Wilderness - 21/06/09

I had originally planned a session for Tench at Readers but because of a late night at the Dukes Head I could only manage to roll out of bed for 10am which meant a session at the ever productive Wilderness was a better bet.

By the time I got to the lakes it was midday and the car park was almost completely full, awesome, fortunately for me everyone was on the middle lake which meant I had the large lake all to myself. I wandered down to my favourite swim at the shallower end of the lake and took shade from the baking hot sun in the shadow of the viaduct bridge. I've fished this lake ever since I was a kid and for as long as I can remember it has always been a fantastic water for surface fishing so that was the plan today especially with numerous Carp visibly cruising around the lake.


Setup was nice and simple with my trusty 13ft Drennan Carp float rod, a Shimano reel loaded with 6lb line, a small bright red bubble float and a size 8 barbless specimen hook, the bait of choice was chum mixers held on the hook with bait bands but I'd also brought some 10mm pineapple popup boilies to try. I could of got away with not using the bubble float as I was only fishing a few rod lengths out but because I was fishing near lilly pads combined with the fact that the action is always hectic at Wilderness I thought it best for instant indication.

I don't think my bait had been in the water for more than three minutes before I hooked my first fish of the day and after a spirited scrap I was rewarded with a small Mirror of about 1.5lbs which is typical of the sort of fish in this lake.

Needless to say it was non stop from that point on, I fished for a further two hours and managed five more common Carp with the biggest being about 2lbs. My only issue was with my new batch of dog biscuits as Pedigree has loaded the new ones with so much meat for the benefit of our canine friends that after a short while they tend to sink, I had to resort to tipping my bait off with a bit of fake corn to keep it afloat, it didn't deter the suicidal Carp of Wilderness but it may be an issue elsewhere.

I had less success with the 10mm pineapple boilies which I tried by super gluing onto the shank of the hook, I even chucked a couple of freebies in to see if it was my presentation but they weren't interested in those either, as soon as I switched back to dog biscuits the water would start bubbling again like a jacuzzi as the Carp fought amongst themselves to get to bait.

Bearing in mind Wilderness is the stuff of legends when it comes to anglers tales about Carp being caught on bare hooks or being scooped out the water merely with landing nets I'm amazed I'd actually managed to find a bait that they weren't interested in.

Roosthole Pond - 07/06/09

After our successful trip to Roosthole in Horsham a few weeks back another trip was in order to try and catch that elusive twenty that is rapidly becoming an obsession for me, the plan was to meet at Grahams at 07:30 and hopefully be fishing by 08:00. The weather wasn't great when I left Grinstead as it was chucking it down with thunder and lightening (very very frightening!) but by the time I got to Horsham twenty minutes later the weather was almost tropical with blue skies and sunshine.

When we arrived at the lake it was a surprise to see only a couple of other anglers present so we jumped straight into the swims we fished last time. Setup was exactly the same as I've been fishing the past few trips (3.25lb Free Spirit X.S.E rods, 15lb line and bolt rigs with short hairs) and as usual I opted for the old favourite Dynamite 15mm spicy tuna and sweet chilli bollies (I might have to start buying these in bulk) fished in conjunction with a small PVA bag of trout and halibut pellets. Roosthole supposedly responds well to margin fishing but last time we were here I caught all my fish from the channel that runs down the middle of the lake so the plan was to do exactly the same.

To say Graham is competitive would be the understatement of the century as every time we go fishing our days rapidly descend into mini matches, all good fun and worth the banter, both of us pretend we don't care but I think both of us are secretly desperate to better the other. I hadn't even managed to get my second rod setup before Graham (or should that be Bob Nudd?) was into his first Carp of the day so the gauntlet was definitely down and the pressure on!. The first couple of hours were pretty frantic with both of us catching two Carp, none were huge but all fought like demons and then just like last time the lake suddenly went quiet for a couple of hours.

