pondtail

November 2025 part 1-no fireworks here!

jacksonb1 Uncategorized , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

First outing is on the 4th when I took the Frenzee waggler to the Pondtail peg 1 and had a pleasant couple of hours fishing (9:45 to 11:45) double maggot and just loose feeding a few maggots at intervals. I set the homemade peacock waggler with the bulk around the float , a no. 6 about 2 feet from the hook and a no. 8 about six inches from the 18 hook, the result was 3-06 comprising of 36 roach and 4 perch.

Friday sees me wander down to peg 10 at Bowood, fishing 10-12. The pike rod with sardine went out to no avail and the lighter elastic and winter rig with a homemade body down float taking a bulk of 1g and 2 no 8 droppers to an 18 carried double maggot to start and later worm but no real size of fish came to this even with a bit of chopped work in the initial two balls of groundbait. 17 rudd, a roach, a microscopic perch, a hybrid and a skimmer managed to pull the scales round to 2-03.

Wednesday sees me back at Bowood but I changed plans as there was a car already parked up and I recognised it as an angler that in all likelihood would be on peg 10, no with the lake still holding vast amounts of weed the only peg worth fishing with known clear areas was 10 so I made the decision to leave the sardines in the car and fished the Pondtail on the pole for a change! Fishing 9:30 to 11:30 I started with 2 firmish balls of groundbait with some wheat and then loose fed wheat every few minutes, only topping up the groundbait with a ball every 40 mins or so. The weather was typical November- wet but this time quite warm at 14C. I set up with a lighter elastic than usual teamed with a BGT Blues taking 0.75g to a 0.10mm hooklength and an 18 with double maggot. Shotting was the usual bulk set about 3 feet from the hook with two no.8 droppers. Bites came steadily apart from a couple of blank periods when the flow changed, fifteen roach and two perch took the scales down to 1-10.

Friday was going to be my next outing but waking up to a dark oppressive gloom and rain I took the easy option and decided to write this instead! On the other side of the world Gareth had returned to the commercial he had visited previously- the one where you got money back for every fish you caught!

Fishing a whip he ended up with 3 large tilapia (4-5lb) and a carp fishing the traditional two hook method with a soft paste on the top hook and a firm paste on the bottom hook. All the fish came to the bottom hook with a paste made from the fishery provided pellets he was loose feeding.

One of the tilipia had a tag which apparently made it count as 3 fish – only 100 fish in the whole lake were tagged and of course he had to get one! The most fish caught when he was there was 5 and the lowest 2 so he didn’t do too bad in the four hour session.

A pike from Bowood now becomes a target for the remainder of the month!

November 2024 Part 2 – climate change?

jacksonb1 Uncategorized , , , , , , , ,

Sunday 17th sees me back at peg 10 with no real hopes of catching given everywhere seemed to have turned off due to lack of rain and the subsequent lowering of oxygen levels in the water. To cut a long story short I fished 9-11 in tap water for a second consecutive blank on the main lake although it was warm so did not need to wear my coat.

Two days later I decide to go to the Pondtail as we still had no rain and the temperature had dropped from 10C down to 0C. Set up the 4.5m Chinese whip and rig and loose fed just 4-5 grains of wheat every other cast starting at 9:15 after 10 minutes I had my first roach and the snow started! I lasted until10:15 when it was snowing heavily and I returned the 9 roach and went home to get warm.

Before it snowed heavily!

We then had a ten day block of snow, heavy rain and floods plus my knee was playing up so it was not until Friday 29th that I got out again to peg 10. Now to give this some context Thursday at 8am it was -3C, Friday it was 10C and today it is 14C, no wonder that all wildlife are confused. Peg 10 was coloured, windy and bright sunshine, although the wind was cold. Setting up as normal the pike rod was out at 9:15 and the pole followed at 9:25 after depositing two small balls of groundbait into the coloured water, followed by light loose feeding throughout the session. The time swings around to five past ten and I get the impression of a bite- the float sat literally a mm or two lower, a lift and a one ounce hybrid prevents the three blanks in a row on the main lake! A further half hour passes and I introduce some finely chopped worms (10 to be exact) and try a worm head, this produces another tentative bite after a quarter of an hour, a very slow “runner” to the left which could have been mistaken for tow, a lift finds a small bream of 1-09 coming to the net. That was my lot on the pole – two “bites” two fish.

During the session I had spotted pike come to the surface and take in air, possibly to try and clear any sediment from the coloured water off their gills. Two of these had been to my left about two rods out, one at 12m and the fourth to my right also about two rods out. I had put the pike rod over the left to no avail, but decided to put it over the right hand area while I started packing up the pole. This produced a bob and the float disappearing, a strike was met with heavy resistance and a run before after 5 secs the pike let go! I needed to give it more time before striking! That was my lot and I was home by 12:15.

December arrives on Sunday so I will try again on the main lake!