first impression of the net was how light weight it was and for me as an angler this is really important as on some of our river trips you can be carrying your gear 3-4 farmers fields to the river bank.  The next area i looked at was the mesh and just like the description said it felt really soft to the touch as if it would not be abrasive on the fishes flanks and damage them.  Length wise the net is about as short as i will go for a net as on some banks you can be quite high up from the water.  I was really shocked as well when i noticed the net came with a tilt mechanism, for the price i was sure it would have been a simple screw bolt.  On the bank the net performed well on the pond but i do think it will need added weights to the end for the river trips to get it down in the moving water.

All in all a fantastic and affordable piece of modern fishing tackle and easily worth more than the £7.99 price tag.

Field Boot Review

Product info:
Price: £12.99
Specifications: All weather lace up boot, Removable warm polar fleece lining. Waterproof sole. size 7-11.

My Review:

Waking up on my first trip to the bank using these boots i was really impressed with how comfy they where once on they really did feel comfy.  The second thing that instantly struck me about the boots was how light they where, on those long days in winter walking the canal pike fishing that can only be a good thing.  Walking around in the boots all day i was left shocked as to how good these boots really where, i always say the test of a boots is not in you sitting there thinking these boots are warm or these boots are comfy" but in the fact you are sat there not thinking your feet are cold or uncomfortable.  The ultimate test of these boots will of course come as the temperatures drop but first impressions are really good and amazing they are only £12.99.


On tot he fishing....

Finally back on the River Dee.....

Sat on Friday evening chatting to my uncle about where to wet a line the next day we went over all manner of possibilities from a local pond the a out of the blue trip to the River Severn.  We eventually decided on a trip to the River Dee and it was a trip that was well over due.  It has been a few months since our last trip to the river dee and travelling along the M56 it hit home just how long it has been since i was driving down this most motorway to what i regard as the most beautiful river we fish and who can argue with this as a swim!

The swim i set up in is a really fast flow on a bend with plenty of cover on the far bank and a huge slack on the inside bank.  It is a swim i have done well in the past for dace.  There are a lot of people who visit my blog and i do try to use the blog to help out as many people as possible but the blog for me is a huge help for my fishing as i have a complete record of trips to look back on and the night before i had a quick read of my previous trip and although i did  not go into much detail i did  notice i recorded that it took a while without a bite until the dace shoal arrived in the swim.

With that in mind i fed the swim heavily from the off to try and lure the fish up the swim.  The beauty of this swim is that you can not really over feed the swim due to how fast the flow is here the bait is constantly flushing through the swim.  Feeding heavily with maggot and hemp seed it was still a good hour before the first dace of the session came to grace my palm.

A dace is always a fish that i love to see coming to the net as you know with this fish that where there is one there is always more as they are a shoal fish.  This fish was followed by a steady stream of fish which all seemed to come over my hemp fed area.  It did become very clear on the session that it was the hemp not the maggots that was getting the fish feeding so every trot through i fed a few grains of hemp over my float as it went down and this seems to bring the bites one.

The beauty of fishing the river is you really dont know what you are going to catch and you really do catch what is in the stretch of river you are visiting that day, come back next week the shoal has gone and a swim full of dace can be a swim full of grayling and trout, that's river fishing.  It became apparent during this session that  had a sizable shoal of small dace n the swim as all this fish where quite small and the size did not really change until i tried a slack and picked up the odd perch.

I was treated during this session to a big salmon holding position right at my feet. It would go out of sight then slowly moved back into the slack behind a bug boulder but it was literally underneath my feet and estimated over 10lb it was a sight to see.  The fish seemed to be there all session and was not bothered by my rod going over its head time and time again.

The session was an enjoyable one back on the river i love, a river where it is impossible to leave unhappy due to its stunning views, we called it a day around 2pm.  The net is not the biggest net i have ever caught from the dee but on this session it did  not matter it was great to just catch a few fish and be out on the dee, although a man taking his pet pg for a walk did have me worried!!

