" BIRTHDAY BOY "

I have fished with this guy Stephen Tideswell for some eighteen months or so, and he has become a very good friend since ,but having said that if he keeps catching fish of this quality he could very soon become my enemy!
Steve with his "17lbs 8oz fish"

It was Steve's! Birthday last Monday and we had both fished the day before in a local poppy day event Neither one of us won anything. However Steve wanted to go again the following day so he gave me a call later that evening and told me he was thinking of going to Fields farm, in Cheshire in the morning.
                                                                                
Although I was knackered from the day before I suggested I would go with him, so we arranged to meet at around  ten o clock at the fishery.                                                                       


The weather had taken a turn for the worse and where we were deciding to fish wasn't the most comfortable of places to say the least with a cold wind in our faces, and black clouds over our heads I wasn't really excited about the prospects. Never the less there was a calm spot a couple of pegs to my right behind an island and I decided to fish there. Steve had fished there previously and didn't do very well until he moved to deeper water.

However I was optimistic how wrong I was all I caught was Roach and perch while Steve braved the elements on the deeper pegs and was catching quality fish., I had intended to fish on the Island with a method feeder, if I couldn't catch anything decent but I forgot to change my reel over the night before with my heavier line on for Carp, so it was pointless otherwise I would be losing a great deal of tackle and I don't like doing that.

"Never the less not making excuses" but I don't seem to get a great deal of pleasure out of returning fish to the water immediately, having said that I was pleased for Steve because he doesn't have the opportunity to go fishing as often as me. Anyway I chose to pack up early and watch Steve not something I make a habit of doing but on this occasion it was worth it, because he had just switched to the method feeder and caught a carp about six or seven pounds.

Then he suggested to me that he was thinking of making a cast to the island where I had been fishing, so I said go on have a chuck to the island I have packed up! so he did and the end result was three more carp the best of them being the one in the picture, which was also the last fish he caught.

whilst he was packing his gear away he made one last cast into My swim! against the Island and handed me his rod saying I want you to get one so! I held the rod and guess what when It seemed that I wasn't going to catch one I reeled in and low and behold there was no bait on.

He then said with a wry smile have you been fishing with no bait on?

Well next time mate if you chuck your baited rod into my swim again, I shall be ready with the scissors don't you worry Ha! Ha!

 

Another nice catch by Steve close on 70lbs this particular day I had a similar catch but was camera shy !



                                                     

  "  Happy Birthday to you too"    

                                                            

" THE OLD CODGERS "

"A CREWE TO BEAT" "

A fortnight ago I had the privilege to fish with some very good mates from the past! in a team challenge event which was co/ organised by a bunch of anglers from Middlewhich and Crewe Cheshire. "You might recognise some of them in the picture"

The venue was to be Oak Hanger fishery near Crewe this was a local water for me and is on my doorstep, a fishery I new something about having pleasure  fished it on a number of occasions. So you can imagine I was really looking forward to it.

It was a brilliant day out the weather was favourable and I thought that big weights would be on the cards, however this was not to be as top rod only needed 30lbs, never the less I think that considering it is almost the equivalent to a commercial fishery with quite large numbers of carp to be caught.
I personally wouldn't consider it to be a fair team venue but having said that, as it turned out the match was appropriately arranged as a points match with points allocated to section placings etc:It was a very close affair with our side taking the spoils by four points.

Of course the point I am making is that I fished with "the winning side Middlewhich" otherwise I would not be writing this article!!. However I was pleased with my draw and expected to catch more than I did which was 11lbs in total four carp and a skimmer Bream two on pole and three carp on pellet waggler.

Although the Crewe lads had the individual winner in their squad we had second individual in ours, who is second from the left in the picture and I believe the oldest man in the match ,"well done Tim"  it just goes to show that age has no barrier when it comes to experience! "having said that it does in my experience" seriously though, I was pleased with my efforts and  believe it was a reasonable contribution to the team and in my view didn't let them down!! 


All in all it was a friendly pleasant affair with no complaints and a very memorable day out, I will look forward to hopefully! fishing with the Middlewhich lads again in the near future. 



The team from left to right front row.


