Hot and Heavy!

I’m rather excited about this blog post as I’ve had loads of things going on recently and I’ve finally got amongst the tench on the mere!

I had two session since my last post targeting rudd and carp/cats whilst I was waiting for the warm weather to return to get those tench routing about, But nothing to report, for the carp/cats my friend from preston mark joined me, you might remember him from a previous post when we both fished the ribble last year. We tried everything we could think of but with around 20 lines in the small water, mallets and fosters we were bound to fail. I won’t be returning to that lake but was good to see mark and we will get a couple of session in on the ribble this year I’m sure. I visit waters like this and realise just how lucky I am to fish the waters I do.

12/05/12 – The mere 

back to what I know and love! Id set Saturday aside as a rest day as I was to be running the Chester half marathon the next day, Monday and the Tuesday were also booked off work as rest so I would also be heading back down the mere on the Tuesday.

The day started off horrible, the mere is in full flood and I needed my leaky waders to get to the boats, each boat was full of water, all boats were tied together, I couldn’t find my cement anchors, I couldn’t find the weed rake and there was only 1 peg above water (I’m sure it was floating though).

Stage 1

Two of my markers were still visible so they were given the magic mix treatment with a handful of maggots, all that was left to do was lie back and think of wales.

Action was hot and heavy from the off, I caught 7 fish and lost 3 in the reeds, because I couldn’t find my anchors I had no choice but to tie up in the middle of the reeds which meant I had to bully the fish through them which resulted in the lost fish.Another problem which added to the reed situation was most of the tench i caught were males, which as most of you know fight alot more than the females. 

a little squashed in the boat

7lb male, 6lb10oz female

13/05/12 - Half Marathon Day! 

 Well until youv run a mile you cant understand just how far it really is, 13 miles was set to be my furthest ever run, iv done 10 miles before and i knew i would be ok up until the 10 miles. At 12 miles i thought i was going to die, my hips started playing up and i had to stop twice to give them a bashing.

Two months of training for the picture above, the finish line in Chester City center. I finished in 1 hour and 57 minutes. Really happy with finishing and my time because two weeks before this i was lying on the office floor in work with a bad back after a gym injury. 

 

Mr Smug pants

15/05/12 - The mere

Well im just back from another session and im a little weather beaten, one minute is was sun shine and the next it was thunder and lightning.

Woodpecker on the mere.

Despite the rubbishy conditions there was the odd tench still feeding 

After this picture i was taking cover under my unhooking mat

Now iv caught a few fish its time to focus on the big girls! iv had two 8lb fish off the mere and each of those have come in the early hours to boilies, so as soon as the water drops and i can get my bivvy on the stage ill have my eyes set on an 8!

The magical Mere

What a fantastic start to spring and the tench season!! the mere is starting to come alive with fresh reed shoots, the lilly pads have just hit the surface, the club subs have gone off, we have a new sturdy double boat which I'm really looking forward to jumping in during winter for some pike sessions and we have managed to repair one of the stages with fresh planks and stakes!.

One of the many geese nesting on the mere

im starting the blog post off on a high! at the end of March (28/03/12 to be precise) i had a brilliant session catching 5 tench all to the maggot feeder, all fish going over 4lb8oz and the biggest a 5lb8oz male. i made a lot of mistakes during the session and i lost a lot of fish, but its always to be expected until you get back into the swing of things.

The magical bait with maybe a little "Something Something" added!

Mr Maddocks definatly gets the bow and handshake for this because he had already been down a couple of weeks before hand and put out the markers, raked and baited ready for me to take advantage whilst he was away on holiday so top man. all i needed to do on the day was re rake and put some of the magic mix down.

Its been a fair few weeks now since that eventful day and i have very little to report. Fish are showing in the hours of darkness (10pm - 3am) but i cant force myself just yet to brave the elements because i have alot of other stuff on the go. But two 7lb tench have already put in an appearence which is brilliant news because the fish are definatly getting bigger even when carrying no spawn.

 Its not from a lack of trying that i havent been catching, i have been down every weekend since and its just horrid down there. I have been battling with the snow, wind and rain and as a result the mere is bursting its banks! i really have been taking a beating and im sure at the end of this week the water will be over the front of stage one which i fish.

