The Third Age Angler Posts

It is January 1st and I had planned to go fishing this morning as we are in a spell of mild weather and I hoped the fish were biting. However, I woke up after nine this morning feeling quite rough and no, it wasn’t the result of imbibing too much for the New Year Festivities but this sinusitis I have developed and by the time I was feeling half decent again the day was nearly gone so I decided to give it a miss.

So, what to write for the blog? Well, it is that time of year when people look back on the last year and forward to the next so I thought that I would do the same. I have now been fishing again for eighteen months at a number of different waters and have gained some experience  but am a long way from being an expert or even good at it. In fact I seem to be getting worse! Since the Autumn my catch rate has really dropped off and I haven’t caught much at all. Whether this is because of the conditions, weather, overfishing or something else, I don’t know. I am using the same methods and going to the same places that I went last year when I was having some luck but recently I have been blanking more often than not. When I first started fishing again I was impatient to catch a fish but have learnt that blanking is part of fishing and have become more accepting of it. The important thing is that next time I go out I am going to catch something and make it all worthwhile!

There were some high points of the year, landing a decent carp on my float rod with a single red maggot and size 16 hook was one of them, I thought that I was going to lose it every second until it was in the net and I still could hardly believe it. Neither could the young man who came round from the other side of the lake from where he had been watching me to see what I had caught! Another highlight and a first was catching carp on the surface using a bubble float and bread. Seeing the fish cruising towards the bait and then taking it is exciting and completely different from watching a float or quiver tip. Working with the club to open up a water which is just across the road from me has been a positive and although I blanked when I fished there a few weeks ago I think that I will do much better in the summer when the weed has been raked out and the water is more accessible. I am looking forward to going fishing whenever I have an hour or so and walking out of my house with my gear all set up and being on the bank in less than five minutes.

There have been some good moments that have not just been about fishing but being in the countryside. It is always great to see a kingfisher flash past and hearing buzzards calling to each other overhead was amazing. I don’t mind seeing a heron standing in the margins but am a lot less enthusiastic about cormorants! Then there are the sounds or sometimes the lack of them. Like many people I live where there is a background of traffic noise and am surprised how it can be heard even in the remotest places where I fish. Of course it depends on the wind direction and sometimes it is very quiet and I don’t hear anything but natural sounds or see anyone all day, it is good to get away from it all! Other sounds that I hear regularly are the children playing during their lunch break at a primary school, dogs barking in a kennels, they maybe even the local hunt as they send a shiver up my spine when I hear them, they sound like the baying of hounds after their prey which you see in all kinds of films!

So, what about the future? A good question and one that I haven’t got much of an answer for. Over the last eighteen months I have tried out different methods and bought all the gear that I need. Yes, I know that there is always something else to buy but I am trying to resist the temptation! I haven’t been grabbed by any one type of fishing. I like catching carp but don’t like waiting for a bite, I still like watching a float and I have got into using a quiver tip a bit more. I like it all really but not any one thing in particular that I want to specialise in so will keep on with ether a carp rod or feeder rod and a float rod out. One thing that I have made my mind up on though, you could call it my New Year’s Resolution, is not to keep going back to places where I have blanked recently just because they have fished well in the past! It may be that I will be successful there in the future but for now there are plenty of places that I haven’t fished yet and who knows, I might break some PB’s!

Anyway, that is it for my blog for 2021, I have enjoyed writing it and I hope that you have enjoyed reading it and will continue to follow me on my angling journey in 2022. Don’t forget if anyone wants to contribute to the blog as a guest writer then get in touch with me via the contact form. In the meantime have a Happy New Year and tight lines for 2022!

You can’t see the reflections in my head so I thought I would include a photo of some reflections in the river!

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Those of you who read my blog regularly may have noticed that I have not been catching much recently. Yes, I know that it is winter and fishing slows down but I am getting a bit dispirited. I had a look back at my diary to see what I was catching this time last year and saw that I was going to the river quite often and managing to catch roach, dace, perch and chub. This year all I seem to manage is minnows!

