Confessions of a Bank Tramp

Keep on chubbing

2012-02-10T13:21:00.000Z

5lb 14oz in the snow

The recent extreme weather hasn't put me off fishing too much, despite some snowfall and overnight temperatures that have plummeted to beyond -10 I've still been out there catching a few chub although no real specimens have come my way. Chub can be one of the most obliging species in cold water conditions and as long as there isn't a lid on the water its normally possible to extract a fish or two, even for a numpty like myself! A few occurrences of note have taken place over these recent trips and not all of all them involved catching fish but then that's what fishing is all about, enjoying the countryside and being able to observe the wildlife that lives within it, catching a few fish along the way is really just the icing on the cake. On one recent trip after already having taken a couple of chub and a bonus bream of around 6lb I was crouched down low on my unhooking mat watching a static quiver tip when my attention was drawn to something moving towards me in the darkness. As I focused in on the moving object I was able to just make out the form of a barn owl and as it moved silently towards my position its flight seemed to slow just a little until it stopped just 10 ft above me and started to hover, in a fraction of a second I was able to work out what was about to happen and a swift clap of my hands above my head averted what was almost certainly going to be an attack on my brightly glowing isotope.
On another trip the following week I had taken 3 chub in the snow to just under 6lb and had decided to head for home after one more try in a banker swim before I left. As I approached said swim my headtorch picked out a pair of white glowing eyes in the river in front of me, normally this is a sign of one of two things, either a mink or young otter. I crouched down at the top of the bank and scanned the water with my torch which revealed another pair of staring white eyes and after watching for a few minutes another pair of eyes were revealed although this time they reflected orange in colour, definitely an otter. The large female actually swam across the river to inspect the light and sat at the bottom of the steep bank staring up at me for a while before disappearing into the darkness and after clambering down the bank onto the gravel riffle I was able to observe the two young cubs at very close quarters playing just 8ft or so from me, a wonderful sight that was somewhat soured by the knowledge that those furry little critters will one day grow up to be chub and barbel killers.

Quick fire success

2012-01-25T01:26:00.000Z

It seems that winter has now taken a firm hold over the countryside, the leaves are long gone from the trees and the fish it seems have all headed south until it warms up. Despite this I've still been managing to get out for the occasional lure trip when conditions allow, heavy overnight frosts make all fishing difficult but it can be nigh on impossible trying to temp a lethargic fish into chasing a lifeless piece of soft plastic so even on milder days it can be hard work. One surprising thing that has become evident is the willingness of chub to hit the lures in similar conditions to which I've been struggling to catch when using baits, perhaps I've been going about it all wrong? My most recent trip summed up for me just what winter lure fishing is all about, short quick fire trips where I can be back in the warm within a few hours of leaving the house. On this particular afternoon I managed to angle both two separate stretches of the Ouse and a gravel pit in the space of just a couple of hours and I even caught a few fish to boot. I started off on a deeper stretch of the river and after covering the whole of a far bank wooded area and changing lures a few times without so much as a knock I eventually had a take on a 3.5 inch firecracker curly tail, the resultant perch of 2lb 8oz more than made the trip worthwhile. A few more hopeful casts were fanned around that area before I decided on a change of scenery, a short drive later and I was walking the banks of a shallower more pacey stretch of water. Over the next 45 minutes two small pike, a pair of perch around 12oz and a chub of 4lb+ were all either hungry or stupid enough to succumb to my rather poor attempt at imitating a dying fish.
As dusk was now starting to threaten I decided on a move to a spot on the adjacent pit that I knew always holds roach during the winter and where the prey fish are there are bound to be some predators too. First cast in the spot with a pink grub resulted in a furious take from what was obviously a half decent pike that seemed intent on removing all the braid from my tiny reel as it set off across the bay. However the fish was well hooked and after a good battle close in that saw me soaked with spray on a couple of occasions I was easing a decent pike into the net, 9lb 12oz not quite a double but bloody good sport on a light set up. I had a couple more casts along that bank of the pit as I walked back to the car and landed another bristling perch of around 1lb 8oz, a fitting way to end an eventful couple of hours.

A quest for chub

2012-01-15T17:04:00.000Z

2011 has been a bit of a grueller for me thus far, the chub don't seem to be playing ball at all and any real hopes of serious specimen perch action died with the onset of the recent frosts. Most seasons, once winter kicks in with earnest I start taking my fishing a bit less seriously, very often I choose to fish venues that will provide a bit of action rather than the chance of a large specimen however this winter I have spent far more time on waters that I feel give me at least a chance of catching the fish of my dreams. A consequence of this is that the blanks soon start to mount up and my interest starts to wane somewhat, however you have got to be in it to win it and I have tried my best to keep my enthusiasm up making regular short visits to the river bank to drown some bread or cheesepaste.

How this fish only weighed 5.13 I'll never know

In amongst these blank trips I have caught one or two fish of note, a couple of upper 5lb chub have graced my net and one of these fish might just have been that 'fish of my dreams' just a year or two ago, however at the time I caught it it was well past its best. On the day in question my breadflake hookbait had already tempted a rather hungry looking pike of 4lb+ from the same swim so when the tip pulled round slowly once more I wasn't really sure what would fish was responsible. A good battle ensued with my light rod doing its best to absorb the lunges of what was obviously a very big fish as I did my best to guide it away from the far bank snags, a call to my mate who was fishing just upstream soon had him joining me and as the fish hit the surface for the first time we both let out a few expletives, it looked huge. Once secured in the net the rather large chub was allowed a moment to recover as I set about readying the scales and camera, all the time I was wondering just how big this fish would go, certainly I thought it could threaten my pb of 6lb 13oz. Up on the scales and I just couldn't get any more than 5.13 out of it despite reweighing it several times, astonishing really for a fish that measured 23 inches in length and was very wide and deep. That fish must have been totally hollow but it is only numbers and it shouldn't really detract from the fact that this was still a most impressive specimen and probably one of the biggest chub size wise that I've ever caught.

2011 in summary

2012-01-08T16:02:00.000Z

So the end of another fishing year has come to pass and surprisingly I've just about managed to keep this blog going. Some good catches have been recorded over the course of the last 12 months including three new personal bests and of course quite a few lessons have been learnt along the way. Some of the highlights for me included my new personal best carp of 31lb 13oz from the Nene Valley Pit, a capture that was especially pleasing considering the circumstances under which it was caught. Catching a fish of such proportions from a large windswept pit that had seen little angling pressure really stretched my skills to their limits, but after locating the bar that I eventually caught the fish from and creating the swim itself I felt I really had earned that one. My fishing on the Grand Union Canal early in 2011 was slow to say the least, last spring I caught 13 fish over the magical 20lb barrier so I was somewhat disappointed to catch just one 20 this spring but I did manage to redeem myself slightly later on in the year when I returned to the cut for a few more trips and landed 4 or 5 more carp including my new canal Pb of 29lb 12oz. The barbel fishing that I experienced during 2011 was some of the best that I've ever had on the Great Ouse, admittedly I didn't have any fish to threaten my long standing pb but I was still well chuffed that over half of the fish that I caught were over the 10lb barrier, especially as so many anglers struggle to catch on the Ouse these days. Perhaps for next season I'll have to look at spending more time targeting a big fish rather than my usual less selective tactic of catching as many as possible in the hope that a better fish comes along. This winters fishing has been fairly slow so far although I've had some good sport whilst lure fishing the specimens have generally managed to elude me, although it was not a fish that I had intended to catch, that Boxing day trout will stick in my memory for some time.
As for the coming few months I'll probably continue to struggle on the rivers with the chub and the lure fishing depending on conditions, my on going winter targets of a lure caught perch in excess of 4lb and a 7lb+ chub on current form at least look unlikely but there is always a chance.

Trout and about

2012-01-05T00:01:00.000Z

One of the most interesting aspects of lure fishing on my local rivers is opportunity that it provides me for a bit of exploring, it is not unusual for me to walk over 5 miles and to fish 3 or more different stretches in the course of a day. Occasionally on these days spent wandering the banks I discover areas that are worth paying special attention to on future trips, in the past I have discovered some prolific swims for both perch and chub that I wouldn't have known existed otherwise. My fishing around the Christmas period consisted mostly of short lure sessions on my local rivers, a few small perch, lots of jacks up about 8lb and a few good chub kept things interesting but no real specimens put in an appearance but all this would change on Boxing day.

By the time I had recovered from the excesses of Christmas I was starting to consider just where I should head off to next, after a quick check on the weather I decided on a short day out chucking plastics on the upper Great Ouse. I walked a fair distance that day, casting into any areas that held a bit of cover as well as plenty of barren areas but despite covering many miles of bank and trying lure after lure the only fish that had shown an interest in my offerings were a perch of around 8oz and a pike of 7lb 12oz which both took 2 3/4 inch grubs. After realizing that I was now some distance from the car and with the available daylight diminishing by the minute I decided it was best to head back in the direction I had come from retrying any hot looking areas on the way but this time using much smaller baits. Both the pike and the perch had taken a white curly tail mounted on a 4g jighead and I had kept faith with this lure since, sharpening the hook a few times along the way after visits to overhanging trees and I was to be glad that I had kept that hook sharp.

10lb 12oz of wild Brown Trout, stunning!

As I made my second cast of my return visit to one particular swim my lure was hit very hard without warning and as my light jig rod took on its battle curve, and then some, it became clear from the speed the fish was moving at that this had to be a pike. Once the fish had got bored of charging around in front of me the 'pike' decided it preferred air to water and it was at this point that I realized just what it was that I was attached to. As the fish tail walked across the surface the streamlined mottled green pike suddenly morphed into a stunningly multicoloured cock brown trout, and it looked to be a very big one too, certainly a pb by some distance. A truly heart stopping fight commenced with me doing my best to stay in touch with a fish that seemed intent on not being landed and all the time my rod was being pushed far beyond its limits, I was just praying for this one not to fall off. The fight probably seemed to last a lot longer than it really did but by the time I had secured my prize in the landing net I was a nervous gibbering wreck, I'm not sure who took the most time to recover me or the fish but after a couple of quick photos he swam off strongly.

The weight was recorded as 10lb 12oz, totally irrelevant really considering its beauty and despite it being 'out of season' and 'not caught on a fly' I'm still claiming it as a new pb, it somewhat eclipses my previous Ouse best of 2lb 10oz! I've had quite a few wild brownies from the Ouse over the time that I've fished it and despite hearing rumours of huge ferox fish being caught that have migrated down from the upper reaches nothing could have prepared me for this capture, its one that I'll remember for a long time.

Getting jiggy with it

2011-12-24T22:43:00.000Z

The majority of my lure fishing over the last couple of years has been carried out using a variety of rubber lures which are mounted on jig heads. Over time I have managed to amass quite a collection of these rubber bodies which include curly tail grubs, twin tails, shads, crayfish and various other creatures, collecting these lures has almost become a hobby in itself. The jig heads that these lures are fished on consist of large hooks, usually between size 2 and 3/0 on which a lead ball weight is fitted. These rubber immitations are then jigged and twitched back using the rod to impart a lifelike action into them, armed with just a net, a rod and a bag of lures many miles of bank can be covered in the course of a day.

3lb 10oz of Great Ouse Perch

I've had a few more trips out on the river since my last entry, most of these were just fun trips fishing areas that were not ever going to produce any particularly large specimens but plenty of action was forthcoming with perch up to 2lb 8oz and some good jacks up to around 8lb. I also had a very short but nonetheless productive session on the Buckingham stretch of the Great Ouse arriving opposite a snaggy area of far bank with only an hour and a half of daylight left. I spent a fair while working 3.5 inch curly tail grubs around those features without any response so after changing my lure over to a 3.75 inch twin tail in a speckled red colour I headed off upstream towards the top of the stretch. After only a few casts in my new swim something hit the lure hard as it fell back through the water, a typical perch take and after a dogged battle under the rod tip 3lb 10oz of Great Ouse perch was eased into the waiting landing net. I fished on until dusk but no further perch were forthcoming with only a small pike to show for my continued efforts, still to catch a fish of this calibre on such a short session was a touch, if only lure fishing was always like this.

And now for something completely different

2011-12-14T22:15:00.000Z

My last post reported on the capture of my tenth double figure barbel of the season and following that session I did return to the same area for a couple more short trips but other that the now quite reliable chub no other barbel were forthcoming. To be honest I didn't need much encouragement to knock the barbelling on the head, I've spent more than enough time targeting barbel this season and I have been getting just a little bored of going through the same routine of turning up after dark and fishing til late, the huge drop in night time temperatures was really what sealed it though. So with the canal carping and the barbel fishing done and dusted for the year what's next on the agenda? A lure caught perch in excess of 4lb has long been one of my targets, having previously captured three fish of 3lb 15oz its about time I did something about breaking that barrier and some time spent fishing short daytime sessions was just what was called for to break the monotony that my barbel fishing had become.

My first trip out was a social affair with a couple of mates, more of a laugh than serious fishing but then that is what lure fishing has always been about for me. The tiny river that we fished produced a few fish throughout the afternoon, although nothing massive was landed 8 perch to 2lb 4oz and a pair of pike the best of which was just short of 7lb made for an enjoyable afternoon.

3lb 4oz...despite it looking a lot bigger

The second session was a short trip on my beloved Great Ouse although this time it was on the upper reaches which are controlled by Buckingham and District AA. The stretch in question is quite wide and deep for the upper river with plenty of features to go at and I spent an enjoyable couple of hours searching out these holding areas with only a small jack to show for my efforts. Just as the light was starting to fail I received a couple of taps on the rod tip followed by a solid take and as my light jig rod took on its battle curve the unmistakeable jag jag on the rod tip revealed immediately what it was that I had hooked. Following a lively battle a bristling huge framed perch of 3lb 4oz was eased into the waiting landing net and after a few self takes in the now total darkness I was heading off across the fields happy as larry, my first big perch for sometime hopefully there would be more to follow.

