River bream and AGM.

This was to be my last trip before the season closed so I thought get yourself down to mother Thames and have a go for the slabs, I'm fortunate to follow and be followed by some very good anglers on twitter and one of them is Tony curd and it was he who posted a picture of himself with a net full of Thames bream up to 9lb from a stretch just below kingston bridge. I know this as he was good enough to tell me where when and how he caught them So with it being the last weekend of the season it was going to get busy so I needed a plan and that was to get there at silly a clock and that's the one thing I'm good at getting there to early and not being able to see a thing.

Now I didn't fish in the same spot as Tony because I wasn't sure where to park so after a bit of homework on Google Earth and talking to my mate Andy (@awgheating1) I worked out that lower ham road in kingston just down from where Tony was fishing and it's free parking and there was a famous peg that I didn't know about but I was just about to fish it. Bait wise was simple a good ground bait which was bait tech omen, hemp sweet corn and dead and live maggots tackle was my ever faithful Matt Hayes all rounder set up to the power feeder at 13ft my fox stratos fs7000 reel loaded with strong 8lb drennen feeder line 30g swimfeeder and a guru N gage hook link in 9lb breaking strain line with a smq1 size 12 hook great setup and very strong so no messing around on such a big river where there's lots of under water snags and a shelf just in front of me with all manner of rubbish and rocks.

My plan was hatched and I was up and out at just gone 4am, there's no traffic that time in the morning and I got to the section I was going to fish in pretty good time in fact it was still dark and I had no Idea where to fish what I mean by this is which swim as there are quite a few to chose from and i couldn't see a dam thing until another car pulled up and shone his lights in my direction which lit up everything. This guy jumps out of his car and headed towards me and said you fishing there without looking i said yes if you were here five minutes earlier and before i could finished my sentence he said if you would of got here five mins later i would of been in that peg because that the steps swim you'll catch lots in there if you know what you are doing, bingo i got the flyer!! Then his attitude change did you over take me on the way here? mate i drive a citroen c3 you drive a scooby, thats when he said to me that the peg i was in wasnt very good and the next one down was the better as he fish a match in the steps swim and didn't do very well hoping i would change my mind and move, i said to him ill take my chances in here and turned my back on him before i told him to get knotted, talk about a spoilt little boy throwing his toys out the pram because he couldn't fish the swim i was in now i just hope i catch or i'm going to look like a right plonker.

so after getting my chair and tackle sorted out and got myself comfortable i thought i'd done a pretty good job as it was only starting to get light. Once i was sitting in my chair getting ready for the first cast i need to be halfway across to be in with a good chance to catch which isn't a great distance so I was comfortable with that and as long as I got the swim feeder in and around the same spot I would catch.

If you want a big net of bream you are going to have to put the bait and time and effort in but you will be rewarded,for this session I'm just going to swing the feeder out and refill every 3 min and get a bit off bait in there nab a couple Which is what happened straight away cast the rod out sunk the line put the rod in the rest and bosh the tip just swung round and the first bream of the day Was dragged kicking and screaming into the landing net and that's how it went on until 2pm almost on the dot  the fella that said the next swim down was better weren't happy as every time I caught a fish I let him know about it.

A net full of Thames bream

Now these Thames bream are a different bred to their still water cousin  they actually fight back and use the flow to their advantage which makes for really exciting bream fishing. Now I know these fish go upto and over 9lb and that's a big slab so it would be nice to set my stall out to see if I can get a double figure snotty. It's not impossible I will just have to do my homework and have a plan before I start So that was my last session right at the end of the season.
.

The best magazine out there

I've been a Perchfisher for just over a year now and I've not done anything with the group no fish ins couldn't go to the last AGM so this year I'm going to make the effort and that's exactly what I did I'm going to make what I thought was the long drive up to Haversham which is just north of Milton Keynes but only an hour and forty five minutes later and I'm sitting outside the gate waiting to be let in it is 7am and the gate didn't open until 8 lol, well it's better to be early than late. Paul Howkins who is the chairman of the group let me in just before 8 and we had a good chat to find out the best places to fish.

My home for the weekend

To cut a long story short I blanked but I did help another fellow member land a two 2lb perch from my swim lol, so all was not lost it was just great being around other people and talking fishing and i really enjoyed myself let's hope I can catch one next time year thank you for all your help Paul see you soon!!!!

