My blogs have moved!

Thought I'd give you all a quick update, I haven't published a blog on here for a while now, that is because they are now being published through Angling Lines! If anyone wants to carry on following my blogs please go to http://anglinglines.com/blog/category/bloggers/steve-bedford/

Short day session 17/10/13

Another day off from work when I have no other plans can only mean 1 thing, I can finally get out on the bank again. As usual, Bradshaw lake 2 is the venue, the weather forecast shows that today would probably be the best day of the week, the wind today changes from being an easterly to being a south westerly and on the days leading up to today there was heavy rain, but today shows that the rain should hold off.

When I arrived at the venue there didn't seem to be many people there, at least from the look of lake 4 anyway, however when I got to lake 2 there was a few people already there and in the usual places as well, typical. I had a quick look round but there didn't seem, to be much in the way of fish showing apart from the guy landing a fish on peg 23 (1 of the hot pegs), so I decided to setup on peg 3 again, there was 1 guy to my right on peg 4 who had arrived just before me so I made sure he didn't mind me setting up next to him, he didn't and we had a chat during the session.

By 10:30am I was setup and ready to cast out, today I fancied a bit of a change and left the Cell boilies at home and went with 20mm Dynamite Baits Frenzied Monster Tiger Nut Boilies. I decided that to start off the right hand rod would be setup with 16mm Sticky Baits Krill Dumbells on my usual D-Rig cast out about 1/3 of the way across to the other bank. The left hand rod would be setup with PVA bags again starting with 12mm Marine Halibut Pellet on the hair, my usual pellet mix in the bag and Baitworks Hot Fish Oil for the first time, I've heard good things about this oil so I was looking forward to seeing the results, this rod was also cast out about 1/3 way across the lake and about 4 rod lengths away from my other rod.

By about 11:10am the heavens opened up, so much for the no rain forecast. I thought that the rain may get the fish moving round and showing a bit more but there was nothing, no bites, no liners, no fish showing. I wasn't the only one noticing how quiet it was either, the guy on peg 4 was also surprised that there was no fish showing. I decided I would change the right hand rod over to the 20mm Tiger Nut Boilies and move out to 2/3 across the lake, from speaking to the bailiff on previous trips I knew that Tiger Nut boilies usually produce results so fingers crossed this would at least get some interest.

At 12:30 the rain started to die off the sun started to come out, by this time the wind had dropped off all together. I decided to switch the rods round, the right hand rod was now my PVA rod and was brought back to the margins about half a rod length out, the guy on peg 4 said that last week a few of the regulars had about 8 carp out from there so I thought id give it a try. I also changed the mix in the PVA, the Krill Dumbell stayed the same but I added Baitworks Atlantic Heat Stick Mix to the bottom of the PVA bag before adding pellets and more Hot Fish Oil. I also changed the rig itself slightly, instead of using an in line lead with Dark Matter Tubing I removed the insert from the in line lead and used a Korda Safezone leader with ring swivel, this would act as a running rig on the take.

The D-rig rod was now straight out, slightly to the left, but still at around 2/3 across the lake. Shortly after recasting both rods there was a nice oil slick from the PVA bag, this should hopefully pull in the fish and get them active.

After about an hour of nothing I decided to change my left hand rod from Tiger Nut boilies to Cell Dumbells that had been soaked in bloodworm. I also decided to recast the PVA rod again but this time with the last bit of Almond Goo, as this usually gets bites.

The rest of the day carried on uneventful, no bites, no fish showing, no liners. During the course of the day I tried pretty much every bait and every part of my swim, including the far bank near a small inlet, I even switched rigs over to my old favourite Combi Rig but nothing. My only consolation was that no one else caught all day, well until someone with no regard for fish care on peg 6 had a small carp out, but lets not go into that as I hate people who don't handle fish with care.

By 6pm I decided enough was enough and packed up, as usual I'm not going to dismiss the baits/rigs that I tried today until I've gave them a decent try. I'm sure this was just one of those days where the fish just weren't interested, which is a shame as I sharpened all my hooks the day before with my new JAG sharpening kit, well worth a look if anyone is interested in hook sharpness.

