Thursday 22nd April, I set off for a club pool (AA-H/IP) that I’ve only visited once before.

When I went out to the car at 0530 to load the items needed for the day there was a windscreen frost but by 0715 when I actually left the house to head off that had totally disappeared and the car’s external thermometer registered 3’C – but the direct radiated heat of the full sun made it feel much much warmer than that – in fact I suffered a bit later in the day as I’d put on my full thermals as the previous day had been quite a bit cooler.

So, on arrival I elected to fish a different swim to my previous visit moving 5 swims further along the pool.

I did the usual pre-baiting with balls of cereal groundbait plus particles before setting up my area and tackling up my rods … 2 rods, 8lb line, frame feeders loaded with the groundbait/particle mix and size 4 and 6 hooks.

First casts were made at 0845 with a large breadflake bait on one rod, pop-up butterscotch boilie on the other to try to lift baits over the potentially weedy bottom – but this swim seemed less weedy than the previous one although baits were lost on retrieval possibly by being ‘brushed’ off? The few bits of weed that were brought in on the hooks tended more towards sedge grasses…

Whilst awaiting first takes I decided to get the Deeper CHiRP out to do a sonar scan … which didn’t start well as first cast the CHiRP caught on some long vegetation behind me on the back cast and it sailed out onto the water unattached from the line! Luckily, the wind was in the right direction and 10 minutes later it had drifted back almost to my feet – 3’ to my left on the edge of the marginal sedges but was close enough to easily net :). Reconnected, and with the rear vegetation in mind, I then made several other cast around … and discovered a some useful info.

A video of my scans can be seen on YouTube at: https://youtu.be/YvrLwaJeIzU

As you’ll see there is no lack of fish in there! And although I knew the pool was deep there are areas far deeper than I expected – over 70’ deep in areas it seems!!

Anyway, I fished until around 1430 – and Liz says you can tell I caught the sun! – but despite changing baits from bread/pop-up to prawn/chilli sausage at 1130 and fishing out at distance and alongside the marginal sedges I had not one beep from the alarms all session. Hence the title – two trips, two blanks.

There were quite a few ‘sprat’ dimples around and at around 1330 a good sized carp (getting on for a double) cruised past my feet but wasn’t interested in the few bits of bread and boilies I fed in the area.

There was a match planned for the pool early July but I note that the fixture has now been switched to another pool. A shame really as I’d have liked to have seen how the match boys got on there and what they’d have caught. I suspect they’d have done well on the poles especially as back in the days being a day ticket venue good bags of rudd were being caught. I think the ‘rumours’ of being a deep pool have maybe put people off? I was told by one angler he’d not go there as it was too deep and he couldn’t swim BUT in fact the depth at 10m or so from the bank is less than than one of our well visited pools – the one to where that match fixture has been switched to actually. Rumours, eh!! Bet it won’t be long before old Nessie will have been spotted on holiday!! LOL!  

Anyway, I quite like the pool – quite scenic, definitely peaceful and serene – and a pool which needs to be investigated more and ’cracked’. Looking forward to a return in the near future!

PLANS:

Monday, 26th April … plan as it was announced in last posting has been revised and now intending to visit another club pool (AA-GH). Primary species in the pool are carp but also contains bream – and reputedly tench albeit I’ve never seen or heard of any being caught there in my 10 years of membership BUT until a couple of years ago I’d have said the same of perch, having never seen not heard of any being caught there, until on pulling my landing net from the water at the end of a session I found a minnow sized one in there! And then in October/November last year, whilst trying to catch some livebait, I was catching a fair few of them. So I’ll be hoping for bream and perch, with the hope of a tench, and undoubtedly a few carp.

TEMPS:

AIR:                  MIN:   9.6’C      MAX: 28.0’C (in direct sunlight)
WATER:            MIN:  12.1’C     MAX: 13.9’C

WATER TEMPS:

AIR TEMPS:

Monday 19th Liz and I set off at the usual time for one of my club’s tench and bream waters (AA-B). A beautiful morning was evidenced by another angler in the inn the process of unlocking the padlocked gate in front of us on arrival around 0800! Usually there’s a good hour between our arrival and that of the next – if there is indeed a next… However, aforesaid gentleman did actually set himself up on the carp pool that is situated only 10 yards from our tench/bream pool and so we had a full choice of the 26 pegs that our pool holds – but we headed to the usual two pegs we’ve been fishing the past few visits. It seemed that the carp weren’t co-operating though as later he came on to the T&B pool – and had one tench that we saw.

Mid- afternoon another chap arrived and set up on the carp pool and just before we packed in  another 2 anglers set up on our pool … and the club president arrived just after them and set up on the carp pool.

On Sunday I know one chap had 11 carp up to 11lb 5oz from the carp pool … but that pool has not really grabbed me. Notr a fan of carp, I’ve only fished it properly once and that was 10 years when I first joined the club and thought, mistakenly, that the T&B pool was closed for a work party day the following day. The only other times I’ve fished it are for an hour or so following a day on the T&B before heading home for the day – and then I was trying to entice the pool’s other official species, the chub. However, its been a long time since I’ve heard of a chub being caught in there but then again I don’t suppose the ‘carpers’ would deem them worthy – and too many carp to make chub fishing worthwhile. There are small roach/rudd, tiny bream and perch in there too but they are illegal immigrants which, I think, have passed through the grid over the connecting pipeline between the pools as fry.

