A Fisherman's Tale

Thoughts and tales of a thirty-something learning the art of fishing once again.

[afishermanstale]

Back in action for 2013

It's been a busy year with house moves, a new job and an awful Autumn and winter, weather-wise, so with things finally settled down, it's time to get dangling and the hunt for this year's biggest fish and best venues is on!

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Ewe wouldn't believe it!

I was in two minds this morning as to where to fish for the day. After the great evening session at Plantations I decided to try out a more difficult water and the choices were between Jacklands coarse lake in Tickenham or Abbot's Pool in Abbot's Leigh.

I finally decided on the former where I have visited before, each time surprised with my catch and always a tricky place to fish even though it is a small water.

So decision made, I set of and on my arrival noticed that I would be having some fishing partners for the day in the shape of two ewes that were out to graze the banks on the coarse lake. As usual at this venue, even on a sunny day in June they were to be my only companions – this place rarely gets fished which in my eyes adds to the appeal.

I set up my swim with two options in mind, one was to fish a maggot feeder, packed with red maggots and two as hookbait in the channel to my left, hoping for a big perch that I know inhabit these waters and my second line would be a single caster on a waggler set up just over depth to the area directly in front of me.

It was to be a brisk start, I set the ledger rig up first and as I was plumbing my waggler swim there was a lot of interest in the feeder, resulting in a sharp bite that I knew was a perch. Sure enough a little perch came to the net followed by another and another and another, I didn't have time to set up the waggler rig as the bites were every cast. With so much activity from the smaller fish I knew the bigger ones would soon start to show an interest and I didn't have long to wait for a larger specimen to arrive.

It wasn't a huge fish, about half a pound but certainly a better stamp of fish and beautifully conditioned too. The smaller fish continued to take the bait on the feeder and I decided that it was time to give the swim a rest and concentrate on the waggler rig. I had been baiting the area regularly whilst fishing the other swim, so it was time to see if I'd tempted the fish in.

I could see plenty of activity where I had been baiting, so with a swift underarm cast I dropped my rig into the swim, it was quickly sailing away and I struck into a solid fish. It felt like a carp and was darting about the swim, I tried to move it to my right and it briefly swam into view, a little mirror carp of about two pounds flashed by and then "ping" it was off. There are apparently a good head of carp in the lake but the owner told me he has yet to see one come out, I was so close but not really geared up for it, my hooklength was only 0.5lb and in this snaggy swim didn't really stand a chance.

I swiftly tied a new hooklength of 4lb and re-cast hoping that the scrap of the carp hadn't ruined my swim. Luckily it didnt' appear so and moments later I was into a succession of lovely roach and rudd. With regular feeding the swim really was coming into life, next to fall for my single caster was a new species for me, an eel! Slimy, wriggly little things but I was pleased to see it as they are getting scarce these days and after a quick shake on my line it came off the hook with little trouble and squirmed back into the lake.

It was turning into a great day, plenty of sport, a new species and then the big one came! It was a slow but deliberate take and as I struck there was a huge eruption under the surface and the shoulders of a large mirror carp broke into view, the beast headed straight into the reeds and before I even had chance to play the fish, it was off. Once again the Jacklands carp eluded me.

I was, however encouraged that I had built up the swim and got the fish feeding where I wanted them and that I'd managed to hook two of the shy carp even though it wasn't for long. After all the commotion I decided to rest the swim and return to the maggot feeder again.

As before, I was into fish almost straight away and continued to pull out perch after perch, I lost count but must have had close to two dozen of them over the course of the day. After some good fun catching these lovely fish I decided to finish my session back on the waggler.

The initial swim I had fished earlier in the day had gone quiet so on advice from a member of staff some time ago, I decided to fish just a few feet out from the bank. I was to be rewarded as some nice roach were tempted by my caster and then another slow bite developed which I waited and waited and waited before striking and it was worth it, after a short but exciting battle with some surprisingly powerful lunges towards the reeds I finally brought my prize to the surface, my biggest ever bream!

It was a shame there was no-one around to take a better photo but I weighed her and the scales just tipped 4lb, I was over the moon, beating my previous biggest bream by 2lbs. What a great end to the day and a memorable visit to Jacklands. I'll be back for more soon but with the river's about to open again there may be a few roving river trips just around the corner.

[afishermanstale]

4 hours, 3 PB's!

