As I said in my last missive fishing is now off my agenda for a while – hopefully make it back in August sometime… main date for me is 1st October when my fishing until 31st March turns to being 95+% pike orientated.

Also one of my clubs has acquired two new pools which I hope to be able to fish in the near future so August would be good in that respect.

So, I’ll be away due to having an operation to reverse the ileostomy I was given in Sept 2019.

I had my pre-op yesterday (29/6) and will be having CV-19 swabs and CV-19 antibody blood sample taken on Sat (4/7), and the operation itself on Tues (7/7).

At least it’ll give me chance to catch up on the exploits of others on here!!

In the last couple of days one of my two hearing aids packed in which made the pre-op difficult with the nurse filling in the questionnaire getting quite frustrated at time – but not easy listening when the speaker is sat 2+ metres away wearing a mouth/nose mask AND full face shield and half your hearing is taken away – also hospital rooms are quite echo ridden at the best of time I find. Usually Liz sits in with me and helps but due to the current restrictions that isn’t possible at this time. Probably take pencil&pad to allow conversation via those but not sure about restrictions that may affect multiple handlers?? Saw my audiologist about broken aid yesterday – would need sending to workshop for repair which would take a few weeks possibly and no ‘loaners’ available. However, according to his notes, I am due to receive new aids in a few weeks time anyway it seems, so we have decided against repair as it wouldn’t usefully achieve much   and just await the new ones 🙂

As visiting isn’t allowed on the wards I’ve put Skype on the laptop I’m taking in to be able to talk to Liz. Also installed ‘Virgin 2 Go’ so that I can watch TV all day long (most channels) without paying the £30+ to watch the hospital supplied service … and have also installed BBC iPlayer and ITV Hub and Amazon Prime Video. So no lack of viewing material – even if you don’t count the fishing videos I’ve also copied across to the hard drive! Also reading material consisting of IYCF, Anglers Mail and a Bill Bryson book that my sister brought in to me on my Sept visit AND some e-texts to read via my android tablet…. And audio needs will be supplied by Spotify!

So, I’ll be away from the water myself – but will be looking forward to the reading of the endeavours of others!

RUBBERISING NETS: my version will have to go on the back burner now…. but here are some (USA) videos on which it is based on …. I used Plasti-Dip as my rubberiser…. and a 30″ Korum Folding Spoon net…. As you can see the P-D can be obtained in 2 forms, tin or spray. I recommend the tin! With an open material like a mesh there is a lot of waste when using a spray. Also as the material is thick in the tin I suggest that possibly thinning slightly with MEK (Methyl Ethyl Ketone – aka Butan-2-one) may be helpful. I’ve not tried thinning yet – I have the MEK but not used it yet and I was intending on using it when I did Liz’s new net and perhaps giving mine a re-dip. However, undiluted worked fine when I did mine but I just wonder if a slightly better result could be obtained (thinner solution might infiltrate the mesh material better?). Basically, I take the mesh off the rim, wash it in just hot water (90′ cycle in the washer, no soap/detergent, etc) to remove any impregnated chemicals there may already be, pour P-D into a disposable aluminium basting tray (and possibly dilute), then wearing plastic gloves (cheapo polythene) just add mesh and soak completely in the P-D, squeeze out excess and hang up to dry but may need to ensure that the mesh is opened out by some method to prevent sides sticking together …. one of those sock type hangers (£1 from Poundland) that consists of 2 concentric rings of pegs is good OR two long canes passed in parallel through opposite sides of the top of the mesh and placed over the backs of two chairs works fine too – sure you’ll get the gist of that! A greased box or ball placed in the bottom may help too but to be honest I didn’t use a bottom spacer and all was fine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPT7NSnqiFA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NF-EojPBHYY&t=15s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SW4AsJXyIOs&t=13s

ANYWAY, TIGHT LINES! SEE YOU SOON!!

Monday June 22nd was a day at my local club pool (SAC-DP) for a day when I was accompanied by a pal who is a new member of the club although we are acquainted by both of us being members of another club. This was my friends first day’s fishing on this water although he had walked around the pool previously.

We met up, as arranged, on the venue’s car park at 0730 before heading to our desired swims, both fishing out towards the pool’s small island. On arrival there were already cars parked up including on the small 4-5 car capacity car park at the far end of the pool so I was a bit anxious our pegs may have been taken but luckily (or otherwise as it turned out) they were vacant awaiting our residency.

We settled into the swims and I elected to ledger fish with just a single rod with frame feeder. Mike, my companion, also fished feeder I believe.

First casts were made around around 0830 and we awaited our first action … and we were still waiting for it at 1500 when Mike packed in, and I, 15 minutes later after a last cup of coffee did the same. However, it seemed that Mike had had 3 line bites over the session easily beating my single one. But mine was bigger! LOL!!

So not an exciting day although dry and, when the sun passed by the trees around us, quite warm although when in the shade it was quite a chilly breeze.

Biggest, event of the day was when my mobile rang – in the bright light I managed to press the wrong button to answer and it seems I ‘declined’ the call – and when checked the number was showing as ‘Unknown’ and so I was unable to ring back immediately. However, the phone soon ‘pinged’ to indicate an incoming message… from the local hospital… asking to ring back on a given number. Having done so I was informed that my postponed ileostomy reversal operation, initially set for April 6th, had become reactivated again and has been rescheduled for Tuesday 7th July with a pre-op appointment set for Monday 29th June – and I’ll also have to have a CV-19 swab/test done 72 hours previous to the actual operation, so that will probably be Sat 4th July. Further, I am now undergoing the necessary 14 days of self-isolation before the operation date.

