A positive note!

Quality time with my youngest, Natasha...hard earned!!

Hi guys......well after such a crappy few days with the animal mishaps and other stresses etc it felt like our short family break was in dire need!

We had 4 days down south with family and it was truly fantastic to see all our loved ones again after a 6 month gap. I got to spend some quality time with my best pal Stu and his gorgeous girls.




We had the opportunity to chat lots about general stuff but even more so about the oncoming river season! Seems the 6 week wait still left can't do one quick enough for us all!

Stu, Nik and Milly! xxxx

After the little break it was back home to the grafting of bait rolling and sending out orders....business is now very good with regular customers coming back for more every week! We told you guys it was good bait!! lol

Just before we went on our excursion I did a quick overnighter on the new pool. I got down the waters edge mid afternoon with the idea of spending a few hours fish watching. This didn't come to light as another guy was on the water and we spent a few hours chatting and drinking copious amounts of coffee! This only meant one thing for me.....about 12 trips to the nearest tree for a pee due to my stupidly small slack bladder!

Eventually I managed to get my kit sorted for the night and after all the pleasantries were exchanged I made haste to get my rods out before darkness fell. I just managed to get sorted in time and got under the covers for a nice nights kip. This was interrupted no less than 4 times by Mr Bream!

All around the 5-6lb mark but not what I intended to catch this time around! The sun started to break through the early morning mist around 7.15am and just as I was starting to come to life, a stunning dark coloured common cleared the water just over my baited area. I sat up and watched intently and as if by my own control the right hand rods bobbin almost shattered the rod blank! I sprang up and grabbed the rod to be met by a solid resistance. The fish had found the weed and was holding deep in it!

Eventually a lovely common on the Mimicker hooklink and leadcore!

A good thorough helping of pressure from my end gently eased the fish back and before I knew it I was sinking my net under another beautiful common of just under 11lbs. Not a monster by any standards but my what a stunning looking fish! I'd decided due to the shyness of the fish, that I'd start using the new Katran Mimicker hooklink and leadcore with one of our 3.5oz cog leads and a size 8 saber hook. This really nailed the fish and showed the effectiveness of the rig for my next trip.

The next outing was to be on Monday 28th and after spending the day rolling bait I decided to get the gear back down the pool for another go at the place. It was almost dark on my arrival and after putting out about a kilo of red x a managed to get the brolly and bed up together before the heavens opened! And by crikey did they! Not the best time to find out you have a leaky brolly! After 7 years of abuse she'd finally given up the ghost. Oh well, a makeshift plastic bag on the inner arms diverted the flow of rain water into a corner away from my already soaked bedchair cover.

I just managed to get my head down for some well earned shut eye when the left hand rod slammed off at a rate of knots! The take was so violent that it snapped the screw holding my stage stand in place clearly off, taking the whole bloody thing over! I was up and on it in a flash thank god, or I might have been a rod and reel down! The fish fought very hard for a few minutes before succumbing to the net with a weed covered nose. The new rig was doing the trick from  the off! I'd also decided to up the size of my hooks and hook baits from a size8 to a size 4 and the baits from a 16mm to a 22mm! This had the desired effect of removing the pest bream from the equation! I weighed and photographed the fish up the bank and after inspection I settled on 19lb 14oz. Another very pristine common carp. My forth from the tough little venue. I released the fish away from my swim and got another rig tied up ready to go out to the spot. I put around a hundred freebies dotted about the swim and made the cast into the inky blackness. Plop, bank on the dollars I thought!

19lb 14oz of golden beauty! AMEN

I got back into bed and made myself a hot drink whilst surveying the chances of another fish???? Could the swim do 2 in one night after producing one so early on? I'd have to wait and see.....I settled down for the night but found it remarkably difficult to sleep even though I was totally smashed. I lay there thinking about the list of jobs I had to complete the following day amongst other silly thoughts! Eventually the thoughts turned to those of the mind of someone past consciousness and my next recollection was that of a belting take on the same rod at 4.10am! Another blistering take that clattered the bobbin against the rod butt with incredible power! I stumbled out of bed feeling drunk from sleep and hit into another very strong fish. Fortunately she came out the weed with little grief and all to quickly she was in the net looking back at me through the light of my head torch. At 19lb 3oz another common, I was thoroughly pleased to have cracked 2 in one night from a water that struggles to do a fish a month at times!

19lb 3oz and two for the night! Made up!

