tomhaggett

Fantastic angling yet again Chris. I inched up my pb again today.. they're noticeably more spawnbound than they where a week or two back.

I've been back to the canal a couple more times since my last entry but only for an hour or so per session. The first was spent checking out a new stretch that proved to be a bit of a struggle. Only one 50yard area produced, but the result was well worth the effort. I had a nice perch of approx 2.4 in the net but before I got a chance to weigh it the old man shouted that he was playing a bigger one. Sure enough, in the net it went and at first sight it was indeed a better one, we guessed around 2.8. However, after a quick weigh, it turned out to be substantially bigger at 3lb 1oz.. They're almost impossible to judge these perch. Some are evidently more full that others. Unfortunately this one had a massive hook and 2 SSG's stuck in it's throat but after a bit of careful surgery I managed to get it out. Fingers crossed that one survives.. it seemed to swim off happy enough. I also made use of the beautiful weather we had yesterday and popped to another new stretch for a rushed hour or so. 8 jacks and not a sign of any perch later and I was back off home. I'd walked the stretch many times in the past, hoping to find the carp. I found a few fish on a few occasions but they seemed very nomadic. One day they where there, the next they where nowhere to be seen. One area in particular though seemed more consistent and sure enough, as I was fishing that area last night a decent fish of 18-20lb came ghosting through, right under my feet . I'll make sure to take a bit of bait with me next time I'm out with the lure rod.

Welcome aboard mate. It's certainly addictive. I quite look forward to getting home from a session and compiling a little spiel on it. I look forward to your first success story.

27th Feb - K&A Canal & Avington Trout Fishery. I'll start with a pic of the most vividly marked perch I've ever seen. My workmate caught it on the fly this afternoon. We were just walking back along the lakes with a customer when I spotted a perch right in close. He grabbed the anglers rod that had an apps bloodworm fly attached. The water is gin clear and as the fish was literally 2 ft from the edge so we could see everything. He dropped the fly in, twitched in once to catch the fish's attention then left it static. The perch ever so calmly turned and tilted up over the static fly and in painstakingly slow motion inched downwards and sucked it up off the deck. The fly had been static for a good 20 seconds before it was taken. I managed to get off work at a decent time again so went for another short session on the canal. I'd forgotten to pick up my net after hanging it to dry after the last succesfull session, then forgot to pick up one from work. I decided I'd be able to hand land anything I'd catch so fished on anyway which proved to be a mistake when I hooked a pike from a high bank in the first swim I fished. I scrambled down the slope and chinned the fish, then all of a sudden the bank gave way beneath me and before I knew it I was shin deep in the freezing canal, pike in one hand and rod flailing about in the other. To add insult to injury my rucksack then fell off and tangled around my reel.. what a catastrophe. While all this was going on, a geriatric old dear was standing behind me rabbiting on about her dog liking the smell of fish . Anyway, I fished on until it was too dark, sopping wet and as the title suggests, with rather cold feet. I ended up with 3 pike and 2 perch, one of which I guessed to be 2.4 or so.

Cracking result once again Chris.

That's a beaut Rusty.

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 perch... I suggested trying one more swim on the way back to the car and sure enough it produced the only perch of the trip.. a beauty at 2.14 to the old man.. I was made up for him, glad that I was there to share the moment and get behind the other side of the lens. 25th Feb - K&A Canal Another after work session. This lure fishing is becoming a bit of an obsession. Work was quiet angler wise so I managed to get off a little earlier, thus giving me around 45 minutes to an hour of fishing. I started back in the swim that I had the 3 from and quickly hooked a nice fish that I guessed to be a low 2. I left that one in the net and had a few more casts and 2 minutes later a slightly bigger one was sharing the net with his "shoal mate". The first one went 2.4 and the second 2.13, chuffed is an understatement. Nobody was about to do a pic so I did a couple of mat shots and was just about to slip them back when I heard a familiar voice and looked up to see the same dog walker that did the pics of the 3 for me... impeccable timing. I gave him a few tips this time to avoid becoming another spec on the horizon, and I have to say he did an absolutely fantastic job. I changed down to a tiny 2" shad after that to try and winkle one more chance. It had an effect but not quite in the manner I was expecting... 3 jacks in 4 casts!

