Saturday 19 May 2012

Return of Bream Boy!

Went for an overnight session, hoping to emulate my last outing or even better it!
I set up on the point (lol, where else!) in the swim facing the top bay. I'd had a few fish from under the tree there so I knew it could produce good fish. It was raining lightly when I arrived, so it was a quick set up and chuck the rods out. I'd sort them out later. Vic came shortly after I arrived so when the rods were out, we settled down and discussed tactics with a cup of tea!
Vic was using a method feeder and boilies, I'd be using boilies over a bed of hemp on one rod and just boilies on the rod under the tree. Morning passed into afternoon with only the odd beep from our alarms. I spodded out some more hemp and boilies and chucked a handful of boilies under the tree.
Vics left hand rod was acting strangely, beeping occasionally and then staying silent for a while. Finally, Vic had had enough and reeled his rod in.
The sight that greeted him couldn't have been made up. A crayfish had walked over his line and got itself well and truly tangled in his line. It took ages to unravel it. In the end all was sorted.
Afternoon came and went with no fish to show for our efforts. Finally, as it was getting dark, Vics alarm gave a series of beeps and stopped. This reminded us of last year when Vic told Mr carp he was packing up and about to leave. Within 5 minutes he had another beep. This went on for half an hour or so until it was completely dark and couldn't see! Lol, we did smile.
Anyway, Vic packed up and went home. I stayed up for a while, hoping my bite alarm would go off, but it never did!
At around midnight, my alarm made a series of bleeps. I was out of my bivvy in an instant, not wanting to miss my chance. I watched the indicator bob up and down but not take an line. Hmmm, this looks familiar. Sure enough, I reeled in a bream of around 5-6lb, maybe bigger. It was raining hard again and I wasn't going to mess around weighing and photographing it. I unhooked it in the water (God bless barbless hooks!) and got back into my sleeping bag.
Morning arrived with only the bream to my name. It had stopped raining but it was still damp and rain was forecast later in the morning. I managed to pack up my gear before the rain arrived and went home.

Sunday 6 May 2012

Steve !st session at thorney

Hi Steve here my first bit of writing for a while so here goes. First session on the Mets syndicate lake at Thorney Weir started as a bit of a exploring session (thats a blank then) I set up in the Lazy 2 swim and had a lot of water infront with two islands about 75 yards out to my left. I put two baits out to the islands with a bit of spod mix around them accompanied by 40 or so New Grange which I was able to stick out quite a suprise I was not bothered by the flying rats.
    
                 My right rod was flicked to my right hand margin by a willow tree only about  8 yds out
all ready by about 3pm Monday let the session begin ! I sat up till about 10pm but did not see a fish or hear one for that matter.Over the next few days I was passed by a few bailifs and syndicate members all of who stopped and passed the day and offered a few pieces of information which was gladly accepted.It was really nice to be welcomed into the syndicate so readily not always the case I have found over the many years ive been fishing I must say I have found most of the anglers on the day ticket side to be very happy to have a chat and give a bit of info if asked quietly .

          On the fishing front I did not see any fish in my area of the lake but birdie ,one of the bailifs,  did tell me he was having a few fish from the Royal Box swim which is a swim down to my far left and cannot be seen where I was fishing . As he was fishing very short I did not go for a walk down as I didnt want to disturb his margin spot . I have noted the info though and next time down I will investigate further.


            Ime sure most of us have had strange experiences whilst at the lake side well mine is as follows .It was a quiet evening (sounds like a arthur conan doyle beginning) and I was , talking to sherlock   oh sorry , contemplating my going home in the morning  when my auto light came on ( it was 10.45 pm  )and looking out to my door expecting a rat when a fox was standing there looking at me  now I was suprised as I thought the light would have frightened it off but no it just stood there with a slightly quizical look  I sort of sat up but it was still there looking i t didnt look that big but I was a bit disturbed and just said shoo and it sort of turned and went away After that strange happening I got up and  put the door down with the mesh opened so I could see what was going to cart me away to its den !!!!

Saturday 5 May 2012

Yahoo!!! Its Official. The Drought is finally over

And I don't mean the weather.

I went fishing on 26 April 2012 for an overnighter and caught my 1st carp for a long while.

I set the alarm for 5.30 and when I got up, I looked out the window and thought to myself " Lets get this show on the road. Its stopped raining so get your bum in gear and go!"

I had a quick cup of tea, picked up my fishing coat and bib and left for the lake. I opened the door and couldnt believe my eyes. It was bucketing down!

Never mind, I'm still going fishing no matter what the weather throws at me.

The car was packed the previous night so that meant I could just get in the car and go. It rained from when I left home, all the way to the lake, setting up the bivvy and my rods and well into the morning. By the time it had stopped, I was already soaked to the skin. To try and dry my self out, I boiled the kettle and filled up my hot water bottle. I placed the hot water bottle on my thigh and when it got too hot, I moved it o the other leg. I did this for a few hours and eventually managed to dry most of the accessible parts of my jeans! Lol! You should have seen the steam coming off me!!
I did have a spare clothing in the car but I would only use them if I couldnt get my clothes dry before I got into my sleeping bag. Luckily, they dried out ok

In between the showers, I had spodded out some hemp, sweetcorn and pellets to 2 areas about 50yds out. I kept one area regularly topped up and the other spot only had the odd spod full. I had a few liners so brought one rod a bit closer but still no carp by the time it got dark.

Daybreak comes and still no carp. I spodded out the last of my hemp and sweetcorn and prepared to pack up.

At about 8am, my left hand rod gave a few quick beeps and suddenly roared into life.
Oh yes, this was no bream or tench. It fought hard for 5 minutes before finally tiring and coming peacefully to the net.

At last, my first carp for nearly 18 months! It was a simmo but hey! Beggars cant be choosers


At 21.03lb I was over the moon.

I got all excited and set up my camera to take a timed shot. The picture above is the practice shot I took. I picked up the carp, pressed the remote to fire the camera.

Nothing.

WTF?

I checked the camera, dead battery. B**lox

I have 3 batteries for my camera so no great drama. Load spare battery, fire camera.

Nothing

What on earth is going on?
I checked the camera and again found no sign of life. This is unreal. Still, I have another spare battery in case of such a disaster. You guessed it, that bugger was flat as well. What rotten luck (or bad planning, depending on your point of view!)

But all is not lost. I have a camera phone. I won't be able to have a posed picture but I could still take one or two of the carp. Out comes the camera, point at carp and click!!!
Yay, I have a photo of fish.
Checked the picture to make sure and  closed camera phone. I then released the carp to its home and sat down to enjoy a nice cup of tea whilst I revel in my capture.
Check phone, no picture. Where did it go? I checked every single photo on my phone but couldnt find the photo of my carp. I later realised that, unlike a normal camera, my camera needs to save the picture to the memory stick and doesn't do it auto matically. By closing the lens, I automatically discarded any photo I had taken. I was gutted

So dear friends, this scabby picture is the only one I have of my capture.

There are a few lessons to be learned from this debacle, one them being - make sure the darn camera batteries are charged up the night before you go fishing!

When I got home, I charged the batteries ready for next time. The first battery charged ok after 2 hours but the 2nd battery was showing full after only 5 minutes. When I put that battery in my camera, the camera worked ok and showed a full battery. Don't know what happened there.
Weird!

Anyway, Im off fishing on 8 May, so I'll keep you posted,

Cya

JT