Well that's it for another blog update please take the time to enter the competition and good luck,

till next time

tight liens

danny

Pond Fishing: Pristine Rudd and Canvas Design Review

  A warm welcome to this week's blog update.  A few weeks ago i was approached by a representative of a UK Canvas company called Canvas Design asking if i was interested in writing a review of one of their products on my blog.  I receive quite a few emails asking me to write features on the blog, some obviously angling related, others not so and for me it has to be in some way linkable to my blog and as each of my updates contain a number of pictures this fit the bill perfectly.

Based in Darwen in Lancashire Canvas Design began producing canvas's in 2004 and since that can boast some high quality customers including DVB, BBC and 60 minute makeover.  There canvas's are produced from 380GSM pure cotton and is stretched over a 18mm or 38mm deep profile pine frame.  All kits come supplied with a hanging kit and the company aim to deliver your order with 48 hours. 

With all the dealings i have with companies around product reviews i base my initial opinions a long time before i see the specific product and its around how the company are to deal with and communicate with, this makes up a huge part of my opinion of the whole package involved with purchasing from this company.  I have to say the representative of Canvas designs i dealt with was professional in her introduction email and her help in subsequent emails was above and beyond what you would expect from a company, so much so they agreed to allow me to not only run a competition on the the Blogs Facebook page for a chance to win a Free Canvas of the winner's own design but also sent me a discount code allowing all the blogs followers who purchase canvases from them a 15% discount by entering BLOG15 in the discount box on checkout. 

Follow the blog on facebook here to find the competition in the coming days:  https://www.facebook.com/pages/Dannys-Angling-Blog/282860255069146

The company then asked me to send off an image i would like on my canvas and after some deliberation over some of the pictures u have of the rivers i fish i decided to go with the picture of my uncle fishing the sankey canal at sunrise, very atmospheric and a picture that brings back memories of early mornings in the pursuit of angling dreams.  After i sent the picture off i received an email thanking me for the picture and asking if i wanted to also send another picture in of me holding a fish and they would send me both of them, again as i have said earlier top quality customer service, you cant knock that. 

The next i heard was 24 hours later i received a text informing me that my order would be delivered the next day and also a number of automated options for me to delay delivery to another day.  The next morning i received another text informing me of the exact hour my parcel would be delivered, both are shown below and i have to say as a person who works 9-5 it was a touch i found most useful as i could nip home on my dinner hour to take delivery, again all aimed at a good quality customer experience. 

Taking delivery i was taken back at the exceptional level of packaging on these canvas's they where well packaged and well marked as fragile giving no doubts as to how delicate its contents where, inside the layers of card board each canvas was protected by its own individual bubble wrap and protective crate paper.

I had my apprehensions with the canvas's around the quality, not with the product but with the quality of the images i sent in, writing this blog i literally am one man and his iphone and sometimes my proper camera and opening the canvas's i was amazed at the quality of them and how well the images looked, i was over the moon with them and was really happy to then see all the bits and pieces you need to hang them included in the package.  The quality of the canvas's i was really impressed with and being able to look at that pike from the winter deadbaiting sessions on a daily basis will inspire me every time i leave to go fishing.  

In summery the person who wins the competition on facebook will be receiving a top prize in my opinion i have nothing but good words to say about this company, a joy to deal with, nothing was too much trouble and the product they sell is equal to this standard, thank you for asking me to review the product on my blog and good luck for the future. 

you can check out the Canvas Design page here: http://www.canvasdesign.co.uk/

Both pictures now hold pride of place in my house.

on to this weeks fishing:

Pond Fishing: Google Earth Finds and Pond fishing delight. 

I am a great believer in angling you get out what you put in and any one who has wet a line will vouch i certainly put the hours in away from the bank, many dinner hours have been spent researching waters in preparation for future trips but one of my favourite activities is to search out little ponds, some nothing more than a spit of water in a field and then going out there to investigate.  Sometimes your heart sinks as you find another angling clubs signs all over it bit other times you find a real gem, this is a fishing trip to one of those hidden gems. 

This session started with us visiting the Trent and Mersey canal by the Little and Big Billinge waters, turning up i expected to see the far bank lined with overhanging trees like i had seen on Google earth but was horrified to see the banks had been hacked to death with every inch of overhanging cover cut right back.  I have no doubt there is a very valid reason to be put forward for this by the agencies involved but from a fish point of view given the pressure from predators our stocks are under i can only see this as a destruction of habitat, how can young fry and big fish be expected to have a chance to find safety from these predators with no cover to hide in. 

