Orchards League 1st Round

Evening everyone sorry it has been a while since my last post but I have been having a few family issues that are for the most part resolved now, so here I am, I am now running a week behind my fishing so as long as I find the time I will try to get a post out in the week to catch back up.

Okay so onto this weeks post, the 1st club match at Orchard Lakes was run last weekend and here is what happened, At the draw I was very, very happy to have drawn peg 44, it is an end peg up the middle spit, this is by far the best section on the lake and a hard one for most of the other sections to keep up with, so as you can imagine to be on the end of it was an added bonus!

To make things even better though I was the only peg on the section to have had any kind of feature to fish to, other than the far bank of course. I had a lovely looking Lilly bed to my right and another across and to my left, this one was sunken and very dead but a feature none the less!

As you can see from the above image the other Lilly bed across is not visible and to be honest was hard to make out standing there, I started off fishing maggot to the right of me just to try tempt some Roach or Crucian's to feed. Normally the matches here are very hard going in the 1st 3 months of the year so to get anything in the net early is normally a good move.

       After around 20 minutes I had probably just over 1lb of Roach and a single small Skimmer in the net when the guy next to me hooked a Carp across, I had been keeping an eye on what had been happening around me but hadn't noticed what bait he was using. Normally though corn is a good shout on here so I went over to the other Lily bed with a single grain of corn fished dead depth, after about 3 minutes the float went under but the fish was so fast into the snags and I lost it.

        I got my rig back but it was very badly tangled, I decided to chuck out a bomb with punched bread on a quick stop, I used 3 10mm pieces of punched flake and tipped it off with a single 10mm piece of crust to pop it up, this was fished on a 6" hook length of 0.16 to a size 16 hook.

        My plan was to leave the bomb out there whilst I untangled the rig but as I was sinking the line it pulled out of my hand and I was finally hooked into a better fish of my own.

I decided at this point to chuck it out again with same bait to try and untangle the rig again, this time though my plan was to shallow it of and dob bread across to see if there was many Carp up for a piece, I managed 2 more smaller Carp on the bomb before it went quiet and I decided it was time to start dobbing, this time I went over with a 8mm punched piece I had prepared in the microwave the night before.

I managed a few quick fish on this method before again going quiet, so I spent the rest of the match switching between bomb and bread and dobbing bread and I started to put together a few fish unfortunately though the guy on the peg next to me was emptying the lake at an awesome rate, although somewhat depressing I could not help but watch on at some of the best angling I have seen in a long time!

The fish seemed to be of a better stamp when dobbing the bread and the better fish were the shallower ones as well, to be perfectly honest I was caught out thinking it was going to be a lot harder than it actually was and wasted a whole lot of time fishing for bits rather than targeting the Carp. Not a mistake I will be making next month!

The only rig I used on the match was a Dino F1 float to 0.13 mainline with a 0.11 hook length and a size 18 B911 F1 hook, these are by far my favorite floats for winter fishing as they are perfect for all manner of fishing, as it displayed on the day.

I weighed 26lb 6oz for 4th in section which when you compare it to my weight here last year of 1lb 4oz again for 4th in section you can see the difference.

Thank you very much for reading guys I hope you enjoyed, as I said I am sorry I missed last week but it really could not be helped, I will try my best to either catch up this week or next but will be time dependent!

The Lows Of Angling.

Hi everyone, this weeks post is going to be covering something I think we all go through from time to time.

         So for anyone who read my recap post of last year, you will know I have set myself a few goals for this year, unfortunately 2018 is not starting out well and I have done nothing but blank so far! I even managed to come dead last in the only match I have fished this year as well!

Lets start with today as it really was on another level to just a blank! I headed back to Throop this morning this time though to beat 2 a stretch I have not fished before, I started out on a nice looking swim on a corner, it had a nice reed bed with some slow moving water running by so an obvious place to make my first cast. After about 30 minutes of freezing to death with the wind in my face I decided it was time to move.

        Whilst moving I bumped into a club bailiff, after showing him my membership card he helped me out with a bit of advise on a few swims. I was pointed in the direction of the swim pictured above, things started out very promising as I was putting a fresh bait on a fish rolled in almost the exact spot I was told to position the rig.

         I was told that a lot of the guys use a pva bag of pellets and generally a boilie or large pellet on the hook so from that I decided to fish in almost the same way, I had decided a few days previous to test out the Pallatrax meat beast squabs I had along with the matching paste, I instead took a bait tub and began roughly cutting the squabs into small pieces for the bag and whittled one down a bit for a hook bait and wrap it up in paste. I used a 6lb hook length to a size 10 Pallatrax Gripz hook.

