Tinca Tinca Time Part 1

  

As of the time writing this blog, I am hunting the Tench on RDAA waters, but it has yet to go to plan. It is not anything I am doing this time as we all have seen the weather has been horrendous. Much of the time all the waters I wanted to fish have been flooded and inaccessible, so fishing the Wey for perch has yet to happen plus the waters at reading are only just getting to the point of being able to fish. 

So here I am the date is the middle of April and I’m going fishing, the lake I'm fishing is an old deep pit called moat-lands now this hasn’t got a massive head of fish as I’m led to believe but they do get quite big so it makes the 140-mile round trip seem worth it, I know I’ve tried this before on my last club ticket but this feels different and people are more than willing to help as one fellow angler has given me a depth map. well the first trip didn't go as planned but it never does, the lake looked lovely and I was all on my own until someone called Dave turned up at about 11am, I had a good walk around with my waders on as the water was still well over the bank up to my crouch at one point so was a bit unnerving. I had nothing really to go on only what I had seen on YouTube, so I sat had a coffee, and watched the water and from where the sun rises from now is 5.45am so I have all day and I'm in no rush to set up, my only concern was the bitter northerly wind blowing across the lake, but then bosh the tail slaps went and got me standing up and wading out into the margins bosh slap of the tail I can see them far down to my left so I'll go and have another look this time making my way around the left-hand side of the lake, disaster there's a tent right in the swim where the Tench were playing B*****KS, so made way my back to the carpark and continued to take in the atmosphere and watched some more hoping they are moving around and guest what they moved even closer to me slapping their tails about 3-rod lengths down to my left ok I said to myself calm down and breath this is your moment lol, so one rod just short of the fish and one about 1/2 a rod length to the right of the fish I didn't want to stick it right on top it of their heads so now it's a waiting game.

 

Waiting is not one of my strong points so I pulled the rods back in refreshed and put them back out this is about 30 minutes after the first cast so I gave it another 30 minutes and continued this for the next couple of hours hoping to get something going, URMMMM NO nothing happening i was getting itchy feet and the activity had stopped, at about 10 or 11 am another angler turned up and was very nice in giving me some pointers, he said don't be afraid to stick the rods straight out in front of you as he has had fished from that part of the lake before so again rods refreshed and swung back in the direction i was told and given the same treatment as before but still no joy, One thing I did notice the maggots were coming back untouched so small fish wasn't a problem, whether that's a bad thing or the lack of small fish is a good thing i'm not sure scratching my head as what to do next, this was my first time on this lake I was up for trying as many different styles as possible so the float rod was set up next with Polaris float attached down to a 6g Olivetti with 4 to 5-inch hook link with a size 12 super specialist hook lying on the bottom with a couple of dendrobaena as hook bait, I tried and i tried trust me when i said i tried because i did, different parts of my swim was bombarded with these worms and the peg next door but not a sniff. Being a deep natural lake, I know it will take much longer to warm up and get going. Still, I wanted to try so all is not lost because the conversations I had with the two anglers about this lake made me realize that I am on the deepest side of the lake, and with the sun rising behind my back and warming the other side of the lake all day long I was in the wrong place. Still, seeing the Tench slap that paint brush tail on the surface I thought I'll fish where the fish dictated.  

This isn't over I have a plan of attack now I know where I need to be and what bait I will be using (casters/blood worm) plus my tactics have to change, so the feeders will be left in the tackle box, and out comes the inline leads small PVA bags or mesh filled with casters, for hook bait, I will be using fake floating casters this way they will not have to be changed if I get any nuisance fish(if there is any) or I catch, then dipped in the bloodworm glug that's it with the raking I'll be doing stirring up the bottom my little parcels of goodness should get them down on the bait.

Enterprise Floating Casters

                                        So this is part one of my Tinca tales, hopefully, I will get a fish to show you, but it's not the end of the world if I don't as I do like the excitement of trying these harder lakes,( and the 140 plus round trip) don't get me wrong I like catching fish but I would rather it be a bit more of a challenge than a method feeder chucked to the island.

The next session is in a couple of weeks let us hope it warms up for me, and I have a fish to show you. part two of this blog will be after my next session until then tight lines and enjoy your angling.

The Gudgeon🎣❤️ 

 

New start and how life has change.

Wow has it been that long since I wrote an article for this blog, pls accept my apologies so much has happened since my last post, I have grandchildren 4 to be exact. life has been hard at times but generally not too bad I have the support of my beautiful wife Michelle who has kept me fed and watered plus encouraged me to get out and fish.

