BREAM FISHING:-
Now the one time i did go bream fishing was on the mother Thames, i was meant to be going with my friend Paul (@spikeydorsal), but unfortunately his beloved dog fell ill and had to have surgery so there was no way of him driving up from Aldershot, and as I've said before it is only fishing.
But all went well and the dog is on the mend so good news all round. Now loaded with my tackle i went fishing on my own with the knowledge i had and the swim i was in which had produced fish just the other week surely i was in with a chance of my first Thames bream. Right i got my self comfortable, mixed my ground bait up and tackled up, my end tackle is easy 30 gram feeder on my 8lb main line and a long hook link of 9lb. Now the hook link is stronger because of the snags in the river, the baits i will be using are pellets, corn and red maggots. Now little did i know what i had to put up with fishing this river, i mean boats, canoes, people letting there dogs run and jump off the bank into the water and shake off under my umbrella and laughing, rubbish and lots of it and just generally abusing this beautiful piece of water. I witness a lot of stuff go on and this was my first time fishing this part of the Thames, "just stay calm" i said to my self and fish that's what your here for no good getting the hump and ruining my day.
So i start my days fishing by picking a marker on the island in front of me and lobbing out the feeder to just over half way and clipping up. Accuracy is the key today, building up the swim and getting them bream feeding, now you would of thought i should of piled the ground bait in and build a mountain of bait because bream will munch through loads of it. I wasn't really sure about doing that
so i'm just going to keep the feeder going out and build up that way, safer i think.
Now where I'm fishing there is a big old willow tree to my right hand side so i think I'm going to keep the maggots going in there during the course of the day and try and build a second swim as back up.
Here we go ground bait is ready I'm using a medium tip today because i think with the pull of the river current and the weight of the feeder i need a stiffer tip. Whether that's right or not i don't know so only time will tell, maggots are my first hook bait choice and the first cast goes well stray so does the second and third now i got to stop as I'm spraying bait everywhere. I re-position my chair and try again, see that's another thing I've learned sort your position out first don't just get comfortable, get in the right position once. Now i hit the spot on fourth cast not bad, but nothing, so i reel in after 10 minutes to fill the feeder back up and keep the bait going in. My maggots are sucked dry every time, the tip is to strong as I'm not seeing the tiny bites from the small fish, this happens for the next hour or so as i persist with maggots so change of plan is needed. A pellet tipped with a piece of corn is my next plan of action, i'm going to have to sit here and wait for the tip to pull round as I've just found out my other tips are not in my bag, I've been fishing all my life and it doesn't get any easier for me.:(
Now I've re-baited and cast back out, 10 minutes go by and not a single bite, so i reel back in and fill the feeder up again. I have to keep that bait going in, then 10 minutes go by and you get the picture. 40 minutes later; there should be quite alot of bait out there now, with that the tip pulls round and i miss it because i'm not paying attention give me strength, and its at this point the tip goes round again your no going to fool me twice Mr fish. I lean into it like i know what I'm doing, only hoping that there's resistance on the other end rather than a swim-feeder flying back at me, bosh!! I'm in and it don't feel like a bream surely me TheGudgeon hasn't connected to something big and strong there's no way I'm going to land it. HELP!!, please be a bream of gigantic proportions it was after an epic fight of three minutes a 4lb 8oz monster Thames bream rolls over the net cord yes!!
PB 4lb 8oz but not for long
With renewed enthusiasm i re-bait and hit the same spot yet again, "get in" i mumble to myself because when things are going good make the most of it and i haven't blanked, that was the only fish from the middle of the river. Time for a different tactic, maggot feeder and yes i brought them with me, after the switch had been made i prepare myself to flick it out under the willow to my right which has been fed copious amounts of red maggots the whole time I've been here. First cast and a small perch is on the end, then another and another, more and more keep coming getting slightly bigger but nothing to shout about. Then all of a sudden the tip rapped round and I'm into something a bit more larger and with the head shakes, I'm wondering whether i have connected to one of the large perch that inhabit this river. No it wasn't but after a short battle another bream rolled into the net and at 4lb 12oz, ha ha I've broken my Thames PB again "what a top angler i am" i say making sure people are not staring at me again lol and that was the end of the action but i had an enjoyable day and i will be back........
Now i am a newbie to carp fishing so indeed i need all the help i can get sure, the DVDs and the magazines have helped alot but a friend I've made on tweeter call Gary (@thebudgetfisher), has been absolutely fantastic sending me rigs and helping me prepare my tiger nuts and just generally being a top bloke and answering all my questions. Don't get me wrong there are loads of helpful people on social networks, but if you listen to too many your brain will explode, because everybody has a different opinion of how things work what i'm trying to say is don't copy people as it might not work for you but to use bits and pieces to help you figure it out for yourself.
The lake I'm fishing
Next I'm going over one of my club lakes to try and sneak out a whale or two, but it was not going to be that easy as i was to find out when i turned up to the swim i was baiting up on previous visits. which was free but somebody was fishing in the swim next door and didn't want me fishing there. This was because he was casting right a cross two swims and didn't want any newbie like me cramping his style, so after a few cross words, not to mention his dad and brother sticking there big fat noses in, i told him to naff orf (i used a stronger words but they didn't listen). I had to move round to the other side of the lake as i was worried if i did fish there something was going to happen to me or my car, anyway when i got to my swim directly opposite the moron, i notice the mud was being turn over and there was bubbles i thought to myself "the fish are here not there, so if only i could catch a fish now and show it off and say thank you for making me move lol."
So now i need to get set up without scaring the fish which for me is going to be so hard because when i am trying to be a mouse I'm more like an elephant with a limp. Crawling around on my knees and hiding behind bushes, this had the morons looking but i just thought "get on your fishing", now my plan of attack was to fish one rod down to my right because that's where this fizzing was going on and the other rod was a roaming rod. Now i know when you just trickle a bit of bait in the fish will move away from your target area then you can lower your rig onto your chosen spot, this is what i did and it worked because i hadn't spooked the fish because i saw them come back wow it works. I'm a clever boy but how am i going to get the other rod out now without spooking my swim, i'm not i'll leave it for a while and put it out just before dark i better set up camp for the night.
sleeping under the stars
With the other rod out in the lake i wasn't to confident that this rod was fishing that good but i didn't want to keep casting it out and scare the fish because i knew they were really close. My best chance was the margin rod, i knew that a blank was very much on the cards (that's how my mind set is always prepare for the worst) but it was nice to be out and doing it. With that i decided to cook my dinner a pot noddle (curry flavor) which was rudely interrupted but a couple of bleeps on my margin rod which had my heart pumping thinking it was going to roar off, but it didn't so they are in the area again so a bite could be soon. So now its really getting dark and i have to check under the bed chair to see if there any monsters about, I'm not a great lover of the dark on my own I'm scared that a monster from the Muppet show is going to get me, so now i crawl into my bed and it starts to rain. I get my umbrella put up, getting wet at the same time, the brolly is up it stops raining and my buzzer sounds again and i have trouble getting it because of the brolly lol why oh why. Still i know the fish are in the area so i tidy up and I'm going to sleep under the stars, with nothing to get in my way i fall asleep and woke up about 6.30am. Sitting on the edge of my bed chair my margin rod signaled a take which i jump up and grabbed the rod fully expecting a resistance on the other end, but all i felt was well nothing, the line went limp and a big bow wave went out across the lake, the fish had done me like a kipper that was my big chance and the carp had got away with it. Well that's fishing and its why i do it because of the chase, i love it, the excitement grips me like nothing else ever has, all i got to do is keep up with learning and i will succeed......
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Just one more thing as you know i love my perch and that time of the year is coming, when the call of them big old stripey's is ringing in my ears. I've got a date with ThePerchfishers to fish the Great Ouse in October so i'm so looking forward to that and they published parts of my blog in there magazine i am as proud as punch thank you so much Tony Meers editor ;)
New PB 4lb 12oz
CARP FISHING:-
Next I'm going over one of my club lakes to try and sneak out a whale or two, but it was not going to be that easy as i was to find out when i turned up to the swim i was baiting up on previous visits. which was free but somebody was fishing in the swim next door and didn't want me fishing there. This was because he was casting right a cross two swims and didn't want any newbie like me cramping his style, so after a few cross words, not to mention his dad and brother sticking there big fat noses in, i told him to naff orf (i used a stronger words but they didn't listen). I had to move round to the other side of the lake as i was worried if i did fish there something was going to happen to me or my car, anyway when i got to my swim directly opposite the moron, i notice the mud was being turn over and there was bubbles i thought to myself "the fish are here not there, so if only i could catch a fish now and show it off and say thank you for making me move lol."
So now i need to get set up without scaring the fish which for me is going to be so hard because when i am trying to be a mouse I'm more like an elephant with a limp. Crawling around on my knees and hiding behind bushes, this had the morons looking but i just thought "get on your fishing", now my plan of attack was to fish one rod down to my right because that's where this fizzing was going on and the other rod was a roaming rod. Now i know when you just trickle a bit of bait in the fish will move away from your target area then you can lower your rig onto your chosen spot, this is what i did and it worked because i hadn't spooked the fish because i saw them come back wow it works. I'm a clever boy but how am i going to get the other rod out now without spooking my swim, i'm not i'll leave it for a while and put it out just before dark i better set up camp for the night.
With the other rod out in the lake i wasn't to confident that this rod was fishing that good but i didn't want to keep casting it out and scare the fish because i knew they were really close. My best chance was the margin rod, i knew that a blank was very much on the cards (that's how my mind set is always prepare for the worst) but it was nice to be out and doing it. With that i decided to cook my dinner a pot noddle (curry flavor) which was rudely interrupted but a couple of bleeps on my margin rod which had my heart pumping thinking it was going to roar off, but it didn't so they are in the area again so a bite could be soon. So now its really getting dark and i have to check under the bed chair to see if there any monsters about, I'm not a great lover of the dark on my own I'm scared that a monster from the Muppet show is going to get me, so now i crawl into my bed and it starts to rain. I get my umbrella put up, getting wet at the same time, the brolly is up it stops raining and my buzzer sounds again and i have trouble getting it because of the brolly lol why oh why. Still i know the fish are in the area so i tidy up and I'm going to sleep under the stars, with nothing to get in my way i fall asleep and woke up about 6.30am. Sitting on the edge of my bed chair my margin rod signaled a take which i jump up and grabbed the rod fully expecting a resistance on the other end, but all i felt was well nothing, the line went limp and a big bow wave went out across the lake, the fish had done me like a kipper that was my big chance and the carp had got away with it. Well that's fishing and its why i do it because of the chase, i love it, the excitement grips me like nothing else ever has, all i got to do is keep up with learning and i will succeed......
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Just one more thing as you know i love my perch and that time of the year is coming, when the call of them big old stripey's is ringing in my ears. I've got a date with ThePerchfishers to fish the Great Ouse in October so i'm so looking forward to that and they published parts of my blog in there magazine i am as proud as punch thank you so much Tony Meers editor ;)
So until next time my friends be safe, be cool, tight lines and most importantly be happy. :)
