An Intimate Return

After having enjoyed our recent trip to that so very intimate of lakes,myself and Robert were desperate to get back to it again,I could not wait,especially after having sampled how delightful it is to play fish on a centrepin,as well as also finding the lake to have a population of Silver Bream,a fish which has garnered my interest even more so since reading Jeff Hatt's numerous stories of his fishing trips in search of this most dainty and enigmatic of fish.


Upon arrival at the lake,the wind was certainly blowing rather steadily and as sods law dictated,I had forgot my fleece,such is life.I decided after having a look at a few areas to setup next to an island,which had some lovely reeds alongside it as well as some nice marginal bushes,with the wind pushing bits of food into this particular corner and insects dropping off the overhanging tree at regular intervals,was enough to convince me that it looked a very good fish holding spot.




Robert had setup further down in a rather nice spot with a sunken,marginal bush adjacent to his swim and was feeding in some corn and 10mm boilies around it,he would once again be putting his feeder rod to use alongside this feature.


With it being windy and being only my second trip out with the centrepin,it was making for some fraught but amusing moments,on more than one occassion the float was close to hanging from the nearby tree like a damsel in distress.After about ten minutes,the float tilted and slid away beneath the surface and I was met by a very lively Carp of 4lb.



I had been feeding in a light amount of hemp and sweetcorn mixed with some finely blended Vitalin and strawberry groundbait from my last trip and it was proving nice and effective,it was not long before I was catching some lovely hand sized Roach as well as a few Silver Bream including one which I had wish I had weighed now,and which I estimated was between 8 to 12 ounces,I'm now really beginning to wonder what kind of potential this lake has for throwing up a large Silver Bream,as there seems to be a chance that it could.



A little later on I recived a call from Robert that he was into his first fish of the day,a frisky fish of 4lb 8oz on the 10mm boilie and like so many of the fish in this lake it was in lovely condition and still had its curtain intact.




On returning to my swim I found one of the Canadian Geese with its head inside my groundbait bucket,greedily trying to consume all the contents,it was rather shocked to see me behind it and proceeded to charge off nearly taking said bucket with it,a rather comical sight to say the least.I had been having quite a few more smaller Carp which were finding their way to my net by route of maggot.


Inbetween the Roach Bream and Carp,I had been giving a cursory glance to the odd rustle of the reeds alongside me and noticed a lovely pair or yellow lips coming up every so often and slurping down insects,I couldn't resist the temptation of some freelined bread and upon casting was hoping this fish was feeling the same way.A quick dab in the water for casting weight and a cube of bread was placed by the reeds,I noticed a vortex in the water nearby and a few minutes later a pair of lips appeared "sluuuurp",bread gone and the water erupted as the hook was set,and a lean,mean,golden torpedo tore off,the centrepin whirred into life,the fish was very lively and made numerous surging runs for the nearby island and bushes,eventually the net slipped under it and an immaculate,lean,golden bar of 4lb 8oz was sat resting in the net.



As this fish was slipped back,I decided to take a look in on Robert for a cup of tea and a chinwag about a Tench I had seen in the margins and just as we was contemplating another biscuit or two,as is so often the case,when you go to do something or eat,the fish seem to know and a bite occurs,this was such a moment as Robert's feeder rod looped round and he was into another Carp,which had an old piece of landing net still attached to its dorsal,why whoever had caught this fish could not have removed it in the first place,is beyond me and the fish could have quite easily became tethered.



With just the company of the water fowl and the odd Deer which padded its way about in the fields nearby us,an angler can't really ask for more than that.Early evening called and having seen a couple of Carp clooping about,close into the island,I felt it was time to give some more freelined bread a go.The piece of bread was met with some hesitant trepidation,as the fish circled it,mouthing it from different angles but resisting sucking it in fully.Just as one of the Moorhens were becoming a little too aware of there being some bread nearby,the line sped off across the surface and I was into a fish that decided to charge off anti clockwise around the island,crashing through the family of Moorhens as it went,their shrill cries of alarm reverberating around the lake,after an entertaining fight I slipped the net underneath another scaley torpedo of 4lb 5oz.



It had turned out a nice sunny,settled evening and the wind had also died down,it really was picture perfect and I was contentedly admiring the evening sunlight and shadows on the lake when Robert called me over as he had a fish in the net,a slim Jim also of 4lb 5oz.




I thought this may have been our final fish of the evening as the light was fading and we was pondering on getting packed up,the joy of just having the one rod to focus on meant I was sorely tempted for one last cast,you know the type "I'll just have one final cast,only one more",where you can't help yourself but really want to,with just the bread left and rest of the bait packed up,I flicked out one final crust alongside a couple of free offerings,once again near the reeds.

