Starting to get the hang of this

Our buddy Liam joined us again this weekend, so it was back to our local club water for another crack at Robbie's pool on the Border fisheries complex. And what a session it turned out to be!
We started off early as usual arriving at the pool just after 6:30am. With mist still on the water it was a lovely looking morning and the fish seamed to be in a biting mood. Toby true to form landed the first Carp of the day with pretty much his first cast at about 7 o'clock, a lovely little common of around 2.5lb that fell to maggot feeder with meat on the hook.

I followed suit shortly after with a nice mirror which was a bit bigger, but fell to the same tactics of a small maggot feeder and piece of punched spam. The little carp from Robbie's don't half fight and I had a good old scrap on my really light quiver-tip rod and 4lb line, I was half way round the pool with this one giving it far more respect than it needed as I made sure not to lose it

I had a switch to lob worm on the hook for a while (that's what I the great one that got away on last week) and start to produce some real quality Roach up to about a lb


Our old friend Liam had to wait quite a while before he managed to bag himself a carp, but his patience was rewarded mid-morning with a nice little fellow of about 1.5lb that fell to a single grain of corn ledgered at a couple of rod lengths out.

 
What had started out a nice morning had become very changeable, one minute the sun would be shining the next it would be tipping it down we even had a good round of hail. As the morning wore on, when the sun shone we couldn't get a bite from the carp lines and with Rudd topping around us it was out with the waggler rods. Either set really shallow or with no weight on the line at all and maggot on the hook the Rudd near the surface were easy pickings and of a nice stamp too. A chap who was fishing across the way had hooked into a good fish on the pole and was having a hell of a time getting it up from the bottom. As we watched the action unfold Liam and I had a little competition to see who could catch 5 of the Rudd the fastest, it was great fun and I found myself getting wound up if I had to change bait. Our floats barely had time to settle before we would have another fish on, and after about 10 minutes I had won 5-3 much to Liam's disgust. It was time for round two and Toby had put the carp rod down and joined us Rudd bashing on the float. The gent over the way was still doing battle with the big carp that was stretching his elastic as round two got under way. The second little fun match was won quickly and easily by Liam 5-2-2 and after just over an hour we finally got to see what the fellow the other side of pool had hooked into when he landed a lovely 16lb common. The rain came down again so it was back out with the carp lines for us, with the hope that we could catch a cracker like that. This time I opted for a couple of bits sweetcorn on a quick-stopped hair rig and a cage feeder, which was full of a 50-50 mix of dark method mix and course pellets of a couple of different sizes. Making up my ground bait like that seems to not only do the trick with the Carp but it also makes pretty expensive groundbait go a lot further.

We started to put together a good run after lunch picking up Carp throughout the afternoon at regular intervals all falling to fairly natural baits like corn, worm, meat and maggot. Toby had five carp which seemed to get bigger every time up to just under 9lb , mostly coming in the margins over a bed of micros and with polarised glasses he could see them moving in and out of the swim. I was well chuffed to have banked my best tally of carp to date landing six over the course of the day. I had one on meat another on sweetcorn but the rest all fell to my favourite bait to use the trusty(and cheap) garden worm fished either over maggot feeder or cage feeder. Liam bagged 3 little carp and a hat full of Rudd and skimmers. All in all it was one of the best days fishing so far this year and as the weather warms up things, as they say can only get better
   

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First Carp of the season

Having still not managed to catch a Carp this season after several attempts, we fished on Robbie's pool at  Border fisheries with the hope of a change of luck. Our mate Liam joined us again this weekend too.

