Return to the Pool

Sunday 28th September 2014

What a busy couple of years, with two house moves, one job change, broken bones, and now a another little one on the way.  Finally made it back to the pool after some perch.

Had a quick session on the Warks. Avon a couple weeks ago, catching a handful of small perch roving with worms.  Still want to try a fish bait approach but the longer drive puts me off, maybe when I've gotten the pool out of my system.

Anyway, so the weather was warm, very warm for late September, and bright when I arrived around lunchtime.  There was one other angler fishing for carp behind the island.  I fished peg 11 - the deepest area and proceeded to try to catch some bait.  This was harder than the previous seasons attempts and I got the impression that the bait fish weren't yet shoaled up given the conditions.

After a while I had enough bait and proceeded to leger a deadbait close in to the left, and livebait close in next to the lilies to the right.

Suffice to say that the day passed without event.  The other angler left before long having caught a few carp.  Occasionally the livebait would go bananas but nothing materialised until later on.  Occasionally the deadbait rod would indicate a knock or pull, but it's unclear whether these were liners or perch investigations.  Either way I will persevere with the deadbait until I am convinced either way.  I do want to try the deadbait on a rig with less resistance, a float setup seems ideal in the circumstances.

Every now and then a bird that I would describe as looking like a cross between a pheasant and a turkey would come and sit near me and.. just.. watch me.  Then it would disappear into the undergrowth for a while and come back.  Weird!

As dusk fell those annoying carp started milling around, definitely causing some liners.  In the gloom my confidence grew so it was with reluctance that I wound in the deadbait rod ready to pack away.  After tidying some stuff and making everything ready, the livebait alarm sounded and the bobbin rose, the strike met resistance and a short but nerve-jangling scrap in the near-darkness resulted in a lovely long but skinny perch of 1lb 12oz exactly.

1lb 12oz Perch at dusk

That perch definitely allayed some fears about the pool and it's perch - I was worried something had changed since I last fished the place.

Some observations:

• A kingfisher was working the bank by the island.  Are there fry/small fish in the warmer shallower water?
• The bait fish are definitely not shoaled up and are spread out
• On warm bright days even lunchtime is too early, in these conditions, aim to arrive with enough time to catch bait and cast out ready for evening and dusk
• Try float fishing the deadbait, there will be more liners but also more chance of contacting any perch if it's resistance that's the problem
• The quiver section of my rods seemed to help, no 1:1 bite landed ratio so far

Late November - A Storm Hits

Sun. 25th November 2012

It's been a hell of a week, weather-wise.  Last weekend and the start of the week, we had a load of steady, persistent rain.  Then on Thursday, still reasonably mild, a storm blew in from the south-west on winds gusting up to 60mph, with a lot more rain.  Saturday the 24th it began raining around lunchtime and didn't stop until the small hours of the morning.

After having breakfast with my little-one, I set off for the pond on what was to become an interesting journey.  I grabbed some maggots on the way and began dodging puddles.  Halfway there and I had to cross what looked like a ford, but was in reality just a flooded road.  Hairy.  As I approached the pond, I began descending a long hill through wooded farm land.  The place looked like a bomb had hit, with branches all over the road, piles of leaves gathered up where torrents of water had gushed downhill, even mud and gravel had been deposited onto the road!

Safely at the car park, the short walk up hill is normally along a path which is covered in leaves.  This time it was more like a brook, the water had carved a path through the mud and leaves and was meandering down the hill.  As I neared the pond, the sound of the outflow pipe sounded louder than normal, and little wonder!  The pool had approximately 18 inches of extra, coloured water and the peg I normally fished was under water.  The pond is spring-fed so it shouldn't be surprising, but the character of the place really altered.  Having spent several years fishing the Severn I suppose I should be used to such a dynamic venue.

Anyhow, the trees no longer had their leaves, the mid-week winds had seen to that.  And the place felt much more wintery.  Though the temperature wasn't as cold as it has been on previous sessions, for some reason it felt colder.  This was the first time I'd felt the cold.  Perhaps it was in my mind, or maybe it was the wet.

Right, the fishing, well nothing much to report, but loads of observations.  Let's be frank - I caught plenty of bait fish, they were really up for it and feeding with abandon.  But I didn't get any bites from the perch.

My first observation was that there was a lot more silver fish activity visible on the surface, and the activity was well spread across the lake. This is in contrast to previous observations when the water has been clearer, where little surface activity is observed, and the bait fish can only be caught in localised areas.