Cormorants are the biggest threat but this grebe in the video below shows how exposed these fish have been as this grebe just casually dived along the whole length taking a few fish in the time we was there.  Not the best signs for what i read is a really good area for fishing.

We fished for around a hour or two but will an endless line of gudgeon to show for our efforts and no sign of anything better showing, possibly down to a harsh over night frost, we immediately made tracks to a small pond that holds a good track record for some surprising fish that wake up from winter early each year. 

Arriving at the new location we could already see a few swirls from fish feeding on what looked like a small fly hatch, a sight that filled us both with confidence although the dark clouds building in the distance had us a little worried.  My past experience on this water saw me setting up my lightest pole float i own, i think it takes 3 number 10's.  My thinking? i wanted to fish on the drop and wanted the bait to sink as slowly as possible and i also plumbed up so i was dead depth so i also could be in with a chance of picking up the odd bottom feeding fish. 

I started of just over the edge of the weed, great cover hiding me from the fish, so with just the tip of the pole poking through the reed stems i knew i was in prime position for catching a few fish.  The first fish took a while in coming, a small roach, but it soon was added too with a lovely perch.

The pond, well i say pond, its a spit of water most would walk past, is usually synonymous with big roach but in the early exchanges it was a case of quality over quantity as i took a few of these pristine roach shown below, fin perfect.

The close in line continued to build and it culminated in a lovely palm full of skimmer bream.  This for me was the highlight of the day as we both caught plenty of tiny skimmer bream which means the bream are breeding well in here and really does bode well for the future of this pond.

The weather that had threatened on the horizon all morning arrived with a earnest as both wind, rain and hail stone combined to batter the side of my umbrella.  This weather you would feel sure would ruin the fishing but the place come alive.  My uncle was first to try the open water a bit further out and i noticed him pick up a few fish so i decided to chance my arm and the results even shocked me and the fishing took off with quality rudd coming one a chuck, bolstering my keep net.

The fishing when its as good as this can only last so long before the fish spook off and so it was the case as the weather passed and the sun returned so the fishing slowed down and we decided to call it a day on the session both happy to have had a few bites.

my net

uncles net

Well that is it for another weeks blog, i hope you enjoyed following my weekly adventures and don't forget to enter the facebook competition for the canvas.

till next time, tights lines

Danny

My first night session - A night to remember!!!

In keeping with the weather this week I would say it’s a scorching welcome to this week’s blog it is safe to say it doesn’t come much warmer than it has this week with temperatures in the office I work in tipping over the 30 degree mark, absolutely sweltering at times.

What does this mean for the fishing? Well it in my experience normally means quite good fishing on the drop for silvers with the better fish like bream and carp taking the opportunity to replenish their vitamin C levels so the picking your species, time of day and particular days to fish in can be the difference between catching fish and watching fish.

The extended heat wave we are experiencing at the moment comes as no surprise at all to me to be honest and to understand it you really have to look at the bigger wider picture with a mind-set that mother nature is in full control of things.  Some people may thing what am I taking about but look at it this way this time last year we were suffering some of the worst flooding this country has ever seen, this was shown in my weekly blog form that week where we visited a swollen river Dee that was only in its banks.

Blog update from this week last year: http://www.satonmyperch.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/wetter-than-otters-pocket.html

All this flooding of our rivers and the cool rain keeping the temperatures down on out still waters meant the fish never really got a chance to spawn fully and the ones that did manage to spawn where soon hit with one of the worst winters temperature wise we have seen in a long time this no doubt would not only have seen the fry struggle to survive but also would have seen the fish struggle to recharge their batteries fully after spawning before the hard winter hit.

