Nuts about Carp

Stenhill Carp Syndicate
7th August 2010

What a week I've just had on the lake.......I set out last Sunday with a view to just 4 nights on the bank, but after the wife's mum came up for a brief holiday, I received the nod from her in doors that it was okay to fish until Saturday! I didn't need telling twice! 6 days on the bank bagging some pretty carp was exactly what the doctor ordered.

After 11 nights of blanking on the Cray and a fairly quiet affair on the Hants Avon last week, what I really needed was to just get the old rod bending again!

The first night was extremely quiet and little more than a few bleeps sounded from the Delks. Come Monday morning the weather was very warm and windless......the carp were all over the place just sat dormant on the surface.....I've never really been what you might call a surface fishing expert but it was about time I bagged a good'un off the top.

This was the perfect opportunity in front of me now. I reeled all the rods in and went off on a stalking session. The fish weren't really interested to start with, albeit I kept applying small handfuls of Pedigree Chum Mixers to the swim until I had a few carp sucking them down in an avid fashion.

It was just a case of waiting for the right moment before placing a hooked sample in front of the right fish.

I waited best part of an hour before the first opportunity arose and I really slowly and gently placed a single mixer onto the nose of a pretty mirror that was circling some of the freebies.

The fishes head tilted up and she slurped the hooker straight in...I waited a few seconds until the controller started to slide away into the murk before sweeping the rod up and feeling a powerful surge of carp pulling the rod over.

A great battle ensued and it was certainly nice to be back into the swing of catching fish again!

On the scales she weighed in at  21lb 13oz and for me......a new surface caught PB!
Steve Bliss managed to bag one from up the right hand channel during the afternoon too but found the other fish less eager to give themselves up.

Night time was again a very quiet time and nothing bar a small roach found the net overnight. My next action was during Tuesday afternoon and I bagged a couple more mid doubles before dark set in and yet another quiet nights fishing.....

Wednesday was a different kettle of fish and a strong North to North Westerly wind whipped up the surface of the pool and spurred the resident carp into a brief feeding spell. I managed 4 twenties and 3 other doubles during the afternoon period before another night of quiet fishing came about.....

Thursday morning and the wind had dropped away almost totally and made me rethink my position. I decided to move out of the Boat House Swim into The Car Park. Shortly afterwards I was regretting the move as the wind again got up and pushed what seemed to me to be the majority of the fish into the boat house area again.

Owner Brian made off with 2 quick 20lb plus fish from the area near where I was fishing in the morning while he was whipping around the place on his mower.

Thursday night brought me what I was after and again I found the fish rewarding me for the efforts of the move during the day. Another couple of twenty pound plus fish and some pretty doubles found the mesh....including one highly prized Koi of 12lbs which I have to say was a real eye turner of a fish!

New member Tom fished the day on Friday and managed to bag around six fish to 18lb. Scott joined me on the pool for Friday night and he found a couple of fish too which included a twenty pound plus fish. Friday evening wasn't without its mishaps though as I opted around 5.40pm to venture off to Tesco's for a few supplies for dinner that evening......

I left the fishery and headed around the twisting bends of the little B road that takes you toward Cullompton when all of a sudden I was met by a white Volvo V40 heading straight towards me at high speed through one of the many S-bends....

All I could do was steer hard towards the hedgerow and hope he missed me.....He didn't! Crack!!!! He smashed straight into the wing mirror and scraped along side the rear of the car! What was worse more though was that he then just drove off in a vain attempt to get away from the scene...... I tried to hastily turn the car around and catch up with him but it was too late.

More damage to get sorted on my precious machine!

Anyway, after a pointless conversation with the 'Old Bill' on the dog and bone Scott took me on a tour around the local villages to see if it was possible to find the miscreant. We spent around two hours driving around to no avail before calling it a day and heading back for the evenings fishing.

The night was again very busy and I added another 5 fish to my total for the week which was now up to 23! This included no less than 7 fish over the 20 pound barrier. The weeks fish also took me over the 100 total for the season so far from Stenhill since joining the syndicate back in February of this year.

Well, apart from the little mishap with the motor, it was a thoroughly enjoyable week again on the venue and just proves what a fantastic small water it is with some really cracking looking specimens.

That's it from me this week...I'm hoping to take Thomas out fishing in around ten days time as he is back from his month away at grandparents in Hampshire. We're both really looking forward to spending some time together again on the bankside and I'm really hoping he gets the bug for it again!

Tight lines all!
Keith
x

 

26th July 2010
'Holiday in Hampshire'

This weeks fishing has been that of a real mixed bag to be honest.......it's been tough fishing this week too. Stuey and I had been planning to get together for some time now and as some of you know we always have a few days together at this time of year.

Sunday evening after the drive down to Hampshire was a quiet affair with a brief but pleasing walk around the Avon in Christchurch, topped off with a full on story about the whole of the Royalty Fishery from genuine nice guy Tony Tims, who has spent many hours and pounds of his own money restoring the old fish hut into a mini museum of artifacts and historical memorabilia surrounding the fishing and and its managers.

This dates back to around the late 1600's and is truly awe inspiring to any angler......excellent work by Tony and he's a real gem of a fella too.....well worth a look!

Anyway, our fishing started early Tuesday morning as Monday was a quiet day spent with other friends who reside in the area. Around 7am we set out to fish one of the many small pools on the Christchurch Angling Club ticket......first stop was Crowe Pool. A venue I almost lived on during my early angling days!

A very pretty and quiet venue with a good stock of old fish and some new one's from Wedgehill and Holtwood. We spent the morning fishing single rods there as is the ruling. Yet we managed nothing more than a few liners.

After a fruitless morning we ventured about 2 miles from Crowe and started to unload the gear at another of my favorite old haunts.....Hucklesbrook. After hacking down the path with our light kit we set pitch near to a very fishy looking margin where Stuey spotted several nice double figure commons asking for a bait to be dropped on them!

This was done very gently but all 3 fish spooked and left the pair of us in dismay. To make things worse Stu then realized I wasn't supposed to be there in the first place as there are no guest tickets for the venue! Thankfully I hadn't got a rod out as yet and it was fairly easy to pack the kit away again!

Next stop was  King Vincents lake on the famous Somerly Complex. This looked great for a few bites and sure enough within a few minutes of dumping a stick mix and Sanagi hookbait on a small gravel patch, I was into a small common of 7lb 15oz. A welcome fish all the same.

Things then went quiet and it wasn't until late afternoon that Stuey bagged a nice common of 10lb 8oz. After such a tough day on the lakes we decided to top the evening off with a spot of Barbelling on the Ellingham stretch. This stretch holds a lot of memories for me.

When I was a school boy I won one of my first river matches there with over 60lb of Chub and Barbel taken on the Float!

On arrival we spotted a Salmon of at least 20lb+ sat in the swim we wanted to fish. It was quite a dark coloured fish and had probably been in the river for a good week or more. She duly swam upstream as our leads entered the water for the Barbel.

Despite tons of effort from both of us we managed another blank evening on the Avon.

Early Wednesday morning we managed to get cut price tickets to fish the Compound. What used to be known as the Great Weir. A fantastic weir pool with around 5-6 swims bordering a mass of swirling water. The weir pool usually holds a big stock of just about every species. Today was a different matter and after 12 hours of fishing all we to show for our onslaught was a Bream each and a few eels for Magoo!

The water was as clear as gin and low too...I'm not making excuses but we fished so hard that we just felt a little hard done by come kick off time at 10 pm.

The next day was spent back on the Avon . This time the main river by the car park was to receive our attention. Joe (Stuarts brother) joined us for the day and banter flew around like flys attracted to sh*t! We had a fantastic morning full of laughs and it was great to have all the boys together again.

The fishing on the other hand was again very hard. We got plenty of nibbles but nothing worth striking at. .....we all had a go at fishing for the Perch that live along side the car park wall. Stuey was the lucky one to bag one after help from Joe, who was trickling maggots from off the foot bridge whilst I guided Stuey as to the bait placement as the wall was slightly recessed and vision from the carp park was almost impossible.

After some 15 minutes of team work Stu bagged a stunning Perch of just over 2lbs. My attempts to catch one were scuppered when one of the bigger fish went for my minnow hookbait and was then taken by a huge Pike! Not what I wanted to hook on 4lb main line to a size 12 hook!

Needless to say I was only attached to the fish for a matter of a few minutes before she snagged me in the thick weed.
I went back to my swim in the Boat Pool to find three separate Pike sat in my swim. First cast back in and I had a lovely Roach on the float.....this was duly taken by the smallest of the three snappers which I managed to net and weigh at 7lbs.

We sat there all day with Joe managing a nice roach, Stuey had a  Bream and I had 1 too. It wasn't until last knockings at 9.50pm that my pellet hook bait was taken by a good barbel.....this decided to tare off leaving my to watch the hook pull.....To say I was gutted was an understatement. I felt truly sick as we'd all fished so hard this week.

We decided that our last day session would have to be on a much easier runs water in attempt to claw back some rod bending action. We opted to fish a Pool on the Ringwood Club Book. The water in question is around 18 acres and full of fish from just a pound or two to mid twenties.

On arrival the wind was blowing across from the East and we opted to sit on the back of it. I managed a good bream from the off and then a nice carp of 8lbs shortly after. Things then went decidedly quiet and after lunch we decided to move swims to the opposite bank and away from the anglers that had set up around us.

We both again fished very hard and yet the weather hounded our attempts to bag anything else. Stuey managed a small Tench and 2 tiny carp of around 2-3 lbs but this was it really.

I have to say how enjoyable it was to see everyone again and how I enjoyed visiting some of my old haunts again. The fishing was hard and the weather hot but let's face it......at least we still caught a few for the camera!

I'm really hoping the wife's going to let me trundle down to Crayfish Pool again next week as it feels as if it's been a life time since I was there last.

Enough about our session anyway.....Ive had a handful of emails in the last week or so with information on some good catches from you guys......

