Short Session Pays Off

      Whilst on work experience at Nash Tackle, it came upon me to try and get a couple of nights in at the weekend. I managed to get onto a small syndicate, we had prebaited a few days prior our session. Sure of the weather turning sour I decided I was going to go ahead with it to get in a couple more winter carp(a really stretched out winter at that).

      After messing about trying to get to Go Outdoors to pick up some butane canisters, I battled the car filled streets during rush hour.

      I got up to the gate of the small intimate syndicate and got all the gear to the chosen swim, littered with snags and on the back of the 0-1 degree winds which were tearing up the bank.

 

      The rods which are the New H-Gun Dwarfs in 9ft 3lb were already prepared and put out onto 2 spots, one snaggy margin to the left on a small chod rig and the right one to the opposite margin a rod length off, as you could see fallen branches, a small solid bag of 1mm Velocity Baits The M&M's pellet was soon put out, I feel this is a good winter tactic specially when tipped off with a small pink 10mm popup.. One colour of hook bait that I love dearly.

      After eventually after getting the Titan AS sorted and rock solid(you could crash a double decker into it!) I was about to set my bed chair up and my far margin rod ripped off. After thinking I'd hooked a tench, a lovely winter coloured common lay in the folds of my landing net. As I had never even set foot onto this syndicate since Thursday evening, I got a snap of the small common. This lake barely gets fished and you can tell by what the fish had excreted on the mat, naturals, possibly the reason why she went for the small bag of micros.

Small Common, What A Cracking Fish, The Pressure is Now Off!

      A quick trip to Maccy D's whilst one of the lads Josh looked after my gear, I had devoured it all before it had even touched the box.. Literally. I lay thinking of what may occur. The wind decided to pick up and a small trickle of rain starts as it got dark very slowly, a quick check to make sure the small hyperloops clutches are loose and its time to hit the hay, hopefully being woken by the distinguishing sound of a siren bellowing through my receiver.

      The night drew on the rain carried on pouring and I was away with the fairies. As I'm a light sleeper, at around 4:30, I am woken to the sound of my left rod going into complete meltdown! I stumble out from the Titan and hook into a beautiful 10lb common, the choddy was the last rod I had expected to rip off but I am happy that both tactics had worked.

Nice Dumpy Common, She Was Hungry! I Look Half Asleep(ha!)

      The rods had been in since I had hooked the last fish the previous afternoon so they had time to settle, another fish on the tally has given me an extra buzz, specially as I have never fished this lake before let's see what happens the rest of the day.

      The chod rig was something different at the same time something I'm going to use a bit more than I have, I was told 10mm popups were a good tactic for quick bites. The chod rig is my normal way of tying it, inherited from Alan Blair seeing how he ties it, with a small 10mm Yellow Pineapple popup. It looks good and with the micro ring swivel it balances it well. This rig was under armed under a tree hanging over the water about 10yards, this was a one off rod thinking that some disturbance earlier on may spook the fish away from this margin, this rod to my surprise took off at 4:30am producing the biggest fish of the session so far.

      After waking up at 10:45/11:00 which is after the earlier bite time, the right rod was put out, albeit a bit tight to the far margin snag, a fresh bag was out to where I had the first fish, the left rod was also recast and is set.

      Usually when I fish chod rigs, I cast or underarm it to the spot, as soon as the lead hits the water, I feel it down and release my finger off the line and let it sing among its own weight, if I tight lined to it, any weed or snags on the bottom may ruin that rod altogether, I feel more confident when it flutters to the bottom no matter how fast or slow.

      The weather is looking really rubbish, I looked out of my brolly this morning and no snow until Josh came round and said that there was a load of snow behind me.. And how right he was.

      After a quick recast tighter to the far margin snag, I dotted some bait over the top. The rod was cast tighter to the far margins too see if I can draw a fish out from the snag, I had the clutch tight to stop any fish plow right through the branches. At around 11:30am, I had a strong reaction on the right rod, I lifted into the fish and the line was grating on fallen debris, with my fingers crossed hoping the fish would be released, the fish came free. After a stronger fight the fish was in the fold of the net and soon photographed and slipped back.

Another Common to Finish the Trip Off Nicely, Happy Days.

      After this quick reaction, another pre-tied solid bag was cast just off the snag, again with tight line to make sure I don't get towed into the snag.

