Blakey's Fishing Blog

Weather
Cloudy / Occasional Sun/ Drizzle
Temp 18 - 21°C
W (6 mph)
Relative Humidity (%): 77,
Pressure (mB): 1015, Rising,
Visibility: Very good

Number of Anglers on Lake = 6 All adjacent to the Island

Fishing Time 1030-1430 hrs

Objective for this session to continue trails on Skintz on the feeder / Size 12 Hair targeting Bream Large Roach and Small Carp and to target bigger Carp with Pineapple Frozen Boilie on Ledger

Fished the Boilie out mid way between Peg 15 and the Island and Skintz to just right of the tree on the Island from Peg 16. Using Middy In-Line Method and Swimstim Cocktail mix used on the previous session - So conditions same apart from Weather.

Very little in the way of bite indication - A couple of small pick up's on the boilie then at 1pm - had a small 'run' of fish' - All 3 bream that moved in on the feed - One Skimmer and two nice Bream of 2 to 3lb - These are last years skimmers and are coming on well. One other small carp was caught at Midday - nothing else doing - I wonder what the moon phase is ? Everything else appeared to be good - SW Wind, cloudy, Temp 20 and a nice chop on the water - but No - They were not having it.

Labels: Pleasure Fish

Lee Chapel Fishing: Ed Pearce’s St Lukes Hospice Charity Series Arran’s Lakes Big Lake (Bridge Bank) 23rd July 2006

Labels: St Lukes Charity Match

Vince Cockerill and Dorsal assistant Steve Boxall with 3lb 2oz Perch


Weather:
Sunny
Temp 17 to 24 deg C
Wind SW / Very North >2 mph
Baro 1020 mB Falling

Today pleasure fish had two objectives – To use up the maggots from Sunday’s match at Blind Lane and to try out Skintz bait on Lee Chapel Lake.

With 9 anglers on the lake – I choose Peg 16 and the set up for the day being the feeder. Started with an In-line maggot feeder with Size 16 6” 3lb hook link to 5lb Mainline and cast to the red post line to the right hand side of peg 16 and mid swim to peg 17. Some good roach and small perch got me underway and used all my maggots. At this time Vince Cockerel landed a 3lb 2oz Perch on the feeder with Sweetcorn bait from peg 13 close to the Island (open side). See Picture.

I switched over to a small Middy in line method to a Middy Hair Rig Size 14 2” 3lb hook link. The method was my mix of Van Deyne, Dynamite, Swimstim, crushed boilies and hemp with a few Sweetcorn kernels and Skintz feeder pellets and moved to just adjacent to the tree on the Island 3 feet out. I loose fed the mix of 4, 8 &12mm Skintz pellets. With an 8mm Skintz on the hair had Instant success with two small 1 1/2lb Tench on the 1st four casts, then the carp moved in and had a small 5lb pretty Common and one dark 2lb 12oz common one at ~ 15lb Common– (could not weigh as it knocked the Avon scales from my hand and into the drink!) - I stepped up to a 12mm Skintz and persevered for an hour but no takes – just nuisance bites from Roach / perch. Switched back to 8mm and strike one – a pretty 13lb 12oz Mirror. With that I decided to call it a day after 7 hours – not bad since I was only going for a couple.

Kev Wagg started fishing on Peg 19 at 1pm and fished onto 8pm – He had several 17lb carp to Meat off the island and close to the margins in Peg 18

Footnote: Scales Recovery.

After returning the #15lb mirror I felt around with hands in the area of the swim the scales dropped into, but they were just out of my reach. Using the landing net – pulled them straight in accompanied with two Crayfish !!

Labels: Pleasure Fish

Weather:
Sunny Intervals
Temp 17 to 27 deg C
Wind SW / Very North >2 mph
Baro 1018 mB Rising


Well what can you say. The pre-match talk was who was going to get peg 1 and 24 – The winner and 2nd is expected to come from these two pegs in the Car park Corner as they have historically done This was the only venue that Kev K could book so beggars could not be choosers.

Arthur Morkunas drew peg 1 and Lyn Naylor peg 24. I Drew peg 6 alongside the Big Guns - Al Gammon, Paul Pratley, Olly Wagg and Steve Barrett. The signs looked promising as we were setting up as the fish were taking un-baited hooks !. However after the whistle and an initial rush it went quiet on the East bank, the only constant fish activity was Kev Butler on the West bank (Peg 16 I think) and Lyn Naylor in that favored Peg 24 and the carp cruising on top – in prohibited territory – No fishing off the top – Didn’t make any difference as they were not all interested in anything much on the top anyhow.

Paul Pratley decided to pack up and go and “waste his time elsewhere”

The only use I made of un-hooking mat was used to lie on for a midday nap. I tried all methods and the only one to work was the maggot feeder and started to get a few small carp just before the whistle – I am sure they know !

