Canal Session Broken Down and Knowlsey trip..

A warm welcome to this weeks blog update i hope i find you all well and your nets wet.  Well as of writing this we are only a few days before the opening of the river season and if i am honest i have never been so un-prepared for the start, this hit me on Sunday and i decided to do something about it, more on that later. 

This weeks introduction See's me visiting Stapley Angling centre to stock up on gear. There is also a piece on a trip recently to Knowsley Safari Park with a few pictures and videos and we finish the introduction with a few pictures of a family that visited my peg during this weeks session on the canal.  The fishing this week is a session on the canal but blogged with a difference as i break the session down a little on how it went from hour to hour.

On the the Update..

Disappointing Trip To Stapley Angling Centre....

With the river season right upon us the realisation that i was totally unprepared hit me on Saturday night.  The forecast for the Sunday was for warm weather and a nice sunny day so a nice family trip out was the order of the day.  The plan was to head to Stapley Angling Centre then a nice hour with the kids on the Farm adjacent and then a nice drive back home with a surprise stop at Snugburrys Ice cream farm.

I have been making the long trip to Stapley Angling Centre two or three times a tear since it was situated back on its old site that included the Garden Centre.  When the shop moved location it actually knocked a good number of miles of the trip for me so it was great news and with the move the amount and depth of the tackle seemed to have moved with it.  Stapley has always been a place i love going to just because you can walk round at your own leisure and look in depth at tackle before you buy.  It was always a place i could guarantee i would get what i wanted for my trips and also have a good look at all the latest tackle.

Around 3 months ago i had a trip down to stapley for some bits and pieces for the rivers and was a little threw then by the lack of items on the shelves for the coarse angling side of things and i left with a few items missing from my shopping list, i thought nothing of it though.  The trip this week was a different matter, i had a list that was quite short, bayer perlon line for my hook lengths, greys clip lock bait box, drennan float fish line for my main line and a few stick floats.

Walking in and to the coarse section i quickly picked up my box but i was genuinely shocked at the little amount of tackle on the shelves.  The Guru stock was brimming and could not be faulted but every thing else left a lot to be desired.  There was one spool of float fish in 2lb breaking strain, no bayer perlon and one solitary stick float in a really light 4 number 4 pattern.  I grabbed the bait box and left.  Second trip there now where i have not got anywhere near what i wanted so this will be my last unless they have the bank holiday sales on, just not worth the long trip and risk of not getting what you need.

Knowsely Safari Trip....

I like to include as much form my life away form angling as possible in the blog and our yearly trips to Chester Zoo and Knowsley Safari Park offer a great opportunity for this.  Wildlife is a huge part of the reason why i love getting out on the bank and going fishing.  I of course go fishing to catch fish and admire the beauty of the fish as you get to see them up close but along the path of these journeys i get to also enjoy the other love i have with the outdoors and that's the wildlife.

There is a special offer on at the moment with the park where you only pay £10.00 per car if you go during the week.  A sneaky day off was booked and we made our way to the park.  I Have to say it was one of the best times we have been as it was quite quiet which meant we could spend a bit of time pulled over without having cars behind you waiting for you to move.  These three male lions where really active on the day and amazing to see so close.

The pride in the enclosure where also equally as active and thought nothing of coming right closer to the car!! Although the older heads knew better and just took it easy.

It was a day enjoyed by all and held so many happy memories with close encounters with rhino's, giraffes, camels and of course the adorable sea lions.  A great trip that all the family enjoyed including our little girl.

Early Visitors On The Canal

One of the things i love about getting out nice and early in the morning to go fishing is how you get to see things the rest of the world that is still asleep just misses out on.  When fishing the river out in the sticks it can be the sight of a fox or a badger scurrying home after a nights feeding or if you are really lucky a barn own.  Walking the fields normally in the dark you can always guarantee a halo of bats swooping around your head.  All these are part and parcel of my angling life. 

