*** Product Launch ***
The new milled particle arrives. 2kg Pouch £7.99.
With this product, we have put together our own array of high quality seeds, which we then mill down to a fine blend. This mix is sent to sieving, where we remove all the flour created by the milling process, which creates a nice clean crunchy mix. What is left over after this process is a blend of seed shells and seed kernels. The juicy good bits, carp love.
Once this is complete the mix is then treated like any other particle mix to ensure its fit for the fish and won’t cause any harm and is fully soaked through.
At the very end we treat it in Catalyst/Classic Corn flavours and attractors.
This milled variety of particle gives you a new option to your fishing but is great for PVA bags or spooning in the margins. It will sit nice on the bottom and is lovely and crunchy for the carp and still full of nutritional goodness. Try mixing it with 2mm or 4mm pellets in a PVA bag or add to your spod mix.
Coming in a convenient, resealable pouch its a great addition to keep in your bait bag and has a long shelf life too!
https://spottedfin.com/product-category/new-products/

After a lot of research over the past year and trying out other people’s electric barrows and weighing up the cost, versus a new branded or a conversion kit for my existing barrow and with big purchases I like to meet the people I’m buying from a chat about the product, must be something to do with age.

I finally concluded that I really need an electric barrow, first of all as I’m nearly 58 years old, with the best way forward being a convention kit, now I’m not supper technology minds and I’m dyslexic and reading the manual and follow institution is that easy. as luck would have it I discovered Global angling Products base near my local town, I sent them an email about if it was possible to pop over and have a chat about the conversion and if there was any way they could fit it for me.  Matthew the owner was happy to help and I call by about 10am on a Monday morning and discided that I have happy they fitted it there and then and gave me a full overview of how to operate the barrow and how to charge the barrow correctly.

This was over six months ago and I can happily say this is the best bit of fishing kit I have brought in years, oh I wish I had brought one before, as you may be aware I fish every week for three nights and as I purchased this kit in early October, it been used through the hardest month of the year, the plenty of mud and water throw at it and its eaten up the miles with no issues what so ever.

I can highly recommend this product.

Technical spec

Thanks to the wife for letting me out for a couple of nights this week, despite the fact that she is on holiday. Let’s hope I can show her it was worth it.

Richard

I headed off, at about 07.30 hours this morning, to the Airfield Lake and spent an hour looking about. I even set up my bivvy in one of the swims, but it just didn’t feel right to me. It wasn’t looking carpy at all.

With the bivvy down and back in the car, I was soon at Meadow Lake. It’s no more than a couple of miles away by road. I was shocked to find myself only the second person there. This did cheer me up. I’d originally planned on arriving Wednesdays over the winter period, as there isn’t a great deal of gardening to be done. I think this is only the second time I’ve managed it.

I received some information from a fellow member on Monday morning about his success in one particular swim. It was the perfect spot to avoid all the strong winds forecast, plus be in with a shot of a carp.

I quickly got a load of bait out there. It was a mixture of flaked maize, 11mm Catalyst/Classic Corn Pellets, and 12mm Catalyst boilies with a good load of Hemp oil and Betafin.

The rods were all sorted with half a Masala pop-up and 15mm Wafter, Catalyst on one, corn on the other.

It was now time to get the old faithful JRC TX2 G  up for the second time today! This bivvy has done me well and must be 15 years old. My mate Rob gave it to me some years back, when he used to work for them. It must have been 5 or 6 years old at that point, but I feel that it’s the last year with me.

But before I had even got it fully set up and anything inside it, my right-hand rod was away, with what felt like a nice lump one moment, and the next, it didn’t! It can be very deceptive at times. The fight was definitely feeling like a big fish and on the scales, it went over 26 lbs.

Now that’s a good start to my session, and hopefully, a sign of things to come over the next few nights.

It was an extremely blowy night, last night. However, I was quite sheltered from the wind, but the roaring sound in the trees was a bit extreme at times, this faded away after midnight. I ended up recasting a rod, because of a heavy liner, but that was it until a couple of bleeps at 5 am this morning. I’ve seen a few shows, but that is it so far.

There are a couple of lads hauling in the Winter Bay, doing a quick overnighter. I have the opportunity to move, but for some reason, my heart is telling me to stick with it here. Strange, I would normally move, with the information I have. They’ve caught a few and the fish have been showing in there for the past 12 hours, I would be on there like a rocket, but something inside me is telling me to hang on in here. Fingers crossed.

