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Entries in this blog

Crashing back to reality

8th December - Berkshire Stillwater   As I mentioned in the last installment, the rest of my bait had been spread around the productive area ready for a return as soon as possible. After managing to wangle the day off I planned my return, obviously full of expectation. They'd had a free meal and a few days to get themselves comfortable.   I'd already arranged to meet a mate on the canal for the afternoon so only had a few hours to play with.   For some reason I thought I'd be clever an
tomhaggett

tomhaggett

1

Totally unexpected.

5th December - Berkshire Stillwater   So, when I got in the car this morning the temperature gauge read 0.5 degrees... hardly conducive to catching carp but that was what I planned to try my hand at, for a few hours anyway. The plan really, was to lob out a couple of rods while I waited for the light to drop so I could go perching late afternoon - dusk. Never did I actually expect to get a bite on the lake, it was just a better place to waste the day than home.   I arrived just after the d
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tomhaggett

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Another one :o. (Up to date, you'll be glad to hear)

24th October - Berkshire Stillwater   So, after last weeks result I was naturally keen to get back down there and see if I could winkle out another one or two before the cold weather really kicked in. The prebaiting seemed to work last time so I made the effort again but decided on a different area this time, the one that I mentioned had seen the only bit of activity over last time.   The plan was to fish it from a swim that commands a lot of water... that way I could fish one rod out betwe
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Favourite one of the year and another original to boot.

17th October - Berkshire Stillwater   As you can see I really struggled to get out after that productive day session. A holiday with the new girlfriend and a hectic work routine put paid to any time on the bank for a couple of months though I tried to keep in touch as much as possible through a couple of mates that were still fishing every now and then.   I think now is a good time to mention that the lake has been very different this year, mostly due to the lack of people fishing it compar
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tomhaggett

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Cracking day session.

15th August - Berkshire Stillwater   I only had time for a day session this week, on the quiet water this time. I'd made sure to pop down a couple of days beforehand to have a look around put a bit of bait in. I found a few fish in a snag that I have fished quite a lot in the past, albeit in a slightly different part of the snag than usual. A kilo or two of bait was spread around the feature, making sure to concentrate the majority on both the spot I normally fish and the one closest to whe
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A costly loss

11th August - Berkshire Stillwater   As usual this was an after work jaunt to the target water. The conditions were due to be spot on again so I made the effort to get the next day off work and trotted down the path full of enthusiasm. The winds were due to be blowing in strong and south westerly, similar to during the session I fished earlier in the year. Two mates had beaten me too it unfortunately and were set up at the windward end of the lake but reported that not a lot had happened.
tomhaggett

tomhaggett

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Running around like a headless chicken

As the title suggests, the next couple of sessions were more of a cardio session than a relaxing fishing session. Effort = reward however... unless you're me... then it generally equals a chance that I'll find a way to mess up .   25th July - Berkshire Stillwater   Yet another rushed after work overnighter. The fish have seemed to become rather nomadic recently and I had to settle down for the night without seeing much to go on. Nothing happened during the hours of darkness and once a cou
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Back to the target water.

3rd July - Berkshire Stillwater   Yet another after work session that leaves me rushing around to find some fish and get everything sorted before darkness. This particular session I'd walked almost the whole way around when a really good fish crashed out close to the island in quite an unpopular peg. That was all I had to go on so I set about getting a rod on the money which only took a couple of casts before I was happy. Then the now almost guaranteed drama started.. I couldn't reach the
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tomhaggett

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I promise I'll stop when everything is up to date...

The next date in my photobucket account seems to be this, though I think I'd sneaked a quick overnighter in on the target water and drawn a blank. I had managed a take at first light that session but unfortunately it shed the hook very early on in the battle. You win some you loose some.   22nd June - Vale Farm   With the warm weather well and truly upon us a mate and I had decided to start venturing over to Vale Farm for a few hours fly fishing after work. It is great fun, if a little ti
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Please let that swim be free...

11th May - Berkshire Stillwater   Looking back through my pictures I can't believe how much fishing I was getting in over late Spring. Unfortunately the lakes remained mostly closed for that whole period so it was difficult to really make most of the best season of the year.     I remember this session well. The lake was still 3/4 closed with only the same 7 swims open for angling. I had pulled out all the stops to be there this day as the conditions were due to be bang on... big westerl
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A few more to go before I'm up to date.

3rd May - Berkshire Stillwater   After catching that lovely 26lber, a fish I now realise was one of the known ones called Starburst, I was due to go for a night out with my mates. Naturally that all ended in the debauch it always does and of course I was hanging out of my *** the next day. Only one thing for it then... The gear was still in the motor so I nipped over to Berkshire with the idea of flicking a couple of rods out in the easier lake next door to the one I normally target before
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Please sir, can I have some more.

So leading on from that guest session I had the carp bug back, good and proper. It had been a good start to the season and I obviously wanted to try and continue that run for as long as possible.   21st April - Berkshire Water   Another day session, this time on the quietest of the "specimen" waters after a baiting up recce a couple of nights previous. I got down nice and early for once, just after first light and amazingly got the rods onto the prebaited spots with only one cast each. Th
tomhaggett

tomhaggett

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Getting back up to date.