First off was an email from Craig Gardiner (27) who's caught a stunning 37lb 6oz mirror from a southern gravel pit.

The fish was taken on caught on a chod rig with 1kg of bait on each rod at 80 yards, korda size 6 choddy and korda 3oz tournament lead, PGB choc orange boilies were the bait used to bag this fabulous fish!
 
Another angler enjoying the spoils of the summer is site regular Brian Collins. Brian's been catching some proper lumps of recent and the pics of this Grassy at 34lbs just goes to prove his worth as a top angler.

Not only did he bag this stunning torpedo of a fish, he also managed to bag another 13 fish in his haul, which included 2x30's, 9x20's & 3xdoubles!!!! All we can say to this is....'TOP BOMBING FELLA!' Fantastic results Brian and thanks to all of you who have sent in pics and reports recently.

Tight lines to you all and I hope your all having a superb Summer!

Regards
Keith

7th July 2010

Well, not much to report from the Welsh side of the river! I had 4 very quiet nights back on Crayfish Pool last week. The fishing just wasn't up to scratch at all. I think it has something to do with the fish not spawning in there as yet....

We've had a couple of odd very brief hot spells where the water temperature has crept up to a very warm 24°C...but the fish just haven't really got to it! Needless to say they won't have been up to much this week either as the weather has changed yet again!

I've decided as this seems to be affecting the angling so much that I'd pull off the venue until at least mid August when hopefully things will have improved some. Odd fish have fallen to a few regular faces, but on a whole it's just not really occurring there.

The wife is quite pleased as it means she has some spare time to do her stuff for a change! I've been driving her and myself up the wall wanting to get the rods out but I think i'm going to have to wait until at least next Monday when Stuart and I are getting together for a few days down south.

Talking of Stu, he's been sending me numerous lovely pics of his recent captures. These included one of a dozen or so large bream he's bagged from a rock hard southern club water near Ringwood.

The fish have been falling to Stu's boilie approach which has accounted for a lot of fish so far this year already. With a new PB of 9lbs, Stu's now very keen to bust the 10lb barrier which he believes will happen very soon at the venue.

A brief stalking session on another of Christchurch Angling Clubs private still waters paid off too with the capture of a very pretty 13lb 4oz orange coloured common.

Stu also told me about a day session he had on Hatchet Pond near Beaulieu too. In his words you just couldn't write it how it happened, yet after a walk around the entire venue, getting covered in swamp mud and dog's mess, he settled into a spot where he found at least enough water to fish.

The day basically took the mold of continuous people asking if he'd caught anything? People having picnics right behind him and dog walkers ploughing through his rods and chucking sticks in for their beloved pets right next to him! Enough was enough for our traveler and he packed up very deflated!

At least the next session was a little more rewarding and after a brief walk from his house and down to the Avon which runs very nearby, he spoke to river guide Chris Holley who'd had a very quiet day in the searing temperatures....nothing really happening anywhere albeit Stu felt there was still a chance to bag a fish and within ten minutes of setting his stool for a fish, he was doing battle with a stunning 10lb 2oz barbel!

Much to the other anglers disgust....Stu walked back past them 15 minutes after starting with a double figure fish on the bank! Lucky devil eh?

Right that's about it from me this week.....Stu and I are getting together in just a few days time so not quite sure what we're up to yet but it sounds like we're going to have a bash at the mullet in Christchurch harbour with lightweight float tackle! Cant wait!

Tight lines all
Keith

23rd June 2010

A mixed bag of reports this week. My week has been very busy with a trip up to see K.P in Coventry. I got up there on Monday afternoon and we managed to get a few hours in on Jubilee Pools.
There were fish all over the place on the surface and although it looked really tasty for a few carp, all that happened was a single fish to K.P late on in the evening.

A low double figure common put up a good scrap and put what appeared to be a very quiet afternoon into some sort of shape.

My fish less spell continued on Tuesday when we ventured off very early at around 4am. A trip down to the River Avon at Wasperton saw both of us struggle for nothing other than just a very small chub! After a tough and very hot morning on the river, we decided to head back to Jubilee for the afternoon and evening spell.

We set up in a good spot next to the corner margins and part of the island. I spodded around a kilo of particles and Marukyu groundbaits to a gravel spot I located at about 45 yards. This was the then bombarded with a rod of mine and one of K.P's. Again, we struggled to put anything on the bank and my only chance was dropped when my reels let me down!

I really am very disappointed with the Basiair's....on striking into the fish I was left with line wrapping around the back of the spool and a few seconds of slack line saw the fish come off! Bugger, my only chance of the session and It was blown!
Oh well, it was lovely to catch up with K.P and although the fishing was very tough we still had a great time.

Stuart on the other hand has had yet another good week on the bank with the capture of his first UK catfish, albeit only a kitten but pleasing all the same. He also just sent me this pic of a stunning 13lb 1oz barbel he took from the Royalty Fishery on the Hants Avon. The fish is a bit of an old friend for Stu as it's his third capture of the fish in two years or so.....

Stu ventured down the river mouth for a night's fishing too last week...the session was totally scuppered by greedy swans that continually wiped out his lines and 10 kg of baits that he'd placed into the marginal areas for the carp. It was very cold over night too....and there was a thin layer of over night frost!!! In JUNE!

Anyway, that's about it for this week......I'm back off to the Cray on Sunday all being well and good.

Tight lines for now
Keith

17th June 2010

Crayfish Pool Syndicate,
Horton Complex

Another 3 nights on the Cray was the order for this weeks dabbling...I arrived a little later than usual on the Monday this week.
I've spent the last fortnight trying to plan my attack for this session, but as I tell many others, you should never choose your swim before you see the lake!

I'd already chosen my swim 2 weeks ago though! On arrival I saw the the chosen spot of the point was already taken by Jason....bugger it! That was that idea out the window!

Oh well, with Kieron in Green Bank and the majority of the fish coming from the West bank swims of the lake...I stood very little chance of bagging anything this week.
I tried to put this to the back of my mind and figured that sometime they'd got to come out for a munch!

I thought this was almost definite when a fish topped 3 times in succession right in front of my swim, that of the beach. A shallow sloping swim with a tidy platform to cast from.

The water in front of the swim drops off slowly into around 10 feet of water. There is weed a plentiful and a small clear gravel patch at around 35 yards....I decided to target this area with a bountiful of supply of Marukyu Sanagi boilies and single sticks of 141 groundbait. I tipped off a single boilie with a plastic white boilie of the same size 15mm. This was placed tightly onto the clear spot with a small 1 oz lead and a short 2" IQ hook length.

The 3 nights passed quicker than I could blink and before I knew it I was looking at the steering wheel of the car and back on the road home! Another blank in the bag and hopefully a bit more learnt!

Well, as for young Jason Llewellyn .....the lucky devil didn't just bag one stunning Crayfish Pool Carp....He managed 2!

The first fish fell to a pop up presented in the margins and tipped the scales to 16lb 5oz. A fish known as Beauty.

The next fell to the same set up in the early hours of the morning and after a brief weigh and photograph we put back a stunning 32lb 9oz mirror known as Cowes. Jason's 2nd thirty from the venue this season.
Well done to you mate.

Well that's it from me this week. Stu has just emailed me to say he's bagged his first uk Catfish and some more carp too...hopefully pics to follow soon.

Tight lines
Keith

Ringwood Club Water.
14th June

Another brief session for me this week after work saw a pleasing result in the form of a good looking common of 22lb 1oz.
I chose a quiet swim well away from the other handful of anglers that were still on the place during the evening. Its not a pressured venue as such but there's almost always somebody on there.

I'm still using the CC Moores N-Gage that I've been field testing for some time now....results have been very varied and I would have to say that it works on some venues better than others!

The river season starts in earnest in a few days and I can feel the Barbel calling me, yet after last seasons incredibly poor results I feel myself pulled towards the still waters more and more for the carp fishing which I have thoroughly enjoyed through the old close season.

I'm sure the rivers will have me back into them soon, but for now I'm really enjoying almost going back to my roots and getting back to hardcore carping....

This has been a good couple of weeks now with numerous twenty pound plus finding the back of the net. This week was no exception and the 22lb 1oz common from this session has really helped to make the step back into carping so much easier.

Anyway, here's a quick snap of the 22lb 1oz common and hopefully I'll have another on the bank this week!

Tight lines

Stu

Stenhill Syndicate,
Cullumpton, Devon
June 10th 2010

Well, it's been a hectic week here with the VIP day at Mallory Park with Marukyu on Monday and of course I had to drive down to pick up Brian anyway....this meant only one thing to me......4 nights fishing included!

Sunday night was a rather quiet affair with just a small 11lb 8oz common and a 16lb 5oz mirror finding the net.

Obviously Monday was very hectic with the trip up to Marukyu and on arriving back at Stenhill on Monday night, it was chucking it down with rain!

I was so tired that bed was the only thing I was concerned about getting into that night! I left the rods locked up safe in the car and headed towards the bivvy....only to find that the blasted rain had been coming into the front of the Dave Lane all day long and had soaked my boots and a good half of my bed and bag!

I dried off what I could and clambered into the damp bag before falling asleep. Around 10am on Tuesday Jezza Harris woke me up with the question 'was I going to fish today or what?' lol
Stupid question mate....does a bear sh*t in the woods! lol

10 mins later I was getting the rods back into place and contemplating the plan of action for the remaining 2 nights fishing..
Sticks of 142 were made up with a good helping of Sanagi boilies being dumped in particular spots around the swim.

The weather was crap to say the least and It was at times extremely wet. At one point it was raining so hard you almost couldn't see your rods! This was about the time I had a screaming take on the left hand rod to the island spot. I played the fish out in the pouring rain before netting her and diving back under the brolly for a few minutes, letting the weather subside a little before weighing the fish etc.

