tench

September 2026 Part 1 – Rumble in the jungle!

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Wednesday 2nd sees me at Crookwood peg 9 fishing 10:15 to 1:35(although really only to 1:15 spoiler alert!). I have made the decision to just fish the Chinese paste for the foreseeable future and try different combinations. Today I mixed 50-50 the blue packet and the red ( Old Ghost) with the obligatory jellyfish powder. Tackle was the 0.16mm rig with a Chianti style homemade float with the bulk set 6 inches from a 16 hook, elastic was a green 2.2mm Chinese hollow.

It was raining, that light “wet” rain that seems to get everywhere but fortunately it stopped after about an hour. I didn’t introduce any groundbait, instead just relied upon a half pot of micros and 6mm pellets with a few pellets every put in with the paste. The going was slow, in fact it took me 40mins to get my first bite, a skimmer. From then on it continued to fish hard with bobs on the float but no real bites apart from a further 2 skimmers and a stockie plus a couple of missed bites that may have been liners.

As I was getting towards the end of my paste the float slowly submerged and a lift produced a solid weight that began moving slowly at first before heading towards the far bank. To be honest I thought it was probably a better carp around the 6-7lb mark and after a few minutes got it within netting range, when it finally showed itself I realised I was in trouble as it was more like a 12-15lb common, that when I tried to net it I managed to get it’s head in the net but nothing else, before I could readjust the net it flipped and swam out again. It then headed into the left hand margin (see photo)

The fish managed to get into the under growth and after steady pressure came out only to go straight back in and through the reeds for about three meters. Again I kept steady pressure and just as I thought it had finally snagged me it moved back towards me only to go under the bank at the side of the platform where it stayed, five more minutes of pressure resulted in nothing, so after approx 15 minutes of the contest with the fish I accepted I had lost the fish and it had finally snagged me. As it was so close to the peg I was able to get hold of the line and began to exert steady pressure thinking I was going to either pull free from the snag or snap, only for the carp to suddenly reappear with its head gasping a quick grab of the net and ping the float went slack and the carp slid out of view. Inspecting the rig, the line did not break, the hook did not pull out – the hook snapped at the bend! I thought “Oh dear” or some such equivalent phrase! At which point I packed up!

Following Monday I returned, this time to peg 26.

Tackle was similar although the float was now a homemade rugby ball style and the hook was a heavier gauge 14! Paste was the red and yellow 50-50 mix. Fishing along side the far end of the lilies over a bed of 4mm and micros I was soon getting lots of indications and had a busy session until the paste ran out on the three hour mark. I ended up with a tench of 2-02, crucian of 1-02, two brown goldfish (as opposed to crucians!)2-07 and 2-03,a skimmer of 1lb plus one other, a small roach and 3 carp ranging from 1lb to 1-05. Added to these I was snapped twice, pulled out 4 times and snagged once – the chances you take when fishing close to lilies.

Two days later sees me back, this time at peg 28 towards the end of the bank with open water and no lilies! Fishing 10-1 with same set up as previous visit and same paste mix. Started at 9m (7 section) and began getting skimmers after 15 minutes. However after an hour or so I lifted into a bite and crack my number 6 section snapped about six inches above the female join. I managed to get the pole back within reach and discovered it was a clean break- had it been a new pole as opposed to it being 20+ years old it would have looked like a “manufacture defect”! The remaining piece could not be telescoped so I ended the session fishing 5 sections. Again I had to build the swim but my final tally came to 5 skimmers over the pound (best 1-09) plus 2 under, a tench of 1-11 and a roach. Also had a crayfish drop off on the way in plus pulled out of a fish , probably a carp that took off towards the other bank.

Off to Torquay for a few days so no fishing, back home for a week then off to China!

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!

July 2026 Part 2 -A mixed bag

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A mixed bag of venues!Wednesday 22 sees me visit High Penn for a couple of hours before it got too hot. I set up in what I term North 8 (the fourth peg on the north bank, I start with the furthest peg on the west bank as peg 1!), very straightforward waggler approach but with bulk of 6 no 8 shot set about 15 inches from a size 16 hook with just a further no 8 about 9 inches below that. No groundbait just loose fed maggots, about 10 every couple of minutes on the equivalent of 3 rod lengths. Despite a prolonged attempt with corn, not a bite on it all the bites came to double maggot, ending up with approx 1-13 according to my ounce count, comprising of 3 roach and 16 perch.

