Max Bagging Up

Max has got the bug bad. All he has spoken this week is going fishing, different species, places to go. He has always had a passion for animals but that has now transpired to all things fish as well.
This week I planned an action packed morning to add further fuel to the fire in his belly and to give him more experience of casting, playing and also unhooking some fish for himself. As sad as it is a commercial would be the best place but not somewhere catching pasties and mud pigs. A silver pool like the one at Willow Farm was ideal, plenty of bites and a lovely variety of silver fish.

First cast a decent Roach and he insisted the camera came out to record the historic moment. Several more followed along with some decent sized Silver Bream and a few dainty Perch.

When he started to get the hang of things it gave me an opportunity to get the camera out and take some action shots.

A quick learner it was a joy to hear his squeals of delight when he got a fish on.

Biggest fish of the day was this 2lb 2oz Common Bream.

Pleased as punch with a quality netful of Silvers. Back on the river next time....

Three Session Catch-up

Friday I managed to get two sessions in, one in the morning on my own and one in the evening spent in the company of Jeff and Martin. Both times it rained and both times I was after Barbel but I only managed one of about seven pounds, however I did land a lot of Chub.

Pellets were the bait of choice and whilst Barbel love them they are not discerning when it comes to Chub, a hazard of the game I suppose. I don't have a major problem with catching Chub, in fact I quite enjoy it but when heavy Barbel gear is employed the fun is definitely lessened.

Rain and cameras are not good bedfellows hence the quality of the photos might not be quite up to scratch but the cygnets below did make pretty subjects.

The rain held off tonight as I once again popped down to the Avon for a bonus session. There was a kind of change of tactics too as I felt like fishing for bites and a bit of fun rather than going all out for just one species. So with that in mind I popped into the tackle shop for a pint of maggots and some hemp. They were deployed on one rod but I still fished pellets on a 'sleeper' rod.

Several small Roach, Bream, and a couple of bonus Silver Bream came my way before as the light faded the sleeper rod suddenly burst into life. An interesting fight ensued that didn't have the all out pace of a Barbel or the short dogged bursts of a Chub but I was still surprised when my unseen adversary turned out to be a river Tench. Not a massive one and really I should have guessed it might be a Tinca as the swim does have previous form but a stunningly coloured example weighing 3lb 4oz.

A Chip off the Old Block?

I hate this in between phase we seem to be in. When the sun shines it feels like Spring but when the wind blows it still feels 'Winterish'. The over night temperatures are low and the water temperature is still bloody cold. It has really hit my motivation (until Tench time) and with a 'not bothered what we catch' attitude I took my eldest Maisie to the closest commercial fishery and let her have a play. Sometimes it is great to go fishing with no pressure knowing we would definitely catch something and we weren't bothered what it was.

So with a few hours to spare and some worms left over from the previous Tench trip we headed down to Manor Farm and float fished our way through a Sunday lunchtime. Maisie fished the only rod, set up by Dad but every bite and subsequent fish was hers. I think she enjoyed it. I kept asking her if she wanted to go home but each time her response was in the negative and she ended the day with a reasonable bag of Silver Bream and Roach.

Best fish of the day was an 11oz Roach which she refused to hold as it kept 'flipping'.

I enjoyed Maisie catching fish as much as if I had caught them myself and the fact that she didn't want to go home and would rather have stayed and caught more made my day! A chip off the old block?- I hope so!

Pb Silver Bream from Willow Farm

The sun bursts through to melt away the mist on a perfect autumnal morning. The overnight temperature was a little on the low side and that slowed sport for the first few hours until the rays had raised the mercury by a couple of notches, only then did bites start to materialise.
A fortnight ago I had fished Willow farm for Perch but failed miserably however I did stumble across some Silver Bream of the sort of size to make them interesting and today I targeted them properly.
My initial bait was pellet but I changed to worm when that failed. Bites were hard to come by but there were a few indications and I kept feeding chopped worm and maggot into the swim in the hope that things would speed up. In the meantime a Kingfisher kept me amused as it went about getting it's breakfast. It was putting me to shame.

At one point it landed on a branch so close I could have almost reached it but it flew away just before I could press the shutter on the camera-next time!
By lunchtime I started to get amongst the fish facilitated by a another bait change, this time to maggot. Roach, Perch and a few small Silver Bream were caught. I then had a bite on the drop followed by a large swirl and I hooked into a Silver Bream that made me nervous. Early on in the fight I could see that it was a pb and I repeated to myself 'stay on', 'stay on'. Thankfully it did and I slid the net under a 1lb 2oz fish.