With temperatures finally rising and signs of a decent summer on the way, we saw the arrival of the hottest day of the year. It wasn't a difficult decision to go fishing, so my fishy friend James and I hatched a plan to finish work early and head off to Plantations in Kingston Seymore for a few hours to see what we could catch.

The lakes were quite busy, as expected on a beautiful hot evening, but we found two pegs we fancied, James in a little corner on peg 37 and I opted for peg 36 that juts out towards the middle island but has some good features in the margins to fish to.

James was float fishing in the margins with corn and balled in a hefty amount of groundbait and pellets before fishing just over depth.

I opted to fish on the deck with an inline method feeder and some of 'Martin's Miracle Meat!' that I had had success with at Cofton back in April, sweetcorn and pellet being my change baits.

After swiftly tackling up we eventually started fishing just after 5pm and were looking forward to a good four hours dangling until dusk.

I decided to just chuck my feeder into the margins to my right and resisted the temptation of the island. I was soon rewarded for my choice and within ten minutes my tip ripped round and I was into my first fish, after a frantic battle a nice common carp of around 5-6 lbs was in the net and after a few quick pictures was safely back in the lake.

There were fish showing all over the lake and it was clear the carp were almost ready to spawn and over the next few days I'd expect the lake to be bustling with activity of spawning fish.

Meanwhile, James was starting to tempt fish into his swim with a couple of pristine roach falling for the corn.

There was plenty activity in my swim, lots of knocks and twitching of the tip then another slower take which turned into a feisty battle which I thought was another small carp but as I brought the fish to the surface, a lovely little tench appeared. My first ever of this species and about 1-2 lbs, I was over the moon!

James then started to get into some bigger fish with a couple of carp and skimmers.

In fact both of us were catching regularly, I ended up with 3 PB's, my little tench, a common and a mirror carp of about 6 lbs. Included in my final tally were six more carp averaging 4-5 lbs and a couple of skimmer bream. A great haul in a couple of hours, mostly falling to meat and a few fish caught on corn.

James finished up with seven carp, topped with a beautiful common at around 4-5 lbs, four bream, two of which were lovely conditioned fish around a couple of pounds each and finally a couple of roach.

A great evening session and a perfect way to unwind after a day at work. Plantations is fishing well at the moment but probably best to leave it for a while while the fish spawn. We will be returning in a couple of weeks for another evening session for sure.

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Back to the pool.

With the weather a bit hit and miss recently and me being busy with my football team, summer is on it's way and I've finally got some weekend time back to spend fishing.

Predominantly driven by lack of cash I decided for some cheap fishing at Abbots Pool with some sweetcorn and a few dozen worms I dug on Friday evening as bait.

Abbots Pool is a lovely spot, tucked away in Leigh Woods, it's a medieval fish pool, which contains a few wild carp, tench, pike, perch and roach. It used to be renowned for its tench fishing – a species I'd love to catch, so I thought I'd try my luck with a running rig with a big lobworm as bait, hoping that if the tench weren't biting then I might be able to tempt a nice sized perch.

I'd had a well deserved lie-in so didn't get to the lake until after 11am and two fishermen were already set up, after a good chat with one of them about the pond and how it was fishing I headed to the far right bank with some lilly pads and good features to my left and right.

The lake itself has a great variety of vegetation, well established lilly pads and various other plants, coupled with plenty of overhanging trees make finding a spot to fish quite interesting but I managed to tuck my ledger just past a corner of pads, kept a slack line to allow for the bite to develop and sat back to enjoy the surroundings.

There wasn't much activity, apart from a family of ducklings scrabbling around by my feet but the place is serene and bursting with nature, woodpeckers, frogs, tadpoles, tits and wrens but where were the fish!

Bursting into life in the swim opposite me the chap I spoke to on my arrival was into a nice fish, I could see it was his float rod that had burst into life, his live bait taking effect and he pulled out a nice jack pike of a few pounds.

Eager to get my own fish on the bank and after almost four hours without a bite I opted to abandon my ledgering tactics and float fish with corn on the hook. Almost immediately it took effect and a pristine roach was soon in the net, this was followed by another five or six all falling for a single grain of corn. It was great to be catching fish that had probably never been caught before and even though they were only a few ounces they all put up a lovely zig-zagging fight.

Interestingly upon releasing one of the roach, I heard a splash just to my right and a jack pike had grabbed my unlucky roach for his supper, it was amazing to see and the little pike just held still after the initial strike, working out how it was going to fit the roach into it's mouth.