Saturday and whilst sat on the quiet and tranquil banks of the Bridgewater Canal i glanced to my left to see a beautiful sight of a pair of swans slowly working their way along the canal with their family of cygnets.  There was only me around at this silly hour so the birds made a beeline over to myself and i took the opportunity to down tools and enjoy their company.  They stayed around for half an hour before moving on up the canal in search of their early morning breakfast.

After the story a couple of weeks ago about the eggs of another pair being smashed this sight held so much more power.  Almost as nature was showing its defiance at these sick beings and saying look at us.  The sad part for me about the rivers opening is i generally move away from these waterways and don't see the family growing up week on week but who knows we may cross paths again when the pike season starts.

On to this weeks Fishing...

In Focus Session on the Bridgewater Canal....

3am - Wake up call - The alarm buzzing away in my ear was met with the groggy reacting it gets in the week until the realization set in it was the weekend and time to get out fishing.  Amazing how quickly and easily you get out of bed, showered and get a breakfast down you when its time to go fishing compared to a days work.

4.20am - Ready for the Off - The local Canal was my chosen venue so there was no rush at all in getting the gear into the car,  These
trips to the canal involve minimal packing with just a seat box, rod holdall and a net bad to put into the car it was all soon in and ready for the off although in typical fashion i got to the end of the road and remembered i had left my bait in the fridge!!  I always forget something at least this time i remembered before i got to the bottom of a farmers field.

4.40am - All set!! - As i said it was a local trip for me so in no time at all i was pulled up and unloading the gear from the car.  The birds in full song in the bushes behind me and the canal like a plane of glass it was a peaceful and beautiful time to be on the bank.  

Many people i work with are amazed about my love for peace and quiet as i am quite vocal in work but i really do work and live for these few hours of tranquility on the bank, pure bliss.


4.45am - The Bait Plan - The plan of attack for the session was a simple but i was hoping effective attack fishing Hemp and Castor on two lines.  One line would be at the bottom of the inside shelf and the other was at the base of the far bank margin shelf.  These areas have been where i have found the better fish in past trips and i was hoping today would be similar.  Recent trips had shown the tench had possibly moved on after spawning and nice shoals of roach bream hybrids had shoaled up in their absence.  I fed two cad pots of hemp and castor on both lines before starting to fish on the inside shelf line.

5am - Understanding Caster - It normally does not take to long to get the fish biting on the canal and i knew had i fished pinkie or maggot on the lines i would have certainly been into fish a lot earlier than the 15 minutes it took on castor.  The size of fish was nothing to shout home about but i knew they would come.  Castor is a bait that will pick out the better fish but only when they arrive, you have to see past the early exchanges with these fish, then hope the better fish you expect move in.


5,30am Better fish come - It took a while but eventually the better stamp of bream hybrids moved in,  There is no denying though it was hard going and taking a short break i remember replying to a post on the blogs facebook page stating it was slow going.

5.35am visitors - Not long after returning this fish i had the visit from the swans and their family and as mentioned above i spent a good half hour just enjoying having this family so close to me and admiring the beauty of these birds.  I firmly believe wildlife knows who hey can trust and there was no spitting or raised feathers at all from the parents and after they left i got back to the fishing.



6.30am - Pike... - Returning to the swim i fed a pit of bait on each line and again settled in on the inside line.  The inside line is a weird line on this section of canal as it does seem to die really quickly.  Its not a line that sustains a great number of fish and for a long time i have thought that pike are to blame.  Again on this session the fish where coming steady and then nothing and then the presence of a pike was confirmed to me, not by a pike attack but a look down at my keep net.  All the fish right up in the neck of the net, a sure sign a pike is about.

06.40am - Amazing - Not a touch on the inside line and fish up in the keep net i shipped out over my far bank line and instantly i was back into fish again.  Bringing the fish in over the top i expected a swirl at any minute.  The attack never did come all session but the pike was there for sure.  The far bank line had been rested for some time and the bites where steady on this line.  Not a bite a chuck but steady bites.

