Porth Reservoir: Pre-Maver Festival Session 2014

I should start by saying that I'm not actually fishing the White Acres Maver Festival during this coming week. I wish I knew the venues well enough and had the time to commit, but the extent of my sessions these day only involve a practise/pleasure aspect.

Today I fished Porth Reservoir in Cornwall. The Maver Festival starts on here tomorrow so there were quite a few bods wandering around, making plans, having a few hours fishing or in some cases just setting eyes on the place for the very first time!

I used to fish the reservoir a lot during our various Cornish winter leagues in particular, but with the sheer scale of the place it's not somewhere that I've really come to pleasure fish for many, many years. With the size of seatboxes these days and the amount of kit we all like to carry, the walk alone is usually enough to put me off coming.

 

 

Until late last night I hadn't even considered fishing Porth today, but with calm conditions forecast and the fact that I'd sold out of maggots in the shop on Saturday (but wanting to fish somewhere today), it'd be possible for me to tuck in to White Acres on the way and grab everything I needed.

With a pint each of maggot and casters and half that of pinkies, I got to the reservoir not really knowing what to expect. It's one of those places where you may or may not find the fish within pole range, but with the warm summer we've had and lack of wind lately I hoped they'd be willing to feed close in. In fact, it was a necessity for me since I don't even own a single rod or reel at the moment! It was pole or nothing!

There wasn't a chance in hell I was breaking my back walking to the other side, and I don't much like the trees, so I settled for peg 19 in the meadow section. Just a nice average peg really in my mind.

Expecting relatively clear water (the wind usually colours it up a bit - and there's hardly been a breath of it lately) I assumed it'd be mostly a day for catching a few roach and perch. With this, it was an old-school approach with a very 'roachy' groundbait with 500g each of Sensas Lake and Roach Noir with 150g each of Epiceine and crushed hemp. Nice and active! I had more with me just in case I needed it. Before feeding I added some casters and pinkies. This type of fishing takes me back to the old days!

With little wind, I plumbed initially as long as was convenient. This basically meant fishing at 11m. Longer than this and despite the depth still going away, the bushes behind me started to get in the way. I was happy at 11 though. In reality I expected them to come even closer as I could see no logical reason given the time of year and conditions that they wouldn't be hungry for it.

I also set up 3 whips in the hope of catching them shorter. The wind was just a gentle breeze, blowing slightly from the left so I actually plumbed and planned to fish these slightly to my left, straight in to the wind. Far better this than have the line being picked up more easily at an angle. I did a little bit of the same on the pole line.

On the pole line I had no more than about six feet in depth. I've spent a lot of time fishing deeper venues lately so this felt lovely and convenient. I set up two rigs - one 0.6g wire stemmed float with a sensitive fibre bristle, bulk of shot and three no.11 droppers and the second almost identical bar a lighter float of 0.4g. Although I expected the fish to be hungry, I approached it fairly negatively in a way. I didn't want to go all out like I was expecting 50lb or anything and just felt the need to work my way in to it a little.

After feeding three balls laced with the aforementioned casters and pinkies, it took me probably 20 minutes to get in to it. The fish were actually there from the start it seemed, but I faffed in various ways before I could get in to any kind of rhythm,- getting float shotting right, taking a bit of depth off to stop dragging bottom etc...

 

 

It didn't take too long to figure out that this was potentially anything but a 'scratching' session though. I was getting bites very quickly but I was missing a lot. It wasn't solely the fishes fault either, and I wasn't completely happy with my hooks or hooklengths for the day. I have a confession to make and I actually managed to leave all of my lighter lines and hooks at home for the day! Just what you need when you're sat on Porth! Making do with some overly heavy, barbless patterns I had previously tied, it wasn't ideal. I had two hooklengths with 0.10mm Garbo Line (which was fine, bar the hooks) and nothing else with me below 0.12. In my last blog post I actually stressed how much I hate fishing these days when I'm not at all prepared, but in reality this session was a pretty prime example of what I was on about. Having said that, it was such a nice day that I was willing to make an exception. I'd already warned myself that I'd probably be making a rig or two on the bank but I hadn't quite come mentally prepared for the idea that I'd be doing that without my hooks!

Anyway, making do with the two hooklengths I had, I was catching!

