Club Lake 28-8-13

So now for something completely different.

A family outing and the kid's first time fishing. I was a little nervous to say the least.

The plan was simple - a short whip, a few maggot and hopefully a chance for my two kids to catch a fish or two, without anyone falling in, upsetting the other anglers or generally committing too many angling faux pas.

We went as a family to the local club lake, heart in mouth that it would be ok - it was. No weed, no other anglers, no problems.

We set up in one swim, a 3m whip and a few maggots, with the plan to let each of the boys fish for a short while and then swap over. It seemed a little easier that way, so they'd be constantly on the go.

A few maggot fed while I set up (the rig was already attached, it just needed plumbing up), and there were bubbles straight-away.

So, Otis major was called up (4 years old). Sat down, handed the whip and we watched the float. And, it sank. A few seconds later his first fish, a pristine rudd of 3oz or so.

First fish - a rudd

Then it was the turn of Otis minor (three years old). Could we manage a repeat performance? Swing out the rig, let it settle and watch the float. It sank again! But not a rudd - this time a perfectly formed crucian carp.

First fish - a crucian carp

Well suffice to say, the next hour and a half whizzed by - catch two fish, and then change places. Total catch was 16 fish each:

Otis major - 1 rudd, 14 crucians and a tench

Otis minor - 1 rudd, 15 crucians

Two carp lost (boo) and a great little session was had by all. (I'm going back with an elasticated top set at some point.)

So two new apprentice fishermen.. roll on the next trip.

The only tench of the session

 

Look at the bend in that whip

 

A meeting of the minds

Boddingtons 26-8-13

Not much to say really. 

I came, I fished, I conked out. 

First 60 mins on the pole on peg 72 produced 8 mirror carp for 63lb (the best going 14lb). Two more fish followed in the next hour to take it up to 80lb. 

Then nothing but roach for 5 hours. 

Straight lead lost one fish, pellet waggler failed, margin line failed, pole failed. Went home beaten by Boddingtons again. 

Catch List:

Mirror Carp 10

Roach 25

Total weight 84lb

River Colne 11-8-13

All-in-all a rather mixed session. 

I'd headed down to the weir with mixed intentions - 30 mins on the feeder (big halibut pellet) and 30 mins trotting. Then, I'd see how things went.

First 30 mins on the tip - nothing. 

Waiting for that bug barbel bite

30 mins trotting - plenty of nice roach with dace etc mixed in. 

Nice trotting conditions

Second 30 mins on the tip - a few rattles and wham. A very good fish. Straight into the snags and my 10lb mainline was shredded. Boo.

More trotting - more small fish, and down to the next trotting swim. Unlike my June visit the water level had dropped and I could wade out in my wellies to the gravel bar and trot through nicely. 

Bit of a disaster as my welly sprang a leak

More roach, one decent chub (10oz) one small barbel (4 oz) and three nice brown trout (4oz to 8oz). A very nice surprise, I'd caught one before (in many visits) but three in a session is nice. All were put back to fight another day. 

Catch List:

Barbel 1

Brown Trout 3

Roach 25

Chub 4

Dace 8

Perch 3

Minnow 5

Bleak 3

Gudgeon 2

Total weight 10lb

Picks Cottage Fishery 18-8-13

http://www.pickscottagefishery.co.uk/

So the quest to try another new venue saw me arrive early at Picks Cottage Fishery near Chingford, a few miles inside the M25. I’m made the decision at the last minute and wasn’t sure what to expect, but the website looked nice, so onwards and downwards.

I arrived early to find I was the only person there and head off to the Top or Match Lake as it I known - a spacious 1 acre pool with a large island (well out of pole range) and 15 or so well-spaced pegs. I headed round to the far side where there were a few lily pads and I set about a light pellet attack on the pole, with a view to feeder across to the pads later on if required. 

 

11mm pellet on the pole line in 5ft of water produced a bite second put-in, a common of 2lb. Then a short wait, and a tench of 4lb. Then a little later a bream of 3lb. Not bad for half an hour or so. 

4lb Tench

Then it went quiet (I seem to be saying that a lot lately). I tried the left hand line to the pads (nothing), I messed around with the depth (I suspect there was some weed on the bottom in places) nothing. A couple of knocks came to nothing.

Then a couple small carp - all 3oz of them.

Lots of baby carp

I tried a few different things, but the bites wouldn’t come. The inside line on maggot blanked, which was a surprise, so out again on pellet.

Another angler turned up, but it was his first visit too, so no advice from him. So I swapped back to 6mm soft pellet on a 16 hook. And the knocks turned into bites… from more 3oz carp. I was about to try something else when a 3lb carp appeared, then a few babies, then a 3lb tench, and barring a few quieter patches this became the pattern for the day. Small carp, odd better fish, quiet patch.

