The Bank Holiday Weekend

Well, the bank holiday weekend had descended upon us once again, the tough decision was made to not simply spend four days in the pub and make full use of recovery Monday but too utilise my time a little better and get some fishing done! The weather forecast couldn’t have been worse, Friday – Light showers, Saturday – Heavy showers and sleet, Sunday – Heavy sleet and snow. So in hindsight my decision to go fishing on the Sunday was perhaps a bad one, although I had been invited to fish a small knock up match with a few of the lads from the club up at a place called Morndyke in North Yorkshire. It was decided that come Sunday morning if the weather was rubbish we wouldn’t go but if the sun was shining and the rest of the days forecast wasn’t too bad then a trip out might not be too bad. So when I stirred at 6:15 and glanced out of the window to see at least 2inches of snow everywhere I quickly retreated back to my ‘pit’ as my father so affectionately calls it. However I’d not turned my alarm off so I was once again awoken at 8:00am, a quick couple of texts and a phone call later and we were heading on our way by 9:30, we must have been mad!

Now I’ve never fished this venue before but I’d been told by the guy I’d gone with to expect deep water, carp of around 4-5lb and lots of them! Pegs were dictated by his previous experiences and I was brimming with confidence by the time I was sat on my box. I chucked on a couple of trusted rigs and started plumbing up, they weren’t joking when they said it was deep! I ended up tying up a new rig, on 0.15 Power line, a BGT 0.4g float, a size 16 PR36 and capped off with a Middy pink hollow. Now the reason I chose such a light float even though the depth was around 7 feet is purely because I was fishing less than three metres away from the bank but 15m away from my peg to a marginal bush. The wind wasn’t too bad and I thought a bulk shot around 2.5ft away from the hook would give me a nice slow fall of the hook bait. If the wind were to pick up and therefore affect presentation I would simply bung a few more shot on and just lay it over depth by 6inch or so. For bait today I only had 4 & 6mm expanders which I’d pumped the night before for the hook and some 2 & 4mm coarse pellets for feeding.

So I was finally set up and shipped out 15m to the marginal bush where I tipped in a fruit shoot cap full of pellets dropped my rig in and eased it up the slope. After a biteless first hour, the weather was seemingly picking up even if the fishing wasn’t. The guy I was with had hooked one and lost it and there was no one else on the lake to make any judgements on. After a cuppa and another half hours perseverance I finally had my first bite, I struck and connected, the fish led me a merry dance and I thought I’d lost it under my platform for a few seconds however it all came good when the fish surfaced at my feet and was swiftly scooped up into the net. At around 4.5lb I thought, yes, we’re now in for a few fish, it wasn’t to be, and I didn’t have another fish nor a bite for the rest of the day. My mate only had the one carp too of a similar size to mine and we decided to sit it out until 3pm and if we hadn’t had any more fish then we would pack up and head home. Which we did!

Granted we’d had heavy snow the night before and not ideal weather leading up to this weekend but as an angler I always like to lean towards the optimistic side as I think a negative attitude gets portrayed into how you fish. But with 2inches of snow that leads for a lot of cold water entering the lake which surely won’t do any good. However we live and learn!

To top things off I thought the only way to rectify this negative result by going again on the Monday, it turns out I’m a glutton for punishment. I went up to the Oaks, near to Thirsk and fished on Maple lake peg 1, I didn’t have a bite all day, my mate only caught a roach no bigger than his little finger, it snowed on and off all day and to top things off the spike was stuck in my brolly so I basically sat and got cold and wet for six hours. Perhaps next Easter four days in the pub might not be such a bad shout!!

The Blog Begins

Well, I suppose I should start with a small introduction about myself, I was introduced to fishing at the age of 11 through my local youth club. I learnt the basics of fishing including how to set up, fish welfare and more importantly keeping safe on the bank. This then progressed into junior matches in which I fished until I was 17, I then stopped for four years but started again early last year, after getting back into swing of things I fished a couple of club matches at the back end of last year.

I'm now a member of my local club (Starbeck Angling Club) and looking forward to the run of matches which start in the next month or so.

So, although we're now into March, Sunday 2nd March was my first trip out in 2008. Other commitments and weather conditions have prevented me from getting out. Today was hardly ideal weather wise with 30mph winds and gusts over 50mph but I had itchy feet and needed to get out on the bank, especially with a new pole and some new pole floats i wanted to test out. So a trip to a small lake not too far away from home was on the cards. Not sure exactly what the lake is called to be honest but I know it as Weeton as it’s in the small village of Weeton in North Yorkshire. Now when i heard of this lake last summer my first trip was a memorable one which led to me pleasure fishing it every other weekend and often after work as it’s on the way home from the office. The lake as i knew it then looked like a donut on plan about 1-2 acres in size with a reed lined island, marginal bushes and lilies, a delight to behold. The target fish were carp from 4lb up to 22lb (supposedly?). These carp all put up a very healthy scrap and definitely knew where the nearest snag was! However when i arrived today all of the reeds had been removed from the island and it looked like the place had been flattened of all vegetation. However while setting up it was noticeable that all the anglers who were already fishing seemed to be catching pasty sized F1's quite frequently and not the previous zoo creatures I was used to.
So the big rigs were put away and i opted for a 0.4g BGT ''Shallow Long'' float on 0.13 Preston Powerline to a hooklength of 0.11 of the same brand to a size 18 Gamakatsu Black. This was teamed up with yellow Garbolino Hollow. So considering the size of float, I had five no.10 Stotz 12 inches from the hook and opted not to use any smaller droppers to accommodate for the large ripple on the surface.

For bait i had half a pint of red maggots, a handful of corn, some 4mm expanders and a mix of 2&4mm coarse pellets, which i quickly soaked to get them through the surface tension.

Due to the high winds I opted to only fish up to 7m out in open water where I had a depth of around five and a half feet. I baited up with double maggot and filled my kinder pot with the pellet mix. Within a few seconds I was quickly netting my first F1 of the day, this was swiftly followed with four or five more before the wind was too unbearable at this relatively short distance so I ended up sliding the float down a touch and fishing my top kit straight in front of me. I picked up a couple more F1's here but it was very slow and with wind still howling I decided to persevere until the wind receded. When the wind did decide to calm itself down there was a gentle ripple on the surface and it was straight back out to 7m where the earlier run of fish came from. Once again I baited up and dropped in another full pot of the pellet mix. It took a little longer to get any indications and when they did come they were only slight knocks but over time I learnt that these knocks should be met with a gentle lift, this then resulted in an F1, even though the float barely moved, I suppose this partly proves the myth of finicky biting F1's!

I'd now had a good run of fish but the light was quickly starting to fade so before i packed up i thought a couple more fish wouldn’t do any harm. The next put in resulted in a 4lb common which put up a healthy scrap on the relatively light elastic, so for the first time I had to employ the resources of the pull bung. Now I’ve not used one ever before and have perhaps been a little sceptical about them as I used to think it was just a way of bullying fish to the net but when used properly they probably make it kinder to the fish and certainly makes the anglers life easier. One more F1 followed for an altogether enjoyable if not cold days fishing. I ended up with 30 F1's for probably just over 20lb.

I'll definitely be returning to this new look, new style lake in the near future as its not only local but cracking fishing too.

I'll try keep this blog as up to date as possible and definitely put in all the club matches I fish in the near future if not all of my pleasure trips.

Tight Lines........ 'til next time.