I drew a blank

So that's it another post  but just before I go I did have another trip to framfield park caught a couple of pound and a half perch but the surprise was at the end when I struck into something very different and after a spirited fight I landed a 4lb 1oz eel the biggest one I've ever seen but the bad news is after taking a photo or two I stumbled and drop my phone in the water I did get it back but it's not working so a trip to the apple shop is in store hoping they can retrieve my photos so hopefully I can put some pictures up in the next post. It's not easy being me so until next time tight lines....

TheGudgeon

  https://www.facebook.com/TheGudgeonsGadets

INSTAGRAM:- @thegudgeon

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Cheese paste fishing.

This is my first post of 2015 i'm hoping that everybody had a great festive season and the new year has started how you wanted it to i'm just glad to see the back of 2014.

I am still plugging away at the same venues as last year basingstoke canal and the river eden, it's been hard very hard with not a lot to talk about but there has been some success. I just want to talk about cheese as a bait for a moment, bear with please.

Many years ago I use to fish the river wandle a hell of a lot I mean this river is small and urban as you're going to get, it all started when my eldest son (luke) and I were fishing a part that runs through an industrial estate with what we thought was the two best baits for chub, bread and luncheon meat, we couldn't get a sniff it wasn't until a fella turned up with his Woolworth rod and tesco's mild cheddar and showed us how to empty the river, we just stood there in amazement these fish were big 4lb plus. So next time we went with cheese as our bait my son and I had 10 chub up to 3lb 10oz we were gobsmacked how can this normal everyday food item catch so many fish when probably the best two baits didn't get a sniff.   

Now roll forward 15 or so years my eldest son is at uni studying criminology, and I am fishing a
small urban river no bigger than the wandle with my youngest son (louis) @FryChaser, I've had a 4lb 2oz fish out of this river on cheese (just normal cheddar) but I wanted a larger one, and they go bigger in here over six pound.

4lb 2oz of old warrior my only fish from the river eden 

Since that last big chub I haven't had another one nor has the boy, this piece of intimate water does get a lot of pressure from anglers so the fish are very weary of bankside noise. The local bellends don't help either throwing rubbish in the water and parking cars up at the rivers edge playing loud music, and just generally being a nuisance to the wildlife and the people trying to enjoy this place. This could be one of the reasons for blanking or they are just very hard to temp, it's not just me but a few other anglers I know fish this stretch and they've blanked as well, and a couple of them use maggots they can't hook anything. I'm not giving up though and it's this type of attitude that's going to serve me well in the next few weeks, trust me it's hard to keep going fishing at a venue where you keep blanking and there has been many a time I've turned over and switch the alarm off and gone back to sleep.

My wife and julian

I'm in need some inspiration so me and my family have a day at the carp society show at sandown racecourse in november 2014, great show with lots of bargains and yes i spent all my pennies near dinner time we sat down and listen to what julian cundiff had to say. Now i don't have to tell you who this man is as most of you should know if not get researching as he is one of the very top carp anglers out there today, and you might be thinking what has this got to do with fishing a small river with cheese paste and your be right it has nothing to do with it until you've sit down and listen to how dedicated his is to his fishing 100% focused on catching carp when his goes or it's not worth going his words.

So after taking these words in and using his enthusiasm to boost my own fishing mojo i want to get back out there and keep trying. The reason julian is so good at what he does is the commitment and focus he puts in i could learn from him and so could you.

This is where it's get interesting because I wanted a bait which is going to give me that edge, we've spoken of just plain cheese which i used last time and caught but now i need to change something, i need not just a cheese that's going to hum really bad like your dads socks!! But something i can use and change easily like a paste. I turned to twitter and that's where a fella called @anthonywood58 who I have spoken to on many occasions and is a bit of a guru on bait not just bollies or naturals but all baits, he is a member of Bait-Tech street squad and has published four books so he knows a thing or two about home made bait.
So the question was asked have you got a recipe for cheese paste, five minutes later i had what i needed.
                           
340g frozen ready rolled shortcrust pastry
160g extra mature cheddar
160g stilton or blue cheese.

My saviour garlic flavor

New version stop the wife cooking it lol      

Right grate the cheddar and the blue cheese mix together roll out the pastry and place cheese on top fold over edges and knead until you've got a good smooth paste, and that's it. Wow simple or what i'm not going to tell you anymore but check out the fella's blog!
 anthonysanglingcorner.wordpress.com

This is where it get interesting because i made up the first batch and as i'm fishing i thought to myself not only have i got a recipe for cheese paste but a base to add any ingredients as i like. Now my brain is in overdrive, i never caught on the first batch (but the misses made plenty of cheese straws up and they went down a treat lol..) so i decided to leave the blue cheese out and add garlic puree.
This is great as i'm making my own paste now with my twist and i've only got Anthony to thank for putting me on the right path.

