Doubles Keep Coming and Bream Delight On River
A warm welcome to this weeks blog update i hope i find you all well and you nets wet. In life it surely is true that it is impossible to find balance in all aspects of life and boy is that a stage i am going through right now. I normally split my life into three areas, homes life, fishing and work and you find that at no time or should i say for such a very short time are all three all going well at the same time. Right now? i would say we are hitting the mark with two of them, in short work is as about as depressing as a job can get, new desk facing the beige wall i talked about in last weeks blog is lets just say not inspirational one bit. It does serve one purpose though in making you really appreciate the other two aspects, walking out of work and home to the family it really increases that sense of excitement knowing your going home to a happy home and of course when fishing comes along at the end of the week, well lets just say i could not wait to feel that fresh air against my face on Saturday.
Situations like this do also focus the mind and as always i find solace and a sense of escapism from writing these weekly musings, however ironic it might be that most of them are wrote at beige HQ. Speaking of the blog it really is going from strength to strength under its own steam and on social media it really is being well received with the blogs Twitter account now passing 2k followers and Facebook quickly closing in on 750 likes. Where this long road of blogging will end god only knows but all i can say is thank you to all those who come back each week to read it and in a world where we have celebrity anglers pushing their sponsors products at anglers in the weekly repetitive mags maybe amateur bloggers portraying their fishing adventures will be where its at in the coming years.
On to this weeks blog update and its just the two trips in this update but when one of the sessions contains over 10 carp then there is going to plenty of pictures for those who just like to flick though the pictures on the blog. The second trip is a trip to a new part of the river searching out unfinished swims along over grown banks.
On to the fishing
A morning of doubles....
Travelling to the lake i had began to get a feel for where the carp would be and more importantly where to present my baits. The shocking thing i was finding was how quiet the banks where. Arriving at first light i never really had to worry about getting in a swim or the bread drifting and ruining someone else fishing.
On this session it was a period of warm weather and i knew, like most of my sessions for carp, it was going to be a short session but i hoped a for a fish or two. The warmer weather i knew would see the fish come up into the layers a lot quicker than previous sessions where the mornings had been quite cool.
Arriving i was glad to see the ducks had moved on and i fed quite a bit of bread under my feet, in the snags and off them as well. The thinking here was to quickly get the carp up in top and confidently feeding and then pick out the ones taking the bread confidently. What i got truly shocked me as the carp where straight up on top and in good numbers. In went a piece of crust sprayed with Bubble Cream Stinky Stuff and I quickly picked up a nice double to kick off the session.
As i have said regular on these carp sessions it was all about fun for me on these sessions now hence the floating crust. I also on this session decided to use my 1.75lb test curve barbel rod and as i said on the video the carp where taking off the top and it was not long till the carbon was bent again.
The second carp again falling to the bread sprayed with stinky stuff was another double at just under 14lb.
After this double a six other carp in single figures slipped up on the floating crust and it was clear the carp where up for it as all the carp where slurping down the crust. The best of the carp a lovely marked fish below.
These carp i have never come across before in the sessions but i was grateful to have found them and what lovely markings. You can imagine my excitement when i slid the net under my third double and 9th carp of the morning when it had similar markings, a lovely 11lb common.
Casting the bread right over the far side i got a take from a fish and it did not fight at all, it came in like a wet lettuce if i am honest. It was a carp and a double figure one at that and it looked to have a lovely dark colour. The fish on the bank was very calm and if i am honest weird for carp. All the other carp had been a real battle on the mat but this one just lied there. I gave the fish a quick look over but could see no obvious reason for it.
A quick pic and back she went.
This double was followed by three more smaller carp and it looked like the doubles had spooked off the area altogether. I have noticed once the sun gets to a certain point in the sky the carp turn off. I knew my time on the lake was almost coming to an end. One more cast i thought and i knew to get a take it would be down to getting a carp that was sitting just under some overhanging trees to come out.
A peach of a cast, well a lucky cast, saw the bread land just on the edges of the leaves. It was one of those takes where you don't see the bread get taken as all you see is line stripping along the surface of the water a quick lift of the rod and i was connected to another good carp that decided she wanted to go back to her home under the trees.