Now, this was turning in to a great 'practise' session. Two things, perhaps three or four came to light. We're all aware of how things can change drastically with fishing, from one day to the next, but today we learnt that:

1) The lighter of the two rigs was far superior. Missing bites and having a few cagey bites on the 0.6g version, a switch to the 0.4g version had me straight in to more and bigger fish. This came to light relatively early on, but it was interesting that when I accidentally picked up the wrong (heavier) rig later on, I immediately experienced the same problems as I had initially. A switch straight back to the light rig and it was game on again!

2) Caster definitely picked out the better fish. I had some lovely ones on maggot too, but the caster wins. Maggot fish probably averaged only 1.5oz while caster fish were generally between 2oz and 3oz, with the odd bigger specimen.

3) The bigger fish liked a bit of groundbait, as did the skimmers - as you'd expect. I was loose feeding casters every drop in and after a period of catching, the stamp of fish would start to reduce. Introducing another ball of groundbait very often had an immediate effect and I'd be either straight in to a bigger roach, or quite often a hybrid or skimmer.

4) The roach wanted a moving bait. As far as numbers went most of the roach had the bait on the drop. In most cases I hardly had time to pick up the catapult and fill it with casters before they'd have intercepted the bait. They weren't necessarily right under the surface, so bites were hittable and less skittish than those times when they are, but you had to be quick with the feeding. To feed balls of groundbait (not so accurately at times, eh Dave?!), I'd stand up with my pole between my legs and very often I'd be striking in to a fish before I'd even have chance to sit back down again. It was fairly frantic at times. If I hadn't had a bite by the time it settled, it was very often worth picking it up and laying the rig down in a line on the water again. Getting the direction right for this was again important - with or against the tow. The wind actually went around with the session, and the tow followed. I started laying the rig in to the left (having it sink in line against the tow) and by the end was doing the opposite. This did help create more bites and enable me to hit more of them on the drop.

 

5) Towards the end of the session I had a great spell fishing double maggot closer to the bottom. Although the roach were very willing to come shallow (but tricky to catch shallower than 3 feet), the larger perch sat below them and if you dropped a visible bait down to them it didn't take long for them to have a go. They were good weight builders averaging about 6-8oz. I lost a much better fish too (Perch) and also something I foul-hooked. A couple of nice scales attached to the hook suggest it was something actually worth catching! Luckily I had no pike trouble all day - one follow but that was it.

I fished for 5 hours in total and caught fairly constantly with fish being in the peg from start to finish. I had to change depth regularly and played around with feeding a little, but sport was pretty constant. They went through a few tricky periods but it was usually possible to do something to settle them or figure out how to start hitting them again. I did try the whip but with fish being smaller than on the longer line I didn't stick at it for long. Saying that, I'm certain that if I had fed it more aggressively and spent more time building it up then I could have caught much closer than I was. Especially when the wind went around a little and was blowing straight in my face. There's just something I like about seeing a brightly coloured elastic zipping from the pole! For reference I was using (and love!) the J-Range Lastix Hollow 3-5 through just one section. The whip idea was also one that I had as a back-up in case of pike trouble. Obviously I'd have been in and out much faster.

We all know that conditions can vary day to day and the festival will likely fish very differently this week, but if I were to go back tomorrow for another pleasure session I would:

A) Mix more groundbait. I'd have done a full 2kg. Three balls at the start seemed right. I could happily have fed six, but three seemed to do the job as far as attracting fish went. After my spell on the whip, it may be worth noting that having neglected the pole line a little I fed three more balls to give it a boost. After this I had six skimmers on the trot. Nothing big, but it was certainly noticeable. It's always possible of coarse that they'd just settled a little more with less disturbance above while I wasn't fishing it. This did happen regularly when groundbait was introduced though, like I already said.

 

B) Rigs. Today I actually had it quite wrong, despite catching. The rigs and floats were more suited to catching closer to full depth. I caught most fish anything from 2" to 24" off bottom though, with the odd one on the drop far shallower than that. Light rigs were obviously best on the day, but I'd go back with something like a Chianti pattern in 4x12 or 4x14 with a more spread shotting pattern to really make the most of those fish taking on the drop. I'd also have set up a much shallower rig. I was getting the odd swirl right under the pole tip, but even set shallow (half-heartedly) the rigs I used today just weren't efficient. I'd have had a 4x10 or 4x12 float set 24" deep to make more of those fish. There were some nice fish amongst them! Rigs for full depth would possibly be the same weights. With conditions so calm today, there's every chance that tomorrow with any increase in wind at all, all of a sudden the 0.6g rig will be the best choice. I'd certainly be having one rig set at full depth (or just off bottom - the leafy bottom can be tricky!) and another 6" off - then the shallower rigs above that.