On placing the fish on the mat, we realised it was one of my chief uncaught targets....a stunning mirror known as 'The Warrior'. A fish that had only been out once in some considerable time. This time she popped the scales around to 26lb 9oz.....well pleased with the result, pictures were taken and this beautiful creature returned to her murky pool.

Next run came from a 20lb 4oz mirror from open water. This fish was followed up a 17lb 15oz mirror and a 20lb 1oz common....the next fish came around midnight on Wednesday morning and the next thing I knew I was looking at 'The Warrior' again on my mat!!!! Caught from the same spot, on the same rig and bait as less than 12 hours earlier! Now slightly lighter in weight too at 26lb 5oz!

With this weird event still in my mind the capture of the 20lb 4oz mirror for the second time in the session too, left me gob smacked! I'd never caught the same fish twice that close together let alone 2 fish!

After the strange experience I went on to bag a fair few more carp....a 13lb 3oz mirror, 18lb 1oz common, 16lb 7oz common, 21lb 9oz common, 20lb 3oz zip linear, 15lb 1oz mirror, 13lb 13oz common, 10lb 8oz mirror and finally a 13lb 11oz mirror too!

It was a proper good week with Jezza landing a fair old share of fish too!

I'm hoping to get back to the Cray on Sunday all being well, so back to hard times and tough fishing I think!

Tight lines
Keith

Ringwood Club Water
30th May 2010

With the fact that the rivers are closed due to the old closed season rule still applying...Ive tended to get back into my carping all over again this season and I have to say that it's been a thoroughly enjoyable experience!

Its been a long time since I really can say that Ive totally enjoyed carping too much in the UK....well things have changed and I can honestly say i'm really enjoying my comeback to the sport.

This week has been no exception and after the prospects of an over nighter on one of the Ringwood pits was thwarted due to a mass of anglers filling the banks on both of their major fisheries! There wasn't a swim free on 60 acres of water! Not what I fancied at all. Its tough enough without having to compete with everybody and his dog.

I decided to have a few evening sessions on a very local pool on my ticket. There is a ruling of no night fishing and the stock doesn't go much over 15lbs but there are one or two surprises if your lucky enough to get into one of them. Well, after work I ventured down and got the kit out as quick as i could. The margins were just screaming out for a bait as the majority of the fellas fishing tend to target the open water and island margins.

I put a couple of rods out with a new boilie I had managed to put together and within minutes I was into my first fish....not a big one by any standards but a welcome 5lb common found the net. I followed this up with around 8/9 more fish to mid double figures. As I was considering packing away the right hand rod blasted off at an alarming rate of knots. I quickly wound into what was clearly a much better fish. After a few minutes of struggling I sunk the net under a stunning common of 21lb 13oz! Not at all what I was expecting from the venue at all!

My next session was a couple of nights later and it wasn't long before I found the fish yet again! This time I bagged a good 10 or so fish to mid doubles. I'd placed a £10 bet with a mate about who'd be the first to bag a twenty from the venue and after the one I'd had a few nights before, I wasn't expecting what next came along! Yet another decent common.....this time a much better stamp of fish in the form of a beautiful 25lb 6oz fish.
What a result for this week and this small and secluded small fish venue. Really didn't expect to bag fish of this size.

Tight lines
Stuey

Celtics lakes
14th/16th May

At last I finally had time to go off and do two nights fishing. I booked the Friday off work, so I got up at 7:30am to make the trek from Cheltham (stayed up the miss's house!) to Lampeter West Wales. After picking all my gear up and going to pick my mate up too, we arrived at the lake at 12:00 noon. We then went for a quick walk to look at the water. On our walk around we saw to our shock one of the new sturgeon that John had put in to the lake…. it was a beast of a creature!

So after seeing that we continued on our walk and then decided on our swims which were swims 19 and 20 with the big open water and a side off the island each. We set up pretty quick as the weather looked like it was on a turn for the worst. I decided I’d fish two rods and go for carp this weekend, as I thought it may be too cold for the cats.

I decided to go for a single 14 mm pellet topped with a piece of rubber sweet corn on a size 10 hook, over a bed of pellets varying in size from 2mm/8mm at range on the island. The other rod I’d fish a single tiger topped with a single grain of sweet corn on a size 10 hook over a bed of hemp ,sweet corn, tigers, and crushed tigers in the margins. The first rod I sent out to the far side of the island about 200yds on my bait boat filled with the mixed of pallets about 1 meter off the island.

My other rod was a simple walk to the left and plopped in the margin which I baited with a few small spodfulls out in the margins ( to keep my baited area as small as I could ).

So great….. all set-up and fishing and within an hour my left hand margin rod started peeling line off fast, after a quick battle I had my first carp a lovely 13lb plump mirror. I thought what a start to my weekend! A couple of quiet hours went by and I nodded off  and next thing I knew I was awoken by my right hand rod screaming off. I stumble out off bed and struck in to my second fish of the session and yet another carp put in a cracking fight. This one, a 10lb Mirror carp. I put the carp back I sent the boat back out to the same spot as my plan was to make a bed of pellets just off the island.

The rod can’t off been out 30 mins and it was off again! Yet another carp about 5/6lbs. Action like this went until about 6 o’clock, then the lake died down for a couple off hours. It was just getting dark, so I decided to wind the rods in and re-bait ready for the night fishing ahead. And of course before it got too dark for the bait boat. It just turned dark and I had another fish on…. peeling line off and to my disappointment it was a little 4/5lb carp!  

After putting it back I thought I’d try my luck putting my rig back out on my bait boat, I managed to get it there…. or there abouts ( I think any’ ways lol ).

I went off to bed then to call it quits for the night, looking at the sky it was going to be a cold night. Next thing I know it 11:30 at night and my right hand was screaming off again and I thought I might be in with a chance of a cat! After hooking it, it became apparent it wasn’t a small carp or it was a kitten and way after a 10 minute battle, I had a monster of a carp in my landing net! I looked at it and my mate was going ‘that’s a twenty’! ‘it’s a twenty,’ I got the wheel of fortune out and the score on the doors was a 25.4lb common carp…. a new PB!

I was chuffed to bits…. at last my first 20+ carp. I took a few snaps and put her back.. I decided to try and put it my rig back out on my baited spot again. I think I managed it ok and so I had a brew because I was still buzzing from my new PB and then went back to bed.

2;20 Am and my right hand rod was off again and this time it was a cat, but to my horror my hook length pinged and I was gutted!!!! First cat of the session lost. I decide that’s enough for one night I’d rest my baited area up and re-set my rod up in the morning and start again.

8;00 Am… my left hand margin rod wakes me up and my first carp of the day was on. I managed to get it in and it was another 3/4lb carp in my net. After I put it back I decided a brew was in order and reset my rods for the days fishing ahead.

As a change I thought I’d try a 15mm pop up boilie that I made 2 yrs ago and been soaking in flavourings since then. I sent my rod out on the bait boat again and walked my margin rod back out and with in an hour my right hand rod (with the boilie) was off again. I had a lovely 3/4lb grass carp take a liking to my boilie and it was the first time I’ve caught one, yet alone seen one on the bank its self. What a session it was turning out to be.

Nothing happened for a couple of hours, the place went dead. Then about 4’ish my Pellet swim erupted with carp going mental with runs coming think and fast! As soon as I could get it out it would scream off…. lol I must of had about 10 carp varying from 3lbs to 15lbs and then it quietened off again about 8'ish.

It was yet again at that twilight hour where its just getting dark, so I wound the rods in, re-baited and sent them back out to their spots. It just got dark and with in 30 minutes, again my right hand was screaming off and this time it was a cat…. it was screaming off line when I hooked in to it and a then a 2 minute battle ensued, then the cat come off …. ( I think its due to the size 10 hook)

So, I wound the rod in re-baited and sent back out in the bait boat and again within half an hour I received a one toner….I struck in to it and it was yet another cat…..ping it was off again!!!! Yet another cat lost due to my small hook I think. This happened to me about every half hour to 45 minutes until 4;30 am when the rain started pouring down and completely killed the fishing! not so much as a single beep . Then out of the blue about 6 in the morning my left hand rod screams into life and I have yet another carp of 4/5lb in the net. I fished on until 12 o’clock and managed one more carp off the island.

So, in conclusion one hell of a session!!! To get back in to fishing after partially having a year out due to personal reasons, I think i'm back on track and I hopefully 2010’s going to be a new chapter in my life and a great one for fishing…. should of used bigger hooks for the cats but you learn from your mistakes. I’m sorry about the picture quality my miss's had the camera for her summer ball and I was left with the camera on my phone but they’re clear enough…..
 
Keep safe & tights lines

Huw

      

 

Crayfish Pool, Horton Complex

27th May 2010.

After the triumph of last weeks session on the Cray....It was going to take one hell of a feat to better that session....needless to say it was a much quieter affair this week.
I made the arduous trip down on Sunday morning and on my arrival was greeted by numerous new faces/weekenders packing up and leaving. I had a walk about for a bit to stretch my bones after the drive and to see what fish I could find.

The usual suspects were to be found in their favorite haunts....lumpy was sulking in the snag to the right of Hutchy's after being taken out late last week by Kingsmead Island Head Bailiff Chris....Well in you jammy sod! Totland was sulking near the corner of Green Bank due to its removal by yours truly.....and 'Sov's' was to be found hiding near the Dog Kennels after Cliff took her from the High Bank on Saturday and I was starting to get the feeling by the look of the majority of fish on the surface, that this was going to be 'Just one of those weeks'!

A few hours later in the seriously hot weather, I found myself set up in Hutchy's. Or as I'd like to call it....the Aquarium! Well, I obviously can't nick the name as it's the same as one of K.I's swims. But it was truly like an aquarium! There were fish all over the place in there. I tried in vain to temp one or two to taste a sample Marsh Mallow and a chum mixer. This just got them aggravated and pushed them further away from the swim....Ok, try a lighweight Zig.....nope, didn't like that one either????????