Second observation following on from the first, was that I saw a rare perch strike, but it was exactly in the middle of the pond.  I looked up to see a small roach fling itself a foot or so clear of the surface, then a perch  harried it when it landed.

The carp were particularly active, swimming into my rigs, cruising the surface, tight in the margins. But not a single one stuck it's head out, which in previous weeks was a regular occurrence.

Ok, those are the main observations.  So what do I think was going on?  Well, I have some ideas but will probably never know for sure.

1. The roach were much happier in the coloured water, and so spread out and fed well.
2. This could have meant that the perch were also spread out, rather than grouped up in one or two obvious areas.
3. It follows that if the roach are confident, it may be because the main predator - the perch - weren't giving them grief.  Maybe the perch were less happy in the coloured water, at least perhaps they weren't interested in chasing roach.
4. A more successful approach could have been either to fish to open water with very heavy baiting in attempt to group the silver fish up tightly.  Or, to revert to worm and caster or prawn / deadbait methods.
5.  Depth / light intensity.  Maybe feeding perch were in shallower water feeding near the surface?  The bait fish were certainly happy to take maggots as they hit the surface.

Not making excuses, just analysing and trying to make sense of the situation, so as to try to think of alternative approaches next time.  I will take some prawns and worms along next time as a back up.

Hopefully the pond has cleared up a bit next time, as after losing that big fish a couple of weeks ago, I really want another shot at it before too long!  Time is ticking, I shall be concentrating on the river in the new year...


Hope you catch a whacker!

Mid-November Update - Silly Fool

Sat. 17th November 2012

I hadn't intended on writing a post until the end of November, but I have forced myself in order to serve as a reminder of how catastrophically wrong I got it.

Well, maybe that's being a little dramatic...

Over night we had some heavy rain.  It had been mild all week, fairly dry, but the heavens opened on Friday evening as I was watching some fishing on TV trying to decide whether to go in the morning.  I couldn't fish the pond so it would have to be the river.

The first mistake.  I decided against spending the day having a good plumb in order to get to know the stretch of river better, and talked myself into fishing proper.

The second mistake.  I assumed that I would be able to catch some live-baits so took only a pint of maggots.

The third mistake.  On the way to the tackle shop a speed camera flashed as I went through.  I wasn't over the limit, but it made me paranoid the whole day.  I can be neurotic at times, this put me in the wrong frame of mind.  Silly I know!

I arrived and the weir pool was a swirling torrent of foam and debris.  Well, that's a little dramatic.  But it certainly wasn't giving me it's bleak or dace for bait.  Neither was the rest of the stretch.  It doesn't help that I'm not the best float angler.

I decided to feeder-fish with maggots.  The bank-side foliage had died back and not knowing the bottom contours, I could have been miles from any fish for all I knew.

The river was rising.

I packed up after an hour or two, kicking myself for all of the above.

I did learn some lessons though.

1. Assume that I can't catch live's on the river and take worms etc. as a backup or even as the main approach.
2. Prioritise plumbing, a session spent searching the depths will surely pay dividends in future.
3. If the conditions look better for another species, have a break from my obsession and fish to the conditions.
4. If my instinct is telling me not to bother, don't bother, I'm in the wrong frame of mind from the start.

Trouble is, now I can't decide whether to go back to the pond next weekend, or refuse to let the river beat me and give it a go with worm and caster.

No, I'll stick with the pond until New Year, then fish the river back-end of the season, once I've had chance to plumb the stretch.  Then back to the pond late March.

Early November Update - Has something just clicked?

Sunday 4th Nov. 2012


Well, the weather has chilled off nicely, with some frosts overnight. The trees are holding on to their few remaining leaves and autumn is starting to feel distinctly wintery.  It's a cold, grey day, with some drizzle in the air.  Overnight it went quite chilly.

Decided to fish to open water to see if the 'above surface' features just held perch which are smaller than my target 3lb+.  Love catching perch of all sizes.  There's just something interesting about trying to crack the puzzle.

Chose peg 13 which is between two trees.  The margins slopes down, 2 foot, 3 foot, 4 foot, 5 foot, 6 foot, under the rod tip.  Then it's a uniform 6ft.  Very uniform indeed.  Makes me think the main feature is the marginal shelf.

So, with my shiney (well, actually they are a stylish matte finish) pair of new rods, I cast a maggot feeder filled with flavoured red maggots around, with a prawn hookbait, roving it trying to seek out any wandering big perch.  The other rod was a sunk-float paternostered roach to the bottom of the shelf.

First thing to note is that 'the bait swim' isn't the only swim to produce bait fish - this one is pretty good too.  Also the bottom here is carpeted with what I believe is rotting leaves.  Either way the feeder wasn't landing with the same donk as the lead does in the bait swim.

I also decided to feed quite heavily, armed with at least four pints of red 'feeder bait' (old maggots the shop was selling cheap).  It's open water, I thought creating a swim full of feeding silvers would be an ideal plan.

Half-hour in to the session and the bobbin on the livebait rod started lifting, but the strike missed.  Later on, with feeder cast to bottom of the shelf, I hooked a couple of carp.  But there was no further perch action despite the conditions looking good.



Sunday 11th Nov. 2012

Due to family commitments it was another Sunday session.  I don't mind fishing Sundays, it's just the weather was bright and blue, not stereotypical perch conditions.  To make matters worse, the water was as clear as I've seen it since I started fishing the place.  None-the-less I fished on - after having a good plumb around.

I decided that, having found that the bait swim has some interesting features, as well as being the deepest area of the lake, I would fish there.  The lilies are still lingering, but they are starting to die off now.  They do still offer some cover to the fish, so that was enough for me.

After catching one bait-size roach and casting that out, I continued to try to catch bait fish for the other rod.  I caught plenty of roach/bream hybrids and some lovely roach to about 1lb, I couldn't catch anything the right size.  Eventually I figured out that I was fishing too far out - the small roach were at the bottom of the marginal drop-off.

I had my right-hand rod to deeper water, and my left-hand rod to the base of the shelf.  Less than a cup of coffee later and the left-hand bobbin started lifting and kept going.  A firm strike, nice scrap, perch in the net, a good one but not a monster.  I estimated around 1.5 - 2lb and slipped the fish back.

The right hand rod in deeper water wasn't showing any signs of interest, so I positioned that a little further up the shelf so it was shallower than the left-hand rod, tight to the lilies.

Less than an hour later, the left-hand bobbin was off again, and a repeat performance put a fish of between 1 - 1.5lb in the net.  Beautiful, I was expecting a blank so to catch two from the same swim was a treat.  I noted that instead of feeding maggots heavily, trickling them in as if I was catching bait seemed to keep the interest from the perch up.

Despite the bobbins showing some activity, it was another hour and half before any other action materialised.  The left-hand bobbin was getting excited and I felt sure of another bite, but it was the right-hand bobbin that darted upwards from nowhere!

Better fish, definitely a better fish, this one wasn't letting me bully it, taking line and making for the middle, before turning round and... oh no... it swam through my other line.  And came off.  I reeled in and in my bewilderment, it took me a while to realise that the fish had some how shed the hook... onto my other rods hook!  Both rigs were in a right old state and I was in no mind to re-tie them.  By the time I'd have had that lot sorted it would be dark.  So I packed up in a huff.

Three lessons:

1. Don't assume the conditions aren't worth fishing
2. Trickle the maggots in
3. Fish with the rods a bit further apart and don't muck around!

What an idiot.

Worst thing is there's a match on next week, so I can't get back there for a fortnight.  Oh well, I'll have no choice but to fish the river, which is no bad thing.

Catch a whacker!

October Update - Perch, and a breakthrough!

Sat. 20th October 2012

It was a bright sunny day and it didn't look perchy at all.  An afternoon session it was to be.  Kit in car, maggots in bucket and off I went.

An hour spent trying to catch bait highlighted something interesting.  I struggled to catch in all but the peg I've been catching bait in previously, where it was a bite a cast from the off.  Weird.  If it is a good area for bait fish I wonder if it is also a good area for the big predatory perch I hope are in the pond.  More on that later.

The usual swim, the usual bait, the usual rig - paternoster.  Nothing.  The sun was blaring and the sky was blue.  Looking across towards the island was a heavily tree-lined area with a large tree branch in the water.  It was looking dark gloomy and inviting.  So off I went.

I had a bite roughly every half hour, missing three or four, until one connected.  The one that connected came off near the net, and looked about a pound.  It's not even funny anymore, what is with these missed bites.  After that, the swim died, the sun went behind the trees and the bait swim looked good for dusk.

As the sun set and the light values looked superb, I had a take, strike, bumped off, nice perch chased what must have been my hookbait through the surface layers.  Damn it!  No more action.


Sun. 28th October 2012

I arrived mid-morning, empty carpark as usual.  Lovely gloomy day, drizzle in the air, and perch waiting to get caught.  I got a bit carried away catching bait, with some clonking roach and a perch on maggots coming to the net.  Also lost what I hope was a carp - hate to think it was a decent perch.

Bait bucket full, I cast out proper and awaited events while enjoying a brew.  Nothing happened after 45minutes or so, which was unusual given the conditions and past form for the peg.  Usually I would have missed or lost several by now!  Maybe it was the cold that had moved in on Friday.

I decided to move over to the shadey island swim.  After an hour or so, with float right next to overhanging branches, I got what I thought was a take, but I think the fish let go before I struck.  I went to fetch my brolly and the rest of the gear to sit it out in this swim.

An hour or so later and the float went berserk before bobbing away.  A firm strike and the fish was on.  Yes, that's right, the fish was on!  In the net went a lovely perch of around a pound or so, I didn't weigh it.  Beautiful fish.

No more bites materialised, so I decided to fish into dusk in a spot I'd not tried yet, a lovely corner swim with an overhanging willow, and 6 feet of water.  I didn't have to wait long for a bite, but the strike sent my rig in to the over-head tree and it was missing the paternoster link.  I tie it with a weak knot in case it snags up, assume the lead was caught on a twig or something.

Out went a fresh bait, and after half an hour the float did it's berserk then sinking trick.  The strike met resistance and another fish was on.  Yep, that's a 2:1 bite success rate - unheard of for me!  The perch was slightly smaller but no less welcome or pretty.  No more action.

Here's what I think.  The recent cold weather put the smaller perch - of which there are plenty - off chasing fish.  Leaving the bigger perch to take my baits.  I reckon the majority of missed bites were smaller perch not getting hold of my baits properly.

I'm confused though about why the bait swim is so good for catching bait, but, despite early success, now seems to have quietened down.  Also, I'm concerned that I've not connected with anything over 2lb.  I wonder if this is the water I'm after.  I'm going to persevere with the place, might try prawns and / or deadbaits.  Also curious to know if the deeper water is where the better perch sit, waiting for the right time to strike.  The pool isn't especially turbid, especially now the weather has cooled, so maybe that's worth a try.

Best fishes!

Fell Off My Perch

Sat. 13th October 2012

So, the river was on the rise again, following a superb perch day on Thursday - a lovely overcast day with plenty of rain.  The weather was forecast to be sunny spells between showers, and feeling fresh. They were right, and how fresh!

The pool is looking very pretty right now, nestled among the trees, which are in full golden autumn colours.  I opted to fish the same peg.  The opposite bank looks tempting with some fallen trees near an island, but this time I stuck to what I knew.  Must explore...  By lunchtime I had a bucket full of bait and light paternoster livebait rig was fishing beside some lilies.

There were spells of inactivity, punctuated with spells of bites.  Some of the bites were incredible, burying the float and pulling the rod tip around.  But, despite my experiments with hooking arrangements and strike timing, all but one of the bites was missed, bumped or lost.  The fish I did land was a little on the deep-hooked side.  I can only surmise that the missed bites are small fish and resume standard striking procedure and hook arrangements on the basis that it's better to lose a small fish than it is to deep hook a large fish.  But more of my conclusions later.

At around 5pm, the float shot off towards the middle of the pool and a better feeling fish was on.  The scrap was nervous on my part, but needn't have been, the fish was well hooked for once.  The perch was drawn over the net with minimal fuss, just a short dash toward marginal foliage.

An absolutely smashing looking fish - the photo doesn't do it justice due to exposure issues - weighing in at 1lb 14oz.  They're getting bigger.

Next time on the pool I think it is going to be necessary to use larger baits than the 3-4inch baits.  I may also experiment with deadbaits and maybe putting a rod out in deeper water to see what happens.  There are just so many average sized perch that more evasive tactics to avoid so many missed bites are required.

1lb 14oz

Oh, didn't mention it last time, but the carp are a pain.  They are attracted by my relatively heavy feeding of flavoured maggots and come dusk are all over me like a cheap suit.  Must consider a little and often feed pattern rather than the heavy baiting used to concentrate bait fish near the bottom.  At least until the cold weather puts the carp on the backsides.  If it does, that is.

Catch a monster!

Mid-Autumn - Perch, and Paradise Ponds

Sunday 23rd Sept. - Avon Weirpool

Having read through previous entries, I can't help but wonder, has it really been a year since my last entry, and, more importantly, since I last went fishing?  That went fast.  The winter was spent putting off doing the DIY tasks that are building up (still), while spring was eaten by a change of jobs and all the stresses that go with that.  All the while I enjoyed spending weekends with my family.  Summer was dedicated to mountain biking - my other hobby to which I flit with bi-polar regularity.

