This Sunday I was off to the Fennes on the Hill and Black lake, after my practice on the thursday I was concerned the fish may be bunched up in a few pegs out of the wind, so I felt as though not drawing this area could make it really hard!
It had been ice cold over night and there was cat ice in places on the lake, I was hoping for a draw on 15 or 16 to be out of the freezing wind and hopefully where the fish were. I ended up drawing peg 26, which in normal conditions I would consider a good skimmer peg, but being the other end of the lake to where I caught Thursday it could be a quiet day!
I decided to fish a 6 meter line where I would introduce one small golf ball of joker to start, and an 11 meter line where I decided to put about 400 ml of joker in 10 balls, with 3 really rich balls in the center. The idea being I could start by catching a few little fish, to avoid a blank and also give me somewhere to go when things were slow. The idea of feeding loads on the long line was down to how I had caught on Thursday, I really felt as though you had to get allot down there, and once the fish finally came in you should catch for the rest of the match, for some reason on Thursday the bream didn't respond to topping up after eating the initial feed, so id opted to just feed more in case they didn't respond again! I also set up a tip rod to chuck out for the first half hour in the hope of a lucky rap round.
Rigs for the day were my favorite Drennan lake 0.8g float (unfortunately they no longer make this older sensitive pattern) this was for the long line which was about 7 foot deep, tied to a 20 Drennan silverfish onto an 0.08mm hooklenght. The short line was identical except with a 0.4g float.
I started the match and fed my lines, I opted for the trusty 50/50 black lake and roach mixed in 50/50 with some damp leam. This is a reliable mix that never lets you down if you are trying to catch bream or roach when fishing bloodworm and joker.
After 2 chucks and 30 bite less minutes I was on the 6 meter line, which produced one roach in 15 minutes, id avoided a blank at least I then tried the long line and caught 2 more roach before nothing. Back on the short line and I had a small skimmer about 8 oz, this was a good sign and gave me confidence there must be a few in the area as you very rarely catch just one, I had a couple more in the next 30 minutes before topping the short line up and deciding the long line must be ready.
I caught a 2 lb bream first put in on the long line followed by 3 roach, it was good to be getting bites as no one else seemed to be able to string two bites together.
Back on the short line and I had a couple more roach, but they didn't seem to be coming very fast,so i topped up with 2 balls and then went back on the long line.
By this time it was 12 o'clock and 2 hours had passed, I felt as though I was neck and neck with the people on 15 and 16 so felt as though I still had a chance despite being in what I thought was the wrong area.
I caught 3 bream on the bounce on dead maggot before not getting any more bites, I topped up with another orange sized ball and had 2 more bream instantly. It seemed as though they were responding to the top up balls well. I decided to try 4 bloodworm as a hook bait, as sometimes this can work really well for bream, and it was the case today as it completely outclassed the dead maggot.
I refined my feeding throughout the day, finding that it was best to top up with 2 golf balls of joker after every 3 bream, the last hour was a real flier and as well as good bream I started catching skimmers in between which meant I was putting something in my net every put in.
I finished the match with 19 bream and some skimmers and roach, for a final weight of 57 lb, a fantastic weight of silvers from what can be a difficult venue in the cold! second place finished with 16 lb, and weights of 15 lb and 14 lb were recorded.
It had fished exactly the same to when i fished it the Thursday except a few roach had fed, and also the bream responded to top up balls of joker, id caught two good weights of bream from opposite ends of the lake, which makes me feel I had a good method worked out. You never know if you were sitting on a ball of fish on venues like this, and I may possibly have done, but it did take 2 hours to get one to feed so it didn't seem like it!
I certainly feel as though I've learnt something in specific for this lake to catch bream, and hope to use this knowledge in future matches, the key was certainly to put loads of joker in at the start, and not worry if you haven't caught anything for 2 hours!
Next week I am off to Long pond in Clare I have never fished this place in the winter, which makes a difficult bait menu! I've opted to try a similar bloodworm approach to what I used this Sunday and also a pellet line with the option of corn as a hook bait. there are also some swims I may be able to fish the tip, but not knowing how clear the water will be or anything makes it hard to know what to do! I will simply take my gear and work something out when I arrive at my peg!