After a while I had a chat with the bailiff, apparently the baby carp were spawned on site, and moved up as eggs from the specimen pool – it’s nice to see and in a few seasons they’ll be cracking little fish.

At this point I would have tried the trusty feeder to the island, only I’d left the feeder rod in the quiver. Doh. So I pushed on.

In the end it was a few nice carp to 4lb, 5 tench (4 at 3lb, 1 at 4lb) and 3 bream at 3lb each, plus a load of small carp for 40lb. Not bad for 6 hours on a new venue.

Can’t wait to see what it’ll be like in a few years’ time, or indeed in the winter on light gear and maggots. 

There are two other lakes on site - these are more specimen carp waters, but I thought I'd grab a few photos while I was there (see below).

 

Nice clean venue, friendly bailiff, great-conditioned fish, nice pegs – I can see me going back there some point soon. 

Catch List:

Bream 3

Tench 5

Common carp 35
Mirror carp 1

Total weight 40lb

River Colne 23-6-13

There are several River Colnes in the UK. One, rises in Hertfordshire and flows down towards Heathrow airport. It is surrounded by crystal clear gravel pits containing many secret specimens and guarded by even more secret societies. Another is a small tributary flowing through deepest, darkest Essex, choked with prematurely discarded white stilettos and sparking with recently removed vajazzles, it is rarely the topic of fishing stories. And then there is the great northern Colne, easily distinguished by the dead whippets floating past, the semi-digested local delicacies on the bank (pies and black puddings) and the occasional sighting of a flat-capped angler impersonating Andy Capp on the bank.

Today, I fished one of these rivers. I will leave it to you to guess which one. 

Arriving at about 6am I had a few hours to explore the river. A pint of maggot, some trotting gear and some time – that’s about as good as it gets on a June morning. I was hoping to pick up a few fish on the stick float. I was not in the mood to sit it out for a big fish, just to get out, get busy and relax.

First task was to find a good peg – there are three good trotting pegs on this stretch and I wanted to have a go in at least two of them, hopefully they wouldn’t be occupied, but you never know.

Peg  1, the bottom weir, was free. A 3BB stick float, 18 hook, single maggot and I was up and running. The water level was a bit high and flowing heavier than I’d like, but I was soon ready to go. A few trots through found a clear run and a small dace appeared (maybe 3oz). Next run through and a strange bottom hugging fight produced this little fella.

I’ve said this before – I could catch baby barbel all day, this is a great sign for the river. Over the next hour I had the chase the fish around a bit. I kept them coming, (including another baby barbel), but there were gaps too and quite a few fish shed the barbless hook early on. I tried a 16, but this didn’t seem to help.

So having caught chub, dace, barbel, roach, I moved on. Thankfully the bleak and minnows had not shown that often.

Peg 2, the disabled swim. There are two ways to fish this peg, trot the flow or fish over in the slack water. Trotting did nothing (it rarely does) and over produced a few small fish and a 6oz perch. And that was that.

Peg 3, the bend. The last of the good trotting swims. This peg had been transformed since last year; the heavy rains had re-distributed the gravel banks and the runs and depths were completely different. Adding in the extra water and it was difficult to see how this could be fished. I tried a several lines and picked up the odd fish, but it was not obvious where the fish would be or how to present the bait. I was just running through the lower stretch where it shallowed up when I made contact with this. 

Another little barbel. I’d only ever caught one on this stretch in many visits, so three in the space of a few hours is very good news indeed.

Peg 4, the inside bend. A couple of chublets and a bleak of the inside. Much better than the previous season where this peg failed to produce.

Peg 5, the pub. I looked at this, but the extra water on the river meant I couldn’t stand out from the bank and trot properly. I moved on quickly.

Peg 6, the waterwheel. I never do any good here, despite the rumours of bream and barbel. Today was no different.

Peg 7, the playground. A small roach first run through. Then nothing. One day I must attack this properly with pole gear and present tight to the cover on the far bank.

So, my three hours was up. Plenty of small fish and three barbel (my best Colne haul ever). 

Next time I’m going back for some mommies and daddies. 

Catch List:

Barbel 3

Roach 8

Chub 10

Dace 8

Perch 1

Minnow 7

Bleak 3

Total weight 5lb

No fishing today :-(

So the bait was bought, the tackle prepared and the local stretch of river had been surveyed. However at 0530 in the morning, on the first day of the river season fishing was not meant to be.

Ill health on two fronts put paid to that.

Disappointment reigns.

Hopefully another chance next weekend.

