The Big One Show

Hi Sorry been a while since the last post but what with the incredibly cold weather and various illnesses that I have had I haven't had the opportunity to go.  Today Aoibheann and I had the chance to pop down to Farnborough to The Big One Show.

The Big One Show was only a 40 minute drive from our home so we arrived at around 9:40am.  The price on the door was £10 for me and Aoibheann being only 4 didn't need a ticket.

  The first angling celebs we came across was Dean Macey (Twitter @DeanMacey) and Tom Dove (Twitter @TomDove11).









  Then we came across arguably two of the best match anglers in England Steve Ringer (Twitter @SteveRinger) and Adam Rooney (Twitter @AdamRooneyGuru).









   A massive thank you must go to Ian Russell from Avid Carp who not only was happy to pose with Aoibheann but he also pulled out a cardboard cut out of the Carp in the picture below which looks excellent.

   We then came across Keith Arthur (Twitter @SkyTightLines) from Sky Sports Tight Lines.

  We had to wait a few minutes to get a snap with Mick Brown but a huge thank you to the chap in the background who gave Aoibheann a free hat (I also got a free hat and t-shirt :) )

  I didn't realise from the telly how huge Iain Macmillan is but what a friendly bloke gave Aoibheann a pen and he really laughed at me getting her to say "Sausages" so she doesn't smile like she has a screw loose.

  I think though the few minutes we spent with MBE and 4 time world coarse angling champion Bob Nudd made our day.  Not only did he sign Aoibheann's DVD but he commented how confident she was.  Absolute magic.












  I also bought Aoibheann a couple of raffle tickets and she one some Sonubait new plum baits as shown below with the winning ticket :).  To be fair though she really really likes her carp pillow too :).

On Warwicks today

Warwicks

So came down again to the Newbury angling association hoping that the flood stopping me getting into the windmead complex ceased. Unfortunately still not happy to drive through it in the family car. So I came back up to Rawlings retreat and had a look around. At first i thought i may be able to get down to Dobson's by using the path between alders and Warwick's. so i loaded up the barrow and off i went. After walking for about 10 minutes I was still walking parallel to the lakes and to be honest it was hard work through all the mud. So I headed back to Warwick's as most of my fellow anglers seemed to be on willows so I settled in Warwicks as I had it to myself again.

To be honest I think I knackered myself trying the path earlier so I was not in the mood to fish. As I was thinking of packing up I heard the chaps on willows in the car park about to leave. So I packed up and moved onto the same peg 34 as my previous trip.

Willows Peg 34

Again though I felt pants so I only gave it an hour and headed home total of 2 hours fishing and another winter blank but I'll be back soon.

As an aside I had purchased new two new rods from Fishtec the TFG 12' Lite-Speed Marker and Spod rods.  I also bought the Korda Drop Zone Marker Kit but for some reason although I followed the instructions the float seems to get caught by twisting on the line.  I will need to investigate :).

Blog later......

First 2013 Session

Happy New Year everybody!

My wife and I over the last 6 or so years refuse to go out for New Years Eve as frankly it annoys us.  Pubs charge prices to get in which the other times are free.  Everywhere is packed and it takes an hour to get to the bar and be served!  So we have our own little tradition going where we have a bottle of wine, watch a film and try to get to sleep before the fireworks start.

What this does allow for is getting down to the lakes for a spot of fishing.  So up I got on New Years Day and I was down at the lakes by 8 am.  I had planned to go to Dobson's Choice Lake but I couldn't even reach the gate to get into the complex due to the flood 100 yards plus.  See picture to the right!

So I reversed up the track and decided to go to Willows instead.  Once again I had arrived early and I was the first person on the lake.  Now I had not fished Willows for about 7 years having only recently rejoined the NAA in July.

The swim my wife and I had always caught on was Peg 34 which I settled into straight away.  The picture to the left shows the view I had.  This swim has the island to the left and a "corner of snags" to the right.

 

All wrapped up.

I started off by mixing up a mix for the PVA bags.  I used dead maggot, sweetcorn, brown crumb, boilies (chopped and whole), micro pellets and another expander ground bait.  To this I added some Pineapple Goo.  Hook bait I started off on a boilie.  Through out the day I tried pop-up boilies (different colours and flavours), Zig Rigs of varying length, PVA bags, PVA Mesh, Method feeders.  Once again no joy at all.  The only consolation was that at least I wasn't the only one to blank.  Of the 10 or so other anglers on the lake I didn't see anyone catch anything.

So once again the below are a few snaps I took whilst I was just sitting in the cold. :)

To be fair I did catch one thing OUCH!!

Mmmm warm goodness of black coffee :)

Second December Session

 So it had been a week since my last session and this time I was able to stay out for a bit longer (6 hours) so I decided to go back to Dobsons Lake as I normally have it to myself and it has carp up to low 30's.

I settled into the session on peg 6 which is just opposite the end of the island.  There was a bit of a breeze and I was targeting the quite water at the back of the island.  You can see the peg from the picture above and the shots below.

After being in this swim for a few hours I was having no joy even though I changed rigs and hook baits.  I did however keep hearing what sounded like a fish jumping to my left.  So I decided to move.  I packed up the barrow and moved four swim down to Peg 2.  Whilst doing this I went through a puddle that was significantly deeper than I thought lol and get my feet soaked.

