Wednesday, August 09, 2006

Pleasure Fish Heyford Fisheries – Snake Lake - 4th August 2006





















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.

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