The T&B pool is fed water via a pipe from a small passing brook at one end … at the other end a pipe, with grid to try to prevent exchange of fish twixt the pools, overflows into the carp pool and thus keeps that topped up … and, at the opposite side of the carp pool to the incoming pipe, the water overflows back into the brook. All very eco!! LOL

So, on to the day itself…

I decided initially to fish on-the-drop as I’d indicated I would in the ‘PLANS’ section of my previous posting – but as I anticipated that didn’t last long… 0915 I made my first cast on-the-drop and 0945 I changed to over my usual lift-method style. I didn’t seem to be having any attention whatsoever during the ‘drop’ period and all indications of interest were after the bait had been settled for several minutes… Liz started off using the  lift-method.

Anyway, our swims were fed with a few small balls of cereal groundbait laced with hemp, turmeric rice, red/yellow maize, dead maggots and micropellets previous to tackling up – and additions of the same and catapulted dead maggots were made throughout the session.. and initially we both fished with maggot on size 16 hooks to 6lb main line.

As I took my rod out of my quiver the butt ring accidentally (well, wouldn’t do it on purpose!) looped itself over the stub of a trimmed off twig on the tree I’d leant my quiver against – and the ring’s lining came adrift. A bit of a sinking stomach time when I saw the damage … but I did manage to press the lining back into the ring firmly enough for it to hold out the day and this morning I’ve managed to glue it firmly back into place 🙂

At 0950 I had my first proper bite of the day and landed a tench of 4lb exactly… followed by Liz landing another tench, this time of 3lb 8oz…

Steve – 4lb 0oz Tench

3lb 8oz Tench

A quiet spell then ensued and I decided to ring some slight changes and changed my hook to a size 12 baited with worm which didn’t even seem to attract any attention whatsoever … and the worm was switched to bread flake with the idea that it would ‘sit up and waft’ to attract attention … which it seemed to although waryingly (another late addition to the OED and now added to my local ‘Word’ dictionary LOL).

Around 1345 I did have a good take and struck into thin air … literally! In fact, as my float was lying flat on the water my first thought was that I’d left my reel’s bale arm open … but I hadn’t … and, in fact, on retrieval of the line it had snapped between the stop knots for some strange reason … as I say I never felt a milligram of resistance on the strike. Can only put it down to a line fault really, I did think that it could possibly have happened due to the broken butt ring but due to the location that would have been impossible.

[I always put two stop knots on my line with a sliding float – the usual one above the float that sets the depth to fish at plus another between the top shot and the float which allows a space between the float and the shot when casting, just seems to me to prevent line wrapping back on the cast. Actually, I often put 3 stop knots on … and place two above the float, the lower one of which is used to set the float’s fishing depth and the other is used as a marker to set the max depth I’d need/want, the actual ‘working’ knot can then be slid down to shallower depth for a while if searching a shallower area in your swim but is able to be quickly returned to the full depth by just sliding back up to the ‘reference’.]

So, I re-tackled – using an identical float as the original was last seen drifting down the pool, and although a few times it seemed to start to deviate towards one of the side banks, when checked again it had returned to its central line … so presume it ended somewhere in the overhanging branches of the bushes on the facing side of the pool’s island. However, I had nothing beyond that point bar small floats nudges that seemed more line wafts from tail fins…

However, Liz was able to win the ‘most fish’ and ‘most species awards’ of the day when, at 1515, she caught a barbel of around 8oz – but I retained the awards for ‘first fish’ and ‘biggest fish’ 😀

1530 was time to pack in and head for celebration beers at the local – and one of my favourite beers (Titanic Plum Porter) was on tap but alas there were no scratchings to be had … albeit the cheese and onion cobs that were available did hit the right spot!

PLANS:

Thursday, 22nd April I’ve planned a second trip to the ‘deep’ pool (AA-H/IP). I’ve some special baits ready to try along with the usual and I’m intending to fish further along the pool into deeper water than I did on the first visit.

Monday, 26th April I’m intending to return to the tench and bream pool (AA-B) but to another favourite swim. Liz has indicated she won’t be fishing as she wants to catch up on jobs.

TEMPS:

AIR:                   MIN: 13.1’C     MAX: 27.2’C (in direct sunlight)
WATER:             MIN:  8.0’C      MAX: 10.4’C

WATER TEMPS:

AIR TEMPS:

Thursday 15th April at 0715 I set out for a solo session on a local club pool (SAC-DP).

A bit cool to start, the day warmed up nicely with a very light southerly breeze and blue skies punctuated with white fluffy clouds…

I arrived on the main car park around 0740 to find one other car there plus I could see a further car in the process of being unloaded in the small car park at the southern end … so I unloaded and headed with the barrow to my intended swim for the day and, as expected, the swim was free.

The plan was to floatfish – laying on per usual – next to the overhanging bush to my left (3rd picture) initially for a couple of hours and then to switch to the 2 ledger rods with frame feeders if necessary/desireable.

