The Height of a Busy Couple of Weeks.

The Height of a Busy Couple of Weeks.

          Well here we are again, after an amount of busy weeks I finally make it on the bank for a proper session. When I say I have been busy I had been to Billingsgate fish market at silly o’clock in the morning, working most days of the past few weeks and also doing some bits and pieces for Alan at Nash. After being with a mate last weekend he received a phone call to go down and help out in the warehouse. We went down to Nash HQ and helped out, also at the same time I managed to seal the deal on my work experience, that has now got me buzzing for next spring for my 2 months of work experience.

Extra Weights on the Stows for Better Indication.

            After spending a day down at Nah HQ this week and getting over my birthday, I made a visit to Johnson Ross Tackle in Hoddesdon. It is an amazing tackle shop catering for all side of angling. I could have spent a fortune, all I bought was a couple of bank stick and the Fox Black Label stage stands with the pennies I had got for my birthday, it is money well spent as it’ll make my fishing easier especially fishing on the reservoir on the wooden stands, considering I’m not a raving fan of rod pods, pretty much becoming an established tackle tart.

Slack Lines During Winter, Real Big Edge.

            I’m getting on the bank this weekend as I am back down at Nash HQ on Monday and Tuesday helping Alan and the other lads out in the tackle warehouse. On the course I’m on at college I can’t urge enough that if you want to get into the industry get out there and get networking, after all you won’t get a sponsorship deal just sat in your arm chair at home, get on the bank and talk to the right people and get recognised through shows, another one day which was taken up over the past few weeks, networking at the Sandown Carp Society show.

My Preferred Components for Chod Rigs.

            Anyway onto the session ahead and what I’m hoping to achieve. This winter is most certainly going to be difficult; I have read numerous articles in Total Carp and my new favourite for research purposes, Carp Talk. Reading article I find can help when fishing in the winter as you can take the anglers tactics and adapting it into your own fishing, I have read in the magazines that if you keep bait going in i.e. taking up a low key prebaiting strategy can pay off big time, it’s all about getting the fish interested and moving about, if they know there’s food there, they have nothing to lose and you really will keep the, hunting around for more bait. On the flip side, if you don’t like using a bed of bait in the winter to get them active, you can use single hook baits either on a hook link or my newly adopted tactic a choddy fished low to the lake bed. Also another fact, people say that zigs aren’t a winter tactic but after studying water in the winter, they are a deadly tactic as fish rarely glue themselves to the lake bed throughout the winter so a pre-tied zig is definitely worth a try.

            I have had a lot of difficult decisions to make throughout the past couple of weeks so the blogs may be lacking as I need to make these choices and being so busy with college nettings throughout the winter it could become difficult although if I get the chance I may even do a write up of the netting we have done that day.

The Best Winter Pop-up Selection!

            This session I am back down to the reservoir in hope to get my new Sirens screaming and to make good use of the stage stands, I shall be keeping my options open with bait, I shall have a sack of 3kg of Velocity Baits ZUB-0, a good winter bait and I have heard these fish appreciate a boilie or two whatever the weather. I shall be using choddys and zigs in hope to search out the lake and hopefully get a take and at the same time casting to showing fish to get a quick bite, after all I work Sunday evenings so staying at the lake late as I like won’t be happening as xmas is usually a “busy period” for us delivery drivers.

            A small bed of boilies will be used along with a small single cast around to showing fish will be the tactics I will be using this session, I really hope this pays off and we’ll see what’s around the lake throughout the day, I’m hoping to find some fish from the off and hopefully stay on the but if not I shall be moving around throughout the day to search one out as I’m eager to catch a nice winter carp before xmas and it will certainly be a good well respected present for my belated birthday and certainly early xmas.

Hemp Attack Insider, This Was Put Into Mesh Bags.

            I managed to make it to the lake at just before 10 o’clock Sunday morning, the sun was shining and it looked beautiful outside. I have a wonder round and have a chat with some of the anglers that were dotted around the lake, but to be honest I’m not overly surprised it is busy as this is the best weather for fishing we’ve had for weeks. I wonder round with a bag of boilies and a throwing stick to put some bait out before I go and grab my gear from the car, I find one swim which takes my fancy sitting with my back to the wind, was it a good option?  I spread out 40-50 boilies in front of the swim and trot back to the car to retrieve my gear to get to the swim. When I got to the swim the first plan of action was to get the rods out and lay them on the deck until I have all my other gear sorted out. One of the rods was dispatched on a choddy just inside the baited area on a white chocolate pop-up; I completely slackened off and laid the rod with a loose clutch on the stage. The next rod had a simple pop-up rig, again with a white chocolate pop-up on the hair, this was cast off to the right hand side of the baited spot the two rods were put out along with another spread of 20 boilies over the top.

            I am really loving the Nash Zero Tolerance range as it was keeping me really warm and is real good quality, definitely a purchase that won’t waste your money!

15 Boilies Isn't Alot.

            As it was my birthday on Friday I went to Johnson ross and finally got my Fox Black Label Stage Stands, without the stage stands my setup wasn’t really functional as I really hate using rod pods. Anyway they were really easy to set up and screw onto the stage and held the rods in rock solid, the perfect combination. I have another few tricks up my sleeve in hope to get a bite in hope that it works, that is using choddys and bags in conjunction with the Velocity Baits V Cloud. After using this throughout summer and getting some good results on it, throughout the winter it won’t go a miss as there’s no scent to it like the Goo just a simple Smokey cloud.

            At the moment it is between 7 and 8 degrees and compared to the minus weather we have had it feels lovely and warm to be sat on the bank, albeit I am sat on my unhooking matt. The lake was dotted with anglers which made swim choice difficult for me, on this occasion like the others I had chosen this swim down to water craft, fishing on the back of the wind seemed to pay off a few sessions ago. After an hour or so gone by I clip up and bring both rods in and re-do the baits and put a fresh rig on so that everything’s fresh, I notice on the right rod cast to the right of the baited spot it was tangled, this could have happened on the cast although I was adamant that it was sitting cleanly on the bottom, the other reason that makes me think that the rig had been ejected by a fish is that the silicone on the bend on the hook was up by the knot, another tell-tale sign of the rig being ejected by a fish. Rods are re-done and another 15 boilies go over the top, you may think why so much bait but 15 boilies in the lake that I’m fishing would seem like nothing. 

The Rods Are Finally Out, Also With the Lines Very Slack.

            A few more re-casts during the session but nothing unfolds unfortunately, a good spread of bait was out there with functional rigs on the lake bed, so something wasn’t happening, a guy up the bank had a high double figure common, maybe the fish were up the top end although I didn’t have any room up the top end of the lake to barrow the gear round and get on the move like I first mentioned, I shall be back down in a week or so in hope to bag an early xmas present along with re-visited rigs and baiting strategy, lastly very sneakily before I left I deposited around a kilo of boilies in front of the peg I was fishing in hope that the fish may move in, if I can’t get down there regularly to bait up then I may be able to hold some fish or keep them coming back for more and familiarising themselves with the bait I am putting out there. 

            I hope you enjoyed what I managed to knock up on this session, along with more pictures as I have acquired a decent camera, I hope to be back on the bank soon, most definitely back at the reservoir and possibly to Chestnut Pool in Langford in hope to get some action before xmas and to get them sirens into meltdown before the new year.

Follow me on twitter on - @Rosst93.