Nice Day for Ducks

Jubilee Pools, Horseshoe Pool. Saturday 29th May. Sean & Brian. 9am to 4pm.

After another poor showing on a pool, I'll be glad when the rivers open. Not that I'm going to turn into some bagging machine on the rivers, but I'm just more at home on them. 18 days and counting...

We decided on a leisurely start to the day on the basis of the weather forecast, which suggested wet weather would strike in the early hours and the situation would improve early afternoon. I figured that a lazy start would allow the worst of the weather to go through, but it backfired. The rain was just kicking off as we arrived at the venue and stuck with us for several hours on and off (mostly on though!). This pair were happy though:



The pools were fairly empty when we arrived and we opted for the smaller Horseshoe Pool. We found a couple of comfortable swims with plenty of shelter and we were optimistic enough. This is not a water I'm overly familiar with and so it was just a case of scratching around on one rod, while also employing a sleeper rod to see if anything big would play ball. A third rod would target any surface feeding Carp that came into range.

I put a decent bed of bait down into 8 foot of water and then spent what felt like an eternity setting up my rods. It took a couple of hours before I started to get indications on the waggler rig and I proceeded to miss bite after bite. They were very finicky bites and I felt that whatever was responsible would be pretty small anyway.

Eventually I connected with one of the culprits and sure enough it was a small Perch. Another one followed next cast before something a bit more substantial grabbed the bait. The fish tore off and my lightly set clutch did it's job perfectly to avoid an unwanted break off.


I'm starting to trust the clutches on reels a bit more these days. To be fair it's quite a decent reel and I shouldn't expect any less really. Although I still tend to play fish on the backwind, it's nice to have that extra security from a trustworthy clutch.

After a fair old scrap the fish finally gave up and surrendered into the net. It was a welcome Tench (female) which is actually my first of the year and it went 3lb 11oz. Excuse the photo, but she was a spirited little bugger and would not stay still for long.

Things didn't take off though and despite alternating between maggots, corn and pellet/paste across both rigs, I struggled to find anything more than small Perch and Roach. There was one exception though which came in the form of a Bream of 3lb 5oz on the sleeper rod:

A slightly better photo, as this fish was a bit more placid. However, unbeknown to me, someone appears to have slipped a pair of comedy breasts beneath my jumper!

Brian had a bad day at the office with nothing of note. A couple more points in the challenge pot for me though.

An Odd Day Out

Saturday 22nd May. College Pool, Wasperton. Sean & Brian. 8am - 4-15pm.

A bit of an odd day this turned out to be. We had planned to go to Snitterfield again and I had beefed up the bait quota accordingly, as I felt a bit undergunned the previous week. I'd also tweaked the rod bag and changed a couple of rods over. We then made a last minute change of plan and went to College Pool instead!

Not to worry, I wasn't overly inconvenienced, but it meant my usual 17ft rod wasn't amongst my chosen weapons. I therefore had to opt for a feeder/lead rig, a slider rig and a floater rig on standby. I got to my peg and started to set up, but I realised I'd left all of my food and drink, plus bits of bait in Brian's van. A great start, but the walk would do me good.

I got myself set up before going back to the van and Brian had kindly mixed up a load of groundbait for us. I balled the lot into my swim a couple of rod lengths out, with Bream in mind again. I then went for a walk just as a rather odd couple (a bloke and his missus) arrived at the pegs directly opposite. Aside from the peg nearest the car park, the whole pool was free, but they settled directly opposite us.

As I walked back to my peg, I felt the volume was a bit louder than you'd normally expect. It wasn't the bloke though - it was the missus. Over the next couple of hours she proceeded to give him all manner of abuse, in between moments of pure ecstasy as she caught some of the small Perch. One moment all was jolly as a Perch was swung in to hand, the next minute it was "you ****ing this" and "you ****ing that" and "if you ever come home in that state again...".

Brian and I were looking around for the hidden camera, as we figured this had to be a wind up for some TV show. The comedy act only lasted a couple of hours and we were back to a somewhat more normal setting as they headed off. The poor bloke took a right pounding though!

Tranquil waters




By this time I had caught a few Perch before getting amongst the Bream. I caught 3 in quick succession on the lead for a total of 11lb 13oz. Then nothing! Not a sniff for the rest of the day on the lead. Why did they turn off? No idea? I figured I was in for another hectic day, but it wasn't to be.

I spotted a Carp or two surfacing so I tried to nick one off the top to get myelf on the scorecard for Carp. I did manage to hook one after a long wait, but it did me almost instantly. In my defence I wasn't really in the the best peg for Carp - but I knew a man who was!

