Grange Caravan Park Open - Blyton

Hi Folks,

Just a report on my recent match, not been being much of late and havn't done much apart from Section wins and Placing for the past couple of weeks so here's a full match report with an excellent out come.

First of all i drew peg two:

Firstly,

After i seen the peg i drew i decided on my lines, which were to be a 6m and 11m Pole line's and 30 - 40 Yard feeder/Bomb lines. The red squares i will get to later on;). I'd also fixed up a little Pole-method style rig just in case.

In a bit more detail:

6m Line: Colmic Goldie .2 put right down to the tip, on .11 with a hook length being .10, i'm targeting lots and lots of roach and fishing to hand so i wanted a good few feet off of the tip of my pole and a nice big hook (Drennan Silver Fish maggot 16)  which is going to be fish on single maggot. I'm looking for a nice flat area for this rig with the ethos of fishing dead depth with a spread shotting pattern. The area i was fishing was 3ft deep. I was only really expection roach and the odd small carp today so i opted for a 9h Elastic.

11m: Colmic Goldie .2 put right down to the tip, on .11 with a hook length being .10, i'm targeting lots and lots of roach with this rig too so still using a nice big hook  (Drennan Silver Fish maggot 16)  which is going to be fish on single maggot. I'm looking to fish mid water on this rig and spreading maggots every minute or so in minimal numbers. I decided on a hollow 6 elastic for this line as its rare you get the carp shallow in the summer months never mind the winter!

30-40 Yard Bomb/feeder line: I like to alternate between these two lines. I'll start off on the bomb, if i get bites i know i dont need bait, if i dont then i simple soak a couple of pellets and chuck em in a drennan g/bait feeder. Hook wise i'd be going from 3 dead reds to maybe trying corn a few times. I'll start on the longer line, if i get liners i pull back, this gives me more opportunity to explore the water. You have to be careful when fishing at range on this venue as the ledges can be very sharp and often it dramatically changes. See below....

As you see above, the ledges are very steep in places, so its important to get beyond the last one unless you like losing feeders. The edges can also be quarried stone like granite or similar so are very sharp. There's none of this rod to the side business with the carp here, its up in the air all the way to get them up and beyond the ledges. The pile of rocks between the first pegs is the PoleMethod line during the summer months. This feature is on every peg and you look to positioning your box just before or after them and just fish the top two. The arrows measure the actual ledge size and not the depth, So if you have a look at the ledge and compare it to the body of water, in some areas of the lake you can have spots upto 16-20ft.

The Pole Method Line: Generally i only use this off of a top two here. Its mainly a big fish system that i use BUT it'll catch the bigger fish in any species. You cant get much simpler than the rig i chose today. It consists of a stiff direct line .15 power line to a 16 B911, and the feeder needs to be free running. All i used today were two soft shots to stop the feeder from going over the hook. Its all that's needed for today. If i were expecting plenty of fish, i'd just simply do the exact same, but tie the hook length to a swivel with a bead over it, but today, this will suffice nicely.

Thats the simplest way of doing this method, its just import to go direct and use a stiff mono line with soft shot. Like i say if i were expecting a rushed day of carp i'd simply from the shot for swivel. That way it gives me a fast option of changing hook lengths quickly. For this method, i never use a method mould, its abit pointless, as your only under arm swinging it out, you dont need it to be aerodynamic. I'll be using soaked pellets today, but for major match weights i'd use a mix of swimstim and condensed milt mixed very sloppy, just enough to hold it on the feeder until it hits the water then BOOM it explodes. I also like to position my top two low to the water (Busy times touching the deck!) and to around 10-11 o'clock.....

You want a slight angle because you really want to use a soft set elastic, i find 11 and 13h ideal for this venues, but you still want abit of a bolt effect, which is why the angles a good idea.

So lets get started then!

The match started and i decided to go straight for my 11m. Its always been a favorable silver fish line on this pond so why not! I was only in seconds and was into the roach, every minute or so getting a pull, then while playing the fish introducing more maggots every time just to give them confidence immediately after catching one.

