Meow!

Yes, you've guessed it, another silly groundbait recipe. This time I thought I would go down the feline route and use some of the dried cat biscuit. To bulk it up I will add equal quantities of dried breadcrumb and biscuit and to enhance the attraction and to add some spice to the mix, ginger powder will be added. Can you see where this is going yet?

I've been shopping again!

Now, at this stage I could give you some old guff about the refractive index of the colour green, the visibility in certain types of water at varying depths as a reason for adding a green colouring to the mix. Or maybe that it is to enhance to appeal to a particular fish. Well, I could but I won't. The real reason is that I already have a yellow mix and a red mix so now I need a green mix to complete my traffic light trio. There is no logic behind this concoction other than to produce a mix that is different and I can give a silly name to. Now for the recipe and the silly name.

Breadcrumb. The supermarket price-wars are really doing us a favour when it came to gathering ingredients. This week Aldi  have reduced the price of their economy sliced bread to 36p for an 800g loaf. It was 40p last time I bought some and I have noticed since that other supermarkets are selling their similar 800g loaves at 40p too. I suspect they will follow suit soon.

I dry my bread by resting it on the top of the radiators at the moment. we are in the process of refurbishing our house and any crumbs that drop through are easily swept up from the bare floorboards below. I will have to come up with another solution once the house is finished, but for now this is a very quick and easy way to get the slices bone dry in a few hours overnight. An 800g loaf will render approximately 650g of dry breadcrumb.

Gingernut Biscuits. Again the Supermarkets are always fighting about the price of biscuits. Do check the weights though, unlike bread, which seems to be fairly constant, the weight of biscuit packs can vary considerably.  Again, my local Aldi comes out the cheapest by a long way on this one.  A 300g pack of gingernuts is only 25p at the moment.

Cat Biscuits. I suppose a more correct description might be 'dry cat food' but whatever you call it it is the boxes of little dry lumps of cat food that our cats used to go mad for. (we are a no-cat family at the moment). These are as hard as nails and do not take kindly to being whizzed in the food processor so it is back to the coffee grinder again to produce a fine powder. There are famous branded versions but while I was buying the bread and gingernuts I spotted an own-brand box of 960g on special offer at 85p. It may be available cheaper elsewhere but this will do me.

Ginger Powder. Look in any supermarket and you will find small jars and packets of herbs and spices designed for use by the British cook who will to the most part use flavourings 'sparingly' to hint at the experience. To this end, 23g jars of spice suffice. For our needs we need to look elsewhere as this has to be the most expensive way to buy this ingredient. The best place to buy spices, and for that matter all manor of dry goods, is an Asian 'supermarket' . These tend to be small, independently run, concerned with very helpful staff' My 400g bag of ginger powder was £1.99 and will last a very long time so long as the bag is resealed and kept cool and dry.

Food Colouring. Most food shops sell food colouring in liquid form. For our purposes I prefer to use the dry powders which are not so readily available. In this case I could not find any powdered green colouring, although I think if I had gone to a sugar-craft, cake decorating shop I may well have found some. The only drawback with using liquid colour is that it has to be added to the wet ingredients in order to be distributed through the mix evenly. As this is a totally dry mix, it will be added on the bank with the lake water used to moisten the mix. The small bottle of colouring cost me 59p but as it will be used very sparingly I could see no point in buying it in any larger quantities even if it is available.

Green Ginger Tom groundbait recipe

• 750g Breadcrumb
• 750g Gingernut biscuits
• 450g Cat biscuit
• 50g Ginger powder 
• 2 tsp. Green food colouring*

*This is added on the bank. I usually split my batch of groundbait mix into two equal amounts so each batch will use one teaspoonful. If that is not 'green' enough I will just add more, if it is too green I will add more of the second batch to dilute it. This is the starting point, until I actually use it I will not know exactly what will work for me.

