28/03/09 - Lands End - Match Lake

Weight – 11lb 6oz
Catch – 5 Roach, 4 Rudd, 3 Perch, 1 Carp, 1 Ide, 1 Bream, 1 Tench.
Weather – Mostly sunny, showers, blustery.
Water Temp– 10.0c > 10.5c
Match – Open – 10th overall

Not much to write about here. Today’s match was a bit of a non event, I was hoping for a nice easy day catching carp & silvers on pellet.

So I wasn’t too pleased to draw peg 18, it hasn’t showed any recent form and all Alan Oram could say was it was rancid!

And how right he was. I concentrated on the pellet, fishing over micros, but struggled for bites. I even tried caster, looking for some silvers, but only managed small roach & rudd.

Instead I had to watch Anton on peg 16 & Mike West on peg 13 sacking up. Anton won with 74lb, whilst Mike was 2nd 69lb which include 25lb of tench, skimmers & perch. At least someone had a good day!

My only highlight of the day was the personal best Ide of 2lb 8oz on pellet.

22/03/09 - Lands End - Sydneys Lake

Weight – 14lb 2oz
Catch – 14 Bream, 10 Roach, 7 Carp, 2 Rudd.
Weather – Bright & sunny, breezy.
Water Temp– 11.5c > 11.5c
Match – Lands End Winter League rd7 – 19th overall, 5th in section

I don’t normally get home in a mood after a match, but to be honest I was gutted after a difficult day, because I realised my chances of finishing in the top 7 were now remote.

Today I was on Sydney’s lake, which is the shallowest (2½-3ft) of the lakes at Lands End and I was looking forward to plenty of bites from stockie carp and silvers. When it was my turn to draw, the 2 best pegs (74 & 94) on the lake were still in, however I found myself on peg 84 at the other end of the lake. Initially I was pleased, although I managed to find myself in the section of "death" with Rod Wootton (8th in the league), Mike Duckett (3rd) and Nicky Collier (2nd).

Peg 84 is an end peg, so at least I had a chance of doing well. Peg 94 wasn’t drawn, which meant Nicky on peg 92 was now the end peg and with the wind blowing into that end of the lake, I fancied him to win the section. My peg on the other hand was sheltered and flat calm, which in the very bright conditions was a concern.
As the match started, surprisingly bites were hard to come by for everyone, but I managed a few small carp, plus 3oz skimmers on expanders at 14m at 12 o’clock and 11 o’clock. I had been feeding micros & 4mm pellet, via a tosspot. I found it best to feed 1 swim then fish the other, continually rotating. I tried maggot but only caught tiny roach, so I struck with fishing pellet, hoping for carp, but was frustrated with small skimmers plucking at the bait giving false bites

I also kept flicking 4mm pellet down the right hand bank, catching my 2 best carp on pellet, but the margin was only a foot deep and persuading any carp to stay was proving difficult, particularly in the flat conditions.
At the half way stage I was holding my own and actually fancied my chances on coming 2nd. However with 2 hours to go, the wheels started to fall off my match. I knew Nicky on the end would win the section, but Mike Duckett started to catch after only catching a few roach in the 1st 2 hours, as was Phil Cooper next to him.

I could have stuck with catching the silvers, but they weren’t weight builders, therefore I needed carp. As well as the bright flat conditions, my problem was the end peg opposite, which hadn’t been drawn. Any carp that hadn’t followed the wind had sulked away into peg 83 opposite. I had set up a waggler & managed 1 carp, plus a few silvers, but the carp had moved too far into the peg and I had to be careful about casting too far and infringing with Mike West on peg 81.

With an hour to go Rod had a good 45 minute spell overtaking me and I was now desperate for a carp, however I simply couldn’t get a bite. At the all out, I knew I had blown it. I kept wondering if I could have done any better. If I struck with the pole and tried to draw the fish to me, rather than chasing them with the waggler, may have worked. However I had switched to the waggler, because I couldn’t catch carp on the pole, although 2 lost carp in a 15 minutes spell probably didn’t help.

