River Soar - 22/06/2011

Another short evening session, this time on the Soar at Kegworth. Slogged up to the new section downstream of the weir. Suprised to find I had the whole stretch to myself, so picked a swim where the flow was pushing along a bit of cover on the far bank.

Nice

As the river was quite clear and shallow I opted to fish straight leads and catapult pellets over the top, rather than to repeatedly cast with a feeder or PVA bags. Baits had only been out a couple of minutes before I started getting wound up by the chub rattling on the rod tops. Had been tempted into striking into thin air a couple of times before I decided to change the rigs around slightly. Changed to a semi-fixed lead by pushing the swivel over a Korda tail rubber and wrapped the hair around the hook a couple of times, so that the pellets were hard up against the bend. Seemed to do the trick as the next few bites were converted into fish. First up was a bream of about 5 lb. Not what I was expecting in the fast water.

Snotty

Next up was one of the greedy little chublets that had probably been responsible for those earlier "doinks" on the rod tips.

Greedy

His slightly bigger brother was next, followed by another snotty. Went quiet after this, but I was really confident of a barbel as it got dark. Unfortunately it never happened. Packed up about 11pm.

River Derwent - 16/06/2011

I've never been one to rush out on the first day of the season, but this time I got the urge for some reason so, after completing my evening domestic duties, I set off for a couple of hours on the Derwent. First suprise was an empty carpark. Had everybody bagged up and gone home, or quite the opposite??

Where is everybody?

River was incredibly low, much lower than I'd ever seen it, with gravel sticking out all over the place. I therefore headed to a spot where I knew there'd be some depth running into shallower, faster water. Arriving at the swim, there was a big cloud of mayflies dancing on the surface and small fish were topping everywhere. Things looked good. I soon had two baits out in likely spots and sat and waited.......and waited. I punctuated the waiting by flicking out some pouchfuls of pellets down the crease. As the light started dropping I could see quite a few, bigger fish bow-waving on the shallows downstream, so I waited some more hoping that they'd move onto my bait. Hmmmmm. It was fully dark before I had my first and only proper bite. A fin perfect chub of about 3lb on the upstream rod. At least I got to christen my new Korum landing net!

New season, first fish

The only other highlight was the Tawny Owl that flew about 5 feet over my head. A big full moon came up, the temperature dropped and I got very cold, very quickly. When the bats started twanging off my lines, I called it a day and got back to the car just before midnight. The thermometer showed 6 degrees Centigrade! Flaming June??

Syndicate Lake - 21/05/11

Another short evening session on the lake. Not quite ready for an overnighter yet. Takes too much organising and I'm liking my bed too much at the moment! Arrived to find that fish spotting would be impossible due the "chop" on the lake (Is anybody else fed up with this wind? It feels as if it's been blowing since March!). I therefore settled into the same swim as last time in the hope that there'd be at least one carp mooching around the margin of the island. Set up as before, carefully avoiding the huge deposits of Canada Goose sh*t! Had to wait until it was just getting dark before any sign of a fish. The geese were just making their usual, very noisy, way onto the island to roost for the night when the right hand rod rattled off out of the blue. Could tell by the dashing around that it was a common, rather than one of the plodding mirrors. On the bank it went a shade over 12lb (note I managed to capture a nice "deposit" in the top right of the picture).

A carp!

Packed up shortly afterwards and left the geese to their bedtime routine.

Syndicate Lake - 13/05/2011

Have been a member of a carp syndicate on a small estate lake for the last couple of years. Haven't exactly set the world on fire in that time, just through not getting the hours in, and was thinking of giving the ticket up this year. However, something made me decide to give it one more go, so I parted with the cash and dragged myself out for a short evening session. Set up in my favourite peg opposite a small island. Two rods with flavoured, artificial corn on KD rigs (www.korda.co.uk/rigz/?id=8) went out over a few spods of hemp and sweetcorn. The third rod fished a small fluoro pop up out in open water. Was soon getting indications on the bobbins and a stuttering take on one of the rods up to the island signalled the first fish. Not a carp, but a pigeon-chested bream of 8lb 2oz.

