Foul play

I took a trip to College Pool to escape the royal wedding. Although only one person was there on arrival, there were 7 other cars in the car park when we left - as busy as I've ever seen the place! It was a strange day which saw me catch a few small Perch, before hooking up with 6 Bream.

The first was foulhooked and although I landed it, the fish did a bit of a gymnastic movement and flipped out of my shallow net and shed the hook. So, I didn't physically contact that one. The next one I had totally under control, but the hook pulled clear just as I was drawing it to the net. At that point, I figured it wasn't going to be my day!

I went on to land the other 4 Bream, but no fewer than 3 of them were foulhooked. I had been getting loads of line bites and I can only imagine the fish were in spawning mood and just moving across the baited area, but not actually feeding. Occasionally the odd one would snag up on my rig. I could probably have been quite successful with no bait on my hook today!

All 4 Bream were over the 5lb mark, but none of them topped my best for the season.

5lb 2oz

5lb 8oz


5lb 12oz (not foulhooked!)

5lb 2oz again!

21lb 8oz in total, which I'd normally be happy with, but foulhooking so many fish is not exactly pleasurable.

Reservoir Return

Bank holiday Monday saw me make a long overdue trip to Snitterfield Reservoir. It was another glorious day and I was hoping the Crucians would show up for a few more bonus points for the challenge. Sadly they didn't read the script!

Plenty of fish showed up throughout the day to various approaches and there was always some activity in the water. In all honesty I probably chopped and changed too much and I should have just stuck to a fixed game plan, with more focus on getting the feed right. I still ended up with around 30lb of fish though, so I'm not going to complain.

A sample of what was on offer:

Not an Eel!

Plenty of these averaging around the 1lb mark

A few of these (best was 11oz)

I also had a small Perch, Rudd, Hybrids and a few very small Tench - the first time I have caught any Tench at the Rese, but I'd been told to expect them by an angler I'd spoken to earlier in the day.

Towards the end of the session, I thought I'd adapt one of my rigs and have a crack at the Carp with a floater. I've never had any success with the Carp at the Rese in the past - just a few near misses where the Carp came out on top.

On this occasion I won the battles though and I managed to pluck a couple of Carp off the top using bread. Neither of them were as big as I'd hoped though, but it was good fun nonetheless and I stuck a little more on the challenge scoreboard - enough to trip me over the 200 point barrier.

8lb 7oz
5lb 15oz

I'd been joined on the trip by an old friend, Steve, who was new to the venue. He'd had a little less luck with the Carp, having had one of his pole rigs brutalised by one of the resident lumps. He switched to a rod and line tactics, but never managed to hook another one, although he did catch some nice Roach and a few skimmers on meat instead.

Earlier on he'd caught an interesting fish that I'm still not sure about. Initially we thought it was a Crucian, but the tail is very big and it put me off. That said, I've never seen a really decent Crucian, so what do I know?! Whether it is or isn't, it was a nice looking fish that went 2lb 4oz.

A Score Partly Settled

Back to College Pool for a brief morning session today. The idea was to get amongst the better Bream, as they've eluded me on previous visits this year. Usual tactics were the order of the day - ball it in at start and fish patiently over it for 4 hours with bread and maggots.

I managed just 5 fish, the first of which was a small Roach to the maggot rig. A better fish followed on the same set up, which turned out to be more like what I was after - a Bream of 5lb 13oz, which stuck over a 1lb on my best for this year. Still a bit short of my target for the year, but at least I'm a lot closer to it now.

The next fish gave an odd kind of fight, which fooled me into thinking I'd hooked a decent silver fish - a big Perch I thought for a moment. It turned out to be a foulhooked small Tench! Another Bream followed later on - this time on the breadflake rig. It was a fish in the 3.5lb to 4lb range and blind in one eye, so I took a quick photo of its better side and slipped it back.

The action was far from frantic though, although I'm sure a light rig fished higher up in the water would have taken plenty of silver fish. I could see a few Carp milling around at the end of the pool, so I thought I'd try for one before calling it a day.

A quick change to the bread rig and I chucked out a controller float with a piece of floating bread, which lasted barely a minute before being woofed down. As ever, the Carp here seem to fight like demons, but I won the battle to avoid it snagging me up and banked a fish of 7lb 4oz. The photo was a bit hurried!

Keeping the momentum - just about!

