One last trip?

This time of year I usually hang up the rods and start the yearly ritual of cleaning and checking every item through, replacing line and servicing reels ready for some spring action,I also take the time to clean all the eyes on the rods with a soft toothbrush and check For any damage.

However this year I'm going to have one last attempt after Christmas to bag me a fish in its glorious winter colours, not sure what species to target yet so the weather will decide this for me .

However a conversation with bob whilst exchanging Yuletide pleasentries brought forth the information that every angler dreads....

Yes you've guessed it we have an otter,and it's munching its way through our pristine stock of wildies, we are both gutted hoping that bob patrolling regularly with the dog will help deter it,we all really hope so. 

Me and Claire hoping to visit after Christmas to assess the situation in full.😩

Call of the wild part 4

Well I have returned to my little paradise on numerous occasions in all weathers and with relative success to be honest but each visit I thought that I would move on to bigger and better things, trouble is I loved being there. This picture paints a thousand words.

I had thoroughly enjoyed fishing with my light stalking rod and 3000 reel loaded with 6lb line! It made a massive change to using my carp rods and I lost count how many I caught, even lost a couple of very good fish which I shall no doubt return for with my good lady and SK in tow, this little paradise truly is a place of beauty, regularly see barn owls and fallow deer in the field nearby, watching the owls is simply breath taking and some times bites are missed whilst watching them.

My rig this year has consisted of a size 6 wide gape from deception angling, simply awesome and sticky sharp, and bread, that's it, nothing technical.I have worked it out that if I feed bread into the gaps in the weed at certain points the fish will slurp it right off the surface in front of me , if no takers off the top I simply place a ball of bread on the hook and let it sink slowly through the water in the same areas,this normally results in some of the most violent takes I've ever had! Even the smaller ones take it without fuss on the drop.

At one point in the summer I tried to introduce two of my sons to this little paradise and managed to drag my eldest nathan along for a few hours one sunday. After I showed him how to hook a couple of red maggots on the size 16 he proceeded to catch a fish first cast, I then showed him how to hold and unhook then gently return, after that he trotted off and caught so many Rudd and roach that we lost count! Top work son!

I remember first time I took my middle son Aaron to our secret lake, he stood there overlooking the water and simply said (it's beautiful here)! And that was from a 13 year old boy! That just about summed up how we all felt about the place. Beautiful, peaceful, no litter or dog walkers, absolute bliss.

We caught fish of all sizes up to low double, not massive but really wild fish, long and lean and all in mint condition, Claire had a PB roach and we even caught a few tench, again not monsters but good sport on light gear.

But still no king of the pond.......

Lady luck shines...

After fishing a local club water on and off for years I finally got bored of the same old fish with the same old damage and similar weights, I needed a challenge, a new direction in my angling and for this reason I decided to try and catch one of the mythical lumps from Brockhurst Moat in Gosport.

Why I had not done this before is beyond me as I live very near by. I had dabbled with a few evenings and had a couple of small ones and I had met half the bream population and even a 9lb tench, but a big carp was what I wanted and I wouldnt settle for anything less....

I arrived at first light and set up in swim one which is round the back nearest the road and proceeded to put some bait in, cell freezer baits tipped with popup corn. I always use a new piece of corn every trip so I have maximum visibility for the fish to spot. By 7am both rods were set and we sat back and chilled out.

Around 8am I had a short run on the LH margin rod and I wound in the first bream of the day! 'Oh no' I thought, hope they've not moved into my baited area. Luckily they hadn't and the rods stayed silent.


We decided to have a brew and while Claire did this I put some more cell over the spots and sat back down to wait for my tea. As I did the margin rod was away, proper screamer and as I leant into it iIknew straight away it was only small, possibly a tench or a pasty with attitude! As it turned out it was a tench of 9lb and was proper old and really dark in colour, I was well chuffed with a new PB even though a tinca!

Claire returned the tench whilst I cleaned the slime off and I recast down the margin and sat back and drank my tea, me and claire can drink tea with the best and hate having a brew interupted, unless its by a fish!