Double number ten

2011-11-28T04:15:00.000Z

What with the nights now having well and truly closed in and the arrival of the first winter frosts combined with one or two blank sessions barbel-wise I have been seriously considering knocking the fishing for old whiskers on the head for 2011. I think I've given the barbel a fair crack this season and despite not getting that hoped for pb I've experienced some of the best fishing for the species that I've had for many seasons. As always though there are other species and venues to target and I'm sure that when I do finally pack away my barbel gear I'll be straight on to my next mission with renewed enthusiasm.
My most recent session of note took place under somewhat different circumstances in that I had had a guest along with me, a lad I had met during my time on the big pit had joined me on the bank so the session took on more of a social feel with us setting up in adjacent swims much earlier than I have been arriving when fishing alone. The river was up around a foot on normal levels and pushing through quite hard so I opted to deposit my freebait in a gravel trough just a couple of feet out from the near bank and as a result the bait-dropping procedure was carried out with minimal disturbance. After allowing the area to settle for around 30 minutes a hookbait was lowered silently onto the spot, happy that everything was in place I leaned back in my chair in anticipation of some action. I didn't have to wait too long either, within 20 minutes a flash of a torch in the next swim alerted me to the fact that Andy had a fish on and I arrived in his swim just in time to see him land a chub of around 4lb. A second chub some time later really started to get me worried and I was almost relieved when we agreed to wind the rods in for some food.

After washing down the welcome hot meal with a beer each we both returned to our respective swims in the hope that the fish were also feeling a little peckish but after a few more hours I still hadn't had so much as a tap. At some point after midnight just as I had begun to give up all hope the rod lurched round out of the blue and line was taken from the loosened clutch of my reel. I picked up the rod and tightened the drag but could do little to stop the fish taking a few more yards of line, eventually some distance downstream of my position the fish ground to a halt but due to the fast flowing water I could barely move it. Time after time having slowly lead what was obviously a good barbel back towards me I lost all of the line I had gained as the fish took off on another run, in all the fight probably lasted 10 minutes or so but it seemed far far longer. However it seems my name was definitely on that fish and once I'd secured my prize in the net he was left to recover from the long drawn out fight he'd just given me whilst I sat back and celebrated what was almost certainly double number ten for the season. A weight of 12lb 15oz was confirmed by Andy a short while afterwards and yet another different barbel was returned back to a river Great Ouse that many have already given up on, looking back at my photos it looks almost certain that I've only had one possible recapture out of the 18 barbel I've caught, quite astonishing really.

More Barbel

2011-11-15T04:45:00.000Z

I've been back out prowling the banks of the Great Ouse again since my last entry and once again (yawn!) barbel were my chosen target. The first of these outings occurred on a damp night with the river just starting to rise after recent rainfall. Despite there being extra water and flow on the river it was carrying very little colour, it is most probable that the fresh water was surface run off from Milton Keynes, either way conditions looked spot on. A good ten minute work out with the bait dropper and I had probably scared away every living creature in the vicinity so I sat back just soaking up the atmosphere, waiting for the hemp and pellets to do their work. I had opted to revert back to the elips pellets as hookbait for this session instead of the boilies that I had been using, and around an hour after putting the dropper away I was flicking out a rig to the baited spot.
The first couple of hours passed without anything untoward occurring and after resetting the trap and sending a pair of fresh pellets out to their watery grave I slumped back down into my chair to wait once again. I was starting to feel the cold a little now, late night fishing isn't too much fun once you start to move from autumn into winter and my thoughts were filled with plans for some more comfortable fishing for the remainder of the year. I didn't have too long to dwell on my plans thought as my thoughts were interrupted by my rod suddenly slamming round to the left, a barbel bite if ever I've seen one and for the first few moments it could well have been a barbel that was responsible but a gradual yielding in the pressure soon revealed a pair of white lips belonging to a chub of around the 5lb mark.

11lb 3oz Ouse Barbel

Despite the capture of the chub warming me up a little I was starting to feel quite tired now and after dropping the lead back on the spot once more with inch perfect precision I decided that this would be the last cast before retiring to my warm bed. Around an hour and a half later the tip ripped round again just as it had before but I wasn't about to be fooled by a chub twice in a row. Once more my strike was hit by a solid resistance but this time instead of the pressure yielding around 10yds of line was taken in an irresistible surging run, ok maybe this wasn't another chub then. A tense battle ensued around what is left of the dying weedbeds and it was a good few minutes before I eventually saw the fish, sliding the barbel over the rim of the waiting landing net just as it went crazy covering me with spray. After allowing the fish to recover I was able to have a good look at my prize, a wonderfully thick set barbel of 11lb 3oz that looks like it could be set to become a right beast, if it can avoid the otters that is.

Boring boring Barbel

2011-11-10T07:35:00.000Z

Despite all of the doom and gloom earlier on in this blog regarding the state of the Great Ouse as a fishery it would seem that there are still a few barbel about, even on stretches where otters are now resident in numbers. Don't get me wrong the areas that I fish don't hold anything like the amount of fish that they did a few years back, the river as a whole is definately in decline, in fact from speaking to other anglers most have been struggling to catch at all so I have been pleasantly suprised by the results that I have had this season.

11lb 4oz

I have been back out for another session on the river since my last entry, the first trip started off with a very late arrival on the bank, in fact I didn't even manage to get a bait in the water until nearly midnight. Due to the late start I decided it was best to keep the disturbance to a minimum and so the dropper stayed in my bag and I started off the session by fishing a small pva bag over just a scattering of hand fed broken boilies. The softly softly approach seemed to pay dividends straight away as the first chub of just short of 6lb was netted within minutes of starting. Two more chub one slighly smaller specimen and another of 5lb 12oz fell victim to the tactic over the next few hours and due to the disturbance created whilst extracting these fish I had all but given up on the slim chance of a barbel turning up and so planned to give it just one more hour before departing. Some 50 minutes later I was thanking my lucky stars that I did stay on as the rod hammered round and just kept on going as a somewhat startled barbel took off downstream with my hookbait in its mouth. Yet another exhilarating scrap ensued with the fish seemingly intent on staying as close to the far bank as possible however eventually the pressure from my rod had the desired effect and a well beaten barbel was drawn over the rim of my landing net. After recording a weight of 11lb 4oz and firing off a few self takes double number 8 of the season was returned to his watery home and I packed away the remainder of my gear ready for the trek back to the car.

Otters everywhere yet still more captures

2011-11-02T05:15:00.000Z

After my final farewell to the Grand Union Canal for 2011 I decided it was time to try to catch one or two more fish of the whiskered variety before the first frosts arrived and my attentions were diverted elsewhere. I turned up on the bank a couple of hours after darkness had descended and once again I was pleasantly suprised to find that I had the whole stretch to myself, just how I like it. After ten minutes of work with the bait dropper I had laid out a feast fit for a king, well a barbel at least, and sat back drinking coffee listening to the screeching of the tawny owls in the trees that bordered the field. After an hour or so of allowing the swim to settle I couldn't resist the urge any longer and a few moments later my rig was flying out towards the baited spot landing with a plop just beyond what remained of a submegered cabbage bed.

6lb 1oz chub

The first few hours passed without incident, now that the water temperatures have started to drop the crayfish activity has been reduced to a much more managable level, thankfully it is no longer neccessary to recast every hour which leads to a much more relaxing evening. On the second cast a couple of twitches on the tip alerted me to the possible presence of fish in front of me, a slow but steady pull a few moments afterwards saw me picking up the rod to connect with the first fish of the trip which turned out to be a chub of just over 6lb, a very welcome start. On the next cast I had another indication, although this one was far less subtle, one minute the rod tip was static the next it wrapped round about four feet. Without even picking up the rod it was clear that a barbel was responsible, this was confirmed as the fish shot off across the river like an exocet missile taking line from the spool like only a barbel could. After a scrappy fight a lovely little splasher of 7lb 4oz was netted and after the obligatory photoshoot I decided to fish on for just one more hour before calling it a night.

7lb 4oz splasher

A short while before I had planned to depart I was disturbed from my day(night) dreaming by a whistling, peep peep noise that seemed to be eminating from just downstream of my position. A quick flash of my headtorch revealed a pair of staring orange eyes confirming my suspicions that tarka was back once more. As I was due to pack up anyway I quickly wound in the rod and continued to track the otter's progress upstream, generally when otters are being vocal its because there are others close by and around 300yds from where I first spotted it a second otter appeared from the reeds. I walked ahead a short distance and within a few minutes the two otters were joined by another pair and I was able to witness the family of four otters together once more, a wonderful sight to behold although I have to be honest the novelty of all these otter sightings is wearing off rapidly!

A cut above the rest

2011-10-20T23:45:00.000+01:00

I was absolutely over the moon after landing my new PB from the grand union on my last session and it had more than made up for all the hard work I had put in during my spring campaign with very little reward. Despite being ahead I decided to have at least one more crack at the canal before the onset of winter and so it was that I found myself setting up in the pitch black of the early morning once more. Bait and setup were exactly the same on my previous session and once again I fished both rods over a scattering of boilies without any particles or pellets at all. I have learnt over the years that the addition of these smaller baits drives the bream absolutely wild, even to the point of picking up 22mm baits, not good when you're targeting carp. The session passed quietly, save for a bream that had obviously not read the script at all and by the time that daylight had started to illuminate the eastern sky I had all but given up hope. I had packed away all non essential items and all that was left was to finish my cup of coffee and put the rods away when the right hand bobbin smashed into the blank without any warning at all. On picking up the rod I found myself connected to a powerful fish that took off on a series of blistering runs before settling into a more dogged battle. After a few more surging runs under the rod tip a long lean common was scooped into the mesh and left to recover whilst I readied the mat and scales. Once we had both composed ourselves and got our breaths back a weight of 20lb 4oz was recorded and after holding the streamlined common in its chestnut winter colours up for the camera I was soon packing away the canal gear for the last time this year, a fitting end to my canal fishing for 2011.

A change is as good as a rest, a new PB is better still

2011-10-14T16:53:00.000+01:00

Despite the success that I have been experiencing on the river of late I have to admit that I'm starting to get itchy feet once more. The barbel fishing that I have experienced this season has been totally out of this world yet even when things are going well I'm never really happy doing one thing for too long and it was with this in mind that I started introducing a few baits into the canal some weeks back. My first trip to the spot produced a couple of runs within the space of a handful of hours and I was itching to get back for another crack at those Grand Union carp, and so it was that I found myself creeping along the towpath in the early hours trying my best not to wake the residents of the moored boats. Two special bream buster rigs sporting a 18mm pop up and 22mm bottom bait fished snowman style were swung out to the spots and I was soon sat relaxing with a cup of coffee and a cigarette hoping for some action before the arrival of daylight and the boat traffic that would inevitably follow. The rods had been in position for little more than an hour when I received an absolute screamer on the left hand rod, despite a tightly set baitrunner the carp had already got up a fair head of steam by the time I picked up the rod and was heading at some speed towards a moored boat. I applied as much side strain as I dared and the fish rose up in the water tight against the boat with an enormous eruption shaking its head as it did so when suddenly the rod sprang back and the line went limp, the fish was gone and a check of the hookpoint revealed that it had been turned over. After attaching a fresh rig and repositioning the rod on the spot I sat back in my chair sulking, the turned hook may have been as a result of it hitting bone in the mouth or it could even have been foul hooked, either way it wasn't a good thing although as it turned out it might just have been a blessing in disguise.

A couple of hours later the same rod was away again and after a steady fight I netted a perfect common of 18lb 8oz which went a little way to making up for the lost fish. Normally after landing two fish on these short canal sessions I would be on my way home again, there really is no point in being greedy and risking spooking the fish from the area so I might not have even got my next chance if it hadn't been for that early lost fish. That next run occurred literally minutes before I had planned to pack up and on connecting with the fish it was immediately apparent that this one was in a different league altogether, the slow and plodding yet powerful fight just seemed to go on and on. As the carp gradually tired it began to rise in the water and I finally got my first glimpse of what I was attached to, it looked big, very big, certainly a good 20 and as I drew it over the drawstring thoughts of a possible pb began to go through my head. Lifting the fish onto the mat it just seemed to grow and grow, by the time I recorded the weight on the scales of 29lb 12oz I was absolutely elated, not quite a 30 but a new canal pb and a fish that I might not ever have caught if things had worked out differently.

Otter spotter

2011-10-08T14:49:00.000+01:00

I write this having just returned from an after dark session on the Great Ouse and as I sit here trying my best to warm myself up I can assure you that winter is well and truly on its way. At the time of my last post I had just recorded my first blank session on my banker stretch and this was to herald a run of 3 consecutive trips without any barbel putting in an appearance despite me continuing to keep a trickle of bait going in whenever I could. If the barbel were not playing ball then the chub certainly seemed to be doing their best to fill in for them, it seems as the leaves in the trees have gradually become fewer the number of chub in the area has increased enormously and some good fish to just short of 6lb were taken on these sessions.

8lb 10z

On two of these otherwise blank trips I also had the opportunity to re-familiarise myself with the local otter population, its possibly no coincidence that whilst I was catching regularly otter activity had been minimal. Late one evening after already witnessing 3 otters in the same amount of hours I was alerted to the alarm call of a moorhen in the reeds just upstream of my position and a quick scan of the water with my headtorch revealed a pair of orange eyes heading straight towards me. As the eyes drew closer I was able to make out the form of the huge dog otter behind them in the torchlight, and without a hint of the shyness that these animals are supposedly associated with it continued to swim towards me until it finally spooked with a loud splash when it was within 8ft of me.