So, first cast was made at 0815 – double maggot on a size 16 hook, 6lb line, wind/driftbeater float. Catapulted comatose and stirring maggots were used as free feed… and I fished like this until 1000 having a few float nudges and a few lifts but couldn’t connect with anything.

1000, a switch over to the two feeder rods – 8lb line with size 4/6 hooks, cereal/particle feeder filling. Bait was bread and slices of Ye Olde Oak chilli sausage. The chili sausage is a bait that several years ago was a regular go-to bait of mine and would often catch when no other would. However, it seems to have been forgotten over the passage of time. Anyway, last week I had cause to have a look in the greenhouse for something and spotted my crate of tinned baits that are kept in there these days as an overflow from the garage and bait fridge and among the tins were a couple of cans of chilli sausage.

 (Note to self: need to sort baits out!! I don’t use pellets or boilies but have shelves full of the things! Mainly due to when Liz and I go to ‘The Big One’ show when we get drawn into the deals and buy multi-packs plus one of my clubs used to – pre-Covid – arrange social nights with well known anglers giving talks and part of each night included a raffle with prizes of equipment and baits often donated by a local angling manufacturer/supplier and I’d often win 2 or 3 prizes each time generally one of which would be bait based -= groundbait, pellets and/or boilies).  

Anyway, neither bread nor sausage seemed to the taste of the fishes on the day and when I packed up at 1430 I had not had a single beep on either buzzer.

However, I think it was a day when the fishes weren’t interested generally … being quite a nice sunny day quite a few others turned up to fish over the course of my session and it appeared from what I heard from passers by and by observation of the anglers on the far bank who seemed to be catching, mainly on the pole, but nothing of size – seemed to be from minnow to sardine size fish.

PLANS:

Monday, 19th April, off with Liz back to the bream and tench pool…

TEMPS:

WATER:        MIN:          9.1’C     MAX: 10.9’C
AIR:              MIN:        11.3’C     MAX: 17.5’C

WATER TEMPS:

AIR TEMPS:

Monday 12th was going to be a great day whatever the result!! After all the pubs were re-opening for post-session ales – and scratchings, nuts, crisps, Scampi Fries, etc – in order to celebrate or commiserate the day’s events…. 🙂

Plus …. I’d retrieved my lost fishing chair … and had also received the replacement of the replacement for one which had ordered from Fishdeal but which was lost en-route by the combined Netherlands Mail/Hermes couriage system – is “couriage” actually a word? My spellchecker thinks not, maybe ‘courierage’ but doesn’t like that either it seems?!. Anyway, I’ve plenty of seats now that are far more comfortable than the camping/director’s type chair I’d been forced to use in the meantime that with the lack of mud feet and adjustable legs was a bit of a pain you know where!! LOL.

So, 0730 start again to beat the ‘rush hour’ traffic – which I’ve noticed over the past few weeks increasing and so it seems people have started creeping back to their places of employment – Liz and set off for a club’s mixed fishery (AA-B) albeit that we weren’t expecting a red latter day there. The pool is relatively shallow with a general depth of  about 4’ 6” all over as far as I can determine in 10 years of fishing there and doesn’t respond well to cold weather in general. The previous day started off grey with sleet and snow at 0830 and I said to Liz that it looked like we’d abandon the planned trip. However, if I’d stayed in bed another hour I’d have not known about the snow/sleet that as by 0930 the sun had burst out in blue skies albeit it was still on the chilly. So with it looking a bit brighter we changed our minds and ventured out.

Initially, the weather wasn’t bad at all and was quite mild with very little breeze – and when the sun reached blue skies it was quite pleasant. The forecast was for what little breeze there was to be west-south-westerly but in practice it seemed fluctuate a fair bit and often became northerly. And around midday we had an hour or so of spells of frozen snow pellets from time to time. Funny thing was that, before the snow-wanting-to-be-hail occurred, the water temp had been a consistent 7.2’C …. whilst during the hour of precipitation it rose to 7.8’C … and eventually up to 8.9C by 1500 when we packed in for the day as we’d booked a table at the pub for 1600 – for which we arrived at 1603 without actually breaking any speed limits!

On arrival we both baited up with a few small balls of groundbait laced with the usual dead maggots and particles and float fished over the top with drift/windbeater floats in laying-on style. Line 6lb with size 16 hooks baited with 2-3 maggots. Occasional small topping ups of feed was added by hand/catapult.

So, as I said, any action was expected to be slow … but in my case it turned to be non-existent except for a very few swirly float movements probably due to tail wash or fish brushing past the line. Maybe I/we should have tried fishing on the drop or off bottom as it seems there were fish in the vicinity? Too late now!! However, Liz did get a late day award at 1320 when she landed a nice 3lb 5oz bream…

Liz With 3lb 5oz Bream

PLANS:

Thursday I’m planning a visit back to SAC-DP and hoping I can get back on the peg I had last time. I want to floatfish close to an overhanging bush to the left of the peg – sheltered from the wind and looks ‘fishy’ – but maybe later in the day if things are quiet on the float I’ll ledger with frame feeders…

TEMPS:

AIR:                   MIN: 6.9’C     MAX: 12.5’C
WATER:            MIN: 7.2’C      MAX:  8.9’C

WATER TEMPS:

AIR TEMPS:

Thursday 1st April saw me heading off to a pool again as planned (SAC-DP), leaving the house a little before 0730.

