Lords Bridge 'Cant match the Hatch'

Went to Lords bridge tonight late on, got there around eight, tackled up on the bridge and looked for rises, nothing really happening apart from the strech above..
Walked further down to the middle strech and saw Roger Bryant off the forum, had a quick chat and we decided the wade through together to see the rest of the nights fishing in,
He had been fishing for most of the day and said it had been hard going,and taken around 5/6 fish and been snapped by a good fish, i have noticed that most of our rivers are going through the motions at the min, i put it down to the Mayfly really, dont think the fish know whats going on yet, We must be in for some real good action soon.
We both fished the middle strech and found rises but we could not find a fly that consistantly worked, it drives me mad when i cant find the hatch, but thats what fly fishing is all about, when you find it you feel great..
We found that we were getting more success with smaller drys (20) but only seemed to pick fish up who were just having a smash at a different fly than the hatch?
We both took around 5 fish up the strech and i caught a decent sized beautiful churnet wildy, these fish are the the best looking trout i have seen and knock spots off the Dove browns(sorry for pun)
Had a good laugh with Roger and he shows the same enthusiasm for the game as me, we both swapped good advice, He is joining the Drac soon so will be enjoying some of there cracking rivers.
At the top of the strech we fished between the two cut stumps until dark, Roger says he never stays that late but he will now after he saw the magic 20 min rises before dark, Roger took a nice brown and lost a few, we could only hit a certain run with a downstream drift so it was hard to get a good presentation, We had a very good sized fish rising inbetween a snag, sendind a big ripple when its rose, Roger managed to get it go for his Iron Blue Dun 4 times but i think it was just touching it,
These big fish do really come out late on to feed, but they are still hard to catch..

A really enjoyable night spent with Roger, and will be going out again soon, Roger is posting me a picture he had taken so will will post it on my blog, I had a new hat on tonight that makes me look more of a twat than Alex's Hat on Kevs blog..(sorry Alex)


Thanks

Glen

28/05/09 - Rolfs Lake

Weight – 188lb 9oz
Catch – 28 Carp, 3 Roach, 1 Chub
Weather – Warm & sunny, slight breeze.
Water Temp– 18.0c > 18.0c
Match – Carp Vadar Invitation – 5th

Firstly I would like to say thank you to those who left messages of support on this blog and the Match Fishing Scene forum. It appears my last blog entry struck a cord with many and the latest MP expenses only services to make the general public angrier. Its ironic that those MPs, who heavily criticised the financial services industry for being greedy, have themselves got their own snouts in the trough.

Back to Rolfs. Mark was kind enough to invite me along to this match, which was an invitation match for Carp Vadar sponsored anglers, plus a few guests.

My record at this venue prior to this match is probably the worse in the country. I have been 3 times now, but only managed a top weight of 19lb 8oz! Mark reckons I have been really unlucky with my draws, so I was really hoping for a good draw today.

Following a couple of drops outs only 13 anglers were fishing, which mean plenty of room, however there was some very good anglers in attendance. The day started well when I drew peg 8. As the venue expert, Mark has had a good run of results here, so I listened to his advice, which was start at 16m across to the far bank, fishing on the deck, then fish by the bush to my left late on fishing pellet, but don’t bother with paste.

Another bit of advice, echoed by Nick was don’t use my N47 to fish the far bank, because I would be taking home more pieces than I arrived. This meant fishing my J27 at 16m and being a heavier pole I was just thankful I remembered my bump bar, because we are not all built like Tony Rixon!

As instructed I started on the far side, but after 90 minutes I only landed 4 carp, losing a further 4. It became obvious there was plenty of fish in the swim, but I was struggling to get their heads down. Part of the problem I wasn’t sure I was feeding enough by cupping in, the other issue was the pole, which was sticking in my hands, making shipping a cupful of bait difficult. I also had Marks advice in the back of mind that I wouldn’t catch shallow tight across.

I needed to change tact, if I was going to catch, so I switched to the bush swim sooner than intended. 1st put in on pellet and I lost a foul hooker, but I wasn’t completely happy, so I turned to my paste rig and landed a carp straight away

And so my match began and I started to sack up with carp nearly every put on the paste. At 1 point I landed 3 carp in 3 put ins weighing 10-11, 15-9, 11-7, which really put me back in contention.