If, as me, you want to use this as method mix you need to make it as lump-free as possible. All my ingredient are passed through a flour sieve and anything that is too big is either ground down in a pestle and mortar or the invaluable coffee grinder. This is not as arduous as it sounds, the food processor I use makes a pretty good job of making fine breadcrumb from the dried bread so long as it is totally dry. The biscuit also processes down to a fine powder without much effort.

All the dry ingredients are mixed together and riddled, and riddled and riddled.... and riddled again! I can't stress how important riddling is. It is then bagged up into two 1kg bags and put in the freezer until the night before it is ready for use. If it is totally dry it probably does not need freezing but by freezing it you will ensure it stays 'fresh' for when it is required.

The dry mix will be moistened with lake water at the venue. I prefer to do this but it can be done at home the day before but I would use rainwater and not tap-water to avoid introducing any of the chemicals that are now added to our tap-water as a matter of course.

I will let you know if it works. My Two Dog mix works really well and I have caught plenty of fish using it when others have struggled. It will be interesting to see if the fish take to this mix.

Ralph. 

One year ago today!

I started this blog, and my interest in fishing, on this day last year - My, that went quickly!

Maybe this is what sold me on fishing. This is the second fish I ever caught. The first was of similar size but slipped off the unhooking mat straight back into the lake before Sue had a chance to photograph it. I had no idea then how slippery live fish are. I caught four fish of this size that day, not bad for an absolute beginner and left me just wanting more.

This time last year, I was talking to my brother (Tim) and during that conversation we discussed finding some common ground where we could get together and have some bloke-time away from family gatherings, which seem to be the only time we get together. Living 50 miles apart does not help. Fishing was suggested, as Tim had done some fishing as a kid. I, on the other hand had no experience whatsoever having never been interested when younger. Living in London may have been a factor, I don't know, but having said that, there were more venues to fish in parks etc. in those days. The first post on this blog was made on the 3rd September 2014, one year ago today. As I wrote that post, I had no idea where it was going to lead.

One Year on it hasn't worked out as I had envisaged. I was thinking that we would be sitting on a river bank somewhere with Tim doing all the fishing and me chatting to him. In the past year Tim has made it to the bank four times and I have been going on my own more often than not.

From nothing to now has been a steep learning curve. The first lesson learned was not to go too cheap. The tackle we bought initially got us going and defined what we needed - neither of us were sure. I had no clue at all. I had often wondered why anglers had so much gear when all you need is a rod, reel, line hook and float... Wrong!  Almost immediately it became clear that the cheap reels and rods that came in our starter set were second to useless. The slightly better rods we had bought as extras were better but not great. however we cut our teeth on those items and we both caught fish. For us it was a very good way to get started. Those cheap kits do provide everything needed to get a hook in the water.

The turning point for me came in November when I went fishing with one of the guys I had been talking to on MaggotDrowning.com. We spent a mild November day at Beaver Fishery where he gave me some hands on tips and dispelled a few myths. This was the start of me fishing seriously. I had realised, by this time, that all was not as I had foreseen. No sitting about snoozing in the sunshine; to catch fish you have to be active all the time. If it is not casting and retrieving, it is feeding and planning the next move. So intense has it become that hours just fly by and a eleven or twelve hour session seems to be gone in no time and I am heading home. What started out as something to do with Tim, has turned into a new interest that is rapidly consuming a big chunk of my spare time as well as some time that is not so 'spare'!

I have now got the hang of still water waggler fishing and have been honing my feeder technique to the stage that I can go for a whole session without losing a feeder. A year on and there is so much I have not tried yet. No river or canal fishing yet and there are plenty of other still-water venues that need exploring. I have stuck mainly with the one venue at the moment as at least I have one constant in the equation.

