Spring session at Welham! - Kieran

It had seemed an eternity since I’d been fishing and although it had only been a month and a half or so I wasn't used to being cooped up so long, so after an intense weeks skiing in Austria with school a 24 hour session at my home water Welham sounded a very good idea. After ringing Gaz and having a quick catch up, he filled me in on what was available and I instantly jumped on Stalking, it was due to be a father and son trip and Stalking is one of our favourite swims on the lake and one where we've had our fair share of success from as well which somewhat aided the decision.

The night before I cleaned, organised and prepared all the gear, so that we would be able to go from the off in the morning, after a good night’s sleep both me and my Dad were pumped for the session ahead and set off in high spirits. After a quick stop to pick something up from the local tackle shop and a stop on the other side to the local Lidl to pick up some bits and bobs for the session we were soon trundling down the golf course’s track at around 11:30. After unloading the gear out the car we were soon walking up the wood chipped paths of the lake and to say I’d missed that feeling was an understatement.

On the way up the path to Stalking we bumped into Gaz who informed us that the pressure was on and that there was a stack of fish in front of us and upon arrival into the swim we could count 40 plus fish, most of them being in the channel on the right hand side of the swim. My Dad didn't really have a preference, so I jumped on the right side of the swim and although the fish up the channel didn't look anywhere close to being on the feed as long as they were present I knew I had a chance of snaring one.

Rods were the priority and without no time to waste I assembled one of my rods which I’d already rigged up with my version of the chod rig, a rig that I've done very well at Welham with in the past. I tied on one of my test green pop ups that Matt had asked me to make and although they were just my first test batch they looked and smelt great so encouraging signs to say the least! I sent the chod out up the channel up towards the bulk of the fish before sinking the line and paying off plenty of line. I decided against putting any bait over the top of it for the time being as there was plenty of fish around the bait and I didn't want to spook them. On the second rod I had assembled a fluorocarbon D-rig which was coupled with a simple lead clip system, before I sent the rig out I nicked on a pva nugget, then I cast the rig towards the silver birch on the corner of the island and as there was only a few fish in the vicinity I treated the area to a dozen 14mm DNA Baits NuttaS boilies.

With the rods out, we set about erecting the bivvy and getting the swim sorted for the rest of the session and after half an hour we were both sitting in our chairs surveying the lake. Although fish were present in the swim the frustrating fact was that they weren't in a feeding mood and they were happy to just graze over the baits. This seemed to be the fish’s behaviour for the next couple of hours or so and with only a few hours before dark, I set my full attentions to preparing for the night ahead. I was planning on baiting a large area with bait up my right hand margin which stretched into the entrance of the channel and as it was so close in I decided I was going to bait with halved baits, just to be slightly different. My plan was that I was going to fish a solid bag representation over the top filled with matching boilie crumb and half a boilie with a pink corn tipping it as a hookbait.

Firstly I set to work on halving roughly half a kilo of NuttaS and after spending the best part of quarter of an hour using scissors I have now come to the conclusion it may be wise to invest in a Korda Kutter! With the bait done I threaded on my hookbaits onto several solid bag rigs and before I knew it I was again reaching into my bag of Nutta, as I began to crush plenty of boilies in order to fill my bags up. Half an hour later and I had six perfectly tied compact solid bags sitting on top of my tackle box and with only an hour before darkness I set about applying the bait into the swim. As the spot I was going to concentrate most of my bait was only ten yards out , I was able to use big pouches of bait which meant I was able to deposit the bait in double quick time and I also ensured the bait was spread over a  fairly large area.

With the bait for the area deposited I wound in my rod with the fluorocarbon D-rig attached and took the rig off and tied on one of my solid bags and was then promptly dispatched with an under arm flick onto the spot. With the baited rod sorted I wound in my chod and pondered on where I was going to place the rig for the night, after a few moments of deep thought I decided I was going to cast the rig just past the entrance of the channel because I was sure the rig would be among the fish if they chose to move from the snags running up the channel. I chose to put 50 baits over the chod and although a few of you will be wandering why I was baiting quite heavily for Welham’s standards, recent results had shown that people who had put the bait in had achieved the best results.

With the rods sorted for the night, I set back and watched it slowly get darker and darker and as darkness drew in the temperatures dropped considerably and it wasn't long before I was retreating to the bivvy in order to stay warm. With grub prepared and then consumed I slowly began to fall into the land of the nod and I wasn't disturbed too much throughout the night, only the odd bleep caused me to stir through the night and morning came all too soon. As I got up and scanned the swim I could see the group of fish had not moved an inch and were still held up in the little snicket where you couldn't get a bait to. With the lake appearing to have completely shut down, I set off to go and see my good friend Chris and when I got to peg 9 he met me with a big grin and told me he had managed to winkle out a 17.10lb common! This was yet another fish to fall to Chris’s black cell, he’s already had 55 fish out of Welham this year on it and not only is the bait a great fish catcher but the ducks, swans and other bird life can’t pick it up, so it’s quite possibly the perfect Welham bait. (I’ll leave a phone number at the bottom of the page because Chris’s range of boilies and pop ups is really worth checking out!) .  