12lb 11oz

I was feeling somewhat deflated by the recent run of poor form that seemed to coincide with the arrival of Tarka and family so I was a little happier to witness only one otter sighting on the next trip. What was better still was that its arrival was flanked either side by the capture of a pair of Great Ouse barbel. The first of the two fish gave me the right run around as it did a whistle stop tour of the entire swim before finally succumbing to the pressure and flopping into the net. Once the celebratory cuppa and smoke had allowed us both to get our breaths back I was allowed to see my prize and after a quick photo shoot a pristine fish 8lb 10oz was returned to the next swim along the bank. I was more than pleased to get an early fish and after spotting Tarka again soon after recasting I had resigned myself to the fact that any further chance had gone, I really wasn't expecting a second bite at all. In fact I nearly didn't get that chance at all as I had planned to pack up around 10 minutes before it occurred but had decided to give it a while longer, to say that I was pleased with the resultant 12lb 11oz barbel would be an major understatement.
So some good, some bad, only time will tell if this session is a blip in my recent run of blanks or if my run of fish has picked up where I left off

Lagging behind

2011-09-30T14:35:00.000+01:00

7lb 10z

Yet again I am getting behind with my blog postings, unfortunately given a choice between sitting behind a computer and fishing there is only going to be one winner so this was always likely to happen, I will do my best to get up to date. I have been out fishing a number of times since my last post with varying degrees of success. As I have stated before I have been a little concerned with just how easy the barbel fishing on the Ouse has been for me so far and in expectation of the bubble bursting I have been looking at alternative targets for my autumn fishing. I was more than a little disappointed with the results that I received on the canal this spring so have been trickling some prebait into a stretch that is local to me for a few weeks now in the hope that I can redeem myself slightly. The stretch in question is in a built up area and has narrow towpaths and so doesnt really lend itself to bivvying up on so the plan is to drop in for a few short early morning sessions hoping that pre baiting has worked and the carp are queing up waiting to be caught.

The first trip to the spot was fairly successful despite loosing a good fish soon after arriving. Snowman baits were fished blowback style on a braid hooklength over a good spread of mixed sized boilies. A little over 4 hours after arriving I was on my way home having landed an pristine upper double common and lost a fish of similar proportions, the plan seemed to be working.

12lb 2oz

I also had a few more trips out on the Ouse over this period, and at last it seems the catches are starting to dry up. I have noticed that the captures have been getting gradually later and later into the session and the first of my trips backed that up with the 7lb 10z barbel not putting in an appearance until well after midnight. The next trip out was also a successful one, I have been arriving at the river well after dark in response to the fishes feeding times but I had to wait on until gone 4am before I had a bite, it was well worth the wait though. The chunky 12lb 2oz barbel made it twelve barbel in 10 consecutive trips from this particular area, some record but unfortunately it wouldn't last. On my very next trip out I suffered a total blank despite staying on until just before dawn. It had to happen sooner or later, I have been well aware that this run of fish couldn't possibly continue forever and although I'm sure I'll catch some more barbel before the season ends I'm already planning my next move.

The run continues

2011-09-20T01:38:00.000+01:00

I've been out harassing those Great Ouse barbel again since my last blog entry, a couple more fish have fallen victim to my now well refined tactics and I'm starting to get just a little bit concerned as to how long I can keep this run of fish going. As I have stated elsewhere on my blog barbel fishing on the Ouse just isn't supposed to be like this at all nowadays, to catch fish on back to back sessions is in itself unusual but to have a run of fish like I'm currently experiencing is pretty much unheard of.

8lb 7oz

The first of my recent sessions saw me arrive after dark to find the river about a foot up on its normal level following the rainfall we had received a couple of days previously, the now standard baiting operation was carried out utilizing a bait dropper and in short time I was sat back awaiting the usual crayfish onslaught. I have noticed over the last few trips that the cray activity has subsided just a little and I have felt comfortable leaving my baits out for an hour and a quarter at a time, hopefully this will improve further still as the water temperature continues to drop. I wasn't really expecting much to happen until a few hours had elapsed so I was pleasantly surprised to find myself attached to a barbel within an hour of casting out. The hooked fish rushed around the swim like a mad thing, barbel of around 8lb or so seem to provide some of the best fights and this one certainly gave its all in trying to avoid visiting the bank. After posing for the camera with the fish which weighed 8lb 7oz I decided that rather than be greedy I would give it a couple more hours then retire early, trying my best not to spook the fish from the area totally.

11lb 5oz

The next trip took place a couple of nights later in the same area and after a visit to pre bait in between trips I was hoping for another quick fire fish and an early departure. The river had now dropped back down to its normal level and flow (or lack of it) and when on the very first cast the tip slammed round I was starting to get deja vu, a barbel on consecutive trips without having to sit out for hours... surely not? After playing the fish for 30 seconds or so it became clear that this wasn't a fish of the whiskered variety and I was soon drawing a chub of around 4lb over the rim of my landing net. I hoped this wasn't to be a bad omen, I hadn't caught a chub from this stretch since my current run of barbel had commenced and these thoughts continued to nag at me until just 15 minutes before I had intended to pack up when the rod tip whacked round once more and another epic battle began. The fish seemed determined not to have its photo taken and despite being drawn to the net on several occasions it refused to be landed, the ragged tail that the fish possessed seemed to have little adverse affect on its fighting ability. To be fair though there was only going to be one winner in this battle and after weighing and photographing my prize I returned a barbel of 11lb 5oz to fight another day.
So my remarkable run of fish continues, after closely examining all of the barbel I have caught it seems that I have not had one single recapture thus far, a statistic that is amazing really. The total lack of any repeat captures suggests that these fish are not actually resident in the area but are moving through, if I can keep this run of fish going there is every chance of a right old lunker turning up, hopefully a fish that might threaten my personal best of 15lb 9oz.

Keep on keeping on

2011-09-10T11:58:00.002+01:00

So despite my initial plans it would seem that the river carping might not happen this season after all. As I stated at the start of this blog my plans for the season were always going to remain very fluid and as at the moment I seem to have my barbel head well and truly in place and I'm catching a few it would be silly to divert my attention elsewhere. Since my last entry I have carried out some more groundwork on other stretches of the river, a few more interesting areas have been identified and I've already started to introduce a bit of bait into likely looking spots. The area from which I have taken the bulk of my fish has been visited quite a few times in between actual fishing trips in order to keep the bait going in and I've now started introducing my favoured boilies instead of the pellets that I had been utilising. I have been applying the bait to a few different swims in the hope that I can keep a few fish interested and also so that I don't spook them from the vicinity altogether, I'm well aware that the barbel will only take so much of a hammering before looking for a safer area in which to frequent.

12lb 2oz of lean, mean fighting machine

As far as my recent fishing goes I've had 2 more sessions on the Ouse both of which yielded good fish which goes to show that my softly softly approach is paying dividends. The first of these visits followed my recent tactic of arriving just before dusk, applying a good helping of bait and waiting for the fish to come to me. To be honest though I didn't think that it was going to happen on this trip, after 5 hours I hadn't had a touch and had decided that the next cast would be my last before retiring for some much needed sleep. Just 15 minutes before I was due to wind in I had an enormous wrench on the rod tip and found myself attached to a fish that ran downstream with an irresistible surge of power. For a while I was convinced that I was attached to a carp such was the ferocity of the initial run, but as the fish turned and started to head upstream I gradually realised that I was in fact attached to a decent barbel. After what seemed like an age I had the fish ready for netting and I was soon holding up a pristine looking barbel of 12lb 2oz for the camera. After emptying the rest of my bait into the river as a thank you for the fish that it had just blessed me with I bounced off into the darkness once more wondering just how many fish the stretch would produce before the catches finally dry up.

13lb exactly

My next session on the river was just a couple of nights later and despite visiting the river in between trips to bait up I was a little doubtful as to whether I would catch despite the conditions being spot on, just how many barbel could possibly be holed up in the few swims that I have been fishing? Recent rain had caused the level to rise by around 18 inches and although there wasn't much colour in the river it still looked good for a bite. After going through the now normal procedure of baiting the swim and spreading a little bait downstream of my position I sat back waiting, offering up prayers to the barbel gods for just one more fish. My prayers were answered on the third cast when the isotope on the end of my rod suddenly disappeared from sight, a quick glance around the undergrowth to my left revealed that it had taken up a new position some 3ft away from where it started. On picking up the rod I once again found myself attached to a very powerful fast moving fish that ploughed through several weedbeds before settling into a slower but determined plodding battle. The fight from bigger barbel of around 12lb and upwards is very different in nature to that of their smaller brethren, whereas smaller fish seem to rush around the swim in a demented fashion, the scrap from larger specimens is a lot slower and more deliberate and this fish definitely fell into the second of these categories. After a long drawn out battle the fish appeared to be ready for netting and despite a few last minute dives into the marginal weeds it was eventually beaten and allowed to rest in the net. With barbel it is very important to rest the fish immediately after capture, to remove them from the water straight away without allowing them to recover would be similar to dunking a persons head under the water after running a marathon, very often fish are left resting in the net for 10 or 15 minutes before I finally get to have a good look at my prize. After a celebratory cup of coffee and a couple of cigarettes I succumbed to the suspense and was soon holding all 13lb of my prize up for the camera, the biggest fish of this seasons campaign so far, hopefully there will be more to come yet.

On a roll

2011-08-29T12:20:00.005+01:00

7lb 10oz

Flushed with success from my last couple of sessions I have been back out on the Ouse for a few more trips over the last couple of weeks. The first of these sessions was in a totally different area of the river from which I had caught my fish from recently, it was a short trip lasting only a couple of hours and I drew a total blank without even a chub to show for my efforts. One of the most concerning things about my time spent on the river this season has been the total lack of any action from chub, in years gone by the chub have proved to be a bit of a pain at times often picking up the bait before the barbel get a chance and then causing unnecessary disturbance once they are hooked. This year however in around a dozen or so trips I have only caught one very small chub amongst my barbel, normally I would expect the chub captures to outnumber them by 4 to 1 at least, yet another sign that something is not quite right with the river at all.

11lb 3oz

My second recent trip was back in the going area to see if there were any more barbel to be caught from the small shoal that it seems I have located over my last few trips. My last two barbel had been caught some hours after baiting the swim with both bites occurring at exactly the same time and I had deduced from this that the fish were not resident in the swim all of the time and were probably moving onto the baited area from the feature downstream some 60yds away. For this trip I employed a similar baiting pattern to my other successful sessions, spreading bait between the three features and then fishing over a heavily baited patch in the upstream swim. Again not a lot happened for a while save for the usual cray activity until some hours after the initial baiting when the tip ripped around without any warning and I was into yet another barbel. This fish weighed in at 7lb 10oz and whilst resting the fish in my net I text a couple of mates to inform them of my luck, it was at this point that I noticed the time on my phone, the capture had taken place within minutes of the time of my previous two fish. After returning the barbel I decided that despite feeling knackered I would continue to fish on for a few more hours but by half one I was flagging seriously and decided on just one more cast before leaving for home. At 0225 I woke with a start, I must have dropped off to sleep at some point and realising that it was time to wind in I started to move some of my tackle to the top of the bank. As I folded down my chair I heard a hissing noise coming from somewhere close by and in my half awake state I shone my torch on the ground around me wondering what sort of animal had made such a noise. After seeing no signs of anything that could have been responsible I made my way back towards my rod only to see the tip twitch slightly, slowly but surely the penny was starting to drop, this was confirmed as the rod smashed round, I had a fish on! After a lively battle which ended with me in the river up to my knees trying to coax the fish out of the marginal reeds I netted my second barbel of the evening at 11lb 3oz. To catch two barbel in a session on the Great Ouse is a right result these days so I was well chuffed but there was more to come yet.

8lb 4oz Great Ouse Barb

I returned to the same swim the following evening hoping for some more of the same and that's exactly what I got. I arrived a little later than I had the day before, managing to get the swim baited just before it became totally pitch black and soon I was ensconced in my reed fringed pitch waiting for action. Bite time came and went and just as I was starting to get worried the rod tip twitched round... by about 3ft! The barbel put up a terrific scrap taking line from me on a couple of powerful runs before it managed to weed me in mid river, steady pressure on the fish soon had it moving again and I was soon netting a fish that weighed 8lb 4oz. I decided to fish on in the hope of another chance and around 3 hours later I got my second bite of the trip resulting in yet another barbel, this one weighed 7lb 12oz and had a peculiar abnormality. On examining the fish it became clear that it only had one pelvic fin and from the total lack of scarring in that area it looked as if the fish had been born that way, something I have never witnessed on a barbel before.

7lb 12oz Barbel

So there you have it, 4 barbel in 2 trips is just about as good as it gets on the Ouse nowadays, hopefully there might be one or two more to come yet. Although I haven't closely examined the photos of all the barbel I have caught recently I'm pretty sure that they were all different fish, I'm quite happy to continue to fish in this area as long as there are new fish to catch, hopefully there may be a lump or two yet to come, but once I start to get recaptures I will have to reassess my options and will probably leave this area alone and head off in search of some new fish.

Ouse the daddy

2011-08-08T15:44:00.005+01:00

After all the negativity about the Great Ouse in my last post it is nice to report that I've actually caught something from the river at long last. Prior to my most recent sessions I had completed six blanks whilst targeting a couple of different areas, fishing short evening sessions and trying to split my time between two or three lightly baited swims each trip thinking that I would be more likely to locate some fish if I covered more water. Not even a chub had been landed and the signal crayfish were starting to get to me, even special korda hair stops and rock hard boilies were not keeping them at bay for any more than an hour. A change of tack was required so a sack of hemp was purchased along with some elips pellets which I intended to super glue back to back with the hair trapped between them, a tactic that had worked for friends recently. Again I chose 3 swims spread out over about 200yds of river and fed them all lightly with hemp and a few pellets. The first of these was a far bank raft of weed, the middle swim was a tree whose branches almost completely covered the river and the third was a deeper pool between two shallow weedy areas. I fished each area in turn for around two hours and in between reggies I actually caught a chub of around 1lb 8oz, to be honest I was grateful to get a bite, I wasn't overly confident in using a bait smeared in super glue. On packing up that evening I spread a few pellets between the three swims saving most of my spare bait for the upstream one, a plan for a return visit was being hatched.

