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February 2010
Going to try and get back into the throws of fishing after a long lay off and the odd dabble here and there.
Over the past week at the start of the month I have been making pole rigs (over 20 in all, which is a record for me as I normally have no more than 6 rigs ever made up at one time). Mostly made up of KC Grinners, Carpa 1 and Carpa 2 floats tied to 0.20 Shimano Silk Shock (grinners) and 0.14 Shimano Silk Shock (Carpa's 1 and 2).
Lengths have been from 1ft to 3ft as I will be mainly target club and commercial fisheries to start with.
6th March
Went to Old Bury Hill and fished the Miltons Lake. It was frozen so had to wait around an hour for the sun to hit directly at where I was going to fish before I could kick off. Caught mainly roach with the odd tench, but really nothing to write home about. I also was told that they took all the carp out, which the owner failed to tell me, but he did say the lake was fishing its socks off. Saw no one else catch on the lake.
13th April 2010
Was a nice bright day and went to my new club's lake at Bury St Austens (Upper Lake). Arrived at 7.30am and got setup on peg 8. First put in was at 8.40am and fished it as a 5 hour match.
All I got for the labour of my first hour was one bite. Small fish were topping all over the lake, but not near me. I was using River 3000 groundbait with maggots and casters.
Used a Malmans 4x10 Volte float at 1foot depth at 4 sections out to the 2 o'clock position.
I tweaked the float with a backshot and dotted it down a bit more and then the action started. In the remaining 4 hours I ended up with 19 lbs of fish with a crucian carp at 2 1/2 lb, Skimmer at the same weight plus 2 tench at around 1 1/2 lb each.
The rest was made up of small roach, rudd, dace and perch all on red maggot.
Bumped alot of small fish off as the elastic I was using was too heavy.
3rd May 2010
Went to Bury St Austens again on the top lake and fished peg 9. The weather was overcast with a max temp of 13 and it was very windy. Decided again to fish for 5 hours and my firs put in was around 8.00am. Alot happier with my Sensas River 3000 mix as I invested in a riddle to take the lumps out and fed five small balls of groundbait again at 5 sections out to my 2 o'clock. Before I forget I managed to catch a small roach with no bait on my Gama maggot hook as I was shotting my Malmans 4 x 10 Volte float.
I used red maggots as feed and hook bait and started to catch for the off. I was really happy with my presentation as my float was dotted right down to a pimple (used float grease) and with the strong winds, it hardly moved unless a fish was pulling it under. I caught a mixed bag of roach, dace, crucians, bream, a tench and a gudgeon. Total weight was 20lbs, which was better than my last visit, but I must admit, I thought I had caught more as even though the first were smaller than my first visit, I did catch a number of bream.
15th June 2010
Travelled up to Leicestershire the night before so that I was fresh for the days fishing at the Glebe. Had a complimentary breakfast at the Mallory Park Racing Track, where I met Tom Scholey and Mark Williams. We left around 9.30am for The Glebe and was then handed out a big box of Marukyu bait and met the likes of Jon Arthur, Dave Harrell, Gordon Parker and John Hall.
After a photo with all the winners and a quick chat with Gordon, he sent me on my way to Pretties Lake. After setting up I decided to fish about 12 metres out and had another line 5 metres straight out and then another margin swim to my right. Feed 3mm Marukyu Pellets with a 6mm Pellet on a banded hook on the long and short line with sweetcorn feed to my margin line. After 2 hours on the long line and 2 fish (1 Skimmer and 1 Carp) to my credit, I decided to fish my shortline and within 5 minutes I had caught a further 2 fish (again 1 Skimmer and 1 Carp). For about 3 hours fishing I had amass a weight of about a pound. These were all caught on the deck (approx 6 ft) on a Malmans Snake 4 (4x14) on a .14 dia mainline to a .12 dia size 18 hook.
Roy Marlow then approached me and asked me how I was getting on. Advised him not too great and he said would I mind if he took over. He wanted a smaller float so I showed him a Malmans Volte 4 x 12, which he changed from a 2ft line to a 4ft line. He then asked me had I used paste, which I replied no. He showed me how to mix the Marukyu AFP300 paste, which looked simple enough. Roy said that it looked like I had over complicated my fishing and should fish to my ability (not much there then ;) ). He also mention to pretend the lake is like a restaurant and that we were going to be tight by not only serving one table, but on one plate. He cupped around 125 ml of 1mm pellets and then set in the paste. Within 10 seconds of the paste being in the water the float went under and bang 4lb carp in the net. He did this once more to show me the technique (i.e swing the paste out a little further than the float and bang again another 4lb carp.
Within 5 minutes I am left speechless. I then had a go and got a nice Skimmer on my first go and Roy left me to it. It was weird to watch the float go mad and you really have to sit on your hands with this type of fishing, but I ended up with around 20lbs of fish in the end. Had a chat with Roy as I left his complex, little disappointed with the Pole Fishing lads as not much contact with them or indeed the other 2 Marukyu anglers there. That said I had a great day and learnt a load so big thanks to Roy Marlow and of course Pole Fishing magazine.