Carp Coarse and Swansea - Fishing in and around Swansea.

48 Hour Birthday Session at Celtic Lakes Resort - Day Two - The Catfish.

2011-07-22T02:24:00.345+01:00

I'd been on the bank for twenty four hours and had a bit of action and even cracked a new PB, well it has to be a PB as its my first ever Grass Carp. I had another twenty four hours left on the bank and my confidence was high.

The area I'd baited was showing signs of activity with fish topping and fizzing, this visible display soon vanished during another downpour.

I decided to check both my rigs and get some fresh hook baits, I continued with the Mistral i40 boilies on the Carp rig and the Cat rig was baited with a fresh double 22mm Halibut pellet. Tipping them off with PVA bags of crushed boilies and mixed pellets.

Not long after the rain had started to die down I was wetting the net again. The heavy baiting was starting to work with another Mirror Carp picking up the bait, this was the biggest Mirror Carp of the session so far weighing in at 11lb 2oz.

Fish number 5, Another Mirror on the bank.

As the light started to fade I was getting line bites fairly often and I was in two minds to reels in and check the rig but it turn out I didn't need to as yet another Mirror Carp made the bite alarm sing. This time it didn't break any records weighing 7lb 8oz but it was another fish on the bank and the final fish to be landed on my birthday.

The last fish of my birthday, awful photo and I only took one shot.

As the night settled in the swim went quiet. I cooked myself a Chicken Jalfrezi in the frying pan , then zipped myself up inside the bivvy to stop the hoards of midges eating me alive, on the plus side got a few hours kip before the main event of the night.

It was about three in the morning when I was woken by the sound of the bite alarm from another swim. I got up to see what was happening as there was a bit of a commotion. I walked over to see what was happening and one of the guys fishing in the next peg to me had hooked into what he thought was a Cat and it was running him all over the place. I'd been with them for about five minutes and the fish was just taking line, the other angler said that I think it nearly over by your peg when on cue my bite alarm made two single beeps.

Thinking that his fish had swam through my line I started to make my way back to my peg. I picked up the rod with the single boilie hook bait and reeled in the slack until I could feel something pounding away. I genuinely thought we'd crossed lines. I didn't really apply much pressure and was calling back and forth to the other angler telling him I was letting out line. He then shouted 'I can see it, it's a Cat' I really didn't expect that as I knew my line wasn't running anywhere near where he was saying his Cat was and then the reality of the situation struck home.

I had not crossed lines and there was something on the end of my line that I'd been giving an easy ride for a few minutes. As soon as the penny dropped I tightened up and pulled back. It suddenly began to fight back and all I could do it let it run. It was by far one of the hardest fights I have ever done in the dark. It was like being connected to a true leviathan, I would make a bit of line back then it would tear off cutting along the margins and there was nothing I could do to stop it. It was a long hard battle where I would think that I was making progress and then it would just power off and I would be back where I started.

After what felt like hours I pulled the biggest fish I had ever seen into the net. It was so big that I couldn't get the whole fish in the net without folding its tail into the net.

Result! I had done it! I was absolutely worn out, I was out of breath and my arms were aching but it didn't matter. After nearly fours years since my first ever session trying to get a Catfish I finally had one on the bank, and it was massive!

It was one ugly beast! a massive head, massive mouth and a slime coated body. I was in awe of its sheer size. From what started out as a mess with potential crossed lines and me leaving it run round without fighting back I couldn't believe I finally got one on the bank. I don't know what surprised me the most actually getting one or the fact that it was so big or the awesome fight it gave. I've never had anything fight back with such power.

It was longer than my weigh sling which made weighing it a bit of a task so, with one side of the sling zipped up and the tail hang out of the other end I managed to get it off the ground safely. The scales slammed round to 31lb and 8oz

So happy!

The beast was longer than my weigh sling.

A collection of photos showing that a 30+ Catfish isn't the easiest fish to hold.

And finally a mat shot before a powered off in to the night.

I done my bit of video blogging and took a few photos, I have to say that it wasn't the easiest fish I've ever held but it was certainly the heaviest. Once I'd taken my trophy shots I placed it in the weigh sling and lowered to down into the margins. I thought that it would need a while to get its strength back but that was not the case, as soon as its head was in the water its tail started flipping back and forth. I simply opened the sling and it was gone.

I was buzzing and worn out. I lied back down on my bed but didn't drop off to sleep for ages.

I felt like I'd only been to sleeping for a few minutes when the alarms woke me and I was back on my feet and into another fish. It was to be my first lost fish of the session as after a long battle in open water the fish steered itself into the marginal lilies and threw the hook. I had seen the fish and it was a Mirror Carp and it look a bit bigger than any of the previous Carp I'd landed, but I was still on a high from landing the Cat so I wasn't too disappointed.

The morning mist from my swim.

I checked both rigs and put them back out with fresh PVA bags and then tried to get a bit more sleep.

My final bit of bankside action arrived at about half past nine when a real hard fighting Common graced the mat, another double weighing 10lb 9oz, a great way to round off the session.

The final fish of my birthday session another double to end a truly brilliant session.

After the fish was back in the lake I cooked up some breakfast and then started the inevitable pack down albeit a slow one. I haven't done a session longer than 24 hours in a long while so I was expecting the 48 hours to feel like ages but it didn't.

By about midday I'd got nearly everything packed up and only the rods left to bring in. Unlike most of my fishing sessions I wasn't trying to will another take or hoping to get one more fish on the bank before I left. I was happy to leave Celtic lakes without any regrets and for once in a long time I didn't have any niggling thoughts of I could have done better.

This was by far the best birthday session I'd ever had which left me thinking how will I ever stand a chance of topping it on future birthdays. This trip had seen two new species to grace the bank which in turn provided two new personal bests and also my biggest fish ever! All in all a session I don't think I'll ever forget. Lets see what happens on my next birthday session.

The final part of my birthday video blog.

48 Hour Birthday Session at Celtic Lakes Resort - Day One - The Grass Carp.

2011-07-21T02:16:00.449+01:00

So, it was time for my birthday session again! the years just seem to be flying by. As with the past four years I wanted to fish a venue that would provide a bit of sport but also give me the chance to see something different on the bank.

Celtic Lakes Resort was my choice for the second year in a row. I knew that I'd be in with a good chance of getting a few Carp on the bank and also the opportunity of ticking off one the targets I'd set myself over the past few year by trying to get an elusive Catfish on the bank.

Unlike last year the weather was almost perfect, lovely and sunny with a few spots of cloud just to take the edge off the bright sun. My journey from Swansea took about an hour and a half and with it being midweek the roads were pretty quiet meaning it was quite a pleasant drive again it was a lot nicer drive than last years trip through fog filled country lanes.

After signing in with the fishery manager I picked the same peg I had for my last birthday session. I had a whole corner of the lake to myself which could only be a good thing and I had 48 hours to work at getting a Cat on the bank.

Setting up was an exciting event as I started to unload things from the car I spotted a few fish cruising a few metres out from the edge of the peg. I threw out a few small pieces of bread and was surprised how quickly the Carp turned on to it. I knew I had a chance of getting a fish on the bank so I abandoned unloading the car and quickly set up a rod to free line. Casting out a small piece of bread slackened off the line and placed the rod on the pod.

I had only just turned round to grab a few more things from the car when a fish hit the bread. I watched as the line started to pull before scrambling back to the rod. Flipping the bail arm shut I lifted the rod and connected with a fish. I couldn't believe how quickly this had happened, less than twenty minutes after arriving and I was battling my first fish in to the net.

BANG! a double in the net and I hadn't even finished unloading the car.

Off the mark with my first Common weighting 11lb 4oz.

Once the fish was back in the water the surface action ground to a halt. It wasn't such a bad thing though as it gave me time to get the bivvy up and everything ready for two nights on the bank.

I began my baiting for the session and I wasn't going to be feeding lightly. My plan was to create to separate baited area targeting Carp on one spot and Cat on the other.

My main feed for the Carp was a full builders bucket of pigeon conditioner which I'd prepared on the weekend. I'd boiled the whole lot then left it to soak in their own juices and an the contents of a tin of treacle then left the whole lot stew for four days. To be fair it stunk the car out on the trip but it seemed perfect like a perfect Carp bait. My baiting for the Cats was pellets, pellets and more pellets about six or seven kilo in total. I had a mix of Halibuts and Trout pellets in all different sizes ranging from 3mm right up to 22mm.

I concentrated my bait into two areas piling out about four kilo of the particles across the right side margin then scattering a massive spread of pellets in a line running out from the left hand margin. I felt pretty confident that creating two separate baited spots would get fish feeding on both sides of my swim and placed my hook baits out feeling that it'll only be a matter of time before the fish turn on.

I was all ready for the next bit of action when the heavens opened and I had to scurry around throwing things in the bivvy and out of the rain, I quickly put up the brolly and was lucky to have to have it with me as I nearly took it out of the rod bag thinking that I wouldn't need it.

Rainbow over Celtic Lakes.

As the rain died off a rainbow formed in the sky, I tried to take a few photos of it arcing over the lake but I only manage to a few shots before one of the rods screamed off. Another hard fighting Common soon graced the mat.

Not as big as the first one but it was another double figure Carp and I'd already bested my last birthday session at Celtic and I was only four hours into the session.

The second fish of the session 10lb 10oz.

I decided to get my head down fairly early and get some sleep as a was secretly expecting to woken up numerous times during the night but strangely there was only a handful of single beeps on the alarms.

One of the bats that were fly far to close my head not long after sunset.

I was a little disappointed when the sun came up and my rods had remained motionless throughout the hours of darkness but it was my birthday and I had the whole day ahead of me so I knew I had to make the most of it.

I pottered around during the morning to knowing what to do, I was wondering if the few kilos of bait I had put in had killed the swim or maybe it wasn't enough? There had been fish topping all over the spot where I'd put out the particle but I hadn't had a run since from the spot in over twelve hours. I finally decided to go in guns blazing and empty the whole bucket of particles over the spot I was fishing.

Before I'd had a chance to start piling out the bait I spotted the back of a fish breaking the surface and decided to reel in the bottom bait and get a bit of free lined bread on the surface and see if I couldn't get at least one on the bank for my birthday.

What an excellent change of tactics it turned out to be. I cast a big chuck of bread out and watched it be destroyed by shoals of small silver fish, but as it began to break up and few Carp moved in and started to pick off all the small pieces. I nearly reeled in but as I picked up the rod I could still see a small bit of bread wrapped round the hook, I focused my eyes on it as a fish smashed in to it. I held back for a few seconds until I seen the line pull then struck!

I'd connected with a fish and could feel it yanking away on the end of the line. I can honestly say it felt different. After a fairly swift battle involving a few near misses with the marginal lilies it finally broke the surface and I could see that I'd hooked something a little bit special. It was then I knew I had to do everything right as I knew I didn't want to lose this one. After a bit more careful manoeuvring my first ever Grass Carp was finally pulled over the net.

I rested it in the net before getting the mat open and the cameras ready. The weight wasn't a big issue as I knew whatever it weighed it would be a new PB. My initial thoughts were around the eight pound mark as this was the first Grass Carp I'd seen since Steve and I visited France back in 2009 and this was a lot smaller and a lot leaner than any of the Carp I'd landed so far. I was actually quite surprised when the scales tipped round to 12lb 8oz, I didn't really take into account how long the fish was.

My first ever Grass Carp. A lovely birthday surprise.

Long, Lean fighting machine.

One more photo on the mat.

So, I'd landed a new species for me and was more than happy with that. I know I'd been hoping for a Catfish but what ever happened from now until the end of the session I knew it could class the session as a success.

Once the Grass Carp was safely back in the lake I began my baiting. I literally went for an all or nothing approach. I emptied the whole bucket of particles in a three metre path running along the marginal lilies then proceeded to scattered the rest of my pellets in area to the left of the peg that I'd baited when I set up. It was quite hard work putting out all that bait and decided that with all the commotion I'd caused it would be a good idea to rest the swim.

I reeled in the rods and decided I'd take a walk round the complex but before I left the peg I got the rods ready with fresh baits and tied about six pva bags of pellets and a further six bags with a mix of crushed i40 boilies and pellets. I knew I'd be ready to get the baits back out as soon as I got back.

I managed to make it round Elysium(Lake6) and stopped for a chat with the fishery manager before another burst of rain started to hammer down. This stopped my plans for walking round all six lakes and I started to make my way back to my bivvy.

The rain didn't last too long and I decide to get the baits back out, I know I wanted to rest the swim but I also was very aware that I would catch anything without a bait in the water.

It felt like I'd only just for the rods back out and I was into another fish. This time it was bit smaller at 8lb 1oz but it also started to round things off nicely with my first Mirror Carp of the session.

Carp number four. A nice little mirror.

I was coming up to half way mark of my 48 hour session and I'd had quite a good run with four fish on the bank and not forgetting a new PB Grass Carp.

I still had another 24 hours left to go and big bed of bait to fish over, I was really hoping that I'd get what I came for..

The video blog of day one.

A Lovely Dark Mirror at the Half Round Ponds.

2011-07-03T02:10:00.051+01:00

My intentions initially were to hit the Fendrod again but with a late start coupled with a bout of nicer weather there were a lot more fine weather fishermen on the bank and I was left with either slim picking on the peg front or the option of a different water.

It was time for a trip to the Half Round Ponds. Something I'd been thinking about visiting it for a while and considering how hard I found these ponds when I first fished them back in 2007 I've yet to film a bad overnight session. I now look back at my earlier blog posts and can really savour catching these dark beauties as I know first hand that they don't come easy.

This time I was adopting the method I'd used on the Fendrod except I'd scaled down the amount of bait I was going to spod out. I picked my pegs and decided on two spots to place a bait then proceeded to spod out a generous helping of pigeon conditioner, nothing near the amount I'd used when I caught the big Ghostie but enough for the size of water I was fishing.

My rig choices for the session were the same as my last session with one bottom bait rig with Mistral Rose-hip Isotonic hookbait topped off with a piece of fake corn and the other rod was back on the chod, this time I'd made life a little easier by not using a chopped down 20mm pop-up and gone with a 15mm CCMoore Northern Special. I was confident that the bait would stand out in amongst all the particles.

I was happy with where I'd put my baits and settled down in the bivvy for the night.

The night was fairly quiet with a few single beeps on the right hand alarm around midnight.

I stirred at dawn and my first thoughts were 'another blank'. I knew I'd put the baits in a good spot so I didn't bother disturbing them and rolled over in my sleeping bag to catch a few more zeds.

I must have only closed my eyes for a few seconds when my right hand rod screamed off. I didn't hang around throwing myself out of the sleeping bag and hit the rod with only my socks on my feet. I connected with a fish within seconds not giving it the chance to run amok through the dense weed.

It was another hard battle from a Half Round pond Carp, as long as I get a hook up I can always rely on the ponds to provide some hard fighting action and this was no exception. It wasn't happy in the clear spots and was making heavy lunges trying to get its head buried in the weeds. Its was lovely to be waking up and straight into some action, my only regret was not putting my boots on as my socks were sodden after running through dew soaked grass but it was worth it as I finally netted my first Half Round Pond Carp of the year.

I put the fish in the margin then proceeded to put my boots on, then laid out the mat before I got the camera ready. I flicked the camera on record and picked the net out of the margins, lifting the fish out of the water I had literally touched the mat as the other rod screamed off! Trying not to panic I slipped the net back in the water and picked up the other rod. I felt a kick on the end before the line dropped slack. It would have been great to get two fish on the bank in the daylight but it wasn't to be.

I wasn't to upset about the fish coming off as I still had one in the net! Again I was underestimating the weight, I seem to do with the Half Round Pond fish as they are all short fish and I never take into account the width. It weighed in at 14lb 4oz lovely way to start the day.

Lovely dark Mirror Carp.

Rise and Shine. One out two ain't bad.

As the morning progressed it was starting to become a hot day. I decided to get the kettle on and soak a few mixer biscuits ready to try a bit of surface fishing.

By 10am I had the bivvy packed down and everything that I didn't need was now in the car. I had seen so many fish cruising about it seemed silly not to try a bit of surface fishing and in my mind I was making a good choice.

The weed bed I fished over in the night.

You can just make out a Carp with its head buried in the weeds.

After the early morning success the rest of the day turned into one of the most infuriating bits of surface fishing I have ever done. I managed to prick one but that was all, the rest of the lake residents were ignoring me. I even dragged a biscuit across one Carps face but it just wasn't interested.

I finally gave up and went home, I got in the car and felt like I'd had a bad session and it wasn't until I had a quick look through the photos on the camera that I realised that apart from the frustration of the last few hours I'd had a pretty good day.

Well, it was a nice change fishing the Half Round Ponds and they provided me with another good session.

So, onto the next session I've got a few things planned for the next week or two so my next time on the bank will probably be my birthday session so hopefully it'll be a good one. I think I know what I want to do but lets see if I can afford it.

Check out the video blog of the session. In the middle of the video I do the draw for a competition I held on Youtube if you want the chance of entering my competition subscribe to my youtube channel.

Beating The Silkweed, Chod Style. (New PB).

2011-06-19T01:54:00.002+01:00

It had been two weeks since my last session on the bank and after five blanks in a row I was eager to get back out and prove to myself that I could beat the silkweed as it was fast becoming the bane of my angling for 2011.

I had to seriously re-think what I was doing and my standard approach of small PVA bag and bottom baits with a piece of pop-up corn just wasn't going to cut it.

I started planning the session nearly a week before hand by soaking five kilos of particles commonly known as pigeon conditioner which along with a mixed grains and beans mainly consisted of maize and chick peas. After leaving them soak for a few days I boiled the whole lot and them left it to soak for a few more days. I arrived on the bank with half a builders bucket of prepared particles ready to bait the swim.

Once I was on the peg I began to spod out the bait. I concentrated on two areas with the intention of presenting a bait on both spots. I knew I'd be fishing over silkweed so I thought that putting a blanket of bait out I'd be pinning down the weed and also provide a highly visible baited area.

My second change was the rig. After lots of comments and messages sent to me when I posted the videos of the five blank session on youtube I had to bow down to the advice and try using a chod rig to avoid the silkweed. To be perfectly honest I've purposely avoided using any rigs that involve using long lengths of lead core leader, apart from the bad press and numerous fisheries banning lead core I have personally landed two fish in the past that were trailing lead core with weights still attached and in my eyes they had always seems a little too 'fish unfriendly'. I decided to learn from the two bad examples I'd seen and set up the rig making a few little adjustments to ensure that the hook link could easily work its way off the leadcore in the event of snagging up or line snap.

I was trying to set up as quick as once I had finished spodding the sunset wasn't far off and I wanted to get everything ready while it was still light. Rushing things turned into a fiasco when I accidentally knocked the back section of my rod pod off the edge of the peg and into the lake. I knew that the water level was pretty deep straight off the peg and poking around with the landing net handle confirmed that it was a bit deeper than I'd thought. I lied down reaching into the water and with my arm stretched out fully I could feel how cold the water was but I couldn't touch the bottom. The next thing I tried was dragging the landing net back and forth over but with more than a few big rocks on the bottom snagging up the net it turned into another futile effort.

My final attempt was a drastic one which seen me striping off my top and hanging off the peg. I held on to an overhanging branch to make sure I didn't fall in head first then reach into the lake until I touched the bottom. My arm was fully stretched out with water going over my shoulder and covering half my head, I was literally face to face with the lake. Once I could feel the bottom I started waving my hand around hoping to connect with one of the pod legs and I was praying that I didn't find anything nasty as the last thing I wanted to be doing was pulling hooks out of my hand. I pawed around on the bottom and found lots of rocks, a knackered pair of forceps and then I felt the back legs to my pod. I was relieved to get it back but I could have really done without the hassle while trying to set up. There was a plus side to this fiasco and that was netting a small Perch when I was feeling round with the net and I also got a good look at the actual colour of the silt and was able to match my weight colour perfectly so, it wasn't all bad.

Sunset from my peg.

I finally got things ready, the rods were out, the bivvy and bedchair were up, the kettle was on and had my two hook baits exactly where I wanted them.

This was a session where I was doing a lot of things I wouldn't normally do, apart from dipping my head in the lake I using a rig set-up that I'd never used before and I'd spodded out far more bait than I would normally do for a single night session. As the light faded I had mixed feelings whether of I'd see a fish on the bank or would the silkweed foul up all my efforts for yet another session.

Coffee time. Black with one sugar.

I sat in the chair drinking coffee and watching the odd Bat flying round and eventually decided to get my head down in the hope that the bite alarm would sound and break the streak of blank sessions.

It was about 12:30 and I was fast asleep when I had a pick up on the chod! I hit the rod and was bent into my first fish in a very long time. It was fighting hard and was ripping the drag on the reel, by the time I started to make back line the fish gone from directly in front of me to the margins on my left hand side and on the way had picked up the line from my other rod. There was a few dangerous moments when I felt the line scraping some of the overhanging branches but this was quickly solved by me dropping the rod tip down low until the tip was in the water. I finally got the fish close enough to lift the rod up again and it continued to play hard right to the end, it seemed like a very long time but I eventually won it over and was able to pull it over the net. The first one in the net for nearly two months!

I was just happy that finally banked a Carp after so many blanks, I had no idea just how special this catch was going to be. Peering down into the net I could see what looked like an enormous ghost Carp it looked hell of a lot bigger than any of the other ghost Carp I'd had out of the Fendrod in the past and it had a belly full of spawn. I dared to think that this maybe my first UK Carp over the 20lb mark but was expecting the scales to ruin the moment by telling me it was yet another high teen.

So, I dared to think twenty and the scales bobbed about the twenty two pound mark then finally settled on 21lb 14oz! What a result! after a run of five blank sessions I'd finally got one on the bank and it was my biggest UK Carp ever and to make it even more special it was a ghost Carp. You make have guess already, I was over the moon.

I video blogged and took more than a few photos, it was hard to get a good photo as the flash seemed to bounce off the white scales turning the fish into a white silhouette but after a bit of persistence and moving the camera back a bit I managed to get a few nice shots. I think the photos do it justice.

21lb 14oz, a new PB to be proud of.

My first ever UK 20, fantastic!

I think I got every angle covered :)

On the mat, just look at that belly!

And finally away she goes.

I think I went a bit mad with the camera, usually I take two shots then it goes back and I just hope they turn out OK but I knew I didn't want to risk taking one or two pictures then finding out they are rubbish when I get them on the computer and who knows when the next time I'll be able to photograph a beast like this.

Once she was back in the lake I was left with the job of untangling the lines from both my rods. When I sorted out the rods, rebaited and put back out on their spot I was still buzzing with excitement. I sat there for a long while just soaking up the moment and reflecting on the time I'd spent chasing a 20lb Carp. I know that I've had bigger when I went to France back in 2009 but I would hardly class it in the same league as it seems to be standard practice to catch big Carp in France while back in the UK and especially a club water that sees constant angling pressure a fish pushing the magical 20 mark is not common place.

When I did eventually wind down enough to try and get some sleep the rats then started to invade the peg, I tried the usual tactic of keeping still until they are only a few feet away then flicking on the head torch and shining it straight at them but this didn't seem to have the usual long term effect and it was only a matter of time before they were back scampering about outside the bivvy door. This really didn't help my sleep as they were super persistent and only gave up harassing me when the sun started to come up.

I did manage to get a few hours sleep in the end but overall I'd had a pretty sleepless night for good and bad reasons. I decided to start packing up not long after getting up, it was a slow pack down as I still thought there maybe a chance of one more but when the time came to reel in I hadn't had any more action on either of the rods but it didn't really matter as I'd had a proper red letter catch and was bouncing about it.

I finally left the lake around mid morning and as it was Fathers Day I went home to spend the rest of the day with my son.