Overall I only picked up 2 points from 6 and as a consequence slipped to 9th overall. This is also the 5th match without a pick up, which is my worse run this season. Just feel I’m not getting the rub of the green at moment. I don’t think I am fishing badly and catching 91lb at my local lake yesterday demonstrated that. With 1 round left I need at least a section 2nd to get back into the top 7.

1st Adrian Clarke 41pts
2nd Nicky Collier 37
3rd Anton Page 33 (244-7)
4th Andy France 33 (142-2)
5th Mike Duckett 32
6th Rod Wootton 30
7th Alan Oram 29 (202-0)
8th Kev Molton 29 (140-10)
9th Ken Rayner 29 (106-0)

It's been a long time

It's been a long time since we went fishing. Luckily it is like riding a bike you never forget, especially after the first bite.

Rosie and I took out our little tinny for some exploratory fishing.

The morning was looking very promising, so we headed out to a reef nearby. Now when I say nearby I mean maybe 5 miles or so by water.

Just as we get to the reef the westerlies start blowing and the swell starts swelling and our little tinny starts bobbing around like a cork. That signals the end of deep water fishing so we find a little cut in the reef and end up fishing about a 200 meter stretch all day.

The area looked fishy enough and and it was not to rough.

We start our drift and start fishing. It was not more than two minutes when there is a huge splash on my popper. Line starts to peal away slowly and I can feel the weight of the fish. After what seems hours, but really seconds the fish realizes that it

is hooked and takes off. Now I am using 30lb braid and my drag is tight and line is melting away like I am in free spool. Almost at the same time Rosie has the same thing happen to her. Luckily for me her fish throws the hooks allowing her to start the motor and give chase. After a good five minutes the giant whatever (pretty sure a GT) finds his way to the coral and wins it's freedom.

After that start it was pretty much fish on or a really visual surface strikes with every pass.

We took a few home to eat and let a lot go to fight another day.

I had hoped these fishing grounds would prove to be good and so far I am very impressed. Considering the water depth was maybe 2 meters at the most and the biggest fish in the boat was 5kg, I am happy.

Here's a few photos of some of the fish, hope you enjoy.

A Long Nose Emperor

From Mar 18, 2009

Rosie with a nice Coral Trout

From Mar 18, 2009

A Bluefin Trevally

From Mar 18, 2009

Nice big Jack

From Mar 18, 2009

From Mar 18, 2009

Tight lines and screaming drags

River Dove Ellastone 19/03/09

My first bash of the season, went to ellastone on the drac strech, only managed to get a coulpe of hours in but the weather was lovely and could not resist to thrash the water for a bit, quite a few flys coming off, think they were olives, not many rises but the odd few from grayling, took a nice out of season grayling of around a pound on a small black F fly, it was a aggressive take from grayling and come clean out the water to take my fly, i had one more take but missed it,
The buzz i get from fishing dry fly and seeing the take is what its all about for me, cant wait to get out again,
Will be off to the churnet next week for them wildies i hope!

Glen

Something in the works

I have been going over some ideas for a new branding for XstreemFishing.Com. After racking my brain I came up with some ideas. The reality is I needed some help with the design and graphics.

I decided to get help by way of Nick Hannan of Marine Graphics Ink . I liked his work and gave him a shout about my ideas. He said he could help me and I agreed.

Now you must be wondering why in the world would someone want to spend money on a blog that is free. Well you are right, why would you?

That's why I will be launching a new website with my old blog. This new website will be to promote my fishing guide business that will officially open in June. Fingers crossed.

I also have ideas for shirts, hats and other sundries.

As you have seen, my new boat will be the platform for this new venture plus a whole lot of new and latest gear.

If you have any graphic design needs check out Nick at Marine Graphics Ink.

You will see his handy work here soon enough, but so far I love what he has given me as a preliminary sketch.

Stay tuned for more.

Tight lines and screaming drags

Cant wait for the Dry!!

