Learning Curve - 10th October 2015, Peg 5, Lookout Lake, Angel Of The North

Lookout Lake from peg 16

Back to the Angel again today and I'd headed for the island and Peg 5. The day wasn't forecast to be particularly warm but there hadn't been a frost overnight and now the early mist was burning off and this part of the lake was already in full sun, so hopefully the water temperature would climb during the day.

This Peg is usually one of the better ones in matches and has plenty of water to go at (assuming 4 and 6 aren't occupied). I had planned to fish similarly to my last trip here, pole and feeder/straight lead  but on arriving at the fishery I'd been told that the pellet waggler had been very productive of late, so I had to give it a go - especially as I couldn't see me getting another opportunity to fish it for 5 months +. 

Bridge To Paradise ?

 I really had no idea if the carp would want to play today as we are now in Autumn and the fish are beginning to group together more. I was also told  by Ann that I should stay until dusk around 6pm when the fishing improved - unfortunately I was only fishing until 3.30pm so would just have to take the fishing as it came.

Early morning sun on peg 5

I'd decided to go with a couple of options. For the waggler I'd started catapulting 4-5 8mm fishery pellets regularly as far towards the far bank reeds as I could, which was probably still a good 10 yards away from the bank in open water. A  small loaded Middy 6g float was sufficient to cast this distance, landing nicely with a small 'plop'.I'd set this up with a hair rig with a latex band to a 16 hook on a 12 inch 0.15 bottom. 

Drennan Combo

 As I continued to feed regularly as i set up my pole set up I continued to prime the line for when I started fishing as this would be my starting method. For the pole I'd  changed from my original plan again. I had planned on fishing a short pole only at the base of the near shelf about 6m out. However,  since my last session here the water was certainly a bit clearer. I decided to have my main pole line at a comfortable 11m putting a bit of distance between myself and the fish.

 Again, as I had no idea of what might feed today I'd decided to play things carefully. I potted in a small amount of chopped worm, casters and hemp in around 4.5 feet of water. I didnt intend to fish here for a good hour, so about every 10 minutes i catapulted in a decent pouch of casters and hemp but when actually fishing planned to tighten things up a bit through a cad pot as needed. I intended to start on worm but could also fish caster if needed.

A couple of options !

 I'd set up 2 rigs for this line, with there being little wind or tow Id gone for a DT Slim P. Nice and sensitive but with a decent bristle for worm and stable enough today as long as the conditions stayed calm (If this changed I would revert to a DT Open Water Tear). This was on 0.135 Matrix Power Micron to a 0.115 hooklength, pretty standard for an open water commercial swim. I'd also set up a shallow rig on a heavier line and elastic in case the fish did come up in the water. 

As a back up in case the fishing was really hard I did set up a line at the base of the near shelf but at 45 degrees to my right  where I would purely feed maggots. I'd chosen a more delicate setup here with a  DT Pencil but despite feeding here for most of the day I never actually fished it, so wont mention it again 

Ready To Go

I started fishing the pellet waggler and getting into a rhythm of feeding and casting and after a couple of little dinks on the float eventually hooked one after about 10 minutes fishing. It was great to play a fish on a float rod for a change (albeit a bit more pokey than my old 13 foot match rods) and after a typically spirited fight I had a golden 4lb common in the net.

 Recasting again didnt yield the non-stop action I'd hoped for, in fact I wasn't getting any indications at all. I'd started fishing about 18"  deep but tried playing with the depth. Going to 3 feet deep to search through the water. I also mixed things up on the feed front. Some casts I would not feed, others one bigger pouch or 2 smaller ones. It was probably another 15 minutes after the last fish when I hooked another. This fish made for the far bank reeds but I was able to turn it before making slow progress getting the fish towards me as it kept powering off on a few runs.It was obviously a lot bigger than it's smaller brother earlier. Once I got the fish to within about 10m of the me and the waiting net it decided that the nearside reeds would be its preffered destination. I couldnt stop it from getting into the reeds and when I got it back out it dived in again with my reel giving line. I did try and stop it with a bit more force when the hooklength gave way. I was obviously a bit gutted as the fish felt very good. I know its impossible to tell but it certainly felt like a double, however I wasnt too despondent as the fish seemed to be feeding, if not actually crawling up the rods . All I had to do was catch another big 'un !