First light this morning and looked very atmospheric.

I topped up the swim quite early today, the weather conditions are forecast to be very blowy, rain, etc and I wanted to get my bait out accurately. I planned on doing the rod’s later on, in between rain showers.

I had a walk just after noon and headed back to my swim at about 1pm, which was lucky as the rain arrived just as I walked back into my swim! I quickly got the rods back on the spots and tucked myself back in the bivvy. There were a few small breaks in the rain, but it continued until nearly 9pm, it wasn’t too heavy and I felt there was a good chance of a carp tonight.

It’s the second morning and no more carp, which is certainly a knockback. From what I was hoping for, I have repositioned both rods for the day and now need to put some thought into the last 24 hours to be able to turn it around.

I must also remember that I’m targeting a 40lb Common and not targeting numbers. It is hard going at times but this gets me through those winter nights. I don’t generally like to target individual fish as I can get obsessed with them, and in the past, if the fish gets caught, I would struggle to go for a few weeks, which isn’t what fishing is all about for me these days. I love being outside with nature as much as possible, I often think if I wasn’t a fisherman, I would be out backpacking up and down mountains and camping out all the time.

With a mixture of sunshine and showers today, I was hopeful that my recast would pay off, and it did! Around 11.30, the left rod was away, and I was finally into my second carp of the session. It came in pretty straightforward, and from my kneeling position didn’t look that big, until it stuck its head down and just plodded around under the rod for quite some time until it eventually slipped into the net.

25lb on the nose. That will do me. Not going to complain about that – after my last trip out.

Getting the bait back on the spot was extremely hard, with the very strong south westerly wind pushing against the tree. I had a couple of close calls and decided to up the lead size, which did the trick and you never know it may well rattle off again this afternoon.

The afternoon passed with one extremely heavy downpour, for about 10 minutes and then it pushed away and out came the sun with a fabulous partial rainbow as a bonus.

With only 5 anglers fishing tonight, which is pretty good for a Friday, I’m hoping for one last bite of the apple on Meadow Lake. Next week will be the Airfield Lake and another 7 months hunting for the unknown monster that’s been seen and no doubt been unfortunately lost by a couple of members. Until then, I’ve just over 18 hours to go before home time. I’m heading for a midday pack up, as I would very much like to be here at 11/1130 for bite time, based on my last two fish.

Bang on 6 pm, my left-hand rod was away, and the fish kited right. It was heading towards the snags off the side of the island, and I felt it touch them a couple of times. I walked back, doing my best to stop the carp from getting into the snags, but it found what it was looking for and was stuck. I released the line and waited until the line started to pull up again – which wasn’t long. I pulled into the fish and it felt like it was stuck hard, however, it was still kicking, I released the pressure off the line again and watched until it was moving again. At this time, I did think if this doesn’t work, I’d have to call the Estate Manager to get the boat out before it gets way too dark. As luck would have it, this lump of something, started moving towards me and sure enough, there was a carp and a snag coming towards the landing net! Oh boy! The carp was attached to some lead core wrapped around my line, giving me just enough space to net the carp, with the snaggy rubbish hanging out of the net. I secured the net, grabbed the scissors from the bivvy, cut the line, dragged in the rubbish, and put it on the bank to sort out later.

16lb 5oz after that battle, I was extremely chuffed to get that fish into the net.

The following 45 minutes turned into a bit of a nightmare with my braid and leader material. It ended up with me switching to 20lb mono. Luckily, I carry a spare spool with me.

Just after 7 pm, I had the privilege to photograph the 3/4 Lin at 41lb 8oz for a fellow syndicate member, absolutely massive carp, and well done to him.

With the rods on the spot, it was now 8 pm and I’d not eaten tea yet. So it was going to be snacking on rubbish, I don’t like to eat a lot after 7pm, as it is not good for me.

What a beautiful morning to wake up to. I, unfortunately, didn’t get a bleep last night, but I did hear the echo of a buzzer drifting across the water. If you follow Carping Kev on YouTube you will see the result after a very hard winter for him, his thinking just came together.

I need to be home by noon and not a second later, otherwise, I will be later meeting up with some friends for a lovely afternoon walk. I’m not one for being late, but I need to hang on for that 11 am take. My plan is to get everything in the car, with the exception of the kit I would need to weigh, and photograph a fish. Fingers crossed it all comes together.