It appeared as Chris was the only one to catch and as I trudged back up to the swim I couldn't help but feel that the chances of a fish was not looking that hopeful, so when I got back to the swim I wound in my chod and took off the green special and put one of my Double H white pop ups on and flicked it just on the edge of where I had put the majority of the bait the past night. With only an hour before we had to be off the peg we began to pack down and ship most of the gear apart from the rod bag and rucksack to the car. With only half an hour to go we could see a few fish getting their heads down and with tons of bubbles coming up over the rigs we were left with a slight hopeful feeling a fish might fall to either the chod or the solid bag.

My Dad informed me that the guys who were due on Stalking were readying their gear and with only ten minutes left, my chod ripped off, a big boil on the surface confirmed that a fish was hooked. I pounced on the rod and immediately piled the pressure on to try and drive the fish away from the snags and in honesty it didn't take much persuading, it practically swam in to the net! With a fish in the bag it was a relief and although it wasn't the biggest fish in Welham it’s colours were amazing and although I didn't weigh the fish both me and my dad thought the fish to be around 13 and a half pounds. With pictures done we slipped her back and as we were slipping our rods into the rod bag the lads who were due on Stalking turned up, so we had a  brief chat and loaded our gear into the car and said our goodbyes to both Gaz and Chris and hit the road home!

 DNA Baits www.dnabaits.com 

Pb Products UK  www.pbproductsuk.com/

Welham Lake  http://www.renewutesting.co.uk/welham/ 07817 175516                                                                              Steamer Baits – Chris Walker 07772520396 

Great Days!

So wow, its the first day of spring in my eyes! Those horrible north-easterlies have buggered off! The sun was out and I decided on a spur of the moment that an outing to a local commercial lake was the order of the day today with my 9 year old daughter Jamie-Lou.

As it was so short notice I hadn't brought any bait with me except my PVA bucket, a selection of hookbaits and my pellet bucket. Luckily for me (well not me but J) I had a small bag of 10mm Nash Scopex Squid shelflife boilies with me from our last session, so at least we had some bait for J if the fish started feeding.

We set up at the deeper end of lake after we had seen some fish enjoying the warmth of the sun. It was such a heart warming sight to see the fish moving and crashing out after the winter of hell and relying on luck as much as watercraft.

After we got the gear out of the car I set up my rods. A single white Choddy cast to a small reed bed and a PVA bag to the showing fish, both rods fishing with some special hookbaits from Kieran. I then got Jamie all set up with her help and she had a practice cast before heading around to the next peg to bait the reed bed by hand with a good handful of the squid boilies.

Baiting her spot. 

We picked her leader out, a Nash diffusion one with a lead clip and 1oz dumpy pear and next came a rig. We picked a nice simple blow-back rig and I decided that the fish might still be a bit picky and wanted a balanced bait so we opted for a snowman type set up with a 10mm Nash Scopex Squid bottom bait and a small pink bit of pop-up corn. We tested the rig in a spare bucket and found it just popped up with the hook of bottom, perfect. So with the test cast done, bait and rig done all that was left was to cast out. This is something J is great at, with a bit of coaching she dropped the rig on her baited spot first cast! Proud was not the word. We set the rod on the stand and proceeded to get the sandwiches out and only a few moments after J's alarm let out a series of beeps as the rod tip pulled around. 

The rods are out!

Again with a bit of coaching she lifted in to the fish and immediately started to panic, as this was only her second fish ever and the last one was a very small one, but she held her own remarkably well with me only having to touch the rod once which was to steer it away from my lines. As we were about to net the fish my right hand rod melted away as a small angry mirror took my choddy with all the vigor of a great white! After a few minutes we had both fish in the net, not ideal by anyones standards, but needs must. I was lucky and my fish unhooked itself in the net which made the situation so much easier as I could get rid of my rig and scoop the fish straight out of the net and back to its watery home. 

Jamie's fish on the other hand was a keeper. A few photos and a weigh were certainly in order. So out came the Kaptive sling and we slipped the fish in for a quick weigh, at 6lb 10oz it was a great result for J! 

Result! 

After the fish went back we dug out some more bait and J placed some on her spot again before recasting, this time not quite on the money, but still looked good for another bite. So at this point I had two scrappy mirrors to my name and J had the larger common. As I was using my 3.5tc Entitys I thought I would have to play the smaller fish with a lot of care but the rods are superbly soft and I only suffered the one hook pull the whole session. Jamie had another small common she lovingly named 'Bob' and we topped the swim up again. 