So, the change of tactics with heavy baiting and change of rigs work outstandingly. I don't think I could have asked for more from what turned out to be a quick overnight session and its given me a lots to think about. Lets just hope the nightmare sessions are well and truly behind me. Here's to the rest of 2011 lets hope its a good year.

The video blog of the session. One of the long video blogs but well worth watching.

Siltweed Nightmares

2011-06-05T01:49:00.025+01:00

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.

Back Of The Landing Net - Spring Match on Wadmill Lake at Todber Manor.

2011-05-08T23:36:00.360+01:00

This session was something way out of the norm for me. A few months ago I'd been watching 'Back of the Landing Net' on YouTube and they announced that they were holding a day match at Todber Manor. I thought why not?

The tickets for the match were put on ebay in a fixed price auction and if I recall correctly the twenty four places were all sold in a matter of hours and luckily I managed to get myself a ticket and was pretty excited about the match. I was under no illusion that I'd win knowing that many of the other entrants would be local and I know from previous experience that I really don't do well in matches treating them as just another pleasure session.

Buying the ticket was a total spur of the moment thing and after I'd paid for the tickets I suddenly realised how far Todber Manor was from Swansea. Google maps confirmed that it was going to be a 300 mile round trip, the travelling time and fuel costs did make me have a few second thoughts as in reality it was only going to be a day session.

I'd been following the 'Back of the Lang Net' videos on YouTube for quite a while and noticed that a few of the other YouTube bloggers would also be attending the match so I decided I would go ahead and if all else fails at least I would get to meet some of the other bloggers.

As I'd never ever seen Todber Manor let alone fished there I felt I needed to try and cover every option. I spent ages preparing every different bait I could think of. I mixed up a whole bucket of method mix, filled several bait tubs with everything I could think of from chopped meat, maggots, sweetcorn, mixer biscuits and even ground pellets and boilies. I had loads of bait so I was confident that I could try everything until I got a fish on the bank.

The day of the match arrived and since dropping a penny into the cigarette lighter socket and a few sparks later it didn't work anymore so I couldn't plug in the satnav and have a guided tour all the way to Dorset. Travelling with hand written directions from google maps I knew I'd probably take longer than the estimated time so I left the house around 3:30am giving me enough time to get there and make a few detours on the way.

I was pretty lucky that I'd given myself the extra time as the directions from google maps did tend to go off the plot more than a few times leaving me looking for left turns when there is simply a bend in the road, this caused several wrong turns but I eventually arrived four hours after setting off.

Todber Manor.

When everyone turned up for the draw it was quite a strange feeling meeting people I'd spoken to online or watched their videos on youtube. I still can't get used to people talking about me even though its happened a few times on my club water.

Jay filming the draw.

Chris drawing the pegs with the other competitors.

The draw began and I picked out peg 20. Totally unaware of where the peg was or if it was good or bad, in fact I'd never even seen the lake. I made my way over to the lake. All the info I had gathered online pointed to the far end or the deeper end fishing a lot better than the shallow half and the peg I had drawn was more or less in the centre of the lake so I didn't really know what to expect.

Driving down to Wadmill Lake.

The peg I had was pretty limited with the margin or open water being my only options, to be honest I would have liked something to aim at like an island, or lilies but I had to make the best of what I had and set about trying to get a Carp on the bank.

I set up with two methods in mind, the first rod was going on the method feeder and the second was going on a maggot feeder. I was pretty sure these would produce fish from a runs water but only time would tell.

After the all in was called, I baited several small balls of the method mix to the left hand side of the swim then dropped in the method feeder, then cast out the maggot feeder to the right. It was almost instantly that I discovered the maggot feeder was going to be a bad choice. I was having trouble tightening up the line as a flurry of knock and pulls began as soon as the feeder hit the bottom.

My first two fish dropped off as I was reeling in, the size12 hook seemed too big for the tiny Roach. I persisted for about 20 minutes landing three nice sized Roach with the biggest being around 8oz, I lost count of the number of Roach fell off, if I was pleasure fishing I probably would have dropped down to a smaller hook but this was a Carp match and there was already a few Carp on the bank from the other competitors so I couldn't go wasting my time with the silver fish.

I retired the match rod and brought a second Carp rod into play, keeping it simple I baited it with a single Cell boilie with a small PVA bag containing 5 or 6 whole boilies, I would usually grind up the bait in the PVA bags but after seeing how quickly the Roach hit the maggots I figured it would be better to keep them whole.

After what felt like ages and to be fair to probably was ages the single boilie rod sprung into life, I 'd seen a load of Carp being landed around me most of them small ones but its still hard to watch when I was sitting on a blank. The Carp I'd hooked was battling away and wasn't going to come in easy, it seemed to take a long time until it was ready for the net and I gasped a sigh of relief as I finally had it in the net. It was my first fish in the match that counted. Chris was at hand to weigh it and after bouncing about a bit it finally settled on 8lb 7oz, from what I could make out it was a fairly good fish for the lake and it was also my first ever Carp landed in England.

My one and only Carp of the match at 8lb 7oz, not brilliant but enough to place me 12th out of 24.

From a slow start I'd finally got a fish on the bank and I continued by striking out of a run not long after but that was the peak of all the Carp action for me. I must have tried everything I can think of but the fish just were not in front of me. To my right most of the guys were on one fish or blanking but on my left towards the deeper end of the lake they were bagging up and this is how it continued.

As the match drew to a close I was feeling totally drained, I'd been on the go for god knows how many hours and I was starting to lag, I'd got a few minutes sleep in the chair but this only made me feel rough.

The match ended and I finished on my one Carp, surprisingly my one Carp of 8lb 7oz was enough to claim twelfth place out of twenty four so for a lake I never even seen until the beginning of the match I think I'd done OK.

The Video blog of the match.

During the draw Chris and Jay had thrown in a couple of fun competitions like guess the winning match weight and guess the total age of all the competitors, I was pretty pleased when I found out that my guess of 113lb was the closest with the winning weight being 111lb 11oz, I was nowhere near in my catch weight but my lucky guess won me a pot of Dynamite Baits Coconut pop-ups. I also won a bonus prize for travelling the furthest which was a kilo of Mistrals i40 boilies which was an unexpected surprise.

I finally said my goodbyes to all the guys I had met and to be honest I don't think I could have asked for a better crowd.

I knew the drive home was going to be a slog and it turned out to be worse than expected when the motorway came to a standstill near Newport. The journey home took close to five hours and I was truly revealed to get home.

For what started as a spur of the moment decision it turned out to be a good one. I had a great time and even though I didn't grace the bank with multiple fish I would definitely do it again. Chris and Jay were absolute stars and it was a pleasure to have met them. The planning and organising that went into the match was amazing and they have earned my respect. Cheers guys....All thats left for me for me to say is 'Back of the Landing Net!'

2011 Carp Singles Match on the Fendrod.

2011-04-30T23:27:00.194+01:00

Well its time for another bash at the Brynmill Angling Club Carp match. Over the past few month I've been doing better than I've done in a long time on the Fendrod and I was fairly confident that I'd be in with a chance of a Carp or two gracing the bank.

The draw wasn't the best but at least I wasn't last out. I had a handful of pegs to choose from and opted for the point as it was still free and it was the peg that I managed to bag enough to rank in the top three back in 2009.

The weather wasn't the best with temperatures being a lot higher than what we've been used to and the bright sun and quite a strong wind made me think it was going to be a hard session.

The baits had been out for a few hours and I'd only seen one other fish being caught on the lake when my alarm screamed off, I was on to the rod and instantly expected it to be a Carp but the old tell tale plod of a Bream brought me back to reality and even though I'd normally be happy landing a big Fendrod Bream it was a Carp match and the Bream count for nothing in the match.

I guided the Bream into the net and done a bit of a video blog before putting it back. It was then I realised that I'd forgotten the scales but I guess it didn't really matter as any Carp would be weighed for me but I would have like to have known what my first big Bream of 2011 set the bar at, I'm guessing it was around the 8lb mark but it was quite a wide fish so I wouldn't be surprised if it pushed a bit more.

Camcorder still of the first Slab of the year. Welcome any other time except during the Carp match!

Once the Bream was back in the lake I hooked on another PVA bag and swung the bait back on the spot. I don't think the line had time to settle before the alarm was beeping again. This it was the standard Bream take with a short little pulls. I didn't really wait for it to run properly before before picking up the rod which was one of my usual errors with the big Bream. I felt it kick a few times before it came off...

I was left with a bit of a dilemma as my left hand spot that I'd been baiting had had its second Bream take and I didn't whether to steer clear of it or stick with it in the hope that the Carp move in.

I opted to stay on the spot but I didn't get any further action from that spot for the rest of the match.

The night was quiet of the fish front but I didn't get that much sleep as the wind picked up quite a lot after dark and I was being woken up by single beeps most of the night. When I finally did get to sleep I was gone and I didn't open my eyes again until nearly 10am.

From the information I could gather I had missed the feeding time as nearly all of the Carp caught in the match were caught between 6 and 9am and I was yet to see one.

The day seemed to rocket by without anything truly eventful happening, I kept baiting, tied a few rigs and even tried a long zig rig for the last few hours which mustered me an aborted run but I finished the match with only a single Bream to have graced the bank.

Check out the video blog of the match.

The finishing weights for the match were pretty low with 33lb claiming first place, 12lb for second and 11lb for third. I was in with a chance of ranking in the top three right up until the end but it just didn't happen. It was another match where things didn't go as planned but I still enjoyed myself and although it didn't count I had banked my first big Bream of 2011 so it wasn't all bad.

So, until I find a spare moment to write up the next blog entry take care.

A Day Roach Fishing at a Local Pond.

2011-04-27T22:35:00.097+01:00

Well, after receiving a call from Steve and already having the day booked off work we decided to try a spot of Roach fishing.

I dusted off the match rods, swung by a local tackle shop for a pint of maggots and headed to a little pond in search of a infamous silver fish.

The walk was a bit longer than I remembered but it was a nice day and it was good to be getting out and doing something different.

After setting up we fed a few maggots and Steve was into the fish almost straight away picking up a surprise Brown Trout. I was a bit slower off the mark missing the first few knocks but eventually swung my first little Roach into the keepnet.

Steves second Brown Trout. Beautiful little fish.

We were feeding little and often but the bites were coming in patches with steady takes then drying off before another shoal moved in.

My float ready to dive.

The rumours of big Roach seemed to be just rumours with the majority being no more than a few ounces but they provided a few hours sport and considering that the last time I wet a line in this pond was during the 90's we managed a pretty nice mixed bag.

Our mixed haul, not bad for a few hours.

I think that maybe we'll give it another go on the run up to winter, who knows maybe I'm wrong and we'll get to see a big Roach. I don't think it really matters if they are just rumours as its nice to get a chance to dust off the match rods and I don't think I'll leave it so long next time.

The video blog of the day.

Persistance Pays Off on the Fendrod - Strike Four -

2011-04-25T02:08:00.461+01:00

Well, for some reason I've had a mental block and held back on writing this post, I think, I didn't really know how to put it all into words or maybe it was the fact that I'd actually be writing about a session where things worked for a change and writing about multiple captures from the Fendrod is rare feat for me and I didn't want to pass it over like just another session. None the less I've finally got my fingers in action and I'm going to give it my best attempt.

It was my standard arrival with my arriving at the lake with just enough sunlight to get the rods out and bivvy up. My choice of bait for the session was Mainline Cell boilies and I scattered about fifty freebies over each rod.

I got everything ready for the night and settled down with a coffee before starting the task of tying a few PVA bags. I made use of my Korda Krusha and ground up a load of Cell boilies along with trout pellets. I spent what felt like ages grinding and tying, until I ended up with nice little stock of PVA bags ready any recasts.

By the time it was completely dark I was all settled and ready for a pick up. I laid down on the bedchair and got a bit of kip.

My first bit of disturbance was the usual visitors to the peg I was on, RATS!. A single rat was rustling about on the edge of the peg I waited until it got its confidence up before making my move to scare it away. It wasn't long before it was scouting around outside the bivvy door and I flicked on my head torch aiming it straight at it then jumped to my feet and chased it off the peg. And for once this was all it took. I'd prefer not to see them at all but at least it had buggered off and I was left alone for the rest of the night.

My confidence wasn't at its highest as unlike previous sessions there was now a distinct lack of fish on the surface, normally there would be a few fish crashing in open water but apart from the few I'd seen when I arrived the was nothing.

I was back on the bed when my first run of the night commenced. I jumped to my feet and connected with a proper little scrapper. I was happy to be into a fish and its wasn't long before I had my first fish of the session in the net. I peered down into the net and was rather pleased to see a Fendrod Ghostie, not one of the big ones but it was a result.

I got the camera ready for a bit of video blogging, opened the mat then lift the net. As I lifted the net the alarm from my second rod started to scream. My first thought was that I'd picked up the line with the net but as I lowered the net I realised I was nowhere near it and the fact that the alarm hadn't stopped meant I had to act fast. I picked up my second rod and connected with another fish, this one was hanging on a lot harder than the first which made me start to think I hooked into something a bit better. Although it was hitting back I gained back my line fairly quickly and then I was left with the task of getting it in the net while my first fish of the night was still present.

I think I done a good job of staying calm while playing the fish with one hand while guiding the net with the other. Luckily the ghost Carp was sulking in the bottom of the net giving me enough room to manoeuvre the net under the second fish.

With both fish in the net the second fish, a mirror Carp looked a bit smaller than the ghost Carp. I toyed with the idea of getting a a photo with both fish at the same time but as I was on my own and the picture would be a timed self take it would mean one wrong move and I'd have fish bouncing on the floor so I decided against it opting to deal with them one at a time.

The first one out of the net was the mirror, just making double figures weighing in at 10lb 1oz, it looked completely spawned out. I thought that this would have been the bigger of the two considering the fight but it just goes to show you can never gauge a weight by the fight.

10lb 1oz, just scraping double figures even with a spawned out belly.

Then it was time for the ghostie to finally grace the bank, it was in absolute pristine condition and the scales illuminated under the light of the head torch. It only weighed in at 11lb so it wasn't one of the big ghosties that I'd seen during the spawning but it was very welcome.

Bang on 11lb, excellent way to start the night off.

After my double haul was safely back in the lake I had the job of untangling both rods as I had slung them off to the side while I was dealing with the fish, they were in a bit of a mess making wish I'd taken an extra few seconds to sort out the rods after unhooking the fish but I literally had my hands full.

When I climbed back in to bed I was quite please with myself, I cannot even put a figure to the amount of times I've climbed into the sleeping bag hoping for a run only to wake up in the morning without any action, so two fish on the bank at the start of the session made it a good one whatever happens and I could relax a bit.

I got a pretty good nights sleep, no rats but also no more runs....until the sun came up and at about quarter past six my session improved again when another hard fighting mirror pulls my out of my slumber. I know I don't really rate anything that's surrounded in hype but the cell boilies were doing the job.

The fish weighed in at 12lb 4oz another double and making it one of my biggest Carp hauls on the Fendrod in a long time.

A 12lb 4oz Wake UP! call.

Sunrise, time to put the kettle on.

Once my third Carp of the session was back in the lake I reeled in both rods hooked on some of my pre-made PVA bags then got the kettle on. Sitting there after a fairly successful night with a coffee my hand soaking up the warmth of the morning sun is one of the best feelings. I was pretty happy just sitting there but I knew it would all be over too soon and I'd have to start packing up.

My two rods set up for the next pick up.

I kept myself busy slowly packing things down thinking it was unlikely that I'd get another run now that the sun was beaming down but you can never predict how a session will pan out.

The bivvy was down and I was starting to organise all my bits and pieces ready for home. I'd even had the chance to dry the net, sling and mat in the sun.

Steve called down on his way to work, we'd been chatting for a bit when I got my fourth pick up. It was nice to have someone there to hold the camera, especially as I was about to land the biggest fish of the session. No monster but another double weighing in at 12lb 10oz making it my fourth double.

Finishing one of a better Fendrod sessions with a 12lb 10oz Common. Lovely!

It was nice to end the session on a fish and I couldn't have asked for a better condition fish. I was packed up and away from the lake not long after. Now that I've had a chance to read a few of my early blog entries when I started fishing the Fendrod I can see that I've finally levelled my four Carp in a session best.

The three part video blog - embedded as play-list so it should play all the way through.

I don't think I could have asked for more. When I arrived I was fishing on the tail end of spawning and didn't really expect to get anything so I'm more than happy. I suppose I could say that I'd have liked to have seen one of the bigger residents of the lake or even one of the named fish but I know that if I keep putting in the effort things will eventually fall into place.

Lets just hope the Fendrod keeps giving me something back for my efforts. So, until my next entry take care.

Carp Out Before Spawning - Strike Three -

2011-04-21T01:52:00.299+01:00

The Fendrod has not been particularly forthcoming for me in the past year and a half with only one Carp gracing the bank in 2010 and even though 2011 started off a lot better with a mid double ghost Carp it is still my only Fendrod Carp since the beginning of the year and things have stayed bleak with nothing to show for my first few sessions since the start of the new membership.

I have tried every method that has caught me fish in the past and I've baited to the point where there was nothing left in the freezer which has now left me free to try different things. I didn't have anything to lose. I decided to re-visit Mainline cell boilies as the first time I tried it I left them out of the freezer in the bag for a few days resulting in bag of mouldy boilies. I'd usually steer away from as something that is surrounded by loads of hype as more often than not it doesn't live up to expectations but the reports from around the lake made me think I should at least give it a try.

I set off from the house as the sun was starting to set and I arrived at the lake with just enough light to slap the bivvy up and get the rods out before darkness fell. I pottered about for a bit getting everything ready just in case I got a fish on the bank then set about tying a few rigs followed by a small pile of PVA bags containing a mix of pellets and cell boilies ground to crumb.

After putting new rigs on both the rods I put them back out on to the spots I'd previously scattered a few boilies and once everything was where I wanted it I retired to my sleeping bag for the night.

Its was 3am when I was awoken by a few beeps from my left hand alarm. I threw myself out of the bivvy and knelt down next to the rod as the alarm let out another beep. My instant thought was Bream. I picked the rod off the pod and held the line until I felt a slight tug. I struck lightly expecting the standard Bream tug and give up fight and for a while it did seem to be going that way until the fish was about three rod lengths out it decided to slam on the brakes and start fighting back. I knew now I had a Carp on and I became nervous trying to do everything right making sure my first Fendrod fish in months ended up in the net.

Once it was in the net I settled it down in the margins and got the camera ready for a bit of proper night blogging something I hadn't done in a long while.

It weighed in at 14lb 12oz a perfect condition common Carp holding a belly full of spawn. I know that any size fish would have felt like a result but I was even more pleased by the fact that it was a mid double.

Happy with my first fish of the new season.

Cracker!, 14lb 12oz Common Carp in totally immaculate condition.

After the fish had gone back and I'd done my bit of video blogging I climbed back into my sleeping bag in the hope that I'd be awoken again.

Sadly, I awoke naturally but it was nice and early giving me the opportunity to watch the sun come up and witness the first few fish start to crash about around the island. The warm weather had kick started spawning almost a month earlier than last year.

A morning that makes you glad you were up to see it.

Elvis and his wife, the resident Muscovy Ducks.

I sat there enjoying my third coffee of the morning and was joined by two of the well known lake residents a pair Muscovy Ducks.

The morning sun was lovely and warm giving me a chance to get everything out of the bivvy and air it out, it was nice to know that the bivvy was going to be dry and free from condensation when I'd be packing up.

It was round 9am when I decided to pack things up as I had a few single beeps on the alarms followed by a savage liner from what I believe to have been spawning Carp, by this time there were Carp starting to spawn all over that lake and I'd even watched a nice size common Carp mount the floating island flapping away for a good 15 minutes before it got free, it was pretty funny watching a Coot heading straight for it thinking it was going to be an easy meal only to end up keeping its distance as a fish double its size thrashed about.

The three part video blog - embeded as playlist so it should play all the way through (keep you eyes peeled for a greedy Cormorant in part 2 around 6:48).

I think I'd made the right choice in packing up early and considering it was going to be another boiling hot day plus my main targets were busy spawning I think I done well to get a fish out, for the first time in a long while I think I was one of the only people to land a fish so I was really happy with the result, now that I come to think about it may well be the biggest common Carp I've had out of the Fendrod.

After I'd packed the car I thought I go and see if I could do a bit of filming the fish spawning. I managed to get some pretty cool footage but nothing as good as I could physically see with polarised sunglasses on, I spotted some massive Ghost carp and even caught a glimpse of the infamous Fendrod Koi.

My enthusiasm has been revitalised and I'll be giving them a bit of time to get their business done and I'll be back, hopefully the spawning will give them a bit of an appetite and I'll be there to exploit it.

Carp Fishing on a School Night. - Strike Two -

2011-04-19T01:49:00.132+01:00

With my first blank under my belt and the weather showing signs of an early summer I knew I had to make the best of every opportunity available to get out and wet a line.I decided it was time to try something a bit different.

When I got home from work I was itching to get out on the bank but with work the following morning I knew I had to get things in motion or I miss my opportunity. I quickly loaded the car while Rachel fed William his dinner before I bathed and settled him down for the night. Once he was asleep I headed down to the Fendrod for a very time restricted night session.

I arrived and being mid-week there was only one other pair of anglers on the lake. I quickly set things up before the sun set, I spotted a few fish moving close in so I decided the concentate my baiting close in. I was fishing pregluged boilies and threw out a heavy amount into two spots then dropped my hookbaits onto the spots.

Another movie still of the moon, this time a completely different colour.

The night was fairly eventful with few beeps and aborted runs but sadly no fish on the bank, not even a Bream. I happpen to find out that I'd set up on the only peg that had been fished for the previous 48 hours so I was baiting up the only area on the lake that had been under angling pressure, not really the best thing to find out after setting up and baiting up.

The rods at dawn, just before the sun started to rise.

I was quite proud of myself managing to get up and getting everything packed down in time for work. I reluctantly left the lake with my second blank but at least I now had the knowledge that I can comfortably hit the lake during 'School Nights' as long as the weather behaves as I can only imagine how hard it would be to face a full day of work after spending a night on the bank in the rain.

CHECK OUT THE VIDEO BLOG OF THE SESSION.

Honestly, I was loved doing the short night session but I would have liked to have stayed until mid morning as there is always a chance of picking up a early morning Carp but I was just happy with getting up, off the lake and into work without being late.

Start of a New Season on the Fendrod. - Strike One -

2011-04-15T01:44:00.289+01:00

So, its the end of the 2010-11 fishing season and the start of the 2011-12 season on still waters. The end of annual club memberships and the expiry of the environments agency rod licences meant I was stuck with a bit of a dilemma. Things are pretty tight on the finance front which left me unable to do the annual splash out renewing several club memberships and the two rod licences. Like all the other cut backs I had to be selective in what I spent my money on.

Anyway, my financial situationist has restricted me to a single rod licence meaning I will only fishing two rods in the sessions until the time comes where I've got a bit of spare cash.

Personally, I feel that the need for a second rod licence to fish a third rod is out dated. Fishing three rods while Carp fishing is almost standard practice and it would make sense if a single rod licence covered you. I fail to see why fishing with a third rod creates such an impact on the environments agency that anglers need to be charged for a second rod licence.

Unfortunatly, they have the law on their side giving them a licence to fleece Carp anglers. Sadly, the extra revenue will more than likely be invested in areas of the sport that are unaccessable to the average angler like stocking Salmon or invested in the conservation of Otters which through their reintroduction to rivers in South Wales has had a dire results decimating at least two local fisheries not to mention the reports of high profile fisheries from across the UK losing vast stocks to Otters. But, it is the law and its easier to fish two rods or hand over the second fee instead of running the risk of being summonsed to court which is something I'd rather avoid.