 8am - switching lines - The sun coming onto the water made the bites go really finicky and i spent the next hour moving form line to line picking up fish before moving over to the next one.  This rinse and repeat saw me putting a few fish together and the odd better skimmer. At this point i was expecting a big bream or tench to show every time to float went under as the swims where building up a nice bed of bait.

8.30am - Wind Wind Wind - The wind had been steadily building from around 7am, the odd ripple at first and then it had slowly built to a right hoolie.  The far shelf line was producing the better stamp of fish  but it was getting almost impossible to fish this line as each gust made it impossible to hold the pole against the wind without risking it snapping.

9.15am - Tough - The ever increasing wind which was swirling in all directions made presentation on the far bank line a real battle.  when the wind dropped the bite was instant but during the gusts it was hard work.  It made the fishing a chore and not enjoyable and in fact had me looking at the clock to see how close to 10am and wrapping up time it was.

10am - Great little Chat - Around 10am i had two anglers arrive at my peg both getting ready to start fishing.  These anglers where regulars on this stretch and it was great to share experiences with two anglers who fish here on a regular basis.  Our results had been similar barring a few differences and it was great to learn and share some information with two like minded anglers.

10.30am - Packing up time - The time came to pack in and see how much i had caught.  The net went just under 13lb of mainly bream and hybrids.  I had planned to write this one blog like this before i fished the session and i must admit it was a session where i picked up bites here and bites there which left the session with little structure to work on.  A bit of me wishes i had done this with the previous sessions where i moved lines and stayed on the final far out line.  I guess that is fishing though.

This weekend marks the last session before the opening of the river season so i am hoping to get out on Sunday for one more crack on the canal or local pond.  One day will be spent though sorting my gear out and giving it all a good clean and sort out ready for the season ahead.

To all the anglers out there venturing onto the banks of the river in the coming week its a huge tight lines and stay safe out there.

Danny

Wildlife And Childhood Memories of Wiggs Island

A warm welcome to this weeks blog update I hope I find you all full of the joys of spring the fields are awash with all the colours of spring from bright yellow daffodil's to ivory white blossom on the trees its a great time to be out and about in this wonderful country of ours and even better when your wetting a line at the same time.  I passed a field on the way to the water I am fishing for the Carp Quest this year and it was a joy to see a whole field full of early season rape seed a field of bright yellow situated amongst empty barren fields it was a joy to see but alas situated right on a 50mph country road with no lay byes I will have to wait till I spot another opportunity elsewhere to capture a similar image.

In all honesty my time over the past week has been crammed with all things around the Carp Quest 2014, preparing rigs, buying gear, pluming depths and actually fishing the venue have all dominated my time of late with all things angling and as such I was left on Friday night with a decision to make.  Do I go fishing for silvers and put a net together for my normal blog update on a Friday night or do I go "all in" and risk it all to devote a day and a half to just the quest hoping to get a quick result on it, I decided to go with the "all in"  mentality and devoted all weekend to the quest.  Most of my spare time away from family life has been spent putting together the introduction for the Carp Quest 2014 and also beginning to write up the first few sessions i have been fishing on it, as of right now the Introduction is wrote and needs pictures adding and the first two session on the bank are ready to be added in the next day or so.  This weekend I am certainly going to be dividing my time between the quest and I actually feel like doing some fishing for some tench on one of the Northwich Anglers waters.

To keep up with the Carp Quest in more detail you can follow this link here: Carp Quest 2014

Regular readers of my blog will know how much I love my Rivers and trotting them but will also know how much I feel it hinders my ability to capture on film the beautiful sights and special moments I see with regards British wildlife,  many times on the river I will see a kingfisher or a bird of prey but not have time to grab the camera, these few carp sessions already have provided me with so much opportunity to capture some special memorable moments.