I fished on despite my mission being completed, landed a few more tiddlers. The difficult morning forgotten with just one fish, funny how that happens!

Silver Change

This morning I set off with big Perch in mind. I took loads of bait: maggots, dendroboena, lobworms and prawns. My tactics were Prawn on the float rod and a sleeper rod with lobworm on a low resistance rig. I baited continuously throughout the day to attract small fry to the areas and the big Perch would follow them and fancy a seafood appetiser or wriggly treat. All good in theory but the Perch didn't follow the script.
The sun came out and made it warm and bright, not classic Perch conditions so I moved to the shaded area behind the island. It sort of worked in that I found fish that were willing to feed just not the target species. I finished the afternoon with several Roach, Tench, baby Perch and Silver Bream up to a pb equalling 12oz.

I did not know they were in this particular pond but I would guess they could grow to a decent size in here, well at least to over a pound! On my return I think they will be the target.

Olympic medal fish and photo finish Tench

I managed to fish two sessions this Bank holiday weekend, firstly a short Saturday morning foray to Willow Farm and secondly an all day visit to Hardwick, Linear chasing big Tench.

Willow farm Silver pool.

Willow Farm: I am still certain it holds a big Silver Bream and my obsession with catching it continues. As per Wednesday night I floatfished small pellets and I caught an excellent mixed bag of Roach, Silver Bream, Tench and ornamentals.

 I was only interested in Silver Bream and therefore I only weighed the biggest, coming in at 10oz. With the Olympics coming soon I put it with it's Gold and Bronze mates to create this pertinent photo.

Bronze, Silver and Gold but no World Record

Hardwick Linear:
I am purposefully late starting my Tench campaign this year, with good reason.  May and June are when they are at their biggest weights and also the recent cold weather has not been conducive to Tench feeding hard. I think this session was evidence of exactly that.

View from my corner of Hardwick

The photo above does not show how cold it was. There was a freezing northerly wind and the temperature did not hit double figures all day. The sun must have had an effect eventually and just as I was beginning to pack away I had a screaming run. The Tench battled very hard, kiting a long way left across the neighbouring swim. I was lucky that the carpers in there had not set up yet so I could play the fish without worrying about catching their lines. They were a couple of big lads! I eventually netted it and whilst it rested in the net I unpacked the unhooking mat and scales etc.
She weighed in at 7lb 14oz. I took a quick self-pic and put her back.
I felt that the water temperature must have risen enough to instigate a feeding spell and should I have stayed I would have been confident of catching more but it was late afternoon and sunday roast was being cooked, next time.
Normally the Tench at this time of year will feed all day but also normally May is a lot warmer. It's going to be a tough campaign trying to get my double this year.

7lb 14oz

Another pb-but only just!

This evening I had a short two hour session at Willow Farm on the outskirts of Evesham and managed my fourth personal best in six weeks. Not bad going considering I have not fished for over a fortnight. It was a case of only just though as the blog title says, a meagre two ounces over my previous best, well they all count.
I finished the session with a nice mixed bag.

The Bronze Bream weighed 3lb 6oz, the Tench was 3lb 8oz and the PB Silver Bream went 12oz.

I know there are bigger still in this puddle and I am determined to land them. Tonight's successful bait was pellet and I feel that pellet is the key to getting amongst the bigger specimens. We shall see.

Prawntastic

This week I stayed very local and fished Willow Farm on the outskirts of Evesham. The forecast was for dull and overcast weather and it stayed that way until mid-afternoon. I thought that it would be perfect for Perch as they do not feed well in bright weather. The sudden drop in temperature following the lovely warm weather all week caught me out and I felt freezing all morning.
Last week was the first time I have ever used Prawns as bait and as they had caught three Perch in quick succession I decided to try them again, just on the one rod and on the other I used half a Lobworm. What I didn't realise was just how much Tench love Prawns. They went mad for them!

I had nine of them in total up to 3lb 11oz which to begin with was good fun on float and light tackle but I often fish places where they run much bigger so I started to get a bit annoyed with them. I would play them carefully thinking they could be a big Perch only to be disappointed when they came to the net. A few years ago they would have made for a really good days angling but I have been spoilt by catching them close to double figures. It is sad how your viewpoint of fish size changes and with it your opinion on what constitutes a good fish does as well.