However If this was the stamp of fish out there I had to step up the tackle - I didn't want to suffer any more breaks.

The trouble was I didnt have any heavier hair rigs and my reel line was only 4.5lbs b.s. (as I've read a thicker reel line will make casting the pellet waggler any distance much harder). A quick trip to the onsite shop and I was now using the same size hair rig but to an 0.18 hooklength. I also bought some bigger pellets - primarily for the hook whilst I continued to feed the 8mms. I had another carp about 20 minutes after the last one fishing a bigger 11mm hard pellet but this had come right at the back of my feed. I was still around 15m away from the far bank but fishing as far as I could get the 8mm pellets out to.. I decided to feed the bigger pellet in smaller quantities but to make the cast put on an 8g float. This put me far closer to the far bank but in truth the presentation seemed to suffer.This float was twice the size of the Middy and seemed to land like a bag of sh!te when hitting the water, even when trying to feather it down. It may not have made any difference but I had the feeling that the fish were backing off from the bigger float but weren`t too keen to come within range of the lighter float. I wasn't getting anywhere at all now but every time I decided to come off the line I would get a bite or on one more occasion a  fish, which convinced me to persevere. I'd now fished the waggler for 2 hours and had 4 fish. With only 3 hours of my fishing time left i went onto the pole probably an hour later than I should.

I shipped the pole out to 11m and lowered the worm hookbait in. The float had just settled when it went under and a sharp lift of the pole resulted in yards of white elastic streaming out. It was only now I realised that I'd set this rig up onto the wrong top kit. Firstly this was a 6-10 elastic but more importantly is on one of my match kits that doesnt have a puller. What did we do before pullers ? The fish wasn't particularly big but led me on a merry dance  and I felt I had no control, eventually netting the fish a bit ungainly with a top 4 stuck up in the air. I rectified the top kit issue and over the next 25 minutes had a fish every drop in, always as the float was settling or resettling following a lift of 6-8 inches. Typically,  stepping up the elastic meant a step down in the size of fish I was hooking

Although I did lose then land another carp, I started getting some clonking Ide. The Angel does have some really big ide in but I had 6 or 7 all over a pound and a half in this spell. The biggest at just under 2 and a half pounds easily my P.B. But then the fish seemed to switch off.

2lbs 7oz Ide

 Whether my feeding wasn't quite right, whether I'd plundered the line too much or simply time of day I dont know but now I was scratching for bites and picking up the occasional perch or roach on the worm or caster hookbait.

Instead of switching to the maggot line and hopefully keeping the fish coming, I kept persevering on the long pole, hoping I could get the fish back. Combined with this the carp had now moved into my feet and were starting to scoff bait in front of my fishing position. I baited up my margin rig and lowered the worm hookbait in. Obviously the carp at 11m hadnt been able to resist this hookbait so it was bound to be the same close in ? It wasnt. The fish continued to root around and ignore the juicy worm wafting in front  of them, bloody hell it looked so inviting, if I'd been in the water I'd have had a chomp of it ! (Probably). 

This is where I took another wrong turn. I just couldn't resist trying to catch these fish taunting me whilst they ignored bait after bait. Ive had plenty of success fishing this close in here before why should today have been any different. I must have spent over an hour trying to catch here and whilst I did drop onto the long pole line for a while, the top kit option was obsessing me a bit. I tried bunches of maggots, big pellets and corn to no avail - although it was hemp and maggot I'd fed

I even resorted to mixing up some groundbait to get some colour in the water and try and make them feed a bit more confidently but this didn't work either. Eventually I did get a bite and hooked a carp which tore off as usual. Using the right terminal tackle for once  (and the right top kit) meant I was always in control and I'd managed to land another common of around 4lbs to finish the day off.

So to finish off, I think I had a few valuable lessons today. The pellet waggler is a hugely enjoyable style of fishing but is simple to fish but perhaps takes a while to master and Ive only just started to scratch the surface. I also should have recognised it just wasn't happening today and tried something else far sooner. I look forward to fishing it some more next year.