10lb 11oz

The next evening I returned to the same area with a fair helping of hemp and a totally different game plan. As soon as I arrived in the upstream swim I set about bait dropping some hemp and pellets into the run between the weed bed and the far bank raft, around 15 droppers of hemp and two of pellet were soon on the bottom of the river. My next part of the plan was to take my tackle down to the last of the three swims for a couple of hours in order to let the swim settle, as I walked downstream I spread a few more pellets between the three features. The next couple of hours passed quite predictably without any interest from anything other than crays and just on dusk I made the move into the baited swim, dropping the rig in just as total darkness descended. The first cast as has become usual produced nothing at all and soon I was going through the hourly routine of re-baiting once more, the end of my rod hadn't stopped moving since casting out due to those little clawed bastards and a bait left out any longer would probably not last for long at all. On the second cast everything was different thought and after half an hour I still hadn't seen so much as a tremble on the tip, something that generally only happens for two reasons on the Ouse, either the bait was gone or the presence of fish in the swim was keeping ronnie and reggie at bay. I was still taken totally by surprise though when the rod tip hammered round and the clutch on my reel started screaming, a typical barbel bite and after a good scrap in the weedy swim I netted my first Ouse barbel of the season at 10lb 11oz. I fished on for two more casts but the continual crustacean activity convinced me that no more fish were present, before leaving I repeated the baiting pattern from the previous night hoping to return the next evening.

7lb 9oz

The following night was like an action replay, the swim was baited in exactly the same manner and after laying out the banquet it was left to settle with the first cast happening once again right on dusk. At almost exactly the same time on the second cast I hooked another another barbel, this one slightly smaller at 7lb 9oz, but very welcome none the less. After resting the fish in the net for a while it was returned to the next swim upstream and I continued fishing for another couple of hours although to be honest I should have quit whilst I was ahead. I trekked back across the fields in the dark that night with an extra spring in my step, I was on a roll the question was would it continue?

The once 'Great' Ouse

2011-08-06T16:35:00.005+01:00

The River Great Ouse

As I have mentioned in a previous post I have already had a few unsuccessful exploratory sessions on my local Great Ouse in search of a barbel, the words banging, head and brick wall spring immediately to mind. The Great Ouse was not so long ago classed as the best river in the whole country for specimen sized barbel, on many stretches the average sized fish was around 10lb or more and a succession of records were produced from one certain length of the river up to a top weight of over 21lb. All that has changed though in recent years and the river is now in a poor state, recent Environment Agency surveys have seen many stretches downgraded from class A to class C fisheries or even lower and nearly all fish species within the river seem to be locked in a downward spiral. The reasons for the decline in this once 'Great' river are as varied as they are many, the river suffers heavily from over abstraction with very little flow present throughout the summer months and this has led to a gradual silting up of spawning gravels over the years and as a result fry recruitment has been reduced to almost zero. Water quality is not what it once was, the discharge from sewage works has increased in line with the population growth and at times of low flow a large percentage of the water may be made up of discharge, far from ideal for any life form in the river.
As well as the poor physical state of the 'Great' Ouse there are also a whole new host of predators for the fish to contend with at each stage of their lives that were not there until fairly recently. American signal crayfish now seem to litter almost every square inch of the river bottom preying on not only spawn and juvenile fish but also the other micro organisms that make up the barbel's normal diet. Cormorant numbers have also increased massively over the last couple of decades and after decimating the fish stocks on most of the larger lakes and reservoirs they have now moved onto the rivers in search of their next meal. And last but by no means least of these new predators is Lutra lutra otherwise known as the Eurasian Otter, a species that was reintroduced into the valley some years back and has set about decimating the populations of adult fish that have become used to not having to deal with predators. Who ever had the idea to reintroduce an apex predator into an environment which is already struggling on so many fronts without any feasibility study into the possible impact being carried out needs shooting, in my opinion the Environment Agency have a lot to answer for.
So all in all the Great Ouse in its present state is a depressing place to be but despite all the doom and gloom and there are still some big fish to be caught, for the moment at least. Chub to around 8lb have been caught on some stretches with barbel in excess of 16lb a distinct possibility at the right time of the year its still a challenge that I believe its worthwhile taking on, even with those bloody bait robbing crayfish everywhere.

Itchy feet

2011-08-01T22:49:00.010+01:00

For my latest trip I once again found myself tackling the big pit hoping for an unknown carp of colossal proportions. I arrived in the valley tired and slightly bleary eyed 'fresh' from a 12 hour night shift, having clearly failed to learn my lesson from past sessions carried out under such circumstances. In the past when I have set off for a trip straight from work things have always gone wrong, setting up and getting the rods out seems like twice as much of an effort as it usually is, often I dont end up settling down to sleep until mid morning. I arrived on the bank at around 0700 and found a few fish showing in the same swim I fished during my last session and then probably scared most of them away as I proceeded to thrash the water to a foam as I struggled to get my rods into position on the bar. The weed growth had been rapidly increasing over the last few weeks and it was now becoming hard to locate any clear spots at all, still after much huffing and puffing I had two rods positioned alongside the marker at around 85yds out. With the rods in position I donned my chest waders and with the use of a catapult spread around a kilo and a half of of boilies around the float. My third rod was placed over a light spread of bait close in to my near margin on a firmer area of silt at around 20yds range.

Not the prettiest carp that I've caught

By 10 o'clock I had my house erected, breakfast had been consumed and I was just about ready for some well deserved kip. My alarm was set for 4pm and in all honesty I didn't expect to be woken before then, however it was no more than 3 hours later that I found myself stumbling blindly towards the sound of the wailing delkim alarm on my close range rod. In my still half asleep state it was a fairly evenly matched battle at first with the fish managing to take line from the reel on several powerful runs. As I have mentioned before the carp in this lake really do scrap, mainly down to the fact that they are relatively unfished for and as a result they really do fight as if their lives depend on it. However after a lively battle I was soon lifting a rather ugly looking common on to the unhooking mat which weighed 14lb 15oz, not an enormous fish but considering that the angler two swims away had blanked for the last 96 hours it was a right result.
The unscheduled wake up call really messed up my sleep pattern and I ended up kipping right through my now rescheduled alarm, only eventually waking just an hour before dusk. By the time darkness had descended I had repositioned all 3 rods and applied a fresh spread of bait around my spots, a couple of beers were swiftly polished off before tiredness got the better of me once more.

I must have dropped off to sleep again some point around midnight but again my slumber was shortlived as at 0430 I was woken by a raging one toner on the left hand rod fished at range. Again the fish gave a good account of itself, totally belying its size, I think someone had forgotten to tell it that it was only a low double. By the time the fish had been weighed and photographed there was just enough daylight to make it possible to recast the remaining rods which allowed me to return to what I was doing before I was so rudely interrupted. The rest of that day and the following night passed silently and when I awoke early the next morning the wind had changed totally, most probably taking the fish (as well as my hopes) to the far end of the lake, so it was decided that a swift departure was in order. As I bumped my way along the rutted track away from the lakes that morning there was a degree of sadness in my heart, it would probably be a while before I fished the lakes again due to the call of the rivers but the closing of one chapter would mean the opening of a whole new one altogether.

Back on the rivers

2011-07-18T02:33:00.001+01:00

The Great Ouse in summer

The river season has finally started and unusually for me I havent been in too much of a rush to get out and commence my fishing on flowing water, the challenge of the big pit has provided somewhat of a distraction so far this year. In my experience the river fishing after the break can be at best patchy, many fish have only just finished spawning and are often in poor condition, often the fishing doesn't improve until well into July. Despite this I have spent quite a few hours walking the banks and have identified some areas that look well worthy of further investigation later in the year. I have actually had a bit of a half hearted dabble over a few short but unsuccessful trips on my local Great Ouse in search of a barbel but despite fishing some cracking looking swims I haven't even caught a chub, let alone the hoped for barbus. I plan to have a real good crack at the barbel at some point during the season, as each year passes there seem to be less and less of this species in the Ouse although some absolutely huge specimens still exist in small pockets.

I've also walked a fair few miles of bank recently in search of river carp and despite seeing a few fish I have yet to spot anything that really inspires me size wise. Allied to most other river species the carp fishing can also be slow early in the season, very often they move upstream to spawn not returning to their usual haunts until later in the year with my best results in the past coming from August onwards. I fully intend to spend some time trying to locate these carp over the next month or so, the problem is there is absolutely miles of weed choked river for them to hide in, they could be anywhere.

Catch up Pt 2

2011-07-07T15:22:00.004+01:00

Continuing with the theme of playing catch up with my recent lack of posts this session once again happened a little while back. For a change the inland sea known as the main lake was to be the venue for my adventures although this session was to be a proper one lasting three nights in total, for someone who often gets bored after one nights fishing this really was a break from the norm for me. Initially I had only planned to angle for two nights but phone call to a friend late on the day before I intended to depart revealed the he was already fishing and had seen a few fish show, it seemed silly to wait any longer so I set about throwing enough provisions together to last me for three nights on the lake. By the time I pulled up on the bank next to Kevin's motor dusk was already threatening the last vestiges of daylight, this was going to be a race against time to get three rods out and my house sorted before it was pitch black, however due to my disorganized nature this is a skill that has been finely tuned over the years. Swim selection was made easy, Kevin was already set up in a reasonable area and had seen fish show there, I also had fished the swim next to him a few times so knew the features well... the fact that he had a large coolbox full of stellas in his bivvy and that a good social was on the cards didn't really come into it.

19lb 8oz

Eventually after a lot of huffing and puffing I had three rods out on their spots just as the inky blackness of darkness totally enveloped the lake around me, if nothing occurred during the night at least I would be in pole position for some early morning fish spotting. I joined Kevin in his swim and the first of the Stellas was cracked open and it was as I was finishing that first can that I received my first run. I trotted the few yards to my swim to find my rod bouncing around in the rests and the delkim screaming away like a duck being strangled, straight away I could tell this was a good fish. The carp made several very powerful runs against a tight clutch, almost straight-rodding me at times, the early part fight was more like that of a catfish but once I had the fish off the gravel bar and into deeper water it became a slower plodding scrap, so typical of a big carp. The fish was pretty much beaten, all I had to do was net it but as it neared my right hand margin disaster struck, the carp made one final run under the branches of the willow tree that flanked my swim and in the darkness I totally misjudged just how much room I had to play with. Once stuck amongst the branches there was no moving it, the fish was still on but I just couldn't shift it at all, I put the waders on and tried reaching it with the net but the water was far too deep, even changing the angle of my pull from the water didn't help and a few moments later I was retrieving a fishless rig from the branches.I was gutted at losing what was obviously a big fish, Kevin obviously sensed the mood as he handed me another can of beer and sheepishly retreated back to his swim without saying a word.

17lb 8oz

The next morning the pain of the loss had eased a little, and I was up soon after dawn to reposition all three rods, moving the middle rod out on to the bar alongside the one I had lost the fish on. By around 7am I was sat back watching the water indulging in the normal early morning kick start of a smoke and a coffee, contemplating whether it would be sausages or bacon for breakfast when I saw a fish roll right over the bar. My gaze was fixed on the rods for a moment and as I sat staring, willing them to go off the tip on the middle rod whacked round, the Delkim started shrieking and a huge bow wave appeared on top of the bar. I stepped down to the rods and hit into the run, immediately stepping back up the bank, keeping the rod held aloft in order to keep the line away from the bar. The fish made a few good runs but it was apparent straight away that it wasn't in the same league as the lost fish from the night before although the fight was made difficult by a large clump of weed that had collected around the top of the leader. Over the last few weeks quite a bit of thin stringy weed had started to grow along the shallower bars and it seemed the line was acting as a scythe, with bits of weed sliding down the line creating a big ball which made it difficult to keep in direct contact with the fish. Despite these problems I was soon landing a long, pretty river-esque common of 19lb 8oz, if my misfortune of the night before wasn't erased by this fish, it certainly was by the next run which occurred just an hour and a half later. The same problems with weed were encountered during the fight making the netting of the fish extremely awkward though after a bit of a struggle under the rod tip I soon had a really lovely looking mirror of 17lb 8oz ensconced in the mesh...result!

More than a little bit of 'Ghostie' in this one

The rest of that day passed without any activity whatsoever, Kevin decided to move swims to the smaller lake just before dark although he didn't move far away enough for his beers to be safe from my attentions so another good social was enjoyed before turning in for the night once more. I was awoken just before first light by a screaming run from what seemed like a very angry carp, unfortunately by the time I had managed to fight my way out of my sleeping bag and get to my rod it became evident that the fish was already the other side of the gravel bar. The line grating on this feature soon did the damage and I was shortly afterwards was retrieving over 100 metres of limp fishless line, its never good to leave a fish trailing tackle but due to the fact that I was fishing a helicopter rig I was confident that it would only be the hooklength that the fish would have to rid itself of.

20lb 8oz

The rest of that day continued with the scores stuck at Me 2, The fish 2, although in the early evening I had yet another chance, landing a small common of 11lb 11oz, despite my poor form with actually managing to convert all of my chances the fish seemed to be getting on the boilies and I was at least getting a few runs. By this point Kevin had decided to head for home, although I had now been joined by two new anglers, both with fresh supplies of beer...yummy! Another good social was had into the hours of darkness with my two new alcohol vendors and at round 11pm, just as I was slipping into my sleeping bag the middle bite alarm once again burst into life. Once again I found myself attached to a powerful, fast moving fish that seemed intent on giving my arms a good workout and after a few more problems in the edge due to the trailing weed I was soon lifting another mirror onto the mat, this time weighing 20lb 8oz. After a few shots of the fish it was returned back wence it came and I returned to what I was doing, catching up on some beauty sleep. I stayed on til around 10am the next morning but after seeing no further signs of fish I made the decision to call it a day and return home, I was due at work the next day and as much as it was enjoyable to be out on the bank reality was beckoning.