Eleven months in and here I am with a 27lb bag of fish at my second match. Yesterday I fished my third match

Match fishing was not something I had even thought about a year ago. In fact, I had said I was not interested,  however over the past few months I have entered three matches and enjoyed them. I still have a lot to learn and I am perhaps more enthusiastic now than ever. Funny how it turns out. I suppose I had change the strap-line on the blog to 'The tale of one bloke who goes fishing'  as there has not been much activity from the other bloke during the past year. You never know, he may get a bit more enthusiastic this year, so I will hold of doing that for now. Here's to the next twelve months...

Ralph.    

Match report No.3

Listen to me, casual as you like, reporting on my latest experience of match fishing. Anyone would think that I am totally at home with the idea, the old slippers of the fishing calendar. That may be the impression but underneath that calm, cool exterior there is a little boy bursting with excitement... Okay, maybe I am a bit old to be cool, but you get the idea!

What's that!? Groan... "It's your alarm - turn it off!" "'Morning dear"...

05:00 time to get up, deal with the ablutions, pack the bait into the coolbox, make a flask of coffee, pack the van and get on my way before the six o'clock news. There is a definite nip in the air, the windscreen is covered in dew and the inside is misting up. Autumn is sending a message it is on its way.

Lots of tip watching and recasting every 40 seconds or so don't half make your arm ache

The match does not start until nine o'clock but I have to be round the South Circular and out onto the M25 well before half past six in the morning if I want to get to the fishery in time to get set up. Leave it any later and my journey time will be doubled, at the very least. No hold ups today so I arrive at the gate with fifteen minutes to spare. Time for a chat with a fellow angler also waiting for the gate to open at seven o'clock. I can taste the bacon sandwich as the sound of the burger-van shutters are lifted. Dead on time the gate opens and all eyes are on the draw that is posted on the front of the shed - sorry 'match-office'. Peg 16 - that'll do me - I can get to the fish from there. You see, as a seasoned matchman now, I know exactly where the fish are and I will be able to just casually pull them out one after the other. Probably.

As we had a couple of hours before the all-in whistle, I decided that I would rig the rods on the bank and sort out (riddle!) the groundbait method mix. In case you are wondering I was using my Two Dog groundbait. This time I had a plan. I had a couple of feeder rods, set up with method feeders and clipped up at different distances I had established by casting hook-less feeder before the whistle.

Gotcha!

For the first half an hour nothing, not a twitch. I continued my campaign of building up a bed of ground bait. My casting is getting better but I can't guarantee hitting the same place every time. While I am plugging away, the guy on the next peg is landing fish after fish on the pole. Then after about 40 minutes I get a bite and land an F1 my target fish. I can't tell you how good that felt (but I guess you already know that feeling). another chuck and another fish. I bag about four fish and then it dries up. Meanwhile, I notice the guy next to me is looking glum and is getting no fish either. I swap rods and start to build a second line. After half a dozen casts I am on the fish again. I must be getting better at this as I knew it was a bream long before I saw it as it just played dead and allowed me to haul it in so it could slime up my tackle - thanks!

Even Sid, the Jack Russell, could not find a fish!

Another chuck and I was back with the carp. Fishing was very slow for the greater parts of the match with everybody moaning - except me, because I just love sitting there in the rain, getting all my gear wet (No brolly yet) and catching absolutely nothing.  There were a couple of periods of activity when I caught the biggest fish of the day by anyone, but it got away. This must have been a very slippery fish as it turned out as everybody else had caught it and, yes, it got way from them too! The last hour made up for the lack of action and I think I caught half of my final weight in that time.

I was happy with 8th place, but if only that one had not got away...

Come the weigh-in I was surprised to see my catch and so were some of the others. The guy next to me had a flying start but hardly caught a fish at all for the rest of the match. I ended up with a 15lb bag that gave me an 8th place out of thirteen contestants. Not great, but I was more than happy with that considering the low scoring all round.

The grounds around the lakes are heavily forested and make a picturesque backdrop - I recognise that van!

