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Bayleaf the Gardener

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  1. Bayleaf the Gardener

    06 08 21 - Willows

    By Bayleaf the Gardener,


    Willows
    Ooh lovely - air pressure falling (just) below 1,000mb brought the prospect of hungry fish with easing stomachs.
    (a) 6:45am til 11:30  One bite. Missed it. Mixed it up - fished far, fished close, swapped baits, loose fed. Nothing.
    (b) 11:30 - 2:30 - 5 carp. All in pristine condition. 5lb, 7lb 8, 5lb 10, 5lb 2. 8lb 14 and a bream, 4oz. Could barely put the rod down without knocks or line bites.
    (c) 2:30 - 4:45. - Not even a nudge
    The knack of angling is catching in sessions (a) and (c), a skill that I clearly don't currently possess. I'm trying to get there through trial and error. It's frustrating, but such fun trying.
    What didn't help was the violent, 20 minute storm at the end of (b)  that brought the air temperature down dramatically and maybe contributed to the impotency of (c)
     
     


  2. Bayleaf the Gardener
    After yesterday's slowish day at Willows, I decided while driving down Muddy Lane to try and make my recent luck change and turned right to Dobsons. My favourite swim was free, and with the forecast rain and lower air pressure after the previous week's heatwave, the omens were good.
    The fish thought so too, at least in the first few hours, when my method feeder was hit hard six times to my right. Whilst I was snapped twice, the other four bites did not connect which made me question once again how self-hooking the method feeder actually is.
    Allowed a second rod on the lake, I alternated between method feeder and float to my left on the other. No bites at all on the feeder, the float brought in 21 perch in two sessions, including some fun and feisty stripeys around the 12oz mark, plus a single, small beautiful golden rudd.
    Could/should have been so much better - but that's fishing.
     


  3. Bayleaf the Gardener

    3.8.21 - Alders

    By Bayleaf the Gardener,


    Alders
    Arrived at 3:30pm for my Tuesday evening fish to find the Willows/Alders carpark with just one space left. Willows was very busy, and though folk said they were catching, I opted for the always-quieter and beautiful looking Alders, which had just the two anglers fishing. As it was hot and sunny, I gave it a couple of hour on the method feeder (no bites) before switching to float and starting to ping in the maggots, as demonstrated to me by the Welshman last Saturday who I watched pull out tench after bream after tench.
    It was a slow evening. It never did 'wake up' as common wisdom dictates. I saw it though for 2 tench and 1 common around the 1lb mark, and a few roach and perch. Changing depths/bait made no difference.
    Very disappointing. Fish 1 Martin 0

  4. Bayleaf the Gardener

    31.7.21 - Alders

    By Bayleaf the Gardener,


    Alders
    I spent the first willing my rod tip to tremble while listening to fish after fish being pulled in at the next swim.
    I walked around to see if he was using magic beans for bait and met a charming Welshman who clearly knew his stuff. He told me there was little point legering against the central lily pads, no matter how accurate my casting had been to get it there, as these grew on a submerged island not far below the surface where as the fish were feeding at the bottom of the slope leading up to it. This made sense, as I watched him pull in another tench and a 4lb-ish bream that he seemed to consider a nuisance. He told me the secret was to keep pinging in maggots every cast and build up the swim, then to 'keep chucking the bait in' as if the tench or bream were around they would hoover it up in no time. He said he'd tried corn before  (I was fishing with corn) worm and caster, but only maggots 'got them fizzing.' He pulled in a couple more perch striking at bites I did not register on his antennae float. He added that it was an early mornings and evenings venue and so was about to pack up. He kindly offered his swim to me, and suggested I kept catapulting the maggots while I brought my stuff over. A lovely guy.
    In the 'new' swim, I endured one heavy rain downpour, but brought in 3 roach (one around 6ox), a skimmer, just 5 perch (I'd had over 50 there earlier in the month much closer to the bank), 8 rudd (to 3 oz) a 1lb common and 5 tench, the biggest being 3lb 12 and 4lb 8.
    Thank you, my friend. I look forward to my next visit. 


