The River Trent.

My first trip to the river coincided with rain, and plenty of it. To be honest we need rain, it's been a very dry summer. The river was low, as I dropped into a nice piece of slack water I feel should hold some good chub. It runs for about 150 meters on a gradual bend, in high water it's full of fish I'd imagine, but today it was just little perch that pounced on my worms every cast. I really hate umbrellas as can never set them up in a way they keep me dry, but allow free movement to fish. Today the brolly remained at home, so the new two piece Daiwa suit was donned, and I remained dry. But everything else got drenched.

 The Trent is a big river, and needs care and attention.

I discover the newly made cheese paste was too soft, flying off the hook each cast. Once home I'll have to thicken it up with some liquidized bread, that should do the trick. Cheese paste is something that appeals to big roach, as well as chub. In fact my first 'Two' came on paste one night in the early 70s when I fished the little river Eye in Leicestershire. The bridge swim was known to throw up the odd two pound fish when the river was in flood, so I was not surprised with the 2lb 8oz fish I weighed that dark December night. In those days before digital pictures, you had to deal with a flash, and pray the shot would come out, it did thankfully.

 Over 4lb the current UK roach record. Caught in Northern Ireland.

That fish turned me into a Roach fanatic, moving  me to Norfolk in a time big roach were common on the Wensum. One night on the upper river at Bintree I took two big fish 2lb 15oz and 2lb 12oz along with a 2lb 6oz fish and a 2lb 2oz. That season and for several after, bags of such fish were not uncommon. Now I think your more likely to catch such fish from Norfolk still-waters, than its once famous roach river. Being noted now for its barbel, and chub the Wensum is private in many places I told and access more difficult than it once was!

As the day came to a close I headed for home, for dinner and a hot drink. I thought at the time it may pay to pack the umbrella and flask for coming trips?

See you on the bank.

Enough of a good thing?

Its been a glorious few weeks fishing the commercial carp circuit, but how many easy carp do you want to catch? I'm sated and have had enough of this type of fishing. Carp to over 19lb with back up fish of 18lb common, 18lb mirror, 16lb and a dozen other doubles have been an enjoyable summer break. But now I fancy another kind of challenge, a big mid-summer tench, and an Autumn big chub.

Best of the bunch 19lb mirror 2016 Hallcroft..

The water in question for the tench is a very difficult one, noted for its big carp most of the better tench are caught by the carp guys, 9lb in spawn being the best I've heard of. But they are thin on the ground, so your more likely to catch a rouge carp than a big tench. Also the tench weights are down on June as they have obviously all spawned. On the plus side the lake is near home, very quite and scenic.

At this time of year, a little and often baiting approach is what I'll go for and see how it goes, fishing for just one bite at a time. If I'm lucky enough to catch a tench on each trip, I'll feel very satisfied. So from now on until it get cold, that's what I'll be doing.

 I'm several trips into the tench fishing, and nothing. I feel I may have bitten off more than I can chew. The margins are very clear, and mostly deep, and apart from spawning time, I'm yet to see a big fish in the margins. Maybe they are about very early morning, but with a night fishing ban, and me not so good at getting up before 7am, I'm missing them perhaps? I guess as the weather turns colder, I may see some up close, but it also means times running out to.

My local river Trent is producing some very nice chub thank you. It seems 6lb fish are fairly common, and sevens are a possibility for those setting out their stalls for them. Most are being caught on very heavy gear designed to land double figure barbel, so I'm wondering what a very scaled down approach would produce. So if the tench don't provide sport, I'll be fishing the Trent with chub in mind. Lighter quiver rods, six pound line, bread, worms, maggots and 10mm boilies. I've not had a six for many years, in fact the last one was on a mayfly fly-fishing. That would be a great start!

See you on the bank.

Success snatched from failure.

Little to say about my last trip to Hallcroft. I failed to get to grip with the second biggest lake, apart from my biggest fish of the season, a creditable 18lb mirror.

Everything I tried just didn't work well, even though I lost two other decent fish during a long frustrating day. A match forced me onto the smaller lake and I think that put some doubt in my mind sadly.

 16lb mirror from Hallcroft 2016.

 2lb goldfish.

Back on Portland again, and a real bumper day on the method feeder. Casting to the main island I took over 40 fish in just 4 hours. Nothing big, maybe 6lb being the biggest. Well over a 100lb in weight, my biggest haul of carp ever. Only holiday trips to Ireland in my early years surpassed such an amazing day. I did wonder about the fish size, and how the bigger fish don't seem to come out on this method. Maybe I'll have to try for the better fish with a single bait approach maybe?