Whilst fishing the paste, I kept feeding the far bank, by way of a full pouch of pellet every couple of minutes and this now became my throw away swim. As more pellet went in you could see the carp slurping the pellet stuck in the grass. My gut feeling was to fish shallow, so I quickly set up a poly ball rig and soon started catching, in fact some of the bites where quite savage pulling the elastic from the pole. The only problem with the far side was the average stamp of carp was only 3-4lb, whilst my paste fish were much bigger.

As the match progressed I rotated between the bush & far bank swims. Ideally I wanted stay on the paste line, however at times I had too many fish in the swim and was suffering from too many liners. I had been feeding a handful of pellet every carp and since I needed to keep the feeding going in, I decided on 2 handfuls of pellets, which seemed to work.

As the match drew to conclusion, I stayed on the paste and my last fish weighed 15-7. I wondered whether I would beat my previous best match weight of 168lb from Joseph’s lake at Stafford Moor, but I wasn’t sure I had done enough. First to weigh was peg 4, with 333lb, which is the best weight at Rolfs so far this year and won the match.

I was delighted to beat my previous best match weight, although I felt a little disappointed I didn’t break the double ton. Some people are never happy! However today illustrated the problems when seeking advice from others. Whilst Marks advice was correct, conditions do change and my 2 main catching method was virtually the opposite of what I was told, which just proves you need to be open minded in this game.

Just for the record I wasn’t the only 1 to break my match record, Mark came 3rd with 213lb and Nick had 258lb for 2nd.

Putting Mucho Miles on the Truck.

Friday I headed north to Momence, Illinois with Caleb. We did a bit of work for the Rosemore Sportsman Club on the Kankakee River and then headed back to Peoria to set the trap nets and do a bit of electrofishing. Justin, Allen, Justin and Josh went to Eureka for a windmill install and to Morton to put the finishing touches on a big dock project. 

Caleb and I pulled in some nice fish electrofishing, here is our best bass of the evening:

Saturday I took my son Noah to work with me. At 7 am we loaded up the tanks with 4-6 inch redear, 4-6 inch bluegill, some perch, crappie, a few walleye, and this albino white catfish that my nephew Ty is holding up.
 

We delivered the redear and bluegill to Bob Fidlers new 20 acre lake near Fiatt and then headed northwest to drop off some supplies for a guy near Ellisville before heading to our lake up at Norris. 

Noah is 1.5 years old, and absolutely loves working and riding in Daddy's truck! He did perfect driving with me for hours. We got to our lake about 1 pm and he went down for his nap while I worked on a few finishing touches to our new floating dock! This is absolutely the very coolest dock we have ever built. Of course I had to try it out and cool off this afternoon.

The second story is over 10 feet to tall to the water and it is 15 foot deep at the end of the dock.

Anyhow we finished up our chores for the day, and then Noah and I were off to run a few more errands and drop off some pond supplies before getting home at about 8:30 pm. 

Pond Boss and Midwest Outdoors Magazine

In May, my first article for Pond Boss Magazine was published. The article is on page 60 and is about our new fishing park that is opening up in East Peoria! Pond Boss is a nationwide magazine that has quite a few big time subscribers and advertisers!


I also just tonight got my June issue of Midwest Outdoors Magazine in the mail. My first article for that outdoor magazine was published this issue and is on page 68 of the Illinois section!


The article is about the process of electrofishing and creating the perfect lake management plan. Also on the page is a picture of me holding up 10 big carp, one on each finger. Along with Chef Todd holding up a MONSTER largemouth bass, me holding a nice bass, and Justin and I in our electro fishing boat!


In school, my absolute worst subject was english and composition simply because I hated writing reports and essays. Now I have 2 articles that I actually wrote, in nationwide major outdoor magazines, and several articles have been published in smaller local outdoor publications and websites. I also write for prairiestateoutdoors.com
Ask the Pond Guy Weblog. I dont really know what exactly happened??? Its not like I have any free time on my hands, I guess my inspiration to start writing came from reading Bill Heavey's articles on the back page of Field and Stream.