  5. Bayleaf the Gardener
    Storm Evert? Pah! It was as still as can be when I arrived at 5:45am. But by 8, the aspen tree was shimmering its leaves in the increasing wind and by 11 I was struggling to lash the brolly to my seat as incoming rain hit me horizontally. With the air pressure falling below 1,000mb anticipation was higher than ever, and the fish pretty much obliged, in the morning anyway.
    Mirrors of 4lb 12 and 5lb 6, a 1lb tench and commons of 9lb 8, 7lb 12 and 6lb were all most welcome. Come  midday however, with the swell coming across like the North Atlantic, the bites stopped altogether even after I moved to a sheltered area where I thought that fat, lazy carp might be avoiding the flow.



  6. Bayleaf the Gardener
    Lovely to sit in the southerly breeze after last weeks heatwave, and even better to completely miss all of the threatened showers that scudded by.
    I tackled up where I thought the wind would be blowing the fish towards me under the surface chop, but nobody sent them the memo. Nothing for over two hours, then in a millisecond, the world went from silence to chaos as the rod reared into the air and the tip bent round like an Allen key as the alarm screamed out in, erm, alarm. Whatever had taken the wafter sheared across the lake pulling yard after yard of line. I judged that it was headed towards the far off lily pads where I have lost fish before, so tried to put additional pressure on the spool with my hand. It made little difference. Still roaring, and judging it not far from the snags, I made to tighten the clutch. Mistake. I lost one of the silly little washers on the reel spindle switching a spool some time ago and it hasn't worked effectively since. My gentle half turn managed to lock it completely and the 8lb hook link twanged in a second. I've lost so many fish lately.

    No more bites, apart from one jingly-jangler that brought me the greediest roach in the world - a 4-ouncer that had a go at three pieces of artificial corn. With the breeze easing as evening progressed, I switched to float-fished maggots one rod length out. As well as another roach and a nice perch, I hit into a shoal of small bream, catching 10 of them between 2 and 6 ounces. I've never caught so many in one go. The maggots also accounted for a beautiful 8lb Mirror who fought long and hard and made the evening worthwhile, if still over 20lbs short of my Willows evening trips of May and June.

  7. Bayleaf the Gardener

    23.7.21 - Willows

    By Bayleaf the Gardener,


    Willows
    My anticlimactic July continues.

    At least it was only 25 degrees rather than the 30 of the last 7 consecutive days. I should have known it would be tough when I tackled up and made my first cast to find I'd not threaded the top two rod rings. Sounds incredulous, but in my defence I was being attacked by early morning mosquitoes and was bitten several times in the process before running back to the car for the Deet.
    There were tempting patches of feeding fish bubbles before 8am, and I was snapped up float fishing close in by something that went off like a rocket. Schoolboy error: I hadn't set the drag, and that was that. Managed an 8oz bream, a 3lb 3 mirror, and commons of 3lb 6 and 1lb before the sun drove the bites away.
    With nothing happening on my rod, I had time to watch a couple of kids, and later on a viking catch many carp off the surface with dog biscuits. They seemed to manage it without the plague of water fowl that have totally scuppered my previous efforts to the point where I didn't bring any baits. With nothing happening on the bottom, I raised the float and went light for another bream, 3 roach and 34 perch of up to 8ounces, probably averaging 3oz.
    With my session having to end before the cool of the evening returned, my final cast brought a 3lb mirror. 
    Four carp in a day can't be that bad, but when none hit the 3.5lb mark, it can only be a little disappointing

  8. Bayleaf the Gardener
    A bonus 75 mins fishing in the 6th continuous day of 30 degrees temps with searing sun. 
    I don't have waders, which limits me, I believe to just two swims, both adjacent, so with 15 mins of baiting up time, a half hour in each is probably about right. Not a lot around today, just half a dozen small roach and a chunky 8oz dace, but I did end with my favourite fish, the gudgeon.
    Not much to report about the fishing, so here's a few gudgeon facts:
    - As well as being the most characterful fish in the river, it has the most splendid Latin Name: Gobio gobio, which translates a little offensively as 'small bait fish'
    - The Dutch call it a 'riviergrondel'
    - Now, this will impress you. The gudgeon is capable of emitting squeaking sounds, which are believed to be a means of communication between individuals
    - some studies have shown that the Gudge makes up to 45% on a kingfisher's diet and 50% of Czech otter's. Boo!
    - They are all members of the carp family and can live up to 5 years
    - The Grand Union Gobio Gobio Society (GUGGS) has a vibrant website with (currently) 617 members
  9. Bayleaf the Gardener
    Well, that was a bit rubbish.