I stayed on and continued to fish after the match and although the fish were biting, It is the slowest I have seen this lake in my short experience.  A good day was had by me and I now have to think about the next match. The Two Dog groundbait is still working well but I think a change of tactics might be in order so I now have a month to try a few things out before I decide how to play it next time. I have a 5m whip that I am thinking I could use to try and bag one of the bigger carp that I could see cruising the margins late in the day.

Ralph.

My dedicated fishing room. Really?

I wish! But while we are decorating the house I can get away with all sorts of liberties, like drying my bread along the radiators. I can't imagine the local décor-gendarmerie agreeing to that once the decorating is finished and the carpets are down.

49½p a can...

While I am decorating the utility room I get to use if for a fishing space - I might start calling it 'The fishing room' and see if the idea sticks... Be that as it may, I have been making my next batch of Two-Dog groundbait ready for the match on Wednesday. The bread had been drying on the radiators, Sue had collected the biscuits and secured a new supply of hot dogs at two tins of 8, for 99p.

In the past I have added the 'wet' ingredients at the water's edge, but now I like to add the 'second dog' here in advance to give it a chance to soak in properly. This means blitzing the whole can to a sludge - it looks and smells absolutely revolting. To complete the revolution, all the fat and gristle floats about in the resultant purée making it look like something the cat has just thrown up. This is supposed to be for human consumption, I tell you this for nothing, I have been put off hot dogs for life - Yuck!

The groundbait will need more water added before it is ready for use, but this can come from the lake. It will need to be left to soak up the water properly and will need to be riddled a couple of times on the bank before it is finally ready to use.

Hot dogs and brine are loaded into the processor together

The transformation begins...

Revolting... and you can't smell it!

The mixture is stirred into the basic mix and then you have to get your hands in a mix it around. Leave it to stand for an hour or so and work it through your fingers again.

Stir it in a bit at a time...

Once the mixing has been completed, as far as is possible by hand, it is time to riddle, riddle and riddle again. This will not only break down the lumps but also help to distributable the meat particles more evenly.

Riddle, riddle, riddle and then, riddle again!

The secret to good groundbait is to aim for a smooth friable consistency. In this case the groundbait has some water content as well as the meat. For this reason I always keep it frozen until it is about to be used.

Finished and ready for bagging

See I did all that in my fishing room and did not get told off once - Mind you, Sue was out at the time...

Ralph.

Oops!

Broken quiver tip in need of attention

Last time I was out fishing, I broke one of my quiver tips while moving pegs. It was not the end of the world as I had a spare with me. Once I was home I thought about the next action to take. Should I just throw it away and buy another one or maybe I could repair it. A post on MaggotDrowning.com generated lots of suggestions as to how to repair it while other favoured just buying a new one. In the end I opted to repair it.

Heat up the tip ring and Pull

My first thought was to simply cut it down to the second ring. Then somebody on the forum mentioned that it would be better to cut off the second ring and replace it with the tip ring complete with its shaft. The ring will just pull off once it has been lightly heated. I used a gas stove lighter and it slipped straight off much easier than I expected.

Now I knew I had separated the tip ring successfully I cut down the tip by rolling it over a wooden strip and applying light pressure with a scalpel until I had cut all the way through, leaving a nice clean end.

Roll and cut several times...

...to produce a clean end

The tip end was offered up to the new tip but it was obvious that it was not going to fit without some attention. The shaft had residue of the original glue still in place, reducing the clearance and preventing the new tip sliding in easily. The shaft was re-bored using a 3/64 inch diameter drill fitted into a pin chuck.  This can be achieved without the chuck, if you don't have one, by rolling the drill bit between the thumb and forefinger.

Removing the excess glue from the tip-ring shaft using a 3/64 inch drill bit.

After the old glue is removed the tip will slide onto the cut down tip with ease. A test fit confirms this and now it is ready for assembly.

It fits!

The tip is glued on using Araldite (or any other make of epoxy resin adhesive). Only a small amount is all that is needed but the minimum amount that can be squeezed is much too much. Just like Mr Colman (as in mustard), Mr Araldite must have made more money on what was not used than what was!