      The rig that was inside the solid bags, 3inches of 15lb Silt Missing link, a size 10 Nash Fang Gaper hook and a shrink tube kicker. The reason why I use this set up is its all fined down and something to hook the fish quickly, luckily I use my solids with drop off inline leads, on this occasion the lead had dropped off allowing me to prise the fish out of the snag, dropping the lead in a snag is a must every time as you want to land 100% of fish you hook, also where the bags had been tied up 3-4 days before the session, the oils from the small pellet ha soaked into the PVA, the tell tale sign that had brought this idea to mind was the fact that there was a flat spot breaking the water, leaving the bags submersed in the pellet may be a good thing, another thing for me to look out for, if there is another flat spot possibly with the introduction of some oil into the bag may give away when I may get a bite.

      It just shows I love fishing to snags even if there is the element of unpredictability of what's down there, going in blind sometimes pays off specially using solid bags, providing you don't land on, debris your presentation will be really good. After hooking two fish in the same snag, it shows on lakes you don't know it's worth a try. I think that them 2 fish were just laid up and I happened to present a rig under their noses.

 

      I am happy with this result from a lake I have never seen since Thursday(21st March) after trickling a few baits in to get them on the munch.  

      The day drew on an it was time to head for home and have some much needed rest and relaxation, a nice curry and a few ciders won't go a miss!

Here I Am Clutching the Last Fish on a 9ft 3lb Dwarf, Look At the Snags
At the Back of the Pic, Glad She Came Free!

Thanks for reading

Ross.

Follow me on twitter on - @Rosst93

A Slight Disaster!



After driving for 27 miles (14 to the lake & 13 to the next venue) I finally found a lake I can settle on, the late I went to originally was frozen over, so then I drove to a trusted venue to find all the lakes were free of ice. The sun is out and there's not a breath of wind, well put it this way I'm sat outside in a t-shirt... Maybe spring is finally here?

The First Rig That Went Out.

           I find myself sat on Becks Lake, I have fished this lake hard in the past having some good results, the biggest I have had from this specific lake was 22lb, a nice long lean common. As the suns out and it's bright, I put out a small Nash Zig Critter tied up in a way that will be explained in a minute, the left rod had been put to a small break in the reeds on an underused day ticket method, a popup maggot rig. The reason that I put the left rod down in that gap is because I saw some tell-tale signs of fish as I was having a wonder around.  

The Zig Critter Rig, Explained Further Down.

If the fish begin to switch on I have a small air dry bag of around half a kilo of Velocity Baits ZUB-O boilies in 16mm, hopefully helping to combat the volume of bream in this specific lake. There is an increasing volume of bird life on this lake and they have made it a nightmare keeping baits on the bottom, let’s just hope they don't come across my zig.  

The zig rig I have put out is sitting at around 7ft which is about a foot or so below the surface, I will slowly draw it down to find a good level. An hour or so had passed, the rods were reeled in and the barrow albeit with a flat tire was loaded and it was on the move, I moved I to a swim where there was a light warm breeze hopefully moving the fish into the marginal bay on my left hand side. I have caught plenty of fish from these margins in the past so hopefully there's something patrolling.  



The Rods In The Second Swim, Laying On The Deck.

I get into the swim and one rod is straight out my favoured pop-up rig with a 10mm Velocity Baits Pink Shellfish pop-up and a small mesh stick of the White V-Cloud Ground bait. This rig was dispatched to my left hand side, just into the entrance of the marginal bay. My second rod still with a zig attached was cast 20 yards into open water to my right hand side. No bank sticks were set up just the rods laying on the deck with a loose clutch was all that was needed.  

After seeing some movement to the reeds to my right I left the rods out another half an hour to see if anything moved to got on the feed but nothing happened.  

Soon after the rods were brought In and hooked onto the rod rings it was a move to swim number three, again a swim I have most faith in as it is one very unsuspecting swim with a small marginal set of reeds. One rod was put in the margins, this time the same pop-up rig with 2 grains of Enterprise corn and a small mesh bag of the V-Cloud dipped into the NV-R Glug. As I was sat up by the trees, I put the bank sticks into the ground and turned on the receiver, after all I don't have supersonic hearing to hear a clutch ticking ha-ha.           

This Mix I Use With Confidence when Trying to Get A
Quick Bite. Also A Good Winter Mix.

I’m just quickly going to explain how to tie my zig critter rig for the up and coming months. 

 

           Unlike the other zig bugs, the new critters don't have a hook through them; this allows you to tie the Critter on hair rig style with a multitude of sizes and patterns of hooks to choose from. As you may see you can just half blood knot them onto the line but this restricts the critters "natural movement". I allow the natural movement by tying them in an unusual but affective way.  