Just a very brief session for me this weekend, as it was Grand National day and time to donate some money to the turf accountants. Brian was engaged with family removal work, so I was on my own again. With the glorious weather we were forecast, I couldn't help strolling around the corner for a couple of hours on the disused former golf course, prior to the racing.

I fancied trying the pool we refer to as Parkers, but on arrival I spotted a tent in the far corner. Initially I thought it was a knackered old discarded tent, but a few movements started to appear and it was definitely inhabited - but by what? Now, round these parts you come to learn that it isn't likely to be a group of young Scandinavian females on a field trip. It's most likely to be NEDs, chavs, tramps, or those intent on eating anything that swims.

On this occasion it was 3 NEDs. I thought I might still give it a go, as they might turn out to be quiet NEDs. Bad mistake! No sooner were they out of the tent and the music was turned on and one of them was 15ft up a tree, smashing up as many branches as possible and acting like a prize tool. I don't actually believe they were trying to upset me - this was probably normal behaviour! At this point, I made the sensible choice to up sticks and move 150 yards to the sanctuary of the Crater pool.

It took half an hour to build the swim up properly, but the pool is crawling with fish, so once you have their attention, it's a rapid fire bite a chuck thereafter. Maggots attract too many very small fish, so I tend to stick to the corn on here once they get their heads down. I was hoping to get one of the better Rudd that are knocking around the pound mark, but my best effort in the short time was 8oz, which added a few ounces to my score for the year.



It actually looks more Roach like from that angle, but it was a Rudd. I had the usual mix of fish including a few small Roach and Perch, along with some of the interesting looking hybrids that inhabit this small water.

As always, I had the usual passer by offering advice. Why is it that no matter which of the 4 ponds you fish on this site, you always get told you should be fishing a different pool? To be fair on this occasion I think it's clear that Crater offers the least potential for big fish and I was a bit gutted not to have tried Parkers. Still, it's not too far away and there's plenty of the year left.

Time For Slime

We had a go at the unpredictable Ryton pool this weekend. I'm not sure sure what's going on with Ryton in terms of the lease with Leamington AA, although I had heard on the grapevine that the owners wanted to increase the price substantially, which may prove too much for the club to absorb.

The club website still lists the Ryton visitor centre as an outlet to purchase club books and still shows the venue map. There's no signs to indicate that fishing has ceased and no word from the club through the website or newsletters that some of us are signed up to. For now, I'm working on the theory that LAA give existing members 1 month's grace to renew membership. I don't have the 2011/12 club book yet, so I'll continue during April to work off the old club book unless something else comes to light. If anyone is in the know, feel free to comment.

On to the fishing and it was a case of persistence paying off. After a slow start which saw just a half pound Perch banked in the first couple of hours, I took the decision to ditch the float rig and go for 2 straight lead rigs fished about 3 rod lengths out over a pool table sized area I'd balled in at the off. It paid off very quickly in the shape of a long lean Tench which turned out to be the best of the day at 5lb 3oz.

Seven more Tench followed throughout the day at various intervals, with the pick of the others being fish of 4lb and 4lb 8oz. I also managed to sneak out a couple more Perch, the best one being a rather plump looking fish of 1lb 3oz which fell to a worm/maggot cocktail.

I also scored a few further token challenge points for a small Rudd of 5oz.

Some of the other Tench:

Brian struggled on the next peg and achieved his customary Ryton blank. For that reason, the day wasn't quite as enjoyable as it might have been, despite me banking almost 30lb of fish.

It's my best ever start to a season at Ryton by a long, long way. Of course, with the Ryton future currently seeming uncertain, the season there might be over soon after its begun.

Slow Progress

Back to College Pool, or should that be back to school?! It was a tough day (especially the first half) and the Bream mission I'd started the previous week remains a case of unfinished business. I'm not setting my sights too high for the challenge - there's a fair head of Bream in the 4-6lb class in the pool, along with the odd 7lb+ fish that we know of. One of the larger 6lb+ samples that I've had on occasions in the past would give me a solid mark to work from and I could then target bigger fish later in the year on other venues.

After 2 sessions on the pool though, I can't seem to connect with the right stamp of fish. A few hours in and I'd only had a 3lb 14oz Bream and 3 small Perch. The guy opposite had banked a solitary small Barbel before calling it a day, while on the next peg only a Roach and a decent Bream had come out.