After a few more hours I called it a day, the light was fading and I'd had a great afternoon, my target quarry didn't show but those elusive tench will have to wait. I'll be back soon.

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Cofton calling.

After what has seemed like an age, a long awaited weekend away with the lads had arrived, our first full fishing weekend. My best friend, Adam has family that own Cofton Country Holiday Park in Dawlish, South Devon. It is a popular place that has been constantly improved over the years and is a fantastic holiday destination for a family or perfect for a long fishing weekend!

They have five well stocked lakes for residents to fish and offer free fishing between November and mid March, which we had just missed! We were staying in Adam's parents caravan, pitched right next to entrance to the lakes, so after a few ales on Friday night, alarms were set and an early morning beckoned.

There were a few fuzzy heads in the morning but after a quick coffee and some toast we set up around 8am on Mamhead lake, to the right of the bridge. It's apparently full of small carp and silver fish.

My other companions for the weekend were old friends, Graham and Simon, both who have not fished in a long while. In our merriment the evening before we deiced to liven things up with a little competition and had drawn teams, I was with Simon and we were 'Team Maggot'. There were prizes (i.e. a pint) for each win from the following; biggest fish, most species and largest quantity of fish.

So after a quick tutorial session, I got Simon to plumb his swim, cast nicely and bait up his swim, we were ready for the off.

Saturday

Both teams started fishing at 9am, Simon was on the float, fishing maggot over hemp. I decided to go back to the method feeder after a long spell of float fishing lately. My bait was to be 'Martin's Magic Meat!' a secret concoction that involves luncheon meat, spices and another secret additive. So the meat was on the hook and I packed the feeder with dampened 3mm Super G pellets.

Our swim was wide and easily fitted both anglers, I was fishing tight to the island in front of me, whilst Simon fished on the bottom to the left of me. It was quick action for me as within five minutes of casting I was into a fish, a little mirror of about 3 lbs. Simon then got going with a skimmer and a succession of roach. Over on our opponents swim, bites were proving hard to come by – much to Team Maggot's delight!

The next few hours saw another mirror carp to me and our opponents began catching, lots of roach falling for their single red maggot approach.

Skimmers were now beginning to show on my peg and a switch to double corn on the hook saw a fish of about a pound safely banked followed by a couple more. Simon was catching steadily with roach and skimmers keeping him busy. Then things began to slow down on the method while Graham and Adam were almost getting a fish a chuck.

As the weather turned from bright sunshine to hail storms and back again, conditions were interesting and with the lack of action, I decided to boost our tally by changing to the float. It proved a good switch as a nice skimmer fell to my double red maggot , followed by a few decent roach.

Things were looking pretty even on day one and as the sun began to set, I could see a few carp showing on the surface, I decided to stalk a few and cast just past them with a well shotted wagglier dropping the maggot slowly through the water column. A few casts in, WHAM! It had worked and after a great battle on light gear, a chunky mirror carp came to the net to seal victory for day one to 'Team Maggot'!

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Bars of silver.

Thankfully the weather has improved over the last week, well at least the temperatures have, so I was hoping that the fish would be back on the feed after last weeks chilly adventure!

I opted to fish my old favourite, Plantation lakes in Kingston Seymore. It was to be my first trip there of 2012 and it turned out to be my best session on the coarse lake ever!

After having plenty of time over the winter to read up and glean information of how to best fish in the winter months and of course some compulsory Christmas presents to try out I was eager to hit the bank.

As I mentioned the temperatures were much higher than of late and being the last day of half term I thought it would be busy, but with only another couple of cars in the car park I was pleasantly surprised to have a good choice of pegs. I opted for one of my favourites, 39 tucked away in a little corner of the coarse lake. I was targeting silvers, mainly roach and decided to chuck in a couple of balls of groundbait laced with casters, dead maggots and chopped worm to get the swim started as I set up.

I'm trying to improve my float fishing at the moment and set up a simple light waggler rig with a tiny size 20 hook and single red maggot to fish over my groundbait. I wasn't fishing far out and was more interested in improving my accuracy and creating a tight ball of feed and fish over that.

After a leisurely set up I baited up and already I could see the fish were interested with little knocks and shy bites. It wasn't long before my first roach came to the net, not huge but a good size and my tactics seemed to be working. In fact I caught for most of the day with some lovely skimmer bream adding to my net of roach. I kept feeding the bites and occasionally topping up with groundbait when things went quiet. In total I managed my biggest haul of silvers ever, 5 good sized skimmers and 16 roach. A great day and just goes to show winter fishing can be productive if you approach things in the right way.

