Going into the unknown- Part 2

April 6, 2015April 6, 2015 jacksonb1 Uncategorized

A thick fog greeted me on the day of our test fish, car packed with flask food, rucksack/seat and rest of the tackle I made my way to the meeting point. A couple were there before me and we had a quick walk down to take a look at the canal. With the fog beginning to lift we were not happy to see that the colour that had previously been in the canal had gone and you see right across the canal through the gin clear water. Things were not looking good!

When we all arrived I set off and walked about 600 yards up the canal around a bend and stopped in the middle of a straight with hawthorn bushes opposite.

It did not look good when I found I only had about 2 1/2 feet of water at the deepest but I thought I had to give it a go.

A couple of pinkies were catapulted out and a single red maggot on a 22 to 0.07mm soon joined them in the crystal clear water. To cut a long story short after two hours only two of us remained and I decided to have a walk further down the canal in case it showed any signs of life other than newts and ducks! Half a mile later I decided enough was enough- the water was devoid of anything resembling a fish with the bottom clear all across and of a similar depth, no where near the 4 1/2 feet we had been told. Apart from disturbing a couple of water voles there was no activity and the most telling thing was that there was no sign of any kingfishers. In this area, if there are fish, there are kingfishers in residence. Walking back I packed my stuff up and made my way back constantly looking for a sign of a fish – nado!

As a water it was ideal apart from the depth and no fish!

Going into the unknown – Part 1

April 4, 2015April 4, 2015 jacksonb1 Uncategorized

The club I belong to has been offered a stretch of newly refurbished disused canal. No information is available other than the owner thinks there are fish in it as a heron is often seen on the water! We have been invited to do a test fish in a couple of days time and I thought this may be an opportunity to look at how a new unknown water can be approached.

We had previously walked the length with the owner and in most parts it is between 10 and 13m wide with some colour in the water. The water has been in existence for 18 years but it is only recently that work has taken place to dig out the reeds that covered it and create a depth of approximately 4 and a half feet down the channel. No sign of fish when we walked the length but it was a cold February day when we did so.

My experience of similar waters has led me to adopt a different approach to the rest of the members who will turn up for the test fish – I am guessing they will turn up with their usual match gear and fish a pole or whip. On these unfished waters the disturbance on the bank plus having a pole over their heads can send any fish away to find shelter. So my plan is to take my trusty haversack seat, a few essentials in a plastic tub, a net bag, bucket with small box of maggots and one of pinkies and a little groundbait, oh and a few slices of bread; this will be teamed up with an 11ft Silstar Ian Heaps canal rod and landing net. I will let the others go first and then decide whether to walk to the far end of the stretch or stay at the near end where there is a wider section and the canal is blocked off. The groundbait will only be used as a last resort with loose feeding pinkies being my main line of attack.

We will see in a couple of days if the plan works! (or if there are any fish in there!)

Bowood Chinese Style!

March 13, 2015January 30, 2016 jacksonb1 Tactics, Uncategorized

Following a couple of threads on different fishing forums got me thinking about trying something different! Firstly although a lot of equipment for the European market is made in China, when you look at the Chinese market the equipment is totally different. I began to wonder what it would be like to fish “Chinese style”, so took the decision to order myself a 17 section 11m carbon “pole” designed for the Asiatic markets. The pole took about 10 days to arrive and is not a pole in the European sense but a whip, it was telescopic and broke down into a butt section that was approximately 82cm long and 32.3mm in diameter, the tip was 0.8mm. Weight was 635g.

Now on the face of it those specs are not too bad and the advertising pictures show it picking up two coke bottles to demonstrate the power/arc, however being used to a rigid pole and whip when extended this was an eye opener in that the last time I had seen a bend like this was when the Scimitar pole first came out donkeys years ago!

However I thought that I had to give it a go as there must be a reason for it. I had ordered some floats for me to try but as they had been ordered a week after the pole I made up one of my own, with a long 0.8mm glass stem and a multi-coloured 0.17mm top. This took 2 AA, a number 4 and two no 10 stotz.

I decided to go ultra light to the last pegs at Bowood on the last but one day of the season, taking only the whip/pole (so I would not be tempted to do anything else) and a rucksack seat with a net bag and bait (a pot of worms- that remained unused), a pint of maggots, a pint of micros- that remained unused and some groundbait (Explosive Feeder and red Bream 3000).

As you can see from the picture above the “pole” also came with a spare flick-tip, heavier than the original. The plan was to fish it at the full 11.4 m to hand despite the conditions being not very favourable with a strong cold cross wind from right to left. It was a day when you needed wrapping up warm!