Despite nearly calling it a day around 2ish, I stuck it out for an extra couple of hours and just kept fishing over the bait I'd balled in at the off. In the end it paid off to a small extent, as I took 3 more fish in the last 2 hours. A Bream of 3lb 15oz was first on to the bank, followed by an all too rare (for this pool) Chub of 2lb 9oz.

I can recall many years ago when I first fished the pool, it was full of Chub. Very few seem to show up now though, so this immaculate looking fish was a welcome change. I didn't expect to be increasing my Chub challenge score today, but this fish chucked an extra 3oz (or a massive 2pts!) on to my score. The final fish of the day also added 2 more points to my score. It was the species I'd set out to catch, but at 4lb 12oz, it was still quite a way short of my target for Bream.

Sadly I had to call it a day at that time, as I had other duties to attend to. I get the impression that I was probably leaving when prospects were on the upturn and I'd have liked at least another couple of hours. Keith J had turned up was fishing the far bank, so I'll be interested to see how he got on.

Next time I think I'll dig out the pellets to see if that sorts out the better fish. I seem to be in the habit of adding to my challenge score each week now, but at this rate it's going to take me until 2013 to get competitive! I don't have that long! In all honesty, I'm just happy to keep extending my number of sessions since a blank.

Brian is back in action next week so that could scupper any progress! He's dared to suggest the Ryton word - or the Murder Pool as he calls it. He's on a run of 4 consecutive royal blanks there now. I've suffered my share there too and I'm not sure if now is the time to tackle the fickle one.

Spring in the air

I didn't get around to doing a report from last week's end of season river venture, so I'll start with a brief catch up. Despite the temperatures being a lot healthier, the river fished poorly. We were on the section that we're less familiar with, due to a match on the other section. I ended up moving pegs after a couple of biteless hours - a move that brought better fortunes but hardly spectacular.

I managed just 4 fish - all different: Dace, Roach, Chub and something that looked a bit hybridised to me. I thought I'd got a decent Chub, as the fight was fairly spirited, but when I saw a brief flash in the water, I began to wonder if it was a monster Roach. When I netted it, the Roach theory was quickly put to bed (not a red fin in sight), but it looked to me like a Roach/Bream hybrid. I didn't weigh it but it was in the region of 2.5lbs.

Brian managed just a solitary Dace.

On to this week and the weather forecast promised us a stunning Saturday and it didn't disappoint. That said, I had to clear ice off the car before leaving and I was hoping the chilly overnight temperature wouldn't kill the prospects.

I had been mulling over the Leamington AA opportunities open to me and in the end I settled for College Pool in search of Bream. I'd had a good day for them in March last year, so I figured on a repeat. I bumped into a chap called Paul who I quite often see throughout the season. He was just setting up and reported that fishing on the pool had been slow so far this year with just the occasional better fish showing. I settled in on the next peg.

I balled in a few balls of groundbait into the usual 15+ foot of water and fished over it with a straight lead on both rods - one baited with red maggots and the other with bread. It was a slow start, but I'd heard a few small fish being banked on the next peg so I was optimistic.

I picked up a Roach of 5oz to get me off the mark and boost my challenge score by an extra 1oz! I feel like a prize idiot weighing fish like this!

The next fish gave me a strange dull fight. I thought it had to be a Bream and not a terribly big one, but when it surfaced my jaw dropped. It was a big old Perch and a country mile over my pb. It just rolled nicely into the net and meant that I had joined in with the bloggers Perch party! It weighed in at 2lb 12oz, which stuck nearly a pound on my previous best.

I picked up a few more bits during the day before connecting with a couple of Mirror Carp - both on maggots and both led me a merry dance on lightish gear. Sod's law, the bread rig sat close by was more geared up for the Carp but they didn't want any of that!

Anyway I won both battles and twice increased the weight of my best Carp from this pool - also increasing my challenge score too. It's good to see the Carp in the pool are packing on the weight now

7lb exactly

7lb 10oz

Paul on the next peg had started to get amongst some nice Bream (my intended quarry!) and had banked 6 of them. I was intent on catching at least one and I even extended my stay to try and prove a point. My patience was eventually rewarded, but the result wasn't what I'd hoped for. A Bream graced my net, but at 3lb 8oz it was a plenty short of the required target and didn't increase my challenge score.

In total I had around 22lb of fish, which was very welcome after the indifference I've suffered on the river this year. I'm starting to subscribe to a theory now though. I've had 2 decent sessions so far this year and what's the common theme? - both times Brian wasn't with me! I always knew he was jinxed!