The moment I walked onto this new water I instantly fell in love with the wildlife and tranquil nature of the place from its location I knew i was going to be treated to beautiful sunrises over farmers fields and special sunsets as the Sun drops behind the far bank trees I was not let down when the time came to spend some early mornings and late evenings on this water.

Sunrise and the rods are out:-

The sun beams through the trees at sunset.

On my first visit when i was just plumbing depths I was delighted to see a pair of swans that had decided to call this place home, my mind thought back to the pair I had become so attached to over the years on Almere Ferry on the River Dee and it was another piece of the jigsaw that made this place the right place for this Quest.  Over the next few trips either fishing or just drooping in for signs of fish locations a routine emerged where the swans would travel out to the middle of the lake in the middle of the morning and early evening and putting on a display of perfect symmetry.  One one of the following trips I was delighted to capture on camera one of those special pictures that I feel sums up spring time, a time where all wildlife is most certainly 'twitterpated'. (props to anyone who gets that word).

Being such a small water and swans being so territorial it came as no surprise when the male swan became instantly angered by the arrival of any other swan intruders on HIS lake.  On one session on the Saturday I counted 20 individual swans he saw off.  The lake may contain a fair number of king carp but in reality this is where the royalty of the lake reside, i wonder how long it will be before she begins construction of her nest castle.

The next daily arrival on the pool are a pair of Canadian geese, they arrive at 10am and 6pm every day, they land on the lake and then walk to the farmers field along side to water eat and then leave.  I wonder what it is about this grass that appeals to them so much and it left me wondering how many fields they fly over to get to this one patch.  I am almost certain they are the same birds each day.

Wildlife wise I saved the best till last in my opinion and it may surprise you as there are so many of these about but over the few sessions i have managed to befriend a drake.  I have called him Ashley on the grounds of the similarities to the amount of diving both him and his name sake Ashley Young of Manchester United do.

I must say I felt sorry for this guy as there are two pairs on the lake of ducks and drakes and he is literally the gooseberry of both of them, smaller in size than his rivals every time one of the females is ready to mate he takes a right pasting from the other drakes.  Dejected and looking down in the dumps he drifted over to me and I treated him to some of my sweetcorn, it seemed to perk the little fella up and I'm thinking of spiking my next batch with some body building power bulk him up a bit ha ha, poor fella.

More to come on the wildlife on this water and others I visit over the next coming weeks I am sure there will be plenty of arrivals as spring progresses.

The next bit of news I wanted to add is that the competition for blog followers to win a free Canvas of their own design from Canvasdesign.co.uk has gone live on the blogs Facebook Page.  Entering the draw is simple you need to fill the following criteria:

1) Be someone who LIKES Dannys angling blog page on Facebook
2) LIKE and SHARE at least on of the posts advertising this competition over the next few days.

Link to the blogs facebook page is here: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Dannys-Angling-Blog/282860255069146

Closing date for entries is midnight Wednesday 16th April and winners will be announced in that weeks blog update and on Facebook. Good luck!!

This week me, my little girl, my dad and brother took the rare opportunity for us all to be together to take our Cocker Spaniel, Pipper Wolfey ey for a long afternoon walk.  We chose Wiggs Island as our destination and it brought back so many childhood memories especially when we reached the lost canal.

As a kid the whole of Wiggs island was open for people to walk on the land and you could walk from Wiggs island to Warrington along the road.  Venturing off the beaten path playing foxes and hounds as a kid you would see plenty of wildlife and also you would come across the lost canal.  A stretch of water that was tinged with a slight bit of colour and was alive with fish from roach, tench and crucian carp it was a childhood dream fishing spot and we spent many a day on its banks.