More cut backs left me in limbo wondering what club to join first especially as Swansea city council has hiked the cost of annual membership to Brynmill angling club to almost double what it cost last year meaning that with my continued pursuit of Fendrod Carp the other club memberships will have to wait until the cash is available.

So then, back to the start of a new season on the Fendrod, with only a few hours passed since I purchased a platinum membership I had the car loaded and was off down the Fendrod hoping to get my monies worth after paying the new fee.

I took a quick walk round and chatted to a few of the regulars and like last year the reports were pretty slim but there were a few fish making an appearance. My peg sellection was fairly simple as it was on the verge of sunset I chose the option of fishing as close to the car as possible, this was a choice made due to the fact its easier to set up in the light than it is in the dark.

Check out the video blog of the session.

My baiting tactics were quick and plenty full, I rigged up a method feeder cast it out to the desired location then clipped up the line I then proceeded to cast five or so big method balls onto the same spot before dropping a final method ball out with a hook bait now nestled in the ball. My second rod was a simple half and half pop-up and bottom bait cast out in the vicinity of a fish I'd seen topping followed by about thirty freebies.

Once the night settled in I burried myself in the sleeping bag hoping to be woken during the night.

Cracking shot of the moon, taken from a camcorder still.

The reality was far from what I wanted with the half and half bait sat there without a single knock while the method feeder was giving a single beep on the alarms at regular intervals during the night. I'd made a big mistake by not checking the rigs during the night. The half and half was coated in sludge and debris while the hook length on the method feeder was tangled into the feeder with the hook trapped leaving the boilie on the outside.

My morning breakfast bar.

I chopped and changed a few things during the morning but couldn't make anything work for me. I was still annoyed with myself for not checking the rigs during the night. I ended the session with another Fendrod blank not really a good way to start off the season but now that I have my membership I'll be making a bit more of an effort to get down there and hopefully this year will see me break the 20lb mark on a welsh water but I'll be happy with anything as long as it means catching.

Hard Weather Session at Hazel Court Ponds.

2011-04-05T21:01:00.229+01:00

As with every fishing session you plan you always hope for a bit of nice weather and with my annual leave wearing a bit thin when I booked my first day off work since the Pike fishing trip back in January I was hoping for for just that. For the past twenty days the sun had been shining and temperatures were pretty comfortable and I was eager to get out and make use of my newly purchased rod licence.

I was fairly confident that we'd get a nice day when I booked the day off to chase the Catfish at Hazel Court Ponds.

The day arrived and it was like the seasons had change overnight! The temperatures had dropped, the wind had picked up from nowhere and the sun had been replaced by rain and there was an cold damp feel in the air. Not really ideal for Catfish!

Undeterred, Steve and I loaded the car and headed east along the M4. Honestly the drive was horrible and seemed to take longer previous trips as the early morning traffic increased so did the spray coming off the motorway making it an almost impossible to see more than a few cars in front.

We arrive at the ponds and took a brief walk around the Cat lake but we had already made up our minds to try get a bend in the rods rather than chase Catfish in these conditions.

We settled down on the Specimen lake and I started baiting up a spot before slapping up the bivvy as a shelter against the elements. Despite the temperature drop there was still a few Carp making themselves known with the odd fish turning over in the centre of the lake.

Within the first hour I got a run, I was standing next to the rods, my mind was miles away but the screaming of the alarm quickly dragged me back to reality. I picked up the rod and I could tell I had a Carp on but its was hard to gauge any kind of size as it was really putting me through the paces. When it surface I could see it wasn't very big but that didn't slow it down as it continue to battle on until I slipped it into the net. Cracking fight!

I put the fish on the mat but didn't bother weighing it as I don't think it would have pushed more than five pounds. A lovely example of a lean Common Carp and in true Hazel Court style it had slight koi tint to it with a few translucent flecks along the scales.

Only fish of the day a wiry little Common Carp.

With a fish on the bank the weather didn't seem so bad after all. I continued to bait the spot in the hope that a few more fish would grace the bank.

We had been fishing for around two hours before the true nemesis of Hazel Court Ponds started their assault. The spot that I had been baiting since our arrival and the only spot to have produced a fish was totally ransacked by a pair of relentless Swans. They turned into the bane of the session, not content with clearing out my first baited spot they continued to harass us for the rest of the day, their exploits consisted of clearing out any bait we'd put in the lake, cleaning themselves under the rod tips, swimming through the lines countless times, picking up the back leads and my personal favourite, trying to squeeze under the rod pod resulting in turning it over rods and all.

Don't you just love nature.

It was a long day with the rest of the day being a mixture of bad weather and bad luck with me missing my second run due to me fiddling with the camera. We ended the day after one of the swans picked up my hook bait. The commotion was more than enough to destroy any chance of seeing any more fish on the bank and I packed up glad that I'd managed to get one out before the Swans started.

CHECK OUT THE VIDEO BLOG OF THE SESSION.

Steve was a bit disheartened by a blank as he was more than confident we'd be bagging up but I think the drastic change in the weather turned the fish off the feed and the Swans just made things worse.

As the summer month start to come closer I'd like to think that we'll get another few session at Hazel Court but as with everything we'll have to wait and see how things pan out.

A Fendrod Ghostie.

2011-03-06T23:24:00.199Z

Many of my sessions during 2010 were brief and as soon as a small window of spare time opened I loaded the car and was off towards a lake in pursuit of a Carp or two.

This time was no different with another very late start, arriving at the lake and not setting foot on the bank until well after the sun had set. It was well past 9 pm when I finally got the rods out and for a change I'd opted to fish mainly pop-ups while banging out a single method feeder into the near side margins. With the exceptionally late start the rods were my first priority and it was well into the night before I was completely set up with the bivvy, bed and stove.

This time my use of pop-ups got the reaction I wanted. I was still in the middle of putting the bed up when I heard a single beep on the middle alarm, I turned to watch the line that I had pulled slack quickly become taught and the spool on the reel began spinning as a fish powered away with one of my baits.

I picked up the rod and connected with my first Fendrod fish of 2011 and it wasn't going to come in without a fight! Its was hammering away on the end of the line pulling out more line and veering from left to right ignoring my efforts to gain control. My initial thoughts as soon as I could feel it pulling with such force is that I was about to see one of the larger residents of the Fendrod but as the battle wore on the movements became more jagged and it began to feel like a stockie that was punching above its weight. It fought hard right up until the end and by the time it was in the net my arm was truly aching. I was well out of practice a fighting a fish that wanted to fight back.

The first Carp of the year was in the net I didn't care to much about the size, for me it was all about getting one on the bank especially after the hard winter. I peered into the net and was delighted to see the broad back of a common ghost Carp. I left it in the net while I scrambled about getting the mat open, grabbing the camera then wetting the weigh sling. Once everything was ready I pulled the net out of the margins and placed the fish on the mat then into the weigh sling. The the scales pulled round to just a tad over fifteen pounds, nice result considering the rod had been out for less than an hour.

First Fendrod Carp of the year. Starting off the year with a 15lb Ghost Common. Lovely!

I filmed a quick blog entry, took some photos then applied about half a bottle of klink carp care to a large patch of missing scales, it was an old wound but it was quite sore looking and I thought a bit of antiseptic would aid the healing process. Once I finished with the antiseptic it was time to go back. I'm still not convinced that all these carp care products don't just wash away as soon as they are back in the lake but I suppose a little bit of help is better than nothing at all.

Unphased by its time on the bank the very welcome ghost Carp was eager to go. As soon as the water passed through its gill its was off and was soon out of sight.

Back in the water.

Getting her breath back.

Going.

Gone!

I was very pleased with my catch as it bested anything I'd had out of the Fendrod in 2010. So, with the knowledge that I could no longer blank I carried on setting things up.

Sadly, the rest of the night was my normal standard on the Fendrod, I managed to get a good nights sleep only waking to cover up my face as the temperatures bottomed out around 4 am. I did have one regret of not bringing one of the baits close in after I has fish turning over right next to the peg around midnight but we live and learn.

The morning was bright and sunny and I just didn't feel any confidence as I've never had a good response when there's bright sunlight. I managed to stretch the session out until mid afternoon but the any baiting or fiddling with rigs didn't make any difference.

I packed up still on a bit of a high, the one fish in the first hour had cemented the session restoring a bit of faith back in the Fendrod, lets just hope the rest of 2011 pans out with a few more of the Fendrod residents making an appearance.

The video blog of the session.

Winter Pike Fishing.

2011-01-27T00:02:00.001Z

After what feels like ages since both Steve and I fished a session together we finally got round to arranging a day in the pursuit of a freshwater predator. It has been a long time since I dusked off the Pike tackle and I was eager to get out and hit the spots that I've left alone for a long time.

Since my last journey's for Pike a lot of the landscapes and areas had changed drastically with swim either now being unfishable or totally unrecognisable but on the other hand there were a few spots that were now looking rather pikey where as before I'd have just walked past them.

We started the day off with lures walking and driving miles, we tried several different locations and although we had spotted a few small jacks the only bit of action was a tiny one launching Steve's lure out of the water before disappearing into the murky depths. The Pike was not much bigger than the lure so it wasn't any great loss when the hooks failed to connect.

The cold and the wind finally took its toll and we decided to wrap up the lure fishing. We had walked the banks for several hours with nothing to show for it and I made to choice to settle in a more comfortable location and set up for a bit of dead bait fishing.

We had only had the dead baits out for a matter of minutes before I got my first sign of interest. My float started knocking back and forth, I held back just incase it was the wind moving the float but after it pulled under I knew I had my first real chance to connect with a Pike. As the float began to move off I hit in to it and began battling my first Pike in well over a year.

As soon as it knew it was hooked it tore off powering away but it was short lived with only a few lunges before it was subdued by the net.

A nice winter Jack on the mat.

It was only small Pike weighing it at 7lb 1oz but the size didn't matter. For me it was more than enough of a reward for our efforts.

Face on, monster teeth on display.

And a side on shot, looks a lot bigger now.

A quick reminder that every tooth is sharp.

Once it had gone back Steve was a bit annoyed that he hadn't connected with the tiny Pike earlier as irrelevant of size it would have made the session our first ever where we'd both had a successful Pike take.

The regrets were quickly pushed aside after a bait dropped inches from the far bank started to pull into the overhanging undergrowth. Steve didn't waste any time and struck. His rod bent over as another jack pounded away on the end of the line. It was only a small Pike but it gave a good account of itself battling away and even tail walking before I netted our second Pike of the session.

Not the biggest but worth the wait.

Old smiley, now a happy boy.

Even though Steve had hit it pretty early it was hooked right at the back of the throat, fortunately the rigs we were using had barbless treble hooks so with a bit of patience the hooks were out with the minimal harm.

It weighed in at 3lb 10oz but again the size was irrelevant. The conditions were borderline freezing with the odd spot of snow and to have land a Pike each was a proper result for us.

We fished on until the light faded and went home feeling like we had achieved our goal for the day. Its been a long time since we focused our attentions on Pike and good to get some action without putting in the initial groundwork.

Check out the videos blog of the session.

Bleak Winter Carping.

2011-01-23T23:51:00.001Z

How do I add enthusiasm when I start writing about the only thing that truly ruins a fishing session. Blanking! a true part of winter Carping and unfortunalty for me my winter Carp fishing sessions never passed the fine line between catching and blanking.

The winter through the beginning of the year has been the harshest I've seen since I began fishing and that includes my early days pier fishing back in the 90's.

Seagulls on the ice.

The main struggle this winter is that when I had the time to get on the bank all the lakes were sealed under a sub zero lid and when the thaw eventually kicked in I was trapped in work, envious of anyone who was able to get out and wet a line.

Ice slowly cruising towards my lines.

I totted up four sessions where I was cast out into water that was painfully cold and all I had for my efforts was a few single beeps and one rip round on the rod which when I picked up the rod connected with nothing. All it would have taken was a single fish on the bank and it would have all been worthwhile but I suppose the elements and unfortunate timing meant that this years winter fishing remained fruitless.

On a plus note I've taken a lot of food for thought from all the blanks and have made a few changes and hopefully when the temperatures start to dip again at the end of 2011 I'll put a few things into practice and just maybe it'll make a difference.

So, its 2011....What happened to 2010?

2011-01-01T01:01:00.015Z

When I wrote up my targets for 2010 I had high hopes for the year but it seems the elements were against me from the start with the news labelling the weather at the beginning of the year as 'The Big Freeze 2010' which is also the same name they have given for our second bout of Arctic weather conditions nine months later.

There was an apparent light on the horizon with 'experts' predicting our hottest summer since the 1970's but in reality I think we had a record rainfall in Swansea meaning the lake that I'd been fishing on for the past two years had flooded more times than ever. I know that catching fish is not always fine weather event but it would have been nice to go home every once in a while with everything bar the net still dry. I can't think of anything more disheartening than spending multiple sessions blanking in the rain.

All of the 2010 targets I'd set have remained unachieved! I'd like to think that it was a thin line on all of the them but I have to bow out and admit that I simply did not come close. In refection I did achieve a few things like two double figure Bream in one session and my biggest achievement ever, the life changing event of becoming a father which is something that I'll always be happy about.

I fished for Catfish and even had one on but that was as close as I came. I had a few Tench around the 2lb mark but nothing coming close the target weight. Perch fishing was halted by frozen lakes and the biggest Carp was 18lb and even though I am pretty pleased about it it was still nowhere near 25lb.

I think the only remedy for this is a rollover, I will push the 2010 targets into 2011 and hopefully the next twelve month will see me ticking a few of them off.

To land a Carp over 25lb.
To land a Catfish.
To land a Perch 3lb 8oz.
To land a Tench on or over 4lb.

Angling wise I am happy to put 2010 behind me and lets hope that 2011 can produce a few new PB's and if that fails lets just hope I have fun.

Last session of the year.

2010-12-19T00:42:00.269Z

With the year drawing to close quite rapidly I was beginning to thing that I'd already seen my last session of 2010. Winter has surely kicked in early this year along with frozen lakes and a healthy dusking of snow.

I suppose its the child in me that loves to see snow on the ground but in Swansea its usually short lived and its back to normality usually a day or two later. Well this year the snow fell and stayed! not exactly ideal when I was hoping to get a bit of bank time in before the end of the year.

I've always wanted to get out and catch a fish in the snow and this gave me the perfect opportunity and I was sort of excited about going fishing in the snow and then I stumbled on one minor detail...all the lakes were frozen!!!

I tried my luck at Whitesprings as I know that the pleasure lake is fed by the spring and very rarely freezes over but with the cold nights in Wales pushing a record -17°C I arrived to find only a small section of the lake without a lid.

Whitesprings in the snow.

My initial thoughts were mixed, I didn't feel like fishing a little patch in the ice would produce anything but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to try and get a fish in the snow. I suppose my mind was already made up as soon as I'd seen a fish-able spot I at least had to give it a try.

It was a proper slog pushing the barrow down in the snow it was truly hard work and I wasn't looking forward to pushing it back up later, usually I would just park the car right next to the swim but today it would be suicide to even attempt to drive down the hill.

I set up the rods and tied on the rigs, I was going to use a small bait set up with either half boilies or trimmed down a lot smaller then wrapping a blob of peanut butter around the lot before casting out, but I had the wildlife to contend with. I cut down a few boilies then turned round to pick up the rod and as I turned back there was a flurry of flapping wings as two Robins and a Black bird made off with my bait.

A Robin and Blackbird Montage.

I eventually managed to bait up all the rigs while the birds swooped round me even landing on my shoulder in their quest to relieve me of my bait.

I placed all three rods out covering the whole section of unfrozen water and settled down in my chair and poured myself a nice hot coffee out of my flask, which was a bit of a shock to the system as the hot coffee seemed unnaturally hot, burning my mouth and teeth on my first sip.

Waiting for a snow Carp.

My little patch non-frozen water.

I'd been there for a few hours with no action at all, the cold was starting to nip at me. I'd sat there all wrapped up with my hands in my pockets and I was still feeling the cold. I got up and started walking around in attempt to get the blood flowing in my feet and hands again which eventually lead to me building a snowman, at first I thought it would be pretty cool, a bit of fun to pass the time and to be fair it was, I enjoyed myself but my hands were left colder than when I started.

My fishing snowman complete with boilie eyes, nose and buttons.

The snowman and feeding boilies to the birds were sadly the highlight of the session, I had not had a single knock since casting out. I decided it was time to pack up when I started to shiver, I reeled to rods in and they were all covered in the frost and when I tried to pack them down and they had all frozen together, after a lot of yanking, brute force just wasn't doing the job. I eventually poured the remains of my coffee in the flask on to the joins which was enough to loosen them but I was amazed how quickly the coffee froze to the rods.

I got everything loaded on the barrow and began the trek up the hill to the car, I can tell you now that the cold was the furthest things from my mind when I was half way up the hill as it was one of the hardest walks back to the car I have ever done.

A little robin that hitched a lift on the barrow as I pushed it up the hill.

So, that was my last session of 2010 and like so many sessions throughout the year it ended on a blank but when I got back to the car the temperate gauge read -6°C so I can understand when there weren't any fish on the move. It would have been nice to get a Carp in the snow but none the less I still enjoyed myself and thats what its all about.

The Video blog of the session.

Eco Friendly Christmas Card And Thank You.

2010-12-18T19:59:00.004Z

Here's my online Christmas card for all the readers of my blog and Youtube viewers. Have a great Christmas and an even better new year.

During 2010 I've been noticing the online stats for both this blog and my youtube channel and am over the moon at the amount of interest people have in my ramblings about my fishing trips. Just over 2000 hits are received on this blog every month and my youtube videos had just hit a daily high of 465 views in one day with the total video views now well over 130,000.

All I can say is Thank You for following my blog and taking an interest in what I do and I hope you will stay with me as I push the blog into its fourth year.

Take care and merry christmas.

Dan

Making a Start at Winter Carp Fishing.

2010-11-21T22:53:00.239Z

Lately it seems like whenever I get a chance to get out on the bank there is always something against me, for example the standard restrictions that all angling have to face up to like cost, time, availability of the swims you'd like to target but the biggest rival against time on the bank has to be the weather. This year started with the 'Big Freeze' with temperatures dropping to -10 °C and the predicted hottest summer on record never happened and instead we got monsoon rain and thunderstorms, and now it looks like we are in for another cold winter which is the last thing we need.

I just hate it when I get the opportunity to wet a line and it means either giving a miss or I'll probably end up having to hang up every bit of kit up to dry.

Well this sessions is one of those that I nearly give is a miss after I was contemplating fishing at Whitesprings but then remembered there was a Carp match on so I veered away from that, then I turned up at the Fendrod to find the water levels higher than I'd ever seen them before making fishing from an actual peg impossible.

My final port of call was the Half Round Ponds, I arrived to find no one else fishing and even though you are restricted certain areas when night fishing and the rules are a two rod maximum I thought I'd give it a go as I had nothing to lose.

After speaking with one of the bailiffs I quickly unloaded the car and headed to a peg on the weedy pond and started setting up, it was starting get dark and I was far from ready but I thought it would be a good idea to walk round the pond so that I could memorise the clear spots in the weed while I could still make them out.

With all the clear spots fresh in my memory I finished off setting up and gave an underarm cast out the first rod into a close clear spot and cast the second rod out into a spot further out. I had minimized my tackle right down to compensate for the weed and was fishing a small inline lead with a basic braid hook length no tubing or any extras that may cause problems if I managed to get a hook up.The bait was half a Lammo's Peanut and Caramel boilie topped off with half a pop-up.

As the night settled in so did the cold, it was almost as if I could physically feel the temperature dropping and without even realising a layer of frost had formed on the bivvy and the ground around me.

I climbed in the bivvy lit the stove and ate my pasty that I brought with me for breakfast. Once the stove had been burning for a while it was really nice and cosy inside the bivvy. I was happy with where the baits were and had no reason to be outside so I climbed into my sleeping bag and drifted off to sleep.

The next thing I remember was a screaming run at about half twelve. I was slow to respond wrestling myself out of the sleeping bag then struggling to force my boots on, all the while the run was still steaming off. When I finally got my hands on the rod I struck and could feel a forceful jolt as whatever was on the end carried on trying to run. It was probably the worst thing that could have happened on this pond, the slow response from me meant that as well as the fish I also had to content with the dense weed and letting a fish run is just asking for trouble.

A few minutes into the fight the inevitable happened and I was snagged tight into the weed. I had two options either trying to pulled through the weed or slackening off and hope the fish pulls free of the snag. Luckily I've had previous experience dealing with the weed in this pond and decided I would try and pull through the weed or even try to take the fish under it. I held the rod tip low almost touching the water and moved back and forth trying all sorts of different angles with the rod and it was stuck fast. To add a bit more stress to the situation I couldn't feel any knocks or pulls so I thought the fish had come off.

I continued to pull through the weed slowly keeping the line tight and walking up and down the bank, it was a slow trudge as I slowly gained line, it felt like I was doing this for ages. I finally broke free of the weed and couldn't believe my luck when as soon as I came clear of the weed it began to fight back again. I'd been at a deadlock with the weed for ages and the fish was still on! It continued to battle on as I tried my best to steer in the clear spot and as soon as it was close enough I grabbed the landing net and scooped up the fish.

It was in the net and the battle was over, I looked into the net and could see a classic Half Round Pond mirror Carp my first guess was just over double thinking it was somewhere between 10 and 12lb. I place the fish in the margins while I going the sling, scales and camera ready.

On the bank the scales pulled round to exactly 18lb, I'd seriously under estimated the weight and was over the moon, 18lb is the biggest of the year and is something I genuinely wasn't expecting.

The biggest for 2010, smack on 18lb.

Majorly underestimated 'Guessing around 10 to 12lb'

Smile for the camera.

I filmed a bit of a night blog then watched my biggest for on the year swim off into the darkness.

Time to go back.

Once the fish was back I rebaited but my memory of where I put the bait originally was not as good as I'd hoped and now that the lake was in darkness I couldn't tell where the clear spots were so, I took a guess and cast it out into the approximate area and just hoped that I'd landed in a clear spot.

The sky had clouded over and the temperature was less bitterly cold than in the early evening and I was happy to sit out for a while reflecting on how lucky I'd been to land the fish.

When I eventually climbed back into bed I went out like a light until I woke up around 4am freezing cold. Winter is definitely here and I was feeling the pinch of using a small single skin bivvy. I lit the stove to warmed up the bivvy again then wrapped by jacket over the sleeping bag before going back to sleep.

I was awoken by a single been on the alarms at around 6am. After poking my head out of the bivvy I watch the reel click a few times and I was just about to spring out of the bivvy when it stopped. I waited for a while before sinking back in to my sleeping bag.

The Video Blog of the session.

As the sun started to rise got up and packed up all the gear and moved down the lake as I could fish to the clear spots a lot easier from there.

As the morning progressed I seriously regretted eating my breakfast pasty in the night as I was now starving and the only other consumable I had with me was coffee but that was also becoming limited as I'd used up most of the gas heating the bivvy during the night. With regular shaking of the gas cannister I managed to get the kettle to boil three more times before the gas died but coffee just doesn't bite it when all you can think about is proper food.

As you may have guessed my thoughts for the morning were consumed with my hunger. Rachel and William came to visit me during the morning but after being set up on the middle bank throughout the morning with only a few knocks I decided to pack up and go home for some dinner.

On the way home I stopped off a got myself I take away Turkey dinner, not exactly fine dining but it was a great choice as it certainly hit the spot.