So, it's going to be like that then eh? I tried to get them down with a good spod helping of mixed particles to the left and right hand sides of the margins where I found depths of around 7-10 feet. Fairly clear with some slight weeding up closer in. I plopped a few of the old fish and fruits in over the top and awaited events.....well, I'm still waiting! lol

After 2 blank nights I couldn't take any more of watching the fish everywhere else on the lake bar in front of me....I was really contemplating a move onto the point swim as it looked hot for a fish....they'd been boshing all over it on the Monday night and a move was definitely on the cards. I started to bag up my gear for a move when I looked up and saw young Jason Llewellyn setting up in there....oh well, nevermind. I'll try Green Bank again as they've been showing there too.

Well, the obvious thing happened....Jason bagged 'Ventnor' at 30lb 5oz I believe....well done my son! His first fish for the venue. Well pleased for the lad, but can't help feeling I missed the boat! lol.

My bad luck continued in Green Bank with endless Cray bites and baitless rigs within minutes of casting in. Plastics were the only way forward from here yet the fish just weren't having any of it for me this week.

I had a short run on the left hand rod to a lightly baited patch at 3am on Wednesday morning but on striking I was met with no resistance and brought back a bear rig.

I'm really going to have to up my game plan if I want to start bagging more of these magnificent creatures....I just wish time, money and distance weren't such critical issues!

Tight lines for now

Keith

Crayfish Pool, Horton Complex.
21st May 2010

Needless to say that the following report needed to come up with something special to out do my current catches at Stenhill! Well, it hasn't out done them but has thrown up a pretty special capture for me........
As you will all know if you've read further down the reports page, I have had a fantastic Winter/Spring on the beautiful lake 'Stenhill' in Devon. With great captures EVERY WEEK!  Not just for myself but neigh on everybody fishing it has had plenty out from the inform venue.

Therefor it was going to take some beating and a hell of a good venue to keep my catch reports flowing with quality, large and very pretty fish! Well, it just so happens that I have managed to get myself onto the 20 man syndicate at Crayfish Pool on the very sought after Horton Complex near Slough. Now, I haven't pulled off of Stenhill, as my ticket runs up until Feb of 2011. I have just tried to give myself a little variety in my fishing. The two lakes in themselves are extremely different. Stenhill is shallow at around 4 feet max with fish to low 30's. Peaceful, picturesque and of course a great stock of very pretty fish! Great for winter time when the going is tough!

Crayfish Pool on the other hand is a totally different ball game......10-16 feet deep, steep marginal shelves, tight swims, snags, bird life extraordinaire and of course those pesky critters....THE CRAYFISH!
And to top it all off only 35 carp in 3 acres of water.....not dreadful but it certainly gets the old brain matter going when you go looking for the fish!

Well, I digress....This week was my first session on the pool and I managed to get the Mrs to let me venture out early Sunday morning after picking her up from her night shift. I got the car loaded up and headed down the motorway for the dreaded 160 mile trip to Heathrow. On arrival at the complex i was blown away to find absolutely nobody on Crayfish Pool at all! The whole lake to myself? Wow.....Ok, so a few hours walking, looking and learning. Marker float out and Polaroids on. I didn't see so much as a fin of a fish! Oh dear, this is going to be a tough old season. The aircraft were flying over every 20-30 secs and in all honesty I was questioning my sanity at paying £300 a year for a ticket on a venue as tough as this and over a million miles from home! What hope do I have of getting the fish onto my baits when I live so far away? Its not like I can just pop down and put a few freebies in for some pre-baiting or run a rake through a swim to get rid of any weed either!

After some deliberating and a few hours of plumbing around, damaged hearing and a headache behind the eyes from motorway driving, I felt it was time to choose a swim! Let's pick one out the hat.....The Stump, that'll do for tonight! With out further ado, I adorned my carp clobber and loaded the barrow with my light weight essentials for the 4 nights ahead. I have to say that by this point I was starting to feel a little out of my depth. I'd done almost no homework on the place and hadn't really expected to get the ticket for at least another 12 months! I was going to use this time to gain as much info about the place as possible. That of course was now history and I was staring at a totally blank sheet....

Ok, so I picked a few little tidy spots at about 20-30 yards out and just placed a small PVA bag of crumbed Fish & Fruits onto the rig with one whole one on the hook. Out went the rigs and I settled into some dinner and an early night. Around 4.30am I awoke to the sound of a cuckoo calling and decided to get up and make myself a cuppa and some brekkie. A very quiet night had passed and I felt my best chance of locating the fish would be to reel in and go for a quiet peek around the lake early on in the day. It didn't take too long before I located a pack of stunning creatures held up just one swim away from where I was bivvied up. In the corner of the lake in a swim called 'Green Bank' were no less than 4 stunning fish...3 commons and one hell of a big mirror! OOOOOOHHHH, quick, get the gear! I hastily but quietly grabbed all my kit and sited up home in the new spot. I waited for the fish to mooch on out of the newly located area before adding a few free offerings for on their return. 'Oh yes', and of course a nicely presented size 6 Nash Gaper Gaff" lol

Needless to say that the fish made a mockery of my presentation and ignored everything I threw at them. It was starting to look like one of those, 'well, I'm glad I came but maybe next time' sessions....That was until Wednesday morning around 8.15am. The left hand rod which had been placed neatly near a big green fallen tree to my right with a few spodfulls of my favorite particles and a couple of hundred boilies. Suddenly sprung into life with a blistering run! Christ! Where's my boots.....I scrambled off the bed and almost went arse over tit into the lake before grabbing the rod and securing what felt like a dam good fish. I wasn't wrong either as this beast had other ideas about being held up for the cameras!

She roared off all over the place and caused numerous problems with the other line from my right hand rod, but worse still was the terrific amount of willow blossom and catkins that had dropped onto the lake surface over the last few days. This stuff sticks to braided line like 'the proverbial to a blanket!' It got stuck in the rod rings, bail arm...just about anywhere it could hinder me landing what looked a good carp.
After some ten minutes of arguing who was boss, the carp decided to let me have the last word in the argument and found her way neatly into the bottom of my waiting net. Then I saw the girth of the fish and almost fell over! Wow, this was one fat mutha!

I got the camera all set up, wet the mat and zeroed the scales, while she sat quietly in the net in the margins. 32lb 7oz on the Reubens.....what a cracker of a fish. I got some stunning snap shots and put her back asap. I decided to reel the other rod in and go to look at the picture board on the point swim...A quick scale count and a few looks through the on site book told me that she was a fish called 'Totland'. One of the small handful of stocked fish from after a bad fish kill some years ago now. They originated from somewhere on the Isle of Wight and had packed on some serious poundage since being introduced into the rich waters of Crayfish Pool.

If this capture wasn't enough, I was invited that evening to a barbecue with the lads over on Kingsmead Island Lake. I must say now that they are a bunch of true gents who looked after me very well, thanks fellas, you know who you are!

Anyway, that's about all the exciting stuff for this week. I'm back off to Cray again on Sunday to try and extract another one of its jewels but I get the feeling the next capture may not be so easy, as they have been showing signs of spawning rather earlier than expected! Only time will tell.

See you all soon and tight lines

Keith
x

30th April 2010

I was hoping to be writing a report this week to say that I had had a great session after the cats at Hazel Court....this didn't happen due to a very busy complex on my arrival on Monday afternoon. I was a little disappointed as there were in my eye's far too many people on the small cat lake.

In my opinion the lake is at full capacity with 4 anglers on there.....to say that it is ok for 5-6 anglers using up to 3 rods each is loony. I'm not 100% sure the lady selling the tickets, albeit very nice and friendly, had an idea what these 50/60/70lb+ cats fight like. One of these fish will give a serious battle that could cause catastrophic effects to a host of  separate lines entering the water.

Anyway, that's just my opinion and I'm sure they have thought about these issues and are happy to apply the current situation.
This left me feeling a little down in the mouth as money's been erring on the side of a ducks rear end (tight)!

Well, after a brief cuppa with my new friend Matty on Monday afternoon, I'd sorted with Brian a 48 hour session for both of us at the syndicate. After calling Matty back he'd had problems sorting out a baby sitter etc for the two nights.

Well as it happened within a few hours or so I'd spoken with Brian again and it appeared it was going to be busy at the lake this week. Bearing this in mind with the fact that Brian obviously has to put members first, we decided to sort out a session again for a few weeks time.

I ventured down by myself later on in the week for a short session, as Marianne wasn't working this week. After a bit of banter in Keens Tackle with the fellas I found myself on the M4/M5 on my way back down to Devon again. On arrival it was pretty warm with a very gentle wind coming from the West.

Steve Bliss was up the back channel and doing very well with ten fish in the bag up to 26lb+. I really fancied the boat house swim but in all fairness I felt it would hinder Steve's fishing. I opted for the car park swim again but in all honesty it didn't feel good from the off.

I did bag a nice 16lb 8oz mirror from the off but things were decidedly quieter up my end of the lake. There were many fish moving around near the surface but I just couldn't seem to get them interested in floaters or zigs at any depth from 4ft- just a few inches.....

Another member and good friend Glen Ireland had a terrific 24 hours or so bagging 7 or 8 good carp to nearly 25lb. This wasn't really the highlight though......what was the high light was Glen landing an awesome 5lb 14oz eel! It was 3feet 7inches in length. After many jibes about not holding it for a picture we took a fe of it next to Glen's rod.

My week seem to be a littl bit of a non starter. I was able to catch 8 lovely carp including 2 mirrors of 19lb+ and a stunning 6lb 7oz fat tench. I have to confess that it just didn't really feel good to me this week. I don't know why this was...I think it's probably because I knew I was in the wrong swim.

My back and hips were too painful to consider a move and the weather was very up and down with some heavy rain falling again. The water temperature had dropped from 19c down to 15c in a few days. I'm not putting my results down to this, more so my poor angling I think. The rigs, leads in fact everything I was doing I just wasn't 'feeling it'!