We all started of with a different approach this week, Toby started off on the pole, Liam the method feeder and I started on the the waggler. It didn't take long for Toby and I to get good swims going. Both of us fishing with maggot on the hook, over loose fed maggots every chuck. The stamp of Roach and Rudd is really good in Robbie's and it was great fun bagging up on silvers. Liam had started to get a few twitches on the rod as the Carp moved into his swim and found the free offerings from around his feeder. After about an hour Liam's perseverance paid off and this lovely coloured Carp was his reward                            

Not backwards in coming forwards I quickly changed over to the method feeder and stuck some corn on the hook. I'm not sure however that the fished had got the script as I started to catch some quite nice skimmers. Not the Carp I was after but my first fish using the method feeder, Its a technique that I really like using so I'm glad that its finally starting to put a few fish on the bank

Things started to slow down on the method feeder and after an hour or so without a bite, I made the change to maggot feeder with a lob worm on a quick-stopped hair. I'm really fond of this new invention and find it excellent for hair rigging worm, its also really good for punched bread.Worm started to do the business and I was soon catching some quality Roach and Skimmer Bream.
This was the pattern until my rod bent round and from the feisty fight could tell it was a Carp. Admittedly it was only marginally bigger than the skimmers I had been pulling out all day, but never the less it was a more than welcome addition to the days bag. I played it very carefully as I really didn't want to lose it and was well chuffed when my first Carp of the season was landed.
I spent a little while playing about with a pellet waggler, trying to get the hang of another new method. In the mean time Toby and Liam having both changed to a waggler were enjoying the good sport that the silvers in the pool have to offer, catching Roach and Rudd almost one a chuck.
Not having much success with the pellet waggler I changed back to the maggot feeder, to fish out the remainder of the day.
I had a cracking bite at around 5pm and my rod nearly came off the bank sticks, before I stuck into what can only be described as a "zoo creature". Which I had on the line for a good 5 minutes pulling me this way and that, I was doing quite well with the 4lb line I had on, and started thinking this could be a new personal best. It was about then that my hook link gave out and I was left gutted with nothing, other than another "one that got away" tale.
Still at least I finally managed to get my first carp of the season on the bank, and have had a taste of the big old Carp that live in that little pool.
I may be back this week to see if I can tempt that beast back onto my line........

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Bank Holiday Bagging

This weekend we were lucky enough to get on the bank twice, and having had a couple of tough session recently, our thinking was to up our chances a little and fish some slightly easier waters.

On the Saturday we fished  Dovehouse pool  in hough nr Crewe, a small farm pool just under a couple of acres, which is known to hold some good size Carp and Tench, plus plenty of slivers. I fished method feeder with a couple of 8mm spicy sausage pellets, for the Carp and Tench, and set up a small waggler with a couple of maggots on a size 18.
It didn't take long to build up a good swim on the waggler rod. I was soon catching small Gudgeon with every chuck, keeping a steady trickle of maggots going in, I was building up a nice tally.
My Carp rod however remained very quiet. Not knowing the pool very well I cast around a bit, to try and get a feel for any features that may lay beneath the water hoping to find a fish or two. Yet all morning, my yellow bobbin didn't move an inch, not so much as even a line bite. Toby was having much the same luck using a similar approach, float fishing and having great fun Gudgeon bashing, no joy on the carp line fishing up around the island, with a running lead and popped up boilie on a hinged stiff link.
On speaking to a couple of guys who arrived shortly after us, we found out that last week the Carp and the Tench had been taking a liking to small halibut pellets.
We changed our hook bait and hoped this new advice would pay dividends. We cast back out and got back on with the very serious business of catching Gudgeon, while waiting for a run on the bigger rods. I have not had such great gudgeon fishing since I was a lad on the Shropy Union canal in Nantwich, and in all honesty it was a delight. Having had a fish-less session last time out, it was good to back amongst the fishes. The end of the day was soon upon us and we must have had a good 150 fish, all gudgeon save for one solitary Rudd.

On the Bank Holiday Monday we spent the afternoon down at Border Fishery on Three island pool. We fished on pegs   12 and 13, which turned out not to be so unlucky. Toby's rod tip was bent round with a cracking take, only minutes after his first cast. Pulling him hard into the first of this years lilies, he had a good fight on his hands on relativity light tackle. I stood on wait with the net thinking the battle was almost won, the 4-5lb mirror made a dash for under the staging that Toby was standing on, never to be seen again. After unhooking the method feeder rig from the staging under his feet, Toby cast out again back to the edge of the lilies. Using my little rod with a maggot feeder and a couple of the grubs on the hook, my quiver- tip was just light enough to show a tentative bite from small Rudd I had attracted to the swim. After putting three or four on the bank with the feeder, I started to miss bites. The fish in my swim had started to gain confidence and were trying to take the bait on the drop. With that I changed to the waggler and fished a bit shallower, this seamed to produce more bites and a better stamp of fish.

