2012 season preparations

My preparations this year have seen me conpletely sort out all my coarse fishing gear.
Having not fished with a float or feeder rod for about 2 years I decided this year I would do more of it.
First up was putting all my gear into my new korum all rounder holdall.
This really is a brilliant bag for the general coarse fisherman, it has a massive main compartment, big enough to hold reels, bait, large fox box, feeder bag plus more. 2 end pockets for catapults, rod rest heads etc, a long zipped pocket big enough to take my boss bait table, and finally a net pocket which hold my keepnet and 2 landing nets.
For £30 you really are getting alot of bag for the money and the quality of it is brilliant.

Once I had sorted all my gear into a pile I decided to go through it before putting it in its new home and sort out the stuff that needed replacing or stuff I didnt need anymore.
I managed to sort out my feeders and I had a surplus of about 30!! So these were sold off.
Next up was new line on my reels. Ultima power plus is the line I choose, its very thin for its breaking strain, and I have alot of faith in it. I use it on my carp and barbel rods too in heavier breaking strains. I filled 3 spools with 3, 4 and 6lb breaking strains.
Next was to replace some bits that I needed, a new catapult, some pellet floats, pellet bands, and some method feeders.
I chose the guru adjustable catapult, it was slightly cheaper than the drennan alternative, and much better looking.

Its very unique because you can alter the elastic to give you different ranges.



The idea is a very good one, but it does have some slight problems, but more on that on my next blog at barons pond.

As I have intended to have a few sessions targetting a small commercial fishery near me call Barons Pond, I decided that I would need some pellet wagglers and some small method feeders.
For the pellet wagglers I chose the preston innovations unloaded and maver foam ones.



These take between 3 and 6ssg shot so should cater for all occasions.

I looked at several different method feeders including the Guru x safe ones, but in the end settled for the Drennan feeders.



The reason behind this is because they come in 15gm size which would mean I could use it with my existing rod and reel set up. Any heavier and I would probably have struggled to cast them and would have needed a stronger rod.



The kit comes with a mould so you can make perfect sized feeders everytime, which will aid with accuracy as they will all be identical in weight and shape. They also some with a small stonfo connector making hooklength to mainline attatchment very easy. All in all, a very good simple system.

I also needed some bait bands to hold the pellet on the hair rig so a pack on guru bands were purchased




I also bought some Drennan quick change beads, I had seen these in use before and they solve the age old problem of tangles when using a groundbait or maggot feeder. They just pop apart, you tie your mainline on and clip the hooklength on the sliding feeder sits against the bead, so simple yet really effective.

All that was need next was some bait and I was ready to fish




Sonubaits make some of the best pellet around in my opinion and I use it for all my fishing.
I bought it in various sizes to cover every eventuality.
Bait-tech envy method mix for the method feeder fishing and that was my shopping list finished.

I was now ready for my first commercial fishing trip for many years.
Some of the items I have bought and mentioned above I have not used before, so I will offer in session reviews of these items. I, like many others, have to pay for my gear and always look to get a good balance of decent stuff at an affordable price. Sometimes ill pay more if i think its worth it, but if something cheaper does the same job, ill use that. So my views on these items will be unbiased.

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2012 season start

Test

T.A.C Match

As a Thames regular for many years I thought it only right to join the Thames Angling Conservancy. The T.A.C. are a group of anglers who want to protect the River Thames from the many challenges the river faces and improve it for the future.

Entirely free to join up to it is definately worth a few minutes of your time to sign up and be part of the rapidly expanding club who are trying to make a difference to the River Thames.

You can join here - http://www.rivertac.org/

On the forum there is a variety of topics, from litter picking to arranging of matches, meet ups etc, It was the clubs first match which I attended on Fri 27th Aug 2010 at Walton bridge.

Promising to be a good evening with a laugh, prizes, trophies and maybe even some fish it was well worth attending.

The draw for pegs was at 17:30, I arrived a few minutes late, and was the last fisherman to arrive. This meant I was last to draw out of the hat!!

As only 6 anglers were present at the draw, it didnt really matter as there was plenty of space along the stretch, people obviously thinking it was better to stay indoors after the recent downpours over the past few days.

I picked out the last ticket marked 2, so even though I had arrived last, I walked off second and picked my swim. Seeing as there were only 6 people fishing, I decided to stay close to the HQ, ensuring a chat with the others and being able to keep an eye on what else was caught.

My mainline of attack was pellet feeder with a mix of scalded pellet/boilie in the hope of snaring a bream or two, with the possbility of a barbel or carp also.

The match started at 19:00 and ended at midnight for the first match, the other one running from 19:00 til 07:00.

The first fish caught was to the guy next to me and turned out to be a gudgeon!!

He had a few more little fish before news filtered through of a 3.11 perch being caught a little downstream, well done to Paul for that fish. He actually went on to win the 12hour match by adding a 6lb bream also.

