A quick update:
Went fishing with my old man a few weeks back. It was his first time.
He managed to bag up on small silvers, but the highlight of the day for me was landing my PB carp of 15lbs.
Saturday, 22 November 2014
Small update
A bit of a late post this, but have been very busy.
A quick update:
Went fishing with my old man a few weeks back. It was his first time.
He managed to bag up on small silvers, but the highlight of the day for me was landing my PB carp of 15lbs.
Anyway, this maybe the last fishing related blog post until the new year, so if im not back by January, Wait longer.
A quick update:
Went fishing with my old man a few weeks back. It was his first time.
He managed to bag up on small silvers, but the highlight of the day for me was landing my PB carp of 15lbs.
Tuesday, 26 August 2014
Review: Dunlop Biomimetic 13ft waggler rod.
I have used this rod three times now, and as stated I feel its time for a review.
Cost:
I bought the rod from Dragoncarp direct for £18. It arrived the following day.
Looks:
The rod looks nice. Made from a carbon blank with a cork and rubberised handle.
Build:
The rod is well made. The eyes are nice and straight and seem to be stuck to the blank with resin as opposed to being whipped. The eyes are lined with what feels like ceramic rings.
Performance:
The rod has a nice progressive bend to it when fighting a fish. The eyes seem perfectly spaced to perform with the bend of the blank. With the Shakespear Mach2xt reel, it is very well balanced at the end of the handle. Control of the rod is effortless, and holding it for prolonged periods is comfortable.
With the aforementioned reel loaded with 5lb line, casting is smooth and precise with little drag on the eyes.
The butt is of a nice length, and rests nicely along your forearm when fighting fish.
Buying:
Dragoncarp direct no longer seem to stock this rod, and I cannot find it online. But I would recommend it as a good budget rod if you can find it.
overall, I would give it 8/10.
Cost:
I bought the rod from Dragoncarp direct for £18. It arrived the following day.
Looks:
The rod looks nice. Made from a carbon blank with a cork and rubberised handle.
Build:
The rod is well made. The eyes are nice and straight and seem to be stuck to the blank with resin as opposed to being whipped. The eyes are lined with what feels like ceramic rings.
Performance:
The rod has a nice progressive bend to it when fighting a fish. The eyes seem perfectly spaced to perform with the bend of the blank. With the Shakespear Mach2xt reel, it is very well balanced at the end of the handle. Control of the rod is effortless, and holding it for prolonged periods is comfortable.
With the aforementioned reel loaded with 5lb line, casting is smooth and precise with little drag on the eyes.
The butt is of a nice length, and rests nicely along your forearm when fighting fish.
Buying:
Dragoncarp direct no longer seem to stock this rod, and I cannot find it online. But I would recommend it as a good budget rod if you can find it.
overall, I would give it 8/10.
Monday, 25 August 2014
Review terms and conditions.
When I review an item or service, I will generally use them 3 times before I submit a review. Exceptions would be in extreme circumstances like catastrophic failure on first use, unexpected results, or very exceptional circumstances.
All opinions will be my own and uninfluenced by any other source. Feel free to make your own minds up.
When I review a service or shop, I obviously have no choice but to base opinion on my experiences.
I will include buying links from where I purchased the item, and a google shop link. It is up to you to decide where to purchase the item from.
I am not an experienced angler. Nor do I claim to be. As said elsewhere on the blog, I am returning to angling after 12 years away. I am starting from scratch. My intention is to get cheap kit to cover all fishing instances as soon as possible, then upgrade as and when I need to replace. I do not expect faultless performance, nor do I expect extremely poor performance. I expect kit to do the job I ask of it.
All opinions will be my own and uninfluenced by any other source. Feel free to make your own minds up.
When I review a service or shop, I obviously have no choice but to base opinion on my experiences.
I will include buying links from where I purchased the item, and a google shop link. It is up to you to decide where to purchase the item from.
I am not an experienced angler. Nor do I claim to be. As said elsewhere on the blog, I am returning to angling after 12 years away. I am starting from scratch. My intention is to get cheap kit to cover all fishing instances as soon as possible, then upgrade as and when I need to replace. I do not expect faultless performance, nor do I expect extremely poor performance. I expect kit to do the job I ask of it.
Sevington Lake
So myself and a work colleague decided to fish this lake on Sunday. It was my first time there and he had visited before in the past.
We turned up to find Bivvies everywhere. Unperturbed, we had a walk around the lake to find an empty swim. We found one at the far west end of the lake. As we walked back tot he car to get our kit, someone walked past us with all his kit. Finding the spot before us. So we walked around the east lake and found a small 2 man swim behind the island. While looking in the water, we could see 3 reasonable carp basking on the surface under some bushes against the island. We decided to fish here.
Left hand swim
Right hand swim.
Andy's side.
My side.
We payed the fees, and set up. Andy taking the left hand side of the swim, me taking right. By the time I got my carp rod set up, Andy had already got his pod up, and both rods in. Left rod fishing the undercut of the bushes we saw fish previously, right rod in a clearing against the island. I set my rod up and put it right on the corner of the island. Andy got kettle on and I started setting up a float rod.
Less than 5 mins of my rod going in, the alarm started beeping. 3 beeps then it screamed.
I grabbed rod and struck in. Wasn't a heavy fish. the clutch managed to keep it in check until I landed the 2lb common.
I cast back out, and continued to set up the float rod. In the mean time, Andy was getting excited at all the carp cruising through our swim on the surface and decided to set up one of his rods with a pop up boilie on the surface. Very basic set up. Line direct to hook with pop up boilie on a bait band.
He started targeting the fish that were going through the swim. They kept taking the bait, but he was unable to strike. Often pulling the hook out of the mouth. And because there was so many snags and trees nearby, and because he was casting something so light, and with the wind being quite brisk, it was inevitable that he would often snag up and crack off. Needing to re-rig every other cast.
