Marsh farming again

So I'm back to my favourite day ticket water with just one thought on my mind at this time of year.

Crucians at maximum weight just before spawning !!!!

Last week I popped down & chatted at length with a nice old chap fishing Harris lake at Marsh Farm.

He was fishing in a deeper than normal  marginal swim, his tactics were waggler fishing & just one rod.

I watched him catch fish after fish & his swim was fizzing with activity at midday of all times.

This lucky chaps morning passed with countless crucians up to 3lb & tench to 5lb, let me tell you this man (as nice as he was) was no Martin Bowler, far from it. Using a 25 year old, heavy rod, 8lb mainline & a hoofing great size 10 hook.

Not a bit of finesse at all, something I've found so vital with the shy biting crucians.

I came to the conclusion the main reason for his extremely lucky catch was the brisk wind was on his back & his large unbrella was sheltering the water up to a rod length out.

This was protecting the swim & giving him excellent presention of his waggler with the deep margins only 6ft from the bank.

I was straight on the blower to @dangriff75 & quickly organised our next fishy trip as soon as possible before the fish started spawning & became occupied with other things.

The forcast for our chosen day was looking sunny & warm, strangly I've have some good catches in these conditions but as the day drew close the weather completely changed with heavy rain.

As we thought it wouldn't be as busy as it might be, so I picked up dan at 7am heading off for a big coffee & a tasty yet unhealthy breakfast en route to the lakes.

As we arrived I was ruing that decision to have an extra hours sleep, with 10 or so cars in the carpark, my heart sank further when I walked up to the deep marginal swim that the old geezer had caught so well a few days earlier.

It's taken & so are the surrounding three swims.

I knew of one other swim that I've heard has produced some good cru's in the past & it's rairly fished as the grass on the bank was quite long.

Having never fished it before I needed get started & quickly, maybe sneak a fish or two early on. 

Without wanting to spook any fish I didn't plumb up 4 the first hour & just got a bait out as quickly as I could.

A few twitches in a few casts with double red maggot & I had a very positive bite & my carbon bent well into a decent fish.

But my excitement is short lived as after a few shakes of the head & he's back to his watery home. I checked the hook & it's still sharp, just one of those things I guess but never the less hugely frustrating.

After that the wind picked up & I struggled keep the float & still, I didn't feel comfortable that the presentation was good enough. After a biteless 40mins my moral was low & I had to give up the float rod.

My old faithful back up was employed, 

A pair of sonik 1.5tc rods with my size 40 Okuma freespool reels, 6lb mainline & method feeders with a short 5lb fluorocarbon hooklink & 16 hook.

I wanted to try something different & I bought a pair of banjo feeders in the excellent onsite shop, with the thought that I can fish groundbait or sticky pellets & bury the hookbait inside without worrying about a possible tangle.

    My Preston 15g Banjo feeder

As a fisherman wanting to catch the best I can every single time, it's good to adapt to new theories & tactics & field test them so to speak when I can.

The rods are out but rain did not stop all day long 

As you might spot I'm using alarms, not something I would normally do at this day ticket but I've bought a set of the new ATT alarms & receiver, so this was as good a time as any to give them a whirl. I've heard you can have problems matching them up with Stow bobbins (that I really love using). Apparently the indicators get stuck in the wheel of the ATT's & damage the line, I can't see it myself but we will wait & see today.

After a slow start both me & dan started to get lots of liners & we hovered over the rods, waiting to slowly lift into the fight.

Two or three runs each resulted in small male tench around 2lb max, but my god they scraped amazingly hard for their size, putting in a superb account of themselves, most of them had minimal  spawning damage, but of course were fighting fit after being preoccupied with the females latey.

It's still slow going so I decided put a rod on the near side marginal shelf, where I prebaited for the float earlier, this proved a good move as my rod ripped off a minute after recasting, a good, spirited fight & as it gets ready to net it's a Crucian, finally they have turned up.

A nice clean fish of around 2lb

    Just under 2lb & a lovely start

With that I thought that might kick start the feeding but it didn't.......

About 2pm dan had a great run & the line melted off his spool, the bend in his rod told me this must be a Tench, really thumping about & turning from left to right & back again. As I readied the net I saw a big paint brush-like tail as he burrowed freedom, in the net it looks a good'un, after unhooking we put him on the scales.....