Time passes really slowly when your waiting, as fellow anglers will know, but I was very optimistic almost dare I say it, confident! Two fish from the margin spot, both on the cell/corn combo, so we sat and chatted all the while waiting, we didnt wait long as the margin rod was away again, a very angry and powerful fish which I struggled to tame at first, proper strong, it was trying to get to the safe area of the bridges and I hung on just trying to turn it with thumb pressure on the spool skirt. Claire was on standby with the net and I was clinging on trying to gain a turn of line when I could but it kept changing direction staying down deep and plodding away not showing itself. There were rumours of catfish in the moat so my mind was on overtime!

After what seemed ages I had it in front of the swim throwing up massive tail patterns and all the time staying down deep and I still hadnt seen my quarry. I was aching by now, shouting things like "really" and "give it up will ya"! When it suddenly rolled on the surface looking more exhausted than I was. What a fish it was, a cracking plump common, absolutely glorious and claire promptly netted her first time.


I shouted all the usual  and claire was a bit puzzled by my elation,my first proper day session and a PB tench, and now a PB common at 30lb 10oz.  What a day!!

Ghostly Goings On!

The last day of the season 30/03/12 saw me back at crf, but on lake one this time in a quest to recapture the big ghostie that resides there, I had an unfair advantage this time in the fact that the water level was low as there were some issues with the eroding dam, not good but the club were well on top of this.

Like most lakes there are areas that produce more than others and with this in mind I looked for her in the area where i thought she would be! I knew what she liked to eat but she was very cautious, I caught her 2years previous by flicking a bait into the rings she had left from breaching and it was a massive fight to say the least, one of those fights when they are swimming on the spot trying to pull you in! However it was 2 years later and i hoped she would be heavier, and more importantly still fighting fit. She was 18lb 1oz when weighed but she was carrying a bit of spawn due to time of year.

2 years previously

I stood behind the snag tree which is my favourite place to hide and watch, I waited for about 20 mins but no signs,so I walked round to the dam to check from the other side, sure enough there she was sat there waving her pecs looking awesome and long! Suddenly almost like she sensed I was there she swam off slowly towards the back of the tree, excellent, she wouldnt expect to be caught from the shallow water under the tree, it was hard enough when the level was up!

I crept down through the nettles and branches to get as close to the tree, this time rod in hand,simple bolt rig, large cube of spam on the hair and a 2.5oz square pear lead. I lowered this in straight off the rod tip without making a splash,and watched and waited, shortly after I saw her mooching,obviously tasting the spam in the water and she soon found it!

This was extreme snag fishing at its best and the old prodigy didnt know what had hit it! It was a case of hold on, no clutch, just using the rod action to hold on and let her fight, surprisingly she didnt fight long, and Claire passed me the net but due to the situation I couldn't control her enough to get her in.

Luckily my mate chef was with us and he came down the bank through the nettles in his flip flops and netted my prize, proper hardcore! Just as chef netted her I slipped on the bank and landed flat on my arse, much to the amusement of Claire who had been videoing the whole drama, she had tears running down her face! Anyway, what mattered was my prize, the old girl looked awesome, actually she looked amazing!

Older ,not wiser!

We weighed her at 17lb 2oz so down a bit in weight,a fter all it was March as opposed to July. She looked mint, a massive rudder and her tell tale strawberry kiss on the nearside flank. Was good to see she had no mouth damage either which can be a problem on some waters. We took a few shots and returned her to fatten up ready for another lucky angler.

Call of the wild part 3

Well my third trip back to my little paradise was a bit disappointing fishing wise as when I arrived Bob was sat there on his ride on mower complete with trailer in tow, further inspection of the trailer revealed waders and boots and a couple of strimmers and a hedge cutter, all of the petrol variety.