Thanks for reading,
see you next week!
Reece.
Showing posts with label fennes fishery. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fennes fishery. Show all posts
Thursday, 28 February 2013
Friday, 8 February 2013
Fennes Ash Grounds
This Sunday I was off to the Fennes yet again for a match on Ash grounds lake, after all the ice had melted I wasn't really sure how it was going to fish. Previously the in form peg has been 55 as its full of F1s! I certainly wouldn't mind drawing here as if they feed your on them and if they don't then at least you can still catch roach on the bloodworm and joker.
As my luck seems to have left me at the draw bag lately, I went in to draw peg 14, basically the worst peg that was in! Roach don't seem to head up here very often, and you normally catch skimmers instead, but with the ice gone in would they even want to know?
Anyway, I decided on 2 pole lines and set up a bomb to chuck out some pop up bread or boilies just while I left the joker to settle. One line was 11meters in about 6 foot of water, ideally I would have liked to go atleast 13 for the skimmers but it was way to windy and I could only manage 11. My other line was 6 sections at an angle to my right, so about 5 sections out, just away from my other line, this was in about 4 foot of water, the reason for this line was to give me a starting point while the longer 'balled' in line could settle.
I started by putting a golf ball of joker in on the short line, and 8 orange sized balls on the long line, I then proceeded to chuck the lead out with some bread, 15 minutes was enough boredom on that so on the short line. Nothing. If you don't get a bite on this line within 10 minutes, you know its going to be hard!
No-one else had caught anything at this point from what I could see either. I gave the long line 15 minutes before chucking the bomb out again. To cut the next 2 hours out, I basically didn't get a bite until about 12 when I had a tiny perch! Over my balled in line bizarrely enough. By this point I was about 2lb of fish behind the two guys to my left on 10 and 12, these are really good roach pegs, all i could hope is that they moved up to me!
Im not one for normally walking about, but I was so bloody bored I took a wander around the lake, a few people were catching some small roach, no F1s were feeding and it was rock hard all over. I arrived back at my peg about 20 minutes later, sat down, got the long rig out with a caster on and it just buried! A nice 4oz roach! I started catching quite steadily, and found dead maggot to be the best bait, sometimes they just dont take caster confidently enough, and the fish were no smaller on dead maggot and I got quicker bites so I carried on bagging on this, after an hour it died off, so I took the risk of topping up with a small golf ball of joker, it didn't work! After 10 bite less minutes moving the rig about I decided to try my short line, I hadn't topped this up for a while cause its normally redundant after you catch on the balled in line. I dropped my rig in and it just buried roach, roach and more roach. I don't know why they moved here, maybe Id overfed the long line? Maybe they wanted shallower water? who knows! But I wasn't complaining! Everyone was struggling at this point, and I was catching within a second of my float settling, I had a fantastic last half hour, and felt as though I should have done enough to beat the guy to my left, even though hed caught 2 hours before me!
I was the first to weigh in, and I had 79roach for 8lb 9oz, a fantastic weight seeing as id only caught properly for 2 and a half hours! The bloke to my left weighed in 7lb 2oz, so the last 30 minutes was what did it for me!
I went round with the weigh in, id beaten everyone down the left bank, including my new bills tackle team mates! Thats the 4th time ive drawn this bank and the 4th section ive won, certainly got something right!
Anyway, we got round to the last peg, Mr Banks! This was the important person to beat as I could get my all important £1 back, he was owning up to 5lb, which normally means 10lb. As he pulled his fish out he failed to mention hed caught a stray 3lb bream! That with his roach and a chunky perch went 9lb 8oz, another £1 I lost! Second week on the trott hes beaten me by less than 1lb as well! Gutted!
That put me 2nd in the match anyway, and I got my section so still got good points! This match was for the Huit cup as well the huit cup was spread over 3 rounds this year, I managed to finish 1st in the first round and 2nd in the last 2 rounds, so only dropping 2 points meant I won the trophy as well.
In terms of the overall club championship, I am still leading, not sure by how much but I hope a considerable amount! Theres 5 matches left in the season, so hopefully I can hold things together and wrap it up!