           Rather than half-blood knot the critter on the line, I thread a piece of NXT Zig Flo through the small ring on the critter then tie a small loop, this allows the critter to move under its own weight or without the whole zig having to move.


           I then tie a 12 turn knot less knot onto a size 10 Nash Fang Twister hook; this is so it goes down to the small knot on the created loop. I then thread on a small piece of clear shrink tubing, this is slid down over the knot, and this should be so that the critter still has full movement. This is the steamed down straight opening up the gape of the hook.  

           I use a big hook like this as the bug will rotate and fly into the fishes mouth, hooking the fish hard and allowing a stronger hook hold compared to a small hook, again you can lower the hook size but this is down to personal preference.



Some of the Components For The Zig Rig.

           Using a critter is different to using foam as you want to keep it looking and moving natural. To finish the rig I thread on a hook link kicker to propel it away from the lead and then perform a 7 turn half-blood knot onto a small swivel. When I fish zigs, starting from around 2ft below the surface in the warmer water and then making my way down 1ft at a time is the best way of searching out the water, for example, the lake I'm fishing is 14ft deep, I start at 12ft and then work my way down, providing that I had enough critters, I’d have one at each depth tied up and change them every hour to an hour and a half, especially if I intend on staying static. alternatively to give you a good chance, the adjustable zig would be a better option, starting with a zig tied up at 6ft, and then rising it 6ft would get you 12ft, then take it down a foot at a time or alternatively, start at the bottom and raise it a foot, this way is a much better way as you are keeping disturbance to a minimum. The New Zig Critters are perfect and natural looking hook bait... let's see how I get on this Spring/Summer on this presentation! 





Please Click the Picture to Enlarge It To See The Method!



It appears to me that this warm weather and low pressure hasn't stimulated the fish in any way, which I thought they'd at least be having a zig or two. I just hope that this weather is here to stay(touch wood!) and that I can finally start putting some fish on the bank, with no fish to show I feel that there was nothing wrong with my rigs and that the weather had a point of confusion to the activity of the fish.  

Next week I am on work experience with a few lads from college so I will try and keep you updated with any fishing I am doing over the seven weeks, let’s just hope I can bag one or two whilst I'm away.

 

Thank You For Reading!

 

Ross

 

Follow Me on Twitter - @Rosst93

 

 

 

 

 

Question and Answers Featuring Ian Russell.

A Lovely Looking Common There Ian!

            This time I have the pleasure of questioning Ian Russell from Avid about his fishing and what he does to put fish on the bank. This will hopefully benefit you, the reader and myself on what we can do to get the best of being on the bank, let’s be honest here, none of us like walking away without having caught a fish, but it’s one of anglings learning curves after all.  Before I start, Ian is someone who has helped me and provided information and tips on how to put fish on the bank. Back in 2008 I got chosen for what was the Korda Carp Clinic; I met Ian at Farlows in Buckinghamshire and fished for a 24 hour session. From that session I managed my first ever 20lb carp at 22lb 8oz, I still remember it to this very day. Onto the questions!

(Q.) Many anglers have their own way of approaching lakes, when you turn up a lake, be it a new lake or somewhere you fish all the time, what sort of process do you go through in order to get on the fish?

Firstly i would have researched the lake as much as is possible ie: Bailiffs info, friends info and of course website info. But all that aside you cannot beat having eyes on the water. So a good look around until you see signs of carp then set up... A swim with no Carp in is no good to any of us...

(Q.) I have followed your angling for many years now and I see you put some stunning fish on the bank. What is the most key thing any angler should do when their on the bank to help maximise their chances where ever they are fishing?

In all honesty mate literally keep your eyes and ears open and just use the tactics that you have most belief and confidence in . And never I mean never sit and be lazy, if fish are showing elsewhere and you can move onto them, then do so and fast before someone else does and you end up taking his pictures for him...

A Nice Mirror.

(Q.) I know a few people that have a “go anywhere rig” do you have one that you’d happily place on any lake you go to, or do you do something different, why?

I do have go anywhere Rigs but tend to address each situation as it arises. For although we all have one or two in mind it’s obvious that one rig will never suit all situations

(Q.) As some people may see from my previous blogs and most definitely my most recent blog, I love fishing over beds of bait, it keeps the fish in the area and gives you a good chance of holding more than one fish in front of you, is there any scenario that you wouldn’t put out a good bed of bait, why?

Yes mate the times I would not commit to a bed of bait would be on short trips or on a trip when I intend to keep moving , you see to fish over bait is a brilliant tactic it also makes anglers stay in an area where the fish aren’t in the hope that they will turn up

(Q.) I’ve really enjoyed my angling over the past few years; my highlight has to be banking a 23lb 10oz Mirror off the surface, days into spring. What is your highlight over the past year or so?