Weather speaks for itself

one from yesterday, if it looks danergous it usually is

You are now fully up to date, all we need on the mere is one week of full sun shine and once again i can enjoy a bumper catch of tench. Soon as it warms up a little more though i will be taking advantage of the night feeding spell. I said earlier about a lot of things going on and one of those is the chester half marathon which is on the 13/05/12. so im spending all week training and come the weekend i cant force myself to be woken up every other hour by a tench. But once the 13th is out of the way ill be nighting because i happen to know those big 8s love a 5am breakfast.

Until my next post

A couple of the big uns!

Now the fun really starts!

I have stood by my word and here is another update!! I have well and truly got my head screwed on now and made the most of the close seasons on the river. To peel myself away from the heavy drinking and partying I have also signed up to the Chester half marathon in May!! So training all week then the weekend is free for fishing!

So the close season, I had two weekends to try and make the most of it. All I really wanted from the river to end was a nice catch of barbel fishing two rod approach flinging out feeders on the middle Severn, a classic Mr. Crabtree approach for chub with cheese paste into chubby looking areas and something that I am always thinking about at the moment an upper severn big barbell.

With Angling effort defiantly equals rewards and before deciding on what I should fish for first I was constantly reading through fishing forums, keeping my eye on the angling times, scanning the weather and water reports before I was to make my decision.

With this knowledge now gathered and an afternoon booked off work I was heading towards Shrewsbury after some middle severn barbel.


Baits for the barbel, 8mm Pellets and cubes of meat.


Sometimes fisheries really can change over time, my big roach venue has been netted, the big perch venue is overrun with crayfish but on my two year absence from this stretch it hadn’t changed a bit, come late evening into dusk the barbel just go berserk.


9lb10z

The session started on a high with my first fish sliding over the net at 9lb10oz which is a very good fish for the stretch, followed by frustration of losing two more fish not long after due to a blunt hook.



Sun set plunging me into darkness

Come darkness I sat it out until the moon was high in the sky and all the bites dried up, the higher the moon gets the more my confidence seems to plummet with the air temperature. The ending total of the session was two barbel.


7lb11oz

With the river on top form and with the amount of sharp taps from chub i was receiving the next day I headed to my favorite big chub stretch of the severn which has done me a number of big fish in the past.


meat with a cheese paste hat

Arriving early morning I baited 3 swims with meat, magic mix and small balls of cheese paste with the plan of moving between the 3 spending half an hour in each before starting over again.


Rod ready for instance strike at any movement

Big hiccup of the day though was picking up the wrong reel and was only fishing with 4lb line, now it might sound strong enough but I really like to bully the fish out into the middle of the river from the overhanging trees and i felt the 4lb line just wasn’t up to the job.



come midday the water was starting to foam from the amount of casts I had made and I felt any self respecting chub would be the other side of iron bridge by now so with two chub caught the day was cut short and i was left for another week dreaming of the next trip which was for a last chance big upper severn barbel.

Between both trips i had been in contact with my angling companion stu maddocks and we sketched a plan together to target a new area of the upper severn after chub then splitting up at dusk and heading our separate ways for our chosen quary, mine the big barbel and stu a big chub.



Despite it being a very good recce trip for next season the new stretch failed to produce so once again i was sitting alone in the dark.

just like the week before i had the rod in hand ready for any knock that was to occur on the rod, and like electric traveling up the line the first tap i had was hit and with solid resistance, the shadow bolted for the sanctuary of some nearby trees, typical chub i thought to myself as i plunged the rod into the river to avoid the branches, feeling very confident in landing the fish which was starting to feel like it was a very good chub i put the net into the river. the chub sensing this rolls on the surface and the hook flies out!!! Even now i still can’t believe it and i would have loved to of seen this fish because it felt like it was 5lb+.

the hours went by and i was receiving no signals up the line so a change of swim was needed, i packed up and made my way to the top of the stretch in completely darkness as not to scare the fish with any unnatural light. first cast into the new swim and i managed to get the rig caught in a caught in a tree, it was starting to turn into one of those sessions. With those fish also spooked i gave it another hour before leaving in shame.

not really a fantastic end but catching that 9lb+ barbel was enough to fill me with the magic of fishing.

what’s next? i have been looking through some of my previous pictures and it was April two years ago i started catching some pbs with big perch and pike. But with so much to go at and the mere screaming at me I am unsure of what to target! im thinking bream.

Until next time.

A long lost video of a 8lb tench i had two seasons ago, cant wait for spring.

