We Are Not Alone

Another weekend and another quest for perch was in order. So after sorting out the usual at home and explaining to the dog why he was being left at home today, I ventured out of the house.

The morning was breezy, with slight chill in the air and the occasional drop of rain from the pasting storm. It could go either way, so I quick got the brolly out and packed it into the car, just in case.

It didn't take me long to travel along the back roads and soon I was down by the lake side, but I wasn't alone.
As I approached the bank a huge swirl erupted in front of me and a black shape turned up and over into the lake. I had my suspicions and I followed the lines of bubbles along the margin. Soon enough the monster of the pond emerged again and the shimmering body of a dog otter was eye balling me.
Well, all hell broke loose,  and I began cursing and swearing, whilst screaming like an banshee to try to scare the living daylights out of the fish eating terror that was residing in the lake.
After five mins of demonic behaviuor the smooth criminal had disappeared from my sight and with mission accomplished, I ventured off to my tackle.

All was quiet again.

I soon went about setting up the rods. The first was baited up with a large lobworm on a running ledger, and cast under the trees on the far bank. Bobbin attached, Delkim on and the bait snatching gear was put into action.
It didn't take long half a dozen roach and rudd to oblige and take the bait and soon one was being cast out on a paternoster into the shade.

With the rods baited and carefully positioned, I sat back in the chair with the first cuppa to take in the sights and sounds of the lake. A Green Woodpecker  with its looping flight and screeching call, pasted along the far side in the wooded area, whilst the resident pair of Buzzard had found an early morning thermal. With each graceful turn, the pair gradually gaining height on the column of hot are, whilst offering a reassuring calls to one another.

The morning was still cool, but the first rays of sun started to break above the treeline and cast a shadow onto the lakes surface. All was still, including the bobbins.

After an hour or so of inactivity on the rods, a recast was in order, but with the lobworm looking a little worse for ware, I decided it needed to be changed. The morning sun had defrosted the king prawns and with there pungent smell wafting out of the bait box, it just seemed rude not to hook one up.

Resting back in the chair, I was starting to loss myself in the quiet when one of the alarms starting to wake from its slumber. Those bleeps turned into a continuous tone and the reel fizzed,  but didn't need to strike as the fish was hooked.After a hectic fight, a small Common Carp was landed.

Rebait and recast, but the bait had hardly settled before another carp snaffled the whole prawn. Not quite what I was intending to catch, but it showed that something was feeding other than the small 3" Roach and Rudd.

The other rod was surprisingly quiet, and I wound in to check to see if the bait was still intact, which it was so it was cast back out to the far bank.

Midday came and when and I noticed that other anglers were catching the carp too on various methods from simple float fished bait to zig rigs. With the first bite of a sandwich, the prawn baited rod bobbin was twitching, but suspecting another carp I didn't give it much attention. That was until the bobbin started to rise to the top and the baitrunner started to click. Dropping the salad and chicken sandwich, I struck and felt something other than a  carp.
It didn't take long to have the a solid perch of a pound in the net, but it was a first on a king prawn, so I felt quite chuffed with the change of bait.

After slipping back the perch, and attaching another prawn to the hook, I finished lunch and sat in the midday sun.

By early afternoon, the sun had moved over the lake and the shade was now on the near margin. So sensing the fish were keeping out of the sun, I decided to have a little play with the 4m pole.

I introduce a few pieces of chopped prawn around the float and it didn't take long for a series of small perch to snaffle the bait which was just touching bottom. But along with the perch, there was also a couple of other species of fish.

Fish after fish after fish came to the prawn and in between the crucian's, tench and countless perch, the pole elastic was stretch on a number of occasions by carp in the 3-5lb bracket.

Most were landed, but one wasn't. The float had hardly settled when the float slide away and the line went solid. But as I started to exert pressure on the fish, it move off at a pass and before I could react, the hook pulled.

By 5pm, with the prawns running out and the carp playing havoc with all bar the rudd baited rod, I decided enough was enough and headed for home.

TL

Ouch!

With the weather being as hot as it is currently, it was difficult to decided whether or not to fish at all this weekend. But the thought of not wetting a line was a grim though, so an early morning crucian carp session with the float rod was necessary.

I arrived a little later than I want to, but had the lake to myself. Soon I have plumbed the depth and I was depositing some pellets and casters on to the lake bed via a bait dropper on a spare rod.

Some weeks ago, I had been think about how to get a carpet of bait on the bottom without attracting the attention of the large shoals of nuisance rudd that inhabit the lake.
After a chat in the local tackle shop a plastic bait dropper was bought and put into action.

This worked a treat and soon I had a lovely bed of bait out and had the first cast over the top.

It didn't take long for the first nibbles to start on the casters and soon a number of small perch and roach were caught.

After a couple of hours with no sign of the crucian's, I decided to stick a second rod out on an alarm, bait was to be a lobworm cast to the fair side under the tree's in the shade. It didn't take long before this was taken by a perch.