Winner of the 5 hour match was a guy called luke who had a 1lb2oz roach, followed by the guy next to me who weighed in 7oz I think, 3rd place went to Mark with a lone gudgeon, leaving me fishless in 4th place!!! Still 4th place in my first ever match aint too bad, at least it doesnt sound to bad when I tell people where I finished, I might just not add the part where there was only 4 entrants, lol

I even got the pike rod out an hour from time and put a spinnerbait around the swim in the hope of a pike lurking around the margins, but to no avail.


The midnight finishing horn sounded all too soon and the gear was dispatched to the car. The Gazebo was alive with tea, the smell of bacon rolls and chocolate biccies!
As the fishing had been quite poor, but the turn out had been ok, plus the amount of tackle that had been donated as prizes everyone that had fished got something, myself getting a FOX evolution x rucksack which will join my small mountain of fishing gear I already have!!

All in all it was a very good evening, my own fishing limited by the tackle that I had, I couldnt really change tactics, but I fished on regardless. I will definately be attending any future events arrange by the club.
There is talk of pike tuition days which I really fancy, as I have so much self written material on pike fishing, it will be good to pass this information on.

Once again make sure you Join - http://www.rivertac.org/

Evening on the Thames

I managed to get out this week for a few hours on Thursday evening.
I headed for a new spot that I had discovered earlier that day, there was a guy fishing it in the morning, who had caught some nice roach from there.
He informed me that there had been some nice bream and Barbel caught from the swim in the past. It looked a good spot as there is no far bank swims for at least 400 yards one way and 100yards the other. So a good spot that is quite out of the way.
Anyway I decided to spend the evening fishing here, that was until I was driving up the road to the swim and some pikeys had very kindly set up shop just behind it!!! Not wanting to be chucked in and have my gear nicked for no reason, I chose to drive off and find somewhere else to fish.

I headed for another spot a couple of miles away, this area has boat moorings all along the stretch, and very limited swims for fishing, which surprise surprise were all taken! Well it was no surprise really as the area is very popular.

So thinking cap on, I decided to drive to yet another spot, which was empty aside from a couple of anglers a few hundred yards away. I unloaded my gear into my swim and wandered up to talk to one of the guys to see how he was getting on. He was fishing waggler and maggot and catching roach a couple of rod lengths out.

Deciding to stick to my chosen spot, I set up the rods and marker/spod rod. Setting up a marker rod is alien to me as its not something I do, or spodding for that matter, but I decided to pack an 8ft 2lb tc stalking rod I have into my barbel rod sleeve for exactly the reason.
It will comfortably chuck a 2 oz lead across that thames, and will also easily cast a fox pocket spod which weighs next to nothing even when full across the thames. As well as doubling up as a stalking rod if the need arises.
Anyway I set the rod up with a lead and made a few casts around, soon I discovered a gravel run three quarters of the way across. I clipped up the rod, and attatched the spod. after about 10 casts I had deposited half a kilo of sweetcorn on the gravel run.

I set up the sweetcorn rod with a 2oz running lead, 2ft 10lb hooklength, size 10 hook and for bait I used 2 real grains and one fake pop up piece of corn. I small piece of rig putty placed a few inches from the hook would keep it on the bottom.

The second rod was cast upstream, halfway across, with a glugged DBTS boilie and a small bag of mixed halibuts.
Both rods remained motionless for the 3 hours I was there, although there was fish topping everywhere and a few bigger fish crashing out of the water.

Highlight of the evening has to be seeing a barn owl glide silently from one side of the river over my head into the trees behind me. Something I have not seen before.

I left at just after 23:00, but I will return soon and plumb the rest of the stretch I think to locate the fish, as one of the guys I was speaking to said there has been alot of barbel caught from along it in the past month. So I may concentrate my next few sessions here.

Out and a-trout on the Thames

We decided to have our first spinning trip down on the Thames today.

The weather was overcast, but very muggy/hot, the cloud cover was just dulling the light down enough to cast a shadow out over the water. I have found this to be the best time for spinning down at this spot, as its mostly perch that we are targetting, and perch seem to hate bright conditions.

It was only a late hour or so session, so we didnt get to the river until about 15:30ish. Claire set about putting her favourite little Mepps bladed spinner on and have a few casts. A couple of casts

in and she had hooked into a small perch of about 4oz.

A few more casts and she passed the rod to me to have ago. A few casts later and I was swinging in a small perch. Several more followed upto maybe 6oz, nothing big but good to be catching on the lures.

I then spotted 2 dark shapes moving along mid river, I wandered along and saw that they were carp. Not big maybe double figures, but a river carp all the same, and one that I have never caught!!

A few more perch followed to the mepps before I hooked into what I thought was a pike, I could see it twisting in the water and it looked like a small one, until it went mental on the surface, I then realised it was a trout!!

I have never even seen a trout caught from the thames, let alone hooked one myself!

Im not even sure what trout it was thinking that it was a brown trout looking at it, but it could be a rainbow??

Anyway it looked like it had had a lucky escape, as there were slash marks on its back and tail on both sides, classic of being grabbed by a pike.

I would imagine it to be a pike of at least double figures judging by the size of the marks on both sides of the trout.

Im not sure passers by would have liked me puting 2 size 6 trebles in the trout and putting it out under a float in the hope of catching a big pike!! So I may have to return a little more descreetly in order to catch it.