So it's been a ridiculously long time since I last posted in here so, as I've got some more time on my hands with the shorter days, I thought I'd recount a few of the trips I've had between then and now.   April 14th - Berkshire Club Water   So I'll kick it off with a nice day trip I had as a guest to the "other" club in the Berkshire area. A mate of mine was just getting into the fishing on this particular lake and following a visit for a brew and a chat while he was fishing the night bef
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Forced further afield by the floods... A blessing in disguise.

31st March - Linch Hill, Willow.   As the title suggests the floods had deemed my club waters unsafe and as a result saw them closed for getting on 4 months... at my favourite time of the year as well!! Anyway, that's another story.   After my success with the leather that I wrote about last week the carp bug was well and truly back, but this time I fancied having a go at something a little bigger. I'd always wanted to fish up at Linch, having read so much about it when it was purely syn
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Catch up (pun), kicking off with the capture of a target.

It's been months since I've entered anything in here so it's time I started waffling again. Despite the lack of entries I got plenty of fishing done over the Spring and fared pretty well so I thought I'd flick through my photo album and recount some of the captures.   24th March - Shh.   So, the fishing was going rather well on the little venue close to work. Regular baiting trips and short sessions seemed to be throwing up quite a few fish each time and I was starting to feel close to cat
tomhaggett

tomhaggett

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A couple more productive trips

19th Feb - Shh.   Following last weeks success I had been back down to the little lake to bait the spots. They're only getting 50 or so baits at a time but it seems to be doing the job... keeping the fish regularly visiting the areas and expecting to find food there. I think this is being accentuated by there being no other anglers fishing at this time of the year and thus no other bait going in. It's quite a bit of effort what with taking a detour on my already 40 mile commute to or from w
tomhaggett

tomhaggett

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First time carping since November (I think)

So there I was at work the other day, thinking as I often do about where and when I was next going to fish and it popped into my mind that I still had a new pair of carp rods that I'd bought in December to christen. It just so happened that I finished a bit early that day, so after a little detour I was en route to check out the little lake that I had been stalking in the summer. To be honest with the state of the rivers I highly doubted that I'd be able to get near it but apart from a heavily
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A wet month.

December - this week, K&A Canal/pub   Since my last entry I've not been doing an awful amount of fishing to be honest. The late part of December and early January was spent either drunk or trying to master this blooming drop-shot malarkey. I've come to the conclusion that it's nothing more than a pain in the ass and is not worth wasting any more time on. I did catch a few small ones and more pike than I'd have liked but the only good fish I hooked came adrift early on in the fight... ju
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Back at it.

Late November - present. K&A Canal.   First entry for a while so I'll have to back track a little. After November's success I had a few more sessions after those carp, all bringing blanks or snotty bream, that typically hung themselves just as it was looking prime for a bite and getting a rig back out was difficult due to the light . I even had a couple of trips to day tickets with a mate, both renowned for being "runs waters" and drew blanks on those too. That was back in that spell
tomhaggett

tomhaggett

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That's more like it

17th October - Berkshire Lake   After last weeks complete and utter fail I had a bee in my bonnet and a score to settle so I popped back to the lake that I'd fished the evening on during my previous outing. I'd been down a couple of evenings previously to prep the spots and hopefully get the fish used to finding my bait in those areas. I'd bought a kilo or two of pellet along in the hope of keeping the fish grubbing around after they'd finished all the boilies off but quickly realised that a
tomhaggett

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It's been a while...

It seems like ages since I wrote on here so I thought I'd get back up to date. To be honest the reason for not posting has mostly been a run of what I'm calling bad luck but in reality has been due to complete incompetence. I've had only one proper session back on that little stalking pool during which I managed 4 up to 13-14lbs or so. Unfortunately with the nights drawing in there's not enough light for the after work sessions that I was fishing.   As well as that I've squeezed in a co
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A bit of everything.

A few more pics to share... firstly from another quick evening fly fishing with my work mate on the commercial. We had approx 12 fish each in under 2 hours, these being the best 2.     After that I've only been down to the little stalking lake for a few quick evening sessions. I'v had quite a few now, each and every one as impressive as the last. They're such a nice strain of fish in there. Unfortunately they've got a bit cuter over the last week or so and to add to that one of my f
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More stalking the forgotten ones.

8th August - Shh So I managed to secure a ticket on the water that featured in my last blog and thought it was about time I christened my new rod so I popped down there to fish the afternoon into the evening. As before I baited a good number of likely looking spots with soaked pellet, corn and a few chops and fished them in rotation judging by what I'd seen. It's seriously exciting stuff, watching these dark, old cheese's feeding, all the time willing them to drift off momentarily so you can
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Carp on the pin.

Since my last blog I've been back to the little commercial catching the carp on flies a few times. To be honest it's too easy and becomes rather boring after an hour or two. The average size seems to get better the later into the evening it gets. The last session for example produced a fair number of doubles to the 4 of us and one of just over 20 to my mate... quite a scrap on a light fly rod.   Saturday 3rd August - Shhh   An after work trip to the commercial unfortunately got cancelled
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Carp on the fly

24th July, Hampshire Commercial   As the title suggests I decided to try my hand at something a little different after some persuasion from a mate. We arranged to meet after work at a commercial venue neither of us had fished. I didn't manage to get there until 7, by which time he'd been waiting an hour but had caught a few rudd on the only fly he had with him, a Mayfly. (I was bringing the bait and appropriate flies from work). A couple of pouchfuls of mixers were all that was needed bef
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