Anyway, I had a couple of sessions this week. Firstly I went to one of the club lakes which usually fishes well and where I have caught before. I decided to leave my carp rods at home and take the float rod and feeder rod. It was later than I wanted by the time that I got to the water as just as I was leaving home the missus decided that she wanted the Christmas tree and decorations out of the attic. In the spirit of marital harmony I decided that I had better go up there and find them, at least it would give her something to do while I was gone! I arrived to find several cars in the car park and another angler just arriving. We had a chat and like me, he was after silvers, we walked around the lake together and chose swims near to each other facing the wind. It was the second of two milder days so we were both hopeful that the fish would be feeding. 

I keep my tackle box in the top of my rucksack and undid it to take out something and didn’t fasten it up properly or zip the top up again. Next I lifted the top compartment up to get to stuff underneath and my tackle box deposited its contents on the floor, I have to admit that there were a few choice words said as I scrabbled around in the mud picking up floats, weights, feeders etc. I was particularly annoyed with myself as this is the second time I have done that recently, who says that we live and learn?

I fed the swim lightly with some groundbait and a sprinkling of maggots, I got the feeder rod in next to some reeds and the float rod in the middle of the swim and waited. When I brought the feeder rod in to refill it, it had caught on something but this time I was lucky and it came free. The hook had opened a bit but a quick pinch with the pliers got it back into shape. I cast out to a different place! Although it was a milder day it was still a bit dull and wintery and I kept myself busy by changing the depth of the float and refilling the feeder trying to find the fish.

Time passed, I hadn’t had a bite, not a twitch, nothing. Soon it was time for elevenses and I got my flask out and a packet of crisps. Sods Law says that a cup of tea in one hand and an open packet of crisps in the other is the time I will get a bite but it didn’t happen. Soon it was lunchtime and I had been here several hours without a sign of a fish. I was just pondering what to do, whether to do what I had done in previous sessions and to move somewhere else when the angler that I had chatted to before came over for a chat. He hadn’t caught anything either but was optimistic that the fish would start biting later in the day. On the strength of that I decided to stay and persevere. This turned out not to be a good idea as despite trying everything I didn’t get a bite all day! It was about three o’ clock when my eyes were beginning to close that I decided to pack up and go home. On the way back to the car I passed my fellow angler who hadn’t caught anything either. When I got home I found that I hadn’t got all the decorations out of the attic so when I had unloaded the car I had to go back up in the attic again!

So, another blank. Funnily enough I didn’t feel too bad about it, perhaps I am getting used to it! It was a quiet day though, no ducks visited me neither did a robin and I didn’t see many birds at all. There were very few sounds, a bit of traffic in the lane and the faint sound of children out to play in the nearby primary school but overall not much to see or hear. No wonder I was beginning to fall asleep, perhaps I should treat myself to a reclining chair for Christmas so that I can catch up on my sleep while I am not catching fish!

This was as exciting as it got on my river session!

My next session was a couple of days after and I went back to the river. It had rained a bit and the water level had risen but was beginning to go down again so I thought that now was the time to go. I took my usual set up of float and feeder rod and the river was indeed higher and had a bit of colour but was not flowing as quickly as I expected. To cut a long story short I caught some minnows and a small silver fish and after a couple of hours I went home for lunch. There was a bit more non-fishing interest as there is a footpath nearby and walkers regularly pass by. This morning I think it was the W.I. as there was a large group of women chatting amongst themselves. A pair of swans came down the river and there was a terrific splash from under the bridge, the sort of sound a jumping carp makes and I could see the ripples but not what caused them. In the distance there was the sound of barking dogs which must be coming from a kennels although they do sound more like a load of foxhounds on the chase rather than a bunch of pets. I have to say that I am a bit disappointed by this swim where I was catching some nice fish last winter, perhaps it was just beginner’s luck!

Not quite sure what it is, a dace perhaps, but better than nothing!

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This is the story of a club water that holds fond memories for some members but which had fallen into neglect in recent years. It probably started life as a gravel pit many years ago and you had to walk across fields to get there. Modern development has caught up with it and it is now next to a main road and a housing estate and is smaller than it was. Luckily for me I live on the estate nearby and can walk there in three minutes! I have driven by many, many times and would always take a quick glance to see if I could see the heron and sometimes a lone angler. When I started fishing again I found that the water belonged to the club that I had joined so thought that I would give it a try. First I went on a reconnaissance, getting to the water was not easy, brambles had grown across the path, trees and bushes had grown wild and ivy covered everything. Eventually I found my way to the bank and the one and only accessible swim and looked into the water, it was full of weed and absolutely unfishable.