With my float rod now set up, I started targeting the swirls in the swim, and soon hooked a small 1lb mirror. Followed by a nice size Rudd.
As the swim was tight (between my carp rod, and Andy's right carp rod, there was less than 10 feet of swim.) I decided to rest the float for a while, and set up my quivertip. As I picked up the rod to run the line through the eyes, my alarm started screaming again. I struck into a nice, very pristine 2lb mirror. As I put it back Andy's left rod started screaming. He struck into something that put a nice big bend into his rod. He fought it for about 5 mins, and we often saw it come to the surface. Estimating its size at about 15lbs.Then with a fin flick, the hook came out. Andy was gutted. He re-rigged, and cast out back to the clearing.
So I continued to set up the quivertip. Small 1/2 oz weight, 8 inch hook link with size 14 hook. 2 ground bait covered sweetcorn on the hook, and cast out to an area I had covered with ground bait. It was there less than a minute before the tip bent round violently. I landed a nice common with a mangled mouth.
It was at this point I realised that with all three fish I had caught on the float and ledger, I was having issues getting the hooks out. I decided to examine the hooks. And although the packet said barbless, the hooks actually had barbs on them. So I removed it from my rig, and picked up a size 16 hair rig hooklength and cut the hair off then used this on the quivertip. Next fish I caught the hook fell out.
All the while, I was using my usual feeding pattern of feeding three areas within my swim. One being the corner of the island, the second being the deepest part of my swim. (Swim was not very deep. It plumbed at between 2 feet to 3'6".) and the third being under the shrubs to my right.
I had noticed some activity under the shrubs so I slowly pushed the tip of my carp rod under the overhang, and lowered the boilie and weight into the swim. Put rod on rest, tightened up, set alarm and bobbin, and opened the baitrunner. 2 large balls of ground bait, and a hand full of boilies and left it. Then cast the ledger to the corner of the island.
I caught a few more fish on the ledger then gave it a rest as it went quiet.
Then Andy had his second scream of the session, He struck, but wasn't sure if he had anything on. He leaves his rods set up so they had 4oz weights on from a previous fishing trip where he needed a good cast. Here we were casting less than 10 yards. We then saw colour. It wasn't a big carp. It wasn't a carp at all. It was a large roach of about 1lb, on a 12mm boilie. We put it back, he set up again with a string of boillies then cast out.
Then my alarm started beeping. I put my hand on it to strike, and waited. We could see the bobbin moving up and down. This had to be a delicate strike. The bait was behind the rod tip, so a small sweep was needed. the bobbin fell off, and alarm started screaming. I lifted the rod and pulled it left. The rod tip bent right round, and it felt like a dead weight. From where Andy stood, he saw the fish. He reckons it was around 10lbs. Then the line went slack, and the tip straightened. Thinking it was heading form me I wound in but alas, it had gone. I put the line back, and re-set the rod.
Then Andy's rod started going. He struck into a nice dark common. We landed it and weighed it at 12lb, 6oz. It looked like an old fish. And had a lot of damage around its mouth. We placed it back giving him lots of time to recover before he glided away.
We started packing up in the last hour, then with 20 minutes to go, Andy had caught another carp. I did not take many pics on this day, but I did of this one.
All in all we had a good day's fishing. The quantity of fish was low, but the quality was high.
Sevington Lake:
A very nice lake of around 2 to 3 acres. Has about 20 pegs. Not a huge lake, and its easy to cross swims. It's right beside the M4 and is very noisy. Most swims are spacious. A few swims can hold 2 people. The swims behind the island have too much over head shrubbery. So much so that overarm casting is impossible. But here you don't need distance. So the accuracy of an underarm cast is best. The fish seem to congregate at the far west of the lake, and behind the island when the main lake is busy. We spoke to a few bivvy boys when we got there, and all of them claimed to of caught nothing. Indeed for the first 5 hours we were there, the guys opposite caught nothing. They left, the pegs re-filled with new guys, and they had really annoying bite alarms. I swear one of them played the 'birdy song' tune when it went off.
The kit:
I caught on all three methods I used. Because of the low trees making overhead casts impossible, I opted for a heavy float set up. A 3AAA float that came free with anglers mail. And my 13foot rod so underarm chucks to the cover opposite were easy.
The ledger set up was again a simple 5lb mainline with a running 1/2oz ledger weight with a bead stop tied into a loop so I could use the loops on the hooklengths for a loop to loop connection.
The carp rod was similar to the ledger, with a korda 2oz weight with the line running through it to a swivel onto a 10lb hair rig hooklength of 12 inches. I was making pva bags of boilies and dry groundbait and placing the hooklength and weight inside before tying it all on and casting out.
Bait:
Sweetcorn with groundbait mixed in to give the corn an added touch.
Stickybaits 16mm krill boilies
Mainline high impact groundbait.
Wishlist:
During this trip I decided that I needed to add the following to my wishlist:
Second carp rod and reel.
Rodpod.
Specimen landing net with float and 3 meter handle.
Shelter/bivvy.
I think its also time I did a review of some of the equipment that I have used frequently.
Clunk.
We turned up to find Bivvies everywhere. Unperturbed, we had a walk around the lake to find an empty swim. We found one at the far west end of the lake. As we walked back tot he car to get our kit, someone walked past us with all his kit. Finding the spot before us. So we walked around the east lake and found a small 2 man swim behind the island. While looking in the water, we could see 3 reasonable carp basking on the surface under some bushes against the island. We decided to fish here.