Snotty

Rod went back out to the same spot and it wasn't long before the bobbin was jangling away again, resulting in a carbon copy of the first fish, albeit an ounce lighter. Unfortunately, it went very quiet after this. Fished on until just after dark, but had no further interest. Was perhaps a bit much to expect a carp first session, but those two bream certainly lifted me out of the doldrums.

Bits and Bobs - 09/05/2011

Rest of April was pretty uneventful fishing wise, even though I'd sneaked some kit in the car for our trip to Pembs. Turned out we were too busy going to the beach, flying birds and building aviaries. Latest addition to the business is a Southern White-faced Scops Owl called Frodo, sometimes more parrot than owl!

Pieces of eight...

Parcel was waiting for me when I got home containing the fruits of my eBay sales.

Shiney, shiney!

Got a chance to put them to use first weekend of May. Was down in Saunton for a surfing trip with the lads, but had arranged to meet up with a local guide, Joel Soul. A dawn start saw us heading for a small rocky cove on the North coast in time for low tide. Scrambled over the rocks down to the water level and started off with surface lures. Had just got hang of "walking the dog" with a Xorus Patchinko, when a fish came up and slashed at the lure. A bump on the rod top and it was gone, but it was enough to get the heart pumping! A few minutes later Joel shouted he'd got one on. His rod had an impressive bend in it, so I got the camera out to take some action shots. Unfortunately, at that moment, Joel lost his footing and ended up chest deep in a gulley. Slack line and the fish was gone. Gutted! We carried on fishing as the tide came in, changing over to sub-surface lures. The morning light turned to bright sunshine (via heavy rain!) and our window of opportunity was gone. Was extremely enjoyable despite the disappointment of a lost fish. Looking forward to a return trip later in the year. Look Joel up at http://www.joelsoul.co.uk/ if you're in the area.

Bits and Bobs - 18/04/2011

Blimey, last two weeks have flown by, although I haven't really had the inclination to go anywhere. Last session left me a bit jaded and wondering if I was just fishing for fishing's sake. The cold I had three weeks ago is still hanging around as well. I sound like a 40 a day man when I wake up in the morning! Still, there's positive things on the horizon. Going down to Pembs for 10 days over Easter, followed by a surfing trip down to Saunton with the lads. I'm taking down the lure fishing gear this time and hoping to hook up with a local chap while I'm there for some bassing. That's lead me into the high tech and expensive world of bass lures. Twenty quid for a piece of plastic (an albeit beautifully designed piece of Japanese plastic) is pushing anybody's budget, prompting me to delve into my own lure collection. This revealed no end of other bits of plastic that have never seen the end of my line. I can only think that I must have had my nose in the Harris Angling catalogue a bit too often! I've sorted a few out (mostly surface lures by Heddon, Smithwick, Luhr Jensen, Argobast and Bagley) and put them on eBay along with a couple of centrepins if anybody's interested (search for "toodle2" under items by seller in advanced search).

Everything must go!

Club Lake - 01/04/2011

Another trip to the "club lake" after work (aka Glazebrooks Pool - no need to be coy after somebody guessed it!). South westerly was hammering into my usual corner when I got there, but with everybody else carp fishing on the pool next door I had free choice of swims. Ended up in the other corner on the same bank, fishing into 8 feet of water off the end of a willow. Applied the usual formula of chopped worm and dead maggots, with lobworm fished over the top. Took a while before there was any interest. Had a couple of sail away bites that I didn't connect with, the worm coming back nipped off below the hook. Changed to a smaller hook and worm section. Quickly had two small ones before it died completely, with nothing else coming before dark. Notwithstanding the fact I wasn't in my "comfort zone", it was all a bit of a let down. Looking at my diary, a session last year almost to the day resulted in 15 fish, including the 2lb 1oz perch shown below and a bonus tench. Despite the promise shown by that 2lber, the fish just don't seem to be there in the same numbers this year. Perhaps a hint to try somewhere else....

Happier days and longer hair!