How it was!

Time passed and I fished elsewhere, on the club’s Facebook page they were talking about improving the water but although there were plans nothing much was happening. I took the occasional walk over to the water through the winter keeping my eye on the weed and saw that it died down as the weather got colder so come December I thought that I would give it a go. The session proved disappointing, the feeder rod was no good as the feeder just sank into the weed which was still on the bottom and I caught nothing on the float rod. I kept an eye on the lake and decided to give it another go in the Spring. At the end of April the weather was warming up and the weed didn’t look like it had grown much so I decided that it was time. Before fishing I decided to give it a rake and as I didn’t have a proper swim rake I took the garden rake with a bit of rope tied to it. This worked well enough and loads of weed came out and I had soon cleared a space to fish.

This time I was more successful, fishing the float rod and light tackle I caught fourteen fish, tench, carp and rudd, all small but great fun and I had proved that there were fish in there! A few days later I went again in the evening only to find that the swim was occupied! The club’s Facebook page discussions had clearly created some interest but after chatting to the angler for a while he invited me to share the swim with him and we both proceeded to catch a variety of fish, nothing very big though. It was nice to have a fishing companion and we had a very pleasant evening chatting and catching.

A Brown Goldfish
A nice little tench
A Pretty Little Mirror

I went a couple of time more before the weed grew too bad and then moved on to other venues. I caught some pretty fish but nothing of any size, they all seemed quite stunted and I could see the attraction of the water to the heron! Then, a few weeks ago there was discussion on Facebook, the club was having working parties to clear the banks and put in a path so I went over on a couple of afternoons and spent my time pulling away branches which the guy with the chainsaw was cutting. When we had cleared the undergrowth a bit they brought in a machine to create a proper path, which although it is muddy at the moment will be covered with bark or gravel to give it a proper surface. The digger cleared the banks and the weed from close in and the whole place looked much better. It was amazing the difference that a few guys with the right equipment could make in such a short time and I couldn’t wait to fish it again! I did wait a few days though as I ordered a proper swim rake and had to wait for it to be delivered.

Come the day when I had a couple of hours I set off full of excitement, I raked the swim although there was not as much weed as before, set up the float rod to a shallow depth and put a single red maggot on the hook. The float was gliding along the surface with the wind so I gradually increased the depth until the hook caught on the weed then lessened the depth until I was fishing just above the weed. I fished for an hour and a half without so much as a twitch on the float and then packed up and went home for lunch. I was disappointed but not unhappy, after all it is December and looking back at my records I blanked the last time I went in December only to catch in the spring so I will have to be patient. The club has plans to clear the weed and manage the fishery in the future so we are only at the start of a new era with that water and I am looking forward to spending many happy hours there in the future.

How it is now

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Looking at the forecast I decided to have a session on the first milder day. It hadn’t been frosty overnight and there was a bit of a breeze so it was a better day to go fishing. I decided to return to my spot on the river where I usually catch something and sorted out my gear so that I wouldn’t need the barrow and could carry what I needed. When I got to the car park there was someone there and I found him looking at the river. After a chat he made his way downstream while I settled down in my usual place. I threw in a bit of ground bait and a few maggots then put the feeder rod out near the bank where I have hooked a couple of perch before and then tried trotting with the float rod. Bait was red and white maggots which had lasted from my last session, it is surprising how long they can survive in my shed when it is cold.

The river was flowing slower than I have seen it before and although there was a bit of colour it was not very deep. I soon got into the swing of gently casting out and allowing the float to drift and refilling the feeder every few minutes. I tried a bit nearer the bank and the float bobbed and I was into a fish, yes, you might have guessed it, a minnow! This spot is renowned for them except when they are not there! Time passed without much action, I caught a couple more minnows but not a bite on the quiver tip. I always have this thing after a couple of hours without catching, should I be patient and persevere or move on and try and find fish elsewhere? On this occasion I decided to move and soon had everything packed away. I wanted to see if I could fit my 10ft rods in the car without breaking them down and was delighted to find that if I rested them on the dashboard they would just fit.

