Roach On Pole and Blogs Youtube Channel Live...

A warm welcome to this weeks blog update i hope i find you all well and your nets wet.  A week on and a week closer to the official start of the pike season.  As i write this blog i already have two trips under my belt and with a week in work till a long weekend on the bank chasing pike i am sat here wishing this week away.

This weeks update see's me talk a little on developments around expanding the blog to Youtube and then a little on asking you, the blog readers, for feedback on how you want me to cover this years piking. The fishing sees us out on the banks and in true "Dannys Angling Blog sytle" we are on the banks of a new water looking to continue to explore the unknown waters with unknown rewards.

On to the Update

YouTube Channel Live...

So Friday night i decided to get on the laptop and rather than settling in to write this update you are reading now i decided to act upon my words in a previous update and set up the blogs YouTube Channel.  The first video on this channel is now live to view and i thought i would dip my toes into the water with a subject i could record in controlled conditions in my house and that is how i tie up my wire traces for pike fishing.

Please take a second to watch the video and feel free to add to the comments section with any thoughts.  I recorded the videos in two parts and did them both in one take.  Please remember that i am completely new to this and it is going to take time and be a little raw in its make up till i improve at editing and putting the components together to make a "enjoyable watch".  If you are looking for the odd bit of content on top of the weekly blogs then please subscribe to the channel for more videos.

link to channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCogqlnE3gK_Re7vdU5bv8sw

There will be a video up soon documenting this weeks pike trip on the bank.  Again these videos are going to be very raw and to start with literally might be a 5 minute video of me talking then clips of what i catch posted on the screen.  An example being i did a little bit of speaking in the car on Saturday and hit a problem straight away in that i travel to the venues before sun rise so the intro to this blog is very dark.  At this stage i have no idea how i can combat this as putting the in car light on is going to get me in trouble with the law and to say im blogging  is not going to go down well ha ha.

Again look out for videos coming shortly and do bear in mind they are new to me and they will hopefully improve.

Piking Blog Feedback Needed.....

In recent years this blog and my fishing has developed into two branches i feel, my river,  lakes, canals and pond fishing for silvers and my Winter pike fishing adventures.  It is giving me a great headache at the moment deciding how i blog my piking this winter and i need some feedback from you the blog readers.

The first option is to write is in the weekly blog update and if i go out chasing silvers and pike that week then in that update there will be both covered in detail.  This is the easier option to do for myself the writer as i always write the blog any way but i do feel you lose out here on the the main part of my pike fishing and that's the season told as a story you can follow.

The second option is to cover it like i did last season in its own page at the top of the blog.  This option allows me to cover each and every trip in chronological order but the way pages are set up you can not split them down into individual blogs within a page.  It means the reader scrolling through content they have already read to reach the new addition to that blog.  The nature of the page and it covering a few months means updates are not as in depth but as the season goes on you can follow it as a story of how my thoughts and actions change as the season goes on.

There are many ways you can leave feedback, you can message me on the blogs Facebook or Twitter page @satonmyperch or drop the blogs email a message at Dannysanglingblog@hotmail.co.uk.   Thank you for any help and feedback.

On to the Update...

New Water New Adventure....

Long time blog readers will know how much of my fishing involves trips into the unknown.  Myself and my uncle are certainly not scared of exploring places with unknown potential.  Watercraft can play a huge part in selecting these places but getting out there at first light to see if any fish top is just as important as any gut instinct.

Sunday morning the week before this session we made the trip to the venue.  Walking the banks we scouted out some likely looking swims and areas to target.  The waterway looked a deep venue with really dark water but with some nice clarity.  Experience as a kid swimming at other areas of this waterway and my dads experience form working on the boats here told me there could be potential depths of 22 feet.  Not an easy proposition but having fished deep rivers in the past its not a depth that i would be really scared of, a few fished topped early doors so we knew it at least held fish.

The night before the trip was spent again on the hunt for mole hills and i have now scouted out a good area for these earth dwelling rodents.  I say rodents i remember speaking to a mole catcher, yes a mole catcher! a few years ago on the canal and i was shocked that the  numerous mountains of soil behind me at the time where caused by just one mole.

I sincerely hope my local moley doesn't pop his clogs any time soon.

This mole hill soil would be a key ingredient in adding weight to my balls of ground bait.  Arriving at the venue i found the depth to be around 12ft plus in the middle but the shelf was a nice flat 9ft around my top kit and one or two sections out,  I was more than happy that i could catch fish in this depth down the margin.  My mix for the session was ground bait mixed and passed through riddle and i normally add 50/50 with molehill soil but on this trip i probably mixed it 60% moil hill to 40% ground bait as i wanted the extra weight the mole hill soil would give me.