Any budget spod rod will fit the bill mate. Check out Chub, Fox, Greys, ESP and Wychwood for a start. You should get one for approx 50 notes. Alternatively, look on the auction sites etc. and go down the second hand route. You're likely to get a far better rod than the above for similar money.

Thanks for the kind words pal. I'm really surprised at the results in this weather to be honest. Fishing really slowly, just bumping the lure along the deck seems to be producing, though it does take a fair bit of patience. I think you could be right. Obviously when you get takes while retrieving the majority of fish will hook themselves against the resistance. Striking early could be a reason as to why we miss them in that situation, though with this one the whole lure had disappeared into the fish's mouth .

I can't work the bloody things out Chris. They seem to come on when the conditions should be at their worst. I went for half an hour Weds eve when the conditions looked ok and between 4 of us, one lad had one take.. though it was a 3. They went back the following day when it was bloody freezing, exactly the same area, same tactics and all caught a load. That's what tempted me into going yesterday. I wouldn't have expected to catch perch on anything, let alone lures!! It looks like you had one hell of a session again.. do you ever struggle? .

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 retrieve might make a difference and had the 2.14 next cast. I even saw that one hit the lure in the gin clear water. It got seriously cold, seriously quickly after that, the rod rings where freezing solid every time I moved swims. The only way I could carry on fishing was to dip the rod in the canal to thaw them . Stupidly I carried on, my fingers hurt so much by that point that I could hardly hold the rod, but in the last swim I tried I had the 2.07 and lost the pike which made sticking it out worthwhile. Unfortunately I had no-one to take the pics this time.. but I'd thought of that and bought my big 30" spoon so I could rest the fish in there and wait for a passer by should I need to. Sure enough a hippy looking chap walked by so I politely asked him to do a pic and his response was rather unexpected and abrupt, "NO, I don't believe in fishing". Luckily enough a dog walker did the honours a couple of minutes later.. though despite my advice I still ended up a spec on the horizon. I've edited them a bit, but the old phrase "you can't polish a turd" sure rings true here. The 2.14 I held in one hand while trying to get a shot with my phone in the other. And the 2.07 I gave up and got a floor shot. 3.03 2.14 2.07 Chuffed . Now to go back for the bigger one I missed earlier in the week.

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, right under my feet, a colossal perch appeared from under a boat, looked at the lure for a second and sucked it in... YES..... NO .. Somehow I managed to strike the bait out of its mouth and it was now gloriously tangled around the rod swinging in the wind. After working towards that opportunity for the past 2 winters I typically managed to cock it up. It all happened very quickly, but if I was to guess I'd say the fish was at the very least 3.8. Gutted isn't the word. At least I'd located one though.. I'll be back as soon as I possibly can be. I carried on until it was too dark, managing another jack that conveniently unhooked itself in the edge and another small perch.

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 armada of canoes participating in a race. I couldn't see the fish playing ball with all the disturbance so I hoped over the fence and did a lap of the lake I spent the previous year carping on. I'd seen a real big fish in there a year or so back but nobody every fishes for them so it's potential is largely untapped. Not a lot happened in the end.. I spooked a double out of the edge and managed a small jack. At a loss of what to do I went back to the K&A where I caught well yesterday and half heartedly gave it a go for 45 minutes without a touch, so a mate and I hurried down to a new stretch for the last half an hour of light. I ended up with 2 pike to 7lb or so, and a 1.5lb perch. He had 3 perch to 2ish and a small pike. There was plenty of predator activity down there so I'll be giving it a proper go next time I'm off work. Hopefully I'm going to give a stretch closer to home a go if I can get off early one day this week. If I get down there for the last bit of light hopefully I can at least locate the bait fish that seem to spend 20 minutes dimpling in the half light.

What a fish Chris. And just reward for all your effort over the years. I'm gagging for a mid 3 now, I can't even begin to imagine what a 4 must look like on the bank.

Can't wait for the write-up of this.. got to be 4+ if my memory serves me correctly. Massive congrats to all of you... it seems today was a good day for perching in Berkshire.