So, I've made a start at winter Carp fishing and my first frosty session has resulted in a cracking 18lb mirror. What more can I ask for. I started off moaning about the weather and it turned out to be doing me a favour, if the Fendrod had not been flooded I probably wouldn't have even considered the Half Round Ponds or seen my biggest fish of 2010. I know that I haven't even come close to achieving any of the target I've set for 2010 but its sessions like this that keep me coming back for more.

Earth, Wind and Fireworks.

2010-11-06T22:45:00.010Z

This was always going to be a hit or miss session. After watching a bulk load of firework going off on the 5th November I thought I maybe in with a chance of the 6th being a bit more quiet than it actually was.

I arrived down the Fendrod as the sun was setting and at a quick glance Steve and I were the only ones on the lake. It was another set up in the dark and even though there was the odd firework going off in the surrounding area I was still confident that I would get a run or two during the night.

We'd set up four pegs apart meaning that between up we would be covering a lot of water.

Sadly, as soon as it got dark the fireworks started going off all around us and the chorus of bangs filled the air for the rest of the night then to add insult to injury the skies opened and the beat down ending the fireworks display but also confining Steve and myself to our bivvies.

The video blog of the session.

Morning came and the only action I'd seen was a few single beeps but at least the water level didn't rise enough to wash me off the peg. One consolation is that due to the dense clouds of fog and smoke the lake was almost illuminated and I got a chance to take some more night shots and they look a lot better than the ones I tried to take under the light of the moon.

The Fendrod at night.

My peg at night.

My peg in the day light.

Not quite flooded.

Well its another one down to experience, we arrived with a lot of confidence that we'd be gracing that mat with a few of the lake residents but as the fireworks kicked off our confidence dwindled, then as the rain hammered down thoughout the early hours I felt like we had no chance which sadly turned into reality.

So, another blank on the Fendrod, it was a bit of a let down especially after that last session but thats fishing for you.

Hopefully I'll get another bash on the Fendrod soon and next time there wont be any fireworks spooking the whole lake. So, until then take Care.

A Bream, Carp, Bream Night.

2010-10-23T00:07:00.371+01:00

Well I thought I'd start this post with some rambling and a look back on how I think the year has been going in the world of 'Carp, Coarse and Swansea'. I am the first one to admit that this is turning out to be the slowest years since starting the blog back in March 2007. The Fendrod which has been my main focus in the past eighteen months has been hard fishing for me throughout 2010, OK I've had a few cracking Bream but I had still yet to bank an elusive Fendrod Carp.

I know that time + effort = success with me not putting enough time and effort in to achieve results, although the a lot of the bigger residents of the lake have made an appearance to other anglers during the year holding down a full time job with added overtime leaves little or no time to get a bait in the water, but what time I do spend on the bank I regard as a luxury and even though this year has seen more blanks, more washouts and overall my worst catch rates I still appreciate and love my time spent on the bank.

As the months of 2010 have been ticking away I've been thinking to myself that I will get a session where everything goes right and it won't seen like such a bad year after all. I know for one thing irrelevant of what I do or don't catch I still get to got home to my wife and son so, unlike the previous years my priorities have changed and blank sessions and dry spell no longer have such an impact and I'm happy just going fishing and anything else is a bonus.

So, back to the session at hand. It had been a few weeks since the Carp match and after the Bream haul I was eager to get back on the Fendrod and try and actually get a Carp on the bank. Sticking with exactly the same methods and bait I was pretty sure I'd see a bit of action but I was hoping that I could prove to myself that my bait choices for the match were the right choice.

I got down the Fendord on the brink of darkness and the peg that I had been thinking about for the past week was free so I jumped into it and set up using the head torch as my only source of light. Setting up in the dark always feels like a slog and unlike setting up during the day I seem to work non stop until everything is done.

I was fishing two method feeders cast to the right and left of the swim and the last rod was baited a single pop-up which I'd cast into the dark horizon then placed it in the middle holder on the rod pod.

I got the net and mat into position ready for action. I made myself a coffee and sat in the moonlight watching the water looking for any signs of movement.

It was about eight o'clock when I decided to call it a night and crawl into the bivvy but before I did I thought I'd have a go at getting some night shots with the camera as the moon was lighting up the lake pretty well and I thought I'd be able to get some interesting photos if I set the camera right.

Night time on the Fendrod.

I was sound asleep when I got my first bit of action and I think I was still dreaming when I heard the first beep, I remember thinking to myself 'That sounds like my bait alarm' I had a brief moment of utter confusion as a came round. I leaned over to put my head out of the bivvy to see if any lights on the alarms and is if on cue there was another single beep. My brain switched on and I launched myself out of the sleeping bag, into my boots and was on my way to the rod.

I paused at the rod waiting for another sign of life and a few seconds later the drop back began to fall, I picked up the rod and knew almost straight away that I had a Bream on. It didn't put up to much of a fight and was in the net pretty quickly. At first I was slightly disheartened as my sights were set on Carp and I didn't really want another session hauling in Bream but when it weighed in at 10lb 4oz my mood instantly changed, it was the biggest Bream of the year so although it wasn't a Carp I was pretty pleased with the first fish on the bank.

Biggest Slab of 2010 so far, weighing in at 10lb 7lb.

Once the fish was back in the water I was eager to get back to bed. It was coming up to eleven o'clock and the night was still young and I had a feeling that the method mix was turning out to be a bit of a Bream magnet and I wanted to get as much sleep in before the next Bream came along.

I managed to get a good bit of shut eye in before my 3am alarm call, this time it was a slow steady run, I picked up the rod and began to battle something that felt like another Bream. It was strange it felt like I was towing in a dead weight with the odd kick which made me think I was either dragging some debris on the line or a Bream that had no intention of fighting back and then as it came in close it suddenly kicked off savagely thrusting about as I held on. I didn't have my head torch on and I didn't know what to expect as I slipped the net under it.

Once it was in the net I switched on my head torch and could see my first Carp out of the Fendrod in over a year! I was over the moon. Not a monster by any standard but it was a Carp and after so many blank sessions on the Fendrod this fish had instantly made the session a success. It weighted in at 13lb 4oz which meant it was also the second biggest Carp of 2010.

HAPPY! My first Fendrod Carp in over a year.

At 13lb 4oz it's also the second biggest Carp of the year.

I know that 13lb may be looked at by other anglers as no big achievement but when I've tried and failed so many times this year it was long time coming but I finally got one of my most prized moments of 2010.

I filmed a little video blog and took and few pictures before watching it swim away.

I was buzzing and feeling pretty pleased with myself, I decided I'd make myself a coffee and have a sit down making the most of the moment before getting back to bed.

I had finished my coffee, re cast the rod and headed back to bed. I sat on the bed and began to yank my boots off and as soon as I had pulled both my boots off the sound of a screaming run echoed from the bite alarms. I jammed my feet back into my boot and run to the rod. It was still screaming off when I lifted the rod and hit into a fish, with such a screaming run I was expecting to hit into a Carp but again it felt like the standard kick and glide of a Bream, after the last fish I didn't know what to expect.

It was another Bream and in the net it felt like another big one. I placed the fish in the margin while I got the scales ready, it weighed in at 10lb 12oz making it the second double figure Bream of the session and a new biggest for 2010. At only two ounces short of my PB it was another fish I was proud to catch!

I didn't fuss about too much and had it back in the water as soon as I could. This session was well and truly making up for lost time.

A slab on the mat.

Super happy with a 10lb 12oz Bream.

Farewell two my second double figure slab of the session.

It was now gone four in the morning and I was starting to feel worn out. I climbed into my sleeping wondering if the runs would keep coming.

The morning came and I was quite comfortable in my bed, the sun was up and it was almost like summer apart from the carpet of autumn leaves starting to form around the peg. I made some breakfast and coffee and sat back and enjoyed the morning. I was more than please with the action I'd had during the night but I wasn't holding my breath for another run now that the sun was up. I've never really had massive confidence fishing the Fendrod in bright conditions but I was happy just sit out the last few hours irrelevant if I had another run or not.

Rise and Shine, a beautiful morning.

Where was this sunshine back in July???

The time I had left quickly passed with me spending time taking it easy and doing a very slow pack down, its been a while since I've had a session where the pressure is off and I can just sit back and relax and thats exactly what I did.

The blogging station

Autumn is here and winter not far away.

The session ended with three memorable fish on the bank, I think I'll have to mark this down as one of those red letter days, I know 13lb isn't a big Fendrod Carp and it isn't my biggest fish of the year but it has to be one of my most anticipated fish ever caught and to top it off with two double figure Bream is something that I would consider a once in a lifetime event if the big Bream weren't so prolific in the Fendrod.

I packed the car up feeling like I'd had a really good session, no rain and fish on the bank it has to be one of the better sessions of 2010.

The video blog of the session, somehow I manage to totter up about an hour of footage which I had to edit down into three videos, enjoy the 'Bream, Carp, Bream Night' trilogy.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Once everything was packed in the car I took a final walk round the lake and was very surprised to see two Carp swimming about on the wrong side on the dam wall, a ghost Carp and Mirror Carp. I did contemplate unpacking the net and climbing down to see if fish them out but after a quick assessment I decide it was a bit too dangerous to climb down into the weir unaided so I went back to the car for the camera and took a few picture to post to the club bailiffs.

One of the two fish swimming on the wrong side of the weir.

You can see in this picture it's definitely a mirror Carp.

I learned a few days later that the bailiffs had been down and managed to catch the ghostie and it was back in the lake but the mirror was not so easy to catch and is probably in the river Tawe by now. I take my hat off to the bailiffs who made the effort as I know myself how dangerous climbing down in to the weir is.

I think that just about wraps it up and all I can say is I hope that I get a few more session like this before the year is out. Take care.

Bream Bonanza, 2010 Carp Doubles Match.

2010-09-26T23:53:00.001+01:00

After coming third in the 2009 Carp doubles match Steve and I had high hopes for this, the 2010 Carp doubles match on the Fendrod. Knowing that we'd come so close last year we both thought we were in with a real shout at matching or maybe even bettering lasts years result. The only thing between us and ranking in the competition was a few Carp on the bank.

I was running late getting to the lake and arrived with five minutes to spare before the appointed time of the draw. Unfortunately they had already started the draw by the time I arrived. This year Steve and I were the first names out of the hat, with me running late Steve and I couldn't have our usual discussion about where we thought would produce a Carp or two so, without me being there Steve had the pressure of picking a section for the both of us. In fairness I would have opted for the peg I fish that we fished last year but without bagging a single Carp out of the Fendrod since last years competition even I wouldn't rate my own advice. Steve went with his instincts and picked a section that he'd been fishing on and off throughout the year....or so he thought.

When we walked round to the selected pegs it suddenly dawned on Steve that the peg numbers he'd selected were not the ones he thought they were and we had ended up with a section that neither of us would have chosen, but hey ho shit happens :)

None the less, we set up with an open mind and were still pretty confident that we could winkle out a few fish.

The Video Blog of the Match.

We had just under two hours before the all in. I set up the bivvy then had another go at spodding and I was producing the same standard as the last time I used a spod landing a few bang on with a lot more spread around but it was what I wanted. I was going to be fishing big method feeders and knew I'd casting out a few times after dark so baiting up an area rather than a precise spot meant it wouldn't be vitally important to accurately land the method feeder repeatedly on the same spot.

The all in was called and around the lake there was a mass frenzy of weights hitting the water as everyone started casting out. I pressed a big ball of the method mix around a feeder then cast it out into the area I'd been spodding and repeated until all my rods were out. I'd had a bit of a problem with method mix not binding and holding on to the feeder during the cast but this was easily resolved by adding half a bag of porridge oats to the mix and the mix was nice and sticky ready for a recast about an hour later.

Within the first hour of the competition I witnessed the first Carp of the match being landed from the peg we fished last year so, the match had officially started and we were playing catch up.

The porridge oats had stodged up the method mix nicely and I was able to bang out a few more balls of method mix without them breaking up in mid air and was happy that I'd got a healthy amount of bait in the area I was fishing. All I needed was a hungry Carp to stumble into my swim.

Steve opened the account on runs about two hours into the match with a short series of beeps, we both stood over his rods trying to will a proper take or even a drop back but after the few beeps whatever was showing an interest failed to connect with the hook.

As the light faded I decided I get me head down and I quickly phased out until the first beep on the bite alarms. Scrambling to my feet I raced out to the rods just in time for the second beep. I held back watching the hanger on the line slowing bobbing up and down, I wondered for a few moments if a stray branch or rubbish had caught the line but that thought was dismissed when I pulled the line out of the alarm and held it in my fingers and within a few second I could feel something jerking away and I knew it was time to pick up the rod.

Almost straight away I guessed it was a Bream on the end even though there was a few brief moments it fought back but it quickly resumed the submissive stance that could only be a Bream and it wasn't long before our first fish of the match was in the net. So, our first fish of the Carp match was a Bream but its hard to class a Bream weighing in a exactly 8lb as a nuisance fish, both Steve and I are still pretty pleased when we manage to get a slab on the bank and this was no exception but it still didn't change the fact that Bream don't count in a Carp match.

After a short video blog and a picture my first fish of the match went back with gusto and I climbed back into my sleeping bag.

The first 'Nuisance fish', a cracking 8lb Bream.

The next thing I recall was being awoken for the second time and this time it was a proper run but as you may have already guessed it ended in my second Bream on the bank, this one was slightly bigger at 8lb 6oz.

'Nuisence fish' number two, another Slab at 8lb 6oz.

After I'd released the second fish I there was a period of about fifteen minutes where single beeps could be heard from around the lake. I'm unsure if any more Bream were landed but there was no doubt that the Bream were on the feed.

After a cold frosty September night the morning arrived and I learned that a second Carp around the 8lb mark had been landed in the early hours meaning that we were joint third with the rest of the guys fishing the match. It was only a matter of landing a single Carp to rank in the first three and a nice sized double would claim first place. Steve and I were still pretty confident that we could winkle out at least one before the all out.

As the morning progressed we both made an effort to pile out a bit more bait and I tried to throw out a blanket of boilies over my baited area but as soon as I started using the throwing stick seagulls seemed to appear from nowhere making it pointless and creating a whole lot of surface activity over my hook baits which is something I didn't want as I doubt that a wary Carp would be happy feeding when there are seagulls crashing down from above.

Steve made a change to his hookbaits swapping over from boilies to chickpeas and maize which seemed a successful move when he got a pick up, but like all the other fish we'd managed to get on the bank this was also another Bream, it wasn't the standard slab that I'd expect form the Fendrod weighing around the 3lb mark but at least it was a fish on the bank for Steve and I know that he was more than happy that he was no longer blanking.

Steve's first Carp match fish. Shame its another Bream.

At least neither of us blanked.

I know that the Fendrod can be a fairly unforgiving water with many anglers suffering numerous blanks before they manage to net a Carp out of there but since the start of the match it was the quietest I'd ever seen the lake. There was a total lack of fish being caught, I think there were thirteen pair fishing the match with something close to sixty hook baits sitting on the lake bed, I can only assume that with the pressure of all those baits being cast out the Carp were in hiding. We were cruising in to the last few hours of the match with only two Carp gracing the bank.

Time was slowly running out and I got my third bit of action. A few beeps sounded from the alarm and I was on the rod instantly, I picked up the rod and could feel something kicking away on the end, I was praying that it was a Carp but my first gut feeling was telling me it was a Bream. It kicked around and tussled for a bit which did get my hopes up but I knew as soon as I felt it glide through the water it had to be a Bream. It finally came in and my first gut feeling was correct it was another big Bream. Once it was in the net Steve was sure that it was over double figures and maybe even a new PB for me but carrying it to the unhooking mat it felt pretty much the same as the last two.

The final bin lid of the of the Carp match. 8lb 10oz.

To Steve's dismay the scales confirmed the weight at 8lb 10oz, slightly bigger than the last two and another cracking slab but still it didn't count. It add a bit more insult once back in the water it powered off soaking me in the process.

When we started to pack things down Rachel turned up with William and a healthy dinner of burgers and fries for us which was a bit of a god send as neither of us had used the initative to actually pack any food and as we both knew that a single Carp was all it would take to rank in the match neither of us wanted to reel the rods in to go on a food run.

The last hour was another silent one with the all out being the only sound to be heard across the lake. It was official by default we were joint third with the other eleven pairs who had failed to land a Carp. When we started the match we would have been more than happy to get third place again this year so its almost laughable that apart from first and second the whole lake was third.

If confidence was all that mattered we'd have been in with a real shout from the start but sadly Carp on the bank was all that genuinely mattered and we were a little short on that count. On the other hand we had had a pretty impressive haul of Bream landing three cracking slabs and a total weight around 28lb more than doubling the weight of Carp that won first place so, I'm more than happy with the Bream action.

I suppose all I can really add to this is that we'll be back again next year and hopefully we'll earn third place.

A Session of Two Halves.

2010-09-02T00:03:00.019+01:00

Time for another session on the Fendrod but before I get into the details of the session I thought I'd give a bit of an update on the disastrous things that happened on the last trip out in the extreme weather conditions.

First of all the bivvy, bed and sleeping bag were fine after I managed to hang them out on a sunny day. The only casualty there is my hold all bag that has now seen its last day on the bank after I forgot to empty it out after I got home and now its festering in mould.

Secondly the TFG Patriot Bait boat is officially dead and after a relatively pleasant call to fishtec customer services I agreed to fork out a bit more cash and upgrade to a Angling Technics Pro Cat mark II, OK at first I did resent paying out more money after the time wasted using two useless products but I now have a bait boat that I feel will serve me well, that is, when I eventually fish a venue that I think need the added advantage.

Finally, my house, I was unable to claim on the house insurance for lightening damage due to the 'Act of God' clause so I tried to make a claim using storm damage as the reason but as anyone who has ever tried to claim on house insurance will know they are highly reluctant to pay out. They sent a guy out to assess the damage and I was told that the original wooden fascia board under the PVC fascia board shows signs of old water damage so my claim was invalid as it 'was not in a good state of repair'. To be honest I expected the insurance company to worm out paying for the repair like they did, insurance has got to the biggest legal con around. This meant that I had to do the work myself as paying for a professional is way outside my finances at the moment, luckily my old man is a carpenter and is a wealth of knowledge when things like this happen. Rachel booked the scaffolding and I set about replacing the fascia boards and broken tiles, I think I've done a pretty good job and I even managed to save a few quid recycling the original guttering.

So, after a run of dire events things dont seems so bad a few weeks down the line.

This time I got down the Fendrod the weather was nice enough not to need water proofs or a towel and I was eager to pull the video camera out and start another video blog especially after messing up the last three videos. I knew that I had bits of footage from my second trip to Celtic lakes, a clip of Steve with a 3lb 12oz Bream and a few photos of the rain that I could splice into this sessions video so, once I cast out all the rods I began my usual mindless talking to the camera.

Enjoy my mix and match video blog.

The set-ups I'd used were the same as previous session fishing two rods with KD rigs baited with glow in the dark pop-up sweetcorn and the third rod was specifically aimed at a fish with a big mouth and was baited with a 18mm Fruit Tella boilie. I'd also had a play round with a spod which wasn't as accurate as I'd like but I did get a fair amount of particles spread out over the spots where I'd put the pop-up corn. It wasn't a bad effort for my first time using a spod.

My night on the Fendrod was peaceful one with one or two beeps around midnight and it wasn't until 4am until I got the pick up I was waiting for...I threw myself out of bed and grabbed the rod and began a brief tussle with what felt like a powerful fish, but then the line fell slack as the hook pulled. I'm starting to feel that I won't see a Carp out of the Fendrod this year.

After losing the one run of the night I was up a lot earlier than usual and just didn't have any confidence that I'd get another chance. I had a coffee and decided to pack things up and make a move over to the Half Round ponds and spend the rest of the day there.

I'd piled all the gear into the car leaving two rods semi pack down and moved over to the ponds. There was already a few anglers set up so I picked a peg and dropped out the two rigs and scattered a few handfuls of particles over the top.

After a few hours of nothing decided to change my plan of attack spurred on by me seeing several Carp cruising through the lilies and it would be silly not to give it a chance. I knew I had a few mixer biscuits in one of he tubs I'd pulled out of the freezer. I reeled in both the rods and stripped one down ready for a bit of free lining.

The biscuits were not the best with most of them sinking under the weight of the hook but luckily there were a few that were still buoyant and after a bit of stalking and about four fish turning away I finally had one fish that confidently took the bait. What a scrap, it fought like hell and I had to give it some real pressure to keep it out of the lilies. After destroying a few lilies I slipped the net under a nice dark Half Round Pond mirror. I under estimated how big it was thinking it looked around the eight pound mark and was pleasantly surprised when it pullet the scales round to 10lb 11oz.

10lb 11oz on the mat.

Happy with the move to the ponds.

After the fish went back I spoke to a few of the other anglers who were all sitting behind a pods and the fish that I'd just landed was the only one caught so far that day so, I decided to pack up the pod and the other rod and put them in the car and continued with a bit of stalking. It seem pointless to do the same as everyone else especially if no one was catching.

I walked the edges of both ponds for over an hour before I spotted any and then spent the last hour trying my best to get them to take a bait but all I got for my effort was sunburnt arms before it was time to go home.

I left the ponds more than happy with the move. One fish on the bank changes everything and the blank night on the Fendrod is almost forgotten.

A total washout at the Fendrod.

2010-08-22T23:55:00.553+01:00

Its been a good few weeks since I've been out fishing with lots of things happening giving me little or no time to get out and wet a line. I also made a critical error when uploading the last three video blog entries and accidentally deleted most of the vital footage so like the second Celtic lakes post there's no video blog, I guess I'm just lucky that the sessions were pretty dire so it saves me spending time editing videos where its mainly me talking and no action.

The middle session which I also deleted the video blog was a short session where I managed a few hours down the Fendrod on the 15th August which as you may have already guessed I blanked but on the plus side Steve caught a 3lb 12oz Bream which was his biggest Bream for float fishing.

Now back to the most recent session. I'd booked a day off work and had been preparing for my first assault of the Fendrod for a long while. I was getting things ready to try something a bit different from what I usually do, considering how poor things have been going this year with the best sessions usually producing one or two fish and the vast majority being blanks. I thought I have a go a messing around with rigs and bait as even if I blank it isn't really going to effect my potential catch figures as the Fendrod is still yet to produce a Carp for me this year.

My new baits were in the form of particles which is something the I very rarely see anyone using. I'd purchased a 20kg sack of Pigeon conditioner which was a mix of wheat, chick peas, maize, black eyed peas and whole load of other peas and beans I don't know the name of, I also bought a kilo of hemp seeds and added this into the mix. I can understand why these are often overlooked as the preparation was very time consuming and a bit of a task.

It took a few days to get it all prepared, I'd decided to prepare about eight kilos with the intention of freezing what I didn't use. I filled two buckets and let them soak in water for two days, in the mean time I had requisitioned myself a giant saucepan from my parents house and was ready to get boiling. I filled the pan and added a generous helping of black treacle then boiled it until the maize was starting to soften this took about an hour, I then repeated it a further two times until I had boiled up the whole eight kilos.

So then, with the bait ready I headed down the Fendrod with a full bucket of bait ready to tempt a few Carp onto the bank.

I arrived and he sky was grey and walking round I felt the odd pick of rain, but I didn't let it bother me (which is now something I regret). I picked a peg in the trees making sure I had access to one of the floating islands and set up the bivvy straight away thinking that if it does start to rain properly at least I could use the bivvy to get out of the rain and keep dry.

I unloaded my 'new' replacement TFG patriot bait boat which I'd been sent after the last one 'literally' burnt out a few months ago. I'd been waiting for a chance to get out and use it and with my bucket of particles I began loading up the boat and heavily baiting around the island spilling three full boat loads,spreading close to three kilos of bait around the island.

