DT Floats

www.dt-floats.co.uk

Over the last year I've started looking at handmade pole floats, both for the quality they offer over a lot of mass-produced floats and being able to get exactly 'the' float I wanted. Also they are stronger and built to last - not fall apart after 1 or 2 sessions.

I was put onto Dean Townshend's handmade floats by a friend and far better angler than I would ever be (although I wont tell him that !). Since then i've been in touch with Dean and found him to be very friendly, helpful and honest.

I was shocked and pleasantly surprised when Dean said he wanted to sponsor me, as I am far from the profile of the type of angler I would have expected to attract any sponsorship.

So what I've said is I'm happy to take up his offer. I am an honest person in my view, so I will continue to review Dean's products as I would any other. I cant say something is brilliant if its not - whether anyone believes me is their call.

I'm already expecting some winter wire type floats to use on my next session and look forward to trying other patterns as the seasons develop.

One of the other things I like about Dean's floats against others is the customization you can go for; from the colour, diameter and material of the tips, to the colour of the bodies and even personalizing the float with your nickname if you want (I'll look forward to seeing my 'Big Boy' going under thats for sure ! - thats a joke )

The other thing is with some other floats I was having to wait 6 weeks for delivery. Now thats not the supplier`s fault and if you're organized great. But I'm not - so when I realize I want or need a particular float by the time it arrives its a different season. Not a big issue but worth considering. Dean's float making time is within a few weeks and arrangements can be made to be quicker if needed. Price wise they are aslo on par with commercially available floats and extremely competitive compared to other hand mades.

On the website are the majority of Dean's patterns although I know he is adding new lines all the time.

Thanks for reading.

Dean Townshend's website and store is here :    www.dt-floats.co.uk

Autumn Edge

Since my fishing session Summer had made way for Autumn. Days were still occasionally warm but the temperature at night was dropping ever lower, a time for social media to be full of the question 'have you put your heating on yet ?' and for an occasional angler to plan his best course of attack for his next trip.

I'd agonised long and hard about venues but somewhat predicably decided to stick to somewhere I know. So Sat morning saw me back at the Angel in Tyne & Wear.

A

A chat to Ann,  the owner found the venue had been fishing well but the fish were beginning to shoal a bit and the water temperature had dropped over the last few days.

In my mind Lookout Lake is the better option on site as there are a  greater mix of species. If the carp didnt want to feed I felt I had better prospects here than the other lake. I walked the banks looking for signs of fish to find an appropriate peg but it seemed quiet, so I headed to the island and an old favourite - peg 1. This peg usually gives you a few options to go at. Plenty of water and far bank reeds that you can cast along freely, especially if the opposite peg (16AA) is free.

I'd planned to start on a feeder letting my pole lines settle.  And with the morning cool but bright it was clear the far bank would be getting the benefit of the early sun. Just right for a feeder to go over to. It seemed like a plan !

I opted to start on a pellet feeder with some dampened 2mm feed pellets. On the hook I was going for a big 10mm Marukyu pellet but had plenty of other options if needed.it was around 35-40 yards to the reeds and I'll admit my accuracy was woeful but I needed the practice.i cast out 4 feeder loads clipped up without a hook before setting up to fish  The feeder was free running with a .14 hooklength and size 16 Maver MT6.

My main intended pole  swim would be just past the base of the near shelf in about 4.5 feet of water on a  nice flat bottom at 6 sections.I really wanted to feel my way into the session after probably feeding too positively last time here.   I would initially feed 1/3 of a medium pot of pellets and maggots and every 5 mins I'd ping maggots over the top, hoping to build the swim up before fishing. I was starting on a Nick Gilbert Gimp .3G on Matrix Power Micron .125 to .105 hooklength and a 18 B911 F1 hook.

I also chose a line at 11m in case the fish didnt want to be that close, in about 5 feet and potted in a satsuma sized ball of groundbait then 1/3 pot of micros, chopped worm and casters. As with the short line I'd be cattying in casters regularly,  reverting to a kinder pot when actually fishing. The rig for here was very similar but with a 16 hook for bigger baits and an XT Gimp with a slightly thicker bristle.

Starting on the pellet feeder with a 10mm Marukyu pellet on the hook,  it didnt take long to get a few liners before a 6 oz skimmer took the bait. I then struck into a nice bream/skimmer of just under 2lbs before catching my first carp of the day, a feisty 3lb mirror. The day had started to warm up and I was enjoying the fishing, but this is where I started to get off track.

I'd set up a .2G NG XT Diamond on .165 Aspire to .145 Power Micron to fish the margins - but hadnt contemplated even feeding a line yet. However carp had moved into the the margin at my feet to scoff any dropped bait.

The water here is only 10" deep but still with a good colour and the fish were far from spooky but I couldnt catch them !

I tried the margin float with a succession of hookbaits; pellets, bunches of maggots, corn and paste. Nothing was touched. At one point my worm hookbait hit a fish on its 'nose' but it just watched non plussed as the  worm dropped towards the lake bed. Yet they were obviously eating feed. I tried adding some various particles without a single bite.

I tried no shot down the line for the most natural drop i could mimic,  to a bulk 3" off the hook. After an hour of this id managed 2 micro perch that must have bolted inbetween the carp to take my hookbait.

In the end I had to ignore the tails waving in my face and fish elsewhere for a while. Obviously the fish were happy to come in close, so I fed a big pot of groundbait and maggots 5m to my left on top of the marginal shelf. I had a good 18" here, so hopefully id start to catch. I left the swim for 30 mins to settle whilst I went out to 11m for the first time.

With the water being flat calm I could dot the float down and had moved to feeding through a pot (the new soft pots from MAP which I found excellent btw) to concentrate the fish.  I started catching some nice skimmers up to 2lbs and by alternating with the short line, was slowly adding to the catch. 

I was itching to try the margin and some knocking reeds and bubbles meant I couldn't put off any longer. I decided to try a bunch of maggots and was rewarded with a common of around 4lbs before I enjoyed catching 4 perch in 4 put-ins; the smallest 3/4 of a pound to the biggest  of 1 3/4lbs. Beautiful fish that still put up a really good scrap on Drennan 14-16 Bungee. It must be over 20 years since I had a perch as big and I was surprised they were feeding over groundbait so readily.

To nurse the swim id dropped some loose groundbait at my feed and this time the worm was taken. I lifted into a surprised mirror carp that seemed stunned for a few seconds before tearing off. After a few minutes I netted my biggest fish of the day at just over 5lbs.

Over the last hour the pattern continued with me catching from both lines. I added more carp, skimmers,  ide, small perch, a dumpy crucian and an orfe (?)

Any Clues as to what this is ? 

                                                             

                                                        

Before having to pack up with the fish continuing to feed after about 5 hours fishing

With over 60-70 lbs of fish I was a very happy bunny. The struggle to catch the fish under my nose had been resolved, even though I'll never know if this was down to groundbait or purely time of day.