Around about 13:00 whilst chatting to the bailiff I had an absolute storming run that not only stripped took line via the baitrunner but also pulled the line clean out of the bobbin, after a good scrap I was rewarded with this cracking looking 13lb Mirror.

Throughout the rest of the day we both managed a few more fish including a couple of the oddest looking Carp you could ever seen, they had no length whatsoever and were as deep as were long. Originally I thought they might be F2's but they guys on maggotdrowning.com seem to think they are normal Mirrors of the 'Simmo' strain. My fish didn't weigh a lot but it was the shape of a saucepan lid.

Graham's fish was a much more impressive 13.5lb and he did well to keep the dustbin lid shaped Carp out of the pads in his swim, no doubt the beast had been drawn into his swim by the PVA potato sacks of pellets he had been using all day. With about an hour to go and despite a monster tangle that meant I had to setup both my rods again we had both managed five fish a piece so a diplomatic draw looked on the cards not that either of us was really keeping score.

I'm a firm believer in quality always shining through and two more runs on my rods resulted in two more fish on the bank to give me seven fish for the day up to 13lb, Graham managed five fish but his 13.5lber was the biggest and without doubt the nicest looking and toughest fighting fish of the day.

Overall an excellent days fishing in the sunshine with good company and plenty of laughs.

Thorpe Lea - 05/06/09

I've been itching to fish Thorpe Lea ever since I read about it on maggotdrowning.com, I'm relatively new to Carp fishing and still trying to catch my first twenty and this place supposedly has stacks of them. With that in mind I'd arranged to do a 24 hour session there with a mate from work immediately after we finished our shift on Friday afternoon.

When we arrived at the lake we had a quick walk round and chat to the bailiff who confirmed the fish had spawned but that it still wasn't fishing great, we could see plenty of fish rolling in the middle of the lake close to the bar that runs between the islands so my mate opted for swim 11 and I went for unlucky 13...

Thorpe Lea might be a lovely looking lake with a reputation for great fishing but it has far too many swims and a lot of them are angled towards each other which makes casting a nightmare, my mate was fishing straight out of his swim but his leads were landing in front of me two swims along!, not good when you are fishing at night and expecting big fish.

The setup was exactly as I had fished at Bluepool and Roosthole (3.25lb Free Spirit X.S.E rods, 15lb line and bolt rigs with short hairs) the baits of choice were a 10mm Mainline pineapple popup on one rod (a tip from the bailiff) and a 15mm Dynamite spicy tuna and sweet chillie bollie on the other, I've caught so many fish on the latter recently that it's rapidly becoming the first bait I reach for.

Just as I was baiting up my second rod my mate wandered over for a chat and managed to trip over my line which buried the barbed size 6 hook I was holding deep into my finger, my reaction was more of shock than anything else as there was no pain and no blood.

I managed to pull it back to the barb but despite much tugging there was no way I was getting this bad boy out of my finger which meant a visit to the hospital was in order. To cut a long story short my mate dropped me off at the hospital and returned to the lake to carry on fishing (I insisted), two hours later with the hook removed, a tetanus shot and much laughter from the girl in the hospital reception I got a cab back to the lake to see my friend had already managed a 12lb Mirror out of my swim on my rod, the cheeky poacher!

By this time the guy in swim 15 who had been kind enough to keep an eye on our gear whilst at the hospital was packing up so I decided to jump into his swim to give me more casting room. I whacked both rods out to just shy of the bar where the water was bubbling like a jacuzzi with fish activity and started to setup my bivvy.

I don't think I even managed to get my bivvy ground sheet down before the rod with the pineapple popup screamed off and after a fantastic fight I was rewarded with this new personal best 16.3lb Mirror.

In the next four hours I managed four more Mirrors of 16lb, 12.5lb, 12lb and 12lb all of which fell to the tuna and chillie boilies, at this point I thought I was in for a hectic night but it wasn't to be as the only bites I got during the night were from the mozzies and by the morning I had enough bites on my face to be mistaken for the elephant man.