Fast forward to Friday and I arrive at Crookwood and despite myself I set up again on peg 56, partly because it was in shade and partly I wanted to see if I could make the Chinese paste work. Set up was as previous visit and fished at 10m. I started by putting in two balls of crushed expander laced with micros and a few 4mm, thereafter I fed 4 -5 4mm pellets with the paste each put in. First two put ins I opted to fish corn, to test the state of play and had a roach and a skimmer , then moved on to the paste. I ended up with the roach, two skimmers, 2 carp of 0-08 and 1-00, 2 tench of 0-12 and 2-00, 4 crucians and 5 bream- best 3lb. I clicked 20lb in total.

Time to scratch that itch- last time I fished Viaduct we had thunder and lightning coupled with monsoon style rain and I caught little, I wanted to try and redeem myself so entered the Tuesday open which surprisingly attracted 20 anglers compared to 8 the last time. Anyway money paid and my fingers pull out 115, the good news being I was on the shaded side of Campbell lake. I had made the decision that I was going to fish exclusively with Chinese paste and as such set up 3 rigs; the first was a basic homemade Chianti style taking 0.6g on 0.20mm line, the second was my Chinese set up fished bottom only with olivette and one dropper to a 14, the final rig was for the margin- just in case! I did relent and also set up a bomb for banded pellet as a back up. Depth was identical at 5m and 10m, starting at 5m was slow with a couple of skimmers and I soon went out to 10m where I spent most of my time ending with 3 carp for 20-02 and a bream net that I clicked 40lb but weighed a lot less at 28-12 for a 48-14 total. I only lost one carp at the net with a hook pull but suffered with numerous liners/ghost bites! The guy on 116 tipped back complaining that he had kept foul hooking the fish and loosing them, the guy on my left had a late run of carp but only had a handful of skimmers. Generally I was happy with that but surprised at the bream as when I have weighed them before on Cary (next door lake) they weighed heavy, hence my clicking!

Moving on to the end of the month I decided to do something I had not done in ages and also visit a venue I last fished about 16 years ago in a snow storm- Flaxlands just outside Royal Wootton Bassett. I had decided to do a bit of pellet feeder work with my 8ft Tricast Power Carp Wand. I rolled up and was fishing by about 8:30 through to almost 1pm. I set up on a very awkward peg on the small lake, peg 14, but it did give total shade up until I left!

Despite me getting my initial pellet all wrong I persevered and the tip was hardly still but few positive bites, 5 small carp were netted best only about 2lb. About 11:45 I decided to put up a float rod- an old Silstar Ian Heaps 11ft canal and using corn had 6 roach on the waggler plus missed several bites in the margins. Total weight about 5lb.

Zachary showing Gareth how to do it!

August 2025 Part 2 -normal service?

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Sunday 17th I head off to Bowood with weed rake in tow. I was shocked by the extent the reeds/rushes had encroached on the main channel with by my reckoning at least 9 (NINE) swims were now unfishable due to the rushes and weed growth given there are only 25 swims discounting the Pondtail (2) and Stock Pond (2) it was getting dire. I decided to try peg 8, starting at 9 o’clock with the rake and forty minutes later I had a mound of weed behind me and a narrow strip of channel to fish in out to 10m. Dirty, sweaty and knackered I set up the pole and had my first put in as the bell chimed 10. The next two hours were frustrating as despite me bulking the shot making up the 0.8g four inches from the hook the corn bait was being intercepted by hordes of 2-3 inch rudd so that the float was either not cocking or being taken for a wander as the ball of rudd failed to get the corn into their mouths. I had started with just two balls of groundbait with wheat and corn and made the mistake of loose feeding wheat which acted as a dinner bell to the ravenous juvenile rudd. By noon I had smuggled out a solitary roach and ten rudd for a 1-10 total.

Tuesday and I am back at peg 8 fishing 9:10 to 12:10. Same rig but this time starting with three hard balls of groundbait and a full pot of wheat with a few grains of corn. Loose feeding was a no-no, so any additional feed was introduced via a cup. Again the rudd proved to be a nuisance but I managed to get 2 roach, 30 rudd and ,wonders will never cease, my first half decent bream of the season at 2-10 making a 5-12 total.

