River dove (Ellastone)

Went down to elastone tonight, I really enjoy this strech of water and have got to know where the trout hang out!
The river was in great condition with just a little bit of colour, there was a big hatch on of small black flys which the fish were preocupied on,
The fish were not having a go at any of my flys until i put on a size 20 klinkhammer type fly which did the trick, i caught 8 grayling and 6 trout all which were small but produced very good sport.
I have seen a very good sized brownie in a certain spot that will never take my fly on lots of previous occasions, tonight i hooked it and it fought harder than anything i have ever hooked only for the hook to pull after 5 min!! Gutted, i never even got to see the fish as it was driving deep.
I will be back again to have another go at him.
I have just started to tye my own flys so this was a great feeing to catch all these fish on my own tyed fly!

Glen

27/08/08 - Rolfs Lake

Weight – 19lb 8oz

Catch – 3 Carp, 1 Perch.

Weather – Warm, hazy sun.

Water temp – 19.0c > 19.0c

Match – Open.



In preparation for the forthcoming qualifier of the Total Fishing Championship, I decided a practice session was in order. Having never seen the venue before I needed a feel for the place.



In preparation for the forthcoming qualifier of the Total Fishing Championship, I decided a practice session was in order. Having never seen the venue before I needed a feel for the place.



I met Mark & Nick in the car park, which was situated next to a very well presented lake. The 3 of us took a walk around the lake and there was loads of fishing topping. I was surprised not to see more colour in the water, but I was assured the colour was normal, since the lake was spring fed.



My peg was 23, one away from Mondays winning peg 22. I fed steadily in the margins and planned to target here later in the match. I started at 6m on paste, feeding only via a tosspot. An hour in, I hadn’t caught anything, despite a few liners and a swim resembling a jacuzzi, which was frustrating and a little surprising.



I managed my 1st carp after 2hrs 40mins on meat from the margin. I nearly missed the bite, due to boredom. I kept rotating methods, managing a couple more carp. Fortunately I wasn’t the only one struggling, the anglers either side of me only caught 2 carp apiece.



The winning weights came from the other end of the big lake with 197lb winning. I came 10th out of 16 and the pegs I beat were on my bank, so it seemed obvious for what ever reason the fish weren’t in my part of the lake.



Sometimes the best sessions are those that you struggle in. I made the classic mistake of thinking I would catch over 100lb, when the reality is these carp are quite cute. Speaking to some of the regulars it transpired the carp were taking small baits, mostly punched meat, although you had to feed a lot to get the carps head down. Ultimately my 9pts of 6mms may not have been enough. The regulars fed 4mm and in higher quantities.



The positives from the session were the lake didn’t fish well at all. It appears the lake doesn’t take pressure, because there was a match on Saturday and Monday. With a more refined approach I am confident I would have caught more.

17/08/08 - Fishponds

Weight – 117lb 8oz
Catch – 14 Carp, 3 Bream.
Weather – Windy, showery start, then mostly sunny.
Water temp – 18.5c > 18.5c
Match – Club - 2nd

I finished this match, thinking what do I have to do to a win at the moment? I’m fishing with confidence, got some good section results and frames, but no out right win.

Today was a club match, where 13 members turned up. Heavy overnight rain could make things interesting and a strong wind blowing into peg 1, meant many thought that Graham would walk the match.

My peg was 18 at the other, more sheltered end of the lake. I always fancy a few on paste at this lake and that was my main attack. Kev, who is one of the best anglers in the club, was on peg 20 to my right

My main swim was 11m to my left at the bottom of the shelf in front of peg 17. Due to the heavy overnight rain, I decided on a cautious approach. Therefore I fed a few 8 & 11mm pellets via a tosspot, with my paste, every put in. It wasn’t long before I started to catch, as was Kev who was matching me fish for fish.

2hrs in, I had a slight lead over Kev and felt I leading overall, but I began to have dodgy middle part of the match. Thoughout I tried the margins, I did catch 1 on 11mm pellet, but then lost a couple, which trashed my rigs. I then couldn’t get a bite over my main swim and when I did I seemed to foul hook a couple. The final insult was I landed a fish on a new rig, next put in I got a bite and when I struck there was no rig attached.