This all paints a pretty picture of rabbit filled meadows and trees full of birds but the true reality of this places sinister past was highlighted in the 1990's when fencing went up across the path and first field and a gate was erected to only allow waggons through.  As mischievous teenagers we learnt that at low tides you could walk around the gate and come up the wall the other side and we many a time snook in the back route.  What we saw still is clear as a bell to me this day as we came across many blue barrels with corrosive signs on them and many deformed rabbits, may have been myxomatosis looking back.  Venturing to the lost canal i remember it being a vibrant brown copper colour all along its length, it looked dead.

Over the years I have looked into wiggs island's history and it was actually a site in the war called Hush Hush where mustard gas was produced for the World Wars and upon speaking to my dad it turns out that his mother and my grandmother actually worked in hush hush during the war efforts. There is also a landfill site on there that explains why access was still needed by the lorries and also a great amount of the site is owned over the years by I.C.I.  The canal apparently was a testing site for the mustard gas bombs or maybe for the manufacturing process which may explain the unusual colour of it.

In recent years the site has been radically transformed into a nature reserve of all things, paths have been built, bird hives have been erected and the fences taken down.  Its a beautiful place to look at and contains a vast amount of wildlife now and when I visit I always take a second to think whether any of the people walking those paths knew it as I did and its past.  So what of the Lost canal, well it is still there today as you can see and was actually recently stocked with fish again it is now gin clear but if you look towards the far end you can still see the odd sign of brown copper leaking into the canal.

This week I also noticed that the blog had passed the 150,000 views mark, I must say when I started writing these rambles its a situation I never thought I would ever reach but I guess I treat it like I do my fishing, I put 100% into it and try to make a conscious effort to update it whether I catch or not.  I am immensely proud of this blog I publish at thoroughly enjoy thinking up of new ideas for its content each week, where it will lead god only knows but all I can say is so far its been a joy to write it each week and long may the fun continue.

till next week I wish you all,

Tight lines

Danny

Carp Quest Blog Completed and Rixon Clay Pits tenching

A warm welcome to this week’s blog update and what a week as the blog’s mini quest to catch a 10lb+ carp reached its climax on Wednesday night and what a relief it was to finally complete this chapter in my angling life.  To whole quest is now complete and you can access it from the main tool bar at the top of the blog or on the following link.

Link to mini blog: http://www.satonmyperch.blogspot.co.uk/p/10lb-carp-mini-blog.html

Thank you to all the anglers who have contacted me via email, on twitter and the blogs facebook page with their tips and support it has been really appreciated and has helped me in a bog way to keep going on this quest and keep my focus.

The blog last week was set in stone as it was always going to be the week the Calor Grill to go review was to go live but there was a major incident that happened last week I was wanting to cover and that was the disgusting robbery at gun point if an angler on Grey Mist Mere.  The lad just pursuing his hobby was robbed at gun point and his all his tackle and mobile phone stolen, just what is this world coming too when someone fishing a venue in the middle of a housing estate with a secure car park is not safe. 

As readers of the blog will know I was on Grey Mist Mere on the Monday evening when I had a nice tench and I loved the place it was a venue I felt quite safe on and with a good number of passers bye I felt quite happy.  I was looking forward to many more visits to this lovely venue but I have to say this incident has put me off big time in my opinion gun crime pooping its head up in our industry marks a whole new low in our sport and I hope the people who committed this atrocious crime are caught and the lad involved isn’t put off enjoying his hobby.

On to this weeks update

This week’s update will be short compared to normal as I only managed to get out on the bank for a short 4 hour session on Saturday when I took advantage of a short window to try and get a fish on the bank.

The missus making sure I don’t go thirsty with my very own coke for the fishing trip J.

The venue I chose was Rixton Clay Pits as I was fairly confident I could connect with a tench on Rixton given the amount of time had at my disposal.  The seat box, holdall and keep net bag where all left back at home as I decided to take the bare minimum of kit with me as I fully expected to have to walk a fair distance to get a peg with me arriving in the afternoon.