    A fifth consecutive day of temps around 30 degrees with unbroken sunshine has been truly horrible for temperate people like me and fish alike.
    Thinking that the lakes would be hard with the fish not bothered with feeding (my first mistake?) I headed for Speen Moors with 15ft rod, centrepin, a couple of pints of maggots and bags of enthusiasm. The river looked fab, though reasonably slow paced, and I appreciate todays conditions weren't conducive and it was still scorching and 25 degrees when I packed up at 9:15 when I was already sporting two angry insect bites and felt more would otherwise be endured, and two swans ploughed through my swim.
    However, it was usual story for me on Parliament draught, though I did catch my first fish in three visits: 2 dace (one a nice 7oz), 2 roach and a large bleak. I still don't know what I'm doing wrong, but the fish hate me, and I don't think I'll ever catch a chub over a pound. I trotted a large loafer, held it back, let it run. I fished high, I let it drag the bottom, I fished midwater. I loose fed each swim (6-10 maggies in mid stream every 1-2 minutes of so) for 15 mins before casting. I scaled down from a size 14 to size 16 microbarbed hook as advised by a much revered local angler. (I've ordered the braid you advise - it can only help). As usual, I bumped off more than I caught, though this time nothing of any size. With the centrepin I believe my line was always tight, I think my strikes were neither too fierce nor too namby-pamby and mainly fishing the centreline, I don't think I jumped around sufficiently to spook or outstayed my welcome (max 30 mins) in each spot.
    Having run out of swims, I made it cross country to fish the planked footbridge to find it fully occupied by teenagers in reduced amounts of clothing, firing a barbecue and smoking something funny. As unwelcome as they were, they were polite and charming, making room for me to cross and offering to help me over the stile (I must have looked knackered, sweaty and fed up).
    I decided on nearby Enborne canal. Mercifully, there were no boats (only a trio of those horrid paddle boarders in bikinis). There was fish life everywhere, and on the pin and light tackle, and pretty much using the long rod as a whip, I  must have had a million good, positive bites. I missed 999,991 of them - either bumping the fish or missing them altogether. Having read that a way to address missed bites is to shallow up, but even at 6 inches deep, I kept missing. To be fair, 4 of the 8 perch I caught were barely bigger than the maggots, despite the bites being strong enough to keep the float underwater. So I shall try and explain this example of my ineptitude mainly down to my 16 hook just being too big for them. I did eek out a tasty 6oz roach, and perch of 7 and 12ounces, but that was that.
    Having packed up in the near dark, as I walked back along the canal , I saw what I thought was a little white dig chasing a bigger brown one over Guyers Bridge. They turned onto the bank when the brown dog  leapt into the lock crashing into the water maybe 20 foot below canal level. I ran over and saw it was a deer. Four people walked over the bridge and I explained what their white dog had done. They were horrified, the 2 girls quite panicky. There was nothing much we could do. Without lock keys, we couldn't move the lock gates to change the water level, and though one of the guys climbed down the lockside steps into the chamber, the deer, swimming/running up and down the fairly shallow water, was never going to go nowhere near him, and even if it did, how do you grab a panicked deer with one arm and carry it up 20 of so steps?

    There were two small areas of raised ground above the water on the corners of one end one end that the deer climbed up on a couple of times and tried to jump out, failing the required height by about 10 feet. At least it had a chance of not drowning. With the girls screaming, and the man hanging from the steps, I felt we were causing it more panic without having any chance of getting it out. I thought it's best chance was for us to leave the poor thing, where it could potentially spend the night on the raised 'islands' and take it's chances with the first passing boat on the morning. The girls were phoning the police as I left. Oh well, if I'd had a pretty crap evening, it was much better than those of the dog owners and that deer.
    Maybe next week I'll stick to the lakes.
     
  10. Bayleaf the Gardener
    A bonus 2 hours on a stinking hot Sunday. 
    Totalled 9 dace to 8oz, 6 roach to 4 oz, 5 minnows and a beautiful gudgeon (aren't they all?)
    Fun, but last as many again were hooked but shook themselves off such was their determination to get free, abetted by the flow of the river. Frustrating, as this included several bigger ones. Keep trying, Martin.
  11. Bayleaf the Gardener

    16.7.21 - Willows and Greenham Mill Runoff

    By Bayleaf the Gardener,


    Willows/Greenham Mill run off
    Blimey, what a scorcher. I was hot and bothered by 9am and deeply regretting not choosing one of the shady swims on the east bank.