I must say, the interval between the postponement and the renewal of operation dates has seen see-saw feelings on the matter mainly due to doing the one thing you should never do, at least regarding medical matters… Google!! When I did so, looking for what people had to say about their recovery/lives following the op, one chap and I quote verbatim without the slightest exaggeration (although that’s not to say that the original poster didn’t either) said he was still taking 40 loperamide (Imodium) tablets daily and had to visit the loo 20-30 times a day! That filled me with dread and put the idea of saying ‘NAY!’ to the op for quite time until sanity returned and I realised that was VERY different to what was being said by many others… Anyway, now, I’m well up for it! 🙂

However, being me – and my name should be Murphy really (if anything inconvenient that can happen, it will) or even Sod (like Murphy but happens at worst possible time too) – this comes at a time when pubs are due to re-open and when a long awaited angling event is set to happen in the interim!

SO… no fishing for me now until I imagine at least mid-August – and a hoped for last session on Thursday this week to try to leave on a good note has fallen victim to the self isolation requirement. However, I’ll be happy enough if I can make the water’s edge again by the start of October to start my pike season, a season I virtually missed last year due to the original operation and its following recovery period and then having kidney problems on top of that.

So, you bloggers, will be my water side life for a while and I’ll have to live those times through you! So, go get ’em for me!! 🙂

Best wishes to all … Steve

…. and I’ve also just edited the last posting to correct a ‘day’ error…. the 15th June having been a MONday rather the THURSday I’d originally written 🙂

Following the more successful last session I decided that on Friday 19th June I’d make a return to the ‘water of bad feeling’ from the outing previous (Session 19 at AA-GH).

The weather here had been pretty wet and windy the previous few days but the forecast for Friday for the day of the outing was improved – and a couple of days before was forecasting it as mainly bright, dry and calm. Well, in the event there were dry and calm spells of varying durations but these were interspersed with everything from overcast to misty rain to downpour…. but the latest forecast available had stated it would like this and being forewarned I was inevitably forearmed too – and the 60″ oval brolly was brought out for a quite-rare-for-this-time-of-year outing as its mainly used in winter time when I pike fish and need to protect myself from the chilling northerlies. Another reason for light summer use is that, like a bivvy, it requires a decent sized area on a flat bank which limits it to a small number of my venues anyway. Anyway, when used it is a godsend – not only encloses my good self in comfort but also my tackle and bait bags and only the rod holdhall/quiver has to suffer the elements…

Anyway, as you can see I got the brolly set up firstly before  sorting out the rest of tackle which was then done in the shelter from  the wind and, as it was at the time, a light drizzle.

Tackle for the day: my 2 ledger rods (1.75lb TC) with 8lb line to size 6 hooks with free running frame feeders on 6″ links of 6lb mono. Rod pod with my two new bite alarms (cost £5.50 each INC postage from China! And worked well :).

First casts were made at 0730 in the drizzle with worm and bread as the baits… and by 0805 I’d had bobbin rises on both rods albeit either too quick to strike at or missed on the strike… and by 0815 the rain had abated and the skies brightened… However, as said previously, the weather was like a yoyo…

0845, and the first fish of the day was landed, a mirror carp of 4lb 5oz…

4lb 5oz Mirror Carp

And over the rest of the day I suffered 3 hook pulls and one snap-off (under quite light tension at the time and suspect a line fault) but did also land a 3lb 3oz mirror carp (worm), 3lb 3oz common carp (prawn), a 4lb 2oz mirror carp (bread), a 3lb 4oz common carp (bread) and the final fish of the day was, fittingly the largest of the day, another 5lb 7oz common carp (bread).

5lb 7oz Common Carp

No bream which I had been hoping for though.

I packed up at 1430, a bit earlier than I’d intended, but I’d used up the last of my prepared groundbait for the loading of my frame feeders, it was nice, dry and sunny but with a few darker clouds approaching it seemed a good time to do so, a float I suspect was snagged to the bottom near the far bank and which I’d spotted the week earlier was still there so I thought I might pop round with my ‘general purpose’ rod with a decent weight attached and try to catch around it and release it … the heavy weight I used was a neodymium magnet (high power) that I’d bought some time ago in order to do some ‘magnet fishing’ but never got round to actually doing and so I thought ‘2 birds with one stone’ – try to release float and also cast about and see if I captured any old broken off terminal tackles via their hooks or perhaps some lost lures. As it was both birds were dead in the water – the float lay in such a position that I couldn’t cast into a place whereby I couldn’t get my line loop around the float ie cast outside of the float but then wind back in with the line inside the float’s position from the either of the pegs each side of it due to the position of a trees and bushes and their overhangs over the water – and after a dozen or more casts out along the bank in several places I collected not even a bit of rusty old tin can and the magnet came back as clean as a whistle … perhaps the canal might be better with shopping trolleys or Black Country Whales (from the local dialect – ‘I cort a whale in the cut only the uver day!’, ‘Blimey! wot did yoe do wiv it?’ ‘Ar chucked it straight back in agin, day I?  It day av no spokes!’… LOL) in great abundance it seems!

PLANS

Off out to another club pool and meeting up with a friend who not only is a member of the club controlling the intended water but is also a fellow member of another club of mine.