2012?

well i cant believe its been 7 months since my last post!! where does the time go, it only feels like yesterday i was on the mere flinging out feeders on the mere with clive.

i do know where my time has gone though and thats been on drinking and partying!! fishing really has taken a back seat

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3ZdheRKzMk

i even set myself a little challenge in Ocotber to catch a number of personal best fish by the close season on the 15/03/2012.

The idea of the challenge was to peel me away from the nightclubs, hangovers and cheap booze, and for the first two weeks it worked! i was able to catch this beauty of 9lb10z off the upper severn.

But with the joys of Autumn ales! Halloween, bonfire night and of course christmas those goals started slipping through the net!

Me busting out some superfly moves

Well no more excuses today is the 19/02/2012 and that desire to cradle those big uns is almost to much to bare! i had planned on a chub session today but upon looking out of my at 6am i was welcomed with snow so decided on the next best thing and that is to write about fishing instead (excuse?).

So with spring almost upon us you can expect to see this blog getting updated on a regular basis, below is a few pictures of 2012 for me so far.

Pb 1lb8oz Grayling

Chub 4lb15oz

a cold River Severn

Pike taken on a livebait

Can I keep a promise?

Well like I keep telling everyone I really am a busy man and the only reason this blog is getting updated today is because I am house bound with the rain and since iv just come back from a session I thought I would get it typed up whilst it was fresh in my head.

A week ago I was lucky enough to have a week booked off from work and with a large number of big tench coming out of the mere it would be rude not to pay it a visit before they spawn and I miss out on there peak weight.

Home for the next 24 hours

If it isn’t broke don’t fix it so baiting up was the usual hand full of the magic mix pellets on each marker with a sprinkling of 10mm source boilies. Rigs well I do like to be Mr. secret squirrel every so often so ill let you use your imagination as to which rigs I was using ;)



Action was hot and heavy from the very start and within an hour two tench graced my net with a cracking fish full to burst with spawn (picture below doesn’t do it justice it had a belly like a football)

Having now spent a few years on the mere iv got used to the timings of the fish takes, and this session was no different, try and get to sleep around 11pm, usually get woken up between 1am – 2am by a pissballer run then alarm clock at 4am to rebait and recast the rods with fresh pva bags and you can usually get another take between 4.30am and 5.30am. if I didn’t rebait and recast you don’t usually get a touch, so early bird catches the worm.


Sun set on the mere.

I ended the session having caught 5 tench all of which over 5lb but non of the bigger ones, I couldn’t grumble though because I didn’t blank.

with the hottest day of the week fast approaching plans were made to pay a visit to a grass carp pond with Mr Stu. I visited this venue last year trying to bag one of its residents but with only 3 grass carp it can be very difficult.


Stu fixing me up with a dog biscuit

Despite the SAS style sneakiness these wary grass carp once again manage to elude my capture, best chance I had was a grass carp heading straight for my dog biscuit but was wrecked by a greedy rudd which engulfed it before the grass carp could get to it. All part of the chase I suppose.


Keeping low to the ground so the grass carp don’t spook.

the grass carp clearly did a disappearing act and we then moved onto a near by pond which holds some nice carp just so the day wasn’t a complete blank.

Kio carp caught between the pads on a dog biscuit.

11/06/2011

With the big tench opportunity fast running out a night session was once again in order. Phone calls had been made in advance to see if I could have a bit of company for the session and see if I could up someone’s person best in the process because the mere holds a few of them.

Mr Clive parry was the first to take up my offer and with his previous pb being at 5 and a half pounds I told him his first fish would smash this and I promised him a pb (was it wise to say this?)


You would swear we would be staying for the week

My plan was to head up to the stages that I caught on the week before and just hope that clive could bag a few. During the day though we started the session in the boat yard plugging away with maggot feeders.


Some accurate casting needed from clive

It’s a funny place the mere though and if something isn’t right you just won’t catch, on this occasion the wind was blowing in the opposite direction and from previous experience the tench won’t filter into the boat yard without it. So all we were left to catch was some quality rudd and roach between heavy showers.



4pm soon approached and we headed back up the mere to the stages that we were to spend the rest of the evening on. Same as last week, markers had been baited with some of the magic mix with added corn and maggots. With the heavy rain showers and no cover it resulted in me getting soaking wet trousers, when the sun did come out though I managed to get them half dry on the bivvy roof and I thought I would be safe for some dry trousers until the wind decided to blow them into the mere.

