Rolling, Rolling, Bream

Saturday came around ultra quick after only a couple of days work.

 The previous weekend and begin of the week had been spent walking the foothill of Sterling and Falkirk. Hill walk is another passion of mine, but I never get to do enough of it as my number one passion fishing gets the nod ahead of it.

Anyhow, I arrived at 7ish down my local bream water in search of my first decent bream of the campaign. Condition were just about spot on and the mist was rising of of the water like spirit ascending back to the sky.
 I soon parked up overlook the water and quickly spotted  large numbers of rolling humps in the water. There they blown. The bream were up and about even if they were at 150yds plus, but at least they were showing themselves and the water was black with them.

I quickly parked up and decided to head along the water to a narrowing on the lake. The thought being that whilst on their patrol route the bream would have to pass by me during the day. I quickly mixed up the spod mix and now with the standard rocket spodded about 10 spod loads out about 60-70 yrds out on a bar.

After letting the swim rest for about 1/2, the marked rod went out and the two rods were baited up and cast out the area that I'd baited up. Baits for today were worn and red maggot combo and 1/2 popped up Esterberry boillies. I sat back with a cuppa and waited.
I did not have to wait too long before the fish moved in and the bobbin started to move slowly. Twitchy pulls on the worm, probably from small roach or skimmer bream.

After an hour of no clear bites, both baits were reeled in baits check, and recast out. Within second of them hitting the deck the twitchy bites started up again.

By 11.00am it started to warm up and I was soon down to a t-shirt and the lakes was mirror calm. The bubbles on the baited area diminished and I started to sense that the large bream had gone the other way....rats!!!!

 Line bites continued for the another hour of so and as the water temperature rose the line bites stopped. So my mind started to wonder on other other things like the bugs and the birds who were keeping me company on this fine spring day.

I had spotted a frisky stoat hopping along towards me in search of some thing tasty like a rabbit or hare. But upon seeing m nestling in the chair with a cuppa, he soon high tailed it back into the bushes.

Next was this warbler bird. No sure what it was, but I think it is a Dunnock. Small brownish bird, but with a beautiful song to it.

Next was a small brown bug, again not sure what it was but I think from my fly fish days it was caddisfly. Apart from that saw my first house martins of the year and some of the black and white tufted ducks that frequent this water in the summer.

So apart for he bugs, bird and mammals the rest of the day was quite and I packed up early. I think next time it will have to be either a dark dawn assault or an adventure into the twilight hours.....

TL for now

Saturday, Sun, and Snakes

Saturday was a glorious warm spring day in Suffolk with the birds singing and the sun shining.


All around the lake there were the sights and sounds of warmer weather and the onset of favourable Bream and Tench fishing.

After a later than I'd planned start, as I was not as alert at 5am when the alarm sounded and nodded off back to sleep, I arrived at the lake at 7am.

I gathered the gear and bait bucket from the car and walk down to the waters edge and dropped the gear on the bank. Within 10 minutes the rods etc were rigged and the I started the process of spodding.

I recently decided to purchase a spod rod and after alot of deliberation when for a Fox Warrior Z spod rod. At 12' and 5.5lb TC it was the best choice for the money. Coupled with a trusty Shimano Aerlex SX 7000 big pit reel it has a nice balance to the setup.

Spodding took about 20 mins and after letting the swim rest for 1/2 hour I put the rigged rods out. The "helicopter" rig was baited with flavoured red maggots and the semi fixed rig was baited with a worm corn combo.

I was all ready by 8:30am and settled back in the chair with a cuppa with "jenny" wren singing her chirpy spring song from her loft perch above me.

After an hour, bubble appeared over the right hand rod and I was hopeful a run would materialise, but it didn't.

10am and the rods were retrieved, rebaited and cast back out and at 10:30am the worm corn combo when for a run, but failed to materialise in a fish.

In the process of casting the worm back out, the second rod sounded, but due to the fact I was in mid cast, I failed again to connect...ho hum.....one of those day...

For most of the morning the alarms and bobbins twitched with the odd bleep, but nothing came of it. It looked as though some roach or skimmers had settled in on the carpet of bait and were either scoffing the hemp, sucking the maggots and disturbing the line.

I soon began to wonder if anything of any note would happen during the day and it did. Over the course of the day a small precession of grass snakes emerged from their winters retreats and when into the water to warm themselves up with a dip. Its quite strange to thing of snakes swimming, but they are a common sight here and on other waters in the local area. There must have been 3-4 grass snakes swimming about and it got me thinking about surface water lures.