Wednesday had been a scorcher of a day (relatively for the time of year but still T-shirt only friendly and patio door in the living room kept open) but Thursday the temps came back down to earth with a big bump with a cold northerly wind present. On Wednesday I’d commented to Liz that the Damart thermals wouldn’t be needed for my day … WRONG! I got up and dressed without the Damarts initially but whilst having breakfast looking out of the window … and especially after going out to the car to put in the bait and tucker bags, I re-dressed with thermals included … and I was extremely glad I had!

So, I arrived at the pool probably around 0800 and discovered the gate’s padlock had been incorrectly secured. The chain and padlock was attached correctly to the sliding bar’s mountings (often done incorrectly despite several messages posted to members as how to do it) and the padlock’s bolt had been pressed closed BUT the code wheels had not been cleared (ie code still showing) and all that was needed to open the padlock was to press the button that releases the sprung bolt… Committee informed and new message sent out 🙂

I parked up and looked down over the generally north-south orientated pool from the top-of-hill car park and decided to fish from the west (nearside) bank off to my left as to the right is more the south end of the pool and thus facing into that wind…. As I wasn’t too familiar with the west bank I hadn’t a planned peg in mind so I just walked the tackle down from the car park and along the bank until I located a decent peg – defining ‘decent’ as (a) sheltered by bushes to the left from that wind and (b) a peg with space to ‘swing a cat’ and (c) just looked to have a reasonable chance of catching from based on a few surface (small) fish movements…and the fact (d) the overhanging bush to my left provided a nice sheltered bay/area to floatfish if I wished to change my tactics…. so peg 11 it was.

I catapulted out a few satsuma sized groundbait laced with maggot and particle balls into my intended fishing area before tackling up and placing gear comfortably around me.

Tackle: My standard ledgering setup ie 2 x  1.75lb TC ledger rods, 8 lb line, frame feeders on a rod pod with bite alarms. One rod was baited with 2 worms on a size 6 barbless hook, the other with bread on a size 4 hook…

Frame feeders were loaded with the groundbait mix… and new feeder fills and recasts made half hourly…

First casts were made about 0840 and for the first couple of hours it was quiet with a couple of single ‘beeps’ from the buzzers, most likely just changes in water pressure on the line due to the winds but possibly small fish sucking the bait or liners…

At 1045 came the first proper take on the bread baited rod … and with a slow but strong and steady pull on the line I was hoping it was going to be a decent bream but when landed it was a mirror carp which went 6lb 4oz on the scales – and I was happy with that! 🙂

6lb 4oz Mirror Carp

Next, and last, bite of the day came an hour later, again on the bread rod… and this time a koi carp of 2lb 8oz came to the net…

2lb 8oz Koi Carp

I fished on to 1415 – I had intended to fish a bit longer but with no further takes and the cool air getting to me and the prospect of a hot shower ahead I called ‘time’ early.

I had no visible takes on the worm rod although the worms did appear to have suffered some damage and, in fact, I swapped them for a raw king prawn around midday without it seemingly making any difference…

PLANS:

No plans at mo other than I won’t fish again until next Thursday now … and, if the boilies are done then it will probably be the ‘deep’ pool … but a lot depends on what the weather is doing too…

OTHER STUFF:

I left my fishing seat at a pool a few trips ago and put notices on the club’s web site, etc but had no joy seemingly and the camping/director’s chair I’ve had to use was not great so I ordered a new chair which should have arrived a week ago but hasn’t. I’ve been in touch with the company supplying it and they are sending out a new one. And, on Wednesday, I had a phone call – my original chair has been taken in and I’ve now arranged to collect that on Sunday! 🙂

TEMPS:

WATER:            MIN:    11.0’C    MAX:  13.2’C
AIR:                   MIN:     8.9’C    MAX:  9.9’C

WATER TEMPS:

AIR TEMPS:

Monday, 29th March, Liz and I set off at the usual time to the mixed fishery club pool (AA-B) that we had visited the previous Monday.

Weather was forecast good with a southwesterly breeze but as it was a strong breeze (13-15mph) we decided to fish with our backs to it rather than face into it as is the usual wisdom of such things, just to make the fishing a little easier. However, the swims we fished were almost directly opposite those of the previous week where we had had a very good day’s fishing and the pool is long and narrow.

I fished lift method all day, as did Liz also apart from a short spell with a maggot feeder, both fishing 6lb line to size 16 hooks baited with maggot and using 7BB wind/driftbeater floats.

My swim was baited up pre-tackling up with red cereal feed laced with maggot, hemp/wheat/couscous and sweetcorn.

Over the day I loose fed frequent but small amounts of extra maggots and the occasional small ball of groundbait.