I'd also had 3 types of carp, and 5 species of 'silvers' a great way to welcome autumn and rekindle my enthusiasm.  Great fishing for me.

Thanks again for reading.

Tight lines

Robin
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Fisherman`s Blues - Friday 5th September 2014 - Angel Of The North Lakes, Lookout Lake

After a long 6 weeks without fishing, I was going to get back onto the bank again. Due to illness in the family I would have to be home early so somewhere close to home was the order of business.

I decided to go back to the Angel and enjoy being out in the late summer weather but was greeted by a real 'pea-souper' fog on arrival at the fishery.

The day was cool but there wasn't a breath of wind on the lake - a total reversal of my last trip here ! It was forecast to get up into the low 20's when/if the fog lifted.

As I was the first angler on the lake I could choose where I wanted to fish. Initially I would have liked to be on the island on the far side but some of the fishery lads were going to spend the day cutting the vegetation back which I thought would scatter the fish away from it, so I headed to the nearside main bank and peg 32.

I had a longish chuck to the island if things settled down over there later in the day, but had been advised to fish close in and this area had some form for crucians which I hadn't caught since last summer.

I decided to fish 2 lines, the 1st one at the bottom of the near shelf on a top 2 + 1 section in around 4 feet of water. The 2nd one at the bottom of the next shelf about a foot deeper but on 6 sections at 45° to my box.

I had been told the fish were hungry and to feed heavily and this was where I think I made my first mistake. Usually I'll try and have one more 'negatively' fed line but this time I was a bit gung-ho.

I still wasnt sure if the carp would feed today so I decided to go for a particle attack on the near swim. I fed 2 big pots with a combo of hemp, micro pellets and dead maggots - I tried to spread the bait over a wider area than usual so some would land up the slope. This was to give me a chance to hopefully find the fish if they wanted to come shallower. 

On the longer swim I again went for it ! 2 pots of groundbait with some chopped worm and a few dead maggots and pellets added.

I would also look at the margin on my right but not feed this for a few hours or sooner if I saw fish moving about.

I started on the 6m line with a banded pellet  fishing dead depth, but didnt get an indication for 15 mins or so. My plan was to try and fish this line out before refeeding but kinder potting on the close in line.

By now the fog had lifted and it was suddenly hot, bright and windless. I had a small skimmer from the groundbait line but it was very slow. I tried the close in particle line and this was much the same, occasional bites leading to small skimmers or roach. I tried mixing the hookbaits and as time passed I had some better skimmers up to 1.5lbs and a nice crucian with either worm or a banded fluro dumbbell pellet seeming the best.

As usual on this lake carp would come right at my feet to vacuum up any dropped bait but they were very spooky and would bow-wave out of the swim very easily. Although the water is very coloured I suspect it was a bit clearer than my last visit here which could account for their actions.By now  things were getting slower if anything and the sun was now burning hot. This was reflected by carp swimming about in the top layers of the water. I tried a spot of mugging and had a nice common of about 3lbs before getting snapped off a few minutes later.

Normally id try to make something happen - like start a new line on the pole further out or fish lead/feeder to the island  but with only 2 hours left and feeling very despondent with the way the day had gone,  I just continued to plod away. I'd eventually managed to get fishing and it was rock hard.

This would be my last session before the weather was fully autumnal probably and I couldnt get away from the feeling id destroyed my peg - rather than the fish switching off.

A slight breeze had sprung up putting a bit of a ripple on the water but this didnt seem to improve the fishing. It was now time to look at the margins. 1.5 hrs ago id cupped in 4 pots of loose groundbait and some dead maggots. Then an hour later another pot which id left for 30 mins. The margin here was around 2 feet deep and when I lowered the rig in I had an immediate bite, from an 1 oz roach which in truth hadn't been my intended quarry !

I continued to rotate swims picking up a few fish including some more crucians. I felt more aggrieved that I was wasting my time - although my 'bad day' was put into context by the guy who managed to tip his lorry onto it's side on the roundabout,  just visible from my position about 200 yds away. A fleet of police cars, fire engines and an ambulance arrived very quickly. Hopefully nobody was badly hurt. 

Back to the fishing and I realised the wind had got up and now was straight in my face. As if by magic the margin was peppered with carp slurping off the surface. They still weren't really on my bait but I found in the last 45 mins that by pushing all the shot to the float base I could catch them. The best way seemed a regular feeding of particles whilst I fished a corn skin on the drop. This led to another 4 carp to 5lbs and one that snagged me in the reeds on my last cast ( also destroying one of my favourite Nick Gilbert floats in the process !).

I packed up just after 3pm with the carp typically now continuing to feed. On the walk back to the car a few more anglers had arrived and there seemed to be a few carp coming out.

I left seriously pondering if I should continue fishing anymore. I dont need or expect to catch a100lbs of fish every trip. But as I get out so infrequently I put pressure on myself to do the day justice and im sure I didnt do that. I'd love to be the type of angler who just enjoys being on the bank, but that's not me. I think I have to force myself to simplify my approach. Im sure that if I'd kinder fed maggots or pellets on one line with a feeder back up or straight lead that I could have felt my way into the session and built the peg up gradually. The only option is to get out again and actually put this into practice. I'm also wanting to get out on the bank with some good match anglers I know.  I know I'll pick up loads of tips and advice if I can manage it.

On a more positive note I had converted 2 of my puller kits to the Maver Easy Flow puller bung and they seem to operate even more smoothly than the standard slot version. More time will tell.,

Thanks for reading

Tight Lines

Robin


P.S. After reading other forums it seems other anglers struggled this weekend in some parts of the country. Perhaps the fish are not knowing quite how to react with the changeable weather although I still feel I ruined the peg with feeding too heavily. I`ll learn from this though hopefully and not put all my eggs in one basket.

Anyone have any views and comments either about my blog or my fishing experience please share. I`d like to hear your opinions.

Thanks Again.

Robin

Maver Enigma 1 Carp Pole 16m

After returning to angling 12 months ago I always new that an upgrade to my existing pole would be difficult to resist.

I'd had my Shimano Technium since 2006 and it had never let me down. However it had of course been superceded by newer technology and was "only" 12.5m long. Factoring in top section cut backs and the fact that you couldnt really fish it at full length meant I had a usable pole of around 10m in reality.

This in itself isnt a problem. How often do I, someone who doesnt fish matches,  really need to fish longer ? Well I was starting to fish some snake type lakes and was only able to reach 2/3rds of the way over, meaning a lot of options were blocked off to me.

So, I wanted - if not needed a new pole, as I could now justify a reason to upgrade to myself !. At first I bought a Maver Grim Reaper. A great budget pole but in reality not giving me the length advantage over the Technium, as I found back on the Oaks I was still 6 feet away from fishing near the far shelf.