Not done much fishing over the winter due to being shite at nymph fishing, but now the flys are starting to hatch i have that buzz again to get back on the rivers, will be starting my fishing on the river churnet in alton, this place is a dream setting to fish and the trout are as wild as they come,
Will keep my posts coming on here soon.
Tight lines

Glen

14/03/09 - Lands End - Match Lake

Weight – 13lb 0oz
Catch – 24 Perch, 16 Roach, 3 Rudd, 1 Crucian, 1 Bream.
Weather – Windy and sunny.
Water Temp– 10.0c > 10.0c
Match – Open – 11th overall.

You can tell spring is on its way, as well as the water temperature increasing, so are the match attendance’s. 17 turned up for today and Mike decided to put everyone on Match Lake.

I was looking forward to catching some carp today, but peg 8 is probably 1 of the worse on the lake, particularly with pegs 6 & 10 in. If I wanted a days fishing it was likely I needed to fish for silvers.

Normally along this bank, I would fish under a spare platform, however with every other peg in, meant I would be competing with the next anglers for the platforms. So I was thrilled to see Nicky Collier, who is an excellent silver fish angler on peg 6 and Andy France on peg 10. I wasn’t going to have an easy day after all.

Although I didn’t except too many carp, I still put in some micro pellet at the bottom of the shelf, flicking 4mm over the top, just is case a few did turn up. As for my silvers line, caster went down the bottom the near shelf towards peg 9, 5m slightly to my left and tight to the far side.

After 15mins, I didn’t have a bite on the pellet, so I switched to the 5m line, which only produced small roach & perch. Nick however had caught the same number of fish as me, but they were pound plus ide!

Time to try the far side, toss potting caster. I stayed on this line for over an hour, catching mostly perch up to 1½lb on caster.

Half way into the match, I was up to 30 fish for about 8lb, but the wind was increasing in strength and cutting across me more, which meant presenting the bait, as well as holding the pole at 14m, was becoming more difficult.

I felt I was level with Nick and Andy wasn’t far behind either, however it become obvious we were away from the carp, since most of them were being caught down the windward end of the lake. I had continued to feed my 5m & right hand margin line with caster, as well as keeping the 4mm going in over my pellet line. Surprising I only caught a few fish from my 5m line and only a few from the margin swim.

With an hour to go, things had slowed, not just for me, but also those around me. I decided to give up on the far side and concentrate in the near side. A change of tact was required, so 2 handfuls of maggot & caster went in at the bottom of the left margin shelf, hoping for a couple of late tench, plus I put a little caster in on top of the near shelf.

15mins to go I had managed a 1½lb crucian, a pound perch and a few bites, but was struggling for bites again. I was slightly ahead of Nick, but 2 late tench meant he won the silvers with 17lb. The top 3 for the match came from windy end of the lake, apparently there was loads of carp boshing on the end island opposite pegs 2 & 23.

After much mickey taking during the weigh in Nick was good enough to say I fished a good match, it was just a crap peg. If peg 10 wasn’t in, I would have definitely caught more, however that’s now 4 matches without a pick up, which is my worse run so far at Lands End. I was actually 4oz away from picking up 2nd in silvers by double default!

If you can't go fishing then watch them

I have to say aquarium's are really cool. Wherever I go, if there is an aquarium, I will find my way there. Especially if I can't go fishing.

Seeing fish underwater and up close in something that resembles the wild is definitely an educational experience.

Being and avid angler and sometimes a bit mad about fishing I relish the chance to learn anything I can about my prey. Besides the modern day shark tubes are really cool and the petting pools are definitely a major draw.

I think we were in there for 3-4 hours. Me holding everybody up for "just one more minute".

If fish had a way of capturing us and watching to learn how to avoid the hook, I think they would.

So with that being said, here is a short video of the Melbourne Aquarium.

You can't pet the fish but you can have a look.

Tight lines

08/03/09 - Lands End - Johns Lake

Weight – 29lb 14oz
Catch – 8 Perch, 5 Carp, 2 Roach, 1 Bream, 1 F1
Weather – Very windy, sunny periods, heavy showers & hail.
Water Temp– 9.0c > 9.0c
Match – Lands End Winter League rd 6 – 10th overall, 5th on lake, 3rd in section

Who would be a fishery owner? There are some proper whingers about, who think they know best and like to tell everyone else how things should be run, but they never take on the responsibility themselves. As a match organiser myself, I felt for Mike who was getting some stick for events outside his control.