The day started quietly with not much action, a few minor nudges of the float which were probably line bites as the float re-settled exactly as it was, ie the bottom shot not disturbed, after the 0915 first cast until 1255 when the float did a proper lift and sail away. A strike met a heavy weight which moved steadily but initially unstoppingly out on a righthand diagonal line from me … but once the fish had been brought to a halt I gained line on the fish which didn’t really put up much of a fight and so I suspect it was a good bream but I’ll never know as close to the bank the hook pulled free…. whereupon several words like ‘botheration!’ and ‘oh dear!’ formed in my mind although voiced differently albeit silently when they left my lips.

1335 – Liz had a barbel of around 6oz…    

1435 – I had a small mirror carp…

1535 – Liz has the best fish of the day, a tench of 3lb 3oz…

1555 – I had a tench of 2lb 11oz….

Liz – 3lb 3oz Tench

Steve – 2lb 11oz Tench

We both also had a couple of small roach/rudd over the day but I didn’t note the details of those.

1630 – packed in and headed home… thinking that in two weeks time we’ll probably be able to resume the usual homeward journey – via our local hostelry for a beverage, scratching and nuts 🙂

PLANS:

I had originally intended to re-visit the ‘new’ pool on Thursday 1st April but have decided due to the bottom weed found there I wanted to make some pop-up boilies and some stinky paste … but as I have/had jobs to do at home plus have the need to re-sort my rods and tackle time is a bit pressing and so I’ve decided to postpone that trip for a while – as after looking at next Monday’s forecast (6’C with sleet showers) I might have a day of rest that day! Anyway, that gives me a bit of extra time to prepare the desired baits for when I make that outing.

So, Thursday is now a trip to my most local of my available club pools (SAC-DP) and I’m intending to visit an area on there that I’ve not yet tried.

TEMPS:

WATER:            MIN:     9.5’C     MAX:  11.5’C

AIR:                   MIN:    14.4’C    MAX:  31.5’C!!!
          I think the thermo was out of the shade at some stage!!
          So using the Accuweather recorded 17’C for data purposes.

WATER TEMPS:

AIR TEMPS:

Thursday 25th March at 0730 I left the house for my first fishing session at a club pool (AA-HP/I) that had been acquired early 2020 with proposed first access allowed on April 1st. However, due to the pandemic, exchange of contracts was delayed and access was not theoretically available until July 2020. It was November 2020 however before I personally visited but that trip was thwarted by a locked gate that didn’t respond to the club’s combination and I had to divert elsewhere. Pandemic restrictions returned in January 2021 which included the club closing all access to its waters altogether and so when I fished it was at other waters, etc and this was the status quo until 1st March 2021 when the club’s waters were again made available … so I re-visited the pool to attempt to fish again … and managed to do so.

The gate/padlock problem had been resolved – 1st March starts the new club season and the padlock codes get newly set for the year – plus this year the club replaced all the padlocks on the waters so the access problem was resolved.

I’ll start with the fishing report for the day (which won’t take long!) – and then go on to details of the water itself.

THE FISHING:

As it was a first visit to the water then there was no ‘special’ swim in mind – and it seems that the pool has not been fished by many people at all as there was very little sign of having been visited – and so to me the nearest swim to the car seemed as good a place as any to start especially as it was a corner swim and faced into the south-westerly breeze of the day too.

Initial casts out and around the swim with the Deeper QUiRK+ sonar indicated a slope down from the bank to flat bottom with a depth of 15’ max, mostly 13’-14’ – but with a lot of weed of 2’-3’ being detected. During fishing it seemed that there was mainly fine weed/algae with some sparser grass-like weed. It seemed strange with weed at that depth but as the water was extremely clear then probably due to that…

Clear Water

I set up my pair of ledger rods with 8lb line and frame feeders – one rod with a size 4 hook baited with bread, the other a size 6 baited with worm – and made first casts at 0915.

With no takes by 1100 I added a prawn to the worm baited hook – perhaps the worm was crawling into the weed? I did think of injecting air into the worm’s head to raise it above the bottom but didn’t on this visit.. perhaps next time?

1245 – still nothing so I changed the bread bait in favour of a meat and red/yellow corn cocktail.

1430 – no takes at all – blank – tackle down and head for home.

THE POOL:

The water is an irrigation pool that can get abstracted in dry times to water the farm’s crops and is rectangular in shape and deep (up to 33’ deep) according to information on the board from its days as as day ticket fishery (ca 2005 until 2016 when its then owner passed away. 2016, the new owners decided to terminate its use as a fishery but either they have changed their minds or, as I think, new owners have taken over). In fact, the club originally obtained the rights on two pools on the site – this pool and another smaller carp pool a few yards away but the owners decided to keep the carp pool as a ‘wildlife’ pool, understandable as their house windows look out on to it. In lieu of the loss of the carp pool, it was arranged that some (about 20) pegs would be created for us on the fishable pool as the banks were steep with the top lying 5’-6’ feet above the water’s surface – and they have done so by digging out sizeable pitches that lie within 6”-12” of the water’s surface and these can be seen in the general photos and in more detail below….

However, it is possible the club may need to cut/make some steps down to some of the pitches to make them easier to get into and climb out of due to the slope of the enclosing banks especially with tackle… but the pitches are of good size and easily contained my bags, etc with room to move around ie once in the pitch then not many reasons that would mean you’d have to have to leave it.