I arrived at the secure car park to be met with only a handful of cars and was really pleased to bump into a long term follower of my blog for the first time on the bank and was pleased to hear he was having a steady day catching some nice bream. After chewing the fat for a while I began my hunt for a free peg and my hunt did not take long as I spotted a peg free not too far down the track.  Setting up took a matter of seconds as my rod was already set up and baited so it was only a case of putting the two halves of the rod together and placing them down on the bite alarm , a scattering of bait and I sat back to enjoy my few hours on the bank. 

This is a swim I have fished before so I knew where to cast to but just as a back up I placed a small hand full of bait in a margin swim.  One of the beauties of this place is how the fish let you know they are on your bait by sending up plumes of tiny bubbles up to the surface as they feed and may times I have seen a line of bubbles go all over the swim and the rod rip off as soon as they reach where I have cast, it does however mean this place can have you tearing your hair out it the bite doesn’t come.

The rod had not been in more than 30 minutes when it screamed off and I lifter into a fish that made a steady run to the right before the line went slack and the hook pulled.  I inspected the line to see that like last week the line was cut clean half way down the hook link material, not another pike surely, what was the chances of catching a pike on a boilie in two separate swims a good 200 yards apart?  I could offer no other explanation so I tied up another rig and cast it out.

Rixton clay pits is one of these venues where if you get the bait right and the feeding you can almost guarantee some bites and again the tench in this venue could not resist as in no time at all I was playing another fish.  The fish came right in under the rod tip and fought link stink but did come up to the surface during the fight to reveal it to be a nice tench around the 4 or 5lb mark.  The fish was nearly beat when it turned suddenly and the line snapped and flew back at me and upon inspecting the line again it cut half way down the hook length so after all the wracking my brain it turned out the 10lb shimano Antares line I bought last yeah has failed and for some reason has become really brittle, luckily I have some ESP striptease so I tied up another rig using this material.

The ESP braid line is a line I use mainly for my river barbell and chub fishing and I was really apprehensive about using it as it is in a weed green colour which I didn’t think would be concealed well on a clay bottom.  The next hour of so trundled by and I say back and just relaxed and took in the peace and tranquillity that comes with this venue and let me not forget my new friend I made on the session in this feisty little fellow, i know robins are really territorial but this guy was seeing off everything!!.

It was during watching Mr robin see off another foe the bite alarm went off again and this time I played the fish really light as I was desperate to get this fish in but like all tench it was not playing by the book at all and put my 1.75lb test curve rod to the test.

Eventually the fish tired and like with most fish as soon as they are up on the top taking big gulps of air they are as good as yours.

The fish went an impressive 6lb 7oz on the scales and is a seasons best for me so far.

This sole fish was as the last of the action for the session and after an interesting chat with Ade about his river Wye exploits I made the short journey home.  My number one job for thi week is to sort out some fluorocarbon line to replace the line that has failed on me this week as I really do have more confidence in it as opposed to the braid for my carp and tench fishing.

This session wasn’t the only time I got out over the weekend as I hit the bank once over that weekend in pursuit of my first double figure carp, please take some time to check it out.

Till next week its

Tight lines

Danny

Calor Grill to Go Review And Rixton Clay Pits Tench

A warm welcome to this week’s blog update, a few weeks back I was approached by Calor Gas to review a product from their summer collection called the Calor Grill to go.  After contacting the company and realising how good they were to deal with I agreed and a few weeks ago I received the product.  I would like to state now I receive no affiliation money for any grills purchased through any links in this review.

Calor Gas Grill to Go Review

Product Information:

“3 in 1 Sear, grill, boil… The reversible cast iron cooking surface provides a stable and versatile cooking platform ideal for Picnics, festivals, camping and those summer months on the beach.”