C) Hooks. I fished barbless patterns today. I think they were 808's. Although the size was ok (18) they aren't hooks I'd be using through choice on Porth. This is the land of the Kamasan B511, B611 or similar. I'm a massive fan of the old Drennan Nu hooks in the Maggot pattern especially which have a lovely fine wire and relatively long shank which really helps when you're catching quickly. The micro-barb (allowed on here) is a real benefit when you're swinging bouncy 1oz fish left, right and centre. I'd possibly have fished a size 20 on the lighter rig as well, sticking to an 18 on what would be my 'normal' rig.

D) Line. I'd have opted for my usual Porth 0.09mm hooklengths. With the right hooks and more delicate lines I'm absolutely convinced I would have missed far, far, far less bites today. It was very frustrating at times.

E) It would have been more than possible to come another section shorter - even two (depth around 3-4 feet at 6m). The skimmers and hybrids did make a difference on the day though, so the only thing I'd wonder to myself is just whether I would still be catching these fish at 6m? I'd probably fish 9.5m if you took me back tomorrow for a pleasure session and I wanted to catch more than today. I'm obviously aware that things might change with match anglers on every peg along this length, so anglers in the festival may find it different. Who knows?! 13m may even end up a better length to hold the fish at?! Certainly I can't imagine these fish disappearing altogether though. It'll be interesting to see whether the bream show this week or whether the roach nets come in to play. There is certainly the potential for some big nets of roach, perch and skimmers right now!

F) I'd probably also spend a little more time fishing those bigger baits closer to the bottom. Spending more time on it I'm certain that the odd much bigger bonus would have come along to really bulk out the perch weight.

I only found my fish counter in my bag just over an hour and a half before I packed up. By the end I had 60 fish on the clicker and it'd been as consistent, if not more so earlier on. The end result was somewhere over 20lb of roach, skimmers, hybrids and perch. The picture doesn't do them any justice at all and even I'll suggest that it probably doesn't look like there's 20lb in there. In reality there was more than that. The blister on my finger (pole burn!!!) can testify!

In total I fed all of the groundbait that I mixed, and in addition just one pint of caster and a few maggots. Quite a cheap day out really.

It's been a long time since I've made the effort to fish Porth. I think my next purchase will be some kind of canal stool so that I can fish it more easily from now on without the effort of taking a massive box!

Good luck to everybody who's fishing the festival this week - and especially Paul Holland who sat behind me for an hour or so today! He's fishing Porth on Tuesday.

Over n out.

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New Enthusiasm (incl. my history)

There's a big difference between what I used to do - in angling terms - and what I do now.

To introduce myself properly, I have lived in Cornwall for all but the earliest two years of my thirty-three. I have sea fished on and off for the whole of my walking life but since I was about twelve I found my own interests in coarse fishing. The following fifteen years saw me match fish various leagues around the county (winning quite a few over the years), a few Nationals, a few forum gatherings and the qualified for the odd event like the Garbolino Southern Angler final which ran in 2005 and 2006. The venue suited me for that one and I was lucky enough to win it in 2005, and finished second in 2006, losing on weight after another two section wins. I also contributed to a few magazine features across the likes of Advanced Pole Fishing, Anglers Mail and Southern Angler. All the while however, I could only really admit to being a "club" angler. The truth is that I neither had the money to afford all the tackle I really wanted, or more importantly the time or dedication it took to prepare to be a really top class competitor.

Today, although I don't currently fish much competitively, my enthusiasm to be more prepared and fish as effectively and efficiently as I can has returned - far more so than ever before. I'm lucky in that I now own my own tackle shop. Obviously this too makes life easier when it comes to affording the tackle that I require to achieve a level of efficiency that I feel like I require.

