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

Pole Fishing: Trent and Mersey Canal, New Carp Quest and Beechwood Baits Sponsorship

A warm welcome to this weeks blog update.  This time between the end of the river season and the start of our  steady warmer spring temperatures is always a tough period on the bank and the quality of a days fishing can hang on the arrival of a sudden overnight frost,  one thing that can always be guaranteed during the first week after the rivers close is that all the rivers across the country will be in mint condition, just the way it is i guess.  The dee graph below you can see the dee at the most consistent levels it has been all last season.

In this week's blog I am excited to announce that I will be writing another Carp Quest mini blog beginning at the end of this month.  I have given this plenty of thought over the past month or so as to what the actual target will be in this quest and i have decided to stray away from the obvious progression from a 10lb fish to a 15lb specimen and set this quests challenge as a quest for a new personal best fish, so that will mean a fish of over 10lb 3oz.  I think it is always best to be realistic when setting goals and not to be disillusioned with your actual angling ability and of course the realistic chances of the waters you fish giving you a good chance of achieving the goal e.g it would be easy for me to say right this quests goal is a 20lb fish yet in reality on most waters there might be only be 1 or 2 fish at this weight.  You also have to weigh up the amount of time you can actual put towards this challenge where run in line with my normal weekly outings.    I will be going into more detail about lessons learnt from the last quest in the introduction of this years quest.

I am also really excited to announce that this quest will be sponsored by BEECHWOOD BAITS and will see me fishing with their flagship Musselberry Boilies.  I must admit I am really excited to work alongside with this bait company on this quest.  I have been writing this blog for a few years now and over that time i have had a few companies contact me asking if I would like to have my main blog sponsored by them and I have always politely declined but with Beechwood Baits it was altogether different.  The company has been founded by Gavin Astley a person I have known since i started writing this blog and is a person i have spoke to over the years on a number of occasions about all Warrington Waters, his whole manner, understanding, how he presented his company and his knowledge of my carp fishing background made me feel really at ease talking to him about the prospect of working together and in reality made the decision to accept an easy one and already before any bait has exchanged hands or any mention of his company on my blog he has helped me out tremendously through our PM's, so here is to the adventures to come!!

You can find more info on the bait and about its developer here: Beechwood Baits

"The Musselberry! A super high quality, HNV milk protein carp bait boilie! At Beechwood baits we are very proud to introduce to you the culmination of a long journey through research, development and testing. The Musselberry is our first carp bait released, and is available for everyone to have success with. If you were to trace this baits beginnings back to its conception, you'd be looking almost a decade into the past. Development has seriously ramped up over the last two years, along with some intensive, real world fishing situation testing"

There will be more on the quest closer its launch but look out for the first instalment in the coming weeks where i will look more in depth at locations i intend to fish and my tactics i am hoping will score me a new personal best.

This week i read with great interest a story in the local Weekly news around the success of a local angling club, West Bank Anglers.  This angling club was born from a natural disaster that hit the square in spike island a year or so ago when an algal bloom led to a total fish kill in this shallow pool that lies right next to the Sankey Canal.  It is no secret that carp, silver fish and pike caught from the sankey canal were transferred into this pool over the years and during that time this water was netted many times by Warrington Anglers and the fish moved not into the sankey canal but to other Warrington Waters so I personally think it is great that a club has taken ownership of this water and the fish that will live in there.  Reading the story it seems like there has already been a lot of work done cutting back the reeds and building fishing platforms, with this water being quite small i guess making the most of the available space is a must and i am sure the stocking of this water will be as well managed as the planning this year has been by this club.  Good luck to all involved and who knows where this may lead in time, licences can be purchased from any local tackle shops.

Finally before we get into this weeks fishing I took delivery this week of a rather large parcel for a future product review on the blog and with it will run a Facebook competition to win a free product for the winner, so look out for more on this in a future blog update but needless to say its a busy time with the blog at the moment away form the bank and with this quest about to hit the ground its not looking like slowing down as pre baiting and late night sessions will come into play as the evenings lengthen.

