Looking for targets.

I couldn't even bring myself to entitle this post the 'The lake #33' as I am almost embarrassed by my last outing there. Trying to be a clever bugger I pre-baited an area which is popular with tench. Diligently I went down the night before with a bucket of tasty expensive bait and liberally spread it on some lovely clean gravel patches close to lily beds in three swims. Barely able to sleep, I was up before my alarm and driving to the lake ready to find the water's surface looking like a cauldron of boiling cola.

When I arrived and made the long walk to the prepared swims, I was not greeted by the obvious signs of feeding tench at all so I stayed patient and stowed my gear, watching each swim in turn for more subtle signs of life. After forty minutes a single fizz rose in one of the swims and I crept in to plonk a float in at close range.

I waited, and waited, and waited a bit more, and when no bite was forthcoming I began checking the other swims again, but when I returned to the original swim I again saw a single fizz. I was convinced there were tench in the area but if they were here they weren't hard on the feed. With little choice I again cast out and trickled some loose offerings around the float.

After spending the entire morning like a statue in the reeds it was getting towards thirty minutes past when I should have packed up. Then out of the blue the peacock quill rose steadily from the water and flopped over. It was the most blatant lift bite I have ever seen and when I struck hard, thinking I was about to feel the venom of a hooked tench in shallow water, I was shocked to see my float hanging in the tree above me. All that effort and I totally missed my only chance of the session!

A few days later I went on a research mission for rudd. Although rudd are fairly common round our way, venues for big rudd are like rocking horse shit. Years ago I remembered catching a few decent examples that were not far off two pound from a lake on an old friends fishery nestled away in a Warwickshire spinney. Although I knew it would certainly be a numbers game, I duly purchased a large amount of maggots and headed down to Lanny's lagoon.

After pitching up in the very same swim where I had caught those fish years ago, I set up a shallow float rig and began regularly feeding small amounts of maggot next to a small patch of lillies. The results were fairly instant and straight away small rudd could be seen darting to the surface after the falling maggots. After catching a large amount of these voracious rudd and various silvers I realised that this would go on all day and that I stood little to no chance of sorting out any bigger examples. So I opted to try and see if under the mass of little ones something bigger might have been lurking. The bait too got changed for corn which seemed not to appeal quite as much as the maggots. The bites certainly slowed down and the fish certainly got bigger, although still it seemed like I was playing a numbers game with species now rather than rudd.

I had plenty of these young bream.

And I had a few things that were just plain old ugly.

And it was only a matter of time till all the noise attracted the carp.

In the end I knew I wasn't going to find any of those elusive big rudd if they still existed and although I wasn't getting anywhere near achieving my target I was having fun with these long lean commons that seem to revert back to a wild carp-like state in this pool. By the time I came to leave I reckon I must have put together a good fifty pounds of fish, which would have easily won the match that was going on in the adjacent pool.

This local big rudd question I think is going to take some solving. Worst of all a few seasons ago Coombe was showing promise with the rudd, but catching anything from there is proving to be another totally different problem in itself. The only thing I can hope on that front is that we get a decent bout of prolonged warm weather to kick the lake into action, as these cooler conditions seem to be stifling the fish activity at the moment.

Beauty and the beasties.

This past weekend I took my second step into  the commercial  perch fishing scene and quite honestly I can't make up my mind if it was a success or not!

Like many before me I have already started looking at your average £7 a day carp puddle with squinted eyes. My ears are open listening for those sacred words whenever I am in the tackle shop, hoping to hear one of the match men that hang around on a Saturday utter something about a whopping perch.

Then the other day whilst talking to a acquaintance of mine, who likes to spend his weekend wearing matching Preston innovations gear,  he mentioned that during some of the winter matches on a water he had fished, bonus perch up to four pounds had topped up several winning bags of blade roach. This was more than enough information for me plan a trip over to this popular venue.

The  only time I could spare this weekend was Saturday afternoon and with cloudy skies on the horizon and showers expected it seemed the perfect conditions. When I arrived at the featureless fishery with it's distinct slabbed swims I did stop for a moment with my hand on the car boot and ask myself, did I want to do this as it looked busy. But I had made the effort to drive there and if I backed out now I was too far to get to another lake in time. So I stuck with and headed towards the tip off pool.

When I got there I did not really have much choice of swims as thirty of the thirty three were occupied by serious men sitting on fishing boxes that would have given a transformer a chubby, throwing method feeders at the islands. The few free swims that were left as the did not give a clear cast to the island so were ignored but they did however appeal to me. Reed lined corners of which one had a all the scum of the lake collected in it and that what I went for.

After baiting up with a few handfuls of chopped worm and red maggots I sat back to watch the soap opera around the lake. I don't think one of the other anglers knew I was there dressed in green keeping off the sky line, whilst they all yelled to each other at the top of their voices.