I have a lot on the old mind again this week to be honest. My Grandfather has just been told he has Blood Cancer which is enough bad news for some time....we have a family party to go to this weekend as well and I'm really not in the family hugging frame of mind at the moment.My hips have been giving me some grief too this week. It's all a bit too much to deal with, I thought going fishing would help but it seems not.

Oh well, lets hope England do okay in the ICC World T20 this week. As many of you know I love my International Cricket....I think it's come at the right time....gives me something to watch and take the old mind off of things.

Right, that's enough from me this week. I'll leave you with a few nice pics from this week.

TTFN
Keith

Stenhill Syndicate,
Devon 15th April 2010

I was supposed to be having a quiet week this week as I promised the wife I'd stay at home! Of course that didn't happen and on Sunday afternoon my poor car was dragged down the motorway again for the 100+ miles to the lake.

Some of you may be thinking at this point, that I have a very understanding wife.....well, yes I do. She's the most caring, loving and incredible woman I have ever known. Ok, can I stop the sucking up now??? lol

The drive was pretty good down and some hour and a half I pulled up at the gate to find only my good mate Jezz fishing in the back channel. This left me pretty much the whole lake to choose from.

Now, as it happens it had been fairly busy through the weekend and there had been numerous good fish out in the rising water temperatures. These had crept up to an almost balmy 13.4 deg C! Jezz was already on 3 carp including a low twenty, so I had some catching up to do!

I chose the usual arduous 1 yard walk to my swim in the car park! The swim looked sweet as a peach and with a gentle wind blowing into the top West corner of the pool, it certainly looked like the correct swim choice.

I very casually set up my kit and got 3 rods into some likely looking spots before settling into a nice curry and an early night.

First action for the session fell to a rod placed to the swim known as 'the roots'. This came in with a good scrap and a sweet little 11lb 5oz common hit the spreader.

A quiet night then followed on before I was woken at around 8am to a very nice 18lb 4oz mirror.

With the sun rising quickly and the wind just starting to send ripples across the pool, I decided to give a zig rig a try.

I placed a pineapple mainline pop up on a size 8 choddy to some 6lb fluorocarbon and set it around 3 feet 6 inches in 4 feet of water.

This was then cast towards the far margin and placed in the rests.

Well, didn't so much as stay there for more than a few seconds before a very nice common of 15lb 5oz found its way onto my hook.

This was then followed up with 4 others falling to the same method! 22lb 1oz common, 22lb 10oz mirror, 14lb 7oz mirror and a 18lb mirror too!

After the light had passed I settled back to bottom baits.....I'm currently making the most of the new range of baits from Marukyu in Japan. I'm finding their Sanagi Silkworm Chrysalis boilie fished over a combo of 142/151/441 groundbaits mixed works exceptionally well.

These baits managed to bag me another 11 carp before things went quiet on Wednesday morning.....I managed to take 16 fish in total of which all were into double figures and included 5 twenty pound + fish!

Jezza managed to bag 8 carp from the channel over 3 night only sessions.

These were cracking fish that included a new UK PB for him at 25lb 10oz! Well in my son!

Even the boss himself, Mr Cox managed to upstage us all again by winkling one out with in 5 mins of casting his single rod out! 18lb 8oz mirror!

Anyway, I'll leave it there for this week and just give you some snaps to see of a few of the better fish.

Tight lines

Keith

7th April 2010

A mixed bag report this week from me......Had a nice message from Stuey a day or so back to say he'd had a nice dark common of 17lb 10oz from one of his club lakes down south. The fish came on a cold day when the lake was under a great deal of angling pressure from at least 15 other guys fishing it! Well done to you mate! The fish fell for a well presented pop up on a hinged stiff rig set up about 30 minutes into the day.

I had a great day out with a new friend this week to a local pool near Cardiff. The chap I went with was doing a bit of shopping in Keens Tackle on Tuesday this week. I was having a coffee with the lads and generally having the p*** taken out of me as is the norm when I go into the tackle shop!

All good fun of course! Anyway I digress, the chap asked me if I knew much about some of the local waters and we got into a nice chat about numerous venues etc.

Turned out he lived up the same valley as me and as the crow flies probably less than 500 yards away from my house! Small world eh? As he was going fishing on Wednesday I got invited along........well, you know me.....didn't take more than 5 minutes to decide whether I was going to break the wife's house arrest code for the week and go out fishing.

I guessed I could deal with the aftermath of my mad wife's rage! Sorry sweetheart....I love you really....(ssshhh) don't tell everybody about the grovelling please! lol

Anyway, we exchanged pleasantries, and decided a day out at Hazelcourt Ponds was the order of the day. I said I'd drive as I have the estate, and with the price of fuel at the moment it seems all too sensible to take just one car fishing. I picked my new friend Matthew Decourcy up at 6.30 am. And we headed down the A48 for our chosen destination.

On arrival we could see that the place was pretty well chocker.

A quick decision was made and we drove a bit further onto Dyffryn Springs. Some of you will remember I did a few short day sessions on there a few years back with some good degrees of success with the inhabitants of the Reservoir pool.

It was again quite a busy day on the pool with the majority of the better swims taken very early on in the day.

We chose a nice quiet swim which commanded a good section of the windiest part of the lake. It was a Westerly blowing straight at us so It looked pretty darn good for some action.
I set up three rods for us to share and we set about tackling the day ticket water with some of the new baits I had from Marukyu.

The new Sanagi Silkworm Chrysalis 15mm Boilies over a stick mix combo of their brilliant 151 and a dose of the 442 additive as well. This served us well through out the day and we managed to bag a good few nice pretty commons and mirrors.

The water is only about 2-3 acres in size with a clay/silt bottom. Due to the stock density in the pool, there isn't too much of a need to plod around with a lead/marker. It's a case of find a spot and introduce a bit of bait, building it up through the day.

Things started a bit quiet all round and it wasn't much before 1.30pm until the first few fish started to come out of the venue.

We started to catch well on a maggot madussa first, which was presented to the left by an overhanging marginal tree. This produced 3 nice tench for Matty and a switch over to the Marukyu boilie got a quick take on the same rod from a good looking common of around ten pounds.

My turn soon came and I bagged an absolutely stunning little double figure fully scaled mirror. Things went a little quiet around 4pm and the bulk of the anglers started to leave the venue.....this was great for us as it gave a bit more scope for our angling areas.

It wasn't much before 6.30pm that things started to get a bit lively, and the last hour of fishing saw another 4-5 carp get banked to all three rods! At one point it was almost a fish on all three rods at once, albeit about 1-2 minutes between runs!

Anyway, we had a cracking day out with plenty of fish and good company. We had a good rig tying session and hopefully Matt learn a few bits and pieces too. I certainly enjoyed his company and hope we get the opportunity to do it again very soon.

Tight lines all

Keith

Stenhill Syndicate, Devon
1st April 2010

What a difference a week can make! The weather was starting to feel a little more spring like come Sunday this week.....I made the pilgrimage (116 mile trip) down to Collumpton again this week. I'm still on the hunt for my first thirty from the venue.

I may be barking up the wrong tree at the moment as typically the fish have dropped a bit of weight through the excessively long cold winter we've had.

This isn't the norm at the venue and I've absolutely no doubt that the fish will pack on lots of weight over the coming weeks run up to summer time and the inevitable spawning period.

It's not just one of the fish, it's fairly through the board. Something that seems to have happened all over the country in fact. Sticking a 6 week lid of ice on a fishery will have that effect!

Anyway, back to this week! My first job of the week is to Congratulate 'Nuts' regular and good friend Keith Parris on his capture of a fantastic PB common carp of 22lb 8oz from Jubilee Pools near Coventry.

Unfortunately the fish and man moment was not captured on camera and his only recollections will be in his own memory.......just means you've got to do it again soon Mr P and get some one to photograph it for you! lol

My weeks been a tad hectic on the fish front! The weather started well on Sunday afternoon with some nice warm sunshine finding its way onto the sodden ground. My usual car park lazy gits swim was taken this week, so I had to walk a long and arduous 20 yards to the boat house swim! lol

This presented me with a couple of new swim options and plenty of open water to target too. The middle and right hand rod were put out into open water of about 4 feet over choddy silt. The left rod was positioned off the tip end of the large island channel.

I baited my left rod with the new prototype fish and fruit boiile I'd put together recently. The other 2 rods were baited with the new Marukyu Silkworm Chrysalis boilie over their 151 mixed with 442 stick mix ingredients.

I boated the baits out with the microcat, so that it enabled me to fish accurately and avoid the inline leads being buried into the silt on the cast. I opted for short rigs of about 4" using Nashys Missing Link material and size 8 Nash Twisters, single boilie and a white 6mm mutant tip off.

Almost straight away I was into a fish, a nice 16lb 5oz mirror found the spreader block before I settled down for the night in the warmth of my sleeping bag. Another 3 small commons and mirrors between 11lb and 15lb 5oz hit the mesh before lunchtime on Monday.

The bites were quite gentle really. No screaming runs as such. The bobbin would just rise and stay there.

Around 8pm on Monday the middle rod awoke during a heavy rain storm. I grabbed my water proofs and ventured outside into the strong wind and rain. It was well worth getting wet for as a beautiful 23lb 8oz common graced the net.

The weather continued to worsen through the night and into Tuesday. The fishing slowed down a little but I managed to bag another few fish including a 20lb 14oz mirror that was a repeat capture from about 4 weeks ago. I also managed a beautiful common of 24lb 1oz too.

The weather really changed on Wednesday night and a clear sky led to a cold hard frost.



This signaled a real death in the fishing and only a 14lber was able to tie up the weeks captures making it 11 fish for the week.....great result that I'm very pleased with.

I hope your all out there bagging a few early spring lunkers....don't forget to send us your pics and news!

Tight lines
Keith

Stenhill Carp Syndicate March 18th '10

Well, this was supposed to have been a report from Reading and last week as well! As you can obviously guess from the title...it didn't happen!