I never really ever paid any attention or followed any particular authors before, until one night a couple years ago I was sitting on my throne at home and I happened to glance at and read the back page of the Field and Stream magazine that was conveniently waiting for me. There is only one time during the day that I sit down long enough to actually read something and this particular day, the newspaper was not where it was supposed to be so I had to substitute a magazine from the little decorative book rack that Brook keeps in the bathroom.


Anyhow, when I read that article by Bill Heavey I was literally laughing out loud! This guy was just too funny! I then found out the he wrote on the back page of every Field and Stream and I spent the next year or so collecting and reading as many of those articles I could get my hands on. I was hooked. This guy loves hunting and fishing, but is not an expert trying to give secret tips or boring techniques. He just simply writes about hunting, fishing, and outdoor related stories and focusses on the bloopers, glitches, calamities, and pretty much basically the real life situations that we all face in our outdoor adventures! Pretty much everything he would write about would just hit real close to home, but in a way that was just too funny to not laugh out loud.


So anyhow to make a long story, well even longer I guess, I decided that I would like to start writing, but I didnt want to be just an average/ordinary BORING writer. I want to give out some information, education, tips, techniques, experiences, and stories, but I want to do it in a way that even if someone is not interested at all in that particular subject, that they will still be somewhat interested in reading the article??? My content gets doctored and cleaned up pretty good by the editors, but thats what they get paid to do, right?

Milldale/Dovedale

May Fly Fisherman

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Been upto Milldale/dovedale tonight, water was slightly raised but not colured, plenty of Mayfly about but they are still very wary in taking them surface, Most of the night i watched them taking the mayfly on their way to the surface..
Met around 9 fly fishermen tonight, two of them come from Bedford down south and only come to fly fish it for two days a year in mayfly
They said they love coming here and its worth the money they pay ever year..
I managed 6 trout, most to elk caddis, but got a couple on a JT mayfly, which i bought from the Peacock on the Wye,
The fish only started to rise for around half a hour to the may later on, I lost lots of fish due to them taking very cautiously,
At last light i went down Dovedale and fished the part below the stones, I love this section later on, i have spotted a right clunker on various outings and he always laughs at my fly or spits it out! Tonight i hooked him and guess what.. its peeled off 20 yards upstream and the hook pulled

Well i will get him soon
Forgot my camera so no pics tonight..

Thanks

Glen

Memorial Day Weekend- Camping, Fishing, and Dock Building

Spent the entire weekend at the lake!!! Our main project for the weekend was to build a HUGE floating dock with a second story for a future waterslide and just to simply jump off of into the water! Here are a couple pics:









We put together the whole dock on Friday afternoon and finished er up on Saturday. Helps out big time that my whole family grew up building houses- my dad, brothers, brother-in laws, and even my mom and sisters! The dock is 20x20 with 2- 5x14 gangways to keep it in place. The upper deck is 9x10 and it sits 10.5 feet from the top to the surface of the water! I will shoot some better pics of the finished dock when I get a chance.

Once we got most of the chores done, we did what we do best- catch some fish!!!!






All of my brothers and sisters and all their kids stayed out at the lake for the weekend. We had a church service on Sunday, big fish fry on Sunday night with friends, and just had a great time. The weather was perfect Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, but Monday was rainy and cool all day and we just buttoned up a few chores and headed for home!

Guided Fishing Trip on Friday

Didnt get home from delivering fish until super late Thursday night, and had the privilege of waking up at 3:45 am Friday morning to get a few things taken care of at the office and get all my fishing gear together for a guided fishing trip on Friday May 22nd with a group of Waibels.

Got everything together and made it out to the lake just in the nick of time to get things rolling. The Waibel boys were getting together to celebrate their Dad's B-day, and boy did they pick the right day for a fishing trip. We havent had very many sunny days this year, and this one was just perfect! Sunny, 75 degrees, and 5 mph winds.