Should be a good day… 🙂

Needing to recover from the disaster that was my last trip out, I set off out on Monday 15th June to a club pool (AA-BP) that usually provides a good result. I say usually as it can be a bit moody and tends to be a ‘hot’ water, in that the warmer the water is the better the results and winter time it can be ‘very hard’… but even that is not a given as a few years back, in late October, with water temps still being too high for my, and it seemed the pike’s too, piking  at around 10’C I decided to switch to perch fishing (worm/maggot) at this water until the temps dropped to 8’C or below… and all through the rest of October, November and December, fishing it at least once weekly I could not catch a single perch BUT I was having tench after tench after tench every session EVEN when the water dropped sub 8’C! So not only had I been catching in these cool temperatures but also catching the least expected species…

But no deviation from the expected on this session…

I left the house at 0500 … arriving at the pool at 0545 … and was, unsurprisingly, the first there… (only one other arrived during the rest of the day too, the club president, at around midday IIRC) … and headed off to my intended swim of the day, or rather swims, as there were two I fancied next to each other but which I rarely fish. However, both pegs were a bit overgrown – not too badly but needed a bit of work to clear some reeds around the sides of both to allow a decent angle to fish and one swim’s reeds had fallen over across the gap. I had the tools to be able to do this (small weed rake and doubled bladed cutter – both of which can be used either on the end of a landing net pole or on a rope/cord and thrown out – and the rake I actually use mostly on my heavy spinning rod with 60lb braid which is my general purpose rod used for throwing out my Deeper Sonar, spombs/spods, and other such tranklements. So they WOULD have been easily cleared BUT then I wandered to the next peg along – my usual ‘off island’ one and it was so enticing so immediately grabbed my gear from the car and set up station there… 🙂

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And I hope you can see why! 🙂

Directly in front is a small island – and, in fact, one the neighbouring shunned swims faces the other end of the island, the other one faces out into open water twixt the island end and the top bank and to the left is a corner covered by an overhanging bush…

So, usual pre-cast preps completed – bait up, set up unhooking cradle, get out scales, camera on tripod, etc – I plugged the three sections of my float rod together and was ready to fish… thanks to already having been pre-tackled with 6lb main line to a 6″ of 6lb braid hook link with size 10 hook and with a pre-weighted 6BB crystal waggler (1 x 2SSG shot in order to fish lift method ie overshotted, overdepth) on the line. A minute or two was then spent plumbing and  adjusting the float’s stop knot to stop the float at the right distance.

0615 the hook was baited with a worm and cast out…

… and first cast having first indication of interest was very pleasing! 🙂

In fact, I don’t think I made a cast ALL day that wasn’t responded to by our fishy friends…

However, initially, it seemed that the interest came from small fish (probably mini perch and rudd) just grabbing the end of the worm as no contact was being made despite allowing bites to develop and for float to be actually gliding along/under the water… and it was at 0745 that I actually made an initial contact, a small fish, possibly rudd about 3oz or so (although it did look crucian’y). I did use to catch a fair few crucians in this pool up to about 5-6  years ago but I’ve not seen one since then, suspected victims of the cormorants, but hopefully it was a crucian and the beginnings of a comeback! Anyway, the hook bounced out and it wasn’t landed so it’s all speculation on that point.

0800 a small perch (ca 2oz) came to hand…

This set off a number of hook size and bait changes over the session which improved matters – and at this time I changed to maggot on a size 14 hook…

0805 Several small rudd

0820 Bream 3lb 4oz

Steve – 3lb 4oz Bream

Followed by another few small rudd…

0845 – a good fish but shed the hook 😦

0900 Switched to prawn on size 10 hook…

0920 4lb 5oz Mirror Carp

Steve – 4lb 5oz Mirror Carp

0950 A switch to sweetcorn and – 2lb 5oz Common Carp

Then a period of bites galore – all missed bar one – and the hook pulled free….

1235  After switching to bread – a 3lb 1oz Bream

Steve – 3lb1oz Bream

1425 Another hook pull from a good fish after a switch back to worm…

1500 Effectively packed in although I had intended to fish until at least 1530 in my original plans  and, as things were happening, possibly would have done another half an hour or so more BUT I overcast, one of three over the day, into the edge of the island’s bushes. The first two times I was lucky and escaped penalty free, however, this third time WASN’T lucky at all except that it did pull free under a bit of pressure but as it gained it’s freedom the terminal tackle sprung away with a very unwanted Victory Roll resulting in a nest even the greatest nest building bird would have been proud of! So, with the prospect of a bankside cut off the end tackle, rescue the component bits and re-tackle from scratch and a short time left to stay I decided that the re-fit would be easier in the comfort of my armchair… and was done this morning… 🙂

One thing I discovered as I was fishing – my crystal waggler had a leak between the tube itself and the bottom fitting and the body was 1/3 full of water – meaning that it wasn’t as sensitive as it should have been due to the extra weight of the water having been added. I swapped my float at some stage to my usual driftbeater when I discovered the problem. I’d bought 10 of these crystal wagglers and have subsequently found two had loose fitting bottoms which has now been rectified with a liberal smearing of a Bostik like (other brands are available :D) adhesive. Just my luck to pick a 1 in 5 chance of a bad float! LOL

PLANS

Well the river season is upon us but I’m delaying my first river season for a while – probably 29th June with a visit to the Warks Avon with Liz. BUT I’ve just located a place on a much loved small river I last fished in the 80’s that does day tickets (£5), weekly tickets (£10) and season cards (June 16 – March 14 – £30)…. I think I may just have to get a season ticket and possibly go there next week!!