I also caught a small Roach on the worm and a near personal best Silver Bream which actually excited me more than the Tench. It weighed a meagre 9oz and took a small section of Prawn. For it's size it had a remarkably big tail.

There are Silver Bream over a pound in here, I know because I saw one in old man's keepnet whilst chatting to him about the species. He had no idea what he had caught as is often the way. I will keep on trying until I break that barrier.

Blanks, Struggles and Freebies

Avon sunset

All good things must come to an end and my recent run of success did just that. The last two weeks have been a real battle, firstly two blanks and then a couple of sessions with fish caught but not the species or the size that I wanted. Still if it was easy and we always got what we wanted we would not come back for more.

10.08.11

The first session was an evening Barbel foray and the successful tactic of rolling meat finally let me down, two bites, no hook ups therefore no fish.

14.08.11

The following weekend my brother and I headed for linear as confident as ever and we were sent away with our tails between our legs. A bite apiece, mine came off, my brother's hook link failed.

17.08.11

A short evening session chasing Zander. I avoided the blank by landing a pair of Jack Pike, both around the 5lb mark, one of them in the pitch black which is unusual and I was sure was a Zed til I shone the head torch on it. Better result but still not that satisfying.

18.08.11

Today I decided to go for the confidence building session we all need some time so the local commercial chasing Silver Bream was my plan. I still struggled for the first hour as I targeted the margins. Once I realised all the fish were in the middle of the pool I caught and fairly regularly. Despite the torrential down pours I enjoyed the session and ended with a very varied mixed bag.

The only fish I weighed was the biggest Silver Bream which was a new personal best at 10oz! 

One bit of good fortune was the new Land Rover arrived last weekend with a pretty awesome number plate absolutely free. The chap selling it is an angler but did not twig that to the right person it would be worth good money and he just left it on!

 It is pretty unmissable so say hello if you see it on the bank somewhere.

Silver Bream, Willow Farm

I took advantage of the longest day of the year to do an evening session and went back to Willow Farm to try for a larger Silver Bream. I managed it but only by a meagre ounce and I know there are bigger in there. They are not the only species in this pool though and I caught examples of them all tonight. 

I started the session using up the remaining maggots from opening day. This was a mistake. I took two Carp, several Roach, two Gudgeon and three Tench including one of about 5lb which put up a great scrap on light float rod tackle. I also had a brace of Goldfish!

When I ran out of maggots I changed to worm and then I started catching the Silvers. The largest going half a pound. I still caught a couple of Perch and another decent Tench but it was mostly the target species. 

A thoroughly enjoyable session watching the float until I could no longer see it.

Silver Bream, Willow Farm

The 2011 bloggers challenge includes a few species that are out of my comfort zone, in other words I have never seriously fished for them. I like to fish waters that hold big fish but that is probably being a bit short sighted as fun can be had fishing for smaller species and tonight was one of those evenings that proved my point.
A couple of weeks ago I was sorting through the photos on the computer and deleting the rubbish ones when I came across a photo of my daughter, Maisie with a fish she had caught on a day out with her Daddy. It looked like a Silver Bream.

Big eye, Anal fin, silvery scales etc, had I stumbled across some possible points close to home?  Tonight I decided to give it a try.
When I arrived at the puddle I had a quick chat with the two old boys already fishing and one of them had a decent Bream in the net, I explained what I was after and he pulled out his keepnet to show me what he had caught. To me it looked like several Silver Bream, including one of over a pound! plus a few very small Crucians and a Goldfish! This got me excited and keen to get fishing.
I baited up my swim with maggots before I set up to give the fish some time to find the bait. Having fished this lake previously with Maisie I knew that it was full of stunted Roach so I thought that if I loaded the shot low down then the maggots would get through to the pond bed and that would give me the chance to pick off the silvers. It worked! First cast a gudgeon, next eight fish were Bream.

The biggest weighed in at 7oz and not being an expert I have included several photos in hope that Jeff (silver Bream) Hatt can verify that they are true Siver Bream. Having studied his ramblings closely I certainly think they are.

I have included this photo so that regular readers can see I now have a new butch fishing Transit van and am not turning up at the waterside in my hairdresser's Mazda!