The end of the whip had a short piece of strong fabric fixed to it so I tied a small knot in the end and attached the rig using the double loop method. Four balls of groundbait were launched into the 6 foot swim and I began to learn how to cast Chinese style!

There were some interesting points, firstly I reckoned that my float was too light, even though it was heavier than the specialist ones I had sent for, secondly traditional casting with a European whip style just did not work, it was more like a delayed reaction cast to the horizon that was needed, but eventually I got the hang of it.

The pole/whip/banana, to be fair was well made but the last 2m of the tip was wafting around in the wind like a piece of fly line- no that is not quite right, fly line would have been more stable! The pictures above are the banana in action – no there is not a fish on – it really had to be seen to be believed.

Unbelievably the float dipped and I lifted into a fish – a skimmer of about 6 ounces which was carefully guided towards the net. From there on for the next two hours I had plenty of action and what intrigued me was I only missed one bite despite having about 8m of line between tip and float- and that bite was only missed due to me having a cup of coffee at the time! I even had a bream of 3-5 towards the end which was interesting as you could feel the weight and the odd thud but the tip was acting very much like elastic and taking out any lunges very comfortably.

At the end I had 7-12 in the two hours I was there but will investigate this Chinese style further at some point- certainly has given me food for thought.

Preparing Wheat

January 20, 2015January 20, 2015 jacksonb1 Bait Bait, bream, fishing, wheat

1. I use a large plastic tub that they sell suet balls for birds in. I put 2-3 pints of wheat into this.

2. I now pour a full kettle of boiling water slowly over the wheat.

3. I now add cold water until the bucket is about half full

4. Put the lid on and leave for at least 24 hours, preferably 36-48hours.

5. Two days later!

6. Drain off the water (save it for groundbait if you like)

You can see the difference now in colour

7. Bag up and put in freezer

Why Wheatnotcasters?

January 14, 2015January 14, 2015 jacksonb1 Uncategorized

One of the things I have been trying over the last two seasons is the use of wheat as an alternative loose feed. I bought a sack (25kg) for about £14 including delivery (would have been less than half if I could have picked it up!) and after two seasons I still have half a sack left! So what myths and questions arise with wheat, as it is not a common bait.

1. Preparation – there are a lot of myths and legends but preparing wheat can be very easy if you are able to boil a kettle (more later in a separate blog with pictures on how to prepare it!)

2. Storage – “it doesn’t freeze well”, I keep being told – wrong! If prepared sensibly it freezes well and can be used on several trips if placed back in the freezer.

3. “It is easy to over feed it” – so is any bait!

4.”It is mainly for pre-baiting for bream or roach fishing” – it can be used in those ways but I have caught carp, bream, tench, roach, rudd, gudgeon, chub, dace and perch on wheat !

Preparation I will deal with as previously stated. Some people swear by stewed wheat, I have had plenty of success with my method but I will at some point try some stewed just to see the difference.

Storage – I put approximately 2 pints of prepared wheat into a large freezer bag and seal- the key with this is that the wheat needs to be damp/wet and the sealing takes most of the air out of the bag. A bag can last me 2-3 sessions and is resealed and put back in the freezer each time. I simply take the bag out the day before or sometimes on the morning I am going.

Feeding – I will loose feed about 6-10 grains every couple of minutes If I am after anything that swims, if i am targeting bream, tench or carp I will put in the equivalent of a large pole pot (250ml) and spread it in a line over a metre or so, then loose feed 10-20 grains every 5minutes or so.

Hooking – I will start off with a single grain on an 18 or 16 hook. The way I hook the grain is by the thicker end so the point of the hook comes out on the side the kernel is split on. If I suspect there are bigger fish present I will go up to a size 14 with 2 grains.

Venues – I have used wheat on all types of waters- canals, rivers, commercials, natural lakes and have always had a response from fish – they like it even if some people think they don’t!

Sometimes it is worth trying something different- you may be pleasantly surprised!

(When I do my next lot of wheat for the freezer I will do a follow up blog with pictures so you can see how easy it is!)

New Year at Bowood

January 9, 2015January 10, 2015 jacksonb1 Fishing bream, lake, pole

Due to the festivities and family commitments I did not get the chance to get out at all until Monday 5th. I decided to head for the same swim on the premise that it was the only peg that any bait had been going in (I can’t believe that I get the whole place to myself! ). Following on from the last visit I decided to cup in 6 balls of Red Supercup and Special mixed 50-50 and topped that up with a pot of micros – planning to return the next day also to see if it had drawn in any bream. The water colour was a bit murky but beginning to clear, although the wind was driving the rain into me. Tackle was exactly the same as previous visit which was a 0.75g Paster and 0.10Shogun hook length to an 18.