After about 45 minutes the size of the roach was really going down and i'd started to miss alot of the bites even with a big hook. I decided to try the deck line @ 6m.

Which shortly followed this decent perch!...

Followed by even more roach:).

Eventually all my pole lines went dead, its fairly normally for this venue while targeting the roach. It seems to fish brilliant up until around 12 o clock then they go off the feed. I decided to try to target some carp on the bomb. I'd never actually tried it here as its very deep and its also pretty violent on the bottom (See previous diagram) but it was worth a go on the triple dead red.

Well, it went better than i'd expected, i started off feeding nothing and was starting to roach again just on the bomb. As soon as i knew there were fish there i began to introduce some feed. I really work on my own ethos of not introducing bait until I've located fish, this stops you having little piles of bait all over and with a bomb, just means just can explore loads more. I began to introduce some soaks 2mm pellets in a Drennan G/bait feeder every now and again. The feeder had a 25g weight on it so i didn't have to fill it up to cast out everytime.

Eventually i got a right wrap round on the tip....

It gave an odd 'Noding' fight, i thought it was a bream but it turned out to be a 5lb carp!

Once the fish were present, i being to introduce more feed but still very little. After the carp it was back on to the roach, i had a feeling the numbers of roach were bullying the odd carp which were present out of the swim so....This is were the red dot comes in! Its a very good idea to just go to the left or right by 2-6ft of your established swim sometimes and that's exactly what i did... Followed by another 3 consecutive carp this one being the biggest of the other 3...

 And the smallest!

It didn't end up being a bad day to be honest. I'd made a mistake the night before by leaving my landing net and handle at home! My own fault, i've just replaced all my luggage and with all the bits i put away i'd forgotten one of the most important items, but luckily my mate had a spare one.

It ended great for me, I ended up winning with 15lb of Carp and 27lb of roach.

Its a really good roach venue this, i'd urge anyone who wants a change just to go on it for a day. The small opens are £10 but a day ticket is only £4 and you can go wrong with that.

That's it from me, I'm fishing the canal for the first time in a while at the weekend (Pleasure fishing) so i'll get a post up with that at some point. 

Nathan 

@Fish4Thought

Tap Vs Pond

I've read from many sources aswell as noticing this new found "Posh fisherman" trend going around that people are using more and more house hold things to mix Groundbaits and pastes. I've never understood why people mix ground bait at home and even so why they insist on using boiling water for Paste and Groundbait. I mean understandable if it has any particles in which float or even bird seed, but i've never understood people who mix plain Paste & Groundbait at home and heres why...

Much like making a cup of coffee, you probably think it's much better to use hot or warm water when mixing your groundbait. Personally I've found that using cold water makes a much more consistent mix, especially if you're turning it into paste. Ingredients wise, groundbait consists of an insoluble base that provides bulk but doesn't dissolve in water and various soluble fish attractants, proteins, amino acids, fish meal etc. which dissolve in water. Everyone knows from experience that the warmer the water is ,the quicker and better things dissolve. The thing about groundbait is it already comes perfectly mixed! The quicker and more of the soluble parts of it we dissolve in the water the more you separate them. You may think this isn't a problem because the absorbent bulk soaks up the water with the soluble attractants with it. While true this also means it takes them out of the bulk quicker aswell and as your warm water cools down it gets denser and slower to dissolve attractants so your mix ends up alot less even. Basically, cold water helps keep the mix consistent by staying at the same temperture throughout the entire mix dissolving the dissolvable parts much slower and keeping your mix alot more inline with how it was before you added water. Thus giving your a better texture.

 

So what about using cold water from home rather than what from the lake?

Another thing about using tap water is, tapwater has got about 1.5ppm of chlorine in it and anything over 0.003ppm stresses fish and damages their gills. Obviously chucking groundbait in made with tapwater isn't going to kill a fish, but it may effect its confidence in feeding if its irritated.


