Shelters, Night and Winter Comfort

In this entry I would like to discuss how to keep warm, dry, organised and safe whilst fishing during the night, especially in Winter. This is primarily aimed at the beginner but there might be a few bits to help everyone.

Shelters

Firstly look at where you will be putting your shelter, try to squeeze under a tree or tight to a hedge or a bush to keep you out of the wind as much as possible. Twin skin shelters are probably the best shelter you can use, as the air between the skins adds warmth by providing an insulating layer. This also reduces condensation that sometimes forms under single skin shelters that can drip over your sleeping bag, making your stay uncomfortable. 

Make sure you check your shelter is regularly water proofed, you can either use the Fabsil spray or the paint on variety. Make sure your Shelter is securely pegged down, i tend to push the pegs down at a slight angle to prevent them being pulled out so easily. For those of you who use brollies it might be worth you buying an over wrap, it won't eliminate the condensation totally but it does reduce it a little.

Arranging your shelter properly will pay dividends at night, try to use the same lay out every time you go fishing until you become familiar with the way it is set up. 

Soon enough you will know where everything is even in the dark and you won't be fumbling around looking for bits and pieces. 

Notice in the second picture i always have my foot wear to the right hand side of the door. Getting a run at night can be a very confusing situation so it is important that you know where all of your gear is before hand. 

Even the cook wear is always just outside the bivvy to the left hand side, i just find it easier to the left. 

Never bring your cook wear inside, always do the cooking and changing of gas outside. 

The floor i like to cover in an old army blanket, these are very warm to the touch in Winter, and stop some of the cold coming through the floor.

I also like to use a mat in the entrance of the door just to wipe my feet as i enter the bivvy and its also somewhere to keep muddy boots.

Sleeping Attire 

A decent comfortable bedchair is a must, what ever sleep you do get you will want to make sure its as comfortable as possible. I have a six leg bedchair version, which is just perfect for setting up on any ground. Also i never tighten the spigot joints down, i think it just gives you a little more freedom when setting up over uneven ground.

The sleeping bag i have is a five season sleeping bag, with a fleece inner, this particular sleeping bag has a hood at the top and the bottom of the bag which slides over each end of your bedchair.There is also a retaining strap just to secure the sleeping bag down about mid way. All of these points keep the sleeping bag nice and stretched out over the bedchair, which make for a more comfortable sleep. I also use a bedchair cover which has six retaining straps that clip around the legs of the bedchair.

This just ensures the damp air stays out of your sleeping bag, and i quite often only use this cover during the summer months when the five season bag would just simply be to warm. 

Make sure that when you are not sleeping, the bedchair is fully covered with this cover, there is nothing worst than climbing into a damp sleeping bag. For Winter months you might also want to consider purchasing a hot water bottle and put this in the sleeping bag about an hour before you intend going to sleep.

Cook Wear 

If you are using a gas cooker i would suggest buying one of these little converters.

This is just so you are not tied to purchasing one type of can of gas, a lot of the screw top versions are more expensive than the bayonet versions. This cap simply screws onto your gas bottle connector, so you can use both types of cans.

These shields really make a difference, wrapped around the stove, firstly protecting anything from getting burnt and keeping the wind off your gas.

I would just like to make you all aware of the dangers of using stoves, particularly the petrol stoves such as these.

These Coleman stoves are particularly dangerous when lighting, as many of you Coleman fans are aware, you can get burned very easily when first lighting one of these stoves. I always refill mine a day before I’m due to go fishing, and if I needed to refill it while fishing I would always do so well away from my shelter. I usually pump mine about twenty times and then light it, wait for a couple of minutes and then pump a further twenty or so times to get the nice blue flame going. Then you know it’s ready to cook or boil. At the end of each session I relieve the pressure by undoing the filling screw a little bit. This lets out all of the pressure and will prolong the life of the seals on the stove. Please make sure you do not use any kind of stove within the confines of your shelter, especially during the winter. Although your shelter may have a breathable skin, dew and condensation renders the breathability useless. Carbon Monoxide poisoning is very real threat whilst camping, many have died just from a few hours exposure. Just to reiterate One word should always be on you mind when ever using stoves and that's, !!!CAUTION!!!

