How did you get on?

103841

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Hope you can make it down here this Summer Mike and spend a day on the lake with me.
 

markcw

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What a corker of a day. The estate has transformed over the past few days and is looking majestic.
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I didn't have it to myself though, another member carp fishing down the other end meant I had to share!

The weather was too good, under blue skies and not a breath of wind I didn't fancy my chances, just sitting there was good enough but the bream (as always) obliged and I caught steadily with a few bonus roach adding some colour.

Had a walk around the lake to stretch the legs taking a few freebies with me, it's not difficult to locate the carp, they spend their lives amongst the reeds, they happily took a few pellets, this one of the koi looking ones.
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A few decent sized commons lurking too.
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Shame we can't fish over the reeds, easy pickings!

Packed up at 4, sun had caught my arms and I'd had enough of bream with the tench refusing to show. Think a 5am visit is needed on Monday whilst the bream are still sleeping.
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John, as for fishing over the reeds, work on the principle.. if you can see them, you can catch them, Short margin pole, slow sinking bread as bait, strong elastic through the first section. I showed Mike some pics of reed/margin carp my grandson had caught
last year, similar size to those in your photos
 

103841

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Thanks Mark
I should have been a bit clearer. We can't fish over the reeds because the owners don't allow anglers to fish on that side of the lake. Not only are there reeds but overhanging trees as well, so to cast from the opposite bank within inches of those reeds is extremely difficult, well it is for me anyway.

The lake isn't very wide and there is a way, but it requires an accomplice. With a skilful cast of just a weight and no rig beyond the reeds onto the far bank, your accomplice retrieves the weight, ties on the rig baited up and carefully positions it inches in front of the reeds with the aid of a pole and cup, meanwhile on the other side the slack is reeled in and it's normally just a few seconds before the bait is taken. Very effective but does seem a bit of a cheat and definitely not recommended if anyone is walking along the far bank with a lead flying towards them!

I have occasionally had some success but with my casting it's a bit of a lottery.:eek:mg:

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no-one in particular

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Like many others on here I have been struggling on my normal stocked club lakes. Yesterday I went to a commercial, it made such a change to get some action. Non stop bites all day, I caught loads of roach, several carp, a tench and a perch. The place was immaculate, no that's wrong it was manicured!

The lake was vastly over stocked and I couldn't help but catch, it was not what I consider as 'proper' angling, it seemed just too synthetic. There was no challenge, no skill required at all, now I can't wait to get back to my club lakes and start serious blanking again!

Having said all that there is a place for commercials in fishing. Great for kids learning to fish and great places to fish to remind you what a fish looks like. However; the thought of sitting there with all those anglers facing each other across the lake is just not for me, I like fishing in more natural surroundings with solitude and peace. The odd bite now and again being a bonus.

I fished one or two like that, one was Tanyard in Sussex, lovely place, wouldn't say the fishing was easy but the swims were all open and facing each other and it was crowded. We never went back there, just too much sometimes.
 

mikench

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Cunning John! I will get down to Kent in early summer and shall give you advance warning !! So you can go away!!:) I have various trips planned!
 

103841

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Cunning John! I will get down to Kent in early summer and shall give you advance warning !! So you can go away!!:) I have various trips planned!

Look forward to meeting you.
 

markcw

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Cunning John! I will get down to Kent in early summer and shall give you advance warning !! So you can go away!!:) I have various trips planned!

Watch out John he will empty the place ( of fish I mean ) , everyone struggled on Tuesday at Dunham and as far as I am aware
all on there had fished the place before apart from Mike, He ended up catching more than the others.
 

103841

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Watch out John he will empty the place ( of fish I mean ) , everyone struggled on Tuesday at Dunham and as far as I am aware
all on there had fished the place before apart from Mike, He ended up catching more than the others.

It will be an honour to see the maestro in action! No pressure there.:)
 

mikench

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Chaps you have nothing to fear ! I had beginners luck! I have never ever had a netful like PC or Nottskev and am unlikely to do so! The fact that keep nets are banned on the majority of my waters has nothing to do with it!:)

I enjoy meeting like minded folk for a chat about life and if the venue is pleasant and picturesque and I catch some fish then that amounts to a perfect day. I have a lot to learn and retain! It is the latter aspect that I find the most difficult.
 

Tee-Cee

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Nothing much on yesterday morning and with my wife busy organising her clubs plant sale for next weekend I headed off for a shortish session at 05.30 and was fishing by 06.15. Lovely, lovely morning and great to be out on a water devoid of any other angler until late morning when the water looked hot and dusty on the surface (amazing what a few warm days can do) so I was pleased to have made the early morning effort.

