Stock and shares.....oh and a few perch too!

Yes please!

Hi all...It's been a manic week at CBS Carp Bait Specialists this week. I've rolled a huge quantity of bait and sorted out masses of website work etc. I feel great for it though and it's a relief to get the burden off my heavy shoulders.

First proper Perch of the session

We now have the pleasure in being stockists of both Katran Fishing Lines and Saber Products as well.

This has given us a massive boost to our available range and what we can now offer you guys at exceptionally good prices! So if yo get 5 mins free take a look and pick yourself up some bargains!

http://www.carpbaitspecialists.com/apps/webstore/

A stunning winter mirror

On the fishing front I've managed two lovely sessions on my local club lake this week. The first session was on my own and consisted of a brief 3 hour afternoon stint float fishing the margins for the Perch again.

I targeted a lovely overhanging dead tree root and found a spot with around six feet of water just off the rod top. I baited this up with a combo of micro pellets, prawns, betain and halibut pellet groundbait, chopped lobs and red maggots.

A real old brute!

It was tough to start off with and took around an hour and a half before I received any sort of indication of fish activity in the swim. The sun started to fade away and so did all the other anglers. This left me in piece with my target fish. I managed a couple of nice low double figure carp just before dark and a string of small perch to about 12oz. I also caught a stunning pound and a quarter Roach, which was a real joy to catch.

A lovely last fish of the day!

As the light gave up the fishing got very tough but I managed a pair of nice perch to a pound and a half and another nice low double carp.

My next session was with my good friend Bob Wilcockson who came for a day visit from his home in Newbury. We got to the lake just after 10am filled with bacon sarnies and a few cups of filter coffee!

To our amazement the place was empty apart from 2 bailiffs. A great choice of swims but the wind was ferocious again and heavy rain spelt trouble ahead. Albeit we made the most of the time we had and cracked on with swim choice and getting set up.

We decided to sit together as it gave us a good chance to chin wag the day away. Bob opted to fish a pair of carp rods to both margins of the near bank and that of the island.

Bobs first fish was a cracker!

 I on the other hand opted to float fish and chase whatever came along! My swim kicked off from the word go and I managed a really decent haul of cracking sized bream to nearly 6lbs each!

There were plenty of quality roach and some beautiful small perch to about 12oz coming to the float.

Beautiful commons made a regular appearance

Bobs quiet start soon turned around and before he knew it he was playing a stubborn hard fighting common of around 14lbs. He was elated with the fish as it was his first fish of the year after a long break away from angling.

Thankfully he seems to now have the bug back in a veracious way! Thank god! He didn't stop at the one fish though and continued to bag up all day long with 6 stunning carp with an average weight each of 10lbs+. He also managed to catch his first ever fish on the Center Pin Reel! Well done BOB!

Bob Wilcockson with a stunning winter Common!

We fished up until darkness but failed to bag any really big Perch this time...they seem to be a little elusive this season?? We had a wonderful day out together and above all, left the lake with huge smiles on our faces and the pleasure of having made a great friendship! We both look forward intensely to our next chance to fish together! 

Epic prawns!

Joel caught some nice fish including his first carp of 2014

The weather has taken its toll on my winter fishing this year and although I really wanted to spend my colder months chasing river Pike and Chub its just not happened due to the endless floods that have occurred. Lets hope they subside soon and provide some respite for those poor individuals who've been worst hit with flooded homes and businesses.

The lakes have been fishing a little harder in the wet weather now too. I spent a long cold day down our club lake with my buddy Joel for just one small perch and a Carp each from the margins. All taken on glugged prawns.

A stunning winter common

I'm still after a big old stripey and I nearly caught one this week. I ventured down the club lake early on in the day to meet Gary and Colin there. We had a good chin wag before starting off and I chose to fish the float to my right, just off a small bed of reeds and Gary took the next swim along to do the same. Colin tried a swim near to the islands.

It was a sincerely tough old day out there and very few fish were caught during daylight hours. Gary and I were probably in one of the better spots for this time of year and despite the cold wind being off our backs, it was difficult to get any sort of really good bites. I started on a size 6 hook with a huge tiger prawn and ended up scaling right down to a size 20 and a single red maggot, just to get something that resembled a hittable bite!

Just a small one!

Lovely evening

Eventually this technique started to score and I started to grab a few nice bream to around 5lbs. These made up for the fact that pretty much nothing else was showing any interest in our baits. Gary started to find a few skimmers as well and it wasn't long before the pair of us had taken about 15 bream each.

Gary disappeared around 5pm and Colin left too. He managed a nice mirror of around 8lbs on surface fished bread of all things! In February! I stayed on a bit longer and fished into dark....

As the light faded I switched back up to a size 6 hook again and switched back over to a nice big tiger prawn glugged in our wonderful River Monster Amino compound with DMPT. I started to introduce a few loose prawns and some maggots around two spots I fancied might well hold a perch or two. I lost my first fish to a tree root and quickly tackled up with a replacement hook length. Within a few minutes I was cradling my first of the session at around a pound and a quarter. 

Glugged prawns did the trick

A bit better at a pound and a half!

After a couple more casts I decided to try my other spot further to the right of the swim. This prompted a very quick bite and I was hooked into a very large fish....It came straight to the surface to my right hand side and I could see it was a huge perch of well over 4lbs! I couldn't believe my eyes! What happened next brought me to tears....As I was playing the fish it became entangled in someones discarded strong mono that they hard broken off in the reeds. I just couldn't budge the fish and as she rolled around trying to shake the hook, my hook link parted company with me and the fish.

I fell back in disgust and felt absolutely sick in the pit of my stomach.....gutted! I retied a hook length and tried again near the hot spot. A few minutes passed by and I received another perch take on the prawns. This was no where near as big but another pound and a half fish made things seem a little less strained.

A nice 13lb common to end the day!

I decided it was time to pack up so I placed my float tight into the margin in front of me while I packed up the rest of my gear. With in seconds I was into another fish, this was a carp though. A good scrap ensued on my light weight kit and it took a few minutes before I subdued the fish. Around 13lbs and a nice common to end the session.

I'm really hoping that the weather subsides a little soon as I have the want to get out and catch a few nice Grayling on my Nymphing kit. I have a nice box full of nymphs ready to cast out on my gorgeous 9 foot 5 weight fly rod! Can't wait!