         I wasn't waiting long at all before the first few taps on my rod tip began and only a few minutes after that I had a massive drop back, followed by a big pull round but I wasn't quick enough to react and I missed it.

         Although I missed the bite I was happy with how fast it had come, so with a fresh bait and pva bag attached I made another cast and 30 minutes later I made my 2nd mistake of the trip!

I was leaning over feeding my new friend a few maggots when I nearly lost my rod, I had a seriously savage bite that took my rod off the rest and past the side of my chair (luckily) as this gave me the opportunity to grab it before it got very wet, unfortunately though the fish was not there when I lifted and wound down.

           On a slightly different note though I have decided today after seeing so many different birds and ducks to try and learn a bit more about our bird life, I will be trying to take pictures of as many different ones as I can for the rest of the year now!

           By now I only had about an hour left of my session before my curfew imposed by the Mrs so decided there was no point in moving swim as the next one down that was fish able was a 20 minute walk. Fresh baits on and cast back out for a 3rd time lucky kind of deal or at least I thought.... I got another bite and this time managed to not only pick up the rod in time but also had the fish on the end, until everything went solid! Turns out bad luck does come in 3's as all I managed to bank was a huge ball of weed.

         At this point I decided to call it a day a go before it got any worse! I wasn't going to write anything today but decided that if in me sharing my shocking day with you makes yours in anyway better then its worth it!

I hope you enjoyed reading a fishing blog post that involved no fish..... sorry about that I will put in more effort this coming week to make sure you have some in next weeks!

Whitemoor vs Orchards Silver league

Hello everyone and welcome back, this is actually the second post in as many weeks for the first time in a long time, I hope it shows that I am serious about making this weekly again! What I am planning on doing is writing the posts every Saturday now, and fish on Sundays or in the week, the idea being that I will write a week behind my fishing that way I can never run out of content.

This week I'm writing about the 1st round of the silvers league I joined, there are 18 anglers in this league half of which call Whitemoor Lakes home and the other half Orchard Lakes, its a 6 round league with 3 matches at each venue, each match is split into 3 sections of 6 and points is what you are fishing for with 1 point for 1st, 2 points for 2nd and so on, you drop your worst match and then lowest points at the end takes the prize.

This is a steep learning curve for me and my results so far have shown this, I've had a 5th, I couldn't make the second round due to family commitments (luckily I can just drop this one) and last round I lost at the draw bag unfortunately and finished last in section and overall. To be honest though having not fished silvers matches before this I am happy to come away from each round gaining some knowledge no matter how little it may be.

So as I said I'm writing today about the 1st round, this was held at my home Whitemoor on the main lake, (not one I fish very often as most matches are held on the Top or Canal Lakes) I drew peg 11 typically one of the best Carp pegs on the lake but I was happy none the less.

I decided on having a short line where I was going to throw and fish maggots shallow at the beginning just to put some fish in the net, for this I used a Dino F1 4x10 float to 0.09 mainline, I also set up a rig for just past this (about another pole section) in about 4' of water and on this line I used a Dino Gino 0.2g, lastly I set up a slightly heavier 0.4g Gino at 13m in 6', I had 2 lines one at 10 O'clock and one a 2 both lined up with separate bush features on the far island.

All in shouted, I started off by potting 3 balls of groundbait one of which was full of casters and a small amount of chopped worm, I put the worm in as I know the lake holds some very big Perch, some have come out over 3lb in the past so these can't be ignored.

My groundbait mix for this match was a full bag of Special G Gold and a full bag of Pro Natural Bream, I mixed both bags together thoroughly whilst dry, I filled a bait tub with water but before adding it to the groundbait mix I added in some Liquid Brazem. I was very bream focused as I felt that getting one or two bigger skimmers would see me do well in section and after all that's what we are all fishing for.

I went in on the short shallow line for a hour to put some fish in the net while the groundbait did its job and hopefully a few fish settled on it. I hooked a single maggot, threw in 3 or 4 maggots and slapped the rig into them as they fell through the water, I let the float settle fully before throwing in more and slapping the rig again. It didn't take to long to start catching a few small Roach only problem being it was going to take a whole lot of them to build any kind of weight.