I fished yet another flooded swim where I had to sit well back from the edge. Tried hemp from the off which produced a couple of 8" roach but they were not part of a shoal, unfortunately. Then my worse fears were realised when two carp took single reds on a 20 hook and charged around the swim long enough to cause mayhem before departing.
I fished the opposite side of the swim for a few more roach of similar ilk, but again the bites dried up which I think was the result of carp moving in....

My swim was pretty much shielded by trees and in the shade I could see roach spotting the surface some 2/3 rod lengths out, so I stripped down the float gear and replace it with, wait for it, a short length of varnished balsa dowelling 50mm long (with a central hole) and this held in place by enough shot either side of the dowel to allow it to sink very slowly. The 'drop' to the hook was around 2/3' with just two spaced no8 shot to stop tangling on the cast.
This might, and probably does sound very odd, but I have used it many times in the past for shallow feeding roach and at times when other methods were not working. A simple straight cast with a single maggot or grain of hemp and then it is just a case of watching where the line meets the water and waiting for it to move or sink just that bit quicker. (The same method, but with just enough shot to keep the dowel on the surface and allow the bat to slowly drop to various depths has also proved very good)
I can cast some distance and very close to overhanging bushes using this method and all over the water if I see fish moving.

Yesterday I alternated between the two variations and caught something like a dozen reasonable roach and very exciting fishing it is too! Best was about 10" long but in the past I've had them to 1,25lbs on a water where 1,5lb fish are a rarity. The thing is, one can cast to the fish with very little disturbance and all sorts of baits from hemp to tares to the pounch to bunches of maggots can be used with equal success. NOT my idea exactly but have adapted it from the original method to work on my waters.

Its success, in my opinion, is that when striking the 2lb reel line picks up from the surface very quickly AND because you tighten to the fairly heavily weighted dowel, connection is pretty much guaranteed, although hemp and tares are not so easy. All sort of depths can obviously be tried as well!!)

In a way it is like surface fishing with bites showing a a slight bob of the dowel before submerging (when using the 'floating' variation) .....

It caught me some nice fish yesterday which I may not of otherwise had........................................
 
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flightliner

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Didn't fish yesterday but had another recce on the Trent, a simple continuation of the bit I walked last week.
Found another swim that could be worth trying with hemp n tare later in the summer so logged it in the memory bank .
The river looked absolutely spot on and it was hard to walk away but hey-- not many sleeps left before the 16 June.
Still sends me mad after all these years, a bit like cabin fever in reverse I suppose.
 
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Neil Maidment

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I've had a couple of sessions in the past month or so. Mainly the odd trip to club lakes and a commercial usually ending up chasing carp off the top.

Spent one afternoon trying to be very selective by only chasing the occasional ghostie and koi that were moving around among the run of the mill commons and mirrors. Managed a few with a couple in the mid teens. All good fun and pleasant way of spending the afternoon.

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I've signed up for a 48 hour Catfish Tutorial in July with one of my clubs. I've never landed one, lost a couple, and just fancied something completely different to my norm. Several Catfish Conservation Group members will host it with just a handful of club members participating. So I thought I'd better get the overnight gear out and give it a practice run.

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Also acquired a couple of fearsome rods and two Shimano 6000 reels at a bargain price which will hopefully handle any cat daft enough to show any interest (they go to 60lbs+ in the venue).

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Fished from Friday afternoon through to Saturday evening. Started with the "normal" carp gear during the afternoon but could only attract bream to around 6lbs/7lbs. Switched to the heavy stuff in the evening and throughout the night. Spombed a load of pellet out to a gully and put two rods with several 20mm pellets on the business end on the top of that bait.

An hour in and one of the alarms screamed........ an 8lb bream is not much of a challenge on a 3.5tc rod :)

Nothing else during the night but within a hour or so of daylight the bream returned and I had a few more on the lighter gear.

I also had another all nighter this past Friday/Saturday. This time on another club water, a Forestry Commission Lake with a good number of carp to mid 20's. Definitely a runs water!

Again I managed quite a number of bream to 4lbs/5lbs as well as a few skimmers. I then switched to chasing the carp off the top. Plenty of interest, I ended up with several with at least half a dozen in the teens. The one I did weigh went 17lbs.

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The early part of the night was very quiet but there was a hectic spell around midnight to 1am when several carp to the mid teens turned up on the method feeder with a 15mm pop-up.

All in all I had around a dozen nice doubles and quite a few smaller versions as well.
 

mikench

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I prefer your fabulous Chub Neil and I bet you do too!!:rolleyes:

Half way through the close season!:)
 
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