So i sold the virtually new Grim Reaper,  reset my budget and after reading reviews, holding one in the shop and finding a price far cheaper than anywhere else I bought the Maver Enigma 1 Carp Pole 16m.

Wanting a 16m pole wasnt even  in the equation, If it was good at 13-14.5m Id be happy. After 4 trips I'm blown away by this pole. Now any opinions I form have to be tempered by the fact I've never fished with any other 13m + poles for comparison. I did compare the Enigma in the shop with both cheaper and more expensive poles and to me, it was the best balanced of all I tried.

So with that statement I can say I love using this pole and it has made my fishing more enjoyable and probably successful compared to its venerable predecessor. 

Its stiff and light. Virtually unoticeable at 13m and fishable all day at 14.5m (particularly if not in a gale as per my last trip !)

Its crisp on the strike and on carp to 7-8lbs has responded flawlessly.  I was slightly concerned coming from the Technium, which is built like a Land Rover of the pole world, that any new pole would shatter in use as im obviously used to being heavy handed.  However up to now the only issue has been a small crack at the top of the No.4 section, caused by my clumsiness - trying to stop a running carp on a top 2 by adding sections and not getting the pole together properly.

The pole finish is lovely and whilst it doesnt have some of the features of the more expensive Mavers it ships beautifully in my opinion.

The Enigma comes with 1 match kit and 3 power kits. The power kits all have side puller slots and are re-inforced at this point and work very well on the bank. Added to this is a very good quality holdall, mini extension for 13/14.5 and 16m sections and cupping kit with cups.

One huge benefit on purchasing this pole is having the top kits pre bushed. All my kits and cup kit are now the same length. No need to try and adjust where I drop bait when cupping in anymore.

I've added another match kit to the collection and have fitted a variety of elastics from blue hydro to 14-16 Drennan. Originally I was going to keep the Technium for margin work but sold it to help purchase the Enigma and I have no qualms about using it for this task, or indeed as a silver fish pole either.

I havent needed to fish longer than 14.5m but it seems manageable if not desirable for too long a session. 

As I said im not able to review the Enigma as a comparison to other poles in its price range but as an upgrade from my old pole the difference is amazing.

Im very satisfied with my purchase

Thanks .

Robin.

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Fowl and Foul - Fri 18th July 2014. The Oaks Sessay, Cedar Lake

Today would be my last fishing trip for the next 4 weeks, so I wanted to cram in as much as possible. I was undecided as to where to go, but didn't feel this was the time to search out a new venue. I decided to head back to The Oaks and back to Cedar Lake.

To anyone not familiar or fresh to my blog - Cedar is a snake type `canalised` lake approx 13-15m wide. Due to the way the lake twists and with the lush vegetation on the banks and islands,  most pegs feel very secluded and can give you a real sense of peacefulness if not heavily fished. In fact I didnt see or hear another angler all day. So much for holes in the ground !

Chris and Rob in the shop had said anywhere was as good to fish on the lake so I chose peg 5 on a relative straight. Firstly this peg had won the last 2 opens IIRC and secondly I had my back to the easterly wind that was forecast to get stronger as the day progressed. The trees behind me gave some shelter but there was still a nice gentle ripple from left to right (not that it would stay gentle for long !). In fact the day was red hot at the moment and getting hotter.

I`d brought the following for the day :-

2 pints of red maggots with a few whites mixed in
Micro and 4mm fishery feed pellets
A pint of hemp
2 tins of cubed 4/6mm meat
2 tins of corn
I also pumped up some 4 and 6mm expanders for the hook on arrival at the peg.

Finally, the night before I`d mixed up some groundbait - Dynamite green Swim Stim and Bait-Tech Sweet Fishmeal mixed 50-50.

So as per usual I'd covered most options and had to decide which way to start.

The peg had 2 bushes over on the far side with 8 feet inbetween but the stand out feature was 5m to my left, the margin had a cut out about 2 feet square in the reeds with an overhanging bush on the far side of the 'hole' from me.  Getting a rig in if the wind increased could take some manouvering.

I spend a good 20 minutes plumbing about. The cutout was only 8-10" deep which worried me a bit but a visit from Chris to collect the ticket money confirmed this would be the spot to target. I also had around 18" tight across at 14.5m and found a nice little hole 2" deeper than the surrounding water at the base of the near shelf at 45 degrees.

I wont go into all the minutae of my rigs as they are similar to previous posts but I did set up the following.

I would start off at 14.5m on a 4 or 6mm expander over some loose groundbait  and a few micros using a ND 0.2G mini gimp.

I fed 4 cups of groundbait plus a pot of hemp and corn combined in the margin swim and leave for a few hours or until I noticed fish movement. For here I had a 0.2G NG mini-diamond with a fatter bristle for bigger baits.

On the '5m' line I threw in a handful of hemp and 6 cubes of meat. I wanted to give this line at least an hour to settle so would throw in a few cubes every 5 mins. This would be approached with a NG Decker to fish starting dead depth.

Lastly at about 8m to my left I'd rigged up another 0.2G mini-gimp to fish shallow and would ping in 4mm pellets every minute to fish over with a 6mm.

I started on the long line. Checking the response before deciding whether to refeed or not. I had the float dotted right down in true F1 style and was getting dips straight away on a 4mm expander. Annoyingly even trying to lift into the bite was usually dropping the expander off but I did catch a roach before refeeding via a kinder pot and catching an F1 of a pound. 

I decided to try a hard banded pellet to get over the soft pellet fun but this just led to unhittable bites. Trying a bought hooker pellet seemed less appealing to the fish and I knew I couldn't continue as before. I'll admit that I'm no expert with using soft pellets and need to really develop this side of my fishing.  Combined with fishing at 14.5m for virtually the first time was not good. I decided to keep on feeding micros and some 4mm but with corn added.
This did the trick and after a chunky ide I was getting some more F1s. By now the glorious heat wave was replaced by rain and the wind had swung 180° to be in my face before settling on blasting down from left to right.

I refed and tried the short meat line but this only produced 2 skimmers in the entire day, despite feeding it for the whole session and trying shallow as well which surprised me a bit.

I'd already noticed tails up in the margin and couldnt resist.  Corn brought me a roach before a little mirror was added. I added another carp then nothing. Dead. I tried a variety of baits but couldnt get a touch.
I was worried I'd blown the swim for good so decided to refeed a pot of groundbait every half hour and leave for a while. I would look over every now and then but it really seemed dead.

This is when the local ducks decided to try and clear out the swim. Every time I looked away they were in, 3 of them upside down gorging on corn and groundbait.  Now I'm a real animal lover, I'm happy to feed birds on the bank and take in nature around me. But these ducks were the most persistent I've ever known ! Usually if they see a pole nearby they'll  politely  swim off. These ones would retreat 10 feet and stare at me waiting for ne to look the other way. It was becoming a battle of wits. I needed to nurse this swim to catch some fish and I couldnt see even the most greediest carp out muscling Huey, Duey and Louey in 8" of water !