To say Thorpe Lea is popular at the weekend would be an understatement as gradually throughout Saturday morning more anglers turned up until practically every swim was taken, the result was multiple tangled lines and heated conversation involving my mate and someone who was fishing three swims along. With that in mind combined with the lack of runs anywhere around the lake and rapidly increasing rain we decided to call it a day after 22 hours.

We finished the session with 14 fish up to 16.3lb but I don't think either of us will be in a hurry to return to Thorpe Lea as not only is the swim layout poor but a lot of the Carp we caught were in a sorry old state with tatty fins and bad mouth damage. I may consider another trip there but it won't be until October at the earliest and it would have to be in the middle of the week.

Roosthole Pond - 17/05/09

After my epic failure at Bluepool last weekend I was badly in need of a confidence boost and with that in mind I set off to Roosthole hoping to redeem myself, the plan was to meet at my friends house at 07:30 and hopefully have our lines in the water by 08:00. Roosthole is a few acres in size and the muddy water is home to many species including a large head of Carp most of which are low doubles. The water is owned by Horsham Angling Club so I was fishing on a guest ticket, my friend who fishes the water regularly had assured me that he thought we would have a decent day....

Having never fished the water before I turned up with a selection of methods and baits at my disposal including maggots just in case things got desperate and I needed to avoid another embarrassing blank that probably would of resulted in all my tackle ending up on ebay. What I really wanted to do was fish as I had done the previous weekend to try and boost my confidence and prove I wasn't doing anything radically wrong. With that in mind I set my two rods up exactly as I had done at Bluepool with size 8 hooks on relatively short hairs fished bolt rig style, the bait of choice was once again Dynamite baits spicy tuna and sweet chilli 15mm boilies fished with a small PVA bag of trout and halibut pellets. Roosthole supposedly fishes well in the margins so with that in mind I dropped one bait close in and the other rod was cast to the middle of the lake where there is a deeper trough and I could see fish rolling.

Within 40 minutes of my baits hitting the water I had a screaming run on the rod in open water (man, do I love the type of run you get on bolt rigs), this was my first Roosthole Carp and it fought like an absolute demon which I think had something to do with the increased water temperature in recent weeks and the fact the lake had been closed for a while due to work parties. After finally getting the fish on the bank my new digital scales confirmed the fish to be exactly 10lb.

At that point the heavens opened and we were treated to a torrential downpour so I retreated under my brollie for 20 minutes and waited for it to pass.

Within 20 minutes of putting my bait out again in the same area I had another run which resulted in another Mirror of 14.5lbs (my biggest fish of 2009 so far). At that point I decided to bring in the margin rod and fish both rods in the deeper water in the middle of the lake which paid immediate dividends as for the next two hours the action was non stop with a further four fish. At one point my bait couldn't of even been in the water for a 30 seconds when I had a run whilst I was still setting up my alarm and bobbin, I'm amazed the PVA bag had completely melted in that time. The pictures really don't do justice to how thick and solid these fish were:

A few of the fish were showing some battle damage (split fins & mouth damage) from being caught so many times which was a little disappointing but the Mirror in the middle picture was fin perfect and one of the best looking fish I've caught all season.

Just as quickly as the action began it ended and I failed to add any further fish the remainder of the day but I was still more than satisfied, what a difference a week makes, six runs and six fish landed (5lb, 9.5lb, 9.5lb, 10lb, 11lb & 14.5lb). If I wasn't already a member of so many clubs I would seriously consider joining Horsham to fish this water as I'm confident over the course of a season I could catch one of the twenties that are present.

Despite fishing the same baits in the same areas my friend was unable to bank any fish, the only difference being he was fishing free running rigs as opposed to bolt rigs and unlike me he was fishing without backleads and tungsten weighted rig tubing to pin the line down. No doubt he would also be quick to point out the bites/runs he missed whilst busy photographing my fish (sorry Graham!).

