Brenching

The alarm was off and I was up and out of the house like a mad march hare before daybreak.
Well the first part was true anyway.

I arrived at the lake later than planned due to a) not setting the alarm correctly and b) because of the slow old boy taking a early morning Sunday drive on a Saturday.
So it was not at day break that I got to the swim but about 40 minutes after, so I hastily set about getting the spombing due as quickly as possible. The spomb was put to good effect and in quick time two around some 3/4 rod lengths out was baited up. This was then left to rest while I had a quick chat with the overnight carpers. They'd not seen much action bar some mid doubles and I was soon back in the swim getting the rods out.

The first rod out was the reliable in line maggot feeder with a 3" hook link and the second was to be a in line lead baited with a sweet boilie and a PVA bag. Once out it was time for breakfast.
Breakfast has become a bit of a thing of late, gone is the gulping down a bowl of cereal at home, gone is the porridge bot on a winters morning and hello to the bank side butties!
After breakfast and only a hybrid to show for my endeavour, which had hung itself on the size 12 maggot bunch, I noticed that during the many retrieves, on a number of occasions the maggot had either been sucked or taken off of the hook.

The in line feeder rig consists of a in line maggot feeder taped up to reduce the flow of maggots, a quick link, 3" fluro hook link with hook sizes varying from 10-16 depending on whats on the hook or hair. To start with I had used a size 12 with the maggots bunched on to it, but due to the issue of bait being nicked off of the hook I decided to change to the fake baits.
So off with the hook rig and on with the hair rig. The hair had two fake bait red maggots hooked in a V shape rather than the T shape that a lot of other tenchers seem to favour. Whilst I've found the T shape effective, the V shape seem to deter the small silvers.

So with the rig change sorted, the feeder when back out and it brought a near instant result. The bobbin rose and the was pulled tight to the alarm before it dropped back. I connected with something, but it was soon evident that it wasn't a tench and the nodding of the tip signalled a bream had come into the margins.

The bream was soon netted and whilst not a monster by any means, it did show that something was feeding over the baited area.

It was soon returned and the feeder was back out and I settled back to enjoy the sights and sounds around the lake.
A  pair of Great Crested Grebe's were on the water courting in their normal head bobbing manner, three pair of buzzard were using the thermals to climb the thermos, a pair of kestrels were roosting on a branch on an Oak tree.
On the ground signs of plant life were spied and I took a couple of snaps of the wild flowers Primrose and cowslip, were taken around the lake.

Whilst enjoying these sight, it was noticeable that the insect life was not as abundant as previous springs, but this way to due more to the chill in the wind.

After an hour enjoying just being out there the maggot feeder rod was away again. This resulted in another bream taking a liking to the fake bait.

Fake baits are flooding the market and I've noted that with this there is a massive difference in the shape, appearance and feel of them. I'm in the mind that the fake bait needs to feel and look right to fool the fish or maybe its just to fool the anglers so I've stuck with the original and still the best in my opinion.

The morning drifted to midday and a few more bream took a liking to the rubber maggots and it was soon evident that a shoal had moved over the baited area and that they were hoovering it up every last piece of bait. Bream could be seen breaking surface and ever so often I get line bites too.

Just after lunch the boilie rod alarm was screaming and a fish was on the run, but there was one issue, the baitrunner was too slack and the running fish made a tangle mess of the mono before I even got to the rod. I lifted the rod and the fish was already gone. I was left untangling the spool before recasting.

By the time the session end, I had had seven bream and a small hybrid all from the margins, but not a sign of the tench that I had been targeting. With the weather turning milder, I'll soon be able to do short evening session on the pond so I'm hopeful of snagging a few over the coming months.

Back home and preparation are started for the next session and 2kg of hemp was bubbling on the stove.

Like Buses

The weekend couldn't come fast enough as I was eager to get back out on the bank and fish again.

This time I was more prepared and got down to the waters edge for dawn and spombed the usual sweet mix into my familiar swim.
I did contemplate a different swim on arrival, but having seen more tench in this area then anywhere else on the lake, why go else where.

The morning was warm, but overcast and no one else was about. Perfect. The spombing was efficiently done after abit of raking was undertaken, the swim was rested until everything else was setup and ready.

The rigs were to be the same on the rods, but the bait on the boilie rod was to be the new handmade bait given to me by the bailiff to try whilst fishing fake maggots on the inline feeder rig.