Whilst the duck stand off continued the wind was now ripping across me. Id gone back onto the long line but with corn and was catching some nice F1s and carp. The fish were pretty switched on though and would try and bolt into the LHS bush when hooked.  2 of them managed to snag me but the rest I generally landed once in open water. But by now the wind was getting dangerous to hold the pole in. I changed the feeding pattern to catapulted 4mm pellets and corn and when the wind dropped I'd try going back over.

I dropped onto the shallow swim when the afternoon fishing lull kicked in. I'd gone through the soft pellet frustration again so converted the swim a bit by starting to feed maggots instead. This brought plenty of roach and rudd plus a large ide which I lost. But generally very small. I tried on the deck on this line but with very happening.

Eventually, in late afternoon the carp were back vying with the feathered trio for my bait. It was tricky negotiating the bait into position with the gusting wind and I had to fish with a bit of line above the float as the pole would spook the carp if too short. Corn brought a tiny roach before I changed to paste and started getting some more fish. At one point I had 2 in 2 drops for a combined 10lb. But I was now inevitably getting foul hooked fish. Some leading to inevitable hook pulls whilst others I would land.   Trying the slighty deeper water away from the edge just wasnt productive. The fish were where they and I wanted them just catching them cleanly was difficult.

I ended the session with about 40lbs give or take 5 and had plenty to think about. Id had a frustrating but good day.  I managed to lose 2 floats in the foliage (though my own ham fistedness...not due to them breaking) and lost easily twice what I landed.

Perhaps a heavier float in the margins would have caused less far hookers and a method feeder on the far line im sure would have caught once the wind got up and I certainly need to learn more about the art of pellet fishing.

As I packed away a solitary white goose swam around the margins hissing at me for not clearing away quickly enough. The birds obviously knew this was when they and the carp still wallowing in the margins could finally get to that bait without interference !

Thanks for reading as ever.

Please leave any comments, thoughts or advice. Its very welcome.

Tight lines

Robin

Review - Nick Gilbert Pole Floats

It's a well used adage in angling that pole floats catch more anglers than fish and its certainly true in my case.

I have dozens of floats that have never seen water and probably never will.Its also true that a handful of patterns would more than likely 'do' for the type of  fishing I partake in , however using the right tool for the job gives me confidence in my gear and presentation.

There is a trend at the moment for hand made floats to be en vogue and I've tried a few makes. Surely there are great mass produced floats out there as well ? Well there are. But again it comes back to confidence again. Trust that the float wont break or bend and do what's asked of it.

Which brings me on to the handmade and Commercial XT pole float range available on-line from Nick Gilbert.

I can easily say that Nick's floats are the best I've ever used. They are beautifully crafted and look good (enough reason on its own for some anglers !); they are strong enough to cope with commercial fish abuse; they carry the shot stated on the float (if I shot 1 float up in a tube, I know others will shot the same without having to go through the full process again) and they are all stable and do the jobs they are meant to do.

The 3 floats shown above are (from top to bottom):-

NG Mini Gimp - 1.5mm hollow tip and wire stem. Lovely short float ideal for fishing shallow, far banks on canal type lakes, or even as a margin float.

NG XT Mini Diamond - 2mm hollow tip and carbon stem. Ideal for bigger baits. However I have used this small float with paste and found compared to my usual long bristled paste floats that bites were more positive. From Nick's commercial range but with the same build quality as the hand mades floats IMO.

NG Decker HD - 1.7mm hollow tip and glass stem. Ideal for fishing on or near the bottom with bigger baits like meat or corn. Very stable float.

NG Gimp Glass (not pictured) 1.2mm hollow tip and glass stem. Tremendously versatile float, great for maggots, pellets etc for F1s and silvers on commercials. If I could only choose 1 float for all my fishing, this would it. Another stable, sensitive float.

The floats are available in a myriad of sizes with different tip diameters (& colours) and stem materials or diameters too, so you really can tailor the float to your own specification.

Nick's website is at  www.float-store.co.uk   The XT range are usually available from stock whilst there is a few week wait for the hand mades. The price for the hand made floats is possibly at the premium end of the scale, but these floats are not one session wonders like some I've used. If you've ever had an eye rip out or the float take on water and sit lower during your session you will know what I mean. The price and small waiting time for delivery are worth it and I'll be expanding my own collection soon !

Thanks

Robin

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4th July 2014 - Angel of The North..Lookout Lake

I'd decided to head back to The Angel for today. I wanted to get amongst some of their carp and also try a method I'd never fished before; the pellet waggler.

The forecast was for the day to be warm and overcast but with heavy rain moving in later. However the wind was strong and gusty which wouldn't be ideal. With this in mind I picked peg 1 on the island.

This peg is on the north-east end of the oblong-shaped island,   so would put the wind on my back and give some shelter hopefully as my last trip here had ended badly for my umbrella !

After setting up at my peg I had plenty of open water in front, although with the right side being out of the island's shelter it was pretty choppy and wind-battered. There was a very nice looking margin swim on the left under some bushes with 12-16" of water on top of the shelf.

After writing in this blog about needing to simplify my fishing I of course did the exact opposite and decided on a variety of approaches !

The pellet waggler was something I was determined to try so I set up a 4g middy float on 4.6lb mainline to a 0.14 hooklength and 16 B911  hook. I could comfortably feed 6mm fishery pellets at around 25-30m out and fish a banded 6 or 8mm hard pellet on the hook, fishing shallow in 5 feet of water.

I also decided to rig a bomb rod up with slightly heavier end tackle . I was going to catapult pellets regularly for a few hours before trying the waggler (unless I saw fish activity and I could try earlier) and felt the bomb could be useful on this line if they wanted it on the bottom, however this didn't give me any fish on the day for the little i tried it so I wont mention it anymore.

Bait wise I had 4mm pellets to supplement the 6mms and some micros that I would soak to make paste, something which worked well last summer. I also had dead and live maggots, some hemp and a variety of pastes and hooker pellets as alternatives.
For some reason I seem unable to use 1 groundbait and always combine a few; so I'd mixed a batch the night before from green swim stim, dynamite 50-50 and F1 black. This could be cupped in loose in the shallow margins, made into soft balls or even compressed into paste.

My main plan of attack would still be the pole. I set up 2 initial lines 1 at 6m at the base of the near shelf where I could feed by hand regularly after potting in a small amount of hemp and dead maggots.

I also wanted a long line but the wind was gusting strongly and swirling so I didnt want to take any chances with any breakages by fishing longer than necessary. As the depth was  pretty consistant from the base of the shelf I settled on 10m slightly to my left.

With this being open water I fed a bit heavier putting in a full pot of groundbait and a half a pot of hemp, 4mm pellets and dead maggots again.