Today’s match clashed with 2 others, Viaducts teams of 5 and Ray Coopers Bullocks Farm series. The Viaduct league doesn’t really impact on this series, however Ray’s Bullocks series does. Unfortunately a small number of anglers decided to fish Bullocks Farm, not sure why, because Lands End is a far better a fishery. Mike had managed to fill all except 6 spaces for today, however by the end of the draw a total of 5 anglers didn’t turn up, possibly due to the forecast bad weather, which meant 11 space pegs.

For those anglers filling in, they had a random draw of the pegs left over. As it turned out, it meant that league leader Adrian Clarke was in a section of 2, instead of 6! When your lucks in, it’s in. This situation of course meant some were unhappy, which is understandable, but rather than ranting about how things should have been run, they should be asking why the no shows didn’t turn up.

Back to my match. With the forecast weather being very unpleasant, fishing an exposed Johns Lake was going to be difficult. Ideally I wanted an end of lake peg, however peg 51 found its way in to hand. Not an ideal draw to maintain a push in the league, particularly with pegs 41, 42 & 55 being the better pegs in my section.
Looking at recent past results peg 51 has never won a section, in fact over the winter league series peg 51 has been the 4th worse peg on the lake.

As the match started the wind was off my back, so at least I could fish the island. A small amount of micro pellet was cupped in at 12m, plus a half pot 14m to my right. I started next to the island on corn, feeding nothing hoping for an early carp, but after 10 mins I had no indications.

1st put in at 12m with pellet and 10 minutes later a 4lb carp was safely landed, another 10 minutes later a 3lb bream also found its way into my net. A further 10 minutes later I was attached to a munter, after playing it to the net the hook pulled! Doh!

At this point I was disappointed, but these things happen and I was catching. Well I thought I was catching, but after losing that carp I didn’t have another bite for nearly 3 hours (in a 6 hour match). Whether the wind switching from blowing off my back to blowing left to right was the reason, but the heavy rain/hail showers certainly made life very uncomfortable.

The end and more sheltered peg 55 had got off to a flyer, landing 5 or 6 carp in the 1st hour, whilst peg 42 also had a couple of carp. I felt things slipping away after an initially strong start and with only 2 hours left I only had 2 fish for about 7lb.

Unlike yesterday I was at a lose what to do next, there just didn’t seem to any fish around and kept telling myself to be patient. I kept rotating swims, even trying the lead and hair rigged corn. I couldn’t even get a bite on my silvers rig and single maggot.

I was beginning to get a little desperate. Following another rotation of swims, I came back to my right hand margin, which I had been feeding with caster and 4mm pellet. Instead of pellet or corn on the hook I tried double red maggot and the float buried. Unfortunately it was a micro perch. Oh well at least it was life and 3 more "wasps" quickly followed before I hooked a carp. After a lengthy battle a very feisty 8lber was landed. Next put in a foulhooker made a successful bid for freedom straightening my hook in the process.

I had also started pinging 4mms to the point of the island opposite peg 50 and another chuck with the lead & hair rigged corn, the tip flew round and carp no 3 was landed. The rest of the match was spent swapping between the margin and the fishing the lead. The last hour was the best of the match and I needed an extra 30 minutes or so to mount a proper challenge for the section.

In the end I finished 3rd in the section. Dave Avery won my section and the match from peg 42 with 54-8, mostly carp down the edge. Peg 55 was 2nd in my section with 36-3, so another carp or 2 and I could have pinched 2nd.

Overall in the league, I managed to jump 1 place to 6th, but really cant afford any more slip ups or poor draws.