I was lucky to see the potential of this lake on this last trip. The weather got onto the 30s and the whole carp population of the lake seemed to be on the surface. It was an amazing sight, hundreds of fish, some, many doubles. More than I suspected, or imagined.

See you on the bank.

Carp in shallow water.

 Fishing to a margin on the island I took over 40 fish in 4 hours.

At this time of year, the carp are mostly found in shallow water during the day on commercials. By shallow I mean 18" to 3' deep. Find this depth and your sure to find carp feeding. A great way to catch them is with a method or pellet feeder. Casting into open water works nowhere as well as up against an island, or far bank where the depth is just right normally.

Today at Hallcroft I misguidedly fished water too deep, about 5'. It was a great margin swim with plenty of features, but just too deep. I did catch, but as my old school teacher said of me "could have done better ". One fish was a stunning mirror of 16lb, second biggest from the venue this year. I had just 6 fish for a days fishing, working hard switching methods several times during the day.   Constantly trying to feed the fish into the swim, but being too deep I could not watch the carps behavior as I like to do on my trips. If you can observe fish they will normally tell you what to do.

 Margin float-fishing took this 18lb mirror carp.

When I arrived lots of fish were on the surface milling around. So my first thought was to keep them up with pellets fired out every 30 seconds or so. I tried the pellet waggler for over an hour to no avail,  the fish were just not interested in eating in the open deeper water. I expect this food is eaten by smaller fish, or by the carp later in the day probably after dark. Anyway a nice steady day, and a cracking mirror to boot.

See you on the bank.

Just having fun travailing.

 This summer has seen a dramatic change in my fishing from fly-casting, to simple coarse fishing. To be honest, to date I'm not missing it at all. I'm travailing around finding lakes and catching loads for big fish. See below.

16lb 13lb 11lb 9lb 8lb.

 I've found another set of lakes just up the A1, about 45 minutes from home. Hallcroft Fisheries is to date the best I've found. Most commercial carp lakes are very small, too small to be a challenge at times. Hallcroft is different, a large complex of several lakes, big enough to get away from it all. It's a caravan park too, but they don't detract from the place as you can find swims away from I all. It's also full of hard fighting carp.

As you would expect with bigger lakes, the carp are larger too. Up to and over 20lb I'm told. I've had two good trips so far, and have taken some nice doubles to 16lb. The lakes are very coloured, but the fish can clearly be seen in the margins tails wagging like happy dogs. I've done as well with a float in the margins as with a feeder out in the lake.

Tucked up in a corner. maybe not the best place to start, but I'm still getting grips with it?

First trip to this complex I picked a corner swim with the wind blowing strongly into it. I've learned over the years, that fish don't always push right into the corners, but stay out from the edge as the underwater tow, pushes food items back into the lake. I set up with a pellet feeder ( on the now well broken in ) Daiwa Tournament feeder rod, 8lb main line, with a 9lb hook link of 12''. Within an hour fish were milling around and I'd taken two, but I felt it should have been going better. I decided when I started this style of fishing I'd try to be busy all the time I'm fishing, just like a match angler would be. It's easy to settle in the chair, and wait for bites. But I've found that's not the way on these busy waters. If you not getting bites your not doing it right.

I switched to bomb and pellet, but the fish still did not respond, so I baited the margins on the far side. (In the picture above) I found during the day time you had to fish very tight up to structure, so I clipped up to get it right each cast. I was rewarded with a days catch of 13 fish two were doubles. These fish are a much bigger stamp that my local Portland lakes, with most fish over 6lb.

The next trip I stayed on the big lake again, just loving the space it was giving me. I go fishing for peace and solitude, even though I'm not anti-social to any degree. I set up halfway along the bank that splits the lake in two. Bomb and pellet was the order of the day, and I really fancied it when a nice 8lb mirror fell to a 8mm pellet within an hour. But then it all went quite for two hours. Again the margins did it for me and saved the day. With a succession of big fish falling to a mixture of baits all fished on a tiny pole float inches from the bank. Four doubles with a best of 16lb. The Daiwa team pellet waggler rod at 11' is an ideal tool for this kind of float fishing with 6lb line right through. It's really forgiving and I'm sure will land much bigger fish, given the chance? Guru hooks in 14s and 12s for the margin work, and 18s for open water. No fish have been lost due to hooks pulling out, but I have lost fish due to operator error,  I cannot really blame the fish can I?

See you on the bank.

One in a million.