Left hand swim
We payed the fees, and set up. Andy taking the left hand side of the swim, me taking right. By the time I got my carp rod set up, Andy had already got his pod up, and both rods in. Left rod fishing the undercut of the bushes we saw fish previously, right rod in a clearing against the island. I set my rod up and put it right on the corner of the island. Andy got kettle on and I started setting up a float rod.
Less than 5 mins of my rod going in, the alarm started beeping. 3 beeps then it screamed.
I grabbed rod and struck in. Wasn't a heavy fish. the clutch managed to keep it in check until I landed the 2lb common.
I cast back out, and continued to set up the float rod. In the mean time, Andy was getting excited at all the carp cruising through our swim on the surface and decided to set up one of his rods with a pop up boilie on the surface. Very basic set up. Line direct to hook with pop up boilie on a bait band.
He started targeting the fish that were going through the swim. They kept taking the bait, but he was unable to strike. Often pulling the hook out of the mouth. And because there was so many snags and trees nearby, and because he was casting something so light, and with the wind being quite brisk, it was inevitable that he would often snag up and crack off. Needing to re-rig every other cast.
With my float rod now set up, I started targeting the swirls in the swim, and soon hooked a small 1lb mirror. Followed by a nice size Rudd.
As the swim was tight (between my carp rod, and Andy's right carp rod, there was less than 10 feet of swim.) I decided to rest the float for a while, and set up my quivertip. As I picked up the rod to run the line through the eyes, my alarm started screaming again. I struck into a nice, very pristine 2lb mirror. As I put it back Andy's left rod started screaming. He struck into something that put a nice big bend into his rod. He fought it for about 5 mins, and we often saw it come to the surface. Estimating its size at about 15lbs.Then with a fin flick, the hook came out. Andy was gutted. He re-rigged, and cast out back to the clearing.
So I continued to set up the quivertip. Small 1/2 oz weight, 8 inch hook link with size 14 hook. 2 ground bait covered sweetcorn on the hook, and cast out to an area I had covered with ground bait. It was there less than a minute before the tip bent round violently. I landed a nice common with a mangled mouth.
It was at this point I realised that with all three fish I had caught on the float and ledger, I was having issues getting the hooks out. I decided to examine the hooks. And although the packet said barbless, the hooks actually had barbs on them. So I removed it from my rig, and picked up a size 16 hair rig hooklength and cut the hair off then used this on the quivertip. Next fish I caught the hook fell out.
All the while, I was using my usual feeding pattern of feeding three areas within my swim. One being the corner of the island, the second being the deepest part of my swim. (Swim was not very deep. It plumbed at between 2 feet to 3'6".) and the third being under the shrubs to my right.
I had noticed some activity under the shrubs so I slowly pushed the tip of my carp rod under the overhang, and lowered the boilie and weight into the swim. Put rod on rest, tightened up, set alarm and bobbin, and opened the baitrunner. 2 large balls of ground bait, and a hand full of boilies and left it. Then cast the ledger to the corner of the island.
I caught a few more fish on the ledger then gave it a rest as it went quiet.
Then Andy had his second scream of the session, He struck, but wasn't sure if he had anything on. He leaves his rods set up so they had 4oz weights on from a previous fishing trip where he needed a good cast. Here we were casting less than 10 yards. We then saw colour. It wasn't a big carp. It wasn't a carp at all. It was a large roach of about 1lb, on a 12mm boilie. We put it back, he set up again with a string of boillies then cast out.
Then my alarm started beeping. I put my hand on it to strike, and waited. We could see the bobbin moving up and down. This had to be a delicate strike. The bait was behind the rod tip, so a small sweep was needed. the bobbin fell off, and alarm started screaming. I lifted the rod and pulled it left. The rod tip bent right round, and it felt like a dead weight. From where Andy stood, he saw the fish. He reckons it was around 10lbs. Then the line went slack, and the tip straightened. Thinking it was heading form me I wound in but alas, it had gone. I put the line back, and re-set the rod.
Then Andy's rod started going. He struck into a nice dark common. We landed it and weighed it at 12lb, 6oz. It looked like an old fish. And had a lot of damage around its mouth. We placed it back giving him lots of time to recover before he glided away.
We started packing up in the last hour, then with 20 minutes to go, Andy had caught another carp. I did not take many pics on this day, but I did of this one.
Sevington Lake:
A very nice lake of around 2 to 3 acres. Has about 20 pegs. Not a huge lake, and its easy to cross swims. It's right beside the M4 and is very noisy. Most swims are spacious. A few swims can hold 2 people. The swims behind the island have too much over head shrubbery. So much so that overarm casting is impossible. But here you don't need distance. So the accuracy of an underarm cast is best. The fish seem to congregate at the far west of the lake, and behind the island when the main lake is busy. We spoke to a few bivvy boys when we got there, and all of them claimed to of caught nothing. Indeed for the first 5 hours we were there, the guys opposite caught nothing. They left, the pegs re-filled with new guys, and they had really annoying bite alarms. I swear one of them played the 'birdy song' tune when it went off.
The kit:
I caught on all three methods I used. Because of the low trees making overhead casts impossible, I opted for a heavy float set up. A 3AAA float that came free with anglers mail. And my 13foot rod so underarm chucks to the cover opposite were easy.
The ledger set up was again a simple 5lb mainline with a running 1/2oz ledger weight with a bead stop tied into a loop so I could use the loops on the hooklengths for a loop to loop connection.
The carp rod was similar to the ledger, with a korda 2oz weight with the line running through it to a swivel onto a 10lb hair rig hooklength of 12 inches. I was making pva bags of boilies and dry groundbait and placing the hooklength and weight inside before tying it all on and casting out.
Bait:
Sweetcorn with groundbait mixed in to give the corn an added touch.
Stickybaits 16mm krill boilies
Mainline high impact groundbait.
Wishlist:
During this trip I decided that I needed to add the following to my wishlist:
Second carp rod and reel.
Rodpod.
Specimen landing net with float and 3 meter handle.
Shelter/bivvy.
I think its also time I did a review of some of the equipment that I have used frequently.
Clunk.
Sunday, 10 August 2014
Another days fishing.
Had another session on the Kennet and Avon today.
Got tot he bankside and I set up my friends rod first. It was her first time fishing, so I gave her a guaranteed catch rig. A basic waggler set up with a crystal 3aaa float, and a size 18 hook on a Shakespear 11foot waggler rod with a Linaffe reel.
Showed her how to cast, put her maggot on the hook for her, and let her rip. Turned to set my rod up, and she had already hooked a fish. Nice little roach of a few ounces. We put it back as the keep net had yet to be set up, so it was set up next.
Went back to my rod set up. A 10 foot feeder rod, 1oz quiver, starting with a maggot swim feeder. Before I finished settimg my rod up, my guest had already landed a few tiddlers.
Finally got going with my rod and used the maggot feeder for about half an hour with no bites. Switched the feeder for a pear lead, maggots with sweetcorn, and fed the swim by hand. My first fish a small bream of about 1lb.
All the while my guest getting loads of bites, but her striking technique was still a learning curve. Being a bit abrupt with the rod in the 'answering the phone' strike so asked her to strike with the 'star trek communicator' method. This was giving her more positive strikes, and resulting in more catches.
Then the first of the days bizarre takes. I had a positive knock on the quiver, and struck into a fish of not a huge size. I was reeling it in with no bother then the clutch started screaming, and the rod bent double. Fought it for a good 10 minutes before I saw colour, and was startled to see that it was a green flank. I had hooked a pike. Then as it come near the surface, a small roach lept from its mouth and swam off. Then I realised that the pike had struck the fish I had caught, and somehow hooked itself on the size 10 hook, with 3lb hook length line. I was not confident of landing it at all.
Eventually, I did though. A small jack pike of 2lb 10oz hooked neatly in the side of its mouth away from its teeth.
After that, I thought nothing could beat that on the day.
After another 20 minutes of fishing, I hear the clutch screech on my guests rod. I look over to see the rod bent right over and cries of 'erm. . . what am I doing?'
I grab the landing net and go over to her and slowly guide it in. A roll on the surface showed it to be a carp of about 6lbs in size. I put the net in to grab it, then the hook length snapped.
She was gutted.
Put a new hooklength on her line and settled down to watch my quiver.
Another few skimmers later, and she had quite a large roach on. Too large to swing to hand, so I got the landing net in the water ready to catch it. I see the silver of the fish just under the surface, above the net, and lift up the net. At the same time, there was a large splash and the landing net got very heavy.
Looked into the net and we were both shocked to find a pike in the landing net. The hooklength had already come out of the fish so we have no idea if it was hooked or not, or whether the pike went for the roach just as I lifted the net and caught it by chance. Either way, I let her have it. A double net of a roach and a 4lb 3oz pike.
A few more small fish were caught before finally calling it a day. All in all a good days fishing.
Things I learned from this trip:
1. The Linaffe reel and the line on it is shit. It kept tangling up.
2. I still need a longer landing net.
3. My brolly needs upgrading to a shelter.
4. I need to be more organised. Our swim was a mess and we were always looking for stuff.
5. I need more bait. We ran out of corn, and used most of the maggots.
6. I need to stock up on hooks to nylon. We ran out of the size 18 hooks to nylon. I did have a second pack of hooks to nylon, but for some reason the size 18 hooks in the second pack were the size of size 8 hooks.
7. I need a proper quiver rest.
8. And a better carp chair.
Got tot he bankside and I set up my friends rod first. It was her first time fishing, so I gave her a guaranteed catch rig. A basic waggler set up with a crystal 3aaa float, and a size 18 hook on a Shakespear 11foot waggler rod with a Linaffe reel.
Showed her how to cast, put her maggot on the hook for her, and let her rip. Turned to set my rod up, and she had already hooked a fish. Nice little roach of a few ounces. We put it back as the keep net had yet to be set up, so it was set up next.
Went back to my rod set up. A 10 foot feeder rod, 1oz quiver, starting with a maggot swim feeder. Before I finished settimg my rod up, my guest had already landed a few tiddlers.
Finally got going with my rod and used the maggot feeder for about half an hour with no bites. Switched the feeder for a pear lead, maggots with sweetcorn, and fed the swim by hand. My first fish a small bream of about 1lb.
All the while my guest getting loads of bites, but her striking technique was still a learning curve. Being a bit abrupt with the rod in the 'answering the phone' strike so asked her to strike with the 'star trek communicator' method. This was giving her more positive strikes, and resulting in more catches.
Then the first of the days bizarre takes. I had a positive knock on the quiver, and struck into a fish of not a huge size. I was reeling it in with no bother then the clutch started screaming, and the rod bent double. Fought it for a good 10 minutes before I saw colour, and was startled to see that it was a green flank. I had hooked a pike. Then as it come near the surface, a small roach lept from its mouth and swam off. Then I realised that the pike had struck the fish I had caught, and somehow hooked itself on the size 10 hook, with 3lb hook length line. I was not confident of landing it at all.
Eventually, I did though. A small jack pike of 2lb 10oz hooked neatly in the side of its mouth away from its teeth.
After another 20 minutes of fishing, I hear the clutch screech on my guests rod. I look over to see the rod bent right over and cries of 'erm. . . what am I doing?'
I grab the landing net and go over to her and slowly guide it in. A roll on the surface showed it to be a carp of about 6lbs in size. I put the net in to grab it, then the hook length snapped.
She was gutted.
Another few skimmers later, and she had quite a large roach on. Too large to swing to hand, so I got the landing net in the water ready to catch it. I see the silver of the fish just under the surface, above the net, and lift up the net. At the same time, there was a large splash and the landing net got very heavy.
Looked into the net and we were both shocked to find a pike in the landing net. The hooklength had already come out of the fish so we have no idea if it was hooked or not, or whether the pike went for the roach just as I lifted the net and caught it by chance. Either way, I let her have it. A double net of a roach and a 4lb 3oz pike.
Things I learned from this trip:
1. The Linaffe reel and the line on it is shit. It kept tangling up.
2. I still need a longer landing net.
3. My brolly needs upgrading to a shelter.
4. I need to be more organised. Our swim was a mess and we were always looking for stuff.
5. I need more bait. We ran out of corn, and used most of the maggots.
6. I need to stock up on hooks to nylon. We ran out of the size 18 hooks to nylon. I did have a second pack of hooks to nylon, but for some reason the size 18 hooks in the second pack were the size of size 8 hooks.
7. I need a proper quiver rest.
8. And a better carp chair.
Thursday, 7 August 2014
Still lacking.
So I was going through my kit in preparation for a fishing trip on Saturday, and I realise how woefully under equipped I am.
Don't get me wrong, I am not a tackle tart in anyway. Well, not yet. But there are still some parts I really need to get.
My fishing style is to put a carp rod out for large fish, in a fire and forget fashion, and use another more hands on style of fishing.
Float fishing, I have everything I need. Floats, shot, 2 rods, and loads of size 16 and 18 hooks to nylon. So no problems here.
Carp (specimen). I lack method feeders and weights.
Spinning and lures: Ok here, good selection and wire traces.
Feeder/ledger: Lacking method feeders, although I have maggot swim feeders. All the larger hooks I have are pre made hair rigs. I could cut the hairs off and use the hooks naked I guess.
All little things really, but stuff I wont be able to acquire before Saturday.
Taking a friend fishing on Saturday so I will set her up with a float rod with size 18 or 16 hooks. And I will ledger with a maggot feeder at first. But may replace feeder with weight to fish corn.
Don't get me wrong, I am not a tackle tart in anyway. Well, not yet. But there are still some parts I really need to get.
My fishing style is to put a carp rod out for large fish, in a fire and forget fashion, and use another more hands on style of fishing.
Float fishing, I have everything I need. Floats, shot, 2 rods, and loads of size 16 and 18 hooks to nylon. So no problems here.
Carp (specimen). I lack method feeders and weights.
Spinning and lures: Ok here, good selection and wire traces.
Feeder/ledger: Lacking method feeders, although I have maggot swim feeders. All the larger hooks I have are pre made hair rigs. I could cut the hairs off and use the hooks naked I guess.
All little things really, but stuff I wont be able to acquire before Saturday.
Taking a friend fishing on Saturday so I will set her up with a float rod with size 18 or 16 hooks. And I will ledger with a maggot feeder at first. But may replace feeder with weight to fish corn.
Monday, 4 August 2014
New tackle
As well as the Mach 2xt, I also bought since the canal trip a quiver tip rod, a carp rod and reel, Bite alarm, bank sticks, and a few bits of tackle.
My next fishing trip is also taking a guest along. However, this one is more ably bodied. Not that I had real issue with helping disabled, but at least I don't have to be more hands on with this one.
Haven't decided on location yet. Will either be the Kennet and Avon canal again, or Sevington lakes.
I know the kennet and avon canal well. And I know how to fish it to get results. So it is a guaranteed catch. But I also fancy trying the lakes out as a new place to fish. I'm a bit worried that the lake will be filled with Carpers. And although I like to catch carp, I am not in anyway a Gucci specimen angler. I could not sit there with 2 rods out with bite alarms and just wait for them to go off. I like to fire one rod out, then play with a waggler closer in. And I don't want to tread on toes doing so. And I'm not sure a lake will be the best place for a newb. So I am leaning on the canal. Just got to pick a stretch now.
My next fishing trip is also taking a guest along. However, this one is more ably bodied. Not that I had real issue with helping disabled, but at least I don't have to be more hands on with this one.
Haven't decided on location yet. Will either be the Kennet and Avon canal again, or Sevington lakes.
I know the kennet and avon canal well. And I know how to fish it to get results. So it is a guaranteed catch. But I also fancy trying the lakes out as a new place to fish. I'm a bit worried that the lake will be filled with Carpers. And although I like to catch carp, I am not in anyway a Gucci specimen angler. I could not sit there with 2 rods out with bite alarms and just wait for them to go off. I like to fire one rod out, then play with a waggler closer in. And I don't want to tread on toes doing so. And I'm not sure a lake will be the best place for a newb. So I am leaning on the canal. Just got to pick a stretch now.
Mistake number 2?
Upon returning from my first fishing outing, I needed to remove the line from the Dunlop reel, and replace it with some new line.
Now I have always put the spool of new line in water before winding it on the spool. One, it gives me tension, and two, the water lubricates the line as it goes on allowing it to seat better. Or at least that is what I thought. I had always done this in the past, and never had problems.
This time however. . .
I was near the end of filling the spool and I noticed the reel getting stiff. I looked over it but could see no reason as to why this was. I pressed the button on the end to get the spool off the reel, and it would not come off. Eventually, it sort of went click but in a soggy way, and something looked odd. I then noticed what I was seeing.
This.
Somehow, the line had split the spool. Whether it be through too much wind on tension, or some other reason, I don't know. I have since done 2 other reels in the same way. One with the same line, and the other with 15lb line and not had any problems with them.
The reel cost me £6 from Dragon Carp direct, so I'm not bothering sending it back. But as the reel only came with one spool, its bye bye reel.