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Another new species for 2012.

Winter has arrived but that doesn't deter the determined angler! I've now moved to Bristol so am looking forward to discovering some more local waters. With this in mind my fishing friend, James Howell and I set off to Abbots Pool in Bristol. We had heard there are some good sized roach, perch, tench, a few carp and plenty of pike in there, so after a stop off at the tackle shop we made our way to Abbots Leigh.

After unpacking the car and making the short walk to the lake it became clear we wouldn't be doing much fishing! With the cold snap of the last few days and the temperature hovering around zero the lake was frozen solid! Despite my best efforts to create a few holes for a spot of ice fishing it simply would have been pointless so a quick re-think was needed. Seeing as I had a good trip to Jacklands a few weeks ago we decided to head off to Tickenham and try our luck there.

Being a commercial fishery, they had kept the lake ice-free, so we paid-up and picked our swims. It was bitterly cold, even though the sun was out and bites were very hard to come by. In fact the only bite of the day came within in about an hour - thankfully it came to me and was another new species!

A very pretty rainbow trout and it didn't half put up a good scrap, zipping off with my red maggot and constantly running for cover, pausing for a rest and then crashing off again, it even leapt clear of the water twice, trying to shake to shook - I can't imagine how the bigger ones must go! Quite how this one got into the coarse lake baffles me but I presume they chucked a few rainbows in to liven up the sport in the winter and they certainly do just that!

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A game start to 2012.

So the new year is here and after a lovely Christmas break it was time to settle down to a more serious task and get in the first dangle of 2012. I decided to give Jacklands fishery a go as it is pretty local to me. It's quite a small fishery with a popular trout pond and a small course lake that hardly seems to get fished, the price is reasonable at £6 per day. I only had a few hours to spend, so with a pint of red maggots and high hopes for 2012 I packed the car and set off.

On arrival I was surprised how small the lake is, it's probably more suited to pole anglers but I'm still a rod and reel man so opted for a wagger set up at around 3ft depth, fishing light, size 20 hook with a 2.3lbs hooklength. I opted to fish close to the end of the island, just in front of a large reed bed that I thought would provide cover for the fish. The late morning started off slowly with some shy bites that I couldn't connect with but just after midday I got into my first fish of 2012!

I think, but I'm happy to be corrected if so but I believe it was a Rudd which would be great as that would make it a new species and of course a PB! Either that or its a hybrid of some kind but anyway it was a fine conditioned fish and a welcome start to the year.

A few smaller roach followed by some little perch but suddenly the float buried and the rod arched over as I connected with something bigger. At first I thought it was a good sized perch as the fight was frenetic but after a few minutes the fish came to the surface and it was clear I'd definitely started 2012 with a new species and a PB!

A brown trout! Apparently after speaking to one of the staff it appears they stocked six of these from the stock ponds to provide a bit of sport for the coarse anglers and what a welcome sight it was. It rounded off a good day at Jacklands and I left with a big grin on my face - no big fish today but the lovely brownie made my day.

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Piking on the Yeo.

As winter is firmly upon us, coarse fishing tends to slow down as the fish become less active in the colder temperatures but pike fishing comes into its own. My friend and work colleague, James Howell ventured down to our local river, the Blind Yeo in Clevedon to try a spot of lure fishing for some of the many predators that lurk beneath the surface.

I've never properly fished for pike but James has lots of experience in dealing with snappy toothed fish not only from his days coarse fishing but also through his years of sea fishing, I was in capable hands.

After a quick bit of online shopping I'd set myself up with a basic predator kit; some strong braid for mainline, several wire traces and a selection of spinners and lures.

We set off early on Saturday morning, the weather was slightly overcast, a bit chilly and the water was gin clear. Our plan was to start at the sluice gate where the river meets the Bristol Channel and make our way up-river to the motorway bridge and then follow the same route back to where we started.

After James launched his huge pike spoon with perfection into the river, I prepared for my first cast. It didn't quite go to plan! Casting into the wind with my light spinner it blew back in the breeze and I caught the bankside long grass, not the best start but surely there was better to come. As I spent a good five minutes untangling my mess, there was not much to report from James so we headed further upstream.