The hook baits on the day was half a pint of caster and around a pint of red maggot with hemp seed also as a feed in my ground bait in case i felt like i needed to try and get the fish on the bottom.  The key with new swims is to ease yourself into the session, you dont want to over feed it before you start.  I fed the swim with two balls of ground bait around the size of my big MAP pole cup. To my shock i did not have to wait long for bites to come as small roach like the one below where straight on the the balls i had fed.

With bites coming solid you can then judge how to approach the swim.  It was very apparent there was a lot of fish in the area as in front of me and down stream fish where topping and the odd bubble was coming up.  The odd better fish was also starting to make an appearance on my line as well.

At this stage i was just feeding the odd few Castor's by hand into the swim and was quickly settling into a rhythm of feeding and catching fish and it was clear the Castor's where slowly grabbing the attention of the odd better roach.

Around midday i had steadily pickled up fish and i decided the time had come to test the area out and i really really upped the feed.  I was feeding both hemp seed and red maggot by hand into the swim and also feeding balls of ground bait into the swim every time the signs of the ground bait working disappeared.

When i upped the feed i did not not see a huge increase in fish or stamp of fish i was still catching small roach as well as the better ones and the swim was also going through a few lulls which i later worked out was the fish coming up in the water to the feed.

The session ended with nice nets of fish with my uncle catching 15lb and me 16lb10oz.

As first sessions go on the venue we had caught over 30lb of fish between us and it was a great first session on this venue.  The session provided us with enough information that there was fish to be caught and provided enough questions for us to go away and come back with a different game plan.

Another enjoyable week on the bank

and till next week i wish you all

tight lines

Danny

What Camera for blogging and Cheshire Fisheries Fun...

A warm welcome to this weeks blog update i hope i find you all well and your nets wet.  Well what can i say i had just got to the end of 3 double weekends overtime and they come along and dangle the carrot of another 3 weeks in your face.  Having moved house last year and with sights also set on some new fishing tackle it proved too good to turn down.

The weekends where overtime has been on i have managed to sneak in some short evening trips for carp and the weekends in between i have been taking full advantage of the full days fishing and hitting the local canal or commercial.  This weeks blog is the first of those longer days where i decided to visit Cheshire fisheries, my heart set on having fun.

The introduction this weeks covers a bit of info on a question i get asked a lot around what gear i use for taking my blog pictures and a change i have recently made.  The introduction also includes a huge offer sent to me by GCELL for blog readers and followers on social media to receive 20% off when they purchase the GCELL backpack!! Worth every penny in my opinion, i am constantly being impressed by this product every time i use it.

On to the update:

What Camera To Use For Blogging?

This is a question i get asked all the time by people wanting to start out writing their own blog.  The answer in most cases comes down to how much quality you are looking for in your blog pictures.  If you are looking for a blog that contains amazing photography then you would of course be looking for a a high end camera.

Myself, i feel there is more to writing a blog than just a camera and to successfully write and maintain your blog i really feel that a smart phone is the way to go.  With a smart phone you have all your pictures in one place and when you download the right aps you can easily update these pictures from your camera roll directly to your blog.

In this day and age Social Media plays a huge part in any blog and getting your work out their and noticed by as many people interested in your content as possible.  I find the smart phone here shows its worth big time as you can quickly update followers on facebook and twitter from the bank with the press of a few buttons and when sharing blog posts you can easily upload the relevant pictures for that blog post.

There is of course also no messing around with SD cards and transferring files onto your laptop then uploading them from there.  A smart phone really takes alot of the time out of the blogging process. There has also been a huge update recently to the Blogspot App and you can now literally write you blog on your phone now, upload the pictures and publish the blog post meaning if you wanted you could literally produce and manage all aspects of your blog from your smart phone.

The huge downside i have found though with just using a smart phone is when wanting to capture wildlife.  On the bank i often see beautiful sights such a kingfishers in the tree opposite or a barn own hunting the the field next to me but with only a smart phone and no zoom it is impossible to capture these sights in any detail that is worth sharing, for me, this is the only downside of not using a dedicated camera for your blogging. 

Iphone or Android??? 

Since i started writing this angling blog i have always done so using an iphone for my pictures and general day to day managing of the blog on social media and email.  Over them years the phone has done me really proud.  This year i decided on making the huge change over from Iphone to android, picking up a Samsung S7 Edge,   it was for a number of reasons:

- Quality - The camera on the android phones at the moment is drastically better than the current iphone and although content on the blog is more important i did feel i was falling behind quality wise with the pictures.  Straight away the extra quality was noticeable.

- Durability - Lets face it iphones are a fragile breed of phone.  They do not like wind when recording video, they quickly break if any rain gets into the phone jack and if any dirt gets in the charging socket it quickly reduces the ability of the phone to charge correctly.  In short they do not like the outdoors at all.

- My new Phone is water resistant to the point i can literally wash my phone after i have used it and even this yerar so far i have picked it up covering in ground bait and literally washed my phone.

- Storage - It was getting to the stage with my iphone where i was constantly deleting data to keep it below the 32gb limit and it was reducing my ability to record video and take photos.  This new phone has up to 200gb expandable memory insert so hopefully running low on storage is thing of past.