    My tactics, unless you can tell me otherwise, I believed were sound:
    (i)  Method feeder into open water where I had seen bubble patches, until the first carp appeared cruising under the surface, when I'd switch to:
    (ii) a bomb from with a length of floating line long enough to suspend a hook about 6 inches under the surface, concealed within, a hair-rigged pop-up clothed in a large piece of breadflake. (True surface fishing I've found too stressful due to the persistent attentions of those horrid birds).
    What could go wrong? 
    (i) brought a single 4oz skimmer while (ii) caught nothing. One carp swam absolutely past my offering and wasn't bothered. It was just so hot. I changed swim to take advantage of a 4ft patch of shade from an overhanging branch and swapped again to (iii) float-fished maggot less than a rod length out. In a fun hour, this brought 10 feisty perch (a couple around 6 oz), a roach, a rudd and a 6oz skimmer.  The the temp now approaching 30 degrees, I gave up for the shade of the Greenham Mill runoff.
    In an hour, I was blessed with 13 bleak, a roach, a knap hand of minnow and a rather peeved-looking 8oz brownie. When you've used all your Factor 50 and not had a bite in 5 hours at Willows, to catch anything makes you feel like Captain Ahab. 
  12. Bayleaf the Gardener

    13.7.21 - Alders & Willows

    By Bayleaf the Gardener,


    Alders/Willows
    I've always intended to fish Alders on one of my weekly evening sessions, but the lure of the carp at Willows has always proved irresistible.  But arriving to find Willows very busy (l met a number of new members fishing for the first time there) including my preferred 'evening' swim, I decided tonight was the night.
    However, it was to be a disappointing evening, but with 2 noteworthy events. I Just one bite in 4 hours (a 3lb 12 tench) so crossed the causeway the by now nearly deserted Willows for some damage limitation with a late fish or two, and managed a couple of roach to 4 ounces close in and lost something massive that shot off like a rocket and spat out the hook some 20 yards away. 
    Oh yes, those events:

    1 - Last Friday I had to be unlocked from the lake by a nearby angler when I couldn't find my gate key. I couldn't remembering locking the gate when I arrived rather bleary ay dawn, and presumed I must have left  it open, with my key dangling from the padlock. On arrival to the same swim today, having paid £20 for a duplicate, I was angry to find the fob at the swim:  I must have locked the bloody gate and simply dropped the key, which was now missing from the fob and presumably taken. Later on, a member came round looking for the bobbin he'd lost at the same swim on Sunday. I hadn't seen it and almost jokingly asked if he'd found a key in return. Amazingly he had and I have since been reunited with it- thanks, Simon. Be warned all who fish in dead-carp corner - there is obviously a mischievous spirit that has an eye on your bits and pieces!
    2 - Had a great little fight with what turned out to be only a 1lb fish, the one on the cover shot. What would you say it is? I'm pretty sure it's an immature Common, but it had the higher back of a Crucian and had reddish fins. I've never caught any Commons of this weight before so while it may be obvious to you,  please excuse my ignorance.



  13. Bayleaf the Gardener
    A bonus hour-and-a-half session to use up some baits.
    A 15 foot rod, centrepin, 2SSG loafer float and a size 16 hook was great fun on the fast running water, and resulted in 4 chub (all between 8 and 12oz), 3 dace to 4oz, 6 small roach, my first fabulous gudgeon of the season and a minnow. 
    Home with a smile on my face and ready for the England v Italy final later.


  14. Bayleaf the Gardener
    Part 1: an early start in 'Dead Carp Corner' at Alders with the SW breeze blowing into my face. Had four tench between 3lb and 4lb 14 through the day on artificial corn/orange wafter (1 on float close in, the others on method feeder, all up against the lilies. Also had a hard-fighting bream, yes bream, of 5lb 8. This represents a par day at Alders - it seems impossible to peg down a shoal of the bream. I swapped to light float and maggot for an hour and caught 14 feisty perch (up to 6 ounces) and a roach. I planned to move on at 1:30 and, while packing up the rod tip went berserk. I wound in thinking I'd missed it, to find a four-ounce roach on the end.
    I'd expected the water at the mill to be less shallow after recent rain, but it was shallower than ever. Using my 15ft rod as whip, in not much time I pulled out 33 bleak, a 4-ounce dace, 2 small roach and 19 minnows. Not a great bag, but the chub, trout and - possibly - grayling I think must be in there, were absent again. I'll give it a couple more goes, living as I do about 500 yards away.



  15. Bayleaf the Gardener

    6.7.21 - Willows

    By Bayleaf the Gardener,


    Willows
    A fun evening after having started with a spate of the heavy showers that had been forecast earlier in the day.
    One of the more torrential downpours started soon after I'd had my first bite and was playing a carp of maybe 6 or 7lbs. As it towed up-and-down it darkened and there was a loud rumble of thunder in the trees behind me. Not really wanting to be standing there with a rod acting as a lightning conductor, I more or less yanked the fish into the net through the rain-thrashed surface before  immediately letting him go unweighed and unphotographed, then ran to hide under my brolly as the storm passed over.
    No more thunder, but plenty of showers and string winds that made the water choppy and the evening cool. The lower air pressure probably appealed to the fish however with another Common of 5lb 4, probably the strangest carp I've caught - having the profile of two separate fish shunted together (see pic). There were also Mirrors of 6lb 6, 6lb 13 and then a lump of 12lb 10 who looked heavier, but was much appreciated



  16. Bayleaf the Gardener
    Well, that was a strange day.
    There were eight anglers on Willows when I arrived, enough to keep the fish quiet, so I crossed the causeway to the deserted Alders. For several hours I watched patches of Mr Crabtree-eque frothy tench bubbles rising near my float but could not tease a single bite.  The patches disappeared with sunshine, so before making my planned move to my local Greenham Mill, I thought I'd switch to a light float and small hook/ maggot combo with a view to winkling-out the odd roach or two to break the stalemate. I made the move 54 perch and 6 roach later! Many of the perch were in the 6-8 oz bracket, and two even needed landing, so it was an unexpectedly fun last 90 minutes. 
    Down at the mill, I lost far fewer fish than last Saturday due to the direct line contact of the centrepin. The only chunky fish I hooked did shake free, but in an hour 20 bleak, 3 dace, 2 roach and 4 minnows completed a fun sortie.


  17. Bayleaf the Gardener
    Perhaps I should have expected it. After a week of vets bills, repeated hitting of my funny bone on the elbow with tendonitis, breakdown of my newly serviced hedge trimmers mid job, followed by multiple bee stings when disturbing a subterranean bee hive while clearing up the few leaves I'd severed, a second consecutive quiet session at Willows was almost inevitably on the cards.
    Knowing the carp would be in the upper levels, I experimented with a zig-based rig  once the morning winds had eased, suspending a pop-up just under the surface from a bomb. Surface fishing with the Bonio would have been preferable, but there are so many bloody birds it's just too stressful (at one time I counted 24 birds in my sector of the lake (4 mallards, 6 shelducks, 1 grebe, 3 Hawaiians, 4 coot, 1 moorhen, 5 Canada geese). 
    Results: inconclusive: the popped-up pop up induced some suck-and-spitting before connecting with a rather gormless looking 6lb Common, to top up a hard-fighting, pristine, beautiful, yet only 2lb 4 Mirror on the method feeder in the morning.


  18. Bayleaf the Gardener

    29.6.21 - Willows

    By Bayleaf the Gardener,


    Willows
    Fishing, or England v Germany in the Euros? A dilemma indeed, but I could always watch the highlights when I got home, so bankside I went.
    There were quite a few anglers when I arrived which meant I couldn't have he swim I wanted, but on an overcast evening with the wind in my face, it looked good.
    Nothing happened in the first hour except the gusty north wind leading to two unnecessary and spiteful reel tangles which had me breaking the line and retackling twice. But then at 5pm on the dot - kick-off time at Wembley - the buzzer went and I caught Blinky, a one-eyed carp (his good side pictured here) that fought far harder than his 4lb 10 weight. While the texts came in, updating me of the score, little else happened. I switched between method feeder, lift method and shallowed up float to no effect. I've given up surface fishing here because there are so many water birds that pounce on every cast, but that's where the fish were. This was evident from the chap on the other bank, fly-fishing dog biscuits who pulled out quite a few. He also bagged a duck (banked then safely released) which made me feel justified, if way behind on fish. At 8, after not a single bite on floated sweetcorn or bread, a  torpedo of a 6lb 6 Common felt sorry enough for me to be caught back on the method feeder. 
    Ah well, at least (spoiler alert) England won.