I have spent the past seven or eight years mainly lure fishing at sea. While it may seem like this side of things is completely unrelated to coarse and match fishing in general, in reality lure fishing is moving so fast and has come so far that I strongly believe that I have developed certain skills and understandings about tackle presentation in particular that I wouldn't have developed had I remained solely a match angler. The arrival of "LRF" (Light Rock Fishing) in particular - which see's us fishing as low as 2 or 3lb breaking strain lines (in the sea!!!) has created some interesting scenarios and various learning curves about tackle in particular but has also absolutely filled me with new ideas for my coarse fishing return. Through years of experimentation and very precise tackle choices to achieve varying levels of perfection and presentation, my outlook on some things is now completely different.

Despite quite a bit of success, I was a lazy match angler. Incredibly lazy. Today, even as a pleasure angler I am motivated and far more prepared than ever to get the most out of any session. Quite simply, if I am not prepared for a fishing trip I would rather not go at all than go and be wishing I had this or that beside be. In the past, my box would quite often have sat in the garage between matches without even being touched. Making rigs on the bank, whatever.... I was never fully prepared and this probably contributed to my eventual lack of love for the sport. I eventually threw in the towel. I spent a lot of time fishing matches when I really didn't actually want to be there. When you get to that point it's absolutely no fun whatsoever!

Lure fishing made preparation easy and was a far easier habit to build on. A bag of bits and a single rod and reel would do it in most cases. Despite coarse fishing requiring more in the way of tackle, rods and bait just for a single session, lure fishing has been an excellent warm up, mentally. Over a period of time I started to sort my kit more readily. There just wasn't so much of it so it seemed a bit more bearable, until eventually it became second nature to be prepared. I mentioned 'cost' earlier, but regardless of this it's the mental side that makes the biggest difference and how I've changed the most. Certainly, not being prepared (ye olde "fail to prepare, prepare to fail") was always my biggest downfall.

I am not the greatest angler in the World and never will be, but my fishing has changed a lot over the years in lots of ways and I'm more motivated with it right now I've ever been. Well..... maybe it's different?!.... I've been through various times when I'd be hugely excited about things, but these days I'm a lot more sensible and balanced. I know my strengths and weaknesses as an angler and even psychologically. I won't be burning myself out charging all over the county/country competing on venues I've never seen before. If that was the plan then I'd insist on a couple of practise sessions. I basically just won't be doing any fishing anywhere unless I'm ready to make the most of it, whether it's a social event or a competitive one. A certain level of seriousness doesn't mean I will be losing any of the fun though. If anything I will be and am enjoying it more, having the tackle I require and like using, and just being prepared to fish "properly" - rather than just filling a peg between more prepared competitors like I always did in the past.

I've always been obsessed with fishing tackle. It's now my job and I love that side of it. The bonus for me now becoming more active on the coarse side again is that I have to start filling my garage with more kit again! Such a shame! ;-) Seems to be some great new stuff coming out in 2015 and I'm really looking forward to buying some of it!

Fingers crossed I'll be out to fish somewhere this coming Thursday. Will report back I it ends up worthy!

Over n out.

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Paste: when it doesn't all go to plan...

Gifted a surprise day off work, I tottered back to The Alps fishery near St Merryn. It's been quite a while since I've fished the smaller pool there.

As you pull in to the fishery the small pool is right in front of you. Parking behind your peg (part of the lake anyway) was a nice bonus considering my chilled out attitude to the day.

I usually fish this lake with a groundbait and pellet attack, with expanders on the hook. I've had mixed catches of up to around 120lb on here before so felt like I had it pretty sussed after a while. Usually you start by catching roach and rudd, for these to be replaced by skimmers, and finally the carp move in. It always provides an enjoyable day.

 

"Back in the day" when I was match fishing I always had great results using paste. However, I'd never really set myself up for a bagging session on this lake using one of my favourite methods, despite putting a big ball on occasionally just to try and get through the 'bits'. So, today was the day! The weather has been so warm and mild this year that surely a pile of bait and some pungent paste would do the business?! (I guess the title of this entry gives the actual outcome away a little?! Anyway....)