So if you are thinking of starting to write a blog the smart phone in your hand is by far the best item to be using in my opinion.

G-CellDiscount Code FOr BLog followers

So in last weeks blog update we covevered the review of the GCELL solar back pack.  The review has been really well recieved and as such the company got in touch to inform me they had opened up a discount code for followers of this blog.  Simply enter DannyBellfield on checkout to get the discount.  This product is worth every penny in my opinion and a fantastic product for anyone looking to travel lightweight with electrical devices they will want to charge, i can really see this being popular with lure anglers.

link to update: http://satonmyperch.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/g-cell-solar-review-and-method-feeder.html

On to the Fishing...

Last Trip For a While To Cheshire Fisheries...

So the rumour was that this was the last weekend that keep nets where allowed on Cheshire Fisheries till the weather cooled back down again.  Seeing the catch at the end of the session is one of the areas of fishing that i love.  Whether that's a net of roach and bream on the can, a net of dace from a river or a net of carp and silvers from a commercial all give me that buzz when you see the result of your days fishing.  I honestly would visit commercials a lot more if more allowed nets and there is no way im entering matches just for this privilege.

So the car loaded and i was again a man with a plan visiting this destination.  I had two keep nets one for carp and one for silvers and the plan from the outset was to fish for silvers till 2pm and then move over to carp as the light faded.  Armed with corn, a few pint of maggots and ground bait i was all set for a days fishing.

Arriving at the pools i had a walk round all the lakes and i was amazed to see how clear the pools where, they where so murky on the last trip, i noticed immediately that the carp seemed to be all at one end of the pool in a tight group.  I knew this area attracted a few rowdy visitors during the day so i decided to give it a miss and setup on the other side of lake 5.  A nice margin to my left and i knew i have a drop off around top four out in front or me.

I started out on double maggot and was getting a bite a chuck from silvers to the point when i chucked some bait in it was a like a frenzy of fish taking the3 maggots, whole hand fulls where being taken with none getting to the bottom.  I spent a good two hours catching silvers and i forced myself to stop, had i continued i was sure a 100lb of silvers would have been the outcome there was so many fish in front of me.

The day was a really warm one and it felt wrong to continue on the silvers line, huge nets of silvers would be nice but that amount of fish in a keep net all day was certainly not a good thing and then there was the task at the end of weighing and photographing them on my own, it just was not worth it.  At this point i weighted my net of silvers and my when you see a net of 42lb of fish in just over 2.5 hours you can see my point, silly fishing.

I decided on having a little bit of fun and with that i set up my 1.75lb shimano barbel rod, a centre pin loaded with 6lb line.  The rig was simplicity itself a pole float down to a size 14 hook with a BB weight 3 inches from the hook.  No need for a depth plummet here if the float sunk you where too shallow it made moving from swim to swim easy so off i went with a tin of corn, a net and an unhooking mat.  A good spray of Stinky Stuff over the Corn in the bait tub and i was off on my way.

Walking the pools the fish where up in the water but moving around and i targeted a little gap that joined two waters on one of the pools.  The carp moved through here regular and being only a narrow gap it was hard for them to miss the jewels of yellow corn on the bottom.  I fed the swim for a bit and peeping over i could see tails up in the causing the small vortexes on the surface.  I slowly lowered my smelly corn into the feeding fish and it was not long before the float zoomed under and the carbon in the rod had a healthy bend.

On relatively light gear and a centre pin it was great fun and with the warm sun on my back it was great fun playing the carp.  The net slipped under the first i don't know whether it was the carp who had bit or me biting into a branch of angling i have done so little of.

During the next few hours or so i caught a few carp on the centrepin and corn combo and i also lost a few and was also left frustrated as carp moved in and ate everything but my hook bait!!  I was exciting stuff and so visual to see the carp coming from a distance and then the excitement of seeing them stop as they picked up the scent and go down on the bait.  Then the will they wont they scenario where all the time you can see the fish in the swim and your float is moving from side to side a sudden jolt under and your into another hard fishing carp, it was great fun and here is a few of the carp i caught, there where more but in the end you just don't take pictures.

Two hours before packing up time i decided to feed the margins of my peg to the left of me and in went a huge amount of ground bait, maggot and corn.  I made up a rig and kept my eyes on the margins and all was quiet?? Strange i thought i was expecting instant action.  For the next hour i fed the swim by bit but the carp where strangely absent.

I decided to again put a big pot of bait in and this time put it in form a height.  It worked a treat and all of a sudden the swim was like carp soup with carp feeding hard in literally 6-10 inches of water! Was amazing to see.  The action was fast and furious and in the next last hour the fishing went mad with carp bites coming thick and fast.  Foul hooking was an issue but with so many in such shallow water i don't know that else i could do it was carnage.