Like another of the club’s pools (AA-KP) about ½ mile away this pool is quite open to the elements and thus could be a delight on a hot summer’s day with a light cooling breeze but a bit bleak in the colder winter climes.

As I don’t pole fish at all I’m not sure but to me it may not be a pole fisher’s delight due to the depth? But saying that there are rudd and it seems that some excellent rudd catches having been made there in the past.  

Species …

I know the club have recently stocked but what species are unknown to me but on the noticeboard there was a document dated 2005 describing the pool and the species and possible sizes to be expected back then…

Info (Dated 2005)

So … some of those fish may have matured over the 15 years and exceed those weights now? As a lover of pike, and the pool does look ‘pikey’ with its surrounding margin grasses and reeds, I’m hoping that pike do exist in there too as despite the possible winter ‘bleakness’ I mentioned before it would be great for a short session, lightly loaded and roving around the pool with a floatfished/ledgered deadbait, fishing each swim for 15-45 minutes each before moving on to another – or possibly luring with a large plastic lure…. 🙂  

Depth …

The noticeboard shows 33’ ‘max depth’ which would explain the 15’ determination at my swim with the QUiRK+ as at the pool’s near end the surrounding land is flat and level but as one ventures down to the far end of the pool the land falls away and the pool is dammed and hence it is more than likely the bottom of the pool would follow the contours of the surrounding land and thus the water would become deeper and a depth of 30+ feet would easily fit that scenario. Would the greater depth also mean the lesser weed on the bottom due to the reduced sunlight passing through? One thing to be determined in a future visit.

PLANS:

Monday 29th March. Probably accompanied by Liz, two venues are top of the list, both mixed fisheries and with bream and tench in mind.

TEMPS:

AIR:                  MIN:   11.5’C     MAX:  16.4’C
WATER:            MIN:     9.3’C     MAX:  10.7’C

WATER TEMPS:

AIR TEMPS:

Monday 22nd March, 0730, Liz and myself headed back out to the pool I previously visited last week (AA-B) and notoriously got the car bogged down in mud when time came to leave. So, as a result of that occurrence plus the desire to fish what was a favourite area of ours on the pool but one which we’d not visited for a few years.

Liz had been a member of the club from 2011 to 2016 but 2016 we had an offer of a place at another club after having been 4 years on their waiting list. For me it was not a problem I simply retained my membership and joined the new club but for Liz, who works full time in the week, it just wasn’t cost effective being a member of two £100/annum clubs due to the limitations to her fishing time and so she dropped her membership to the club in favour of membership to the newer club.

However now, for me with my health issues, the new club’s waters weren’t good in terms of access and my needs and so we decided to give up our memberships there and Liz has now rejoined the original club this year, their waters being ideal in all ways for myself and Liz only ever fishes alongside me…

So, for Liz this was a return to ‘old’ waters – and it was her choice of venue … and it was a good one for us both!

The weather was also perfect on the day – warmer and with very little breeze, the water having a shimmer rather than a ripple. Previously this year the wind movements have been detrimental to fishing results, northerly, easterly or a combination of both and, as the old the old sayings go – ‘When the wind’s in the east, fish bite the least’ and ‘When the wind’s in the north, fishing’s not worth (it)’ – the latter is made up by me as I don’t know of an official couplet for the north wind scenario although it is well known that its not good for fishing. However, on this day the breeze was predominantly westerly with slightly fluctuations towards the south – and therefore the best directions one could wish for as ‘When the winds in the west, fish bite the best’ and ‘When the wind’s in the south, the bait’s blown into the mouth’… 🙂

Plus, the usual wisdom is to fish into the wind – the main reason being, I think, is that surface food stuffs get blown across and end up on that bank. Others might quote ‘thermoclines’ as a reason, a condition in which the wind drag across the water’s surface causes a tilt in the water layers such that the warm water is deeper at the bank facing the wind. However what is usually meant is a ‘tilted thermocline’, a ‘thermocline’ being a band of water whereby the temperature drops quickly from top to bottom throughout that bands. However, in waters of lesser depth than 30’-40’ the water is generally all mixed by natural occurring currents and so the water is virtually a constant temp throughout the whole of its depth and only in the deeper waters of 20’+ is there any likelihood of a thermocline at all, much less a tilted one. Anyway, we were on the east bank with the west wind in our faces 🙂

All looking good – and not even unloaded the gear from the barrow yet!!!

So, swims chosen, we tackled up… myself choosing to floatfish by the lift method with maggot, and Liz with a maggot feeder although about an hour so later she switched to the float rod and lift method float with maggot too.

We made our first casts at 0850 … and at 0855 I had my first take which I lost unfortunately, the hook slipping within a few seconds but only felt like a  small silver.

First fish landed – by me, a roach of around 3oz, was at 0920

Next fish was better – and, in fact, was a PERSONAL BEST!!! 🙂 A tench of 5lb 2oz!

Steve – Tench 5lb 2oz (A New Personal Best)

It was at around 1030, that Liz having been biteless, decided to switch to her float rod..

..and 1100 she was in action landing a 2lb 5oz tench…

Liz – Tench 2lb 5oz

1115 …. Liz another tench … 3lb 10oz

Liz – Tench 3lb 10oz

1120, Liz was again in action … 3lb 7oz bream – PERSONAL BEST beating her 2lb best of 2011!