The rod was bent right over and with my hand on the reel giving no inch i managed to stop the initial run. As soon as you stop that initial run the carp do seem to slowly move out into the lake and this is when you can really just enjoy the battle. Taking line and making long surges with the reel ticking over it was a good fight and i was mad up to slip the net under the biggest carp of the session in a 15lb 10oz common.
All in all a great mornings fishing with 5 doubles on the bank and like the previous sessions i left to the sound of people arriving in their cars and the sight of carp all over the top basking.
Bream On The Stick...
It feels great again to be scouring Google Earth looking for new virgin waters to fish. We have dedicated so much time to one area of river that we hit the same areas time and time again trying to work the river out, most of the time in the same swims just different conditions. So this week it felt good to be zoomed in on the river and following her every twist and turn to find the deeper runs and then of course the dreaded task of finding a place "close" to park the fish mobile.
A bit of likely looking river found it was a case of parking the car and making the walk to the river. Down the first field and into the second we where greeted with livestock, never my favourite sight i can tell you, but these where horses, a new animal to share a field with for me, they seemed ok.
In hindsight my green ground bait bucket did me no favours at all and i guess the smell of sweet ground bait that lingered around it also added to the attention i was getting. Across the fields and along the river they followed till eventually we left our "friends" behind. The river looked deep and had a gentle pace across its width with trees lining the far bank it screamed fish. A nice gap between us both we set up full of expectation and this was heightened when a big carp jump clear of the water just down stream, i had no chance of landing such a prize but proved this area held fish.
Early trots down i clipped the bottom a few times and i guessed this was down to streamer weed on the bottom, this would be a problem all day. Knowing we had caught bream on other bits of this river i decided to mix up a good amount of ground bait. The first few trots down and eventually i started catching the odd small roach.
Once the line i was going to fish was established i made my move and in went 3 big balls of ground bait laced with maggot and hemp seed. This is entirely new to me in i never normally feed ground bait on the river but it is a branch of the sport i am trying to learn. The feeding of the bait is easy its getting the "mix" right and also how much to feed i need to master and i have to be honest when i fed the three balls i knew nothing as to if it would kill of make the swim.
The swim continued to produce the roach and the odd chublet till it died completely and i mean it was like a light switch going off. I trotted through the swim time and time again for around 15-20 minutes and then all of a sudden the float buried and my 14ft drennan acolyte hooped round. It felt a huge fish in the flow and it just held there for a moment before moving over to the far tree line. Turned it then came into the middle again and then up came a huge bream.
I don't quite know how to put in words the fight of a bream i guess if you have ever caught one you will know where i am coming from. They kind of twist and turn in the flow in a horrible erratic way and i did struggle to get the fish upstream but eventually she came up and into the net, buzzing the ground bait had certainly worked its magic.
The fish in the net i was straight back in and you can imagine what was going through my head when on the very next cast the float buried again and i was playing another nice bream.
Two bream in two casts and i was at a cross roads with the swim, do i feed more ground bait or do i fish it out? I decided with two of the bream there that size that there surely could be more so in went another two balls of ground bait. If i was going to learn it was going to have to be a case of suck it and see. If i hadn't of fed again and not caught then i would have walked away thinking what if i had fed again, did they clear me out and move on?
The second trot down after feeding the ground bait i again hit another bream and my excitement levels hit the roof and i am not going to lie here thought of a huge net of bream where flying through my head. I think rightly so as well with 3 proper bream in 3 casts who could blame me?
The third bream in the net i settled back in and weirdly i started picking up roach again and some nice chublets
Around 9am i felt this burning on the back of my neck as the sun came up over the trees and slowly it rose till it was completely on the water. This was the kiss of death as both mine and my uncles swims completely died. The beauty of two of you fishing is you know if its a predator or not as if your mate is catching nicely and you are not then you know something is not right but as soon as that sun hit the water it killed both swims dead.
We called it a day around 11am after two hours with no bites but we both left having fished a new area of river. We both took away how important ground bait was going to be on the river and again how much this river will be impacted by hot clear days.