The air, the weather and the drawing in of the nights re-ignited the spark for fishing.  There is nothing that compares to the onset of autumn to stoke me up for it, easily my favourite season for angling.  Picking up where I left off, it is still a big perch that I am after.

I set off for the river with some maggots and lobworms.  I intended to rove around with float-fished worm, dropping into the perchy looking swims, but it started raining around noon, which made it quite uncomfortable to keep mobile.  I much prefer sitting static under a brolly when it's wet and windy.  So,  with just a 2lb chub to show for my efforts, I packed the gear into the car and headed off for the weir.

The peg was empty, great, up went the brolly, out went a lobworm, away went the float.  I was getting slaughtered by small perch.  In the gloomy conditions, the swim was full of perch and they were feeding - hard.

A change of tactics, I flicked some maggots onto the crease, and into the bucket went half a dozen bleak.  After re-rigging, a bleak was lowered onto the marginal shelf.  The float buried almost instantly, but I mistimed the strike.

Re-cast, float buried, average sized perch lost at the net.  The weather was manky, overcast, chilly, persistent rain and breezy.  Another bleak was sent to it's doom, this time the bite was hit perfectly, the perch was landed.  It was less than a pound, I didn't bother to weigh it.

Then things went quiet for a while.  Had I spooked the shoal?  Had a pike moved in?  After half-hour or so, a large perch-like shape appeared beneath my float, which promptly slid away.  My strike was met with resistance but evidently the timing was off again, as the line went slack.

I wonder if I can compensate for my poor timing with a tweak to the rig, a hair-type arrangement perhaps.  Or maybe it wasn't a large fish, it was a group of small fish which couldn't get hold of the bait properly...

Despite the frenetic action early on, that missed bite was the last of the action.  I'm unsure if the slightly increased flow or my clumsiness was the culprit.  Probably the latter.

Saturday 6th October - New Pond

All the rain that came down during and after my last session caused the river to rise and burst its banks.  That put paid to perch fishing on the river, so it was a choice, barbel or stillwater perch.  Though the river on my club ticket is a very interesting barbel stretch, seeing very little pressure, while still producing occasional fish to double-figures, I thought better of it.  As a recovering barbel addict, the last thing I want to do is get hooked again, so I gave that a miss.  I didn't fancy any of the pools on a day ticket, and didn't fancy the pools on my club card, so I began the search for a new water.

A chance encounter while investigating a day-ticket water, lead me to a club-run fishery which ticked all the boxes.  When the card hit the doormat, it was too much to resist a session that evening, so off I went with a bucket full of maggots and a spring in my step.

A beautiful, quiet little pool, lined with trees in full autumn colours, glowing brightly in the sunshine.  It looked lovely but the bright day didn't feel very perchy.  I set up at the deeper end of the pond, the trees casting a shadow over the water, and a patch of lilies offering overhead cover to any stalking perch.

Waggler fished maggots gave me a bite a chuck, lovely, a hatful of roach and perch to use as bait in double quick time.  Out went a small roach on a free-roving float rig.  An hour spent fishing to open water went bite-less, so I repositioned the rig next to the lilies.

The float bobbed and weaved a bit, then disappeared.  As usual, my strike was badly timed or something, as  the fish let go before I had a chance to see it.  A fresh bait went out to the same spot and just like the previous cast, a bite wasn't long coming.  A short, nervous fight ensued, a nice perch was drawn over the net.  It appeared bigger to my untrained eye, but at 1lb 5oz I felt that this was a perfect start on a new venue with an unknown perch population.  Chuffed!

1lb 5oz Perch

I experienced a couple more missed bites a while later, but remain unsure if it is my rig, my striking, or smaller perch not taking the bait fully.  I'm going to experiment with hook arrangements.

As dusk approached, I switched to a larger, 5 inch roach hookbait.  After 10 minutes or so, the float absolutely smashed under and my strike was met with a heavy fish nodding around.  The tussle was cut short when either the hook pulled or the fish just let go.  Damn!  I really must sort out my hooking arrangement, it felt like a good fish.

That was to be the last of the action as darkness fell.  I left the pond feeling very excited, pleased and disappointed, already hatching a plan for the next session.  Hopefully the river isn't in suitable condition for perch so I can come back here again...

I hope your next bite is a monster!