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.