Snitterfield beckons

I met with Andy for a second go at Snitterfield reservoir on Sunday morning to find it deserted and flat as mill pond. Slightly overcast skies raised my hope that the better roach might feed confidently given the lack of bright sunshine which I had encountered a few days previously here.

Before getting started there was a small forgotten matter I needed to settle... A month or so ago whilst on a trip with Andy and Dave to the windrush we had all agreed I small wager of a quid for the biggest grayling, which Andy won and which I had forgotten to pay him for. Not being one to welch on a gambling debt a brain wave had struck me the day before and I had prepared said quid for payment in a special way which I suspect may have quite a far reaching effect this year! 

Rather than explain it keep your eye on http://piscatorialpastimes.blogspot.com/ for a full explanation.

Whilst setting up half way down the road bank a second wager was agreed to give me the chance to take back the prize by catching the largest roach.  This would be a wager I was not destined to win.

Again I opted to fish the pole but this time I went for the a little more of a wintry approach for this still chilly lake by way of a few cups full of liquidised bread. The fish were still playing coy and both of us had to work hard for bites, but determination paid off in the end as floats began to dip and fish were soon being swung to hand.

We turned out to be the only anglers there all day. Maybe everyone else knew something we didn't but having the place to ourselves was real treat. It didn't take long for us both to start banging out feeders into deep water to try and search out a few of the bream which were rolling at twenty meters out.

Through the day we forced some roach and persuaded some small bream that our pellet hook baits were safe for consumption, and finally towards the end of the session the roach/bream hybrids made their appearance, fighting like made dogs as always.

In my last blog I wrote of how deep this lake is and this point was reiterated to me by some beautiful little bream I caught, which when they were landed were a pale white/silver colour from lack of light; after a few hours spent in my keep net in the shallows they turned dark brown.

Another thing I suspect about these bream is that they are not as young as there size may indicate. The bream in this lake seem to have a maximum size of about 3-4lb, the average being 1 1/2 - 2lb which is nothing compared to how big they can grow. If I caught one of these fish in the river or another lake my guess would be that it would be two or three years old and it would be in perfect condition, but these fish are definitely older as their fins seem worn, and are definitely not in that skimmer stage any more. Andy and I discussed this as we fished coming to the conclusion that the depth of the lake probably limits the amount of bloodworm the bottom feeding bream get to eat, whereas on a shallower lake there would be a ready supply, hence feeding fish achieving larger weights quicker. Here the slow warming lake combined with a limited amount bottom based food results in these almost stunted bream.

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......

Going for gold.

The sun had been blazing all weekend so Sunday morning I headed out early for a morning chasing crucians at Snitterfield reservoir. I hadn't fished here since last Autumn, so when I arrived and was met with this sight I thought it looked perfect, and felt my chance of getting into a few were high.

crucian heaven!

I set up in a peg in the shallower weedy end of the lake and put up a fourteen foot float rod with light pole float to fish close against the weeds. The tip on the float never even settled before it shot off and a small Rudd came flipping to hand. This went on constantly for three hours as a constant stream of Roach, Rudd, perch, Hybrids and bream took the bait.

Early on I had two good crucians roll over my baited area both estimated at one to two pounds. But no matter how many different baits or rig changes I made I never got a sniff from one. Both the roach and bream seemed to get bigger as the morning went on, the best roach being around a pound and bream of three pounds. After I had been feeding maggots quite heavily to try and feed of the insatiable hoard of Rudd I noticed some big roach coming up high in the water and intercepting them as they sank. Using a slow sinking set up I bagged some nice fish up to 14oz.

By 10am the open concrete bank of this Warwickshire lake was beginning to feel very much Mediterranean

and by 12noon I was done. Pulling the net from the water and feeling resistance I felt sure I had managed a challenge point somewhere amongst this catch but sadly I was to be disappointed as the bleeding point amongst the twenty pound bag of fish was the Rudd which I had already got earlier in the week.

A couple of bramas

As an angler more inclined towards specimen fishing I often find myself making the decision to wait for one or two larger fish rather than actively trying to catch numbers of smaller fish. So spending a session doing the exact opposite from my norm at first felt a little alien but after a while I really got back into it and began to enjoy myself. 

I was chuffed with the end result of around twenty pounds spread over five species and was also impressed that after so many years ignoring these fish I could find so much enjoyment in spending a morning catching them. Here in lies part of the enjoyment of being part of the challenge for me, It has made me fish for species of fish using techniques I have not done for ages and I am finding very refreshing to revisit some of these things I have long ignored.  

The end result a 20lb mixed bag