The final net of car was 7 bars of gold and i must admit i was shattered.

What a days sport on the commercial, a place i will be back to for certain when they allow keep nets again and of course next year in the closed season.  It wet my appetite for the carp fishing to come and doing the carp fishing i love to do, up close and personal travelling light and seeing the fish in the swim.  Carp fishing my way and it was a great way to start the closed season campaign.

Till next 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

Fishing in Willy Wonker's Chocolate River.....

A warm welcome to this weeks blog update and i have to say its been a week that has made me see the real bad side of the angling club of which i am a member.  Many of the regular followers of this blog will have remembered that when this blog first started my dad used to come fishing with us quite a lot and of late he has not been coming with us as much.  The reality of this is that my dad came out of work this year and this coupled with one or two other side issues has meant he has not felt the urge to come fishing with us and as such has not renewed his Warrington Anglers Licence.

I arrived at my dads last Friday evening to the news he had received a letter from Warrington Anglers informing him that he had not renewed his licence.  Initially i thought how thoughtful it was on WAA to contact my dad to inform him he hadn't renewed and that if the licence lapsed till Christmas it would mean he would have to pay the joining fee again but no as i read on it became increasing disturbed by the letter which went on to say that under rule he was obliged to pay the fees this year as he had not informed the club he was not renewing and the club have paid rents on waters based on the fact they expected him to renew and the letter also went on to ask him to contact the club to discuss.

My dad rang the club and explained he had come out of work and had no interest in renewing his licence to which he got the reply "the club have paid rents based on us EXPECTING you to join this year and that he has till November to pay the £40.00" needless to say my dad said he could not pay.  I checked the licence and there is a rule in the book saying about informing the club you are not renewing but in reality how many people inform the club they are in they are not renewing? well i was intrigued so i decided to pop the question on a popular forum i visit, needless to say the comments where far from complimentary to the club with the following quotes taken from the site:

"I too have had issues with this club and have been appalled by their ethics, so much so it has been 30 years since I have been a member."

"This is not a legal contract so tell them to stick it."

"???? What a way to run a club... I help run a club (Chairman) and we aim to "help" our members, not screw them over.... We run the club (and matches) for the members benefit and try to listen to their points of view and change / adapt were possible.. As stated above a polite letter saying thanks but no thanks should suffice, and let this be a warning to us all on how NOT to run a club.... even if I was a member of this club I think I'd tell them to poke it on principle.. What a disgusting way to treat members / ex-members..."

"if it is the club i think it is, run by mr L, tell them where to stick it, like i said for £40 they aren't taking him to court.
I think they have a cheek asking for anything other than membership card and key."

As you can see the actions of the club on this where not seen favourably by members on this forum and one member went on to ask a very sensible question in what would have happened if this was a Widow who's partner had passed away? it is not a very nice letter to receive is it and would the club still ask them for the £40.00?  So in effect the club are now asking my dad for 40 pounds to fish the club waters for what is soon to be 3 months which i think is utterly disgusting.  It does also beg the question that when i receive my licence next year if i don't pay for it and go fishing in the clubs waters and by some out of the blue reason i am eventually asked for my licence (not been asked in three years so far and i do a fair bit of fishing as this blog shows) can i just say "well the club have already paid the rents for me to fish here so i will save my £40.00 and pay it when the letter comes in September", 

I know quite a few people have let the licence lapse this year, mainly due to the loss of Almere and others down to the way the club is run and they have all received this very letter this week and since me speaking to them and explaining what its all about, all have no intention of paying so what a waste of time it is for the club to try and bully this money out of people it calls valued members.  All i can say is my dad will not be paying the £40.00 and i suggest if you want to take it further you put something official in writing and in the event it does go to court and they settle in the clubs favour, as my dad is on a means tested benefit you will most likely be paid back a pound a fortnight if the court rules that it is feasible for my dad to pay the money, the clue is in means tested, i.e what they are already paying him is what it is deemed the lowest amount of money it is he can live on, i.e no money spare to pay you back!  Just as a side note maybe the money wasted on this scheme could be better spent on improving waters on the card that have fell well below the standard you would expect for an angling club such as The moat in frodsham, finishing the paths on rixton, finishing the paths on cicily mill, fishing the road to the river dee at Worthenbury, actually building the road at dog kennel farm on the river dee which is written in the club book as agreed to be built X years ago, actually bailiffing the sankey canal in widnes that is a free for all and the list really does go on and on. 

I am really sorry that i again find myself wasting my introduction on this club but as you can no doubt tell from the above i am really annoyed with these actions my dad has been through a tough few years and for what is basically an angling club to try and bully and basically con money out of my dad who is a honest as the days long is bang out of order and really annoys me and the fact this rule  is even in the card sums up the ethics of this club.  

