Tuesday, 21st.May
Paddlesworth, Burrows, ‘The Stones’
17.00A late start due to all sorts of things occurring (including yet another pile-up on the M25 which shut the carriageway for hours).
I have walked past ‘The Stones’ every time I have fished Burrows - it’s been one of those pegs I keep meaning to fish but always seem to end up elsewhere.
‘The Stones’ is characterised by a number of stones placed in the water on top of a shallow plateau which shelves off into deeper water. ‘Practicing’ for Pollard, I am fishing in seven feet of water at four and three-quarter wraps which more or less corresponds to the bottom of the slope. Once again I am testing out plastic corn presentations and these have been inspired by an occurrence that happened at the end of the last session I fished.
During the course of the last session, a certain amount of corn (spill from the catapult) had accumulated in the margins at my feet and as I was breaking down the kit to leave I noticed the distribution of individual grains on the lake bottom. Relatively few of them sat anything other than dead flat and it occurred to me that the conventional way of hair-rigging corn is the ‘stacked’ method rather than end-to-end with the corns sitting flat on the bottom, a baiting-needle passed through them long-ways instead of the other way.
What does a carp see when it comes across a bed of corn? It sees all the individual grains laying flat on the bottom; and yet conventionally a ‘stack’ of two or three will sit ‘upright’. The exception to this is where buoyant corn is hair-rigged and and this will give the appearance from above of being ‘flat’ to the bottom. In this situation, if a carp is right over the top of the the ‘stack’ it will only see the profile of one corn - even though there may be two or three corns comprising the presentation.
There are the two rigs laying amongst the grains of corn. Can you see them?
[Edit: it doesn’t matter a damn. You're over-thinking it. See later comments].
My aim is to contrive a presentation that imitates the free offerings as closely as possible so they are eaten as just another of all the corns in the ‘bed’. A bit like a pva bag. The carp is just inhaling whatever is in front of it because it just happens to be amongst the other food items.
To achieve this, it necessitates the use of ‘sinking’ corn and I bought a couple of packets of a well-known brand to achieve this. Guess what? Tank tests showed that half the packets were buoyant and floated! I have long moaned about fishing tackle being wrongly described but it seems that we anglers are taken no notice of in this regard. o.k. it’s only a one pound fifty packet of plastic - but if it says ‘sinking’ on the packet, surely one has every right to feel aggrieved if it floats?!
So I have an ‘end-to-end’ rig and a ‘stacked’ rig fishing over my bed of corn; we’ll see which (if any) is the more successful.
18.30
First change. I’ve decided to fish the r.h. rod further up the slope and have put it further round to the right in about 3-4 feet of water. Two pouchfuls of corn over the top Both bases covered.
This recast bait is a conventional ‘buoyant stack’ so I’m comparing it with the ‘end-to-end’ arrangement.
19.00
All these experiments are all very well, but sooner or later I have to pin my faith in something I’ve got confidence in and stick with it, knowing that it catches fish.
I saw Charlie B before setting up and starting to fish and we both (sort of) agreed that there is very little that can be done to avoid the stamp of Bream that are in Pollard. We are talking Bream that are known to go over 14 pounds and which have been rumoured to have been caught even heavier. Charlie said (and I’ve heard others say it) that they wouldn’t be surprised if a ’20’ wasn’t caught sooner or later. For Bream of this size, there is no bait or rig that can be devised that will prevent them from taking it before a carp does and if this is true then it would appear that trying to defeat them is futile. Perhaps the situation demands a change of attitude? Instead of trying to beat them, set out my stall to embrace them and enjoy catching them?
Although I would not class myself as a Bream angler I have been known to ‘flirt’ with them in the past and to have been delighted to have caught three fish of nine-fourteen. These are my biggest to date and I would definitely not be unhappy to catch one over the magic ‘ten’. Although they are not the prime target, fish of this calibre deserve respect and our admiration. These are specimen fish and what are we if not ‘specimen hunters’ (but with a specialty for carp?)
I know they can be a nuisance and not at all what we are after, but a fish is a fish and anyone who claims to have any love of the countryside and all things piscatorial, must surely concede they are part of the whole Fishing that we enjoy and treat them as just another thread of a diverse and rich tapestry.
‘Proper’ Bream anglers would give their right arms for fish such as these…
19.30
Just had a ‘liner’ on the r.h. rod. There’s something out there!
19.37
So I’ve decided to stop all this fanny-ing around with rigs and stick to what I’m confident in - the buoyant ‘Wafter’ Rig I’ve caught fish on previously. This has been cast to the left of the r.h. rod into 3-4 feet of water. So there are now two of them out there; Confidence comes with captures.
20.15
There’s something peculiar happening - the line on the l.h. rod is twitching ever so gently. It’s as if there’s something giving it a gentle tug-tug. What can this be? Small fish? As far as I know there are no Roach, Rudd or Bream in here [edit: oh yes there are!] Although I could be completely wrong about this [edit: yes you were]. Curious. It’s stopped now. Was it something gently knocking against the line?
20.30
There is absolutely no doubt in my mind at all that there is no greater threat to successful Angling than Over-Thinking. I suppose we are all guilty of it at times and it arises because we all want to improve our results by improving and challenging what we do and this inherently implies giving great thought to our fishing. But it can be counter-productive because more often than not we aren’t doing anything wrong (other than fishing in the wrong place or fishing when the fish are not feeding). Rarely do we require something other than the baits, rigs, and tactics which have served us successfully for 95% of our fishing. It is Confidence in what we are doing which we lack - not some new fandango rig or tackle…
Wednesday,22nd.May
6.00Once again there was loads of activity on the part of the carp during the night - they seemed to be moving all over the place, but yet again there was absolutely zero action on the rods. Not even a line bite. I find this extremely curious and I don’t think I have ever fished a lake where there has been so much apparent action - and so few takes.
Hang on! I’m away!…
I’m in!…and immediately the fish has set off down to the right, and then (conveniently) detoured across to the far side!
As soon as I hooked it I knew it was a good fish, fighting harder than any of the previous fish I’ve caught here. In fact so hard did it bore and plunge I couldn’t make any headway on it at all initially and I was convinced I’d got something a bit special. Eventually however it had to give in to the Wychwood Extricator Plus Ten and a fabulous-looking common rolled over the net.
Quite the best looking carp I've had in a long while
This at last was the stamp of fish I have been seeking on here and I always thought that if I could bag one of Burrows’s ‘twenties’ then this would give me the confidence to move on to Pollard, knowing everything was working as intended.
At twenty-six eight, it was as fit as a butcher’s dog and quite the best looking carp I’ve caught in a long while.
One curious thing. It disgorged this:
A Roach-fry. Not only is this interesting in itself - but I wasn’t even aware there were Roach in here. Maybe those ‘line-bites’ have not been ‘liners’ at all - but small fish pecking at the plastic corn and/or bumping into the line?
07.30
As something of a porridge connoisseur , I can recommend the range of flavours offered by ‘Quaker Oats So Simple’ and others.
These breakfasts are quick, easy, tasty, and nutritionally much better for you than the traditional bacon and eggs fry-up. There’s no washing-up to deal with either - you just throw the empty container away when you’ve finished with it (in an appropriate disposal facility please). Cinnamon I’m not so keen on. Now Caramel flavour - now you’re talking. It’s the dog’s bananas! Tasty with a capital ’T’! Try ‘em.
07.50
There are still fish moving on the lake, mostly over on the far side (non-fishing bank). interestingly, these fish are not moving right in the snags like they normally do, they’re some distance off, some even only half way across.
09.30
Session restart on ‘The Shallows’
The spot is at four and three-quarter wraps directly in line with the first swim opposite. I've had all my fish from this spot.
I have a theory that the long ‘Arm’ of the lake fishes all day (and particularly the afternoon) over to the far side adjacent to the snags. The consensus seems to be that carp migrate along the far margin, only picking up baits if you cast close enough to the snags for them to be tempted out. Snag fishing is not my cup of tea since it requires sitting on the rods ‘locked up’. I prefer a more relaxed approach and although ‘The Stones’ has yielded a fish this morning, my feeling is that it is a ‘morning only’ peg and holds fish only at this time while fish move up the lake and out into ‘The Bowl’ to its left.
‘The Shallows’ has produced fish at both dawn and dusk so therefore offers two chances in a session. Miss the dusk spell and you’ve always got the following dawn.
Nothing much has changed since my last session - my spot is the same one that has produced fish previously - straight towards the swim opposite at 4 3/4 wraps with several pouchfuls of corn over the top. I did dredge up this snag - twigs encrusted with little zebra mussels. It seems several anglers had fallen foul of it as there were separate bits of line entangled on it. It does illustrate how these molluscs colonise underwater structure of all kinds…Hang on! I’ve got a bite…
These things will cling to any bit of structure in the water - stones, rocks, twigs and timbers, old bits of metal, even to each other.
What they are though is an indicator of water quality; they won't survive in any old crap-hole.