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 brownie of 3-3.5lb that gave a good account of itself. Once again it came from an area where the river and canal met.. these are proving to be a real hotspot of late, in fact I think I'm going to have a quick look on google maps for similar areas to visit tomorrow. Time was getting on by this point so I rushed along to the other stretch for 3pm. I met my Dad in the car park, who much to my surprise was all set up and ready to go. It's been a fair while since I've had a session with him and it turned out to be every bit as good as it always was. We started at one boundary of the stretch, with him catching a perch of around 1lb after only a few casts which certainly took the pressure off. We'd fished the stretch a couple of times with lures, albeit a good few years ago, and not done much good so we where slightly apprehensive. Anyway, we carried on both catching a few smallish perch until we started nearing the area that we'd always caught a lot of perch on using bait. Just before this particular area I had a few chucks near some moored barges and hooked something a hell of a lot bigger than the perch we'd had until then. After a few fraught minutes on my light rod a long lean pike rolled into the net.. probably 9-10lb, and very sparsely marked. And that's when the fun really started. I'd never thought the time of day would effect lure fishing much, but when using bait on this stretch we'd not ever caught before the last hour or so of light. Anyway, it was getting towards dusk by now and we'd reached the swim that had always been productive in the past. It looked even better now with a bit of extra water about. I got in pole position and fished it for a good 10 minutes without a touch, before my dad had a quick go and hooked a decent perch 2nd cast. From that point on it was just mental.. fishing exactly the same area in exactly the same fashion as I had unsuccessfully 15 minutes before, we where getting a bite a chuck and some of them really wanted it.. In that last 45 minutes of light we had another 4 jacks between us and around 20 perch, including 3 or 4 scraper 2's. Fantastic fishing and something I doubt will happen again for a good while. Here's a braces of 2's.. biggest 2lb3oz. Back out tomorrow .

Cheers chaps. I was pretty damn happy with it. Fantastic perch Paul.. I've been after a mid 3 for a good few years.. only done a few sessions a year though if I'm honest. A mid 3 I think will just look that bit bigger than a scraper. Hopefully I'll find a few before the end of the season.

In that depth of water I'd ledger them. Use a large diameter run ring to cut down the resistance, and a paternoster style link if it's particularly silty. What's your reasoning for wanting to use deads? I've always found them pretty hopeless for Perch. Are you allowed to use livelies?

That'd make this my 16th post then... fingers crossed that'll sort it. Cheers for your help lads.

Evening all, I started writing a blog around a year ago. I couldn't figure out how to make it "live" back then, even after asking for assistance a few times. Regardless I carried on writing entries for a while before I gave up. I've just rediscovered the blog and have added a few more entries. What I need to know is how do I get it "live" on here. At the moment every time I share the entry it only comes up as a draft...

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 where the canal and river met. This had created a lovely slack which to be honest looked almost too good to be true. Full of anticipation I flicked the shad into the slack, just off an overhanging tree and bumped the lure across the bottom a couple of times before the rod tapped down and the resulting strike was met with a pleasing thump and a shake of the unseen predators head. I'd been hoping to get into some good perch on the lures and very early on in the fight I spotted a set of bright red fins flash a few feet down.. oohh. A short but nerve-wracking fight later and le perch was in the net.. it looked a good'un too. After slipping it into a sling, zeroing the flyweights and hoisting it aloft I watched the needle sail around to 2lb 15oz and 8 drams.. perilously close to the 3lb barrier that I'd struggled to reach the previous year. I got a lad that was carping on the lake behind me to take a few pics which came out fantastically. I carried on down the canal for a bit, exploring more than anything as I'd not ventured this far along the stretch before. I had a few flicks in a pool where an overflow was pushing into the canal and landed a jack of 5lb or so on the first cast. The rod coped admirably, if anything it was a little stronger than I'd hoped. Only one thing for it, I'll have to buy an ultralight and have a proper go for the K&A perch before the end of the season haha. Nothing else occurred, despite revisiting the successful swim on dusk. I'm absolutely gagging to get back out there again and after politely sacking off a young lady that I was supposed to be spending a romantic weekend with it looks like I have 2 days of fishing ahead of me . The conditions don't look too bad either...

