September already and another chub!

Today is the first day of meteorological autumn. Where did summer go, and what a summer we have had, scorching temperatures and next to no rain. Great for us but not so good for the fish in some areas. Today is also the other bloke's birthday, and we are going to celebrate it on Monday with a session on the river at the bottom of his garden. In preparation for another session on The Medway, we (me and 'er-in-doors) decided to go an have a look at what was in one of our local rivers here in deepest South East London.

For the past week or so, we have been watching and feeding the fish as they patrol the far bank. There were shoals of chublet and a few perch in evidence. Today, as we walked upstream towards the weir, where we caught that chub a week or so back, we were feeding and looking for fish. Plenty of fry and a few sardine-sized fish but nothing worth throwing a baited hook at.

This was Sue a few days ago feeding the fish in our favourite spot

We eventually found all the fish gathered together in the pool just below the shallow weir, a mile or so upstream. The fish came to us, as we were standing there throwing in a few maggots. Although the water is crystal clear. The fish seemed entirely at ease with our presence.

The fish were coming in really close and did not seem to be put off by us

We sat down on the concrete that is here to prevent the banks getting washed away in flood conditions as the weir also restricts the width of the river, speeding its flow. In normal conditions as it is now, that slight restriction just helps to increase the flow slightly and preventing any excess build up of debris.

Using my telescopic rod rigged with a small float, 4lb line and a short 3lb hook length sporting a size 16 hook, impaling one very agitated white maggot, I cast over to the far bank that is lined with pilings. Plop! just a foot or so short of the bank. I hardly had time to congratulate myself on, what for me was a perfect cast, when the reel started screaming, and I had a fish on.

I think this one is even bigger than the one we caught a few weeks ago

I had hooked another decent sized chub. Not overly happy about being tethered to a human on the bank, the fish was testing my cheap rod and reel to its limit. I gently played the fish for a while to tire it and eventually had it in the net. It was indeed one of the bigger fish. In fact, I think it was even bigger than the last one we caught here a couple of weeks ago!

A lady walking her colossal dog was interested to know if we were planning on eating it (the fish that is!) I explained that we were just pleasure fishing and in any case, it is not allowed to take course fish for the pot. Meanwhile, her dog, a St. Bernard, had taken a liking to Sue and her maggots! Luckily both the dog and the owner were pleasant, and she apologised for her dog, who was just a big mass of fur. Dogs often crash through the swim, but the fish seem oblivious to it and just move away, before returning to their former location.

I caught a couple of smaller fish. Both were about this size and put up a good fight on the cheap gear

We fished for an hour or so and caught another couple of smaller chub. Each time we put a fish back, the swim went quiet for about five minutes while the fish all scattered and had a chat about these funny maggots with hooks in them. Soon all was forgotten, and the fish were back, feeding on our free offerings.

The interesting thing for me was the time. This was not early morning or late evening. We had initially intended to go out for a walk. Sue had suggested that we go and feed the fish and I said, at the last minute, that I would take a rod and see if we could catch anything, not expecting to get the line wet. It was lunchtime when we had arrived at the river, a time I would have expected the fish to be less likely to play.

We had debated taking a bite to eat with us, but as it was so late, we thought we would probably not have much luck and be home in plenty of time to eat. As it turned out, we could have stayed there all afternoon. The fish were feeding, and the weather was perfect, not too hot and just sunny enough to be pleasant. It never fails to amaze me just how much fun we can have on our own doorstep here in a very urban setting.

Ralph.        

Supplies!

Fish food!

Back in May, the doctor suddenly announced that I am a type 2 diabetic. Thanks! I won't go into all the happenings since then as they are not relevant to this blog, except to say that finally, I had an appointment with another doctor who answered a lot of my questions regarding diet. This resulted in a clear out of the food cupboards - long overdue anyway, as we found some stuff lurking at the back that was years out of date.