My Highlight has to be the capture of Spike from the Manor in Oxford at 44lb... You see I had always fished linear in a working situation and at last decided I would venture up on my time and try to nab a biggie ... And last November on a flat and calm night I caught good old Spike .... Awesome...

(Q.) One of my pet hates is bait boats, I don’t really feel the need to use one, as many anglers go, do you have any pet hates that really winds you up when you’re on the bank?

Yes I have >> Fulltime anglers ... You see although I fish for a job I rarely get more than a couple of nights of non-working fishing a month so realistically I get as much Me time as you do . So when I turn up to see full-timers rotating swims and spending months doing so, I feel it does not give the rest of us who actually have jobs a fair chance on the lake.. Get a Life. Get a Job....

What A Fish!

(Q.) Some of the more complicated rigs have managed to be taken out of my rig case; I stick to simple bottom bait presentations or pop-up presentations. Do you think using a complicated rig overcomplicates carp angling in general?

Yes a complicated rig I believe just confuses the Angler more than the Carp. If you have followed my angling you will know that I believe a Carp is a Carp not a scientist so it does not need a rig with lots of jangley bits hanging off of it to be successful....

(Q.) The Key for quick bites and consistent bites on a high stocked lakes is accuracy and correct bait placement. Little and often feeding is also another one. To get a good run of fish throughout a session for example at Thorpe Lea, how do you go about keeping a good stream of bites going throughout the day?

Just keep on topping the swim up it’s as simple as that. I see so many anglers spod all their bait out on arrival and after a couple of quick fish it all stops and they wonder why... Keep it little and often and they will keep coming..

(Q.) If there was one lake you would go back and fish again, which lake would it be and why?

I get to fish so many lakes, sometimes 2 or 3 different ones each week and to be fair they are all lovely places in their own rights but if I had to visit one Fishery all the time it would be Linear in Oxford . The amount of lakes and the variety it offers is incredible...

A Good Seperation From the Bend of the
Hook to the Hookbait is One of Ians Preferred
Tactics.

(Q.) I have seen in recent years you have caught a good number of fish of different sizes, what is your favourite pattern of hook that you have a lot of trust in?

As earlier stated no one rig can cover all situations... However for most of the situations I find myself in I will use a longshank hook with a line aligner set up and a re-set ring on the shank...

(Q.) What is your favourite rig presentation to use wherever you fish?

See question above ^

(Q.) Each angler has a personal preference on baits, whether it is particles or boilies, which is your preference that has caught fish for you?

If you want to be consistent with larger Carp either Boillies or Tiger Nuts ... They love em...

(Q.) What is the one main thing that you get out of angling?

I get so much pleasure from my angling and realise that I am a truly lucky chap to have the job I’m in... Thank you Avid....

            Ian, it has been a pleasure having you on this Q&A session, being an angler that has taught me the ropes early on and putting them into good affect, thanks for taking the time to complete the questions, all the best in your angling.

Thank You for Reading!

Ross

Follow Me On Twitter - @Rosst93

Alternatively, get  across to www.catch-and-release1.com and have a look at a few top class anglers and have a look at my angling profile to see a bit about what I do and what I get up to!

A Good Wintery Session.

            After planning on getting back down to the reservoir for another night, the weather turned and was a bit spiteful for my liking, within the town I live, we had snow for around 4 or 5 hours and I didn’t fancy it. After purchasing some new rods as my old rods had taken a beating, where better to go than to Chestnut Pool in Langford. This is a good lake to get a bend in the rod or two. Where I fished it in the snow I didn’t expect it to be that difficult getting the bites going so a strategy was planned which has paid off for me over the past few weeks. I decided to use bottom baits with my ever faithful snowman on the business end, this consisted of a 14mm NV-R Boilie tipped off with either a white or Pink Pop up, and this was coupled with a small bag mix that even the biggest carp couldn’t refuse. 

            I woke up at around 5:30am to get myself up and pack the car as I was out the previous evening; this took a mere 15 minutes. With all the car packed and ready to go I set off to get up to Langford, I arrived at around 6:45am, I was the only car outside the gates, result! Just after 7:00am a good friend from college came up to meet me so we could have a bit of a social.

2nd Fish - 13lb on the Dot!