The hard winter certainly had a knock on effect on our rivers, I witnessed this first hand, as the fish just didn’t show in their normal pre- spawning areas this year till almost the last weekend of the river season, a good month or so later than you would normally expect to see them shoal up.  The seasons and the fish have been a good month or so behind leading into summer this year but this prolonged warm spell has meant most of the rivers have been low and clear and the temperatures on the still waters have been consistent meaning not only have the fish had plenty of time to spawn but the high water temperatures mean an abundance of fly and larvae life for the fish to feed up on and it should mean that the fry percentage survival rate should be well up this year and the spawned fish should have plenty of food to help them replace the weight lost due to spawning and set them up for the harder months ahead.

The warm weather not only brings out the fish but the so called anglers it would seem and I guess the sun makes these people as lazy as the fish they are chasing as yet again litter raises its ugly head in my weekly travels.  As you will see in the rest of the update I fished Curlston Mere on Sunday and this place is basically a farmer’s pond I was put onto by a farm my uncle was working on, now the understanding is fishing is allowed as long as the place is kept tidy and there are signs up to that effect around the water so it really upset me to see the following hanging from a tree as I arrived.

Now you could slightly understand this if it were say a mile or so trek to the car like some of our river trips are but that’s not the case at all on curston mere you can literally park your car behind your peg and in fact the person leaving this could literally have parked his car next to the tree the bag of crap is hanging from, its uncalled for and basic lazy anglers who clearly don’t care about the place they are fishing.  I took this rubbish home with me like I always do but I guess that just re-enforces them to do it all the more when they arrive next time and its gone, at least I can sleep at night eh.

On to this week’s fishing.

A Night to remember……….but not for the fishing.

The title of this part of the blog, “a night to remember” was never in doubt and is quite and brings up deep feelings from my childhood as the film a  night to remember, a film about the titanic sinking for those who don’t know, was a film I spent many an hour watching with my granddad.  Unfortunately he passed away when I was around 11 years old so I never got to know the man himself but have very fond memories of the time we had together so I guess this is a little tip of my hat to him.

For some time now me and my uncle have toyed with the idea of night fishing and have come close a few times to a night session on the River Dee but for one reason or another it has never materialised. Regular readers of the blog will know around 2 weeks ago we had a good session for chub and barbel on a river but since then this relentless heat wave has taken its toll leaving the river running dreadfully low and gin clear so a day session on there was out of the question really so we got our heads together about a night session on the Friday and after some careful deliberation about if we were equipped to take on such a trip we decided with a favourable warm forecast to bite the bullet and go for it.  

 I have never spent a night on the bank ever so I had all manner of emotions going through my head as I packed the car on Friday evening.  If I was being honest I would have to admit I was slightly apprehensive but at the same time really excited to experience the sights and sounds of a night on the banks of a river.  The river we had in mind for our night session has very good access and nice big level swims so it was ideal for this trip and with a nice short walk from the car we could really take as much gear as we wanted so in went the Calor Gas Grill to go and the Dusk till dawn bivvy lamp, both products I have wote reviews on this year.

Dusk till dawn product review: http://www.satonmyperch.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/sports-direct-dusk-till-dawn-lamp.html

Calor Gas Grill to Go Product Review: http://www.satonmyperch.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/calor-grill-to-go-review-and-rixton.html

I have decided to write this night blog in a diary format as I took notes during the session and events fit nicely into 2 hour slots.

8pm – setting up

We arrived at the water and settled into a nice big open peg and set about getting all the gear nice and orderly.  Checking with a few of the lads on the beat the fishing was slow with some of them not having a bite all day.  The temperature was amost unbearable amongst the ferns but eventually we were both set up.  my uncle made a start on the float rod trotting till he could no longer see his float while I stuck to my trusty lead set up with a halibut pellet.

10pm – darkness begins to set in.

The far bank began to become blurred as the once vibrant green trees on the far bank began to be taken over by the encroaching darkness.  We had the first visit of the night from a group of resident bats that silently navigated between our lines scoffing up flies as they did so.   Unfortunately our rods whereas silent as the bats but we were both getting plenty of knocks and rattles.

Midnight – eely eerie

Midnight came and my uncle had put two fish on the bank, both eels and both a nightmare to unhook.  The one aspect of fishing at night I had not planned for and thus expected was how hard the simplest of tasks we complete in daylight are for example I o#put on a halibut pellet around 10pm and it took me around 2 minutes but changing it for a fresh one at 11pm took me around 20!  All a learning curve and least we hadn’t blanked.  