Further along the river we met up with a good friend Nathaniel and his daughter Maisie, accompanied by their dog Arnie, a young Spaniel always full of energy. After a quick chat Nathaniel had a go at a cast but as soon as the lure set flight, Arnie was after it straight into the river, before anyone could quite comprehend what had happened, the dog splashed back out of the water and dropped the lure at Nathaniel's feet! Goodness knows how he avoided three sets of trebles, but thank goodness he did and after untangling him from the line all was well on the riverbank.

After saying our farewells to our guests, James and I headed further towards the Strode Road bridge and soon James had a fish on! It was incredible, I had heard about Pike following and attacking lures but this happened right underneath our noses, we both saw the fish grab the lure and James did a great job of playing the fish, unhooking and returning the fish safely. It was a lovely marked fish and probably weighed in the region of three pounds. 

Pike, despite their appearance are fragile fish and must be handled carefully it's always advisable to go with someone who has experience of these fish. Always make sure you have suitable landing and unhooking equipment, long-nose forceps are a must, this fish was only a small one but pike of all sizes have razor sharp teeth so please be careful if you go for a pike fishing session.

So we had one fish on the bank but I was still searching for my first of these impressive creatures. We crossed the Kenn Road bridge but this featureless section of the river didn't contain much cover for these ambush predators to hunt so after a short session here, we headed back on ourselves down towards the sluice where we had started.

About halfway along the stretch I had my first pike! It was the smallest little Jack I've ever seen, it was tempted by a small spinner that I'd put on to go for Perch but a PB none-the-less and even though it was only about a pound in weight, still possessed a mouthful of razor-sharp teeth.

We safely returned the fish and moved back downstream where James spotted some good signs that there were predators about. Lots of little fish were jumping out of the water and there were shoals of roach close in to the bank, keeping out of the way of whatever was hunting mid-river.

James switched to a surface lure and it was soon grabbed from the surface as a fish crashed into it but somehow it avoided all the hooks and had a lucky escape. There were still signs of fish in the swim so I changed lure to a silver spoon that James had in his box and it was my turn for some action. The fish took the spoon but as soon as it was on it headed straight into the reedbed and I couldn't shift it, it felt like a big fish but the fish wasn't budging from the reeds and managed to get rid of the hooks in the reeds.

My heart still pumping I cast out again and "BANG!" a nice fish grabbed it. After another quick tussle we got the fish in the net and onto the bank. It was the biggest fish of the day, slightly bigger than James' and I was over the moon! 

As the light faded on a superb day, I caught a little Perch - they are such greedy fish and will take much bigger baits than you think. There are some good sized Perch in the river but they didn't show today but our target species was biting, no monsters this time but two lovely fish and we'll be back for some more heart-stopping action later this winter!

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A cracking afternoon on the method.

An unexpected extra day off meant only one thing, an afternoon's fishing was on the cards! After mixing up some new 'Envy' method mix, peppering it with micro feed pellets and some sweetcorn juice to mix I set off to Plantations for a return to the match lake.

Upon my arrival the match lake was deserted and I was pleased to be able to set up wherever I wanted at my leisure and just relax. I decided to fish the peg that Steve and I fished last time I was fishing on the match lake, affectionally known to us as 'Steve's island'!

My hookbait for the day would be between a choice of sweetcorn and pellet, I opted to go for the corn first and was rewarded early into the session with a nice common of around a couple of pounds. Then a nice ghost carp came into the net followed by a lovely little darkly coloured common.

Plenty of little fish were coming to the net and I knew it was only a matter of time before the bigger ones pushed them out of the swim and I wasn't wrong. With a proper rip round of the rod tip a superbly marked common of around 4lbs was soon on the bank shortly followed by another of a similar size.

There was then a lull in the action so I grabbed a spot of lunch and switched to a 6mm pellet on the hook, the switch worked immediately and a huge crash of a fish close to the island where I was fishing stirred up some mud close to the shallow surface and after a bit of a scrap a beautiful two-toned mirror carp was banked.

Other smaller carp followed and a nice skimmer broke up the carp domination.

The frantic action continued all afternoon and just before packing up another lovely common of just under 5 lbs was tempted by the pellet. A great Autumnal days fishing at Plantations.

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Silver medal.

After my last visit to Plantations I must admit I was a bit haunted by the mirror carp I caught that had been damaged, I'm fully aware that anglers can cause these such injuries to fish and after discussion with some other fishermen I realise that many commercial fisheries contain these deformed fish due to bad angling. I'm sure I and the majority of other anglers put fish care paramount when fishing but it is a sad fact that on the times I have visited Plantations many of the anglers who are targeting the carp are inexperienced, leaving rods unattended, not using correct unhooking equipment and generally displaying poor fish care.