I decided after around a hour to try something different and went in on the bottom rig just past where I was fishing I put in a small ball of groundbait laced with caster and chopped worm and went straight over the top with a whole worm on the hook. While I was fishing this line I started throwing casters on the shallow one instead to see if I could bring in some better stamp fish for when I go back in on it later. After about 30 minutes I got my first proper bite on the worm and turns out I was right about the Perch and I hooked into one of the monstrous ones.

Ok so maybe not the one I was after but none the less I learned not to bother with that line for a while, I decided to have a look on the shallow line again and see if the casters made any difference at all. First few put ins I had a few small fish but then the stamp did get better gradually, maybe I wasn't feeding enough while focusing on fishing the bottom but after my focus changed so did the fishing.

Now I was getting a few fish double the size of the original ones mixed in with the odd smaller one still and was very happy with how this line was going, this fishing continued for around an hour until everything all of a sudden went completely dead. At that point I felt like maybe the Carp had arrived and thought it was time to leave this line alone and look elsewhere for a little while.

I decided to have a look on the 13m line at 2 O'clock this was the one I didn't feed anything at the start, I put a kinder pot on my top kit with half a dozen 4mm Carp and Course pellets in and an 4mm X-pand pellet on the hook, to start with and as expected I was getting a lot of funny little lifts and dips on the float but nothing turning into a bite I gave it 4, 5 minute put ins and after nothing I thought I would have a try at 10 O'clock, I went in on this line with half a worm and a red maggot on the hook, I don't think it had fully settled before the float buried and a skimmer was leaping out the water. 

As you can imagine at this point I was thinking I was in for a flurry of fish and the single point was mine for the day, turns out though I didn't get another bite on any line other than a Carp on the shallow one, but at least I was right about it going funny due to them turning up.

In the end I put 4lb and a few oz on the scales which seen me 5th in section, I did leave feeling pleased with my performance though as most of the things I tried had worked, I just felt I needed to work on timing and managing swims better in the future for maximum results, my section was very close though there was a 3lb weight, myself, 2 5lb weight, a 6lb and it was won with 7lb so very tight which is one good thing about Whitemoor its always very fairly pegged and the lake fishing the same all over. 

Going into the 4th round I feel I'm well out of the running, for me though I'm looking at it as an opportunity to spend more time learning for any further silver fishing in the future so no need to be down on it. Onwards and upwards!

Thanks very much for reading and I hope you enjoyed enough to come back next week.

2017 Recap

Hello Guys, I just want to start out by saying a massive sorry for not being active on here for a long time, the main reason for this is that I have moved home and as many of you know things like that don't happen over night. I have also been moving backwards and forwards with work, moving from day shifts, to twilight, then to nights and finally back to days, so as you can imagine fitting in everything with the move around work has been difficult and made it next to impossible to get out fishing!

I wanted to start out this year the way I mean to continue it though and get a post done, as the title says this is going to be a recap on my years fishing as well as at the end I'm going to set myself a few goals for next year.

To start out with I thought I'd go with something I write about quite a lot on here and go through my LRF fishing. I started out strong this year as far as species was concerned but unfortunately didn't reach my goal of 20 for the year though.

So in the end I managed 12 not bad and 4 better that 2016 so I'm happy enough with how I got on. The Species are as follows:

                                           Shanny (common Blenny)

                                           Common Goby

                                           Black Goby

                                           Sand Goby

                                           Corkwing Wrasse

                                           Scorpion Fish

                                           Sand Smelt

                                           Ballan Wrasse

                                           Tompot Blenny

                                           Bass

                                           Goldsinny Wrasse

                                           Rock Goby.

I had a whole lot of fun this year searching these little guys out down the Quay, next year though there is going to be changes to my sea fishing and how I'm going to be working it but I will explain more at the end.

Moving on then and onto another goal I set myself at the end of last year, this goal was for Carp fishing and was to catch 5 fish of 20lb and over, once again it was another one I started out strong after a early spring trip to Todber Manor with Mark my ever trusty fishing partner.

We went there for a 48 hour session we had booked about 3 weeks prior, so we had a lot a good preparation time before the trip and this was something I made sure I used to the fullest, rig tying, preparing baits with glugs, prepping spod mixes and doing a whole load of research on the lake itself. Day 1 seen me bank 2 fish of 20lb so an excellent start to my years goal, I managed another 4 fish that trip but the next best being 18lb and a few oz. 

One notable thing that did happen on the Todber trip was that Mark managed to join me as a proud member of the 20 club, I could not have been more happy for him and that also means this year we are both on level pegging trying to join the 30 club!

