The new rod gets a nice and damp Christening !

I fished a tench lake that has been very kind to me in the past. I arrived at 3:00pm and set up my marker rod first. The weather was sunny and reasonably warm (well I was in a tshirt )The area in front of me gradually sloped away to about 7 ft depth. The bottom was fairly uniform made up of gravel with a slight covering of silt in places. The only thing to avoid was the fronds of Canadian pond weed that were starting their annual climb towards the surface. I found a patch of gravel that had a little weed but not enough to cause me a problem.

Next I catapulted 10 balls of ground bait out to the marker float, made up of brown crumb and swim stim green betaine. The final ingredient was to spod out some corn caster, maggots and hemp and the banquet was set. I used a 2.25 lb TC carp rod which I has a nice progressive action and is alot more accurate than my other 3lbTC spod rod that is like a broom stick in comparison.

The first rod on the baited area was my new Greys Prodigy Specimen rod that was on it's debut outing. I set it up with the 2lb tip section to handle the weight of the fox 2 oz method feeder. The hooklink was a 3" length of 15lb sink link braid with hair rigged rubber corn on an T6 raptor hook in size 10. The second rod (Prodigy Barbel 1.5 tc) was rigged with a drennan in line maggot feeder, with a short braided hooklink as before except with a Korum S3 hook in size 14 balanced with two rubber maggots. I also added a pva ball of casters on the hook each cast.

The method rod was in by 4:00pm, with the second maggot feeder rod in by about 4:30pm as it needed setting up from scratch. These were left in until five thirty and were both recast back in position again by 5:45. Ten minutes later and I had seen no sign of any fish in my swim, the only activity was about 70 yards out to my right. The weather was now cloudy with both dark grey and white areas and felt quite muggy, light rain was falling now.

Just after seven o'clock it started to rain proper followed by a bit of a take about 10 minutes later but as i started to shift my weight to get up off the chair the take stopped and the bobbin stopped rising. The hook had not found its target for whatever reason ? Still it was some action at least and a clear sign that there were fish in the swim now at least. Fingers were crossed for another take.

By 8:00pm I had only had a small bleep on the method rod again straight after another recast. I also changed the rig on the maggot feeder from a popped up double maggot grub to a couple of rubber caster grubs instead, to see if that provoked any interest? It had been raining solid for a hour now and was quite heavy at times. It was nice to know my umbrella still does its job after twenty years plus(amazing). I shall only get rid of it when it finally decides it's had enough and falls apart ! I do want to get myself a shelter though, something like a Fox evo or similar.. for those more lengthy sessions I occasionally do into the small hours.

20:06pm and it finally stopped raining (hooray)hopefully the fish would feed now I thought. It wasn't long before they did, as at 20:35pm I caught a 4lb 7oz lovely female Tench with a beautiful rich orange belly the colour of a honey dew melon.


There was one more aborted take after this and so I will be checking that rig closely in my test tank for any obvious flaws?
The rain had started falling heavily again so I started to pack my tackle away. By 9:00pm I was more or less ready to go but with one obligatory rod left in right to the last minute. I couldn't help thinking but for the rain I would have had a few more takes. The fish had definitely moved onto my bait and were responding well to the corn and method rig but the heavier rain did seem to put them off their feeding.
The maggot/ caster rig never received any attention all session. This might be because the fish haven't seen any maggots over the winter months, and apparently according to the bailiff I am the first to fish for non predatory fish so far this spring.

My attempt to give an arty atmosphere to a nice shot of the right hand flank of the fish ! Really it was in an effort to try and improve the shot. I have discovered over time that you have to be careful taking shots in low light levels, like at dusk. Often when using the self take facility on digital cameras, this function can cause the camera to struggle to get a good focus in such conditions. I need to read up on the subject more and see if there is a trick to improving the problem? Other than that I find you get better shots in full daylight or even in full darkness rather than the low levels of dusk or twilight.

Pwllheli Bass fishing

Sunday/Monday 3rd -4th May 2009

I was on holiday in Pwllheli, Wales for the weekend with the wife and kids and so not one to miss an opportunity, I packed a rod and a few lures in the hope of sneaking in a Bass session.

I managed a quick 10 min session on the Sunday afternoon as we went to see the beach and even saw a couple of fish topping within casting range, but there was no interest in my lures.









These were Poppers such as Storm Chug Bug and Yo-zuri or Rapala's (shown in photo) and also the classic Bass lure the Dexter wedge, (not shown) on which I caught my first (and only) Bass last year in Cornwall.

On the Monday morning I was up at 4:30am to fish not long after the top of the tide, it was only just starting to get light as I started fishing. I like this time though, as it's a great time to be on the beach, you have the whole area to yourself. There's just you, the sea plus the various bird life moving about at that time, it really feels like you having an "at one with nature" kind of experience and is defiantly worth losing the sleep for.
I saw a fish top not long after arriving and near to where I was casting to but despite covering the area well, there was no take !! I saw another fish a short while later but again no interest in the either the Dexter wedge or the popper lures. My only regret from this session is that I didn't try the jointed rapala plug earlier, as it might have been the right pattern for the day ? who knows? The fish had probably moved on by the time I tried it anway, which would have been move than an hour after high tide by this time.

One thing I do know is I'd love to catch another Bass on this method it would be a great buzz to get another one now I've tried for them a few times. I will be defiantly trying again next time I'm at the sea.

I didn't even realise it was a bite !

Friday 1st May 2009 I was Zander fishing on the canal again this week and decided to have a good go at catching one using a lure. I walked to a different section of the canal fishing from the remaining abutment of an old demolished bridge, then worked my way back up to a busy marina trying out several lures in the process. None of them had induced any takes despite me trying some extremely tasty looking spots with overhanging trees or other features such as boats and reed beds. My favorite lure was an green perch imitation jig that seemed to be the right weight for casting and behaved well in the water to my eye anyway. The fish didn't seem to agree though but it also appeared they weren't too keen on any of the other lures I tried either, be it a plug or jig style. I will be pleased when I finally catch something lure fishing to boost my confidence, as I have tried a handfull of times recently but not had any results as yet.

For the second part of the session I fished two rods on a float set up, with roach or sprat sections on the hook. I decided to cast to a new swim on my way to the swim where I caught before and I had a take first cast. The float appeared to be drifting along just after I had cast it in as if there was some under tow pulling it (such as when a lock is opened further up the canal). While I was getting my other rod out of the quiver, I saw the float bob and move, which I knew meant it was in fact a take.
I picked up the rod wound down and set the hook. The fish shot up the canal to my left then I played it back and netted it quite quickly after a short but spirited fight. I obviously hadn't realised it had been a bite on the drop.



At 1lb 15oz it was my second Zander and had taken a Roach head on two size 10 trebles.

I moved a swim further up after a little while as there were no more takes in the first swim and caught another baby Zander at about half a pound. He had scoffed half a Roach, just goes to show what aggressive fish they are.


After the second Zed I continued along the canal to the natural end of the stretch near to another old dismantled bridge. I had a few inquiries along the way but nothing that developed into a take. I did manage to spook a large fish that lives under a small overhanging bush and will be back to investigate further later in the year.