I now have a pile of things I can use, along with stock ingredients that I have by me, to make groundbait, feeder mix, boilies, custards and even some paste. My first plan was to just grind it all up and feed the river down at the other bloke's place, but then it occurred to me I could, with a bit of thought and note-taking, make some effective bait that, if it proves to be good, I can repeat. Apart from a whole lot of breakfast cereal, there is rice, nuts pasta and even a block of fondant icing. Just what I am going to do with that, I have no idea - yet!

I have been aware that I need some boilies, as I seem to have used all the ones I had in the freezer. I am thinking corn boilies, using the cornflakes and some whizzed up frozen corn as the main flavour ingredients. Maybe I will do a batch with hemp seed added to compliment my corn custard. I will have to have a think about it, but in the meantime I need to find somewhere to store it where the mice can't get at it...

Ralph.  

Another day, another fish...

Fishing our local river is a bit of a challenge, to say the least. I have been fishing it using a whip and more recently an elasticated pole. This has paid off but is still restrictive. The problem is, there are not many open places where the fish hold up. Many lengths of the river are very shallow, and shallow weirs have been constructed to manage the flow and prevent it just draining out, at its confluence, into the Ravensbourne River as it nears Catford.

The River Pool (right) meets the Ravensbourne River, at Catford

The pool formed on the downstream side of the shallow weir, where we caught the chub a couple of days ago, is one of the more open places to fish. Down stream from there, the banks of the river are almost completely overgrown and fishing with conventional gear is almost impossible. Scanning the eBay listings, I spotted what might be the answer to fishing in those hard to get to places. A small telescopic rod, complete with a reel for just a shade over £16.00 delivered. Click, bought it!

The telescopic rod combo - cheap and cheerful, but it did the job

I was pleasantly surprised when it arrived yesterday. Okay, it is no Drennan Acolyte, but I did not expect it to be as good as it looked. I stripped off the heavy line that was supplied with the reel and replaced it with some 4lb line and a small float. It takes about 3g to cock this little float. Discussing it on the forums, it seems that opinion is divided as to if this is too heavy or not. As I had no real alternative other than a really light pole float, I decided to use what I had.

The float shotting seemed a bit heavy, but as it turned out, it seemed to work well.

It did work reasonably well, but I think if I had more time at the bank, I might have refined the shotting a little. The small pole floats might have worked, but with little or no weight, they may have been hard to cast with this little rod.

Pole floats might have been too light to cast

Although the rod seems to perform reasonably well, the reel is a bit cheap and cheerful. The line-lay is not good at all, and the drag is as rough as a bag of grit. It does work, after a fashion, but you could not describe it as smooth. Having said that, I am not complaining, it did the job, and for the money, it is a lot better than I had expected.

The great thing about this telescopic rod is the ease of carrying it and the speed of set up. I was fishing within a couple of minutes of arriving at the bank. All I had to do was extend the rod and add my chosen hook length. I chose a 12 inch length and fitted a small No.12 dropper about 4 inches above the hook. I was only using 2½lb line for the hooklength as the target today was small perch. After trying several spots along the river, I was beginning to think I was going to blank. We eventually ended up at the weir, where I had caught the Chub a couple of days ago.

The pool just under the shallow concrete weir

This pool is reasonably deep in places by this river's standards. There is a shoal of chub that are often seen here, and today was no exception. I decided to have a go and see what I could catch, as the perch did not seem to want to come out and play. There is not much river to fish here as the water shallows up very quickly as it flows downstream.

Standing in the same place as the picture above was taken, this is the view looking downstream

I tried casting my new rod and to my surprise, although the reel is a bit rough it worked reasonably well. A couple of casts with no bait, just to see if it was working and to see if the depth was about right, proved that this little rod was going to do the job, albeit a bit rough. I put a single white maggot on the hook and cast watched the float trot (if that is the correct word) downstream and disappear. Fish! I had caught a tiny chublet. Sue was feeding the swim every fifteen seconds or so with three or four maggots.