4lb 4oz & dan let out a sigh, "this soaking has been worth it then" hahaha

Dan's 4lb 4oz turbo charged tench

The next run was my rod to the far Island  & after a stop start run I struck into thin air, what happened ????

Within a second I understood what was going on, I automatically started reeling quick, he has come towards me,

Slack line safely back on the spool, I felt him kicking back, I'm lucky but game on. It feels a good tench but let's wait & see, a barnstorming fight, really thumping about, I ease the clutch off just as dan nets the fish.

As dan looks in the net & then peers up at me, his face tells me it's clearly a beast & I start to quiver with excitement.

On the mat it looks even bigger & this must be a pb, the scales tell me yes 5lb 10oz of lovely male tench

An angry 5lb 10oz male Tench, a new pb & great scrap

So I broke my pb by only 5oz but I'll take that, I can only imagine a what a 10lber looks like.

After pictures he goes back very much fighting fit & I'm feeling very pleased with myself

Within a 20 mins my margin rod screamed off & this felt altogether a different fight, slow plodding head shakes, as it surfaced my legs went to jelly, "dan get my net" I said as I left it just out of reach, "it's a good Crucian"

What turned out to be a fairly poor fight compared to my new pb tench, I peeled back the net to reveal this biggest Crucian I've even seen, I had them to 2lb 10oz last year but this looked a whole different beast.

3lb 3oz, a beautiful Crucian, another pb, what a sesson & I now agreed with dan, today was worth a soaking !!!!

         3lb 3oz of Crucian gold

We had a few more smaller tench through the day, up to 3lb+ & dan finally had a couple of small crucians.

As we packed up & got soaked again loading up the car, I had to ask the other anglers in my normal swim if they had anything ??

My smile grew bigger as they told me it was an awful day, a few very small tench & no crucians, I shouldn't laugh but I will, hahaha

I might not have had my pb's without having to try an untested swim & once again I've learnt a lession.

I still want to catch some bigger fish on the float here but I will have to leave that thought for another day

As we drove home looking like two drowned rats all we smiled away & talked about my two pb's & our next plan of attack for the next marsh farm session !

Fly fishing for Trout this time

So I'm up at silly o clock & I'm like a child on Christmas morning, excited ain't the word.

It seems quite a while since I had a proper day out & of course since I last fishy blog, but as I fumbled about for my lucky fishing cap, I'm still half asleep.

I feel very lucky to be traveling to these lakes to fish this morning with my old angling pal Michel (a crazy & fanatical Frenchman)

As his guest I'm heading to Clandon park lakes, a beautiful stately home & over 100 acres of picturesque English countryside with three spring fed lakes of varying sizes from 1 acre to around 10 acres.

So I arrive spot on time & Michel is nowhere to be seen, eventually he turns up 30 minutes late looking rather worse for ware, this man loves a good quality whiskey almost as much as his fishing.

Anyway we drive for a mile through thick forest on a dirt track, thankfully it wasn't too muddy from last nites crazy rain & hale storm

We pull up in a small car park of sorts & unload the gear.

I say unload the gear but in reality that took all of a minute, we were very much ready for a day of roving & keeping on the move, so a small bag, stalking jacket, Polaroids, rod/reel & landing net was all that was needed.

As we walked past the thick vegetation a clearing appeared & there was the first small lake, an acre in size & beauifully crystal clear & shallow water with plenty of bays, overhanging trees & weedbeds.

Weedy & clear but there are a few fish moving

In fact the weed covered the whole bottom of the lake, thus meaning a floating line was the only option with a longish 6ft hooklength of 6lb.

My one & only fly rod was a Sonik SK4 9ft 5/6 weight rod & reel. Fly wise, I was very much in the hands of Michel & this is what he dug out for me below.

Don't ask me the name of this fly, I haven't a clue

The wind had picked up while we set up I noticed plenty of bankside obsticals, casting this fly any kind of distance will be a huge challenge for a novice fluff flinger like me.

Never a truer word spoken as over the next 30 mins I skilfully managed to depost 3 of Michel's favourite flies high in the tree tops behind me, now that takes real skill, hahaha.

After another 30 mins had passed I had improved 10 fold & was casting a hell of a lot better but was still not getting maximum distance, this could b a problem as I hadn't seen any fish in the margins. 

