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Catch up


tomhaggett

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I've been so busy recently I haven't been able to update my entries. What with 5 mental days at Glastonbury and constant work I've had no time to fish so my only updates are from a couple of quick 20 hour sessions that I've managed to squeeze in.

 

23rd May - Berkshire club lake.

 

I'd planned this session to try out my new 11' 2 1/4lb small water rods. After lure fishing with 7ft rods for the whole winter my 12fters felt stupidly unwieldy so I decided to get myself a pair of these little gems. They certainly paid for themselves this session.

 

I'd set up on "the point".. a swim that a newcomer to the lake would expect to be one of the most productive but in actual fact it doesn't seem to do a lot of bites. Over my last couple of sessions I'd seen fish "show and blow" on one area that sat 15-20 yards out from the point. As I was walking around a fish showed pretty much bang on the money and my mind was made up. Before getting anything else off the barrow I had a few chucks about with a bare lead, finding one nice hard area out to the left that I decided not to fish overnight but made a mental note of a horizon marker should I need to find it later on. As day turned into night the fish put on one hell of a display over to my left... Normally I would have moved but as I was with a mate and they weren't a million miles from my rods I stayed put. Anyway, I woke up to the bobbins in the same position as I'd left them the previous night. Within a minute of blearily gazing across the lake another showed off to the left so I decided it was time to do something about it. I tied up a new rig, something that I'm pretty sure the fish wouldn't have come across before, and flicked it out to the spot I'd found the previous evening. The lead crashed down on the spot first cast leaving me extremely confident and sure enough within 5 minutes I had a really twitchy take and lifted into a fish. The thing didn't fight at all until it got under the tip, then it decided to suddenly plough down the edge, straight through a snag and lock up solid. I moaned and winged for a bit before putting the rod down and coming up with a plan... The plan I devised simply involved my good mate getting his waders on at 5am and retrieving my prize ;). Luckily for him just as he got his waders fastened the rod whipped round and the fish was on the move again... what impeccable timing. This is where the nice light rods came into their own... I could really pile on the pressure without fear of pulling the hook and shortly afterwards I netted a low double stockie... believe it or not my first one after 2 years of them being introduced.

 

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After slipping him back I got the rod back on the spot with a fresh bait and just 2 hours later it was off again. I was fishing tight clutches due to the snags that litter the lake bed and by the time I got out of my bag and to the rod it had been doubled over at full test curve for 10 seconds or so. The fish put up a fair battle but soon rolled over the cord. Something didn't quite look right when I put him on the mat and when I went to pop the hook out it I noticed it had almost completely straightened, I'm guessing on the take. I'm sure if I'd had been using my usual 3.25tc sticks I would have bumped that hook out under the tip. It went 23.11.

 

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13th June - Berkshire club lake.

 

I finally had another day off after working almost 2 weeks of consecutive 12 hour days. A job in the fishing industry may sound like a dream to a lot of people but believe me it's a lot of bloody hard work.

 

Anyway, I nipped down to the lake that's featured above for a quick mooch around. I'd really intended on fishing the other water the ticket offers but after finding an obscene amount of fizzing down the end of a bay I would have been stupid not to stick a rod out. I got a few bits from the car and flicked a couple of rods out on small bags as quitely as possible expecting some quick action. Unfortunately that never came and I was left in a bit of a dilemma.. Do I stay on the fish that were still sending up patches of fizz the size of my bivvy or move onto the other lake that I'd originally intended to fish?!

A mate came by shortly afterward and persuaded me that moving would be ridiculous so I quickly got the shelter up and went about making a plan. As last week, I had a few casts with a light lead, shortly finding a nice hard gravelly area towards the back of the area they were fizzing up in. I pulled back just into the silt as that's obviously what the fish were feeding in and settled down for the night, full of confidence. I'd stuck to small baits fished over pellet as they were evidently grubbing about in the dirty stuff but alas I woke to motionless indicators once again. The wind was really picking up by this point, blowing straight into the corner I was fishing and making it impossible to see if the fish were still about.

After giving it another hour I decided on a little change and changed over to the rig that saved the blank last week. I flicked one of the short pop-ups to the gravelly spot I'd found the previous evening... thinking that the fish would be more likely to feed on this shallower area as the sun rose and low and behold 20 minutes later the rod screamed off. A short fight later and the carp I'd expected rolled over and revealed a green flank. I'd only gone and hooked a tench... my second in 8-9 years on the lake. The first coming on my very first session. I guesstimated it to be around 6lb but decided to weigh it for curiosities sake after some persuasion from an on-looker. To my surprise it went 7lb 15oz, a new pb by a few ounces and a nice result.

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After slipping that one back I got a rod back on the spot and quickly changed the other rod over to the rig/bait combo that was obviously doing the damage and flicked it a bit further down the edge, to fish slightly away from the bed of pellet they'd obviously ignored all night. An hour later and that rod was off resulting in another tench, this time 7lb 9oz. Another take a couple of hours later from a nicely scaled stockie finished off the session but not before one last bit of excitement.

The wind had been battering straight into my bivvy for a good few hours and just as I got out to recast a violent gust ripped out the 8 pegs and hurled my bivvy 20 yards into the bog behind me like a feather... my bedchair flipped over, two tackle bags emptied all over the reeds... the swim was carnage so I decided it best to pack up before the wind took advantage of my slight stature and whisked me off somewhere unknown.

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Great results mate, never had any luck on that lake but would love to catch one of those tench on the float!

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Ditto, I don't think I've heard of tench that big coming from NAA waters. That's not to say they don't, but a superb result!

 

Will you be trying any spinning in the summer months?

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They do get caught on the float in there Viney.. not regularly but more so than the other "specimen" water.

 

There's tench far bigger than that one in a few of the lakes. The two "specimen" waters have both done doubles this year. Neither are easy though.

 

Not done any spinning since Spring.. the canals like chocolate and I haven't really got time to get to the Kennet. How about yourself?

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My spinning trips have to be short because of a dicey back, but I did get a 2lb 5 oz perch from the canal at Thatcham a week ago - see my blog. Actually the water there was clearer than last year, and it's the same in the free stretch. I don't know if some of the dredging they have done may have reduced the silt being churned up in those areas.

 

I meant to say, Tom, thanks for the way you wrote up your 'catch up ' blogs. I've never done an overnight carp session, but when I do I'll re-read your blog cos it gives pretty well everything I'd need to know - particularly re casting round to find a suitable area. It probably helps that I know the lake, but I've read lengthy magazine articles in the past that haven't left me so clear about what I'd actually need to do as your blog!

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Well in, that's a cracking result mate. Good fun isn't it? Not sure how I missed that entry as I've read every other one.

 

Thanks a lot for the kind words. People can make things far too complicated to be honest... don't get caught up in it too much. Find the fish and you're 90% of the way there.

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