Daylight was fading away and a light mist was developing on the lake when I had my final full blooded take off the surface,I can't think of a more exciting way of fishing,a real adrenaline rush,the pin crackled off and this fish felt more bullish as it sped off out from the reeds and island,into the open and surged back round to come alongside some of the overhanging bushes near the island.After quite a few long runs I had a lovely looking fish of 5lb5oz as my reward.



It had been a lovely days fishing,Robert and I had thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

Intimate Tranquility Video

Intimate Tranquility

I had decided it was time to get out for a trip on a stillwater,in that respect I would say we are spoilt for choice in Berkshire,but commercials do not really do anything for me or Robert,they don't really have the same allure that most overgrown pits and quiet forgotten lakes have and with that in mind we decided to head to an old lake that we had never fished before,but had taken a look at over a year ago,after finding out that it had some Crucian and old strain wild Carp,combined with Crabtree esque surroundings was enough to make us eager for a spot of fishing on it.The lake itself is surrounded by tree's,rhododendrons and reed beds dotted along the margins,it had a magical,peaceful feeling surrounding it.

Robert had setup in his own little spot with a willow tree next to him,deciding to fish a single ledger using some 10mm boilies that I had made for him a few days prior.I decided to fish further down into an area of the lake where it was silty and had some marginal reed growth,with some nice overhanging trees one side,I decided to use some more traditional baits,bread,maggot and sweetcorn being what I had brought,along with some sweet strawberry and scopex cloudbait mixed with crushed hemp,casters and maggots.


I decided to bring the Cortesi Centrepin with me so I could learn how to use it and break myself in with it,I really could not think of any better place to do so then on such a lake,the float had not been in the water long when I caught my first fish a small roach on a size 14 and double maggot,it was during having a sip of a cup of tea that I noticed one of the lake's rocket shaped carp, slurping up a surface soup of insects,I decided to suspend a small piece of bread just below the surface nearby to where he was,slurp slurp,closer and closer it came and all of a sudden the bread was gone and the line zipped across the water,I lifted in and was met by that typical cranky run such Carp do,as it decided to go from 0 to 60mph in the blink of an eye.The Cortesi sang a merry tune and to be fair,It felt superb,but alas the fight was short lived as the hook pulled out.


Little did I know that this was going to be the topic of the day,how to lose fish due to what I believed was very soft lips,but I also partly attributed it to my lack of experience with playing fish on a centrepin.

Robert's rod had been rather silent until now,unsuprising when fishing a bottom bait during such a warm day,but later in the day I noticed him with his feeder rod hooped over and saw he had a very lively fish on,which turned out to be one of the lakes old inhabitants,a slim wild Carp of 4Lb 3oz,shaped like a golden bullet.



Meanwhile I was having a few more immaculate silvers including my first few small silver Bream,a fish I didn't even know populated this lake,which was suprising and added to the mystique of this water.The Crucians however were being as fickle as only Crucians can be and were not being very willing to say the least,so I decided to try further round the lake as I had spotted some more Carp mooching about by the reeds,another small cube of bread was slid up above the hook and this time freelined just outside of the area where the fish were patrolling,ten minutes later a light yellow pair of lips appeared and sucked in the small cube of bread,the line snaked out and I set the hook,all hell broke lose.The fish charged off along the reeds,rod hooped over centrepin whirring and me trying to gain a modicum of control over said fish,I have never felt so much feeling of direct contact with a fish prior to using a centrepin and it really was something else,every run I felt more directly involved and just controlling the pin during each dashing run was so very pleasurable.It was not long before a turbo charged torpedo shaped,wild Carp of 4Lb9oz was sat in the net.



The day wore on,the sun was now easing and Robert had without telling gone on to land another two fish both on the 10mm boilie mix including one of 4Lb and a beautiful spawn laden female of 6Lb+ which he felt needed to go back straight away,not wanting to unduly stress the fish with a picture.


I had by now landed two more Carp in another spot on corn,both were very much perfection in minature.Both looking like they had never seen a hook before.




I was also rather enjoying some good sport from the lakes Roach and got them going very well on the strawberry and scopex cloudbait,every bite followed by a lovely hand sized red finned Roach what more could an angler ask for?



Then it began,I decided to change from single to double corn,rod swung across,float settling in line with the reeds,all was calm save for the odd patch of fizzing,the float then decided to shoot out and lay flat,whilst zipping across the side of the reeds,I struck,the fish responded by stripping line at a rapid pace,the Corstesi pin crackled into life,I tried to gain line on this fish,which felt more bullish than the others had,applying some side strain,I managed to get the fish to come back directly in front of me,but this was only for a fleeting moment and this fish was clearly having none of it,deciding to take off along the far bank tree line,with me fingering the centrepin drum as much as I possibly could risk doing.After around three minutes of playing,the hook slipped yet again,the fish was gone,my heart was in mouth with excitement as I mulled the loss over a flask of tea with Robert.