I often spend too long 'flogging a dead horse' when I should make something happen. I realise I'm not fishing matches and the only person I'm up against is myself, but I'm still driven, even as a pleasure angler to have the best day's fishing possible.

Every carp I had today was a common, no mirrors and unusually not a single skimmer. Perhaps it was a bit too bright for bream.

Finally, I've got to try and ignore the fish close in if they're not prepared to be caught !( Ironically when I looked back at my own blog for a similar session this time last year, I found I was getting exactly the same happening and could only catch in the margins about 4m away while the fish at my feed were pretty unacatchable - obviously I need to heed my own advice)

As ever. To anyone who takes the time to read this, thank you.

Tight Lines

Robin

P.S. for once, no umbrellas were broken in bringing this session to you !

Under The Bridge - Sat 12th September 2015 - Lookout Lake, Angel Of The North,

After not being able to get on the bank since early July today I had my chance to wet a line and I was determined to just enjoy myself and catch some fish.

The Angel Of The North has become my 'home' fishing location as it right on my doorstep but more importantly it's a great fishery in my opinion; well-stocked with healthy hard-fighting fish and a mixture of species - somewhere that I would happily travel to if it was further afield. Luckily it's only 20 minutes from my front door. So apologies if this blog is becoming a bit  'Groundhog Day' but the only thing that would matter to be about today, would be actually fishing (and more importantly - catching !)

In previous blog entries I  haven't really described the layout of the fishery before in detail .Basically there are three lakes - Bassetts which is effectively pitched as a  training lake for beginners, then Bowes and my normal haunt..Lookout Lake.

The complex is far from the taunted 'hole in the ground' commercial fishery and is  very lush with plants and bushes but it is effectively built onto the side of a hill making it a bit open to the Elements at times. The small Bassett's Lake is at the lowest altitude followed by Bowes and finally Lookout Lake Which must be a good 50 feet higher again. However Lookout offers a more diverse stocking of species than Bowes,  so I find it more attractive.

Kitchen sink out of shot

Earlier in the week I'd spoken to Ann (the owner) to see if there were any restrictions for today and she'd said that the island pegs were off limits and with hindsight this was just as well, due to the strong (not forecast) wind that was ripping in from the east, which would have made pole fishing very difficult, even close in. It might sound a bit daft to say but with so long between my sessions I find that sometimes my fishing revolves about wanting to fish a particular method and fitting the day around that, rather than fishing the most suitable method for the day - reading that back now doesn't make much sense but I suppose what I mean is - for example,  I love fishing the pole, so perhaps on some days when a lead or waggler would be more suitable - I'll still look to fish a pole line; within reason of course - I'm not pig-headed enough to actually risk breaking gear if I can avoid it. 

I picked peg 24. Usually good in matches and situated immediately to the left of the low footbridge over to the island. I set up as the rain lashed down and decided on a few options.

I would start on the feeder tight across to the far reeds at the back of the island. It was about 30 yards and I could revisit my casting technique  with hopefully better results than my last attempt......i.e more time with the feeder in the water rather than in the bushes !

I'd also planned on 2 pole lines. A short 6m line just on the base of the main slope where i would aim for a bit of anything and at 13m across towards the footbridge where i was going to catapult 6mm fishery pellets every few minutes while fishing the feeder  to see if i could get the carp out from under the bridge. However this was already looking difficult as it would mean fishing directly into the wind. I potted in one ball of groundbait and a few pellets before starting to loose feed over the top. On the 6m line i cupped in a good size pot of particles. 2mm soaked micros with some hemp, casters and chopped worm. I wouldn't be fishing here for at least 45 minutes  so i wanted to get some bait down.

I also had a margin line to my left for later in the day whilst it was  possible the carp might come into my feet as is often the case here.

I'd set up a few different rigs for the pole. A DT pencil was nice and sensitive for the short line as it was a bit calmer here. The long pole was fished with a DT Open Water Tear to keep everything stable in the more choppier water and I did have a shallow pole rig (which I never used) plus a DT Margin Diamond for close in.

I picked a spot for the feeder and cast out 4 feeder loads of groundbait after clipping up before attaching a hooklength.

