RIVER WYE 26/6/15 (DAY)

Well here we are again, its been a while since i have posted on my blog but there has been plenty of fishing going on. This time after work on a Friday 6-2 shift me, Snakey and Lavis opted to try out the new stretch of the Wye on the BAA licence at Kings Caple only to find when we arrived that most of the pegs were taken up leaving us with the overgrown unfishable pegs left. It didn't look a bad stretch and we will be back in the near future to give it a bash. Anyway we opted to drive to Wilton Bridge day ticket stretch on the Wye at Ross for a few hours fishing and as you will read i think it was a good decision! There appeared to be nobody fishing in sight despite it being a well known day ticket stretch so me and Jake opted to double up and fish a peg we had before that had resulted in a lost barbel for me and a decent sized bream while Lavis moved further downstream to a peg on his own.

The weather was very warm and humid and we were pretty confident that we would have some action when the sun started to disappear,

It was already getting late so i decided to fish one rod only on the 6oz tip close to the margins under a snaggy tree, a few handfuls of cheesy garlic pellets ,skrill pellets and some meaty groundbait were thrown around the corner of the bush while i set up a free-running rig with a long hooklink baited with a hair-rigged barbel hybrid pellet and small mesh bag of halibut pellets. The bait was lowered on the spot gently and i sat back to relax.

Pristine common at 14lb

I had not been sat down for more than 2 minutes and was caught me by suprise when my tip bent round fast and hard, i panicked, put down my drink quickly and hit it.....Instantly the rod bent round and me and Jake knew i was into a good fish when it starting stripping line. It was heavy with powerful lunges and for a minute i thought i was into a decent barbel, After the fish topped it was clear it was infact my first ever river carp, and not a bad one at that! After a close quarter fight for a few minutes, whilst trying to keep the carp away from the snaggy tree, it was in the net and i was over the moon. He weighed in at 14lb, in prime condition and may not of even been caught before.

BRADLEYS CIRENCESTER 1/11/14 (24HR)

Well here we are again, and once again choosing to fish for some pike on a lake known as Bradleys,  a large gravel pit of 114 acres located on the Watermark fishery in Cirencester. Bradleys is more known for its carping and i have not managed to find out allot of information about how the lake fishes for big pike although i have seen some pictures of doubles and low twenty's on the internet, but we thought we would give it a bash seems as all our pike kit was already sorted from our last trip to the Predator Lake.

Bradleys at 114 acres!

Well this time we left a bit later due to a hung-over Lavis as he went to enjoy some Halloween festivities on the Friday night, but nether the less he was still up for the challenge. This time we already had our dead-baits to hand that consisted of large mackerel, large roach and some small joey mackerel,  but still popped into the Tackle Den to pick up a couple of bits and buy our 24 hour ticket.

On arrival the weather was not the best for pike fishing with sunshine and mostly clear skies, there was a slight breeze but nothing to fast and furious as it sometimes is due to the lake being so large and open, it was another very mild day despite now being November and a couple of days ago it was over 20 degrees at midday! We did have a plan on where to fish due to the wind direction etc but unfortunately 3 or 4 people had the same idea and had followed the wind into the gate 1 corner of the lake and there was no room, so we headed back out to gate 2 over the other side of the lake which was nice and calm behind the wind, although i would of preferred to fish gate 1 i still thought there was still a chance some of the fish found the wind irritating and were happily sitting behind in the calm spots. We found a couple of pegs close enough together to be social with plenty of room for us to fish, there was nobody fishing on the bank we were on which was a good sign and meant more water for us to cover,so we put a rough plan together then started to assemble the kit.

Once again i was fishing 2 rods and Lavis was fishing 3, i would be putting out 2 poly-ball popped up dead-baits and he would be putting out 2 poly-ball popped up dead-baits and 1 carp rod on the off-chance of picking up a carp or a tench. I opted for running rigs but this time due to the problem i had on my last blog with the lead snagging in the weed i bought some Gardner chod clips that are designed to bend out under to much pressure, you get 2 breaking strain clips in each pack, 1 strip of 3lb and 1 strip of 6lb, i incorporated the 6lb breaking strain clips under the sleeve between my lead and the running ring so if the lead did become snagged it would drop itself resulting in a safely landed fish........hopefully. Lavis also opted for the usual running rig approach and on the carp rod was fishing a chod rig with a scent from hell pop-up over a few spods of bait.