Do pike take small grass snakes? They take voles, frogs and ducklings, but what about a snake? I was pondering this though when again the worm/corn combo rod sounded, but due to the pondering of the chances of a grass snake being taken by a pike I missed it.

Lunchtime came and the weather warmed up to a point were only a t-shirt was required. So off came the hoodie and I grabbed the spod rod to put some extra bait in for the afternoon.

Rods were rebaited and recast, lunch consumed and another cuppa drank. Nothing did succumbed to either rod in the afternoon, but there was enough indication during the session that certainly roach and bream were about and on the feed if not hesitantly.

Soon it was time to go and the last of the spod mix was spodded out to at least get the bream use to looking for food along this patrol route in the coming week.
 
TL...Sorry no piccy...forgot camera

Bluebell Lake - P.A.C Event

Sunday 27 Feb 2011 was my first P.A.C event that I've attended since being a member.

This event was being held at the Bluebell Lakes fishery complex at Tansor, near Peterbough. The 30 members who turned up for the event were to fish the Blue Bell lake. A long lake of approximately 20 acres with a variety of fish including bream, carp, silver fish and of course pike.

The event was due to started at 8:00am, late started for fishing for me, but the complex only allows day fishing from that time. I left the hour at 05:30 for the 1hr 14min drive up from home.

The morning was pleasant and fairly warm, but as I head across the border in Cambridge, it started to drop to nudging 1.5 deg C. I arrived at the fishery at 7:30am, signed in and got my peg number (no 5) for the day.

The 30 odd pikers then sorted themselves out and when off to the lake, expectations were high.

Pegging was little close for comfort, but lucky on my right I had a vacant peg and managed to spread myself out abit. Three rods were allowed for the event, but it was difficult to spread them out as the lake was only about 70-80yrds across, so I was limited on the distance on the third rod. So I had one closed in the margin on a float with the whole herring just touching bottom at 10 foot. A enhanced blue on a ledger and a mackerel on the third rod. I did bring the spinning gear, but decided to opt for dead bait for the morning.



I then settled back and started to cook breakfast and the smell of freshly brewed tea and sizzling bacon was soon wafting about the lake.

 After breakfast had cooked I had a chat with the two gents next to me and all of us were expecting a good day. Alas, it was not to be. Apart from one of the lads on the disable platforms who lost a low double at the net, were was not much action. One of the guys actually fished the afternoon session on the adjacent river, but again lost a small fish at the net.

The rain then came in mid morning and we were all soon huddle under brollies. The rain finally stopped early afternoon and I turned to the lures with no success apart from the zebra mussel beds.

I packed up at 16:00 and said my good byes before heading home.

All in all a pleasant day, just a shame the pike did not show up. I think I 'll give the lakes a crack in the summer for the other species of fish.

See the pikelines write up here PAC Bluebell Event

Tightlines

Its Raining Cat & Dogs, but its Nice Weather for Ducks

Saturday was yet again fishing time, but with the forecast of heavy rain, I was hoping that at least it would hold off for me to get to the water and set up for a days pike fishing.

The alarm went off at 05:30 and it was the usual thoughts for 15 minutes before I got up, showered, dress and headed down stairs to feed the matrix cats and get the gear ready.
I was out of the house by 06:30, but was somewhat delayed due to having two hitchhikers on the back seat. Buster and Spike, whom had been let out for their daily antic's, but had decided that a days fishing would be a great adventure. After 10 minutes of chasing them in,out and back in the car, I rattled the cat treats and lured them back into the house in order for me to make a hasty get away.

I arrived at the water by 7ish and as I was putting on the bib n braces, one of the other local angler drove into the car park. We exchange pleasantries and discussed where we were going and both set off on our way.

I had decided to fish a large bay, hoping that the maybe some of the big females had started to follow the jacks into the bays for spawning.

By 07:30 all rod were baited up and cast out around the bay at different ranges. Usual baits were on two rods, but a golden oldie was on the third, a sprat. Now sprats aren't a bait that I have used for many years. Usually they are bought to be crushed up for prebait or to fill up the baitbombs with. But as I had a number of large ones, I decided that I would give them a go again.

By 08:00 the rain had set in and i quickly setup the brolly and pulled the rucksack and other bits underneath it. I must admit, I don't like fishing under a brolly as it takes the edge off a days fishing and means that I tend to sit under it and vegetate. But today would be different as i had picked up the wind up radio from the utility room on my way out.