This was the average size of the fish we caught in ore short session today

The next cast turned up a slightly bigger fish. I was sort of hoping that I would not catch a big one just yet until I had a bit more experience with the rod and especially the reel. As it happened, although we could see the bigger fish, and they were going for the free offerings, none of them took the bait.

Tiny spool for my dropshot reels

I caught several fish, none of which required the landing net. The new rod was a complete success, and the reel will do the job, but I might have to change it for one of my 1500 Fox Ultron Rage reels that I use for dropshotting. I will have to buy another tiny spool and fill it with monofilament line as they are both filled with braid.

I did not end up catching, or seeing, any perch today, but I did catch a lot of fish, so today was another successful session, even if it was only for an hour or so. I need to refine my technique over the next few weeks and months, but one thing I am sure of, I love this river fishing!

Ralph.

Gotcha!

Done it! I have now caught one of the biggest fish in this little river, and it was all planned!

Today's blog is all about the fish. For the past week or so, Sue and I have been watching a section of our river were we have found a small shoal of chublet. Last time we went 'equipped' we had no luck whatsoever. We could not even find the fish in the murky water. Even the odd dangled maggot didn't even get 'chewed'.

This time it was a different matter. We set off late morning and found the fish where we had seen them a few days ago, at the bottom of a shallow weir. The water is a bit deeper here, in fact, it is deeper than it looks, as when a labrador decided to jump in it was way out of its depth and found itself having to swim.

One of the problems with fishing here is the number of dogs that make use of the easy access to the water. We had several dogs in the water during our hour and a half session. Surprisingly, this did not seem to bother the fish too much. Once the water cleared again, we could see the fish swimming around looking for the free offerings we had been feeding.

There is no point in plumbing the depth here as the bottom goes from nothing to two or three feet deep, and back again in all directions. Using my 5m tele-pole which is fitted with No.6 elastic through the top two sections, and a light line and hooklength I was just letting the maggot drift through the water with only the size 18 hook as weight. The only indicator was a small bright yellow float bead set about a foot from the hook. Within seconds a small chublet had grabbed the maggot, and it was away. Easily swung to hand it was the first of many.

First, chuck and we had our first fish of the session

Slowly the fish were getting bigger as they grew in confidence. I was concerned that the commotion would spook the fish, but that did not seam to be the case as I was catching one after the other. The session came to an abrupt pause (paws?) as the section of river was invaded by a pack of dogs. Well, 'pack' might be a bit strong but there were five or six of them. The owner was profusely apologetic, and I don't suppose she expected to see anyone fishing there, besides it is not our river. I was fearful that all this further commotion will have scared the fish off, but as I said above, it didn't.

They were getting bigger...

I started fishing again after a few minutes as I could see the fish were still taking our loose feed. All of a sudden the line went tight and promptly snapped. One of the bigger fish had decided to take my hook-bait in a mad rush. The elastic did not even come out of the pole. I had been fishing light, trying not to spook the fish too much. Time to tackle up a bit heavier. I re-rigged the pole with heavier line and hooklength and this time used one of those nice little Drennan crystal dibbers. A few shot to cock it and a string of droppers ensured that this time I was going to be fishing static on the bottom.

The prize fish of the day - this is the same fish I am holding in the header shot

A few put-ins produced nothing, so I shallowed up slightly and had another go. Sue was feeding two or three maggots over the float every 15-20 seconds. It worked. The elastic berried itself in the river, and I had one of the bigger fish on. It was a bit frisky at first, but it soon quietened down and was making it's way closer to the bank when it spotted the net and made another break for freedom. Luckily, this time the tackle was up to the job and eventually the fish was in the net.

After weeks of watching these fish, I finally had one in the net. What a great feeling. My first river chub and caught on our local urban river right here in the heart of South East London. Although I don't think this fish has been caught by an angler before, the scar on its side looks as if it has been attacked by one of the many herons or egrets that we often see on our walks along this stretch of the river.

A great day, possibly one of the best so far. I know it is not the biggest chub around, but at 16½ inches long, it is one of the biggest fish in this river.

Ralph.

Not a sausage...