Next week im off to our notley lake. My granddad went up there for a little look last week and blanked so i might not have much to look forward to! hopefully it was just the ice water that put them off!
Thanks for reading and see you next week! (providing I get a bite)
As my luck seems to have left me at the draw bag lately, I went in to draw peg 14, basically the worst peg that was in! Roach don't seem to head up here very often, and you normally catch skimmers instead, but with the ice gone in would they even want to know?
Anyway, I decided on 2 pole lines and set up a bomb to chuck out some pop up bread or boilies just while I left the joker to settle. One line was 11meters in about 6 foot of water, ideally I would have liked to go atleast 13 for the skimmers but it was way to windy and I could only manage 11. My other line was 6 sections at an angle to my right, so about 5 sections out, just away from my other line, this was in about 4 foot of water, the reason for this line was to give me a starting point while the longer 'balled' in line could settle.
I started by putting a golf ball of joker in on the short line, and 8 orange sized balls on the long line, I then proceeded to chuck the lead out with some bread, 15 minutes was enough boredom on that so on the short line. Nothing. If you don't get a bite on this line within 10 minutes, you know its going to be hard!
No-one else had caught anything at this point from what I could see either. I gave the long line 15 minutes before chucking the bomb out again. To cut the next 2 hours out, I basically didn't get a bite until about 12 when I had a tiny perch! Over my balled in line bizarrely enough. By this point I was about 2lb of fish behind the two guys to my left on 10 and 12, these are really good roach pegs, all i could hope is that they moved up to me!
Im not one for normally walking about, but I was so bloody bored I took a wander around the lake, a few people were catching some small roach, no F1s were feeding and it was rock hard all over. I arrived back at my peg about 20 minutes later, sat down, got the long rig out with a caster on and it just buried! A nice 4oz roach! I started catching quite steadily, and found dead maggot to be the best bait, sometimes they just dont take caster confidently enough, and the fish were no smaller on dead maggot and I got quicker bites so I carried on bagging on this, after an hour it died off, so I took the risk of topping up with a small golf ball of joker, it didn't work! After 10 bite less minutes moving the rig about I decided to try my short line, I hadn't topped this up for a while cause its normally redundant after you catch on the balled in line. I dropped my rig in and it just buried roach, roach and more roach. I don't know why they moved here, maybe Id overfed the long line? Maybe they wanted shallower water? who knows! But I wasn't complaining! Everyone was struggling at this point, and I was catching within a second of my float settling, I had a fantastic last half hour, and felt as though I should have done enough to beat the guy to my left, even though hed caught 2 hours before me!
I was the first to weigh in, and I had 79roach for 8lb 9oz, a fantastic weight seeing as id only caught properly for 2 and a half hours! The bloke to my left weighed in 7lb 2oz, so the last 30 minutes was what did it for me!
I went round with the weigh in, id beaten everyone down the left bank, including my new bills tackle team mates! Thats the 4th time ive drawn this bank and the 4th section ive won, certainly got something right!
Anyway, we got round to the last peg, Mr Banks! This was the important person to beat as I could get my all important £1 back, he was owning up to 5lb, which normally means 10lb. As he pulled his fish out he failed to mention hed caught a stray 3lb bream! That with his roach and a chunky perch went 9lb 8oz, another £1 I lost! Second week on the trott hes beaten me by less than 1lb as well! Gutted!
That put me 2nd in the match anyway, and I got my section so still got good points! This match was for the Huit cup as well the huit cup was spread over 3 rounds this year, I managed to finish 1st in the first round and 2nd in the last 2 rounds, so only dropping 2 points meant I won the trophy as well.
In terms of the overall club championship, I am still leading, not sure by how much but I hope a considerable amount! Theres 5 matches left in the season, so hopefully I can hold things together and wrap it up!
Next week im off to our notley lake. My granddad went up there for a little look last week and blanked so i might not have much to look forward to! hopefully it was just the ice water that put them off!
Thanks for reading and see you next week! (providing I get a bite)
Thursday, 31 January 2013
Fennes fisheries and Rayne lodge
The last few weeks have resulted in a lot of Ice breaking, not the most fun thing to do before you fish but it certainly warms you up.