Technical Data:

Overall Height: 130mm (without cylinder) 
Burner Type: Pressed Steel/Venturi

Overall width: 340mm                            
Gas Category: Direct pressure propane

Heat input: 2.02kW                                      
Gas Flow: 188g/h

Approx 30hrs use per cylinder                      
Run’s on 5kg cylinder             

Regulator supplied                                        
Weight: 6.5kg (grill to go only)

Price: £39.98 (Grill only) or £95.22 (Grill and 5kg Calor Gas Cylinder)

Link To Product Page: Calor Grill to Go Information Page

Link to Buy: http://www.calor.co.uk/shop/product/grill-2-go-portable-bbq/835/

My Review:

In this day and age where the internet dominates and more and more products are purchased online a company’s customer service is becoming a vital part of a successful online retailer’s armoury and as I have mentioned before on this blog I have been on the wrong end of bad customer service so the way a company deal with their customers is really important to me and I have got to say Calor Gas where a joy to deal with both via email and over the telephone and the speed of their reply’s left me feeling confident of their high customer service levels.

The product arrived and was well packaged and my first impressions when I got my hands on the grill were it was well made and felt solid in your hands and was stylish to look at.  The weight of the product is advertised as 6.5kg and I would say the majority of that weight is taken up by the reversible hot plate.  Within the package along with the Grill to Go was the gas valve for the canister, a burner and a heat shield. The product comes with large easy to follow instructions that show you in 4 easy steps how to attach the gas valve to the canister and also how to install the Grill to Go on top of the 5kg Gas cylinder.

 I have been taking my new companion with me on my past few trips to the bank and over that time have used all the different functions that come with the grill which include with flat hot plate, with grill hotplate and with open burner.  I first used the grill without the hotplate on and took a pan and frying pan with me to both cook some dinner and boil water for a warm drink.  The burner plate has 4 metal prongs to sit the pan on and I didn’t have any problems with the pans sliding whist on top of the grill and was really impressed with how solid the grill to go felt once housed on top of the cylinder.  I did do some timing’s whilst on the bank to see just how good it was a heating stuff up and I timed the grill at 2.37 minutes to boil a pint of water on a medium heat. The second and third trip out with the grill I used it with the grill plate on top and again was impressed with how fast it heated up and cooked the food we had taken with us again I did some timings and from placing the stone cold plate on top of a medium flame it began cooking the food which in the test case was bacon in 32.6 seconds.  After using the grill plate I found it very easy to clean when I got home and even a few hours after finishing cooking it cleaned easily in warm soapy water.

To summarise, the Grill to Go is a fantastic piece of kit that I can see being really useful for both anglers looking to spend a few days on the bank and the sole angler out for a full day pursuing their sport.  For me personally I will be using it throughout the summer but I have my eye on this piece of kit for our winter campaign on the River Dee and River Ribble where having a warm meal inside you in the middle of the day is essential we also got great use out of this grill from a family point of view over the warm bank holiday weekend.   I have to say I have thoroughly enjoyed both using and reviewing this product on the bank and am really looking forward to using it in the future and it gets a big thumbs up from me.

on to this week’s fishing:-

Saturday 11^th May 2013 – Tench on The beautiful Rixton Clay Pits

After catching that sole tench last week on Rixton I was eager to get back and get amongst some more of those teddy bear eyed tinca’s and with even more field testing of the Grill to go to be done I decided to get their nice and early to get one of the readymade pegs.  My dad joined me on the session and before we even set up we decided to take in the atmosphere of this atmospheric of places, there really is no place like it on the Warrington anglers Card and is probably the only water on the card that I would fish in the summer months if it contained a few more carp for me to target.

There is something about this place that conjures up everything I love about angling from a fishing pint of view it has the vast shoals of silver fish and those hard fighting tench but aside from that the place is set up in such a way that nearly every peg gives you your own piece of water away from other anglers that means you can just bask in this places beauty.

The tactic for the short session was as always with my fishing simple with me fishing a poly ball on the pole for the silvers and a boilie on my sleeper rod for the tench and unlike last week I decided to be a bit more tighter with my baiting up for the tench and concentrated on an overhanging tree to the island which just screamed fish to me.