Wet Rainy Morning!

After a quick lead around the swim it appeared there was no steep shelf drop offs that i would of hoped for and it was a slight gradual slope, i would estimate around 8-12 foot about 20 yards out, but there was no thick weed at all in the swim which was a bonus! I positioned the rods with mackerel tail section on one and a large roach tail section and felt the lead down to feel for the hard donk due to the gravel bottom, i set the bobbins fishing semi-slack lines , checked my receiver and finished sorting my kit.

We both bought our spinning kit this time encase things got tough and we needed a change of approach. While Lavis was setting up one of his rods he noticed some fry being chased by some perch and with his spinning rod already set up with a silver mepps spinner he flicked it over shoal of fry and straight away he had a take. It was a little perch and he had already saved a blank!

Perch for Lavis

The traps were all set and i sat down with a cigarette and a beer. Nothing happened that afternoon or even all the way through the night despite moving both rods to different spots a bit closer in, apart from a couple of beeps caused by the wind picking up and the heavy rain we had all night, and it didn't half come down! Like an idiot i had forgotten my sleeping bag but i was lucky the temperature remained reasonably mild throughout the night. I woke up late around 12:30 pm and with an hour and a half left on our ticket i had to bust out the spinning gear! I covered my swim and a swim to the left of me with everything from tiny spinners to medium sized rubber jig baits but it was five minutes before we started packing up that something smashed my Korum Snapper rubber goldfish even tho i had already covered that bit of water 3 times with different lures.........it was great fun on light gear and the jack pike of around 2 1/2lb put up a great display of tail-walking. I had saved a blank for my blog and also christened my new lure fishing set-up!

Little Jack

Not many fish caught on this trip and no pick ups on any dead-baits but i think it was mainly due to the weather conditions and lack of features in front of us, we will return soon for another go and may well buy a pike season ticket for Bradleys and the Predator Lake that runs until March 2015 as i have unfinished business with both lakes :)

PREDATOR LAKE 6 CIRENCESTER 25/10/14 (24HR)

Well this is it, the first fishing session on my blog! I am looking forward to writing about all my fishing sessions with my good group of fishing friends from tiddler bashing on the river Frome to big carp and pike fishing on some huge gravel pits!

This time me and my fishing partner in crime Lavis decided to head back to lake 6 South Cerney also known as the predator lake in search of a pike or two. This will be the 5th session on the lake for me and we have already had some crackers in the last couple of years. The lake always fishes best in my opinion at the beginning of December time or when the first frosts arrive, but despite the very mild weather conditions for this time of the year we thought we could still wangle a fish or two. Me and Lavis both have our pike personal bests from here, mine at 29lb and his at 20lb and i have landed others of 28lb, 24lb and a small jack of about 2lb.

We popped to the Tackle Den for some deadbaits and supplies, of course i spent more money than i should of again and ended up with some new toys to play with! With no large whole mackerel in the freezer that we would usually use we opted for some medium size mackerel tail sections and some large roach and herring , payed for our 24 hour ticket and off we went with a starting fishing time of 2pm.

On arrival the weather was overcast and very mild ,there were about 4 people scattered around the lake but only fishing for the day and most of them lure fishing. We have 2 favorite double pegs here, 1 which was taken and 1 that was free around the opposite side of the lake that we would double up on in my 2 man bivvy. We loaded up our barrows and started the journey around to the other side knowing that we would be pushing through some pretty muddy terrain and helping each other over a small bridge on the way there. Speaking to a couple of the people fishing ,the lake had already produced about 4 fish that day which was a good sign, although nothing ove 11lb. On arrival at the peg we decided Lavis would be fishing 3 rods to the left of me leaving me with a large amount of water to fish my 2 rods , 1 in front of me and 1 to the right of me, the weed had definitely not died back like it usually has by December and you could see it was very thick in the margins. Lavis chucked a lead about for a few minutes and the bottom was found to be of mostly light weed with some slightly heavier weed in front of us, nothing that a popped up bait a foot or so couldn't handle!