Mixing the epoxy resin glue - thoroughly!

The glue is applied to the cut down tip using a coctail stick and the tip is pushed home. Ideally a small amount of glue should just be visible at the joint. This will help to seal the joint against the ingress of water.

The tip has been reattached

Before the glue sets, make sure the rings align perfectly otherwise the line will bind and performance will be severely hampered. Once the glue was dry the tip was repainted in a bright colour - I chose a bright yellow so It is instantly distinguished from the full quiver tips at a glance. I also scratched of the rating  so not to confuse in the future. Once the paint was dry, the tip was given a coat of clear nail-varnish (Don't tell Sue!) to protect and seal it.

Perfect alignment

The repaired tip ready for use.

Now I have an odd tip that may, or may not, prove to be useful. I decided to buy a new quiver tip but discovered that the best price I could get for a genuine Garbolino tip was around £10. I then realised that if I bought a new rod it comes with three tips and it costs less than £30! It was a no-brainer I ordered a 9ft picker/feeder to compliment the 8ft and 11ft rods I already have.

Ralph.

It started off badly...

...but got better!

A nice ghostie to end the day...

Yes, it was another day on the bank at Beaver Fishery. I will get around to some other places as time goes on but at the moment this suits me. Early start as usual and I was there with 15 minutes to spare.  I had intended to go on Friday but the for various reasons I had to postpone until Saturday. I am not keen on fishing at the weekend as It can get rather busy and as I work for myself it is not a problem (usually) to swap days around and go fishing during the week.

Saturday was not too bad, as it turned out. A fair few people about but not so busy that I could not find a quiet place to set up. I bought a two-rod day ticket so I could have a go with my never-used carp rod and reel. I had made a good supply of boilies and a suitable glug with a pineapple theme. I also had some PVA tube and bags I wanted to try. To top it off I had some pineapple pop-ups boilies that I had bought - Yes I do buy some things!

Before I did anything I needed to familiarise myself with my new rod. I threaded a quick-change running bead onto the main line and tied a quick-change bead to the end of the line. Using this hook-less set up I made a practice cast. My! This is a bit different. As I dragged the little weight off the opposite bank and back into the water I was pleased I had not attached a hook! I need some time to get used to this and some open water to give it a try, but for now I just plonked it out there and waited to see what would happen... Nothing!

I had decided to fish the other side of Maze Lake, a lake I have fished several time before, but not from this side. I now know why - no fish! Andy, the bailiff, confirmed my suspicions and pointed out a better spot, just around the corner, a hundred yards away or so. After giving a couple of hours I collected my gear together and moved pegs. I must get some kind of trolley. All this walking to and from the van is a waste of time. It is all right if I can get the van close to the peg but if not it is a repetitive slog to and from the van, or in this case the pegs.

The second spot was a bit better. I set up my sleeper rod and left it sitting there. I had used a 'snowman' hook bait consisting of one of my 'glugged' pineapple boilies, topped off with a pineapple pop-up.  Small running bomb weight and a suitable PVA 'sausage' was fed onto the line. My poor technique was evident as I tried to get the assembled bait and hook somewhere near where I wanted to fish. I left that line in for a couple of hours or more until I made the decision to haul it in and see if my bait was still intact, it was. I had another go, this time using PVA bag full of offerings, the hook bait and the bomb. The whole lot landed about 6ft from where I had expected it to, but it was in a reasonable looking spot and I left it there. Meanwhile I was feeder fishing on The Method. I managed to bag a few bream, just to make the net slimy. I was using my new larger net I had bought to accommodate the bigger fish I was planning to catch on my sleeper rod.