With both rod now baited and cast out, it was time to boil the kettle, prepare bankside breakfast and enjoy the first cuppa of the session.
With the kettle bubbling aware the inevitable happened. The bobbin on the boilie rod was jangling , then swiftly lifted to the rod. Stumbling down the bank, I grabbed the rod as the reel started to spool. Lifting into a moving fish I was confident that this was a tench and that it was making off at pace across the lake. The fish fought well and gave a good account of itself before appearing in the upper layers. It was no tench, but one of the bream the resident bream.
After netting, unhooking and muttering about the slim it was slipped back to continue to pester the tench.


The bait was still intact and it was cast back out and I went back to enjoying the breakfast that was slowly getting cold. Alas it was to go cold, because no sooner had the next spoonful been put in my mouth and the Delkim was bleeping, bobbin was rising and the reel churned. This was certainly no bream. The line sung in the breeze and a paddle tail slapped the surface as it boiled and turned over before taking line. Weed floated to the surface as the tench made a bid for freedom down the margins. The tench turned for open water and was doing its best to shake the hook, but it was within the range of the net and soon in its folds.
Not a monster, but a good size for the water and another over the 5lb mark for the season.
It was soon unhooked and returned with a slap of the might paddle, but yet again it had mouth damage.

The early morning drifted along and the day was turning pleasantly warm. The float rod was un packed and soon I was watching the tip for shy biting roach or hopefully tench.

The float was soon dipping and I connected with a number of hungry rudd, roach and hybrids, nothing to write home about in relation to size but good fun.

Whilst enjoying the float fishing it was evident that there was alot of bream in the area, the bobbins lift and the alarms bleeped, only for the same to happen in reverse on repeated occasions. In between this there would be proper bites and a number of bream graced the net.

Mid morning came and I had a decent run again on the boilie rod, from the head shaking it wasn't another bream and a second tench was hooked. This one played out like the first heading along the margins disturbing the weed beds and then making for open water. Being slightly smaller it was soon in the net.

The pattern of bream to tench is on this water very high, a ratio of 1:10 won't surprise me and they home in on the bait very quickly. On a dawn you can see them rolling out in the middle of the lake, feeding or ascending insects, only for them to move quickly over the baited area with 15 to 20mins once baiting up has finished. These bream do seem to feed first and once they have had their fill, move on which allows the tench and occasion carp to pick up the scraps.
If I could isolate a single component of the mix that was particularly favourable to bream, I'd remove it, but its a simple particle mix with a additional 1/2 pints of dead reds, corn and pellet.

But its not just the fish that like the mix, the resident water fowl likes it too and they too home in on the sound of the spomb hitting the water and it become a game of cat and mouse with them.
I can usually get away with the initial eight spombs, but that next five area the ones where the duck get there fill. There is also the inevitable mix that get dropped or spilt in the margins and this is soon snaffled by the old bill.

The day was becoming hotter and I could feel the burn on the neck through the collar. With the rising temperature the bites steadily dropped off and by early afternoon even the float had stopped dipping so I packed and headed for home.

Long Time Away

Its been well over a month since I wet a line due to ongoing work,life, home balancing act that us anglers have to endure, so it was finally nice to get to the bank.

I had set my stall out for a afternoon/evening session on a local water in the hope that the tench would still be about in the weed beds, so a banquet of spomb mix was mixed up the day before and left to ferment in a sealed bucket ready for bank side.

Upon arrival, there was only one car parked up and I hoped that it wasn't a lone carper with their lines spread all over the place. Thankfully it was a single rod pleasure angler who was happily catching on the float rod.

I setting into my usual swim and started the sweet, sticky spombing process. The spomb is underhand swung out to about 5 rod length out into the weed bed abit like a bait dropper but on a grander scales.
Ten spombs later and the bucket is 90% empty and I can rest the swim before putting the hook baits out over the top.

After a cuppa was brewed, drunk and a chat with the old boy along the bank, the rods were finally baited and placed out over the dinner table. First out was the inline feeder with the fake maggots attached, then the double hair rigged boillies on a bolt rig, with a pva bag with a few free offerings.

I noticed on the last outing that a number of the rigs hooks had become blunted or the link a bit frayed, so it was time for an overhaul.The evening before and whilst home alone, I had decided to ditch the year old tied rigs and re-tied a whole set of new ones in braid, stiff and supple hooklink material in various length, hook sizes and fake bait.