...or a fish! Following on from yesterday's post, Sue and I went back to the river with the intention of catching a few fish. It was raining as we stood and watched the fish taking the feed yesterday. It then continued to rain all afternoon and, on and off through the night. Today when we went back to have a go at catching a fish, the water was slightly higher, only by a few inches, and it had coloured up slightly. I could still make out the bottom in places, but the weeds and some deeper parts were now out of sight.

We tried feeding some maggots but there was no interest. It seemed like all the fish had gone. We walked down stream, for a couple of miles, and did not see a fish anywhere. We even stopped at our favoured fishing spot to dangle a line into the opaque water for a while, only to find that the maggot had not even been sucked by the small roach.

Like Goldilocks (sans bears) when we got there, the river was bare!

I posted a question on one of fishing forums for some advice, and had lots of useful suggestions as to why we could find no fish. You can read the thread HERE. It appears there could have been several reasons why our fish were not playing ball today. From the advice given, I tend to think it could have been a combination of factors. Firstly, not only would the water temperature have been lowered by the rainwater but, secondly, the ambient air temperature has dropped dramatically over the past few days. From daytime near record highs at the beginning of the week, to today's well under the average for this time of year - mad isn't it? This can stop the fish from feeding until they have a chance to get used to their new, cooler environment.

We can't get back there tomorrow, but we plan to have another go on Sunday when we will try some of the tactics gleaned from the afore mentioned forum thread.

Ralph.

Five days latter >>>

Our urban fish are getting bigger...

Feeding fish - Look in the bottom left hand corner, you can just see the fish!

Here in Catford, The River Ravensbourne runs under the South Circular road between Catford and Catford Bridge railway stations. Before the bridge was built the river was forded at this point, said to be favoured by cats, which is how the area got its name. 

South of the road, the river runs under the car parks of Halfords and Wickes retail sheds, where it emerges and passes under the railway through one of the arches of the viaduct. In recent years a suspended pathway has been added to allow pedestrian access under the railway and into the area beyond. A few hundred yards further on, the river is joined by The Pool River and the River Ravensbourne crosses back under the railway on its way to Bromley and eventually Keston. 

This area of wasteland was once just that, an area of land behind the houses defined by the river on one side and the railway on the other. In recent years it has been opened up as a park and cycle route running south from Catford to lower Sydenham. Much of this is thanks to the old gasworks site having been decontaminated and landscaped as part of a planning permission deal, when it was developed into a retail super-store and retail park.

Most of the park follows the course of The Pool River on its way to Lower Sydenham. At the the confluence of the rivers there is a footbridge over The Pool where the park opens up out of the heavily overgrown section into a more open stretch of path. To the right there are several well trodden access points to the river, where there is a well defined path that runs for several hundred yards giving good access to the river. It is along this path that Sue and I have fished in the past. Well, that is me fishing and Sue watching, as she does not have (or want) a licence. She has no desire to catch the anything, but is happy to just help carry the gear and feed the fish.

There is lots of wildlife to be found here, and especially birds. Herons, egrets, and even the rare appearance of a kingfisher can be seen moping up the smaller fish. The river has recovered well after a serious toxic spillage, that killed the entire stock of fish and other wildlife, in 2009.

Now we are seeing much larger fish than we have seen for years. Over the past few weeks we have seen several small shoals of chublet and perch, along with other small silvers such as roach and dace. It is the larger chublets that interest us. Some of these fish are now over a foot long. Okay, I know that is not very big in the great scheme of things, but here in our little shallow river, that is big.

Big fish!

Yesterday we found a section of the river, just below a shallow weir, where the fish had congregated and we could see them with the naked eye. The smaller ones were holding station just where the water runs off the concrete and even venturing over the concrete in what can only be a couple of inches of water at the most. As we stood and watched them, we noticed a couple of much larger fish skulking around a clump of weed. These fish were very gently moving around looking for scraps of food caught in the gentle current. They would only move at any speed if they were spooked by our shadow or silhouette against the sky. We stood back at the top of the bank and watched for a good while as they just cruised around.