Just think about what you are doing and stay safe. I have owned one of these stoves for many years now and they are fine in the right hands but that isn't without being cautious.

You may want to consider buying one of these long reach lighters to keep your fingers away from any potential hazard.

Important Note

While on the subject of stoves, please do not use your stove or lantern while your shelter is zipped up. The evaporation of CARBON MONOXIDE is greatly reduced by the thermal barrier in between the two skins of your bivvy, especially when your shelter is either wet, iced over or covered in snow.

The side effects of CARBON MONOXIDE poisoning are as follows. Mild Frontal Headache, malaise, nausea, vomiting, dizziness and manualloss of dexterity. Headache with rapid heartbeat, confusion, lethargy, visual disturbances. Death can happen with in one to two hours of exposer.

If you want my advise, get a water bottle and use all heating appliances outside, its not worth the risk.

 Other Essentials

Torches, head torches and bivvy lights are all a good idea to have, always make sure you have spare batteries. Make sure your mobile phone is fully charged, just in case. I usually hang my head torch on the spigot joint of the bedchair. You might even want to consider getting yourself a little pocket radio, just to give yourself something to listen to during those long dark nights. Personally I like to take a book to read.

Something I have purchased recently is one of the wind up chargers for my phone, you’ll find these particularly useful on longer sessions. Remember it’s always good to keep in touch with friends or family members.

Keeping Warm

I always wear thermals and a good pair of socks underneath all of my clothing. Hats, scarves and gloves are also going to help keep you warm. There are many winter suits available now on the market but make sure they are waterproof and again if need be use Fabsil on these as well. Take a few towels and a change of clothes and a spare pair of boots, trainers etc....... just in case.

Contrary to belief you don’t lose most of your heat, out of your head you are just as likely if not more likely to lose more heat out of your arms or legs, so remember keep them covered. Make sure you have plenty of water for hot drinks and food and if your using a gas stove make sure the canister is wrapped in something warm as gas can and will freeze. In addition high calorie foods will help to keep you warm, I always cook what's easiest and quickest and eat little and often, soups, pot noodles, instant mash, tinned curries etc.......

The moral of the story is to be prepared, keep everything tidy, and get familiar with the layout of your shelter. Night fishing and winter fishing in particular can be quite hard, but with a few easy steps and a bit of thought, you should enjoy your sessions, no matter what the weather throws at you.
It’s all about keeping warm, comfortable and safe, if you are just starting out in night fishing, letting friends and family know where you are, particularly if you are young, should always be your first port of call. Go with a friend or a family member, take your time and stay safe. Make sure the day before you are well prepared and everything is packed.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.
Until next time, stay lucky

Second Session 2015

With my first session for 2015 over I felt my mush/soup needed a little refining, and soon I would have to start about thinking of the inclusion of boilies if I wanted any kind of longevity from my baiting plans.

I just felt I could make it better, I just felt that if I stuck to my guns it would eventually pay off.

With it still being Winter I had a little time on my side, I knew it wouldn't be long before the banks would become home for the fair weathered angler once again with Spring not being so far away.

Swim 31

Maybe I would have to be more vigilant about my own presence and really keep out of sight. The problem lay with positioning myself properly away from the swim. This presented its own set of problems, 

Swims 29 and 30 were either side of this swim and way to close to even consider fishing from. 

Swims 28 and 31 would be a better choice, 28 would offer easier access but provide very little in the way of cover and swim 31 was completely opposite in the way, it would offer complete cover but would be a nearly impossible cast, however, priority number one was not to cast a rig directly into the swim. I would need to cast onto the bank and spoon feed the rig and bait whilst keeping a very low profile.

You may be wondering why I am focusing on this area? indeed for the better part, you shouldn't have any preconceived idea's before walking the banks, but knowledge is everything.

I had found out this was where the big girl had been caught before on a couple of occasions now, adding that information with my own sightings only galvanised my thoughts into this was the place to start my campaign. 

Only a few weeks prior to Christmas I made a clumsy, school boy error and stumled at the foot of swim 29, spooking a rather large fish. I could tell its bulk, it didn't swim off particularly quickly but the surface of the water sort of dropped the sending bow waves across the entire pool.

I couldn't see the fish as I didn't have my Polaroids with me but I knew it was a big fish.