I then decided I'd have a wander to another peg to try and access the Carp better. Bizarrely I'd managed to tackle up my rod missing out the top 3 (yes three!) rings. So I retackled again and after my first cast I realised I'd managed to loop the line over around the rod between two of the rings. Time to retackle again! I put it down to the hot weather. When I finally got the rod in action, I think I'd spooked the Carp. Or maybe I'd just sent them into hysterics with my ineptitude. One did lower its guard briefly and slurped the bait, but I didn't connect with it. I gave up and went back to watching a static tip.

Brian sensed the chance chance to have a go at the Carp and borrowed my rod. It's a new stalking rod I bought a few months ago. Although I haven't used it much, I'm yet to open my account with it. Brian had been having his usual unlucky day and had lost a couple of decent fish already, but had taken a few of the small Perch. He dropped some floating bread out and it looked like his luck was set to continue as piece after piece was slurped down, but his bait remained untouched and ultimately it was the last piece in the water.

Patience (or is it stubbornness) paid off and he did get amonsgt the action though and despite a plucky Mirror Carp trying to ascend up an adjacent tree, he managed to land the fish. It was 6lb 3oz and improved on his best for the year.



I went for a brief walk to see if there were any Carp in the margins. No Carp, but loads and loads of small Perch sunning themselves:



We were set to finish at 4-15 and I had already started to pack up a bit early as I had a bit more gear to tidy up. Brian had gone over time (memo to self to get some rules for this!) and I wondered when he was going to pack up. The next thing I knew he was into another fish - again on my rod! This one was also tamed after a spirited fight and it went 7lb 3oz. I won't proclaim it to be a venue record, but it is the biggest Carp I've seen taken from the pool. It's encouraging to see them putting weight on.



So, about 95% of the day's total weight was taken on my rods, yet I still end up catching the least weight! No challenge points for either of us, but Brian has now increased his standing for Mirror Carp.

11lb 13oz of Bream

Reservoir Slobs

Saturday 15th May. Snitterfield Reservoir. Sean, Brian & Mark. 8-15am to 4-45pm

MOT day for Brian's van signalled a drop off for the van in Leamington and a chance to venture a bit further afield than we have recently. I fancied a go at the Rese and Mark (who is fairly new to fishing) tagged along on a guest ticket.

We settled on 3 pegs on the left hand bank just past the drop off point. There were fish topping from the off and it looked typically inviting. All 3 of us had some weedy features to aim at if we wanted to, but I was determined to stick to the advice I'd passed on to Mark early doors. It's the same advice that Owen the bailiff gives everyone (and has given me before) - don't fish too far out.


The tendency is to want to chuck the float or feeder out into open water, but there is a fair depth close in and even though some pegs are featureless under your feet, the fish are often very close in. The old saying "you cast over more fish than you cast to" is often relevant here.

I had to help Mark with his set up first of all so I was a bit delayed in starting myself. While I was sorting things out though, Mark had opened his account with a small Roach and Perch. Partially ignoring my advice I decided to fish a little further out than I had intended to begin with, but not too far. The plan was to ball it in on that line, but to drip a bit of bait in on a closer line and to shorten up as the day wore on.


I started catching the odd Perch before something a little better took the bait. It was a very distinctive fight somewhat akin to hooking a headless chicken running round a farmyard. I knew it was one of the resident Crucians and soon a bonus point was on the board. It was about 1lb. Mark wasn't to be outdone though and he had one of his own later on in the day.



I started to catch the odd small Bream before setting up a couple of other rods. I tried a feeder rod back over the original area I'd balled in on, while creeping closer in on the waggler rig. The action picked up a bit for a while and I had a couple of more Crucians (on the closer line!), the best going 1lb 7oz. I also took the odd Bream on the feeder rod up to about 1.5lb.

I had another tool at my disposal - the floater rig to try and tempt one of the bigger Carp. Despite trying it a few times (and having to be bloody careful with the inquisitive bird life) nothing took the bait. One fish did mouth the bait, but it soon spit it out.

Brian didn't have the best of days, but he caught a few fish, the best being a Roach of about 12oz. Mark also caught a duckling, which I had to net and reunite with it's less than impressed mother. It didn't seem overly traumatised by the experience though and was happily feeding away throughout the rest of the day. I finished with 10lb 14oz.

Crucians


Mixed Bag



Needless to say, Mark won't win wildlife photographer of the year on this showing! He makes Brian look like David Bailey. Maybe he needs a better subject to work with though!

In terms of the challenge, we continue to splutter along. It was honours even on the day, but I was happy with the Crucian as they aren't available in many of the waters we fish and that could be a handy target to set.

