crusian

Another 3 night blank, new swim, position seemed good for traffic, only one stuck it's head out the whole trip.  Did hours of swim improvements/clearance for no reward, out again Thursday night for another go - same conditions 🤦‍♂️
Still nice view lol

Thought i'd fill in the blanks from a couple of recent syndi trips. 



Back out tonight for another go, buzzing 🙏💪

Got out for a night over the bank holiday. The syndi is closed for spawning so I visited a day ticket down in the Nene Valley. It was absolutely rammed as one might expect given the timing, but I managed to find a few carp in a quiet corner. It was dead hot, so I flicked a couple of zigs out just under the surface. It was clear the carp were just sunbathing, so I was expecting to have to wait for the sun to drop behind the trees for any action. So it proved with a take around 19:30 which resulted in a lovely grey linear.

Onto the deck for the night and I realised I had a problem – I’d forgotten the spod rod! I found one of those Wolf X-Spod jobbies in my bag (bought it ages ago and never used it) and bodged it onto one of my carp rods. It worked a treat…. those X-Spod thingys are great! I put 2 on the deck and left one up in the water. At 02:30 I was away off the baited spot and a nice little cricket bat common was landed. Re-did the rod and 04:30 saw an awesome chestnut linear landed - worth a pic this one.

Photo’s done, I was half expecting that to be it but at 09:00 the zig rod went. It kited to my right past several other anglers and the hook pulled when I over-gunned it trying to stop it. Still, a good sign. In come the rods on the bottom, zigs on all of them, and back out they go. About 10:30 I get another take and another cricket bat common is in the net. I planned to stay a bit longer after that but as the heat increased, I decided I was happy with what I’d had so called it a day. A great little session in the end.

It was a Bird of Prey Photography workshop ran by professional Photographer Daniel Bridge and a Bird of Prey business... cracking day out... tons of static shots as well as some flight shots.
Turns out my 17 year old Nikon's not up to fast moving Kestrels Harris Hawks and Owls and I'm well out of practice...🤣
Atticus didn't fly as he was too hot

At Hanningfield reservoir today... took this of a lovely Great Grey Owl (had to use the phone camera for this shot) 
His name is Atticus...

Had 5 today, 2 mirrors and 3 commons...
On snowman rigs with a small bag of pellets with a dip of Manilla glug

You mad fool ,Roughtor .
🙄  

Well done Jules 👍
Forgot to say I put a fine dap of clear nail polish over the repair 👍

That’s a bit of bad luck
Easy fix if they don’t, grip the broken piece with grips heat below the eye then slide the eye away. Try it for size if it fits bit of super glue job done if it don’t a light sanding to it till it fits then glue. 
Iv done the same fix to a quiver tip and a sea rod 👍

You can always tell when someone is lying, proving it can be tougher, surely they walk each lake once a day? Would be it be too hard to print out all the bookings on the complex and check them daily? 
 

IMO the fishery manager was weak letting them get away with that, vacate the swim or you're banned would be my take on it.  

Big foot ....ha ha...no seriously ..
 
Whatever it was spooked this deer ,as it ran past me,.. made a hellish crashing noise,what with the non stop rain ,thunder ,lightning, was a night to remember..
 
( I loved it )...

Might be on an earner…You should try eating it could be truffles  😂

Lovely looking dog , Roughtor , sad loss indeed .

Yes what is it ? , the poo of one of those big cats that roam about leaving tantilising clues of their existance ? .

Lovely looking dog , Roughtor , sad loss indeed .

Yes what is it ? , the poo of one of those big cats that roam about leaving tantilising clues of their existance ? .

Excuse my ignorance but.
What is that??? 

Where I live there is an abundance of disused ,deep quarries,some are barren,and fishless...but a few have some surprises and have held carp and other species for many years ..
When you fish these places,you have to think like a miner  ,and find the galleries, which are mined ,and step down into unimaginable depths ,find the galleries and you find the patrol routes..
The weather was awful ,I had a river running under my shelter,at one point ,wind,rain,hail,thunder,lightning..and a big fear of falling branches made it interesting..,then all the mica,clay residue gets everywhere...anyway ..
 
I found the marginal gallery, and fished very simple running lead tactics ,using the Ressi specials I use a lot..After the storm had passed ,I seen kingfisher,heard deer rutting,and woodpeckers, nature at its best ..

Look at the tail on this rocket ,I had a hellish battle with it in about 30ft of water I reckon ,it was jet propelled..
 
I also had 12 others ,similar to my first pic ,but didn't want put em all up., just lovely to be out in raw nature ..

Ha! I’ve been lurking and not contributing for some time now but a new PB is worth sharing…..
I’m still on a session at Dinton’s Black Swan as I type this………Arrived at dawn yesterday. Clearly lots of fish still in the big ‘winter bay’ despite being on the back of a big SW. Lapped a couple of times, debating where to plot up with 3 nights ahead. Decided to keep it simple and put my rigs where the fish were actually showing rather than where they might end up……
Cast 3 singles out for drops amongst the emergent Eel grass which they seem so attracted to. Decided to get my head down for a couple of hours-I’d set off at 2.45am. An hour or so later I’m woken by a screaming Neville. Lifted in to a very heavy feeling fish which was dogged rather than spectacular. Worryingly, it hit the surface about 25 yds out and started shaking its head at me as I led it in; with braided mainline I’m always anxious when they do this with no water depth to cushion the lunges. Fortune was on my side and I netted a Common that got larger with every yard I gained. 
With the assistance of 3 other anglers we weighed and photographed an amazing creature of 53lb 2oz! Blown away! 

Here's my Casper  having a pint down by our local pub..
Like as mentioned ,kind words indeed,I looked at him as my little buddy spoilt rotten ,but well trained and socialised very well...( except near water lol 😂

Well you know how it is Nick , " you don't poo on your own doorstep . " 
😁

Shambles lol, I should of deffo checked the weather and put a bit more thought into where I was setting my bivvy up, the rain continued all through yesterday and got heavier over night with thunder, lightning and hailstones. The rain was so bad it made its way through the bivvy, the groundsheet some how failed and had water running across it. The ground I set up on just bogged down, this morning I was basically set up in a giant puddle, the bugs vacated the ground and decided to crawl in the bivvy, I had worms and slugs making the way up the bivvy, it was a complete mess 💀🤣 thrown the towel in this morning and just packed up in the rain, piled it all into the car soaking wet 🤣🤣no more fish to report lol

Done a mid double common yesterday and just done this one at 17lb 12oz, it's hammering down and my hood wouldn't stay up, it all went wrong 🤣

Anyway it will be my last night tonight, hopefully get another cat 👍