This season I saw a fish (carp) that was truly huge. I've seen big fish in and out of the water, but this fish was something else. It reminded me of comments made in the books of  Chris Yates, and Rod Hutchinson during the golden days of  Redmire Pool when like me they both witnessed something exceptional.

 Current UK carp record. A well know fish called 'Two Tone'.

The water in question is known for big carp, but they are not often seen, or caught. It was spawning time when I saw this fish among several others over a few days. The fish cruised through the water about 6' down, I was elevated and looking down. The experience genuinely unsettled me, for several days and reasons. It's one thing people telling you about big fish in your local lake, it's another thing seeing one! I've taken fish to 29lb from this water, and have seen several fish over 30lb. Best I've been told of is over 40lb.

The fish in question was massive, I'll be guessing, but I have seen on the bank, boat, pike to 40lb, Tope to 60lb, trout over 20lb, and some massive sea fish like cod and pollack. 50lb it could not have been any smaller, if someone caught it and told me it was 60lb, I'd not disbelieve them.

It brings me round to catching something of such a size. Not just all the tackle required, but how you deal with such a fish once it's on the bank. What if your on your own, do you call a friend? Most carp guys carry all the camera gear, but what if your just fishing for tench, or bream. Ok you would be lucky to land it, but boy what a fright it would give you, what if you have no camera? Would it forever spoil you for other carp?

I still think a big carp is 10lb, I mean you have to use a decent net, mat, and tackle to successfully land a fish of that size. In the hand it feels big, it is big.  I come from that era when a 20lb fish got into the Angling papers, complete with a wide grin from its capturer, don't carp anglers ever smile these days, is it really that serious? One commercial lakes owner told me he thought his fish were getting too big for the match anglers, consequently the fish were suffering for it. He suggested 3 to 5lb being the optimum size. But back to this big fish.

 Amazing world record fish, over 100lb.

I know a handful of anglers fishing the lake with the sole intention of catching that giant carp, I wish them all the luck. I'd dearly love to be there when it was caught, just to say I'd seen it. That fish would be over 50 years old, maybe older than its captor. It would have been caught maybe a dozen  times during its long life, survived flood, drought, frozen water, and more. I know it will be treated with great reverence, and so it should.

See you on the bank.

Getting hot after a slow start.

 Another day when a big fish cam my way. I'm always lucky when it rains.

 I had another great days fishing at my local ponds last week. At least a dozen maybe fifteen carp between 4 and 9lb. That's a decent bag of fish. The close in tactic ( I spoke about in my last post) worked and I took fish from so close in the margins, I could have touched them at times. I used a tiny pole float with just a single number one shot 18'' from the hook. The fish cautiously cruising in and out the margins taking small pellets including mine, making the tiny float drift away into the depths.
But I caught just as many fish on the method feeder, and feel I'm getting to grips with the technique, that's very new to me. Small adjustments each time out are helping put more fish on the bank, it's such fun to watch the rod tip pull round as I fish realizes it's hooked and heads for the hills.

The wind was cool enough for a sweater, but I'm still convinced sitting into the wind in summer is the best place to be. I could have found a more sheltered spot, but preferred the windward end.

These little lakes are wonderful places for wildlife. Two Little Terns have taken residence on one of the islands,  as well as a pair of Oyster Catchers, their call a constant reminder we're only 50 miles from the coast. Nature finds a place. Clearly the birds feel safe from predators, with humans being safe. The constant rain means the Oyster Catchers have plenty of worms to eat. I can watch them drilling their long red bills into the soft soil and eating well. I'm sure they have young the amount of time they spend digging.

 A bird I see on all my fishing trips. The brightly billed Oyster Catcher.

The Tern's on the other hand have commandeered the tops of the aerators, It's were here the complex owner circulates water in each pond according to it's needs. When it's hot there used for oxygen circulation, in winter to prevent ice form forming. They stand maybe 4' above the water, but the little birds seem to love this standing view. Terns can be really aggressive little blighters when they have young. When I lived on the Norfolk, Suffolk borders they would attack you as you walked the beach if and when the had young. They build a nest (if you can call it that) on the ground in with the stones and are difficult to see, you could stand on them unwittingly.

Little tern in full cry. Above a typical aerator designed to provide circulated oxygen for fish.

Add together a myriad of ducks and geese and you have a wildlife wonderland. In the past I've been critical of these heavy stocked carp lakes. I'm eating my words, and enjoying my time fishing. This week I'm traveling further a-field again, as well as a trip to my local lakes.

See you on the bank.