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Bayleaf the Gardener

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Bayleaf the Gardener last won the day on August 15 2021

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  1. Is that a pike, Mate? or a gudgeon?
  2. Ha ha! Yes - perfectly reasonable. Can you snap it off so we can re-site it on Guyers Bridge please? We'll put in a good word for you with T Pooks if anyone tells on you.
  3. Your posts are always an education, Chris. Thanks to you and Google I now know what a kype is, pronounced or otherwise!
  4. My first trip out since consecutive blanks a week ago. After a few nights of freezing temperatures, storm Isha piled through yesterday, strewing my recycling all round the garden, but melting the ice on the lake top. It was still pretty windy, so I sat in the west corner and let it blow over my head. Knowing the water temperature to be pretty chilly, I kept it light and small, float fishing a single piece of corn on a size 18 1.5 rod lengths out. I slobbed in a walnut-sized lump of groundbait every so often and had bites from the start which allowed me to step up to a size 16. Ended up with 17 bream, 13 of which were between 1lb and 3lb 12, a couple of nice roach and a bonus 6lb 2 common. A fun day. I kept a pike rod out to the right, twitching and recasting the deadbait regularly. It remained untouched apart from one curious incident. Bringing in another bream, it found the gumption to fight, changed direction totally (probably pursued by a pike) and made for the direction of my bung. The lines inevitably crossed and which point my pike rod started to bounce. I chucked the float rod down to grab it. A large pike showed its flank and roared away, and I played it for a good 30 seconds before it dropped off/let go. Not sure quite what happened there, but as well as not catching a pike, the bream hooklink had snapped. Bah.
  5. January 23 was a time of short mid-winter trips to Marsh Benham to plunder its chub and a great many fat trout. This year in South Wales, we sadly have no such river within 30 miles radius (well, none that are not fly fishing only or seen devoid of fish) so it's lakes for me with their inherent poor behaviour in cold weather combined with my lack of ability. 1.1 - Treoes. Scaled down on the tackle and winkled out 4 bream, the biggest of 3lb 2. 5.1 - Treoes. Having spent the cold evenings watching videos on winter lake fishing, I come armed with new tactics. I fished at length with a large bodied waggler, the vast majority of it's 5ssg capacity either side of the float, with a size 18 hook length, ready to step to to either a 16 or 14 once the bigger fish start moving in. The sun rose so low and so bright that I was blinded from the float so had to move to a less painful swim. Kept on the size 18 all day, managing 24 roach from micro-size to 4oz, 13 skimmers and a surprise 2 rudd. Oh well, unlike the Newbury lakes where the cormorants and crayfish have all but accounted for the tinies, at least it's good to see them thriving here. 12.1 - Fendrod Lake, Swansea. Another bright, sunny but chilly day, I changed venue to this 13 acre park lake. Picked a sheltered swim at the deeper end of the lake where the low sun would be hitting the water in front of me. I felt the fish might be drawn to the marginally higher water temperature as the afternoon progressed. It's also the only swim on the entire lake that drops away from the constant strolling by of the general public thus affords the relief of being able to take a shameless wee when needed. Perfectly pleasant sitting in the sunshine, emptying the bladder when required with impunity, but one rod on wafters and the other on teeny hooks with a single maggot brought no bites. 14.1 - Treoes. The second leg of Glamorgan Angling Club's annual pike matches. Most, including me had blanked on the first. 16 of us doughty anglers turned up on a Sunday morning to lovely overcast conditions after days of chill and blue sky. By the time the 9am start came, this had gone and it was hard and clear again. I'd drawn a swim on the shady bank while my compatriots opposite side removed layers and protected their eyes from the glare, I shivered. Looking at the high number of vibrant pike floats across the lake was reminiscent of a schoolboy's heavily acne'd face, but not one of them moved in the entire 6 hours. I've never come close to winning a match before, so to come equal 1st was a minor consolation! 15.1 - Hmm, with it forecast to be colder today and with a northerly wind. I think I'll find something else to do instead.
  6. That's why i didn't fish the Bulls Lock stretch. It's lovely and deep there but I didn't fancy having my sandwiches sniffed by dogs or druggies. It has the NAA's biggest pike there, but there's no way I was going to unhook any in front of small children and mad cyclists. I'm a true misanthrope. Happy fishing for '24.