Derek,  Tim,( captain Yogi ) me , Sam, Neil,
                    
The two hiding in the back row Jeff, and Roy.
Incidentally! I haven't mentioned second names in case I spell their names wrong!
Their was nine Anglers in each side you will probably only be able to count eight but one of our lads was camera shy! and scarpered before we could catch him.


"We are the champions"          tight lines......................................

"FIELDS FARM FISHERY"

Recently I have been visiting this fishery and have experienced some excellent sport! if you have read some of my older posts you will no doubt be aware that I enjoy match fishing. Having said that I am not one of these modern day anglers who seem to think that if they don't catch a ton of carp every time they fish then it's not worth the effort.

Naturally I have fished a number of matches on this complex and found it to be a very balanced fishery in terms of the fish you catch. For instance I have personally witnessed matches on average being won with 30lbs of cruceons, 27lbs of roach, 30lbs of skimmer bream, and 40 to 50lbs of carp, I believe the fishery record stands at 52lbs there are also plenty of gold fish hybrids in amongst a lot of catches which makes it more appealing because you never really know what your going to catch!.

There are to my knowledge four pools on the complex all pools which have approximatly the same depth and are slightly deeper than the average commercial for instance six to seven feet deep. I believe this has proved to be beneficial to fish survival over the course of the severe winters we have experienced most recently! when some commercial fisheries lost allot of fish. "As a result of this the fish are clearly very healthy and fight like tigers"

A number of plus factors is that the pools are well established, you can use all methods access to your chosen spot is mostly done by car with few walks involved! they don't have an endless list of bait bans like some commercials do, and you can take and use your own bait.

When some commercials insist that you must buy their bait, which means "you pay them to fish and also pay them to feed their fish".

This is a sore point with me if their argument is this is to protect their fish, my argument is surely bait manufacturers don't produce bait that would be harmfull to the fish! and surely anglers are not going to poison the fish after all they want to catch them!! By all means stipulate the quantity of bait that can be used and keep on selling bait but don't insist that you buy it from them to my mind this is wrong.

However if you are interested in paying a visit to this fishery here are some things you may want to know the fishery is is situated within the idillic Cheshire countryside just of the the Congelton road M6 Motorway junction 17 heading towards Sandbach post code CWII4TE.

They are open 7days a week 7am to 9pm .

Adult -Day Tickets are £6
Adult - Evening Tickets £3 (from 4pm onwards)
OAP/junior Day Ticket £4
OAP/Junior - evening Ticket £3

I believe these prices to be very reasonable by today's standards as it costs enough on bait these days let alone !!

The fishery is owned and well managed by a very pleasant chap called Chris Thornhill, Who is an angler himself, who I hope he will forgive me for saying this but has a habit of saying yes! what more do you want why not give it a go?or take a look at the web site before you go I feel sure you will be pleasantly supprised. Now I am retired I am going there again this week pleasure fishing for those cruceons.

Tight Lines !!

FLOATS HOW DOES ONE KNOW WHICH ONE TO CHOOSE
On a commercial venue on the pole ?

In my opinion there are a number of things to take into consideration , it is not just a simple matter of putting any one on and hoping to catch everything that swims. “As one would hope to be the case” there is slightly more to it than that!

Firstly the pole is the ideal weapon of presenting very light tackle and can eliminate surface drift and the effect the prevailing wind has on the line, as opposed to fishing with a rod and line. Therefore enabling you fish with the lightest of floats. and quite easily present your chosen bait differently, e, g still on the bottom, moving, or if you like twitching it . How you present your bait largely depends on what bait you have chosen to fish and how we assume that bait reacts in the water now we all know there are hundreds of baits and floats to choose from so where does one start ?

Ok! lets choose paste for example a very heavy bait in it’s own right, and if rolled into a nice neat ball it is common sense that if thrown in by hand it would travel to the bottom fairly quickly, and lie there still until a fish decides to pick it up. Or it dissolves slowly into a mound on the bottom which is more often the case in my experience!!

It follows therefore that we should endeavour to make this are objective in presenting this particular bait, paste if mixed soft will come off the hook quite easily leaving a lump on the bottom. If this happens then it leaves free offerings for the fish to eat!
I used to do a lot of bread punch fishing and we all know that bread has a habit of coming off the hook when you don't want it to, but I used to think that this was a good thing because it gave the fish a free sample of what is on the hook and could encourage them to feed better!

I feel this theory could also apply to when paste fishing.

