Novice teaching Novice = great laugh

[Twiddler]

Novice teaching Novice = great laugh

My son Colin aka Chewy, has been bugging me for ages to take him fresh water fishing.
He only started fishing a few months ago, sea fishing that is and only ever freshwater fished once before when we took him pond fishing at revels.

I also talked Allandec (a sea angler) in to joining us, as I wanted to try to convert him over to the dark side.

My choice of venue was Gold Valley in Aldershot, for the simple reason of it being the same distance to drive for Allan and me.
Also,at GV is a guarantee to catch...only angler with no bait on the hook blank there lol.

Anyway, Chewy and I arrived at 6.30am, sadly 4 of the 6 lake were shut for matches....so the only choice we had was the pond or Bat lake.
I would have preferred to fish the pond, chance of a ghost carp but I decided on bat lake, as it would be better for chewy and Allan.

Once we chose our swims, I left chewy to look after the gear, while I went back to meet up with Allan at the car park to take him up to the lake.

I started to set up Allans rod first (shows what kind of a tackle tart I am, I supplied all the gear for all of us lol)....I decided to set both of them up with on a feeder rod, bait runner with 8lb line, 6lb hook length with a size 14 hair rig and an open end cage feeder.


I took a while to set Allans rod up, as I explained to him everything I was doing (and why)....by then, Chewy was getting inpatient, he wanted to start fishing but had to wait for me to set him up (children huh).
I showed Allan how to bait up the hair, with an 8 mm halibut pellet (Fisheries pellets are only to use), filled the cage feeder and cast to the spot we've been feeding up with 4mm feeder pellets.
I know the carp go mad on those pellets,nothing else catches the fish as much, so I was confident that he'll have the first bite very soon.

Allans swim




Right, that out the way, I than turned to my son, to set him up....again the same set up.....
Chewys swim


Chewy was fishing in the gab between the island and the lilly pads, that's where I expected the fish, again we were feeding the swim up during set up.


Ok, them two sorted, now time to set my own rod up, I didn't have a proper swim, I placed myself between the guys,(Allan to my left, Chewy to my right) so I would be close to both, would either need any help.

I just put my reel on the rod when Allan shouted that he had a bite....I went over to calmly talk him through how to play the fish and after a couple of minutes I netted his first mirror carp for him. (carp size are between 2lb-9lb in bat lake).
First panic over, quick re-bait and line out again sorted!!


back to finishing my set up when suddenly Chewy shouted he had a bite......same story again...talk through how to play the fish and so on.
Chewys first carp of the day



Cut a long story short, the guys kept me busy with their catches the first couple of hours, it was 10.10am before I got the chance to wet my line for the first time. (I had to demand that both give it a 5 mins rest, so I could finish setting up for myself lol)

The day went on and I hardly had a chance to do any fishing myself...I was torn between both swims to my sides, one fish after the other were caught.
Chewy had the hang of playing and landing a fish within minutes, only the unhooking caused him problems at times.

Allan too, quickly handled the situations with flying colours and with in NO time he played and landed the fish on his own.
On one of his cast, he managed to get snagged up on the log and lost a set of tackle....since then he asked me to cast for him,as he was too worried to loose anymore of my tackle....which I didn't mind at all, it's a learning curve for everybody.

A few more pics of the fish both guys caught













Allan left around 4pm, as he had an hours drive ahead, Chewy and I decided to fish on a couple more hours (maybe now I could do some fishing and not spend all the time, being the photographer and ghillie lol)

What a lovely surprise when one of my angler friend Neil arrived to pop by to say hello.

Neil and I have fished GV together a few times and he know all the lakes like the back of his hand, as he use to worke at the fishery.

Neil taking advantage to try my new feeder rod out lol


It was a great day fishing, I enjoyed watching Chewy and Allan catching so many fish....

Result

Allans biggest catch was a common of 8lb5oz, 3 species; common, mirror and skimmer bream

Chewys biggest 5lb 5oz mirror, 4 species; common, mirror, rudd, tench


Here mum and son having fun playing a fish at the same time



y catch was a little mirror, Chewy caught this nice tinca





And the moral of the story......

I'm definitely getting too old, chasing after the guys :-)

[pingu]

looked a top day there twiddles


interesting way of hook storage that you taught your son

dave

[Twiddler]

Originally Posted by pingu

looked a top day there twiddles


interesting way of hook storage that you taught your son

dave

LMAO...yeah looks like he's been hooked a few times lol lol

[Norfolkboy]

Well done Claudia, top work.

[fishypaul]

well done claudia,it is hard work,i have been fishing with my 2 boys ,you don't have much time for your own fishing do you

well done chewy and allan

[perch_king]

well done to all very nice read and some nice fish there

[Allandec]

Claudia, thanks for a great day out, I had a brilliant day and it made a change to catch fish instead of seaweed
You make a wonderfull teacher and I learnt a lot, thank you for your patience and for the loan off the tackle etc.

As for the casting I am more used to chucking large lumps of lead as far as possible with nothing in the way, not flicking little cages into tiny gaps with tree stumps and branches in the way

I owe you one
(you never know I may even take another trip over to The Dark Side in the not too distant future )

Allan

[MRG2000]

Cracking days work !!.... ,oe was it just pleasure !

[Pross]

Well done Claudia. I recently took my 9 year old daughter for her first fishing session and had a similar time of it and then when I got home she had the cheek to tell everyone that she caught more than me!!!

[BaggieRich]

Brilliant report Claudia. Sounds like you had a great day even if you had your hands full at the same time.

Nice one!