Fancott Fishery 30-5-13

Every year I set myself a target – fish three venues that I’ve not been to before. This might sound a bit odd, but it forces me to get out and about and stops me going to the same old comfortable places. 

So, with a few days to myself, a trip to Fancott was called for. I knew very little about the place, except what could be gleaned from its website http://www.fancottfishery.co.uk/ so with a mixed forecast (light rain to start, giving way to drier conditions) I set off up the M1 leaving at junction 12.

I found the fishery easily enough and found myself in the car park a few minutes before it opened, a quick read through the extensive noticeboard, get the gear loaded and pull the willies on (it was a bit wet underfoot) and I was good to go.

The lake itself is a reasonable size, with 20-odd pegs and absolutely packed with features. From the map on the website I fancied peg 23 fishing out to the island on the pole. However, when I got there it was clear that this was not such a good idea, the island was only about 5 metres away and shipping back looked a challenge, so I set off further around the lake settling on peg 13/14.

What attracted me to this peg was the island a long pole range, an extensive inlet margin on the right and the dozen small carp sat on the top.

The bottom was fairly even across from the edge of the platform out to 11 metres it was an even 3 foot or so, then it rose up steadily to about half that tight to the island. However, the sight of a pole float tethered tight to the island suggested the tight was not necessarily a good thing. 

So, I decided to start just short of the island on the pole, large expander pellet style and see what happened, I might have a look at the far right margin at some point, but shipping looked rather more complex than I would have liked due to a tree at 2 o’clock. I also flicked a few pellets at the carp – they melted away as expected but at least I was in a fishy corner (or at least I hoped I was).

Second put in and the float buried, but a 3oz roach was not the desired outcome. In fact another 5 similar roach that followed was not ideal before a stocky mirror of 12 ounce or so made it to the landing net.

After about 30 mins I pushed over to the island at 13 metres and again started getting touches on the float, and eventually a proper bite. Yellow no. 22 elastic streamed from the pole tip as at last I’d made contact. I gently applied some pressure as the fish (presumably a good carp) shot off away to the right side of the island towards a moorhen’s nest. In a second it was in the roots and the 0.15mm line parted. Bugger.

Re-rigged with 0.19mm line I pushed back out to the island – although it was shallow, so unlikely to hold a lot of fish at the same time, it might be good for another fish.

A few more knocks and another good fish on. This time I steered it clear of the island and it went left. And promptly shed the hook. Then it went quiet.

I alternated lines for a while, and fed tight with the cad pot and managed eventually to hook two more carp. Which both also shed the hook. It was clearly going to be one of those days.

Then, I hooked a good fish and the hook stayed in. I played it out gently, got the pole halfway back to keep it away from the island, when suddenly it swam round to the right and straight under the platform. Securely wedged (the hook had long since been transferred to the timber structure) I pulled for a break. It was 5-0 to the carp, and I hadn’t actually fished that badly.

I tried a few different things, picking up some more roach on smaller pellet and a couple more stockie carp, but a proper lump evaded me. Bites on the far side seemed to be a bit hit and miss so I thought I’d cut my losses and set up a dedicated roach line and switch between the two.

A size 16 hook and a soft 4mm or 6mm pellet produced a bite a chuck at 6 metres and more immaculate roach followed.  After 10 roach I tried the far line again – a few quick bites but no carp, then back to the roach. And so it continued for a little while.

Every now and again there was proper bubbling on the roach line, but these looked a little like skimmer bubbles so I let in run.

I was finally hooked a decent fish on the island line (a tench of about a pound and a half) when the owner wandered round the lake and we had a chat. He was extremely helpful in understanding the water, the pegs and the best tactics to use and also confirming there were no skimmers in the lake (maybe two, but no more) so the bubbles might well be carp.

To cut a long story short, I carried on alternating lines and eventually hooked a 5lb mirror carp on the roach line. It led me a pretty dance on no. 10 elastic, but was netted without too much drama. The bubbles continued, so I decided to drop in a proper carp rig (to keep the roach at bay) and see what would happen.

Well, an hour later and I’d had a few knocks, a lot of bubbles, but no fish with neither big pellet nor paste doing any good.

So mid-afternoon, I called it quits. It had been a frustrating day – I suspect the low temperatures and the fact that the carp were yet to spawn were major factors in the day. This is definitely a venue that could deliver a great day out, but not on an unusually cold day in May.

On balance however, the fishery was well worth a visit, tucked away, it’s a mature lake with loads of features and fantastically conditioned fish. The owner is clearly a keen angler passionate about his venue and extremely knowledgeable about every peg and tactic. I can see me going back at some point.

Catch List:

Common Carp 1

Mirror Carp 4

Roach 50

Total weight 20lb