Quick update 10/09/13

Just a quick update, last night I managed to make a new batch of boilies to try at Bradshaw lake 2. On my last trip there the bailiff told me just before I left that Tigernut boilies are the usual favourite there so I thought id make my own. I made 2 batches, the first was pink Cell balanced with tigernut and indian spice, the second batch was pink Cell balanced with tigernut and milky toffee. Well, when I say pink, I mean washed out pink, the first batch was a fair bit pinker than the second but I thought they would both do nicely.

 

Today I managed to get a short session back on lake 2. When I got there a fair few people were already there. The hot pegs had already been taken (as usual) but I managed to get on the same peg as I did last time. Great, I thought, if I cast to the same spot and use the same tactics as last time but with a change in boilies I'd be in with a chance, or so I thought. As it turns out not many people caught, there was a cold north westerly wind pushing down on the lake, glad I had my Trakker Tundra coat! The guy to the right of me (on the main hot peg) was pulling the carp out for fun from the middle of the lake on a pellet waggler set about 2 foot deep, with his biggest being 20lbs (I know this because I lent him my unhooking mat, helped him weigh it and did his photos, it helps to help other anglers out, especially when they're on their own). The guy setup opposite me (on the other hot peg, which was my preferred peg) also had a fair amount of carp out.

 

The rest of us on the lake didn't do too well, up until an hour or so before I packed up I had nothing! no line bites, no runs, no showing fish, nothing! It was a bit disheartening, especially since it was my first time out with my new bait, but saying that, I did try all of my other boilies, even chod rigs but still had nothing so it doesn't make me feel too bad about my bait, maybe another day when they fish are more turned on!

 

Within the last hour I had a run on both rods straight after each other, again the left was setup with PVA solid bags and the right was on a D-Rig. After the runs I got both rods back out, the right hand rod didn't have any more action at all whereas the left hand rod went away just as I was about to pack up resulting in a mirror to low doubles, at least I hadn't blanked!!

 

After the mirror I got the left hand rod back out but after about half an hour I decided to call it a day. I had tried a few different things on this trip to the last trip, the first was the new boilies that I made, these were on the right hand rod with a D-Rig. The right hand rod stayed on a D-Rig most of the day but I did change it to a chod rig with mainline Banoffee orange pop ups for about half an hour but it then went back to the D-Rig,

 

Another thing that changed on this trip was that I only used Goo on a 1 bag (as I ran out!) the rest of the bags were filled with Sticky Baits Pure Krill liquid. The Krill didn't seem to make much difference today, although it was a bad day all round, but on the bag that had my last bit of Goo I did have a bit of interest!

 

I am a strong believer that different baits, different liquids/oils/additives work differently on different waters and different days. As I said in my last blog, it appears that almond Goo seems to be the best working Goo that I have found for Bradshaw lake 2, although I haven't tried all the Goo's yet and it appears that, at the moment at least, almond Goo seems to be better than Krill liquid, but I'm going to withhold my judgement on that at the moment as I want to give it a decent trial on a good day. I also want to give hemp oil a try on that lake as I have a feeling that may work well.

 

I think this is something everyone can take away for their own angling, if you try a product like Goo (or any additive) and it doesn't work on your lake it doesn't mean that its no good, you just may not have the right flavour for your lake, your flavour may be great on another lake. Don't dismiss products so easily, I have seen fair too many people do this, although the product you chose may not work on your lake right now it may work amazingly on your next lake, just a little something to keep in mind.

The last thing that changed this time was my rods. I went from using 3.25lbs Fox Warrior Elite rods to using 3lbs Sonik SK3 rods. Although This is the first time using them I can already tell the difference, I look forward to playing some decent fish on this soon while the Elites take a back seat and wait for the next trip to France.

 

What's next on my plan you say? I think I'll try to stick it out on Bradshaw for now, maybe for the rest of the winter (yes summer is over now, winter is almost here), I may switch over to my local lake (Pilsworth Fishery) as there's a fair few decent lumps in there that I wouldn't mind having! And I'm hoping to join Warrington Anglers for the new year, I really wish I joined this year but with work, changing jobs and family commitments I knew I wouldn't have the time to get a good try on the lakes I have my eye on.

 

Over the next few weeks/months I will keep you all updated with my progress, wherever I'm fishing, and I will also get some blog entries up for making the baits and rigs that I use. I was going to update the blog on the bait I made last night but it was a bit of a rush job. If anyone wants more information on my baits, rigs, tactics, lakes or has ideas for new baits for me to try then get in touch.