A few things for you to think about...

Nathan
@ Fish4Thought

Barbed Vs Barbless!!!

Lets get one thing straight here, I fully support using Barbless on all the venues which enforce the rule, I'm just trying to open a couple a people minds who may use Barbless on venue they don't strictly have to, like a lot of naturals.

What are the pros and cons of using barbless hooks when fishing? There seem to be three major schools of thought regarding barbless hooks, though most people most likely fall somewhere between the three.
Let's first define a barbless hook. This is simply a hook that has no backward facing barbs on it to retain the fish on the hook once they strike it. In short, it is nothing more than a curved piece of metal that is sharpened at one point.

The first group:

"Barbless hooks cause less damage to the fish than Barbed". 

They have a good point, and in truth, i'm willing to guess that 50% of fisherman who use both styles of hooks, take the same amount of time to dislodge them as they do with a barbless. No doubt causing a rip to the lip. For those fishermen, a hook without a barb not only allows them to release the fish with minimal damage, but it also provides more sport when catching the fish since it is harder to bring them in, ...Theres a but...

When you do use barbless hooks, whilst being a lot better for the fish when landed and actually unhooking and its even easier to shed when snapped off, its still not as healthy for the fish as a barbed one. Why? Well put simple its able to move around a hell of a lot more than a barbed hook, a simple test on a bit of foam can show you this. Get some foam, hook both types of hooks into the foam, make sure they are both the same type and shape. Then just give then an equal amount of force and see what happens, in 90% of the times i tried it the barbless hook actually makes a large circle when the barbed hook hardly did anything. Why? Because the barb holds it in place - Thus not dislodging the lip and causing holes a round fishes lips or even removing them all together. Thats probably why 50% of Specimen fisheries use a rule that your ONLY ALLOWED to use barbed hooks.

The Second Group:

"I dont like using Barbed hooks because if i get broken off then the fish wont as easily shed the hook".

I touched upon this in the above paragraph and in fairness its probably one of the main reason people have banned and/or dont use Barbed hooks, But just how long do you think a match hook could last in water?

Some tests have shown that varnished hooks (bronze, blue, etc.) and nickel or gold hooks, which are most common in freshwater, will break down (defined as being well corroded, brittle, and unusable though not totally decomposed), in two to three weeks of freshwater immersion, compared with 48 to 54 hours in saltwater. Some would estimate it would decrease the strength to around 10% of the original conditioned hook, so how long do you think that would actually last realistically?

The Third Group:

"I loose alot of fish when i use Barbless Hooks"

On many parts this can be true,especially when fishing for silvers or small fish as the tension isn't always there. A couple of ideas to stop this are:

1. Keep you light tight at all times.
2. Try to fish to hand if you can.
3. Try to swing as many fish as you can.
4. Try to use the heaviest elastic you can, its not always a good idea fishing with light elastics as as soon as you pull into the fish there is a second or so when the bungee effect picks the fish up and then loses all tension on the line.

Well folks, theres a few things to think about, as i say at the start of this post i totally support barbless hooks but i'm not narrow minded in thinking thats the only way and i think some people haven't got the grasp of why they are band at alot of places.

Thats it from me,

Nathan

@Fish4Thought

My commercial Bomb rig...

Hi Folks,

I've seen alot of different ways and methods of fishing the bomb (Layout wise), none i am particular a fan of. I''m guesstimating that most people have the view of having a simple running ledger rig? Well not me.

In today's angling, one of the major and main concerns of any rigs is 'fish safety', although i totally agree with this 100% i think people have forgotten the very basic 'fixed rig' on venues which allow it. People have forgotten that the very method of applying a much smaller hook length than the mainline on a feeder/bomb approach is just as safe as any running or completely free rig.

I'll invite you to have an open mind viewing the below rig before any opinions are based, as its the rig i use 99% of the time when fishing the bomb.


This is all you need....