Pike Hunter

This weekend was a designated no fishing weekend for various reasons. However, I did find a slot on Sunday afternoon to go searching for a mythical Pike I've been told about (and have duly reported on my blog).

The water is question is a brook typically less than a foot deep. I know it's pretty much devoid of all fish and Jeff (Idler's Quest) confirmed it. However, he failed to spot the Pike on a recent scouting mission and that left me a little bit doubtful as to the vailidity of the previous sightings.

So, I went round my mum's to borrow their trusty hound and to save her the bother of walking the aforementioned mutt, known as Murphy. She told me look for the Pike by the footbridge and so off I went.

"The Murph"

We took the long walk around to the spot in question so that I could tire Murphy out a bit. As I approached the footbridge I started to look at the water at bit more closely and it was as barren as ever. I honestly wasn't expecting to see anything. I then reached the footbridge and looked under it first of all - figuring that it would give a fish a bit of cover. It wasn't there.

I then looked downstream and this is what I was greeted with:

As you can see it's a narrow brook and looks unremarkable. Then I looked harder and sure enough I spotted a fish - a very big fish for this water. It's smack bang in the centre of this photo:

I photographed it from various angles to see if I could get a decent shot of it. This is the best I could muster in the end:

I threw in a couple of sticks and measured them against the fish as they floated past. It's about 2ft 8ins long by my reckoning, which according to a Pike chart would make it about a 5lb fish. It also has some strange white looking marks on the back of its head.

I know that it's really just a Jack, but it's a fish of incredible proportions for the brook in question. I seriously hope it's a vegetarian though, because there's next to nothing for it to feed on! How it got there is a real mystery. I've never seen a fish of more than about an ounce in this water in about 30 odd years. I would never have believed that a fish like that could turn up out of the blue.

A Morning Out

Saturday 1st May - Disused Hawkesbury Golf Course. 9am - 1pm.

This post has been a bit delayed due to various things, not least my house being turned into a rubbish tip following the fitting of new windows. I did find time the previous Saturday morning for a brief session though. With Brian also otherwise engaged with redevelopment works on his house, I decided a local session would do.

I decided to tackle the nearest pool to start with, in the hope of snaring one of the large Perch that apparently inhabit it. I had a good walk around the pool and found it to be very snaggy looking. When I put the polarised glasses on, I could see just how weedy the bottom was for almost the entire length of the pool. I settled on a fairly clear area and having seen evidence of other people's misplaced casts or pull outs (various float assortments in the trees above), I figured the peg must be worth a go.














After about 20 minutes I had my first bite on maggot and I caught my first Perch from the pool. It was only a few ounces and although I tried to get a photo of it, the fish had other ideas and leapt clear while I lowered my guard. You can just about make it out (flapping by the lily pad):














With a Perch now sighted I upped the stakes by going for a bigger specimen with a worm on the hook. After about 90 minutes I gave up though because they weren't having it - well not from this swim anyway. I switched to maggot and had another small Perch, but as the day was opening up nicely I made the move to the other pool to get out of the shade.














The plan here was to hopefully prove the existence of Carp in this pool and I had about 2.5 hours to do it. Although a shallowish pool it has a reasonable colour to it and I decided to introduce a good carpet of groundbait laced with hemp, caster and corn. I was hoping that if there were any Carp, that they would eventually home in on it and bully the ravenous Rudd out of the way.

Initially I kicked off with a maggot approach on size 14 just to see if anything was there. It didn't take long for the Rudd to nail the bait every cast. I switched to caster and still caught Rudd. Breadflake brought Rudd too. Bigger breadflake just resulted in frustration as the fish nibbled bits off it before breaking it down into Rudd size mouthfuls.

On with the corn and you've guessed it - more Rudd. To be fair, they are a decent stamp of fish on the corn (3 to the pound) and normally I wouldn't complain. There was the occasional Roach and Hybrid thrown in, but it was mostly Rudd. However, I was trying to get through them on this occasion.














Luncheon meat was the next bait and that proved similar to bread flake. Smaller punched out pieces were gobbled up by the Rudd, while larger pieces were just pecked at. The fish were largely in mint condition though and the largest fish were certainly knocking around the 8-10oz range.

I packed up after a couple of hours of frantic action, but I didn't get a sniff of a Carp. As I was packing the rod away I did see a bow wave in the water and it was definitely from something more substantial than what I'd been catching. I'll be back...

Last week I reported a relatively large fish in a local brook that just doesn't seem to have any fish in it these days. Jeff (Idler's Quest) backed up my theory that it was basically fishless by only managing to dig out a bullhead on a recent recce.