You have to understand how big my hands are to realise how big this minnow was!

So, where to go now? I could walk the river and try there or go to one of the still waters. I didn’t feel that energetic so decided to go back to what used to be my “go to” lake where I could park near a swim and soon be fishing again. When I arrived there was no-one else there and I had a quick walk round to find a good swim. The wind was blowing across the lake towards me and kicking up a bit of a chop which would make float fishing tricky so I walked round a little way and found a quieter swim which also had the advantage of being a bit more sheltered from the wind for me too! It was still on the windward side of the lake so I figured that I was doing things right. I tossed a bit of groundbait in and a few maggots and got both rods out then settled down to eat my lunch. It was quite pleasant where I was and I was enjoying being on the bank, all I needed was a fish. Alas, it was not to be! I spent the afternoon looking at an unmoving float and quiver tip. I tried different depths on the float and put the feeder in different places looking for the fish but they were not at home. 

I had a few visits from the swans, which had come back for the winter and had a go at pecking my float, and a flock of blue tits landed in the bush next to me. A cormorant flew over several times but that was about it, no robins to keep me busy feeding them and the ducks kept away as well. As it was getting dark I packed up and went home, disappointed that I hadn’t caught more than minnows but nevertheless having enjoyed the day. I decided that not fishing my “go to” lake recently had been a good call and I won’t be back for a while!

Post Script

That evening I was looking at the club’s Facebook page and noticed the result of a match on the river nearby. Thirteen anglers fished for a total of fifteen ounces! Yes, that is not a typo, fifteen ounces. Most of them blanked and the winning weight was five ounces. I would have placed with my three minnows! Then there was a comment that three of the club waters had not produced today, to which I added a fourth. So, it is not just me then, that’s a bit of a relief as I was beginning to doubt myself! I don’t know whether it is the cold, the time of year or whether the cormorant has eaten all the fish but it seems like catching is really hard in our neck of the woods at the moment. Still, that means that it can only get better!

Although it was milder it was still a bit bleak!

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After finally getting back on the bank for a short session I was able to plan for an all day one. All day at this time of the year is not that long as we only have about eight hours of daylight so it is important that I get out of bed early, which is something that I am not very good at these days. It also takes me a while to load up the car as I have to bring everything from the shed in the back garden round the side of the house to the car. I had thought of loading up the night before but as my car stands on the front drive I think this would be tempting fate. A few years ago I left my car open overnight and someone got in and stole my car park change and a few bits and pieces including a Swiss Army knife which I had for a long time and which was of sentimental value so I am not going to give them the chance again.

I did make my sandwiches the night before and did my best to get up early but it was still after nine by the time I got to the water. I chose to go to a lake that I have fished a few times before and which has been fishing well this year. It is one of the furthest waters and there is a decent walk along a rough path to get there so I have to be in the mood to manage that. There was no one else there when I arrived and I settled down in a swim that I fancied earlier. There was about 15 yards to an island and despite the water being high there was enough bank for me to lay out all my tackle. I put some still water groundbait in for silver fish and got my carp rod set up. The usual method feeder and boilie bait was cast out then the feeder rod with the swing tip. It was a decent enough morning with patchy cloud and a gentle breeze. Autumn in my part of the world has been late in coming this year but it had finally arrived with lots of leaves off the trees. 

It’s looking a bit like winter now – beautiful though!

This trip began to resemble my other sessions, I waited, waited a bit more, fed the swim with some maggots and some more groundbait, tossed a few maggots in, changed the area for my carp rod but nothing. Not a bite, not a knock, not a beep on the alarm, not a swing on the tip, nothing. The few sessions that I have had in the last few months have all seemed to start this way so I decided to give it a bit longer with the idea that If nothing was happening I would move. I had in mind that in winter fishing you have to work harder to find the fish and not just expect them to come to you. Nothing happened so I did move, round the corner of the lake where I had fished before with some success. I decided to fish the float rod as well as the carp rod and settled down again and waited, nothing. Nothing for about thirty minutes then the float bobbed and I was into a fish, nothing exciting it was a rudd and not that big either but at least it was a fish and saved a blank!