This skimmer was one of about 4 or 5 of a similar size, that I managed to bank over the course of the afternoon. Toby had hooked up and lost another carp in the lilies, so decided to join me fishing on the float. This move soon saw Toby catching a few silvers, the best of which another skimmer Bream. Yet again Toby managed to hook up another sizeable fish, only to lose it again. This time the size 16 hook wasn't up to the job and left Toby more than a little frustrated. The Carp may still be very illusive but in the end we another great afternoon silver bashing at Border.

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Crashed at Crabmill Flash

This weekend Toby was very keen to try out his new bivvi , so we decided to have a crack at the notoriously difficult Crabmill Flash, in search of Catfish and big Carp for a twenty four hour session.
We arrived just after 7am and had a walk round the lake to find the most suitable area, for pitching up and finding some fish. We set up camp before setting up our rods at the far end of the lake,  to maximise my chances and get a good feel for the place, I opted to fully use the three rod rule and have a couple of heavy rods out for the Carp and Cats, and a much lighter rod for some feeder fishing.

The big rods baited with popped up worms on one and big halibut pellets on the other, were cast against some reeds on the opposite bank and the feeder rod much closer in off to the right hand side. Toby nipped round the other side and laid down a bed of particles, while I catapulted some loose pellets over my rigs. And then we sat, our traps set and waited, we both felt that our best chance for the Catfish would come after dark, so during the day our rigs would lean slightly more in favour of the Carp. Toby trying Tiger nut boilies and popped up spam wasn't having much luck and I had to wait until around 1 o'clock for my first run, which came on a single 16mm halibut pellet and unfortunately when I struck into it, there was nothing there.

I continued to cast around my feeder rod, filled with maggots to a worm on the end in search of a bite, yet all day I couldn't attract anything to this line either. As night started to fall we finished the day section of trip with only the one run between us, and not a sniff at the feeder rod. So as my sidekick fried up some steak on the gas stove, I changed out the little quiver-tip for another big rod, this time baited with 3 large 22mm halibut pellets. Hoping it would be time for the kittys to come out and play we sat back and watched the sun go down over Crabmill as we tucked into steak butties.

As we began to wonder if our luck would change and maybe we would get to see a big old Catfish, one of Toby's alarms started to scream off with the sort of run we had been waiting for, filling us with excitement only for it to be dashed, as Toby met with no resistance at the end of the line.
We reset and re-baited all the rods, then settled down for the night in the new and very spacious bivvi of Toby's, hoping to be awoken to the sound of the bite detectors and the sight of a Wels.
At around midnight night Toby's alarm was off again and after stumbling around for a second, the jammy devil was finally into a fish, what we didn't expect though was the 2.5lb Eel that covered the net in slime. Still we were quite cheered by finally managing to get a fish on the bank, but still after hunkering down again we both dreamed of big Catfish as we tried to get some more shut eye, this didn't last long as yet again my buddy's alarms sounded and he made a dash for the rod, only to come back tutting and nestling down again cursing Eels nibbling at his popped up salmon flavoured lob Worms.

Toby didn't manage to get much rest over the course of the night, as ever half hour or so, either the worm rig or a hali pellet rig would get picked up, and then dropped before any hook up could be made. A good frost made me very glad of the bacon and sausage sarnies we had for breakfast on what was a cold and misty morning. We fished on as we slowly started to pack up all our stuff and load up the trusty barrow, but couldn't must another bite. As tempting as it was to stop and fish on, it had turned into a lovely morning, but we will return and have another go on this beautiful but very challenging water again soon as the legends of 60 lb Catfish and 30 lb Carp are to good to resist.

For more information on rigs, set ups, bait and tackle please have a look at our brother blog

                                                    On The Bank Technical specs