With the target species being Carp “or more commonly referred to as lumps” if the paste was presented to them in a still fashion, then this would appear normal to the fish. It would then be more likely for them to accept it as part of their normal diet and become less weary of eating it.

Now what float would I use for paste ? If you appreciate the logic that if thrown in as a loose offering it lies still on the bottom of the lake , all you need is some sort of sight indicator and the float is perfect for this .

How big a float does one need to use? in this respect this largely depends on where you intend to fish the bait e, g in shallow water, or deep water.

In shallow water with depths of eighteen inches to three feet it would be pointless putting a large float on with loads of shot because it is unnecessary, the bait will reach the bottom on it’s own ! in fact in this depth of water I have found that it can be far better to use a float with no shot down at all a small dibber float is my first choice.

In the past!! I have actually won matches in this fashion by using quite large pieces of meat which again is a fairly heavy bait. I was talking to a friend of mine only the other day a very good angler whom I have fished with in team events such as National championships and we happen to discuss paste fishing he suggested that for shallow water he uses blob floats because the carp hook themselves anyway!

In my experience he is right!! this confirmed to me that in my choice of a dibber in shallow water. “usually in the margins” is not far wrong, so in thinking about this is it necessary to use weighted floats at all in fact free lined paste could be worth a try for that matter, and could prove to be even better.


When we have depths greater than this then float choice is completely different, simply because we would almost inevitably be fishing at distance.

Then it is highly likely that the elements will take over such as the wind etc: “an anglers nightmare” normally in this instance, it is far better to use a long fairly slim inserted float which is not effected by the wind as much as a thick topped float, you can also have more of the floats insert above the surface giving you a better sighted bite indicator. and far less likely to drag the float and the bait from where you want it to be, creating an unnatural presentation!!

Because of the depth we would be fishing in, and fishing paste in this situation there is naturally more line from float to the bait, it is usually fished using either shot or styles in a small bulk split evenly within the space of a few inches. Approximately 18inches from the hook, It does not really matter what you use the question of do I use shot or styles is a matter of personnel choice. In my experience they both work equally well.


What is important is that you don’t want an underwater bow in the line as this could lead to missed bites or even fowl hooked fish! and in order to combat this it is normally better to fish the bait either just touching bottom or a few inches over depth the use of shot etc: enables you to keep the line beneath straight and therefore stabilises presentation in theory.

So the answer to what size of float to use in deep water would be perhaps six seven even eight inches long and reasonably slim line in shape to avoid line bedding into the body, I have found there is little need to use anything heavy that takes a lot of shot 4x12 - 4x14 is adequate in most depths given the conditions.


Having said that it may surprise you that some times by moving the paste this can induce a take from a hungry fish, you would be right in thinking this is contrary to what I have been saying! in the fact that paste should be kept still on the bottom as this would appear to be logic and in it’s natural state.

But! I have experimented in doing this and it can work, if you raise it off the bottom and lower it back in after it has been there for a period of time I have noticed it starts to break down, and in doing so creates a cloud which releases various nutrients , and I believe this is the reason it sometimes works.

What is also quite common whilst fishing with paste is that with a slim inserted float, line bites can become a problem, resulting in the float going under and coming back to the surface quite suddenly without connecting with the fish! even more frustrating you tend to lift into the bite and your bait is left on the bottom." a freebie to a fish". This can be perceived as a good thing or the opposite that's up to you to decide on that one. Now day;s in my opinion it is far better that the bait is in a fishes mouth.

Most anglers avoid this by fishing with a short line from the pole to the float, but in doing this with carp you need a lot of control over your reactions. Especially at distance with a pole.

This problem with line bites is not as problematic with the use of a dibber float for a number of reasons, one simply because it is not as sensitive as one with an insert, and is therefore likely to remain on the surface rather than be pulled under at the slightest touch.
You can also lay a foot or so of line on the bottom in the margins with a dibber which I personally believe can result in fewer line bites, simply because the fish doesn't swim into a vertically suspended line.

Anyway in order to summarise what I have written a great deal depends on what bait you use and also where you choose to fish with it. But you must always take into account if the weather is suitable for float fishing anyway. These day's with my eyesight deteriorating I have found very little need for a float!! …..

Tight lines!

"Thoughts on Floats"