What did happen was another week of mishaps which included my PC playing up, our Sky plus box shorting itself out and the cooker blowing up too! Just another mad week in the Supple house hold!

At least I have something a bit better to talk about this week!

Another stonking weeks fishing was to be had again this week at Stenhill! I started the week as usual on Sunday afternoon, with the arduous 116 mile trip down to the lake. On arrival I was greeted by syndicate members Jezz Harris and Martin Bond who were set up in front of the island and in the boat house swims.

This left just a few options really and the most obvious choice due to its water coverage was the car park swim.

I dropped into the swim slowly as plenty of chit chat was to be had amongst the lads.

Eventually I got settled in and dropped a few handfuls of my new prototype fish and fruit boilie into some selected spots I'd taken fish from before.

Night time soon came around and my eyelids dropped. It wasn't until around 3am Monday morning that the first fish made an appearance. A spirited scrap soon ended and a beautiful zip linear mirror of 17lb 5oz found the back of the net.

Monday was a strange affair in that the entire day was spent helping with the netting of the lakes small roach stock. The majority of the fish were between 3-6 inches in length, but a few really large specimens were netted and returned to the lake.

These were from 2lbs + and well worth a session in the coming future.

Carp wise, we saw around 50 of the lakes carp fall fowl to the nets which left me in no doubt that the others which hadn't been caught up in the nets would undoubtedly feed at some point in the following days to come.

Unfortunately the carp had other ideas and left me fishless for a good 60 or so hours.......Eventually things came back to life around 11.15am on Wednesday.

The rod which had been placed tight to the right hand margin in around 3 feet of water and shallow silt was twitching on the tip and a few bleeps sounded from the receiver.

I sat patiently next to the rod and pulled off a tiny bit of slack from the reel. The bobbin then rose again about 2 inches and dropped back down again.....

I waited and pulled off a tiny bit more slack and the bobbin suddenly hit the rod blank.....I was at last into one.




What happened next took me a bit by surprise really as the fish took me on a real merry dance around the swim for what seemed like an eternity!

Some 20-25 minutes later the fish was in the net. What a scrap! She was determined to shed the hook and tried everything in and out of the book!

Martin came down to help with the photo's and weighing my prize which was looking rather chunky on the waiting mat. She settled the scales at a grand old weight of 29lb 2oz!

As I had my chesties with me for the netting it seemed to make sense to don them for a photo shoot and obviously aid in returning this prize target fish for the season.

Well, what a result! Well chuffed, I made the obvious calls to select friends to let them know about the catch.

Wednesday turned out to be the best day of the week for fish as the weather had been very up and down again.....day temps of 14C and nights were down to -7!

I managed to bag another 2 beautiful carp in the form of a common of 13lb 8oz and at last light on Wednesday evening another very pretty mirror of 18lbs on the nail.

Considering the conditions and the netting early on in the week, I was still very pleased with this weeks result of 4 fish.

Scott and Mark both regulars managed to bag a few too.......

Scott had a nice 18lb mirror and a 21lber too. Mark took a stunning 12lb red and black koi and a 26lb 2oz zip linear mirror too.

I'm off to have a quiet week this week....I've picked up a stinking head cold from some unscrupulous sort.....so time to rest and recuperate I think.

I've got bait to make and leads to coat as well this week....should keep me busy!

Tight lines all

Keith
x

7th March 2010.

Hi all....

What a bloody terrible season it's been on the rivers this last year! Apart from the new PB 14lb 15oz barbel I had late last year, I can honestly say it's been one of the worst seasons I can ever remember for river fishing here in the South of England.

The barbel that used to inhabit both the Avon and Stour just don't seem to be there in the same numbers that they used to be. There has been an increase in the number of anglers fishing both waters but there has also been lots of flooding, road salts, and of course the anglers best friend....the otter!

Something that seems to have increased ten fold around this area.

Well, numerous blank winter sessions has pushed me a bit too far this season, so I decided to step back over to the lakes for a while.

I've been concentrating my efforts on an extremely hard small water near Ringwood...the water in particular contains a small number of exceedingly large carp.

The only problem that you encounter whilst fishing for these beasts is the over excessive rules which apply on the venue in question.
These rules stop night fishing and all other numerously silly rules!

Unfortunately many people in the past have targeted these prime fish and they are now some of the cagiest fish I have yet to come across!
After doing a few weeks of day sessions amongst working hours, I've manged to do plenty more blanking!

I had to get back to my grass roots fishing some how soon.....It can seriously take it out of you when you haven't bagged a fish few a while.

With this in mind I set about having a few odd day sessions at some more prolific waters. This would hopefully get a bend in the rod and give me back some confidence in my approach.

The first of these sessions was at a small club water just outside of Christchurch. The water is a couple of acres in size with an island and a fairly good stock of mediocre sized fish.

After a few separate sessions there  I bagged numerous carp to late double figures on a mixture of boilies and pop ups.

My next session saw a return trip to Broadlands Lake near Romsey.....I say return trip but it's been a fair few years since I last stood on the banks of this venue. I opted to fish a swim that Keith and I fished many years ago. We named it the Princess Diana Swim as we were fishing this swim the day Diana was tragically killed.

I pumped a couple of rods out towards the shallower margins of the islands with a maggot madusa rig attached. It didn't take too long to get the first take....around 11.15am I had a mental screamer of a run on the left hand rod. A good scrap ensued and after some 10 minutes I was sat looking at my prize in the bottom of the net....a nice lump of winter mirror carp! 19lb 1oz to be precise.

After popping the fish back I had a cup of coffee and decided to take a little walk around.....I spotted two pike sat in the margins and I was able to watch them for quite some time before they moved off.

I've got a few more days off work in the not too distant future so I'm hoping to get back out for some more winter action.

Tight lines all

Magoo

Stenhill Syndicate, Collumpton, Devon.
4th March '10.

Another great weeks weather ahead! Well, that's how it first looked on the usual weather sites and news. In actual fact it was beautiful on my arrival to the lake on Monday. So much so that as the gear was being set up I was only wearing a T-shirt for a change.

This unfortunately short lived weather spell turned decidedly colder on Monday night.

In fact the lake just managed to stay a smidge away from completely freezing over again.

I set up the gear and got the baits into the usual spots with a new prototype boilie I've concocted for this week.

I wasn't sure whether they'd take to it, but within 3 hours of the first bait going in, I found myself connected to a very angry carp.

With it already being pretty dark and not having the headlamp to hand left me totally unawares of what I had connected to my line until it was on the mat staring back at me......

Amazingly it was a fish that I had attempted to stalk the prior week with a freelined lobworm!



At just 12lb 14oz it wasn't going to break any records for its size but what it lacked in weight it made up for in it's shear good looks. A totally orange Koi.

I'd decided also to try a few different touches to my rigs this week too. I opted to try slightly longer rigs at around 12-14" in length and made with some of the new Nash Missing Link Silt.

I quite like this stuff actually! It's really rather good and with the discontinued Korda Soft Silt which seems pretty much unavailable now, it makes a good alternative. My actual rigs were fairly basic but a size 10 Nash Gaper hook and 1oz inline leads seemed to do the trick.

The lake was a tad busier this week with a few new faces appearing from the woodwork now the weathers improving a little!

Mark Sowten a regular day angler managed to bag a nice 17lb 5oz common and Steve Bliss bagged 2 from the back channel. 13lb 4oz koi and a 15lb 5oz mirror too. Well done fellas.

My session was a bit up and down, but come Wednesday I was back in the thick of it with another 20 on the bank.

At 24lb 10oz it was my second biggest from the venue so far. This was followed up by another stunning zip linear of 20lb 4oz.

I also managed to bag an 11lb 2oz mirror and a 15lb 5oz common too.

Next week I'm back down to Reading with site regular and good friend Keith Parris (Travelling Hawk)......I think it's going to be a tougher week but I'm ready to give it a go!

Tight lines
Keith

Stenhill Syndicate 26th Feb 2010

What a swine of a start to this week! Sunday morning I had to pick the wife up from her night shift at work.....I awoke at 5am Sunday morning to a proper pasting of snow! Just what you want to see when it all looked ok the night before and a few hours earlier.

Needless to say I spent about 2 hours on the phone trying to get hold of the store she works at to give her the news she'd have to get a taxi home......well, no bugger answered the phone and I was left with the dilemma of just sit at home and hope things improved or chance it?????

I chanced it..........silly boy! I got two thirds of the way down our hill and went into a fish tail slide......crunch, crack stop! Oh no no no no...my beautiful Audi had a rear light missing and the most ghastly scrape along the bumper. I suppose it could have been far worse, but it has left me with a rather unscrupulously high bill for paint and a new rear light unit.

Oh well, there goes the only little savings I had for my holidays this year! Blast it.

Anyway, after swearing, cursing, crying and generally blaming everybody else for my own poor actions and driving, I decided I wouldn't let it spoil this weeks venture down to the Syndicate water in Devon.
I arrived a little after 1pm and set up in the lazy git's swim again. This has it's obvious pro's and fairly obvious con's too.

Spots were to be the same as last week and so was the baits....pop up on the L/H rod, Tiger and plastic corn on M/R and maggot madussa on the R/H rod......I set out my stall and got things moving into place with a few small free offerings. Things started well early on and I bagged a 16lb 8oz common within a few hours of the first cast.

A 15lb 5 oz common followed shortly after...both taking the Tigernut option. Again around 5pm the middle rod was away...another 16lb 2oz fish bagged.

That night passed fairly quietly with only a plump 1lb 14oz roach to show for my efforts.

Monday saw a lovely common get me excited as it was again another 22lb 10oz fish. And my fourth from the venue in two weeks.
Night passed by without any activity apart from a 4lb eel! Not my favourite of species if I'm honest!