I packed up around 9am and left about a kilo of Red X in the swim and headed home for a shower and a days work in the unit rolling bait for customers. It got to 5pm and I was just itching to get back down the pool for another go! I finished my work for the day at 6pm, had some tea, kissed the wife and kids before reloading the kit into the motor for round 2! I arrived at the pool around 7.15pm and again found myself to be the only one there....Lovely! The gear was quickly unloaded and ferried round to the swim before unleashing another torrent of Red X 22mm's for em to munch on! The left hand rod was into action within almost no time at all and at just 9.15pm I had my first take. Another monster of a bite! This one felt a lot bigger than all the fish I'd hooked in there to date and she found the weed and lily pads with too much ease. I applied as much pressure as I dared and with slow and steady effort she came towards me. I kept the pressure on steadily and she came out into open water. I got the net ready and held on with a tight grip as she came to the surface of the water. As I reached out to net her the hook lost its hold and I was left to see her slip back into the darkness with my rig unattached! I felt sick!

After the loss of the big fish, I just had the feeling that was going to be my lot for the night but I still made the effort to tie up another rig and PVA bag before retiring to bed for the night. I awoke around 7am to find that I'd had no more action on either rod. As I awoke I saw a huge mirror crash out over my right hand spot but I had to be away at 7.30am so sitting around to wait for a take wasn't going to happen this time! Gutted! Never mind, she'll be there for my next session I hope!

Tight lines all
Keith

Continued success!

After the very successful trip to Herefordshire at the weekend, I was hoping my luck would continue on my tricky new little water I'm concentrating on.....Well I was again lucky! My first trip up there produced a stunning 24lb+ common on a quick overnight session and this time was no different!

I made the drive over late afternoon, after a terrible day at home.....The last few weeks have been a little difficult to bear at times. We had a few mishaps with the business and a nasty incident of our beloved female tortoiseshell cat Chloe having a fall in the garden at home and breaking her neck. She died in the wifes arms on the way to the vets, which was extremely sad for us all as a family.

To top this off, If you can believe it....our oldest cat Ash suddenly came down with a severe case of heart disease and after a trip to the vets on Tuesday, we had to make the conscious decision to have the gorgeous boy put down....we were all devastated to say the least. Well after such a horrid day, there was only one way to spend the evening consoling myself. Get the rods out on my quiet little water!

I arrived down the pond to find as usual that it was empty! Just the way I like it! I dropped into the same spot I fished last week and opted to fish two very likely looking spots that i had been gently baiting with the ever awesome CBS Red X boilies! I've been trickling them in over the last week or two into a few likely looking spots and it appears the fish seem to like having a few free meals without the fear of a hook in amongst the offerings.

I got the rods out into the weed free spots and threw out around a kilo of Red X around the two rods. I presented a critically balanced pop up on one rod and a Red X Pop up just pinned to the deck on a KD rig on the other. Both using Katrans amazing Joker hook link, which blends in incredibly amongst all the bottom debris! I sat back with a coffee and awaited the light to fall away.

I snuggled up and listened to the owls and a male fox calling and drifted off into a very peaceful sleep. This was much needed after such a busy and depressing week....It wasn't too long before a few liners started and the next thing I know I have a bream around 5lbs in the bottom of the net. Not what I came for but a welcome catch all the same. I must remember that introducing pellets isn't the best plan of action in a bream heavy water!

Well, needless to say my next fish around mid-night was also another bream! This one again around the 5lb mark....I decided to introduce a few more boilies without the pellets this time and recast into the inky darkness in the hope that my next take would be a chunk!

I got back into my sleeping bag and tiredness hit me like a train! I was in the middle of a very deep sleep and as usual I had turned my buzzers down to silent and placed the sounder box just above my face in the arms of the brolly. This insures that I hear the take and it keeps the noise down to a dull shrill! Around 4am I was blissfully counting sheep when there was the most viscous take I think I've ever witnessed from my right hand rod! Using braided mainline only intensifies the take but it was so violent that when I jumped up to grab the rod, I actually struck the wrong rod as it was causing so much movement on the stabilized buzzer bars!

After hitting the wrong rod and realizing my mistake, I chucked the rod down into the bush and grabbed the hooked fish....It didn't really do much to start with as it was heavily covered in weed. I pulled and kept the pressure on the fish and gently she came back through the weed and small lily pads. Eventually it became lighter and she hit the surface free of the weed and lead free too. I quickly stuck the net under her and she went ballistic at that point....thrashing around in the net, I made sure she had plenty of mesh and water to move around in before going to set up the mat and camera.