Whilst I was struggling, Kev kept catching and with 2hrs left (of a 6hr match) was 4 or 5 carp ahead of me. I had also noted Roger on peg 13 started catch well.

Time to really concentrate! I felt my main swim needed an injection, so a cup of pellet went in and this seemed to help and I started to catch again. More importantly I was catching Kev.

On the whistle I landed my final fish, but thought Kev had beaten me. In the end Kev weighted 121lb 13oz, which was a lot closer than I thought. Roger was 3rd from peg 13 with 90lb. The surprise of the day was Graham on peg 1 who struggled and finished DNW.

I was pleased with the weight, which normally would be good enough to win here, but I was also disappointed with the middle part of the match, where I fished like a muppet and feel I should have won.

16/08/08 - Bullock Farm - Rushcombe Lake

Weight – 43lb 14oz
Catch – 152 Carp
Weather – Windy, cloudy and odd shower.
Water temp – 17.0c > 17.5c

Took 11 year old Chaz fishing. Decided Rushcombe Lake at Bullock Farm would be the ideal place to catch a few and get him used to landing and unhooking fish by himself.

This was my first time fishing this lake, but knew it held loads of small carp. Today would also serve to be a good preparation for the Veals Winter League in October.

My initial plan of attack was to fish at 3m on the deck, fishing over groundbait and then the fish the bottom of the far shelf at 11m, feeding 4mm expander and corn.

I started at 3m, but soon found myself messing around with elastics and rigs. Eventually settling on a 16 B911 under a 0.1g caster float, fishing 6ins deep attached to a no. 6 elastic. A small dryish nugget of groundbait was immediate attacked by hordes of goldfish. Double maggot seemed to be best and I quickly caught a colourful bag of fish.

Chaz in the meantime was also catching a few on the waggler, including a few bigger carp up to 12oz, as was I.

After a couple of hours I wanted to try the far bank. Again, initially I tried fishing on the deck, but after 10 mins it became obvious this wasn’t going to happen. More messing about with the rig and I eventually settled on fishing tight to the far bank fishing in 1ft of water. A kinder pot if 4mm expanders and corn, every other put in, saw me catch proper carp in the 4-12oz bracket. Corn seemed to be the best bait, expanders just weren’t durable enough.

The better fish were definitely on the far side, but it was obvious there was a lot of smaller fish to be caught close in.

10/08/08 - Stafford Moor - Tanners

Weight – 39lb 5oz
Catch – 7 Carp
Weather - Mostly bright, but windy.
Water temp – 19.0c > 19.0c
Match – Stafford Maniac Final – 12th overall

The 14 man final and £2000 for the winner. I drew peg 8.

At the draw names were drawn from a hat to decide on the order. I was number 9 and during the draw I had been keeping a mental note of the pegs left. Fortunately peg 13 had gone, but unfortunately the favourite pegs 3 & 36 had already gone, as had my peg from yesterday peg 18, which I fancied another bash at. When it was my turn, pegs 9 & 11 were still in the bag, but alas I had to settle on peg 8, which was a disappointment.

This peg can throw up us some weights, but recent form suggested I could be in for a struggle.
There was a strong wind, blowing right to left and I felt the only way to catch would be on the lead and possibly the pole down the edge. I also set up a pellet waggler in case the wind dropped.

Coming into the final, I felt confident and bizarrely this is largely down to the recent credit crunch. Rather than spending loads on bait and trying to cover all options, I have settled on mostly targeting carp and being more single minded in my approach.

However, law of averages says you going to blow out at some point and my time had arrived in this match.

After an hour I knew I wasn’t winning anything. Pegs 3 & 36 were sacking, peg 9 & 11 were also catching. I tried everything, fishing past the bar, between the island, on top of the bar and in front, but I could only pick odd fish.

Hugely disappointing, because I would have liked to have at least put in a challenge. In the end I don’t think anyone was going to beat Dave Wykes from peg 3, which has been the form peg recently. Simon Jones on peg 36 ran him close and Rory on peg 13 did really well (although I would never admit it to his face – I never hear the end it).

At the draw, as soon as Dave drew peg 3, I felt no one would beat him. The weather conditions and the peg perfectly suited his style of fishing.

Fishing with kev in bank high water!