1st Adrian Clarke 35pts
2nd Nicky Collier 31
3rd Mike Duckett 29 (159-9)
4th Andy France 29 (115-4)
5th Anton Page 28 (207-15)
6th Ken Rayner 27
7th Kev Molton 26

07/03/09 - Lands End - Match Lake

Weight – 24lb 9oz
Catch – 5 Perch, 6 Roach, 4 Carp.
Weather – Mild, mostly cloudy, breezy.
Water Temp– 8.0c > 7.5c
Match – Open – 7th overall

Hindsight is a wonderful thing. If you could bottle it, it would be priceless.

17 anglers turned up today, which meant 2 would be on pegs 25 & 40 on Speci Lake. It also meant that every peg was in between 18 & 22, which I wanted to avoid.

I was happy to draw peg 13, which meant I would be largely sheltered from the forecast wind and there had been a few carp in the area recently.

As the match progressed, I became increasingly frustrated. First put in on corn towards the point of the island
I caught a carp, but I couldn’t catch another. So I switched to the left hand margin on caster hoping for silvers, which would boost my catch whilst I waited for the carp to show up. Surprisingly I struggled, only catching sporadically, including a 2lb perch and a 3lb carp on double caster.

To make things happen I dumped maggot & caster by the aerator, hoping for some tench, but this produced another carp on double maggot, but I simply couldn’t string any number of fish together.

My final carp came 45 mins from the end on pellet, towards the point of the island. But again, I couldn’t catch another, although I would have fully expected to catch at least 1 more before the end, but never did.

As for the hindsight, should I have just sat it out for carp? Although I finished 7th, I was only 9lb away from 3rd, so effectively 2 carp. Having said that, I would normally have expected to catch 10lb of silvers down the edge. I’ll have to put it down to a bad day at the office.

Jamie Dyke won the match from peg 7 with 95lb. Apparently there were loads of carp boshing in his peg as he arrived. Solid! Anton Page had 5 carp in the last hour from peg 6 to finish with 48lb & 2nd. Eric Fouracre was 3rd with 33lb from peg 15, which included 2 carp in the last 45mins. Frustrating.

06/03/09 - Lands End - Johns Lake

Weight – 55lb 11oz
Catch – 10 Carp, 5 Crucian, 2 F1, 2 Tench, 1 Bream, 1 Perch, 1 Roach.
Weather – Frosty start, becoming mild.
Water Temp– 8.0c > 8.0c


After last Sundays match, I didn’t feel I got it completely right on Johns Lake and with the next round of the Winter League on this lake, I needed a confidence boost.


The weather forecast for Sunday suggested there would be heavy winds and showers, which would mean the long pole could become redundant and the fishing the tip would be the way forward. I know Tony Rixon’s reads my blog, not to gain any advice you understand, but I can see his eyes rolling at the thought of fishing the tip at Lands End.


The potential issue fishing the tip on Johns Lake was as well as catching carp, there was also a large number delicate biting crucians, which I didn’t want to miss out on. I also made up some small PVA bags filled with micro pellet to test the response.



I had intended to fish either peg 41 or 42, since I know there are loads of crucians in the area, but on arrival there was already a couple of anglers in these pegs. I thought about fishing 68 or 70 opposite, but eventually settled on peg 58 at the other end of the lake.


With an overnight frost and a light easterly breeze blowing into this end of the lake, I was a little apprehensive whether there would be any carp in the area, however a 3lb carp 1st cast on the tip and double corn suggested I didn’t need to worry.


I set up 3 pole rigs, 1 to fish tight against the island, then 2 rigs to fish the deeper water, 1 with .11 bottom & 20 silverfish pellet hook and the other with .13 bottom & 18 B911.


4 swims were set up, tight the far island fed with micro pellet & corn, bottom of the shelf fed with micro pellet, 14m to my right in open water fed with 4mm pellet and right hand margin fed with caster & 4mm pellet. The tip would be fished to the far end of the lake.


Although I concentrated on the pole, I did have a few fish on the lead and was happy with a hair rig of .14 bottom & 18 B911. As for the pole swims, I had to continually rotate swims to keep the fish coming, never being able to catch more than 2 fish from any 1 swim. The interesting as well as encouraging point was I caught most of my carp on corn, using the heavy rig, which meant the carp weren’t quite as tackle shy as before. I caught most of my silvers on the lighter rig and pellet, which included a 3lb 12oz bream. My biggest fish of the day was a 9lb 15oz carp, tight to the island on corn. The 14m open water swim never produced anything of substance, which was a surprise.