The afternoon was a mixed bag of wind, rain, sun and more rain so the brolly was erected to make the affair more comfortable and allow the stove to cook my lunch of rice and chicken in white sauce.

The third rod was kitted out with a float on the lift method, this was to be fished a couple of rod length out with abit of corn on the size 15 hook. I was hoping that if the tench got muscled out of the baited area that they might be up for taking small morsels of bait closer in and away from the masses.

With the baits out and the sun on my back it felt quite pleasant bar the odd spot of rain, infact it was so nice the Ray Band copies had to come out!

The first fish of the day fell to the float rod and the float lifted like a rocket and lay flat on the surface. I struck and a fish was on, but it wasn't a tench but a plump roach which was quickly subdued and netted. Not exactly what I was after but rather nice to see.

The fish roach was quickly followed by a second and third before the rain came and I decided to sit under the brolly for a bit. The rain fell heavily and ironically the bites started on the maggot feeder rod. The bobbins danced around for a bit before being swiftly lifted to the top and the baitrunner churned. The rod hooped with progressive curve and the fish on the other end made an attempt to pull my string, alas it wasn't big enough to take line and plodded about before hitting the surface and coming in like a wet sack. Alas no tench, but a reasonably sized bream which was unhooked in the net and release without getting covered in slime.

The feeder was refilled and cast back out, whilst I got steadily wetter in the heavy shower, hopefully this was only a passing shower and not a prolonged thundery storm as forecast by the Met men.

Rain was still falling when the boillie rod was away and just as the kettle was boiling too.
The baitrunner was churning nicely and I thought my luck was in with the tench. Again the rod hooped over and again something pulled back, but again the fight was short and un tench like and again it was a bream.

The bream had mashed the double boilies and they were unusable so were replaced with a fresh pair from the pot and cast back out to the dining area.

By this time the rain had abated and I pulled the seat out from under the brolly and recast the float out whilst settling down with the cuppa tea after reboiling the kettle.

I love float fishing especially on the lift method and it fills me with alot of joy, I'm just abit lazy and when the rod was a three piece it hardly came out of the bag. So with the new rod effectively being a two piece, it stays tackled up in the quiver so it can be thrust into action more frequently.

The float settled nicely and I scattered bits of corn around the tip of the float and waited. I didn't however have to wait to long and a small hybrid was soon swung in, unhooked and returned. This was followed by a couple of 8oz roach before things settled down.
The rain came again and went again, this was to be the pattern for the afternoon and  whilst I did land a few nice roach up to 1.1/2lb, no real monsters appeared. As with all roach fishing, the commotion did grab the attention of fishing with a predatory nature and whilst playing a 12oz roach a pike bolted out from the cover of the margin bushes to grab one for their dinner.

More bream came came to the boillie rod and maggot feeder, but alas no tench. But they did give their presence away with some area of pin sized bubbling, so they are still about and feeding.

The bailiff came around for a chat too and he confirmed that the tench were still coming out to the carpers and in particular to higher protein fresh baits which he rolls himself in various sizes.
Upon packing up, a damsel baring gifts appear at the umbrella, the bailiff had sent her up with a kilo of frozen boillies to try on my next session.

They smell quite good, so I look forward to giving them a try.

Happiness

There is something nice about teaching others to enjoy the sport we love, and on a sunny Friday it was my nephew's chance to have a day out.

My nephew, who is now six has been asking for ages to go out and fish again after trips last year. We had tried to go out in March, but it was just too cold for him and the pole fishing trip was soon abandoned.

They only question today was little pond or big pond and he choose the latter as it held a larger variety of fish for him to catch. So after picking him and his lunch up we headed for a commercial club water to introduce him to rod and reel fishing.

We arrived mid morning and the there was a number of others on the water, so were catching and some weren't, but I was confident that I could get the roach and rudd on the feed on a short float line.

I picked a swim big enough for the both of us and I soon had him sat with with a 10ft float rod and fixed spool reel. I started feeding a short line with a mixture of hemp and maggots in order to get the silver fish on the feed. Once he was sat happily watching a float, I decided to set up a rod on an alarm with a 10mm boilie on a bolt rig with a pva bag.The rod was soon case out, placed on the alarm and attach the bobbin, but there was an issue. No bobbin. I rumaged around the rucksack and couldn't find the them and remembered that there were sat with the third alarm in the tackle room. Plan B, make a bobbin. I soon made make shift bobbin using a length of braid, 2 SSG and a bent out quick change clip. Bingo!