He was typical of the rudd that I was catching.

It was clear that the rudd had moved in to the swim as I was getting a fish a cast, those tell tale rudd bites where the float goes sideways rather than straight under but nothing very big. I wasn’t getting anything on the carp rod so decided to pull it in and put out the feeder rod in the swim with the hope of attracting bigger rudd. I also changed to sweet corn as bait in the hope that it would attract bigger fish. It didn’t and although I caught some they were all about hand sized. And so the afternoon wore on, if I was a match fisherman I would have been delighted with the way that the weight was piling up but it did seem to me that I was back to square one, catching little fish. Soon it was getting dusk and time to go so I packed up and went. 

So, no carp again, no big fish again, in fact no fish of any size at all. What had started out with great expectations ended up with me being slightly disgruntled. Also, Mother Nature had let me down as well, no kingfisher, no heron, no buzzards in fact only a few ducks sheltering under some overhanging branches and no passing walkers asking me how I was getting on, in fact no-one at all. Still, I suppose there is always the next time to look forward to!

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It had been nearly three weeks since I had last been fishing and I had just taken my wife to yet another appointment when I asked her what I should do for the rest of the day. “Why don’t you go fishing? You haven’t been for a while and it is a nice day.” Well, you don’t turn down a suggestion like that and she was right about the weather. After days of grey cloud the sun was showing through and making me feel more cheerful so it was a quick trip to the local tackle shop for some maggots, a bite to eat and I was off!

Where to go? I thought I wouldn’t go far as I didn’t have many hours of daylight left and ended up at a lake about a mile away from home. I have been there a couple of times before and had some luck so was looking forward to it. When I arrived there were only a couple of cars in the car park and on my way to my swim I passed a guy who was playing a fish. I stopped to chat, as you do, and he said that he had had a few in the couple of hours he had been there and shortly after landed a nice looking common of about ten pounds. I thought that it was a bit of a coincidence as before when I was at this venue on the smaller lake I stopped and chatted to a young man who was playing a carp but I didn’t do so well with just a perch and a roach. Thinking that at least the fish were biting I carried on to my swim and set up my usual carp rod and decided to have a go with the float rod for silvers. It was then that I found that I had left the bag with my maggots, flask, snacks etc in the car so it was a walk back to collect them.

I soon had the float rod out and found that I had a problem. There were lots of leaves floating on the surface and being a calm day there was the reflection of the trees on the opposite bank, both of which combined made it almost impossible to see the float! Back to the feeder rod which was still set up with the swing tip then it was time to sit down and relax and reel in the fish! That was the plan but the fish didn’t seem to have read the script and nothing seemed to be happening and that’s how it was on both rods. The carp rod was stubbornly quiet with only one beep on the buzzer and the swing tip remained still. Then the swing tip swung and I was into a fish which turned out to be a small perch but at least I had not blanked! 

I don’t know who was the more startled, me or him! Actually from his expression I think it was him!

Time passed, I had a cuppa, continued to cast out my feeders and enjoyed being on the bank in the sunshine. Then I started getting movement on my swing tip, it would slowly lift then fall back again and do this a few times but not develop into a take. I didn’t know what to make of this so left it for a while then got a more positive bite which turned out to be a roach. I was hoping to catch more members of its family but it was not to be, the swing tip would slowly rise then fall back and if I struck I didn’t connect with anything. I didn’t think that it was a line bite as these seem to be much quicker and something was definitely sucking my maggots! Then the other angler walked up to see me. He was packing up and wanted to know how I had been getting on. He hadn’t caught any more fish and was going home before dark and I told him that I would wait a bit in case the fish started to feed as dusk came on.

You can see that I was loading the method feeder when I caught this one!