Almost instantly after baiting up with the boilies the tell-tale bubbling of a feeding fish could be seen over my baited area and full of expectation I set about feeding up my pole swim with groundbait and maggot, fully expecting the sleeper rod to wake for its dormant vigil.   Unfortunately it took a good hour for the first run on the sleeper rod despite the constant bubbling in the area and the result was a fish of 4lb 8oz, an average fish for this venue.

The fishing was patchy on the silvers front with the better fish coming after long spells of tiny perch and roach and none of the decent bream from last week showed up at all but I think that there was a very good reason for all this as all morning there where fish crashing all across the surface almost as if they were being chased, now I put this down to perch but I guess it could have been pike and further evidence of pike being around showed its face later on in the session when my sleeper rod screamed off and I struck into a fish that after a few seconds came off leaving me with a clean cut half way down my hook length.

I continued to persevere on the pole and noticed that changing depth saw me connect with the better fish before they got spooked and moved on and to be honest this game of cat and mouse continued all day long and it was a joy to have to work for my net of silvers.  The better roach form the session are shown below.

A quick glance at my watch shown it to be around 9am and I could feel the bacon in my cooler bag calling me in a big way so it was time to fire up the grill and get a warm breakfast inside us but in true fashion as I was just about to rise form my seatbox to reel in the sleeper rod it sprung into life and boy did this tench fight under the rod tip as it kept deep and made runs for the lillies and the tree line to my right and had my 1.75lb test curve shimano rod bent right over.

The fish finally tamed and on the unhooking mat it was time for a quick picture and for it to be returned safely in the shallow margins to my right.

The fish sulked into the reed clearly not happy with being disturbed on such a lovely morning.  My stomach was rumbling but I wasn’t about to let this stop me getting the rod re-baited and back out there the tench where having it and I wasn’t about to miss out so out went the rod with another good handful of boilies, now for that breakfast.

Spurned of by a nice breakie it was back to the fishing and I continued to catch some more silvers on the pole but unfortunately went on to miss two runs on the sleeper rod one of which was down to the fish coming towards me and me not reeling in fast enough to connect with the fish and the other was the mysterious cut in my hook length which I put down to a pike.

The session moved into the last two hours and I decided to pack the pole away and give the keep net a well needed air dry and spent the last two hours just fishing the single sleeper rod on the spot. The final net of silvers came to just over 8lb but was you can see contained a fair amount of fish showing just how many smaller silvers where about.

I took two more tench in the last two hours of the session and was more than made up with the amount of tench I caught on the day and served as a great confidence boost that again my rigs are working and it’s the fish not me why I am not catching on curlston mere.

The last two hours were also spent admiring the fantastic array of birdlife this place has to offer and as I was armed with my camera for the grill to go photos for the blog I took the opportunity to capture a few of them on film and what a vast array of speciescall this place home with coots, Canadian geese, ducks, ducklings and I think ring necked ducks all calling this place home and that’s without even mentioning the buzzards calling overhead and the woodpeckers echoing through the trees.

As we packed away the family of older ducklings moved in and I have never ever before witnessed baby ducks diving under the water for so long, one of them was more like a submarine than a duck, so I end this part of the blog by introducing you to the Mughty Diving Ducks!

Grey mist mere – Monday 13^th May 2013

Full of confidence from the tench session on the Saturday and with a free evening I decided to venture onto a proper carp venue in Grey Mist mere.  This is the first time I have ever fished a proper carp venue and was taken aback by the sight of large carp honking themselves clear of the surface, a sight I have never seen before and certainly got me going.   With only an hour or so to spend and knowing little about the venue I quickly had a scout round the venue and settled on a swim I thought would produce for a number of reasons.  As always I kept things really simple and was rewarded with a really nice female tench of 5lb 10oz, not the carp I came for but a fish is a fish on a first trip on the venue and more than I could have hoped for.

Till next week I wish you all tight lines

Danny