I set up a few different rigs all on Nick Gilbert's excellent floats (my review to follow)  and Middy Lo-Viz /Matrix Power Micron lines. A 0.3g Gimp for 6m on .125 main to .105 hooklength with an 18 B911 F1 hook, a 0.4g decker  on .14 to .125 and the same hook in a 16 for 10m. On the same setup as the decker I had a .2g mini gimp in case the fish came shallow and finally a 0.2g mini-diamond on .165 Aspire to 0.14 hooklength and the very strong and sharp Maver CS23 for fishing bigger baits in the margins.

My plan had been to rotate the 6 and 10m swims before feeding the margin line later in the day. However after feeding there were already carp at my feed tails up. I quickly set up another rig and tried to mug an early carp but without any success.

So back to plan A. I started on the short line, and started catching small roach and ide and maggots. After 30 mins I rested this line and went onto the 10m swim, fishing a 4mm expander. With the wind playing havoc with presentation I fished a longer line to the float with a backshot but bar a nice 2lb mirror the fishing wasn't really any better than close in so I returned to 6m 

I'd fed the pellet waggler line over the last few hours so gave it a go. Soon I was into the pattern of feed, cast, feed again and getting some bites around 2 feet deep. These turned out to be, not from carp, but ide up to 1lb. It waa certainly a.nice experience getting back to a float rod (albeit quite a chunky one !) and obviously I'd just scratched the surface of this method. But it was enjoyable and a very active method of fishing, that I'll try again soon.

But now I was itching to get close in and catch some carp hopefully !

I'd dropped groundbait regularly in front of my platform and within a minute the fish were straight in. I wanted another option so as well as this swim I also fed 4 big pots of groundbait in the margin to my left. 

Leaving this line to settle I went back in front and I threw in some dead maggots and tried fishing a big bunch on the hook. I started catching a few  fish, carp between 3-6lbs. The fish always fight like mad here and today was no exception.  Some of the fish plodded around the swim whilst others took off and tried to get around the back of the island. Inevitably I lost a few and had a few foul hookers before catching  some perch. This prompted me to try paste,  which meant longer between fish and a host of liners but alternating between the 2 margin swims kept the fish coming.

Getting a bit carried away towards the end of the session I piled more bait in, trying to entice the bigger sized carp. Whilst this had the desired effect to a degree, it also pulled a load more fish into the swims and by the time I sussed it out I was getting more hook pulls, probably from foul hooked fish. I caught on all the paste I tried but the one made from the groundbait I was feeding seemed to bring the most positive response.

In the end I'd had a really enjoyable day. All my gear and myself were soaked but I'd had 25 carp between 2-7lbs and ide, roach, rudd, skimmers and perch. So a good 10lb of silvers and at least 70 lbs of carp. A great day's fishing and another real try out for the Maver Enigma which continues to impress me more and more.

Tight lines all

Robin

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13th June 2014 - Poplars Lake, The Oaks, Sessay

3 weeks on from my last fishing session and I was itching to get on the bank again. After my last, somewhat low-key (and cold) trip to the Angel, I wanted to try the Oaks again and was looking forward to trying my new pole for only the second time.

Leading up to today there were some fantastic weights coming out of the match lakes but also some reports of spawning carp,  so I didnt know where to head for - other than I fancied fishing a snake type lake which still left 3 options - Cedar, Maple or Poplars. Cedar would have to be vacated by 4pm for an evening match so I didnt fancy that. After asking Rob in the on-site tackle shop he recommended the high peg no.s on Poplars, so off I went.

Poplars is a long thin lake with a central island about 12-15m away accessible from nearly all swims. The lake has an access road all the way around so getting to your peg doesnt mean any long walks, yet you would hardly know the road is there or that you are on a complex with the line of trees shielding the lake from the road,  but importantly for pole fishing with access "cut through" for unshippping etc. In fact Maple lake must be about 30 feet away at one end but such is the matured vegatation here that you would never know.

At the end of the lake Rob had suggested, there was already an angler on the "point" of the island and a few round from him on the far side that I could hear but not see. Peg 54 would have put me in a lovely looking corner peg, but would have seriously encroached on the other guy. I settled on one to the right,  peg 53. On this peg there is a concrete platform that protrudes about 4 feet past the bank side. The island was slightly cut back about 14.5m away and I had the platform of 54 to use as a margin line 6m away on the left (I love these angling mags where someone states "I fished to the spare peg 16m away" !) and an overhanging bush just past the vacant platform on my right about 7m along.

Fish were certainly visible and audible crashing in the margin reeds near the island, but as I plumbed up I was a little taken a back at the depth (or lack of it) on my swim. The Oaks website had stated an average depth down the track of 5 feet (similar to Cedar) but I had a maximum of 2.5 feet in the centre shallowing to 12/14" at the margin/island with no distinct shelves or features to speak of. Rob had suggested finding 2 feet of water across and fishing pellet, but this was really anywhere from 3-13m !

I decided to have the pellet line at 13m with the option of going tight over if the fish did move into shallower water later. I'd originally planned to fish 4mm feed pellets with an expander on the hook, but followed Rob`s advice and fed micros instead.

My bait tray was full as usual with corn, 4mm cubes of meat, 2 pints of maggots, some groundbait and a variety of hook pellets as well as the wetted micros.

I`d also wanted to feed a meat/corn line at the base of the near shelf.  As I didnt have one as such I settled for a swim at 45° about 6m out. Here I would feed 4mm meat cubes and some corn every 5 mins. But quite sparingly. I`d hoped this would be my main line and as I was starting to  fish late morning just as bites had tailed off here in the past, I really wanted to nurse this swim carefully.

I fed the left hand margin with 2 pots of loose groundbait and a few pieces of corn and intended to leave it for a few hours, whilst I would not feed the RH tree margin for a few hours but with a lot more groundbait. Although the water is heavily coloured I was concerned about the margins as they were so shallow. More of that later.

Today I was going all out with a variety of Nick Gilbert floats. I set up a couple of .3 rigs for the deeper water a Gimp for pellet and a Decker for meat/corn and 0.2 Mini Gimp for shallow,  all on .14 line to 0.125 hooklengths as I really didnt know what to expect. My margin lines were on .2G mini diamonds with stronger 0.165 to .14.

I started with a cad pot and some micros and a plug of groundbait at 13m.  It didnt take long to get bites but they were generally finicky despite dotting the float down. The weather was now around 23/24° and overcast but with hardly a breath of wind on the water. A bit of a change from my last time on the bank !

The expander was getting ragged and it was no surprise that when I did hook fish it was roach in the 1-2 oz bracket. I plugged away on this line  and tried varying hookbaits. I didnt have any bigger expanders so used some banded hard pellets but through trial and error found 6mm soft hook pellets seemed the best balance between bites and durability.  Eventually I picked up some nice ide and F1s to 1lb but it was starting to slow down.