This then went on to happen with three more fish,hook pulls on all three and led me to believe that they seemed to be pretty soft lipped and needed playing more delicately,which wasn't easy given some of the reeds and overhanging bushes.

It was late Evening when I had my final Carp,once more on a small cube of bread next to an overhanging tree,I sat a way back from the edge of the margins,just enough to watch the bread and see the line as it vanisehd in a flash,I purposely played this fish as delicate as I could allow given any snags and the 4lb hooklink,it was another lovely looking Carp of 4Lb6oz.




I have to say I really enjoyed spending the day using the centrepin as I felt more in control of the fish,but at the same time being so used to using a fixed spool reel,it was like going from driving a car with automatic gears to one with manual,a learning curve,but really enjoyable one and ultimately very pleasurable.Whilst Robert and I slowly packed up,we both remarked that it had been a lovely peaceful way to spend a days fishing on this old looking lake,I think Bernard Venables put it most apt when he said:

"Our times are strange times, with a sort of fever on them. Men, who should have their feet on living soil, are shut up in sky-offending towers of flats; great towns sprawl and breathe foul fumes, not air. Crafts die and machines are master; cold plastic replaces the honesty and nature of wood. We, citizens of the chemists' era, must search with a kind of panic for those rooting tendrils that should unite us to our true origins"

Amen to that indeed.

Attention To All Bloggers

Hello everyone.
Will you please take a look at the following link, http://www.ourrivers.org.uk/
Please complete the letter to Richard Benyon, the minister in charge of Defra and tell him what you think.

It takes less than 5 minutes to complete.If you have a blog, would you also copy and paste this and post it on your blog.

Thank you
Mark

Close Of Play

Where did the season go?

I don't know the answer to that either,the same as I still don't understand how the hours pass too quickly when you're fishing,once you wet a line time seems to become compressed into something outside of reality and before you know it your heading toward the end of the river season at a rather rapid pace.


With that sobering thought in mind,I decided to get out for a final fling the day before the season ended,with some liquidised bread,maggots and spam packed,I headed off to the river,with that feeling I always seem to get with the end of the season,almost sombre and wishing there was a week or two more left.Eventually after a major bout of indecisiveness over which spot to fish I decided on a pacey area of the river with a small bush as a feature.

the spam rod was placed out upstream near some sunken logs,after a little while I was gradually getting a few raps and taps on the feeder rod and the odd Gudgeon was swung in to my waiting hand,late afternoon the wind started to cut across the swim and the bites fell quiet,I had this strange feeling of not being content,I looked at the spam rod and thought to myself,why not pack that rod up and just fish a single rod and try a few spots,I guess it was because of the end of the season but I had other areas of the river racing through my head that I had yet to try,so I decided to move on to some spots with lovely looking deeper pools and weed rafts with lots of flotsam which had collected in the skeletons of the surrounding bushes.

The spots absolutely cried Chub,I fed in a light amount of bread and maggots and quietly sat down to a flask of coffee,the light levels had dropped a touch by the time I made my first cast.After thirty minutes I saw a very subtle pluck to the rod tip what followed this was a thumping take where the rod tip bent right round,I struck and felt solid weight coupled with a lunging response,the fish dived for the cover of the flotsam and underwater snags,I could not afford to give the fish too much line as I was not sure just exactly how much pressure the 4lb hooklink was under and this felt a very good fish,I decided to risk releasing pressure on the fish and this seemed to work as it came back out of it's sanctuary,eventually the silhouette of a real brute of a Chub slid into view and over the waiting landing net cord.



As I lifted it out I knew I had something very special in the net,I was still shaking with an adrenaline overload after weighing it,a 7LB Chub,I muttered to myself "way to end a season".
Strangely enough this fish did not have any pelvic fins,despite this fact it was in very good health.


I was contemplating calling it an evening on the back of such a nice fish,but decided upon one more cast as you do,the feeder sploshed in alongside the rafts of twigs and other debris,the wind started to blow steadily again and the owl's began their calling,I sat watching the rod tip, pluck pluck pluck,all fell silent and then after a gap of 15 minutes,thud,the tip smacked round,I was met by another weighty sprinting resistance,this fish decided to head out away from the rafts and into midstream,after a spirited fight another chunky,battle scarred warrrior of a Chub was in the net.The scales settled at 6Lb12oz ,I was pretty happy to say the least.



