Month: August 2026

August 2026 Part 2 (or is that 3?)

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Following my paste post I returned to Crookwood one further time on Wednesday 26th and fished peg 18. For some unknown reason I didn’t take a picture of the peg! Anyway think of it like peg 23 with lily pads on both sides! I decided to fish both far corners of the pads with the same tackle as previously but would introduce groundbait on the right with no pellet and pellet on the left with no groundbait and have two put ins before swapping to the other side, hence rotating the swims throughout the session.

Paste was also changed to a 50-50 mix of the blue packet and No5#(white pack) that filled a large pole pot, to this I added 1.5 pots of water, gave it a quick swirl so the paste was all saturated and then left it while I tackled up. To this I then added a liberal dose of “octopus” powder which is in fact jellyfish powder and kneaded to form a ball of paste that would last the session (10am to 1pm). A big pot of paste does last me about 3 hours.

I kick started the session with a pot of F1 groundbait to the right edge and a half pot of 4mm pellet to the left. Starting over the groundbait the swim started to fizz with the float dancing around before a skimmer produced a positive lift on the bulk and was duly netted. When I went on to the pellet swim it was a lot quieter and it took till about the third rotation to get a bite. Overall the bites came quicker over groundbait but the fish were a smaller stamp. I managed to extract a tench of 2-02 and a bream of 3-02 plus a carp of about 2lb from the left swim while just the one small carp from the groundbait swim. I also had 10 skimmers (roughly 3-7 split) and 2 roach (0-2) for a 16-08 weighed total.

On the face of it the groundbait seems to attract more but smaller fish while the pellet only approach seemed to attract the better quality. The paste change was also interesting as I have now tried three different mixes with the Red No3~ and ~2 mix producing mainly small fish compared to the other mixes. I will continue experimenting and intend to try through the winter with paste also!

Fishing the Chinese Paste UK style!

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I have been experimenting for some time with Chinese paste mixes but before I go further I have to explain that the way paste is fished in China is different from over in the UK. Big differences include using two hooks, having a firmer paste that allows casting, plumbing up using the paste as a plummet plus more. I am going to China later on this year and will do a write up of paste fishing there.

So firstly the paste, if you think we have a wide range of groundbaits then think the same for paste but more so. Paste for varying speeds of break down, for different species(tilapia, carp, black carp, sea fish, crucians, bream…), different flavours within each species, you get the idea! I have stuck to a limited range and experimented within that narrow selection. The paste I have available currently …

As you can see the packets are all in Mandarin so the diagram at the back is helpful as a starting point. Anyway let me show you it in practice. The venue is Crookwood Lake on the Devizes ticket peg 23.

Once I got my box set up I began on the paste preparation.

Left to right, top to bottom – main bulk paste; second paste; mixed in ratio 70/30%; two full pole pots of water added and stirred in then left while I sorted out the rest of my kit. Mix after 15 minutes: Jellyfish powder, this forms a stringy texture to the paste; Jellyfish powder added/sprinkled on; paste after quick mixing and kneading.

In China they use very long floats for paste fishing with rolled lead strip making a form of olivette, the lead strip is trimmed to get the weight correct so the float cocks just at the top of the body, the paste then acts as the weight for the long antenna.

I tend to try and adapt the paste to UK style venues so use two basic rigs- the float used can change but the shotting is the same. First a bulk with one dropper, the second just the bulk.

You will notice the relatively small hook by UK standards for the paste – a 16. Partly because Crookwood is a true mixed fishery so I wanted to see what I could catch on a 16 rather than a 10 or 12 which is usual for paste when it is used mainly for carp. Bait size was roughly a small walnut of paste, feeding a few 4mm pellets in the toss-pot with the paste in the area marked by the lillies.

I began at 10:15 and stopped at 1:25 when the ball of paste had run out. The float was constantly dipping and moving but I ended up with tench of 3lb and 5lb in the net together with a bream of 2.5lb, 5 skimmers and 3 roach. I also had 4 small carp (best 1-04) and two crucians of 12oz and 1-04, these where returned straight away as club rules do not allow carp to be retained in keepnets.

To be honest I probably put too little jellyfish powder on the mix as it was not as stringy as usual but it works. At some point I am going to have a go with a Chinese two hook set up if I find a venue that allows two hooks! Similarly I am tempted to try the paste on a river to see what would happen!

August 2026 Part 1 – One track mind!

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I, in my infinite wisdom, decided as the weather was still baking to be sensible and only go for short periods if at all! Now having made that decision I decided to use the time focusing on one method during any outing. So August 4th sees me head to High Penn with the intention of fishing a feeder with a wafter, however two things stopped that reaching fruition, first I forgot to put the wafters in and secondly I picked up the wrong rod! My intention was to fish the far corner- East bank peg 12 but when I walked around found it was already occupied so opted for peg 10. Setting up the rod I discovered the missing wafters so instead I used some 6mm pellets from the bag of mixed dampened pellets I had taken to use up!

Had a couple of casts before I had a couple of indications finally getting a bite off a rudd of 5oz. Now at this point something began to trouble me – the sound of the line on the retrieve sounded like it was braid. I checked the reel and it seemed to be braid (same colour as my mono line) and I was not sure but seemed to remember that braid was banned. At which point I decided to pack up rather than risk continuing.

Fast forward to the 10th and I arrive at Crookwood with the intention of fishing solely with paste and on the opposite bank to where I fished before. The lake had been closed for maintenance over the weekend and a n excavator was positioned to prevent cars driving up that side. I parked up went to the notice board next to the excavator to see if there was any pegs closed, no notice so I ad a walk and the work had been creating new platforms from iron sheeting and hard core with the sheeting in place but they had obviously run out of hardcore so there were only a couple of pegs fishable in the area I walked. I opted for peg 8 and set up, just about to start and someone came and put a note on the board closing the bank! I asked if they wanted me to move but was told I could stay and act as a guard to prevent anyone going past me! As it turned out the guy was Danny Williamson who had taken over from me as Head coach for the South West many years ago, he came up and had a chat saying more hard core was arriving on the Tuesday and the work would be completed by probably Thursday.

So I began with the paste (a Chinese paste combination that I will do a separate report on!) introducing two balls of crushed expander groundbait the half a dozen pellets every put in with the paste via a toss-pot. Elastic was a green hollow Chinese elastic in 2.0mm probably the equivalent to a 10-12, homemade Chianti style float with a bulk 18 inches from hook with a number 8 dropper six inches away from hook. At this point you are probably thinking that does not sound like a paste rig and you would be right in the conventional sense but I do not follow convention! The rig was in place as the paste used is not like the paste normally found in the bait boxes of others! However more of that at a later date!

The session started slow with none of the usual bubbling that I had experienced before but eventually I began to get some interest and although I only landed a tench of 1-04 and five skimmers I felt that I had learnt a bit. In hindsight I should have realised that the workings over the weekend with the shuttering being driven in would have affected the fish and would possibly account for the slowness of the session, still hindsight is great!