My second fish from the new water and at 20lb 6oz a stunner to boot! Well happy!

After my last session and forgetting my remote camera control, I was this time determined to get a decent pic of results! I spent a few minutes insuring all was set up okay and that everything was wet and ready for the impending kipper! I lifted her free of the water and onto the waiting mat and sling. At 20lb 6oz I was greatly appreciative of yet another stunner common of over twenty pounds. A great start to my new campaign!

I'm having a few days away from the bank and a bit of time off with the family over Easter now. Going down South to spend a bit of time with loved ones.

I hope you all have a wonderful Easter and just remember to enjoy the company of your loved ones as life is so short!

Kindest regards
Keith x

Odds and sods.....

Wild torpedo!

Jay with a nice little common

Hi all! It's been a little tough getting out to fish of recent as the business has taken off in such a way that I've been an almost permanent fixture at the boilie rolling tables the last few weeks!

Not complaining of course as it's great to be busy.....I've had a couple of short sessions, a pair of overnighters and a quality day out last Sunday. I'll start off with a brief day session I had on a local club lake with my good mate James.....I arrived around 9am and set up in one of the less popular swims as the usual suspects were hogging the best pegs and firing all over the entire lake???

Great start to my new water attack!

Never understood why people do this? The majority of fish are under your feet in yet casting to the other side of the lake seems a more viable option....I on the other hand set up two rods to fish my nearside marginal shelves. These were set up with the essential Prawns glugged in our awesome CBS DMPT glug!

It didn't take long before I had some action and a stunning wild looking common snagged itself. A great little scrap ensued before eventually I had hold of her. The rest of the day was very slow and I only managed a shed load of bream for the rest of the day. James had a couple of nice tench and finished off the day with a lovely fish off the margins on a CBS Cream Divine Pop Up!

Hectic fun on the top in mid April!

The following week I decided to do my first overnighter of the year on one of my new target waters...It's a very tough little cookie to catch on and it's almost un-fished to be honest. Just the way I like my waters.

Well, I settled down for my first night of the year and introduced a little bait into my swim. Things were very tough and the temperature dropped away dramatically over night and thick fog formed on the lake. There was little action and I suffered my first blank session in as long as I can remember!

Immaculate uncaught common! Awesome!

I ventured back out almost exactly a week later to find things a little warmer and drier than the prior week! This had seemed to spur the fish on a little and after a quiet few hours into darkness and after a brief snooze. I was awoken by a gentle few bleeps sounding from my left hand Delkim. I watched the rod tip and sure enough it was nodding away! I struck into a good fish which plodded around in the thick weed before eventually finding the net and awaiting scales. 24lb 2oz of common gold! A cracking start!

Great fun on light rods!

My next session out was a brief few hours of surface fishing with my good mate Joel. We fished a club water with our floater gear and found around 15 fish each were happy to oblige! Great sport so early on in the year!
We even managed a couple of nice fish on retro tactics, using a center pin and float tackle in the margins to tame a handful of lovely commons!

Sunday saw a cold start in Herefordshire but after a long drive up to a new venue, Ceri, Joel and myself were very happy to find our chosen venue looked in top notch form....A 4 acre estate lake set back in beautiful countryside was to be home for the day. With an unknown stock size or quantity, things looked a little tough from the onset with just Joel landing a couple of small roach on a corn/lobworm combo on the float.

Beautiful common for JB!

After some hours of struggling, I decided to put out a carp rod at the windswept end of the lake, into an unfishable corner. This did the trick and just quarter of an hour later I was hooked into a lovely pale coloured common of 13lbs. This fish had never seen a hook as far as we could see!

It wasn't long before the lads followed suit and within the hour we had a couple of rods placed along the far margin with a few Red X and Monkey Nut boilies aimed at the fish! Joel was next to find a fish and a blistering run came from his Delkim! A great fight ensued and finally he subdued a stunning common of just under 16lbs. Ceri managed to hook one then just as we were weighing Joels fish! This was a little smaller but the peach of the day at 13lb 8oz and a really pretty scaly mirror carp.

Ceri with the most stunning of Mirrors! WOW

It just goes to show that there are still a few very underfished waters out there even in this day and age! You just have to be prepared to hunt around for them and look in unusual places! Don't ask me where the place is though as this is my little secret for now! I can't wait to get back!

Lots more fishing coming up soon. I'm off out tonight for a brief overnighter on the tricky little pool, hoping for one of the bigger chunks! I hope you all have a wonderful Easter and good break from the grindstone! Tight lines all and see you soon.