We had a great day just kicking back on our homemade pontoon boat. I ran the boat and snapped tons of pictures, Justin took some video footage and landed the fish, and the Waibels caught plenty of fish for our shore lunch and to take home! We were sooo close to catching the GRAND SLAM! We caught every species of fish in the lake except a muskie and a catfish. We caught Largemouth, Smallmouth, Trout, Perch, Hybrid Stripers, Walleye, Bluegill, Hybrid Bluegill, Redear, and Crappie.

Check out these pictures, we had a GREAT time out on the water!

We fished for a few hours and then headed up to the pavilion for a fish fry. I cleaned the fish and sent them right into my commercial deep fryer! Grilled asparagus, mushrooms, and some potato chips topped er off.

Fish Stocking!

Got up early on Thursday, May 21st and met the fish truck over near Congerville. We stocked quite a few perch and shiners for Roger Gerber and also dropped off some pond supplies for him this season. My favorite is the Honey Hole Tree! Check this thing out: The Tree, not Roger......


Met up with Chuck Sollers and sent him on his way with some Perch, then headed over towards Princeville to stock 2 lakes with Yellow Perch and one pond with bass and bluegill. Then headed west towards Victoria to stock some Jumbo Perch at the Big 25, then South towards Fiatt to stock Bob Fidlers brand new lake with forage and bluegill! That lake is shaping up pretty sweet! From there we headed to Honkers Corner for some more Jumbo Perch and then finished up the day at Norris loading up my bait tanks with fatheads and shiners, and filling up my cages with Hybrid Bluegill and feed trained perch.

We covered quite a bit of ground and stocked 1000's and 1000's of fish in just one days time! Still have a couple big truckloads of fish coming in this spring over the next couple of weeks!

Electrofishing, Dock Building, Pond Consulting, Algae Treating....

Finally made it through a marathon of having every microsecond of my life completely and utterly overbooked and on the go! Spent the last 10 days on the go from well before the sun got up, to well after the sun went down.

The marathon started last Tuesday up at Enjoy Field in Cliffton, IL. My partner Chef Todd and I killed the cattails in the pond in front of the air strip, sprayed a bit of curly-leafed pond weed, and then headed north to do some Electrofishing for Charlie Hines at the Windy City Farm near Wilmington, IL.


We dialed up almost 100 LMB and a couple dozen pickeral.


Tagged a few bass for his grandkids to catch for prizes and devised a management plan for him to follow to put a bit of extra weight on his bass.

Wednesday we headed north again, this time I dropped the guys off in Henry and helped them get started on Dick Rupipers 12x12 floating dock with a couple bench seats.

From there Allen and I headed North to Princeton to treat Larry Gerdes pond for Algae and Curly-Leafed Pondweed.

On our way back down to Henry we stopped in at the Trainor's pond near Hennepin for a consultation and cattail application. They have a super nice chunk of paradise which will be their future home site. Finished devising a game plan to help them manage their cattails and pond for the future and headed back to Henry to help put the finishing touches on the dock.

The dock turned out great, we built and installed the whole thing in one loong day. I spent just about every minute of travel time (at least in the areas with service) on the phone with clients and potential clients, and still couldnt keep up with all the voice and e-mails. This time of year causes my hairline to recede just a bit everyday!

Fishing Report May 26, 2009

We had a bit of a break in the weather and could not afford to miss the opportunity to fish.

It was a good tide and an early start. We headed out to new grounds to do a bit of exploring. We found some fish and some sand. We had bright sunshine and dark angry sky's. We had calm sea's and a 25 knot Westerly with accompanying swells. Beginners and experienced were all aboard. Best of all we had a great time.

Enough said, here are the pictures, they say plenty.

Amazing color change on these Sea Bass. They start out reddish orange like a Mangrove Jack. Then turn blueish grey, then back to reddish orange.

Vinod with a very nice Bluefin Trevally.

Paul with a respectable Bass.

Until we meet again.

Wish you were here?

Makes you want to swim.

Makes you want to Fish.

LAND!

Picnic spot!

Going to the birds.

Snorkeling anyone?

