Jubilee 21.5.12

First trip to Jubilee this year. I was tempted after meeting a guy in Lanes in Cov who showed me photos of a 6lb + eel he'd caught last week on a boilie while fishing for carp. Even with carp gear that must have been a hell of a fight.

I arrived a little later than official opening time to find only 1 angler fishing, but he was close to the area I was interested in, so as the whole of the rest of the lake was free decided not to buddy up to him on the next peg and had a wander around. Eventually, as the wind had been fairly constant over the last few days from the North - not an ideal one - I set up on the point facing the island. This gave a nice chuck to the island as well as access to both bays to my left and right - until others arrived, if they did.

The first rod was cast to the island with a snowman and the second into the bay with a bottom bait. Both had solid bags attached with a mixture of crushed boilies, pellets and hemp. I was using the new Fox Rapide bag system for the first time and I must admit I've never made bags so compact and streamlined. Well impressed!

I started to pick up bream on the bottom bait, all males with their sexy finery as to be expected at this time of year.

I've normally found that between 11ish and 4ish the fish seem to go off the feed, indeed many of the regulars don't bother to turn up until mid afternoon. However, around midday I had 2 beautiful, butter gold, commons in fantastic condition, the largest going 10lbs 10oz.

Later in the afternoon the bream switched on again and I finished with 8 to 5lbs 11oz.

A nice way to start my 2012 time at Jubilee.

Oxfordshire Pit

Had a few early hours last week at one of my "new" waters. I decided to have a fairly traditional day, float fishing with my 15' hand-built rod and "Sheffield" centre pin. This long rod is needed as just off the rod tip there's over 12' of water. Keith had kindly presented us with hand-made floats when we attended his birthday bash at Blenheim and I decided to try this quill out. (Really I wouldn't have posted except to show him that they work!).

Initially I tried red maggots but could only attract small perch, nice enough on the light gear, and changed over to corn after catching about 50 of the little stripies. This brought on some nice roach about half a pound and bream to around 2lbs. So, for Keith, a shot of the float!

Incidentally, the float shots perfectly with 2 BBs.

Just a Few Trips

I haven't blogged for about 6 weeks as I hadn't been catching much in that time but I thought I'd pull together some recent trips - much as master catcher Keith J has done.

Stoneacres, Linch Hill

I'd seen stories in the angling press of large (huge) roach coming out of the Linch Hill complex and on checking out the website found that the only water I could fish on a day ticket was Stoneacres - unless I wanted to fork out £785 to join the syndicate. (There is a winter roach syndicate running from November to March at £285 but only 15 places). As Mr Osborn doesn't pay me enough I decided on Stoneacres.

This is a large, 47 acres, pit which is also available to the syndicate members. I arrived about 6:30am and talked to a couple of guys sitting in their white van. Apparently they had been there since before dawn waiting to see signs of fish. This should have warned me that stock levels were presumably very low, a fact I had confirmed later in the day. During my time there I saw several VERY strong anglers running with their house and contents loaded on barrows to get to a more favoured spot. I say anglers but they seemed to be midgets next to the amount of gear they had.
While I'm mentioning "serious" carp anglers, what's all this "I'll walk around the lake 2 or 3 times before deciding where to fish" (sensible) "and I'll take a bait bucket to place in my chosen swim so others will realise it's taken"? NO, take your bloody barrowload of gear with you! What's next? "I'll take 1 Cell boilie and place it on the ground"?!?

Sorry, back to the fishing. One carp rod cast to an area with very light weed and the other rod with a maggot feeder and 2 red maggots attached helicopter style (sorry Jeff).

 9 hours with no bites, except on my lunch.

Next stop, Milton Pools near Oxford.

Although I don't live that far away, I've never fished there. I telephoned the bailiff a couple of days before as I'd seen that you can book swims and didn't want to be disappointed. He said "no prob for Thursday, plenty of space". I was surprised how small the main lake was but the swims were clearly marked so you didn't have someone on your shoulder. My chosen spot was on the M40 bank - after a while the sound of thundering behemoths from Eastern Europe soon faded away.
I had a nice lob to the point of an island in front of me and slightly to my left. I was told that a couple of days ago someone had a couple of nice fish under a tree directly to my right so the 2 rods were split between the spots.

After just a couple of stockies all day I started to pack up around 7ish. In the pic above you can see some of the "houses" you can rent instead of bivvying up. Before I had got my rods out, a guy on the right bank decided that he was going to fish to the island point, having first unloaded a shedload of gear into his home from home. 2 leads landed within inches of my rig. Had I not decided to go I may have walked across to have a word with him. (I HAD clocked that he was even older than me and disabled.)

A few weeks ago I joined a Club which has 4 lakes on the Linear complex at Stanton Harcourt and for the price of 1 day ticket at Linear I could have 12 months at this club. They've also got some nice stretches of the Windrush and Thames nearby.
Two of the lakes are "hard" the other two relatively "normal". My first trip was to one of the hard ones, the second, one week later to a normal.
I've noticed in recent weeks that there are hoards of Melagoptera (Alder Flies) about. They covered my umbrella and holdall. This one's suggesting I change to Radio 4.

As you can see, some of the bank parties should have gone to Spec Savers. The tops of the trees were cut with amazing precision!

The "normal" lake I fished had a more manicured look to it - not knocking it.

For any Old School tackle tarts out there. Sorry the handles aren't lined up perfectly.

So far these two trips have got me bream but no carp. Still I think I'll be making good use of this ticket, especially when the river season opens.

A Search for Perch, aka A Nice Stroll up the Cut!