Hitting the wild again

Pure wild brown trout stream

Went to a brook/stream around the winking man area tonight,
I asked a local farmer i knew if he would let me fish a section i had seen,
This stream is pure wild with lots of trouty features, there is a pool every 10 metres that looks to hold wild brown trout,
I fished with a adams for most ofthe night and caught around 12 brown trout all were very small as the photo shows but were wild as they come,
I must admit i enjoyed catching these small fish as much as the bigger fish i have caught recently, there is something special about catching wild trout that have never seen a hook.
If anyone fancys a trip to here let me know as the sport is great with exellent senery, there also might be the odd wild clunker around.
Thanks Glen

Will Be Back Soon

Actually, I wish I was going fishing, but the reality is I'm moving. So for the next week or so I probably will not get a post up. As soon as we are settled I'll go fishing and let you all know what the new waters are like. I am also working on a post about prawning Fiji style and a post on how to service a spinning real. I'll take one apart, clean it and put it back together, all with pictures and comments.

In the mean time please visit my friends blogs on my blog roll. They will appreciate it.

Tight lines and screaming drags

09/08/08 – Stafford Moor - Tanners

Weight – 85lb 2oz
Catch – 17 Carp.
Weather – Wet, wet, wet.
Water temp – 19.0c > 19.0c
Match – Staffo-maniac qualifier – 8th overall, 1st in section

As usual with big matches, I am like a little kid at Christmas waking before the alarm. On this occasion I was up at 4am and on my way by 5.45am, arriving ½ hour before the 8am draw.

Everything was prepared, except some pole rigs, but with plenty of time to set up I reasoned any pole rigs could be made up to suit the peg. To qualify for Sunday’s 14 man final I needed to be in the top 2 of my section and 79 anglers had booked in.

I drew peg 18 on Tanners, which meant my 11 man section was between pegs 13 and 30. Anglers in my section included Matt Parsons (who came 2nd in last years final by 1lb), Dave Stockton, Harry Billing, Steve Lockett, Simon Hembridge, Ray Hayward, plus a few others whose names I didn’t know.

To be fair, I quite fancied my peg if the fish were there. It was in a corner and at the opposite end of the normal flyers on the "lawns" and the 30’s. There is a tree on the right hand bank and the branches extend a long way across a channel where a fresh water spring runs in.

As I was setting up there were a few fish moving under the branches, so I was hopeful of catching a few.
As it happened I was speaking to angler, whilst waiting to draw who had fished peg 18 the day before and he lost a few fish under the branches. With this in mind I set 2 pole rigs straight though to .19, size 14 hook, hair rigging 11mm pellet. The 2 rigs were simply to accommodate the difference in depth from the mouth of the channel to the shallower water further up the channel.

I also set up a lead rod, a pellet waggler and a full depth waggler, to fish further along the right hand bank, but I didn’t expect to catch on the float due to the incessant rain and wind, although I was largely sheltered from the worst of it. I also set up 3 spare pole rigs in anticipation of losing a few.

I started immediately under the tree, without feeding, hoping to catch an early mug fish, but had nothing, so I was soon switching to the lead fishing along the bank. An hour in I’ve got 1 carp. At the half way stage, Andy came along and according to him my 5 carp was good, although someone in my section was admitting to 6 or 7 carp an hour before hand and I knew Ray on peg 13 had caught a few.

The problem I had was to fish my peg properly, I had to turn my back to the rest of the lake, so I really didn’t know what was happening, but Andy reckoned 15-20 carp would do today, so my target was 15.

I kept trying the lead and occasionally the waggler, further along the right hand bank, but I had very few indications and I found myself concentrating more and more on the pole. I had left the shallower swim further up the channel alone, because I wanted the fish to settle in the shallower water and it appeared to be working.

Fishing further up the channel meant I had to get the fish away from the snags quickly and throwing 14m of pole behind me into open water, which made things a little tricky.

Going into the last hour I felt was probably 3rd. I had abandoned the lead swim, which had only produced 3 carp, preferring to concentrate on the 2 channel swims and occasionally trying the near margin. There was certainly a few fish around now, particularly in the shallow water, but they weren’t feeding properly and I was suffering a number of line bites, but importantly I was still catching the odd one. In the last 15mins, 3 carp found their way into the net.