One more look. Tight lines and good days

River Churnet ( Lords Bridge)

Went to Lords Bridge tonight, in stoke the weather was really windy with a bit of a chill, when i arrived at 7.00 the sun came out and the wind dropped, i think Lords bridge is a cracking stretch if there is a good wind as the valley its in seems to cover most wind,
I was wondering if i would enjoy it after my session on the Wye but as soon as i saw the river and got in i had more a buzz than ever, this part of the churnet is a pleasure to fish, the smells of wild garlic and the overgrown trees make it great..the river churnet has a strong place in my memories, i fished it in froghall bait fishing from 7 years old right up until i started fly fishing.
I think fishing rivers for years has helped me in fly fishing rivers as i can see a good run that will hold fish, something you only get from fishing

I usually prefer the lower end of the Fenton/new leek part, but decided with limited time to have a good crack at the top end, the river was in fine form, i got in just up from the weir and worked my way up, surprisingly there were no fish rising and not much fly life, i think the weather going cooler today had knocked it off, i suppose it would be better nymph fishing but i stuck to my guns and put on a balloon caddis to try and bring them up, this did nothing.. I reached to mid point where the pipes come into the river and spotted rises, i found a small hatch of olives coming off so put on a Adams and took my first fish, a cracking little brownie with top class markings, I then saw Tim Walton who i always seem to bump into around the rivers, he had been fishing the duo down the bottom end and had taken quite alot of fish to the nymph, We decided to fish together through the last part of the river, rises were still slow, Tim switched to the dry only and showed me some of his spots where he has taken fish from, we caught a few fish on the way up and i took a decent brown to wards the top end..
All in all a great night to be out fishing and a pleasure to fish with Tim, thanks mate

Glen

River Wye, Bakewell 'Living the Dream'