I was beset with problems all day. First I had picked the wrong swim and the new one was not giving me any amount of fish. By 3:30 PM I was cheesed off having broken a quiver tip, sacrificed yet another feeder the the 'Tree Gods' and lost my scissors by accidentally kicking them into the lake - Plop! To rub salt into the wound, I was getting nowhere with the sleeper rod. Deep breath, time to move again. All the gear was loaded into the van and I set off for the back of Jeff's lake where I had been fishing a couple of weeks earlier in my second match. I decided to fish light with the minimum of gear so I set up using a bigger feeder rod that I had tackled up ready to go in the van, a box of hook baits (bacon Grill) and of course my Two Dog Groundbait used on the Method.

Just as I was about to set up I realised I had left my feeder rest and bankstick on the last peg. Bother! I decided to go on a route-march back to the old peg and retrieve it. I could not be bothered to get the van out of its space and drive around there. I could feel all the eyes on me as I abandoned my peg and marched off. I returned carrying my bankstick to a gentle cackle of understanding approval. Now I had unwillingly attracted everybody's attention I could feel their eyes watching me. I cast out three or four feeders straight out in front of me aiming for that red life-belt that I had used as a marker before. On the fifth or sixth cast I added a hook bait and caught a fish. An F1 of about a pound and a half. I unhooked it, sent it back home (after apologising and asking where his mum was) via the net.

For the next few casts I was landing fish two out of three. It was not long before I could see others around the lake pointing at me. I discreetly checked my attire which seemed to be in order... I continued to fish. More fish being landed and released, one after the other. Again I was on a roll. I was also aware of the lack of activity around me. Eventually the guy on the peg nearest me came over and said. "Do you mind me asking what bait you are using? "  I told him that I was using my own concoction that I call Two dog Groundbait mix and 9mm punched bacon grill. He said what ever it is it seems to work you are catching lots of fish. We have been here for hours and you have caught far more in the last hour or so than we have caught all day!

As I was talking to him there was another bite and this time it was a nice looking ghost carp. I have a picture of it in the net but you have been sparred the one of me holding it as it did not record to the camera card for some reason.

What started off as a really bad day, had a happy ending thanks to my Two Dog Groundbait.

Ralph.

A fool and his rod...

Ever made a wrong turn or taken the wrong route? Ever said "No, I won't bother to take that"? Well, today has been one of those days. The journey from London to Ironbridge is one we make often.There are several routes we can take and today I took the wrong one. I decided to take the M11/A14 option, through Birmingham. Not only are there major roadworks at the A14 junction with the bottom of the M6, but an serious accident had closed the M6 between junctions 6 and 7 in both directions causing absolute grid-lock in and around Birmingham. The diversion route took us over four hours to travel three miles! The signs were helpful too...

A typical example of Birmingham's idea of clear road signing - What!?

My original intention was to spend Monday fishing the river but as we were going to have to get on south I had decided to leave the tackle at home. What a fool! what about the three evenings I will be here? I can fish right outside the door and could have spent a couple of hours trotting before heading off for a meal. Instead I will just have to sit here and watch the fish swim by. Next time I will pack a float rod, reel a few hooks, landing net, a few floats and a tin of Spam. I bet I will not be able to use them, but at least I will have the wherewithal to drown some dead pig if the opportunity presents itself.

Ralph 

I want to go fishing...

...but I can't!

The Severn is right outside the window... (May 2015)

Work. It gets in the way of fishing sometimes. As it stands, we are going to be working all over the weekend and guess where we will be? Ironbridge, right on the Severn, literally running right past the window of our room at our favourite B&B. Three days working and then on Monday, when I might have just had a few hours on the bank, we are heading back to Kent to collect my Mum and take her to Somerset on Tuesday. I won't even get a chance to fish there as we have to be back in London by Tuesday evening.

Hopefully I will get a chance to go and have a day out towards the end of next week to have a day pleasure fishing. Although I enjoy the friendly matches I have started to take part in, I still get a lot of pleasure just fishing for the sake of it and trying out new ideas. I have spent a good bit of time using the Method feeder and my own groundbait mixes, experimenting to see what works best. So far the Two Dog groundbait mix seems to be the most effective.