I rested the pellet line and tried the 6m meat/corn line. Again bites were slow and from small roach generally. I tried changing the feeding pattern but it just wasn`t happening. I looked in on the LH margin with corn but save another mini roach and a crazed mirror around 2lbs it was again quiet. I`d now fished for 2hrs and had about 6lbs of fish which I found very disappointing.

Still on my previous trips to the Oaks i`d had quiet spells around this time of day. So after trying the margin line under the bush without a touch, I tried a new swim about 8m out with maggot but quickly abandoned it as I was back to mini roach and rudd. Lovely fish, just not my intended quarry. I decided to convert this line back to pellets but to try and get the fish shallow.  I hadn't had many swirls on top when feeding but felt by increasing the frequency with a cattie that this might kick the fish on to feed with a bit of luck.

Gradually this started to work, by catapulting micros every 45 seconds or so then feeding from the pot above the float to tighten the fish up,  I was starting to get bites again. Sometimes they would hook themselves against the pole tip  but by varying the depth between 6" and 2 ' I was starting to get some fish at last, although I still had a lot of missed bites and little dinks.

I'd planned to go back onto the margins late in the day but 3 families of geese were using platform 54 for a diving competion so I left them to it. Graceful on the water,  not exactly Tom Daley diving in !

The fish still came and went in bursts. At the end  I'd had about 25 F1s, 5-6 carp to 2lbs, a few nice ide and plenty of roach and rudd for about 35lbs (keepnets are banned at the moment - so its a guesstimate). One of the small mirrors was either the fattest fish I've ever seen or full of spawn - a possible reason to why the carp weren't really showing today.

All in all a difficult day in some respects when you consider that I blew out on the margins and meat swims. Luckily over-complicating things and forcing myself to try different things probably worked in my favour for once today with fishing shallow and trying to make the fish switch on.

The Maver Enigma 1 pole was a total joy to use and being able to fish long is now a genuine option for me - if not always a neccesity.

One thing I must say is how much I love this fishery. I'm a great believer in letting people enjoy their type of fishing, even if its not for me personally - but I'd read a lot of negative comments about commercial fisheries in the last few weeks on some forums,  normally of the won't fish commercials as they are  'holes in the ground' variety.

Now perhaps these people can just turn up and catch a ton on demand. I know i can't and had to really work hard today for what I caught. Maybe that's just me, I've never claimed to be any more than an average angler at best.  But when people look down their noses at ALL commercial fisheries I'll just say this... I  don't think I've ever fished anywhere that's felt as 'natural' as it did here.

Being on Poplars today was a fantastic experience. Apart from a signal crayfish (which I didnt want to see !) There was a huge variety of animal life to see and hear (the birds were singing so loudly my wife could hardly hear me on the phone !) From squirrels to chiff-chaffs and 30 geese it really was idyllic. With well-conditioned, hard  fighting fish but above and beyond that It was a pleasure just being alive and outside on a day like today. Its not often I think like that. And surely you cant get much better than that.

Thanks for reading

Tight lines

Robin.

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Blogs

As I dont get on the bank that often there are a few blogs that I regularly read. Not only have most of these blogs provided me with advice and entertainment but also given me inspiration to try blogging for myself.

They generally follow anglers with a match fishing slant but I think they can be of interest to anyone with a coarse fishing interest. :-

Jim Hall`s Fishing Peg. http://www.jimhallsfishingpeg.com/   - Jim is sponsored by Browning listing his match & pleasure trips. Based in Yorkshire.                                                                                            

Woolavy`s Wanderings http://woolavy.blogspot.co.uk/        -   Lee William`s website following his match reports

Gary Matthew`s Blog  http://matthews580.wordpress.com/  - Gary Mathew`s match & pleasure fishing blogs from the N.W.of England

Lewy`s Lines - http://lewylewylewy.blogspot.co.uk/             -   Mark`s tales of matches and mini festivals, often with a laugh or 2 involving                                                                                                               Maggotdrowners or MFS members.

John Arthur - www.jonarthur.co.uk                                     -     Former Pole Fishing now Drennan Product developer. His reports from major opens and product reviews

Best Laid Plans - Friday 23rd May 2014 Angel Of The North Lakes

3 weeks on from my trip to The Oaks and I was champing at the bit to get on the bank, spurred on in part by a (nother) new pole to play with as the Grim Reaper had been superceded by a Maver Enigma Series 1 16m.

Due to family commitments time would be at a premium today something that despite being aware of, I never put into practice.

The weather had been glorious leading up to my session and Lookout Lake had actually had 2 matches on the same pegs on the Wednesday,  during the day and evening. Weights for both matches were very good but then the bubble burst.  20C plus on Wed had dropped to 10C on the thurs. The forecast for Friday was for more of the same, plus a blustery NE wind. Not a great portent for my trip ! In fact the temperature never got into double figures at all during the day.

Ann, the fishery owner confirmed the venue had fished hard the previous day. This meant I couldnt be sure if the carp would still feed, so I made a snap decision to buy some worm and casters to supplement my already bulging bait bag.

As usual I headed for Lookout, the slightly smaller of the 2 main lakes and a bit more exposed than Bowes lake. Because of this, and as there are no real west facing pegs on this lake to fish, I picked an area that had been quite fruitful a few days earlier and would hopefully have a bit of respite from the cold wind as it was slightly sheltered by the central island.

I picked peg 25/26.There was A closeish chuck to a cutback on the island for the feeder (which I didnt even set up in the end !) And a  floating bridge on the left of the peg to the island, easily in pole range. I also had decent looking margin swims on both sides, although depth tight to the reeds was about 18" on top of the shelf. I would have certainly preferred 2 feet plus here, especially with the sudden temerature drop. Undeterred I would ignore the margins until after 1pm.

Plumbing up gave about 6 feet off water after the shelf levelled out. So I decided on 3 areas to target. 

The first line was 10m at the 2 o'clock position. This would be my pellet line. I fed a couple of balls of groundbait with some 4mm feed pellets mixed in. I had a Nick Gilbert 0.4G gimp on 0.14 Middy Low-Viz to 0.125 Matrix Power Micron hooklength. The hook was my favourite B911 F1 18. I had a (huge) range of pellets to use and could fish with banded hard pellets or expanders. But started on some VDE 6mm Jellets.

At 10 o'clock I could use the same length of pole and reach the bridge, but decided to fish about 6 feet away and try and prise any fish out from under the bridge, rather than chasing them in. As I was unsure if any carp would feed I tried to cover my options here and cupped in a slop made from chopped worms and casters mixed with soaked micro pellets. I would fish here with a worm head, the line was the same as my pellet rig on a 0.4G DJK power pencil fished an inch over depth. The hook on this rig was a 16 Maver MT2 which is a heavier gauge than the B911.

