A good time had by all

After missing the last trip of the Thurnby Church Anglers due to a work commitment it was good to be back with the gang for our first attempt at a weekday evening outing. John, the owner at Spring Grange Fishery in Beeby, had kindly reserved several swims for us, and-in dribs and drabs- the club members arrived, fresh from either work or school.

A number of angling approaches were used, some choosing to fish on the pole for silvers, while others set up on the method or with bolt rigs with carp as the intended quarry. My son and Roger were soon cooking, and the smell of bacon, eggs and sausages wafted across the evening air.

Pete was the first to catch, a chunky mirror falling prey to his method and banded pellet attack. Ben, one of the club's youngsters was catching perch on a whip, and Greg was catching a succession of, pretty,golden rudd, also pole fishing.

I had lost a fish earlier in the session, but when my bite alarm sounded for the second time I made no mistake, and after a determined fight my son skilfully slipped the net under a nice common, thus enabling me to relax and enjoy the rest of the evening without dwelling on "the one that got away"!

 

 

Across the group it was never more than a few minutes before someone was catching, and there was always the opportunity to wander the bank and while away a few minutes chatting to other club members. Roach were in evidence, with Pete taking a fine brace of top quality fish on his favoured method tactics.

 

 

 

Also among the roach, although favouring a pole and maggot approach, were my son and Pete's wife, Brooklyn, who thought she'd only come to watch and enjoy the evening sun, but ended up joining in with the fun.

 

 

 



 The most praiseworthy angling feat of the evening went to Louie, who landed a hard fighting carp on light pole tackle and a single maggot and small hook. The look on his face as the elastic shot out of the pole and across the lake, and watching him quickly adding extra sections to the pole while holding on for dear life and the spectacle of the fight itself were the evening's highlights, with this long, lean common being the reward for his efforts:

 

 

Pete added another carp, and rudd, perch and roach continued to fall to the pole anglers, but the statistics of fish caught fails to do justice to what was, above all, an evening where the quality of the company, the attractiveness of the surroundings and the balmy summer evening were all as much a part of the experience as the catching of fish. Thus far 2015 has been one of my best fishing years for some long while .... catching pike with Pete from January to March (including several doubles between us), watching my son catch his first ever pike, and club trips with the church fishing club have made it a year to remember. If a man's wealth is calculated by the quality of the people he goes fishing with, I can certainly lay claim to being rich.

Easier to catch by accident ....

A few weeks back Pete, Dave and I stumbled upon some quality roach while targeting carp, and I made myself a promise that I'd return to the lake to fish intentionally for them. After all, if three anglers can catch four roach in excess of a pound while fishing for carp, surely armed with casters, maggots, hemp and sweetcorn I'd have a bag of roach to remember. The best laid plans ....

 

 

I met Jez, a friend and fellow member of our Church's Angling Club, at the lake and we dropped into neighbouring swims. Wagglers were cast, lines were sunk and loose feed introduced. I started with sweetcorn as hookbait, but couldn't buy a bite, and so switched to maggot. Castors, hemp and sweetcorn were regularly introduced, little and often, and the fish were soon voraciously taking the bait on the drop ..... only they were mostly rudd, with the very occasional roach, and a sprinkling of perch. Initially, when on sweetcorn, I fished overdepth and over-shotted using the lift method, but was forced to change and fish "up in the water" to get bites.

 

 

We fished until lunchtime on what may have been the hottest day of the year, and although no large roach made an appearance we enjoyed catching golden sided rudd, some- like the fish above- exquisitely beautiful despite their modest size. I was using a handsome handmade float made by Ian Lewis, one of the country's few full time floatmakers, and its pleasant appearance added to the occasion.

We came, we saw, we fished, we failed to conquer, but we had fun. However, I'm forced to conclude that at this particular lake it's easier to catch large roach by accident than it is by design!

 

 

 



 





 

Roach that think they're carp

Neither cameras or statistics are apt to lie, according to perceived wisdom, but neither the simple statistics (three anglers fishing a pre-work morning session and catching four roach over a pound) or the photo's of said roach tell the story of a morning of struggle, and a catch which, though welcomed, owed more to luck than judgement. You see, the thing is we weren't roach fishing- we were carping, and at a  venue at which in three or four hours we'd normally expect to catch three or four carp each. As it was, Pete (who runs our church's fishing group) lost a small koi carp at the net, and David (who is a fellow Forum leader at www.christiananglers.co.uk ) did manage one carp, seen in the picture below, but the carp were notable for their a-typical lack of enthusiasm to make acquaintance with us on the bank.

 

 

David and I arrived at the fishery as its early morning gates opened, and I opted to fish with one rod on the method and a mini boilie as hookbait, with the other rod on a standard bolt rig with a larger boilie. David opted for a legered  meat bait, and chose to fish on the surface with a controller and dog biscuits on the other rod, as even at our early hour of arrival, carp were cruising languidly just below the surface. We were shortly joined by Pete, who set up two rods on the Method, one with a boilie, the other a banded pellet as bait.

The first surprise was David's first fish of the day, a roach of over a pound that slurped down a floating dog biscuit, something I'd never previously seen happen, but there- fairly embedded in its delicate mouth- was David's hook.

Shortly afterwards, David caught the carp, also on the surface, but from that point onward the morning was strangely quiet ...... until the roach turned up.

 

 

Now, I'd be the first to admit that it feels rather unsporting catching quality roach on carp gear, but it had never been our intention to do so. Carp were our target species, and carp were what we expected to catch, but, in an unusual inversion of the Commercial Fishery norm, it was the roach muscling in on the carp's bait. The morning was never prolific, the odd smaller roach was hooked, and much of the time the bobbins were motionless and the buzzers silent, but we did enjoy one memorable "double hook-up", with Pete and I both netting pound plus roach within seconds of each other.

 

 

Pete and I both had to leave and return to the real world of work, while David, who had the whole day off,was able to stay, although his extra two hours of fishing brought no further fish, but rumour has it that his wife, Jan, turned up and brought with her a rather splendid picnic. It had been a hard morning's fishing, the carp were either (a) sulking (b) sunbathing or (c) preparing to spawn depending on who you talked to, but we left with a lingering thought in all of our minds: if we can, by accident, catch four roach in excess of a pound apiece, then what might the roach potential of the lake be if we fished intentionally for them? With the majority of the lake's anglers targeting carp, we might be undertaking a project that no-one else is engaged on. Are there any two pounders? It's a question that seems to demand an answer, or at least a solid attempt to discover one.

I think you can guess what I'll be doing next time I visit the lake ..... it'll be farewell to boilies, bolt rigs and PVA bags and "hello" to maggots, castors, groundbait, floats, size 18 hooks, and small feeders; I'm excited just thinking about it.