I might throw the boat out and go for two rod day ticket this time. I have a cheap carp rod and alarm that I have not tried yet. I though it might be a good opportunity to have a go at ledgering a PVA bag of goodies and a boilie or two while doing a bit of float fishing. Who knows, I might even catch a PB carp.

Ralph.

Second Match...

What a result - I'm happy!

An early start was the order of the day. I did not want to be late as there is only an hour before the start of the match and by the time I have found which peg I have been allocated and set up, that time goes very quickly. This was compounded by a need for diesel for the van and the queue to get in the filling station at 5:45AM! After joining the back of a queue on the M25 caused by "PEDESTRIANS IN THE ROAD" according the the matrix signs, I made it to Beaver in time and joined the back of the queue, to get into the fishery, when the electronic gate opens at 7:00AM. There seemed to be a lot of queueing going on this morning...

The normal run of proceedings is a six hour match in two sessions of three hours starting at 8:00AM. Today, after a straw poll of competitors it was decided to put the start back to 9:00 AM and go straight through. The reason for this is to give competitors extra time to set up and in future, the later start will mean most will get longer in bed. Unfortunately that is not me. If I leave any later than 6:00AM it will take me twice as long to get there. Today that meant a bit of standing around the burger van drinking tea - not a good idea with six hours of no break fishing in front of me!

Fishing from the other side of Jeff's Lake - Good of them to place a nice red, round target for me to aim at

I had drawn peg 15. This is on the opposite side of the lake to where I have fished before so it was all unfamiliar territory. I set up with the intention of working the feeder for the first hour or so and then on to the pellet waggler. The first thing to do was to prepare my method mix. I poured a good amount of my Two Dog Groundbait into a bowl, added some lake water and mixed it thoroughly. This transformed my hands to an interesting shade of yellow from the mixing. I left it to absorb the water while I set up the rest of the gear.

Once everything was ready to go I checked the groundbait mix and riddled it. I also pushed all the trimmings from the punched Bacon Grill hook bait through the riddle. I suppose that makes it two dog and a pig mix... Ten minutes before the start of the match the mix was checked for consistency and riddled again. It makes a friable mix that will hold together when squeezed in the hand but easily broken down again by rubbing it between the hands

The whistle went and it was one quick cast to check distance and clip up. I reeled it back in and put a punched lump of bacon grill on the hair. I then laid the hook and bait in the bottom of a small Preston mould and filled it with the groundbait mix, leaving the bait showing so it will free itself almost immediately it landed.  The first cast landed on the spot. I was planning on giving it my standard 40 seconds and if nothing happened, retrieve reload and recast. However it didn't get that far. I had barely got the rod settled on the rest when the tip bent double and I had a fish on! First F1 of the day. This went on for a while catching two or three in a row then a gap for a while and again two or three at a time.

After a couple of hours I tried out the Red Dog groundbait mix, first with coloured meat and then with corn both plain and the red chilli corn that I used to devastating effect last time out. I even tried plain Bacon Grill... Nothing. I went back to the Two Dog mix with the plain, large punched bacon grill. First cast, fish on. I decided to carry on fishing the method and continued to fish until midday. The bites had slowed so I had a dabble with the pellet waggler. After half an hour I was not getting anywhere so I went back to the proven method mix and bacon grill, and the fish kept coming. Not at the rate I was getting fishing the lake solo but enough to convince me I was going to catch more fish than last time.

The rain that was promised arrived in the afternoon but it was only the odd shower and my new lightweight bib and brace over-trousers and the old cagoule, I have had sitting in the back of the wardrobe, came into their own. The weather dried up and the five minute warning was 'sounded'. At this point I cast out a couple more times and then... Wham! the tip bent double and it was fish on - and for me it was BIG fish on, the largest fish of the day for me, a very nice example of a common carp!