The only problem is trying to keep the misses from cooking the dam paste as a snack they did taste very nice but i didn't make it for her i made it for my other love Mrs Chub xxx. Two trips later and i'm still blanking and getting very frustrated, but as jules says you must keep at it so that is what i doing and i am rewarded with 2lb chub, yes there are fish still in here.

scene of previous capture, no fish here!

at last theres life in the river

P/B chub

5lb 2oz of monster chub
the smile says it all

The thing was i had to keep chopping and changing, i.e:- hook size plus the hook link length and i eventually found what combination worked as i had a fish in the bottom of my landing net.
No more fish came out of the swim all the casting and bankside noise seemed to kill it dead so another move is on the cards. Walking up the river there's a couple more people fishing i had a quick chat and apart from a few small perch nothing else had been caught. I carried on walking up the river past the men throwing large rocks into the water for their dogs to jump in and retrieve. While standing there thinking to myself was it time to go home i noticed a rather large bend further up the river, i never notice that before it wasn't until i got up close to the swim i realised how far i had walked There was no one around it felt like i was transported to the spot was i meant to be there.
Then thats where the magic comes in i'm here so i'll have just one more cast thinking i will give it 30 mins then i'm going home. Well to say i was surprised to see the top of my rod smash round in a matter of seconds caught me completely off guard, i didn't have to strike just catch the butt of my rod as it jumped up into my hand let the battle commence. This fish whatever it was dived straight into the weed bed got it out then again in another this went on for what seemed a lifetime eventually a beast of a chub rolled on the surface but i couldn't grab my landing net as it was just out of reach so i had to try and get the fish to swim up stream which it did diving into the weed bed i just got it out of i grabbed the net and made a mad lunge and boy was i lucky.
Lying in the bottom of the landing net was the biggest chub i have ever seen in the flesh, i zeroed the scales twice and i weighed it twice just to make sure it was what it said and at 5lb 2oz it is a new P/B for me. But the story doesn't end there i couldn't take a photo as the camera wouldn't stand up so i can take a selfie, there was no one around so it looks like i'm not going to get a picture of my chub, but then in the distance i see a figure of a man jogging with a dog so i frantically wave at him for help he obviously thinks i'm in trouble and sprints over and asked if everything is ok i reply yes but ask him to take a photo for me. When i show him my catch his words were F*** me thats a monster you never caught that from here, i did mate and he gladly took my photo and patted me on the back to congratulate me on an awesome fish after releasing my prize i sat in the chair and laughed out loud and said to myself i never gave up i never gave up. So thank you to the jogger and Julian, until the next post Tight Lines..
p.s my new ingredients are not going to taste so nice to us so i'm hoping it will steer the misses away ;)

I'm also on instagram @thegudgeon

                     

                                                                                   TheGudgeon
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Bits "N" Pieces

Since my last blog my family and i have not had a great couple of months, my Grandfather passed away in October then my Grandmother this month in November. They would have been married 71years this December and they were the reason why we traveled to Devon on a regular basis, because of their age 90+ we knew that time wasn't on our side it still doesn't make it any easier and we are going to miss them very very much!! xxxxx

                          R.I.P Mr William Henry & Mrs Clara May Hamilton gone but will never be forgotten xxxx
                                                        
                                                                     We love you Nan and grampy duck  

This will probably be my last post of the year unless my luck changes and i start catching some half decent fish to blog about. Saying that i have had a 2lb 4oz perch from The old quarry and to be honest that was more of a fluke than planned, i mean i was fishing for perch i just saw them in the shallows, i flicked out a lob worm and the biggest one snaffled the bait. All the other tactics i tried wouldn't work, I suppose they all count, apart from that and a few jack pike it really has been slow for me, i'll keep trying, the buzz of not knowing what I'm going to catch is to strong not to. I want to get out and fish with The PerchFishers next year, they really do fish some great places and are always willing to help anglers like me.

2lb 4oz

My good friend Andy (@awgheating) told me about a stretch of a canal not far from where he lives which is home to some decent size pike. Andy has had a few out, not to pass up an opportunity the boy and i went and had an inspection, we blanked no surprise there, I caught the one below on another trip and a smaller one the next time i went.