Liz – 3lb 7oz Bream (A New Personal Best)

1215 – Steve, 6oz Bream

1220 – Liz, 8oz Barbel

1230 – Steve, 3lb 8oz Tench

Steve – Tench 3lb 8oz

1235 – Steve, 3lb 15oz Tench

Steve – Tench 3lb 15oz

1250 – Steve, 3lb 12oz Tench

Steve – Tench 3lb 12oz

1255 – Steve 3lb 4oz Tench 

Steve – Tench 3lb 4oz

After that it went quiet with only one more fish being landed (a small roach at 1355) by me until we departed for home, a shower and a visit to the chippie for our evening meal! BUT there one strange thing before we left the poolside…

We arrived back at the car to load up and as doing so Liz said ‘Is that a bird tail sticking up on the opposite side of the car?’ ,,, I looked round and there was a small blue tit looking as if it was trying to gain access to the car … it was flying between front and rear side windows, landing on the frame/glass and trying to peck through … and was doing this all the time we were actually loading up the the car quite unperturbed by our movements and noise for a good five minutes or more until we actually drove away. Maybe it could see its own reflections in the glass and either trying to get to the ‘phantom’ to either court or deter?

NOW ADDED – “BLUE TIT: THE VIDEO”  – AT BLUE TIT: THE VIDEO

PLANS:

For me, a trip on Thursday 25th to a club pool I’ve not fished yet. It’s a pool the club acquired at the start of the 2020 season and we were actually supposed to be able to fish it/them from that April… the date of access got delayed due to Covid, mainly down due to the exchanging of contracts, and so we eventually got the go ahead to able to fish from 1st July. Actually there were two pools involved but then the owner decided to keep one of the pools (the carp pool) as a wildlife pool with no fishing … but has agreed to install 20 fishing platforms on the pool that we can fish – used as an irrigation pool it’s 35’-40’ deep with the water right at your feet at 18’-20’ and 6’ down from bank level! However, I was not able to visit until November and when I did so I was unable to gain access through the padlocked gate – the lock was broken or the combination didn’t respond to the club’s code. I know a few have fished to now inaccessible carp pool but I’ve  heard of one angler having actually fished this pool though since we’ve had it and he lure fished without success. Some peoplke I’ve spoken to about it have said ‘too deep for their style of fishing’ others that they’re afraid of falling in as they can’t swim…’, Anyway… the club changed the locks to the new season’s code on 1st March and also put new locks on all the venues so fingers crossed I can access – can climb gate OK but with a barrow load of gear is another matter. I hear from the days when it was a day ticket water (closed to all fishing from 2013 up to our taking it on) that it produced slabs of bream, big perch and carp up to 30lb … so I’ve my fingers crossed for Thursday to go in similar vein to this last session!

TEMPS:

AIR:                  MIN:    9.1’C      MAX:  12.0’C
WATER:            MIN:    8.0’C      MAX:  10.4’C

WATER TEMPS:

AIR TEMPS:

Thursday 18th March, 0730, on was on the road to a club mixed fishery (AA-B) arriving around 0800 and was parked up and first cast was made at 0830 in Peg 5.

A cool misty morning, I was well glad I’d put my thermals on! The small tree adjacent to my chosen swim was dripping water and it looked like a drop of heavy was in progress but there no such thing, purely condensate falling… and it continued throughout the morning and into the afternoon albeit slackening in slightly in quantity.

Before tackling up my ‘just under 13’ Hardy Matchmaker clone’ for fishing lift method style I catapulted out a few small pouches of half-dead maggots – they were quite old really, and although they were all of the same batch, some were comatose, some lethargic and some almost lively – but whatever, with the temperature of the water as it was, they weren’t going to be performing in the ‘maggot olympics’ once they hit the water. Also a few micro-pellets, small cooked prawns, a few small cubes of meat and some sweetcorn were added – but not a lot, all of those additions together would probably make up 3-4 small pouches in total.

Tackle, as I said, utilised my float rod, coupled with 6lb line straight through to a size 16 hook baited with maggot. The float was a crystal waggler (no insert version) overshotted by about 1AAA (a SSG shot at the bottom 6” above the hook, a AAA shot at 18” from the SSG cocked the float so its tip was just proud of the water – and another AAA shot was added alongside the first to add the required ‘excess’ weight) and this was fished about 10” overdepth in the 4’6” of water in front of me.

0830 first cast was made ….. and catapulted maggots (ca 12 each time) were fed at around 5 minute intervals..

0930, not a single indication. So I decided to put out a ‘sleeper’ ledger rod… so the 11’ Grandeslam ‘Des Taylor Avon System’ was set up with its standard tip (also comes with a quivertip top) – again 6lb line, 1/4oz bomb, size 12 hook, was cast out to my right with 2 small cooked prawns as bait and a few prawns fed over it.

Now we come to Matty Territory – and as the famous saying went – ‘All done in the best possible taste!’