Catch up time

2011-06-30T14:29:00.006+01:00

It was only a matter of time but it was bound to happen, its now 6 months after I started this blog and i've started to let things slip...too much fishing and not enough blogging I'm afraid. I have had a few more sessions since my last entry, the first of these was carried out on....yes you've guessed it the big pit, this trip was a fairly short one in that it only lasted one day and a night. I arrived a little later than planned, rolling up along the accessible bank at around 7am I was greeted by the perfect conditions for fish spotting, the whole of the north bay was flat calm and as I stepped out of my car I could see fish showing in front of me straight away. After a short walk along the causeway between the two lakes I had seen a few more fish top and I had also noticed an area of very coloured water across towards the far bank, not only were the carp in residence but some also appeared to be feeding. I continued my walk in the hope that I might find an area with even more fish holed up in but to be in honest I knew where I would be fishing soon after arriving and after doing a few pics of a lumpy 21lb common for the only other angler on the whole lake I set about the task of setting up camp.

Within an hour I had erected my shelter and set up my rods, all three were utilising the favoured snowman rigs with either pink, yellow or orange 12mm pop ups and were fished over a good scattering of 18mm freebies, it was just a matter of time until I caught. A couple of hours after casting out I could see that fish were soon starting to drift back into the swim but despite there being fish feeding in front of me no pick ups occurred and sometime around midday I must have got bored with waiting and dropped of to sleep, the early morning wake up finally catching up with me. My snooze didn't last for too long though and soon I had another alarm call of the best kind as I was woken by the middle rod absolutely ripping off and my bleary eyes were greeted to the sight of bow waves across the shallow bar in front of me as the carp tried to make its escape. A good battle followed with line being taken by the fish on several occasions as it took off on surging runs, these wild uncaught fish certainly put up a battle, but despite its best efforts to evade capture a rather pretty looking 20lb + carp was soon ensconced in my landing net, 1-0 to me. Once a few trophy shots had been taken and a right pearler of a carp weighing 22lb 3oz had been returned I set about doing some feeding myself, unsurprisingly after all the disturbance there were not too many fish showing in front of me now but I was sure they would soon return, in fact on a short wander along the bank later in the afternoon I found some fish clouding the water up just a few swims up from where I was set up.

Nothing more occurred throughout the afternoon and as dusk started to draw in I got the rods back into position for the night ahead and got my head down in readiness for an early morning departure, expecting to be woken by a run at some point through the night but it didn't happen. Dawn broke and all was quiet and despite scanning all the water in front of me I saw very little, the fish had clearly done the off at some point during the hours of darkness and so after a brew and a couple of cigarettes I was on my way home once again.

At least someone is catching

2011-06-03T10:23:00.061+01:00

I have just got home from my latest session on the big pit, as I mentioned towards the end of my last post these low stock waters have a habit of being a bit tricky at times, it really is essential that you find the fish before you start fishing and if you are unable to visually locate the fish you can sometimes end up angling miles from the nearest carp. The start of this session was in a similar vein to the last in that due to strong winds actually finding the fish was nigh on impossible, when I arrived around late afternoon there were waves about 12 inches high across most of the lake and despite spending some time watching the water I soon realised that I was about as likely to see a windsurfer come past as I was to see a carp show itself. After spending around half an hour cowering in the car from the rain I bit the bullet and dropped into the same swim in which I had blanked the week before, the bank there was receiving the full brunt of the strong south westerly wind and with the features already mapped out it was an easy choice, being able to park directly behind that particular swim made it an even more attractive proposition.
In a short space of time I had set up my bivvy and had my three rods set out on the features that I had located the previous week, the two rods at range were surrounded with around a pound and a half of boilies each and the close range rod received a much heavier baiting with a mixture of csl and glm pellets being spodded over the top. Soon I was all settled in, the kettle was on and save for one other angler who was fishing around 400yds along the bank from me, I yet again had the lake to myself. My mate Ian was due to join me soon after first light so within an hour of the daylight disappearing I had tucked myself up in my sleeping bag to once again dream of fish that probably wouldn't ever turn up. At around 6am after hitting the snooze on my alarm at least 3 times I eventually opened my eyes and was greeted by a sight not too unfamiliar to me these days, all the bobbins were exactly how they had been left, clearly the baits had remained unmolested throughout the night once more. Whilst I was laying on my bedchair still half asleep my attention was drawn to a high pitched peep peep peep noise that seemed to be coming from further along margin and before I had the chance to gather my thoughts and consider just what might be responsible I caught sight of the culprit, an otter, as it appeared right in front of me just a rodlength out. Despite feeling honoured to witness what was after all quite a rare animal not so long ago I am also well aware of what happens to fisheries where these not so cute and cuddly critters take up residence, often their arrival spells the end of the viability of fishing on the venue.
Once I had gotten over my dawn visit from Tarka with the customary kick start of caffeine and nicotine I set about recasting and baiting the rods for the day ahead. No sooner had I got the rods sorted and back on their respective spots when Ian appeared bumping his way along the track towards me, a brief council of war was held over a cup of coffee and after telling him of how little that I had seen and of my close encounter he eventually decided to drop into the next opening in the trees along from me. Two of his rods were fished out into the same lake as me whilst his third rod was placed on single sticks behind him fishing into the smaller lake, a move that was to pay dividends later. The daylight hours passed once again without incidence and just before the light started to fade the traps were reset in readiness for the night ahead, within minutes of doing this a bream of 5 or 6lb had hung itself on my margin rod...great.

One slippery customer......with an Eel

I had probably only been asleep for a few minutes when I was woken by the sound of a bite alarm, looking down at my rods revealed that it wasn't one of mine so I slipped into my boots and walked the short distance to the next swim only to find Ian with his back to me playing a fish on the rod that had been placed into the 10 acre lake. As I illuminated the area in front of him with my headtorch I quizzed him as to what he had hooked, a small carp or a tench maybe was the response but I think we were both a little shocked to see an eel of over 3ft long appear in the torchlight. Once a few photos had been fired off I left Ian to deal with the mess and I returned to my bivvy to get my head down, pulling my sleeping bag up over my head determined not to get up again before morning unless I really had to, a ploy that worked as I totally missed the next 3 runs that Ian had.
On waking well after dawn I was greeted by Ian's grinning mug, during the early hours he had taken an upper double common from the main lake and also a pair of tench from the smaller pit, one of around 4lb but also a stonking fish of 9lb 3oz, a fish I would have loved to have witnessed, let alone caught. I was however dismayed to be informed of yet another otter sighting early that morning, the same noise was heard just along from Ian's swim and on him investigating the critter was spotted close in just before it disappeared into the depths, not good at all.

Business as usual

2011-05-31T02:02:00.004+01:00

Since my last blog entry I have fished another session on the big pit, I really should have made the effort to update the blog immedietly after but the enthusiasm to do so isn't quite as great when returning from a less succesful trip. I arrived for my two night session at the crack of dawn taking advantage of 8 hours time off in lieu courtesy of the royal wedding, cheers Kate and Wills! 2 1/2 hours were spent walking the lake looking for signs of fish but due to the brisk south westerly wind and the subsequent ripple on the water not much was visible. By the time it was approaching 7am tiredness was beginning to set in and having very little to go on decided to plump for a swim in he north bay close to where I had seen two carp show early on. The bivvy was quickly erected and having explored the swim with a marker on a previous trip I knew exactly where to position the baits, two rods were fished close in in around 3ft of water where the bottom was predominantly silt and the third rod was fished at around 60yds on top of a shallow plateau in 2ft of water. All three rods were fished over a light scattering of bait, 50 or so boilies were spread around each rod and after a cup of coffee and a couple of cigarettes I decided to hit the sack hoping that before long I would be up and attending to a fish.
By early afternoon I was up and about and after finding the rods to be just how I had left them I set about arranging myself a nice bacon sarnie for 'breakfast', not long after finishing my food I was joined on the bank by my mate Ian and after a good look around he decided to set up camp directly behind me on the 10 acre lake. A decision was made to fish the night where we were and if no signs of fish were forthcoming look at moving elsewhere on the complex for the second night. The rest of the day passed without any indications to the rods whatsoever and just before dusk I decided to have a wander along the pit to look at possible alternative areas for a move to in the morning. A couple of very promising swims were found about 500yds from where we were set up and whilst watching the water a few fish were spotted just out from the near margin, so before returning to my swim I applied a good spread of pellets and boilies around the general area. As I walked back along the track towards my pitch Ian appeared looking a bit sheepish, beckoning me towards him, as I approached he informed me that I now had a rod out of the water and that he had just returned a bream to my swim, rather him than me.

Yet again the night passed with little in the way of activity and after an early morning cup of coffee and a couple of rounds of sausage sandwiches thoughts of a move once more came to the fore. A slow walk along the bank on which we were fishing gave little in the way of encouragment although a chat with the only other angler on the lake who was fishing 800yds or so away revealed that he had lost a good fish during the night. On returning to my swim I informed Ian of the news and we both agreed that a move to the area I had baited the night before was our best option.
Once we had moved all of our tackle to our new swims we set about opening them up a little in order to enable slightly more comfortable casting and landing of any hooked fish. In no time at all we were both donning chest waders and up to our waists in the water cutting and sawing branches from the willows that flanked our chosen plots, creating a much nicer area from which to angle. Two pairs of chesties were soon left drying behind the swim and the marker rod was once again called into action and in short time I had located a gravel bar to the left of the swim at around 85yds out, a hump straight in front around 60 yds out and a firmer area in the silt at about 25yds to my right. After getting the rods out and erecting our bivvies another good social followed on well into the hours of darkness yet depite the effort made in improving our swims dawn once again broke without any indications being recieved on the alarms. Within hours of the arrival of the new day we were both packing away our tackle and once again retreating with our tails wedged firmly between our legs. This water clearly has huge potential both for producing some large, uncaught fish but also for delivering a swift kick in the knackers to anyone who thinks they might finally be coming to terms with the challenge that it presents.

King of the valley

2011-05-14T19:48:00.004+01:00

I have just finished my third and most recent session on the large gravel pit that I recently acquired a ticket for and I think that I may finally be starting to get the hang of this big water carp fishing lark. I met a mate on the bank around 6pm on Sunday and we were immediately greeted by the sight of white horses racing down the pit towards me as a warm south westerly wind hammered into the bank on which I was stood, things looked very promising indeed and it appeared that only one other angler was fishing on the whole 50 odd acres. We parked up at the end of the north bay and went for a walk round to see how the other angler was getting on, arriving in his swim just after he had returned a fish of around 13lb, our hopes were raised momentarily until he informed us that it was his only action since arriving at the lake on Thursday. We briefly considered dropping into the swims either side of him, it did look good in that area but decided that fishing alongside another angler when there were 50 acres of water available just wasn't on. Back at the motors I suggested that we have a look along the causeway that separated the two lakes, stopping for a look half way along it became obvious that the wind was really hacking into this bank turning the water in the margins into a foaming brown mess. Straight away I knew that this was the area that I would be fishing and eventually settled into a swim opposite a huge peninsula that stretched out from the far bank, the fact that I was able to park right behind my swim was a bonus.
First job was to have a few casts with the marker rod and this revealed a large gravel bar running across the lake from the peninsula, this backed up what I had already learned from my prior investigations on google earth. One rod was positioned on top of the bar at around 90 yds range in around 2ft of water and the second was cast a bit shorter where the gravel turned to silt and it dropped off to around 3 1/2ft of depth. A few more casts to my right with the marker setup revealed an area of firmer silt around 30yds out and I soon had my third rod in position for the night. This rod was fished over 4 or 5 pults of 18mm boilies whilst the two rods fished to the bar were bombarded with around a kilo of the same baits courtesy of my brand new throwing stick. Whilst I had been settling into my swim on the big lake my mate had chosen a swim behind me on the 10 acre lake on the other side of the causeway and once we had got our rods sorted and houses erected we set about putting the world to rights over a couple of cold beers, finally turning in at around midnight to dream about the uncaught monsters that the lake might possibly contain.

12lb 14oz

Around 3 hours after I had finally drifted off into a deep sleep I was awoken by a screaming run on the short range rod and before I had time to work out what was going on I found myself stood at the waters edge in my bare feet playing what was to be my first carp from the lake. At a weight of only 12lb 14oz it would barely have raised a smile on any other venue but due to the challenge that this lake represents, the pretty scaley mirror was greatly appreciated and I decided I would sack it up until first light so that I could get some half decent pictures. The rest of that day was spent just chatting and sunbathing, the lake is set in such beautiful surroundings it really is a lovely place to while away the hours just relaxing and watching the wildlife, the fishing is really a bonus. Towards the end of the afternoon my friend decided to call it a day and so having had very little sleep the previous night I thought that 50 winks might be the order of the day, unfortunately 50 winks turned into about 5000 and next thing I knew I was waking up in the dark at approaching 11pm. It was far too late now to reposition and bait up the long range rods accurately so I decided to leave them put and only recast the short range rod, leaving the others until first light.

18lb 10oz

At around 4am the increasing light in the easterly sky and the wind totally dropping off made it possible to get the rigs back out to the spots at range and these were soon surrounded by a fresh spread of 18 millers. For a while I laid on my bedchair listening to the early morning chorus of the cuckoos, watching fish show in the shallow water over the top of bar and sometime after I drifted off into a deep sleep once more only to be rudely awoken by the sound of the delkim on my right hand rod going into meltdown. This fish just didn't want to be landed and made several powerful runs in the shallow water sending up plumes of water before finally succumbing to the pressure and flopping over the cord into the waiting landing net. At 18lb 10oz the fish was more than welcome, to be honest I was well chuffed to have caught my first two fish from the lake but nothing could have prepared me for what was to happen next. After repositioning the rod and firing a few more pults of bait around it I set up the tripod for a few photos of the common before returning quite contentedly to my bed for a couple of hours more kip. I doubt I managed even an hour of sleep as I was soon up and attending to yet another run on one of the rods fished on the bar. This fight was very different to the last, much slower and more determined, it was obvious that a much bigger fish had picked up the bait this time and a long hard fight ensued until finally the carp was approaching the willow tree that flanked the right hand side of my swim, unfortunately it was the wrong side of the tree from me. As I drew the fish towards the sunken branches the line locked up solid, thoughts of donning my waders momentarily flashed through my head but I kept on the pressure, the fish kicked once more and started moving towards me once again and I managed to coax it into the net at the first attempt. My initial estimate of the fish was around the mid 20's mark but on trying to lift the fish onto the mat it seemed to grow, the scales finally settling on 31lb 13oz, a new personal best for me and the biggest fish from the lake so far since it officially opened.

