yonny

froggie I lent on my self take button whilst waiting for one of the fish to settle on the mat, it looks like I’m in a meditative stance 
fish is totally swallowed by the mat! 

Did a quick overnighter on my winter estate lake last night, wind hacking into my face, mild night, overcast with showers on and off. This lake is a typical mixed fishery, rather than an out and out carp fishery, but has a good head of carp to 25lb(ish) the frogs were active in the margins, a sign spring is springing. I had a hectic night, with 14 carp landed plus 2 bream from 18 takes, a few low doubles, a smattering of singles and a couple of 20s to top it off. 15lb 20lb ghostie 22lb 14lb 
 

I'm still here (on the back row) looking over 🤣

Good lad.
Those old Daiwa reels are absolutely bomb proof. I picked up a set of Emblem Pro's (the fishing version of the old Emblem Spod Reel) for a couple of hundred quid to use on one specific water due to their silly long retrieve. I use them for 90% of my fishing now despite having several other sets worth much, much more!

Reporting from the social, I decided to move on Saturday morning had a walk round with Dale and decided it was best, I moved into Bogmageddon and after a slog with the barrow, fannied about and found some spots, it soon became apparent I had made the right call when I saw one bosh to my left, then another to my right, got the rods tried to throwing stick some boilies out as I managed to lose my spod in a shimano faulty bail arm incident, that the others didn't rinse me for at all 😂
Of course within minutes there were a flock of seagulls trying to eat every last one. But I figured I has some in the zone, within an hour I had a weird bite lifted One bleep dropped right back then lifted again, and I was in, went right to get behind an island then went left to get behind another, then wstsyed deep to try and lose me over the massive plateau betwixt us, but I got it over, it tried to go through all my lines and eventually I netted the beast of bogmageddon, all 27 and a half lbs of it, Leon (commonly) came to assist with the photos and as actually managed to make me smile for one 😬
As I write it's lashing down the swim looks like a wet Glastonbury and I'm not looking forward to packing up but it's been fun and eventful, maybe time for another but it doesn't seem as likely today, hopefully I've pushed them down for Leon to have a busy night tonight. 

So I managed to get them for £200. Loving them, can't wait to try them out 👍🤣

Wicked mate I'm gonna go for them 👌 I would love a set of the tournament -s reels, but they come in at just under 900 for 3 🤣

A mate of mine opened this place last year:
Home | Fieldview Fishery
Not been yet myself but it gets rave reviews and has a very plush lodge. The owner is an absolute diamond so more than happy to vouch for the place.

They're basically a cheaper version of the Infinity BR's, which are essentially the bait runner version of the old 5000 tourneys. I had the infinitys for ages, and still use the tournaments. Absolutely awesome reels. They'll be bombproof fella 👍👍👍

Who have thought little round balls can cause so much fuss….
 

Sometimes we need to take a step back mate. Hope all goes well and you get the bug back at some point 👍

Sometimes we need to take a step back mate. Hope all goes well and you get the bug back at some point 👍

Sometimes we need to take a step back mate. Hope all goes well and you get the bug back at some point 👍

Sometimes we need to take a step back mate. Hope all goes well and you get the bug back at some point 👍

Why mate?
Everything ok?
The fact you're on this forum on a Monday morning says you weren't ready to get rid of your gear!

Honestly, it was on cards for a while, it actually felt like a relief has been lifted off my shoulders. 
All good, I've just got way to much going on. 
I've need even had a thought about it really, I did come off the forum for a while, but just browsing chats now 👍👍

Back from a few days fishing with mates at churn pool . Conditions were tough with easterly winds & heavy rain for the last couple of days .  Session didn't start well with losing a fish early on but did get off the mark at around midnight the first night , cracking mirror that my dodgy night shot did no justice to . Didn't weigh it but probably mid twenty. 
 I was fishing 3 different margin spots one on the far bank which produced the first lost fish ,  this fish came from the corner of the bay I was fishing & the 3rd was just off to my right by a bush .  Simple hair rigs & double tiger nut & fishing big sticks . Next bite came from the same spot & was a young fish.  
 the rest of the day past bite less as did the night . Then 10ish the next day had a drop back bite from the corner again,  this one felt like a good one,  I had hooked a branch half way between me & the fish 3ft long & as it got closer realised there were zebra mussels on it right where my line was hooked up on it ,  managed to bring it in but needed two hands to free it without cutting it off on the mussels so had to put the rod down . Got it free & back playing the fish . So lucky not to of been cut off ! Eventually slipped the net under the fish & was rewarded with a pb mirror of 34 5 lb breaking my very old record by 2lb . 
The final bit of action came from the bush to my right unfortunately lost this one in the weed . Great to get out & do some fishing  really enjoyed being back in the bivvy. 
 