I'd primed the spot I wanted to fish and it was time to get the rods set up. I was hoping to boat out the hook baits ensuring that I was dropping the rigs smack bang on top of the baited area but when I got the first rod ready and loaded into the back of the boat I had a horrible déjà vu moment as my 'new' bait boat refused to switch back on. It was dead, no lights, no motor, nothing!!! I couldn't help feel that this was a total piss take. The boat was new out of the box it had a new battery and had been fully charged and this was the first time I'd used it.

I can't say that I wasn't annoyed because I was but I had to make the best of a bad situation. I had baited an area that was going to be a real task to get a hookbait smack on as it I had virtually no room for error as casting a foot too far would mean my rig would be on the island. I made one practice cast purposely casting short then walked back letting off line until I thought I'd got the right length then clipped up the line, reeled in and recast. My first attempt was spot on which impressed me but it wasn't over as I knew that I had to do the same with the other two rods which weren't so easy but after a few casts I got the distance right and had all the baits more or less where I wanted them.

It had been raining on and off for a while when I was sorting the rods out and I was about experience a welsh monsoon. The skies opened and the rained lashed down for hours while I sat in the bivvy waiting for a break so that I could get the rest of the stuff from the car. I wasn't deterred by the rain. I would have preferred it to have stopped completely but there was very little chance of that happening.

I eventually made a few rushed trips back and forth the car and had everything in the bivvy all ready for a nights fishing. Sadly, things weren't going to be that easy as the Fendrod is a flood defense and with the rain lashing down the water levels were starting to rise quite rapidly. I watched as the water came over the top of the peg, and then higher again until the water was getting close to touching the reel on the pod, with the rain continuing to lash down it became inevitable that I was going to have to move as the water coming seriously close to the bivvy door.

I waited until the very last moment as moving everything in the torrential rain was not going to be an easy job. I suddenly had a brainwave and thought of a way to move the whole lot without leaving everything open to the rain for a long period of time. I started to detach the groundsheet then quickly run round pulling the pegs out and dropped the bivvy to the floor. I grabbed the edge of the ground sheet and dragged it and everything that was on it over to the next peg, and as quick as I could I re-erected the bivvy over the ground sheet and for the time being I was safe from the rising water level.

I'd moved over to the next peg as it was a fair bit higher and the water had yet to rise the extra foot before it came close to coming over the top of this peg but it also meant that I have to move the rods and it wasn't something I really wanted to do as I liked where I'd put all of my baits, but I had little choice as it was only a matter of time before they would have been totally submerged. Recasting the baits from this peg was a lot harder as the wind had picked up since I first put these baits out and I was having real trouble compensating for random gusts. I eventually got all the baits close-ish to where I wanted them but this took a few casts on each rod as well as pulling back on a few that were heading right for the centre of the island. I was done, the rods were successfully moved and the bivvy was away from the rising water, all I had to do now was change into my spare set of clothes in the boot of the car as I was soaked through to the skin.

I'd had hell one of a day and I thank god that I'd put some spare clothes and a towel in the car as I don't know what I would have done without them.

Once I was dry I climbed into my sleeping bag and stayed there. I actually got a good nights sleep apart from being woken up by the odd heavy downpour it was one of the best nights sleep I've had in a bivvy.

Then around 6am when I heard the distant sound of a bite alarm, something that I'd been waiting for since I'd arrived. I didn't react straight away as I never usually sleep more than a few feet away from the rods but due moving the bivvy I wasn't used to alarms sounding so far away. It took a few seconds to realise that it was my alarms causing me to throw off the sleeping bag and jamming my feet into my damp boots. I ran out of the bivvy and waded out to the rod, I picked it up tightened up and could feel a fish kicking away on the end, then disaster struck as it hit a snag and locked tight. I wrestled with the snag, tried slackening off and changing the angle of the rod until it eventually pulled free but whatever was kicking away on the end was gone. Oh well, the way things were going I genuinely didn't think I'd get a hook up so at least I'd got a little bit of action.

I flopped back into my sleeping bag with wet feet and dozed off for a few hours, I woke up to find that the water level had dropped back meaning I no longer had to wade out to the rods. I reeled all three rods back in to check the rigs for tangles and making sure the hooks were free from debris. The drop in the water level was short lived as the skies opened yet again and the monsoon rain recommenced.

The morning rain.

The rain was followed by a massive thunderstorm, which was pretty daunting especially as lightening hit the opposite bank which made me wonder how sensible was it sitting in a steel framed bivvy with three carbon rods infront of me, potentially the whole lot were lightening conductors and I felt far from safe.

The Swans relocating during the thunderstorm.

After the thunder storm I could visibly see the water level rising as all the rain water from the surrounding area was making its way down storm drains into the streams and eventually into the Fendrod. As the water reached the top of the peg I decided I'd had enough and started to pack things down. It was a long pack down with me running back and forth the car between bursts of rain.

Getting Higher.

This is stupid! I'm going home.

As I drove home I wasn't looking forward to unloading the car as nearly everything was drenched but when I arrived home unloading the car was the least of my worries. Its appeared that my house had not been as lucky avoiding bolts of lightening. I arrived home to find the metal hip tile hook had been smashed off, the fascia boards, soffit boards and guttering on the front of the house hanging off flapping around in the breeze with only the telephone wire supporting the weight and lots of broken tiles, I'm guessing that the hook was hit by lightening smashing the hip tile hook though the whole lot. I cant think of anything else that would account for the damage.

Looking back it sort of fitted in well with the session I'm finding it really hard to think of a single positive event in the whole 24 hour period. Starting of with my 'new' replacement bait boat dying on its first time out of the box, my swim flooding twice, having to up sticks and move the bivvy in the pouring rain, losing the only fish that I'd hooked and coming home to find my looking like a bomb had gone off. I'm hoping that I've used up all my bad luck for the year as I dont think I could cope with sessions like this being a frequent occurrence.

A Hard Session at Celtic Lakes.

2010-07-28T23:53:00.007+01:00

After my last session at Celtic Lakes and knowing how close I was to landing possibly the biggest fresh water fish I'd ever hooked I was eager to get back there and try my luck with another 24 hour session.

I scraped all my spare cash together managing to gather a grand total of £100. Setting aside £35 for the 24 hour ticket and £30 for the petrol I was left with £35. The £35 didn't go very far after I'd got bait and a few bits of end tackle and some food for the session.

My bait choices for the session were a mainly Halibut Pellets with a bucket of 6mm Halibut Pellets, a bag of pre-drilled 16mm Halibut pellets, a tub of high leakage 22mm Halibut Pellets and a kilo bag of Nash Halibut Boilies. I did feel like I was putting all my eggs in one basket but I also felt like I was making the right choice as all the information I'd read about fishing for Catfish seems to point to either Halibut Pellets or stinking dead baits and seeing as I didn't have the time to buy, defrost and wait for a dead bait to turn ripe I went with the Pellet option.

This time the drive was a lot nicer and apart from one heart stopping moment where I came face to face with some imbecile whose clever overtaking through country lanes left me with a simple choice of either being forced off the road or endure a potentially fatal head on crash. I was lucky enough to get the car off the road without hitting anything while the guy who was being over taken was blasting his horn and flashing his light. Not a good experience.

After a near brush with death I arrived at Celtic Lakes and the weather was beautiful especially compared to my last visit. Again with it being a Monday I had the pick of the lake apart for a few pegs that had been reserved. After hearing from the fishery manager that one of the pegs at the back of the lake had been heavily baited over the weekend and three Cat had been landed from there I opted to move into that peg and pile out a bit more bait and hope that theres still a Cat or two still feeding in the area.

I set up my base camp got the rods out, got the net ready, laid out the unhooking mat, I even had the camera all set up ready for the first fish of the session. I was fishing method feeders using a mix made with halibut pellets and crushed boilies on two of the rods which were periodically recasted to create two well baited spots while the third rod was baited with double 22mm halibut pellet and was cast out within a foot of the corner of the island. I thought I was going to be in for a busy night!

In between recasts of the method feeder I was getting some pretty savage liners so I knew there were fishing the area but nothing was touching the hookbaits.

Sunset at Celtic Lakes.

After it got dark I cooked up a Chicken Rogan Josh in the frying pan and sat there in the dark filling me face still waiting for my first fish of the session.

Around midnight I could hear splashing in the margin, I ignored it at first thinking it was a duck or coot but when I looked over I could just about make out that the splashing was coming from in the water. I knew I'd dropped a bit of the method mix in the margins and was eager to see what was feasting. I sneaked right up to the edge and turned on the head torch and for a brief few moments I seen a small Catfish no bigger than twelve inches and within second it hard darted off out of sight.

At least I'd seen a Catfish, but seeing a tiny one and actually having one on the bank are two different thing entirely and I climbed into my sleeping bag hoping that the bite alarms would sound and I would get see my first ever Catfish on the bank.

The night was disappointingly long and fruitless. I'd been woken a few times with the odd beep and few line bites but it had lacked the all important run which was something I genuinely didn't expect especially since there had been signs of fish moving and the sound of he odd Carp crashing through the night I just couldn't see why my hookbaits had been left untouched.

I decided to leave things as they were and stayed in bed until the mid morning. I eventually got to up and rebaited all the rods. Due to the amount of line bites I'd had when I reeled the rigs in I was expecting to see either tangled rigs or the hooks clogged up with weed or debris, but the rigs were fine and I had no answer to why the hookbaits had been avoided. Undeterred I put on some fresh baits and placed them back onto the same spots.

More time passed and the liners continued. Then I got my first run that actually had a fish on the end, the alarm started beeping and the line was actually pulling and god knows how this fish managed to do this as when I reeled it in it was a little Roach Bream hybrid that couldn't have been more than four or five ounces but I suppose it got me off the mark.

Since I'd arrived I'd been throwing out the odd handful of mixer biscuits but the shoals of small silvers would usually destroy them before anything else got a look in. As a last chance effort I threw out loads of biscuits and like I thought the silvers started hammering them so I threw out loads more and eventually a few Carp made appearance. I decided to keep both the method feeders in play and change over the rig with the pellets to free line some dog biscuits.

In keeping with the rest of the session the first fish that came near to the biscuits spooked as it came close to the hookbait and to rub salt in the wounds I'd seen the fish and it was a big mirror Carp. Once one fish had spooked every other Carp seemed to vacate the area and even though I'd slammed out loads of mixer biscuits it wasn't long before the shoals of silvers had cleaned them up.

The 24 hours was up and it was time for me to leave the pack down seemed to be the longest back down ever and I had to face the reality that I didn't get my first Catfish and even though I'd somehow hook a tiny hybrid it still felt like I'd blanked. It was just another one of the those session where I don't think that I done anything wrong but failed to connect with the fish. I have a few theories as to why I was left with a dry net and unhooking mat but I guess I'll put to down to fishing a peg that had seen pressure over the weekend. I just wish I had a bit more knowledge of the lake to make better choices when setting up.

I'd like to say I'll be back at Celtic Lakes this year but I doubt finances will stretch to another trip but you never know.

Tench and Bream Fishing at Canol Fishery.

2010-07-23T01:33:00.012+01:00

I was still enjoying the week I'd booked off work. Three days ago I'd been at Celtic unsuccessfully fishing for Catfish and today I was going to visit Canol fishery to try and get a few hours in fishing for Tench.

I'd hoped that I'd get a lot more Tench fishing done this year and I have done a few sessions in the past few months landing a medley of different sized Tench with a handful the over 2lb mark and even a massive 2lb Rudd but that was at a small club water and when I joined the club I was asked not to publicize the club or the lake at all!

I did feel a bit more relaxed fishing without the cameras but I did miss blogging the sessions and it would have been nice to get a few Tinca videos on the blog. I can't see me spending many more sessions at that lake as blogging and total publicity bans seriously don't go together.

So, back to my visit to Canol. Steve and I arrived and the first thing I noticed was that the prices had gone up and considering that the lake is only about an acre in size and even though its situated deep in the hills of Felindre and in my opinion it doesn't stand out enough to warrant paying more than the average local fishery.

We went down the bank and set up. It was nice to get the match rod out plumbing the depth, it felt like I was setting up for some real fishing and not just firing a boilie out to a feature. I started off by feeding a few maggots little and often which result in an almost instant hook up with some tiny skimmers. I carried on for a bit picking off the skimmers one after another hoping that some bigger fish move in.

I started to change my feeding tactics adding a small handful of halibut pellets every time I got a bite. I continued to feed the swim becoming more and more generous with the pellets and also adding a good helping of sweetcorn but I just couldn't get through the shoals of tiny skimmers.

In the meantime Steve was getting success fishing a feeder at range, filled with maggots with small chunk of luncheon meat on the hook the combination was an instant hit with the first cast resulting in a Tench around 2lb, he continued the pick up some better sized fish in the shape of Bream also round the 2lb mark.

Steve with a nice first cast Tench.

Whist feeding my swim I'd thrown out a few pieces of bread, and although it was a long time before anything showed any interest the bread was now the centre of attention out in the mid water. So, I quickly set up a rod to freeline but before I went on my travels I slammed my swim with a load of bait emptying the rest of the can of corn and massive helping of pellets hoping that by the time I come back some of the bigger fish had moved in and I would have feed off the smaller Bream giving me a chance of a better fish.

I made myself mobile carrying just a rod, net and a bag of bread and made my way over to the opposite bank to see if I could get a fish off the top.

On the other bank I threw out a few more pieces of bread and had three separate fish feeding. My instant assumption was that these were Carp as I'd had a few Carp off the top when I fished this lake last year and even though they seemed to be small ones it always nice to get a bit of surface action.

Something just seemed wrong as watched the bread being pulled apart by the three fish. I couldn't quite work it out, I couldn't physically see the fish but every time the bread was being hit the fish they were creating a small wake in the water a few feet before they made contact with the bread, it was as if the fish was almost breaking the surface long before they had hit the bait. Then I suddenly clicked and realised that these fish were Bream not Carp and the wake was being created by their back and dorsal fin as they got their head up.

I cant think of a time where I'd had Bream surface feeding apart from the time Steve hooked one on dog biscuits at Gowerton about five years ago. This was the first time I'd seen numerous Bream confidently surface feeding.

Using the wake they were creating I managed to drop a bait right in the path of one of the feeding fish but unlike a Carp it didn't just smash the bread, it took several attempts before managed to take it and I watched and waited patiently until the line pulled. I connected with my first ever surface Bream and it gave the usually first tussle then in true Bream fashion gave up and glided straight into the net, it wasn't much more than a pound in weight but it was good to get a bit of surface action.

The video blog of the day.

I continued to walk round the lake hoping to spot any fish on the surface and ended up spooking one small Carp at the far end of the lake before making my way back to my swim.

Now it was time to see if my baiting had fed off all the little Bream. I settle down in my chair and cast out the float and the bait didn't even have time to sink and I'd hooked up with another tiny skimmer, I carried on throwing out the odd handful of pellets but couldn't get through the small ones. As it seemed like I wasn't going to be able to feed off the little ones I decided to have a bit of fun and turned the camera on and challenged myself to numerous tasks, involving speed catching and how many I could catch without putting on fresh maggots.

We left the fishery around mid afternoon, we'd had a fun days pleasure fishing but I was no closer to achieving my 2010 Tench target. I think Canol will be a fishery I'll visit again in a few years time. I know there supposed to be a few massive Carp lurking about in the lake but with such a vast amount of tiny fish I think it would either take a long time or a lot of luck before you managed to see one.

My Birthday Session at Celtic Lakes.

2010-07-21T23:17:00.041+01:00

Its that time again, I've officially aged another year and its time for my birthday session and like the last two years I wanted to visit somewhere that I'd been before and blanking would be an unlikely outcome.

This year I'd decide not to fish at Whitesprings as cash is seriously tight at the moment and if I'm spending a chunk of cash to fish a commercial fishery I wanted to have the option of achieving a personal goal of landing a Catfish, with this in mind my options were pretty limited and I opted to visit Celtic Lakes in Lampeter. I'd visited the venue back in 2008 and if it wasn't so far out in the sticks I'd have probably been back sooner. I was hoping that I'd get a bit of birthday luck and finally bank one of those elusive Cats.

The 20th July arrived and the weather was absolutely awful, I ummed and arrred for a few hours contemplating whether or not to go, then I toyed with the idea of staying local and going to Whitesprings. I gave the met office website a check for the fourth time and for the first time all day the sun icon appeared amongst all the cloud and rain icons in the forecast for Lampeter. All day the met office kept changing its mind giving a total mixed bag and now it was telling me that the heavy rains had passed Lampeter and Swansea was in for a bout of torrential rain.

I finally made up my mind after I phoned Celtic Lakes and spoke to Richard the fishery manager, he told me that it was still raining there but not as heavy as it had been all morning. If the Met office forecast was going to be right then it was only a matter of time before the rain passed and that was all I needed make up my mind and I was on the road heading towards Lampeter.

The drive was horrible with the fog, rain and spray from other cars meant I didn't rush things as there was virtually no visibility on the road once I'd hit the B roads. After two hours of treacherous driving I eventually pulled into the car park. The sky was still grey but the rain was holding off, I took a walk round Lake 6 before popping into the shop to pay for my ticket and topped up on a few bit and bobs like a new baiting needle and a bottle of Klinik Carp Care.

I was allowed to take the car round to unload the gear and as I was driving to the peg the heavens opened, the rain was lashing down leaving me sitting in the car hoping for a break so that I could get the bivvy up. I watched the rain beating down for about quarter of an hour before I gave up any expectations of staying dry. I dived out of the car and hammered my brolly into the peg then run back and forth piling things up under the brolly. I got everything set up as quick as I could but the rain was so heavy I was soaked through to the skin in minutes and there was water running down my back and legs.

Luckily I'd prepared for getting wet and packed a change of clothes but I didn't think I'd be changing my clothes within the first hour.

As you may have guessed the forecast was slightly out for a change and the rain continued to belt down for hours and that sun icon on the met office website never materialized.

As the light started to fade I got my first run of the session, I was on it as soon as it started and it gave a good old scrap running me all over the place constantly trying to bury itself in the lilies infront of the peg. When I eventually got it in the net I looked down at a pristine common and couldn't mentally gage a weight, it was one of those fish that looked around the double mark but could easily be 8 or 9lb. I shot a quick blog entry and weighed the fish before I put it back, it weighed in a 10lb 4oz and was a nice fish to start off the session.

First one of the session, a 10lb 4oz Common.

With the first fish of the session under my belt I felt more at ease as I was fairly unsure how the weather was going to effect things, so banking my first fish was a relief as however the session panned out at least it wasn't going to be a blank.

I got my head down and got a few hours sleep, occasionally rain would wake me as the heavier showers beat down on the bivvy like a drum.

It was around 4am when I got my second run, I jammed my boots on and run out of the bivvy into dense fog and drizzle. I picked up the rod and could feel it was another Carp pounding away on the end of the line. Even with the head torch on I could only see a few feet on front of me so I played the fish slowly not want to give the opportunity to come in close full of energy and end up losing it in the marginal weeds. Once I could feel that I had control I applied pressure and steered the fish into the net.

It was now my birthday and I had landed my second common of the session, it was a little smaller than the last one weighing 8lb 4oz but the weight didn't matter as I was just happy landing a fish on my birthday.

My birthday Carp on the mat.

A Happy Birthday Boy.

I retired back into my sleeping bag and tried to get a bit more sleep. Every so often I was getting line bites with the alarms beeping for a few second and then nothing. I even had an aborted take on the dead bait I'd put out which yanked the rod round and run for a few seconds but it was long gone before I got to the rod. At least there one Cat moving in the area so I knew I was still in with a chance at getting one.

When morning came it was like another world, the sun was shining and the sky was blue but every so often an evil dark cloud would appear and the heavy downpours would recommence but compared to yesterday they were short lived.

The double boilie rig that I'd showed the video had been out all night as I'd landed it bang on the edge of the island and was happy to leave it there until something took an interest, that time came about 8am when without warning, the alarm began screaming as it started running I hit the into the fish and just held on! I'm guessing it was a big Catfish on the end as it just ignored me. It run striping line from the reel and arching the rod right over, I managed to turn it twice but I never had any control over what I'd hooked as it cruised around like it wasn't even hooked.

After over 20 minutes of what felt like I was just holding on to this steam train I was starting tire as the fish relentlessly hugged the bottom, I'd tried everything to try and gain control, my arms were burning and god only knows how the rod or line hadn't snapped under the strain. Things finally came to a bad end when it decided it was going over to the other side of the lake, I physically couldn't apply any more pressure and it had gained over a 100 yards of line and I tried my best to turn it but the inevitable happened and the hook pulled leaving me extremely annoyed and ranting to myself.

I couldn't believe what had just happened, I was so close! I'd hooked into something that had given me the hardest fight I'd ever had. Not even the big Carp in France had fought to the point where the rod was nearly being pulled out of my hands. I didn't even see the fish and I know that it may seem sightly odd but I'm sort of glad I didn't see it as if it was one of the massive cats I would have that mental image burned into my mind and the disappointment would have been whole lot more. All I know is that I had just hooked and lost something that I had no control over and it going to be a long time before I get over it.

As if to rub salt into the wounds I had another strong run about an hour later and as I picked up the rod I met with an unseen snag and after slacking off and moving around I couldn't get it free and I was left with the only option of pulling for a break hoping that it breaks free before the line snaps. I ended up snapping and losing the feeder and my last backlead.

Part one of my 2010 birthday blog.

Part two of my birthday blog.

I sat back and reflected on the session and I was fairly happy with the session until that run at 8am. Things could have been so different and this session could have turned it into an amazing one but as things had progressed it had all gone pear shaped and I was starting feel like I was having a bad session, its strange how losing potentially the biggest fish I'd ever hook had made me feel like the session was a total flop.

The rest of the day passed in a blur of heavy downpours and bursts of boiling hot sunshine. I started to pack things down between the showers and got everything packed up and in the car with less than 10 minutes left on my 24 hour ticket.

On the drive home I started to feel better about the session, I'd had two nice Carp on the bank and considering the weather I think that I'd done alright and now that I've had a taste of how hard the big ones fight at Celtic lakes I think I'll be eager to get another session there in the near future.

A Bream is Better than Blanking.

2010-07-08T01:05:00.304+01:00

Well, its has been three weeks since I've been able to wet a line and after reading a few catch reports I was eager to get back down the Fendrod.

Through what I'd read the lake was supposed to be fishing well with some nice Carp and Bream making an appearance, nothing close to any commercial fishery but thats not what fishing the Fendrod is all about. It known as a hard water with many anglers suffering numerous blanks sessions but when it comes good its worth all the effort.

I'd booked Friday off work and headed down the lake Thursday evening hoping that to get a good peg before the weekend rush. Brynmill Angling Clubs membership is now one of the highest ever and unlike when I started fishing there early last year it can be hard to get a good peg on the weekends.

Surprisingly there was already more than a few anglers already on the lake but my intentions were to fish the shallows and most of those pegs were free. I set up in a swim that I'd never fished before which for no reason at all is something that I've been tending to avoid but I was confident and was happy with my choice.

I'd set up my three rods and was fishing different set ups on each rod trying to cover all the bases. On my left hand rod I was fishing a Peaches and Cream boilie that had been soaking in glug for the last three weeks, on the right hand rod I had big chunk of luncheon meat secured to the hair with a short length of twisted copper wire and finally I had a method feeder on the middle rod, I cast the method feeder out a few times until I hit the spot I wanted to fish then clipped up the line and proceeded to cast a fully baited method feeder back on to the spot five or six times before attaching a hook bait and dropping the method feeder back on to the baited area before resting the rod on the pod, for once I'd been so accurate with the feeder that I had actually impressed myself.