I set up a NG XT mini-diamond .2G for the margins on the same line and hook as above.

Lastly and the rig I would start on was at 6m for an out and out silver rig. This would be casters loose fed by hand. Another NG Gimp but 0.3G this time. On 0.12 Lo-vis to 0.10 Preston Precision hooklength, with an 18 B911 F1.

After feeding the long lines I decided to let them settle and started on the short line. Sport was far from hectic but I started picking up some small roach and skimmers whilst feeding casters every few minutes. I tried the pellet line and had a better couple of skimmers  before moving onto the worm line. For some reason I felt this would be the banker line but after 10 mins I hadn't had a sniff of a bite. I decided to refeed using a toss-pot and within a minute the float buried and a spirited short fight led to an 8oz tench in the net. A beautiful little fish and my first tench of the year. Again the fishing was slow and I was getting some tiny fish, not a good sign for carp moving in. The next fish shattered that theory as 8 feet of yellow Drennan bungee shot off under the bridge.  A minute or so later and a nice 3lb common was in the net but turned out to be a one-off as the next fish was a mini-roach, and I didn't have any more carp on the long lines but the best fish was another tench around the pound mark. 

During this time the squally wind changed direction and blew my brolly inside out. Stupidly id left the seatbox bracket at home and had to stake it out with guy ropes. So when the wind changed I was effectively battling with a 6 foot kite and quickly ended up with a brolly spike shaped like a hockey stick. This lead to a great deal of swearing and attempting to rectify the problem was proving impossible. In the end the umbrella kept most of my gear dry but I was soaked through !

Trying to regain some rhythm meant I had 90mins left. I prepped the margins with loose groundbait and big handfuls of maggots and left for 30 mins before going over with 5 maggots on the hook. The float moved and bobbed before going undet and...I had another 1 oz roach ! It wasnt even hooked but just holding onto a maggot in its gob ! 10 mins later and I eventually hooked what turned out to be another carp that steamed off under the bridge.  But by burying the pole tip the middy 12-16 did its job and I had a 5lb common banked. Another scale perfect fish and a gorgeous bronze colour. Because of this fish I stuck on the margin swims until I packed up at 2.30 with only small skimmers and a crucian to add but painfully knowing that I was probably approaching the best time of the day as i was leaving.  but needs must.

I ended up with around 10lbs of silvers plus 8lbs for the 2 carp and felt that id spread myself far too thin today. I left feeling very despondent at my own fishing ability and certainly didnt want to write about it. However 24 hrs on and I have tried to think objectively about where I went wrong and writing about the day is almost carthritic.

As I was fishing with a new pole I hadnt even bothered with the feeder  despite seeing fish activity during the day near the far reeds, sometimes its best to fish methods to catch fish, not methods i want to use regardless. Id also gone with far too many ideas and baits to stick to a plan. The pellet line didnt work but id only fed it intermittently when not on it, so it was only used half-heartedly in truth. I could have certainly made life more comfortable by fishing the lower lake with a bit more shelter. I was the only angler all day on Lookout, so that tells its own story but also means I dont know how anyone else would have got on. On the up side despite a poor day I`d had carp,tench,roach,crucian,perch, ide and skimmers - so plenty of variety.

My final thought is this; if you look forward to something enough. If the weather is glorious for weeks before the day. Be assured that when the day comes round the British weather will have returned with a vengeance ! And never leave home without an umbrella bracket !

P.S. The new pole and Nick Gilbert floats were both spot on. I will probably review at a later date after a bit longer on the bank.

Thanks for reading.

Robin.

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Review - Maver Grim Reaper SX (13m pole) £299

I've had my old Shimano Technium XT 12.5m pole for around 8 years and whilst it was in good condition, It was heavy and started getting a bit of a handful at 11m Plus.

I decided the time was right for an upgrade but as unsual financial constraints and limited fishing opportunities meant I couldnt justify a large amount.

I wanted a 13m pole but not an out and out 'carp cruncher' as I still enjoy fishing for silvers. So weight and stiffness would also be a factor.

I'd considered offerings from Daiwa, Preston, Garbolino and MAP. But the MAP 101 seemed favourite from everything I'd read on the 'net.

I went to my local tackle shop Fishing Republic in Sunderland and was pointed in the direction of the Maver Grim Reaper, a pole I hadnt even considered due to its 'lump hauling' reputation.

However on comparing the full length pole to some of the others on my list and even some more expensive poles (such as the Browning Z All Round and the MAP 201), I kept coming back to the Reaper. I even looked at the 14.5m Maver Retribution which was a lot more than my defined price range and even with the butt section off it just didnt feel as "right" as the Reaper.

So the decision was made and the Reaper was bought. I also liked the 3 supplied easy-glide side puller power tops which came along with a match top 3 and cupping kit. I decided to also buy an extra match kit at the same time to bring the pole up to 5 kits.

Chris and Tony in the tackle shop offered to elasticate the pole for me, something im very capable of doing but they did a very professional job and although the tops are pre-bushed, this saved me quite some effort as I just chose the elastic I wanted and they did the rest. FOC. They also recommended dacron connectors which are so much tidier and less tangle-prone than the stonfos I`ve always used in the past.

Power Kits with side pullers

Since then I've used the pole on 2 trips.  First at The Angel Of The North Lakes where an unseasonly cold,  foggy day turned the carp off but I had some nice silvers up to 2lb at 11m and closer. The 2nd trip was to the Oaks and this gave the pole a much better workout, hitting F1 bites, silvers and carp to just under 7lbs from the margins.

The pole did everything id asked of it and feels strong but responsive and well-balanced. The cupping kit is very stiff and overall I couldnt be happier with the whole package.

Obviously there are much better poles out there, but for £300 I think you'd struggle to find anything to compete.The spares aren't the cheapest around, but nor are they the most expensive either and fishing at full length all day would be a bit of a chore but which pole Isn't without a section off ? if you need to fish at 13m a lot then try a bump/spray bar and 2 well set up pole rollers.

If you're looking for a good budget pole  for catching a bit of everything on commercials i dont think you'd be disappointed with this one.

Update... 9th May 2014

After reading a post on Maggotdrowning re: actual pole length, i measured the pole with the supplied power tops fitted. Without the mini extension the Reaper measured 11.6m and 12.4 with the extension fitted. How this compares to other manufacturers I dont know. However comparing the pole with the extension fitted in the shop against some of the other poles without extensions may have been totally different. I still like the pole, just feel a bit mislead.

Review - Kamasan B911 F1 Hook

As most of my fishing is now on commercials,  hooks have to be relatively strong. But due to my fishing ethos background and fishing I'll still try and fish as finely as is sensible to guarantee bites.

The B911 in sizes 16-20 probably ends up  on 80% of my pole rigs. Its my first choice for using maggot, caster and pellets and probably the only times I don't use this pattern is for margin fishing with paste or big baits generally and also for delicate silver rigs in the colder months.

