Carp

Chased big carp again in our local pond.
Heavy gear, standard running ledgers, bigger boilies. Fresh freezer baits too. Cell, Grange, and Black Snail.
However, we didn't hit anything like our target, we didn't even get a double.
I ended up having x5 carp, x2 under tree on Cell. x2 off island on Grange, and x1 stalking on bread, all about 5lb to 8lb.
Oddly, Mike blanked, yet he was sat next to me on similar baits and rigs.
We were both very tired and didn't even think of taking any pics, as it was a pleasure fish after a hard couple weeks in work.

On a nice note, when I was stalking, I had a little wildlife safari going on right by me. I had a couple of baby robins sat on branches just 18 inches from my ear, watching me, and flitting about seeing what I was doing. I had a frog in the water by my feet, gently swimming about, and a kingfisher giving me a lovely little display of his fishing technique just ahead. :-)

Pike on Canal

Trip to the Exeter Ship Canal armed with Lures this time.
Karl, Alan and myself.
We arrived at lunchtime and walked from swingbridge down to the flyover by about 5pm.
As advised, we tried large soft shads dragged slowly along the bottom, but no takes, large plastic rapala shads slow at mid depth, again with no takes, and smaller rapala x-rap shads at varying depths, which are what produced.

Halfway through the day we spotted an otter, in broad daylight swimming right toward us and into the reeds at our feet, and heard another in the reeds. Thats the first Ive ever seen them on the canal, and hope they don't start damaging the stocks.

We were very impressed with those little Rapala x-rap shads. They are very versatile with an awesome action worked slow or fast, and suspend a treat with a very slight sink, and have a great slash action if jerked. They also have a weight transfer system and cast like little bullets.


I blanked. (again!)
Alan had 2 fish on, but lost both (gutted!).
Karl lost one and banked his second.
They were all just small jacks of about 2 to 3 pound, but it made for exciting fun.
Karls jack...


It was still quite weedy, despite an obvious start to its die back, but another couple of weeks and we plan to return and try lures again and dead baiting into the night for the bigger girls.

New Pond

Mike and I escaped for an exploratory visit to a new pond we found that's remarkably local to us.
Its surprising sometimes what turns up on your own doorstep that you never knew was there.
In this instance, its a farm pond of a about 2 acres, supposedly dug and stocked in 2000 with Carp, Tench Rudd, Roach, and bream.

We turned up late in the afternoon, and tried a lightweight very general approach.
A single ledger rod each with a little feed went into the margins and out to an island.
Then in front of us, we both tried some basic float fishing on a lift bite rig.

We had failed to get any maggots, so used tiny lumps of bread, or soft little hooker pellets on the hook.
This turned out OK, and the floating produced a new species for me - Rudd. Fishing at a few feet depth in about 5ft of water, we both picked up a slow but relatively steady collection of the most stunning little bronze fish. I had no idea Rudd had such stunning colors. Its almost as if they had been created to complement and balance the blast of blinding silver that is the Roach.
After a while and gently flicking in a little hemp and ground bait, they got a little bigger, until we got fish of about 4 ozs or so.


I also had the only bite of the day on ledgering, which I had moved from the island to just off the marginal shelf, and had a nice one, slightly larger again. Perhaps 6oz ? Mike and I were both surprised at this, as we both had Rudd in mind (and mike from experience) as mid water or surface feeders.

As usual in this heady summer we are having the heavens opened and we sat huddled under the brollies as the day got even more gray and depressing and wet. Very wet...and very windy.
The bites soon disappeared and as son as there was a gap in the downpour, we bundled the gear away and scuttled back to the car.



However, I did have a couple of new little friends that were very tame and very funny.

Magpie Love

Yet again the tree outside my office offers up another nice shot.

This time a pair of courting Magpies.

The male on the left kept very gently nuzzling the neck feathers of the female on the right, and each time he did, she lowered her head and turned her head slightly.

Woodpecker

What is it with my office window recently?
Now this guys turned up !

Furry Friend

I had to share this.
This little fella was spotted in the tree outside my office window :-)