With the shorts on, whiskey cracked open and the BBQ lit all that was missing was clives promised pb.

“Beeb beeb beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeb”

Piss baller for clive and with his less than speedy actions he was soon connected with an angry tench in shallow water. But was it a pb?


It was ww0o0o0o0o0o00o0o00 ho0o0o0 6lb4oz

A few more celebratory beverages and I retired to the bivvy with a starting migraine starting.

4am and I was out the bivvy and all the gear was frozen solid! I was up to finally wet a line and rebait, Shorts made it all very uncomfortable but I did it and within half an hour I had a rip snorting run but unfortunately bumped the fish.

Clive had a fish at 11pm and also a few more throughout the morning.


Clive weighing his catch

From 8am till well until right now its still raining and there is nothing I hate more than packing up in the rain so as I type this all my gear is soaking. It truly was a challenge getting all the gear back into the car but it was made easier because I managed to put clive onto some fish.

Good man

Conclusion

Think that little window of bagging a final big un could have gone for the mere this year, but I really have enjoyed the tenching this year and had some great sessions with good company. Well done on the pb clive, we will up it again next season im sure.

What’s next well rivers open next week! I can’t make june the 16th but I may be out on the upper severn to see if I can get some big upper severn chub on the weekend

Until next time

Upper severn magic, I will soon be with you my sweet.

Down the mere

Well its all hands on deck at the moment, after my last post the tench really have turned on with there feeding, the initial burst of sunshine really gave um a kick! And with a week off I had planned on taking advantage of this feeding spree!

My angling buddy stu

My first day off and i ventured down onto the mere with the man himself Mr Stuart, the Wrexham/Chester feud was put aside just for today as we are sporting gentleman. (although if he got a little close to the edge I would accidently bumped him in) falling in would have been a blessing though because the day was set to be a scorcher.


Me into a nice tench

We planned on meeting at the car park at a lovely sociable time of 10am and the idea was to plug away with maggots until we got into some fish. I hadn’t seen Stuart in a while so was looking forward to the sesh and when I got my first glimpse of him I noticed how much he has changed!! Flat stomach and lovely flowing locks (it was a wig) haha

I don’t want to go into to much detail about tactics because after all everyone holds a little back (secret squirrel ;)) but first tench came at 11am and action was thick and fast continuing right up until 3pm. Although I bumped a couple of fish and lost one around a marker the day ended on a high with 8 tench bagged. Two going 6lb and the rest being high 5s.



Team work resulted in a bumper catch of big uns

Few days later I once again found myself floating across the mere in the boat to my chosen spot which this time was to be the sandbar which meant me spending the day in the boat.

Fishing from the boat on the bar, check out the markers in distance

Now im not a massive fan of fishing from the boat, I love my space and having two rods out and all my gear in the boat leaves me cramped which leads to me getting naggy! space for casting was also very tight but being the welsh wizard it didnt take long for me to get the hang of hitting the markers which had a nice sprinkling of pellet waiting in front of them.


Police helicopter which spent the day circling the mere.

Now over the years iv started mastering the art of self takes, usually being alone I rely solely on that 10 second timer. Usually they do go to plan but whilst holding a fish and waiting for the 10 seconds to come to an end I had a screaming run on the left hand rod


Fish on!

Before I was rudely interrupted I was trying to take a picture of this 5lb+ male.


The day contuined with a few more fish making the total upto 6 tench and not a boilie or buzzer in sight.


nice female

As they say variety is the spice of life so a change of scenery was needed so a days stalking and floater fishing was to be my next adventure which came to an abrupt end. This time of year I have no choice but to share venues as the “fair weather” anglers pour out of the wood work and venues get cramped!

The venue I went to was a couple of big meres and I had aimed at targeting the carp, but with the car parks full and a busy road along side I didn’t stay around very long


Nice relaxing day by the waterside

This venue really wasn’t me, I haven’t been there before and unless I want a few easy fish I don’t think ill be back. Im after peace and quiet on a fully overgrown mere so I can creep about and spend hours up a tree, think im just a fussy angler these days


A victim of the day on the carp rig I swear by

So your all upto date, iv decided not to go out this weekend and instead get the blog updated. Although its all good fun catching decent sized tench the fire for me burns with the big girls of 8lb+ which will just about be ready to start creeping up and down them margins and when they do ill be there waiting.

also gagging to get back on the severn after some barbel! june 16th is just around the corner.

until next time

The one that got away?