Heath and Safety Police and Off The Top

The bank holiday weekend was a fairly quiet one, fished for a few hours on Saturday, late afternoon till around ten. When I arrived at the pool I was shocked to see so many pegs cordoned off with bright orange mesh, the council health and safety police had visited the lake and condemned around half of the pegs as being unsafe to fish, four of these pegs I fish on a regular basis.
(best buy some wood and fix them up so I can fish them again!)
The Carp were cruising on the top so a couple of zigs went out to try and tempt a bite. It wasn't long before a fish took one of these baits but it also picked up a lump of weed. I couldn't control the runs and head shakes and eventually it threw the hook. No other baits were picked up. I changed my tactics and tried stalking but the Carp weren't having it as they were in the mood for spawning, nothing could tempt them.

I visited Jubilee on Sunday and managed a single Carp off the top with a cut down boilie and controller, I did try the fly rod but couldn't get a positive take, plenty of fish had a look at the biscuit fly and turned away last minute. Had a sleeper rod in the margins and did get a second fish on this rod.

Went to Jubilee again late on Monday afternoon/evening but had a feeling that things were going to be difficult. The first thing to go wrong was managing to snap the top section of my fly rod, I was just setting up and pulling the line through the rings ready to tie a fly on and there was a 'crunch' sound as the rod broke, don't know what happened there!!.
One of my usual tactics at Jubilee is to have a sleeper rod in the margin, I had two very quick takes but couldn't connect with any of these fish so I just left this rod to carry on doing it's job with a hope that a connection could be made. I fed lots of biscuits to the Carp feeding on the top and after several hours managed to fool one to take, it shot off across the lake with such speed against a tightish drag that it eventually snapped the hook link just behind the hook. Learning from my mistake, the drag was slackened off a couple of clicks, another hook link went on and I carried on firing out the biscuits till I managed another take, at last a Carp on the bank.





A very frustrating and expensive session.

A sad sight

Last weekend was a complete washout. The rain didn't help things but I did have a plan and put it into action on Friday evening just before the rain arrived. I had a bottom bait in position on a spot I've been watching and baiting for a while. Everything seemed perfect til I 'got done', a large Mirror Carp lept almost clear of the water right over my bait. I left the bait alone for a while but nothing further developed.

Saturday morning was better weather wise, the fishing was a tad slow, fished the same spot as Friday and managed one dropped run and an average sized Tench. It was on my way back to the car park that I noticed something no Carp angler likes to see, a dead Mirror Carp I estimated it to be around 10lb. It had a large hole in it's side so something had fed on it, probably a rat, mink or something similar, I couldn't see any other signs of how it died and looked as though it had been there for a couple of days but what saddened me most was the way it was left on the disabled peg for all to see, not a good advert for the club. I removed the carcass to a spot out of the way.

Sunday was a blank, I chose a peg that had done well for me over the past month and put baits onto the likely spots. Nothing sniffed at any of the baits not even a Tench, I don't think I could have bought a bite.

Plenty of Tench

Saturday 9th, A early start finds me looking for the visible signs of Carp feeding. I already had a peg in mind and dropped my stuff off before having a look around. It didn't take long as I found them feeding in the peg next door.

There were plenty of Carp showing on the surface with a few appearing from a feed on the bottom, I got the rods ready and waited for a suitable casting opportunity, one wrong cast now and they would disappear from this area. I cast a pop-up towards an area where a few fish had been feeding and left this hoping that they would return. My bottom bait rod was eventually cast to another area where the Carp looked to have been feeding.

After about an hour the bottom bait was picked up by what I thought was a carp by the way it took line, the strike met little resistance and the first Tench of the day was soon in the net.

At around 9.30ish, I had a slow constant pull on the pop-up rod, I looked towards where the bait was cast expecting to see a coot pulling at the boilie but instead saw a fish explode on the surface and a bow wave head out into the main body of the lake. The peg I was fishing is on a bit of a corner with the main part of the lake behind some tree's so the rod tip had to be kept close to the water and at times under it, to avoid the overhanging branches, it felt a good fish and pulled like stink between all the stopping and head shaking. I eventually got the Carp into the net and my prize was a rather nice plump Mirror Carp with not many scales, it weighed in at 15lb 2 oz.

A fresh pop-up went back out to the same area but I didn't think any more Carp would come from this spot due to all the commotion caused by the mirror. I continued to get interest in the bottom bait from Tench and banked another four before the session finished.

May day weekend

I fished at Ryton a few times over the weekend with no more than a couple of Tench to show for my efforts, I couldn't see any signs Carp in their usual places and I tried several spots I treat as 'guaranteed of a bite' but still nothing.

On Sunday I thought a break from Ryton would be good and descided to head to Snitterfield Resevoir for a few hours just to have a look around as I've never fished it before. After a bit of advise from a regular to the place, I put a couple of rods out. After a short while I had a rattle of a bite on one rod which turned out to be a small Bream, (a few more of these at Ryton would be nice!) I could see a few fish showing on the top and started to feed some 'doggy treats' into the area, a few of them were picked off but not confidently, I put a surface bait out just to see if one would take. After a few frustating swirls near my surface bait I called it a day.

Monday, should I go to Ryton and spend all day behind stattic bobbins or should I do something else, having had a taste of surface fishing at Snitterfield I felt a need to catch a Carp off the top. This is not a good method at Ryton because of the bird population but it's not impossible, the weather had also taken a turn for the worst overnight so a day at Jubilee was called for. I knew that Barry had been catching off the top all week and was going there today with his Fly rod so a Carp off the top looked a dead cert. My usual gear was packed with the addition of a fly rod just in case I had the chance to give it a go, wind permitting.

I started my session on the point of the horseshoe lake, no fish were showing so I put a rod in the near margin and another across to a bush on the opposite bank. I was warned by another angler about a snag near that bush but it had to be tried. I had a good look around for some signs of Carp on the top and found them in one corner that was sheltered from the wind, in came the rods and I was on the move. As soon as I moved, the angler that warned me of the snag moved straight into the point swim that I'd just left, strange!. I put a 'sleeper' rod into the margin of the new swim and started feeding the 'Doggy Treats', sure enough, up came the Carp. Barry was already feeding and casting a fly to a cluster of Carp a couple of pegs away so one of us was bound to get one soon, a couple of casts later I saw a fish take a biscuit just behind my in-line controller so I tightened up and was in. The Carp at Jubilee fight differently to the ones at Ryton, they stay deep and fight hard but it wasn't long before a good double was in the net.

A short while later, my sleeper rod was away with another hard fighting double.

The wind picked up slightly in the late afternoon and the surface feeders dissapeared and I swapped the second rod over to a bottom bait and put this into the margins. I had another screamer of a take just before I left and put another double on the bank.

A very satisfying day, If the fish had stayed on top longer and there was less wind I would have tried the fly rod. Maybe on the next visit to Jubilee.