With all the rods out I'd boiled the kettle and had myself a nice cup of black coffee and wandered over to have a chat with the guys set up in the peg to my right. I was probably talking for less than a minute before the first beeps from a screaming run started, I turned on my heels and raced back to my rods, run was on the middle rod and the line was still steadily being taken. I picked up the rod and with the such a screaming run was expecting a Carp to suddenly start fighting back, but there was no fight as the fish swam straight towards me, I was reeling quickly to keep the tension and as the fish go closer I could see bow waves as the back of a big Bream broke the surface, I swiveled round to pick up the landing net and guided the Bream straight in without any trouble at all.

It was another Fendrod Slab weighing in at 9lb 10oz, some people may this of these as nuisance fish and to be honest I was a bit disappointed to see a Bream on the end especially after the way it took off but I am more than happy to greet my first true specimen Bream of 2010.

My first Slab of the year weighing 9lb 10oz.

With my first fish out of the Fendrod for what seems like forever I was pretty content with myself. I cast out a few more method balls before dropping the hookbait back on the spot and was happy to settle down for the night.

My sleep was disturbed at regular intervals with single beeps on the bite alarms and I even had one that made me get to my feet but even though it seemed like I had fish moving in front of me I'd had nothing to show for it.

The Video Blog of the Session.

I finally climbed out of sleeping bag around half eight and was met by a very glum looking grey sky. I reeled in all the rods and put fresh baits on even though the Peach boilie that had been soaking in glug was still reeking of peaches even after being out all night. I finished off the last of the method mix piling it all on to the same spot I'd fed up the previous evening, I then began the slow pack down.

The grey skies slowly made was for darker grey skies and drizzle, I had checked the weather forcast on my new phone and the comparisons were almost laughable, both the Met office and the weather app on my phone were showing reports of sunshine with the odd cloud. I've started to not even bother checking the forecast when planning a session as it would be more accurate if I wrote sun and rain on either side of a coin and flipped it.

It was a truly slow pack down taking just short of four hours, I'd finally packed down the bivvy and all that was left to pack up was the rods that had sat on the pod motionless since I'd re baited them.

It was good to get out and even better to bank a fish, I would have like to have seem a few more or even had a tussle with a Carp but I was happy just to know I'd finally ended my blank spell on the Fendrod and went home eager to see my little boy.

Revisiting the Half Round Ponds.

2010-06-12T01:21:00.000+01:00

Its been a long time since I'd wet a line at the Half Round Ponds and a visit was well overdue, I still have fond memories of fishing there during the summer of 2008 and catching a PB Carp of 18lb 12oz which still stands to this date. I have come close hitting the 18lb mark several times but have yet to pass the magical 20 mark (in the UK that is).

It felt good getting the stuff ready for the session at the half round ponds, preparing mixer biscuits and setting up a rod for a bit of surface fishing something I have dearly missed during the time spent fishing on the Fendrod.

As soon as I arrived I threw out a few mixer biscuits on to the lillies at the car park end just to test them. I'd soaked the biscuits in boiling water and Red Berry glug that I'd had in the package from Cambridge Carp baits and the Carp seemed to switch on to them straight away, I managed to get some pretty cool footage of the fish feeding confidently but even though they I could have probably dropped a hook bait in amongst the freebies I didn't as it would mean dragging the fish through some pretty dense lilies and ultimately damaging fish which is not something I'd want to do and not something I would recommend.

I unloaded the bare essentials from the car and set about finding some fish, it was about an hour before I settled down, I'd found a spot that a shoal of Carp were periodically cruising by, I lined up a few freebies in their path leaving the hook bait at the end and I almost spooked the whole shoal when I pulled the hook bait away from a tiny little common who appeared from nowhere.

Then after a lot of patience my tactic worked, there was about six nice sized Carp in front of me casually picking off the freebies then one of the bigger fish in the group turned and made a beeline for my hookbait, I thought my luck was in, but two of the other Carp also had it in their sights and there was a mad dash as the three fish launched themselves at my hookbait. I struck as soon as the line pulled along the surface and connected with one of the smaller fish, I was slightly disheartened as I watched the big boy that I had my eye on disappear out of view.

It was hard to be disappointed when the one I'd hooked was giving me hell of a scrap, tearing the line from the reel, burying itself in the weeds and finally dicing with the branches of the trees over hanging the margin, for a few brief moments I thought I'd lost it as the line twanged along the branches, luckily the hook held tight and I finally subdued my first Half Round Ponds Carp in over a year.

Steve turned up while I was into the fish and managed to film the end of the battle. I was surprised to see the scales pull round to 15lb 2oz as this was one of the smaller fish so I can only guess that bigger fish must have been pushing 20 if not a bit more but I was more than happy to get a nice double on the bank, I love the dark colours of the Carp in the Half Round Ponds they are unmistakeable and this one was a prime example.

A classic Half Round Pond Mirror Carp.

A proper lump on the mat.

I returned the fish in the weigh sack and after only a few seconds in the margin it powered off. I was happy to have landed a nice fish and anything after this would be a bonus.

Steve left and I started patrolling the edges again in the hope of spotting another Carp, I think that all the commotion I'd caused had total killed surface the fishing as every fish that a spotted was super weary of the bait and freebies or would spook at the slightest movement.

I decided to called it a day for surface fishing and unpacked the rest of the gear from the car and started to set things up ready for the night. The Half Round Ponds has a two rod limit so I set one up with a Red Berry pop-up to be fished over a bed of pellets and other rod was set up with a Red Berry bottom bait which I scattered a few handfuls of boilies around it.

The Video blog of the session.

The night was fairly unsuccessful with the one bit of action occurring around 2am, an aborted take which made me check the rigs and both the hooks were clogged up with debris from the lake bed, I tried using PVA bags to combat this but even then the hook were ending up covered in slit weed.

To make matters worse there was an alarm going off from one of the building on the other side of the trees and this didn't stop all night. I climbed out of the bivvy at dawn after getting hardly any sleep and feeling totally shattered.

The morning came and went without any further action apart from watching a Grass Snake swimming through the lilies on the peg next to me. I decided to pack things up around midday and finish off the session with a bit more surface fishing.

The fish were up on the surface but just wouldn't take the bait. I ended the session after a few more frustrating close calls and left the lake only catching one fish for the whole session. I was pretty pleased as I know the Half Round Ponds are not easy waters and that 15lb mirror was a good result in my opinion.

I don't know when will be the next time I'll visit the ponds but I do know that I'm not going to leave it so long next time. So until the next session, take care.

News and a 24 Hour Session on the Fendrod.

2010-06-08T01:21:00.017+01:00

Now, where do I start with this one? since the last blog update I've done a few sessions and experienced a totally life changing event which is something that I might have trouble putting into words.

I might as well start off with the big event, if you paid attention back in January when I posted the 2010 targets at the end of the video I said that my life will drastically change in June, well the change came earlier than expected and my son was born on the 31st May. In true angling fashion I tried to guess the weight before the midwife weighed him guessing 5 and a half pounds which was almost bang on as he weighed in at 5lb 7oz. As he was a little early that meant he had to stay in the hospital for an extra day but all was well and Rachel and William were allowed to come home.

Me and my boy at less than a hour old.

What an experience! I'm so proud of my wife and am now the proud father of William John Jones, he's absolutely perfect and I cannot wait until the day he'll be able to join me on the bank.

William at home.

During May I'd managed to get a handful of short evening sessions in at the Fendrod but they all fruitless and apart from a few savage liners when the Carp were spawning I didn't manage to get one hook up.

On the weekend before the big arrival Steve and I visited Sylen for the first time, somewhere I'd had attempted to visit last year but after driving round the hills in Llanelli for about an hour I still couldn't find it, this time used the wonder that is Google Earth and even though I knew roughly where to go I still managed to drive passed it once before we found the place.

Considering there is very little in the way of signs and to be fair I'd only heard about the place through word of mouth I was expecting to find a nice quiet, out of the way fishery, which is not how I would describe the place after my first visit.

We arrived pretty early and set up to do a bit of surface fishing which seemed to be a bit too easy as I'd only flicked out a biscuit to see how it was sitting and a little mirror Carp snatched at it and I was into a my first fish without even casting out, as the morning progressed we both took a few more off the top and we would have probably carried on doing that all day if it wasn't for the fact that the guys fishing a match along the far bank had seen us banking a few fish, I couldn't believe it when two of them started casting feeders into margins in front of us. Another display of total disrespect for other anglers by match anglers. I always thought when fishing a match the anglers would have to stay within the invisible boundaries of the peg you have drawn but these guys were happily casting at any fish that we'd managed to get feeding irrelevant that it wasn't in their swim.

Some of the early morning fish off the surface.

After the flurry of feeders any fish on the surface were long gone leaving us with a choice of moving or packing up and I did consider packing up before making the choice to move over to far end of the lake. The move turned out ok with a few move fish on the bank and Steve landing some Bream and a surprise Chub on bread before we decided to check out a few of the other lakes Llanelli has to offer.

And the rest of the pics from sylen, ending in the surprise Chub.

So, after leaving Sylen we ventured to the lakes in Pwll, the sun was beaming down and it was a pleasure just to be out in the sunshine. Leaving most of the gear in the car we picked up the bare essentials and headed to the lakes, we had left the rods already set up for surface fishing so it was just a matter putting on a bait and casting at the first fish we see.

The lakes were virtually empty apart from two eastern europeans who panicked when they seen me walking towards them one of them throwing a bag of pellets into the bushes and the other trying to hide a bag of boilies behind his back, it was almost laughable as they were set up right next to a sign stating no fish are to be remove or killed, I did attempt to ask them if they were fishing but was met with an aggresive 'I no speak english' which seems to be the standard response you get and without the police or environment agency being present there very little that can be done so I left the to their questionable antics and tried to catch me a few Carp.

Seeing as we cant have been there for more than two hours we done pretty well with a total of four fish on the bank before we'd walked all the way round and it was probably the most exciting bit of surface fishing I'd done in a long while.

Pictures of the Carp from Pwll.

Right then back to my session at the Fendrod, this was to be my first session since becoming a father and I'd been dieing to get out and try the baits I'd won from Cambridge Carp Baits, I'd submitted a blog entry into their competition a few months back and forgot all about it, that is until I got an email saying I'd come first out of over 50 entries and I'd won a bait package worth £60 bargain! Sadly, it was another blank session on the Fendord after sitting it out for the night I had only had two drop backs, so it was a bit a failed start for trying out the free baits.

My £60 bait prize.

The Video blog of the Fendrod session.

This draws to an end one of the longest posts I've written for the blog, spanning over three sessions and the birth of my son, lets hope the summer weather behaves and I get a few nice summer sessions in before autumn starts to kick.

Back on the Fendrod and seeing a Fendrod 20.

2010-05-08T01:19:00.132+01:00

I arrived quite late in the evening on the Fendrod only managing to get the bivvy set up and the baits out before the light faded.

In my continual fiddling with rigs, trying different hook length materials and hooks I had made the choice to go back to what I was using this time last year, a standard braid rigs with a Kamasan barbless Carp hook. I had total trust in this rig last year and only started changing things around when I started using pop-up and I seem to have got a bit sidetracked my changing things.

Once I'd got everything together with the bed and stove set up and the net and unhooking mat placed in optimum position for a night time hook up. I settled down for a few minutes with a nice cup of coffee and relaxed.

Later in the evening I was joined by the guys from the pegs over to my right and they recognised me from this blog and the videos on youtube, at first it did feel a bit weird talking about myself as a third person but I did quite enjoy meeting avid fans of the blog and knowing that they had made a trip from Cardiff to fish the Fendrod after reading about it on this blog and seeing them using methods that had written about was pleasantly humbling. We spent a good few hours chatting before tiredness forced me into my welcoming sleeping bag.

During the night I was woken by a drop back bite on the left hand rod, but when I got to my feet and picked up the rod I didn't connect with anything.

The video blog of the session.

The morning came and went without a touch, which was a bit disheartening as I would liked to have banked one especially as I had an audience but I like all the other sessions on the Fendrod so far this year the fish just weren't playing ball.

About midday I could hear a bit of commotion coming from my right and went to take a look, I could see Ronnie one of the guys from Cardiff was hooked into a fish and it was giving him a proper scrap, as I walked over I switched the camera on and filmed him banking one of the bigger residents of the Fendrod, a 26lb 8oz mirror Carp which was outstanding. It was nice to physically see a big fish on the bank and even though I have come close in the past this was the first 20+ fish I'd seen come out of the Fendrod.

I eventually called it a day and packed up with another blank but it wasn't a wasted session, I had met some genuinely nice people and witnessed a Fendrod 20 on the bank, lets hope that I manage to get one for myself in the coming months.

Singles Carp Match on the Fendrod 2010.

2010-04-24T01:17:00.007+01:00

Well, it was time for another go at the singles Carp match on the Fendrod and after coming third in the doubles match back in October I had high expectations of myself.

About twenty anglers turned up for the match and I arrived in the car park by the skin of my teeth as the draw was starting, but being early wouldn't have had much difference as my name was one of the last to be pulled out of the hat.

When my name was eventually called only a handful of pegs were left so I picked the only one I had fished in the past which in hindsight probably wasn't really a clever thing to do as out of all the times I had fished the peg I'd only managed one Carp and to this day its is still the smallest Carp I've caught out of the Fendrod but I'd made my choice and I had to make the most of it.

I spent a good few hours the day before making a massive bucket of method mix using all sorts of stuff from porridge oats, sweetcorn and pellets then mixing in around five kilos of crushed boilies which had been clogging up my freezer for the past year, so thinking this mix would be a feeding bonanza for the Carp I started off by casting about ten balls on the method feeder into open water clipping up the line after the first cast to make sure they all landed in the same area before dropping a hookbait in then the other rods were baited with a marukyu bottom bait in the margin and a two foot pop-up out to my right in open water hoping to avoid and debris I'd been picking up off the bottom on sessions earlier in the year.

The video blog of the session.

I sat back waiting for that elusive run, every now and again I could see fizzing from around where I piled out the method mix but I failed to get a pick up.

The catch reports were non existent for the first half of the match with nothing but a few Bream making an appearance until the first Carp in the early hours, but still nothing for me.

With only a few hours left of the match my rods had remained motionless and this is how they stayed until the match was over.

When I picked the peg during the draw I had a feeling I was making a bad choice and after the first few hours of the match I regretted not picking a different one but we live and learn. Now I wish that I'd used a bit of common sense and not just jumped at the only peg I fished in the past. Lets hope I make a better choice on the doubles match later in the year.

A Double from Gowerton.

2010-04-13T01:13:00.152+01:00

Like so many times before the allure of a bit of sunshine sees me leaving work early and heading over to Gowerton Coarse fishery for an afternoons surface fishing.

Arriving at the lake I walk round twice scattering a few mixer biscuits and watching for any signs of Carp in the margins, to be fair apart from the odd Carp picking off one or two freebies I hadn't seen anything that really inspired me so I decided to move settle down in a peg that had usually produced a fish or two for me in the past. I set one rod purely for free lining aiming to pick off any fish I spot cruising and other rod was placed on the pod so that I could hear the alarm if and when something decides to pick up the huge bunch of Prawns I'd put on the hair.

The first few hours were hard going with any fish that did decide to have a go at the floating biscuit either totally ignoring the hook bait or spooking after mouthing the bait.

I then spotted a single Carp moving through the swim picking off any biscuits in its path, after watching it take the third biscuit in a row I swung a single biscuit out and pulled it along the surface of the water until I was sitting directly in the path of the oncoming fish, without hesitation it hammered the bait and I struck as soon as I seen the line on the surface pull.

What I fight, I was all over the place, I'd hooked the fish less than two rod lengths out and it wasn't happy about it burying its head into nearly every patch of weed in the margins. After a lot of bullying I finally slipped a nice sized Common Carp over the net along with a giant clump of weed.

A cracking Gowerton double.

The fish weighed in at 12lb 1oz and like a previous fish I'd caught earlier this year it also showed signs of Otter damage with a bit of scale damage and a few nasty chunks out of its tail but the damage didn't stop it fighting hard and it want back strongly so it seemed healthy despite the damage.

The Video Blog of the session.

Happy that I manage one off the top I continued to try and tempt another one. I had fish feeding in front of me but they seemed to be avoiding the hook bait. I began to wonder if I was fishing a bit heavy as I was using a Carp rod and free lining with 10lb line, I think this was the main reason why they were ignoring the hookbait as it was trailing a fairly visible tail, in the past I had only ever used 4 or 5lb line for surface fishing and I can't remember having so many fish spook away from the bait when I was using the lower diameter line, so that'll leave me something to think about for future sessions.

I started to pack up early as I wanted to get out before they closed the gates and didn't feel like making the long trip to move the car in order to stay of for an extra hour or so.

The Prawns I had dropped into the margin had a few knocks but none developed into a run. The final count for an evenings fishing was one fish but it was a nice sized fish and I was glad to see that the fishery can still produce some tidy fish after being ransacked by Otters during the winter.

A New Bivvy and a Night on the Fendrod.

2010-04-10T01:10:00.002+01:00

It was time, time to bite the bullet and fork out for another bivvy, its not something I thought that would needs replacing so soon as it has only had it for about ten months but the mice that got in the shed over the winter kindly chewed big holes throughout it ruining the winter skin and also the ground sheet so it was either patch it up and hope that it doesn't rain or part with some cash and get a new one.

With a limited budget I spent more than a few hours trawling though websites and ebay looking for something I could afford. I even contemplated getting getting another one from nordik tackle as I did like the previous one but then I remembered the trouble I had with the poles snapping and it was hell of a task getting replacements so I decided to steer clear of them. I finally came across one that I like the look and price of on ebay, the JRC contact a one man bivvy that suited my needs to the ground and was under a hundred pounds.

I decided I would get out and do a session on the Fendrod using the excuse that I needed to test my new bivvy. I arrived at the lake and set up the camera to time how long it would actually take me to put up the bivvy without the usual trial run in the garden. It took just short of seventeen minutes which wasn't that bad considering it was the first time, hopefully I can improve on that in the future.

The video blog of the session.

Once the bivvy was up I piled all the gear into the bivvy and set up the rods, I thought I would utilize the bait boat to put baits out right on the back of the two floating island that was until the boat started to slow down to a snails pace even though the battery had a full charge! when it finally crawled its way back in I popped the top open and was greeted with a cloud of white smoke and the stink of burning electrics, I was pretty annoyed after spending close to three hundred pounds on the bait boat and this was only the third time I'd actually used it. I dumped the boat in the boot of the car in disgust and went back to good old manual casting.

I had high hopes for the session which were slowly stamped out as the only beep I got was from a bird landing on the tip of the rod and by the time morning a came I was contemplating moving round the lake.

Steve turned up around 6 am and after about an hour or so we decided to try another local pond that we had wanted to have a look at for a while so, I packed all the gear into the car and took a trip over to the Pluck Pond.

We arrived at the Pluck Pond uploaded the car and set up, I had only heard rumours of what was in this pond and it was an ideal opportunity to get a feel for the place. The water level was a lot higher than the times I'd walked round it in the past and the place was a mess with general rubbish strewn all over the place, the life buoys had been thrown in the water and there was broken glass and empty beer bottles everywhere.

Undeterred by its initial appearance I cast out into what looked like clear spots but when it came time to reel in the rods I had a new PB 'weed fish' on every rod :). From the limited information there is about the pluck nearly all of it states that swims need to be raked before hand so if I ever decide to give it a proper go I guess I'll have to have a go at raking a swim before hand.

We packed up and went home around mid afternoon and it hadn't been the best of sessions, with the the TFG Patriot bait boat dyeing a smoky death and I'd managed to blank on both venues I can only hope things pick up as the weather starts to warm.

A Pleasure Session at Whitesprings.

2010-03-21T01:09:00.193Z

Since my rather wet session on the Fendrod we hadn't had a break in the weather long enough for me to hang the gear out to dry. So Sunday morning I was loading the gear into the car still wet for a spur of the moment trip to Whitesprings.

It was a cold crisp morning and I thought I would have a decent chance at getting a few Perch on the bank but like many times before my plans were foiled by a match on the old Canal which meant Steve and I were relegated to the Pleasure lake but I wasn't too disheartened as I know there is at least one nice Perch in there as it was the lake where I'd achieved the 2008 Perch target of 3lb, but in reality I was hoping for a nice relaxing session with a few Carp on the bank for our efforts.

We set up in the bay as this area was completely empty and I had spotted a few fish moving around in the margin so it felt like the right choice. I set the rods set up and settled down in my chair, I must been in the for less than a minute when the slack line running from a bait I'd literally dropped in at my feet pulled tight.

I picked up the match rod and tip bent right over and line started to pull from the reel, it could only be a Carp! the fish powered around almost tangling up with my other rod and testing my five pound line to the limit, after a few risky maneuvers trying to keep the fish from tangling with my other rod the hook pulled which left quite annoyed especially as it had held tight through all the initial runs and to rub salt in the wounds from the little glances I'd seen I knew that it was a nice mirror that was easily mid double, but now I'll never know for certain.

The video blog of the session.

The morning plodded on and a few of the anglers fishing on the other side of the lake made a move and set up each side of us, I am assuming that watching me hook into a nice sized fish lured them across but it could be a coincidence. I did think that with the extra lines and disturbance I would be pretty hard pressed to see another adventurous double but it could still happen.

Steve started to get some action on the float, while I was sitting back waiting for something to show an interest in my maggot feeder and after my earlier failure I was eager to a fish on the bank irrelevant of the size.

Steve started of with a small mirror Carp and followed this up with a few Roach and a Rudd so we were finally in business.

It wasn't long before it was my turn as the tip of my match rod pulled round resulting in a fair sized Roach on the bank not massive but a fish on the bank finally!

The day went by pretty quickly and the surrounding banks filled up around us, it wasn't easy fishing when it was just the two of us but now there was nothing happening and I do like a bit of elbow room when I'm fishing so after a short burst of heavy rain we called it a day and started to pack up.

At the end Steve had managed to bag about eight fish consisting of two small Carp and some nice Roach while I had only managed two Roach and lost a fairly decent Carp considering the lake we were fishing. It was one of those sessions where we could have done better but things just didn't click into place none the less we at a bit of fun and thats what its all about.

Like a madman in the Rain.

2010-03-19T01:08:00.086Z

In the past few weeks I've done a little scouting trip to Llanelli and a short blank session at the Fendrod I was eager to get back on the bank.

During the week I had full intentions finishing work early on Friday and doing a night on the Fendrod but just like nearly every time I've planned a session using the long term weather forecast my plans were subject to change as I watched the rain beating down all Friday day even though the forecast said that the sun would be shining. I was still determined to get a bit of bank time in and decided go down the lake for at least a few hours.

The video blog of the session.

I had loaded the car with the bivvy and bedchair leaving my options open but when I did finally arrive at the lake the rain was still lashing down irreverent of what the forecast had said. I adorned my water proofs and decided I would sit it out until midnight and if the rain suddenly stopped I would have a rethink about bivvying up for the night.

I decided to set up on a corner peg in the trees mainly because it would give me some protection against the elements and I'd seen a few fish moving in the area on one of my walks around the lake during the week.

I placed a bait in both left and right margin then cast the final rod out into open water taking care not to clip the overhanging branches, with all three rods out I sat under the umbrella trying to sit back in my chair without losing my balance on the steep bank.

The hours passed by fairly quickly and the rain continued to beat down. I sat there like a madman hoping for a pick up. My hopes were raised half way through the night when the alarm of the right hand rod beeped once and I could just make out I slight tap on the tip of the rod but it didn't develop and nothing more happened to avert my attention.