Not many fish were showing on the top either, but I'd seen a few zooming about mid water, I just couldn't get my fly on his nose quick enough (or even within 20 yards hahahah).

A change of swim with a few less bushes & trees was the order of the morning for me. I found a few fish halfway across in the slightly deeper water. I should b able to cast three or four rod lengths out. Creeping down the bank & cast was made just past the small shoal, as the weighted green headed fly sinks nicely, I start a slow figure of eight retrieve as the fly moves between two fish.

One spooks & heads off to the santuary of a weed bed, the other smaller fish turns & hovers on the spot with eyes fixed on my fly, almost seeming to be thinking it through, "Should I stay or should I go now ???"

I kept the slow & steady retrieve with my hands shaking, he can't resist.... 

With minimal movement he zooms up to the fly & with a shake of his head, he takes the fly, just as the line twiched & I set the hook.

It was a surprisingly gentle take really.

I've had a few trout over the years & I love the way they scrap, jumping, changing direction in a split second & long hard runs especially in shallow water. 

These text book trout movements were all witnessed with this salmonid. 

As I worked hard to keep him under control, a couple of minutes later he was in the net & just call me Hywel Morgan........ not.

But all jokes aside is very pleasing to see your thoughts put into action & eventually  work out.

First fish caught at 3lb & hooked nicely in the scissors 

The next few fish for me & Michel were caught in the deeper water of the far right swim, not sight fishing which was a shame but you have to follow the fish when you find them.

   Second fish in the net at 2lb 2oz

We decided to move onto the next lake, the medium sized one, about 2.5 acres & just as beautiful as the first but much deeper in places & with that the possibility of a better stamp of fish.

 

Lake number two, what a stunner !

As we both made a few casts, no signs of fish at all but Michel was casting right to the middle of the lake, I decided to creep about & find a few margin fish by the reeds.

A masterclass in fly casting from the Frenchman

Moments later a fish surfaced in Michel's swim & he quickly & skilfully placed his fly on a sixpence, right into the ripples of water where the fish had showed itself.

Two twitches later & he's hooked into a nice fish.

With a flick of expensive carbon.. He's in

The fish realised he was hooked & shot off to the other side of the lake, Michel is on to the backing already.

He turned the fish eventually but he's stays in the deep water, this is a much better fish than we've had so far.

I started to ask lots of questions like an excitable little boy, Michel answered a few & then he replied with "Mark shut up, I've gotta concentrate", not another word slipped from my mouth, hahaha

It's a very powerful fish & Michel can't get  the trout's head up as he takes him on a tour of every single snag all the way along the margins of this bank.

At this point my estimations in my head are about 6lb as it flaps around & tires slowly.

I made a move for the fish & I make a complete hash of it as the trout gets under the net.... Sorry !!!

He's getting closer, slowly but surely

A few more hairy minutes passed but I finally got him in the net, he only just fitted by the way, as I lifted the fish up, my word it's heavy, I underestimated the size hugely.

After dispatching the monster we got it on the scales & they ticked down to 9lb 12oz.... What a magnificent example of a big trout

A typically relaxed Michel with this his prize, all 9lb 12oz of stunning rainbow trout 

The next couple of hours I failed to get my casting to the distance where the fish were hiding as Michel caught a few more fish in the 2 to 3lb mark, although nothing close to the size of the near 10lber.

A touch of frustration came over me at this point, my casting isnt good enough really, but I kept at it.

I made a cast under an overhanging tree in the margins to my right hand side, I didn't see any fish but after two or three long pulls a rainbow made a mistake.....

I had a fish on.

After short-ish but very spirited fight I had him close in & I though it could be a pb.

As normal the nerves kicked in & for once my instinct kicked in too, I loosened the clutch & took my time.

As my French pal netted the trout I couldn't wait to weight it, 4lb 6oz & another pb has been beaten.

I don't care what anybody says, u can't beat that feeling of a pb.

My last fish of the day was a pb of               4lb 6oz

2014 has been a beaut so far & long may that continue.

With that, we have our maximum quantity  of fish & it's time 2 go.

As I write this just after I gutted all the fish & I really do stink of fish guts now, lovely.

Time for a hot shower & guess what's for dinner

Many thanks to Michel for an exciting & very enjoyable day, I can't wait to be invited back, hint hint 😜