I packed up slowly and deliberately,not wishing to leave the river,not wanting the hiatus to come,but deep down I knew the break till summer would be good and all being well I would return again to this lovely place.


As I write this my thoughts are already turning to the new season and what stretches of rivers might tickle my fancy,who knows,I know one thing though,theres a quiet little lake not too far away with some slim,torpedo shaped Carp waiting to make that Cortesi centrepin sing a merry spring tune.

The Name's Marco

The Marco Cortesi centrepin that is.


After reading many positive comments and reviews especially over at the BFW site,I finally took the plunge and bought one of them.

First impressions?

Well for what this pin costs,it seems nothing short of superb,it seems very smooth and rotates freely for a long time,which is something that is very important whilst trotting.Admittedly whilst it might not be comparable to some of the top "Rolls Royce" centrepins,it doesn't sport some of the eye watering price tags that they do either.




I believe for any newcomer who wants to learn to master the joys and art of using a centrepin (myself) and for people looking for something where performance far outweighs price,this is a rather smart choice. I am rather looking forward to putting it to some use rolling some meat and trotting,as well as hopefully some spring Crucian fishing,Time will tell how well it lasts,but if it does age well then it will be money wisely spent.

A Hint Of Spring

It was early and a decidedly mild late February morning.
I considered my options,my memory flicked back to my recent and very enjoyable trip,this was enough alone to help me decide what I would be doing,on checking the fridge I had enough maggots left for a trip down the river,excellent.

Mud filled puddles slurped and tugged at my boots with earnest as I wound my way to the river,it was early morning,in fact barely light,I spotted the silhouette of a deer in front of me,head perked up and fleet of foot it hopped into an adjacent field and vanished.The morning bird chorus was quite simply beautiful and very lively reminding me so much of Spring time.

The river looked fine,a touch more pacey than last time but with that nice tinge of colour that looked spot on.I settled and decided to stick to the same plan of action that had worked last time,Spam on one rod and cage feeder and maggot on the other.


It was not long before the Spam rod had received a few taps and eventually a kamikazeDace of around 6oz was unhooked and placed back,the river looked alive with small fry and soon the maggot and cage feeder rod was tapping away each cast resulting in a bite,it was not long before I had caught a mixed bag of small fish,ranging from Chublets and Dace,to Roach and Perch,as well as a few Gudgeon.It was nice to see so many small fish about,as I have seen a few cormorants in recent years on the river.

At just gone 2pm I started receiving some peculiar bites on the Maggot rod,which I swore to myself seemed like an attack of the brothers Cray,not quite sure I struck and received a reply from the other end of a dash backward and a flick of an armoured tail, sure enough a mini lobster appeared on the surface a right set of claws on it and 8 inches in length,it was none to happy about being hooked in the leg and took upon itself to go into battle position claws raised out upward,a size 8 boot was soon administered to it.



It seemed destined this trip for the Spam rod to remain very quiet,in fact apart from the one Dace on it,it remained still.I was in two minds to switch my maggot rod over to pellet,as I felt that the maggot was not getting long enough to settle down and get through to the larger fish,but part of me really didn't feel like using pellet,so I kept on with Maggot and as the light faded the bites from small fish steadily eased off.

I was feeling unusually sleepy and my head at one point actually rocked forward,sleep was trying to lure me under its veil,no thank you came my reply,Grabbing a quick cup of coffee and hobnob I perked up again.

An hour or two into darkness the maggot rod jerked into life and baitrunner clicked into action,I was into a lunging sprinting run from a fish that tried to go into the near bank margins and toward an undercut bank,eventually playing it back another lovely broad Chub of 5Lb13oz was sat in the net,I was rather happy.



Fish thanked and slipped back to its watery home,I re-cast and sat back down,giving a cursory glance to the spam rod,last knockings were not so far off either and I was wondering if it was not to be this time.

Time sped on,a rustle was heard on the far bank,and soon revealed itself as being a fox,out for his night time prowl,he stood staring at me before dashing off into the tree line.

The Maggot rod all of a sudden lurched round and stayed like it,I lifted in and to all intents and purposes thought I had hit a snag,as there was no moevement at all for the first few seconds, then the fish woke up and plodded into midstream gradually gathering pace and heading downstream,not so much of a problem as this particular spot fortunately only had dead reed beds,slowly the fish tired and eventually entered the waiting net.



A short dumpy Barbel of 9Lb6oz was laying on the landing mat,two trips and two very nice results.The weather looks like taking a turn for the worse during next week with high pressure returning,lets make the most of the last two weeks of the season and enjoy it as much as possible.

Till next time good luck and tight lines.

Mark