31lb 13oz.....

The next few hours were spent in a bit of a daze wandering up and down the bank behind my swim texting and calling friends to inform them of the result that I'd just had, I was literally floating on air. I had taken on the challenge of the unknown in fishing a water far removed from my normal type of venue and the taste of success was very sweet indeed.

Learning the ropes

2011-05-03T22:15:00.000+01:00

So much water

My second trip to my new lake has just finished and I honestly don't feel any closer to catching my first fish from the venue. My most recent session was just a single night affair and despite my best efforts and a fair bit of walking I'm fairly certain I was set up miles from the nearest carp. On checking the weather reports before leaving home I was dismayed to see that the cold north easterly wind which had been blowing for days looked set to stay with us, however I did have a good idea where the fish would be holed up in these conditions, right on the back of the wind. On arrival my first view of the main lake confirmed that at least four other anglers had had the same idea as me and were set up in the north corner, only one other angler was present on the whole of the 50 acres and they had set up their stall in the middle of one bank of the pit. A quick stroll and chat to the anglers already present revealed that only one small carp had been banked over the last 3 days, not good news at all, if the fish weren't on the back of the wind in these conditions then I really wasn't sure where they would be at all.
On a lake of this size it really is important to find the fish, a few hours in the right spot can be better than several days in the wrong area so I set off on a slow amble along the most accessible bank trying my hardest to keep an eye out for any signs of fish amongst the white horses. Once I had reached a point around two thirds of the way along the lake I sat down in a peg that gave me a good view of the majority of the water however nothing at all showed apart from a few false alarms caused by fleeting glimpses of diving grebes as they disappeared beneath the waves. It definitely felt a few degrees colder at this end of the pit and I just couldn't imagine the fish being there, time was getting on now and I was no closer to finding a place to settle down for the night so retracing my steps I headed back along the twisting path towards the motor heading for a reedy headland on the east bank that seemed to offer a little sheltered water close in.

So what if there are no fish in here!

The area that I had spotted from across the lake did seem to offer a little more protection from the biting north easterly so deciding it was worth a punt I set about making home for the night.
A few casts with the marker rod revealed 3 1/2ft of water a couple of rod lengths off the reeds where the silt seemed quite firm so two rods were positioned, both on snowman rigs one along each margin. The third rod was fished at around 85 yds out where an area of soft silt seemed to meet a slightly firmer bottom, this was fished with a single pop up and as with the other rods was fished over a scattering of 18mm boilies.
Soon the afternoon passed into evening and as the last vestiges of daylight disappeared in the western sky I was treated to the most spectacular sunset, the sky and lake in front of me turned into a stunning mixture of red, pink and purple before darkness finally set in. After that sunset however the rest of the session was a bit of an anticlimax, the night passed without incident and before long the sun was rising behind me and the chilly north easterly wind had once again picked up in strength. I fished on until around midday but to be honest I had worked out that I was on a loser long before then, the only positive I could draw from the session was that I had achieved what most others on the lake had done in a far shorter amount of time, blank number two had been completed.

A new adventure

2011-04-30T17:38:00.003+01:00

All settled in for a couple of nights

I have just completed my first session on my new water and despite not actually banking a fish I have to say that due to the clement weather it was almost pleasurable to blank. I arrived for my first trip feeling pretty knackered fresh from a 12 hour night shift and having been awake for around 20 hours, to be honest all I really wanted was to chuck the rods out and get some kip but I still spent a couple of hours looking before I decided on an area on which to set up in. On leaving work the weather had been fine and clear but as I neared the venue and dropped down into the valley a thick mist descended making fish spotting less than easy affair and after a good look around both lakes with little showing I decided on a point swim that was on the end of the warm north easterly breeze. The area chosen was also was about as far away from the more popular car park swims as you could get and involved a bit of a route march to get to, but with it being bank holiday weekend at least I should get some peace and quiet if nothing else.
Back at the car I set about loading up the barrow with my tackle and enough supplies to last me at least 24 hours, that was my first mistake. The narrow, winding hilly path to my swim hadn't seemed quite so bad when I first walked it but it was an entirely different story with the barrow, still after much huffing and puffing and having to stop and unload and then reload it all again for one particularly steep slope I was eventually back in my chosen swim. A few chucks with the marker rod revealed a gravel bar that ran across in front of the swim around 40-50yds out with about 2 1/2ft of water on top of it that gradually sloped away into 3 1/2ft of depth over silt, that was one rod sorted. Further casts with the marker set up revealed another bar at around 85yds out with similar depths around it, from what I had seen so far this seemed about par for the course depth wise on this lake. I decided to fish the nearest rod over a good spread of bait and so set about spodding a few kilos of particles just off the back of the bar where the gravel turned to silt, this was followed by around a pound of 18mm boilies which were despatched via a catapult. The second and third rods were fished either side of the other bar, this involved me donning my chest waders so that I could reach the distance required without hitting the branches of an overhanging willow. After setting the two longer range rods up on single sticks I was soon back in the drink armed with my catapult and a bag of boilies and within a short space of time had around a kilo of boilies spread over the general area. It was early afternoon by the time I had everything sorted and was happy that everything was set just right. To be honest I was just about ready to drop, I could easily have slept right through until after dark but made sure to set my alarm for around 7.30 to allow time for a recast before darkness fell.
I woke as planned an hour or so before dusk and soon had all three rods re-baited and was sat back soaking in the atmosphere watching occasional fish show over my baited areas when I was joined by another angler who had set up with his two mates just around the corner having had the same idea as me when choosing their swims. A couple of beers were cracked open and soon the last of the daylight had disappeared and the other angler left me to set about preparing some food and catching up on some much needed sleep.

The top bay....there were plenty of fish here

I awoke the next morning to find the wind still blowing in the same direction and after a good breakfast of sausage and bacon sandwiches washed down with a cup of coffee I decided it was about time I found a few fish. The rods were wound in and I took a wander along the lake to a shallow bay around 300yds from where I was set up, a quick climb into the lower branches of a nearby willow tree revealed that quite a few carp were in residence and within a few minutes I had seen fish to around 25lb moving in and out of the shallow water. I baited an area where the depth dropped off but despite returning to check the spot several times throughout the day the fish just didn't seem interested in feeding on the bait at all. Towards the end of the afternoon the wind changed direction, a fairly brisk south westerly started blowing towards the opposite end of the pit and thoughts of a possible move entered my head, I hadn't seen a fish show in front of me for some time now. After a good walk down to the area that the new wind was blowing into I was all but sold on making the long trek down the lake with my gear, however on returning to my swim I was greeted by the sight of a carp jumping, and it seemed to be heading in the opposite direction to which the wind was blowing. Over the next half an hour several more fish rolled in front of me and they all appeared to be travelling against rather than with the wind, so the decision was made to spend my second and final night in the same swim. The spots were topped up with a few more boilies before I settled down for the night, feeling reasonably confident that it wouldn't be too long before I was up and attending to a run.

It wasn't to be however and some hours later after opening my eyes and noticing the rods were exactly how I had left them and that familiar feeling was back with me once again. I fished on into the afternoon without any indications on the rods whatsoever although the occasional fish was still showing over my baited patches and I had all but given up hope when I received a couple of beeps on one of the rods fished at range. As I walked down to the rods the couple of bleeps soon developed into a full blooded run and I was at long last attached to what felt like a fairly decent fish. It wasn't to last long though and after being in contact for around 30 seconds the fish started to kite to my right towards a tree, immediately I applied some side strain and the line locked up on something momentarily before the fish was gone. On retrieving the rig it became apparent that an inch of the fluorocarbon hooklength was missing, the fish had sheared it on a bar the very second I had lowered my rod to change the angle of the pull.

Soon after I conceded defeat, my first session was over and I was trudging back towards the car with a now somewhat lighter barrow. Despite blanking lessons had been learnt, the fish in this lake clearly had lots of natural food on which to feed so really didn't need anglers baits, perhaps a lighter baiting approach would be the way to go, just trying to pick up one fish at a time, either way I had plenty of stuff to think about between now and my next session.

The GUC finally comes good

2011-04-24T11:37:00.005+01:00

I've had a couple more sessions on the canal since I last posted, the first of which was on the spot I fished a lot last spring. As has become the norm recently I blanked yet again, for carp anyway, the only activity throughout the 6 hour session was caused by a 4 1/2lb bream which decided to nail itself on my chod rig at some ungodly hour. The second session which took place on another stretch of canal was somewhat more interesting, I actually caught a carp! I arrived at the venue just before dusk and as is normal for me it was a mad rush to get the rods out and everything sorted before darkness descended, however this is a skill I have honed over the years due to many short notice sessions and my propensity to leave things to the last minute.
Soon enough I was settled under my brolly nurturing a brew and a smoke just as darkness closed in around me, expecting yet another blank few hours rather than being full of hope. Rig arrangements for this session involved the ever faithful chod set up on one rod and a pop up and bottom bait fished snowman style on the other, both were once again fished over a light scattering of boilies and this time I also added a few csl pellets to the swims. I must have dozed off at some point but at around 02.30 hrs I was woken with a start by the sound of a large splash not far from where one of my rods was positioned, I continued to doze on my bedchair for a few minutes but another show, this time much closer to me soon had me up and watching the water intently. I lit a cigarette and sat perched on my bed smoking just willing my right hand rod to go and before I had even finished my smoke the right hand delkim bleeped a couple of times, the rod tip arced round, the line was pulled from the clip and the baitrunner went into oblivion. The fish fought well making several surging runs but my 9ft stalker soon had the better of it and the carp was soon circling in front of me almost ready for netting, a few more short runs and I lifted the mesh around what looked like a decent fish.

All that hard work is repaid...

I left the fish in the net whilst I got everything ready, my scales and forceps were retrieved from my bag and the sling and mat were doused in water. On trying to lift the fish out onto the mat it was immediately apparent that this was a very good fish, certainly 20lb+, and I noticed as is usually the case with the chod rig that the fish was hooked well in the bottom lip, that one definitely wasn't coming off. Up on the scales it went right past 20lb and 25lb until they settled on 27.1, a good fish from any venue but a right result from the canal, especially as its been such a grueller for me this spring.
As is typical for me just as I join another water and am about to give up on it, the canal finally comes good and produces a fish that makes me think twice about moving on. Next session..... who knows where?

A change of scenery

2011-04-18T23:46:00.115+01:00

Looking down into the N/E bay

Due to the extremely slow start to this springs canal campaign I have decided that I really should look at forming some sort of a contingency plan so when I heard that there were some tickets available on a couple of lakes that had just opened around 25 miles from my home I decided that it just had to be worth a look. After a brief trawl of the internet I managed to find not only some quite interesting information on the lakes but also a contact number for the bloke who owned the fishing rights so a phone call was made to check the availability of tickets and to arrange a visit to the water for a recce trip.
The two lakes available on the ticket are mature, well established gravel pits of 10 & 50 acres respectively that were dug around 60 years ago to provide gravel for the construction of the M1 and although both pits have been fished lightly for carp there hadn't really been any organised angling on the lakes at all. From my homework it seems that the lakes haven't ever been officially stocked as such but rather have seen many carp find there own way in when the nearby river and in turn countless other gravel pits along the valley have flooded into them. Further digging on the old www revealed that not only had the lakes produced some nice looking fish, certainly up to mid 30's but that one of the lakes at least seemed to hold a reasonable head of fish in the low 20's. Next port of call was the customary search for the venue on google earth and on looking in the rough area I found literally hundreds of pits stretching all along the valley for miles in either direction, a quick check back on the web to confirm which were the correct lakes and I found myself looking at a very interesting large pit with lots of bays and plenty of bars visible, I think I had just found myself a new water.

Some of the bars are clearly visible

Two days later I found myself driving along a gravelly track surrounded by lakes trying hard to work out exactly which lake it was that fishing was available on, after driving some distance and reversing and turning round a few times I finally found myself on the north bank of the smaller of the two lakes. A quick circuit of the small lake revealed that it seemed to be fairly clear, of a good depth and if the shallower areas were anything to go by held a fair bit of weed, it looked good, very good. As I was walking around the final bank of the smaller pit my attention was grabbed by a huge expanse of water stretching out in front of me, there were reed lined margins, overhanging trees, bays and points, a few bars and plateaus seemed to be visible and in contrast to the first lake the water seemed to be a lot shallower and more coloured, it just screamed carp. I spent the next couple of hours exploring the main lake, it looked a truly beautiful almost untouched venue, extremely rich in fauna and flora, and as I explored I was constantly removing mayflies and countless other bugs from my clothing, it really did look perfect. I even managed to find a few fish up to around the 25lb mark and had decided long before I had finished my walk that I would be doing all that I could to get a ticket for these waters.

I bumped into the bloke who controls the fishing on there as I returned to the car and he confirmed that there were tickets still available so after returning home and speaking to a couple of mates three cheques were soon despatched, I can't wait to get up there and start unlocking some of the secrets that these lakes undoubtedly contain.

GRAND?? Union Canal

2011-04-14T17:12:00.005+01:00

A further two sessions have taken place over the last week or so, once again I have to report that both were blanks. The first of these was completed on the stretch which produced most of my canal carp last season, despite landing a good number of 20lb+ fish then, this year the whole area seems totally devoid of carp, despite me applying bait to it regularly. Maybe its not just my incompetence that is to blame as I have received a few worrying reports of large numbers of carp fatalities in this area around spawning time last year, the original fish that still exist are knocking on a bit being around 40 years old so its possible that some of them may not have survived the rigours of their last spawning. In fact due to the total lack of any definitive signs of carp I have become slightly worried that the uneaten pre bait may actually have started to rot on the bottom, thereby spoiling the spots, so I have recently been feeding a good amount of pigeon conditioner in the hope that at least the bream should keep the baited area clean. Yet again the only indication received during the 6 hour session was from a 4lb bream that somehow managed to wedge the 18mm snowman and size 6 hook into its mouth at some point during the early hours of the morning, and no other signs were seen at all.

Home for the night

The second of my two trips took place once again on the barren stretch, a piece of canal that I have always struggled to catch from but one that I keep on coming back to due to its track record for producing one particularly large fish that seems to always be resident in that general area. The night once again passed without any indications on the rods whatsoever, the only occurrence was a piss head passing by during the small hours, shouting and screaming at the top of his voice seemingly at no one at all, at least someone was having a good time. All too soon the first fingers of dawn were raking across the eastern horizon and that all too familiar feeling that one receives when realising yet another blank night has passed were returning. I decided to stay on in the hope of a rare daylight run but as expected it wasn't to be although I did have a very interesting conversation with the owner of a narrow boat that was moored just around the corner from where I was fishing. The gentleman in question turned out to be none other than a certain Bill Ward, vice president of the Carp Society, how typical that during my attempts to do my own thing and get away from the mainstream carp scene by fishing venues off the beaten track that I set up next to his boat. If you are reading this Bill I hope your trip is going well and that you have had more luck with the carp of the Grand Union Canal than I have of late.

First blood on the Grand Union

2011-04-01T21:36:00.002+01:00

I have managed to squeeze in a couple more quick overnighters on the canal over the last week, my thinking was that its long overdue that I got myself amongst the GUC carp, I don't think I have ever left catching my first canal fish so late in the spring as I have done this season. The first trip took place in an area that produced some good fish for me last spring, a spot I had expected to produce the goods again this year that has so far flattered to deceive, despite me applying a few boilies to it over a number of weeks. Baits and rigs were once again the same homemade 18mm corkball pops mounted on a choddy fished over a scattering of just 10 freebies, the total lack of any signs of fish made me keep the free bait to a minimum.
The session once again passed without much activity although a good fish either a pike or a carp did roll close to my baits soon after dusk. There was a brief moment of excitement at around 0300 hours when I received a dropback on my left hand rod but on tightening into what was clearly a fish of somekind very little resistance was encountered and soon a very sorry looking bream of around 3 1/2lb was skimming back towards me. The fish was nailed in the bottom lip, at least it seems something was eating the bait and the rigs seemed to be working ok, just a shame it wasn't my target species.

Finally I'm off the mark

The second session took place on another part of the canal that I have also been applying bait to, this stretch is a particularly barren looking piece of water that has very few visible features other than a few very sparse reedbeds, it doesn't look the sort of place to hold carp at all but I know for a fact that the stretch has produced fish to well over 30lb in past years. My rigs and bait were the same as on the previous session, again the free bait was kept to a minimum to hopefully keep the odds of my hookbait being picked up in my favour. At around 2330 the left-hand rod which was fished close to the near margin absolutely melted off, the bite alarm giving off a continuous one toner, and for a moment thoughts of a possible 30lb+ canal carp filled my head. However on picking up the rod it soon became clear that despite it being certain that a carp was the culprit, it wasn't a particularly large fish that was responsible and a low double common was soon nestling in the bottom of my landing net. No further indications were received throughout the hours of darkness and I was soon being woken by an alarm of the wrong kind as my mobile heralded the fact that it was time to get up. Soon the kettle was on the boil and I was enjoying the necessary wake up hit of caffeine and nicotine, and it was whilst perched on my bedchair watching the water that my attention was drawn to a disturbance in the reeds along from where I was fishing. Another two shows, each gradually closer to my fishing position had me recounting the tale of a friends capture of a 36lb mirror from the very same stretch that occurred after casting to a fish showing under similar circumstances. I didn't need to wait for another sign and within minutes I had cast a chod rig tight to the reeds 15ft back from the last show, ready to ambush the unsuspecting culprit. It didn't take more than 5 minutes before a steady take was received on the repositioned rod, momentarily at least my hopes were raised once more however far from it being the monster carp I had hoped for a modest tench of 3lb turned out to be the cause of the excitement. Still I was now finally off the mark, a few fish seem to be moving and feeding, even if they are mostly tench, bream, and smaller carp.

First one off the top

2011-03-26T22:05:00.004Z

A pair of floater feeding mirrors

The last few days has seen a real change in the weather conditions, there has been an huge increase in the amount of sunshine and with it has come a big jump in the daytime temperatures, frogs are spawning and the fish are now well awake... it must be time for some floater fishing. And so it was that this afternoon I found myself on the banks of a small club water not far from home donning a pair of polaroids, armed with a bag of chum mixers, one of my new stalker rods and a landing net trying to temp myself an early season floater caught cyprinus.

After spending an hour or so walking around the lake I found a single fish, a pretty mirror estimated to be an upper double, mooching in some scum in one corner of the lake and after despatching a pult full of mixers upwind I sat back and waited for them to drift into position amongst the debris. The fish was initially slow to respond but after consuming the first mixer it soon started clumsily picking off the free offerings, as well as a fair few floating leaves which were swiftly ejected. After a short while the mirror was joined by a pair of similar sized commons which were soon slurping down the freebies, a few more mixers were fired out as I set about rigging up my rod with a size 10 hook which was baited with a whittled down pop up. The first chance came after about 10 minutes and a swift strike was followed by the bait flying straight out of the fishes mouth and past my ear... it wasn't just the carp that were a bit rusty at this floater malarky. With some careful baiting I soon had the three carp taking confidently once more and when the second chance came there were no mistakes, after a short but spirited battle I soon had a lumpy common of just over 16lb nestling in the landing net.

16lb 2oz

The disturbance of landing that fish pretty much destroyed the swim so after a couple of quick photos the carp was returned and I continued around the lake in the hope that I could find a few more fish that might be up for it. On my second circuit I spotted some movement in another bay and after some nifty work with the catapult I soon had another half a dozen mixers floating their way towards what looked like another mid double carp. Twenty minutes of pinging the floaters out one at a time and the carp was taking them pac-man style, it looked a forgone conclusion but it wasn't to be. Within seconds of the hookbait touching down it was greedily engulfed, a huge boil appearing on the surface as the fish dived towards some nearby reeds, but despite managing to stop the initial run the fish came adrift soon after.

The light was fading fast now so I decided to quit whilst it was one-all, all in all an enjoyable few hours was had, hopefully the first of many surface fishing opportunities this season.

Spring is in the air

2011-03-23T23:47:00.003Z

The day ticket water

Since the rivers closed on the 14th of March I've struggled to find any real enthusiasm for fishing at all, I much prefer fishing on character filled running water venues as opposed to concrete banked canals or man made lakes, some of which are little more than glorified holes in the ground. Despite this I have continued to keep a bit of bait going into a couple of likely areas on the Grand Union and will I'm sure eventually reap the rewards from my groundwork, daylight hours are increasing all the time and with the carp likely to be waking up from their winter slumbers and packing on weight in readiness for their annual spawning my pre-baited spots surely can't go untouched for ever.

I decided yesterday that I really should make the effort to get out and put a bend into the new stalker rods I had recently purchased and still not confident of accomplishing this on the canal just yet I headed of to a day ticket carp water about 45 minutes drive from my home. I arrived at the venue just after lunch and walked a full lap of the lake in search of signs of fish, taking time to chat to each of the 5 other anglers present, none of whom had caught despite all fishing since early morning. A few areas of coloured water were identified towards the top end of the fishery, possible signs that carp were present and feeding, so I baited these spots with a small helping of pellets and broken boilies and continued my circuit around the lake to get my tackle from the car. Despite finding signs of fish feeding at the opposite end of the lake my attention had also been drawn to a swim opposite an island that afforded access to a shallow plateau that was now receiving the full benefit of the warm sunshine so thought I may as well give this swim an hour or so first. One rod sporting a home made 12mm cranberry pop up was cast to the right hand side of the shallow area and before I even had a chance to sort out the second rod I was away, a run within 3 minutes of casting out. After a spirited but strange fight on my new 9ft rod I had a pretty mid double common in the net, drawing several glaring looks from the other anglers across the lake, not a bad start at all. I fished on for another hour in that first swim without any more indications and soon the thought of those feeding fish at the other end of the lake had me gathering my tackle together for a move. What followed was a frustrating few hours trying to get a bite on float tackle from one of a number of carp present in the shallow swim, those fish were however it seems busy feeding on naturals, possibly bloodworm and proved impossible to tempt.

A good start

For the last hour of the session I moved swims once more and reverted back to the pop ups and running rigs, managing to snare one more common of around 15lb just before dusk. In the end my fish were the only two captures on the lake all day and perhaps I would have had more if I had ignored those fish which were obviously preoccupied feeding on an already available food source, however its hard to ignore a swim which is blatantly full of carp churning the bottom up in a feeding frenzy.

One last cast

2011-03-15T02:29:00.000Z

Today was the last day of the coarse river fishing season, any angling exploits that I indulge in over the next three months will have to take place on stillwaters so I decided that for one final time I would attempt to bag myself a barbel. The chosen venue for today's session was another stretch of the middle Great Ouse, a bit of river that I know very well having fished it on and off for quite a few years now, though its sadly one that I shall not fish too much in the future due to an apparent collapse in its barbel population. Once again I was setting up in bright sunlight which although pleasant was a long long way from perfect for fishing, still it was my last chance at catching a barbel for a few months so I couldn't really afford to be picky.

Last chance saloon

I started off by feeding four different swims, applying just half a dozen pea-sized bits of paste into each of them before returning back to my gear to start fishing. Due to the tap clear water I set up a two foot hooklength of 8lb fluorocarbon with a size 12 hook on which I hair rigged half a boilie wrapped in paste, free bait was a small bag of boilie crumb along with an occasional hand fed lump of paste. Throughout the afternoon I roved between the swims I had baited without so much as a rattle registering on the tip but as soon as the light values started to decrease signs of action started to appear with the first chub being landed just as it got dark. Another chub was landed from the same swim before things quitened down again and whilst sat watching a motionless isotope I noticed a ripple appearing from upstream, holding my rod expecting a near miss with a duck I was somewhat startled to see a huge swirl as an otter caught sight of me at the last moment and dived down into the depths, probably part of the reason for the fall in barbel numbers.
After moving swims for one final time I was soon settled in and getting taps on the tip once more before the rod wrenched right round and another chub was hooked. One final fish was landed before I decided to call time on the season, this one the best of the session probably nudging 5lb. So no barbel were encountered, on recent form not a major surprise really but the four chub between 4 and 5 pounds were a worthwhile distraction whilst I was hoping for the unlikely to happen.

A missed opportunity

2011-03-13T23:32:00.005Z

So here we are, the penultimate day of the river fishing season and I am at a total loss as to what species I should target this afternoon, should I dust off the lure gear for a final attempt at catching a specimen perch or continue with the recent theme of chub bashing? The weather forecast for the afternoon suggested bright sunshine which combined with the current crystal clear water would suggest the perch would be unlikely to feed until late on, equally the chub fishing would probably be slow until the sun dropped too. After a little deliberation I was soon removing a bag of liquidised bread from the freezer and putting a few bits and pieces into my tackle bag, chub it would be then. Next decision to make was which venue should I target? I eventually decided to head towards a bit of the Ouse that I was yet to fish this year, one that I hoped may provide the chance of a bigger than average fish or two, assuming that there were swims available that is.

If you're going to beg at least entertain me

As expected the swims in the favoured area in the middle of the length were all occupied by other anglers, only one of whom had actually caught, so I walked right to the far end and settled into a swim that looked reasonably appealing. On the far bank were three rafts of flood debris that had caught on overhanging bushes roughly 15yds apart so I balled in a couple of handfuls of bait just upstream of each of them and casually set about tackling up allowing the pre bait to hopefully do its work. Three casts and around 45 minutes later I had received no indications at all so the process was repeated with the next two features, the end result being the same, not so much as a sniff. The light levels were beginning to fall now so I decided on a move, hoping that one of the swims that I had passed earlier might be available, so gathering all of my tackle I headed back in the direction I had come from.

Great Ouse Chub 5lb 10oz

Soon after I was ensconced in a more favourable pitch and was trying to keep one eye on my quivertip and one on the enormous cob swan that was trying its best to get at my bread. On my second cast and whilst momentarily distracted by the swans antics I received a wrap round bite which I just managed to hit before the rod left the rest. I was briefly in contact with what felt like a very decent chub that ran downstream at some pace before the hook pulled... damn swan! Pretty gutted, running out of daylight and wondering if I might get another chance I threw in a couple more balls of free bait and moved downstream to the next swim, kicking myself for losing what was obviously a good fish. No indications were received on the initial cast but after swinging it out once more with the light now fading rapidly my attention was grabbed by a small pluck on the tip which was followed by a solid pull round, there would be no mistakes this time. After a good scrap with the fish doing all it could to tie me up in the snags opposite I at last had a chub in the net, a thickset clean looking fish of 5lb 10oz not a bad consolation prize at all.

Blank Tramp?