BITES OF THE DAY…

All Sainsbury’s Crusty and no paper bags were harmed in the process…

Just Waiting For The First Bite – Wild Cobs – Wearing Their Winter Coats

1030 Bite Of The Morning – Marmalade On Sunflower Spread

1330 Bite Of The Afternoon – Ham And Mayonnaise

LOL!!!

Unfortunately, those WERE the only bites of the day as by 1430 when I tackled down the float had not even wiggled nor the buzzer beeped….

But more excitement lay ahead before I got home…

The area around this pool can get very boggy – and the club had issued a warning about it recently. However, area I wanted to fish was only just beyond the hardcore near end car park and that bit looked fine to me. Also it is a sheltered area in the bushes which would have been handy for ‘my needs’ if I had wanted them. Anyway, I gained access easily enough, no slippage on access and taking it easy…

Home time comes and, the car loaded up, I start to reverse out intending to do a sharp turn as I reach the main path to keep to the firm ground. However, as I come to do the full lock to make the turn I realise I’m too far over and a tree prevents the front end from making the manoeuvre – ok, so I intend to go forward and make a better angle to get on to the path …. however, I’d gone too far back, too straight and the rear wheels had dipped into an old tyre rut on the far side of the main path and consequently the front driving wheels started to spin when I tried to get out of it… so for the best part of the next hour myself and 2 other anglers tried all sort of tricks to get the car free … and after trying old carpet panels, tree branches, etc, etc I deflated the front tyres (to about 12 psi) and finally with a bit of ‘jerky rocking’ by on the clutch and accelerator the tyres eventually found some grip on firm land and I managed to escape from the grips of the rut. However, at that point I was now back to where I’d originally parked and thus needed to make the reverse turn on to the main path … and this time I actually managed to do the reversing as I’d desired to do it originally and got out on the main track facing the way I wanted to!

So, nice and steady up the track, keeping grip with the tyres on the firmer parts up to the exit gate and away.

Just had one job to do then – to get the front tyres re-inflated for which I had to drive back to the city centre Sainsbury’s, about 10 miles. Got there – that’s how I know the tyres were at 12psi – got inflated back to their required 35psi and then got back home without further incident where baits were fridged/freezered before a nice hot coffee and shower J

PLANS:

Currently the plans are that Liz and I will be having an outing at this same pool on Monday 22nd – parking in a safer place and with the bread crate panels along for the ride as surety.

Thursday, 25th, a solo outing for me to the pool that the club acquired access to last year but which I’ve not yet fished although I did make a trip to in November 2020 but I couldn’t get access through the gate for the car and ended up just climbing over and having a look at it before heading off to another pool just up the road.

TEMPS:

AIR:                  MIN:    7.6’C      MAX:  11.2’C
WATER:            MIN:    6.6’C      MAX:    7.0’C

WATER TEMPS:

AIR TEMPS:

Monday 15th March saw me head off on a solo session to one of my local club waters (SAC-DP) leaving the house at around 0730 and arriving at the car park around 0745.

The day was a generally a mixture of white cloudy overcast and blue sunny skies but with a very cooling breeze evident throughout.

Choice of peg for the day was peg 48 – a venture out into the unknown to me as I usually fish over on the extreme left of the photo (peg 27). The only other peg I’ve ever fished is the one where the angler on the far bank is located or possibly one along further to the right. The peg was chosen for the day on advice that the 40’s pegs were generally the best … and the actual peg on the basis that it offered space to store my barrow, holdalls and bags when I had removed the required items from them as the bank along that area was quite tight – a narrow path with a steep bank on the far side of it and the fishing side is a step down on to scaffold and plastic plank platforms. However, this peg did have a bit of grass space to the side of the platform for the storage.

Tactic for the day – 2 x 1.75lb TC rods, 7g sliding leads on 6” links, 8lb line virtually straight through (as usual I had hooklengths of same BS) and hooks of size 8 (worm) and size 6 (bread). I *HAD* intended to use frame feeders BUT discovered that when I’d swapped tackle back from my last session (piking) I’d not replaced my bag of feeders! So… feeding the swim was via a catapult.

I was all set up and made first casts at around 0840 … had my breakfast cob of marmalade at 1030 and my lunch cob of ham and mayonnaise at 1315…. and packed up at 1430. Yep, think that was the full report of all the day’s action – apart from the occasional pouring of a cup of coffee from the flask and a choccie bar!!

Oh… and I discovered something whilst sorting out my gear the previous day … I seem to have lost my fishing chair! I think when I last fished – on the 1st March. I have a vague recollection that I’d propped it up against a fence whilst I put everything else in the motor and then seemingly missed it out. Not easy – quite a big chair – high backed with adjustable recline – but it seems I’ve managed it. I contacted the club secretary to see if anyone had reported it found but nothing had. I’ve now posted on the club’s Facebook page and on the club’s forum pages – and asked the admin of the club’s main web site if he could post something on there for me. But doubtful after this period of time so I’ve ordered a new seat anyway – a JRC Cocoon 2G recliner from FishDeal.

PLANS:

Thursday 18th March I’m hoping to head to the tench, barbel and bream pool….

TEMPS:

AIR:                  MIN:    9.0’C      MAX:  21.5’C
WATER:            MIN:    6.7’C      MAX:    7.1’C

WATER TEMPS:

AIR TEMPS: