So, it was the first time i had been to this venue. All i knew about it is that it was small and fished well on floaters and bread on the later hours. This is the Website for the venue - http://www.grangepark.com/. Just like to say thanks to the owners for letting me use my keep nets. When i arrived at the venue it looked pretty grim. To look at it was to imagine someone had built a big house, a golf course and indoor tennis court then just added a lake for another profit branch. It was well kept with vegetation and there is no visible pegs just banks. So its fair to say that i didn't predict a very good day.
Overhead view of Grange Park....
And then my peg, with my possible swims which i planned for while setting up....
The basics of any new venture on new venues is to use different lines on different times on the day. I opted for my basic very much religion of lines. 2 Margin bottom, 6m bottom and 16m bottom and up in the water with a far side chuck on the feeder at around 100 Yards. The lake only has around 30 'Pegs' as only the left and bottom side of the picture are actually available banks for fishermen. The lake was very low. It looked as though it was around 4ft done. I had to position my seat box in the water to get out a bit.
I opted for a Paste based approach with a back up of dead reds. As stated in earlier post's, i decided to stick with a no feed approach for the in front swims and stick to a feed heavy approach to the margins. The shallow rig was a basic rig 4x10 Colmic golden float with 3ft of 4lb Power Line tied to a 16 B911 fished with Stiff Paste around 5 ft under depth.
After a short plug on the 6m Line, i found a slight ledge, now over all the lake is a bowl. Its goes from 1ft - 14ft in the middle. I chose to fish just before the drop off to 7ft which is in 4ft of water. I opted for my paste set up as previously posted and that was that. Within 15 Minutes i was into a fish, it was around the 3/4lb Mark, i noted that it was a very good fight on the 13h elastic, probably caused by the shallow water.
My First fish (Pretty much all too follow was the same stamp of fish).....
So the fish came rolling in on the paste. After about 2 hours i thought i would try another method having had around a carp every two minutes. I did see LOADS of carp in the margins in around 10 inches of water or less! I did try to take pictures of them but i couldn't through the reflection of the water but there must of been around 20 carp to 8lb just in front to the left of my platform. I first tried to fish my regular rig and even my super shallow rig as pictured a few weeks ago, but with the liners i simple wasn't able to keep my hook bait around the paste for more than 5 seconds. It needed sorting, I figured i would try a method feeder on a pole, still using paste on the feeder but mixing a couple of dead reds in with the mix and fishing 5 dead reds on a size 12 Animal. Basically it was just a method on a 5ft piece of line. Not a long hook length at all, around 2 inch MAX. It wasn't long before they were coming in fast...
Here's the rig.....
You just swing it...
Then Drop it...
Note, I don't use the upper sleeve on the method, as i don't really need it to be aerodynamic and it really just helps to keep the rig free running. About 1ft above the method and every foot above that put a tiny amount of rig putty just to pin the line down. obviously just leave two foot from your top kit so you can pin it down. Its worth while remembering to make sure the method will slide off the line over the putty just in case you get snapped off. My rig was made up on 8lb Amnesia memory free hook link to 10lb Power line. I went in heavy due to the shallowness of the water and I wanted to fish 15h elastic just to stop the initial run, but still keep it light enough so they hook them selves over the elastic.
If you haven't fished this method before, I like to call it the Traffic Light method, As my Connector is Red and my elastic is green - All you do is wait for the elastic to scream off, and then it shows green, so stay calm and don't strike at all just lift in. So that's where i get that from :). It isn't advisable to fish this method near snags as the fish is always one step a head of you.
Just how close in i was fishing, I was using my roost as a feature!.....
So As soon as i got them feeding on this is i literally caught everything. Plopped it in then straight away in screamed off, i was touching the bottom with the end of my top kit just to stop all the liners. After around another 2 hours i had landed about 60 Carp it took longer to load my method and bait up than it did to get a bite when it was in the water. I did notice a lot of fish rolling around 1.5m in front of me - i then decided to give it a flick just to the front of me. It took a little longer to get bites in front of me, but eventually i got them going, the fish tended to be a bit of a better stamp of fish, probably around the 5lb mark and upwards with the odd 10lber coming out....