I felt i learnt a lot in feeding the ground bait and getting the mix right. On top of that i think i learnt that i need to get the bream out of the swim as soon as possible as i think on that last bream it certainly flapped about alot right in the swim which could have spooked the shoal prematurely.
All in all a nice quiet day on the bank and good to get amongst the fish.
Till next time
tight lines
Danny
Situations like this do also focus the mind and as always i find solace and a sense of escapism from writing these weekly musings, however ironic it might be that most of them are wrote at beige HQ. Speaking of the blog it really is going from strength to strength under its own steam and on social media it really is being well received with the blogs Twitter account now passing 2k followers and Facebook quickly closing in on 750 likes. Where this long road of blogging will end god only knows but all i can say is thank you to all those who come back each week to read it and in a world where we have celebrity anglers pushing their sponsors products at anglers in the weekly repetitive mags maybe amateur bloggers portraying their fishing adventures will be where its at in the coming years.
On to this weeks blog update and its just the two trips in this update but when one of the sessions contains over 10 carp then there is going to plenty of pictures for those who just like to flick though the pictures on the blog. The second trip is a trip to a new part of the river searching out unfinished swims along over grown banks.
On to the fishing
A morning of doubles....
Travelling to the lake i had began to get a feel for where the carp would be and more importantly where to present my baits. The shocking thing i was finding was how quiet the banks where. Arriving at first light i never really had to worry about getting in a swim or the bread drifting and ruining someone else fishing.
On this session it was a period of warm weather and i knew, like most of my sessions for carp, it was going to be a short session but i hoped a for a fish or two. The warmer weather i knew would see the fish come up into the layers a lot quicker than previous sessions where the mornings had been quite cool.
Arriving i was glad to see the ducks had moved on and i fed quite a bit of bread under my feet, in the snags and off them as well. The thinking here was to quickly get the carp up in top and confidently feeding and then pick out the ones taking the bread confidently. What i got truly shocked me as the carp where straight up on top and in good numbers. In went a piece of crust sprayed with Bubble Cream Stinky Stuff and I quickly picked up a nice double to kick off the session.
As i have said regular on these carp sessions it was all about fun for me on these sessions now hence the floating crust. I also on this session decided to use my 1.75lb test curve barbel rod and as i said on the video the carp where taking off the top and it was not long till the carbon was bent again.
The second carp again falling to the bread sprayed with stinky stuff was another double at just under 14lb.
After this double a six other carp in single figures slipped up on the floating crust and it was clear the carp where up for it as all the carp where slurping down the crust. The best of the carp a lovely marked fish below.
These carp i have never come across before in the sessions but i was grateful to have found them and what lovely markings. You can imagine my excitement when i slid the net under my third double and 9th carp of the morning when it had similar markings, a lovely 11lb common.
Casting the bread right over the far side i got a take from a fish and it did not fight at all, it came in like a wet lettuce if i am honest. It was a carp and a double figure one at that and it looked to have a lovely dark colour. The fish on the bank was very calm and if i am honest weird for carp. All the other carp had been a real battle on the mat but this one just lied there. I gave the fish a quick look over but could see no obvious reason for it.
A quick pic and back she went.
This double was followed by three more smaller carp and it looked like the doubles had spooked off the area altogether. I have noticed once the sun gets to a certain point in the sky the carp turn off. I knew my time on the lake was almost coming to an end. One more cast i thought and i knew to get a take it would be down to getting a carp that was sitting just under some overhanging trees to come out.
A peach of a cast, well a lucky cast, saw the bread land just on the edges of the leaves. It was one of those takes where you don't see the bread get taken as all you see is line stripping along the surface of the water a quick lift of the rod and i was connected to another good carp that decided she wanted to go back to her home under the trees.
The rod was bent right over and with my hand on the reel giving no inch i managed to stop the initial run. As soon as you stop that initial run the carp do seem to slowly move out into the lake and this is when you can really just enjoy the battle. Taking line and making long surges with the reel ticking over it was a good fight and i was mad up to slip the net under the biggest carp of the session in a 15lb 10oz common.