In the margins were hundreds, if not thousands, of fry basking in the warm shallow water. These would scatter if spooked and then reform fairly quickly, if the disturbance ceased. As we were watching, something dropped off a tree, into the river, and the fish immediately went to investigate. We had no food with us so we could not see if they were feeding. In the past, small pieces of bread have not interested these larger fish and more often than not, the bread going in has spooked them.

Today it has been raining all morning, not torrential, but enough to make everything wet and disturb the surface of the water. We had decided to go back to the weir and see if the fish would take any loose feed. Armed with a pot of maggots and a few slices of bread, we braved the rain and had a go at feeding the fish. Maggots seemed to do the trick. A few showers of a dozen or so maggots got them interested.

As we continued to feed the fish, more and more joined in. We used up the hand-full of maggots we had with us and then decided to give the bread another go. This time, although not as enthusiastic as they were for the maggots, they were taking it. Although the fish were a way out, as we fed them, they would come in close and take the bait we had dropped in the margin.

Tomorrow, time and weather permitting, we are going to try and catch one of these bigger fish. Tactics will involve an elasticated tele-pole and a dibber float on light line and a smallish hook baited with one maggot. We will let you know how we get on.

The next day >>>

Ralph.         

Can't miss a trick...

Today, or rather this afternoon, Tim was on an early shift. That meant he would be home by about 15:00. Sue and I filled the van with tools, and some fishing gear, and set off for Maidstone. We needed to do a small job on the jetties that involved removing some redundant ladders. One of them had come loose a couple of weeks ago and initially we were going to strengthen the mountings and re-fix them. In the end, it was decided that as nobody was using them, the simplest course of action would be to remove them.

This we did with little effort, for once, other than dropping a spanner into the murky depths of the Medway, the job went very smoothly. The spanner will be retrieved (hopefully) next time I am down there, using a magnet and a length of cord. You never know, we might even find a lot of stuff we don't expect.

After we had finished, we took a walk across the foot bridge into town and bought fish and chips for all of us, as by this time Tim's other half had arrived home from work. As soon as the food had been devoured, Tim and I turned our attention to getting a spot of fishing in. It was now getting late and the heat of the day had relented slightly but so had the light. We got about an hour in before it became too dark to see what we were doing and being Friday night we were visited by the 'disco' boat, twice!

Full of old fuds, like me, it must have been somebody's leaving do or anniversary as the music was audible and reminiscent of my youth when clubs were called discos. We managed to catch a lot of small silvers on our tele-poles, mainly dace, with a few roach thrown in. Fishing was close in, to avoid the river traffic, and we were catching high up in the water using a few maggots that Tim had in the fridge.  Even this close in the water is still deep; 8-10 feet a few yards out. Not the most scintillating of sessions but great that we could get an hour in, at the bottom of Tim's garden.

Ralph.  

Too hot to sit at a fishery all day...

Road trip around the Kent countryside in search of tackle shops in the luxury of Tim's air conditioning - Sorry, I mean 'climate control'

Tim and I decided to abandon a trip to Monk Lakes today, on the grounds that we might just end up cooking ourselves in the sun. Instead we decided to stay at Tim's place and have a lazy day visiting the local tackle shops we had not checked out yet (since Tim moved to Maidstone), trim some of the willows, that are getting in the way, and spend a few hours fishing in the river at the bottom of his garden.

To be honest we did more mucking about than fishing. I had recently managed to get hold of a second hand Preston X5 seat box for twenty quid! Okay it is the old version with blue fittings but for that money I couldn't say no. I was only interested in the drawer section to upgrade my old seat box to a five-drawer model. I rebuilt and cleaned up what was left to make a second box (X3) for Tim. With the same lot came an 8.5m margin pole, again for no money, which I also passed on to Tim. As Tim had never pole fished or had a seat-box before it was a bit of a struggle to get him set up and fishing. The pole turned out to be very difficult to use off one of the jetties due to the over hanging trees, deep water and an abundance of tree roots close in.

