Vilamoura - 25.09.12

Enjoying a nice relaxing holiday with the family managed a nice few hours reef fishing with the Father-in-law on a Cat leaving from Vilamoura marina. Only 30 Euros which I thought was pretty good. Anyway a few mackerel and bream but nothing of size, it was nice to enjoy a few hours away from the kids and soak up the sun.

The Warwickshire Avon - 15.09.12

I had planned to do some long trotting today but exploring a new area of the Avon I stumbled upon a great looking swim, The swim was snaggy, some would say unfishable, but it screamed Perch, it was a quiet haven, slack of water and full of cover, I had to try it.

An underarm cast with a big lobworm the chubber float hadn't settled for a second before it bobbed, dipped and sailed under. Probably the quickest bite I've had. I decent bend in the rod I could see in the shallow clear water it was a decent Perch.

2lb 5oz and not far off my PB, the next two and a half hours I had bite after bite, fish after fish until I ran out of worms. The majority were over 8oz, that makes a change doesn't it. A few around the l lb mark and another two over two pound. I lost the biggest too, it found an underwater snag and it managed to bump the hook.

All the fish were in fantastic condition and the shoal must have been huge. Late Autumn and Winter I'll be targeting the Perch and Chub, River fish are more more thing, I prefer the roving approach, the peace and quiet and the unpredictability.

A day I'll remember.

MG vs SAIC UK Angling Challenge Trophy - 14.09.12

MG's chosen venue was again Willow Marsh Fishery and Sandpipers pool, I'm not a fan of these commercial venues, a hole in a field with hardly any feature to fish to, last time I was at this venue I failed miserably, but it's a team match and as long at you don't blank you score points. The last two matches have been won by us, the Shanghai anglers. We were 2 men down, so it was 10 MG vs 8 Shanghai, yes, ok I'm getting the excuses in already :)

The pool has a decent stamp of carp that come on the feed early evening when the patrol the margins. There doesn't appear to be a decent stock of silver fish so targeting the carp is the only was to approach it. I had one rod set-up with a method feeder which I kept tight against the island and a pellet waggler rod set-up to fish the margin. Hook bait was either meat, sweetcorn or worm. I drip fed the margin and tried it from time to time.

It was a tough match, the odd carp being picked up in the open water in the first few hours and handfuls of small silvers. I hooked a decent carp on the method feeder and lobworm but I had a hook pull when it got near the net. The MG angler to the left of me was using proper carp tactics, carp rod, PVA bags and a large lead on a lead clip, that was clearly the way to approach it. 

The margin is not much more than a foot and a half so when the carp are patrolling the margin it's easy to spot them, the water boils and bubbles. I managed a 6.5lb common last knockings but judging by the weights recorded it wasn't fishing well at all. 

No one bettered 20lb of fish which for a commercial venue and 18 anglers was poor, biggest carp was 14lb I think, even Dave Roberts the infamous Ken Dodd mirror captor didn't do any good and Dave does well in all our matches. MG anglers faired better on the day with more overall points and section wins so the trophy is passed to them. So still 2-1 to Shanghai and the next venue will be chosen by us.

Back to the river the weekend, going to try some trotting.

Snitterfield Reservoir - 09.09.12

A great venue Snitterfield Reservoir, when it's fishing well it's brilliant, when it's fishing bad it's really bad, today was bad. Plenty of fishing topping when I arrived early on, and within an hour I had a couple of small Tench and a few small Crucian carp, but then where I was fishing the fish switched off, nothing that I did would muster any more bites.

Remember the film the 'Fog', well something similar happened today, a big slick of algae descended on the majority of the water, thick and pungent it was not anything like I had experienced before whilst fishing. Maybe that caused the fish to stop feeding, who knows. After 2 hours of no bites at all, I decided to leave early and enjoy the September sunshine.

DIY Minnow Trap

Job Done !!

Shanghai AC - Barston Lakes Match Pool - 31.08.12

There was a Midlands Carp championship on all weekend at Barston so we had 8 pegs on the match pool instead ( top left ), I've never fished Barston before, on the drive down along side the main lake it looked a lovely venue, I've never seen so many Carp anglers, probably 60 plus all geared up to the hilt and staying for 3 nights.

I intended to fish the margins with a float set-up and then tight against the island with a straight lead. Baits, well I thought I'd try meat, corn and pellets. Only 8 fished today, with my friend Simon Champion making up the numbers. I drew peg 7.

I quickly had a small 2lb carp on soft pellet from the margin but then couldn't get a bite for love nor money. I'd say 2 or 3 hours went by with little more than an indication on the tip or float. Dave Bennett next to me on  peg 8 was fishing the pole tight against the far bank and afterwards he said he couldn't get a bite on pellet unless or wrapped it in paste.

Maybe the scarecrow had something to do with it, anyway my Dad always does well on cat or dog meat so I kept the feed going in the margin and buried the hook beneath the float with some beef in gravy Pedigree Chum, what carp could resist. It's a very soft bait so casting is difficult but an underarm cast keeps it on the hook.

With an hour to go my float dipped and I was in to a carp, I've a pellet waggler rod,10lb main line and 8lb hook length for commercial match float fishing as I've lost countless fish because my tackle wasn't up to it. Anyway with a 6lb carp landed things were looking up. A 5 or 6 more smaller carp later I hopefully wouldn't be last.

During the weigh-in it was evident it wasn't fishing that well, Simon only caught 2 small carp and a crayfish and weighed in less than two pound, the winner Rich Gould has 25lb and Dave Bennett second with 21lb, I managed third place with 17lb. The morning before the match was 5 degrees, maybe that had put them off who knows, but certainly didn't fish at all well during the match. I'd like to try the main lake, apart from the carp meant to have good bream in there too.

They also have a stretch of the river Blythe, looked great for Chub when I drove over it, I've heard it contains crayfish though, might struggle to get through to the fish, maybe trotting rather than a static bait might be the way to approach it.

Next match in two weeks time is Shanghai verses MG at Willow Marsh Fishery in Kidderminster, last year I couldn't catch a fish for love nor money at the venue, I had something like 2lb. Anyway back the Avon next weekend, this time for a morning session.

Minnow live bait box

Bought this small live bait box off EBay from a seller in Japan, ideal for keeping minnows fresh for Perch fishing, there are tiny holes in the lid and magnets keep it shut.

Just need to make a minnow trap now.