So in the last post, I was talking about joining a fishing club and trying my hardest to catch fish out of some very large and hard lakes, well that didn't go to plan as I couldn't catch a cold plus it wasn't the type of place you can turn up and sit there with a float rod and a tub of maggots, which I found out, no matter how hard I tried no matter how much time I put in just couldn't catch anything of a specimen size and it was getting me down thinking it was the way I was fishing, but one year I got myself together I had a plan and knew this was it my year then COVID hit and knocked me for six completely lost my way with fishing, see I had a plan and when I couldn't put that plan into action I just hit a brick wall, I was lost and didn't know what to do and nearly sold my gear, I was told by a lot of people don't sell your gear it will be a big mistake but I couldn't see the wood through the trees and I felt so down and lost I didn't know what to do. Hardest time of my life when your down your down and all the bad memories of life just seemed to pile on top of you all at once, I won't lie it was a dark time I felt completely useless and alone I needed help but how, just when I thought all was lost an arm reach around me and whispered in my ear I'm here for you and I love you and believe in you so much don't give up you must carry on no matter what as you have people relying on you it was my wife Michelle and from that point I wasn't on my own and I can do this so with a new desire I'm going to give it one more go so I thought but the fish had other ideas, first session I actually hooked a fish and I knew it was a good one by the way it was slowly plodding and not charging around so my heart was in my mouth then the dreaded hook pull, well it wasn't a hook pull when setting up I notice the hook link wasn't quite right but I thought it be ok AAAAAHHHHHHH MY FAULT and I kicked myself for that and it still haunts me now, that hit me hard but I had to carry on. My next session went even worse foul hooked a very large Tench and I even see the fish on the surface but then ping the hook popped out of its underbelly but I wouldn't be able to claim it as I knew it was foul hooked I thought to myself what the F**K do I have to do to actually land a BLO**Y fish from this water next trip I'll try another swim this time my line got snagged on underwater obstruction and it was at that point I knew my time was up I had to get away from my old club get a fresh start go back to basics enjoy my fishing again and stop so that is what I have done.

To start again from the beginning was not as easy as you think but I did with the help of my wife who kept at me to get out and try again I joined a new club Godalming Angling and boy has it kicked off in style with Tench carp and crucian carp all coming to my dry net lol boy I'm buzzing going every Friday after work and spending 24hrs fishing not just one lake but two absolutely having a smashing time. Now we are in September the kids are going back to school and the hot weather is slowly going away we are heading into probably the best time of the year so I'm going to get out a lot more now down the river Wey and more perch fishing.

 So, as you can see, I am getting old and hairy plus I have a nice little crucian carp, not my biggest but my self take photos that are horrendous and quite embarrassing but that will change in the second part of my angling adventure this year as I got a good little setup, I'm just waiting to catch a fish worth photoing lol  

The beautiful Marsh Farm, on my club ticket and probably one of the best crucian carp fisheries in the south, had to bring my rods in on this occasion as they wouldn't shut up lol was an amazing session and hopefully be a lot more.

This is Wood Lake and is stuffed with tench and bream plus sizeable perch and millions of little Rudd, so I will be having a go for the perch later on in the year, and this is where I'm currently carp fishing as you can see from the pictures below.
     

As you can see from the above photo not the greatest but my first carp on my first attempt at a new lake, so I was happy with it, it just shows you 6 years at one club and not doing very well but then 3 sessions in and I’ve caught a net load of fish already so happy I changed venues. now my main plan of attack will be PVA bag fishing for the carp on my club lake, I'm not one for pilling in the bait because it's quite expensive and you can't take back what you've put in so my thinking is small little spots of crumbed boilie and 2.3mm blood worm pellets with a match the hatch wafter, got all the components that I need to tie the bags up now it's just putting it in to practice. So that's the carp side of fishing sorted now In in-between sessions for carp I will be trying to catch perch from the river Wey, not sure the size they grow to in this small river but you never know, I know of a 3lb specimen that came out of the Eden so there is always a chance a monster could be swimming around in the Wey, now I always take maggots and worms plus I'll be trying out live baits as well, not a fan of lure fishing so I'm just going to roam around with my selective baits trying my luck.

Right enough talking about fishing, the wife and I will be going to Brussels in October for her 50th birthday and I'm really looking forward to having an exploration over there yes before you ask, I will pop into a fishing tackle shop just to see how they do things in a different country, didn't take long to mention fishing did it lool.

 Lots of things have been happening during the time I did a blog I've been married to my beautiful wife Michelle for 12 years now we have two grown-up sons with 4 grandchildren who keep us very busy, but we love spending time with them we have been getting out quite a bit, Oxford, Milton Keynes, Cambridge, Hungerford and a lot of exploring in Wales, Tenby being my favourite but Wales as a country is just so beautiful and can't wait to go back and explore more. 

    Ok short and sweet don't want to drag on too much save some for the next blog, tight lines, and good luck in your fishy travels.

The gudgeon.  

P.S. Don't forget to visit the best tackle shop in Surrey and they sell the "G" rake large and small, plus I have some very special trips coming up so keep an eye out for the next post buzzing for the end of the year TBC.