The feeder was slow on a 6mm hair-rigged pellet but I was getting a few liners before missing a bite. I tried alternating hookbaits but was having trouble hitting what seemed like unmissable pulls on the tip. I decided for some reason to try worm and 2 minutes later the tip flew round and stayed round. The fish was on but i quickly realised the clutch was on too tight and frantically tried to resolve this whilst the fish crashed towards the reeds. After rectifying my mistake i made some headway and the fish now swam towards me. This is where i started to realise that the carp in this peg were very used to their home. The fish headed towards the bridge stanchions and all i could do was try and steer it the opposite way. The fish certainly felt as big as anything I've had on a feeder rod before but as I tried to stop it from its intended target the hooklength gave way....gutted !

I'd started on a 0.15 bottom which obviously seemed too light now. So i tied on something a bit heavier and went again.

Next cast I had a slightly less savage take and had another decent fish on....for 30 Seconds before the hook pulled ! This wasnt part of the plan. I'd been fishing for 25 minutes now and had lost 2 fish and hadn't landed anything. There were fish in my swim but i couldn't get them out. I tried again  still using worm and this time when the tip went around I hooked and landed my first fish of the day, not one of the (presumed) carp from earlier but a 6oz skimmer. Small but I was off the mark.

 I stayed on the feeder for another half hour. Probably too long really as I continued getting tentative bites and liners but no fish. I tried different options through the feeder from just groundbait , to adding different particles but the result stayed pretty much constant. I'd now been on the feeder for about an hour with only a few small skimmers to show for it. Time for a change and a look on the pole lines.

I tried the long line first and put on a  banded 6mm pellet, again resulting in a small skimmer. This line was proving as difficult to fish as I'd anticipated  with the wind, although a few skimmers had made an appearance moving to the short line with worm was getting me a few more fish, some more skimmers again plus ide and a nice crucian. I decided to refeed another 3/4  pot and look in the margins as by now carp had moved into the water at my feet to hoover up any dropped bait.  I know from experience that these fish can be difficult to hook but it's so difficult to ignore them with their tails wafting in front of you. In the past I've tried pellets, paste and bunches of maggots with varying results. 

Worms have generally been a poor choice for me here on previous occasions but with the sporadic action on worm fishing the feeder I felt this would be worth a go close in. The water at my feet was around 10" deep so I threw in some hemp and casters to keep them occupied. I wasn't convinced the fish would be too happy to settle here once I'd  (hopefully) caught a few, so I also plumbed up a 2nd line at 6 sections to my left. This gave me a nice flat spot in about 18" - 2 feet of water. I again went for some heavier particles (hemp and caster) and some micros from a big pot.

 In my last blog entry the carp had definitely had the better of me and I'd realised that i was fishing too light both in terms of elastics and lines. I'd prepared a few rigs with 0.18 main line to 0.165 Hooklength and  a size 14 CS23 hook. I've always been a believer of using lighter elastics and taking my time to land fish using a puller as I've had plenty of  frustrating days with hook pulls on beefier gear here before  but this time I'd decided to step up to an NG Black hollow 12-16. Keeping with worm on the hook it didnt take long for the float to dance around before sailing away.A steady lift of the tip was enough to see the fish hooked and take off straight towards the bridge some 13m away.

This time I was able to keep the fish out of the potential snags and I had a 5 lbs (near) leather carp in the net.

I decided to drop in a little bait and try the left hand margin whilst it settled back down.  I didn't want to feed to heavily and send the fish into a frenzy. The same rig sat a bit longer in the new swim before missing a bite before the next drop saw a greedy 2oz perch take the whole worm. This was followed by a lovely roach probably a few ounces short of a pound. Nice to catch but someout out muscled on the gear I was fishing with.

 Back to the top kit and the next fish once again steamed towards the bridge and trying to stop it with the elastic at full stretch led to the hooklength parting. This time I re-rigged up straight through, as my quarry wasn't exactly being line shy. Losing this fish coincided with the day starting to unravel somewhat.