What a contrast to last season when bream were seemingly plentiful. The weed has to have had a big say on the change, possibly the bream and tench (still not had one yet) are under the weed feeding on natural food.

Back to peg 8 the next day fishing 8:15 to 11:00, hoping that some bream had arrived to mop up the wheat I had thrown in at the end of yesterday’s session. Same rig and tactics, corn bait and 47 rudd and 3 roach gave me a busy session with 5-10 final weight but also dropped 20+ fish that were just holding on to the corn as they were so small.

Next opportunity was Tuesday 26th, I avoided the Bank Holiday week-end ! I decided to pop down to the Pondtail for a session on the whip but also took the Beastmaster rod set up from the visit to High Penn with hybrid feeder and intended to fish this with a 14mm scopex and vanilla boilie to see if there was any interest- there wasn’t! I set up with a 5m whip but was concerned that the reeds were starting to make an appearance here also, I had a couple at 4m directly in front of me so had to be careful when guiding fish in. Feeding wheat and fishing double maggot I only added a small ball of groundbait once bites slowed down a bit. The carp rod cast out towards the far bank lilies to my right remained “sleeping” but the whip attracted 39 roach and 6 perch for about 5lb. Sod’s Law applied once more and with the carp rod inactive the float shot under and a lift brought back the rig minus the hook- a carp !

Final outing this month was Friday 29th back to Peg 8 for a session 9-11:20. Wish I could report something different but the rudd were still there but strangely inactive, or so it seemed. The weather was cooler with a strong ripple on the water, so much so I was wearing my coat and fleece! The result was just 11 rudd for 1-02, however it was the first time I had been bothered by pike, I had a 4oz rudd taken by a pike of 5-6lb that bit through the line after a minute or so, the feed /fishing area erupted several times as the rudd scattered form the pike turning the water into a boiling mass. Hopefully this augers well for the winter pike sessions!

To date I have fished Bowood fewer times at this point of the season than previously but even so the difference has been concerning, so much so I e-mailed the estate office with my concerns regarding the encroachment of the reeds and the detrimental effect it had and may have on the spawning areas for future stocks plus the water clarity being affected by the filtration effect of the thick reed beds and asked if they had any plans to tackle the reeds. I had an acknowledgement and that it was being passed to the Estate manager – who has not yet replied after 2 weeks!

June 20215 Part 2 – slightly longer!

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Well Tuesday and Wednesday had been ruled out for fishing as it was Col’s birthday and I had got tickets for a play at Bath on the day after. However, the best laid plans and all that Tuesday afternoon sees me prone on the bed totally shattered and Wednesday sees us missing our day out in Bath as I spent the day in bed! By Sunday I was feeling a lot better but not good enough to trek down to Bowood so I had a couple of hours at High Penn on the edge of Calne. I last fished it over 30 years ago in a South Cerney v Wooton Bassett evening inter club match but after many years of no fishing Calne had managed to acquire the lease.

Given my state I simply took a 6m margin pole with the intention of fishing corn at 5m. I settled on what I think was old peg 7 on the east bank and plumbing up found about 10ft at 5m; strange how we still use feet for depth and meters for distance!

Left margin
Right margin

I began flicking out some corn and fed micros and 4m through a tosspot, starting on the right and after an hour moving to the left. Both areas being just past the tree line although the right was home of a nuisance snag! First bite came after about 10 minutes a chunky roach about 10 oz.

In the couple of hours I was there I had 10 roach,a rudd and a baby carp of about 2oz for roughly 3-12 including another net roach of about 12oz.

The bonus being that despite it being a hot day with the carp cruising around I was in shade with a breeze in to my face (I even had my fleece on!).

So Wednesday sees me march down to Bowood peg 5 with the rake. Twenty plus minutes of raking sees a clearish area that was just about fishable.

The pile of weed I took out!I managed to start fishing eventually at 10:05 and lasted until 12:30. Fishing 0.16mm to a 14 hook and corn on a homemade float I introduced three balls of groundbait with some wheat, micros and corn. First fish was a net rudd that flipped out of my had before I could take the customary first Bowood fish picture but five minutes later I had another similar sized one that I managed to snap!