It also meant I had to replace the reel. So I spashed out a bit more and got this:
A Shakespeare mach 2xt.
It came with 2 alloy spools. One deep, one shallow, and a graphite spool. I'm quite liking the feel of this reel, and I am tempted to replace my other float reel with another one. Someone said it wouldn't be long before I become a tackle tart, and I feel they aren't wrong.
Now I have always put the spool of new line in water before winding it on the spool. One, it gives me tension, and two, the water lubricates the line as it goes on allowing it to seat better. Or at least that is what I thought. I had always done this in the past, and never had problems.
This time however. . .
I was near the end of filling the spool and I noticed the reel getting stiff. I looked over it but could see no reason as to why this was. I pressed the button on the end to get the spool off the reel, and it would not come off. Eventually, it sort of went click but in a soggy way, and something looked odd. I then noticed what I was seeing.
This.
Somehow, the line had split the spool. Whether it be through too much wind on tension, or some other reason, I don't know. I have since done 2 other reels in the same way. One with the same line, and the other with 15lb line and not had any problems with them.
The reel cost me £6 from Dragon Carp direct, so I'm not bothering sending it back. But as the reel only came with one spool, its bye bye reel.
It also meant I had to replace the reel. So I spashed out a bit more and got this:
It came with 2 alloy spools. One deep, one shallow, and a graphite spool. I'm quite liking the feel of this reel, and I am tempted to replace my other float reel with another one. Someone said it wouldn't be long before I become a tackle tart, and I feel they aren't wrong.
Sunday, 3 August 2014
Kennet and Avon canal. My first trip.
So I was finally ready to go fishing. I had agreed to take someone with me, and I had to wait for her to get up.
11 am we finally get to our swim. One of the disabled ones in Devizes. The person I took was disabled so I figured we could get away with it.
Bloke on a peg 2 down from us informed us that it was dead and that we shouldn't bother. I informed him we would take our chances and set up anyway.
Now I must state at this point that I was very eager to get a line wet, and I was setting up 5 hours after I hoped to start fishing.
So we get to our swim, I get her chair out, and set up her rod. Unfortunately this person isn't very good at paying attention, and it was really frustrating me. I set her up, showed her how to cast. She asked me to cast out for her which I did, I gave her the rod, knelt down to sort mine, and noticed her float was bobbing.
I told her to strike, and she replied with 'eh?'
I grabbed the rod, struck, and landed a small rudd of about 6 inches long. We put it in the net, I refreshed her bait, got her rod out, gave it to her and looked at her float as it went down again.
'Strike, strike the bloody rod damn you!'
'Where's the float?'
I grabbed the rod and landed another tiddler. Informed her while I was refreshing the bait that she should pay attention to her float.
'But I was watching you set up?'
'Don't watch me, watch the bleeding float!'
She cast out this time, as there was no one around to watch her (She is disabled after suffering a stroke. She has limited use of her left arm and leg). She cast out.
'Now what do I do?'
'Wind it in until the line is tight'
'ok'
I finally got my float on and tied on my hooklength and I heard a 'Erm. . . '
'Whats up?'
'Well I don't know. The float has disappeared, and the line has knots in.'
I turned to the canal, no float. I turn to the reel and a ball of line surrounded the bail arm. Turns out she was back winding. So I spend 20 minutes untangling the line, and winding it back to the spool. Finally the float re-surfaces and on the end is a tiny fish. Sadly it had been on the line so long that the hook was beyond disgorging. And it was already dead. I did not tell her this as I could see that she was getting upset that I was spending my time sorting her out, and had not yet got my own line wet after an hour of being at the bank side.
I have to get you a new hook link.
'No, set yours up first'
So I did.
At last, 90 minutes after arriving, both rods ready to go and we cast in together. Almost immediately, both floats drop. I hook mine, but she misses hers.
Another tiddler for the net.
for the next 90 minutes we were taking it in turns casting and pulling fish out. The hook was never in the water longer than 30 seconds before getting bites.
She decides she wants to have a break, so she sits back so I get the swim to myself. At the same time, I am fed up with the tiddlers. I had started baiting beside weeds with sweetcorn ready to switch to sweetcorn bait. (I had been using red maggots up until this point) I told my friend to watch this cast because I have a good feeling about it. I pulled the shot down towards the hook for a faster sink through the skimmers, put on a single piece of sweetcorn, and cast out. the float settled, then it did the bob as the bulk shot took the slack. there was a 10 second wait of nothing, then the float lifted slightly then started moving. then it purposely dropped down.
'Oh you caught something' came out of her mouth as I struck.
'This is a good fish' I say.
The clutch on the reel starts ticking for the first time.
'What is that noise?'
'It's the clutch'
'Why is it doing that?'
'Because this is a large fish, and I am only on a 2lb hooklength'
'oh'
It tried pulling into the reeds on my right, then shot out across the canal to the other side.I saw a flash of colour, but could not make out what it was.
after a few minutes, I found out something else I needed. A longer landing net. Mine is only 4 foot long, and the disabled stage is 2 foot above the water.
As I bring it to the net, behind me I hear 'Fucking hell, that's a big fish'
I chortled inside as I realise she has only just noticed.
We land it, and I get it out for inspection, and my mind went blank on what I had caught. For some reason, the head and broadness, made me think Tench. But the body said bream. I called it a bream in the end, due to the slime. But even now, I am still not 100% sure.
Here is that fish.
It weighed 2lb 7oz.
That was to be the last fish of the session.
There was a few things I realised I still needed.
1. Scissors.
2. Longer landing net.
3. Replace the line on the Dunlop reel (twice got tangled through backwinding, and I noticed it wasn't tight to the spool anyway.)