Right lads, I can’t say that this write-up will be anything like my usual slog of a session (I was limited to one swim on a social after all), but it’s a great opportunity to review the venue which was the island on W1 South Lake. Let me start by saying it’s hands down the best social venue I’ve fished. Absolutely brilliant place. It’s not cheap so not best suited to regular trips, but as a special occasion or a bit of a treat it’s awesome.

Me and five of my pals arrived at midday as required by the venue rules and crossed the bridge to the island. First thing we did was take a tour of the island which holds a fire pit with benches, an undercover area with BBQ, tables, worktops, electric points, a fridge, wood, and coal. About as luxurious as you’ll find in the UK. There are 5 swims around the island, well-spaced to avoid anglers interfering with each other. Three of the swims offer open water fishing, one has its own bay, and the other faces another island. All of them have access to funky margin spots so between them you have access to all types of fishing. Something for everyone.

We did several laps in preparation for the swim draw and spotted the odd fish round the whole island. Numbers were drawn from a hat and 1st place really struggled to choose. All the swims looked good, and the consensus was that we’d all be happy in any swim. I came out of the draw 3rd and got my first-choice swim which was swim number 3, an area of open water facing southeast. As there were 6 of us, 2 had to double up which isn’t so much of a problem in that 3 swims are double swims.

The afternoon was spent leading around to find spots and this did take time. It’s a very weedy lake and I’d say not suited to anyone that’s not seasoned in fishing heavy weed. With all those leads flying about we kind of knew that a take on day 1 was unlikely and so it proved as the carp we were seeing went to ground. Hardly any sightings for the rest of the day. With all that said, I was lucky in that my first cast found the spot I wanted to fish. A bit deep for this time of year at ~13ft but nice and solid, and surrounded by weed. Line lay was brutal due to fishing over a bank of weed bigger than my house but hey, needs must.

So, with rods sorted we open the beers, chill out, crank up the bbq and light the fire. As the sun goes down, we do the odd lap to soak in the atmosphere and check for signs of carp. I did spot one off the back of my spot, so I was confident. The night was tricky for some of the group and a couple of takes got lost due to hook pulls in the weed. The sun came up and tbh I couldn’t believe I hadn’t had a take, such was my confidence the previous night. It was 08:30 by the time my right-hand buzzer finally told me a carp had made a mistake, so I consequently picked up the rod and beasted this carp over the majority of the weed and played it out under the tip where I could keep an eye on it.

After 10 mins plodding about in the margin, I scooped it up and had a quick peek. It was a minter, black along the back, chestnut flanks, with half linear scaling. I secured the net and called for my mate but as soon as he came over his buzzer went into over-drive, and he had to leg it back to swim number 1 to have his moment. His was another cracking mirror with irregular linear scaling, and we got to share the moment with the lads as we held a photo session in the morning sun.

Brekky time so we got the BBQ on and let rip. Another pal lost a fish in the weed at 11am which was disappointing, but it meant that every swim had done a bite which was promising for the next 24 hrs. We chilled for the day, redid the rods, and swim number 2 did the next fish at around 7pm. Another dark coloured linear. The quality of these fish is right up there.

As we headed into darkness, I was a little concerned that I wasn’t seeing anything of interest in swim 3, and I was kind of expecting a blank night. So it proved but the action continued elsewhere with one more lost and 2 more banked by the lads. One was a nice fat black linear mirror and the other a gnarly little fully scaled mirror.

By 10am we were due to leave, and we were already planning next years trip. Action had been consistent (although I do think that now we know the swims/spots we’d probably have quite a few more on the next trip). All swims did bites, and the fish were well spread out. Not great for competitive feeding, but great to give everyone a decent chance of a take. The quality of the fishing is good, but it’s the quality of the fish themselves that really sets the place apart. The majority of the fish are quite young but to look at you’d think they’ve been there forever. All black and scaley and awesome.

So, to summarise: excellent place, great facilities, pretty swims, nice and secluded, good fishing and GREAT fish. Too pricey for a regular venue, but as a treat: awesome.

Bit of a looker from a social on the awesome Wraysbury 1.

14 lber late last night.
Mat shot as I don't do self takes & didn't want to disturb the others for this little one.
Last few hours fishing, so hoping to meet his granny🤞
 

Nice to be woken up to this little 19lber.
Not often I get in a catch report. 

Just back from an overnighter 
2nd uk 40 and pb of 42lb 14oz 

My little contribution to the weekends captures along with a tench. 
Sadly I blanked last night, no wonder the pub chucked at a showing fish  mesh bag didn't produce the goods came in looking like that, 
 

Cracking weekend though, lovely lake, good to share it with some of you guys, hopefully will get to have a return match sometime. 
Good luck tonight guys, hope you catch a few more belters. 👍🤞🤞

Awesome mate. I stayed on there an extra year trying to catch the Patch Common but it was not to be. It never came out again so I think I was fishing for a dead'n!!
I was lucky enough to catch Scaley. Twice in fact. What a kipper that was!

 

It took some time to get that shot mate yeah, camera wanted to focus on the branches in the foreground.