Moving on away from that to the more light hearted story that really captured my attention this week in the fact a dolphin had made its way up the River Dee as far as Chester! The dolphin was soon given the name Dave and was seen by many people who lined the river to catch a glimpse of this rare visitor to the estuary of the River Dee.  The officials at the environment agency monitored the situation all week as the "dave" fed in the river and travelled between Queensferry and Chester Weir.  The officials stating that they thought the high spring tides where behind the dolphin finding its was so far inland and that their worry was that a really high tide could see the dolphin travelling above the weir in Chester.

The Environment agency and the RNLI became increasingly worried about the situation as the dolphin began to get stranded momentarily on the sandbanks as he tides receded and on a number of occasions had to be helped along.  It was hoped the dolphin, which was only 4 miles from the sea at one point, would just go back out to sea but its thought strong tides again pushed it back into the river and today (Thursday 23/08/13) the RNLI decided not to help the dolphin back into the water in the river Dee when it became stranded but to capture the dolphin in a safe manor and they released the dolphin off the coast at Rhyl. In a last minute twist the dolphin named Dave turned out to be a female and was quickly renamed Davina! 

.

On to this weeks fishing:

 "Fishing in Willy Wonkas Chocolate River"

This week both me and my uncle where united in the fact we wanted to fish a river although the exact water cause we would fish remained up in the air as late as us joining the motorway.  We just could not decide wether we wanted to fish the River dee for Dace or another River where out quarry would be Chub and barbel , in all honesty both options where as appealing as each other but both had their downsides in that the river dee would no doubt provide us with plenty of bites but its open nature would see us fishing into gale force winds while the barbel river would not give us the volume of bites but would mean we were more protected due to the rivers secluded location.

We decided to go with the barbel river and leave the dace fishing for this coming weeks trip and it wasn't long before we were in our swims setting up waiting for first light to make that magical first exploratory cast of the session.  My uncle chose to trot a swim feeding white maggot and hemp while i chose a more robust approach in fishing a straight lead down to a fluorocarbon hook link tipped off with a size 8 korda wide gape hook with two halibut pellets as bait, i also attached a tightly packed PVA bag with 4ml pellets and a few of my hook bait pellets and tied this to the lead hoping for it to hold before finally releasing its contents down the flow towards my baited hook.

As you can see from the above picture the river was still running off from the recent rainfall the day before and although it had run off most of its excess water it was still carrying a fair amount of colour so much so it at times felt like i was fishing a river of chocolate.  i am the first to admit i am far from the most competent barbel angler as i am still learning but one thing i have picked up from reading up is that this is supposed to be a "tasty" looking river for barbel.

My uncle had a few dace early on trotting a swim upstream of me but they turned out to be just a flurry of early bites as the swim died after the last of the dace and although this can be a sign bigger fish have moved in nothing was forthcoming for the rest of the morning.  I set up downstream and was confident after receiving a few quite violent rattles on the tip so i was optimistic of a fish of some kind before we left.

The rattles on the tip continued but eventually the tip wrapped round and i was soon battling a fish that from the way it was fighting could only be a chub, it just didn't have the power that the barbel possesses.  The extra flow on the river probably gave the chub more power than it would have usually and it did give me a bit of trouble with a near margin snag that it went to great lengths to get me in but thankfully the chub slid into the net.

The chub in reality was not breaking any records  but was more than welcome to steer of the thoughts of the dreaded blank.  We came with a plan on the day to fish the river till midday and then drop back onto Curlston mere on the way home for a bit of fun catching some silvers and hopefully the odd carp and we stuck to that plan and broke camp around 11.30 and headed off.

Arriving at curlston mere it was bowing a right hoolie and it was straight into my face and it was far from comfortable fishing but after fishing this place quite a lot over the past few months i have learnt they really do follow the wind on here.  The one thing that really does amaze me is the quality of fish in this pond as it not only contains a lovely strain of carp but some of the best silvers fishing i have experienced on a still water of this size.

Both myself and my uncle where mirrored in out approach with us both fishing the float in the margins.  The main thing with fishing ponds i have found is to target the margins as this is normally where most of the fish are  and my thinking behind this is simple, margins are where the food comes into the pond from as bugs and insects fall into the water from the overhanging trees.  The swim was primed with some Dynamite Baits Silver X ground bait laced with white maggot and i really fed the swim as in summer on this place you can be really aggressive with your feeding and it only improves the fishing.

The fishing for us both was frantic with both of us getting a bite a chuck from perch and roach coming with great regularity.   As with all our fishing we always have a plan and we both had a few worms to try as a large hook bait for the last hour and it did not disappoint us with my uncle taking a better stamp of perch and losing two carp and myself landing the carp shown bellow and having the hook pull on two others.