Midnight finally came and it was another fifteen minutes until the rain gave me a little break giving me a chance to pack things up. It was a real slog going back to the car as the rain had penetrated my waterproofs and my back and arms were soaking and my trainers were well and truely waterlogged. By the time I got back to the car I was happy to be going home which is something I don't normally think when leaving a lake.

If the weather was anything like the forecast I probably would have bivvied up on a different peg and things may have been so much different.

Back On The River Wye with Some Pike Action.

2010-02-27T01:33:00.213Z

The river season is nearly at a close and Mike wanted to show me another stretch of the river Wye which I was more than happy to oblige. I have hardly any experience river fishing an I will try and grasp every opportunity possible to widen my angling horizen.

This time round Steve, Mike and myself headed for a stretch of the river in Wales and after more than an hours driving along winding lanes and through rural villages we arrived at our angling location for the day. Even though I'd thinned out the gear removing loads of unnecessary stuff the walk from the car was a real slog which left partially worn out before I'd even wet a line.

The video blog of the session.

Steve and I settled down in one of the first fishable areas we came across while Mike left us to it and went off up the bank with his lure rod. I set up two rods exactly the same as I'd done on my last trip to the river baiting with Halibut boilies on one rod and a chunk of luncheon meat on the other.

After about an hour of watching the flow drag my baits and 3oz leads down river I decided to move up following the river and dropping in on a few swims as I went. As I reached a bend in the river where it thinned out the flow was so much slower that it felt like I was fishing a completely different venue its amazing how different this was compared to literally metres away.

Steve and I settled down for a second time, this time I was only fishing one bottom bait swapping the luncheon meat for a lure. I was busy working the lure around the swim when I heared the distant clicking of a reel followed by Steve calling for me, I climbed up the bank grabbed the landing net and made my way over to Steve, I switched the camera on managing to catch the last few moments of Steve's battle with a river Pike.

Once the Pike was in the net we moved down the bank to a less treacherous area so that we could take a few pictures without the danger of falling in the river. The colours on the Pike were magnificent and it was the fattest Pike I'd ever seen, it wasn't the longest Pike I'd seen but its belly more than made up for it giving it a weight of 16lb 3oz.

A 16lb 3oz Fatboy.

A true river monster.

On releasing the fish Steve forgot one of the golden rules of Pike fishing where you should always hold the fish in the flow to give it a chance to recover before it goes but as soon a the fish hit the current it powered off so there was no harm done.

After the Pike had gone back Steve returned to his swim and almost straight away he nearly had a second Pike as we both witnessed a slightly larger Pike trailing a lure then turning away at the last second, Steve continued to cast the lure in the hoping that it may take another shot at it.

Mike turned up not long after and he had also had a few fish on the bank, two small Chub and brown Trout had all fallen to a mepps spinner. So, I was the only one without a fish on the bank and the predictions I given on the video blog were coming true apart from the bit about me.

I spent the rest of the day walking up river casting a lure into every patch of water that looked like it could hold a Pike but my efforts went totally unrewarded. We decided to call it a day as the light started to fade and began the long trek lumping all the gear back to the car.

To be fair I enjoyed the whole day fishing on the river Wye even though I left with a blank, I doubt that we'll see the river again this side of the closed season but hopefully we'll be back sometime after June 16th.

A Cold Carp Fishing Session in Pembroke.

2010-02-20T21:16:00.005Z

It was Saturday the 20th February and during the week My mate Steve and I had made plans to travel down to Pembroke to a small farm lake which I had discovered near the end of last year. It was a cold morning but at 6am we were both up and full of confidence, the car was packed and we were ready to make the 80 minute drive into the heart of west Wales.

The drive was a long treacherous one after reaching the end of the M4 began the endless drive on frost covered A roads, as we traveled the temperature gauge in the car was slowly going down until it bottomed out at -6.5°C, the drop in temperature did start me thinking that this might be a wasted trip but any doubts were swept aside when we finally arrived at the lake.

The video blog of the session.

After a brief walk round we opted to set up on the point as there was ice formed on other parts of the lake and the morning sun seemed to be dispersing the ice from around the point.

I set up using a set of new rigs that I had tied especially for pop-ups with coated braid, using a Fluero-Berry pop on the hair which I gluged in Red Berry Carpagra Juice then attached a small PVA bag of chopped Winter Berry boilies. I cast one bait out into the shadow of some over hanging trees on the far bank then cast the other bait out into what I believe is a deep gully also close to the far bank, I followed up each cast with about five or six whole boilies thrown in over the top. Now it was time to sit back and wait to see if my new rigs and the CCB boilies could beat the cold.

Just over two and a half hours had passed and I had gone to check on the bait I had dropped in the margin before we had set up and it was almost like they were waiting until my attention was turned, the fluro-berry pop-up out in the deep gully was picked up, no warning beeps or signs of fish near the bait it just tore off. Steve was on hand and pick up the rod while I dashed back eager to take control of the rod. The fish was playing hard making heavy lunges and not giving any line back, it was it was an immense feeling to be hooked up to good sized Carp for the first time in months. After a short while I started to gain some line back and started to steer the fish round to the right side of the point, I got Steve to move my other rod making sure that there was no obstacles in the path of the incoming fish, it felt heavy and was fighting it out like it was holding a good weight behind it and after a good few minutes I caught my first glimpse of the thick back of a Mirror Carp and by what I had seen and the way it was kicking back I was sure that I had a good mid double on. After all the effort it had put in this powerful mirror finally succumb to the net and the first fish of the day was mine.

A cracking winter Carp.

On the bank it look like a good mid double but when I lifted it off the mat into the weigh sling I just didn't feel as heavy as it look and both had over shot the make with our estimate weights when the scales confirmed the weight at 12lb 14oz, but it was nothing to get disheartened about it was still a lovely mirror in its bright winter colours and I was reminded that this was a true result by the ice in the water as the fish swam back.

12lb 14oz not bad for a sub zero start.

The day passed by and the sun slowly cleared the banks and lake of any signs of how cold it had been the night before and with only a few single beeps and a herd of Canada Geese to keep us on our toes the realisation of of how slow winter Carp fishing can be was setting in.

During the day I had agreed that Steve could take the next run even if it was on my rods as when we fish together we always fish as a team and it is always better when we both manage to bank a fish, but when the time came and the fluro Berry pop-up was picked up for the second time I nearly regretted my words as Steve bolted towards my rod, but the second take was short lived and whatever had picked it up managed to make a few powerful lunges before throwing the hook.

We ended the session as the light began to fade and left the lake with the intention of being back there as soon as the weather starts to behave. I would consider today to be a good session ,we had both a some action and I was pretty pleases that my rigs and the fluro berry pop-ups done their jobs resulting in a double in sub-zero temperatures who would be disappointed in that.

My first ever river fishing session on the river Wye.

2010-02-13T01:38:00.106Z

After meeting Mike a fellow youtube user and fishing fanatic we planned a session doing something that I have always been interested in doing for a long time, river fishing, but due to a lack knowledge about tactics and locations I haven't even been able to think about planning a session let alone doing one.

Mike was eager to take me to a venue that he had fished before and I happily tagged along hoping to gain a bit of experience on fishing rivers.

The videos blog of the session.

We set out for a stretch of the river wye that was virtually on the border between England and Wales but with a morning frost and the 'Bleak' winter weather only a week behind us my hopes were not too high as I knew that fishing is effected so much by temperatures and it is going to take a long time for things to right themselves after the winter we've just had.

We arrived and took a brief walk along the bank speaking to a few anglers who had already set up and through what I could gather things were pretty slow, even the guys with match set ups had yet to winkle out a single silver fish so, I knew our chances were pretty slim.

I set up two rods using what I would call standard Carp rigs, 3oz inline lead with an 8 inch hook length fishing a big chunk of luncheon meat on one and a 15mm Halibut boilie suplimented with small pva bags of pellets on the other.

Time seemed to rocket by, it had only felt like a few hours but in reality we had been on the bank for about six hours and our session ended as a fruitless one apart from seeing a dead perch around the 2lb mark floating by.

I was just happy to sit there and soak up the experience with the boats and fishing into a fast flow it felt a million miles away from fishing a day ticket water and I really enjoyed myself, come summer if and when I do get the time to visit a river I can say with a certainty that I will.

My first Fish of 2010 at Gowerton Coarse Fishery.

2010-02-07T01:19:00.004Z

So, with more than a few blank sessions under my belt I decided I would fish a lake that very rarely gives me a bad session, this session was all about getting a fish on the bank irreverent of the size.

I turned up with an array of different baits and was surprised when a few fish started to pick of some of the mixer biscuits I'd thrown in.

Quite quickly I managed to get one off the surface a Common about four pounds but it was in a poor state.

The video blog of the session.

After landing the one fish I couldn't get another take off the surface so I moved round the lake and tried a few bottom baits. I couldn't seem to attract any more attention in the few hours I was there.

As the light started to fade and the temperature dropped quite drastically and I was forced to pack up after realising I wasn't really dressed for the cold and was starting to shiver, but I had done what I had hoped I would do and had landed my first fish of the year so it wasn't all bad.

I mentioned in the video blog that there was rumors of a Mink at the lake but have since discovered that there is a serious Otter problem and a lot of the bigger residents of the lake have been found dead or dieing after being mauled by Otters which is not something that I have liked witnessing but sadly something that I can do very little about due to Otters being such a highly protected species. I can only hope that the fishery hasn't been critically predated and the otters move on.

Fishing on the Frozen Specimen Lake at Whitesprings.

2010-01-31T23:16:00.138Z

After seeing a photo competition on the Whitesprings website I posted a few of the Perch pictures, photos I had taken during the past few months and was pretty surprised to find out that I'd won first place!, not bad for a picture of myself taken by myself. The prize for first place was a free 24 hour session at Whitesprings during the month of January.
Unfortunately, the cold spell really limited when I could use the free pass which left me foolishly relying on the long term weather forecast as I planned to fish Sunday night on the 31st of January. As you can guess the long term weather forecast was at its usual standard with a supposed mild couple of night in reality it was closer to arctic conditions.

A screenshot of the winning pic on the Whitesprings Website.

I arrived at the specimen lake and the lake was nearly completely frozen over with the odd patch of snow still on the ground, with very few options I ended up on the point, the outlet from the pleasure lake had created the one and only clear patches in the ice.

The Video blog of the session.

I did get a bit of VIP treatment as some the guys fishing on the opposite side of the lake broke a channel in the ice, which I managed to use the baitboat to put a bait in but the boat really struggled coming back in and I almost beached it a few times on a solid chunks of ice, so that was the last time I put that out in the water.

The night was one of the most harshest ones I've endured on the bank with hail showers beating down on the tent for most of the night. I kept the inside of the tent warm for a few hours with the gas stove burning but it wasn't long before the gas run out and once the gas had run out the warmth it had create was quickly dispersed by the cold.

By the time morning at come none of the baits had moved and the rods were encrusted with ice. I managed to squeeze a enough gas out of old canister I had in the boot of the car to boil the kettle once before taking a walk round. The ice had got worse overnight and every lake was frozen over apart from the pleasure lake and I was left with the dilemma of moving to catch a few small ones from the pleasure lake or sit it out on the specimen lake and risk blanking in the hope than something a lot bigger decides to feed.

I went over to speak to a few of the guys fishing the pleasure lake and took a few pics of a fish they'd landed but the temptation of landing a specimen lake Carp won and I sat the rest of the session on the specimen lake without any action at all.

Like all my sessions so far this year the conditions were totally unforgiving and this didn't help the fishing at all.......But I will be back when the weather starts to behave, also would I like to thank the boys who came and broke the ice for me, so cheers for that.

New Toys.

2010-01-24T00:27:00.001Z

To start the year off I had suffered a few blank sessions and the cold weather isn't really helping.

In this lull I decided it was time burn the savings I had been stashing for the past few months and had a look at getting a bait boat, I spent about a week checking prices and reading various reviews, I never realised that they were so expensive with some of the all singing all dancing models costing thousands of pounds which was way out of my price range. I finally opted on getting one of the cheapest boats on the market the Total fishing Gear 'Patriot' costing just short of £300 and it seemed capable of doing what I needed.

I spent a few session down the Fendrod fishing area that were either difficult to cast to or way out of my casting range just to test what I could do with the boat, there was one draw back and that was that every now and again when the back door would open to drop the bait and rig the hook would catch on the lip of the hopper meaning that I'd have to bring it all back in and do the run again.

One thing that I have found myself doing is putting a lot more bait out than I would usually do especially in the colder weather but I suppose I will start using it properly once the novelty wears off.

Anyway, back to the fishing...there isn't really that much to write about as all the recent sessions have all been blanks but I did do a video blog of one of the sessions so I'll leave the video do the talking.

2009 and New Year Beginning.

2010-01-01T01:52:00.007Z

So, with the end of 2009 and new year beginning its time to take a look at how I done with the targets I set myself and time to consider what I would like to achieve in 2010.

Right, I'll start by running though the targets I'd set for 2009, I set five targets and only actually achieved two of them but thats not to say I feel like I've failed because I am quite happy with how things went in 2009.

The 2009 goals were as follows:

To land a Bream over the 6lb mark.
To land a Carp on or over 25lb.
To land a Perch on or over 3lb 8oz.
To land a Catfish.
For my blog or an article to appear in a recognized angling publication.

So I'll run through to one I achieved and give a reflection and my thoughts about the one that weren't ticked off.

The Video Blog run through of 2009.

Number One - A Bream over the 6lb mark.
My biggest Bream when I set this target was only 3lb and aiming to double a PB might be a bit bold but I genuinely thought this was going to be easily achievable with rumors that the Fendrod holding some massive Bream I was under the assumption that I would pick one up as a bi-product of Carp fishing. In reality I had to do a bit of research change my methods a bait and after eight months on the Fendrod did I land a Bream that met the target weight. Not only did it hit the target but at 9lb 1oz also added a further 3lb 1oz on top. In the following weeks I went on to set a further two PB Bream weights of 10lb 13oz then 10lb 14oz almost doubling the target weight. So this was one target down and I can happily that I don't consider a double figure Bream a nuisance fish.

PB Bream One 9lb 1oz.

PB Bream Two 10lb 13oz

And finally PB Bream Three 10lb 14oz.

Number Two - A Carp over 25lb.
To be fair I purposely set this target high even though I had not even achieved the 2008 target of 20lb simply because I had some of the best fishing experiences in the pursuit of a 20lb Carp and was hoping that this target would see me having another great year in the pursuit of a big Carp. I had a good start to the year with respect to Carp and caught a good number of fish from the Fendrod with the highlight being an 18lb 11oz Ghost Carp which looking back at the picture now I still think it was a stunning fish but as year progressed I didn't manage to get that elusive big Carp. This was until ours trip to France, the fishing wasn't easy but before the five day trip was up I had hit both the 2008 and 2009 target. Originally I wasn't going to consider any fish caught in France but as it was a lot harder going than I thought it was going to be I changed my mind while we were out there, my only regret is that I didn't achieve the target weight in the UK but that aside even though it wasn't easy I would love to go back to France one day.

My Biggest UK Carp a stunning 18lb 11oz Ghostie.

Finally breaking the 20lb mark with 21lb 6oz.

My first french fish to hit the target at 28lb 8oz.

And the second to hit the target a 28lb 14oz.

Number Three - A Perch over 3lb 8oz.
This was a target that I'd set myself following on from last year where I'd set myself a target weight of 3lb, which didn't really present itself as a challenge as I wasn't actually fishing for Perch when a 3lb 1oz monster stripy picked up the bait, so to make this a challenge I added half a pound to last years target and actually targeted the species rather than hoping for another fluke catch. I spend close to three months fishing solely for Perch and even set an new PB of 3lb 2oz but failed to hit the target weight, I truthfully don't really mind as my pursuit of the species ended with numerous specimens in the net and I really enjoyed breaking away from the mainstream Carp fishing and catching something different.

Not the target weight but a new PB at 3lb 2oz.

A 2lb 2oz specimen.

Another specimen Perch weighing 2lb 5oz.

Number Four - To land a Catfish.This one was a bit unachievable as didn't manage to fish any lake that held Catfish so this one will rollover to 2010.

Number Five - To get this Blog mentioned in an angling publication.
This was another fail, I did get a mention and even a picture published in the local paper but I don't buy any angling publications on a regular basis so even if I did get a mention I doubt that would have seen it.

Now for the targets for 2010.

To land a Carp over 25lb - Rolling over the target from 2009 I'm hoping to achieve a Carp of the same caliber as the French Carp one but this time keeping in the UK.
To land a Catfish - Again rolling over a 2009 target but this time I will make a bit more of an effort to actually catch one.
To land a Perch 3lb 8oz or over - This was the only 2009 target that I consider to have failed so I feel it only right that I give it another go and this time I might just hit that target weight.
To land a Tench on or over 4lb - This one is going to be real challenge I've havent really had a lot of experience targeting Tench and there isn't any prolifice Tench waters locally so it be an interesting challenge.

Hopefully this year I can tick off all the targets, but no matter how many I achieve I still see me having fun trying.

Frosty Carp Fishing.

2009-12-27T19:05:00.142Z

After blanking on boxing day I really wanted to get out as soon as I could and try and even the scores a little as every session I'd fished at the Fendrod for the last few months has been totally fruitless.

So, the next day I pack all the gear in the car and headed back to the Fendrod for about 4 o'clock with intent on fishing the night. When I left the lake yesterday the fish had started to show and I thought that my best chance of banking a fish would be after dark. I knew that it was probably going to get pretty cold during the night but I was willing to bare the sub zero temperatures in the hope of seeing some action.

The video blog of the session.

I got everything set up and sat there watching the water for any signs of fish moving as the light began to fade, I could feel a noticeable drop in the temperature which saw me retiring into the bivvy with the hope of being alerted by the alarms.

About 9 o'clock Rachel turned up with a healthy burger and fries and as she was leaving I checked the temperature gage in in the car and read 0.0°C so, temperature was already at the freezing point and frost had already started to form on the rods, it was still relatively early so I knew that I was going to be in for a cold night.

I ventured out of the bivvy a few times during the night which was quite a painful experience as the cold air was stinging my eyes and face.

The frost covered bivvy.

Morning came and everything was covered in a blanket of frost and to rub salt in the wounds the baits hadn't moved all night, in hindsight it was probably a good thing as the rods were encrusted in ice and the net was frozen solid, I doubt the line would have gone brittle enough to snap if I had had a run and knowing my luck of late I wouldn't have been surprised if it did.

Ice encrusted rods and reels.

By mid morning I was ready to pack up and go home, I wasn't disappointed that I'd had another blank as I didn't expect it to be as cold as it was. I guess I'll just have to put this one down to experience and not take any weather forecasts as gospel which is something I should have learned a long time ago as god knows how many time they got it wrong during the year.

The Canada Geese that have made the Fendrod their home for the winter.

Boxing Day Blank.

2009-12-26T19:21:00.060Z

For a few year now I've wanted to get out and catch myself a 'Christmas Carp' and this year I went for the next best thing and tried my luck at landing myself a Boxing Day Carp.

The Fendrod Lake had been frozen for most of the week on the run up to Christmas and the first day where the ice had completely gone was Christmas day. So thinking that I may have a better chance after the freeze I got stuff ready and around 10 o'clock on Boxing day morning then after tearing myself away from the telly I headed to the Fendrod confident that I would have some success.

The video blog of the session.

I had set everything up and the baits were cast out and after a few hours I started to doubt my previous thoughts and started to feel like I wasn't going to see anything on the bank and this slowly became reality. On the plus side I had another chance to use my new camera fiddling about with the zoom and other features that weren't on the previous camera.

Finally the sun set and it was time to go home. Boxing day ended on a blank but it was still good to get out on the bank, maybe next year...

Heres a few of the photos I took of the Fendrod while doing the patrols around all the local waters during cold snap:

A Good Failed Winter Perch Session.

2009-12-15T18:30:00.179Z

As I'm writing this I am currently about a month and a half behind with the written blogs but hopefully that will change pretty soon as I promise to dedicate a bit of time to getting the blog up to date.

During the weekend Steve phoned me asking if I fancied a session going after Perch on Tuesday luckily I had managed to build up enough flexi time at work to take the day off and we were all set to do a bit of Perch fishing.

When Tuesday arrived it was cold and overcast weather that I would class as ideal for Perch fishing, we arrived at Whitesprings and set up on the Old Canal but almost as soon as I'd finished setting up the rain started, it didn't last too long but it knocked my confidence a bit as in past sessions I didn't seem to get any bites from the Perch while it was raining, this maybe just a coincidence but fishing is all about confidence and I don't feel confident that about catching I very rarely do.

After about an hour or so of fishing the Canal without a single knock I thought I would set up a single Carp rod and drop it in the Pit that was directly behind us in the hope of picking up a bonus fish, I took one of the bite alarms and screwed it on to a bank stick, set up the big net and tied a pop-up rig then dropped the bait into the pit, I genuinely didn't think it would produce anything but it was worth a try.

I started to walk back to the swim on the Canal which was about ten metres away from the Carp rod and before I had even reached my chair the bite alarm had started to sing, I raced back to the rod and was into my first fish of the session and it wasn't long before the first fish graced the bank, a small Mirror Carp about 5lb.

The video blog of the session.

The single rod that I had put out as an after thought was really paying off, a few minutes after dropping the bait out for the second time I was in for the second time this time it was a common, I decided to weigh it this time but the digital scales were a bit of a nightmare and we both agreed that it was around 8lb as the scales kept bouncing around the eight pound mark.

Dropping the bait out for the third time I told Steve that he could have the next run on the Carp rod as things were pretty dire on the Canal, we had been set up on the Canal for almost two hours and neither of us had had a single bite.

Steve had to wait a bit longer than I had done previously but the Carp rod didn't let us down and the alarm was beckoning us yet again, and it was just my luck that the run I let Steve take ended with the biggest fish of the day being netted with an chunky little Mirror weighing in at 8lb 1oz, beating me by one ounce, but i didn't mind I was just glad that now we had both got a fish on the bank, and considering how cold it was it was turning into a pretty good Carp fishing session.

I managed to get another Common of about 3lb out of the pit before I returned to the Canal to concentrate on the Perch, unfortunately the Perch fishing ended without a single Perch on the bank but I did get a Carp of about a pound from the Canal before the day was over.

So, with the an overcast day and a winter chill in the air I thought that we would have had a bit of success with the Perch but we more than made up for it with the Carp, if I hadn't decided to set up the Carp rod the session would have been a proper failure but thinking back now I think we had a pretty good day and I got a chance to use my new camera so hopefully the video blogs will be a lot better quality from now on lets just hope I keep catching.

Winter Carp Fishing.

2009-12-13T18:23:00.162Z

After more than a few weeks hunting Perch I decided that I would have a go at the Carp in the Fendrod.

It was a cold crisp day and I did have a feeling that the time would have been spent better if I'd have gone Perch fishing but I had already made up my mind and wanted to try and land me a winter Carp.

I arrived at the Fendrod about middayish and I virtually had the lake to myself, so I thought I'd start off the session by having a feel about the lake and try and locate any of the gravel patches and underwater feature in the main body of lake, I made around thirty casts with a marker float and 3oz lead and dragged it along the lake bed, but to be honest I've never done this before and I know that knowing whats out there on the lake bed should give me more of an idea of where to present baits and that little bit of knowledge might just increase the catch ratio, well thats what I'm hoping.

After all the casting it all felt like silt and I failed to find any of the gravel patches but I did manage a few deep spots out in main body of the lake and I think I managed to locate the channel, also I could feel the odd patch of twigs and dead leaves so even though I hadn't made any great discoveries at least I knew where not to put a bait.

The video blog of the session.