            Pete came out to open the gates and I headed straight for the car park, no-one was in the peg that I wanted which was a right result, considering how early I woke up ha-ha. Ticket paid for and the barrow loaded and it was off to the swim to put some fish on the bank. We got round there and as Pete rightly described it, it was like the Somme as the ground was so boggy, nothing I can’t deal with. The rods were out along with a couple of boilies put out in the throwing stick around the 2 rods fished tight together. This is usually a good tactic to catching a lot of fish on high stocked venues, having the rods close together.

10lb 14oz Mirror.

            Both rods on the money and its game on, or so we thought, nothing we could seem to do would scratch a bite until my sirens let out a screamer, I was seen playing the first fish being a feisty little common, no longer had I put this fish back and the right rod ripped off and I was found doing battle with something a bit bigger, after a short battle she was in the net and spun the scales round to 13lb. This shows that the snowman was working and the rod was put back on the money every single time. A fresh bag and 20-30 boilies followed after the rig, a little and often baiting pattern was to there to get the fish feeding as they were, getting nailed every single time it was a pain getting the Fang Twister out!

Small Common

            As the afternoon went on, I managed to keep a good steady flow of action coming which is why I was putting the bait out, in some cases I had only just put the rod down and as I was putting bait out over their heads the rods were ripping off, it just shows that they don’t spook off some grub. Another couple of fish were put on the bank with another low double at 10lb 14oz was unhooked and pictures taken, then the rod straight back out. As I was playing a fish one of josh’s rods ripped off and he was into a small mirror which was his first of the session. I love this type of fishing, really speedy and keeping the bites coming.

            As the day got on, I had a simultaneous take. One fish was staying deep and really showing an account of itself from which I knew was a fair bit bigger than the others feeling roughly the same as the 13lb Mirror earlier on in the session. As I got it in the net, I looked and said to josh “that’s the biggest yet! I’d say a mid-double at least” we got her on the matt and weighed here and she spun the scales to 16lb on the dot, what a lovely chunky fish, there’s always one fish that makes my day and she did it! 

Small Mirror.

           The bag mix I was using was incredibly basic; it consisted of the New Velocity Baits White V-Cloud Ground Bait with the addition of the Velocity Baits NV-R Glug to make it a bit more attractive. This was put into small golf ball bags as I usually tend to go no bigger than that as you don’t want to preoccupy the fish or feed them too much on a big stocking like PVA Bag. This was threaded onto my favoured snowman setup consisting of 15lb Braid, size 10 Nash Fang Twister Hook with a Safety Bolt Bead with no pin holding the clip in place so it was running, this is my usual day ticket setup as the fish can’t shake it, plus with the snowman setup the fish was getting nailed every single time!

Similar Setup to What I Was Using, Same Rig.

            The session moved on and it was getting late, the barrow was then packed and I was setting off home with a good amount of fish on my second session this year on Chestnut Pool, for a few runs as a morale booster, social or testing new gear it is a great venue well worth a visit. I’m sure I will be back before we all break for the summer hopefully getting amongst them again.

16lb Mirror What a Fish to End On!

Thank You for Reading!

Ross.

Follow Me on Twitter - @Rosst93

Back In Business! 24 Hour Session.

                After weeks of not catching, I thought that my best bet to get a bite was to get on the reservoir for a night whilst the pressure is still low, not forgetting when it is empty as well. I managed to get down to the reservoir at around 11am, I was greeted with a few cars in the car park, after a quick mill around and a quick update on catches from the bailiff I find myself barrowing the gear to  a decent peg which I have liked since day one. I made way to the lake with a spod mix in mind but unsure of whether to use it or not, in the end I bit the bullet and put some bait out, I put out 15 spombs of the mix and set about thinking what I want to present over the top of it, the one thing that sprung to mind was the snowman presentation featured in last week’s blog. That went straight on the left rod, a Velocity Baits 14mm NV-R Bottom bait and a Velocity Baits 10mm Pink Shelfish popup.  

 



Adding the New V-Cloud to the Mix(Still Under Test)



                After dispensing the mix of – Bird Seed, Sweetcorn, Halved NV-R Boilies, (New) V-Cloud Powder, NV-R Stick Mix and some NV-R glug I set about presenting two rods over the top. Before all of the baiting up I clipped up my left rod at around 9 ¾ wraps around the sticks which is about 39 yards, it seems short but I was happy that I was clipped up just before the shelf drop off. I then clipped up the right rod at the same, however, I got the spomb set up on my spod rod and I clipped this up at 9 wraps, the reason I did this is when the rigs with the leads are cast to the spots, they fall towards you, and knowing I’m fishing in roughly 10ft of water this left me a reasonable margin to get the rods on the money.