The nibbles on the float was continuing, but this time the nuisance rudd were intercepting the casters on the way down. Time to change the bait to sections of worms. This had an immediate affected and a crucian carp decided to oblige. On light gear a the crucian put up a scrap but was soon netted.

A nice pump crucian carp of about a pound.

With the float gear back out, it was the turn of the sleeper rod to spark back into life and the first of three better fish were landed in quick succession.

Soon the heat started to burn and after the second and last crucian had snaffled the worm section, I decided to retire to the shade and put two rods out on alarms.
I continued with worm on one rod and decided to use one of the deep hooked rudd as a deadbait for the perch. The paternoster had hardly settle before the bobbin was jangling . Having not done must deadbait for perch, I was quiet surprised for this rod to be inaction and made a complete hash of the strike and missed it.
The 3" rudd was cast back out and even before the bobbin had been attached it was nailed. Guess what happened? Yep, missed it. So out it went again. This time the bait settle for 10 minutes or so, but soon the bobbin was jangling and the float sailed away. I lifted into a fish and soon a nice perch of 12oz was landed with the whole rudd in it mouth.

With the perch returned, I realised I had no fish baits, so out with the float rod and I soon had a couple of 3-4" rudd for bait.

A further two 1lb+ perch decided that the fresh rudd where just too nice not to consume, before they too decided it was just too darn hot.

Whilst packing away, I noticed a lots of litter including wrappers, tubs, sweetcorn tins etc. So I had a tidy up. Trouble is one of the tins had a razor sharp edge. Soon blood was pouring out of my finger. Four plasters later, I managed to stem the flow.

TL

120 minutes.....

...is all the fishing I've have manage in two weeks since the last post......but what a 120 minutes it was.

I took my nephew out for his second outing and his has now improved his PB for perch and started his passion for crucian carp.....

The perch was caught on a small 3" shad, whilst the crucian carp was tempted by double maggot over a bed of pellets.

Oh C*rp!!

Another Saturday and another chance to wet the line on one of the smaller club lake. This was the place to go with the idea of catch some of the perch that lurk beneath the depth.

The day started off well enough with a lovely perch of just under a 1lb, but alas the perch fishing didn't go to plan.

The chopped worm ground bait with a huge lobworm or a bunch of dendrobaena as hook bait was simply too much of a temptation for the resident carp. But whilst not being my chosen species, they provided great sport on light tackle.

I fished the whole day and managed a few small perch, the odd roach and crucian carp, plus another 3 small carp.

I then switched onto the ultra light lure rod and managed another half a dozen perch to a pound on a mepps spinner.

The highlight of the day was loaning this setup to a young lad who is a regular visitor to the lake for the carp. On seeing the rod, he asked to have a try. He loved it, and hooked and lost a monster perch. I think he is know changing him mind on what rod he's asking for his birthday.

TL

Not Quite to Plan

 Today was a slow day, I couldn't get out of bed. It was a lot cooler outside than expected, so I had to revise my plans.
I had wanted one final crack at the bream and tench, but with a cooling wind and temperatures low, it seemed a good idea to start the perch fishing a week earlier than planned.

I did want to start on the bream and tench water that I had been fishing all summer, but a new smaller water was calling to me instead, so it was there that I headed.

The car park was empty, so I had the choice of swims and opted for one where I could fish both the deep margin on three banks including the island.

It wasn't just a new water, but a new pair of rods and reels for the smaller species that I'm targeting over the autumn. So out came the Drennan avon rods with the small front drag Shimano reels for their first proper outing.

Once on the bank, I quickly setup the rods, one was to be a straight ledger and the other a float rig.

Float fishing is something that I rarely do when targeting bream and tench, so it was nice for a chance to be shotting up a 4BB float to just touch bottom.

I baited up the two area, one with a mix of fish pellets, caster and chopped worm and the other was with a worm crumb mix with a hint of crushed caster.

It didn't take long for the fish of the lake to move onto the baited areas and soon both areas were fizzing with activity. It was was the ledgered bait that was away first and the bobbin quickly rose to the top, but my strike was met with a very solid curve in the rod. Oh heck, this is no perch!!!

The carp ran me around the lake, and the rod and the line were singing in the wind, this could end well. Alas it did and soon enough the hooklink parted with the carp and it was gone.

In the margins the fizzing was all around the float, and soon enough it dipped and I was connected with a fish.
The fish soon broke the surface, but to my surprise I had a small crucian carp on the end of the line, this wasn't what I expected, but it was a welcome sight.
This was soon joined with a second, and a third crucian carp, this being a very plump fish of 12oz.

Mid morning came and when with no signs of my quarry, but I did manage to wangle out a couple of small tench and some roach.
A change was required and out came the whole worms. The bites did dry up for an hour or so, then the perch came on and it was a perch a cast. Nothing huge, but it proved that the perch were there in number.

After a couple of hours of pulling out tiddlers, I did manage to latch onto a couple of better fish in the 8-10oz, but they were no where near the sizes I was hoping for.

It looks like I will have to return and fish all out for the perch using either roach/perch deadbaits or even some air inject large lobworms or some other wonder bait that will be ignored by the other species that inhabit the lake.

TL