I had 16 rudd by the end for 2-04 and bumped a few also, but no sign of any bream or tench. An angler on peg 10 packed up and passed me as I finished raking and he said it had been very hard but had one bream and a small skimmer. It desperately needs some colour and fresh water – the stream that you cross was dry!

Sunday sees me on the Thames at Radcot for the penultimate round of the Summer League. I was drawn in section C as I had requested a short walk with my knee and had fortunately cut right down on the tackle taking a waggler and feeder rod only along with my Bowood box and trolley. C section was down from Grafton lock and the short walk was the longest yet as I drew C10, end peg of the section, except for some unknown reason they had not staggered the pegging as in all other rounds which would have meant I would be about 4 pegs in.

Faced with blazing sun, no shade, about 8 feet of water and little colour I set up the waggler with 3 no 6 shot spread down the line, minnows and tiny bleak had been an issue with maggot so far this season so I had left the maggots at home and based my attack on caster, hemp and wheat, we were not in the running and had a team plan of trying something different! I started by loose feeding caster, hemp and a little wheat about two rod lengths out and third put in had a small bleak, so at least I wouldn’t blank, from thereon I had a further bleak, a minnow, a chublet, a roach and a gudgeon for the princely total of 0-04, the last three hours was biteless despite trying feeder and fishing across for a hopeful chub! I stopped counting the boats, paddle boards and canoes after the twentieth went through!

One more round to go – Clanfield where at least you can park behind your peg! Surprisingly we moved up to 7th as a team!

Bowood beckons as does High Penn, plus Gareth arrives on the 12th and is looking to catch a river barbel as he has not fished for them since the late 1990s. Onward and hopefully upwards.

March 2025 Part 1 – Out with a whimper!

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March 4th I decided that as my knee was still playing up I would go “light” and take a walk down the opposite bank to peg 20 (next to the island). Armed with a waggler and pike rod plus seat-bag I slowly hobbled down to the peg starting at 9:30 and finishing at 12:05. The pike rod was cast out about 20m to the left while the waggler was set up at 20-25m with loose fed maggot and one of my homemade bodied wagglers taking 4AAAwith a couple of no 6 shot as droppers – I wanted to have a positive lift if there was a bite hence the size of droppers.

The lake was untypically flat and with the bright sun I was not too hopeful given the way things had been going, but if you don’t try you won’t succeed as they say. Loose feeding a pinch of maggot every few minutes I had my first bite after 40 minutes a roach, from there on I had had sporadic bites and ended up with nine roach and a skimmer but at the end I hooked a good fish that I played for over 4 minutes getting it in to netting range a couple of times before it finally snapped my 0.10mm hooklength on one of the old platform posts close in. I never saw the fish but I am convinced it was a tench by it’s fight rather than a pike or anything else. No further bites after that loss so it was a case of trudging back to the car wondering what might have been. The only other thing of note was that there were two anglers piking on the last two pegs on the other bank and one had a pike but they both were oblivious to the deer that broke cover and ran along the slope only 20m behind them.

Sunday 9th was my next visit and I had decided to just go on the Pondtail as my knee was playing up and it being the last week-end of the season I was expecting it to be busy. How wrong could I be! On arrival there was one car and he was fishing peg 2 on the Pondtail, so I ended up fishing the waggler on peg 1 starting at 9:30. Loose feeding did not seem to work after an hour I mixed up three handfuls of groundbait and started to introduce small marbles every couple of casts. This seemed to work and I managed 6 roach up to 12noon when I packed up. The angler on peg 2 had only one small roach so in relative terms I didn’t fare too badly! The pic shows only 5 roach as I missed the net with one!!!!

The next week had little opportunity for fishing with the funeral of Pete Sarahs, the stalwart of Peatmoor, who I had accompanied all over the country with the junior teams and helped to run the junior matches with at Peatmoor for over 15 years, taking place on the Monday,car into garage on Thursday before heading to Yorkshire the same day and Wednesday taken up with meeting a fellow angler after some floats. Tuesday then was my last visit to Bowood and I made the walk down to peg 20 again. This time there was a very strong, cold wind blowing straight down the lake towards me creating a big tow on the water, so much so it was akin to trotting a river. Even 18inches overdepth did not help and I gave up the ghost at 11:15 biteless and not having seen any indication of fish, even the grebes were more interested in their courtship rituals than fishing! So ended another season at Bowood. A great beginning but a struggle there after- I caught half my total weight of fish for the season in the first three weeks!