The Finished Mix, Caused a Massive Cloud in the Water.

                The left rod was the first to go out on the spot, hitting the clip first time. The second rod was a chod rig with a 16mm Pineapple popup on my usual preferred method, this was also cast on the spot in hope the pop-up was on the near edge of the baited patch.

The Chod Rig(Please Click if You
Can't See It)

                I had the rods in up until 3pm and made the decision to recast and put some more bait out across the top and freshen the hookbait and put a fresh bag on, 5 more spombs topped up the spot and the rigs repositioned, I left the rods in up until the evening again refreshing the bags and hookbaits. I was sat scanning the water whilst waiting a month of Sundays for my cooker to boil the kettle so I could have a nice hot cup of tea. After all this it wasn’t completely dark so I could still have some gauge on movement, throughout the evening up until 8:30 I spotted two fish crash on and behind the spot which left me in confidence of putting a fish on the bank.

3 Baits Which Have Done Well For Me - Corn, Particle Mix and
NV-R Boilies.

                9:00pm soon came round, half in a doze, I am awoken to my siren belting out a twitchy one toner... I’M IN! A good battle with a wiley carp which first I thought was a pike, where it was thrashing its head around so much, I slid the net under a stunning low double common weighing 13lb 5oz.  All the mat and weigh gear was sorted out, the desired presentation had nailed the common, she wasn’t coming off! I set up the self-take gear, which I set up straight away with some testing before hand in the garden, a few fruitless pictures later I managed to get a good shot of me cradling her. It made it so much better as I hadn’t caught on the reservoir since November, so this capture was a good ember to the fire.

13lb 5oz of Pure Gold Common, First Time Self Take.

                I slipped her back in the weigh sling and returned her safely. I then had a beaming smile on my face and set about getting the rod back out which was done effortlessly with a head torch. A fresh hook bait and mesh bag, I wrapped the 9 ¾ turns round the sticks and got the rod back on the money in hope for some action later on in the night. An hour passed and an odd occurrence on the left hand rod which had be sat bolt upright on the bed chair, nothing unfolded so a fresh bag was soon put back out. As I lay gazing out across the lake, the heavens opened and the wind began to howl across the lake, at times was a bit hair raising but I was fine tucked under my brolly in my sleeping bag. As the rain continued pouring, the rod I had recast melted off very slowly, as I lifted the rod there was an odd resistance, as I got the fish in the margins, it was a bream of 3-4lb which was unhooked and put back straight away.



The Bait That Did Well For Me!



                With the rain still pouring it made it a bit of a pain trying to get the rod back out or set round the bank sticks, so a blind cast was made and I was sure it was near as dammit.

                The night moved on and only line bites to show through the night, I was still really happy with what I would be going away with, it saves a blank and adds the first (hopefully of many) to the list of captures to follow, maybe night sessions instead of days on the reservoir may be the pick of cards, but we’ll see how time gets on. Once waking at 9am I fired up the stove and got the kettle on and had a nice hot cup of tea before packing up the barrow to set for home.

                This session has added a good buzz, I will be returning hopefully on another overnighter.  

Thank You for Reading!

Ross.

Follow Me On Twitter - @Rosst93

A Return to the Reservoir!

            After spending a week or so at home with not visiting the reservoir, it is about time I got back down there. The first reason is to get out the house, and second reason, I haven’t fished there for a while. After ordering new tackle, a new bag and a new neat tackle box, I had a selection of rigs tied up which gave me the buzz a bit more. I had spoken to a few anglers before making the drive down there and have a look around. 

A Good Winter Combination When Coupled With Glugs!

            I got down to the lake to find a van in the car park, the lake was frozen over but I still had a walk round to lay out which swims I’m more likely to go to, if the lake is busy and any other swims I fancied, providing I hadn’t seen any fish in the meantime. In some ways it may have been a wasted journey? Definitely not as I wanted to see the state of play in terms of the ice which was over an inch thick.

            After a friend kindly taking me down to the Brentwood carp show, after reacquainting with some friend and contacts, I got my hands on some new bobbins to carry on my tackle tartness ha-ha!

            I managed to compile some advice on which is the best method to use through the winters, which were zigs. Some people may say “what’s the point they’ll be on the bottom!” this isn’t entirely true; in the water you have a thermocline layer which is the changeover of warm to cold water. With all the ice sinking, the temperature may be all over the place so there may not necessarily be a warmer layer at the top.

Always Tight Lines When Using Zigs.