So radio was charged up and turned on to a local radio station and the boredom book came out. The boredom book as I call it is a book that i pack at the beginning of the season, but knowingly does not comes out very often due to fishing with others and or catching fish, but because I was tucked up under the brolly, it seemed appropriate that it should come out to accompany the radio.

By 09:30, the baits hah, had a good soaking and recasts were in order, but on the bluey rod I decided that I would add a bait bomb with home made filling.

Baitbomb with homebait attractor

After the third rod had been recast, I hear a snaffling sound behind me, i turned around to find some type of dog with it nose in the cooler box. The owners were no were to be seen, so El dog O was ejected nicely from the cooler box and off he ran up to the top path.

As nothing much was happening on any the rods by 11:30,  I decided that I should present one of the bait higher up in the water. So one of the ledger rigs was reeled in and as I was re rigging it as a roving float, the enhanced bluey tail was off on a run. I got over to the rod and tighten up and struck. Solid resistance was felt and I was into a fish, but just as my thoughts were of what sort of size it was, it was off and i reeled in the rig to find a nicely mangled bluey tail.

Somehow the pike had picked up the bait, whilst missing the two trebles, run off with it and then ejected it once i had tighten up. Oh well, ho hum.

Midday came and it was again time to recast and rebait. The sprat had remained untouched so was replaced with a smelt and the mackerel was re juiced and send back out.

Lunch was consumed and snack bar shared with the ducks and I laid back in the chair and my mind started to drift onto the end of the pike season and the start of the bream/tench season in April.

Know I love my winter pike fishing, but this winter has been so cold at times, I really haven't wanted to go out. Instead i wanted to be under the warmth of the spring sun fishing for big bream and tench. I'm also think that on one of the waters I fish, they have some big Roach and Rudd. So I hoping to get some of them too.

Anyhow, back to the rainy pike session.

My thoughts are disturbed by a swirl to my right and a pike has caused a commotion on the surface within ten feet of the bank. The roving smelt, is quickly reeled in and cast underhand to the location of the swirl. For ten minutes its retrieved and cast out in the general area, but nothing take it.

The afternoon is soon upon me and the rainy is still lashing down. I starting to feel abit bedraggled and my thought are of packing up and head home in time for the Man U game. No I not a Man U fan, but the wife is, so i wanted to be home so that I could watch it with her and spend some quality time with the missus.

A wet net, but only due to the rain

15:30 comes and I pack up and walk (slipping/sliding) back to the car. The wet gear is load into the boot of the car and I'm away.

Not the best of days in terms of fish, but sometimes it is nice just to be out.

Next weekend is my long awaited trip to Bluebell Lake,  Peterborough with the PAC, so I have that to look forward to, whilst I get through a week of work.

Tightlines

Piker, Piker Everywhere

Went out today in the wind, must be mad. It was gusting pretty badly from the North West and not the South West as predicted by the weatherman, sorry persons.

Tight squeeze

Anyhow, got down the water a little later than planned, so late in fact the swims I want to fish had been taken, by Alan and Ian (nice to meet you by the way). So I settle on the point in a tight little swim with Steve (again nice to me you too finally) on my right.

Steve had a run when I went to see him and the lines was peeling off of the spool, its just a shame it was a greedy coot and not a hungry pike that had taken his joey, oh well at least his alarm sounded.

And that about if for the action. Oh Alan did have a couple of beeps I have to add, but he was pre occupied with the burgers and steak sandwiches Ian was cooking up under the brolly and didn't mention the bleeps at all. Oh how the after half life, I just had my soupy, stewy mix as usual. But those burger did smell dam good.

Packed up at 2ish and went for a walk to see another piker who I use to go to college with many moons again. Tony had had one, a low double so something was abit hungry, its just a shame that nothing else was.

The other highlight of the day was that we had our season tickets checked for the first time in 4 years, well in my case or in Ian case for the third time in the last five visits in the last month!!!!

Piker Everywhere Today!!

TL

Friday and Monday

Two days off work and pike fishing was on the agenda.

Friday
Got up later than planned, but finally got to the water by 7:30am. Picked a swim that did not involve much walking for a change so quickly got the baits out and settle back on the chair to enjoy the sight and sounds. This was quickly stopped and dog walker, cyclist and running all appeared in the car park and started their preparation. This included door slamming, mobile phones and dogs barking with excitement.

Oh hum, so much for a quiet days fishing.

The next swim done to me was soon taken up by another pike angler. We acknowledged each other and both settled into our focus on catching.

My alarms were silent, but the angler next to me had a run, so after stating the bloody obvious "Are you in", I worked over to see him play out a jack of about 5lb.