However, I’m planning on making a trip to the BAA’s Nordley Pools on Thursday (18th) after another local blogger (The Angling Rev aka Stewart Bloor) visited there last week and his post jogged my brain about it having not visited there in probably 18 months or even more.

Hopefully I’ll get to rubberise Liz’s new landing net this week/weekend too – hoping to make a video for on YouTube when I do it.

Thursday 11th June, I headed off at around 0620 to a club pool I’d not visited since the CV19 pandemic lockdown put an end to fishing for a couple of months or so … and once before in 2020 and that was a pike fishing session.

Anyway, let’s make this short and sweet and say that although the session actually was ‘short’, the ‘sweet’ may be a case of looking back on it through rose coloured glasses as they say .. not my idea of a great session anyway.

I set off to the pool at 0620 as supposedly the pool is available from 0700.

[I’m not sure how that actually works these days as it can be night fished by any member now.

In previous years the main club had within it an intra-club syndicate of max 30 members who paid an extra syndicate fee – that extra money actually being held/spent by them to purchase carp to stock one particular pool which is intended as the club’s ‘premiere’ carp fishery. This syndicate were the only ones allowed to night fish any of the club’s pools.

However, this year the system changed and now any member can night fish, without extra charge, all pools bar the carp pool subject to two conditions … (1) a maximum of 3 night anglers per water per night and (2) before doing so you must register your intention and venue with the ‘night fishing/syndicate secretary’.

The intra-club syndicate still exists and members of it still pay the extra fee but they are the only anglers allowed to night fish the carp water (all club members can freely fish the pool during the day by the way – holds good tench and perch too – and one bream of around 8-10lb).]

Anyway, arriving a little before 0700, I had to unlock the gate to gain entrance, and I knew I’d have choice of swim as I’d be the first there…. so all was looking good at that point…

So, drove down to the car park, unloaded and carried my gear to my swim – about 60 yards away if that. A corner swim that I find good for bream – at least at the start of the day – and as the wind usually blows into that corner later in the day it can be good for surface/floating baits for carp.

Setback 1 Unusually the wind was blowing in the completely wrong way to usual ie FROM the corner out into the main pool… so the surface baits for carp looked a bit of a dodgy scenario … although that was not a certainty but we’ll never know.

Setback 2 The wind was quite strong and blustery and as the peg was elevated some way above the water it would have been difficult to float fish as I’d planned to as it would have been difficult to sink the line to avoid drag…

Setbacks 3 to infinity I just could not get settled in happily with peace of mind … full stop. My side table wasn’t sitting correctly, the brolly was always in the wrong place (and I moved it 3 times!) and wobbled too much despite the 3 guy ropes attached to it pegged in at 120 degree spacings, I had to ledger when I wanted to float fish, Liz had bought me Sainsbury’s own brand bread for bait (in an orange wrapper I’d not looked when she gave it to me assuming it was a small Warburton’s Toastie) which is the WORST bread for bait I’ve ever come across – so dry it falls/washes off the hook at the first opportunity – and, in fact, if I’d have known what it was I’d have stopped at a shop enroute to get some better stuff!

So come 0930 – without a single nudge on my worm and, possibly but unlikely still on the hook, bread baits I was so unsettled that I decided to pack up the gear and head home…

One good thing came of it though – just as I’d finished moving my necessary baits into the fridge/freezer on my return it started to rain so at least my gear remained dry!

PLANS

Rest of today – tying hook lengths to replenish stocks.

Hopefully get out on Monday 15th back to the pool of tench and bream previously visited.

No ‘Glorious 16th’ for me this year though – have to have 2 sets of blood samples taken at a local clinic, hand over a urine sample at the doctor’s and then take one of our ferrets to the vet to have stitches removed from behind her ear from an operation she had to remove a lump/growth a couple of weeks ago plus to hear the results of the histology done on the removed tissue.

Monday 8th June, I headed off at around 0600 to the club pool I’d mentioned in my previous post (KF-WL1) arriving at around 0645 … a little later than intended due to a reason I discovered only yesterday … my alarm clock had been running 45 minutes slow – and probably had been doing so for some time!

I thought the alarm was quiet too but as I’m hard of hearing I had also put the quietness of the alarm down to that but…

My current alarm clock is a retro ‘twin bell with hammer’ battery operated type which replaced my previous similar manual wind clockwork one when that gave up the ghost … I had noticed that the ringing of the new clock was lower in decibels than the manual one when I first had it but it seems that it had been getting less and less as time passed but at such a rate that the change was unnoticeable in daily terms…

So, for some time I’d been getting up, going downstairs and doing the usual morning chores – loading bait and food bags into car, feeding cats, having a cuppa and toast, etc – but then I’d look at the clock in the kitchen/dining room and time seemed to have flown by faster than I’d expected… but, of course, I’d ‘lost’ 45 minutes effectively due to the slow alarm as I’d eg rise at 0430 by the alarm clock but it was really 0515 realtime!