I kept getting those timid bites and eventually struck and felt a fish. It shot off sideways and I could tell that it was some size then the hook pulled and the line went slack. I said, “Oh dear, oh dear!” or something similar then cast out again. I had a few more of those gentle bites but didn’t hook into any of them and eventually decided that it was getting too dark to see properly and packed up. I used my head torch for the first time and was pleased with how good it was and how much easier it made things as I didn’t have to hold it and it would shine in the direction that I was looking. So, a perch and roach again after seeing an angler playing a fish while I was on my way to a swim, next time that happens I think I will just turn around and go home!

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I have been pondering a deep philosophical question over the last few days, namely, how can I write a fishing blog without actually going fishing? I have been reminded recently of the people who used to say to me that now that they had retired they don’t know how they had time to go to work. I didn’t understand it at the time but it is beginning to dawn on me that it is true, well at least part of the time.

It all started a couple of weeks ago when I got a phone call in the afternoon to say that my ninety three year old diabetic mum had had a fall and the ambulance had been called. She lives in a warden controlled block and had friends with her at the time so was lucky in that respect but she was in pain and could not move off the floor so I drove over to be with her. To cut a long story short she waited five hours for an ambulance and was eventually taken to hospital with a suspected broken hip. This turned out to be the case and only a couple of days later she was operated on and it was put back together. There was no visiting due to Covid so we had a difficult time phoning and trying to find out how she was but fortunately she is old school and wouldn’t let a thing like a broken hip upset her and she is doing well. She could have been discharged earlier this week but she has to wait for a care package to be put into place first so until that happens she is taking up a bed that an ill person needs. Fortunately she is going to my sister’s when she comes out of hospital so will be properly looked after and we will decide about her future after that.

What she didn’t mention to us was that a couple of days before all this happened she had a leak from the cistern in her airing cupboard which was dripping through to the floor below and although a local plumber came out late at night and fixed it all her towels, carpets etc were soaked. She blames tiredness and anxiety for misjudging her step and falling over, which may be right. Anyway, my sister and I cleared up the mess and also gave her flat a thorough cleaning at the same time. So, I have spent several days driving from one side of the county to another and we are not finished yet.

Then there is the missus. I have mentioned that she has poor health and that I look after her, well at the same time all this was going on I was taking her for a blood test, hospital appointment, dental appointment, optician’s appointment, dentists appointment, which left me no time to go fishing. On top of this I was changing a couple of taps in my house and turning off a gate valve in the attic the handle just kept spinning round and it started to leak so it had a big tin tray under it for the night until the shops were open again in the morning. And there is my sister, how many people do you know that have hit a deer and written off their car twice? In eighteen months? Thought not. She has. So, I have been helping her sort that out and expect that I will be driving her around the garages to find a replacement when the insurance comes through.

Fishing? Well, I have noticed that the days are getting shorter and the leaves are falling off the trees. I am thinking of going back to the river and looking for weed free places to fish in the hope of catching some nice roach, chub and perch. Perhaps I will have a go at pike fishing on the canal as I have never caught a pike and would like to catch at least one on my life time! To be honest I don’t know when my next session will be and whether my next blog entry will be an angling one or another chapter in the soap opera!

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I don’t like targets, when I was at work we had targets which were unachievable so short cuts were taken to meet them instead of doing a proper job. So I have ambitions, one of which is to fish all the club waters this year so I thought that I would give another new water a go this week.

The water in question is an old gravel pit with the reputation of holding big fish and being difficult to fish. When I got there there were a couple of cars in the car park but I couldn’t see anyone fishing as it is a big water they must have been around the corner. It was a mild but windy day and  I chose a swim on the side of the lake with the wind blowing towards me and got my carp rod out followed by my feeder rod with a swing tip. Then I waited and nothing happened. I did the usual of changing baits, feeding the swim, magic incantations, nothing. I even got my flask and sandwiches out as a last resort at getting a bite but that didn’t work either!

The only thing that was interesting was seeing three buzzards gliding overhead calling to each other with a strange kind of mewing sound. It is times like that I wish I had brought my decent camera but I have enough kit with me anyway!

After a couple of hours I thought about moving, I don’t like just sitting there for hours blanking and although I don’t expect to catch a carp every five minutes I like to pull out some silvers to keep myself occupied and if I don’t I start getting grumpy! I really couldn’t make up my mind what to do, which my wife says is just like me, so I decided to toss a coin. I had found a battered old twenty pence when opening the gate so fished it out of my pocket and said to myself, heads to stay, tails to go. It came up tails. The next decision was where to go, back to the water nearby where I caught the other week or to the river to see how that was going. Once again the coin came out and it decided that I would be going back to the lake. It wasn’t far away but when I got there the car park was rammed so I turned around and went to the river after all.

It was a bit higher than last time but still shallow with slight colour and I stuck the feeder rod in while setting up my float rod. My hands were full and the rod was across my lap when the feeder rod started jumping about. I put everything down as quickly as possible and grabbed the rod to find a minnow on the hook! There was no way it had made the rod jump about like that and I can only think that something like a perch had grabbed it but not been hooked. The minnow itself didn’t look harmed and happily swam away when I released it.

Then it was trotting down the river with a float and straight away I was catching fish, unfortunately they were mostly minnows and they don’t count! I did start catching a few small dace then suddenly there was a stronger tug on the line and I landed a perch of a few ounces. This was followed by another perch, possibly the smallest one that I have ever seen! The session carried on like that but no more perch and my mood brightened. I like being beside a river and can only think that it reminds me of my childhood when that was where I fished. I was cheered up by a couple of birds, firstly a kestrel who landed in a tree a few yards away and stayed for a few seconds before noticing me and flying away. Next was the blue flash of a kingfisher flying up the river, before taking up fishing again I had only ever seen a couple of these and now I see one just about every time I go to the river.

A nice little perch
His baby brother!

Soon it was time to go home with the thought that I had fished one of my target waters, or should that be ambitions? I know that I had not done it justice so will have to go back to fulfil my other ambition which is to catch a fish from every water. The only water I have left to fish is a specialised carp lake and as the club is losing it I will have to be quick. The only thing that I am worried about is what to do while I am waiting for the carp to bite? It could be hours, perhaps I should take a book but then if I am going to read I might as well stay at home in the warm and dry. They say that you learn about yourself when you take up fishing, what I am learning is that I like catching rather than fishing, I am thinking of renaming this blog as The Impatient Angler!

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One of the great things about being retired is that if you don’t have a medical appointment and there is nothing else pressing then you can decide to go fishing! So it was with me this morning. I woke late, had a cuppa in bed and was downstairs eating my cereal and looking out of the window at the windy, grey day and wondering what to do with myself so I decided to check the weather for the week. Well, today was going to be dry and mild and it was going to rain and get colder later in the week so if I was going to go fishing then today was the day.

I decided to keep my promise to myself and go to a different lake which is well stocked and where I had the chance to catch some fish. If I couldn’t catch there then I might as well give up! I arrived just before midday and walked around the water. I noticed several things, firstly, no-one else was there, secondly the trees around the lake were sheltering it from the wind and lastly, there were a couple of carp hanging just below the surface in one corner of the lake. I decided to fish near there and got my gear and before setting up the rod I threw some bread towards the fish, they ignored it! More bread went in and seemed to attract a few more carp so I baited my surface rig with bread and cast in. One or two fish came and sucked the bread and I wondered whether it had come off the rig but was patient for a minute or two longer and was rewarded by a fish sucking down the bait and I was in! It wasn’t the biggest fish I have ever caught and weighed in at 6lb but it started the session off on a good note! I was also getting warm by now so stripped off a few layers and was fishing in just a T shirt and jeans towards the end of October!

As the carp had made themselves scarce I got out my other rod with a method feeder and cast out then got my feeder rod out of the bag and decided to fish close in for silverfish with the quivertip. Leaving my rods set up means that I can quickly get fishing so with the addition of a couple of maggots on the hook I was away. I didn’t have long to wait and the quiver tip was twitching and I was soon landing roach, nothing special but I was catching fish! Soon it was lunchtime and it was one of those times where I had to take the feeder rod out of the water for a few minutes in order to eat my sandwiches without interruption!