What I hadn't  mentioned so far was my usual nemesis....weather. it had rained constantly from before my arrival and with the aforementioned wind pushing in towards me it was a day for the umbrella. I'd already had problems most of the day as i had come woefully prepared with only a few pegs and a borrowed guy rope. I was using a new Preston off-box bracket to hold the brolly spike but the brolly was slowly spinning around over time and generally proving to be a right royal p.i.t.a.

I'd even resorted to using my trolley as an anchor but I made the ultimate schoolboy error. I got up off the box for some reason and didnt drop the umbrella. The resulting crack and the brolly lying at right angles to its (now considerably shorter) spike told me I wasn't going to fix this today. The central spike,  which was reinforced compared to the brolly's original had sheared completely above the bracket.

Shear Disaster ?

I would now have to fish for 2 hours+ without cover. I'm aware that a lot of anglers fish without any kind of umbrella but then I guess there are waterproofs and waterproofs. Mine are nowhere near top of the range and did their best for a while but i was pretty soaked when I packed up along with everything else !

Anyway - as the fishing conditions had got worse, the fishing was improving.  My next fish turned out to be my best of the day, a gorgeous bronzed common just under 8lbs. As usual this gave a great fight before I landed it but I now felt much more in control with the current setup.

I did try other baits but again worm seemed to be the best as i added another 20 carp or so, some good skimmers/bream and a few crucians to 1 1/2 lbs +.

 The strange thing about today compared to previous sessions catching carp close in, was I only had one hook pull all day (as against the last time I used this grade of elastic from another manufacturer) and none of the fish were foul hooked. Maybe I'd got the feeding right or maybe a heavy bait like worm just made everything less prone to being wafted about 

As i packed up I was soaked but had thoroughly enjoyed the day.

Loading my gear onto the trolley the rain stopped , the sun came out and bathed the lake as if to try and taunt me. If you ask me dry weather is overrated !

Sunshine After The Rain

Thanks for reading.

Tight lines

Robin

Outgunned - Wed 8th July 2015, Peg 15 Lookout Lake, Angel Of The North

I was back at the Angel for my session today as I fancied having another crack at fishing the pellet waggler. Something that I'd only tried last year for the first time and was keen to try again. However (as ever) the weather gods had seen me coming and the high temperatures of the last 2 weeks were forecast to come crashing down to a maximum 15°C with plenty of rain and a stiff northerly breeze. On the positive side I wouldnt need suncream and there should be plenty of 'ripple' on the water 

At the fishery there was a match on Bowes Lake and  a coaching session on the 1st 15 pegs of the main bank on Lookout. That was fine with me as i fancied the island anyway. The trip across the footbridge to it being slightly unnerving, as 2 swans roosting on the bank approach took extreme offence at my approach and blocked my path, hissing and generally giving the impression that me wanting to cross THEIR bridge was seriously p!ssing them off. I rounded them carefully ensuring that this was not the time for my trolley to tip over again, depositing a Daiwa seatbox on top of an irate bird  (when I was a kid there was a famous family tale about my granda having his arm broken by a swan for trying to steal its eggs....fair enough really but id always treated them with a healthy respect. Any bird the size of a small pterodactyl fully deserves its own space in my opinion !)

On the island the low peg numbers were taken, so I followed up on my loose plan by setting up on peg 15. Right on the southern end of the island, possibly a bit sheltered from the wind but also at the 'right' end of the lake if the fish followed the wind.

Peg 15

As nice a fishery as it is I'd normally avoid this area as its probably only 50-60m from the main road and a nasty roundabout that seems to have a permanent traffic queue around it. I think I'd counted 5 emergency vehicle sirens before I even started fishing.

Road to nowhere ?

 Perhaps not the ideal peg if you want some peace and tranquility.But as the road noise became white noise I tried to plan a strategy. The peg has a load of options as per my photos. In a match you'd have to fish straight in front of you but in theory when pleasure fishing I could have also cast a feeder or waggler over to the pegs on the far bank about 25m away at 90° to my seatbox,  however somebody could easily arrive and fish here later in the day, so after a good plumb around I decided on the following in the water in front of my platform :-

With a 6g pellet waggler i could get quite close to the far bank reeds. I'd been advised to fish 10mm Angel feed pellets so I had a hair rig with a 16 hook and a band tied in a knotless knot and started pinging about 3 pellets across towards the reeds every other minute or so whilst I continued to set up.