Holy crap! I thought my luck was in when my float bobbed a couple of times before slipping away. There was that pause for a fleeting moment when the hooked fish computes the resistance and you have no idea what it is for a moment. But then the reel went into overdrive as a carp headed out into the lake. It did not take to long to subdue a pale and rather deformed near double, and neither did the next five or six. By now my presence in the corner had been acknowledged, as it would seem I had caught seven more carp than anyone else this afternoon.

By the third visit I thought I had sprouted a extra leg as I seemed to be the new attraction of the fishery. 'Wot you gettin em on mate?' was the standard question and they all seemed agog when I told them worms. I get the feeling that they thought I was using some new hightech bait developed in a laboratory by Japanese scientists that cost fifty quid a bag instead of the much maligned worm.

The cue of minging carp attracted by my dirty clouds of chopped worm sinking through the water seemed endless and they did not get better looking. Most looked like they had taken a swift right from Mike Tyson as they were stocked into the lake and one was the spitting image of Pete Burns. For those of you who don't get that reference follow this link http://igossip.com/gossip/Britsn_giggles_pete_burns_plastic_surgery_15_Minutes_Of_Fame/1349209

I thought the string of damaged fish would never end until I hooked and landed  this...

What a stunner!

I don't understand for the life of me how this was even in the same lake as the other fish I had caught. The only explanation must be that it had only just been introduced because it was perfect. Golden flanks slight red tinge to it's tail and it's mouth looked untouched by hook. I felt bad putting it back in the lake knowing what will undoubtedly happen to it. It would of been far better off if I would have tucked in my top and drove it down the nearest bit of canal.

As the light drew in it only got worse - the carp seemed insatiable. I did consider moving to one of the vacant spots, but every angler that left did the same thing and dumped any remaining bait in front of their peg before they left, which I knew would only serve to attract more carp onto it and maybe away from me.

By dusk I had landed no less than seventeen carp all 8 -12lb, and that's when it hit me. I had not got a single bite which I thought could of been from a perch. But I had just easily landed over a 100lb of carp in just over five hours on a bait most of the other anglers on refused to believe I was using. Maybe I should look into one of those qualifying matches for Fish 'O' Mania because 25k would be very nice and I would not look that much of a Muppet dressed in camo hiding behind a bush whilst all those match men sit three foot in the air in gaudy colours would I ?

Return to the lagoon.

The only fishing action I had got all week was a prospective canal carp session on new bit of canal with Andy on Thursday evening, which produced not so much a sniff from a carp and thoroughly reinforced my theory that you really have to know the location before you try and catch them otherwise your just pissing in the wind.

My session for the weekend had been organized for a week or so. To join my friend Neil and his daughter for her first fishing trip to an old haunt of ours 'Lannys lagoon'. Some years ago I spent a huge amount of  time fishing both lakes and as a result got a very good idea of how to fish these secluded lakes. Sadly Neil had to call off but I still went because I was confident of a point or even two for the challenge.

With my pole dusted off and the top kits re elasticated I felt confident that my pole fishing days of yesteryear would come flooding back. Which they did after two hours of me slapping the pole into trees and the water.

I cupped in a mix of liquidised bread, fishmeal  ground bait and good sprinkling of pinkies onto one long line and an inside line as well. The only real problem that arose with my adventure back into the world of pole fishing was my lack of a pole roller, which I begrudge wasting money on since  I would hardly ever use it. I however overcame this problem with a clever use of other tackle. I took two small bank sticks with the carp style grip heads and put a third longer rest into the tight fitting heads then attached my unhooking mat over the top which worked like a dream, though a couple of other anglers seemed a little confused when they saw me putting it together.

As I suspected the float never even settled for more than a few seconds before dipping under.This went on all morning as a steady stream of roach, roach/bream hybrids, Rudd, Roach/Rudd hybrids, Skimmers, Bream, micro Carp, f1's, Crucian hybrids and best of all, goldfish were landed. At dinner time I ran out of bait and pulled the bulging net from the  water. 19lb not counting the ounces of goldfish topped by a extremely thick 3lb+ example gave one point. 9lb's of Crucian hybrids would be another if I didn't lack confidence in their linage (I am not claiming that point lads!) The only other point was again the Rudd and the total weight overall was 57lb.

After taking a wander round the other lake before I left I found a large group of carp feeding on the surface under a large mat of scum collected in one corner of the lake. Unable to resist I lugged all my gear back to the car and walked back with a single rod, landing net and few other bits of gear to have a crack at them.

Two hours of non stop action produced eight carp from 4-12lb before the rain came in at which point they all sank out of sight. Though for two hours work 49lbs of carp punched me over the 100lb mark for the day.

If only it would have lasted two more hours I would have had the carp point in the bag too......