Bradshaw Hall Fishery 19/08/13

Finally a day off work with nothing else planned, the perfect opportunity to head out fishing. I haven't been out on the bank anywhere near as much as id like to this year so I wanted to try a few things that I had researched during my off time. I woke up at 9am, after many snoozes on my alarm, and rushed to get my gear together before it would be too late to head to the lake, as it usually fills up early and I really didn't fancy the other lakes that are there.

 

The fishery of choice is Bradshaw Hall Fisheries in Bolton Lancashire, this is a day ticket fishery with the option of getting season tickets. There are 9 lakes in total, offering something for everyone. Lake 2 is my usual lake of choice as it is the specimen lake for the complex with carp up to 28lbs and around 28 pegs. I pretty much always get here later than I want and usually never get the peg I want but I still do well.

 

After grabbing my gear I arrive on site at about 10am, after getting my ticket and speaking to the bailiff on site he informed me that lake 2 shouldn’t be too busy. He also told me that the lake was doing OK but not as good as usual and the biggest carp in there hadn’t been out for a while.

 

On driving round the lake 2 car park could already see that my usual peg had already been taken, I knew I should have got there earlier! Not to worry, I decided to go round to the long side of the lake and set up as close as I could to the showing fish. There was already someone on that side on the usual hot peg but the peg I picked was 2-3 pegs to the left of them, so I wasn’t too worried about disturbing them. After baiting up with a few handfuls of cell boilies I was finally setup and ready to cast by 10:30.

My first spot was for my left hand rod, this was about 3 rod lengths out and roughly halfway between my peg and the peg to my left, this rod I decided to try solid PVA bags with a mix of different pellets, my hook bait for now would be a sticky baits 16mm bloodworm dumbell. For the actual rig I went with a 2oz in line lead with a Fishing Gurus method feeder ready tied rig, these make great PVA rigs. I cast this rod out to the spot and felt it down with a satisfying bump as it hit the bottom, I then sank the line before putting it on the rod pod with my Delkims sensitivity set to medium.

 

I then decided that the right hand rod would be best out straight in front of me at around 5-6 rod lengths as here was a fair bit of activity here on and off and I have known people to catch a fair bit from here on my previous trips. The right hand rod was setup with about 2 foot of Korda Dark Matter tubing up to a safety lead clip and 2oz lead. Rig wise, I decided to go for a D-Rig made with Korda IQ2 in 10lb onto a size 8 Korda Kaptor curve shank barbless hook, now you can buy these rigs ready made but after the last Korda free DVD I decided to make a load of my own as they weren’t out in shops at the time, I did also have the ready made 1s with me but I thought id try my own first as its always more satisfying catching on your own made rigs and bait. Which leads me to bait for my right hand rod, I did have some ready made cell with me but I almost never use it as my hook bait, instead I make my own hook bait boilies. For the first few casts I thought id try my latest batch of boilies which has caught me fish on there before and I doubt anyone else will have.

 

The boilies in question are made from Mainline Cell ingredients with pineapple and tangerine flavours and coloured pale blue, but they are also made with part polaris popup mix so they are critically balanced when on the rig. This rod went out shortly after the left hand rod and also landed with a bump, line sank and finally I both traps were set. My thinking with placement of rods was partly that it was near where people usually catch but mainly because it was a the top end of the lake where it gets narrow and heads towards the shallows under the trees, carp on this lake usually patrol the lake round the day, going from the deep part at the centre of the lake, round the margins, up the shallows and trees and back to the other end, hopefully my traps were in the right place to get their attention on their patrol route.

 

Almost instantly after both rods were setup and fish were having a go at my baits and line bites were constant, time to turn down the Delkim sensitivity and let a bit more line out, even then liners were constant.

 

At around 10:35 the right hand rod was away but after a few minutes the fish was off, damn! Clearly they still like the blue boilies that I made, which was great and the D-rig is still my rig of choice so ill put this one behind me and recast back to the same spot.

 

5 minutes later the same happened with the left hand rod, clearly fish are doing me over, oh well. New PVA bag  setup this time with a nice helping of Korda almond goo but before I could cast it out there was another run on the right hand rod which was lost as soon as I got to the rod. A few minutes later both rods had now been recast to their spots and a scattering of a few cell went out to them.

 

The line bites continued over both and small amounts of cell went out little and often to each rod, but it looked like it was dying off a bit in front of me.