Now this stretch is only 2-2 1/2 feet deep and because of the mild weather we've  had, the canal was still choked with weed in November, which is really strange and makes the fishing hard as you can't get a lure to fish the correct way. So the best way I found to fish was by dropping my lures in holes in the weed, which did work but the pike was very small, but another section of the canal, you can see the bottom as you walk a long the tow path. This gives you the advantage of spotting fish and casting on too them, now i did see a beast of a pike say 10 to 15lb which made me try and act as if i hadn't seen it hoping it hadnt seen me, but these fish are not stupid. Casting every lure i had in my box at the pike and it just sat there as if to say keep trying mate i'm not interested and swam off and disappeared.

It just sums up my fishing really the small rivers i fish the canal and the old quarry. Clear and small venues you have to be very quite and blend into the back ground i try my best but you can't account for other people. These places must have been stocked at some point (i know the quarry has) but the river and canal probably haven't so you are going for fish that have grown big and old on being smart dodging predators them self's so it is always going to be hard they are not stupid unlike the angler!!!. I know i can pay to fish at lakes and other places with a much better chance of catching say commercial stuffed with carp, but these more wild not looked after type of places gives me the buzz, so i suppose blanking comes with the territory.
I will one day crack the code and have a so called red letter day and believe me you will here my screams of happiness across the country......

A canal jack pike  

There's going to be a new chapter in my angling journey for i am buying a boat in April of 2015 a £1 million yacht, no i'm not really it's a 12ft Jon boat with a 6 hp engine for one purpose and one purpose only and that's to fish the mighty River Thames as much as possible. There are some real big monsters in this piece of water and i think (hope) it's where the boy and i are going to break a few personal best's and really get into them whackers.
Now i've fished the Thames from the bank and caught some nice fish but walking up and down the river i can see lots of places that you can only explore by boat, and a couple of well known anglers(who will remain nameless)  have tried to put me off but that just makes me more interested in why!!!.
Plus i will be purchasing a fish finder so i can map out and find the hot spots, spend time baiting up and give myself and the boy the very best chance of success.( yes and you Andy)

              

           The boy jigging a jelly

   

His still trying

I love fishing with my youngest son his such a character and we have

At last!!

a good relationship, if we blank as often happens we still chat about how

we fished and what we could do next time. I think you want to take dynamite with you dad or drain the canal might give you a better chance of catching, will be some of the comments the boy will say and we end up laughing our heads off.

See i get the point now it's about time on the bank with friends and i class "STICKZ" (that's his nick name because of his long skinny legs) not just my son but my best friend and my fishing buddy so we didn't catch, but learnt a little bit more about the venue/venues we are fishing.

   

Some people still don't get it, no matter how many times you say it!!!!!

The Gudgeon say's

This is my sport and i'll like to do as much as i can to protect it.

Environment hotline:(24 hrs)
0800 80 70 60







Now there is one thing that gets up my nose and a lot of anglers i know and speak to on twitter, and that's LITTER. We have to get the message across because it's killing our sport the mindless morons that think it is acceptable to bag up rubbish then hide it in the bushes, discard old line hooks and weights with no thought to others or wildlife. How simple is it to take a spare carrier bag and put the trash in it, i'm not going to follow people around to clean up after them, i don't do it for my sons nor does their mother so why should i have to do it for you. I don't get it more needs to be done name and shame thats what i say, it's as simple as this PICK UP YOUR LITTER AND TAKE IT HOME!!!!!!!

Now on a more of a happy note i'd like to share with you some floats i had made for me by a very good friend i've made on twitter, he goes by the name @_squirrel01 i know he won't mind me saying this but he is a complete FRUIT & NUT CAKE. Now you could go out and spend alot of money on a set of floats made by a professional float maker "if there is such a thing" and have them sitting in a case on your mantle piece, but these little beauty's have got a lot more character.

 As you can see by the photo's he can make bobber's, reed stems and quill's, I truly am grateful for his time and communication in getting them right for me. They are not perfect (he would say the same) their like the floats your grandad would give you that he made in his shed, that's exactly what i wanted from something hand made. These floats are design to be used, and when i get the chance now that everything has settled down i will be trotting them down a river or fishing a live bait under one of the bobbers, close to some bushes waiting for that big 4lb perch to snaffle the bait. So i thank you Mr Squirrel.