And yesterday the discovery of the alarm clock’s error was made when I looked at the alarm clock and also caught sight of the clock of the (rarely used these days) Teasmade which sits behind it … and spotted the discrepancy between the two! Checked with my wrist watch, the Teasmade was confirmed to be the correct teller of time…

Quick change of battery since – the alarm is now keeping time AND the bells ring out far louder as it seemed that  the power of the old battery was barely enough for the hammer even make the slightest of contacts with one of the bells and didn’t even reach the other.

AND … only the day before the discovery of the cause, to resolve the ‘quiet bells’, I ordered a new clockwork alarm of similar type… so looks like I’ll have dual alarms going off soon!! 🙂

BACK to the fishing…

I was the only one to fish this pool all day – the club does sell day tickets for it too. There is another pool on the site too which is a ‘members only’ pool just a couple of hundred yards further on down the access track.

0715 saw me make my first cast floatfishing a worm on a size 10 hook, 6lb line, laid on. Slight difference to my usual set up was the change from a drift/windbeater float to a ‘stick’ type with a 2SSG shot 6″ from the hook that sank the float down to the barest tip and an AAA shot about 18″ above that to provide the ‘overshotting’ that would cause the float to sink if it had not been fished overdepth.

From the start I was having a ‘bite a cast’ – some of them stereotypical ‘lift and glide’ types but were unhittable on the strike. To try to resolve this, I changed from a full worm to a worm head section of about 1″ long and at 0735 a connection was made to an 8oz tench. No photo taken as (A) as I was landing said fish the owner of the site arrived and to check membership cards or taking day ticket money so the fish was lay in the water’s edge in the net waiting to be unhooked whilst the necessary display of card was made – so I thought I’d inconvenienced the fish long enough and released asap after unhooking and (B) as I’d been having consistent bites I was sure I’d have something worthier of a photo soon…

So, tench released, I fished on and had further missed takes on the following 3-4 casts – and then everything went totally dead with not a single knock, nudge, dip, etc despite trying maggot and prawn as baits too until getting well on for noon when a few tentative nudges started again….

So, I fished on for another hour or so with no result and then packed in for the day due to it being quite chilly.

The skies to the main part were overcast, and the large trees enclosing the pool tend to shield it from whatever of the  sun’s rays there are (unless the sun is completely overhead and then it becomes a hyper-tropical sun trapped zone) and there was also quite a chilly breeze … hence the decision to call it a day earlier than usual.

OBSERVATIONS

One reason for the visit to this pool was to ‘suss’ the layout as the club has closed some swims to maintain ‘social distancing’ and from the maps posted it seemed that the swims were too far apart for the comfort of Liz and myself and thus we’ve gone elsewhere. However, having visited and seen first hand the situation it seems ok for us – especially as we are not subject to ‘social distancing’ being from the same household. So its possible we will make our way there together in the future.

PLANS

I’m hoping to visit a local club water that’s close to home but that I’ve not re-visited since the fishing restarted with the post-lockdown relaxations. Mainly a carp and bream water, I’ve a certain swim in mind – as usual 🙂 Alternatively, I may revisit the other club pool I’ve already visited a couple of times and had success with the bream and tench.

Friday 5th June I, along with Liz, set off for a day’s fishing at the same venue as we visited for Session 14. A decision based mainly on the option of available swims on all the waters available to us in the main. Due to the CV-19 situation most of the waters have limited pegs available to conform to the 15 metre guidelines – and the two pools that were at the forefront of our considerations were ruled out as the available swims were too far apart on both waters – we like to be fairly close, especially as I have hearing trouble and often can’t hear Liz call, in order to net each other’s fish, weigh and photo….

Anyway, there we were… a nice pool anyway (KF-VV) with a view over the Severn Valley and in the distance you can see the smoke of the Severn Valley trains – and hear their whistles/hooters too if the wind is in the right direction.

Having set off at 0630 we arrived at the pool around 0710 to find three cars already on the car park – but one load of anglers (father and kids) had been night fishing on the dam wall and were in the process of packing up – one was fishing Chub Alley (and was having a good day of it from what Liz saw – he was out of view to me) – another was fishing on the ‘spit’ before Chub Alley’s and one was fishing opp that guy, just short of the line of conifers, the middle and far end of which we had intended to fish and so there no problem to us getting our swims.

Liz snuggles up against the cold breeze

The day itself was a mixture of weathers – calm/windy/gusty, warm/chilly, wet/dry – everything from very warm when clear blue skies and the wind dropped to wet, cold and windy when the skies greyed over…

First casts were made around 0750 with myself using two ledger rods with frame feeders and Liz with one frame feedered rod. My rods were baited with bread (size 6 hook) and worm (size 10 hook) initially … interest was shown to the worm with small bobs of the bobbin and the occasional lightening fast longer tug but equally as fast drop but nothing at all on the bread… and at 0820 I switched the bread bait over to three cocktail prawns. Recasts were then made every 30 minutes or so with re-loaded feeders and later the cocktail prawns were replaced by, or by parts of, a raw king prawn for the rest of the session…

0900 – Liz lands a 3lb 10oz common carp taken on sweetcorn…

Liz – 3lb 10oz Common Carp

1035 – I land a 3lb 11oz mirror carp on raw king prawn…

Steve – 3lb 11oz Mirror Carp

1050 – a good take on prawn – missed!

1120 – small perch ca 2-3oz taken on worm.

1145 – another missed take on prawn.

1210 – I have a 6lb 10oz common carp on worm.

Steve – 6lb 10oz Common Carp

…. and that was it until we packed in at 1500.

Liz never had a touch after landing her carp despite trying several baits inc meat.