We got the basics sorted but decided it would be much easier to continue this exercise at a commercial where we had a bit more room and fewer trees! By now it was mid afternoon and Tim got a rod out and rigged a ledger. Patience paid off and he managed to catch a couple of small (not tiny) roach. This made Tim's day as he had never been successful with corn before... He is still learning and enjoying every bite.

Now, either that is a big net or a small fish - Tim insisted it was a big net!

While Tim was fishing I had spent a couple of hours just watching the water. Throwing in two or three maggots close in attracted a flurry of excitement as a good number of dace moved in. I put in a small handful and the water erupted. I had been fishing a swim feeder earlier with heavy gear as I know there are some big fish out there. The heat makes me lazy and I could not be bothered to walk back up the garden to completely re-rig, so I removed the feeder and hook length from the 12lb line and with a loop-to-loop connection I added a ultra light hooklength with a size 18 B911 hook. One white maggot was impaled on the hook and slowly allowed to sink into the water. Almost instantly I had a fish. I could have sat there an pulled dace after dace out of the water all between four and five inches long.

I have not caught so many dace in one go before. I think next time I will use a lighter set up and a small float, as most of the fish had taken the bait in and I had to use my fine disgorger to free them. I think a float will enable me to strike before they have a chance to devour the bait.

All in all it was a good day and it was not too hot sitting there under the trees.

Ralph.

Cypry Angel Pool

627 drops of rain, and that was our 'downpour'

It does not get much better for a day at a commercial. I know commercial fisheries are not everybody's cup of tea, but for me, with limited choice locally, this is brilliant. Twenty minutes away (well at 06:30 it is!), well run with friendly, helpful owners and no silly rules. Yes there are some rules but they all make perfect sense and accommodate pleasure anglers like me as well as providing a good venue for the carp guys.

The new venue is little known and tucked away in Bexley. It has been open since September last year and is now just beginning to flourish. The plants are all growing well, even in this weather with the help of the owner literally giving them bucket loads of water.

Today the weather was forecast as being warm with sunny spells. As I was loading the van this morning, the rain that did not appear yesterday, made an entrance. 627 drops (approximately) and that was it. Just enough to make all the cars look really filthy, The dust that has settled on them over the past few days was mixed with these large drops of water and then left to dry in the baking heat. Thanks a bunch!

I drove to the venue and was there by 06:50. Parking is a bit tight so I took the opportunity to turn the van around before the car park filled up. To my astonishment, when I left, the car park was empty. There did no appear to be anyone doing an all-nighter. This can only be down to lack of awareness. This place is ideal for the carp guys who live in South East London and Kent, and this time of year, the pleasure fishers looking for some dawn tench action...

When I arrived, the gate to the office and lake entrance was locked and a note saying to ring the number on the notice was followed. The code for the combination lock was given, and I let myself in. Apparently this number is changed frequently, for obvious reasons. I made my way to the gate into the lake where another combination (which is given as a text message, once the owner knows who you are) let me into the lake. It is a bit of a trek to the lake but it was all made so much easier by Sue (the missus). No, she did not act as my caddy, she suggested I took my little barrow. I had planned to carry my small amount of gear, but the barrow made light work of it as I negotiated the paths.

My 'minimum gear' therapy is obviously working, I had very little gear with me today but did not need anything else. This, I think in part, is down to having a plan for the day. That plan was to take just a float rod, a feeder rod and a tele-pole. I also decided to make up the rods on the bank so the cumbersome rod bag was not needed. The other big saving on porting gear was the insistence that only fishery nets, unhooking mats and weigh slings are used. None of these items are to be brought onto the fishery. Each peg is equipped with these items for use by the ticket holder.

The landing net is huge, but smaller nets are available if you need them. However the fish in the lake seem to be either 'swingable' or are huge, with only a few in between. At the moment there are a lot of fry about and an abundance of small, one-year old mirrors. I also caught rudd, roach and small crucian carp.