Now a tale of some fish! Gareth decided he fancied another trip to Thailand this week-end so he organised a trip to a lake usually reserved for locals- taxi to Hong Kong,fly to Bangkok via Hong Kong on Saturday, stay in the airport hotel and be collected 6am Sunday, hour journey to the lake, fish 9 hours then return to airport, get back late Sunday and work Monday! Oh to be young again! Six year old Zachary was going with him and the guide set him up with a light spinning rod as the main tackle was to heavy for him. Unfortunately the clutch on the reel could not cope with the red-tailed catfish and even tightened fully the catfish still took line! Anyway they had a good visit with 32 red tail catfish and 1 tambaqui. Estimated total weight 1270lbs. Zachary caught two 20kilo catfish!

All his own work!

June 2024 part 2b- Struggles and successes

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I had the opportunity to get to Bowood a couple of times before the Pellet Guys Pairs at Makins, so Monday 24th sees me trudge down the field, now occupied by sheep, to Peg 1. The colour had dropped considerably but there was still sufficient for me to give it a go. Shadows moving through the water gave a big hint that the colour would soon be gone but I set up as previously and introduced two cups of loose groundbait with some wheat and about 5-6 pieces of corn. Starting at 8:45 I fished through until 11:45 and things did not look good at small rudd were attacking the corn and their slightly bigger brethren were taking it. Eventually I had a bream of 3-08 followed by further ones of 3-10, 3-02, 3-06, 4-01, 3-06 and 3-02 together with 9 rudd, a small skimmer and a roach this gave me a 25-07 total.

I had brought the rake with me and intended to prepare some swims as Peg 1 would no longer produce with the colour dropping out. To my horror Peg 3 was gone, the posts were there but the platform boards had gone and the access was blocked by reeds! Moving up to peg 4 I was pleased to see it had a good colour and after putting the rake through a couple of times for minimal weed I decided raking would not be necessary for the other swims.

Next day I was back at Bowood, this time at peg 4 and fished 8:50 to 11:20 by which time it was getting very hot and I called it a day. The session was another that you dream about, apart from16 bream I also had a tench of 4-15 and a pike of 5-01 that took a fancy to the corn, combined with 8 rudd a roach and two small skimmers I surpassed the 50lb mark again with 56-06. Groundbait was cupped in loose again but this time I used a 0.5g Chianti style homemade float. Over the five sessions in June I have averaged over 49lb but only used half a tin of corn and a litre of wheat.

So Friday sees me travel up to Makins Fishery, just outside Nuneaton for the Pellet Guys Pairs two dayer. The format is simple in that the pairs are drawn so that there is a Makins regular teamed up with an MFS angler, the Makins anglers are on three lakes and the MFS on a separate three lakes with each lake treated as a section so the pair with the lowest points win after two days. Day one and I draw peg 30 on Lizard which is a nice short walk from the car!

From left to right – left margin, front of peg and right margin. The margin on the left was deep over 3 feet and sloping out sharply, the right margin was a lot shallower but still with a slope. I planned on two areas in front the first at 10m and the second at 2+2 plus the margins, I also set up a shallow rig which went unused! Starting on the short line in 5-6ft of water on 4mm meat feeding meat and 4mm pellets I could only get a couple of roach and one solitary carp when I tried corn over it there was no joy either. The 10m line produced a roach so I ended up looking at the margins, apart from one carp from the right, all my fish came from the left one. Unfortunately the only area I could get interest was very close to the tree which had roots into the water I ended up being snapped 4 times by fish going into the roots despite being on 0.20mm and lost a further two to hook pulls. I did manage to extract eight carp including a koi close to double figures and weighed in 36-10 for joint 5th on the lake, beating the anglers near me.

Day two sees me draw peg 10 on Severn.