Once set up in Peg 2 I spotted the carp that was jumping and tried to cast to the area.  This was very tricky as I had to cast to my left under a tree as the swims closer to the fish were all flooded.  You can see shots of the swim below.

Unfortunately everything I tried I just could not tempt the fish.  I am not convinced my presentation was correct as there seemed to be lots of loose twigs and branches that I kept pulling out when I retrieved the rig.

I did try a bit of piking with a Savage Real Eel lure which has a great action in the water but alas not joy again.

Off to Cambridge for Xmas break and the plan is to go fishing with my Dad one day and my Daughter, Dad and Nephew on another.  Fingers crossed.

Blog later.....

First December Session 2012

Sunday morning rolled around and I had planned to go fishing so up I got had my breakfast loaded the car and I was off.  This time around Aoibheann couldn't come along as she has been poorly all week.  Also with the cold weather we weren't sure it would have been a good idea anyway.

As you can see from the picture above I had a stunning day of a bit of fishing.

The picture to the right shows my very simple rig that I used.  As you can see I have used a lead eject system as fish safety is paramount.

This was fished with a PVA bag and a pop up boilie with a plastic sweetcorn.

Firstly I put some sweetcorn in a bait container and added some brown crumb to dry out the moisture of the sweetcorn so it wouldn't melt the PVA bag.  To this I added some micro pellets.  I also crushed up some home made boilies.

So I added the "mix" to the bottom of the PVA bag then put the weight into the bag on top.

I then top up the bag with mix and then its up to your own preference.  I put the hook and hook bait inside the bag.  Some people prefer to leave the hook bait and hook on the outside of the bag.  As I say up to you.

The Glug pot to the right shows the bait soaking in Pineapple flavour.  To match this I used the Pineapple Goo.

Unfortunately most of the lake was frozen and I only saw some fish in another area 30 minutes before I had to leave so I stuck to the spot I was in.  If I had longer I would have moved and hopefully caught.

On the bright side I got some really good photos of the swim and scenery.

Blog Later....

First Winter Session

So last weekend Aoibheann and I went fishing.  The picture above shows the swim we settled on after doing a complete circuit of the Dobsons Lake which again is part of the Newbury Angling Association.

It took us about an hour to circuit the lake and get set up with all of our stuff.  At this point I thought I had left the maggots at home which would have been a disaster so after checking the bags AND the car I phoned my wife to check the fridge and by the front door.   Hmmm still no maggots so after re-checking my bags I finally found them in the barrow bag section.  Phew.  Once we had the maggots I then plumbed the depth just by the overhanging tree to the left of the swim.

Once I had gotten Aoibheann up and running I setup a basic ledger system and cast out.  Somehow I managed to hit the top of the tree on the island infront of Aoibheanns chair in the picture to the right.  After unsuccessfully trying to free it I had to break the line.  So I re-set up and cast out using the boilies Aoibheann and I made in an earlier blog.



I was very surprised that after a couple of hours the boilie still smelt the same as when I cast out :).  Unfortunately neither of us caught anything but it was a stunning day for it if not a tad windy.

Blog Later.....

Aoibheann and I making Boilies

So Friday afternoon rolled around and I had finished work so I thought I would pop over to Swindon to have a look around Hinders.  My local tackle shop doesn't really have a lot of choice when it comes to making your own boilies.  Aoibheann and I jumped in the car set the nav man and off we went.

Hinders you may recall was often seen on the Matt Hayes fishing program "Total Fishing".  Whenever they did a particle section it was normally at Hinders which is where I had heard of it and swindon being quite near I thought a pop over was in order.

When we arrived I was pleasantly surprised with the about of choice for the home made boilie enthusiast.  I purchased a few different flavours etc and left.  Friday night after the two younger children had gone to bed Aoibheann and I started to make our first "Batch".  The recipe we used which is completely made up is listed below:

Dry mix:

• 5oz Gluten & Wheat Free Flour - Mainly due to not finding any Soya Flour at Tescos,
• 4oz Semolina,
• 4oz Maize Meal,
• 2oz Super Krill,
• 1 teaspoon salt

Liquid mix:

• 4 x medium hens eggs
• 5 ml Mega Tutti Fruiti Nash,
• 5 ml Scopex No.1,
• 2.5 ml Intense Sweetner,
• 15 ml New Grange from Mainline.

Firstly add all the dry mix contents to a container.  Then mix these gently to ensure consistent mix.  Some people use a bag to shake the contents but as I did this with my 4 year old we used a bowl and spoon.

After you have mixed thoroughly add the liquid mix together in a separate container.  Ensure you do not whisk the egg as you do not want lots of air bubbles.

Once mixed you can slowly add the liquid mix to the dry mix in small increments.

When you have added the mixes you should have a ball which is malleable but does not stick to your hands if it does leave it to stand for a few minutes of add tiny amounts of the dry mix again.  We had to leave ours for about 15 minutes then it was fine.

Then as described roll out into roughly the desired diameter so in our case we rolled it to about 10 mm thick.

Then cut into lengths.  We only used the width of the knife I was using.

 

You can then start to roll them by pulling off the ends of the sausages and rolling them in the palms of your hands.  Once complete simply boils them for about 2 minutes and thats it done.

For some reason though ours seem to be pop-ups!

Not sure why any advice welcome I am going to try the recipe again but with Soya next time see if that makes a difference :)

The main thing is that Aoibheann enjoyed it.

Blog Later....