ADDED:

The finale of the day….

At The Pen-Ton Arms…. 🙂

PLANS:

Monday, 8th June, I intend visiting one of the two pools that had been an option on this visit but then discounted due to the peg spacing issue. So I will be able to check out the situation first hand rather than from the maps we have as well for future reference – may not be as bad as it looks … and obviously fish it too!

Monday 1st June I set off to the most local of my clubs’ pools (SAC-DP) at around 0545 arriving on site around 0535 or so and at my chosen swim for the day around 10-15 minutes later….

As you can see from the photos I’d decided that I’d have a change from the old float tackle and go ‘hi-tech’ with the pod and alarms putting my baits from a line just right of the centre of the island and a line just off the islands right end… distance out probably 3/4 of the way to the island itself.

Tackle consisted of my two Grandeslam Avon Plus rods of 1.75lb TC, each equipped with 8lb Daiwa Hyper Sensor line and frame feeders stopped by Enterprise Tackle ledger stops. One rod was equipped with a size 6 Pallatrax hook, the other a size 8 Kamasan Animal – both on 8lb hook lengths of 6″ connected to the main line via swivelled quick change clips with a rubber ‘jacket’ to protect.

Note I said 6″ hook lengths – a lot of people use hook length to state their lead stop to hook distance but to me that is the ‘tail length’… Hook length to me is the length of a  separate piece of line that connects between the hook’s eye/spade to the main length of line – if the hook is tied directly to the main line then there is no hooklength. Tail length is the distance from the lead stop (or the lead if it’s ‘fixed’. Thus not only is it possible, and is the ‘norm’, to have a shorter hook length than tail (eg 6″ hooklength with a lead stop placed 12″ up the main line from the connection with the hook length gives an 18″ tail)…. but also if using a long hooklength and placing the lead stop on the hooklength to have a tail shorter than the hooklength (eg 24″ hooklength with the ledger stop place 6″ from the hook gives a 6″ tail).

And, after that explanation, I’ll tell you I generally use a tail of around 18″-24″ on both rods on stillwaters but this can vary with the bait in use and the type of bites. On rivers/flowing waters the tail can be up to 48″ for times especially for barbel on the Severn. Anyway, its not a ‘one size fits all’ thing, more a case of trial and error to discover the optimum on the days when the fish are being really finicky. On this trip I did lower the tail distance quite dramatically for one bait in particular –  large pieces of bread flake – when I dropped it down to 6″ or so in order that the bread would hover and waver just off the bottom (until it got over sodden and sank down anyway).

Frame feeder feed – I use my general groundbait/particle mix which consists of my dry mix of bread crumb, crushed Vitalin, strong white flour, crushed bird seed, salt, chicken layer’s mash – and to which I add at the water’s side pre-prepped particles (things like boiled hemp seed, rice boiled in turmeric, stewed wheat, blitzed tinned mixed beans, boiled maize, sweetcorn, dead maggot, etc) and wetted in this case to a nice sticky consistency in order to hold on the frame of the feeder – too wet or too dry it just flies off on the cast! Ideally, it needs to withstand the force of the cast (which should be a lob – a slow build up of power throughout the cast – rather than a macho heave-ho!) and hopefully the main body of bait still on the feeder reaching the bottom of the pool with small bits of the edibles falling off as it sinks to create a ‘column of attraction’…

0640 – first casts were made, the initial baits being worm and bread…

1000 – NOT A TOUCH … despite retrieving and re-loading baits and feeders as necessary and re-casting out every 20-30 minutes … so a change of baits ensued and the worm was replaced by meat (bacon grill) and the bread by 3 cooked cocktail prawns (with the tail lengthened back to the usual 24″)….

1050 – Beep ……… beep – a couple of spaced out tugs on the prawn baited rod… turns into a beep..beep..beep.. as the bobbin gently and surely rises …. a strike is made … resistance is felt … and what seemed to be the characteristic knock-knock-knock fight of a perch is felt … but later the fish comes to the surface … long and thin … it’s an eel! 🙂 Netted, weighed in a 1lb 1oz, photo’d (not easy!! LOL) and set off to grow bigger….

Steve – 1lb 1oz Eel

1100 – the meat is replaced by cheese (BabyBel to be precise – bought in truth to acquire the wax coating from them to use a weighting when fishing floating baits, but the cheese itself is a good texture for bait in its own right)… and the bait that consisted originally of  3 cocktail prawns is now replaced by one large uncooked king prawn…

1245 – a good take on the BabyBel as the bobbin rises slowly and surely but on the strike nothing is felt – possible ‘liner’?

1310 – a take on the king prawn – again missed 😦

And then until I packed in at 1530 all was again quiet – and again I had been re-casting out the feeders every 30-45 minutes or so plus catapulting out small (golf ball) sized groundbait balls.

SO … saved the blank again … thanks to the eel which actually is the second biggest I’ve ever caught … the biggest having been caught during the 1978-79 season in the River Severn at Bridgnorth and weighed 1lb 8oz … and which, I’m now sorry to say, tasted delightful after being cleaned and grilled with butter….

OBSERVATIONS

Prawns were again a saviour!