 

At around 12:11 a nice mirror jumped just over my right hand spot, great! They haven’t gone! A few more cell went out to both spots and a scattering to the left and right of each spot, making a nice trail from the tree line, to my spots and through to the deep water. The wind then started to pick up, a stronger north westerly started to hit the lake, not by any means a gale but it was stronger than it had been so far. Time for a bait change on the right hand rod I think.

 

The right hand rod came in at 12:20, after a bit of pondering I decided to go with another of my new batches of boilies. I normally use white banoffee cell critically balanced boilies while at Bradshaw but this new batch was my new pink versions which I haven’t tried before, ah well here goes. I decided that this bait would be on a stringer with 4 more cell boilies as I’ve heard this does well.

 

Before I could get this rod out the left hand rod was away, finally a fish that hasn’t come off just after the take. After playing the fish for about 5 minutes the fish finally came over the cord of the landing net and I was finally off the mark with my first fish of the day! It was only a small mirror but it was very welcome. Unfortunately I didn’t have my scales with me but that didn’t bother me, the thing that interested me the most from this trip was how my new baits were doing and how well PVA solid bags did.

 

After checking the fish over, taking a quick photo and popping it back in I thought it would be best to get my rods back out as the fish were obviously taking bait! By 12:40 both rods were back out on their spots and the PVA bag has the almond goo again to see if it made a difference.

 

Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t the first time I've used goo and if I would have had some krill oil I would have been using that instead but I really wanted to try it out and give it a fair trial. Previously I have used different flavours of goo on this lake and had no success but I strongly believe that different lakes respond to different flavours of goo. One of my mates uses corn flavoured goo on a different water and has noticed a difference there but he hasn’t noticed a difference on Bradshaw. Almond was my ace up my sleeve for this lake, I hope!

 

No sooner had I sat down and started watching the line bites on the rods had someone else turned up to the lake and decided to set up to my left, damn, I would have to move my left hand rod even though I had been getting success from this spot. After talking to the lad who came round I brought my left hand rod in and repositioned it to the centre of my swim, as this spot hadn’t seen much bait and I had seen a few fish near the surface I thought this would be a great opportunity to try out zigs. Ive only used zig rigs a couple of times before and had no success but this time I had some Fox Zig alignas and a nash zig sub float.

 

As the left hand rod was not near the middle of my swim I decided to move my right hand rod to the far right hand side of my swim. Lets see how this goes. Fish had been showing over the deeper water all day on the surface and the people setup to the right of me had been catching a fair few from the surface but I couldn’t seem to pull them over to my spot, even though I had been spraying pellets over my zig rig little and often.

 

By 15:19 I had decided to give up the zigs and switch back to PVA bags on the left hand rod, this time my hook bait would be Cell dumbells that I had soaked in mainline active ade bloodworm syrup for about 4 months as I've heard the carp in there love bloodworm flavours and of course with almond goo. This was then recast a little further to the left of my swim, closer to where it was before.

 

At 16:00 the left hand rod was off again, after a nice fight the fish came over the cord and I had my second mirror carp of the day on the mat, this was a fair bit bigger than the last 1 so I was happy, the kid who setup next to me popped round for a look and we had a chat about what I was using after the fish was placed back in the water.

 

After he went back to his swim the PVA was back out to its spot and the right hand rod was repositioned a bit closer to the bank, around 2 rod lengths out. Fish continued to show all over and the left hand rod continued to get line bites but the right hand rod seemed a little too quiet.

At around 17:30 just as I was thinking about bringing the right hand rod in for a change of bait and reposition it went off after a short fight mirror number 3 was in the net, the first fish on the right hand rod of the day and the first catch for my pink banoffee boilies.

By now the kid to my left had gone so both rods were repositioned back to their original places but unfortunately due to putting pellets out over the zig rig earlier I was pretty much out of pellets, this would be my last PVA of the day.

 

The last bite on the left hand rod came in at 18:28 and it felt like a much better fish, better than the others that I had today but just as I was gaining ground on it the hook pulled and it got away, gutted! As I was out of pellets I decided to put this back out without a PVA. By this time the bites had dried up and I decided to call it a day.

 

While I was packing up the bailiff came round for a chat and gave me a few tips for next time. Looks like ill be making another batch of boilies with a different flavour soon!