 
All in all it was a very enjoyable few hours on Curlston and really tipped of a mixed days fishing with the combined net paying testament to how good the fishing was.

till next week its tight lines,

Danny

Flushing Meadows Silvers Go Mad For Punch

A warm welcome to this week’s blog update and we now have officially moved silently into the closed river season so we now have 3 months of purely pond, pit and lake fishing ahead and as always I aim to fish as many new venues in this period as possible but for the first few weeks it will be all about easing ourselves back into the slow more relaxed world of still waters.  I touched last week on my aims for reintroducing some more fun into my fishing and that started this week in earnest with a roach fishing trip to Flushing meadows with only some liquidised bread and some sweetcorn with a backup plan of a pint of white maggots as bait.

The baiting up for carp has been on hold for last week and a half as the sub-zero temperatures saw the venue capped with a nice solid helmet of ice, spring keeps on threatening to take over and although the mornings are still freezing there are definite signs during the day that spring is taking a slow hold, most noticeable is that the sun has a warmth to it that it has lacked the past months and of course the wildlife gives us our biggest clue with the local magpies to where I work busy rebuilding their nest from last year, not that I spend my days gazing out of the window of course hehe J

An update on the licence front and good news is we have there or there about decided on what we are doing for the coming year I would say we are about 90% certain now to keep the Warrington Anglers Card although we will not be purchasing it till next month which fits in nicely as it will give us a chance to see what mighty plans this club has for the coming year when the AGM is held this week and who knows they may shock us all and decide to invest a penny or two in the river arm of the club but I will not be holding my breath on it.  I also wonder if we will get any information on the rumours going around that Warrington Anglers have put a bid in to purchase Brookside Fisheries.

 We have also all but decided on purchasing another card with a club not so local but it is a club that does seem to invest in its Rivers as much as its still waters, it is a club that only recently purchased a decent stretch of river with very good access to a really large stretch of river that when I read up on it generally fishes all year round and also is a river that offers me some diversity as I can target a species I have only sparred with on the River Dee and that species is the prince of the river the Barbel.

The barbel is slowly becoming more established on the river dee with reports coming in regular of captures of this species from places they were not being caught from before so they are certainly starting to populate this river all along its course but it will be a long time before the Dee is known as a barbel river as opposed to the river on this new card we are looking at which is known for its barbel and of course chub.  It is a card that if I am truly honest fills me with excitement when I think about exploring its waters, not only its rivers but some of its still waters look beautiful as well.  I will go more into this card in a future update but suffice to say if we do get it I feel there will be some incredible adventures awaiting us.

A final point I would like to mention before we go into this week’s update is the incredible milestone the blog’s twitter reached on Monday evening when it passed 1,000 followers, thank you too all the people that have arrived on this blog from Twitter and to all the people I have met on there who have helped me out at one time or another with Re-tweets and just being genuine decent people to speak too, there is no need to publically name these people, they know who they are because they regularly fill my personal feed with their feedback and re-tweets, thank you to you all.  Incidentally if you are interested in following the blog on twitter you can use the link on the right hand side bar of the blog or you can simply follow @SATONMYPERCH on Twitter.

On to this weeks fishing

Flushing Meadows Silvers Go Mad For Punch

   Week one of the closed season had arrived and with no club card under our belt our fishing venue choices were severely limited indeed, in fact it came down to just two venues in flushing meadows or a local pond we knew held a few beautifully marked carp and a good head of silvers.

We chose to go with flushing meadows as the whole week before we had some severe frosts that had seen the local waterways freeze over.  My uncle popped in on the small pond on Thursday and found it to be froze and with a rise in temperatures due overnight on Friday it only meant one thing and that was the ice would thaw and we all know there is no tougher conditions tp fish a natural pond than just after a thaw.

We decided to go with flushing meadows fishery in the end and the balance was tipped by the sheer stocking density of this venue it holds so many fish that it adheres to none of the basic rules of fishing we know and have learned through our angling career, no matter where you fish you are almost guaranteed to have large density of fish in front of you.   These type of highly stocked fisheries are great in my eyes for getting youngsters into fishing by keeping that float going under and also for the more experienced angler they offer an easier days fishing where you can practice new techniques and have a bit of fun trying tactics and baits you would not normally try out.

I firmly believe you could crack the ice on this venue and still have a bite a chuck on maggot it is that hungry of a venue.  The only thing that I feel lets it down is the fact you are not allowed to use a keep net as I always feel a session is missing something when you can’t look back at the end of the session at your net.

Bait for the session would be a whole loaf of cheap as chips ASDA bread liquidised, a few slices of bread for hook baits, some frozen sweetcorn and around half a pint of maggots as a cushion to fall back on should the other baits not produce.

Arriving at the bank I added some water to the liquidised bread and sprinkled in some corn into the mix which I left on the stiff side as I wanted it to go to the bottom and then break up.  if you look closely at the picture below you will notice I left the crusts on the bread and it is also a lot more roughly liquidised than you would do for a pond of canal session and this was on purpose as there is also a large population of carp in these pools and if I could spark a few of these into life I wanted something substantial to hold them in the swim for longer.