We got the bivvy up first and then started setting up. I opted for size 4 semi-barbed trebles on running rigs on both rods, one baited with half a mackerel and one baited with half a herring, all popped up a trace length with 2 red polyballs. Lavis opted for mackerel with a similar set-up. Both rods were fished about 20 yards out, one in front of me towards the tree and one to the right towards the other trees you can see in the picture. All the rods were set and we put on the kettle for a brew and tidied up the swim.

A few hours later and just as it started to get dark one of Lavis's bobbins bounced up and down with about 5 beeps on the alarm, he tightened down and couldn't feel anything at first but after a few little knocks he knew something had hold and he struck into it. After a few minutes fight a  pike was in the net weighing in at 9lb, he had already saved a blank! Not a monster but a nice lean pike in good condition, a good start i would say. The fish was safely unhooked and returned (and i didn't even have any treble hook holes in my net!)





Just before that something had caught my attention in the corner of my eye, something crawling in the grass......it was a toad! I scooped him up and took his picture although he looked a bit grumpy with me.......We called him Terrance before putting him safely to the side of the swim by the lake.

Darkness came and the weather remained the same, i didn't even need to get in my sleeping bag all night! We recast our rods just after dark in the same areas that we had caught before.Nothing happened all the way through the night which was surprising as most of the fish we have caught have came out in the middle of the night. We had a few beers each and our usual silly talk that revolved mainly around fishing, woman, with the odd fart thrown in (haha) before cooking a chicken madras curry with naan breads and tzatziki dip and retiring to bed. Soon i was awake due to a strange noise................nope it wasn't a bite alarm it was Lavis dreaming and shouting nooooooooo in his sleep while doing something strange with his hands........


I woke up from my sleep just as it got light and was led there nodding when my receiver sounded at last! It was the popped up mackerel rod. It was a hard fast take to begin with before the line peeled off the spool slowly, i almost tripped over putting my boots back on as fast as i could! I didn't need to feel down for this fish and i hit it straight away.....it was on! I knew it was a good fish straight away, it was going nuts and stripping line like crazy, minutes into the fight it tail walked right out of the water, what a sight, this fish was definitely over 20lb and i estimated it to be around the mid 20 mark. A few minutes later it kited to my left towards the weed in the margins and i just could not stop it! It wasn't long before everything locked up and i had that gutting feeling.....again. The rod was put back on the rest with slack line as the fish was probably still on there and was just sat in the weed sulking, this has happened before and the fish freed itself from the weed before the fight was finished and the fish was landed........but this time it did not,i even stripped down to my boxer shorts and got in the lake to free the lead but the bottom was too soft and too dangerous to go out any further, i felt him still on there but the lead was caught in a snag in the margins and the fish was about 5 yard out in front of it, if the lead had came free from whatever it was caught one i would of stood a better chance. Eventually after pulling the line weakened from trying to free him and i snapped up leaving a curly pattern on the line from whatever it was snagged on, goodbye pike, and even worse the pike was now carrying around my trace around, although i was gutted did learn something and from now on when using running rigs for pike even if the weed doesn't feel that bad i will tie a weak link between the lead and run ring so if the lead gets snagged it will snap free. The rods were both baited and put in the same spots with the 6 hours we had left.

Nothing happened for the rest of the day but to be honest we knew we had missed the prime time going by what we had caught before. We packed up the kit and had a spin on the way back around the lake as nobody else was there. With no interest on the spinners, to much weed and the wind picking up we headed back to the car before popping in to a McDonalds on the way home, now i could drown my sorrows in grease hmmmmmmm!

We will be returning this year when the weather is colder and the weed has died down, probably December time, this time to catch the one that got away and maybe even bigger, another blank for me  tho and things are not going well recently, but hey thats just fishing and its what i love for :)

A lean 9lb pike caught on a mackerel tail section