Kev Butler had a good Common in the last ½ hour – 18lb+ which turned out to be the match winning fish and broke that Peggy Blind Lane myth.

Lee Chapel Unofficial Sunday Match League Positions (post Blind lane)

1 Olly Wagg 48
2 Ed Pearce 37
3 Alan Gammon 31
4 Steve Barrett 30
5 Kev Keeling 30
6 Paul Pratley 26
7 Kev Naylor 24
8 Mick Wagg 24
9 Kev Butler 20
10 Lyn Naylor 17
11 Ron Price 16
12 Paul Blake 15
13 John Buck 14
14 Linda Ellis 13
15 Gary Somerfeild 7
16 Steve Ellis 6
17 Steve Boozy 5
18 Mick Scoles 4
19 Arthur Morkunas 4
20 Rob Blackburn 3
21 Ron Ellis 2
22 John Pearce 2
23 John Lee 1
24 Kev Wagg 1

Labels: Lee Chapel Sunday League Match

Top Left: Ben with his 1st ever Carp - a nice liitle Crucian
Top Right: The Pretty Fantail

Weather:
Sunny Intervals
Temp 18 to 24 deg C
Wind SW / Light 5mph
Baro 1012 mB Rising

I finally got round to taking my 13 year old Nephew Ben fishing again. The last time we went was the day the Queen Mum died more years ago than I care to remember.

I choose somewhere local to Ben who lives near Northampton and chose Heyford Fisheries in the picturesque Village of Nether Heyford. I drove up from Essex at 6am and pick up Ben and continued on Heyford. On arrival had a walk round – interesting Snake Lake with all swims cut into hedgerows. On enquiring with the guy in the tackle shop was told to fish swims 58 & 59. He kindly gave us directions and the layout of the swims in terms on the underwater features – Pipes and depths – Bets to fish just the deep side of the crossover pipes.

We transported the gear to the swims and started to set up Ben with the target technique of the day being to learn the ‘Waggler’ I also set up a ledger on the alarm for the potential big carp that live here with a small 10mm Optoplex Homemade boilies – courtesy of Big John, we had a run within two minutes both got weeded and resultant lost fish.

Ben struggled with the casting technique both over and under hand – So though would go with plan b The whip I wanted to give to Ben but on opening up this telescopic pole the elastic had got jammed – finally got it out but unable to repair as I did not bring any spare elastic !!!!. So I set him up on my pole. Fishing in the margins Ben soon got into the flow landing a number of medium sized Roach. But did not want to put maggots on the hook so went to Sweetcorn on the hook I added a little Sweetcorn soup to his swim – Instant results with two nice Crucians - His 1st carp and he was made up.

Having set up Ben I started to fish in Swim 59 at 1230. Nothing doing – a ledger / waggler/feeder – a few Roach and a nice Tench mid afternoon on the Waggler / Sweetcorn mid afternoon. Funny how little remarks have the habit of coming back and biting you. Ben remarked how quiet it was mid morning – just the slight hum of the M1 in the background. Then – They decided to Cut the main grass area with a Big John Deere and massive cutter – which deposited dry grass all over our gear and in the swim, then not ½ hour later along they come along with a strimmer and to cut the swims so picture my swim full of dried grass and floating reeds etc in my swim which rendered it useless for Waggler fishing.

Ben got ‘tired’ and came and sat with me to ‘watch the master’ at work. I coaxed him back to his swim get him back on the waggler. With additional practice / handling of the pole – assisted in control of the waggler using underhand. Ben had put his aversion to maggots and putting them on the hook – having realised that this maybe the only way to catch fish regularly. We fed the swim with loose and I spotted swirls either Large roach or small carp pouncing on the loose maggots on the drop – I urged Ben to drop his line in there and instant result – A lovely hybrid fan tail – See picture and some nice Roach.

We started to pack up and I had a run on my ledger – but just to sum up my day – it took me straight into the reeds and all I got was a clump of reeds.

We will go fishing again sometime during the remainder of the Summer Holidays this time down in Essex – Probably Entire Farm.

Ben has made his notes on the day:

Heyford

The condition of the peg I was using was quite good however the previous anglers to use the peg left it in a filthy state and I was not very happy.

The conditions were good as it was a warm day and the smaller fish were biting.

I caught a lot of roach and perch, I found myself lucky enough to catch two Crucian carp and one fantail carp. Paul caught Perch, Roach and the one Rudd, and he also caught a Tench.

As I hadn’t been fishing in four years I had to learn a lot in a short time, like threading the line through, attaching the float and putting on the hook. I had problems getting to grips with casting the waggler but it got easier the more I practiced.

Paul gave me some of the gear I used and I hope to go fishing again but in a much better lake with bigger fish and cleaner pegs.

Labels: Pleasure Fish