I had packed the marker float away and had set up the rods and placed the baits out on to the deeper patches I had found. I'm guessing that all the casting I'd been doing had well and truly scared any aquatic life well beyond my casting range as I had yet to see a single sign of any fish moving about anywhere on the lake or maybe it was just the fact that after cold night the day didn't seem to be much warmer the Carp just didn't feel like making an appearance.

So, after about two hours I decided to move swims to somewhere far away from the disruption I had been causing earlier.

After settling down in the swim near he snags I finally had a pick up but it turned into a minor fiasco as I was to find out as soon as I picked up the rod, I had accidentally crossed the lines when I had backleads the lines so as soon as I connected with the fish I also had the resistance of my other line but I still had a tight line against the fish and couldn't see this being a major problem but after a short while the crossed lines didn't really matter as the fish had thrown the hook this also made me start to think about the rigs I had tied and starting to wonder if the pop-up rigs were doing their job.

After taking in rods and checking the rigs and placed them both back out to the same spots taking extra care not to make the same mistake twice with the backleads.

That was the peak and the grand finale to all the action of the session I didn't get a single knock after then even though I stayed well into darkness, one thing I will have to look at in the near future is my pop-up rig presentation as the hooks I was using were micro barbed and in theory once to hook has set it shouldn't just fall out.

Still going for Winter Perch.

2009-12-08T17:38:00.196Z

So I'm back at Whitesprings for my forth attempt at bagging myself my 2009 target Perch of 3lb 8oz.

After dropping Rachel off to work I arrived at the fishery just before nine hoping to make a start with a morning Perch, in my opinion the conditions were good and I was confident that I would have a nice Perch on the bank before the day was out.

After a long morning with high winds and the odd heavy downpour I had yet to see a knock on the end or a rod let along any fish on the bank, so the early start hadn't paid off and my confidence was starting to wain a little, for a long time I toyed with the idea of moving and abandoning swim which had produced for me in previous sessions, I eventually made up my mind to move while talking to the camera during a video blog update.

I moved to a completley different area of the canal changing my tactics of fishing under overhanging trees to dropping a bait directly into the remnants of the bankside weeds left over from the summer, I found a patch which made me feel like there could be a Perch loitering about in there.

Once I had finished relocating the wind picked up almost ripping the brolly out of the ground and the constant sideways rain slowly soaked me even though I was under the brolly.

It was coming close to seven hours without a bite and the rain had just stopped when my persistence was finally rewarded, out of the corner eye I caught the tip of my rod gently pull down, my reactions were like lightening I wasn't going to miss the only chance of the day. As soon as I picked up the rod I connected with the fish, the rod arched over and it started to pull line from the reel and I thought I'd hooked up with a Carp but the burst of power didn't last too long and a big stripey broke the surface out in the open water, it carried on battling me all the way until I had it circling in close, I had the net poised ready for the next time surfaced and as soon as it popped its head up for the second time I netted it.

I unhooked the fish in the net which was quite a task as the hook was down deep but luckily it wasn't as in the stomach and the hook was out without any damage to the fish.

Again I couldn't mentally gage a weight I was thinking about the three pound mark but the scales pulled round to 2lb 5oz, not the weight I was hoping for but none the less a specimen Perch, when I was taking the photos I noticed that the pectoral fin on its left hand side was missing with only a wiggling stump remaining and I suppose that is why it was circling so much during the fight.

Another cracking Perch weighing in at 2lb 5oz

And a close up shot.

After all the waiting I'd finally got a fish on the bank and I was more than pleased that it was a Perch, ok it wasn't the size I was hoping for but I'm not going to complain at landing yet another specimen fish.

The video blog of the session.

With one fish on the bank and my brain thinking about all aspects of the day I didn't feel like I had enough time to catch any more especially as I only had a about another hour before I had to be packing up ready to pick Rachel up from work, I am finding that Perch fishing is ultimately time consuming but luckily my efforts have always been rewarded, I can't imagine how disheartened I would have felt if that one fish hadn't come along to save the session.

As I'd expected the last hour was quiet and I managed to pack the gear in the car during a brief break in the rain another slow but successful session.

More Winter Perch Fishing.

2009-12-06T23:30:00.326Z

I was back out in the hunt for a monster Perch and this post covers two sessions over a period of three weeks, I decided to avoid going out for the middle weekend as I like to enjoy fishing and the weather was not what I'd call enjoyable.

I decided to combine the posts as the first session wasn't really much to write about, I arrived at Whitesprings with the intention of fishing the Old Canal but like the previous week there was a match on but unlike last week they had spread themselves out, I counted gaps of about four pegs between them with the odd exception so they virtually hogged the whole canal and after being verbally abuse by a small minded match angler for simply walking on the road next to the canal, I held back even though he had utterly annoyed me refusing to bite back at the repugnant example of what spoils fishing. I could see I wasn't going to be able to utilize any of the empty pegs so had to find an alternative.

My second port of call was the New Canal, I wasn't sure if there were any big Perch in there but I suppose with the almost exactly the same environment as the Old Canal I cant see why the New Canal isn't capable of producing a few nice sized Perch. I had to give it a try to find out.

It was very slow and apart from heavy downpours keeping me confined under the brolly there was very little happening, then after about an hour of enduring the rain my rod tip flipped right over but before I even had a chance to pick up the rod it was off, but at least I knew that I'd had some interest so my efforts weren't being totally ignored by the fish.

After another hour or so of enduring the rain and gale force winds I finally hooked into a fish, I was pretty pleased when I realised it was a Perch, not a monster but a Perch which made me feel like I was having success with my pursuit of the species, it was only about half a pound but it was a great relief to catch considering the conditions.

About 8oz, a low quality picture as its a still taken from a video clip.

A few minutes after my persistence was rewarded with another small Perch this one was probably the smallest one I've landed in a long while and like so often with Perch it had well and truly swallowed the bait and hook right down to its stomach, I took longer than I would have liked to disgorge the hook but at least it swam away once the hook was out, theres nothing more disheartening when your capture bellies up in front of you.

And this is all the action I had from the first session I endured the elements for another hour or so before giving up and heading home.

The video blog of the sessions, I did try and filter out some of the wind for the first minute but it left it a bit on the mute side for the first 50 seconds.

It was two weeks later before the weather behaved and I ventured out again. This time I had the canal to myself but with the weather being more than a bit wet in the past fortnight I didn't take a walk round as most of the ground extremely water logged and I was trudging through mud nearly a foot deep just to get to the swim.

I set up the rods cast out and within minutes I had my first pull round on the tip of the rod, I struck and connected with a fish, it felt like a Perch by the telltale kicks and it was fighting hard, I was having a bit of trouble guiding the fish out of the bankside weeds and before I had the chance to get it back out into the clear water the hook pulled which was a bit gutting as it did feel like a better fish but it was still early and there was plenty of time for me get something on the bank.

About an or so later I had a proper savage take on the the tip of the match rod and almost straight away I had a figured it could only be a Carp, I managed to lean back and pop the camera on and film my first fish of the day this was followed by a long lull of no action at all.

A small mirror, another low quality video still.

After a long long spell of nothing things started to wake up a bit, I started by missing a take then hit into a little Bream no more than a few ounces, when I was putting the Bream back I noticed that the line on the method feeder had dropped slack, knowing that previous sessions I had had Perch pick up the bait and stop pulling or moving once they felt the resistance I quickly picked up the rod and as soon as I had reeled in the slack I connected with a fish and it wasn't happy at all it the rod tip arched over as the fish powered off then it launched itself out of the water before trying to make its way into the margin but I didn't let this one get away and battled it into the net.

In the net how big was it going to be?

I looked down into the net and it looked massive and I thought for a second that it maybe another three pounder, but I was quickly brought back to reality when I slipped it into the weigh sling, holding it in the sling I could feel that it was going to be much more than two pounds, and the scales confirmed a weight of 2lb 2oz, my guess was pretty much spot on a rare feat for me.

Yet another specimen Perch.

Fins up for a cracking picture of this 2lb 2oz beast.

After it went back the bites continued with the rod tips pulling round but every time I would either strike into nothing or the tip would have sprung back before I could get my hands on it. It wasn't long before the sunlight quickly disappeared and I could no longer make out the the rod tip, thus calling an end to yet another successful Perch session.

I have a few more weeks until the end of the year so I still might get that target fish, only time will tell.

Making a start at Winter Perch Fishing.

2009-11-15T23:17:00.384Z

So with winter arriving with a cold sharp sting, water temperatures dropping and the metabolism of most fish slowing down, getting a fish on the bank is starting to become even harder than normal. I thought that this would be a good time to try and tick off another one of the 2009 targets and concentrate on the Perch.

So like Matt Hayes and Martin Bowler have done in the past I headed to Whitesprings and to the Old Canal in search of big Perch. I arrived at the whitesprings to hear the disheartening news that there was a match on the canal and I couldn't fish it until the match was over! Undetered I paid and made my was down with the intension of setting up on the new canal then moving over to the old canal once the match was over.

I drove down and as I pulled up I could see there was only about eight people fishing the match and almost half the old canal was free, so I thought I'd go and ask if anyone had any problems with me setting up on the far end away from the match, and to my surprise I was met with friendly response and they agreed that I could fish the pegs that were vacant.

The video blog of the session.

I was happy that I didn't have to go through the hastle of setting up and waiting to move, I could just pick a peg and fish. I unloaded the car and made my way to the peg, before setting up I sprinkled a bit of bait in the margins and threw a ball of groundbait out towards the edge of the island.

About three hours had passed and I hadnt even had a single knock and I was starting to think that maybe I should pack up and come back on a day when there isnt a match being fished, I'm guessing from what I've seen in the past that on the other side of the canal the matchmen have been baiting up quite heavily and I suspose that could have a lot to do with the Perch being preoccupied or maybe I just had to wait it out as I was fishing for a specimen Perch and I was not expecting it to be easy.

Then it happened, just as the 'All Out' was called for the match the tip on my rod slowly began to bend, I launched myself out of my chair and lifted the rod and I connected with a fish, all the anxiety and doubt that was starting build up was gone and I battled away, it felt strange to be fighting a fish on a light action rod after spending most of the summer bound to my Carp rods but at the same time it felt good, then the fish flashed just under the surface and I could see that I had a Perch on and a good sized one to boot, it was took a fair bit of time until it was ready for the net as I once I knew I had hooked a nice Perch I let it take its time as I didn't want to mess it up with the hook pulling out or anything else that would be a result of impatience, when it was finally ready I glided the monster Perch into the net and looked down wondering how big it actually was, after all the time I'd spent on the Fendrod catching Bream and Carp I really couldn't gage a weight and my first thoughts were that it was about a pound and a half maybe even two.

I didn't know it when I took this shot that this was going to set a new PB.

I put the camera on then put the fish on the mat, I then zeroed the scales with the net head then put the fish back in the net head and the scales pulled round to 3lb 2oz, I couldn't believe that on my first time trying for Perch in almost a year that the first fish I had landed had set a new PB beating last years best by a single ounce.

A new PB 3lb 2oz, Cracking.

Even though I'd set up a keepnet I didn't want to just simply drop this specimen into the net, so I released it back into the canal, in hindsight I could have had some lovely photos later on but to be fair I'm already happy with the photos I took so I cant complain.

Once I had managed to get one fish on the bank the bites started to come a bit more often and to be honest I don't think I would have waited another three hours, the next fish to grace the bank was a little Mirror Carp only about half a pound but enough to keep the action going.

Only small but keeping the action going.

As what happen a lot of the time when fishing my mind was miles away when I got my third take, the rod was arched right over almost lift the butt section before I tuned back into reality, I lifted the rod up and whatever was on the end was fighting hard, holding the rod with one hand I managed to lean back and switch the camera on with the other, the way the fish was fighting I assumed that it was a Carp but I know from past experiences that I have had big Perch on and thought they were Carp until they broke the surface and this one is going to remain a mystery as when I started to apply the pressure the hook pulled, I could put this down to a few things like poor hook hold due to striking late or playing the fish too hard but any angler know that these things happen and all I can do about it is keep fishing.

I managed to get another another Perch on the bank and this one was about a pound and now I could see for myself the difference in size and how I had seriously underestimated the weight of the first fish.

As the light was starting to fade I saw a small shoal of Roach break the surface over the area I had thrown out the groundbait a few hours ago, I had baited the spot hoping to pick up a few Carp while waiting for the Perch hence the keepnet being set up, but I had had no real interest over the baited area until now and I'm guessing it wasn't a Carp that was scaring the Roach out of the water, not to waste the opportunity I quickly dropped a bait right on top of where I had seen the little fish break the surface, I tightened up and sat back down not knowing that in a few seconds the bait would be picked up.

I had just sat down and the line on the rod I had just put out dropped slack, I got up and turned the spool on the reel until it was tight again, then it dropped slack again! at no time did I see and indication on the rod or feel any resistance when I picked up the slack, little did I know that I had a Perch that refused to give a proper indication that it was sitting there with the hook in its mouth. I decided to pick the rod up and maybe cast it again and as I picked up the rod the fish woke up darting from left to right until it had burned itself out and surrendered to the net.

A big fat Perch and another specimen Perch on the bank, weighing in at 2lb 8oz, I would have loved the opportunity to have a photo with both or the specimen Perch I had landed today but as you can see the picture of this stripy somewhat makes up for it.

Specimen number two, at 2lb 8oz.

Once the Perch was back in the water I decided to empty the keepnet, good job I wasn't fishing the match as the net weight was less than 2lb, I suppose it cant be helped when I kept releasing the bigger ones.

I fished on well into dark, I must have fish for about an hour in the dark before calling it a day and what a day it had been, I had really enjoyed myself and set a new PB what more can you ask for.

A Pembrokeshire Beauty.

2009-11-08T22:46:00.001Z

This is not the first session I had fished since the competition, I did go down the Fendrod for an absolutely dire session on Halloween, this session started off on a bad footing when I snapped one of the bivvy poles putting it up, then with it being so close to bonfire night there were fireworks going off from all around the neighbouring areas so this gave me no confidence in any Carp coming on the feed, then to top it off it started raining around 2am and the rain was heavy to the point where I got to witness first hand how quickly the water level on the Fendrod can rise at first light I waded out to get my rods and pod back before giving up and going home, I'm guessing if I had landed a fish during the night I would have somehow thought it was all worthwhile but I nothing on earth would make me want to fish that session again.

Now back to a nice dry day session where the sun was shining and there was no wading involved.

After speaking to a like minded angler I met on the good old internet, I was given directions to a small farm lake in Pembroke, all that I was told about the lake is that its hardly ever fished and its home to a good few big Carp. I found the lake on google earth then wrote myself some directions and I was ready to go.

Early Sunday morning I loaded the car and was away. The drive seemed to take ages and this was really hampered by 'sunday drivers' I got stuck behind a car that was insistent on traveling well below the speed limit and over taking when you're driving through country lanes isn't advisable, so after driving for close on two hours I finally arrived. It was now time to find the lake owner and pay to fish this was another time consuming event eating in to my fishing time. When I eventually found the owners I paid and made my way down to the lake.

The video blog of the session.

The lake was a little gem, nicely out of the way and the still water made the place feel serene, lets just hope the cold and bright sun weren't going to hamper my fishing.

Crisp, cold and calm.

I took two trips carrying the gear down to the lake and before I started to set up the rods I took a walk round baiting a few margin spots as I went.

Once the rods were out I sat back in my chair and waited to see if I would have any luck today, halfway though the session I went back to the spots I'd baited to see anything had taken the free offering, three of the spots were exactly as I'd left them but the fourth spot was a different story, as I approached I spooked a fish, I didn't see what it was or how big it was only the a big wake it left as it made its exit, most of the bait I'd put on the spot was gone and had been replaced by a cloud of silt, at least I knew that the fish were feeding in this cold spell.

The time was slowly ticking away and the one fish I'd spooked was the only life I'd seen until a huge common Carp hoicked out of the water over the other end of the lake, seeing as I'd had no luck so far and this was the only fish that had shown itself to me I reeled in one of the rods and cast it right on the spot where the fish had broken the surface.

As the sun was starting to set and I felt the temperature drop I decided it was time to pack up and literally as I stood up to reel in the rods the line pulled tight and the reel started to click, I was already standing next to the rod so I clicked off the bait runner and lifted the rod, the rod arced over and the fish started to take a little line.

It felt really good to hook up with something that was going to give me a battle before it would even let me see it, the fish didn't take anymore line but wasn't coming in easily it was still out in the middle of the lake and just steering me from left to right, I was starting think that I may have a proper big Carp on, I kept applying pressure until I could see it but it was no where near ready for the net, it just kept battleing hard trying to make its way back to the middle of the lake until I eventually got its head up, once its had had a few gulps of air I was able to steer it into the waiting net. I looked into the net and could see a nice sized mirror Carp with a huge paddle of a tail which it knew how to use, the fish was small then I'd expected but I wasn't disappointed, it weighed in at 14lb 12oz, I was just happy to get a fish on the bank and still couldn't believe how close I was to reeling in that rod.

The prize of a cold day, 14lb 12oz.

Check out the tail, what a powerhouse.

Once the fish was back in the lake I finished off the video blog then packed up ready for the drive home back ot Swansea, I'll definitely be back here next year and can't wait to see how this lake fishes in the warmer weather.

The Fendrod Carp Doubles Match 2009.

2009-10-11T18:56:00.004+01:00

It was finally here! another Carp fishing competition that I could have a go at, I mentioned in one one the replies to a comment posted on a previous entry that I'm happy as long as I don't blank and to rank in one of the top three prize winning positions would be a true personal achievement for me.

This time the end pegs were taken out of play, these were the pegs that would usually win the matches by clean mile and also the area that would see the most pre baiting before the competition, personally I think this is an excellent choice as the way the pegs are drawn means the first name out of the hat would one of the end pegs then go on to win the match, taking these out of play gives everyone an even chance but the total competition weights would probably suffer.

As this was a doubles match I paired with the usual suspect and we arrived in the car park with about half an hour to spare until the draw, to be perfectly honest I would have been happy drawing any peg but we none the less Steve and I put our heads together and picked out four choices that we would go for once our names were drawn and failing that if all four of our choices were taken it would have been pot luck.

When the draw started the names started coming out and the pegs on our list were slowly going, if I recall correctly our names were ninth out of the hat and our second, third and fourth choice were already taken so this made the selection pretty easy and we ended up with our first choice section 13.

The video blog of the competition.

We had just under two hours to get everything set up and ready to go, knowing that we had such a fair chunk of time before the match started took our time and slowly made our way over to the peg and after a few trips we had the car unloaded and all the gear strewn on the bank, to be fair we are far from tidy anglers but eventually the bivvies were up and the mess made its was from the bank and into the bivvies.

Then it was time to set up the rods I used a different method on each rod things that I had tried and caught on in the past and I was also trying out a few new things to see if I could push the odds in our favour. The two hours rocketed by and the 'All in' was called from the far bank, it was then I realised that I only had one back lead and even though its probably just a confidence thing I didn't really want to start fishing without backleads, so even though the the match had started I left the lake and nipped over to Tacklesmart to get some.

I eventually started the competition about half an hour behind the rest of the lake but my confidence was high.

Time seemed to speed up and after a glorious sunset neither of us had had any action and news of a few Carp being caught was starting to filter through so we knew that something had to happen during the night for us to stand a chance.

Red sky at night, shepherds delight. Whatever, it started raining!!

As the light was fading we saw a good few fish topping over he areas that we had been putting in the bait and I was still pretty confident that we would have at least one fish during the night as we made our way to the bivvies hoping to be woken up during the night by one of the bite alarms.

It wasn't until just gone midnight when I the bite alarm started singing, I was up on my feet instantly and picked up the rod and could tell almost straight away that there was a Bream on the end. After chasing the Bream for the last few months now I was back targeting Carp I had picked up another big Bream a bittersweet catch. It was another nice Fendrod Bream weighing in at 8lb 9oz and it was was the first time Steve had witnessed one of these slabs so it wasn't all bad.

A Carp match slab.

The first time I'd class a 8lb 9oz Bream a nuisance fish.

Well I was kind of pleased that I had caught even though it wasn't a Carp but at least from that moment on I knew that I couldn't blank. Once the Bream had gone back Steve and I both retired back to our sleeping bags.

I can't have been asleep for much more than an hour when the same alarm went off again, I scrambled out to the rods and as soon as I lifted the rod I could tell that this wasn't a Bream but even though it felt like a Carp it didn't feel like it had much weight behind it, even so it gave me a fair old scrap as I got it in close, I called Steve to net it for me but not before it had wiped out my middle rod.

We had made a dent. Steve run over to the guys fishing the next peg so that they could verify the weight, when they got back we slipped the lovely fully scaled Mirror into the weigh sling and it was time to see what sort of a dent we had made. The scales stopped dead on 8lb, not a massive start but a start none the less.

My first Carp of the Carp competition, weighing in at 8lb.

Now that I had actually landed a Carp I started to feel a bit more relaxed, climbing back into my sleeping bag I started to think about the fact that I hadn't heard anyone else's alarm going off and usually I'd hear at least one alarm going off if I was doing a night session on the Fendrod but tonight things were quiet.

At just gone 3am I was up and into a fish for the third time during the night this time I wasn't sure what I'd hooked into as the first indications were a drop back on the bobbins then when I picked up the rod the fish just seemed to glide in just like a Bream but then once it had glided about half way in it woke up showing me that I had actually hooked up with a Carp, as Steve was dead to the world I netted it myself and looking down into the net I could see my second ever ghost Carp from the Fendrod.

I finally woke Steve and he held the fish in the net while I went to find someone to verify the weight, this ghostie was another single figure Carp weighing in at 8lb 8oz which took our total weight to 16lb 8oz which at the time I thought that we were still in with a chance if we could get at least one nice sized double on the bank.

A cracking little ghostie weighing 8lb 8oz.

When I got back into bed for the third time I was expecting to be woken up with another run before dawn but it just didn't happen, I was up pretty early and the weather had changed quite drastically the clear sunny skies where now dull and grey with the odd patch of rain also the wind had picked up a lot during the night combined with a noticeable temperature drop I couldn't see this improving the chances of landing another fish, undeterred I re baited all the rods and sat behind them trying to will a take.

Around mid morning one of the Fendrod bailiffs came round and gave us a quick round up of what had been caught so far. I'll try and recall what they were but I might be wrong so here goes; first place was in 25lb+, second place was 23lb+, we were currently in third place with 16lb 8oz and fourth place was only 3lb behind us. It was nice to know that we were in with a real shout of ranking in the top three and one nice sized Carp would give up a real chance at first but there was also a risk of dropping down to fourth.

After watching one of the guys a few pegs over miss a screaming run I laid down inside the bivvy mainly to keep out of the drizzle that was starting to move in, the next thing I know I'm waking up at about twenty to four I'd slept for about four hours and the match was almost over, I got up to find Steve fastos in his bivvy, I woke him and we started to back all the gear away.

Luckily, Rachel turned up to watch the stuff while we made our way over to the car park, I had no idea what had been caught in the last four hours and didn't know what expect. To my surprise there had only been one fish caught in the last four hours and that was caught by the guys who were already in second place which pushed them into first place. The results were read out and we were third. First place was 35lb+, Second Place 25lb+ and our 16lb 8oz took third.

3rd..........................1st...........................2nd

I was really pleased, I had said that ranking in the top three would be an achievement and it truly was, OK it would have been nice to take first and to have banked a few more fish but I'm quite happy with coming third. Its a shame that Steve blanked on our first doubles competition fished together but he can always make it up on the next one.

A Hit and Miss Session on the Fendrod.

2009-09-25T20:27:00.000+01:00

There is nothing that I can really add to this session that isn't covered in the video.