FANTASTIC FLOATER FISHING


We regularly walk  our dog Paddy over a local country park of a weekend and on our walks there ive noticed theres a lake in the middle of the park. When theres water involved i mhave to explore and upon walking round this small lake i,ve noticed quite a lot of carp activity. On our last visit there it was quite obvious that the carp were very happy to feed on the surface as i saw them bow waving and sipping down insects around the lily pads and marginal reeds. A plan was hatched and later that evening i arrived at the water armed with my stalking rod and a bucket full of mixers and loaf of bread.
 It was a red hot evening with not even a hint of a breeze, perfect for surface fishing but not great for a knackered old fisherman walking the 1.5 mile needed to get to the water. After finally getting my breath back i proceeded to chuck out some mixers and straight away the water erupted with carp of all sizes fighting for the free food. Great thought i, banded mixers on the hook should snag me a shedload, how wrong was i. Although they fed heavily on my free offerings they turned away from my banded baits, so out with the old faithful breadflake and first cast resulted in a lovely common of a couple of pounds, result. Feeding regularly with the mixers and using breadflake on the hook resulted with somewhere in the region of 20-25 carp banked varying in size from a few ounzes to the cracking common at the top of this entry which i reckon went around 18lb, i didn,t have any scales with me. All the carp caught were in cracking condition and the big common put up an immence fight on my 9ft Sonik Stalker road. Not a bad result for a few hours fishing.

 
After my previous success the week before i decided to have another go for the carp of the surface. I used to only fish this way when i was a teenager, making my Dad take me to local club waters after work/school to spend the evening stalking carp from various bays, weedy corners and reedbeds. I regularly 'pissed off' the proper carpers by fishing a couple swims up from them and easily catching fish of the top whilst they had been struggling all day with nothing to show for their efforts. More than once i got told to 'fcuk off boy or i,ll chuck you in' as another carp splashed over my net cord. Anyway where was i, oh yes back at the country park lake. Sharon had come with me to walk Paddy so i only had an hour or so to wet a line and as previously the fish were definately interested in my bread. By the time 'Melady' had returned i,d netted over half a dozen carp topped by the two fish shown, both around the 8lb mark i reckon. You can,t complain about fishing like that on a free lake deep in the middle of a beautiful country park. I,ll give the place a proper go with bottom baits in the larger part of the lake at some point as talking to a guy who says he fishes it quite a bit, theres carp just into the twenties living in there. Its got to be worth a go.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

SELLING MY BOAT

Image
I,ve come to the tough decision that i have to sell one of my fishing boats as i barely use it any more and i need the space. The boat is a Shetland 535 Fast fisher 17ft glassfibre jobbie with a tuned 40hp yamaha outboard on the back. The boat itself is ready to go fishing with all steering and morse controls working fine. The gelcoat is a bit flat but sound, theres no holes or osmosis and just needs water.  The outboard is a Yamaha 40hp and was rebuilt a few years ago and has only been used for a few hours and is in immaculate condition and runs fine. Its electric start and needs an external fuel tank. As the pictures will show its immaculate. The trailer needs a little bit of work, new wheel bearings and possibly a little welding here and there. All in all its ready to go and is ideal either for sea fishing or pike fishing. I,m after £1200 which is a good price considering what i,ve seen them going for on ebay. The boat is stored near to Basildon in Essex and you can e
Read more

'RAYS' OF SUNSHINE

Image
 Lately there have been a few reports of the thornback rays showing up in the local tidal river in good numbers so I thought i,d set out to catch one. I have caught a few thornies in the past but I,m far from proficient at it, so I,ve set myself a little goal of fishing for them more over the next couple of months so that I can learn as much about them for future fishing trips. They're actually not too difficult a species to catch as they're not really rig shy and as long as a nice fresh bait is placed in front of them then you,re in with a chance. Anyways I arrived at my chosen location, after a 2 mile grueller of a walk, an hour before low water planning to fish the tide up until it was pulling too hard, making the fishing uncomfortable.  TRAPS SET As the picture shows the water here is a long way down which makes retrieving your tackle, or fish for that matter, a tricky affair. But its worth sliding down the wall and clambering over the rocks when needed as this spot is stra
Read more

SMALL RIVER ROVING, RETURN

Image
At the beginning of this year i fished a small river in Essex, which i had been meaning to try for a few years, in hope of catching some nice perch and chub as i,d heard a few reports and walked the river and it looked good for both species. Luckily i did pretty good on that session and caught both my target species, and not bad sized ones too. Well last week i decided i fancied another trip there to see what else this tiny little river had to offer. My target for this short afternoon session was the perch, probably my favourite species to fish for over the past few years. Now that i know the river holds a couple of decent specimens i feel that its worth putting in the effort to see what size these sergeants actually grow too. Arriving at midday i set of on the 1.5 mile trek to a small side pool, which i had caught small roach, rudd and gudgeon from on my last trip, to tempt out a few small silvers to use as live bait on the main river. Arriving at the pool it was obvious that no one
Read more