The margins looked featureless and on plumbing up were very sharply sloping with no flat spots and about three feet deep. The weather was very sunny and hot and although the point of the island was crying out for me to put a method feeder there I didn’t feel as it would be that productive in the hot weather as the fish were high in the water and were looking as if they may be getting ready to spawn again. Same set ups as previously and the 2+2 line only produce a few twitches before a two pound carp came to the net and that is how it stayed until the last hour of the six hour match. Despite making changes and trying the margins plus straight lead there was no joy apart from two hook pulls and being snapped on the paste by a good fish when I think the lane caught on the jagged dorsal fin. Fish were coming in to the left hand margin but were spooked if they touched the line or each other! Straight lead down the margin with a longish tail produced one liner and that was it. I was now in desperation mode so I cupped in 3 cups of loose groundbait and a cup of micros and began to put 10 4mm pellets in every few minutes. This began to get the fish wait longer and by the weigh in I had somehow managed to get 24-10 which put me 8th on the lake. To put it in context, the angler on my right who had tried the island tipped back as he reckoned he had just over 20lb and the one on my left weighed in 26-08, so I felt I had not done as badly as I feared, just that area was the worst on the lake on that day. Needless to say we came nowhere as a pair!

July beckons with the arrival of Gareth et al for a couple of weeks, so Bowood will be on the agenda.

June 2024 -part 2a, musings

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When I was coaching I used the mantra of the 3Fs when working with newcomers in particular. The 3 Fs are find the fish, find the depth, feed the fish. I used this as in most cases with newcomers if they can get these three elements correct they stand a better chance of catching and remaining in the sport. Find the fish is not always easy to explain but essentially if on a commercial then there will be fish in front of you and in the margins but on natural waters you are looking for a variety of things – wind, vegetation, overhanging bushes, flow, etc.. This combined with finding the depth, not just where you are casting but the whole area in front of you can give you a picture of what lies beneath the surface and identify further fish holding spots – deeper areas, drop offs, slopes, etc… This then gives you a better chance to target the correct area of the swim. Finally feeding the fish, I generally try to instill a little and often approach as this will often produce more consistently than handfuls of bait being thrown in sporadically which tends to be the case with newcomers. The choice of bait also comes into this but along with presentation are the next steps in a newcomer’s journey.

So how does this fit in with my fishing? Last season after 9 years of trying I finally got a 50lb weight out of Bowood after several near misses. This may not seem much in these days of three figure weights in commercials but we are talking of a water that is not stocked, is predominantly bream and tench and only a small part is available for fishing. At the start of the season the larger fish tend to congregate in the shallows for spawning and feeding but are only willing to feed with colour in the water. Now already my first trip to Bowood resulted in a 52lb weight as there was plenty of colour in peg 1, I did not expect the colour to be there when two days later I returned but the water was still highly coloured so I set up again on Peg 1 (no other angler tends to attempt to fish it as it is so shallow and weedy other than the odd one who reads the blog!).

The Ugly Duckling rig was brought into play again (2x no6 shot were added to the bulk to dot it down), the thinking behind the rig is that the 1g bulk tends to get it down past any rudd lurking but with the bulk set an inch or so off bottom it is easy to ensure the bait is past any weed. Anyway with plumbing up I had determined there was a hole three inches deeper slightly to the right of me at 10m. Using last session as a guide I introduced two full large pots of loose groundbait with a dozen grains of corn and 20-30 pieces of wheat, corn went on the hook straight away.It was not long before a bream of 3-06 was in the net, several others followed before I hooked something slightly better that turned out to be one of 5-12.

Baits were steady and if tailed off a pot of loose brought them back, all the while I was firing out a pinch of wheat every put in. At one point it went quiet before the float went under and the elastic streamed out, following a feisty fight a tench of 6lb lay in my net!

In total I had 17 bream again plus the tench, for 56-09 I also had two rudd and a roach which I didn’t count!

As you can see I weigh the fish in the landing net as I go along and note down the weight (minus the net).

Friday was my next opportunity to go and I was expecting to try pegs further up the field with the colour potentially having gone. On arrival there were two anglers where I was intending to fish but I checked Peg 1 and unbelievably the colour was still in the water, without further ado I set up once again, thinking surely I can’t be lucky again! I fished the exact same way, starting at 8:45 and ending at 11:45 (reason why later!) but I did not get 17 bream this time – I got 18 plus two tench of 4-01 and 2-08 for a 58-15 total, again I have discounted the solitary roach I had on corn!

I had planned to fish a bit longer but all of a sudden after the last bream at 11:45 there seemed to be a surge of water and a load of floating decaying weed covered the water in front of me, once I had packed up the weed had floated back out of the swim!