So here we are, it's the middle of February and things have changed quite significantly for me over the past few months. I've finally got myself a very worthwhile job that I hope to stay in long term. I'm now working at the famous Avington Trout Fishery , and am absolutely loving it, depsite the horrendous weather. It's been a long old struggle since achieving my degree in fishery management and aquaculture some 3-4 years ago, but finally my persistence has paid off. As I said in the last blog, I'd become massively disheartened with the whole carp fishing scene and needed a change, something that was going to reignite that desire to fish at every opportunity. I knew I wanted to get back on the rivers and had started to read a few lure fishing blogs. Just a couple of days later a new rod, a selection of soft plastics and numerous jig heads where on the doorstep and my wallet was substantially lighter. 25th Jan 13, canalised stretch of the Kennet. My first session with the lure rod was back on my old haunt where I spent the previous winter after the chub. You may remember me commenting on it's lack of flow.. well now it is the polar opposite, absolutely hacking through and over the banks in many places. although it's running fairly clear my 10g jig heads would only reach the bottom in a very few slightly slacker areas on my near margin. I wandered along probably a mile of bank fishing any of these small slack areas that I could find with my little Kopyto shads and only received one bit of action. This nice chub of just under 4lb snaffled the shad on the drop and put up a cracking scrap on the new rod.

Well, I've just rediscovered my old blogs after almost a year. I quite enjoyed reading them back and reminiscing over last years successes that have all too quickly become but distant memories. I found writing about my fishing very rewarding last year.. it enabled me to really appreciate the good's and mill over the bad's from each session. Without writing it down I find it all quite difficult to take in. As much as I'd like other people to hopefully find reading my blurb pleasurable, I also quite like having a breakdown of my fishing so I can refer to it at a later date if needs be. Let me start by filling you in on the happenings over the past 10 months or so: Since starting my job last Spring I had far, far less time to fish. Although I hated being unemployed for the winter, it did enable me so much freedom and time on the bank. Fingers crossed I never have to go through it again though. I carried on the carping throughout the year, and I'm glad to say, that long awaited 30 finally found it's way into the folds of my net. Shortly after my last blog I bought some new rods so popped down to the complex on a Saturday with the intention of christening them on one of the easier waters. Upon walking down to the lakes I very surprisingly found the water that's featured in the majority of my blogs fairly quiet so I slotted back into that little corner swim where I banked the 10lb common from previously. To cut a long story short I had a take an hour later, and after a monumental scrap, landed a new pb.. all 35lb 14oz of it... what a way to christen the rods. Needles to say I was made up, and the 7 years of hard work had finally come to fruition. I really felt like I'd earned that one. After that I carried on fishing when I could. This mainly consisted of work overnighters on the other target water, which although more difficult was far more accessible for my early starts. I was arriving after work at 6pm and leaving at 6.30am the following morning to get back to work. 18 of these nights without a bite and I was becoming exhausted, the lake was fishing terribly and to be honest I was getting pretty fed up. I moved back onto the other water after that and caught a few pretty 20's but once again struggled to find the bigger fish. My last session after the carp was at the start of December on the Blue Pool at Burghfield. Myself and 3 mates had booked exclusive use of it for 2 nights. Again, without going into too many words, it was cold, wet and quite disheartening in that I had a little falling out with a mate that I'd grown close to throughout the year. These things happen, but it enabled me to see how carp angling had become such a trophy hobby in recent years. Everyone wants a bit of fame and will seemingly go to extremes just to get there face in the magazines. I like to fish for my own enjoyment.. I don't need other people's approval to be happy and thus my desire for carping had burnt out. I did manage one Simmo of 17lb odd.. but the face says it all. I'll pick the blog up from here and hopefully start getting some regular entries going again. It might be worth me actually trying to get it public first, after giving up trying last year.