Just one of the many roach

Lunch over and I was catching regularly on the feeder rod but nothing but line bites on the carp rod but at least I knew that my new alarm was working! I changed the boilie for a smaller hemp flavoured one and cast into a different place but still only line bites. My feeder rod was still catching and I was getting fed up with small roach and as I had a small hair rig on I switched to sweetcorn and cast out just a bit further. Pretty soon I had a bite, a small carp of about a pound. I thought that as I wasn’t having any luck with the carp rod fishing further out I could try adding sweetcorn to the boilie and fishing closer in. This seemed to generate a lot of half bites over the next half an hour or so, when the buzzer would sound a few times but never develop into a full scale bite. It went a bit quiet on the feeder rod so I went back to maggots and caught more roach and a gudgeon. Then came the tangle. For some unknown reason the line went round and round the rod tip in a right mess. The only thing to do was to cut the line and start again!

Even after trying it for a season now I still don’t feel comfortable using a quivertip and so decided to change to a swing tip which was in a job lot of tackle I got from ebay and which I have never used before. I also thought that I didn’t need a feeder as the fish seemed to be everywhere in the swim so just added a bomb and a smaller plain hook. The next hour or so was spent learning how the fish the swing tip and I managed to land more roach, another gudgeon and a tench. The tench was quite unusual as it was a silver colour and different to any other tench that I have caught. I didn’t neglect the carp rod and as the sweet corn was generating some interest I decided to cast back out a bit further away. The buzzer sounded off and on and I was just waiting for a take and a continuous alarm but it didn’t happen. After a few minutes I decided to reel in and refill the method feeder and found that I had a fish. He came quite quietly at first but as I got him near the net he seemed to wake up and started to fight. As he was not enormous it didn’t take long to net him and he weighed in at seven and a half pounds. My first carp I have landed on the method feeder this season, what a relief! I couldn’t work out when he got hooked though, was it all the noise on the alarm which didn’t develop or did I hook him just as I was reeling in? I will never know!

Tne nice silvery colour tench

It was getting on in the afternoon and after a quick text message home I was given a bit longer to fish and proceeded to catch some more roach! The final tally for the day was, three carp, one tench, two gudgeon and twenty roach! At last I seem to have put my lean spell behind me and would have landed more fish if I had recognised all the bites on the swing tip. Time to watch some YouTube videos I think!

The carp caught on the method feeder

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I don’t know if anyone has noticed but I have had the most awful time loading my blog recently. Photos were the first to suffer, If I could get them to load at all they would look fine here on my desktop but not show on my tablet! Sometimes they would and other times they wouldn’t until they stopped showing at all!

Then I lost the ability to edit posts that I had made, sometimes I would go back and change things after I had posted them but I couldn’t do that. Then the final straw, I couldn’t upload anything at all! My I.T. consultant, i.e. my son, wasn’t able to help and in the end he said that the hosting service was crap and I needed a new one so I asked him to sort one out for me. A couple of days later he came back and said that he had done some research and named what we should have. I did what I usually do in these situations, sit next to him at the computer and get the bank card out at the appropriate moment! As it was my bed time I left him to it and in the morning everything worked! The first thing that I noticed was how much quicker the site loaded and that the things which had disappeared were there! Anyway I had to leave it and get back to the real world job of finishing re-roofing my shed roof.

So, this evening I sat down at my desktop and loaded my last fishing session, complete with photos and it all worked smoothly, quickly and first time! Then I went back and edited a couple of recent posts and added a photo or two and this worked as well! Now, as I said I don’t know if anyone has noticed the difference but I certainly have. At the moment the new hosting looks like money well spent!

Anyway back to the blog.

After my last session, which was another slow one, I was feeling disgruntled and to try and get over it I went for a short session at the river the next afternoon. It was pretty low and I could see the bottom in about two feet of water. I spent a couple of hours trotting with maggots and caught loads of fish, mostly minnows! Last time I was here during the summer there were none to be seen but they have come back with a vengeance. I did catch a few nice dace as well but they were rather small. It was another session where I caught a few proper fish, I don’t count minnows, and my disgruntlement hadn’t faded away. I know this swim can have some nice fish in it I just think that it needs a bit more water in it. I will come back when the conditions are more suitable.

Minnows are a pretty little fish!

I think this is a small dace, not much bigger than a minnow!

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