The rods are on the floor, and it’s 1050 am. Let’s hope in the last few minutes fish number 4 arrives. I shouldn’t be greedy, but it would round the winter off nicely before I head over to the Airfield Lake, until the end of October.

It wasn’t to be. I’m happy with my results and will be back in November for another winter.

Until next time

Richard

 

 

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After a non-fishing weekend last week, which ended up with a monster loft clear-out and a full car of stuff for the tip.

It was absolutely stuffed full, including 4 old TV sets! It’s amazing really how much rubbish you accumulated over the years. I also feel a few bits of fishing tackle going on ebay soon.

I was hoping to enlist one of my free Wednesdays to go fishing, but the teacher’s strike put pay to that again. The local crazy golf course and tea rooms were happy, though!

On to this week’s trip, I arrived at the lake just before 9 am. I wasn’t really sure if I was going to carry on to the Airfield Lake, which had opened the other day, or stay here. After finding out that a few carp had been out and the conditions for the Airfield Lake aren’t that favorable. Despite the 7 other anglers on, I felt it was worth a go, plus one of my favorite swims was free.

The carp had been spotted at range recently, so that would be my focus for the first 24 hours. I may well consider a short-range rod for the second/third night.

With a little help from the wind, I also managed to get some freebies out there. Within a couple of hours, I was greeted by a few bleeps on the bobbin and it going up and down. I first thought it was the tufted ducks and then perhaps a carp? This turned into a Bream halfway across the lake.

This isn’t a great start. A positive point is my spot is a feeding one and the ducks like it. I think it goes hand in hand with carp sometimes. I’d spombed out about 10 middle-size loads, filled with 12mm Catalyst boilies. I would see how the first 24 hours go and then move on from there.

Hook bait wise, was a 12mm White Catalyst pop-up and a 12mm Masala pop-up on the other rod, which was the one that produced the bream.

The weather conditions were pretty perfect with a good South Westly blowing, warm days and nights. The pressure gradually rising was really the only downside from 1006 to 1021mbs over the next 72 hours.

I witnessed a couple of daylight-hours carp today, which is a first for a long time, with at least 90% of the winter carp being caught in the dark hours. This is a real turning point, and Ian, who had pitched up next door, we stand a real chance of a carp or two each. Bold statement, but we shall see.

I woke to a very misty morning, along with a bleep-free night, but with the daylight hours takes yesterday, there’s every possibility that it’s going to rip off at some point today. It will be difficult to judge when to rebait and whether to top up my swim or not. I’m definitely going to prep the right-hand spot, which has produced well in the past for me. Deciding to leave both rods at long range is going to be the hard one.

The day was spent either in the wonderful warm sun or overcast. I made the choice to bring in one of the range rods, as having both rods on the same spot hadn’t paid off. That rod was repositioned to my right and a few large spombs were dumped over the top.

I couldn’t believe our luck, just as tea was ready, the heavens opened. I couldn’t move the Weber as it was way too hot, my chair was getting soaked, and the food was cooling down.

Across the valley was in sunshine, that was it until way after dark. With the traps adjusted, I was feeling confident about a bite tonight.

What a rubbish night that was, one single bleep around 9pm. That could’ve been anything.

The weather forecast has changed again for today, and it’s likely to rain all afternoon. It originally was supposed to be sunshine, which would have been nice.

I’ve really got to put a lot of thought into this. I’ve got an early pack-up to head off with the family to visit the mother-in-law, as it’s Mothering Sunday. An early pack-up isn’t floating my boat at the moment, but also being stuck in the bivvy all afternoon isn’t great either, as well as the carp who are just not playing ball. If I’m going to miss the rain today, I need to be all packed away and in the car by noon. Unfortunately, it’s nearly 9 am and it’s only just stopped raining since early evening yesterday. Ironically it’s forecast for blue skies and sunshine tomorrow, but that could well change at the last minute. It would be great to get paid to predict the weather, if you get it wrong, there are no issues, imagine that in other industries!

The friendly Ducks are still about, which is lovely.

This is more like it, sunshine and blue skies. I’ve still not spotted a carp, which is a bit off-putting, I’m starting to think that they just don’t show themselves that often anymore.

2 bleeps were my reward for last night’s effort.

It’s certainly nice to see the sunshine out first thing in the morning, and I think it’s time to get onto the Airfield Lake.

Until next time

Richard

 

 

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