I fished a match at Rayne lodge last Saturday, I drew peg 13 on the Middle lake, this is the 2nd best peg on the lake in cold conditions, so I knew I had a chance of some fish.
Having fished silverfish matches here I knew I could catch about 10lb of silvers relatively easily by fishing to hand, and I also knew the carp were quite manageable on the same gear. I broke the ice down my right margin and straight out in front, this way I had a propper long pole and margin line, as well as 2 areas I can fish to hand, as previously id found bigger silvers to hang around the edges, so maybe the carp would too?
I finished the Match with 257fish, including 9 carp, 4 of which were caught on my line to hand down the edge, 4 on my proper edge line, and 1 on the long pole. My total weight was 26lb, which won me the section and put me 2nd on the lake, as peg 15 the real flyer in the cold, had caught 38carp for 64lb and won the match!
Sunday I fished at Hobbs croft down the Fennes, I love the Fennes in the winter as you can catch good bags of roach anywhere. I drew peg 78 which I actually fancied before the draw, After breaking 2inches of ice I set my gear up and was ready to go. I Fed 8 balls of joker on my long 8meter line, and 1 golf ball sized ball at 5meters, this was to give me a start before the long line built up.
The day started brilliantly and I put a 1lb of fish in the net in no time, after about 45minutes I was able to catch over the long line and I caught with a good catch rate, unfortunately my fish were relatively small compared to what I would normally catch on this lake, but There was nothing I could do to bring in better fish, so I carried on catching what I could. Bites really tailed off for the last 2 hours as the sun was no longer on my part of the lake, I had to scrap around for bites, eventually ending up with 147fish. Unfortunatly my slow end to the match had cost me, and I finished 3rd in the match with 9lb 4oz, but won my section, the worst thing was my rival Mark Banks had weighed in 9lb 10oz, which meant I had to give him another £1!
Next week Im off to the Fennes on Ash grounds, before the Ice 5 consecutive matches have been won from peg 55 where the f1s ball up, this is also the peg I fished when I wrote my article on the pellet cone, so ill certainly be hoping to draw this peg, and if I don't hopefully 15-20lb of roach will be on the cards! Maybe the sudden rise in temperature might even get the bream on the feed? Who knows! One thing for sure is ill be on for a good day fishing!
Thanks for reading and ill see you next week!
I fished a match at Rayne lodge last Saturday, I drew peg 13 on the Middle lake, this is the 2nd best peg on the lake in cold conditions, so I knew I had a chance of some fish.
Having fished silverfish matches here I knew I could catch about 10lb of silvers relatively easily by fishing to hand, and I also knew the carp were quite manageable on the same gear. I broke the ice down my right margin and straight out in front, this way I had a propper long pole and margin line, as well as 2 areas I can fish to hand, as previously id found bigger silvers to hang around the edges, so maybe the carp would too?
I finished the Match with 257fish, including 9 carp, 4 of which were caught on my line to hand down the edge, 4 on my proper edge line, and 1 on the long pole. My total weight was 26lb, which won me the section and put me 2nd on the lake, as peg 15 the real flyer in the cold, had caught 38carp for 64lb and won the match!
Sunday I fished at Hobbs croft down the Fennes, I love the Fennes in the winter as you can catch good bags of roach anywhere. I drew peg 78 which I actually fancied before the draw, After breaking 2inches of ice I set my gear up and was ready to go. I Fed 8 balls of joker on my long 8meter line, and 1 golf ball sized ball at 5meters, this was to give me a start before the long line built up.
The day started brilliantly and I put a 1lb of fish in the net in no time, after about 45minutes I was able to catch over the long line and I caught with a good catch rate, unfortunately my fish were relatively small compared to what I would normally catch on this lake, but There was nothing I could do to bring in better fish, so I carried on catching what I could. Bites really tailed off for the last 2 hours as the sun was no longer on my part of the lake, I had to scrap around for bites, eventually ending up with 147fish. Unfortunatly my slow end to the match had cost me, and I finished 3rd in the match with 9lb 4oz, but won my section, the worst thing was my rival Mark Banks had weighed in 9lb 10oz, which meant I had to give him another £1!