Today was all about pleasure fishing. I had a whole day to sit and fish at my own pace. As mentioned earlier, I had not made up any rods in advance. The first job, however, was to wet the ground bait. I was planning to use my own Two Dog groundbait, as a feeder mix, with the left over bits of Bacon Grill (left over from punching out my hook-bait) riddled in. The Two Dog does not need much water added, as it is already damp from the 'juice' from the hot dog sausages. You can find my basic recipe for the Two Dog groundbait HERE.

Two Dog groundbait and Bacon Grill - works every time

While the groundbait was soaking up the small amount of lake water added, I made up a feeder rod with a small flat-backed feeder. I prefer the 30g version of these but over the past few years I have acquired several 15g feeders when I have bought the odd second hand 'lot'. Personally I find these too light for my style of fishing and have just put them to one side. Recently I have been experimenting with adding weight to these lighter feeders to make them up to 30g. Today I decided to give one of my modified feeders a go.

I finished rigging the rod and riddled my groundbait while also adding some of the Bacon Grill trimmings. I loaded my modified method feeder and added a 9mm punched piece of Bacon Grill to the hair of my size 12 hook, on a four-inch hooklength. Knowing there are plenty of big carp in this lake, I was fishing heavy with 12lb monofilament line and 6lb hooklength of similar material.

Today's swim. The red oval is showing where there are some reeds growing on a submerged island. The lake is full of features to fish to. I think I might just go 'carper' next time and put a couple of lines out in the channel just behind that submerged island

I picked a spot and cast to it. Plop! I am at last getting better at this casting lark. Not good, you understand, just better. I tightened up to it and put the rod in the rest and across my knee with the bait-runner on. I picked up the float rod, that I had already fitted the reel to, and started to thread the line through the eyes. I had only got to the third or forth eye, when the other rod was screaming as the bait-runner was paying out line. It had only been in the water a few seconds.

One of many (very many!) perfect little mirror carp

The result of this immediate bite was a small mirror. An exact replica of a full sized (proper) mirror carp but smaller. Small it may have been but these little fish put up a spirited fight for such a small fish. I returned the fish, re-baited and cast to the same spot. I set the bait runner, placed the rod in the rest and across my knees, as before and picked up the float rod. As I had put it down, the line I had already threaded through the first few eyes had dropped out, so I started again. I got to the third eye and the other rod was giving out line again. The float rod was abandoned again and another mirror was landed and returned. That is two chucks and two fish in no time at all. Thinking this must have been just a stroke of luck, I sent the feeder out again and this time I had not had time to pick up the float rod before there was another fish on.

At this point I was beginning to wonder why I had bought a two-rod ticket. The fish were going crazy for the Two Dog groundbait/meat combination (as they always do) so I put the feeder rod to one side while I tackled up my float rod. In an effort to slow down the bite rate on the feeder I baited it up with corn on the hook and recast. This worked, after a fashion, as the bites slowed down to about one every minute or so. This gave me a chance to get the float rod out on some lighter gear and a smaller hook.

My first crucian. They can only get bigger from here...

The float rod was baited with a single white maggot. It had only been in the water a few seconds when the float tip disappeared with intention, no messing about, straight under. As I struck, it became obvious that this was not just the usual tiny roach that plague my initial casts of the float rod. This turned out to be a very nice looking little (not small!) crucian. Actually I think I can claim this little fellow as being my Personal Best, as I am not sure I have ever caught one before.

I had only been fishing about half an hour and the fish were combing thick and fast. The feeder line was producing all sorts of variations of small mirror carp all morning. Then in the afternoon I put a couple of pieces of corn on the hook and cast the feeder out. It went quiet for the first time all day. Then after a good few minutes, the top swung around and the runner was screaming. I was into a bigger fish. After a longer tussle than I had experienced all day, I landed a nice small common of maybe a couple of pounds. It looked really small in the giant net sitting on the huge beanie mat, but I was happy.