            The zigs sit in the warmer water which the carp, albeit cold blooded, they will sit in the warmer layers hence why the zigs are just as effective in the winter months that in the summer months, this is the plan of attack which will more often than not be going out on at least one rod unless the fish are respond well to zigs up in the layers.

            I got down to the lake later than planned however, I had a whole days fishing on my hands being able to stay as late as I’d like to. I went for the religious lap round the lake chatting to the local anglers, although there was only one on, and looking for signs of fish, I didn’t see anything but going on previous information I got on the back of the wind which sometimes pays off on some of my fishing as it did a few months ago on the same bank I have got the rods out on at the moment.

            I got 2 rods out quickly, both on zigs cast to around 14ft of water fishing between 3 and 6ft up from the lake bed with hook baits glugged in the Velocity Baits NV-R liquid, this is a good tactic for fishing for bigger fish or on day tickets that boosts and enhances the attraction of the zig hook bait. After leaving the zigs out for a little which I recast to a different area and then reset the bobbins bow string tight. Usually on this specific reservoir I wouldn’t use bowstring tight lines mainly as slack as I can get but if the fish are up in the layers, I don’t need to worry too much about line concealment.

One of my "Go Anywhere" Bottom Bait Presentations.

            The day rolled on slowly, I was watching the water like a hawk in between recording a video to coincide with this blog which will be following very soon. I didn’t see any tell-tale evidence of fish moving in front of me and very unusually no line bits from the tight lines? I thought that the fish may be sat dormant in one of the corners or sat somewhere out of the way of the angling pressure which in some circumstances wouldn’t surprise me. 

            I then got a message telling me the atmospheric pressure which was consistent throughout the day which was sitting at 1,000Pa, I was recommended to put on a bottom bait to see if there is anything lingering in the depths, to which I put out a bottom bait rig consisting of 15lb braid, Size 8 Nash Fang Twister, with a piece of silicone on the hook pinning in place a NV-R 14mm bottom bait with a 10mm Pink Shellfish Pop-up and a piece of shrink tube to act as a kicker to finish the rig off with the addition of a piece of putty to fully pin it to the bottom of the lake bed. This was cast just to the right of the swim with a small mesh bag of crushed NV-R boilies dipped in the glug to increase the attraction as with the zigs.

Another Brilliant Zig Rig Presentation Used to Great Affect
At Different Venues.

            This rod was put completely slack with the line lying fully on the bottom and was left for quite a while before re-casting over an hour later to a different spot. I had settled on a roving type method to try and search out the water in front of me at least trying to scrape a bite or two, after the rods were positioned back out on the lake bed I went and had a look in the swim 2 metres next door to me and to see a better angle of water, I watched for a few minutes with no signs of fish in the area. The wind was hacking down the lake in to peg 27 on the left from the car park so I cast into that general direction before deciding to move later on in the session.

            I decided to move a few pegs round into the wind and put 2 rods straight out and laid the rods on the deck. After the rain continuing pouring down on me with no brolly, I stood in hope for something to come from this drenching. The rain finally stopped and I stayed put in the swim for a little while longer and set up the stage stands to stay for another hour in the swim.

            Unfortunately it’s another point to the fish with no fish banked again. However, I’m still going to keep plugging away as I’ll get a result eventually and it may be back to my preferred way of tying choddys and putting them out and keep roving around the lake to search out the water a bit more, but on a better note I have a night planned to brace the cold weather.

Thanks for Reading! 

Ross.

Follow Me on Twitter - @Rosst93

A Snowy Mission.

 

 

                 After my return from a really good trip to France on the 11^th of January, the forecast showed that there was snow on the way, after a chat with a good friend, Dan Woods, we decided to go fishing in the snow to get a few snaps of us holding fish with a snowy backdrop, something we have both dreamt of. We arrived in Langford at 7:00am ready for the gates of Chestnut Pool to open at 7:30. The snow was slowly falling but we weren’t worried, we still wanted to get the rods out.

Rods Out in the First Swim, No Joy.

                We got into the car park with no cars so we were the only anglers to be on the lake which is another added bonus; if the fish were hungry they would soon get on the feed and stumble across us. Saying that as soon as we got set up it didn’t take long for Dan to hook into the first fish of the session only a small mirror but very welcome. We fished on the “hot peg” and one I can’t seem to get on as when I get there it is always occupied for reasons that will come about. The fish were taking quite well getting a good few bites which at times it was really hectic.

A Small Mirror to Kick Off the Day!