The weigh-in came and the results were posted - 27lb (Pictured right) and seventh place! I was delighted. Second match and I was actually catching fish, more fish than last time and higher in the placings - does it get any better? Well, maybe but that will do for now.

With that I have put myself down for the next one in September. Now you know I said I was not interested in match fishing? Cancel that! 

Ralph.   

On Wednesday...

Some of the opposition weighing in on the other side of  Jeff's Lake in June

 ...I will be fishing my second match ever at Beaver fishery. My first match a couple of months ago was a great day out. I entered the match without expectation and the intention was to just have an enjoyable day fishing, and I did. To my surprise, I started to catch fish at what was an alarming rate, at least for me. The full story of that day can be found HERE. Since then I have been experimenting with different methods, and brushing up on my technique.  What I like about the matches at Beaver is they are very informal, more of a fun day out, pleasure fishing with a target, if you like. At the moment I have nothing to compare them to and I guess there are matches held all over the country in the same vain.

I am now into the twelfth month of my fishing adventure. I started this blog on the 3rd September last year and at that time I knew next to nothing. The first few months were taken up navigating a steep learning curve. I had no idea how much there was to learn or how many ways there are to skin this particular cat. Before I got interested. I thought there was one rod for course fishing, one for fly fishing and one for sea fishing and that was it. That sounds so naive now, I can barely bring myself to admit it.

At first, I was thrashing around trying to find my way around the overwhelming diversity of this enormous subject. I soon realised that if I was going to get anywhere I needed to concentrate on one thing at a time. Reading books and magazines, studying the internet and watching videos was filling my head with a mountain of information that had little or no order.

Tim 'fishing'

Having no real contact with anyone else who fished, apart from Tim (my brother), I turned to the internet forums for help and advice. It was soon very obvious that although he had fished as a kid, forty years earlier, he was not going to be of much help now as he had forgotten most of what he knew and besides, the world of fishing today is a very different place. As it has turned out, the original plan has gone to pot somewhat. I had intended this to be something that we could do together. That was not to be and it is me that is the interested party here. Tim is far less committed than I thought he would be, mainly due to his hectic lifestyle.

For the first few months I was not keen on the idea of fishing alone, maybe it was a confidence thing, or maybe I was hoping that my original plan of the two of us sitting in the bank would come to fruition. That was not to be and in the past year, Tim has made to the bank four times. If I had not made the effort and got out more on my own I think the interest would have been severely curtailed. The breakthrough came when a forum member invited me to a day's fishing at Beaver. Up until then I had only fished at one venue, Bax (now The Willows) near Sittingbourne, Kent. The reason for picking the original venue was that it is just a few miles from where Tim lives and I thought that would be convenient for him and a day out for me. As Tim is not as keen as me, it soon became obvious that I was going to have to go it alone.

The introduction to Beaver was a turning point. It is much closer and quicker to get to and less than half the  distance of going to Bax (Bax is well over an hour away by road and pushing 60 miles). As you will have read in the previous posts, Beaver has become my second home. Not by design, but I have not fished anywhere else other than these two fisheries. This has been a concious decision not to introduce too many variables. I needed to get the hang of one thing at a time and for me that started with waggler fishing. I am now fairly confident (note I did not say competent!) that I have mastered the basics of still water waggler float fishing. All I need to do now is get better at it.

Grrr... missed!

After sacrificing several feeders to the Tree Gods, I have got the hang of feeder fishing, using method feeders, in recent months as have been fairly successful at it (for me!). I caught most of my fish in the last match using this technique. I was also attempting to pellet-waggler fish, however this proved less than successful last time. Since then I have had a couple of months to get it right and last time out I think I may have cracked it - we will see.

I now need to tie a few hooklengths, get the rods tackled up and ready for the match on Wednesday. I am sure I will not get into the prizes but if I can better last times performance I will be happy. This time I have my own method mixes and hook baits to use, having tried them out a week or so ago (see HERE), I am confident they will help me increase my haul of last time.

Ralph.