I decided that seeing as so many of the anglers that fish the coarse lake do target the carp I'd give the silver fish a go as they are mostly neglected and I'd heard reports of some good roach and perch, so heading to my favorite corner of the lake I set up at peg 37 armed with mixed maggots and some light waggler gear. With careful regular feeding and some sweet red groundbait my float started showing signs of some nervous bites. They were so nervous in fact it was very hard to get into any of the fish! I aim to become a much better float fisherman and today was turning out be a steep learning curve! The bait was getting sucked and the float bobbing but I just couldn't connect with anything until the float suddenly tore off and a cheeky perch came to the net. This was folllowed by another and then I finally got into the nice roach.

My swim was bustling with fish and it was almost a bite a chuck with small bream, roach and perch all feeding well. After a good couple of hours I decided I'd use up the rest of my bait by switching the the maggot feeder and I was soon into a nice skimmer that had been tempted by my double red maggot hook bait.

I had a superb afternoon of fishing and enjoyed a nice simple method of fishing for quality silvers.

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Carp on the corn.

After my slow afternoon fishing the Kenn earlier in the week I managed to grab another couple of hours on Sunday and headed to Plantations Fishery where I thought I would try the Coarse lake. It was to be the first time on the particular lake and was pretty busy but I found a nice quiet spot on peg 35 in the corner with plenty of overhanging trees and cover.

I fished in the little pool just to left of the photo using a method feeder and some imitation pop-up corn that I'd received with my copy of the Angling Times! After a quiet first half an hour the rod tip swang round and I was into a nice fish which darted straight off to the far bank but no sooner as it was on, it was off. So after re-baiting I continued to build up my swim and minutes later the rod was off again. This time I brought it to the net and it was a heavy lump of a mirror, almost as round as it was long, probably around 5lbs and my biggest mirror yet – it had my rod bent over for a good five minutes before I could get it to the bank! Unfortunately it was no looker and had lost its lips at some point but was otherwise in good condition and after a quick photo I sent her back.

With the afternoon drawing to a close another bite resulted in a nice skimmer of about a pound, not bad for a couple of hours but what about the one that got away...

[afishermanstale]

Weed, what weed?

After a couple of weeks fishing hiatus it was time to visit the Kenn one again for a couple of hours and see what I could temp from within the murky waters. Upon first getting a glimpse of the river things didn't look good and the water was certainly murky and just a little bit weedy!

I was only fishing for a couple of hours so set up a light float outfit with single maggot on the hook and hoped I could fish through the weed. It wasn't to be, with all the surface weed and quite a bit below the surface I couldn't get my presentation right and had a slow afternoon but did manage a couple of little roach to spare blanking!

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Competition time.

After our great first session at Plantations Fishery on Friday, Steve and I decided that on the Monday we would head back to the match lake for a friendly competition between ourselves.

We set off early and set up at the same peg as Friday both with our tactics similiar, once again using the method feeder and Steve on the pellet whereas I thought I'd give some sweetcorn a go as I'd not caught on corn before. I dyed the corn with red colouring and spiced it with some chilli flakes, the result was a strong smelling 'flame' coloured corn that I was sure would attract a bite or two.

After setting up it wasn't long before Steve was catching, a nice mirror brought to the net fifteen minutes into his fishing time. A good sized skimmer followed along with a lovely 3lb common shortly after. I had my work cut out and had nothing on the bank yet. There had been a couple of decent fish on but both dropped the hook.

Finally after half and hour I got into a nice common of about 2 lb, I was back in the race but Steve had other ideas! The next hour saw four more fish from Steve, including a lovely ghost carp and a common almost touching the 5lb mark. With all this action going on I changed to pellet and it had an almost immediate effect, a couple of mirrors for my efforts.

Steve however just kept on catching, I've got to admit his casting was on the money with almost every cast plopping a fresh feeder full of food onto the bottom in exactly the same spot. This resulted in ten more fish in a couple of hours as I failed to connect with anything! The afternoon was more productive as my swim came to life and I finally hit double figures with ten fish for the day weighing in at 22 lbs. Steve topped out at 30, with a combined weight of almost 50 lbs so the pair of us bagging around 75lbs between us. What a day, Steve probably needs a rest from fishing for a while and I need to get out some more and sort out my casting! Another amazing day at Plantations though and a great day of sport, well done to Steve who despite ledgering with a match rod, having 'Ray Mears' fashioned rod rests still fished like a pro to take the victory.