All in all a great mornings fishing with 5 doubles on the bank and like the previous sessions i left to the sound of people arriving in their cars and the sight of carp all over the top basking.
Bream On The Stick...
It feels great again to be scouring Google Earth looking for new virgin waters to fish. We have dedicated so much time to one area of river that we hit the same areas time and time again trying to work the river out, most of the time in the same swims just different conditions. So this week it felt good to be zoomed in on the river and following her every twist and turn to find the deeper runs and then of course the dreaded task of finding a place "close" to park the fish mobile.
A bit of likely looking river found it was a case of parking the car and making the walk to the river. Down the first field and into the second we where greeted with livestock, never my favourite sight i can tell you, but these where horses, a new animal to share a field with for me, they seemed ok.
In hindsight my green ground bait bucket did me no favours at all and i guess the smell of sweet ground bait that lingered around it also added to the attention i was getting. Across the fields and along the river they followed till eventually we left our "friends" behind. The river looked deep and had a gentle pace across its width with trees lining the far bank it screamed fish. A nice gap between us both we set up full of expectation and this was heightened when a big carp jump clear of the water just down stream, i had no chance of landing such a prize but proved this area held fish.
Early trots down i clipped the bottom a few times and i guessed this was down to streamer weed on the bottom, this would be a problem all day. Knowing we had caught bream on other bits of this river i decided to mix up a good amount of ground bait. The first few trots down and eventually i started catching the odd small roach.
Once the line i was going to fish was established i made my move and in went 3 big balls of ground bait laced with maggot and hemp seed. This is entirely new to me in i never normally feed ground bait on the river but it is a branch of the sport i am trying to learn. The feeding of the bait is easy its getting the "mix" right and also how much to feed i need to master and i have to be honest when i fed the three balls i knew nothing as to if it would kill of make the swim.
The swim continued to produce the roach and the odd chublet till it died completely and i mean it was like a light switch going off. I trotted through the swim time and time again for around 15-20 minutes and then all of a sudden the float buried and my 14ft drennan acolyte hooped round. It felt a huge fish in the flow and it just held there for a moment before moving over to the far tree line. Turned it then came into the middle again and then up came a huge bream.
I don't quite know how to put in words the fight of a bream i guess if you have ever caught one you will know where i am coming from. They kind of twist and turn in the flow in a horrible erratic way and i did struggle to get the fish upstream but eventually she came up and into the net, buzzing the ground bait had certainly worked its magic.
The fish in the net i was straight back in and you can imagine what was going through my head when on the very next cast the float buried again and i was playing another nice bream.
Two bream in two casts and i was at a cross roads with the swim, do i feed more ground bait or do i fish it out? I decided with two of the bream there that size that there surely could be more so in went another two balls of ground bait. If i was going to learn it was going to have to be a case of suck it and see. If i hadn't of fed again and not caught then i would have walked away thinking what if i had fed again, did they clear me out and move on?
The second trot down after feeding the ground bait i again hit another bream and my excitement levels hit the roof and i am not going to lie here thought of a huge net of bream where flying through my head. I think rightly so as well with 3 proper bream in 3 casts who could blame me?
The third bream in the net i settled back in and weirdly i started picking up roach again and some nice chublets
Around 9am i felt this burning on the back of my neck as the sun came up over the trees and slowly it rose till it was completely on the water. This was the kiss of death as both mine and my uncles swims completely died. The beauty of two of you fishing is you know if its a predator or not as if your mate is catching nicely and you are not then you know something is not right but as soon as that sun hit the water it killed both swims dead.
We called it a day around 11am after two hours with no bites but we both left having fished a new area of river. We both took away how important ground bait was going to be on the river and again how much this river will be impacted by hot clear days.
I felt i learnt a lot in feeding the ground bait and getting the mix right. On top of that i think i learnt that i need to get the bream out of the swim as soon as possible as i think on that last bream it certainly flapped about alot right in the swim which could have spooked the shoal prematurely.
All in all a nice quiet day on the bank and good to get amongst the fish.
Till next time
tight lines
Danny
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