 First, get a length of small mono, i'd recommend about 12oz- 1.2lb something along that region. Go heavier if you want to cast further - think along the lines of .3lb for every 10 yards. Then tie a loop around an inch long, no more than 2 inches! Clip of the remainder and give it a steam over a kettle. (This'll help straighten it out and keep it straight!).

 Next, simply thread it through your chosen weight of bomb and pull the loop through its self until you form a boom or bungee style loop. I use a range so i cant tell you what i'd prefer its totally weather and tactic dependent but i'd say 1/2oz is something that's very versatile.

 It should be pretty much the same as this. I'd also then tie the smallest loop on the very end of the loop.

 Next, get the snap swivel, with your main line tie a knot (any spec will do, i tend to flow towards a grinner knot) onto the smaller snap end of your swivel, once you have done that, get your hook-length, which should have the smallest loop you can tie on the end of it and insert it into the larger snap gate. The larger snap gate will also be housing the bomb, attached via the small loop.

You should end up with something looking like this. Its a very good rig. Not only have you got the assurance of the lower strength line attaching the bomb to the rig, but you also have the common sense route of using a lower strength hook link. Its a very good Fixed/Semi fixed rig for all bomb users. It is pretty impossible to tangle the rig too.

The key to this rig is the fixed paternoster whilst being more 'Fishery' and 'socially' correct, it is still a fixed rig and you have the benefits of feeling every bite for all its potential - it allows the fish to drop the bomb after a short time if you do get snapped off. I would also suggest that when fishing this method that you real back a a full turn on your real as soon as you cast in, thus allowing the rig to sit perfectly.

Give it a try with 2 dead reds over a small PVA pouch of Pellets this winter:).

Nathan
@ Fish4Thought.

Dreaming of the past - Part 1, Sycamore lakes.

Every year i go to Sycamore lakes for the 'Festival'.

Its one of the best places i have ever been and its just up my street in angling performance and tactics. Its a proper 5m paste line venue for me.

My main lines for attacking this venue are:

5/6m Paste line (NO feed): Rig wise i tend to use a direct line from tip to hook of around the 9lb area, tied to a 10 Middy or Animal with the choice of float being the PB22 usual for my paste fishing. I'd then top this off with 13 or 15h elastic softly set on a puller and expect to be fishing this line at the very end ledge, being around 5-6ft deep. I'd be looking at just feeding the paste which is on the hook and no loose feed as such would be introduced to the swim.

Margin Paste line: As usual i'd be 'filling' this in all day. I'd say i'd introduce about 2 kilos of pellets before got round to fishing it. Rig wise i tend to use a direct line from tip to hook of around the 10lb area, tied to a 10 Middy or Animal with the choice of float being the PB22 usual for my paste fishing. I'd then top this off with 15 or 17h elastic. I'd be looking to fish ON the first ledge in around 2 ft of water. I'd also look to be going up the elastic ladder to 16 solid or 19h due to the size of fish normally increasing as the day goes on.

As you've guessed, the matches are dominated heavily with carp. There is however a nice stock of silvers in the road side pond which can be a pest if they get on the paste!.....

There is some good lumps in the lakes, so you really do need to be careful. If you've drawn/fish next to a tree, you should be ready to rag the carp out as soon as its contacted....

Put it in....

P

 We're in to one!

 You need to keep pulling on it. Dont worry about your pole or your end tackle, if your using a balanced set up it shouldn't bother it one bit - but if you don't pull 'em out - YOU WILL lose the fish.

 It doesn't take long to get 'em out of the snags as long as your hard with them, then your free to play the fish on your top two.

 Nearly there! Once the head pops up don't let it go down again!

..and its in the bag!

I use a Z9 for all my fishing including the margins, if your a bit unnerved by that, Browning have a very good and cost effective range of margin poles for all prices brackets and angling abilities. 

If you like here's pretty much a story of pictures for you to feast your eyes on - Courtesy of Katie Hughes Photography...

DONT ASK about the last picture, dont know what that face is all about lol.

Nathan @ Fish4Thought