Thursday,s lockdown escape

Decided on the short drive along the ring road today fo a go at windmill fishery, we had a few knockups here before lockdown and matches were not allowed, i didnt rush to get there and was a bit suprised to find i was the only angler there on the match lake, The last match we had here was won by dave Wilmott on peg 10, with this being the shallow end of the lake (6ft), i thought it would be still ok, i dont really think the deepest water is necessarily the best in the coldest weather. Also it has a long left hand margin with a big reedbed running around the edge, and an end of an island to fish to if required.

So i set up a rig to dob bread along the reeds, and another .5g for .aggot over maggot at 11 mtrs, no need to go to far as apart from a carp angler who turned up on the end bank on peg 12 , it remained empty all day, bailiff brad turned up before i started, and he has increased the price of a day ticket from 8 to 10 pounds, saves him having to handle change incase the money has covid on it, my ten pound note was obviously a clean one then LOL 😂. But to be fair what else can you do for a day which only costs a tenner, fishing is still a cheap day out. I began by dobbing bread against the reeds, gave it 30 minutes but had nothing to show for it, so i cupped in some corn and micros against the reeds and picked up the maggot rig, i had cupped in some maggots at the start of the session so hoped for a bite fairly quickly, first put in and 15 seconds the floats gone and i get my first carp of the day, and it turns out it will be the biggest of the session aswell at about 9lb, good start.

That was the beginning of a good day, ive caught fairly well at 11 mtrs for most of the day, but did go out to 13 mtrs towards the end as the fish definitely backed off a bit, i ended up with over 20 carp between 3 and 9lb , also i had 8 bream between 2 and 3lb,

Ive had all the fish on treble maggot on a 16 hook to .15 line, a bit worrying was the lack of small fish, i didnt have one plippy roach or blade skimmer, but i must say the big black birds up on the pylons looked fairly content, and the carpnangler also had a reasonable day, he probably had about 10 carp aswell, so anyone fancying a day for some good local fishing, windmill fishery is definitely worth a look, it sounds as though its busy on the weekends but quiet during the week,

Still in lock down and still fishing local

Not only locked down, furloughed aswell, you may all say lucky sod. but we are not supposed to travel to far, although its probably safer.to jump in the van, drive 50 miles then drive home, not stopping or interacting with any one on the way , whilst fishing or travelling home, then go to the local supermarket, close contact with dozens of others, i know which is safer. But i wont do it, so of to huntstrete which is exactly 5 miles door to door, rules is rules as they say. ive been three times in the last week, all on bridge pool, and i got to say its been very good considering the weather, rain snow and frosts. A good variety of fish, which suites everyone, from roach and skimmers, f1,s, and med sized carp, right through to bigger bream(7lb+) and carp over 40lb, whatever floats your boat to be fair, and its well maintained with well sized swims and plenty of safe parking, so give premier angling a ring (01179867507) or book online for a season ticket for BAA licence and some day.tickets, i dont think many will be dissapointed . firstly last tuesday, sat on peg 21, had some nice skimmers fishing to the left into some white water at 13 mtrs.maggot or caster over groundbait.

I did have a near or just over 2lb perch aswell. Then fishing over to the tree i had some nice f1,s and a couple of small carp, all on banded pellet, feeding 4,s and banding a 6mm.

Last Thursday and peg 11 was my choice for the day, must say this was the most disappointing day ive had here in a long time as far as silvers go, just tiny roach and skimmers, no quality. But by again fishing pellet across at 16mtrs towards the island, i did have a nice run of f1,s again , one decent skimmer and a lone carp of about 7lb.

Then today i went on 31, veey cold to begin with, plenty of snow on the ground still,

and the top end of the lake was still covered with cat ice, so the water temperature was probably only about 4c I fed three lines today, groundbait and caster at topset and two, the same mix for 13mtrs slightly to the left, and a micro pellet line at 11mtrs to the right, i caught skimmers and roach on all three lines, but the 13mtr line was.the most productive, the pellet line seemed barren until i fed some groundbait there, without a doubt groundbait seems to be the key on this lake at the mo, it still seemed like a bit of a scratchy day but i still managed to end up with about 12lb of silvers, and two f1,s which i put straight back, Chris(the bath karaoke legend) Ollis was there so thanks for taking the picture.

Wont be going again till next week, probably back to huntstrete, but may go on withy for a change, as there are some quality roach being caught, or if the rain holds off i fancy another go on the chew in keynsham park after the dace again, have to wait and see . Stay safe everyone.

Still lockdown fishing

Decided to pay Huntstrete another visit today, especially as its exactly 5 miles door to door. I normally stick to bridge pool, as most of the matches are fished on here, but i fancied a change today so drove on down to withy pool, i could see that peg 54 was empty so i loaded the trolly up in the rain and wandered down to the peg, its a nice peg to fish as there is an island in front at only 11 mtrs, and its the shallowest peg on the lake, only 5 ft, generally you only need to fish 7mtrs, which is just past the deepest part of the swim. Just by kindering a few casters in it hasnt in the past taken to long to start catching, but today was different, took ages to get a bite, then after catching a fish, the next one would take ages to get, i tried going a bit further across into slightly shallower water, but the results were the same , only odd fish.