Burghfield Blue Pool - 10/05/09

With me not being a specimen Carp angler and considering I hadn't had a decent bend in my rods since I last went Piking at the end of 2008 I jumped at the chance to fish a water that is regarded so highly by so many Carpers in the UK.

For those that don't know the Blue Pool is a Cemex water that can be booked for £125 a day which allows up to ten anglers to fish it. The lake is about four acres in size with gin clear water but is weedy and unlike anything I have fished before and with it's big head of Carp which have an average size of 15lb+ and numerous 20lb+ fish I probably wouldn't have a better chance to catch a twenty this season.

As previously mentioned I'm not really a Carp angler so I spent the majority of the week frantically trawling the internet searching for info and also working with one of the guys I was fishing with to try and learn how to tie my own rigs. After taking advice I planned to fish short bolt rigs (size 8 hooks) with my three Free Spirit X.S.E 3.25lb TC rods and 15lb line. Upon arrival and after drawing number four out of the hat I opted for swim number one which was probably my first critical mistake.

Maybe it was the Pike angler in me but I was convinced the shallow bay at the end of the lake complete with two small islands, overhanging trees and clear patches of gravel amongst the weed would be a magnet for the Carp. I wanted to try and cover as many options as possible so opted for 15mm real fish boilies combined with 10mm pineapple popups fished snowman style on two rods and a single 15mm Dynamite Baits spicy tuna and sweet chilli boilie on the other, each rod also had a small PVA bag of pellets attached prior to casting. I cast one rod towards the open water, one rod in the margins to my right and one rod between the two small islands dropping my bait on a clear patch of gravel a foot away from the overhanging trees which meant it was a simple case of walking around the other side and literally dropping some freebies on top, all that was left to do was to sit back and wait.

Within an hour of putting my rods out I had my first touch on the rod with the single bait near the overhanging trees, it wasn't a good enough bite/run to hit but it was still an encouraging sign especially when this was a completely new way of fishing to me. Another hour later I had my first proper run as my screaming reel indicated that a Carp had made off with my tuna and chillie boilie near the overhanging trees but the fight was over as quickly as it had begun as the hook pulled and I contemplated what could have been. By the time evening had rolled around I'd had no further action but three of the five anglers on the lake had banked fish including a couple of twenties, all I could do was retreat to my bivvy for the night and have something to eat (my second critical mistake).

Just as I tucked into a cereal bar I felt a crack on my tooth as one of my fillings gave way and pain ensued. The combination of tooth ache (plus the migraine it caused), the drop in temperature, increased wind, lack of fish and lack of sleep due to everyone else catching made for one of the most uncomfortable nights of my life so by the time morning rolled around I decided to call it a day and get my tooth sorted but not before I was woken by a goose trying to get in my bivvy and then walking underneath my rods lifting them off the rests causing my alarms to go mental.

To cap it all off whilst I was packing up I had another screaming run on the single bait by the trees and yep you guessed it, just as I was getting the fish away from the snags and under control my hook pulled yet again. What with the tooth, scraping up my car on the Friday, losing most likely new personal best fish and Boro getting beat by Newcastle on the Monday the weekend was rapidly turning into one to forget.

It was an epic failure for me but the other guys ended up with 40+ fish between them which included numerous twenties, hopefully I'll get another chance to fish this water again someday as I'd definitely like another crack at it.

Mill Lake at Stubpond - 03/05/09

Thanks to it being a bank holiday weekend I could afford the luxury of a days fishing and after meeting my mate at 9am we made our way to Stub Pond, upon arrival the decision was made for us with regards to where we would be fishing as the specimen lake was packed out and Plantation was hosting a match. Mill Lake might not be anything to look at but I've been meaning to give it a go for a while thanks to the recommendation of one of the regulars on maggotdrowning.com. The lake is almost made for matches and pole fishing as its a long thin lake with an island in the middle that you could probably almost jump half way to. After a quick walk round and a chat to a couple of other anglers plus some serious cynicism from my mate we decided to fish two swims on the far bank which have access to the end of the island nearest to the car park.