With the water level about 12" down on the norm, my first job was finding a peg with enough water in it. I sat initially on one of my favourite pegs without giving the water level a second thought. When I came to plumbing up though I only had two feet of water in front of me! Ideally I wanted to fish at around 6m so that I could feed comfortably by hand and hopefully get in to a proper baggin' routine - a bit like we used to do at Witherington Farm near Salisbury (old favourite). A ball-ache indeed, but shifting my gear a couple of pegs back towards the car and I was sorted with around three feet of water and a couple of tempting margins. I had the same depth everywhere between 3 and 11m so it gave me the chance to feed a few spots if necessary, depending on how things developed. Hopefully though, the 6m line would come alive and I'd trump my previous best on the lake.

Knowing before I even arrived that the squillions of silverfish that fill the lake would potentially be problematic, I came prepared. On matches at Bake Lakes we used to get pestered by skimmers on the pole line. Eventually I found that feeding 8mm pellets rather than 3's, 4's and 6's kept them at bay a little more effectively. I guess it just means there is less bait covering the bottom so the fish don't become such 'grazers'. Anyway, I bought with me some 8mm pellets, a tin of hemp (hopefully a non-fishmeal particle with prove less attractive to the skimmers in here?!) and one bag of groundbait/paste mix which I'd mix on the bank.

 

Since I've already given the game away in that this did prove a frustrating paste session (although relatively successful - read on) I won't go in to all of the details about what I do or why I do it with this entry. I'm treating this session solely as an educational practise session.

 

 

Elastic is the black J-Range Lastix. I've found it perfect for this type of fishing.

Rigs are naturally sturdy, long tipped patterns. For me they include Garbolino and SconeZone patterns. Both of these I under-shot slightly and use the bulk of the paste to bring the float down to the bottom of the bristle. I also like a quite a wet, sloppy-ish paste (despite the image above making those balls look quite dry)! Paste fishing has moved on in various ways over the years, and every angler now has their preferred way of mixing it and a preferred way of fishing it. In truth I think it probably depends a bit on the venue and the individual anglers level of confidence in different methods.

 

 

Paste mix today is simply Sensas Crazy Bait Gold, straight out of the bag. I'm probably only mixing up 1/4 of a bag for roughly four hours fishing. The one additive that has stuck with me through all a lot of my paste fishing life is the Cat Meat and Liver Squirts. It's strong stuff and on a warm day like today I have confidence in its oily, fatty goodness!

I've always like to feed quite positively when paste fishing. I know it's not always the way, but on the venues I grew up fishing, dumping a pile of bait and either fishing it out or topping up over the top of it has always worked well for me. At times I know I've been caught out by putting too much in, but that's match fishing! With this being a pleasure session though, there was no harm in trying.

 

 

I started by putting the above cup of hemp with a few 8mm pellets and a few nuggets of paste on to the 6m line. Confident I could catch fairly quickly and only here for a bit of fun, I went straight over the top of it in an attempt to see how long it would take for me to start getting a few line bites.

 

To cut a long story short, pinging 8mm pellets over the top every few minutes I did actually catch the odd carp (averaging about 2.5lb)! Life in general was slow to start; a few liners, the odd bubble. I could tell that something wasn't quite right though. I was getting too many line bites and not enough proper ones. There were obviously fish in the swim, but it just seemed that they wanted to be sitting over the food rather than really getting their heads down. It was hard to tell whether it was just the time of day (we were now in that quiet spell between about 2pm and 4pm) and they just weren't really in the mood, or whether I'd just buggered it up by putting too much bait in.

I'd been feeding the 3m line to my right by hand from the start too, solely with 8mm pellets. My initial look over this line didn't receive a thing, but the second go down there did snag me a couple of fish. Still it was hard going though.

 

 

Next thing to try was a longer, 11m line slightly to the right. This time I'd feed only pellet. Grabbing a few 4mm and 2mm from my bag, I'd try feeding these every put-in with my ball of paste.

BIG mistake. These small pellets really are what the silver fish in here are attracted to. Having not had such a problem on the hemp line, I couldn't get a ball of paste down through them as they darted around in the upper layers under the pole tip. I did catch a couple of carp on the occasions when the paste made it down through the hordes of rudd, but even when it did, the fish just seemed to be sitting above the feed again with only the odd one rooting around the bottom.

Hmmm......

My usual pellet attack would be working wonders here. At least I would be happier catching the silvers if I was actually fishing for them. There are faster ways to get them than with 1" balls of paste!