21st - 22nd April - Berkshire Stillwater I finally started a new job this week after 4 months of unemployment. I'm ecstatic to have finally found something but it will mean that my time on the bank is very limited. In 7/8 years of holding this particular ticket I've fished one night at a weekend, and hated it so much I vowed never to do it again. Unfortunately I now don't have a choice, so I ventured down straight from work on Friday. I was buying some alarms off someone that was fishing but I took my stuff along anyway in case I fancied staying on. As it turns out I picked the alarms up, and went straight home as both the main waters were pretty stitched up.. I did take note that a lot would be leaving in the next 24 hours. I sat at home the next day, bored as anything, uhming and ahing about whether I should do the night when a mate rang saying he was going down and did I want to join him. Said mate has been skiing in the Alps for the last 4 months so I figured it'd be a good opportunity to catch up with him, so I quickly chucked the gear in the car and drove the 45 minutes to the lake. A quick scout round one of them revealed it to still be a bit busy so we went off to the other and found only 6 people left on. A quick look around didn't give us anything to go on so we got down just before the end of a south-westerly. We'd heard this end of the lake ha produced a few fish that week so it looked good. I knew the spots quite well, so a couple of chucks to find the shallow areas and I was fishing. The night passed quietly on the fish front and not so quietly on the social front and we awoke in the morning with nothing to show for our efforts. Once again I was clinging on to 11am being bite time and at 10.50 I had a couple of beeps on my receiver so I wandered down from my mates swim to check the rods. Little did I expect to find the left hand rod that had been fishing straight in front of me to be doubled over and a fish on about 80 yards from where it was hooked after only giving me two bleeps on the new alarms. I was fishing locked up so the fish had obviously picked up the rig and kited on a tight line without pulling any line over the roller of the alarm. When I finally caught up with it the resistance was slightly unimpressive and a minute or so later a tench of 5 1/2lb or so was wallowing on the surface.. I got a glimpse and saw that it's mouth was in a right state from a previous battle .. so I quickly flipped the hook out in the water and let it swim off. Rod back out on the spot and I went back up to my mates swim to finish my brew and 10 minutes later I had another couple of beeps.. Sure enough when I checked the rods the left hander was bent round again and a fish was chugging up the margins of an island that was over to the left of the productive spot. This one had a bit of weight to it, and proceeded to take line off me at 60yards. It scrapped well once I'd got it under the tip but went into the net at the first time of asking. I honestly though I'd cracked the 30 barrier.. but when we got the fish on the mat it was extremely empty. Up on the scales and it went 25lb on the dot. I had a little play around on Picassa and edited the pics slightly and was quite happy with the results.. I stayed on for another few hours expecting another take at any minute but swiftly packed up when I saw the ominous cloud on the horizon. Unfortunately I didn't get packed away quickly enough and within 20 seconds of starting my long trip back to the car the heavens opened and everything including me got soaked. A slightly annoying way to end a very nice session. Still no blanks :D!

3rd - 5th April - Berkshire Stillwater. Back out again for two nights with a mate. Knew it'd be busy later in the week due to easter bank holiday, so we arranged to meet down there on the Tuesday. Little did we know that a load of people had taken the full week off so they could fish a long session. Due to the pressure I slotted into a corner swim that controlled its own little bay in the hope that the fish would seek refuge in the quieter areas. The swim used to be full of fallen trees and lillies but has undergone a serious pruning this year, with 99% of the cover removed. Since that work was done the usually productive swim hadn't produced a single carp. I saw a couple creeping in there over the course of the day and settled down confident of some action in darkness. That action didn't come unfortunately and we awoke to find 12 other people on the lake, and others due down that afternoon. That was enough to put us off so we started packing away with the intention of fishing one of the quieter lakes on the ticket. Just as I was dismantling my bivvy one of my locked up rods gave a few beeps and buckled in the rests.. Fish on, but a distinct lack of resistance, perhaps a tench. A couple of minutes later after an uneventful scrap a little common of around 9/10lb rolled into the net and was slipped back without his picture being taken. Even after having that fish neither of us could handle staying on a lake that was so packed so we upped sticks and moved over to the under fished venue down the road. The lake in question is a bit of a funny one.. one bank is totally out of bounds and fishing to the cover that adorns it produces a lot of the fish. The stock is relatively untapped, especially after a few of the known bigger fish were moved to a lake down the path .. and it therefore gets ignored by the majority on anglers. We set up in two social swims and fished an uneventful night, apart from 2 slimy bream hanging themselves on my rods during the early hours. I had a walk up to the other end and found fish fizzing off a major snag that I'd caught most of my fish from before. I apologised to my mate for being unsocial and took a rod down there, flicking out a stringer the 40 yards to where they were fizzing. Luckily I manage dthis first time and got a nice donk as the lead touched bottom a few inches from the snags. 15 minutes later and the rod pulled up tight and I was in.. another uneventful fight and another common found the bottom of the net. A nice fish at around 15lb.. and one that meant I had caught on every session so far this year, and on all 3 of the main target waters