Whilst ive never caught out and out lumps on this hook, ive landed carp to 8lbs and have never had one straighten. It also seems to retain its point very well even after a few fish. As everywhere I fish is  barbless only these days, I think its a great hook. And relatively inexpensive as well.

30th April - The Oaks, Cedar Lake

The Venue..

This was to be my first outing in over a month and Id decided  to head back to The Oaks in Sessay and go back to Cedar.The Oaks is around an hour and 20 mins drive from my home in sunderland, so I needed to be there in good time to get a decent session in before heading home to family duties. I’d fished there about 5 weeks ago in an area with little form (as I later found out) and hadnt done brilliantly, so looking at match

results I wanted to be around peg 56 if possible but  on arrival a club match was scheduled for pegs 50-80 when I arrived so i went for peg 32 which had also shown some form recently.

For anyone not familiar with The Oaks, the fishery has a number of lakes,  some for matches only and others pleasure or mixed. Cedar is a commercial snake lake that holds about 80 pegs, so the match had little impact on where I would fish.. The peg  was at the north end of the lake which is very picturesque. There is a bank of pine trees at your back which have been cut for pole access. The margins are grass lined with a good depth close in and the island again has trees making the peg very sheltered. In fact there was hardly a breath of wind on the lake at all, whether this would be good or bad for me I’d have to find out. I’d left Tyne & Wear under a thick veil of fog and a paltry 9° C, Sessay was cloudy but a barmy 16°C and fish were showing everywhere. I wasn’t expecting to blank !

I set up taking my usual age to get ready (how do I fix that ?) mixing groundbait, etc  and plumbed up.

Id been advised to look for 2′ of water across, but at the full 13m of my Grim Reaper I was still nowhere near the far bank and in 3.5′ to 4′ of water. So I decided to fish straight out as far as possible with meat and corn over  some hemp.An 8m swim at 45 ° with pellet over groundbait and straight out at 2+1 with meat over meat/corn/hemp (in hindsight putting this directly in front as well wasnt the best idea)

The Baits..

I had 2 tins of cubed meat (1 supermarket, one dynamite baits which was just too soft to stay on the hook.

2 pints of maggots

A pint of wetted fishery micros with a variety of expanders and hook pellets.

A tin of corn.

Some old ghost F1 match groundbait (which smells totally vile when i opened it in my opinion) plus a little special g green

The Rigs…

Im in the process of replacing some old diameters of pole line, so the rigs were tied on a real mixture.

The 13m line had a NG gimp .3g on 0.14 middy low viz to .0125 matrix micro and B911 F1 16.

A DJK Pencil 0.3g with the same line/hook was for the short line

And finally for the pellet line I had a .4g matrix pencil on .12 gline to .10 preston precision.

I would look at the margins after a few hours as there was a cutway in the near reeds about 6m down the edge into 2 feet of water but would not feed until 30 mins before fishing.

I fed the meat lines sparingly with a pinch of hemp plus about 5-6 grains of corn and 3-4 cubes of meat.

The pellet line was just fed with micros plus a tennis ball size of groundbait which I topped up every 5 mins a dozen or so micros via a catty whilst throwing in 3-5 cubes of meat short.

The Fishing..

Eventually I started at 10.30 on the long line with a cube of meat and found my current obsession with going for float tips designed for sensitivity (still in winter mode I guess !) was going to cause me trouble all day. The floats were just too fine to support meat and corn. After 10 mins I had a bite and landed a 4oz perch; not quite what I expected. This was followed by a dumpy 6oz roach both on a 4mm cube of meat. So I decided to cup in some more bait and try 8m. In all honesty I pretty much abandoned the long line as it wasn’t fun fishing full length tbh and having to re-ship every time the bait came off after a missed bite.

Moving onto the pellet line and it was slow going with lots of missed bites on a 4mm expander. I switched to a 6mm jellet which was a lot more durable and had a few F1s and a couple of roach.

I refed this line and tried meat short. Again I was faced with the sinking float syndrome and lots of missed bites  but had a few more nice F1s and some dumpy roach, then everything went quiet for an hour. I was still getting occassional bites but not connecting which was really frustrating, maybe I should have stepped up the hook size or drastically alter the feeding. I plugged away but really should have tried a new maggot line for silvers as I could have caught small fish all day long this way but I was focussed on bigger baits for bigger fish I think and it would have put fish in the net whilst waiting for the carp/F1s to switch back on. Eventually I tried upping the feed on the short line and after getting swirls on the top I decided to try shallow, lifting and dropping the bait or flicking out and holding it tight. This got me back amongst the fish, some lovely F1s and ide before a ‘proper’ carp took the meat hookbait. The fish made an initial run before plodding about for 10 mins, before it took off again. It was a long lean fish that I was a bit disappointed was 6.5lbs. The fight on grey hydro had made me think it had to be a double so I was a little disappointed to find it was nearer half that, I was sure it was going to be my P.B pole fish. Never mind it was a lovely looking mirror that fought really well but I was probably extra careful on the .125 bottom as I really wanted to land it !

The fish came and went in bursts and on trying the margin swim for the last 90 mins I picked up another half dozen fish, a couple more F1s and carp to 3lbs or so. I did lose a couple of better fish from this swim at least one of which was foul hooked from the scale that came back on the hook ! Alternating the margins with the now heavier fed 3m line and I also picked up some big ide to 2.5lbs and what I was sure was a chub of around the same weight.

I packed up after 5 hours to fight back through the traffic and on lifting the net out  Id guess about 60lb maybe a bit more (im rubbish at estimating weights !) Not a huge weight but still a good day for me. On the day perhaps but id gotten too sidetracked. 2 lines plus the margins would have sufficed with deep and shallow rigs set up rather than starting 3 from the off. I need to stop over complicating things !

The oaks certainly is a very well ran fishery offering different types of lakes for different types of anglers In a beautiful, clean setting.The tackle shop offers pretty much everything you’d need once you’re on the bank as well. The fish are in great condition and I will be back soon. I just wish the entire place could be moved 40 miles north !

Thanks if you’ve taken the time to read my ramblings. Tight elastics !

Robin

p.s.

A few weeks ago my mate Tony from Fishing Republic Sunderland dropped something sharp and pointy onto his Daiwa Air at Whiteacres resulting in a nice bullet hole type shape in one of the big sections. Of course I didnt mock or take the p***. So at the end of the session I was taking care packing up (despite my best intenions my peg usually looks like a hurricane has hit after 5 hours) I stepped over the no.4 section on my brand new Grim Reaper only I didnt…A 3″ crack down the top. So this weekend it’s off to see Tony at the shop. Where did I put my humble pie again ?

UPDATE.... total over reaction. The crack was less than an inch and easily repaired. Panic over !

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