In the minutes after the match, the most fish anyone was admitting to in my section was 14, I had 17, but was concerned that a few of my carp were below the average stamp, so I may still struggle to qualify.

Dave Stockton weighed 77lb, which I thought would win, Ray on peg 13 was admitting to 13/14 carp, but I thought he had more. My 1st net containing 10 fish went 45lb, my 2nd net containing 7 carp weighed 40lb. With only peg 13 to weigh in, I had qualified! Question was would I be 1st or 2nd in section. Ray weighed 71lb much to Dave Stockton’s relief.

I was really pleased to have qualified. In hindsight you could say I timed the match perfectly, effectively qualifying in the last 15 mins.

Sky Watch Friday

Welcome to Sky Watch Friday. For more sky images from around the world visit Sky Watch.

Hole in the Sky

My place from the air

River Dove

03/08/08 – Stafford Moor - Tanners

Weight – 88lb 2oz
Catch – 14 Carp, 4 Bream, 3 Roach.
Weather – Cloudy, breezy, warm start. Rain later.
Water temp – 20.5c > 20.0c
Match – Open – 11th overall, 3rd in section

I decided to fish the open at Stafford Moor, fished on Tanners and Woodpecker to practice for next weeks Staffo Maniac weekend.

Peg 5 on Tanners was OK, however it hasn’t shown any recent form, although I was confident of catching a few I felt I could be struggling to win any money. Peg 5 is also a bit of jinx peg for me, I never seem to do very well off it. I had the end of the island to target, but the problem was there was a number of snags, plus any hooked carp either went around the island or dived behind the bar shredding your line.

The previous day I have tied loads of hook lengths so at least I was fully prepared. Rig wise I had set up 2 pellet wagglers, 1 skud, a lead rod and finally a margin pole rig.

90 minutes into the match I had 1 carp & 1 skimmer, both on the tip and I was beginning to wonder if it was going to be 1 of those days. I had lost 3 carp, which broke me on the bar, and I lost a couple of hook lengths on the snags – frustrating times.

I had to concentrate on the lead, because the wind was quite strong and the fish didn’t seem to want the pellet waggler, despite varying the depth. I kept feeding 8mm pellet and eventually I started to pick up fish. As soon as I hooked a carp, I had to hold the rod high to ensure I didn’t lose any fish on the bar.

In the last 2 hours the rain came down and kept coming. The only good news was the wind had dropped and I managed to catch a few late on the waggler, but I had to cast tight to the island to get a bite. At least I had an opportunity to practice my casting.

As for my margin line, it only produced 3 roach on 11mm pellet!

At the end of the match, I knew I wouldn’t frame. James Cooper on peg 3, which was the form peg and today’s golden peg worth £300. James had caught well throughout the match on the tip, however a 4lb carp jumped out of his net, which James felt would cost him. Pegs, 34, 35 and 36 had all caught well and from what I could see peg 36 would be James biggest challenger.

James was the last to weigh in (peg 1 did not weigh). I was surprised to weigh as much as I did and so far only peg 11 was beating me for the section. Top weight on the lake was peg 36 with 150lb. James weighed 148lb, so that lost carp cost James £300. Fair shout to him, he took it really well (on the outside anyway).

As for my match, I was disappointed to lost fish the way I did, but when I held the rod high on the strike, I didn’t lose any more. My weight was the best from peg 5 in the 2 months, so really pleased with that.

Confidence is high – just hope for a decent draw next weekend.

