WHATS THE CATCH ?

Hello to all

The sun is shining, Everton are playing well, Liverpool are looking very poor ( forget about the derby ) what more could a man want?.... Some big fishes of course!

Spring is here which sadly bids time for the closed season on all of our rivers.I do agree with the closed season, obviously it gives the fish a break but also brings more magic to the river and gives us anglers time to observe, bait and plan for next season as we count down the days to June the 16th.
As the deadline for the closing date was looming over me like a black cloud I couldn't resist a final fling with old Esox, Lucky for me the big girls were playing the game as I ended a prolific pike fishing season With another large female.

Spring is also a good time to have a crack for a large perch as on most venues they will be carrying spawn turning a very respectable 2 and a half pounder into that benchmark 3lb specimen. With that in mind the perch gear came out as I had plans to target a couple of commercials in the hopes of  meeting a fat spawn bound stripey!.

The first perch hunt saw me joined by angling writer and all rounder Dom Garnett.The venue for they day was not so much a commercial but more of a proper rustic back water farm pond complex with real surprises lurking in all of its inviting pools.The first surprise we encountered was not a pleasant one Dom was fishing for some roach on a pole at around ten meters. He was catching a few nice fish and building up the swim when to our amazement he hooked a specimen carp on a 4mm micro pellet. Five or so agonising minutes past with the elastic at full stretch before an almighty crack was heard as the top section of the pole exploded. We did manage to retrieve the pole and unbelievably all the tackle as the crafty carp somehow ditched the whole lot in a near bank snag.With Perch on the mind I began to catch some live-baits to use later on in the day,I was after some small roach but struggled to get any preemo baits as they were mostly to large.To my amazement I was also getting amongst some mighty gudgeon and landed a micro spessy of just over 3oz.The perch proved to be somewhat tricky for me on the day but Dom maneged a goodun of 2lb 2oz.

The next session was again planned around perch fishing. This time the venue was a small commercial stuffed to the brim with the ever popular carp. Along with the the mirrors commons and ghosty's also swim some nice sized perch with a 3lb fish being a realistic target.On the day we had quite a gang of us including myself and Neil, Moxy and his cousin Danny my dad and Jim ( chickpea and hemp Kingston ) and big fish man Julian Chidgey.

In previouse experience on the water I have found that the perch usaly  feed during a very small time window in most cases at dawn or dusk.With this in mind and the fact that the upper layers of the water looked like you could walk across them we decided the carp looked up for a mixer or 2 ( kilo's).

From the off the carp were suckin the mixers up like it was the last feed they would ever get. Julian was keen to show young Danny the fundamentals of stalking and help him to land his first carp off the surface.We crept round to a back bay that was stuffed with fish, A few mixers went out to gain there confidence before introducing a hook-bait. The carp instantly started to lap up the free offerings, Dan and Jules kept low making a stealthy approach to the waters edge. A bait was then flicked past the feeding carp and slowly drawn back into the area. It didn't take long before Danny's bait was engulfed and it was time for him to strike. As the rod was drawn back a big splash erupted on the surface confirming the hook had hit home. After a good tussle on the very forgiving Fox Barbel rod Danny had landed his first carp off the surface and went on to bank another 3 fish.

Meanwhile my dad was enjoying some sport on the fly presenting an imitation mixer on the surface.He landed five carp before they had battered the fly beyond use. As the sun started to go down our focus was drawn back to the perch. Neil and I both had a good fish each, His fell for a ledgered dead-bait while mine took a fancy to a live Rudd on a paternoster.

                                              Else where Ty banked a lovely canal Tench

Til next time

Good luck

TINCA FEEDER MAGGOT PIE

Hello to all

I'm sorry for the lack of posts lately, Life's needs and musts have stopped me from wetting a line for two whole weeks!.
After what seemed like an eternity I had a free day to do as I pleased. Fortunately the weather forecast was looking favourable for a session on the canal.

The plan was to try and catch some tench, yes this may sound a bit stupid to some people, I know if you lived up north and said to another angler that you were going tench fishing in early march he'd probably think you'd been smoking  crack. Any way down ere in Devon it only takes a glimpse of spring to send the tench on the feed,This does not apply to all venue's but there are a few places that seem to provide very unseasonable sport.

As you may have noticed I have been doing lots and lots of pike fishing. I do love my pike fishing very much but to be honest I have been looking forward for the chance to fish for something different.I needed a visit to the local tackle shop to stock up on a bit of bait and a few rig bits, Whilst making my purchases I got talking to a man who is somewhat a bit of a don on the cut. He gave me a few valuable tips and I left the shop buzzing at the prospect of catching a few tinca's.

When I got home I went about preparing the bait for the next morning. I soaked two pints of maggots in green lipped muscle oil and mixed up a batch of light sweet smelling ground bait which also received a healthy glug of the muscle juice along with another meaty liquid additive from CC Moore. The work was complete, It was now just a case of hoping the fish would play the game.

The next day I arrived on the bank with a big smile on my face, The weather forecast was spot on with a very warm air temperature coupled with a light breeze giving a bit of ripple on the surface. My tactics on the day were kept very simple employing feeder tackle on a running arrangement.

I started the session with a very large feeder to deliver a good carpet of maggots into my swim. Once I was finished baiting up I unclipped the obscenely large spod like feeders and replaced them with medium sized 25g Drennan cage's. Then tied on the hook links of 6lb line and a strong specimen size 14 hook to which 4 maggots were impaled on.

It didn't take long before the tip wrapped round and I was battling a fit tench which I lost right at the net as it happened. A bloody big bugger he was too! anyway after some rather colourful language and a couple of casts later the tip ripped round again and I struck into another tench. This time I landed the little rascal and felt very happy as I slipped him into the keep net. I don't usually use a keep net but I was hoping to get a few nice picture's so on this occasion I did. After an hour or so I landed another two, Including a very plump fish much larger than the two previous ones. At this point I thought it would be a good time to take a trio shot then pack up the keep net for the remainder of the session.

When the keep net went away the tench came out to play as I landed another 5 and lost a few to boot. A ridiculous day's sport to say the least. I must thank Neil for taking the photographs for me, He also had a bit of sport lure fishing.

  Til next time

  Good luck