2pm -  We have a visitor!

The swim wehad chisen was situated along a forested walk path and the swims run off that path so the path is around 5 yards from the back of the swim where I was sat.  You can see it better in this picture below:

Well at exactly 2am I heard a single crack of a twig close behind me to which I naturally turned round to investigate and to my utter amazement there was a man of quite a stocky build stood there with his arms folded just looking at us.  Now in the daylight I wouldn’t have even worried about it but at 2am in the morning it’s a different kettle of fish, anyhow, my mouth went completely dry and in my head I just wanted to say “alright mate” but I just couldn’t.  My uncle could only see an outline of the man from where he was sat but he also had fell silent and with that the man just then quietly and calmly without saying a word just turned and walked off into the night! 

Three things about this have confused me and uncle, one, given the fact we could hear mice, rats and foxes all night all along the path and the undergrowth scurrying along, how didn’t we hear him coming and how long was he actually stood there for? And two, just what was he doing on the bank at 2am in the morning and three why did he not say a word?

4am – daybreak

The temperature dropped considerably before daybreak as a cold mist came down the river valley.  I had added a perch and a few dace to the total so not a great nights fishing but in all honesty it wasn’t about the fishing this time but more about the experience of spending a night on the bank for me.   We both got some sausages going on the grill to go and sat back and enjoyed a delicious sausage barm on he bank before loading the car at 7am and calling it a day.  The grill will certainly be a god send come winter when we are on the river dee in the freezing cold!

Enjoyable few hours on curlston mere

Saturday was spent recharging my batteries from the night before so it was inevitable I was going to wake up nice and early on Sunday morning, a quick breakfast and I was out on my way to the bank again this time chasing a net of silvers with the hope of picking up an odd carp or two.  I arrived at the water around 9am and spent a few minutes assessing the water and there had been some big changes in this water since my last visit as the shallow back bay where the carp normally bask in the hot weather had completely dried up meaning all the carp and silvers where in the main body of the pond.  There were plenty of signs of fish about with silvers topping all over anf the odd patch of bubbles popping up in sporadic places in the pool giving away the fact the carp were also on the munch.

The fact the place was alive with fish really didn’t surprise me at all as the temperature was considerably lower than the whole of the previous scorching week so knowing the carp and silvers would have been basing most of the last week I half expected the fish to be up for a feed and I set up full of expectation.

The set up I went with was a blue hydro elastic set soft to a 1lb 7oz line fish all the way through to a size 20 micro barbed hook, bait wise, I had one bait and that was around 2 pint of white maggot. 

Plumbing the depth I found it to be the same depth at 4 sections of pole as it was at 7 so for an easy fish I set up on the close line and gently fed the swim with a few maggots to feel my way into how the place was fishing.  I fish on the bank most weeks and if its taught me one thing its feeding can be the make or break of your days fishing so starting lightly and only upping the feed based on the fishes response is always the way to go.

The first put in resulted in a tiny perch but the bite was almost instant so I fed again straight away and back in I went but this time the float didn’t even settle before I was into another fish, this time a small roach.  This is the way the swim went for around the first hour and I was thoroughly e joying myself.  As the swim built up the inevitable happened and the tell-tale bubbles of carp feeding started to appear around the fringes of the swim.  It wasn’t long before I struck expecting a few ounce roach and was hit with solid resistance and elastic strung half way across the pond.  As soon as the fight got going it was over as the elastic shot back at me and the hook had pulled, unfortunately this happened two more times but I knew moving over to the white hydro elastic would see me bumping most of the silvers and given the fact the silvers where steady I was reluctant to move over.

Eventually the temptation took over as the bubbles around my float from the carp gave away the presence of a good number of carp as you can see from the picture below.

 I moved over to a heavier elastic for the last two hours of the session and managed to land three carp in that time  but as predicted I bumped a lot of small silvers at the same time so as fun as it was it was quite frustrating.

I called it a day at 1pm and was very happy with a net of silvers just over 9lb and 3 stunning carp.

Till next time I wish you all tight lines

Danny