And with that its onto this weeks fishing:

Canal Fishing: Pole fishing Trent and Mersey Canal - The Old Broken Cross

As mentioned earlier on in the blog update this time of year after the rivers closing and the warm settled temperatures arriving can be quite difficult with certain waters starting to produce before others, knowing your waters here and locations can be worth its weight in gold.  With funds for my Warrington Anglers licence thin on the ground we did not have a great deal of waters to chose from, certainly ones we had fished before at least, had we purchased our Warrington Card we would have certainly been visiting Rixton Clay pits or the Bridgewater canal but with those off our radars we settled off for a session on the Trent and Mersey Canal on the Broken Cross stretch.

a quick look the night before on the Internet threw up some bits of information around it being a popular stretch for matches to be held on and also with a pub alongside the actual canal there was a lot of reports saying to avoid this area due to the numbers of boats mooring at the pub during the day.  We had just finished out river campaign the previous week so we were a little under equipped to deal with a session on the canal for example we were fishing with 1lb7oz line as opposed to the normal 1lb bottom we fish in the canals and we also had a slice of bad luck on the bait front as the local tackle shop had run out of pinkie so we had to fish with maggot on the hook and as feed which wasn't ideal.

We arrived at the pub which is literally on the canal and began to have a look at the canal in the early morning light, she looked well coloured, which is a good thing in my opinion and along one stretch there were a few fish topping close up to some far bank brambles but there was already a gentle breeze blowing along the canal.  This breeze was causing a very inviting ripple along the same beat as the fish were topping so we settled on fishing there and set up the customary 12 yards apart.

I began setting up my pole to fish the far bank shelf and this is when i hit a problem, my last section of pole and my number 8 section were locked together tight, this must have been form our last session on the river weaver when it rained but thee was nothing getting them apart  so i had to fish just at the bottom of the far bank shelf.

As with all canal fishing its got to be scaled right back and your tactics have to be a refined as possible, there was nothing i could do about the pole or the line thickness but i could refine my baiting up and my ground bait.  I decided on the day to feed a very wet sloppy ground bait going for attraction but not to feed the fish that i still thought could be quite lethargic due to an over night frost.

Due to a afternoon commitment we only had from 7am till noon to fish so if the fishing was slow we only had a few hours to endure it.  Shipping out to around 10-11m i fed the swim with a cad point before laying the float delicately to ensure the bait fluttered slowly down to the bottom.  My uncle was first into a fish, a small roach tight against the far brambles while i waited just a little bit longer before picking up one of my own.

My uncle continued to pick up small gudgeon on the far bank and the odd small roach while i landed on a swim full of gudgeon it seemed as one after another these bottom sucking fish came to a single maggot approach, some of them where so small the maggot was close to having them in a headlock.

The session continued to move along and my uncle, tired of shipping to the far bank for gudgeon tried to get a swim going closer in while my far line completely died, bigger fish moved in i thought.  Full of optimism i waited it out on the far line convinced something better had pushed the tiny gudgeon out and my patience was rewarded with this beautifully marked and very fat, with spawn?, perch.

After this perch the gudgeon moved back in as did the odd roach and i continued to get bite regular for the next hour or so as the swim ticked over and as it did i heard another familiar ticking noise,a barges engine ticking over.  On canals where there is so much boat traffic it does nothing to the fishing at all, normally, but as my line was right in the boats tack line it was bound to have an effect.  To those not into their canal fishing my tactic on them is to always try and fish a line out of the main line as this gives you a better chance to build a swim without the boats spreading your feed everywhere, with a few sections of pole short i did  not have this luxury.

The swim ground slowly to a halt for the last hour and had i been staying past dinner i would have certainly primed two swims earlier on in the day to move on but with only a bit of time left i say it out on a bigger bait for a better fish that never came.   The final joint net of what i would describe as an nice day on the bank, certainly better than being stuck in the house that's for sure.   During this last hour a flock of sheep made their way down the hill in the field across the road and the ewes all followed closely by their lambs, spring is certainly arriving now and with that i headed home for my Sunday dinner, chicken this time but the lamb Sunday dinner is not far away now.

The landing nets drying behind us we had a slow pack away and was treated to a pair of swans cruising down the canal no doubt searching for a location to start preparing a nest if they have not done so already.

Till next time i leave you with a picture of these pair of elegant birds.

Tight lines

Danny