Coarse Trip

Few hours on our club lake again. 3pm to 8pm.

Decided as I was tired to just sit behind the buzzers and carp rods this time.
Another 10 carp, just like last time, all on Krill Boillies, all from the tight margins beside me.

Would've been 13 but lost 3 from hook pulls or striking too late.

One of them had half its tail missing, from a wound that was clearly very old.

I'm Back !

After a few years out, I finally made it back to fresh water fishing.
A new licence, renewed membership to my local club, and a long overdue re-sort of my kit, I went down to the water today for a few hours and fished 4pm till dusk (8:30ish).

My Watercraft is so rusty I didn't overthink things, just walked around the lake until a swim "felt" right, and it paid off!  Instinct better than brains again perhaps?

Fished my Stalker rod in the right margin on boilies, and had fish from the start.
Also had my quiver tip in the left margin and picked up bonus fish on paste.

x10 Carp all around 7lb ish.
x3 tiny Tench of about 6inches long.
x1 Bream of about 5lb that I didn't photograph.

So good to be back !

Im an idiot and cropped this one badly :-(

Return to Angling 2 - Guest post from Mike

Returning to our Club lake after a few years away....

Ahh parking by the gate and walking down I have missed this place...

Its had a load of work, all of the swims are now proper solid safe pegs . Some are quite high off the water on the far bank and an extending landing net handle will be essential as will a longer front rod rest - or maybe one of my old camera tripods adapted.

On the near bank a folding shovel to clear away the goose poo is an idea too!

The two floating islands and the work on the inflow are so good for wildlife and fish breeding its really excellent to see and there is useful expansion of the lilies   Does it look a bit more commercial?... yes, but I am sure it will soften and the basic nature of the lake is unchanged.

I had long chat with the vice chairman and the feeding campaign is definitely helping the quality of the fish stocks. The truth is that in many commercial waters that are heavily fished, the bait going in is probably providing at least 50% of the biomass these fish are taking on.

So fishing I chose the second peg from the end on the road bank fishing to my left and about a rod length out in 5ft of water.

All of the fish I had came from an area 2m x 1m and reflect the diverse nature of the lake.

Tackle was an 8ft TFG feeder, 8lb main to a 30g middy flatbed with a size 14 short feeder hook.

Bait was one full mix of method mix with added 4mm pellet. A couple of handfuls of squid boilies went in alongside a bed of sweetcorn and then feeder over the top with a catapult of corn every 10 mins or so.

I started with octopus 10mm boilie -  nothing.

A change to sweetcorn and a bite as it hit bottom. First fish a 6lb common followed by a very fine looking 3lb tench.

A short while later a very different fight and a crucian of a pound. There was then a bit of a lull followed by a terrific scrap with an 8lb ghost carp.

Next, a 3lb bream - a nice fish but from 5ft of water a bit of a surprise.

Then a half pound roach followed by a tiny roach foul hooked . Obviously small fish were in in force and a move away from corn was called for and just before changing bait a 4lb carp which looked like a common mirror cross turned up.

As a change of bait, a krill based light coloured boilie with a small corn floater to make a wafter was tried. As I was packing up, the tip slammed around and the clutch screamed - a really magnificent 9.5lb common - fully scaled, orange tail fin - exactly as one would want!

It was real throw back to early days in Newton Abbot, just bigger fish. Even the bait (a big tin of sweetcorn) was the same . A great day and my two recent trips have been a fine welcome back to the coarse fishing world.

Return to Angling 1 - Guest Post from Mike

A return to Angling

Well three years almost from my last time on the bank of a coarse fishery....

Weeke farm fishery

This is a day ticket fishery linked to some holiday accommodation, very quiet and not heavily fished. Three small lakes, the smallest one is the first which contains a pretty full list of the coarse species . If I could concentrate I would choose to float fish this lake . The other two are about the same size as each other, limited pegs, good bankside growth and pretty well ideal for a few relaxing hours with the John Wilson approach. These are nominally carp lakes but have a range of species.

I decided that as I was chatting to the owners, the stalker rod with a feeder was the way to go. A simple 30g fox finned feeder and size 8 hook to 8lb line. I had some old 18mm boilies left so pre baited with a couple of handfuls and made up half a bag of method mix. I also lobbed in some sweetcorn for a change to a lighter feeder later maybe.

Well bang crash wallop, x10 fish to 10.5 lb  - for a session where concentration was distracted it was ridiculously easy. The fish were in good condition and for their weight put up a real scrap . Did they look a bit under-fed? Maybe, with no weed beds there did not look a mass of natural food. I did see some bigger fish just sub surface up to mid / high doubles.  I think surface fishing may well be the best way to isolate these.

I think if I went back, Id fish standard float on lake 1, or barbel rods on the carp lakes.
Enjoyable and I got very sunburnt !