College Pool - 28.04.12

According to my weather app, Saturday morning would be the best of weekend weather, no rain and overcast. Venue was College pool at Wasperton, the Avon was looking high when I drove through the village. Lobworm the hook bait, one under a float in the margin and another on a running rig on the sleeper rod. Feed was chopped worm and red maggot flavoured with liquid worm.

Before the heavens opened and the wind started to blow a gale :) I managed a few Perch although nothing of size, and even this tiny Perch pictured with eyes clearly bigger than his belly. The hard fighting carp of college pool love lobworms and landed a lovely mirror a nudge over 9lb, a proper chunky fish and a great fight on light tackle.

DIY Isotope Holder - WIP

I've never been happy with the isotope holders available, always seem to be a compromise somewhere so I decided to try and make my own.

I'm a CAD designer by trade and I'm lucky enough to have access to a 3D printer, so I came up with a couple of designs and had them rapid prototyped. They were to designed to suit my solar 3.5mm diameter and 25mm long isotopes. Still WIP but hopefully get something more suitable for my Barbel rods. :)

Snitterfield Reservoir - 22.04.12

I decided to go for a few hours in the morning to Snitterfield Reservoir, it's 5 minutes from me so nice and convenient, I had some lobworms left over which I used on the sleeper rod and about 1/2 a pint of maggots which I used on the float. The bites were hard to come by, the bites I did get we're really fast, as if the fish were doing smash and grab tactics without actually swallowing the bait.

So with a couple of fishless hours I decided to move a few pegs down so I could fish amongst some weeds. I also switched to small red jelly pellets with I recently bought from WillyWorms, within a few minutes I had a weird looking Crucian which you can see in the picture below. Nothing on the sleeper rod and only a few more fish on the float so called it a day. Snitterfield can be funny, some days are brilliant, others hard work. It does fish far better during the summer months when the water has warmed up.

Credit to the Leamington committee for the new platforms, certainly makes the steep pegs more usable.

Warwickshire Avon - Seven Meadows 15.04.12

Went for a Sunday afternoon stroll with the family along the Stratford AA stretch, lovely day too. As it's the close season I didn't expect to see anyone fishing especially somewhere as busy as Stratford, but just by the weir two people were, one with a hand line and the other one of those tiny telescopic rods.

After making my feelings known they packed up and moved off, probably to somewhere else I expect. They weren't there when we walked back, however they had been replaced by a big cormorant. :)

There were some nice looking Barbel swims just downstream of the weir, roll on the 16th of June.

Little Gearys - Packington Somers - 13.04.12

The regular Shanghai Anglers club matches have started up again, Shanghai as the organiser Steve Breeze, a fellow CAD designer started the club when he was working for the Shanghai based Chinese company SAIC based at MG, Longbridge. I'm not a match angler so I was at a bit of a disadvantage with my specimen gear but I cobbled together a waggler rod and an Avon quiver rod with a straight bomb / meat rig.

12 anglers and fellow design engineers fished the 5 hour afternoon match, I ended up fourth with 20lb and the joint 1st winners had a gudgeon over 26lb. Had a mixed bag on maggot, wet lettuce F1's, tench, and silvers. Biggest crucian I had was exactly a pound. I got a bit bored fishing the margins and the last hour I decided to fish the bomb rod, I hooked a decent carp but lost it at the net, in hindsight I should have stuck with fishing the margins.

I've not been to Somers for about 20 years, I lived in Meriden as a kid and used to cycle there as a teenager. Big transformation since I saw it last, looked great. As a venue it knocks the nearby Tunnel Barn for six.

Easter Weekend - 2012

Tunnel Barn Farm - 07.04.12
I had a lovely week in North Devon with the family, and had the entire Easter weekend free. Although I rarely fish commerical fisheries as they are not my bag I decided to have a morning session at Tunnel Barn Farm in Shrewley as a friend has been doing pretty well catching decent size Perch, it's only 5 mins down the road from me so it's quite handy.

There was an open match on during the day and three of the lakes, so I settled in the Bottom Pool. An overcast day with the occasion shower, pretty nippy too.

I had a sleeper rod out in the margin with a simple running rig with lob worm attached and then a float rod trying various swims. Red maggot were drip fed every few mins. Lots of action from the carp but no Perch.

Carp were in pretty good condition I'd must admit, but not what I was after.

College Pool - Wasperton - 08.04.12

I've never caught a decent Perch at College Pool and I know exist via the midland bloggers and when I've been on the bank when someone has caught one. Again as per the previous morning, I had a float rod in the margin and a sleeper rod with a running rig. Both with Perch tempting lobworms.

I first settled at the far end but the sun came out and knowing Perch like shady spots I moved a few swims down and fish close to a overhanging bush which was about the only cover in the whole pool. We certainly need some rain, the pool is a good 1 metre+ lower than it usually is.

Carp, love lobworms and today was no exception, I caught 6 of them on the sleeper rod, the biggest I weighed and it was 7lb 1oz, it certainly looked bigger and fought beyond it's weight. College pool and the condition of the fish are a credit to the Leamington Anglers Assocation.



The worm attached to the float rod was getting lots of attention, the float hardly stayed still, was even dragged under a few times but sadly couldn't connect to anything, I suspect it was pesky small Perch with eye's bigger then their belly. Maybe dusk would be the better option to try and catch a decent Perch, I'll be back anyway, my favorite venue in the Leamington book and today, I was the only angler present.

An Omen ?,hopefully

I've never had much success with self take photos, the Wife recently bought me a Samsung MV800 camera and I've just bought a bankstick adaptor so I'm eager to try it out. The screen flips 180 degrees so should make the picture taking process far easier. Now, just need to catch a decent fish (good luck Phil btw) to hopefully do the camera justice.

Down the cut @ Bearley - 27.03.12

I've somehow managed to delete a couple of my posts, I blame the Blogger App on IPhone that seems over sensitive and has limited functions, :) anyway you didn't miss much so i won't go through the pain of re-writing the whole of it.

Last fishing trip was down the cut at Bearley where I didn't even manage a sucked maggot despite pre-baiting a couple of swims the night before. I'm hopefully going a couple of times over the bank holiday weekend.