I used the largest punch I had in my box which I actually think was a meat punch given as a freebie on the front of the Angling Times a few weeks ago, with so many small mouths to feed in this venue I wanted to try and cut the really really small silver fry out of the equation and just try and catch the better quality fish in the swim.  My chosen method was to fish the pole just down the inside ledge where I hoped to find the fish given the cold conditions we were fishing in.

My plan was simple, feed the swim little and often and see what came along throughout the session.  First put in and as predicted the fish where there waiting and at first I thought I had got it completely wrong as small roach after small roach took the bait as soon as the final shot registered on the float.  I upped the feed rate slightly and continued to persevere with the method and slowly but surely the better silver fish began to show including this nice roach below.

The more the swim built the better the quality of the fish and both me and my uncle quickly lost count at just how many fish we had caught but we both knew had we had a keep net in it would have dwarfed any of our river weights this year.  I have found on this venue the fishing can die as time moves on and I have learnt that if you deepen up and move further down the slope you again find the fish again and it can be a depth change as small as an inch that can see bites coming thick and fast again.  This change in depth saw me picking up skimmer bream  rather than the roach and rudd I had been catching.

The skmmers where obviously feeding hard in the swim as one after another they fell for the irresistible fluffy bread punch and eventually one or two of the better bream moved into the swim, nothing in the league of the bream from last year on here but certainly a more than visitor to my peg.

As the afternoon moved on I was joined by a really nice fella who it turned out regularly reads my angling blog and actually knew my uncle from fishing in years gone by, his love of angling was clear from the outset and I have to say it was a real pleasure to spend some time speaking to someone as passionate as he was about his fishing.  He knew most of the venues we fished and also gave us information on ones we planned too fish and if you are reading this update thank you so much for all your help and taking the time from your fishing to come over and chew the fat with me.

As the session moved on it became apparent that the carp where not going to make an appearance and just as I had resided to this fact I heard my uncles drag screaming next to me as he connected with what was almost certainly a carp it took line and was already on the other side of the pool when I looked over in my uncles direction and in that instance the hook pulled, this was the only fish either of us connected with in the whole session which in reality when I look out of the window right now at the snow blanketing the front of my house is understandable why these fish are still quite dormant.

All in all the trip to this venue served a purpose it got us back into the swing of pole fishing and served as a confidence builder for the tougher sessions ahead on the natural venues where our tactics will have to be more refined to catch.  The bites came thick and fast all day and I that float kept on going under which is what we pay our money for.

Looking forward to this weekend I feel we may have a weekend off from fishing it looks awful outside and although we are game to pursue our sport in any conditions it is never worth risk in the conditions currently outside my window, for one I don’t actually think I could get out of my street never mind negotiate the steep streets leading down to my uncles house.  We have already both decided we won’t be on the bank tomorrow but have not ruled out a afternoon session on Sunday and I would think in these conditions we will be heading again to flushing meadows and think I might fish a method I have not tried in some time now, the waggler.

Till next week I wish you all

Tight lines

Danny

3 men and a little creature........

 After a long quiet week in work Saturday morning eventually arrived with the monotonous tone of my alarm clock echoing in my ear demanding me to rise from my slumber, slipping one foot defiantly from under the blanket revealed that the overnight temperature had dropped significantly from the previous evenings mild conditions and signalled we may be in for a tough day on the bank chasing our first proper carp on the year.

 With no bait to prepare for these spring/summer trips and having enough rigs already made up from a rig tying session the previous weekend I spent the time before we set off to pick up my uncle reading over a few of our previous trip last years to our chosen venue whilst greedily devouring my breakfast of crispy bacon on toast and a cup of strong coffee.

A few of our previous trips to this venue can be found here:

http://satonmyperch.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/dire-on-dee-but-sundays-clouds-have.html

http://satonmyperch.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/new-pole-christened-with-carp-pb.html

http://satonmyperch.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/margin-pole-gets-commercial-workout.html

With the laptop shut down and the last of my now cold coffee slurped down it was off to load the car up with the gear for the day ahead and it amazed me just how little amount of tackle we take in summer compared to our trips to the river in winter where we really struggled to fit the gear in.  The car loaded it was off to pick up my uncle on route to our chosen destination, Flushing Meadows fishery.

We timed our arrival at fishery to perfection as the farmer was just opening his gates as we pulled up and we followed his 4x4 truck up along the bumpy farm track to pool 1, a small pond called Deep Merl which till Saturday we had not seen before let alone wet a line in.  The pool looked very different to all the other pools on the complex in the way it looked like any natural pond you would see outside of a commercial and I am sure it is not a man made pond and was a pond that has been on this land for many years before the rest of the pools like the “snake lake” and the “island pool” where added or at least it felt that way.

I really love what the owners have done with this pool it is out of the way from the other pools and is very secluded in its own little corner of the fishery there where bird boxes in some of the trees which the local blue tits had already claimed as their nest for the next few weeks and they filled the air with their vibrant enigmatic songs all through out the day there was also plenty of other wildlife around in the form of the resident buzzards and a few firsts of the spring for us in our first bumble bees of the year and our first overseas visitors of the year in a pair of Canada geese I am sure the swallows wont be far behind.