I just want to give another fella a mention from my twitter friends and that is @northernnev he is a bait guru on boilie making, his extensive knowledge on ingredients and base mixes is second to none so if you are in the market for a base mix look him up!!!.

Well thats about it for me this year, it hasn't been great but life must go on, i am deeply honoured that you taken the time out to read my blog and  wish you a very merry christmas and a happy new year see you in 2015, lets hope that it's a big fish year for the boy and I!!!.  

          

            The Gudgeon.

                                                                             

 

      

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Fishing with a friend pt 2

I just wanted to go fishing again and catch some fish anywhere would be nice, so when the opportunity to fish back at TheOldQuarry came up I jumped at the chance. This time I'm going with not just a mate but what I class as a good friend Mr Gibbs (@Awgheating1) someone I can bounce ideas off and just generally chat and have a laugh with "at my expense most of the time" but it's all good fun.

Now the plan was to get a day off which is not that easy at the moment as we are very busy at work, so when someone cancel a days holiday I jumped at the chance and said I'll have that thank you. Thursday 2nd of October it is then I couldn't wait got my tackle ready about three times, my plan of action was tiddler bashing. Let me explain now my son Louis (@Frychaser) has got this method down to a fine art fish shallow 2 ft max with one maggot to start with, you can up the hook size and how many maggots you use on the hook as your session progresses, but just keep spraying maggots over the top. The small fish come easy and the more you feed the bigger the fish get well that's how it's meant to work (it does for him), my attempt was not that successful don't get me wrong I caught fish but they were very small and there was millions of the little blighters but I was catching. I'd forgotten how much fun it was just to be there and fish, I think it's safe to say you can get caught up in all the hype about specimen hunting and I did, not saying I don't want a big perch or carp or any other fish but you can just forget what you are actually meant to be doing. "JUST GO FISHING".

Andy with a beast at 2 lb 6oz

           

         Not as big, but a cracker 1 lb 15 oz

I arrive at 6.15am its still dark, just shows you after all these years of fishing the excitement is still there. So i text Andy to see how long he was going to be and say hurry up i think i can here a banjo playing in the background he said that i'll be a couple of minutes and true to his word he was, i think he was just as excited.We stood in the car park and chatted about what swims we are going to fish and what method would be best, and it wasn't long before Andy start digging me out about how many times i re-tweet stuff on twitter and telling me how he was going to out fish me with his skill. I have written about this lake before with it's feeling like know one has been here for years it's a lovely old deep pit with some big fish in it. Now this is the place where i had a couple of hook pulls from some big perch last time i was here but i'm not going to dwell on that i am just going to chill and see what the day brings.

 Plenty of these critters in here

My first pike in 20 years

Now after catching a ton of tiddlers no bigger than an ounce or two, and with all that splashing around i knew it wouldn't be long before it caught the attention of Mr Pike. And there are some very big crocs in here both Andy and i have witness them at very close quarters, So low and behold while Andy and myself was chatting about what was going on and thinking of what to do next a pike all of about 4lb smashed the small roach i just hooked right by the bank, which made the both of us jump and laugh Luckily hooked on the outside of the mouth i was able to land the monster predator in question.
It was a funny old day because the swim just seemed to go dead after that, i thought it would of come alive with the pike sorted out. So a swim change was needed, i moved into the swim where i had the dreaded hook pulls last time, will it happen again not if i can help it. A step up in terminal tackle is required, now my main line was 6lb and my old hook link of 3.1lb and a size 18 hook, this time i'm going to up that to 5lb hook link and a size 14 hook, stronger and with my soft float rod i got more chance of landing a beast or two. Iv'e lost interest with the tiddler bashing method for now, i need Louis to show me how to do it again" LOL".
 I'm going to fish a lot deeper now but have no weight on the lower part of the rig so the maggots slowly sink past the snags with the free offering i'm catapulting over the top hopefully that will get the fish feeding again. After what seemed like ages i eventually caught a small perch then it just went dead again, had Mr pike moved in or was it something else. Well let me tell you when the float bobble and slid under the surface it was meet with a swift side ways strike, and i knew that the fish on the other end was a perch because of the head shakes, and at 1lb 15oz it was my best of the day. So after losing the next fish which felt a lot bigger, i tried everything after that but nothing seemed to work at least i didn't blank and it was good day and nice to be out.

I ask my good friend Mr Gibbs to write a few words on how his day went and what he thought of the fishing......