Sunday, was going to be my next session and I couldn't wait to put theory into practice.

All I had to do now was decide upon a spoon mix I was 100% happy with.

I wanted a rich creamy mix to complement the tigers, hempseed was always my number two choice for a number of different reasons. Mashed sweetcorn would be a good addition, maybe with a few tasty grains thrown in as well, but I really wanted a big cloud.

A nice milky white cloud that would soak up all of the attractors from the seeds, nuts and corn and carry them over a wider area, plus this would also give away the presence of feeding fish.

I had already prepared over a pound of chopped tigers and soaked them in evaporated milk, but this wouldn't produce enough of a cloud.

After having a quick chat with a friend of mine, detailing what I wanted, he made the suggestion of condensed milk and porridge oats.

I had used porridge oats before for stick mixes and remembered how good they were for producing a nice little cloud, but never with condensed milk, I would have to do a couple of tank tests at home to see the results.

I do a lot of tank testing, it gives me a really good insight to what is happening, I use them for all manner of tests, knowing exactly how a rig sits or how a bait works once submerged builds my confidence and gives me a good starting point whenever I am trying something new.

So that was it, that was my recipe sorted, now all I needed was to get back to the bank and put everything into practice.

Recently I have been looking into using zig rigs, especially on the warmer days during the winter when fish can often be found in the upper layers, lavishing in the day light sun.

Its not ever something ive used before, I have toyed around with zigs on a couple of occasions but never caught anything as of yet.
I think the biggest problem is tying the rigs up at a moments notice to try a number of depths and colour combinations before you find a presentation that works.

So I set about making this method as easy as I could for myself, making a number of different colour foam combinations and making a number of different length hooklinks.
My number one aim was to make the rigs as easy as possible to change at a moments notice, which is where the idea of the multi rig sprung to mind.
Tying a loop at each end of the hooklink would enable me to change the foam and the length of hooklink at the drop of a hat.

To further my confidence in this approach, I would need to flavour these little bits of foam with something or another, which is when I had a dig round and found the Nutrabaits Atomiser Sprays.

This whole method is still something i am waiting to test out, but its looking promising. These are great atomiser sprays, which have all manner of uses, with the Cream Cajouser being my favourite.

Sunday couldn't come round soon enough, all week had been spent day dreaming of the endless possibilities that awaited me, tying rigs, experimenting with my soup and just generally looking forward to being back on the bank.

There had been various weather warnings of snow, that wasn't to much of a worry, my only concern would be the temperature drop during the course of Saturday night, which was expected to drop to -6°.

All was looking calm outside during the early hours of Sunday morning, not a single branch moved in the trees out in the back garden, and it certainly didn't feel as cold as I was expecting it too.
Maybe today wouldn't be as cold, but past experiences taught me that Worcester could be a lot different from home.

I could imagine the pool being like a large mirror in these calm conditions, no wind, not even a ripple on the water, a mist slowly emanating from the surface, the stuff that real carpy dreams are made of.
I so wished I could be there to watch the sun come up, but such as life, you fish the times you have, and you make the best of it.
Anyway, I am sure there will be a least a few times this season I will get the see the pool wake from its sleepy slumber like so many others I had seen before.

The motorway was a nice journey with the sun beaming down, not much in the way of traffic, which is always a bonus contributed to Sunday mornings.

As I pulled up beside the pool, the sun was illuminating the top end of the pool, including the corner I most wanted to be in. My original thoughts of casting from swim 31 proved to be a near impossible task, so I opted for swim 30, right in the site of the corner. I did check to make sure there were no fish present at this time and promptly got both rods into position and set camp up, to the right behind the bankside foliage so I couldn't be seen.

Swim 30

The pool was like a mirror with hardly any wind blowing at all, i sometimes find a very still pool, some what hypnotic, imagining what's going on under the surface, what leviathans lay beneath. Silvers dappled the surface every now and again disrupting the still water, and now I lay in wait for a hungry carp to come along and snuffle one of my baits.

My eyes were firmly fixed looking at the lake, for what seemed like an eternity, would something show? would something come along into my waiting ambush?

I watched a Kingfisher, perched on one of the branches right above my baited area. Looking down into the murky depths, then he'd disappear in a flash, only to return with a filled beak, "he was doing a lot better than I was", I remember thinking. Then again this was his home and I was the intruder trying to tempt something out of its home.