I had planned to fish a long pole line with the '5m' line as my main focus but the wind was rattling across me from left to right. As well as this the 5m line turned out to be 6 sections which i hoped would be far enough away from the bank to do everything as the longer line was going to be hard going in the wind.  I did though set up 2 lines both left and right to give me some options. There was about 2" difference in depth so i would use 2 rigs and feed in different ways. 

The left hand line was more into the breeze so i started with 1 good pot of bait, a mixture of chopped worm and casters with some micros and groundbait (sonubaits Bloodorm and Sensas IM5 mixed 70/30) in a slop, gently squeezed into a ball. I would give this time to settle and planned to top up as needed with a kinder pot. The right hand line was easier to feed by hand more often, so although i began by cupping in a 3rd of a pot of hemp and maggot, I was going to feed every 5 mins with about 30 grubs and go from there.  I would leave the margins for a while but the carp always seem to come in tight to the bank in summer, so I new this would be a main part of my focus later.

I started on the pellet waggler,  Alternating between feeding every cast, twice per cast  or nothing. It didn't work. Either the fish weren't interested at all or with the cold start it was just too early in the day. I'd given the method a good 45 mins without any kind of touch so shelved it for now. Back to plan B.

I tried the heavier fed LH short line with hard pellet in a band but there was quite a tow on the water. I had a DT Open Water Tear on this line  which meant the rig was nice and stable but the fish didn't seem too fussed about a moving bait and i didnt fancy fishing overdepth with a banded pellet. So i abandoned the pellet and deepened the rig to have about 2" on the bottom and keep it still. I started alternating between a worm head and double caster as I'd been firing in a combo of casters and 4mm pellets about every 5 minutes. At least i was now getting bites and fish; nothing big but some roach and skimmers started liking the bait. I decided to refeed with a MAP pot of chopped worm and leave the line for 10 minutes while i tried my RH maggot line. I'd opted for a DT Pencil for this line as the wind and tow was much decreased in this swim. With a strung out bulk over the bottom half of the rig to search through the water column.(I also had a top kit with a shallow rig on to go over both swims but this didnt really produce anything when i tried it), however most bites came after the rig had fully settled.

The fishing was definitely getting better and apart from some tiny perch, i was getting more roach with some better skimmers and a few spirited crucians but no carp. In fact it was now mid afternoon and I'd just started to notice fish moving and crashing about, something that had been totally absent so far today.  The temperature had lifted a few degrees and the sun had come out for a bit waking the fish up.

In spite of not fishing the pellet waggler I'd continued to feed regularly and with the wind dropping i decided to feed my margin lines and have some time on the waggler. Almost straight away I started  getting  indications before hooking an ide of about 1.5lbs. I could get plenty of bites but was only hitting a small percentage, so tried  shallowing up but the bites stopped. Fishing 2-3 feet deep seemed to be the best. I'd had another ide of around 2lbs but just had the feeling that the bait wasn't quite right. Ann in the fishery tackle shop had recommended fishing 10mm hard pellets on the pellet waggler but as there were no carp showing i couldnt help wonder if a 8mm or even 6mm would have been better on the day (unfortunately i didnt have any of these 2 try on this occasion). But the method of fishing the pellet waggler was really enjoyable. Feed, cast, strike or twitch the rig and feed again. Its an ultra positive and active way of fishing that would be brilliant on the right day.

By now I had hungry carp tails up in my swim. I'd fed groundbait and hemp in front of my platform and on my RH margin cupped in less groundbait but a pot of dead maggots. For both lines i was fishing a DT Margin Diamond on 0.165 mainline to 0.135 hooklength and a Maver CS23 size 14. I started on the right hand swim with 6 maggots on the hook.  The float settled and bobbed before burying. My strike was met by me netting a shocked looking 4oz roach, quickly followed by its twin....obviously these fish were not aware that they were supposed to be chubby carp !