This goal though took a very unexpected turn for the worse when we went back to our campaign water from a few years ago to find out it had been Ottered, so unfortunately for a while we have had to say goodbye to the White Lake and 2018 will see us looking for a new water to call home for the year! 

  

We do have 1 or 2 in mind but its going to take a bit of research into the waters before a decision is made. One thing Mark and myself have been doing a lot again is match fishing, This is something I have really enjoyed in 2017 and I am super excited to see what this year brings.

Together we fished countless open matches at Whitemoor Lakes, Joined and fished the Orchards Lakes Club League and we are 3 matches into a 6 match silvers series held over the 2 venues. I have spent a lot of time looking into upgrading kit and things for next year I have made the move from the Maver 13m pole i was using to buying a 16m Daiwa Connoisseur G50, this was a bit of an investment and one that I had to think a lot about, (as well a begging the Mrs) No in all honesty my other half has always been nothing but supportive of me in everything I do and she is going to play a big part this year!

Whilst match fishing I accomplished one of the goals set for myself, during one of the league matches at Orchards I landed a nice 2lb Barbel, this was a species I have not caught before but visually are one of my favorites and 2017 was the year I wanted to catch and admire one.

I thought I could not have been happier with the days fishing and even turned to the guy on the next peg over and told him 'If I finished dead last I would still be happy with the day' turns out though I finished 2nd in section and picked up a few quid as well so I did get better!

After this though I started to spend a lot of time looking into how to target Barbel and Chub on the river, my specimen fishing really got put aside due to everything else that was going on. By this time I was getting ready to move home and work was up and down where shift patterns were concerned so didnt have much time for fishing, I started heading to Throop and Longham which are both close to home and quite well known stretches of the Dorset Stour.

I decided to target Chub to start with so looked into baits and tactics, I decided to make my own cheese paste and fish that, I got out for 3 sessions until now as the weather has been awful, one thing that is changing though is my bait and tackle approach thanks to an announcement I will make I little further into this post.

I targeted Dace a little earlier in the year but only managed a couple and nothing of a great size, in fact the only one I caught that I was proud of I had forgotten my scales so will be out after these again at some point early next river season!

Lastly before I move on to a couple of announcements I am planning on doing a whole lot more Lure fishing again going into the Spring and Summer, time to make the other guys in the Lure Nuts family proud! My personal bests for Pike and Perch stand at 15lb and 1lb 13oz respectively and this IS something I will be bettering this year!

Ok so now onto the announcements firstly I'm very proud to say that 2017 seen me become a blogger and angler as part of Dino floats, this one I believe I may have mentioned to a few people before but wanted to make it official in a post!

The latest one however and one I have not mentioned to anyone as of yet is I am now a member of Team Pallatrax, this is a company with great forward thinking, some great innovative products as well as being extremely environmentally aware and their products reflect this!

 You can find links to both of the companies web pages on the right had side of this blog, simply click the images.

So moving onto goals for 2018:

SEA FISHING:

This is something I am changing as I want to expand my search for species, I will now be classing all sea fishing as just that, LRF, Boat trips (not done one before but hoping to do at least 3 this year) and beach fishing will all come under the same search for me now. This year the goal will be the same as last years failed target so once again I'm chasing 20 species.

SPECIMEN FISHING:

I am setting myself a few different targets this year where specimen fishing is concerned, I would love to catch my first river Barbel and also to beat my Chub PB of 2lb 8oz, I want to officially set a Dace PB, I also have personal bests for most species but non are especially great so I want to break 3 of them as a rounded goal! I wont list them as there is numerous different ones.

CARP FISHING:

This is one I have looked at trying to set myself but at the moment without having a target water in mind I am having trouble doing anything where this is concerned, I will set some once we have decided on a water to target.

LURE FISHING:

As mentioned before I want to beat my Pike and Perch lure caught personal bests, I also want my 1st lure caught Chub and Zander, these are something I'm hoping to do on group meets with the Lure Nuts guys, a group of people I like to call family.

FATHER SON FISHING:

This is something I thought I would add in this year as he is now wanting to come fishing with me more and more. These goals he set for himself. He wants 5 salt water species, also he wants to get himself in the angling times magazine 10 times (on the kingfisher pages) and finally his Carp personal best is 8lb and he wants to land a double this year.

Thank you all very much for reading, I know I have said before I am going to be writing more often, but this year I mean it, THESE POSTS WILL BE WEEKLY and that my friends is a promise!