A drop-back produced a little five pound common, so that’s another one to add to the score. This fish does drag the average size down though and it now stands at 15:12 again - which is back down where it should be (if the top weight is around 31-32 pounds).
11.30
And we’re off again!… a screaming take that makes the rod-pod shake and and I’m fast into a 13:08 mirror. Another small fish from ‘The Shallows’. It seems as if the area is populated by the small ones.
Disaster occurred. In my panic to get to the rod from within the bivvy, I kicked over a whole carton of milk, flooding the groundsheet. Mopping-up operations before it starts to stink. No cups of tea for me then.
12.30
Confirmatory evidence of the presence of Roach fry in the margins. It stands to reason that their mum’s and dad’s will more than happily scoff the sweetcorn I’m putting out. Topping-up a priority.
15.45
One of the reasons I haven’t been able to get out fishing for the past couple of weeks is that I’ve been laid up with a bad back. I buggered it lifting weights in the gym and it’s absolutely slaughtering me at the moment. I’m laying on my bedchair hoping I can get up and out of the bivvy should I have a take.
Physical fitness is something we all take for granted, but as you get older (i shall be 70 in a year or two!) you realise that the physical side of carp-fishing gets harder and harder. The barrow-push you did ten years ago with ease now requires a couple of stops to rest and that’s if there aren’t any up-hill stretches!
I have kept up my gym membership for many, many years but have realised that part of the ageing process is a loss of physical strength due to wastage of the muscles. This is a well-known and identifiable consequence of ageing and my doctor advised me to do strength training in the weights room to compensate for this loss, hence, lifting weights, hence, bad back.
16.15
Well, the back has just been put to the severest test because I’ve had another take… yet again another small fish of 10:12. This is quite concerning; although I am getting takes which proves the effectiveness of the tactics, the run of small fish from ‘The Shallows’ is indicating to me that this is definitely a holding area for the ‘doubles’. Were I to be concentrating on Burrows I would definitely be looking further up ‘The Arm’ as it does seem the bigger fish come from there.
I shouldn't complain. I fished the whole of last summer on Bough Beech and never even saw a fish much less caught one!
however, a carp is a carp; captures make confidence and I am certainly getting plenty of that now.
17.45
With one night left of my campaign on Burrows it’s time to reflect on what I have learnt and how I can put it to good use on Pollard.
There is no doubting the effectiveness of the plastic corn. I must say I started off very circumspect about it but I can honestly say that where you can get away with it, it is the go-to method ahead of boilies and pop-ups. There’s the cost for a start. With bait costing what it does these days I simply can not justify spending £20-£30 a session throwing bait (money) into the lake; not on my pension anyway. As far as I know, few anglers at Paddlesworth are using a sweetcorn approach and this confers an advantage in itself. I can think of waters where I wouldn’t use it however and a couple spring to mind that are infested with Roach and Rudd which would demolish beds of sweetcorn in minutes, no matter how much you put out. And at £1 a kilo you can afford to put quite a bit out. I can however see its usefulness on one water I have in mind which I fished last winter and which has carp to over forty pounds and I can see it working there.
This example is tied with a 15lbs. 'Daiwa Sensor' boom Albright knotted to 18lbs. 'Korda Supernatural'. I will change this in future and swap out the mono for fluorocarbon; I had one or two tangles and can not risk this happening on Pollard.
One thing is certain however; it’s going to catch Bream on Pollard and it is well to be prepared for this and to embrace it. I don’t mean to embrace the Bream as in giving them a hug or anything - that would be weird! But responding to them for what they are - fish that come along while you are waiting for a carp to pick up your bait. If they are in double-figures then so much the better.
Thursday,23rdMay
05.30Early morning wake-up call from the r.h. rod which has just gone into meltdown!…
As soon as I hooked it I knew it was a better fish - it had that solid, persistent, heavy doggedness the smaller cousins don’t possess. On the scales, so it proved - 21:08 a fine looking mirror that reminded me very much of the old ‘Italian’ strain of carp we used to catch back in the day. Another one on the corn and five fish for the trip.
At last I got a decent one from 'The Shallows'; in future I shall fish further up 'The Arm' as I think the better fish reside there. There may not be as many bites, but the stamp of fish is better quality I think.
07.45
Just had a chat to another member fishing for Roach along the bank and he confirmed the presence of Roach, Bream, and Tench in Burrows although he hasn’t had a Tench for a year or two. So it would seem that what I had interpreted as ‘liners’ were likely as not small fish pecking at the bait. The size four ‘Korda Krank’ avoiding potential hook-ups.
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