The winner

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A different method.

An exciting weekend of wet nets just completed. Plenty of fishing firsts, some cracking late Autumn weather and even a friendly little competition thrown in too!

It all began on Thursday evening as my good friend Steve came down to Clevedon to visit and the plan was hatched, we would go and fish a new venue and once again I'd try my luck at a commercial fishery. There are plenty near by but I'd heard a lot of good things about Plantation Lakes, in Kingston Seymore. So with venue decided and tactics sorted, it was time for an early night to prepare for the day of fishing ahead.

Before I continue it's worthy to note that Steve is also an inexperienced fisherman like myself and whilst he fished a little bit many years ago it's been a long while since he's had a dangle so with both our limited skills to call upon it was shaping up to be an interesting day.

Upon our arrival at Plantations we were dismayed to discover that the car park was almost full. Whilst honing our skills we didn't want lots of other anglers watching - perish the thought! Our nerves were unfounded as we discovered upon walking around the coarse lake and finding a great mixture of young and old, match and pleasure anglers who were all very friendly and helpful. There weren't many pegs left on the coarse lake so we headed for the Match lake which was a lot quieter and set up our swim.

I was trying out the Preston method feeder with mould system and it was an absolute pleasure to use, very simple and quick to re-load. My bait was 6mm halibut pellet fished with a hemp, breadcrumb and method mix groundbait. Steve who was borrowing my old match rod was fishing the waggler with a mixture of baits; maggots, corn, luncheon meat and casters.

We got off to a slow start with bites proving hard to come by in the first hour but eventually Steve struck into the first fish, a little skimmer bream that was a welcome sight on the bank.

Now I'd read a lot about using the method feeder and how important accurate casting was, I'm working on it but so far it's not as good as I'd like but I'd also read about the fierce bites and rods sailing into the water. Well I was just about to find out how aggressive the bites can be. I was daydreaming, a little bit peeved that Steve had caught the first fish and then 'POW' the rod tip ripped round, rattling in its rests, I quickly grabbed it and lifted into the fish. Another powerful charge and the clutch on my reel screeched into life, I was onto my biggest fish yet, the power was immense and constant, pumping the rod as the fish dived into the depths. I was sure it was a carp and a few minutes later I got it to the surface, a beautiful lightly coloured mirror, it looked huge and still wasn't ready for the net just yet with a swish of it's tail it disappeared again. Finally, with me shaking like a leaf, Steve scooped it into the net and I had my first carp!

   Twenty minutes later, Steve fishing with double maggot struck into something big. His rod wrapped around and the battle was on. After a good five minutes the fish swirled on the surface, it was a big carp, just as we were guiding it into the net it slipped the hook! The fish were biting and with Steve now fishing the method too (on a match rod!) we both started seeing a lot more action.

Steve had his first carp, a chunky little mirror and then hooked into a better fish. After another great scrap a lovely common came to the surface and into the net, just I was helping Steve with his catch, my rod made a dart for the lake. Luckily my baitrunner was on and Steve quickly grabbed the rod whilst I gave him the landing net to unhook his, I was onto another hard-fighter! After a frantic fifteen minutes we both had two super fish to show for our efforts.

The day ended with each of us banking about seven fish each, ranging from about 1-4 lbs. What a spectacular day.

[afishermanstale]

The worm that turned.

Saturday 

It's funny what they say about the best laid plans and that was certainly the case this weekend as my best mate Adam and I set out for a days fishing the Blind Yeo in Clevedon. After spending the morning visiting the tackle shop, stocking up on bait, tying some hook lengths and packing up all my gear I couldn't have been more ready until I proceeded to rush out of the front door, promptly locking myself out with all my gear but without my car keys. A quick call to Adam and we were off in his car visiting a stretch of the river I had yet to fish but had heard there were plenty of big bream lurking just a cast away.

To say the conditions were appalling was an understatement, there was a mini gale sweeping down the river and intermittent downpours every half an hour. Luckily we found a window of opportunity to set up, get under the brolly and bait-up before the heavens opened once more.

The fishing was equally appalling, we fished the bottom with a lead, different combinations of feeders and also float fished, deep and shallow using casters, maggots, corn and hemp - nothing. Not even a nibble, for three hours! Luckily the company was good and the coffee was hot.