Again though, I have to report that the fish is still there. It was seen this Wednesday afternoon in the same location (under the footbridge that is just a few yards upstream of the A444 road bridge). It was positively ID'd as Pike this time, as my uncle was a witness on this occasion. I still can't work out why a Pike of that size got into such a place.

Was it dumped in there due to it outstaying it's welcome elsewhere? Or, did it simply keep swimming upstream looking for food when the water level was a little higher? I note that the Angling Times this week discusses the intelligence levels of fish and it seems that if a Pike was to audition for "Only Fools and Horses", it would be better off trying out for the role of Trigger!

Aside from fishing, I had to pop to hospital today for a bit of minor surgery on my head. After an act of pure butchery, I was sent home looking like a cross between a terrorist and Basil Fawlty from that famous Fawlty Towers Germans epsiode. Madeleine came to pick me up and pretty much pissed herself on the spot!

"Not funny? - I'll do the funny walk"

Exploring New Waters 3

Saturday 24th April. Sean & Brian. 11am to 5-45pm

It was a later than usual start for various reasons and we decided to stay fairly local. Of the 4 free to fish local pools I've been looking at, I was yet to give one of them a proper go.

Pegs are limited and on arrival a group of kids were occupying one of the 4 fishable areas. We decided to walk down to the far end of the pool and then opted to fish the pool next door as it was totally free of all things youth like.

We settled on a couple of pegs in one of the few clear areas. It was a new spot to me and I set about testing it out. I was a bit put off by the lack of depth though - maybe just 3 foot, but it was worth a shot. It didn't really happen though and I just managed a couple of Perch before a swan moved in on some floating groundbait Brian had introduced. I don't think it was meant to float!

The swan proceeded to eat all before it and with only a shallow depth to the swim it set about devouring everything I'd introduced. The kids from the other pool had now joined us and so it seemed like a good time to make the move on to the other pool.

I must give a mention to another lad who briefly joined us in between those events though. He spent about 10 minutes fishing quietly in the far corner before popping over for a chat. Now I've nothing against kids - we were all young and keen once. I'll always give them a chance and although I'm no Matt Hayes, I'll lend a bit of advice if the occasion warrants it. Of course the advice depends on their attitude and can be anything from sound angling advice to sling your hook mate!

I needn't have worried about giving advice to this fellow though as he knew it all and was intent on teaching me a lesson or two! I was keen to see what I could glean out of him though because he had fished the pools a lot more than I had. Boy could he talk though and every silence was greeted with him asking me another question. It was like fishing with Anne Robinson!

Anyway, as a result of the discussion, I now know for a fact that the pools contain Carp into the upper 30s, Bream to 9lb, Perch to almost 4lb and Roach of 2.5-3lb. This lad has seen them all! I'd love to believe it and I really hope someone can prove me wrong, but there's a strong whiff of the brown stuff still lingering in the air I think!

On to the other pool which is the biggest on the site and by far the most appealing. I was pleased to plumb up and find about 6ft of depth on a fairly short cast. I was far more confident of catching something decent and I set up a sleeper rod on the alarm with some corn for bait. Rather appropriately it slept....

The float rod was proving frustrating and the bites were very finicky. I did manage to hit the odd bite though and ended up with a few fish for my efforts including Roach, Rudd, Roach/Bream Hybrid and a Skimmer Bream. Brian had an equally frustrating result on the next peg.

Towards the end of the session both of us noticed loads of bubbles in both our swims. However, nothing significant emerged and I'd have lost money if I was a betting man (which I am!). It looked nailed on for a Tench. I'll give this pool another go fairly soon, as I'm sure there's potential in it.

We have our eyes on other pools in the area though and a short sneak preview the previous day saw a 1lb+ Perch coming out of one of them while we visited a couple of our other fishing friends. Although it's interesting to try new waters, we're both counting down to June 16th for the rivers. We've managed to secure membership with a small club which has a section of the Avon above Stratford. I doubt it will prove to be anything special (ever the optimist!), but having seen a lot of the upper Avon over the past 20 odd years, it'll be nice to try a brand new stretch.

STOP PRESS - I received a text from my brother last night and it said that my parents had been out walking the dog at lunchtime and had seen a massive fish in the local brook. Now I know quality fish from tiny brooks is nothing new following Jeff's (Idler's Quest) superb winter Roach catch. However, the brook in question is one where I've rarely seen a fish of any size in the past 30 odd years and I saw a lot of it while playing close to it as a kid.

I've just questioned my mum and she tells me it was "a yard long" and "the biggest fish she's ever seen". She couldn't believe what she was seeing. Believing it to be a bit of an illusion - maybe a fish shaped log perhaps, I questioned if she saw it move. "Yes, it jumped out of the water". It got spooked and headed off downstream apparently. It sounded like it had to be a Pike.