I fed another 1/3 pot of maggots and went to the other margin line. In previous summers I'd caught well on paste so tried this again. I had fed 4 pots of groundbait earlier with the hemp so used a blob of groundbait on the hook. As usual the float danced around in front of me for a few minutes before burying. This time i lifted into a fish which took off towards the far bank,  a few seconds later the hook pulled. Despite how little i fish I'm still fairly used to losing fish here when fishing on a top kit, so undaunted, baited up and went out again. This time when i hooked another fish i felt better prepared but this time after a more determined fight the line went slack and i brought the rig back with a large scale attached to the hook ! Id hoped by fishing paste and not having the point visible that I'd be able to reduce foul hooking. I was getting a bit frustrated and this got worse as the next fish i hooked smashed the hooklength when the elastic bottomed out. I'd waited all day for the bigger fish to show up and now I'd lost 3 in a row. I refed the swim with more groundbait which brought the carp back in front of me within a minute. I decided to give them a few minutes to settle and went back to my RH line with maggots. This time a quick battle led to a lovely tench of about 1lb in the net.

I always tend to bring a small tin of corn with me on any commercials and fancied giving this a go as a hookbait. Corn is banned (along with meat) as a feed at The Angel but its just so visible. I put 2 grains on the hook and this time a thumping bite was followed up by a good 7 minute fight as i treated this fish with real kid gloves. At long last I had my carp and at about 7lbs was a welcome sight. 

Common Courtesy ?

I now was in a bit of a dilemma. I had planned to fish until 4pm, it was now 3.50pm and the fish were feeding in both my margin swims. Time to re-evaluate my finish time i think !  I started to slowly pick off more carp, not quite to the size of my last fish but between 2 and 6 lbs.

Tanned Leather (sorry !)

I swapped between paste and double corn and whilst bites were not instant it was fun. Until I got broken again. Stupidly the rig I was using was the heaviest i had and id ordered some heavier elastic too which hadn't arrived in time for me to use. I caught another 8 carp or so before i packed up but did get broken a third time. 

Not the best angling in the world because i just wasn't prepared correctly.

So packing up I'd had an enjoyable day really. I'd caught some really nice fish and the carp ahowing towards the end had made it. I know that a lot of people turn their noses up at carp for some reason but i love them and like something that gives the tackle and elastic a work out. The valuable lesson learned though was to have heavier rigs/hooklengths available. The fish that snapped me may well have all been foul hooked but i think i didn't give myself the best option of getting them out today. I will be back with a bit more fire power next time. If the carp are showing it'll be interesting to see who wins !

Also seeing the queues of traffic going to and from work and the emergency sirens sounding regularly during the day,  reminded me why this sport is a distraction from the stress and pace of our working lives. 

Thanks for reading. Tight Lines.

Robin

Round And Round The Garden - Lookout Lake, Angel Of The North, 13th May 2015

A midweek day off and a chance to give some new pole rigs a dip. I'd decided to stay local and go to The Angel for the first time this year. I quite fancied a go at Bowes Lake but with the open match on I headed back to Lookout.

Water Craft ? Life jacket preferable

I picked peg 22 in the lee of the island. The water here was a bit more sheltered than the rest of the lake and I had at least 2 spare pegs either side for some room. The far bank to the island was about 35m away and my peg had a cutback section between reed beds that looked carpy  !

Lookout Peg 22

Plumbing around the swim gave me a nice even depth around 5.5 ft past the near shelf. There wasn't a traditional margin as the reeds meant fishing at 45° from me and it was quite deep at around 3ft but id leave that for later in the day.

As usual I tried to cover as many options as possible. I would have a line straight in front of me on 5m. This was fed with around  50 maggots and the same quantity of hemp.I would feed here by hand every 5 mins or so. I then had 2 lines at 13m at 10 and 2 o'clock angles. I fed one quite positively with a big pot of groundbait with some 4mm fishery pellets. The other side was fed a bit more negatively with chopped worm and caster. As the depth was virtually the same in my different swims I could fish the same rigs on each line but I still gave myself a few choices. The water temperature had dropped over the previous few days so I wanted to cover all bases. I had set up a DT Pencil - primarily for the shorter line but if the water didnt tow too much I could use it longer. For the 13m line I had probably my favourite most versatile pattern; a DT Open Water Tear with a bulk and 2 droppers for fishing near/on the deck with a bit of stability and lastly for the open water lines another DT Floats pattern, this time the Slim P with strung out shotting for searching through the water column. 