The biggest fish of the day, looking rather small in the giant net

The float rod was catching all sorts of very small fish, some of them were only an inch or so long, but perfect replicas of their bigger brothers and sisters. Every now and then the float rod fishing got a bit more interesting as another small mirror would take the bait and then it was a bit of a struggle to convince him (or her) to come and join me on the bank. One such fish was covered in weed as I came to unhook it so I dunked it in my bucket of water to wash it off. As I did so, I lost my grip and it swum off into the bucket. Well, have you ever tried to catch a small fish in a bucket of water with your hand? I can tell you it is almost impossible. It is like trying to catch a bar of soap with fins. In the end I returned it to the lake by lowering the whole bucket into the water.

And now the low point...

I did learn something today the hard way. I managed to keep a tub of lob worms alive at home for over three weeks. They were fine living in the fridge with a single feed of mashed potato. I had them sitting on my bait waiter with the lid off but resting on top. I had a small hand towel resting over them in an attempt to keep the sun off. By lunch time I had not got around to using any and noticed one had escaped and was laying motionless on the tray. It was dead. I looked in the pot only to find that all the others were also dead. The weather had been so hot, the tub had warmed up, even under the towel and done for my little mates, who I was getting attached to. I had no idea that such a relatively small rise in temperature would be so devastating to the worms.

Sadly the worms were not the only victims of my bad care. Just after I had discovered the worms had died, I realised the maggots were rapidly expiring too. I have never seen this happen before and I have fished on some warm days but today must have been warmer than I have ever fished before. I moved the maggots into the shade of my chair and riddled them to discover that three quarters of them were dead. I know they are only maggots and worms and they were going to be drowned or cut up and fed to the fish, but I had not intended to cook them alive! If it is hot again, next time I go fishing, I will keep the live bait in a cool box. Lesson learned.

The better stuff 

The lake has a good selection of water fowl including a family of mischievous ducklings that have not yet got the hang of fishing line and floats. One little fellow got the surprise of his life when the piece of sweetcorn he attempted to swallow just happened to be the tip of my float.

'The Hump' peg No.6 - that'll do

The swim I was on was called 'The Hump'. The reason for this became apparent when the geese in the middle of the lake appeared to be standing on the water!

Say hello to my friend for the day - Lola

One of the nice things about this place is that it is family run and although it would be fair to say I am not a dog-lover I found a new fried in the shape of Lola, the family's spaniel. A very nicely behaved dog that does not pester for food or attention but is happy to just sit with you and keep you company, while attempting to catch the odd flying invertebrate, usually with little success.

All-in-all I had a most enjoyable day and I will be back very soon.

Ralph.    

New venue tomorrow, Cypry Angel Pool, Bexley

August '17, just before the pool opened.
Cypry Angel Pool opened its gates at 6am on the first of September 2017, after
(to quote the owner) five years of frustration and eight months of crazy graft.
Great photograph taken from the owner's FB page, I hope you don't mind!

Yes, I am off to a new venue tomorrow, Cypry Angel Pool in Bexley. The lake is new, only being dug in April last year and opened on 1st September. I did take a look soon after it opened and found it was sparse and just looked like a hole in a muddy field at the time. I picked a time when there was nobody about and not wanting to take a liberty, I left.

This week I had reason to be in the location, so I decided to make another visit to see how it looked now. What a difference nine or ten months can make. The place has dried out, and the drive now has a good covering of gravel to make it far easier to access. This time I managed to talk to the owner, and he seems a straight up and down sort of bloke who says it as it is. I like that, at least you know where you stand.

The venue is primarily a carp venue, but it does have a head of other fish, including the usual suspects, and some tench and perch were mentioned. There is also a lot of smaller carp. As I am not an out and out carper, I will be float and feeder fishing. The rules state barbed hooks only, but that is for carp fishing. Dean, the owner, said he was happy for barbless hooks to be used up to a size 12.

I am looking forward to the day, mainly because it is local - only about twenty-five minutes away. It seems like it will be a nice day and not too hot. I will post a new blog about how it goes over the weekend.

Ralph.