Siltweed Nightmares

Sometimes you go fishing and catch fish, the rest of the time is just a learning curve!

This post contains the video blogs from five sessions where nothing went as planned. All the way through May and the start of June I concentrated my efforts on the Fendrod hitting it with short over night sessions on work nights and getting a few hours in when I had the chance.

I'd like to think that I've learned a lot from fishing so many blanks in a row but as with everything you only feel like you've learned something when the final result is success.

I thought I'd point out that for years I've called silkweed (the blanket weed that covers the lake bed) by my own interpretation 'Siltweed'. Up until several people commented on the videos when I uploaded them to youtube I had no idea that there is no such thing as siltweed. 

From the start of May there was more than an abundance of silkweed on the lake bed of the Fendrod and with the lake being river fed there is always a steady flow present. This made fishing very hard and keeping the hook clear and free from clumps for silkweed was nigh on impossible. I tried everything I could think of from PVA nuggets, mesh PVA bags threaded down the rigs over the hook and even tried solid PVA bags but every time I had a pick or even a full blown run I just couldn't keep the fish on the hook and nine times out of ten hooks would come back coated in weed.

I decided rather than edit individual blank video blogs I thought I'd condence them a bit putting two sessions into one video. I'm guessing that nobody would want to watch fishing blogs without any fish so I tried to minimize it down. Likewise I decided I'd put all the video blog into one post, mainly due to the time and effort of writing a blog for all the sessions but in all honesty I think I rather just put it behind me as another lesson in the school of angling. 


Siltweed Nightmares Part 1
This video is a worknight session resulting in me losing two fish due to weed clogged hooks followed by a short day session with another blank. On a positive note I did manage to get some pretty good footage of Dace jumping for flies.


Siltweed Nightmares Part 2
Another worknight session with where the weed problem started to become an apparent nuisance but the weather was nice so I wasn't too put out. The second session was another quick overnighter with more weed problems and awful weather.


Siltweed Nightmares Part 3
And the final part of the nightmare series and this session was a total nightmare. Starting off with a blank night and more weed problems, then just as I thought there was little or no chance of see a fish I had a screaming run and a seriously big fish on but its not labelled as a nightmare session without good reason.
Just like the Dace footage in part 1 in part 3 I managed to get some pretty amazing footage of Carp feeding off the surface, keep your eyes peeled of the clip of two Carp picking off two biscuits in perfect synchronisation. 
 
So, there we have it blanking at its best! I know that blanking will always be a part of fishing so I'm under no illusion that I'll never get another dry spell. I know one thing for sure, when I do finally get a fish on the bank I'll appreciate it hell of a lot more.