We moved downstream near to a bridge where we thought the fish may be taking cover from the conditions but not a bite there either and a huge blank loomed. It appeared the river had been recently dredged or certainly cleared of a lot of weed so we figured the fish just had no cover so had moved to another part of the river.

Luckily my mums house backs onto the river even further downstream and after Adam dropped me off I thought I could sneak in a few extra hours determined to catch something. I stuck to the tactics that brought me a good few fish last week and used my mini-maggot feeder, red maggots and cast just past some thick weed. A knock at last, then a bite - which I missed but then finally a tiny perch, followed by another and then a huge clunk on the rod. I struck but the fish darted into the weed bank and squirmed free. I could tell it was a much bigger specimen and decided as the light faded that I'd return tomorrow with bigger fish in mind.

Sunday 

After a morning of football I got to the river late afternoon and decided to fish for a couple of hours in exactly the same spot as I had the previous evening. This time with a new bait on the hook. My friend and work colleague James (who has a great blog of his own over here) had mentioned last week that when there's been a lot of rain get a big worm on the hook and you'll attract the bigger Perch. So after a little bit of digging at the bank I gathered some earthworms and set up my swim. I was all ready to go and then once again the heavens opened!

The first half an hour was quiet as the rain continued but as it cleared the bites arrived. The worm was working and the fish getting bigger.

Soon after returning the fish above I had another sharp take, a good bend in the rod and then it stopped, a dead weight on the end of my rod. Whatever was on the other end had found the weed bed and wasn't moving. I kept the rod high and tried to tease the fish out but it wasn't budging, then I remembered something I'd read about trying to ease the fish out of the weeds the way it had gone in. After another few minutes of battle I teased it out and guided it round the weeds and up to the surface, it was another lovely Perch, by far my biggest yet, I slid the net into the water to land it and the top section of the net snapped off! Thankfully the fish was nicely hooked and the bank is low so I carefully swung it onto the bank, what a beauty!

I'll need to get some scales soon but James reckons it's just under a pound so my target of a two-pounder gets closer, it's most certainly a PB and a cracking end to a rather damp weekend.

[afishermanstale]

Bagging up!

As a consequence of my renewed interest in fishing I've been buying a lot of magazines and filling my spare time (when I can't get out for a dangle) with all manner of literature, web tutorials, forums, anything fishing related I'm on it.

Therefore it was with great delight that my thoughtful girlfriend came back from a shopping trip recently with a present for me, two new fishing mags! One of which came with two free mini maggot feeders. With little excuse needed to hit the riverbank I planned a session the following Saturday to test out my new bits of tackle.

As I'm very local to the Blind Yeo, I decided a quick afternoon there would be a good start, I'm determined to become a better fisherman and I guess that means lots of practice. I figured that by fishing the same stretch of water for a few times I could learn more about 'reading' the swim, what baits work and also what fish may lurk in the murky depths.

I have been told by a good neighbor friend of mine that there are some lovely big perch in the Yeo, however, I don't want to target a specific species on the river just yet. I figured I can become a specimen hunter a little later in my fishing career, it's only been my third trip!

I fancied a peg just down from the Kenn Road bridge, so set off and balled in lots of homemade groundbait; breadcrumb, sweetcorn, hemp and a small amount of method mix just to add a bit of extra binding. I'm determined to try different baits and this time I took hemp, sweetcorn and maggots. I've never caught a fish on corn so this was to be my first method of attack, fished with a float on the bottom.

Things didn't go quite to plan. Firstly I hadn't taken into consideration the considerable wind sweeping across the surface, this wasn't my main problem though. The main problem was the duckweed! It kept sweeping down the river through my swim, resulting in all my terminal tackle covered in the stuff. My float wouldn't sit properly and my erratic casts into the wind trying to find a clear spot in the river failed miserably.

After a good hour of frustration I gave up and opted to resort to my new mini-maggot feeders.

This turned out to be a shrewd move. Literally my first cast and the rod-tip nudged round and a little perch had been tempted by my offering. Second cast the same, and again and again and again. It was a fish a chuck, great sport and after a short 40 minute session I had a nice little net of fish.

Then the heavens opened! It absolutely poured down, I bravely carried on fishing but without adequate protection or clothing and facing a lengthy walk home, I had to call it a day. Once again no huge fish but a great afternoons sport and I was pleased to have overcome the conditions of the water and find the fish!