After a quick look at the fish, it was soon put back and we started to chat and introduce ourselves. Turned out that me and "Alan" had a bit in common re the local area and also that we were both P.A.C members.

Expectation was high on both our parts for the rest of the day, but after a number of rebaits, recasts and cuppa's we both packed up before the heavy rain turned up. Blank number 4!?!

Nice to meet you Alan and I'm sure our paths will cross again. Say hi to Steve, looking forward to meeting him at Bluebells at the end of Feb.

Monday
Got up early this time as this particular water has a timed start/finish time. So time was of the essence and I needed to get a move on to get there paid and fishing.

Memo to self, fish were you heart says

I arrived before the shop was open and allowed Stuart to open up. not so quick chat with him re the fishery, new pike rules, other piking/fishing things and I set off to the fish I had chosen.

Now this set of swim always look pikey, even without the extra water from the recent flood water entering the water. Fish were topping all over the place so I though that the pike would be in the area.

Even the grebes were on patrol in the area, diving and catching small fish along with the kingfisher.

Three rods set out covering my pegged area and I sat back with a nice cuppa. 9:30am came and a run on rod 3, bluey head section was zipping off at speed. I wound down and leaned into a fish. 3 sec later, it was off. Rods was put back on the alarm for 1/2hr to see if it returned. It didn't, so I wound in and on inspection of the bait, found it had a tiny bite make at the cut of end.

As the bait was intacted, I recast it back to were it came and sat back.

Grebes were still diving and one even popped up with a skimmer bream, that looked to be way to big for him to swallow. But after a bit of toing and frowing, it swallowed it.

Midday came and a match man came down and fished the first peg with a pole. He was soon into the feeding silver fish and was causing quite a bit of disturbance. So I though that Mr & Mrs pike would be on the prowl.

Again, nothing until 2ish and bluey head went off again, zipping line from the spool. Wind down and lean to to fish. 10 sec and it off again!!!! AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRHHHHHHHHHHH, I said.

On inspection of the bait, yet again small bite marked from what only can be determined as a jack not much bigger than the bait.

Blank number 5?????!!!!!! But had runs

TL...

BTW Not many picture, as I've accidentally deleted them off the camera!!!! But did find one on the phone?!?

"The fishing was good; it was the catching that was bad"

My last trip out fishing, had ended in a distinct lack of something, fish. So I decided that it would be nice to go to a old haunt and try to catch as many species of fish that I could within a short session on Sunday.

So i grabbed the maggots from the fridge and some kingsmeal along this a selection of spinners and crank baits and headed out to a nice stretch of river and weirpool that I use to fish over 20 years ago.

Now this stretch of river had 20 years ago always been a brilliant place to fish. Not due to the size of the specimens, but the shear different types you could caught.

It was nice because I could kill two bird with one stone, drop of the boy to a cricket match and secondly go for a few hours fishing.

Off we went and within an hour I had pulled up along side a side stream of the river and reached over and picked up the polaroids.

For the next 1 hour I wondered the banks looking for signs of life in the river. The odd small dace would dart out into the current after being chased by a small perch, but not real sign of the large chub or vast shoals of roach, dace and gudgeon that used to frequent the river and weir pool.

Undeterred, I decided that the best plan initially was to go in pursuit of the pike that used to live in the depths of the weir pool.

So 9ft spinning rod and baitcaster came out of the car along with a selection of lures.

Lure after lure was cast out and retrieved without the slightest attention, tormentors, crank baits, spinner baits and even the old trusted Ondex spinner got a rare outing. Nothing.

So back to the car and a 13ft trotting rod and the maggots and bread was taken forthwith with a view of having at least some fun with the dace and roach.

A swim at the edge of the cabbage was baited up with a mix of bread and maggots and soon the water was alive with fry and 2" long dace.

The float tackle was cast out and I waited for the flurry of bites. Within a second of the float settling the float went under and one of the tiny dace was soon on the bank.

That I'm afraid was it, I did have lots of bites but mostly from the tiny dace, the weirpool seemed devoid of fish.

After a couple of fruitless hours wandering the bank trying to find a decent fish or two fish, I happened across a chap who kindly informed me that 9 months ago, a pair of otters had taken up residence at the edge of the sluice gates.
Now 9 months on, the otters had moved on, along with with fat belly's. Its seems that in only 2/3 of a year they had nearly wipe out a mile stretch of river. The only fish left were the odd shoal of dace, roach and the occasional small perch.

As was once said "The fishing was good; it was the catching that was bad".

Sometimes it does not pay to try fish old waters, as they never seem to live up to the dreamy days of years gone by.

