Crai Reservoir...hunt for a wild brown trout

Tomorrow I am hoping to spend the best part of the day fly fishing for wild brownies. My father has recommended the black buzzers so I will be employing a team of them. Fings crossed for light winds and no rain tomorrow as the weather forecast foretells. Catch sults will be on here tomorrow.

Walpole

Valley Farm fisheries in Walpole was fishing very well a fortnight ago, tactics were banjo feeders with Schnitzulwurst sausage soft pellets and a mussel and oyster hookbait....




I had about thirty fish over the two days on this set up though none were larger than 6lb. I attempted fishing bread on the surface and managed to get a chub as the bread dropped during the late afternoon!



Spring is in the air! I saw a grass snake sunning itself on the bank and there seems to be a lot if insects stirring. I apologize for the brevity of this post, I hace started a new job as an Environmental Field Scientist which is absorbing my daylight hours!!!!

I will be hoping to visit this venue again next weekend, spent 24 hours carp fishing at a venue known as Camelot lake in Wortwell and completely blanked! Will post the session on here tomorrow!

Halesworth lake (Wissett)

A friend of mine has spent the day at Halesworth lakes and had two carp from the smallest lake on flouro pop ups, one 5lb and the other 11lb. I am 300 miles away in Wales but I was there in spirit!

Wye

The Wye in Hay-On-Wye looks interesting, a lot of flow and debris.

Dead baiting at the Ocean Pit.

I am hoping to have a session dead baiting at the Ocean Pit Weybread in Suffolk in a about a weeks time. Got some good pike traces in a shop in Ross-On-Wye, the guy in there was very helpful and was suggesting I have a go after some barbel on the local stretch of the Wye. Will post everything on here!

Below is a picture of the shop location in Ross-On-Wye and two pictures of the Ocean Pit.

Flounders at Dunwich!

I fished Dunwich beach on Saturday 11th February with some friends. I am not an experienced beach fisherman and have no gear of my own so I borrowed my brothers Browning beach rod and Grandfathers Mitchell reel as well as other gear.

Dunwich has sandbanks and gullies running parallel to the beach. I used a standard two hook rig which allowed for both baits to be fished close to/on the bottom. I knew there was a sandbank in front of me because of the breaking waves at low tide, I decided to fish around this feature.

There was a small swell in the water but the sea state was fairly calm, the water was not overly muddy. As the tide pushed in for an hour I had a flounder of 25cm, this was caught on the far side of the sand bank so I decided to cast to that spot again. This yielded a good result in the form of a 30cm flounder. We were expecting dabs so the flounder were a pleasant surprise.

I enjoyed the day and think I may invest in some beach fishing gear now it has kindled my interest!

Great day fishing at Valley Farm Fisheries.

With heavy rain forecast for the day I headed to the fishery with my umbrella in tow. I arrived at the venue at about 10am, the wind was blowing into my favourite spot but it was occupied by two fisherman already. I decided to fish a spot I hadn't tried before which is opposite the island on the other side of the lake. I figured this swim would give me more options as I could fish the island margins opposite, fish into the deeper water to my left past the point or fish in front of me in the shallow warmer water. I set up and cast a method feeder along the island margin and put the other to my left into deeper water. I used two grains of corn on my hair rigs with a mix of hemp and generic ground bait for the method feeder.

Heavy rain!

There was plenty of movement on the rod tip on my left but no takes. The rain held back and the sun appeared and with it the fish on the surface. I changed one rod to a controller float and fished it with floating crust. Not long into the surface fishing I had a nice fish on, it was running right and into the reeds so I had to put pressure on it to prevent it from breaking off. This rod is my light set up with only 4lb line so I was running the risk of snapping the line. After a short struggle near the margins the fish moved to my front and I eased the pressure. I brought it into the net and weighed it, a nice 9lb common not bad for the first fish of the day.

9lb common.

Not long after I had a strong run on the rod to my left, the fish I connected with was fairly hefty but didn't feel as big as the first. I got the fish to the bank easily enough but it got a second wind when it saw the net and roared off again. I played the fish in open water until it was ready to come in, this one was a nice 7lb common. Oddly with the fish in the landing net came a Signal crayfish! I'm not sure how he got in the net but another nice fish landed nonetheless.

Signal crayfish.

Smaller common.

About midday the heavens opened in a massive shower with thunder peeling off in the near distance. It was at this time my Grandfather turned up to do a spot of fishing himself, not great timing! I greeted him and we took shelter in the nearby hut and waited for the rain to abate. He set up on the point to my left and preceded to fish with floating crust about 5 meters to his front. This proved to work extremely well as he produced three fish of 8-10lb and countless smaller carp! The fish must travel past the point as it is the most prominent feature in the deepest part of the lake. I think it proves that it can pay off to keep it simple by fishing one rod effectively rather than two less so. He out fished me significantly and had a great day.

One of Grandfathers nice fish.

I consequently had only one more carp and two bream near the margin. The method feeder having only produced the one fish. I finished fishing an hour before dusk and headed home happy that my Grandfather had had a great days fishing even though mine was fairly mediocre. Next time I think I will fish the conditions and maybe concentrate on the one rod.

Beautiful evening!