In the meantime, the nephew was starting to get bites on the waggler and after a few aborted strikes, he connected with a small roach. Mission accomplished.

Once he had started catching perch, rudd and more roach with uncle help, he wanted to do catch more himself, but that involved more teaching around casting, baiting the hook and baiting the swim. The first few casts where a dual effort, but he soon grasped the idea, just the timing was out and we had a few short casts due to releasing the line to early or to late. Luckily we only had one cast to retrieve the float set up from the tree and he was happy catching steadily.

This left his uncle to muse over the other rod and why were weren't getting any positive takes. I decided to have a change on the rigs hook length and the length of the hair. The hook length was lengthened by 4" and the hair increased to 2". The pva bags were left off and a scattering of whole boilies were thrown out around the baited are near the pads.

15 mintures latter and the first positive take on the bolt rig resulted in a bream with the hook neatly in the edge of the mouth.
Bait was still ok,so it was recast back out and another half a dozen freebie scatter around it. This resulted in a near instant take.This was not a bream and after a short fight a small common carp came to the net. Uncle was happy too.

The nephew continued to fish with my guidance and we soon had him tackling the baiting of the hook with the wiggly maggots. He was a happy lad and was soon doing most of the fishing himself and relishing the challenge of catching a fish all on his own.

Another short run on the bolt rig and another bream came to the net, abit bigger than the first, but this was unhooked at the edge.

The bream had mashed the boilie, so it was rebaited and recast. This time to the edge of the lillies where I spied some slightly bigger carp moving the pads. in the afternoon sun.
We continued to fish the float and the nephew continued to cast roach, rudd, perch and the odd hybrid.
He was started to want to catch bigger and bigger fish, but ever time a larger fish took the bait, he either slacken the line letting his prize escape or pull the hook (must remember to slacken the clutch) and his monster evaded him.

Late afternoon was soon upon us and we were in the process of sorting out a float muddle in the margins when the alarm sounded a single bleep. Then the alarm screamed and the tightened bait runner churned slowly as a hooked fish powered into the lilies.
The float rod and muddled rig was left in the water as I grabbed the rod with the muscular fish attached and the rod hooped over nicely. With full pressure on the fish, I managed to convince the hooked fish to head out into open water and the battle continued. We had it at the net only for it to power off and with 10lb mainline and a 8lb braided hooklink there wasn't much I could do apart for let it tire itself out.

After a epic (nephews word) battle the carp came to the net, but as I slid the net underneath it it powered to the left and into the float gear muddle in the edge. Oh Sh*t, thought, what a pickle.
Bail arm was soon opened on the float rod and we'd sort the tangle of lines out if we managed to land it.

After much heaving and huffing we slid the net under our prize, along with a tangle of float and bolt rig to boot.

We'd won the day and our mid double specimen was on the mat being admired by its captors. After a couple of snaps, our prize was released with a flick of its tail.

We packed up soon after and within ten minutes of leaving the lake, two weary anglers were on their way home. One asleep in the back of the car and one luckily not asleep at the wheel as we heading for home happy for so many different reasons.

TL

Quickie!

A small window of nice weather saw me getting out with the feeder rod at the weekend for a few hours.

After lobbing in a few balls of groundbait, I set about the task of enjoy just being out for a few hours next to the river.

Bites came quickly but most were just rattles of the tip by small roach and even with the 1oz tip and size 18 hook I was struggling to connect.

The wise old river owl next to me came over to offer some advice rig and soon have me changing from my standard paternoster feeder rig to running ledger rig. Rattles became bites and I soon had a handful of small roach and skimmers.

With only and an hour of my session left, I decided to change the double bronzer to a small worm to see if I could increase size of the fish.

Bite came less frequently, but the stamp of fish increased and I finished up with a nice mixed bag.

Sadly no camera was packed, so I only took one shot on the phone.

The King and the Dragon

Sunday was bloody freezing when I ventured out of the house with the tackle in toe. Who ever said it was summer is kindly mistaken when it is 7 deg C at 06:30.


I arrived at the lake for another bash at the bream, but found that the swim I wanted to fish was taken by another angler who was fishing for the elusive carp. So  I ventured to another peg and found the newly constructed platform was so high that even the extra long bank stick would not got in. And without a pod, I had very little chance of getting the rods in a position I was happy with.
In the end I made the most of the swim I had and crudely setup the rods in a rather haphazardly. But I was fishing.