Mr Henry Heron was, as usual at this pool, in residence all day trying hard to earn himself a crumb although I must say he wasn’t having much luck from what I saw … unlike the seagulls on the pool on my previous visit who I saw take at least a dozen sprat sized fish…

Henry The Heron

PLANS

Liz and I are planning a trip out on Thursday or Friday – dependant on weather, it seems that it may be a bit wet on Thursday but… anyway, already sourced our maggots this morning for the trip 🙂

Friday May 29th, 0515, I set off for a day at a club pool, this time in sunny Staffs (AA-BP) arriving at 0600. However, on my last visit I discovered that my usual route had been hindered by road works and one major length of roadway I use had been completely closed (“except for access to frontages”) and I had to do a lengthy diversion. So, this time I headed directly to the pool using the same route but going directly to the ‘diversion’ without the need to do turn arounds etc. … it was only on my way home at the end of the session that I discovered the road had been re-opened! Oh well, LOL!

Having arrived I’d already decided on the peg I intended to fish this session – one of my two favourites that have usually served me well, the other being the peg I fished on my last visit (Session 12). The two swims are diagonally opposite to each other this one being at the near end and far side of the pool and the other one being at the far end and near side. Also this peg faces into open water whilst the other faces across to an island.

The chosen peg I’ve not actually fished in a while – possibly fished it once last spring – as the island peg has a bit of a magnetic pull on me…

The Pool At 0610

So, the usual routine performed – bait up, set station and all kit – I made my first cast at 0630 with the usual 4AAA driftbeater float setup, size 10 hook with worm, fished laid on.

By 0815 the sum reward of my efforts was – NOWT! Despite the float bobbing, rising, getting dragged, etc I could not connect with one fish at all … and I’d also tried sweetcorn in the meantime which resulted in far less interest … but then it happened …

I tried a small cooked ‘cocktail’ prawn – to be honest I do prefer pieces of raw king prawn (TIP: Aldi do the best and cheapest ones!) which I find to be far better than any type pre-cooked versions – but they were the only ones I’d taken (more to add to the groundbait than anything else). Anyway, epiphany! Five minutes after casting out I was playing and landing a nice 3lb 6oz bream…

Steve – 3lb 6oz Bream #1

… and 15 minutes later the float sailed away again and a 6oz perch was soon posing for his portrait…

6oz Perch

… and another 10 minutes later a 4lb 7oz mirror carp arrived in the landing net…

Steve – 4lb 7oz Mirror Carp

It then went quiet – or rather I did have a few takes which were missed and this led to a trial of a few other baits – worm, bread, sweetcorn, and anchovy paste. Of the new baits, bread did entice one fish at around 1030 but unfortunately it took sanctuary in the marginal lily pads to my right and snapped my line just above the quick-link to which I attach my hook lengths. Quick-link and hook length were replaced and further casts with bread failed to produce any further action so I switched back to prawn baits at around 1055 and almost immediately hooked a fish but unfortunately the hookhold gave way a few seconds later and the fish was gone.

1105 … the float rises and moves slowly across the surface – strike – and I play a 4lb 4oz bream to the landing net…

Steve – 4lb 4oz Bream

So, now at 1105, the two hour lull begins with very little activity apparent – apart from the surface feeding carp who are starting to wake up it seems…

1315 marks the end of the lull – and a small roach of around 3oz takes a small maggot bunch on a size 14 hook that I’ve changed down to….

1325 another bream is taken on a maggot bunch..,. at 3lb 6oz is the same fish as my first one or an identical twin possibly? 🙂

Steve – 3lb 6oz Bream #2

And that was the end of the day for me despite not actually packing up until 1500.

Basically, those surface feeding carp I mentioned earlier became a real pain in the posterior… and I’m sure they were acting out of malice swimming deliberately into my line and attacking the float and my rod tip which was touching the water’s surface … also had had 5-6 of them 12″ from my toes with their noses stuck out of the water slurping in carp-ese words which in English would have equated to something like ‘Feed me… NOW!!’ To tell you the truth I think from the gatherings of the afternoon that they are gathering to spawn – I can tell they’ve not done so yet as the lily pad patches are still intact! I was at one pool a couple of years ago – a beautiful pool it was when I arrived and I caught a nice crucian carp early on IIRC – but then the carp started their spawning and within one hour there was not one lily pad left attached to its stalk and with their 100mph zooming around the pool it was impossible to fish due to lines just getting caught on their fins and the lines and baits dragged away where they’d get caught up on another fish – absolute mayhem! Perhaps the best analogy is to compare it with driving off a car park at the end of a day’s outing to a Destruction Derby – and take it from me, the events of the actual Derby just do not come close! LOL! I know, I was that man!

PLANS

Note really decided other than I’ll be out on Monday 1st June on a solo mission and on Thursday with Liz who has all of the week off.

NEW ‘Angling eBay’ TYPE SITE

Dangler Angling Auction Site

See:  https://www.dangler.co.uk/#sign-up – for signing up. I’ve signed up but not actually checked out the site at all yet to be honest.

