Back on coarse.

[mithrandir]

I looked at the weather reports in the week and decided that Saturday was going to be too good a day to miss.

So with some limited kit I set off to Todber Manor to see if I could remember what a coarse fish looked like.

I got there just before the tackle shop opened at 8am, one other guy turned up as it opened, I got myself a day ticket for Wadmill Lake (£8), a couple of bags of fisheries pellets ( 4mm and 8 mm, £2 each), and a few maggots.

The owner said that the carpark down by Wadmill was full when he came passed so it could be a bit busy, when I got there it was bivvy city!! It looked like some hardy souls had spent a cold night by the water, I could not believe the first bivvy by the carpark, I think he had to stay close to the carpark to get stuff from his van, but it was a full realtree bivvy, about the size of a small hotel, gas barbeque, generator, kit everywhere by it and the largest TV ariel I have ever seen!

here is a brief glimpse of it.



Feeling that my nice peaceful day was not going to be, I wandered around to the side of the lake and noticed that there was hardly anyone fishing there, it is the shallow section and gets the afternoon sun so it could be a good spot, I guess the others did not want to be next to the Bivvy King and his mates, I wished later that I too had moved further down because the whole day all I could hear was him, at the top of his voice, shouting at his mates, and screaming down the phone at his wife ( apparently his 19 inch flat screen in his bivvy had gone bang in the night and she seemed to have thrown out the reciept and box, makes me believe in Karma even more). I think his best line of the day was, after apparently blanking all day was, " I spent a week on Big Hayes lake and didn't even get a bite", ( I WONDER WHY!!!! was my thought ).

Well all that aside, back to the fishing.

Here was the swim I chose



And the guys who were packing up in the next swim said it had been a quiet night and they had only had small stuff, but there were some decent bream about.

So for an easy start and blank buster I set up my feeder rod with a maggot feeder and a size 12 with about 8 maggots crammed onto it.

First coarse fish of the year followed 1 minute later.



A skimmer.

I had a couple more about this size before I decided that I should really get my carp rod out and set a bait on the end of the island now the next swim was vacant and the guys had left.



I dug around in the bait bag to see what I had that was still any good, I have little jars of shelflife type boillies, and other goodies like tinned sweetcorn, luncheon meat, pepperarmi.

The first choice was some halibut boillies that smelled good, and some of the fishery pellets in a PVA bag, set a size 10 hook, and a 1 oz lead and planted it all about 5 feet from the end of the Island, not a bad cast for first proper cast of the year.

I set the feeder rod up with some corn on a hair and a 3/4oz lead and cast about 15 yards out where the previous guys had been baiting and catching the odd bream.

I was using very light leads, and I nearly always use a free running rig, because the bites seemed hard to find, in my first hour on the lake, not a fish was caught that I could see.

Well 2 hours passed, I was getting little bream nibbles, but could not connect with any, had not had a proper bite, so changed over to pepperarmi, this is a favourite of mine as a night bait, it has a strong flavour trail in the water and has worked well for me on some cold hard days too.

The first 2 minutes of this bait going into the end of the island got me a run, was a short run because as I got to it the fish had hit the reeds and all I connected with was plant life!

I had both rods on this now, one on the end of the island and one about 10 feet in front of the island.

The mid water bait had been in about 20 minutes when I thought "That line is moving", and sure enough, the line was sliding to my left, not going slack, not taking off the bait runner but gently kiting away, it took me a moment until I twigged that the crafty fish had picked up the bait and was swimming with it, not taking or giving line, then I struck, the fish decided to play and shortly after I was rewarded with this very handsome 5lb 3oz mirror.



After that I had a few more pick and drops, the rest of the lake seemed static, two lads had come , blanked and moved further round, the guys opposite were snoozing in the sun, undisturbed by fish, the Bivvy ghetto to my right had actually produced a few nice bream ( and in all fairness they did get one 15lb carp, but this was all from the bivvy furthest from the generator!).

The sun shone, I continued to laze around waiting for bites, I had just switched to some blood worm pellets I had as a hook bait when I had a stuttering take, twitch, take some line, twitch, take some more, and this 5lb 7oz Bronze bream appeared.



Toward the end of the day I was on single hook baits casting to fish signs, with a blood worm pellet and an artificial corn to top it.

Got some pick and drops, until I landed this 7lb 9oz mirror.



I not long later packed up and left, wondering if I should have used a bolt rig to stop the pick and drops, or even just a different hook pattern or rig. But remembering how much fun it is playing carp on a quivertip rod and light gear.

I only managed to hit the reeds on the island twice all day, and did not lose a rig or a hook all day, so at least I can still coarse fish, roll on the end of the closed season so I can attack a river somewhere.

I also now had to convince my none fishing partner that those funny stains on my trousers were really bream slime and I had been fishing and not been off somewhere else!! I think the bottle of wine and a curry I returned home with were enough .

[paul p]

Some nice fish there

[NICK R]

glad you had a few mate , tidy report.



looking at those bivvy,s mate they aint anglers , they are campers one of the reasons why angling is ficked in this country

[tjnorton]

Great report and pics. You could always try a square lead 2 oz on a running rig. The weight will turn the hook in the carps moth and when they shake their heads to dislodge the lead runs down still keeping the tension on the hooklink.

As for the pretend carp anglers why bother? A tv for fishng? Me t he will have a portable tanning salon.

tj

[blackwater]

Nice report, pics, but best of all the fish!

well done,

BW

[rob@home]

Well done mate look like a nice day

[fishypaul]

nice days fishing mike,you havn't lost the knack have you mate ?

[barbelblanker]

Nice report. I tend to agree with the comments already posted and also realise that fishing is different for everyone. Personally I think someone flicking fluff at wild brownies in some mountain stream has much more to do with fishing than plonking your (and my) fat arse in the first swim on the car park because the six and half tons of gear can only be carried five yards.

The thing that saddens me is that people do think this is fishing. Each to their own I guess.

[pingu]

nice one mike

dave

[paddy2k7_red4life]

wel done mate for a catchting a few