  19. Bayleaf the Gardener
    When I rediscovered fishing last year after a 20-odd year hiatus, I had a couple of short sessions on this very shallow stretch of water about 250 yards from my front door. There is only one swim, two maybe when the weeds die down for winter, and I'd never seen anyone fish there in the 10 years or so I've lived nearby.
    Foolishly, I didn't pack my centrepin which would have been ideal, but in an hour and a half trotting an 18-inch deep rig, managed3 roach (to 4 ounces), 2 dace (similar), 7 bleak and 2 minnows. My 2lb hook length was also snapped by a nice chub after a very exciting fight.
    Mind you, I lost a good 30+ other fish, their shaking their heads so vigorously that I hooked and lost them. I wound in fast, I wound in slow, I changed hook size three times and hook pattern twice but could not make them stick. It's barbless hooks only for me, so maybe I'll just have to put up with this on my next trip, unless you have any advice?
  20. Bayleaf the Gardener

    25.6.21 - Alders and Brimpton

    By Bayleaf the Gardener,


    Alders & Brimpton
    Started off in morning rain at Alders, the only one on the lake all day. Typical Alders, quite a few line bites and the method feeder being played with, but no takes. The only fish, two bream in the 5lb range who actually fought quite well, came on float-fished sweetcorn off the lilies in Dead-Carp-Corner. When the clouds cleared and the temperature shot up at midday, the bites stopped and I packed up for Brimpton, my first river Kennet session of the new season.
    Hmm, I loose fed maggots, a dozen or so every 30 seconds to build up the swim, a lovely bend with both fast and slower water. When I dared, I cast in for the crease between water speeds and held the 4.5AAA Avon float back, set with double-maggot as low as the streamer weed would allow, to two-thirds of water speed through the . After each 20-minute trotting session I gave it a rest and another 15-minute feed. This seems to account for chub after chub for other Kennet bloggers, but I had just the one bite and a welcome, but remarkably un-chubby brown trout. I changed the depth, altered float speed and searched all parts of the swim, so I'm still not sure what I'm wrong, but I just can't catch a chub - or roach, or even gudgeon.



  21. Bayleaf the Gardener

    22.06.21 - Willows

    By Bayleaf the Gardener,


    Willows
    1 - The birds. As if being pestered by geese, cormorants, ducks and terns wasn't enough, I had two grebes building a nest in the edge of the lilies by which I'd intended to fish. Not only did all their tromping about on the pads scare any fish down to the safety of the depths, they had sex right in front of me. Three times. It wasn't much to see and blimey,  I thought I was quick.
    2 - The fish. My only bite in the first 2-hours came on a method-feeder with single chocolate orange wafter and was worth waiting for. The 18lb 9oz Common was wonderfully fat and my pb. While I was snapped (8lb line) by two other fish, my smile was interrupted only by a 7lb Mirror, 1lb Tench and on lighter float gear later, a small roach and a pretty crucian.
    3- Chris Plumb - I was delighted to see my fishing guru was the only other angler as dusk approached and he told me of his 6 tench, 3 carp, numerous roach and perch etc - my hero. You can see more detail on his blog - Chris Plumb's Blog - Fishing Forums from Anglers' Net (anglersnet.co.uk)
    4 - The padlock - The new overnight gate had been incorrectly locked by the last user, bless him, meaning though I could remove the NAA padlock, the other Discovery Centre combination padlock had been clicked in the wrong place so I still couldn't undo the gate. After  few frantic and unsuccessful calls to the Association dignitaries detailed on my permit and the security company advertised on the gate, our wonderful fishery manager rang back and gave me the combination to escape - 45 mins after I'd hoped to get home with tales of sex and big, fat fish. Dave, I owe you one. 



  22. Bayleaf the Gardener

    19.06.21 - Willows

    By Bayleaf the Gardener,


    Willows
    A slow day. At least it was dry after yesterday's torrents, but thirteen degrees was less than half of what it was on Wednesday and the ten days or so previously, which shut the fish up. It seemed a struggle for everyone around the lake. I had some occasional bites of float-fished sweetcorn and bread, but my only two successes in the whole day were both on the method feeder in the margins: a beautiful little 3lb 8oz Common and then on the last cast of the day, a 3lb-er that I didn't bother weighing or photographing.  A grebe visited my corner of the lake a good ten times through the day and I wonder if that contributed to the timidity of the fish.
    A disappointing session maybe, but I love being out there, even in a padded gillet in June, and however absent the fish seem to be, you never know if there's a whopper just about to take your bait...