Although yesterday was hot and bright I decided to have a go for perch on a nearby stretch of the Oxford Canal. I just took my 8' spinning rod and was using some new 3" shads - perch, roach and trout look-alikes.

This stretch meanders north from Banbury through some very pretty countryside with a few nice old farms and houses.

First cast, bounced the perch off the far edge, perfect! Except that it snagged on something serious. Despite the 30lb braid I was using it failed at the crimp. Bugger! Note to self, re-do all traces when I get home.

I walked about 2 miles or so up and then back again (obviously) and only saw 2 moving narrowboats but plenty moored - which I examined with the roach.  No plucks or takes.

Still, as the title says, it was a nice stroll up the cut.

Last Knockings

After an enjoyable but fishless day at Bury Hill with Martin and Jeff I decided to get a day on the river before the Close. Previously the Cleeve Prior stretch on the Avon had proved fruitful so that's where I headed.

I was the only one there when I arrived at about 8:30 and after 6 hard hours I thought "don't blaim them for stopping in!".

Around 3 ish, having had just 1 small jack and a couple of chub, I decided to pack up. However, before I had time to break down the quiver rod the tip pulled round and I was into what I was sure was one of the larger bream to be found on this stretch. It stayed over towards the far bank and just hugged the bottom. By the time I'd got it nearer to me it woke up and then decided it wanted to play. By now I decided it was a barbel so I paid a bit more attention! Eventually it slipped into the net and my first one of the year brought the scales around to a healthy 7lbs 11oz.

Bishops Bowl 1.11.11

Another fishery, like Blenheim, which is about 30 mins away from me which I haven't fished in years. It's been in the press a bit lately as new owners took it over just under 2 years ago. I remembered it as an "alien planet" type of place with the steep-sided quarry cliffs and the clear blue water. This turned out to be the main lake, one of six, which I decided to fish. I think the others aren't quite so dramatic from what I saw.
I telephoned the owner and he suggested a bank where the pike have been coming out recently but when I arrived, the layout foxed me completely. I set up on the lake I wanted to but far from the area I should have been.

I had a sardine on one rod and a mackerel tail on the other. After a few hours all I had to show were 2 small jacks. The view from my peg was pretty nice and watching the long-tailed tits and the rest of the birdlife meant I wasn't overly bothered but I did want something a bit better to pull my string.

I wound in and had a walk around this half of what is quite a big lake and soon realised exactly where the owner meant when he described the pegs. So I upped sticks and drove around to the opposite bank.
Within exactly 5 minutes of casting out, I had a strong take,  In the deep water the fish gave a very good account for itself and managed to take me around some snag directly in front of me but attrition paid off and after a few worrying moments of the line grating it came free.
I was pleased to put the net under a good-looking fish of 14lbs 10oz.

A nice fish to christen my new unhooking mat! Unfortunately I forgot my camera so missed out on a cheesy shot of me cradling it. I had to make do with my phone camera.
Around 4 ish, the wind dropped and the last of the daylight became a lovely calm evening but one which I thought wouldn't offer more pike so I drove home.

Bury Hill, 25.10.11

Martin had arranged a trip down to Bury Hill in Dorking to have a crack at Zander. As I'd never caught one, much to my chagrin, I accepted his offer of a lift down there. We arrived about a quarter to seven - gates open at 7 - and were first in the queue. I was looking forward to an early bacon sarnie as eating at 5 in the morning, the time Martin picked me up, is far too early for my stomach. How disappointing therefore to find that the cafe would only be open from 1 until 1:30. However, the cafe was serving some match anglers who had booked a match and I persuaded the guy that putting a few extra pieces of bacon on wouldn't cause him mega problems. Still, I suppose WE were doing HIM a favour just by being there!

Having fished there earlier this year with Jeff, Martin decided that the high 30's were the pegs; this was the area where Jeff had his double in March. He suggested peg 37 which was nicely sheltered from the wind by a semi-submerged tree and had the island in front.

Using small, 1oz, leads on large running rings I put a small piece of roach on one rod and a strip of fresh mackerel on the other. At Martin's suggestion I placed one 2 rod lengths out and the other towards the island. The morning soon lost its clouds and we were faced with bright sunshine and fairly calm conditions. Not ideal for the zeds I was hoping for. However, I persisted, changing baits and positions. The chap in the tackle shop had reminded us that they were often to be found in the margins so I cast down to my left just in front of a platform 2 or 3 away. (We had most of this bank to ourselves so it wasn't inconveniencing anyone else.) At midday, while Martin and I were chatting we noticed the bobbin on this rod was jiggling up against the blank so it was fairly obvious that something had taken a fancy to the roach head. There was no need for any subtlety like paying out line from the baitrunner so I just tightened into the fish.

Result! My first zander; and at 4lbs 4oz not a bad one to start with. With the ban on trebles or barbed hooks, the size 4 came out easily, in fact it dropped out in the net.

Soon after we had enjoyed sausage and egg sandwiches around half one, Martin had a take which resulted in a small zander of around 1 - 1 1/2lbs.  It looked likely that my fish was going to be the only one but eventually Martin managed another nice fish of around 3lbs.

The action stopped with me hooking a pike around 6 - 8lbs which threw the hook before I could even draw it to the net.

Still, I was extremely pleased to have broken my zander duck and will definitely get down again this winter to try to find Jeff's double!

As well as the usual birdlife on and around the lake, we heard a most peculiar sound and Martin soon spotted a bright green parrot (or parakeet) in a tree overhead. I was aware that they had become extremely common in the south but hadn't actually seen on until now. Wild Parrots Settle in Suburbs