  7. The end of another year, the fourth after my 20 year+ hiatus from the sport that has totally recaptured me like a gudgeon to a pinkie. July 2023 brought a move from Berkshire to Wales and a completely different set of options. Beach fishing has come into the equation (something I really haven’t got to grips with yet) but my nearest coarse fishing river is an almost implausible 45 mins drive away - too far – and even that seems devoid of fish. So a largely disappointing year for me, in angling terms, though that barbel on the Kennet on that March evening will long live in the memory. Wales have brought a pb common at 19lb 8, perch of 3lb and roach of 1lb 2, along with my first eels since resuming fishing, with the 3lb 1 snake also being a pb for a live fish (I did once snag an estimated 5lb dead eel on the Thames wrapped in someone else’s line. None of them will trouble the records office, but they're all kicking my can down the road and each one was very welcome. Pike have proved to be very elusive in wales, with 6 of my banks down to them. I'm quite anal in my record keeping, writing a journal, updating a spreadsheet, and then there's been this jolly-old blog since March 21, so I am well-equipped to shake a creel full of statistics at you which are of interest to, at best, myself. Here goes: Total number of trips: 2023 - 89 - I missed many in the summer when we moved) (2022 - 144, 2021 - 167) Total number of hours spent fishing: 462 (2022 - 864, 2021 - 912.25) Thus average length of trip = 5.2 hours (2022 4.6 hours) Total number of fish caught: 718 (2022 - 1,344 not including 62 minnows, 2021 - 1,277 not including 49 minnows) Total weight of fish: 1,521lb 4 oz with no minnows (2022 - 2,024lbs, 2021 - 1,850lbs). Thus average weight per trip = 2023 - 17lbs (2022 -14lbs, 2021 -11lbs) Number of fish caught per trip = 8 & 1 fish every 38 minutes (2022 - 9.33 @ 1 fish every 38 minutes, 2021 - 7.74 @ 1 fish every 42 minutes). Number of blank trips was 18 ie 1 every 5 trips (2022 - 14 ie 1 in 10 trips 2021 - 20, ie 1 in 8 trips) number caught number over 1lb years biggest number caught number over 1lb years biggest Bleak 15 (71, 102) NA NA Bream 219 (87,75) 69, (61,27) 7lb 14 (8lb 3.6lb 2) Brownie 67 (28,25) 66(17,16) 4lb 8 (4lb 10,3lb) Common 86 (129,117) 86 (129,116) 19lb 8 (14lb 15, 18lb 9) Chub 19 (50,8) 14 (7,2) 5lb 4 (3lb 10,1lb 12) Crucian 9 (9,10) 0(5,4) NA (2lb 14,2lb 12) Dace 6 (131, 39) 0 6oz (8oz,12oz) Grayling 0 (4,7) 0(2,2) NA (1lb, 1lb 4) Gudgeon 3 (5,12) NA NA Mirror 37 (66,90) 37 (66,90) 12lb (14lb 10,16lb 10) Perch 10 (140,270) 1 (13/13) 3lb (2lb 6,2lb 6) Pike 2 (9,2) 2(8,2) 7lb (14lb, 3lb 2) Rainbow 1(1,1) 1(1,1) 3lb 2 (2lb 2,5lb 3) Roach 186 (583,450) 2, (1,0) 1lb 2 (1lb, 12oz) Rudd 10 (9,20) 0 6oz (12oz/4oz) Tench 43 (34,49) 15 (45,34) 3lb 8 (6lb 2, 5lb) There. Not particularly great, is it. My comments 2 years ago were "my profile suggests someone who has concentrated on Willows (carp, tench), and hasn't got to grips with rivers (the chub count is appalling). Plenty of room for improvement, especially chub, and I'd like to do some piking this winter. I also aim to get the blanks down to 1 in 5, and find some larger roach." Well, it came broadly right in 2022. My joining a local river syndicate with good roach and chub numbers made a difference, but that ended with my move. Very few brownies or chub predicted for 2024. The pic is a repeat of my favourite fish of the year, that barbel. I'm far too far from the Wye to add any more this year. Ambitions for 2024 are to find other venues (though efforts so far have only revealed more lakes) and step up the sea fishing - from 10 short sessions in 2023 I've landed 13 small bass and nothing else. Happy New Year everyone. May your floats dither then go under.