Small skimmers (blades really) began to respond to maggot and I was glad when the rain eased off after an hour or so, as I do not take a brolly, trusting my Cabelas Goretex waterproofs to keep me dry! Small fish continued in periods before finally on pellet a length of white hydro exiting the pole tip indicated the bream had arrived. The net was slipped under a welcome bream of 3-7 and 20 minutes later another sample at 3-0 was in the net. Another wait produced a final bream of 4-5 before I decided to throw the remainder of my groudbait in and high-tail it back home as I could see the weather beginning to deteriorate.

Next day saw me back at the same peg with high hopes. The water had got even murkier but at least the rain was holding off. Anyway the best laid plans succumbed to Murphy’s Law and after an initial roach and skimmer of around 12oz it went quiet- bream time I thought! The float buried with expander on the hook, yards of white hydro came out of the tip and after 10secs returned as the hook pulled. I was suspicious as it did not feel like a bream. The next hour saw very little action apart from the odd roach when I put a maggot on. At this point it went quiet again and once more the float buried and elastic came out with a solid weight on the end that then decided to move out in the lake, 10 minutes later my suspicions were confirmed as a pike close to 15lb came to the top before making another run out, another 3-4 minutes saw me try and net the fish in my woefully inadequate net- the head would go in but the rest wouldn’t or vice versa- you get the picture! Anyway. it made one more dash and the hook pulled!

Hoping it would have sulked out of the swim, I topped up and began on the maggot to see if anything was left in the swim, once again it was very slow and after about another hour and 3 small roach , a strange thing happened- another angler arrived! This chap had come down to do a couple of hours spinning for the pike in the next field. More small roach followed , not in any numbers and I was having to work hard for them.

The piker returned after about an hour and a half and reported no takes and began working the swims further down on the way back to the cars. Half an our later and back on the pellet, pike number 3 was hooked, this was a lot livelier and at one point I had all the sections of the pole on, after about 5 minutes I had it close enough in to confirm that it was indeed a pike and it was not going to fit in the net although it was smaller than then last one. A quick shout and waving my net got the desired response and my friendly piker netted the fish after another 5 minutes. Fortunately the hook fell out in the net and on weighing Mr Esox became my first double from Bowood at 10-13.

I fished on for another half hour but then gave up with no bream in sight.

Wednesday and Thursday were ruled out for a variety of reasons, but I was back on Friday with a larger net in tow! I began to get worried as there were quite a few cars there when I arrived but soon realised that they were there for a pheasant shoot. Finally got to the peg to find the water was chocolate in colour with no visibility down into the water. Same tackle but this time I cupped in 4 balls of my groundbait (same mix) and a quarter of a large pot of micros. One hour later – no bites, nothing on maggot, nothing on pellet. Now I reckoned that there must be larger fish there if the roach were not showing, the question being were they bream or pike!

On went half a worm to see if that could entice a bite and after 15minutes the float buried and I missed it!!! I then decided to put in some chopped worm, so 20 worms were quickly mushed up and the same mass of micros added and mixed in, this was potted in and I crossed my fingers. Half hour later the float lifted and then slid under, this time the strike was met by a solid resistance and the thump of a bream, soon a bream of 4-6 was in the net, followed fifteen minutes later by a smaller sample of 3-3. The wind was very strong but fortunately was blowing mainly into my face, I began to notice that the shooters were now moving from their initial positions and into the first and second fields. Soon the salvo of shotgun blasts began again, interspersed with dog whistles. At one point the wind must have been strong as I got showered by spent shot!

The bream, however did not seem to mind and were continuing to feed on the worm, as I added ones of 4-1, 3-10, 4-14, 4-4, 3-1 and a roach to my net at regular intervals, much to the interest of a beater who stopped to watch. Then I pulled out of 5 one after the other with no discernible reason- a quick top up and a change to pellet saw 3 further bream of 3-14, 3-5 and 4-7 before the skies darkened and I decided that discretion was the better part of valor and returned home in far better spirits!

So a nice 39-2 net to ponder on (39-1 bream plus that lone 1oz roach!)