Setup was nice and simple with my Carp float rod and small waggler fished straight through on 6lb line to a size 14 hook. I also had a sleeper Carp rod with a 15mm cherry boilie fished tight to the end of the island, I wasn't optimistic of any action on this rod considering the size of the water and the average size of fish present but I'd paid for two rods so I was going to use two.

I started the day fishing maggot on the waggler close to the island and the 'far' bank and was rewarded with a small Roach every cast, not exactly what I had come for but welcome all the same. I continued tiddler bashing for maybe 45 minutes until I noticed Carp on the move in the small bay/ditch to my left where water enters the lake which meant a change of tactics was in order. At this point I decided to switch to small soft hooker halibut pellets and feed a handful of sweetcorn every cast in an attempt to bag some of the lakes resident Carp and Tench. After 15 minutes of fishing just under the rod tip my float shot under and I was rewarded with this fin perfect Mirror of maybe 4lb.

I persisted with the same tactics for the next few hours and was rewarded with two more slightly smaller Carp (one of which looked heavily spawn laden) plus a small Crucian and Tench (my first of the year). By now the clouds had cleared and the sun had made an appearance which meant the Carp were cruising the upper layers and thrashing around in the reeds in the ditch to my left so I decided to have a go at trying to catch a few off the top (my favourite type of fishing). Setup was about as simple as it gets with a size 8 hook tied straight to the line, bait was chum mixer held in place with the aid of a bait band. Now Stub Pond is about as strict as it gets in terms of rules but I still wasn't aware dog biscuits are banned there which probably explains why the Carp were so happy to oblige with a further three fish in just over an hour of fishing, all of which fought like demons in such a small area of water.

I know some waters ban surface fishing because you get idiots striking and damaging the lips of Carp which is completely unnecessary, part of the thrill of surface fishing for me is seeing that line zip away on the surface as Carp take the bait and hook themselves.

By the end of the day I had finished with six Carp (the biggest being 4lbs), one Crucian, one Tench and a selection of small Roach, not a bad days fishing and I even managed to catch the sun a little, I was a little disappointed not to have caught on of the lakes stunning Ghosties that I could see cruising the lake. My mate who was fishing the feeder (aside from a little surface fishing late in the day) was less lucky, he managed one Carp, one monster Perch and few other bits and pieces but he was also snapped up by a bigger fish.

Plantation Lake at Stubpond - 13/04/09

Despite the fact I only live 5 minutes away this was my first ever visit to Stubpond (Surrey) and after a quick chat to the owner we decided to fish Plantation in the hope of a decent mixed bag and perhaps one or two bumper fish.

I started off fishing the waggler with the usually reliable corn, meat and worm but struggled for bites, maggot brought more bites and a couple of small Roach but with the increasing breeze andsurface flow making life a little difficult I decided to switch to the maggot feeder and fish as close to the island as I dared. By now the sun was shining and though the Carp were showing in the water they weren't really feeding, it was then we found out from another angler that this lake had recently hosted two matches, that would certainly explain our struggles!

The bites kept coming on maggot and caster with the result being a handful or Roach plus the biggest Gudgeon I've ever seen in my life so I decided to stick with it. With about an hour to go just when I was convinced that was my lot I had a monster bite on double caster and after a cracking fight in which I feared my size 16 hook would pull my mate from work slipped the net under a dumpy 9lb Mirror Carp that was almost as deep as it was long.

My friend was less lucky, he managed a few Roach and Perch on ledgered maggot and caster but it seemed the action was few and far between today with only a handful of Carp caught on the lake all day. Not a bad day though especially with the sunshine and the fact this was the first time I've been on the bank in over a month.