  8. A last session of the year at my default lake. A fun trip, though thank goodness for bream. After a slow start a shoal found me, and in groups of two or three I ended up wit eleven, ten of which came in between 1lb and 4lb 4. With a bonus carp of 6lb 6 and the rain keeping off me all day, I would have settled for this before hand.
  9. With rain due this afternoon and the tides in the right direction, I headed for the local beach. A steady sou' westerly was driving quite a surf and being a newbie at this sea fishing lark, I don't yet know if the cold-water fish come as near to the shore as the summer bass do. Anyway, I cast as far as the wind and my poor technique would allow into the meaty waves. At least with the tide coming in, the bait (a two-hook flapper rog, one holding a sandeel, the other a bit of squid) would effectively be left it in less turbulent water. After half an hour the rain started early with the force of the wind making it uncomfortable to stand in. After a couple of hours I'd had no bites and (as I would find out when I got home) even my pants were wet. With the tide now going out, I felt that my hooks would be left in shallower and shallower rough water and decided to go and wrap some Christmas presents instead.
  10. Very annoying though. I'm more glad than ever I use barbless trebles.
  11. Having abandoned any further 1hr 40 minute round trips to my 'local' river which seemingly holding no fish, and my very local Port Talbot Docks mysteriously having last week closed to all further fishing, it's my usual lake again. Friday. With the frosts a few days past now I was hoping the fish will have woken up hungry. Well, they sort of had. Got a handful of roach and bream, but in heavy rain did get a bonus 13lb 6 Common. Monday. A chilly but often sunny day. I chose to sit on the north bank and cast to where the sun might be warming the water slightly. Certainly gloves were required where I sat in the shade, but as the temperature started to rise so the bites began. I had 22 bream, biggest 2lb 8 with four over the 2lb mark, plus two nice roach. I also set up a pike rod as a 'sleeper', this time with a sprat, my thinking it being more like the silvers I imagine the pike eat than my usual half mackerel. Though I twitched the bait occasionally, and dripped maggots around to being in the bait fish it sat untouched. Until 2pm when the float pulled under and the line tightened. I struck and was in. It gave a good fight, remaining unseen and regularly stripping line for a good few minutes. Finally it started to fade and revealed itself - a 9lb 10 Common carp!
  12. My third trip to the Ely. It's my nearest coarse river and, with a stop at Bridgend to pick up maggots, took me about 50 minutes. That's too long, but I'm missing my chub fishing. We've had a clear and chilly last week that's warmed in the last couple of days with some rain and cloud giving a pleasant lift in temperature that I think makes it ripe for action. It's a lovely looking river, much like the Kennet in places with glides and overhangs - very chubby looking. Having suffered two blanks here so far, I've sharpened my technique watching every long-trotting video I could find on You Tube. So I'm pretty confident I have validated my choice of swim, loose feed strategy, depth, weight of float (4ssg) drawn beautifully off the centrepin, shot distribution and hook size to be pretty confident that if there's fishy action to be had, I should see some of it. Nope. On my fifth swim I finally get an apologetic bite and a sucked maggot, and that's the peak of the action. That's it. We're through. The Ely can poke it. That's probably around 9 hours of fishing here for a mouthed maggot and a dropped 2oz (probably) roach. Those readers who curse the presence of trout in their waters read ruefully. What I wouldn't have given for an angry-faced brownie.
  13. Risk £4- ish and buy a bag. It stays on no bother, and as long as you keep it airtight, you can save what you don't use for next time. No sticky fingers either! There's some pretty good You Tube videos. You can watch them with a pinch of salt, of course, but I urge you to give it a go and see what you think.
  14. Hi Chris - Another great haul. Wish the Lamborn flowed through South Wales. Maybe with a bit more floodwater it will reach us. I was wondering whether you'd tried Fjuka for your trout egg imitation? It might not smell of krill, but has a fish-attracting aroma and really easy to hook on a size 16/18. I rarely fish without a bag in my, err, bag.
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