                I started off to the left of Dan with one rod in the margins, and one rod in between 2 bushes on the island, I was regularly recasting to keep a fresh bag or supply of bait on that specific zone. An hour or so passed and no fish for me so I decided to move to the right of Dan and had one rod just in the channel and one as tight as I could get it to the island which caused some confusion for me, around every 10-15 minutes I’d get a major drop back, thinking I was into a fish I’d lift the rod for nothing to be there so maybe I was getting to the rod too late, the next time I re-cast I got the bobbin tight so that when that specific rod dropped back I knew straight away, but same thing happened again, no resistance on the opposite end. As I was getting confused with this I decided to leave one rod there to see if I could overcome the problem but no more takes but tangled rigs were brought in so something was up? So I kept re-casting to that spot. I managed to start getting bites on from the opening of the island on my left hand rod which was relief for me.

Nice Small Mirror For the First Fish of
the Session.

                Dan was managing to get a good spell of bites at times getting pretty hectic, using bottom baits cast only just into the channel as it seemed the further you go into the channel the smaller the fish were getting. He got a good amount of fish casting the left hand rod onto the longer side of the island with a good few boilies put out over the top of both rods which seemed to hold fish, when the bait was gone they stopped feeding but as soon as more bait was introduced they came back and got on the feed again.

                One thing that I see is paramount is trying to get clipped up so you can cast to the clip to get everything sitting properly rather than casting and letting everything fall into a mess on the bottom of the lake bed. Dan was feathering the lead down to the bottom which is another good method of getting the rigs sitting properly. I prefer clipping up as I can sit in confidence of the rig being functional, this is the same as when I’m fishing for a high stock of fish on zigs so that there is 2 splashes, one being the lead and a light dimple from the zig foam as it hits the water, if the rod doesn’t go within 15 to 20 minutes I reel in and then recast the same rod back out hitting the clip slightly harder.

A Nice Small Brace When Pete Came Round For a Chat!

                A good steady flow of action carried on through the day seeing Dan catch into double figures, he added a good amount of fish to the tally up to around 11:00am catching 17 fish, to carry on catching throughout the session, I was slow behind as I feel I wasn’t completely prepared catching around 4 fish up to lunchtime, I was having problems hooking the drop backs from the island which for me was a nightmare! As the afternoon went on, Pete came round to see how we were doing for Dan to hook into a fish and then as I started talking to Pete to see my left rod scream off, he was a tad shocked as to how many fish we were catching, a better way to do it with both of us playing a fish as Pete was taking pictures to put onto Facebook. I had the bigger fish of the two but we were still smiling getting some snaps done in the snow.

                To start off with I was using small rigs around 4-5 inches as it seems to help hook the fish quicker but they didn’t seem to get any bites, I adjusted the size of the rig with adding a 8-9 inch hook link and I got much better bites coupled with a size 10 fang twister and a small orange popup nailed to the bottom on a running rig set up on one rod and a 14mm chocolate popup chopped down around 1cm off the bottom was another method that caught me some fish, they weren’t at all picky with what they were taking either being popups or bottom baits which was getting more bites.

Nice Shot of Both of Us Playing Fish At the Same Time! Happy days.

 

                Dan was using long hook links with inline leads which he said were his favourite bottom bait presentation, I could fall for the idea but instead of using the square pear leads, I would prefer to use the distance inline leads. He used long hook links around 9-10 inches and a bottom bait tipped off with a 10mm pink popup and a double 10mm presentation which was getting just as many bites as the other presentation, we also realised we weren’t being plagued by bream so they weren’t a problem trying to combat them or risk using 10mm baits which is what I was using.

                Dan proceeded to hook into the biggest fish of the session being a lovely 16lb common on the nose, I was really happy for him as we didn’t anticipate anything of that stature but it was a lovely common and made a brilliant picture in the snow, well done mate! As the session went on the snow got heavier and from various texts from friends and family, the snow was getting heavier and heavier so that was our cue to pack up. Between us we managed to land 35 fish up to 16lb and losing some along the way, Dan lost a few fish but I didn’t lose so many only 2 fish, that’s why I love using the Nash Fang Twister presentation as it is a wide gape hook and hooks the fish in the bottom lip or the scissors every time. 

Dans 16lb on the Nose Common! Well Done Mate.

                It was a good enjoyable session and to be bagging up in the snow made it so much better along with some footage which I shall try and upload very soon, with a good amount of bait ordered, I shall be fishing when the lids disappear on the lakes, may even be another trip to Chestnut in a few weeks’ time after a few sessions on the reservoir!

Thanks For Reading!

Follow Me on Tiwtter - @Rosst93