Eventually I managed to calm things down a bit. Despite trying another line with no feed at all but the paste on the hook (no fish), I settled in to a more successful pattern. I was back on the 6m line but rather than constantly throwing half a dozen 8mm pellets at the float, I just dumping half pots of mostly hemp with the odd 8mm pellet after every two or three fish, then leaving to settle while trying the margin.

What was interesting was that the silver fish seemed less confident closer to the bank. On the 3m line I was feeding regularly with the 2mm and 4mm pellets I'd fed further out, but there was little or no interest or problems with the silvers. As a result, it wasn't long until I was catching carp consistently here as well!

By alternating between 3 and 6m lines, catching a couple of fish from each before feeding and moving over to the other, I had a better last hour.

I'm rubbish at counting fish, but I think I probably had between 18 and 20 carp by the end of the session. It was definitely an interesting one, and the paste is something I will come back to again soon (on the bank and in more detail on here - I'll wait till I've got the place fully sussed before spending time on it). It wasn't the bagging session I'd hoped for as the carp didn't appear to be in the mood and the silver fish were very frustrating at times. Eventually they moved in on the 6m line as well, leaving me just the 3m option at the end.

Naturally I'll be back. The Alps is a great little place with a lot of variety.

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Bream on the long pole @ The Alps.

The Alps fishery near St Merryn in Cornwall is ideal for me. Not only is it close to home, but the fishing just isn't like other more commercial fisheries. The truth is that it's not completely overflowing with fish, and that's exactly why I like it! While a good days fishing can always be had in either lake (the smaller pool especially!), it's the venues specimen lake that is my current pick.

 

The lake's silver fish species feed confidently during the warmer months and while winter silverfish match nets may only reach 10-15lb, in the summer you can target larger nets of Perch, Roach and Rudd, or you can get your head down for some larger Bream - some of which go well over 5lb in weight. It doesn't take many of those to build a winning weight! Having said that, the lake still requires some thought to get the best from it. The shoals of both small and larger fish can be skittish and it can be difficult to keep fish coming for the duration of a match.

Just last weekend I was lucky enough to win the silverfish section of a recent charity match on this lake. Drawing peg 29 on the lakes long, left hand bank I managed to catch 24-8 of mostly smaller fish with a few skimmers thrown in for good measure. The skimmers mostly came during the last hour of the match. The heavy addition of chopped worm to my groundbait really bought them on. Wanting to test the theory and make the most of a Sunday off work, I'm back fishing the same peg today.

There wind is a little more tricky to contend with this week, quite gusty at times, blowing right to left. Last week I concentrated on two lines at 13m (quite tricky with a high bank behind me) but with the wind today I've come a section closer to 11m. The bottom is still slightly sloping at this point but it's about as long as I'm prepared to fish in the conditions.

I've always enjoyed fishing for skimmers on the pole. Although the way I do things has changed a bit over the years, some of the principles remain. Fishmeal groundbaits for example are a perfect starting point - no matter which fishery I'm on. Maggots and Expander pellets are two hookbaits that have always been with me. I remember the first time I used Expanders effectively was in a match at Oakside near Newquay about 10 years ago. 30lb of small skimmers later and I was a convert! That was the same day that I first figured out how effective a "double bulk" rig could be as well. There was nothing written about it at the time but experiencing the odd lift bite, I played with shotting patterns and ended up with a second bulk just 2" from the hook. It was deadly effective and has won me quite a few since then. I immediately ended up importing some specialist Bream floats from Europe with massively long tips on them. Today this is a widely used rig for catching commercial Bream.

I'm approaching today in the same way as I did for last weeks match. The plan is to feed groundbait on the longer line while starting short on the whip to give the Bream time to find it and settle comfortably over the bait. Like I said, although there are plenty of fish in the lake, there are definitely not so many that you can always be sure that they're in your peg from the start. Experience here tells me that it may take an hour or more for the first skimmer to show. They can also disappear as quickly as they turn up on this place, so sometimes plans B and C need to come in to play.

Starting with bait, before going on to rigs and feeding, it's a fairly simple tray of bits I've bought with me. Hookbaits are maggots and expander pellets (4mm and 6mm). I may try the odd bit of worm but although it will play a big part in the feed, I don't expect to fish it much on the hook. We tend to get a lot of smaller fish on the drop in here and they do love a good worm to munch on! To target these fish maggot is a faster bet, while pellet makes it down through them more easily. Corn makes a nice change in theory, but I've always found it less effective here than the pellet when it comes to the skimmers.