Dead Calm

Sunday saw a nice overcast but warm morning when the alarm went off at 4:15am. Unfortunately, I hit the off button instead of the snooze, and awoke at 5am....

I hastily got up and dressed, prepared snacks, sandwich and a flask of tea for the day ahead. Baits was already sorted, so after scoffing down breakfast I was in the car by 5:45am and off to the "pond" for a days bream fishing....

Whilst walking around the "pond" the other evening, I had come across a old area I used to fish in the Autumn for pike that was alive with silver fish and bream rooting around in the weed for snails and other insects.....so the evening before I was due to fish, I was down with a marker float rod and a buckets of freebies, pellets, tutti fruit boilies and corn to give them some appetizers for the following morning.

The area that I baited was on the edge of the weed beds and the marker float was clipped up ready for the next morning.



I arrived at the pond and after unloading the car I walk to the waters edge to be greeted with a mirror calm surface full of bubbles and fry topping. the new barbel rods and 5000RE baitrunners were setup already so it was only a case of sending out the marker float and then sending a hair rigged 10mm pellet on a safety clip rig with a pva bag of pellets. The second rod was to be a method feeder of crumb with maggot, corn and hemp, with fake buoyant corn on the hook.

Both rods were on buzzers with swingers......then I waited...........for an hour the bubbles continued and the buzzers remained silent........baits were changed, feeders filled and recast.....

In the meantime, I started to watch the terns that had appeared from the rafts and were now squawking overhead head as they hunted out the fry from above......still nothing on the rods........

Grebes were driving and coming up with small skimmer bream and the surface of the "pond" in front of me was alive with scattering fry as the predators started to home in on their prey......




If I had packed the lure rod, I'm sure that I would have latched into a couple of jacks around the weed, but alas it was sat at home, as I had decided to take the spod rod and marked float instead....

At 11:30am the left hand rod screamed into action and ran forward and struck into a solid lump.......just as I thought the big bream had finally homed in on the bed of bait, a very angry grebe emerged from the water like a Polaris missile and headed off across the water, fortunately for me and him, the hair on the halibut pellet gave way and the rig and the 1.1/2oz lead drop into the water.......

On closure inspection, it seems that the grebe had been after not only the pellet on the hook, but also the pellets which were out as free offerings.

The rest of the days was uneventful and quite, to the point were I got out the book and in-between rebaiting, changing baits etc I read 100 plus pages until 4pm came and I decided that the fish just wanted to feast on the abundance of water snails and leaches.......

Also, of note was the water temp. I took the water temp during the day and it ranged from 17 deg C in open water and a barmy 19.4 deg C in the weed...Perhaps the bream got boiled and slopped off to the deeper depths.....

Next weekend is booked up with pre-holiday stuff and looking after my nephew and niece, so its unlikely I'll get to the waters edge to fish.........so TL for now

No Show

Saturday gone was my allocated fishing day and what a sizzler!!!

I woke up late and did the usual getting ready stuff and made my way to the "pond" for a days fishing....

Even at 6am it was hot and my the time I had shifted my gear from the car to the swim I was sweating like a pig...



Set up was usual twin rod method feeders at a mark at about 70yds....but this time I had decided that the spod rod should be put into use in order to build up a decent amount of hemp, corn and feed so that the bream and tench could get their heads down early on. I also wanted to have the hook baits on a the mark so that re-cast wouldn't be needed so much as the time before.

12 spod of bait when out closely followed by two baits. Fake corn soaked in tutti fruity and 10mm halibut pellet on a hair.

Then I sat back and waited for the fish to lock onto the feed...

So I waited and waited....the odd bleep came and went, but nothing really positive for the first couple of hours, so baits were retrieved and re casted.......

And again I sat back and waited......nothing.......

At least the duck were wildlife was showing an interest in what i was doing



Well this went on for the whole morning...the odd bleep from fish moving through the swim, but due to the heat, I think their were not interested in feeding....

So what to do......snap so move animals...




And that was as much excitement as I could take, that couple with the heat.....34 deg C!!!!!

So at 15:30, I gave up and headed home........

So what's been happening since, two bargain baitrunnners sourced, 2 old baitrunners sold, 1 rod under offer and another small Shimano 2500GTM-RA up for auction on fleabay......should be able to get another rod by the end of the weekend...and then one of the old now very tippy rods can be packed off for its new owner.....

This weekend, will give "the pond" a miss, so might try the decoy lake or SWP specimen lake and see if I can bag me some tench....

TL for now......