To put it plainly Bob had made a decision and it was time for a work party! Damn! We decided to cut through the bulrushes at bed level then fork them back to the bank and pile them up ready for removal, this was a mammoth task but after around 3 hours hard graft we had cleared a channel through in which we could launch the dinghy in.he then informed me we were gonna rake some weed tomorrow! Oh good I thought, but to be honest I didn't mind as It was for my benefit as much as anyone else's.

The following evening saw us doing the weed rake Olympics and we managed to clear massive amounts, we even spooked a couple of fish and it was at this time I saw it, the king of the pond, lovely and dark with an orange underbelly, it looked beautiful as far as fish go, it ghosted through over to my left amongst the weed and disappeared, could it be one of the original stocking or a sibling? Hopefully I will find out soon, after a few minutes day dreaming I snapped out of it and threw the rake once more!

We worked for another half hour, we were both shattered. Bob informed me as we sat having a brew back at the house that he was going to get a digger in and dig it out another couple of foot, taking the roots and a fair bit of weed with it, sounded good to me.

Hard Work!

                                                         

                                                        

Call of the wild part 2

Well I returned the following week to an empty lake, there were no signs of fish any where so I decided to introduce some bread amongst the holes in the weed as I walked round, looking for any signs of life.

There wasnt any thing showing so I sat and waited all the time watching, ever looking and scanning the weedless pockets for sights or sounds hoping to hear that lovely slurping!

Weed central!

In there somewhere!!!

The place was very neglected and as I walked down from the little jetty I spotted a cracking common sat right in the margin in a hole in the weed. I crept up like a ninja until I was around a rod length away and I banded a small halibut pellet onto a size 6 wide gape and lowered it right on his nose. Holding it so it hovered enticingly in front of his mouth, we sat there in a stalemate situation for around 5mins although it was probably only seconds, when he sucked it in I struck and total chaos ensued!

I was only using 6lb sensor and a light spinning type rod and this fiesty little common near on ripped it straight out of my greasy palms!

This fish that turned out to be around 6/7lb was absolutely mint, long and lean like a true wildie, it fought like a much bigger fish and I was well pleased getting one on my first visit. I could not wait to get back. On the way out I met Bob in the drive and he was even  more pleased than I was! Very happy there were still some survivors, and quite convinced these were siblings of the original stocking over 10years ago.

We said our goodbyes and I promised to return again with claire and some maggots to see what other surprises it had in store for us. Hopefully more like this little beauty..................

Wow ,wild perfection...

 Not a monster by a long way but a worthy opponent on light gear. Awesome fun!

Call of the wild....part 1

The Gateway to Paradise!

A couple of years ago I had  the fortune to bump into someone that has turned out to be a very good friend and angling comrade, for privacy reasons we will refer to him as Bob from herein.

We seemed to have a lot in common, he was a keen game fisherman and myself a confessed carp addict, it was only after dropping his car back to his little farmhouse one day that he mentioned that he had 3 lakes. Obviously this got my undivided attention 110%!

Well after a couple more chats and a lot of banter I took the proverbial by the horns and phoned him asking if I could wet a line. He first proceeded to tell me of the grass carp and the two 30lb english mirrors that he had stocked 10 years ago and apart from the occasional dangle with the fly rod no one had ever fished it.... JACK BLOODY POT!

The first trip saw myself and local legend SK decend upon this little paradise without fishing gear, just for a browse round and although it was weedy and covered in lilies it looked simply perfect. We saw a fish feeding in the shallows so with my appetite well and truly whetted. We left for me to come back at my leisure as much as I liked, Bob stated that if I could prove there was anything left worth catching he might consider digging it out and getting rid of the weed and endless rushes, sounded like a challenge to me!

And so the journey began,my own little unspoilt paradise, something every angler craves for and I had it handed to me without any strings.

GAME ON !

Best Laid Plans....

Well sundays perch trip failed to materialise due to Claire having a stinking cold so I got back into bed after turning the alarm of at 5.30, the frost looked hard anyway! When we finally got out we arrived at crf around 11.45 to find only two other anglers on,it was good to catch up with angling legend SK in the car park who had arrived minutes earlier, we settled in the disabled swim and set up.