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Entries in this blog

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
tomhaggett

tomhaggett

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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

Finally done it :).

I've finally bettered my perch pb. After a few close shaves recently, and a lot of effort over the past 2 winters I popped out for a couple of hours tonight and managed 6 perch - 3.03, 2.14, 2.07, 1.8 and a couple of small ones. I also lost a decent pike.   Both the 2 bigger fish where caught from the first area I tried. I had the 1.8 first so persevered and had the 3.03 shortly afterwards before moving15 yards down the bank and casting to the same area, hoping the different angle of retr
tomhaggett

tomhaggett

3

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
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

tomhaggett

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Three 2's and a 3.

31st March - K&A Canal   Popped back to the canal with the soft plastics tonight. It was rather an impromptu trip after unexpectedly getting off from work early but it was certainly worthwhile.   I thought I'd try another new stretch to prevent it getting a little stale, and to give the other stretches a bit of respite. I made a quick call to see if the old man wanted to join me and 3/4 of an hour later we were tackling up, full of expectation. We fished for an hour or so in the bitin
tomhaggett

tomhaggett

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The desire is well and truly back..

7th Feb 13, canalised stretch of the Kennet.   I finally managed to get back out with the lure rod. Spare time is at a real premium with my new job and juggling my social life and fishing is proving pretty difficult.   I ventured back to the same stretch once again, largely because most other stretches are all but un-fishable due to the flow and water levels. I walked the entire stretch without finding a swim that I could properly work my baits in until coming to the end of the beat wher
tomhaggett

tomhaggett

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Biggest pike of the season and another pb perch.

7th March - Hamps. River & K&A canal   I've just returned from another fantastic days lure fishing.   A mate of mine is the keeper on a lovely stretch of river in Hampshire and after seeing a few big pike recently (one so big it's been christened, Big Bertha) he invited me down for a quick go at them. It was flowing pretty hard, but by sticking to the deeper water we managed 4 between us and a few obligatory trout. Unfortunately "bertha" didn't put in an appearance, though he did
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tomhaggett

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Catch up

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
tomhaggett

tomhaggett

5

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
tomhaggett

tomhaggett

1

Back with a bang.

24th-25th April - Berkshire Lake   As I've mentioned previously I'd become disillusioned with the carp scene towards the back end of last year and thus hadn't been since early December. I hadn't really missed it much at all, but I did notice the carp at work becoming far more active every day. Add to that a few catch reports that my mates had kept me updated on and I thought I'd get out for a night after work.   I was understandably "rusty", and after putting 2 rigs up trees, getting m
tomhaggett

tomhaggett

2

Free panda.

29th March - K&A Canal   First entry for a while, it's all been a bit bleak lately. The couple of half-hearted/hungover sessions I've managed have both drawn blanks, so when I turned up today to find a bloody canoe race in full flow I wasn't exactly hopeful.   It's not really worth fishing when there's 200 competitive, would be sailors bumbling about so I went to the local lakes to waste some time, planning a return in the evening. That didn't exactly go smoothly either... I lost a jac
tomhaggett

tomhaggett

4

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
tomhaggett

tomhaggett

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Fairly quiet today.

17th Feb Berkshire lake and various stretches of the K&A   Back out with the lure rod following yesterdays success. I started off in the shop once again, spending more money on lures. I thought lure fishing would cost me a lot less money than carping, but so far it's cost me a fortune.. it's certainly addictive. I'm even thinking of buying a new rod already... I've only used the other one 3 times .   I'd intended on fishing the stretch of canalised river again, but was met with an a
tomhaggett

tomhaggett

1

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
tomhaggett

tomhaggett

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Big stripeys all round :).

23rd Feb - K&A Canal   Had a call from my Dad around midday to say he was going down the canal and did I want to meet him after work. No way was I refusing so after hurrying the last few anglers off the fishery 10 minutes after closing time I put my foot down and got to the canal with about half an hour of light left.   He'd not had any luck when I arrived, and after we'd walked most of the stretch I've been doing well from, the only action came from me catching a jack and missing a p
tomhaggett

tomhaggett

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Cracking end to the season :).

Well, that's it, another seasons over but I'm glad to say I've seen it in with a couple of really good sessions. This close is going to be one of the most difficult for me I think. I've really enjoyed being away from the lakes in the past few months and although I can still fish a few bits of canal it's going to be a long 3 months.   13th March - Hamps. River   I arranged to pop down to a local stretch of river with a mate after work to see how the pike stocks were looking. To be honest i
tomhaggett

tomhaggett

1

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
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

1

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

3

What a difference 10 minutes can make.

Sat 16th Feb 13 - Various stretches of the K&A canal:   Well what a days lure fishing I've had. I had planned to fish somewhere around Newbury for the late morning/afternoon before meeting the old man for the evening on a different stretch of the canal.   I actually ended up spending an hour in the tackle shop nattering, which only gave me an hour or so to explore a few bits around the town. I wandered about, having a flick here and there without anything happening before hooking a b
tomhaggett

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
tomhaggett

tomhaggett

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Scuppered the opportunity I've been waiting for.,

19th Feb, K&A canal:   I got off work at a decent enough time today so decided to stop off at a new stretch for the witching hour (well, half an hour by the time I arrived). I had a tiny perch after a couple of minutes so at least I knew there where some fish about.   I worked my way up the canal, stopping for a few casts in between the many moored barges, willingly staring at my shad every time it came into my own margin. Then it happened, just as I was about to lift the lure out, r
tomhaggett

tomhaggett

2

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
tomhaggett

tomhaggett

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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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