2011-03-08T19:17:00.002Z

Under that far bank cover live chub and barbel of monstrous proportions

For the third successive day I managed to get out and spend a few hours fishing on running water continuing with my idea that I should make the most of the last few days of the season. The venue I had chosen on this occasion was the very same stretch of the middle Great Ouse that I had attempted to tackle just two days earlier when I was stopped in my tracks by the high water conditions. This length of the Great Ouse can be somewhat challenging to say the least, any fish caught here are to be looked upon as a result but the rewards are definately there, chub to nearly 8lb and barbel to over 18lb have been caught in the past. Weather conditions suggested that it would probably be the former species which would be most likely to feed however I decided to hedge my bets a little in fishing a fluorocarbon hooklength of 8lb attached to which was a size 12 Kamasan Barbel Max hook. For bait I was using half a boilie wrapped in a generous helping of paste made from the same ingredients, this was fished without any free bait at all apart from a small mesh pva bag containing some crumbled boilie. The chosen swim for this session was at a point where the river narrowed up slightly, opposite me was a row of continuous snags that covered over 200yds of the far bank stretching out up to 20ft into the river, it just screamed fish.
By 1445 I had cast my rod downstream tight to the overhanging branches and was sat back relaxing in the late winter sunshine, I wasn't expecting any action until the light levels had decreased a bit but it was pleasant just to be out absorbing what little heat the sun was affording. Dusk came and went without any movement on the tip at all and as it started to get dark the temperature continued to plummet to the point where at 2015 I was starting to loose all sensation in my toes and decided to call it a day, those big chub and barbel will have to wait until next season. On arrival back at the car the temperature guage read 1c, as much as I'll miss my river fishing when the season finally comes to an end I at least know that it means winter will nearly be over and spring is on its way.

Stick or twist?

2011-03-07T00:34:00.003Z

The Upper Ouse tributary

I was hardly flushed with success after yesterdays chub excursion on the River Ouzel but thought that I really should make an effort to get out on the rivers again before the season ends in just a weeks time from now, this time the venue would be the upper Ouse tributary. I met my dad around lunchtime and was pleased that for the first time in weeks the water conditions looked spot on, maybe 8 inches up with a nice grey tinge and a bit of extra flow, it looked perfect. Tatics for the day would once again be my favoured quivertipped cage feeder with liqiudised bread and flake on the hook although I had decided to add some garlic powder to my free bait, the idea being that it would provide some extra pulling power. Despite the fact that there was plenty of sunshine it was a bitterly cold afternoon with the air temperature hovering around 5c, however the biting northerly wind made it feel far colder. After trying 3 or 4 swims without response I started to realise that we might struggle today, in fact the only tentative bite that I did have resulted in me retrieving a hookless rig...possibly caused by a chub taking the bait back to its pharyngeal teeth. I set up again with a shortened trace in the hope that it would help magnify any further bites but it wasn't until the light levels had dropped around 4.30pm that I had another chance, the small chub of around 2lb was a blank saver if nothing else. Within minutes of returning the fish I received a call from my dad to report his first chub, a better fish of around 4lb, maybe they were switching on? It wasn't to be however and despite trying 8 or more different swims no further bites materialised for either of us. Its hard to know if the bright sunlight was the reason for the slow fishing or if the garlic powder I had added to my bait had a detrimental effect, my dad had fished with plain bread and also struggled although he did point out that he thought he could smell garlic way downstream where he was fishing and that I may have polluted the whole stretch. The moral of the story is if it ain't broken don't break it!

I Lovat when a plan comes together

2011-03-05T20:49:00.014Z

With the end of the river fishing season fast approaching I thought that today would be the perfect opportunity to try for a specimen chub from the Great Ouse. There is one particular stretch of this river in the middle reaches that I know very well which has produced numerous fish over 6lb for me, although far from prolific in numbers the average size of the fish on this venue is very good. I was full of confidence as I loaded up the motor and was already planning which swims I would bait but as is usual for me things didn't quite work out. As I stood on the bridge overlooking the river I could see that it was probably 2 1/2ft above its normal height, fairly coloured and pushing through hard.....time for plan B.

River Ouzel Chub

Back at the car I weighed up my options, I really didn't feel too confident given the conditions so decided to head back towards home and fish the River Ouzel which I was sure would have less water in. The Ouzel or Lovat as its also known is a Great Ouse tributary which rises from chalk springs in the chiltern hills near Whipsnade, because of this the river swells quickly after rain but it also seems to drop equally rapidly. I was pleased to see straight away that the conditions here looked far more promising so I started a leisurely amble upstream towards the top of the length baiting swims as I went. After about a mile and a half of walking I had primed around 15 or so raft swims each with two walnut sized balls of liquidised bread and was ready to start fishing. A good fish from the first cast gave the impression it would be easy but in reality it was a bit of a struggle, however I still ended up with 4 chub between 3lb and 4lb and 1 small roach, still not a bad return for 3 1/2 hours wandering. This was further backed up when talking to another angler fishing in the first swim I had baited who had fished for 3 hours without a single touch.

Glutton for punishment

2011-02-25T22:07:00.003Z

Far from ideal for chub

After my previous comments about the river conditions not being suitable for chub you would of thought I would have known better... However just a few hours after arriving home from the canal I was loading the car once again and heading off to meet my dad on the Upper Ouse tributary. On arrival we were greeted by a river that was both swollen and carrying a lot of colour, it didn't look good. First cast I had a chub around 4lb and soon after a shout and a raised hand from across the field signalled that it was one-all, things were looking up. Despite the early positive signs we both tried a number of swims over the next 2 1/2 hours without any further luck, the onset of a rain shower was all the encouragement that was needed to call it a day. On passing close to the Great Ouse itself on the way home I noticed the levels were far lower and that it was much less coloured, it would have been rude not to have a quick dangle. No more chub were caught but 6 good roach from 8oz to just under a pound in weight graced my net along with one herring sized dace of 9oz, well worth stopping for.

Seconds away round 2

2011-02-25T13:26:00.002Z

The Grand Union in winter....not too appealing

It has done nothing but rain since my last post and as much as I would have loved another trip out on the river after chub I really don't think conditions would have been suitable at all so its back for another quick fire session on the GUC. I've been back to the canal a couple of times to bait up since my last trip and although I'm not feeling that confident that the carp are feeding properly yet i know that with daylight hours increasing it is only a matter of time. On retrieving my rigs at the end of my first trip I noticed there was a lot of crap on and around my end tackle, bits of dead weed, leaves, carrier bags and other rubbish build up on the bottom of the canal over winter due to the lack of boat traffic so I have decided in order to combat this a change in my presentation is what is required. For this trip I decided to set up both rods on chod rigs with 18mm corkball pop ups, the beauty of the choddy is that it will fish effectively over any bottom and it also provides superb hooking potential when fished over a light scattering of bait. The rig is set up using a rigid short hooklength, which is set with a curve in it so it acts as a continuation of the hook shank. The bait is then fished popped up above the leadcore leader, any carp that mouths the bait finds the setup hard to eject and once the leader is tensioned there is no escape. I fully intend to return to my favoured snowman rigs eventually once the carp have started moving and have cleaned the baited areas off a little.
By around 15 minutes to midnight I had two rods out on their respective spots surrounded by a handfull of chopped and whole boilies, the traps were set and the kettle was on for the first brew. Yet again the night passed without any activity whatsoever and by 8am I was beaten once more and trudging back along the towpath towards the car. As disconcerting as it was to notch up another blank I have to remind myself that its still only February and that I didn't catch my first carp from the canal until late March last season.

First fish of 2011

2011-02-19T20:54:00.002Z

Not a monster but at least I'm off the mark

Not content with my early morning blank I decided that I really should make an effort to catch my first fish of 2011, so with just a few hours of daylight left I headed off towards my local River Ouzel in hope of a chub or two. However on arrival the river was at least two feet up with a colour similar to chocolate, far from ideal for chub, so I took a gamble and drove to another Great Ouse tributary further upstream. Despite being 1 1/2 foot up this river wasn't quite so coloured, still far from perfect but over the next few hours 5 chub to around 4 1/2lb fell to my breadflake and liquidised bread fished in a cage feeder. A quite enjoyable afternoon and despite none of them being monsters it was just nice to catch a few fish at last.

Back on the road again

2011-02-19T19:18:00.002Z

Finally I'm ready to go fishing, if nothing else goes wrong that is. So I have a new set of wheels and a slightly depleted bank balance, but my freezer is full of boilies and I'm chomping at the bit, those Grand Union Canal carp ain't gonna know what's hit them.... possibly! I'll be starting off by fishing with reasonably small boilies of 18mm in size but intend to increase these to 24mm as the water temperature rises, in an attempt to deter the tench and bream that also reside in the stretch I will be fishing. As far as my terminal set up goes I will be using a 3ft length of leadcore leader on which I shall hang a semi fixed lead of around 2oz which will be mounted on a safety lead clip. The leader will hopefully fulfill two purposes, firstly it should help to pin down and conceal the line around the rig and will also give an added degree of abrasion resistance should I hook a fish, there are a lot of unseen snags littering the bottom of the canal that can make landing fish difficult. The safety lead clip should also help to maximize the number of fish landed, if these clips are set up correctly the lead will be ejected on the take causing the fish the rise up in the water away from potential obstructions on the bottom.
The business end of my tackle will consist of a tried and tested snowman rig fished blowback style with a sliding ring on a longshank hook. This arrangement makes sure that the hook always enters the carps mouth facing in the correct direction, ready to catch in the fishes bottom lip and will also allow good separation of bait and hook if the carp tries to reject the hookbait, allowing it to drop down and hopefully catch hold before it is ejected.

And to think I had been looking forward to this....

My first session was a short early morning affair, I arrived at around 04.45 with the air temperature reading 2c and with steady rain falling, I was intending to fish until either the first boat came through or I got too cold, whichever came first. By 05.10 I was sat cowering under my brolly with the obligatory first cup of coffee and cigarette, hoping for rather than expecting action.
To be honest it was probably not the best time to fish this early in the year but with my chosen stretch being in an urban area, it is by far the best time of day to fish without attracting unwanted attention, from either other anglers or the local 'wildlife'.
Anyway excuses over, I ended up fishing for 5 hours and got my first blank session under my belt, hopefully not the first of many.

The no fishing fishing blog

2011-02-11T01:28:00.000Z

The old clay pit

I might have known something like this would happen. I have finally started a fishing blog, yet here we are on the 10th February and I still haven't angled yet this year, everything seems to be conspiring against me actually getting out on the bank. After the freezing start to the new year, and me then suffering with a cold the next snag I hit involved me writing my car off, this is turning into some fishing diary!
Despite all the setbacks, and now being without a car I have managed to keep a bit of bait going into the canal, luckily its not too far from home and I have been cycling down there a couple of times a week for a mooch around and to spread some boilies about. If nothing else the carp should be well on the bait by the time I actually get to fish for them.
I also met up with a couple of the bailiffs on a local pit last week for an early morning tour of the venue. Although this involved me waking before first light on a frosty Saturday morning and cycling a fair distance it was well worth it and I'm glad I made the effort. The two blokes I met couldn't have been more helpful and many features were pointed out to me as well as swim depths, along with some history regarding previous captures. The lake holds some lovely old fish up to upper 30's, real history fish, the originals that remain were stocked in the early 1960's so are approaching 50 years old. Whether I fish the lake this season or not remains to be seen but the information obtained has been logged and will at some time be of use to me I'm sure.
Next post... Stewart goes fishing...maybe!

Preparations are under way

2011-01-15T23:04:00.001Z

It's now 15th January and I still haven't wet a line yet this year, that's 1/24th of the year gone already!! The first week of 2011 saw most stillwaters in my locality frozen solid, whilst the rivers were a mixture of snow melt and road salt, hardly conducive to successful fishing. This last few days has also seen me suffering with a cold, further hampering any fishing plans for this week.
Despite my excuses I have managed to get down to the canal for a look-see a few times and have started applying a small amount of pre bait to my chosen spots.

My little red rascals

To start off with I'm applying my chosen bait in the form of a paste, the reason for this is I want the bait to breakdown quickly thereby reducing any chance of bait going uneaten and rotting on the bottom. Once I'm confident that carp are visiting my baited areas I shall start introducing the same bait but in the form of a boilie. The bait itself is one I have formulated myself and contains a blend of fishmeals, milk proteins and birdfoods along with a couple of amino rich liquid additives. I have used this bait in one form or another for the last couple of seasons and it seems to work well both in terms of its initial attraction properties and as a long term food source.
On my most recent recce trip I saw the first sign of life since the big thaw, it may even have been a carp. I was stood watching the water close to one of my baited swims when I observed a large swirl on the surface, followed by another similar movement further along the cut. These movements may well have been pike attacking small fish, but if not the only other fish they could possibly have been were carp.

Welcome to my blog

2011-01-01T23:45:00.004Z

After many years of saying to myself that I should start a fishing diary it looks like it may finally be happening, well I'm starting it at least! Although I have made rough plans for my fishing during 2011 these remain very fluid and may well change as the year moves on. I will start off by targeting the usual winter species, maybe some lure fishing for Pike, Chub and Perch, some Chub fishing on my local rivers if its cold and hopefully if conditions allow I will have a go for Barbel before the river season ends.
As soon as spring starts to kick in I hope to target the Carp on my local canal, the ultimate aim being a 30lb+ fish. I managed to up my canal personal best to 28lb 5oz last season but I'm sure there are bigger fish to be caught. My preparations for my annual spring canal campaign have already started with around 10kg of boilies already rolled, ready to start being introduced as pre bait once the ice clears.

The Great Ouse 'above bedford'

Come summer time ill be looking at a few local lakes that I have already earmarked in hope of a true English 30lb+ Carp or maybe if we get the long hot summer we've been forecast ill return to my quest for a fish of similar proportions from the river. Prior to the summer floods of 2007 I'd had some good results but since then I have struggled to locate many fish at all, I'd like to think some of those fish are still around, there used to be some pukka olde English Leney strain Carp residing in there.
Once we move into autumn and the start of winter I will hopefully be re-aquainting myself with some of the remaining Barbel in a river not far from me. The stocks of Barbel have suffered somewhat in recent years, a combination of poor fry recruitment and predation from otters although there are still some big fish to be caught for those willing to put the work in.
These plans however remain very loose and as is usual my actual fishing may bear very little resemblance to the plans that I make at the start of the year.