Overall an enjoyable day and this is my best weight from Johns Lake so mission accomplished in terms of a confidence boost.

Boat update

So here is the latest update on my boat situation. My new one is still being built but as you can see the built in ice chests and dry storage are in as well as the rod holders and speakers. The T-top supports are in and the top frame is almost completed. The rear engine pod is on it's way from Florida and the engine is already here waiting to be installed on the pod. Most of the electronics are here just waiting on the Garmin 4210 with a 2kw transducer (look out fish). I am hoping to see a little more progress this next week as I have been turning the screws to the builders.

Now this is my old 14ft alloy that has been motorless for more than a year. I just bought a Suzuki DT30 for it. This is the first running of it. The old fellow is a good friend of mine and is giving it a good once over. You know these new fan-dangled motors are fancy and all. We took it for a test run today and boy does it have a lot of power. I am planning on doing some fishing in the coming week so hopefully there will be some pictures to show.

01/03/09 - Lands End - Johns Lake

Weight – 19lb 9oz
Catch – 9 Roach, 5 Perch, 3 Carp, 1 F1, 1 Rudd.
Weather – Mild. Bright, windy!
Water Temp– 9.0c > 9.5c
Match – Open – 8th overall.

I managed a 1st during the week when playing 5 a side football, I got sin binned for 5mins, giving the ref a little too much verbal! Which isn’t bad for a keeper. Just as well I don’t get so heated when fishing.

As for Johns Lake is becoming a bit of a bogey lake for me, so I really wanted to gain a bit of confidence before next Sundays Winter League round, however peg 61 wasn’t what I wanted.

As we where setting up the lake was like a mill pond and I set a couple of 4x10 & 4x12 rigs. On the all in a slight breeze picked up, but it was more than manageable. After 15mins everyone around me was catching except me, which was frustrating. After 30mins I managed my 1st fish, a 1lb F1 on corn, but was 2 carp behind those around me.

I was at least starting to get indications fishing next to the island and over the next 30 mins I landed 2 carp and lost 2 foulhookers. They also wanted feeding! So a good match was on the cards. However after 90mins the wind had really picked up to the point it was difficult to the pole at 14m and my light rigs were now redundant.

A heavier rig was set and although it improved presentation, holding the pole tight to the island was becoming a bit of a joke. I set up another swim at 10m, but never had anything from it.

On the basis I felt carp were feeding and moving around, I thought I would try the far side again, but this time feeding and fishing caster, instead of micro pellet. So at least I would get regular bites and hopefully I would pick up the odd carp. Unfortunately it didn’t happen that way. I caught a few silvers, but I had to wait too long for bites, even varying the depth didn’t help. Plus, by now my back was beginning to seriously hurt holding the pole in the wind.

My margins swims had failed to produce, so just for something to do and a little preparation for next weeks league match I set up a silvers swim at 5m feeding caster. I picked up mostly roach, plus a couple of perch up to a pound, but bites were slow. I did foul hook a carp, which I thought was a rogue fish, until 5 mins from the end I properly hooked another, which I managed to land 13mins after the all out on 6 elastic, .10 bottom & 22 hook, Food for thought next week.

As for the match, 3 anglers around me had packed up early, defeated by the wind. Anton & Adrian opposite had managed to keep going. Anton had a quick start to the match, whilst Adrian had a few fish down the edge when he couldn’t catch long.

Garry Wall won the match from peg 70 with 36lb, whilst Alan Oram was 2nd with 30lb from peg 41 opposite.

Recent Fishy Tales


Well Been fishing a few times recently and here is just a quick summary of what fish i have caught and also mates have caught when fishing with them.




2 weeks ago from now i had my biggest Pollack of 13lb,
which i beat last Saturday with this Pollack of 16lb.








Scott Johnston with this pollack of 16lb 2oz.

Sam Chapon had this cracking Pollack of 20lb 8oz: