Bit of a musicle tale

 With not a deal to tell today I thought id do something a little fun.

My local tench water is definitely one of these places.

And although not blowing like i would like it to have been it still looked good for a fish or three, but after 4 hours with not a touch or even the sight of any bream rolling I was starting to wander

With time to kill and not been in any rush to go home I decided to have a mooch around and see what was, or wasn't going on. All was revealed when I found huge shoals of bream tucked up in a quiet corner of the lake.

I have no doubt that the tench were also up there, feasting on fresh bream eggs. By the time I can get back to the lake which will be two weeks things should be back to normal. I cant wait as I know there's plenty of time before the rivers open................................

Plan B

 Wednesday morning saw me back on the tinca trail on my local water, arriving as normal before first light I settled into the swim I had been baiting now since the weekend. The night before I had been down and spodded another couple of pints of bait in to one spot and there were signs of fish around as I saw a couple of backs break the surface. The rods ready clipped up from Monday were cast into position and I sat back waiting for events to unfold.

 Again though the day dawned still, the sun strong and little in the way of any ripple on the surface. Soon enough though the alarmed rod on my heavily baited spot sprang to life and a fish was on, it was another spirited fight and I was unsure if it was the intended tench or a good bream. It turned out to be the latter and my best from this venue at 5lb 12oz.

 I was expecting more to follow but as had been the same on Monday with the lake flat most of the time and the temperature rising much higher than of recent the fish refused to bite.

 Today saw me back for one last bite of the cherry before its back to work next week. My spot had been primed every day now for a week, I arrived this morning just after 4am to find too bloody  carpers had set up in my chosen area and just cast their rods out. I've never felt the need to swear on my blog before but I was seriously pissed off!!! This left me with two options, head to the left where the now strong southerly was blowing or head right to a swim that involved wading out further and due to the lay of the land sitting on the edge of a large patch of that horrid black stinking silt stuff that was just covered with water.

 Now who in their right mind would chose the one on the right?

 I did! Based purely on the fact it has been producing a few fish this year but as it started to rain I was questioning my sanity. However my choice paid off and after only half an hour or so one of the rods was away, at first I thought it had come adrift then thought it was a small fish until it saw the net and me knee deep in stinking black silt. It was a tench, only a small one though around 21/2lb and it then decided to go nuts like those small splasher barbel do. It was a nice sight though to see that some young fish are coming through.

 Soon after the bream turned up and I had 3 fish between four and five pounds in the next 90 minutes or so and then lost another fish again. JD turned up to join me and after collecting some bait he headed to the swim to the left I decided against earlier in the day and I landed another good bream of just over 5lb and lost yet another. It had now turned 8am and what is traditionally on here the start of a quiet spell. At around 10am JD decided he had had enough of blanking and sitting in the full force of the wind and was off elsewhere, I did comment as he left that sometimes they come back on around 10 but he was off.

 As if by magic as soon as he was out of sight the alarm signalled a one toner, I picked up and bent into what felt a good fish. I had just started to gain some line when it set off again and snapped me clean off. Gutted, I wound in and sorted the rig and chucked back out. It had not been out there more than ten minutes when it was off again, bream number 5 soon hit the mat after another good scrap. These fish have obviously not read the rule book as they tend to pull back a bit, even with 1.75lb Tc rods and 8lb line.

 It was just after 11, all had gone quiet and I was thinking of calling it a day whilst chatting to a couple of officials from the club when one of the rods when into melt down again. This time though after leaning into the fish I slackened the clutch off a touch as for one reason or another I seem to be loosing a quarter of all the fish I'm hooking so far this year. This fish felt better and I knew from the off it was no bream, as the club officials looked on I waded out to meet the fish and let out a little cheer as another stunning looking tench hit the back of the net. I felt sure it would go 6 however it managed 5lb 8oz, still fresh from its winter slumber I guess. All of the fish today were again taken on feeder tactics using my CSK groundbait and a combination of real and fake maggots on the hook.

 It turns out the club were down to do some survey work with the EA to look at what can be done to tackle the weed and silt problems the lake suffers with, and as they were going to be working their way around the shallow water poking and prodding from a boat I called it a day.

ITS SUMMER!

 It would see we have skipped spring and jumped right from winter into summer in a little over a week, I bet the fish don't know what the hells happening. I know one thing though, it killed my tench and bream sport dead.

 Yesterday saw me heading to a local carp puddle, hole in the ground type thing. Now don't go thinking I'm loosing the plot as we all know how much I hate those kind of places but I actually enjoyed it, only because I had both kids in tow and took them for a few hours fishing. Kyle can pretty much look after himself now apart from removing the odd deep hooked fish so once I had him set up and fishing I sat on the floor with 4 meters of pole and entertained Lilly for a while. For a 3 year old she did well, or rather I did managing to keep her amused for near on 3 hours.

 Plenty of small perch and skimmers were landed between us, me and Lil managed a nice looking carp hybrid/brown goldfish type thing around a pound plus a couple of nice 10oz rudd. Kyle added a nice bream around 2lb as we were ready to pack up. It was warm, we caught fish and the kids enjoyed it and that's what it all about.

 My latest session started last night when I headed to my tench water armed with a bucket of spod mix and the rod. One chap was down for the evening and once he had me sussed out the info started to flow back and forth. He revealed something to me that I never imagined possible on that water and gives me something to definitely look at in the future should my current plan start to fall apart.

 With the bank holiday I expected it to be busy today so made sure I was first there to get the pick of the swims, my swim in fact I baited last night! It was 4.10am when I pulled through the gate this morning and as the light grew the lake looked truly stunning, one of those classic fully misted mornings it looked just like ghosts drifting over the glassy looking surface. Out when the rods and I sat back ready for the action to kick in.

 I waited, and waited, and waited. I knew early on it was never going to happen, there was not a cloud in the sky or a breath of wind. The water stayed like glass for most of the morning and temperature was rising as high as the sun. Around 9am and totally out of the blue one of the rods rattled off and I landed a bream around 4lb, afterwards much the same. Nothing. I have noticed before on here, hot, sunny windless days are the kiss of death. However, on a plus note my next trip is Wednesday when it looks like a nice low pressure front will be moving in.

Start as you mean to go on.

 What a difference a week makes eh? I even had my coat off today. I was up and out of the house at not much after 4am this morning and was pleased not to be met by a freezing blast for once. Arriving at the lake it was clear the fish felt the same today, for the first time this year(from what I have seen anyway) there were signs that the fish were around and feeding.

 As is quite common on here during the week I had the place to my self and headed straight to my first choice swim and with the rods clipped up ready to go it was just a matter of setting the alarms up, putting some bait on and away we go. Well that is exactly what happened too! With fish showing well out I cast my long range rig first. This was baited with 2 rubber casters and a real one glued to a short hair and arranged so as to look like a small pile of free offerings. Before I had even finished spodding bait out the alarm sounded into life and a nice 4lb bream hit the net.

 I finished the baiting up which consisted of 6 spods full of dead maggots, casters, hemp and corn over each line plugged with my new CSK ground bait I was testing. The feeders were filled with the same with a good sprinkle of the spod mix mixed in too. Once that was sorted I got both rods out and soon had another bream of around the same size. It then went a little quiet until around 7am when out of the blue one of the rods roared of and I knew this was no bream. I was correct and my first tench of the year graced my net.

 By now the wind had dropped, the lake was flat calm and the morning sun felt much warmer than it had all year, this did do as I expected though and no more bites were forth coming for well over an hour. At around 8.30am I had to put my coat back on as the wind had picked up and scattered clouds kept blocking the sun, this had an almost immediate effect on the fish as they suddenly went on the rampage. First up was another bream before the tench moved in, 2 landed over the next hour all between 4 and 5lb plus two unfortunate breaks and another bream.

 It was soon 10am and I had to start thinking about heading home as the other half was working and I had to take the little one to nursery. Out went both rods for the lucky last cast. First away was the far rod, the way it screamed off I was expecting another tench but the slow plodding nature gave the game away. It did give a good account of its self though and a solid 5lb bream wallowed into the net.

 Unbelievably I was still holding the fish in the water to recover when the other rod screamed off, this though was no bream and the fish took line on more than one occasion, once close in it made a couple of determined attempts at getting into the reeds but i was more than ready for it and it was soon laid on the mat. As with the bream, this one turned out to be the biggest tench of the day at a shade over 5lb. O how I wish I didn't have to head home. Luckily I have all next week off work and will be spending 3 days on here with some baiting up in between.