Started off well....

Gudgey and I had decided to fish The Old Quarry again. I'd offered him The River Thames in search of bream but we decided to hit the lake. After all , it had fished well last time we came here in May, so let's give it another bash.
I set up in peg 4, the corner swim, just where I fished last time so I had half an idea what to do.

Out went the pole to 7 metres by a clear patch in the weed next to a very fishy looking bush. It's deep out there, around 12 feet finds the bottom.
  I'm set up on a 1 gram float, 4lb mainline to a 3lb hook length, all finished off with a size 16 barbless. A few cups of 4 mm pellet and a few maggots later and I'm swinging in my first fish, a small skimmer. 
A  few small Perch followed along with a Rudd and a couple of Roach. All good do far but I knew bigger fish were hiding out there. 
On goes a lob worm tail and almost straight away the float dips and I'm in. Straight away I know this is a proper fish. Loads of 8 elastic flies out the end of my pole as this fish seeks the sanctuary of the weed. Which it makes. Easily. 
It's gone well in the weed and feels like it's off.
All I can do is pull back the gear, along with a bundle of weed, Gudgey scoops the whole lot in the net and lo and behold, the fish is in there! A super Perch. Quickly in the sling for a weigh and she went 2lb 6oz. Well pleased with that. Took a couple of quick pics and popped get back into the depths.  
This is all after no more than 10 minutes angling and I'm thinking I'm onto a right flyer here. Then......

Petered off in the middle......

So I'm on a high after that cracking perch and expecting to have a few more, so I stick with the lobs as bait.
Nothing. Not a touch. So I'm back on the maggot again for a few more micro Perch and similar sized Roach. The fish are coming but not thick and fast. 
I'm having to change depth and down a hook size to an 18 with a single maggot just to get any interest.
There's some good bream and tench, not too mention the carp in this lake so I carry on dropping in the pellets and loose feed corn going one will turn up.
Still nothing and now it's getting harder to catch even a small roach. Such a far cry from earlier in the year when it was a fish( or at least a bite) every put in. 
Time for a break so I wandered up to Gudgey to see how he was getting on and have one of his lovely cups of tea.
I watched Gudge land a pike that took a small Rudd he was reeling in then got back to my swim in the hope that a rest may have done it some good. 
More nothing. The odd micro Perch and that was it. And even they were becoming hard to catch.
Half an hour later I hear a yelp from Gudgeys swim. He's into a proper one. By the time I get there he's got a lovely perch in the net. Not as big as my specimen but at 1lb 15oz still a great stripey and one that put a smile on The Gudgeons face!

The less said about the end, the better.....

Now I'm struggling. Properly struggling. I can't even buy a bite. I've tried the lot and the best I can do is the odd micro Perch. Not good. So I borrowed one of Gudgeys incredibly well made weed rakes (available to order at very reasonable prices)  and cleared myself another swim. Once cleared I dropped in a few balls of groundbait, some pellet, corn & maggot in the hope one or two of the tench might appear. 
I'm pretty sure I don't need to tell you what happened next as you can probably guess that this killed the whole thing dead. Not even a touch. Nothing. I went through the whole bait selection once again.
I suffered the newly raked swim for an hour or so, then back to the original bush swim, by this time I'm ready to pack up and go, a bite every half an hour from a see through perch is driving me crazy. 
Gudgeys delightful tea keeps me going along with some spectacular banter keeps me going until I've properly lost heart in it and packed up.
Overall it was a disappointing day on what we know is a great venue, punctuated by my specimen 2lb 6oz Perch and Gudgeys small 1lb 15oz effort. Oh and his lucky jack pike.
And if he tells you about the one he hooked  that got away, you'll be there for hours as he regales you with the whole story. It was massive, apparently.
Cheers for letting me have a go on your blog Gudge, and thanks for a fun day and some great cups of tea, looking forward to the next time already.

Andy

I hope you enjoy reading our story, until next time Tight Lines.                                                                                                                            

                                    

                                           
  

Still trying!!!!

BREAM FISHING:-

I was going to write about my bream fishing but I've only been once so there's not alot to talk about, so i thought i will let you know and keep you up to date in what i have been up to.
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

I punch the air in delight with people looking at me as if i am a nutter???

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........

                               New PB 4lb 12oz

CARP FISHING:-

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 ;)

                                                       My work published WOW

           So until next time my friends be safe, be cool, tight lines and most importantly be happy. :)