Christmas at Bowood 2

December 18, 2014December 18, 2014 jacksonb1 Fishing

9:45 I was back at the peg, minus the pike rod! I decided to set up a heavier float as the water was even murkier and looked as it was towing about. A 0.75g Paster was set up to 0.16 Shogun (so I could vary the hook lengths more if needed)and 0.10 Shogun hook length with a size 18 Filstar F103N

I decided to be positive (for me!) and cupped in 3 balls of Supercup Red, a half big pot of micros and then a cup of loose. Double bronze on and sat back to wait. 2 minutes later and a blade of about 2 ounces was in the net. Out again and another small skimmer of 3-4 ounces joined the other in the net. Third put in and float buried and 3 foot of white hydro came out, just as I was about to unship to the top kit the hook pulled! Cursing I took the maggots off and replaced them with an expander (4mm treated with pineapple Gel-it). Three minutes later and the float slowly sank and this time there was no mistake and bream 1 was in the net, quickly weighing the fish in the net the scales settled at 3-4. (I always zero the scales against the net before I start and check after each fish). A good start.

The next 110 minutes saw 9 proper bream and 2 skimmers of 1-4 and 1-8 come to the net with only one further fish being lost. I topped up with a ball of groundbait and handful of micros each time I had to wait more than 10minutes for a bite. At 5 past 12 the inevitable happened, – a roach, followed by a couple more blades signifying that the bream had moved on. With the wind and rain making life unpleasant I decided not to be greedy and packed up and trudged the 820 paces back to the car!

Result was a 33-8 net – a nice early Christmas present from Bowood.

Christmas at Bowood 1

December 18, 2014December 18, 2014 jacksonb1 Fishing

This year I joined Bowood Estate Lake for the first time. For those of you who have not heard of Bowood it is a stately home near Calne, Wiltshire which has a large private lake set in parklands landscaped by Capability Brown. The lake resembles a mis-shapen T with the vertical part short and the two horizonal pieces at a slight angle with the left hand piece being longer and wider than the right. Access is limited to 50 permits a year at £190 but fishing is only allowed on the right hand part of the T (both banks) and the bank of the vertical part that continues onto the right hand piece. (Clear as mud!).

View of the lake/walk from the car parking area.

Views from the “arm” looking towards the house in warmer times!

As you can tell there is a long walk involved to get to the fishing, 440 paces in first field, through a gate for another 60 paces, another gate then 60 paces to first platform. To get to the final platform you can fish on the car park side is 1120 paces!!

I had always baulked at the cost as with my other commitments I could not see me getting value for money until now. With retirement it became a very cost effective venue as I live exactly 1 minute from the entrance gate and a further 2 minutes through the estate- so from getting into the car I could be parked and ready for the walk within 4 minutes. This season has seen some fine days of bream and tench fishing coupled with quality roach. Interestingly I seem to attract pike when not fishing for them and to date have had 10 pike (biggest only 8-9-0) on sweetcorn and pole/waggler!

Anyway I had been unsuccessfully piking with deadbaits and had some on lures during November/December and had not been for a bit due to the run up to Christmas and various family visits so a week before Christmas Eve I decided to have a couple of hours down there but to fish pole with pellet (something I had resisted in the warmer weather) and put a deadbait out also. The last platform in the middle field (820 paces) was to be my chosen peg with approx 7-8 foot of water at 10metres. The deadbaiting did not look so clever as the water had turned a chocolate colour with all the rain, so I was unsure how successful it would be.

Anyway I put out a joey mackerel into the right hand margins and set about plumbing up. Rig was a home made diamond bodied float taking a no4, 2 x n0 8 and a no 10, 0.14 Shogun to a 0.10mm Shogun hooklength. A size 18 Filstar gilt hook completed the set up. Groundbait was three bags of leftovers taken from the freezer in the garage that were promptly mixed together.

A ball of groundbait the size of a tangerine, a half pot of micros and a handful of loose groundbait was deposited and as the bells tolled 12 I set off with single bronze on the hook just to see if there was anything about! Bites were slow to come but I began to get a run of fish but then it would go quiet despite topping up and then the bites would return. I suspected that either pike were about (nothing on pike rod!) or there were bigger fish around. I put a pellet (expander) on to see what would happen. Eventually the float buried and I lifted into a solid weight with a large amount of white hydro coming out of the end of the pole. I suspected pike as it kept deep and plodded whereas the bream tend to come higher in the water, 5 minutes later a pike of 7-10 lay in the net!