Next day was very quiet really up until late afternoon when I bagged a 17lb'er, 18lb common and a 21lb mirror too. All to the maggot madussa rig!
Final day excitement fell to the maggot rod again and a beautiful 14lb mirror.

That's it for this week, but things should be good next week as I have another 4 nights to do then.

Tight lines

Keith

Stenhill Syndicate, Devon
Feb 18th 2010

Well, what a difference a few days makes! Thankfully this weeks catch report from myself has a little bit more fishiness than last weeks pathetic efforts. On my behalf I apologize to all of you who read last weeks effort to write an expressionate and interesting report on Brasenose which included little more than no carp captures at all! Plenty of wildlife and aircraft pictures were to be had, but sadly that was just my way of filling the void of sadness! lol

Oh well, this week I ventured back down the M5 to my beautiful new syndicate water in Devon. As many of you will know, if you read my report from a fortnight back....it's appearing that this place is a bit of alright in the winter angling stakes! This weeks adventure was even more delivering than the last trip!

Things didn't start so well for me though as I had planned an early start on Monday morning.....the alarm never went off and I ventured into the loo at 5.30am for a pee as you do when you get to my age! No jokes please! Only to find our electricity was off??????

I went down stairs to reset the trip switch, but to no avail it just wasn't going to come back on! After swearing at it numerous times and of course un-deliberately waking the Mrs up (I wasn't going to be the only one pissed off at being up at this time! lol)

We managed to suss out that it wasn't the trip for the lights but for the plugs in the wall?????

We went round just about everything in the house to unplug and still it wasn't coming back on! Damn it....there goes my early start! Well, fortunately for us our good friend who lives local was able to come around a few hours later and source the problem of a slug crawling it's way into a fuse spur for the cooker extractor fan. This lead to a short between the earth and live which in turn caused a massive explosion of slug guts all over the inside of the spur box! Truly unbelievable!

Anyway, back to the fishing! I arrived eventually on Monday afternoon around 4pm to yet again an empty lake! What a joy! I set up right next to the car this week as I just couldn't be bothered to walk the distance of 20 yards to the next swim! .....honestly I'm a hard core carper! lol

This gave me pretty much the majority of the lake to fish with my three rods. I targeted the top end and west bank corner of the lake with a popped up madussa maggot D rig/hinge combo and a light 6lb flourocarbon hooklength. This was positioned over a small helping of maggots to get them grubbing around.

The other two rods were positioned in the middle of the lake in open water with a corn/tiger nut combo to same light set up and the 3rd was placed next to a set of tree roots with a white milky toffee pop up and 4-5 free offerings of nashy's white chocs in 8mm.

The first night passed by with no action and I worked each spot throughout the Tuesday until eventually around 1.30pm the right hand rod chuckled into life with a nice 18lb 8oz mirror which owner Brian did the fine deed of photographing for me! (Top job pal!) did good on the pics! She was put back and we had a cuppa and a good old chin wag putting the world to rights!

My next fish came around 9pm to the middle rod and tiger nut corn combo...this time a reel screamer of a run. I got to the rod and found myself in touch with a busy mirror of 17lb 2oz.

Wednesday was the best morning for some time for me.....the right hand rod's bobbin just rose about an inch around 1pm....I watched the rod tip to see just a slight nodding on it.

That was enough for me and I lifted into a dumbstruck carp which suddenly decided it wasn't having any of my heaving with the rod and charged off around the lake at a rate of knots. I hung on for dear life with my 6lb flouro hook length and 12 hook which I have no idea how it stayed in????? Albeit a good effort from the carp to drill itself into the silt, after about ten minutes she was rolling over the waiting mesh of the net.

This certainly looked a bit tidier than the last few and at last I'd broken my 20's duck for the new venue. It's not hard to see how these fish fight so hard with a face like this evil devil had....It looked like it had swallowed ten burley bouncers for lunch and still wanted more!

On the scales she tipped around to an impressive and very pleasing 26lb 14oz.

Wednesday night flew by really with little activity to talk of until I was rudely awoken by a 16lb mirror at 6am, right in the middle of a mother of a hail storm. I tried to play the fish from under the front of my STI but eventually succumb to having to get wet!

Brian popped around at about 12pm and we sat and passed a few hours by with lots of coffee and good banter.

Around 2pm the middle rod blipped and a quick pull signified a good fishes intentions.

Quickly sweeping the rod round and off she went on her merry way! I just held on and watched from afar as she took me on a bit of an embarrassing walk around the lake....fortunately with Brian on hand we tamed the little beaut and within ten minutes she was in the bag.

Another absolutely stunning common of 21lb 4oz!

What a way to end a great winter session!

Brian left me around 3.30pm. I bid him farewell and I started to pack away what seemed like an endless pile of sodden gear. The rain had certainly been persistent I can say!

Just as I was about to pick up the left hand rod to reel in, the middle rod was again singing and dancing again. I picked up the rod and watched another healthy looking curve envelope the 2¾lb tc rod.

A good battle commenced in the poring rain before some 8-9 minutes of scrap ended with another fine common in the net and yet another 20lb specimen! 20lb 4oz to be precise! Well and truly chuffed to bits with this weeks captures and very wet, I finished loading the car and headed for the hills and home.

Hope your all out there bagging a few kippers too.......the weathers taken a bit of a turn today with some more snow etc but fingers crossed it won't last too long and spring will soon be with us.

Tight lines all

Keith

Linear Fisheries, Brasenose 1.
11th Feb 2010.

My report for this week comes from the awesome Linear Fisheries complex, Brasenose 1 in Oxfordshire.

Unfortunately it wasn't particularly awesome angling for myself and two good pals Jess and Keith.....this being down to some of the most atrocious weather conditions that have blighted the UK for some consecutive weeks now.

Again we found ourselves sat out in extremely cold conditions with the water struggling to stay open due to icing over. Despite the conditions we tried our luck on a very quiet Brasenose 1.

There were a handful of brave souls out on the North bank upon our arrival. These fellas were on a day ticket with nothing to show for their efforts bar cold feet and hands.

We decided to get on the back of the ever increasing cold Northerly and fish into the windless section of the lake. This we thought would give us the best chance of success on the vast openness of 35 acres of water.

Hopes were high as evening started to fall and the sight of a couple of fish head and shouldering at a little past 140 yards helped to keep us motivated in the alleviated air temperatures that were quickly falling well below zero.

Baits for the week were 2 gallons of the ever trusty red and white maggots. A whole bag full of mixed pop ups of all sizes and colours.

Pellets etc etc etc. Just about everything you would  expect to catch on during cold weather conditions.

Well, needless to say the fishing was less than easy, in fact I can honestly say it was some of the hardest angling I have ever done on any fishery in the UK to date.

For such a highly stocked venue such as Brasenose to totally lock up it's doors left me personally feeling very hard done by.

All of us threw everything we could think of at these fish......with absolutely nothing to show for our efforts.

Jess and I spent many hours tying new rigs and recasting throughout the day and night in a valid attempt to locate these fish.

Unfortunately it was just too cold for both the fish and our site regular K.P who just stopped the one night.....poor old Keith just found it far too cold.

He decided to call it a day around mid day on Wednesday with the early onset of hypothermia setting in.

Jess and I stuck it out but had to call it a day on Thursday as the ice was starting to collect around the lake and heavy snow was starting to make things extremely uncomfortable.

The fishing may have been incredibly poor yet the scenery did a lot to keep us interested....many large RAF aircraft were seen flying into the local airbase ferrying service men back from the Middle East.

The wildlife was of some interest too, unfortunately the swans albeit very pretty were a total nuisance due to being fed by lots of people in the past.

They made undiscerning efforts to continually wipe out our rods and generally make life bloody hard!

Anyway, we did enjoy ourselves albeit the harsh fishless conditions and it was lovely to spend some time with such good company.

I'm back out again on Monday, down to the syndicate in Devon with the high hope of bagging one of the many bigger carp that inhabit the lake.

Tight lines all and hope your all well!

Keith

Stenhill Carp Syndicate,
Nr,Collumpton, Devon.
5th February 2010.

Hi all.

Well this is my first report for 2010 and at last I've had the opportunity like many of you to get back out on the bank side. Many reasons for not getting out which include the obvious horrendous weather which as blighted the UK for the best part of a month and a half.

We personally had some of the heaviest snow we have seen in Wales since moving there some 6 years ago. The children obviously enjoyed themselves hugely and the schools remained closed for two weeks. Thus giving the local kids a four week Christmas holiday! Poor parents! lol

Winter has always been one of my favourite fishing periods in the year. The banks are quieter, the fish are in their finest dark conditions and if your brave enough to really stick it out, catching fish during winter conditions gives you the most incredible feeling of accomplishment.

I have already started 2010 with a good spell of luck in the form of a new Syndicate ticket. The venue in question is the feature of my first catch report for this year. At just around an acre and a half, it's not the biggest and most complicated water I have fished.

Albeit a very good level of stock to mid thirties and a big stock of twenties, it still requires a level of skill to catch these somewhat wary carp. The water is shallow, around 4ft maximum, with two small islands, a short horseshoe channel section and plenty of tree and reed growth to target the many very attractive specimens held in there.

I first went to the venue early last week for an informal meeting with land, fishery owner and extremely keen carper himself, Brian Cox..... Brian is a real gem, proper character, and all out genuine gentleman. The welcome was second to none and I truly hope we will over time become very good friends. The venue itself is set in some of the most glorious Devonshire countryside and the quiet hamlet of Stenhill.

Extremely good security, solid standing car park, running water, toilets and of course top quality fishing make this water one to certainly have a ticket for.....hence I jumped up and down when I received one of only 25 tickets issued per year for this very exclusive opportunity.

So, the day came on Monday of this week. My first chance to get back out on the bank side and of course my first chance to wet a line at the new water. I arrived mid morning to a lake covered almost totally with a thick layer of ice.....not what you want to see after 2 hours driving on the motorway!