The Nash Scopex Squid! 

She was in again a few minutes later! The fish were really turned on to this bait today and I think we had just got everything right for her. Me, on the other hand, was struggling big time. I even tried a 2ft zig to no avail, but alas the day was not to be mine and Jamie ended the three hour session on four fish with me lagging behind on three. It was a great few hours though and the fish are certainly on the move, now all we need are the ones on my target lakes to wake up! 

A few liners had her sat at the rod!

If I had have had more bait with me we would probably have stayed a little longer but as it was last minute we had to make do and had such a fun time which I think a lot of people are missing from their fishing. It was a really 'needed' session, as was the ice-cream and milkshake on the way home! Roll on the next time!

Matt.

The Life Of A Day Carper - 1

Due to many factors this year I my carp fishing will be mainly day sessions, and by day sessions I mean 4-6 hours after work on a Friday afternoon unless I get to book some time off. Are you mad? I hear. Well in part yes I am. But if I want to get out and fish then that is my time slot and I will need to make the most of it.

So with the limited time on the bank then I need to make certain choices. The first will be the venues I want to fish. I have decided to take on a few waters in my local area and try too bag a few carp from them if I can. All of the waters I intend on fishing hold some good fish in to the 20lb bracket and only one of them I would consider a runs water but they all hold other species which will be the challenge.

The runs water is a small lake which holds plenty of fish with carp present up to 21lb+. It is on the out skirts of York called Stillingfleet. I have had very good sessions here in the past and will be targeting carp and tench. This is a great water for PVA bag work as it is fairly short distance work and the bags allow me to present baits for both my target species.

My other water in York is called Shipton Lake and is on the Bradford AA book. This water has a much lower stocking of carp but they run up to 25lb and it will be a much, much trickier venue as the fish tend to feed on an evening and the lake is rammed with bream which will mean plenty of bait will be needed. This lake will most definitely test me to the limit but with correct bait application and perseverance then hopefully one or two of them will grace my net.

The third water I am looking at is another club water but is in the village I live in and is called Sherburn Bacon Pond. This is the hidden gem of my venues with a reported 25lb+ common and for a mere £20 a year is a real gem. Weedy, low stocked and heavily fished by match anglers after the big shoals of bream and roach make this a tricky water to get the carp feeding in such a short space of time.

I am by no means a big carp hunter but with the low stocking of the last two lakes I would love to bag a big girl. Realistically though I see plenty of blanks this year on the low stocked venues and a fair few smaller fish thrown up from the runs water but all in all a carp is a carp, be it 2lb or 22lb I love catching them and with the support I get from the DNA lads and my other angling friends then I really can see an enjoyable journey ahead with my day sessions.

The biggest hurdle I face, as many of us do with limited time, is the motivation to get out and fish!

I get my motivation from many sources. My daughter and the thought of taking her on a few trips. My angling hero Mr Julian Cundiff who gives me inspirational pep talks. This blog gives me a lot of motivation, it not only motivates me to get out fishing so I have something to write about but also inspires me to write my other things away from fishing.

Other than motivation and venues the next thing on the shopping list for my success has to be bait. Be it sweetcorn and pellet to 20mm boilies, what I use I use because I have confidence and faith in it. My two main feed baits come from the DNA stable, NuttaS and S7. I will be using them in different shapes and sizes, from 12mm rounds upto 18x21mm barrels. Along side my food bait I will be using various pop ups, wafters, balanced bottom baits and particles to my advantage.

One edge that was pointed out to me at the NAS was Batizones range of PVA friendly particles and pastes. I recently purchased a few tubs from their range. Crushed hemp with garlic, tiger nuts in juice and particle paste. I have a bucket of prepared PVA bag mix which I have boosted now with tiger nut juice, crushed hemp and when it comes to filling my bags I will add some crumbed up paste.

The paste is fantastic stuff. It moulds extremely well and sticks to virtually anything. I experimented with some of the paste on a recent session and even though the water temp was close to freezing it still broke down relatively quick. I rolled a thin layer around a Milky Malt wafter and watched it breakdown in a bucket. Every time I touched the bucket the paste would send a plume of attraction out from the bait, almost like a smoky haze, This bait will definitely feature heavily in my season this year. 

Once on the bank I like to know that if needs be I can move at the drop of a hat! In a previous blog I scaled my gear right down and believe that this is without a doubt the best way to get the most from my sessions this year. A two rod set up, sticks and buzz bars, large padded unhooking mat come weigh sling, a bucket bag and PVA bucket is about all I will be taking to the bank on these sessions along with food and bait in a rucksack.

So that's about it for the first instalment of TLOADC, I will be getting out for a few 24hr sessions which I will cover separately so until the next session see you soon.

Matt.