I had fed a meat line over towards the corner of the island, i did give it several goes but never had a tremor there . I was intending to pack up at 3 so at 12.30 i wandered back to the van and got a bag of groundbait which i had mixed about 5 days before, it didnt smell to good, and the spores growing on it didnt instil me to much confidence, but who knows, it may be a covid cure, I made another rig to fish 13 mtrs to the right, where it was about 12 inches deeper, i cupped in a ball with some caster and dead reds, gave the meat rig another go, but ten minutes later i was going over the 13 mtr line.

It was like a light switch going on, bites straight away from small skimmers with the best about 12oz, and some roach aswell.

I also started introducing some groundbait on the 7mtr line , and that line came to life aswell, so i definitely made a mistake by not feeding crumb from the start, live and learn. So i had a good last 90 minutes with skimmers and chunky roach, so slow start and really enjoyable end, plus on the doorstep, well nearly. Good fishing for a small outlay, and lovely surroundings, so get down to premier angling in keynsham to pick up a BAA licence and a few day tickets.

Safe lockdown fishing

Just for a change today i decided to have a little go in keynsham park on the little river chew, normally good for some dace with the occasional surprise, its thrown up a few barbel this year with the biggest about 5lb, but most in the 2 to 3lb bracket, also there have been some decent perch , chub roach and trout to be had, plus there a some rogue carp which sometimes turn up. I parked right by the footbridge in the carpark , went over the bridhe and dropped into the second fishable spot below the bridge, i could have fished right behind the van but the far side gave me more room to ship the pole back. only set up one rig, a .4g drennan bodied float, as?. Plumbed up , and was shocked to find 7 ft of water down the middle, shallowing up to 4ft at 11mtrs, i did change the float to a .6g same (?)pattern, i decided to just past middle in about 5 1/2 ft of water. Running through it soon became apparent that there were lots of snags, mainly branches, of which i had several pieces, so i had to fish about 12 inches off the deck to avoid the subterranean stickups, not ideal but no choice, I expected to catch some dace quite quickly, but the onky bites i could get were from minnows, they would even mange to get a caster down there necks.

I had a visit from tim Clark and his sone Elliot, who i havent seen for months, so we had a good catchup , i must say i was quite impressed with the floral patterned folding chair he turned up with, vey nice. I eventually had a decent dace while he was there, followed by another about 10 minutes later.

I went further across as tim was driving out of the carpark, and i began catching quite well, single caster for some more dace of all sizes.

And as quick as they showed up the dace disappeared to be replaced by the pesky minnows again, so i gave it another 30minutes in case the dace came.back or something else had arrived, but no, it just seemed to be back to minnow heaven, i packed up just before 1 ending up with a few pounds of quality dace, ok for a few hours, i havnt fished here in probably 35 years, but i will give it another go as long we are allowed, but that will depend on everyone being sensible with the social distancing and sticking to the guidelines set out for us.

Last pre lockdown matches

Firstly went to shiplate with chris fox for an open on the main lake, i had peg 12 drawn for me today, but with a cold and strong north easterly blowing in and across, i new any sort of float fishing was always going to be difficult, and so it proved, i set up a skimmer rig to fish 8 and 13 mtrs, ut it was impossible to stop it going through hard with the wind, i had a few small fish, roach and blade skimmers, but it was never going to happen on that, a waggler for meat at about 25mtrs, again it was like fishing a.river, so no good, so just over an hour in i was off my box setting up a lead rod, i had two carp for about 20lb in two chucks, then apart from a lost small carp or good skimmer, that was my lot, didnt even bother to weigh, so deemed a blank, well done john page on 13a who won on the day with 115lb, meat on the lead was the main bait for him.

Top silvers went to dom Sullivan on peg 7 with just short of 16lb.

Momday and it was back down to plantation main lake again for a silvers only match, i did the social distancing draw and ended up on permanent peg 31, to be fair i wouldnt have been to upset on any peg today as with only 13 fishing, i didn't think there was a bad peg in the draw, normally 30lb is needed to win these matches, but it had switched off a bit in the last couple of weeks, mainly down to the weather probably, for company i had mr D Shipp on 32 and phil morgan was my closest competitor to my right, des said we wouldn't catch for at least 40 minutes, so we had a quid on that, and also a quid on who came out on top, Only two rigs today, a bulk rig hopefully for skimmers, and a lighter rig with spread shot in case the roach came off the deck, and sometimes the skimmers want a lighter on the drop approach, the light and reflection was horrible, with a gusty wind from the left didnt help, so i chose just two lines, one at 5 mtrs which was foing to be a loose fed caster line, and the other was at 13 mtrs for groundbait, so at the start i fed a couple of balls at 13 mtrs , but started on the short line, just to try and get an early quid off des, but no bites there in twenty minutes, so just to catch i put on a pinkie and went over the groundbait, and had a small roach, pound up at the mo, and in all fairness des was nearly right as it took him over 40 minutes to catch, the lake fished to recent form, it was a bit of a grind, constantly switching between the two lines jist to keep odd bites and fish coming, it was a case of catch a few fish from one line then having to go to the other, hard but enjoyable, at the end i thought des had probably won but trig up on 19 had caught plenty of small fish plus a bonus big perch and skimmer, but des had caught quite a few 8oz skimmers plus small fish, id had a few skimmers, but more roach, in the end it wa des who came out on top with 13.8, trig was second with 12.13 and i had a level 12lb for third, so quite close. Weigh sheet below.