After returning Mr Esox I had a cup of coffee and potted in another helping of micros and put a pellet (expander) on to see what else would happen. A couple of small skimmers later I was thinking that I would need to pack up soon as the light was beginning to fade when the float buried and the white hydro this time indicated that a bream had snaffled my expander, a few moments later a bream of 3-12 lay in my net. Next put in saw a missed bite and then on my last put in of the day another bream of 3-4 fancied the expander.

This gave me food for thought so I threw in my remaining expanders and groundbait and resolved to return in the morning.

To be continued…

Bossing the swim 2 – Giant fishing

December 1, 2014December 1, 2014 jacksonb1 Tactics

Bossing the swim (part 2)

Doesn’t time fly! Looking back at the blog I realised that I had never had the opportunity to go back and do the second part of Bossing the swim – part 1 was January 2009!!!

The weather had been wet to say the least over the last weeks in November but the river was starting to fine down, although still up and pushing through. This time I opted for peg 13 above the top weir, a noted chub peg, but I was interested in picking up roach and perch at about 10m using an 18g Giant.

Set up was similar to previously except I had decided to try some 0.20 Fortex rather than my trusty Shogun, to see if it could cope with the rigours of Giant fishing. Hooklength was still 12 inches of 0.10mm Shogun to a 20 and the 18g was made up of small drilled bullets and a barrel lead that could move only about two inches between locking shot of BB (below) and AAA (above). A solitary no 4 was a dropper 4 inches from the hook.

2009 set up on right.

I decided to start with groundbait and 3 balls with some old squatt and home turned casters were cupped in at 10m. Bait was to be single red, I began by running the float through at the pace of the river just to get a feel of the swim then began inching it down the swim at different rates.

Third trot down I missed a bite (an improvement on my last attempt!) and finally found that if I held it steady in an area about 3m down the swim I would get the odd bite. It wasn’t until I put on a bronze maggot that I finally hooked into a fish, a roach of 3-4 ounces. Over the next two hours I managed to pick up 5 roach and two perch, topping up with a ball of groundbait every half hour or so.

Not a huge catch but satisfying as others were biteless and at least it showed the size of the float can work in adverse conditions. Lollipops, I hear you say, but I have found that the bites on the Giants are more positive than when using lollipops in similar conditions. Just another method in my armoury when a single fish is needed in a team match.

Bossing the swim (Part 1)

December 1, 2014December 1, 2014 jacksonb1 Tactics, Uncategorized Giants

Bossing the swim (part 1) written January 2009

You know when you have a “bright” idea one day and it all goes wrong… Well read on!

I had the stupid idea of doing a short piece for the site on a method I have been using on the local river involving the use of my Giant floats, Now the usual pole float people use on the Bristol Avon at Sutton Benger is 1-1.5g, occasionally going up to 2 or 3g if it is pushing a bit. I have been using 5-6g floats on occasions but more regularly 18g monsters that I had made for some Irish customers to use in the Winter Leagues on the Erne. The rationale behind this was if I could control the float absolutely then I could deliver the “perfect” presentation for the roach, tench and bream that were my quarry.

I had a small window of opportunity before my work and junior angling club commitments took over so made the decision to go for it come what may. Well, you guessed it, Saturday came with a hard frost overnight and the river almost three foot up and rising, cursing I decided to do the shopping and chores and hoped that the river had stabilised by Sunday. Saturday night- it rained!

Dragged myself out of bed on Sunday morning and got myself sorted. Flask made, out into the garage to find that the score was now Mice 0 Me 1, sorted that out and reset the trap, loaded the car and set off thinking that at least it had warmed up.

The river was not looking good, about three foot up and a horrible colour but I walked up to peg 136 above the bottom weir and reminded myself that a bad day’s fishing was better than a good day at work and set about sorting myself out.

The swim was about 8 foot deep at 10 metres where there was a nice crease.

The picture shows the 18g Giant I was using, the other float is a 0.5g for comparison, my bulk consisted of 3 x 5g drilled bullets with a series of BB and AA shot either end as locking shot,. Size 20 hook (a Filstar version not available in the shops) was 12inches below the bulk with a single No 4 as dropper.

Main line was 0.20mm Shogun with a 0.10mm Shogun hooklength.

Worms were chopped and groundbait mixed as a standby.

Three droppers of chopped worm went out at 10m and I shipped out and prayed that something would show an interest. ! I was able to present my bait at what ever pace I wanted and was able to nail it still if needed but to no avail!

Four hours and four cups of coffee later and still without a bite, despite also introducing groundbait, I gave up – deciding to return when the river was more obliging. Hopefully during half-term (I’m a teacher for my sins!) I’ll return and finish what I intended!