Seven Trips one Report

Banana Steve · #1 09-04-2010, 08:38 AM

I cannot believe that I have not put up a report since the beginning of July, how rubbish am I?

So here goes, one report to cover all the trips since July.

Part 1: Night Fishing at Crockerton on the 7th of July.

Lately I have been fishing with Simon Nutley, and on this occasion we thought about fishing the night at Crockerton, I fancied fishing the float rod for the night and try for some Later Summer Tench. This proved to be a task in itself. As the Tench did not want to play ball.
I choose Peg 9 which is the shallower end of the lake, my plan was to fish the float, and with obtaining a new Centre Pin I thought I would give it a go. I kept the float rig nice and simple by setting up using a self loaded waggler and locking it in to place with two Drennan float stops and bulk shoting the float to get the bait to the bottom. My chosen bait for the night was Corn and Meat. I did not realise how hard it was going to fish, the bites were very much far and few. I did manage a few fish, but not as many as I would have liked, but I guess that’s fishing. Simon seemed to fare better than me with some nice quality fish including this nice Roach of a pound in weight.

I managed to stick it out to 2am but by that time I was knackered and called it a night. I enjoyed fishing with the pin and I am glad that I bought one, looking forward to fishing it on the river with a bit of flow.

Part 2: Devizes Canal
9th of July saw both me and Simon on the Canal at “All Cannings” near Devizes. I was there to prove to Ian that the “Ruffe” does exist and is not a myth. After a stroll along the tow path we found ourselves two good looking swims. We both decided that the pole was the way to go.

With only maggot and corn as bait I decided that I would fish two lines, one on the far bank with the heavier set up – 12 Elastic with corn as my main bait. And the centre track on a 6 Elastic with maggot. I went back to my match tactics, keeping everything nice and tight and I used the boat traffic to help in catching by feeding both groundbait and loose feed each time they passed. I am not saying that I had a huge amount of fish but I caught all day and I even had that elusive Ruffe, and of course I had to Ring Ian to let him know that I had caught one.

I think Simon felt a bit disappointed that he only had a couple of pound in his net, but I explained that 4lb on the Canal is a good days fishing as I have seen matches won with only a 1lb in weight. I know that there are always good weights reported but to have 3lb of fish is a good day. My weight was around 3 1/2 lb as well and I felt we had a good day.

My Catch

Simon Canal Catch

Part Three: Berkley
My next trip out was to Berkley on the 17th this to was with Simon and saw us at Berkley at 6am,the day was to fish for the Small Carp and have a fun day catching. On arriving at the lake we were the only ones there and had the choice of the whole lake to ourselves.

I decided that I would keep things very simple and fish the Waggler on the drop and use pellet as maggot seems to attract the small roach. Well it wasn’t long before I was into my first carp, a nice wild carp of around 2.5lb for which gave account of itself.

The next couple of hours kept producing some hard fights and a good stamp of wild carp.

It even came to the point that the fishing became easy with the Carp feeding at my feet.

We only stayed until midday as Simon had to go to work and I needed to sort something’s out at home. I had a great day and it was nice to put a bend in my rod.

Part Four: Cat Meet
The next trip out was the Forum Cat Meet on Paddock lake, Todber Manor. This took place over the weekend of the 31st of July and the 1st of August. This trip had been arranged for a couple of months and I found myself there earlier than I expected so I had the choice of the swims. I opted for the first peg on the lake known as the Dam end. I was looking forward to a relaxing weekend with some good friends, I think that everyone has seen the Cat meet report so they know what was caught, However so I can claim the points I managed my UK Cat at 17lb I was well chuffed.

Part Five: 2 nights at Crockerton
My next trip out was with Simon again, and we opted to fish Crockerton for two days but this time to fish for the Bigger Carp, my plan was to catch a British Twenty. On arrival we found that the two pegs we fancied were already taken and they were only fishing for the day, so rather hanging around waiting for them to leave we opted for Pegs 1 & 2, with me taking peg 1. Armed with Red Factor Boilies I set my traps up, the peg offers two good points too fish to. One is to the right of the peg, next to the Rope that stops people fishing to close to the causeway and the other is just of a Fir Tree, however both these options have their difficulties as they both have large boulders in the swims and they are a bit of a lead graveyard, so accurate casting is very much order and with my casting being all over the place I found putting out the baits with an underarm cast a lot easier for peg 1 as if it was wrong I managed to get the lead in without it being caught.

It was early lunch time when I started to have indications that there were Carp feeding in my swims. I managed a couple of 5lbers by early evening, the best fish of the daylight hour’s came in at around 6:30pm and I had asked Simon to watch my rods as I popped away from my swim, when I heard Simon calling me to help him land a fish on my rod. The fish was around the 8lb mark a nice looking Common.

My Next fish was around 10pm, a cracking run and it was the best fish of the day at 12lb it gave a good account of itself.

I had one more fish during the night a small common of around 5lb. But after losing my balance and falling down, I decided that I would get some sleep and bring my rods in.

It was 8am before I awoke and got the rods out again. It was not to long await as yet another 5lb common came to the net. Simon was getting a little concerned that he wasn’t catching and I think that he had reserved himself in the fact he might blank. I had to pop out for an hour on the 2nd day and when I returned I found Simon was into a leviathan of a fish. On seeing its head we both knew that this was 20lb+ fish.

It wasn’t that much longer afterwards that I managed a 16lb Common. I had a couple more small fish up dark and at 12am I brought the rods in for the night. By 10am the following morning we had packed up and were heading for home. I didn’t get by British 20lber but I know it will happen.

Part Six: The River Frome
My next trip out was the Saturday the 21st and saw both Ian and myself on the river Frome at Farleigh Hungerford looking for Chub. After arriving a little after 8am we found ourselves being the only ones fishing the river. Ian has done a report on the days fishing but I thought I would put up a few of the Photos that I took.

Ian’s Perch

My Roach

My Chub

My Bream

Finally Ian’s Dace Net

I had a great time and it was nice to fish the river again, even though there was very little flow considering how much rain had fallen during the week previous.

Part Seven: Back to Crockerton
My final report is fairly short as was the trip, Ian and I had arranged to go Pike fishing but due to personal circumstances we opted for a Carp day session at Crockerton, I went to peg one as I arrived at 7am, a couple of hours before Ian and Dave arrived. In the short time Ian Arrived I managed two Carp one around the 6lb mark another common. And a Nice 12lb 3oz Mirror.

By 2pm I hadn’t had any more so after snagging up and losing the end tackle I called it a day. I left both Dave and Ian down there, I am not to certain if they caught or not?