Well, Brian was very helpful by clearing a couple of small areas for me to get a line into and gave me a few guidelines on the rules and of course the all important hotspots! I'm not saying that I need help to locate these spots, but of course every little bit of help edges you closer to bagging the all important first fish from a new water.

I set up on a nice grass section of bank next to a small island channel......the only clear patch on the lake. It just so happened that a few nice fish were clearly visible under an overhanging bush. I decided to target this area only for the first night. I managed to use the Microcat to position a bait just under the overhanging bush, which Brian assured me was totally clear underneath.

This was baited with a Mainline Milky Toffee 14mm white pop up on a split shot multi rig and size 8 Korda Choddy hook to 20lb Hybrid. Lead was a 2oz inline semi fixed set up to 2 feet of tungsten tubing.

It wasn't long into the session before my first take. In fact the rod had only been in the water some 40 minutes or so before it tore of. The fight was a brief affair and a little one sided as the fish had little opportunity to head anywhere other than straight into the waiting net.

It was all over before the fish knew it was even hooked! Feeling totally relieved to have banked one already, I felt sure that there was others still under the bush waiting to be caught. I weighed the fish, a very pretty white Koi Carp of 13lb 10oz. Brian runs a strict ruling of using only onsite nets, weigh slings and unhooking mats....this is to obviously ensure that no disease is past onto these stunning fish.

Around 10pm on Monday night the lake was already struggling to stay away from being completely iced over as temperatures again dropped to well below zero for a consecutive night in a row. I managed to keep the ice away from my little spot and around 10.15pm I had another nice run from the bush rod. This fish fought a bit harder and I was happy to bank a nice mirror of 14lb 2oz.

By early morning the wind had swung around to the West and rain started to come in. This brought the air temperature up and started to melt the ice on the lake. This had a somewhat detrimental effect in that the ice obviously melted into the lake and dropped the water temperature by a further degree.

Doesn't sound a lot but the difference between 3-4°c in angling for carp can mean the difference between catching and a total blank! Subsequently the day passed by with no action whatsoever. My next run came around 5pm on Tuesday and from around the still partially un-iced area near the island bush.

A small common soon breached the rim of the net and took the dial around to 11lb 6oz. The night pass by with no activity and I was left feeling a little disassembled by day break!

I felt my chances of bagging yet more fish from the small bush were pretty slim now. There was certainly very little activity around and under the bush and no fish were now visible. I decided a move to the open, deeper water section was the order of the day.

After breakfast on Wednesday I checked the water temperature and was chuffed to see it had at last risen to 5.1°C in the margins. I decided to position a rod to my left down the margin to a lovely set of tree roots which invades the water by some 2 feet. The other two rods were placed out into open water and some nice choddy spots.

I thought my luck was up by midnight as I'd had a few liners but no takes. I made the choice to recast all three rods around 2am and after a brief shower of rain, everything was ready to go again.
3am and the RH rod ripped off. A good scrap ensued and a few minutes later I was self taking pics of a nice 17lb 10oz Common.

I placed the rod back out and around 6.15am she again tore off at a rate of knots. A very pretty deep and dark mirror graced the net and swung the Reubens around to 18lb 15oz. A great way to end a cracking winter session.

So, it just goes to show that even in the hardest of weather conditions you can still catch Carp!

Get out there and bag a winter whopper! I'm off to Brasenose 1 next week for 3 nights with site regulars and good pals Jess(The Jester) Collins and Keith (Travelling Hawk) Paris.

Tight lines boys and girls!

Keith
x

30th October

Well what a busy fortnight it's been in the house of Supple!!! lol.

A phone call from site regular Keith Paris....'some of you will know him as Traveling Hawk from our forum pages', got my week off to a banging start with the invite to stay with him and do a spot of dangling at a local club lake of his.

Always after a new challenge I gladly accepted the offer and headed up the motorway to Coventry for a brief overnight stay and day session.

I must say how delightful the welcome from Keith was and how he certainly made me feel right at home. We had a really great evening chatting all things carp and stuff over a lovely bottle of Red vino and some top nosh!
Cheers pal!


Well, the fishing wasn't so spectacular unfortunately.....the lakes themselves are very well laid out and quite pretty in their own right.

There certainly seemed to be a biggish head of fish present in the lakes but they were all sat just below the surface and no manner of Zigs or anything else to be honest, got them going.



I managed to pull a huge blank and only K.P was able to save the day with a lovely 14lb Mirror taken on one of his own boilies on a zig rig.......well done Keith!


This weeks antics were pretty similar at the syndicate too....I took my brother in law Liam down to the lakes for the first time and set him up with 2 rods and some quality bait to have a go at them with.

On arrival we teamed up with regulars Harry and Darrell who had set up pitch already in 'Lazy Mans' swim....we chose the 'Beach' just above them and got set up as quick as possible as rain was forecast.

The first night went by quickly and with little more than a few bleeps from most of us....Harry managed a Tench of around 5lbs but that was it!



The next 3 days were pretty similar really, with little to talk about than a dozen or so small pike gracing the nets of both Harry and Darrell, who made the most of what would definitely feed!

On our final night Liam's rod positioned in a new spot came to life at around 3am.....with a proper good scream, off it went.


He managed to keep her under control and we netted a nice first ever carp for him of 15lb 5oz.


Thoroughly chuffed but rather tired and deflated from the tiresome hardwork we had endured all week, we left around lunch on Friday.

Tight lines

Keith.

Hazel Court Ponds
25th-27th October ‘09

Being back to school means I don’t often get out, but recently my mate Jon wood and I took a trip down the road to a small lake near Cowbridge called Hazel Court Ponds.

We got down the lake at about 6 o’clock and set the bivvies up and got the rods out. On the complex there are six lakes and we fished the specimen lake. We didn’t catch anything through the first night, so we had a good night sleep.

Morning came and we got up from our sleeping bags. Behind my bivvy there was another lake called the ghosty lake or lake 1. There’s a nice bed of lilies on the lake, so I kept feeding in crushed bollies and small pellets next to it.

By this time Jon had already had two carp…. one of 6lb and another of 8lb.

Where I was feeding up in the lilies, I could see fish feeding.

So I gently lowered a rod in and in no time at all I received a screamer of a run…..not a long fight but I ended up with a small 5lb2oz ghosty on the bank.

I did the same again and twice it resulted in fish… A 6lb 5oz ghosty and a lovely 8lb 1oz common.

I left the swim alone for a while and went back to my main swim on the specimen lake.

I could see no one was having anything round the lake, so I cast to the lilies with a Nash Amber Strawberry bollie and a small pva stick of 1mm pellets… next thing I knew, I had a fight on my hands. A good scrap ensued and after pulling it from the lilies, a lovely 11lb 6oz ghosty entered my net.

While I was sorting out my rigs, Jon had an absolute screamer of a run and it took him a good 5 minutes to reel in this lovely 16lb mirror.

We all had an early night after that. I was happy that my rods were in good spots and at about 3 o’clock in the morning I had a belting run.

I scrambled out of my bivvy only to fall over on my wet ground sheet… my mate Jon got up and helped me to land a lovely 13lb common.


Well chuffed with this fish and all in a really good 48 hours.

ADAM MORRIS

8th October '09
 
I managed to escape to Berkshire again this Sunday and after a nice steady drive down to the lakes I was greeted by a totally empty venue to fish....just the way I like it. Stiggy and I had planned to do the night on the point just for a bit of a social thing really as it's been a while since we caught up last.

Stiggy took the suicide swim and I ventured out to the left hand side of the point. The weather was fairly mild and we had a good evening chatting with the essential Sunday night takeaway greasy burger!

Stigs luck wasn't in for him unfortunately and he left on Monday with little more than a newly inherited dose of Man Flu......My swim was a little more awake and I took 2 out overnight to 15lb 5oz.

I'm on our new baits at the moment which is a combination of peanut, vanilla, bird seeds and milk proteins. Smells delicious!

Things carried on well on the fish catching front and I bagged a couple more to 12lbs by late afternoon on Monday. The weather started to set in a bit then with the odd shower, but saying that it was wickedly mild overnight with temps as high as 16c!

I had a restless night as my left hip decided to give me some nasty niggles.....I dosed up on pain relief and eventually circumed to heavy eyes around 4am after a few more mid doubles had found their way into the net.

I'm finding the new line I'm on very interesting too! It's from Stren which I believe is part of the Pure Fishing/Berkley camp.....it's blood red in colour!

Not something I would have ever envisaged me using before, but It seems to work really well! It looks really leary above water but, below it really does disappear......even in 20lb b.s!

Come Tuesday night my totals were up to 7 fish with the biggest going 19lbs on the nail. Some of these were real pretty fish too. Dark coloured with big old scales.

Wednesday morning came round all too fast and I found myself awake to really heavy rainfall for 99% of the day.......this coincided with a proper munch up from the carps point of view and I bagged a further 6 fish to take my tally to 13.

Now call me superstitious and all that but, number thirteen was rather unlucky for me this week as something went totally wrong with my left hip as I was playing this fish.......next thing I knew was I was sat on my bum in the p**sing rain in tears!

I managed to free the fish and retire to the bivvy and my bed, to lay flat and decide what to do next!

I dosed myself up again with some pain relief and after an hour or so I was able to move around gently!

This seemed to be the best opportunity to pack up before it turned dark and make the arduous journey home.

Needless to say it took me a really long time to pack away and get back to the car.

I mean it's hard work for me anyway with my health, but the pain radiating from my left side was something else!

Well, its 4.30am now while I'm writing this and after a serious dose of pain relief in the form of some Tramadol, I find myself again unable to sleep!

These pills are great for taking away pain but the side effects are minging to say the least.......Ive had some strange hallucinations this last few hours!



Anyway, hopefully my next report will be a little less strenuous and on better terms from my point of view!


We're hoping to have Stiggy write us a guest article in the coming weeks, which should be something a little different....so keep em peeled!







Tight lines boys and girls!

Keith