Kite, Cats and.....

At last the 2 day fishing/social trip to Oxford was here. Time for some fun in the sun (hopefully).

The venue for one of this years pikers pits socials was the Orchid Lake fishery in Oxfordshire.
We were fishing the Club Lake, which is home to the Wels Catfish.

Left home mid afternoon on the Thursday for the two and a half hour drive to the fishery. Traffic was its usual leave and after a couple of pit stops, I arrived at the fishery in good time.

After I had met up with the rest of the group, we draw for pegs, my name was first out of the hat and I picked peg number 5. This peg had lots on offer, snags, overhanging trees and bushes, open water and a  small bay. Hopefully, one of these area's would hold a catfish or two.

 I soon have the bivvy up and soon the two rods out. Being newish to catfishing, I decided to opt for 12ft 3.5tc rods, with my trustworthy Shimano Arelex 7000 reels, which were loaded with Big Game 25lb mainline. The hooklinks were made from Quicksilver 45lb braid and the hooks with eagle weave, sizes 2 - 4/0 depending on the bait.

For bait, I had brought along a small selection along with me these including large/small halibut pellets, tins of luncheon meat, whole squid and large lobworms.

The first baits to go out was a whole squid on a running ledger under the far bank trees, with a scattering of halibut pellets and attractor, and the margin rod was baited with five juicy lobworms on a dumbell rig.

Now I no expert on catfish, and I still waiting to land one of these giant tadpoles, but the organiser of the event was quietly confident that some would come out over the next 3 days.

So with the rods out and the bivvy set, there was not much to do exempt have a yarn and a cup of earl grey with a slice of victoria sponge.

As the afternoon turned to evening it was time for the social arm of the event to kick off, so after reeling in the baits we head off to sample some of the delights the cook had brought along. Tonight it was hommus with french sitick for starter and the main was beef curry, all washed done with some John Smiths and a couple of glasses of Roja.

Soon the sun was descending and it wa time to head back to the rods and get the baits out for the night. I was sticking with my baited areas from the afternoon and with precision cast the squid landed on the far bank trees. A couple of hand fulls of pellets were catapulted out over the bait, to hopefully draw the cats out of their liars.

As darkness draw on the first night, the bites started. To be honest, the squid was left alone, but the worms were being battered by nocturnal feeding carp and a couple of time they even managed to draw me out of the warmth of the sleeping bag.

Night turned to dawn, and with that the nights silence was broken by the birds, I was soon up and inspecting the baits. The squid, which seem to have remained intact, had drawn the attentions of something, as upon inspection, the squids head was missing. The lobworms were another matter. All the battering during the night had left very little left.

Both baits were replaced and rods recast, in the hope that a cats would still be on the prowl. This is when I saw my first red Kite over the Oxford countryside, flying above me looking for breakfast. After I had breakfast  time myself, I reeled the rods in and wend for a walkabout. The other catfishers were slowly stirring from their night time slumbers.

The day was uneventful on the fishing front for me, and in fact no catfish were caught for the whole two days. Some of the lads brought float or quiver rods and managed to winkle out some nice tench, bream and a solitary double figure carp. But my catfish baits remained untouched for the whole weekend.

Whilst I didn't catch, it was nicet being out again on the bank for a weekend. Something I hope to do again soon once there weather turns into something resembling summer.

TL

To a land far, far away

Well readers, I haven't been fishing much of late and when I have been out, the fishing has been hard.

I have done some small stints on the local river will only a few small chublets, roach and dace to show for my jungle expeditions (memo to self, need a new hacking blade!!)

But I did travel down to the west county for a social fish in with some of the weird and wonderful members of the Pike Pit for a days fishing on a coloured river for the barbel.

For some, the fishing was secondary to the social, but for me the tempting prospects of catching a barbel was too much temptation to have a lot of sauce the night before at the social gathering of the year.

Its a fair drive from Suffolk to the west county, and I did feel very jaded on arrival at the meeting point. We drove off on a convey to the camping area and setup our bivvies for the night along with the social area.

After setting up we gather and chatted, mostly about fishing. We had the pleasure of a living legend coming along John Costello, whom is the only angler to caught a 20lb Zander and a 40lb+ Pike!!!!!! Even Uncle Nev's & Uncle Eddie haven't done that.

John's understanding of fishing is to say "enlightening". He's a regular bloke who has family and work commitments, but managed to caught the impossible, due to maximising his time when out fishing, whether on a vast reservoir or on his local rivers


It was great speaking to him and I really felt that after a walk of the river, I had a good understanding of the river and its character. I was feeling optimistic about the next day

Next morning, gloomy and early with the bird, bee's and snoozing anglers making there morning sounds as they rose from their sauce induced slumber. I awoke to a "where the hell am I" moment.
Soon I was up, washed (of a fashion) and out of the bivvy, where Marty was also ready up (after prebaiting his swim allegedly) and made a cuppa for me and some of the other waking beauties.

Soon I was tackled up and following the first two anglers along the bank to a swim I fancied, which had some slack water out of the main coloured water.


I decided to use the lightest rod I had with me which was a 11ft 6", 2.1/4tc carp rod. It would handed leads and feeder to 4oz if fishing within a couple of rod lengths out.

I started with a straight lead setup on a running rig similar to ones I'd seen on Dave Lumbs site for barbel. Simplicity is the key. Hook bait was 11mm or 20mm pre soaked halibut pellets, with a 11mm and micro pellets in a pva bag.

I also baited the general area with a few hand fulls of this mix and let the flow wash it down stream in order to get a scent trail going.

I did get the chub going and had a number of small chub/dace taps, but every so offered they would nick the bait so I would have to reeled in, re bait, added a new pva bag and dropped it back into the margin.

This I did several time before getting fed up with the constant tip activity and increased the pellet size to a 20mm.

After 15min of soaking the bait, it was away and the baitrunner was fizzing, I struck and hooked into a fish, felt it for a nano second before it all locked up in a snag some 15yds downstream.
I walked downstream beyond the snag trying to get another angle on it, but it was going nowhere fast.

With the rod bend over, and no signs of life, I opened the bail arm and released the pressure to see if the flow would dislodge the snagged fish or the rig. Sadly, neither happened and in the end I had to pull for a break.

I fish on for a number of hours, in between I did switch to a heavy feeder, but nothing was coming to my rod.

The end of the session for me was insight, then as I decided to have "one more cast", there was a snap. The last 4" of the rod tip disappeared down the line. Bugger!!!!

It had now gone midday, and I was tired though lack of sleep and hungry through lack for breakfast and now rod less due to god knows what.


 So I packed up and head back to the bivvy for food and finally demobilisation of the site.