The day passed without even so much as a sniff, the weather deteriorated, temperature wise and it had even begun to rain. The air was cold and now I was slowly getting wet.
With the weather feeling so unpleasant I decided to pack away and make for home.
Before leaving I did drop in a couple of handfuls of Tigers in preparation, but now my attention was turning back onto boilies.

My second session finished on a blank, but there was always next week and my hopes remained high and undeterred.

Thanks for reading and until next time, good luck.

The Military Mirror

 I had been working for a little local engineering company for a couple of years, the job was mainly a workshop based job but it did include a lot of site work as well. I had done a lot of projects for Pfizers, The Channel Tunnel, Heathrow, Local Council, that kind of thing. Not anything massive, in fact we were the ones who would do the little jobs the bigger firms didn’t want.
We regularly visited various sites around the Shepway area and Kent was now becoming a familiar place for me.

I had been a member of Mid Kent Fisheries for about a year, fishing Chilham once a month for about four days at a time, and I was doing ok, regular fish and I really enjoyed being on its banks, it was just one of those waters that clicked and got under my skin.

I had a couple of friends scattered around locally who fished for carp, one was a regular on Chilham, a couple were fishing the Gravel Pit in Hythe and one was doing his rounds on the local canal, called the Royal Military Canal. I new the Royal Military Canal because I had been fishing a little stretch of the canal called bombers hole in Giggers Green for Pike. I had spent the previous winter chasing a twenty which never came along but I had, had a few decent Pike out of there. I had heard rumours of two carp that went over the thirty pound mark, but were often seen and fished for not far from the town centre of Hythe.

You know what its like with rumours, you just take it all with a pinch of salt until you get reliable word. I had always vowed for some time to try and find out about these fish but never got round to it, as I was really happy fishing Chilham.

Later on that year I received a phone call off a friend who had witnessed a, for what he called it, massive fish swim right past his rods. Bigger than anything he had seen in the canal before, but knowing him at the time it was probably no bigger than a low twenty. Now don’t get me wrong a low twenty is a great stonking fish for a canal, but Chilham threw these up on a regular basis, there was no way I was going to fish the canal for a low twenty when I had the chance of catching a forty, especially after just renewing my ticket for the place, I just wanted to concentrate all of my efforts in what I was doing for now and anything else wasn’t even a consideration for the immediate future.

About a month later I was sent on a job to repair a weedbarge for the local council. The weedbarge was a boat the council used to clean up the litter and weed out of the canal. It looked a venomous thing with two foot pointed spikes at the front, ready to scoop anything up that maybe laying in or floating around. I was told to drive to Twiss Road in Hythe to the boating house to carry out a couple of repairs and then report back to the office.

Just on the other side of the Twiss Road Bridge was this stretch of the canal. This is where the local council used to host a yearly event called the Venetian Fete. The banks would be lined with hundreds of people all watching these little creations drifting by. One year i even helped create one of these little floats, i can't remember what charity it was for, but it was a good excuse for everybody, including kids to have a bit of fun.

Anyway, it was a really nice warm day if my memory serves me right, the window was down on the van and I was thinking of all things carpy and couldn’t wait to get back on the bank that was coming up in a week or so. The boating house was right on the banks of the Royal Military Canal. There were two big sheds, one housed a few lawn mowers and a few bits and pieces and the other housed the weedbarge. In front of this shed was a concrete ramp heading down into the canal and a little platform to the left, that the guys obviously used to get in and out of the weedbarge.

Before I even walked into the shed I had a quick look at the canal, it seemed to widen out in front of the sheds and there were over hanging tree’s straight out in front, and to the left was the Twiss Road bridge that went over the canal, but just to the right of the bridge I noticed a water inlet pipe. I remember thinking this looks carpy, gave it a little smile and turned round and just got on with my job and did all the necessaries and got the weedbarge fully functional again.