Next week Im off to the Fennes on Ash grounds, before the Ice 5 consecutive matches have been won from peg 55 where the f1s ball up, this is also the peg I fished when I wrote my article on the pellet cone, so ill certainly be hoping to draw this peg, and if I don't hopefully 15-20lb of roach will be on the cards! Maybe the sudden rise in temperature might even get the bream on the feed? Who knows! One thing for sure is ill be on for a good day fishing!
Thanks for reading and ill see you next week!
Wednesday, 2 January 2013
Christmas week of matches
Well Ive got lots to report this week, to begin, last Sunday was our clubs christmas match at the Fennes on ash grounds. The weather had been good and i was really looking forward to it!
I drew peg 6, which is normally a good area for roach, but there were no bream coming out of here lately so it was unlikely i could win the match from here, but i was confident of winning the section as the plan was to fish bloodworm and joker with caster over the top, and im getting quite handy at this lately!
I fed 8 balls of joker in a 50/50 groundbait and leam mix at the start, and every 30 minutes or so the swim needed a top up ball of joker just in leam. I fished a tidy match and weighed in 14lb 2oz with 103roach, more than enough to win the section, but some bream had come out on the other bank as expected so i finished 4th in the match.
Thursday was my next match, a silverfish match at rayne lodge, it was pegged on the bottom and middle lake. I drew peg 2 on the middle, I caught 298roach for 12lb 8oz for 3rd in the match, my fish were tiny compared to the guy who had won so I was always fighting an uphill battle, but I left satisfied id done a good job from my peg that day.
Friday was a Match on the top lake of rayne lodge, id drawn peg 21, which in normal conditions was a brilliant draw as the fish shoal up here and you can catch on a straight lead with pop up bread, unfortunately though this wasn't the case! And this is one of the worst pole pegs on the lake so I was in for a struggle! I managed to pick up odd fish throughout the day, and in the last 45 minutes my pole swim came alive, I had one a chuck and finished with 30 (unfortunately small carp) for 55lb, which put my 4th in the match and narrowly missing out on the section, good result from a poor peg on the day!
Sunday it was the teams of 4 match at the fennes, I drew peg 10 on ash grounds, I was happy with this as although i would not be able to win the match from here, i would be able to catch a good bag of roach to win the section. I fished similar blood worm and joker tactics to the last week, this time catching 129roach for 15lb 14oz, a quality bag of roach, and more than enough to win the section as 2nd was the peg to my right who weighed 10lb. Unfortunately my team had a bit of a blow out and we only managed 3rd in the match, which also meant i only got 7.50 of my winnings after splitting my section money 4 ways!
Monday I had another silverfish match at rayne lodge, this time it was pegged on the top lake, I drew peg 10, which I was fairly happy with as at least I was on the deep bank. Id opted to fish a top kit to hand with caster and groundbait, and also a long pole line.
I didn't even have to pick the long pole up as I was catching one a chuck all day, getting mainly roach and the odd bonus skimmer or hybrid, most people were only hooking carp on their long poles so I decided not to waste my time. I finished the day with 458 roach and skimmers for 30lb 14oz, a busy days fishing! I won the match, 2nd place being Danny Mason with 27lb, and third coming from the peg to my right with 26lb.
Tuesday was yet again an all in match on rayne lodge top lake, yet again I had a poor draw getting peg 14, the only worse peg on the lake on the day was peg 17! This peg is shallow on the feeder and pole line, I well and truly was out of it today! I didn't get anything in the first hour, not a bite! whilst I watched most people in the deep water catching odd carp. My swim eventually picked up and I found odd carp on the long pole on corn and odd fish down the edge by a fishy looking bush that hangs in the water, unfortunately though my stamp of fish was even smaller than the previous match, I finished with 34 carp for 56lb for 7th in the match, well below the average stamp of fish for this lake, the only consolation is id beaten half the blokes who were on better pegs! The winner had 103lb and his fish were big, as id expected from the deeper water. It was even the same pegs who won all the money as the last match, peg 4 peg 8 and peg 12, why couldn't I draw one of those?