I returned the next day for another hours of spinning, this time Claire fishing, but conditions were very bright and sure enough after an hour of continuous searching, no fish came to the bank.

I did however see the two carp again, this time in amoungst the cabbage weed closer to the bank, drifting off into the deeper water as I got closer to them.

Next time Im there, I will have a bag of boilies with me to scatter in a few areas to see if I can get them feeding. Better take a net with me next time!!!

The start of a new river season....

The start of the River season on June 16th is always a special time.
The river has had time to recover from 9 months of fishing the previous season, all the bankside vegetation has grown back up, in some places you cant see the river over the new shrubs.

The enforced 3 month lay off may not be to everyones liking but once june 16th comes round there is a flurry of activity on the banks again, people camping out for days prior to this to ensure they get into the baited areas they have been priming for the past 3 months in search of big River carp and Barbel.

The start of the season, for me, signalled a chance to get out. Having only been out once since September, I was looking forward to getting back onto the river.
I am getting more into carp fishing lately, reading about it and brushing up on my rigs etc, but being on the river chasing barbel is what I really enjoy, plus there is quite a realistic possibility of a big carp, bream or even catfish!!!

On the lead up to the new season, I had changed my reels to some front dragged Fox Stratos 7000 reels, much preferring the front drag as I think it offers a smoother give to fish trying to take line. The new reels replaced my shimano 5000 re's which were brilliant reels, but rear drag.
New line was ordered as well, being the new Ultima PowerPlus in 10, 12 and 15lb BS, the diameters of this line are much thinner than normal lines.

Anyway, june 16th arrived, and I had a rare opportunity to get out during the day for a few hours, so I grabbed a pint of maggots, 4mtr whip, and my barbel gear and set off in search of my first fish of the season.

The plan was to put out a barbel rod with a feeder and my barbel groundbait mix, and fish the whip for some sport before eventually putting both barbel rods out and sitting back to enjoy the evening.

As is typical all along the Thames, the margins of the river are covered in cabbage weed. I cannot stress enough how much of a fish holder these areas are, carp route around amoung there, pike lay in wait camouflaged amoung them, and the silver fish are also found amoungst them.

I usually fish a whip just the other side of the cabbages in the slightly deeper water, and today was no different. Setting the float at 4ft in 5ft of water I began trotting the 4bb stick float along the back., feeding a small pinch of partimix and a few maggots every cast, I continued for around an hour without a bite!!
This is very rare on the thames as pretty much anywhere I have fished with maggots you will normally alwasy catch small fish.

I spoke to the guy in the next peg who was trotting maggots also and he was having a hard time of it also, having only a few perch.

So I continued with the trotting for another 20mins before deciding to pack it in and stick 2 barbel rods out.

The other rod was set up the same as the first with 10lb mainline, but this time a running 2oz lead replaced the feeder, with 8lb hooklengths. a bag of whole and broken DBRF boilies was dispacthed to the far margin.

I recast the rods several times, to different areas but to no avail and I ended the day having caught nothing but plenty of sun!!!

In hindsight I should have just taken the whip or the barbel rods, to do both I wasnt putting enough effort into either, so I should have just concentrated on one or the other, but live and learn, I was expecting to catch plenty of small fish, which in turn might have attracted a pike or 2 into the swim.

The following day, having 3 quarters of a pint of maggots left, I decided to go to the area of the thames that I fished a few times last year, and just fish the whip and see what I could catch. I was quite confident I would catch something, so I set the whip up for my nephew to fish with, being only 3 im sure he would enjoy catching anything.

We fished for about 2 hours and caught small perch, roach and a gudgeon!! Not caught one of them for ages, and goes to show why there are so many perch in the area having caught so many small (2-3inch) fish.

Later that evening, with the kids in bed and my wife's friend over for a "catch up" I decided at 20.30 I may as well have a few hours into dark down the river, so set off with my barbel gear.

Rigs were simply, a 2oz feeder rig and long 10lb mono hooklength on one rod and 2oz lead with the same hooklength on the other rod.

The feeder rod was placed about 15yds out with a halibut boilie tipped with flouro corn, and the other rod fished with a DBRF boilie with a bag of whole and broken baits cast 3 qtrs the way accross with around 20 baits scattered over the top.

The long rod was left until something happened on it, whilst the feeder rig was recast regularly to get some bait down on the bottom. When something did happen it wasnt to the expected feeder rod, but the longer range rod, a couple of bleeps on the alarm had me alert, then a few more bleeps a few seconds later. The strike met with nothing, so out the rig went again after a little touch up with the hook sharpening stone.

I ended up packing away just before midnight, after 3 hours fishing, with nothing else happening apart from the doggers, boy racers and general weirdos that frequent the area after dark!!!

Next trip out will be a new spot further downstream, and hopefully a meet up with some fellow London Blankers from Maggotdrowning.co.uk

If you live in or around london / surrey / hampshire then get over to http://www.maggotdrowning.co.uk/ and join up on the london blankers thread in the going fishing section.

til next time, tight lines