I started to pack all of the tools into the van and took another look over the water. One of the guys in the shed came out and said, “looks nice dun it” I replied “yeah very nice” “are you a fisherman then” he asked “yeah for all my sins” I replied. I had met this guy a couple of times in the workshop before for other working reasons, so we did sort of know each other. “can anyone fish here fella” I said, he replied with “no” and pointed at the big sign on the entrance gates that I had missed. “thats a shame i’d quite like to fish this spot” by this time the other guy had also came out for a chat, he was a keen fisherman as it turns out, not for carp but for the smaller silvers. “there’s a few fish in this stretch” he said “i’ve fished it quite a lot”, “seen some big fish in here too” my ears pricked up “oh yeah” I said, “yeah I was here last week and saw a really big carp swim by” “well over twenty pounds I would guess” now I was listening. “We’re allowed to fish here because we work here, but it is private property” he said. “why do you want to give it a go then” he said, “yeah i’d like to” I said, “well I suppose because we know you it wouldn’t hurt, just don’t tell anyone” he said with a crafty smile.

Now I was flattered with the offer but like I said before I was concentrating all of my efforts on Chilham, but it was only fives minutes from my house and I could get down to do some regular baiting on the way to the tackle shop every Friday.

I used to go down every week after work and have a coffee with Den in the tackle shop, we had built up quite a good relationship over the years. Den couldn’t drive and had never been fishing, but he owned the tackle shop and used to run a taxi rank at night, I still chuckle to myself about that today. I had to pass the boating house every time I went to see Den so It wouldn’t take five minutes to drop in some bait every week.

I decided to trickle in a little bait every Friday night, but I would park up on the Twiss Road bridge and bait up from there. Looking over the bridge gave me a good look at this water inlet that caught my attention the first time I looked at the swim. I knew this would be a good holding point for the fish, especially in the summer.

I had intended to maybe drop on the swim for a couple of hours on the odd Friday evening and maybe do the odd Sunday when I wasn’t at Chilham.I had already planned in my head where I was going to position myself in the swim, just on the right hand side of the concrete ramp was a little patch of grass, reeds about three feet tall lined the bank and I was well hidden behind a bush on my right. The cast to the water pipe would be a bit tricky but I had to fish that spot, and decided to put the left hand rod just out in front, in the middle of the canal. Bit lazy I know but fish were seen on a regular basis passing through at this point.

The baiting was an easy option, loads of hempseed to get the fish grubbing around with some chopped Activ8 boilies thrown in for good measure. I spent the next six weeks just baiting the pipe spot, and I had done a couple of Friday evening session’s with a couple of fish to low doubles, mainly from the left hand rod out in the middle of the canal. I lost a big one on the second session and it felt a decent size to, but I wasn’t taking the fishing to seriously, it was just somewhere local to go and spend a couple of hours.

Chilham came round again and I was off for a four day session, and due to return Monday evening, but that week I planned to put in some bait on the Wednesday and Friday and fish it on the Sunday. Well the Wednesday came round and I was off baiting up again, round the pipe, and I couldn’t believe I was getting excited about fishing the canal.

Friday came round and I had intended to bait the swim again ready for Sunday but I ended up having a massive argument with my missus at the time, which saw me storming out of the house with most of my fishing gear in tow.

I had no intention of fishing that evening, but I had the gear and I needed a few hours on the bank. So I just set up in the same spot as before, got the rods out, sat back and took in the silence. Now this swim as I have said before, had reeds in front and bushes to the right of me, so I could remain out of sight. The rod to the pipe was a bit of a tricky cast, in the position I was in, but with a gentle under arm flick the rig landed spot on, first time. The left hand rod was a much easier cast, just bang out straight into the middle of the canal. I had always been a fan of using the odd shape of boilie that you sometimes get in a kilo bag, after all I was presenting chopped boilies, and this was a tactic I had readily employed on Chilham to some success.

I sat back, rolled a smoke and enjoyed my much needed coffee, sometimes its just nice to be on the bank, irrespective of what might come along. I new I couldn't be there any more than a couple of hours because I wasn't a member. Billy the bailiff had reminded me a few times he didn't want to catch me night fishing, not that I ever did, well.....not in plain view anyway. One hour later my right hand rod screamed off , I quickly struck into the rod, felt the fish on the end, and bump it was off. I was absolutely gutted, this was the first run I had, had off this spot and there was no way I would get another one now. Despite that I did recast to the pipe spot, I didn’t have much confidence, but I was hopeful for the left hand rod going. I waited, the evening was getting darker and I was contemplating going home and sorting things out with the missus.