Monday May 25th, 0700, Liz and I set off for a day at a club pool over in sunny Salopia (KF-VV). However, the LATE start was due to Liz’s refusal to get up pre-0600 or to leave the house pre-0700 and personally I’d have aimed to have been on my way at 0430-0500 especially as (a) it was a Bank Holiday Monday and (b) with the restart of angling after the lifting of the ban due to the Covid thing people are keen to get out there again…

I read in this week’s Anglers’ Mail that there has been a huge surge in sales of rod licences in the past week due to angling becoming an ‘allowed exercise’ – perhaps some good has come of all this! I also saw elsewhere that the same has happened on the Continent too… I just hope that is good for the sport, introducing new blood and increasing renewal sales of rod licences come next year…

Also it seems that the Angling Trust Guidelines are just that – guidelines and not enforceable in their entirety.
From ‘Anglers’ Mail’ again, it has transpired that several commercial fisheries have started to allow matches on their waters again contrary to the AT Guidelines and informers {spit} have contacted the police to report them… the police have turned up and having found that procedures are in situ to maintain the 2 metre – NOT the 15 metre AT suggested distance between pegs – general social distancing have announced that no offences are being committed, and that the law was being adhered to and left without further issue.

Anyway, as it was, we arrived at the pool at around 0730 and there were already 4 cars on the car park and, obviously, the swims we’d had as our primary objectives were already taken and so we settled for the nearest pegs to the car LOL! They were pegs we’d not fished before but, as the pool is very commercial in nature – stocked with everything probably other than sturgeon, pike and alligator gar from what I can tell – it’s not usually an issue, the worst swim will generally produce something. Anyway, Liz sat on a dam wall peg facing the front a small island and I on the next peg albeit around the corner from the dam facing the side of the same island. So effectively the whole corner was ‘ours’… 🙂

So, my first cast, on the float laying on (13′ rod, 6lb line , 12 hook), with worm/maggot as bait was made at 0800 … and Liz cast out a few minutes later fishing 2 feeder rods as is her norm…

First fish of the day came to Liz, a common carp of 4lb 2oz…

Liz – 4lb 2oz Common Carp

Unfortunately, it was also her final fish of the day despite having a lot of bobs, nudges and beeps on her bite alarms early on to sweetcorn but a little later even these faded away…

Myself, I was getting the occasional float lift and dip and managed to connect with one tiny (as in 5 to the ounce tiny) perch. Then at around 1100 a carp started nosing around in the rushes toward my right and so I pulled my pre-setup ‘floater’ rod kit that consists of a 1970’s Winfield (Woolworth’s) ‘Specialist Angler’, 11′, 1.75lb TC  rod, coupled with a Diawa 5000 size freespool reel loaded with 12lb mono and a size 4 hook – nothing else, freelining at its most basic really 🙂 If ever extra casting weight is required I carry a ball of wax collected from the truckles of Xmas cheeses and Babybels which (a) floats and (b) when its warm (and surface fishing in the cold is not really productive anyway?) easily moulded around the line in the necessary quantity and at the required distance from the hook – and also has a secondary quality of being a good indicator. The aforesaid tackle was baited up with a piece of bread (about 1/8th of a slice) which was momentarily dipped into the water to add a bit of casting weight and cast over to the area of the slurping carp. A few minutes later, the line started to tighten…

When floater fishing DO NOT strike when the bait disappears, wait for line to be actually taken … in fact, its better to watch the line on the water than the bait as by watching the bait you can at time instinctively strike as soon as you see a  mouth engulf it BUT usually by the time the effect reaches the hook the carp has already spat out the bait … but if the line is moving then the fish has got a hold of the bait most definitely!

… and the strike met firm resistance … and a little later a nice 7lb 7oz common carp was landed.

Steve – 7lb 7oz Common Carp

After that, with no more surface activity visible, nor could any be induced I switched back to my float setup… and managed a few more small perch and a few equally small rudd….

Later, I decided that perhaps fishing a more sensitively could help and so I switched from my laid-on method with a 4AAA driftbeater float to a more sensitive 3BB stick float shotted to fish more on-the-drop style and dropped from my 12 hook to a 14 baited with maggot or small pieces of worm… this resulted in more ‘catching’ – of small rudd and perch mainly – and by the end of the session I’d probably had 20 or mixed rudd/perch for a total weight approaching 8oz I imagine! BUT I did swap my bait to bread for a while – and this resulted in another common carp, this time of 4lb 10oz at 1330…

Steve – 4lb 10oz Common Carp

Following on from this, switching between bread, maggot and worm piece baits added a few more perch and rudd to amass the aforesaid 20 or so of the little darlings before packing up and heading home – and greatly missed our homeward bound visit to the local!

PLANS

Well, I’m looking at making a Friday visit to one of my clubs’ ‘premiere’ carp fishery – albeit carp will be the last fish I’ll be looking to catch – far more interested in the tench and perch – albeit that I may put out a floating bait or two at the end of the day. I’ve put feelers out for info about the bankside situation with regards to the ‘bivvy crew’ and the swims available… a far distance to travel there if its going to be packed out, and my preferred swim there is also one the carpers head for … so a drop-back option is to make a return trip to where I was 3 sessions ago (Session 12) and head for my second of my preferred swims there – its one that virtually no-one fishes as its on the far bank and it must be a 100 yard walk to it (and you rarely see anyone on that bank at all to be honesty), the most fished pegs being with 10 yards of the car parking – but, to me, the least attractive – and the least productive ones too from my experiences when fishing them.

ALSO … planning to rubberise Liz’s landing net … well pleased with my own DIY’d one … and I know I’ve promised to describe how to do it and my experiences … and the info will be published soon as I’m planning to video the procedure when I do Liz’s net. However, and lucky in its timing really, Liz’s net broke on this outing and we’ve had to scrap it – so glad I’d not rubberised it yet as the effort – and cost – would have been wasted. A new net is now currently on order and in transit I believe and should be here soon at which point the operation will be performed! 🙂