The location was the brook that runs under the A444 between the Ricoh Arena and M6 junction 3. The fish was last seen heading under the A444 heading towards Longford. Maybe it got fat on 1lb+ Roach and is on it's way back downstream for seconds!

I realise I've talked about tall stories of big fish earlier on in this post, but my mum is fairly reliable and she had 2 other equally surprised witnesses with her. I have no reason to doubt her - I just wish I'd been there to see it. With Jeff's successes in mind it definitely makes you wonder what these small untested waters could throw up with a bit of pioneering. Food for thought...

A Day of Two Halves

1st Half - Ryton Pool (Opening Time)

With Brian out of action this week I hatched a plan for the Sunday. With the weather forecast looking good I thought I'd set about putting matters right at Ryton. Looking at some of the blog reports which have seen a fair few Tench coming out, I was optimistic.

I was first into the car park and was just getting my gear out when Danny "The Lure of Angling" arrived. Not knowing who I was he whipped the gear out of the car and was ready for a swift march up the bank to his chosen swim. It was an overtaking manoeuvre that Lewis Hamilton would have been proud of.

To be fair, it doesn't take a lot to overtake me these days. The new seat box has its benefits and with my newly added DIY wheel kit made from a sawn up trolley, it's now more mobile. It just takes a bit of prep work before I can move it anywhere! I had a brief chat with Danny to introduce myself and we moved off to our swims.

This was only going to be a shortish session so I opted for a peg on the roadside bank that I did OK from at this time last year. I stuck with one rod and just went for a simple float rig, over the usual 4-5 balls of groundbait.

An hour in and I finally broke my Ryton duck for this year with a Perch of about 12oz. I thought that things would kick off from there, but Ryton reared its ugly side again and had other ideas. It turned out to be the only fish of the 4 hour session. Still, the early sun was very pleasant and I had part two to come later.

I spoke to Danny a couple of times during the session and he hadn't had anything prior to me leaving. Saying that, he had circumnavigated the place by that time and was now over on the other bank, so he could have been amongst the action for all I know. I'm sure he'll report back in due course. From what he said it sounded like the Saturday wasn't the best of days on the Pool, despite plenty of anglers on site. As ever, it remains a frustrating place.















The next session of the day after lunch was much closer to home and was Exploring New Waters Part 2. I had previously identifed 4 pools on a local disused site and I wanted to take a look at the 2 that were closest to my home. Similar to the previous week I would split a short session between the 2 pools.

The first pool was shallow, gin clear, but I could see a few small fish moving about, so I was optimistic of not blanking. It was full of interesting features:















Reed beds, lily pads, islands with trees and shallows - oh and if you look carefully you'll make out a carrier bag on the far bank, while the near bank margins contain a Nuneaton & Bedworth Borough Council red recycling crate. Motorbikes whizzing around a few feet behind my peg just added to the experience! I doubted my sanity, but figured on nothing ventured, nothing gained.

It didn't take long to start catching, but they were only small 1oz Rudd. In the gin clear shallow water they kept backing off though, but to be honest I wasn't too fussed. Eventually I did find one better Rudd - a monster of about 6oz!















I had been monitoring events at the other pool which was about a 150 yard walk and wasn't being fished. The motorbikes had gone, but a noisy family gathering (almost as bad as the motorbikes!) then descended on the pool. Once they started to move after half an hour, it signalled my chance to home in on the pool.

This pool was a little smaller in area and a totally different shape. It was almost like a bowl and at first glance it looks a bit bland. However, there was a lot of cover in the margins and there was a bit of colour in the water too. It was equally shallow, but again I was confident having seen a fish or two rising.

Note the delightful backdrop of a local factory!















10 minutes in and things weren't really happening. A very small Perch broke the deadlock and I figured that I was in for a load more 1oz fish. Then the Rudd moved in and I had a hectic 90 minutes or so. It was a fish a chuck from there, with Rudd in the 4-6oz range.

There were a few different, but pretty looking fish, amongst the Rudd though and I'd welcome any views on what they are.

It has the classic Rudd shape and an upturned lip, but not a red fin in sight. I'm assuming if it had any Roach in it, then there would definitely be red fins. Does it have Bream in it perhaps? I've caught plenty of Roach/Bream hybrids before and none have looked like this, so I'm ruling that out. I'm plumping for Rudd/Bream.

I now know broadly what to expect from these pools, so I'll return at some point to see if I can get amongst something a little better. Timing is the key though if you want a half peaceful day at this venue. Sunny Sunday afternoons in April are not perhaps the best choice!