I had been pissed off with my rivers being up all week so had read reports on the conditions at the wye, I decided it was time to get my first trip to the Wye.. I rang the peacock hotel and booked in for £70.00 ( mayfly fee ).
I arrived at the hotel around 11.30 and was greeted by freindly female staff who were good on the eye, the hotel is like nothing i have seen, they have kept it old style and with a modern touch here and there, I knew it was class when i opened the glass doors that held the on sale flys and the whole thing lit up with door switches.I bought some Mayfly and headed off for the fishermans carpark.
I have never seen the Wye before (only bridge at bakewell) so was eager to see what it was like. I had bought a hardy demon 7ft 3# in the week and was looking forward to trying it out properly.
The river looked in fantastic condition and was wider and deeper than i imagined, it had so many looking 'fishy spots' it was untrue, I had not seen any river keepers so had no advice of where to fish so just walked around and got a feel, I could see that i had arrived at the end of a hatch of Mayfly, there were odd ones coming off and rises no rises were apparent, I decided to start with a large caddis fly to try and bring these fish up, I was rather nervous, dont know why but its like that when you arrive on a new river..
I started to fish a fast tail of a fast pool, on my second cast a rainbow come clean out of the water and dive bombed my fly, the line went slack and i had missed my first take, I started to have hits from the violent raibows but not connecting until i started to skate my fly across the surface, this produced at take like i have never seen, the trout came up a hit my fly but i skated it 2ft away and it chased it all the way and properly hooking it, i had hooked my first wild rainbow and this fish went nuts, the speed of the first run was great yanking my rod to the floor, after a 2 min fight i landed a lovely rainbow, this was a great feeling, i had been worried about a blank and this settled my nerves and got me fishing with a straight head, There were still no rises so i continued with skating the caddis which bought me another rainbow around a pound, the colours on these fish were great, bright red and not a mark on them..
I moved up the strech and found fish rising on a big bend by a bridge, tried the caddis which were totally ignored, this was where all the lessons i have had come in, i started to look what they were on.. they were taking the olives, i matched the size with a jt olive and started to take fish after fish, these were small beautful browns that fought there heads off, i then hooked a massive out of season grayling that was taking me all over the place, i unhooked the fish in the water and off it went,
I could of stayed there for a while but i have learnt to move on, the fishing was that productive i would .have fun all up the river, I was fishing very hard and heading for bakewell where i knew i could have a rest..Walking further up i saw a chap being guided opposite me, i spoke briefly and was advised to move over the river and up on the cutt grass bank, As i walked over a a keeper came over and introdued himself as Jan, he was nothing like i expected, i thought he would be a bit posh, he said 'your Glen Pointon, i have been been told by Warren to watch for t him nymphing' then pissed up laughing, i then said its the bread fly i have tied what you need to worry about... He was very friendly and helpful and gave me some great advise, he said bank holidays were a nightmare with poachers everwhere and he would be up late looking for them..
As i moved up the river i saw a couple who were fly fishing and having a full english picknic, they had been guided by Jan and were having a break, the lady had never fly fished and managed to catch two fish, the man had caught a few and Jan was sorting out his casting, they looked like they were chilled out sitting next to this lovely river.. not for me, i had come to hit the fishing hard with it being my first go, I walked up to every pool with eagerness not knowing what would be there, i love this when you are on a new venue,
Walking further up i spotted a huge brown rising under a tree taking olives every few mins, i watched it for ten minuites seeing how it worked, it would drift out of its hide and take a olive then shoot back for cover, i knew if i missed placed the cast i would put this clunker down, first cast i hit the tree and it unraveled itself and dropped onto the run sweet as a nut, the fish slowly came out and sucked the olive down, my heart was in my mouth because thats what i love most about fly fishing ( seeing the take) the fish just bolted down stream 30 yards and just snapped me clean, i had no chance, it never stopped going, i estimated it to be around 5/6lb..
Around 2oclock slowly taking emergers, i could do nothing about this, they were letting my fly drift over their heads..
I had fished for 3hrs and taken 11 rainbows and 6 browns, I thought i would walk into bakewell and have a pint and wait until the Mayfly hatch, i had been smacking fish out in every pool and the Mayfly had not hatched yet!!!
I arrived in Bakewell to see the fat trout being fed by the public, I used to think i would like to hook one but this was not what i wanted, i have learnt so much in my fly fishing and i thought i would rather have the wild rainbows and browns i had hooked earlier..
I sat down and had a pint with some sandwichs and reflected on what had just happened, i was in the zone and wanted more fishing. All the trout i had taken were feisty rainbows around a pound and small half a pound browns that pounded the rod.
I moved further up from the town and walked for a mile and started to work back down stream, it was 3.30 and the magical mayfly started to come off, the trout started to switch onto them big time, it was a joy to watch.
This is when the big browns came out and i was taking these fish all back down to the bridge, the run where it goes close to the road was electric, i was skating the may all over the place which was making them hit it hard, if i left it to drift i would not always get a take.. Proberly i was hooking that many i was getting greedy and should of layed off but i never stayed in one pool after a fish, i could not help myself, i was like a kid in a sweet shop..
I walked back through the town brigde and the mayfly had calmed down, I started to fish behind the cricket club, fish were rising but not looking at the mayfly, i soon found the working fly to be a BWO, this produced more cracking browns..
I was so tired, i had walked for 7 miles and caught lots of cracking wild fish, I stayed till around 8 and there were still mayflys coming off and a massive spinner fall.
I had parked on the wrong car park and had been locked in but Jan new and rang me and give me a lift back to my van, he was a pleasure to talk to and was interested in how my day had gone, he said i had done well to catch more browns than rainbow, he put it down to me fishing the sections that anglers do not fish..
I really enjoyed myself and would like to fish it outside mayfly season, the keepers have made a great job of the river, i was sometimes casting and would look around thinking i will hit a tree but i realised they have cut certain branches ect so you could reach the head of a pool..
It would be embarasing to say how many i caught but i put it in the book at the Peacock hotel.
At the end of the day i was overwhelmed with the fishing.
The only negative side i did not like was when i caught a fish i realy needed a long landing net and found it hard to slip the fish back in safely, i think they should let you drop in the river to land fish and to release them, I caught a 2 lb brown and put it back only to see it go belly up so i entered the water to revive it for two mins and it went off ok, i felt i was doing wrong by this..

Well there it is my story of the river Wye, i will be back soon.
Was it better than the Dove? well the Wye is Warrens but the Dove is mine!!

Will post pictures on my blog

Thanks

Glen
I