 

Feed wise, I has a massive amount of fondness for the Sensas sweet fishmeal groundbaits. I've had good success here with their Magic, Lake and Bream varieties. They're perfectly made for the job and the skimmers love them.

I mix my groundbait the night before fishing. It's essential that it's as inactive as possible and allowing more time for water to be absorbed and oils to be spread will help with this. Any small, fizzing, floating particles will attract and keep smaller fish in the area for longer and also have the bream moving around a little further off bottom - leading to less bites overall and the likelihood of the odd foul-hooker following a missed bite or line bite.

I would expect to get through at least 1kg of groundbait in 5 hours fishing, likely 1.5kg. If there are lots of fish present however then I may use up to the full 2kg limit.

To the groundbait I will add some relatively healthy portions of softened 2mm and 4mm pellets, casters or dead maggots and finally chopped worm! Last weekend it was the worms that proved to be the real trigger as far as the skimmers were concerned. After four hours and just a few skimmers in the net, the addition of lots of worm to a stream of top up balls quickly had the  larger fish settling and feeding. I should confess that I have rarely included  worms in my Cornish skimmer game plans over the last decade or so, but from time to time they have really proven themselves winners. I have 1/4 kilo with me today and will use all of it. It'll be a nice test to see how quickly we can get them feeding properly, and more importantly whether we can use the worm to hold them.

 

 

I often feed two longer lines at full distance. One positively, one sparingly. Today I'm potting in six balls of groundbait on the left hand line, and just one ball and a small ball of soft pellets on the right. I want to see this week how they respond to a less groundbait/more pellet line. Depth on both longer lines is the same at around 7 feet.

As with the feed for these longer lines, I'll set up two rigs for the skimmers; one positive, one a little more negative.

The more positive rig, and the one I hope to catch on is the double bulk rig. This consists of a 1.5g carbon stemmed float shorted with an olivette 18" from the hook and two no.8 Shot just above the 6" hooklength. It is plumbed to be fished with the two no.8's sitting just 1" off the bottom - so I'm effectively 5" over-depth. Rig body is 0.14mm Garbo Line. The hooklength is 0.12mm. Hook is a size 14 Drennan Silverfish Pellet. I expect to be using mainly 6mm expanders or three dead maggots on this one.

For anybody who has not fished this kind of rig before, it's a little different to the norm. Bream tend to feed with their heads down and tails up in the air. The double bulk rig is clever in that when the fish picks up the bait on the bottom and rights itself, they lift the lower bulk with them - resulting in your float rising at the surface as the two or three lower shot is lifted. It is with this that a gentle strike should ensure a properly hooked fish. So in effect, we're not waiting for the float to go under but to lift/rise instead. Sometimes the float will dip and drag under as a fish rubs against the line, but quick knocks and dips of the float (even if it goes under) should generally be ignored. However, I will count to three when the float does go under, and if it's still down I will give it a little lift to see if a fish has taken the bait. Carp and other species are often hooked this way. It's the faster dips you want to ignore.

The second rig is a bit of a catch anything option. If the going is a little harder and/or there are a lot of smaller fish present then it's smaller hook and finer line combo means I can mess with smaller baits if necessary - just to catch something. Float is a 1g wire stemmed version for stability shotted with a standard bulk and two no.10 droppers this time. Again I'm using a 0.14mm Garbo rig body, but this time with a 0.10mm hooklength.  Hook is a size 18. On to this I can mount anything from a 4mm expander to a single maggot.

With the longer lines fed, I'll aim to start fishing away from this bait,  hopefully putting a few pounds of smaller fish in the net while waiting for the skimmers to find me.  I set up 3m and 3.5m Garbolino Maxim whips with 0.4g and 0.6g floats respectively; each rigged with a bulk and two droppers. The heavier rig is set to dead depth in 4 feet of water while the lighter version is 18" off. Maggot and/or caster is all that's needed to feed this line, although I'll sometimes flick a nugget of groundbait towards the float as well - just to keep the eels away!

The eels are worth mentioning actually. There are a lot in here! In the match last week everybody was reporting catching them. In my mind though, there are usually only two reasons I'll be catching eels on here. 1) there are no other fish present (the usual reason for this is that you've not been feeding enough. Or you've caught them all!), or 2) you've not fed any groundbait. Everything but the eels in this lake loves groundbait so my advise is to feed it!