  23. Bayleaf the Gardener

    18.6.21 - Willows

    By Bayleaf the Gardener,


    Willows
    Ah, a British midsummer. It rained, hard and solidly from 7am until 2 as I huddled under my brolly, clasping my lunch and other perishables around me. After 10 days or so of solid heat, I anticipated that today's mere 13 degrees and northerly breeze would turn the fish off, and so it did. With the water still warm, I suspected the fish would still be off the bottom, but also driven from the surface, so kept to the shallows and varied the depths I fished.  I managed two of the recently-stocked 3lb Mirrors, a 1lb-er tench, a lovely 7oz crucian and a small handful roach barely big enough to take double-sweetcorn. The rain finally stopping brought some surface action in the margins. Throwing in bread risked alerting those horrid ducks who have plagued me in recent weeks, but I managed to coax some carp into taking some flakes under my rod tip. I carefully wound in and switched to a floating piece bread flake, and finally got one to mouth it and get hooked, some 10ft from where I was sitting. After virtually no fight at all, I netted a 9lb 3 mirror that was nearly as ugly as it's counterpart caught from the same swim last Tuesday. I was very glad to get home for my bath. Roll on autumn.



  24. Bayleaf the Gardener

    15.6.21 - Willows

    By Bayleaf the Gardener,


    Willows
    I've never seen so many fish. With the temperature soaring to thirty degrees, the surface was alive with cruising carp. 
    Out came the dog biscuits, with the plop-plip of every cast bringing surface attention. Gobbling down every freebie, the canny fish  could tell if there was a hook/line involved, mouthing then instantly spitting my otherwise identical bait out time and time again. Commons of 5lb 15 and 6lb 4 came when I increased their urgency by catapulting in freebies, but the bloody ducks and moorhens moved in whenever I did this, substantially limiting the opportunity. The afternoon remained hot, sticky and totally frustrating as fish after fish after fish failed to get snagged despite aggressive chomps at my hook bait. I did connect with two, and lost both, one after ten minutes of fight, which only added to my cussing.

    With darkness coming, I had to do something different, and found I had 2 slices of bread left sweating in a bag from the weekend. I drew the float up to 6 inches depth and moulded a chunk of flake around the size 4 hook. A fish took it within a minute. With a softish 15ft float rod, I didn't have much grunt to control it, so relieved as I was to get it in after a 10-minute fight, I was disappointed to find this mirror was 'only' 6lb 9. I had just enough light for one more  cast and a better fish was on almost immediately. 
    This time it was a 10lb 4 mirror, and a truly ugly fish. With a deformed mouth and lumps on its side it really was a brute and frankly, I didn't want my picture taken with it!
    A strange way to end the fishing year; I had got quite stressed at the impossibility of me not hitting so many takes and the attentions of the local birdlife, but I was pleased to self-discover a simple technique for luring those surface-feeding fish when I next face them.



  25. Bayleaf the Gardener

    12.6.21 - Dobsons

    By Bayleaf the Gardener,


    Dobsons
    I rang the changes and tried a different NAA lake for a change, mainly as Dobsons has many more bankside trees and vegetation to provide shade on what threatened to be a hot day. Another benefit is the ability to fish with two rods (it's one only at my usual Willows and Alders), meaning I could toss a method feeder out to my right, and float fish near the overhanging willow to my right.
    I opted for the shallower end (my swim was around 8ft deep one rod length out,  anticipated fewer bites and was not disappointed! The only morning action came after I'd fluked a method feeder cast inches away from the defunct swim position by the opposite bank. Within seconds the rod was almost pulled into the water and whatever it was, turned the afterburners on full. In a few seconds it was gone, the 4-inch 10lb method link snapping below the loop. I'd tested it earlier and was annoyed as well as shaking. I feel I have been let down a few times by commercially-purchased hook lengths in this way. I don't really want to go up any higher in thickness - let me know if you any ideas? Turns out it was the only touch on the method all day.
    Finally, bites started to come in on the float. Sweetcorn accounted for a lovely 5lb 4 tench and then three sparkling roach, around the 6 to 8 ounce mark.

    Yes, Alders or Willows would probably resulted in more fish, but it was great fun and those few hours of shade in a more natural-looking environment was much appreciated.


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