4. Get a bigger chair.
11 am we finally get to our swim. One of the disabled ones in Devizes. The person I took was disabled so I figured we could get away with it.
Bloke on a peg 2 down from us informed us that it was dead and that we shouldn't bother. I informed him we would take our chances and set up anyway.
Now I must state at this point that I was very eager to get a line wet, and I was setting up 5 hours after I hoped to start fishing.
So we get to our swim, I get her chair out, and set up her rod. Unfortunately this person isn't very good at paying attention, and it was really frustrating me. I set her up, showed her how to cast. She asked me to cast out for her which I did, I gave her the rod, knelt down to sort mine, and noticed her float was bobbing.
I told her to strike, and she replied with 'eh?'
I grabbed the rod, struck, and landed a small rudd of about 6 inches long. We put it in the net, I refreshed her bait, got her rod out, gave it to her and looked at her float as it went down again.
'Strike, strike the bloody rod damn you!'
'Where's the float?'
I grabbed the rod and landed another tiddler. Informed her while I was refreshing the bait that she should pay attention to her float.
'But I was watching you set up?'
'Don't watch me, watch the bleeding float!'
She cast out this time, as there was no one around to watch her (She is disabled after suffering a stroke. She has limited use of her left arm and leg). She cast out.
'Now what do I do?'
'Wind it in until the line is tight'
'ok'
I finally got my float on and tied on my hooklength and I heard a 'Erm. . . '
'Whats up?'
'Well I don't know. The float has disappeared, and the line has knots in.'
I turned to the canal, no float. I turn to the reel and a ball of line surrounded the bail arm. Turns out she was back winding. So I spend 20 minutes untangling the line, and winding it back to the spool. Finally the float re-surfaces and on the end is a tiny fish. Sadly it had been on the line so long that the hook was beyond disgorging. And it was already dead. I did not tell her this as I could see that she was getting upset that I was spending my time sorting her out, and had not yet got my own line wet after an hour of being at the bank side.
I have to get you a new hook link.
'No, set yours up first'
So I did.
At last, 90 minutes after arriving, both rods ready to go and we cast in together. Almost immediately, both floats drop. I hook mine, but she misses hers.
Another tiddler for the net.
for the next 90 minutes we were taking it in turns casting and pulling fish out. The hook was never in the water longer than 30 seconds before getting bites.
She decides she wants to have a break, so she sits back so I get the swim to myself. At the same time, I am fed up with the tiddlers. I had started baiting beside weeds with sweetcorn ready to switch to sweetcorn bait. (I had been using red maggots up until this point) I told my friend to watch this cast because I have a good feeling about it. I pulled the shot down towards the hook for a faster sink through the skimmers, put on a single piece of sweetcorn, and cast out. the float settled, then it did the bob as the bulk shot took the slack. there was a 10 second wait of nothing, then the float lifted slightly then started moving. then it purposely dropped down.
'Oh you caught something' came out of her mouth as I struck.
'This is a good fish' I say.
The clutch on the reel starts ticking for the first time.
'What is that noise?'
'It's the clutch'
'Why is it doing that?'
'Because this is a large fish, and I am only on a 2lb hooklength'
'oh'
It tried pulling into the reeds on my right, then shot out across the canal to the other side.I saw a flash of colour, but could not make out what it was.
after a few minutes, I found out something else I needed. A longer landing net. Mine is only 4 foot long, and the disabled stage is 2 foot above the water.
As I bring it to the net, behind me I hear 'Fucking hell, that's a big fish'
I chortled inside as I realise she has only just noticed.
We land it, and I get it out for inspection, and my mind went blank on what I had caught. For some reason, the head and broadness, made me think Tench. But the body said bream. I called it a bream in the end, due to the slime. But even now, I am still not 100% sure.
Here is that fish.
It weighed 2lb 7oz.
That was to be the last fish of the session.
There was a few things I realised I still needed.
1. Scissors.
2. Longer landing net.
3. Replace the line on the Dunlop reel (twice got tangled through backwinding, and I noticed it wasn't tight to the spool anyway.)
4. Get a bigger chair.
The Gameplan
So now I decide to sit down and decide what's the best way of getting kit, and in which order to get use out of it as soon as possible. Having mentioned my intention of going back into fishing to several people who expressed an interest in coming along, it was decided early on that I should get 2 float rods.
So the first one I ordered was a Shakespear pellet waggler rod, 11ft. The second, a 13foot dunlop waggler rod.
The reason for the 11foot rod was a little obscure. When I last fished 12 years ago, I used to use a 11 foot quivertip for float fishing. The reason being is that I broke my mates 12 foot float rod, and gave him mine in replacement. In hindsight, I wish I had done it sooner. The quiver tip was better at casting floats in my opinion, and that memory was part in me deciding to get this rod. The other being that my first rod was Shakespear and it lasted well.
The reason for the 13foot rod was because a local freewater I used to fish reguarly back in the day, was a bugger to trot through with a short rod. I thought that the 13foot rod would be handy to have if I decide to re-visit the free water.
I also needed another reel. The reel I got with the telescopic float rod was quite good, but the one with the spinner was loaded with 10lb line and I wanted 6lb. So I bought a dunlop reel and a mile of 6lb line.
Now back in the day, I used to set up 3 rods, and fish with 2. One rod was a waggler, the second a carp rod, and the third was a spinning rod. The idea being that if my swim went quiet, I would use the spinner to see if a predator had entered the swim and scared my fish away. With this in mind, I decided to get a 2 piece spinning rod.
With the rods sorted, I also needed luggage, a keep net, a chair, and more bait boxes. Plus terminal tackle.
My list was made, and over the next few weeks it slowly came together. .
So the first one I ordered was a Shakespear pellet waggler rod, 11ft. The second, a 13foot dunlop waggler rod.
