Andy Spreadbury's Fishing Blog

The Secret Lake 12.00 At last I am installed on the Meadow Bank in (I think) Peg 9. Well, it’s the one past ‘The Point’ swim. Saw a fish show right smack in front at about fifty yards, so clipped at 13 wraps. Leading showed only light-ish weed so well confident with my solid bags. Another fish showed down to the right, proving once again there are resident fish here. 12.30 Another fish showed to the right. 13.00 Weather overcast but very mild - small airborne flies on the wing. Wind from the SW. More fish out to the right. They seem to be right in front of the last ladder on the opposite side of the lake. At some point these fish must move down the lake and over my spodded area. 13.30 No line bites - I’m assuming there are no fish in the area. Line bites on this lake seem a pre-cursor to a take. 14.30 It’s gone quiet now - haven’t seen a fish for an hour. Wind increased in strength slightly. Fishing Peg 5 would have been very tough inde

The Secret Lake, somewhere in Essex 10.30 I very nearly didn’t go. I woke up with an overwhelming feeling that I shouldn’t be fishing - I don’t know whether it was some sort of premonition or just general anxiety. I knew I shouldn’t have come. Casting around with a lead and it’s wall to wall weed out there. I’ve settled for 12 + 1 wraps as being less dense than elsewhere, so my solid bags will be clipped up to there. 12.15 Despite early trepidations, confidence is high! I have seen fish out in front of me and my solid bags are giving me the best presentation I can achieve given the weed. Two rods are on multi-rigs with Northern Special pop-ups, one pink, one yellow. The other rod is a 12mm. wafter fished on my own cotton hair rig on which I have done so well in the past. This has as its accompaniment a yellow Essential Cell. This approximates to the maize I have put out with the Spomb. 14.00 There’s a run on the left-hand rod! The multi-rig is away!… I hook the f

The following are my field notes made at the time of our return trip to our french water. It turned out to be a very tough week indeed, in more ways than one! Sunday,17th.September 15.00 Arrived after a very long and tedious journey; it should have taken us only three and a half hours but due to stops etc. took nearly five! We just got the bivvies up in peg 7 before the heavens opened - rain, hail, and goodness knows what else! People still arriving so it’s hard to anticipate how busy the lake will be. Cannot even pop out to fill the kettle it’s raining so hard! 18.00 Rain stopped and the sun has come out. All three rods are in play: the LH is a Cell wafter on a 12inch hooklength, the CENTRE rod is a Ronnie Rig with ‘Scent from Heaven’ pop up on a four inch Korda Boom, and the RH rod, a Monster Ice boilie with a pink Cell topper. All but the centre rod are just shy of 22 wraps aimed at the Out of Bounds swim. [At this point, I stopped and did a swim sur

There was a time back in the day when the only boilies available were the ones we made ourselves. Boily making used to be part and parcel of the whole process of carp fishing and was an essential skill until bait became commercially available. Today, it still has relevance because it enables you to use something which is unique, quirky, personal, and completely different to what anyone else uses. That’s why I have decided to make my own again after all these years - pop ups in particular since they are at ‘the business end’ of things so to speak. The ingredients: 1 egg 5ml Profile Plus Tiger Nut flavour 5ml Cathedral Baits Coconut flavour 3ml Cathedral Baits Intense Sweetener 2 teaspoons Mainline Try Colour Yellow a good squert of Tiger Nut Goo approx. 9 tablespoon of Polaris pop up dry mix. Mix all the liquids together Add the Polaris dry mix. Roll out Boil for 2 minutes and dry on paper towel for a couple of days. Coat with Goo to preserv

When you go and fish a new water for the very first time, make sure you find out as much about it as you can so you have at least some idea of what to expect and how to go about things. In the case of Linear Fisheries near Oxford there are literally hours of YouTube videos featuring the many lakes which are available on a day ticket. Not only are the lakes accessible to all, they hold a terrific number of carp up to fifty pounds, with many forties resident in virtually all the lakes. If ever there was a venue to get a new PB then this is it! It’s not as simple as that. It isn’t ever is it? I decided this would be my venue of choice since I’ve been wanting to try somewhere different for some time so I was off in the car at the crack of dawn, braving the jams on the M25, and almost three hours later was standing beside Oxlease Lake - the home of the fifty pounder. It was rammed with anglers; in fact there were so many there the car park was full and vehicles had been left all over

One of those things about going away I find, is acquiring a dissatisfaction with one’s day to day life on returning home. Chris and I have had some wonderful holidays this year - and our latest trip included some great fishing in the Dordogne… Some I am back down at my club water - A Mid Kent Fisheries Gold Ticket venue, and as I look out from the bivvy door, I see the same scene I have viewed so often before. Don’t get me wrong; I’m not complaining. It’s just that when you return home from a great fishing session and return to your ‘home’ water, things look, well, a bit ‘samey’ if you know what I mean. There are some wonderful fish in this lake (although nothing you would count as a real monster); but this doesn’t make up for the fact that the place is, well, a hole in the ground if I’m honest. I’m being a little too harsh I know because I have had some great sessions here in the past, but to me, it proves that the actual lakes themselves are intrinsically part of the Fishing a

Thursday, 29th.June Le Moulin du Paradis Chris and I decided to have ten days at this invitation only venue in the Dordogne region of France. This is a record of our holiday and these are the notes I took at the time: My initial thoughts about the fishing Aside from the fact this is one of the most beautiful locations on planet Earth for fishing, I thought I’d chronical my impressions as we go along. Thunderstorms as we step off the plane! Everything soaked so hung up to dry. Peter and Madeline fantastic hosts, plying us with champagne, red wine, and whisky before feeding us with wonderful food. However… When I first put the rods out, there were fish half way towards the island (Duck Island), smoking and bubbling up amid great brown clouds. As soon as the lines were in the water however, they ske-daddled off - they’re line-shy! Plan B. They probably hang out on the far side of the lake, the other side of the island and at various times, circuit the margins of the isla