All three of us paced around the new pool like a heron striding around a garden pond trying to decide where best to fish from and it was close to 8am before we all settled into our pegs for the day.  Me and my uncle chose corner pegs on opposite sides of the pond while my dad dropped in next to me on the other side of a very old tree which looked like it had seen in many a spring which again just added to the rustic feel of the place.

My plan of attack for the day was to fish chopped worm and castor close in along the margin and feed another line straight out in front of me at the bottom of the shelf on corn and meat while my dad chose to fish maggot and corn and my uncle maggot, corn and meat.

After feeding my main line in the middle with corn and meat I settled in over my margin line on a section of worm and waiting for my first bite of the day.  My plan for the day was to try and target some of the bigger fish in these pools after spending the past two weeks bagging up on silvers and this plan of attack was mirrored by my uncle on to opposite side of the pool who started on corn. 

 

My dad was making up for lost time on the waggler and was bagging a roach a chuck on his loose fed maggot approach in the open water while I was still waiting for that first bite of the day down the inside shelf.  My uncle was first to connect with a better fish and I quickly rushed round to see him playing a lovely marked carp which gave a very good account for itself as it made hard lunges for the bank side cover but was soon under control and on the bank and marked our first proper carp of the year on the bank. 

I was till persevering on the margin line and drip feeding the odd caster and chopped worm in the swim but was still to see any activity on the float and was beginning to doubt my chosen tactics and maybe I had fed the swims the wrong way round but convinced myself to remain confident and continue with my plan.  My uncle was waiting a while for his bites but when they came they were decent fish and he soon had another first of the year on the bank in the form of a teddy bear eyed tench.  

I was still playing the waiting game on my line and my dad was still catching a fish a chuck on the peg next to me and it was hard to resist the temptation to bag up and I was just about to try my middle line when the float disappeared slowly and I lifted into a fish that from the off put up a really good scrap even taking some elastic at some points in the fight which did surprise me as I could tell from the jagged fight it was a roach.  The fish that eventually graced the net was a lovely fish of 12oz and well worth the wait and took a few moments to admire the vivid array of colours this fish had from metallic shiny scales to the electric tints of blue in its scales.

My dad and uncle now seemed to be catching with great regularity on both corn and maggot so decided to try over my middle line which instantly brought skimmer after skimmer after skimmer so much so I thought the bottom must have been lined with them.  Through the next few hours we all enjoyed catching countless amounts of silver fish both shallow and on the bottom in what was another great silver fishing session on flushing meadows.   

I periodically went back over my margin line hoping for a bonus carp but was only rewarded with more decent roach which you cannot really complain about, on most natural venues a day like this would be a real red letter day but on this place it has become the norm now.

 

As the day wore on we all connected with decent fish in the margins but it was my uncle who was first to stay connected with one and after hooking the fish on his lighter elastic an epic battle ensued that saw the fish taking a lot of elastic and making hard runs for the margins which my uncle did well to halt the fish and turn the it away from the safety of the snag infested margins.  The fish on this fishery really do fight well for their size and a trip is well worth the peg fee.

I continued to pick up roach over my margin line with great regularity with the odd larger fish dotted in with some smaller fish and my dad was also picking up some better species with a few crucian carp showing up in his regular catches.

As the afternoon went on it began to look less and less likely I was going to get the carp I was after but that was until I introduced a large piece of meat right under my feet on my top two section and within 30 seconds the float was dancing across the surface and I struck into my first carp of the season which on white hydro elastic had me grabbing for extra sections of  pole to follow the fish out and to try and lift the carp up of the bottom once it was beat to net the fish.

The fight from this carp on the white hydro elastic was so much fun I have this week invested in a pulla kit for this top section so I can use it more for the carp and have a chance of netting the carp once its ready to come in.  The fish in this pond especially are so beautifully marked with buttery yellows and bark chestnut brown across the back a really lovely fish to catch.

We stayed on the pool till around 5pm and had a few more carp in the margins but the one fish that stuck with me from this session was the rudd shown below which scared the living day lights out of me as I brought it to hand a proper zoo creature!!

With a bank holiday weekend coming up I intend to get down the bait shop and purchase my WAA card and have a real go at catching my 10lb carp target for the spring/summer campaign and also am looking to try the last pool on the Flushing meadows complex to see what that holds, let’s just hope the weather holds.

I leave you this week with a superb roach caught by Greame, a regular reader of the blog, weighing in 2lb 4oz it is a fish of a lifetime well done mate top fish and on the pin as well makes it even better, congratulations!!!!!.

Don’t forget you can follow the blog on facebook here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Dannys-Angling-Blog/282860255069146

Till next time

I wish you all

Tight lines

Danny