The reason for the 11foot rod was a little obscure. When I last fished 12 years ago, I used to use a 11 foot quivertip for float fishing. The reason being is that I broke my mates 12 foot float rod, and gave him mine in replacement. In hindsight, I wish I had done it sooner. The quiver tip was better at casting floats in my opinion, and that memory was part in me deciding to get this rod. The other being that my first rod was Shakespear and it lasted well.
The reason for the 13foot rod was because a local freewater I used to fish reguarly back in the day, was a bugger to trot through with a short rod. I thought that the 13foot rod would be handy to have if I decide to re-visit the free water.
I also needed another reel. The reel I got with the telescopic float rod was quite good, but the one with the spinner was loaded with 10lb line and I wanted 6lb. So I bought a dunlop reel and a mile of 6lb line.
Now back in the day, I used to set up 3 rods, and fish with 2. One rod was a waggler, the second a carp rod, and the third was a spinning rod. The idea being that if my swim went quiet, I would use the spinner to see if a predator had entered the swim and scared my fish away. With this in mind, I decided to get a 2 piece spinning rod.
With the rods sorted, I also needed luggage, a keep net, a chair, and more bait boxes. Plus terminal tackle.
My list was made, and over the next few weeks it slowly came together. .
First mistakes.
So to get back into fishing, I bought 2 complete sets. I bought a telescopic float set, and a telescopic spinner set. Both were cheap, and I bought them with the intention of just going back into fishing, and getting a line wet.
Big mistake.
Both arrived on the same day, and at first I was excited. The reels looked ok, and one of the sets came with a landing net which I quite liked at the time.
First issue though, was the 12 foot float rod. I wasn't expecting excellence in a telescopic rod, but this did not fill me with confidence. For a start, it only had 5 rings. At that point I realised that I would never use this rod. And it is still in my spare room gathering dust in the corner.
The spinning rod gave me more confidence. It too had only 5 rings, but at only 6 foot long that was ample. And playing with it I realised it was quite flexible and seemed to be quite good. However, I have only ever used this rod for winding spools. The other stuff that came with the kits were of a decent quality for the money I had laid out. (£30 for both sets)
It was at this point that I realised I really needed a game plan of what I needed, and how much I was willing to spend getting it. (everything has been bought with money earned from doing overtime. An adage I live with is basic wage pays the bills. Overtime buys the toys)
Big mistake.
Both arrived on the same day, and at first I was excited. The reels looked ok, and one of the sets came with a landing net which I quite liked at the time.
First issue though, was the 12 foot float rod. I wasn't expecting excellence in a telescopic rod, but this did not fill me with confidence. For a start, it only had 5 rings. At that point I realised that I would never use this rod. And it is still in my spare room gathering dust in the corner.
The spinning rod gave me more confidence. It too had only 5 rings, but at only 6 foot long that was ample. And playing with it I realised it was quite flexible and seemed to be quite good. However, I have only ever used this rod for winding spools. The other stuff that came with the kits were of a decent quality for the money I had laid out. (£30 for both sets)
It was at this point that I realised I really needed a game plan of what I needed, and how much I was willing to spend getting it. (everything has been bought with money earned from doing overtime. An adage I live with is basic wage pays the bills. Overtime buys the toys)
Clunk's Carp. An overview.
I have called this blog 'Clunks Carp' and that is slightly misleading. It is not just about carp fishing, but all fishing that I do in general. It's just that carp goes well with Clunk. Clunk's Rudd doesn't quite have the same ring to it really, does it?
A history:
I used to fish a lot when I was younger. On and off from childhood until 2002. Marriage, kids, divorce and my kit being stolen from a mates lock up all added to a temporary hiatus from fishing.
However, a guy I work with, Andy, loves his fishing. He was apparently a junior champ and he recenlt returned to fishing after some time away. His indefatigable ramblings of getting back to the river bank got my juices flowing. Then one day I found myself ordering some starter kits from the internet, and purchasing my rod license.
Back when I used to fish, the internet was still quite infant and the medium to share fishing stories was limited to post fishing pints. But with the internet being as it is, I decided I wanted to keep a (b)log of my fishing trips and what I hope to achieve.
This blog will also contain kit reviews, swim reports, and challenges I will try to keep myself. I will also keep records of caught fish on this blog. Silver fish will be recorded in how many caught and weight of the bag. I will only individualise weights of these fish if I catch a specimen. All large fish will be individually recorded. Photos will be added where appropriate.
As I am about a month into my adventurous return to fishing, I will be posting a few pages in the next few days, then the rate in which pages appear will be as often as possible.
I hope you enjoy reading my blog.
Love Clunk.
A history:
I used to fish a lot when I was younger. On and off from childhood until 2002. Marriage, kids, divorce and my kit being stolen from a mates lock up all added to a temporary hiatus from fishing.
However, a guy I work with, Andy, loves his fishing. He was apparently a junior champ and he recenlt returned to fishing after some time away. His indefatigable ramblings of getting back to the river bank got my juices flowing. Then one day I found myself ordering some starter kits from the internet, and purchasing my rod license.
Back when I used to fish, the internet was still quite infant and the medium to share fishing stories was limited to post fishing pints. But with the internet being as it is, I decided I wanted to keep a (b)log of my fishing trips and what I hope to achieve.
This blog will also contain kit reviews, swim reports, and challenges I will try to keep myself. I will also keep records of caught fish on this blog. Silver fish will be recorded in how many caught and weight of the bag. I will only individualise weights of these fish if I catch a specimen. All large fish will be individually recorded. Photos will be added where appropriate.
As I am about a month into my adventurous return to fishing, I will be posting a few pages in the next few days, then the rate in which pages appear will be as often as possible.
I hope you enjoy reading my blog.
Love Clunk.
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