Well thats the end of match fishimg for at probably 7 or 8 weeks, at least the angling trust managed to get us out on the bank for a bit of pleasure fishing, providing we stay local, ive no doubt some will push it , arguing as to what is deemed local, to be fair i dont know. all i know is that i have spoken to quite a few people recently who have had the virus, and i have a couple of friends who are in hospital with it at the mo, so it is real and dangerous, a massive percentage of sufferers will recover, but a small percentage may not recover and lose the battle, lets all hope its none of out relations or friends, please stay safe everyone, an

Philtone teams of 7 , hillview canals 1/2/3

This has turned into a bit of an annual event, where philtone boss(now) niel mercer gets 21 of hus friends together to have a bit of a xmas laugh with a teams of 7 format, the teams.are.drawn behind closed doors beforehand , but looking at the teams there definitely was no foul play LOL 😂😂😂😂, listed below.

I got to the venue in plenty of time for breakfast, all a bit alfresco as we had to eat it under a pagoda in the fresh air, so a speedy demolition was called for, as there was snow on the ground and the lakes were frozen, luckily i had delved.into the depths of the shed and dragged this bad boy out for the first time this winter.

Draw done and i ended up on canal 2, peg 62 which is the aerator peg, so a nice draw, first job was to clear the ice, it was only about 3mm thick so nice and easy, plus ypu can go around and clear the floaters away.

Company wise i had paul(beaver)elmes.to my right and mr happy Anton page to my left, only two rigs seemed to be the order of the day , a maggot rig for a couple of spots and a rig for dogging bread along the far bank, At the start i fed some maggots by the water windmill, and some down to my right at top 4 at the bottom of the shelf as it was the same depth in both spots. Straight across dogging and caught from the off but only small fish, and i mean small 3 to 8oz, not the size i needed, but i wasnt complaining as most hadnt caught yet, i would like to say i had some better fish ,but apart from two fish over 2 lb i seemed to be in the nursery today, paul to my right started to catch, but he was gettimg mainly proper carp.with only a.smattering of juveniles, he was fishing by the ice up towards me and well off the bank, if i went to far to my right there was a nasty underwater snag which i lost several hooks in, paul was flying at ime stage and was well ahead, anton and me.were suffering small fish, i did manage to stop paul catching to be fair, it was a dirty trick but alls fair in love and war , he decided to fish off to his right for a bit, as his back was turned i gave the ice pack between us a bit of a nudge, it duly obliged and slid into his peg covering his catching spot, it was only paul who didnt find it amusing, well he sort of did, but he just pushed it on and it became the problem of phil mercer and martin rayet, who by now was catching well on maggot down the .middle, up to my left on the end peg tim ford(my team) was having a really good day and caught steadily for the duration of the match, i just stayed with the small carp, and it nearly paid off, i ended up with 38lb to pauls 40, the lake and match was won by tim with 109, followed by martin with 74 then dave lewis was third with 58lb, all in my team, to be honest most people had some fish , odd areas struggled.with canal 3 being the most difficult, weigh sheets below.

Big thanks to niel and philtone for hosting the event, greatly appreciated by all there, and i think beaver may have forgiven me by now, Just another quickie, went to huntstrete for a bit of a go, i enjoy fishing through the ice, got to bridge to find the far end ice free, but full of anglers, couldnt believe how many were there.so i set up on peg 15, tbe ice was only thin so only the baby breaker was needed, soon had a 13 mtr channel cleared out.

Fed a ball of groundbait at 6 mtrs and another at 13 mtrs both with a few casters and pinkies inand to be fair ive had a bite most put ins, mainly small 3oz skimmers, there are a couple of 12 oz fish in the net, one of whuch dave burnham caught when he had a go, it must have been easy. I probably ended up with 6/7lb which is nice fishing in an ice hole.

paul barnfield managed a couple of the bigger skimmers up on peg 4, and the angler on peg 8 also caught a lot of small fish aswell, and a couple of carp anglers over on 32 and 33 had a couple of carp, only small , an 8lb and a 3lb fish, but probably most welcome, with the rivers still out of action get yourselves a bathampton licence and day tickets from premier angling down by the marina and have a go, lots of skimmers on bridge and withy has been giving some roach catches, the carp fishing on all lakes is hard at the mo, but it is winter, but you got to be in it to win it as they say, and with all this covid business going on the safest place to self isolate is definitely on the bank in the fresh air, not sat at home watching the same old repeats or another lame reality show, so get wrapped up , pop down to premier , pick up some bait and bits and up to date info on where to go, whichever discipline floats your boat.