So, to the fishing!

Longer lines fed, I'm feeding maggot and fishing the same on the hook. Like I said, you can always guarantee that you will have any fish in front of you when you start - even small ones - but you can just about rely on the micro perch in here to get you off the mark. As it happens, both today and last week I'm pretty quickly in to not only the perch but also roach and Rudd too. Regular feeding has things getting stronger and although it's not completely hectic, I've probably caught about 5lb by the end of the first hour. This includes an 8oz skimmer which is a nice addition. As usually happens here (I don't think that there is such a massive head of fish that you will just keep on catching on one line), the short line starts to slow. Timing wise it's just right to go out and have a look at the long line.

Before dropping a bait in though I add a worm laced ball of groundbait to keep anything that's down there happy. We used to insist that you shouldn't feed on top of feeding bream. I've never found it to be anything but a positive on these types of waters though. Saying that, I usually plan my feeding around a slowing of bites. If I'm not getting bites, or I get the impression that the fish just aren't sitting right then I'll add a ball. After I've added a ball, I may be immediately pestered by small fish, but if the bait makes it through them then very often the enthusiasm of any bream present is immediately rekindled.

I forget the exact details of what happened next, but I do know that I was much more quickly in to a decent run of skimmers this week. When these fish arrive properly here you will notice that you are pestered by far fewer roach and Rudd. Often, catching one of these two (at depth) after perhaps a couple of skimmers is a good sign that you need a top up ball of feed to get the skimmers back.

 

 

Average fish size here is probably 8-10oz. Pole elastic on the double bulk rig is a J-Range, yellow (7-10) hollow. The catch anything rig is matched with a J-Range, orange (3-5) hollow (through just one section). The yellow has enough power to land any bonus carp (and is soft enough for skimmers) while the orange is superbly soft for hooking and landing all of the smaller stuff (I would go on to land carp to 6lb on it during this session mind!).

It was an interesting session to fish, that's for sure. I am certainly still convinced that adding freshly chopped worm to balls of groundbait does make a positive difference here. As far as feed went, groundbait also proved superior to balls of soft pellets. While the pellet attracted and held fish, they sat over if fizzing and bubbling whilst not being so easy to catch. The pellet also attracted more carp! Balls of groundbait containing worm/pellet/caster on the other hand seemed to keep their heads down. During one spell when things got a little quieter (even the smaller fish drifted off), I topped up with three balls of heavily worm laden groundbait which quickly had them back feeding again.

About mid way through the session the wind picked up a little and  both rigs were really towing through the swim. Although a positive rig, the nature of the double bulk rig means that it's more difficult to hold back in the tow without constantly lifting the tip yourself (making bite detection hard). During this spell, the lighter rig was far easier to control (and hold back) and a switch to firstly single maggot (trying for a bite) and then 4mm pellet bought a great run of fish. Typically, after fishing 6mm pellet for the previous couple of hours and not seeing a carp, first drop with a single maggot... You can guess what I hooked... Took a while to land on the lighter rig. Bream to 3.5lb also followed during this spell on the lighter rig. I just wasn't catching these fish on the double bulk at the time, even though they were there. Eventually the wind dropped however and a return to the double bulk rig began to catch well again.

 

 

I didn't make it to the end of the session before I ran out if groundbait. Is only mixed 1kg today, and although I would have caught more fish if I'd had more, running out forced me to continue with a different feeding strategy.

Soft pellet balls were my only remaining option really as anything truly loose was going to be scattered by smaller fish on the way down.  As expected though, fizzing fish, foul hookers and too many carp (considering I wasn't fishing for them) were the result. It was certainly interesting fishing. I was changing depths - coming off bottom - dumping feed less regularly and generally just trying anything I could to settle them down. There weren't loads of fish in the peg or anything, but those that we're there were being tricky.

I ended this session pretty happy. 6 or 7lb of bits, 40lb of skimmers (with a few over 3lb) and 6 or 7 carp to almost double figures. No keepnets allowed but approximately 70lb of fish in total isn't a bad days fishing by any bodies standards - especially on a venue like this where you really need to work hard to keep them coming.

I shall be out again next week for something a little different.

 

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