Next week im off to Maldon canal for the final round of the Essex inter club league, our Braintree team hold a 4 point lead going into the final round, so its certainly ours to lose, Id certainly like another good result as I am only 2 points away from 3rd in the league, which I don't think is too bad seeing as I haven't fished half the venues before! It looks like Danny Mason who also fishes for Braintee is going to win the individual league, hopefully we all put in another consistent performance to take the league honors.
Thanks for reading,
Tight lines,
Reece Hearn
I drew peg 6, which is normally a good area for roach, but there were no bream coming out of here lately so it was unlikely i could win the match from here, but i was confident of winning the section as the plan was to fish bloodworm and joker with caster over the top, and im getting quite handy at this lately!
I fed 8 balls of joker in a 50/50 groundbait and leam mix at the start, and every 30 minutes or so the swim needed a top up ball of joker just in leam. I fished a tidy match and weighed in 14lb 2oz with 103roach, more than enough to win the section, but some bream had come out on the other bank as expected so i finished 4th in the match.
Thursday was my next match, a silverfish match at rayne lodge, it was pegged on the bottom and middle lake. I drew peg 2 on the middle, I caught 298roach for 12lb 8oz for 3rd in the match, my fish were tiny compared to the guy who had won so I was always fighting an uphill battle, but I left satisfied id done a good job from my peg that day.
Friday was a Match on the top lake of rayne lodge, id drawn peg 21, which in normal conditions was a brilliant draw as the fish shoal up here and you can catch on a straight lead with pop up bread, unfortunately though this wasn't the case! And this is one of the worst pole pegs on the lake so I was in for a struggle! I managed to pick up odd fish throughout the day, and in the last 45 minutes my pole swim came alive, I had one a chuck and finished with 30 (unfortunately small carp) for 55lb, which put my 4th in the match and narrowly missing out on the section, good result from a poor peg on the day!
Sunday it was the teams of 4 match at the fennes, I drew peg 10 on ash grounds, I was happy with this as although i would not be able to win the match from here, i would be able to catch a good bag of roach to win the section. I fished similar blood worm and joker tactics to the last week, this time catching 129roach for 15lb 14oz, a quality bag of roach, and more than enough to win the section as 2nd was the peg to my right who weighed 10lb. Unfortunately my team had a bit of a blow out and we only managed 3rd in the match, which also meant i only got 7.50 of my winnings after splitting my section money 4 ways!
Monday I had another silverfish match at rayne lodge, this time it was pegged on the top lake, I drew peg 10, which I was fairly happy with as at least I was on the deep bank. Id opted to fish a top kit to hand with caster and groundbait, and also a long pole line.
I didn't even have to pick the long pole up as I was catching one a chuck all day, getting mainly roach and the odd bonus skimmer or hybrid, most people were only hooking carp on their long poles so I decided not to waste my time. I finished the day with 458 roach and skimmers for 30lb 14oz, a busy days fishing! I won the match, 2nd place being Danny Mason with 27lb, and third coming from the peg to my right with 26lb.
Tuesday was yet again an all in match on rayne lodge top lake, yet again I had a poor draw getting peg 14, the only worse peg on the lake on the day was peg 17! This peg is shallow on the feeder and pole line, I well and truly was out of it today! I didn't get anything in the first hour, not a bite! whilst I watched most people in the deep water catching odd carp. My swim eventually picked up and I found odd carp on the long pole on corn and odd fish down the edge by a fishy looking bush that hangs in the water, unfortunately though my stamp of fish was even smaller than the previous match, I finished with 34 carp for 56lb for 7th in the match, well below the average stamp of fish for this lake, the only consolation is id beaten half the blokes who were on better pegs! The winner had 103lb and his fish were big, as id expected from the deeper water. It was even the same pegs who won all the money as the last match, peg 4 peg 8 and peg 12, why couldn't I draw one of those?
Next week im off to Maldon canal for the final round of the Essex inter club league, our Braintree team hold a 4 point lead going into the final round, so its certainly ours to lose, Id certainly like another good result as I am only 2 points away from 3rd in the league, which I don't think is too bad seeing as I haven't fished half the venues before! It looks like Danny Mason who also fishes for Braintee is going to win the individual league, hopefully we all put in another consistent performance to take the league honors.
Thanks for reading,
Tight lines,
Reece Hearn
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