Course Trip

Club lake again.
Mike had about 7 fish, up to around 8lb, but he also lost 2 fish from line breaks.  Line is clearly in need of replacing, as its been far too long since we fished regularly.

I had 4 fish, the best of which was 9lb8oz, and 11lb :-)

9lb 8oz

11lb

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 !

Tip :-(

I couldn't find enough swear words when this happened :-(

Back from the abyss

Getting back into my Lure fishing again.

Quick 40 mins after work yesterday. Didn't catch but went from glorious sunshine to horrendous rain in 5 mins flat.
I got back in the car just in time!

Beta Box for Couarse Fishing

Well, I finally got around to finding a Shakespeare Beta Box.  But I plan to use it for course fishing, not sea.
This was because I find I end up taking too much stuff like rucksack, chair, bait bucket and holdall, even for short afternoon fun general sessions on small pond and lakes.
With this seat box, I'll have the rucksack contents and seat all in one. It'll be transported on a trolley with the bait bucket on top.  Only the rod holdall will need carrying.

The Box....

It was new, but had been mis-cast in the mould, so got it cheap.
I took it into work, and made some mods for it.
Its very 'Sea fishing' in its look, also because its bright blue :-(     (I couldn't find a green one)  But it should work a treat for short carp and especially quiver tip and float sessions.

Large plastic conduit bolted and glued into the back for storage.

Copper Bar to keep lid open in windy weather.

Lid bar in down position

Lid bar in place

Scary moments cutting off the mis-cast latch !

New latch in place. I'll add an 'R' clip to the chain keeper to lock the latch in place.

Really happy with this now. Cant wait to add a seat cushion and fill it with my kit ready for the next session :-)
I might spray it green to tone it down a bit for the bankside.

Perch Serch :-)

Daisy and I had another trip to our local pond this week, seeing if there were any Perch about given how cold its been getting. Using my LRF rod and Daisys princess rod we managed to winkle out a couple small ones, and this rather nice stripey of about half a pound or so I'm guessing.  Was great fun and Daisy loved it.

Oddly, despite the cold, we saw about a dozen large carp lying just under the surface in a couple spots on the pond, even though there wasn't any sunlight and it was overcast. Ive never seen that on a winters day before.

Daisys first Perch

Daisy wanted to come fishing with me again, so armed with her disney princess rod, we went after some perch. She was very happy indeed :-)
She was brilliant and actually sat and fished with me for 3 hours, feeding the carp on the surface and dropping in loose feed for the perch. Darn good for a 4 year old !

She loved all the flowers and the wildlife too  :-)

Club Lake margin carping

Having been lucky enough to join a local club lake, Mike and I made a trip to suss out the margins which looked very overgrown and are deeper than many we've fished at 2 to 4 feet.
Had a cracking day with several carp, all extra tight in the margins, best running to 8lb, mostly to large Dynamite Choc Malt and Tigernut boilies, but I was very happy to catch on one of my home made zig bugs 12 inches off the deck :-)

6lb on homemade zig

8lb

 

Taking my Boss on First Fishing Trip

My Boss must have got sick of hearing me prattle on about fishing all the time at work. He finally gave in and came with me, his first ever fishing trip.
I chose my local pond for ease of teaching, with basic single bait ledgering to start off simple.
We fished for a few hours in the afternoon with no bites, but as the cold wind was pushing towards us, we moved into the back of the lake out of the wind. Within ten minutes we had a good run that we missed, then a short while later another one that he hooked into and landed his first ever fish, a mirror carp of 8lb 4oz in cracking orange winter colours.

Daisys First fishing trip!

Made a visit to a garden centre that also had a fishing section, and looking around, my little girl spotted the pink Disney princess fishing rod set. So one 'discussion' later and I ended up buying it.
The following Saturday we made a trip to the local pond, and Daisy fished for the first time. We kept it super simple, with a single red plastic maggot in the margins hoping for a little roach.
She loved it, and hasn't stopped talking about it.

We didn't catch, but that hasn't dampened her enthusiasm to go again!

LRF

A brief hour down at Elphinstone with the LRF kit. Took a mate of mine James who's never fished before, but try as we might he didnt get any hook ups, but still enjoyed it.
Met another chap down there LRFing and compared plastics :-)
I had a couple small pollock which was nice to at least feel the rod bend (or wiggle in this case).

Coarse

A brief evening jaunt to my local pond.
One rod in the margin in 10 inches of water on 8mm bloodworm boillie produced an 8lb mirror in the daytime, and then my PB from this pond in the form of this 12lb 12oz mirror after dark.

8lb mirror

12lb 12oz mirror

The other rod cast further out near the island didnt move.

Saw a fair few carp cruising round the edges, which is not common in this place.
Also tried some LRF lures but no takers :-)

Mike has been down since this trip and said the carp are spawning again given the current heat we are having.