Eventually i had to pack up because it was nearly dark! But this venue is very good for anyone wanting to bag up, I did notice a lot of the locals go on dog biscuit all day, but they only got around 10 fish. I did have a very large audience at one point, due to the amount of fish i was catching, I don't think anybody on the venue has seen methods like i used today, mainly because its very family orientated and not match fished at all. Total weight of 501lb from 8 hours of fishing. I thought it fished pretty well. Very easy on the method feeder with the pole. Noted everyone was struggling on a lot of other methods.
Go and have a go, You'll love it!
Nathan
@ Fish4Thought
I opted for a Paste based approach with a back up of dead reds. As stated in earlier post's, i decided to stick with a no feed approach for the in front swims and stick to a feed heavy approach to the margins. The shallow rig was a basic rig 4x10 Colmic golden float with 3ft of 4lb Power Line tied to a 16 B911 fished with Stiff Paste around 5 ft under depth.
After a short plug on the 6m Line, i found a slight ledge, now over all the lake is a bowl. Its goes from 1ft - 14ft in the middle. I chose to fish just before the drop off to 7ft which is in 4ft of water. I opted for my paste set up as previously posted and that was that. Within 15 Minutes i was into a fish, it was around the 3/4lb Mark, i noted that it was a very good fight on the 13h elastic, probably caused by the shallow water.
My First fish (Pretty much all too follow was the same stamp of fish).....
So the fish came rolling in on the paste. After about 2 hours i thought i would try another method having had around a carp every two minutes. I did see LOADS of carp in the margins in around 10 inches of water or less! I did try to take pictures of them but i couldn't through the reflection of the water but there must of been around 20 carp to 8lb just in front to the left of my platform. I first tried to fish my regular rig and even my super shallow rig as pictured a few weeks ago, but with the liners i simple wasn't able to keep my hook bait around the paste for more than 5 seconds. It needed sorting, I figured i would try a method feeder on a pole, still using paste on the feeder but mixing a couple of dead reds in with the mix and fishing 5 dead reds on a size 12 Animal. Basically it was just a method on a 5ft piece of line. Not a long hook length at all, around 2 inch MAX. It wasn't long before they were coming in fast...
Here's the rig.....
You just swing it...
Note, I don't use the upper sleeve on the method, as i don't really need it to be aerodynamic and it really just helps to keep the rig free running. About 1ft above the method and every foot above that put a tiny amount of rig putty just to pin the line down. obviously just leave two foot from your top kit so you can pin it down. Its worth while remembering to make sure the method will slide off the line over the putty just in case you get snapped off. My rig was made up on 8lb Amnesia memory free hook link to 10lb Power line. I went in heavy due to the shallowness of the water and I wanted to fish 15h elastic just to stop the initial run, but still keep it light enough so they hook them selves over the elastic.
If you haven't fished this method before, I like to call it the Traffic Light method, As my Connector is Red and my elastic is green - All you do is wait for the elastic to scream off, and then it shows green, so stay calm and don't strike at all just lift in. So that's where i get that from :). It isn't advisable to fish this method near snags as the fish is always one step a head of you.
Just how close in i was fishing, I was using my roost as a feature!.....
So As soon as i got them feeding on this is i literally caught everything. Plopped it in then straight away in screamed off, i was touching the bottom with the end of my top kit just to stop all the liners. After around another 2 hours i had landed about 60 Carp it took longer to load my method and bait up than it did to get a bite when it was in the water. I did notice a lot of fish rolling around 1.5m in front of me - i then decided to give it a flick just to the front of me. It took a little longer to get bites in front of me, but eventually i got them going, the fish tended to be a bit of a better stamp of fish, probably around the 5lb mark and upwards with the odd 10lber coming out....
Eventually i had to pack up because it was nearly dark! But this venue is very good for anyone wanting to bag up, I did notice a lot of the locals go on dog biscuit all day, but they only got around 10 fish. I did have a very large audience at one point, due to the amount of fish i was catching, I don't think anybody on the venue has seen methods like i used today, mainly because its very family orientated and not match fished at all. Total weight of 501lb from 8 hours of fishing. I thought it fished pretty well. Very easy on the method feeder with the pole. Noted everyone was struggling on a lot of other methods.
Go and have a go, You'll love it!
Nathan
@ Fish4Thought