Wolf Herring and Trevally

Well the fishing has been a bit slow. I think this is due to the water tempeture being very cool and me not having a motor to troll deep divers. This lack of motor problem is getting to be a pain in the catch rate. Ok, enough complaining and on to the fishing.
Rosie and I headed out the other day for what was promising to be a beautiful day fishing. There was almost no breeze and the sky was cloudless. After almost an hour of fishing and not even a bite our hopes were being dashed. Being the mad anglers we are, we fished on keeping up the chatter to pass the fishless morning.
We were cruising along a nice sandy drop off with a weed bed in the shallows and some coral heads in the deep when a school of Wolf herrings decided to break up our casting practice.
If you have never seen one of these you can count yourself lucky. The Fijians call them belts because they are long and wide but have no thickness to them, like a belt. They are full of bones and have the nastiest set of teeth I have ever seen. With two fangs pointing almost straight out of their mouth and all the rest of the teeth needle sharp, it is handle with care. Their mouths do not open very far so they tend to throw themselves at your lures. I have never caught one in the mouth, always in the body or face. Once hooked they do put up a good fight with light tackle.
After catching a few Wolf herrings the fishing went quiet again. We were back to casting practice.
Maybe an hour or more later Rosie had a Trevally showing a bit of interest in her surface popper. Unfortunately it was not biting just playing. I was throwing a deep diver and asked her if she would mind if I had a cast at her fish, she said go ahead so I did and caught a nice size Trevally. Luckily I asked before I cast otherwise I would be in deep trouble for stealing a fish.
Not long after that we started to have electric motor problems so it was a beeline back to the shore. At least we had dinner and I got a picture for you all to see.

Fast forward three days to today and the weather has turned a little cloudy with sprinkles. Rosie went to town for a few days so I decided to go wading and see what I could catch. It did not take long and I was hooked into a really nice Trevally. With coral all around, this fish had me chest deep in the water. With my drag screaming and line melting away it made four really nice runs before I could get the upper hand. Finally I led it to the shallows and got a hold of its tail. A beauty of a fish tipping the scales at over 3kg and me with no one around but the dog. Sorry for the picture on the grass but I have not trained my dog to take good pictures yet.

Tight lines and screaming drags

River Dove Ellastone (again!)

Went for another go on the ellastone strech again, this river is only fifteen mins away from home and is the best river i have fished so far, its has everything in the short strech it runs also being a lovely spot to be in, being used to living in stoke! these places are a joy to be in.
The fishing was hard tonight, the river was slightly up and coloured due to the previous nights rain, rises were still in the abundance but i had trouble getting any takes and went through my fly box.
I noticed that most trout were coming clean out the water taking flys, but dont know what these fish were taking, due to my inexperience.
Around half eight i let a adams run down stream of me in the top section, a very small take and lifted the rod into a fish which seemed to be very small, then the fish started to thrash in the same spot for a good 10 seconds, i thought this was another fish until the drag on my reel ripped off, the fish made a long downstream dart. The fish made at least 6 heavy darts for snags, i ended up with a lump of weed on my line which nearly lost me the fish,
In the end i landed a rainbow of the upper 2lb mark and this goes down as my best fighting fish of season so far.
I also caught a nice brown of half a pound from near the bridge at dusk to end another great night but while taking a picture it jumped out my hand into he river!

Thanks Glen

27/07/08 – Fishponds

Weight – 258lb 7oz
Catch – 33 Carp, 3 Bream.
Weather – Hot & sunny.
Water temp – 22.0c > 22.0c

A busy social weekend catching up with some friends meant my fishing trip was limited to an evening session.
I decided on a simple day, fishing paste and settled on peg 16 which is a usually productive corner peg. When I arrived in the afternoon, it was hot and still, with carp just cruising around on the surface, so I wasn’t sure whether they would feed straight away.

I settled on a single paste rig, made up of .19 line straight though to a 12 carp feeder hook, fishing in 5 foot of water just past the marginal shelf and an open water swim slightly to my right.

The session started better than anticipated and most of my fish came from the left margin with a few fish from my open water swim, when I wanted to rest the margins. During the 1st half of the session I lost a few fish, mainly due to being lightly hooked, it wasn’t until later the carp started to feed properly and the number of loses reduced.

As I started to catch consistently I was feeding a handful of 8mm pellet in both swims whilst playing each fish, which allowed a short period for the fish to settle again over the baited area.

1st hr = 44lb, 2nd hr = 30lb, 3rd hr = 38lb, 4th hr = 46lb, 5th hr = 53lb 5½hr = 47lb.

The fishing just got stronger and stronger as the session progressed and I ended up finishing slightly early after a carp dived underneath my platform, trashing my rig. It was starting to get dark and I was more than happy with my day.

The carp do run on the big side and my catch included 5 doubles up to 12lb 10oz, which means it doesn’t take long to build a good weight. However 258lb is now a personal best weight, beating my previous best of 230lb from Stafford Moor.