Pole Floats Left To Right :All from DT-Floats -  Pencil, Slim P;Open Water Tear; Margin Diamonds

With all lead rigs having to be free running and a minimum hooklength length of 12", that rules the method/pellet feeder out. I could fish the straight lead and feed 4-5 6mm pellets over the top by catapult. Id clipped up about 18" off the island and planned to fire bait in every few minutes for at least an hour before fishing, to let the fish settle.

Despite being cool first thing the sun was out and it was turning into  a lovely spring day and I really fancied the lead line for some fish as it warmed up. I started on the groundbait 13mm line and after about 10 minutes had my first fish, a 4oz skimmer on double maggot, (I did try banded pellet here but it didnt really work). The bites weren't prolific but were all coming after the bait had fully settled on the bottom. After another 3 fish I fed some more pellets through a kinder pot (well MAP but you get the idea).

I moved to the chopped worm swim and had some nice ide up to 1lb on a worm head. Again the action was sporadic but enjoyable and after an hour I'd had 12 nice 'silvers.'

The short maggot line gave me a few roach and a small ide but by now I was itching to fish across. I put an 8mm bloodworm pellet in a band and hit the line clip. 10 mins later and I hadnt had a touch or any liners so fired across about 10 pellets and went again.  

This is where the wheels came off ! I hit the line clip but a few feet to the left into reeds. The only option was to pull for a break, losing the entire rig in the process ( Island 1, Robin 0). Never mind, re-rig, rebait and re-cast. This time I was far too cautious and dropped way short.  So another cast, another excursion in the bushes and a lost hooklength (Island 2, Robin 0). Combined with this the line on the reel was now under the spool and in the gears. I'd never got on with this reel line and had wanted to change it. Now I was experiencing tangles like I hadn't had for 30 years of fishing ! The frustration and language levels were through the roof. To add insult to injury the wind had sprung up out of nowhere from the north and from a warm spring day getting a slight tan was now turning into a really cold one.

The real issue though was the strength of the wind. I now couldn't hit the island with catapulted pellets and the 13m lines were pretty much unfishable as I didnt want my pole back in pieces. I'd now started to lose my head a bit and easily lost an hour fishing time. I needed to stop and take stock, I'd been cupping in groundbait and hemp every 30 minutes from midday into my margin, about 6 sections out on top of the shelf. I decided to add a big cup of chopped worm and maggots and go for a walk.

 Bank Walkers

Bowes Lake sits downhill from Lookout and the open was well underway here. Watching for 15 mins the fishing seemed very slow here too. A few guys were catching carp but generally most were saying it was dire. The way around my feeding issue on the lead was shown by one of my mates fishing the match,  using a PVA bag of pellets meant getting bait accurately near your hookbait, but that wasnt something I had the option to try. Plus I'd decided that today wasn't the day to persevere with the feeder rod ! I need some new line and plenty of casting practice in case I started catching mammals.

Going onto the margin swim with a 0.2G DT Margin Diamond and a whole worm caught me my first tench of the year.Only about 14 oz but is there a more stunning looking coarse fish  ? Eventually a carp took the worm bait. It plodded about a bit before trying to dive into the reeds.To try and stop it I used the puller and gave it too much stick and the hooklength snapped. It probably wasn't bigger than 5lbs but it would have been a nice fish to net. 

That was it on the carp front for the day. I continued fishing the margin line and tried a variety of baits but worm was the best.  I managed a few more chunky ide and skimmers to 2lbs along with a load of small roach, before my last fish of the day, a golden flanked crucian carp of about 1lbs.

So a steep learning curve again. A day of extreme frustration at times, but when I did have a bait in the water, I caught some beautiful and healthy fish.( Its funny how fishing has changed since I started over 30 years ago. C.25lbs of 'silvers' and its a hard day ! )

Onwards and upwards then.  With a bit of luck my next blog will come around a lot sooner this time and im going to give a different venue a go for some variety.

Until then, tight lines

Robin

P.S. No squirrels were harmed in the making of this blog ☺

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

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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