To avoid the small stuff, I ensured that the rigs were baited with decent sized baits. Double flavoured corn over a bed of fresh casters and hemp. the second rod was baited with fake corn and send over the far side of the lake to sit it out.

After an hour, the float sailed away and the first fish was landed a pristine roach of about 9oz, good start. Float was recast, abit more loose feed over the top and I sat back and poured a cuppa. The day was warming up and whilst the fish were groggy after a cool night, the wildlife was starting to wake up. A local squabble was under way with the lakes residents moorhens. It seems that mother moorhen no longer wanted her juveniles about and was intend on chasing them off into the thick lilly pads.

The reason for all the noise was that the mother moorhen had in fact a second brood of the year and as such didn't what the older siblings from taking the food she had gathered for he younger chicks. This squabbling when on most of the day. On the far side of the lake the blue flash was actively working the fry from the man made structures, she seemed not to be feeding others, but herself and I must have spend a good half an hour watch her diving on the vast shoals of roach fry. I did manage a couple of shots of her at rest. Including the opening phot were she was looking up in at the dragon fly, passing over her head. I was completely immersed in the birds and wildlife and this did result in a number of missed bits on the float, but it was worth it.

By midday, the temperature was soaring and bites were becoming few and far apart. 9oz roach were abundant and even the skimmer bream made an appearance along with some hybrids. The second rod was quite and the only bleeps on the buzzer were from the carp crazily crashing on the surface in the midday sun.

By 2pm the one and only quality roach was hooked and landed, A shade over a pound and a welcome sight, but it still wasn't the tench or bream I'd been targeting on this session. One day, I think I tackle the roach properly on this water.

Where's Willy?

Monday saw me with yet another day off and yes I went fishing.

To be honest I wasn't up to much so I decided that I would head to the decoy lake to try and catch my 2nd Tench of the year. So armed with a pint of fresh casters, method mix and sunshine I ventured out of the house on a bright and fresh morning.

I arrived later than planned )seems to becoming a habit) and walk the back to see what was moving about. The surface was flat calm and I expected to see the surfacing fizzing with Tinca bubbles, but instead it was eerily quite. Another fisher had set himself up in peg 4 and I chewed the fat with him before deciding to fish peg 2.Peg 2 is a deep peg and is where I solitary Tinca has come from last time out. It is a feast of lilies and cabbage and the fish love the marginal shelf that the plants grow on even if it is 13ft deep.

Normal setup were soon put out. Method feeder with pellets on one and the float setup on the other rod.
The extension to the float rod makes it easier to fish this swim and thus take the rod from a 13ft to a comfortable 15ft. A Long rod in these types of swims makes it so much better when presenting a bottom bait.

The float swim was fed with a mixture of casters and hemp and soon the lilies were being parted by the hordes of Rudd that seem to be overpopulating the lake. I had taken these into account and had shotted the rig as to avoid as many of these tiny fish as possible. Casters seem to be better at that and draw less attention on the way to the bottom.

I was soon into the first fish, a roach/bream hybrid. This was quickly followed by a number of hybrids before the Roach then started to show.
But 9am I had a quick mixed bag of 20lb+ of fish with and average size of 8oz. The old large Roach came to the net but nothing above a 1lb.
By 10am the Roach had been changed into skimmer bream and for a couple of hours I felt like I was making progress in getting into a better quality of fish, but alas I didn't and soon the 8oz Roach were back with evengance.

By midday I was getting fed up with the Roach and switch to a larger corn bait and for a while I had a chance to take in the wildlife on the lake.

A Grey Wagtail was my companion today and as I fed the casters into swim, a few would find there way on the the Lilly pads. The Wagtails would then hop across the pads and take the casters with relish, so I began to fed them. Soon both male and females Grey Wagtails were taking the casters back to there nest along with the occasional damsel fly that the caught on the wing.

 These was also a disturbance in the reeds to by left and after what seemed like an age of watching the site of the commotion, a water vole appeared.

The method feeder rod was stumbling quite and by mid afternoon was replaced with a controller float and floating bait. First cast to the cruising carp was spot on and a small carp boldly headed up to grab the hook bait. But no sooner had it take it, it ejected it and the small shoal was spooked. I did cast to several other fish, but none were interested, perhaps a zig-rig would have worked????

By 4pm I had enough and backed up. I think next time Out I go back to after the big Bream, just for a change mind.

Line