Another half an hour I thought and ill go. Then all of a sudden the right hand rod ripped off again, shocked as anything I nearly tripped over the rods and into the canal in all the excitement but I got to the rod in time and struck, only to be greeted with what I can only describe as a freight train on the other end. I knew it was big right from the start, I had felt this pressure before, at this very point you all know what goes through your mind. Could this be the high twenty many have talked about or could I be completely wrong. This fish battled on and on, at one point it went right under the bridge to the other side and I thought I had lost it. But hard firm pressure soon persuaded the fish to come my way. By this point the tip of my left hand rod was lowered right into the water, I didn’t want anything to spoil this fish coming in, I was standing on the ramp at the waters edge, my knee’s were trembling, my heart was pounding and my arm was killing me. Soon enough I saw this immense fish lump out straight in front of me, I had the net in position, I had all the room in the world. I just needed to calm down and take my time. Rod held high, net held low and the fish very slowly came towards me, I couldn’t quite see the fish as it was now getting dark. I could just see the outline of a big pale mirror, slowly it came until finally the fish slid over my net. Just as I netted the fish a friend had seen the commotion from the bridge and had come round for a look. “jesus Gaz what have you got there?” he said, “a nice fish” I replied. “How big” he said “im not sure I haven’t really seen it yet” I replied. With the fish in the net I set about getting everything ready for a weighing while my mate held the net in the water for me. I went over to the net and lifted, “Jesus christ its heavy” I said, I got the fish down onto the mat and into the way sling. Could this possibly be a thirty I thought, no im not that lucky. I lifted the scales, the needle went round to 30…..31….32…..and settled onto 33lb 2oz’s. “Oh my god” I said “its a thirty”. I couldn’t believe my eyes, I had, had the second biggest known fish in the Royal Military Canal.

My Mate took a few snaps of me and the fish and congratulated me on my luck. He didn’t see what all the fuss was about being a non angler but he was impressed such fish resided in the canal. I was so happy and to think I shouldn’t of even been there till Sunday. That night I went home and didn’t make up with the missus, I didn’t care. Nothing was going to take that big smile off my face that weekend. The Friday after I was back in Dens on my weekly coffee trip, and had told him of my capture, he asked me if he could put the picture up on the back wall behind the counter with all of the other picture's he had accumulated over the years, and of course I obliged. Now Billy and Den were good friends and Billy used to run the tackle shop from time to time when Den was away, so Billy had seen this photo and had noticed that the picture was taken in the darker hours of the day. He did collar me about it, on my next trip to the shop, and I did reassure him, with a smile on my face, I was actually packing up when the rod screamed off.



We can all get lucky sometimes and when lady luck is feeling generous, these are the memories that are firmly planted for the rest of our lives.

Thanks for reading

First Session 2015

Saturday morning soon came around, there was an unusual warm spike in temperature for this time of year which was mixed with gusts of wind from the south. Winds strong enough to break and bring down the weaker branches of many a tree. 

Twitter had been littered with reports of anglers being out on the bank, battling the conditions for just one illustrious carp.

Temperatures of 13° were common place during the Friday night, and the carp fishing fraternity was feeling quietly confident.

Whether or not this unusually warm weather would produce a fish or two remained to be seen.

Sitting in doors, I could hear the gusts racing outside of the windows to the front and back of my home, the cat flap would donote a sudden gust with its squeaking hinges.

It was still dark, I had already loaded the car and experienced the wind first hand, and remember thinking, I would have to take my time during my journey. 

I just knew these winds could play havoc on the Motorway. 

The anticipation was already building, I knew today would be my best chance if a capture this Winter, but I couldn't go rushing into the first swim. I just hoped the rain would hold off long enough for me to get set up in a couple of hours time. 

I was already planning my assault in my mind, of how I was going to approach the two spots very quietly and keep any sighting of me or bankside disturbance to a minimum.

The wind would definitely help me to a certain degree, but I couldn't let my impatience spoil my chances, I had to stay focused and be methodical in my approach.

The cats were sitting, looking outside through the patio doors with a nervous glint in their eyes. I could imagine, to a normal person, the very thought of going out in this weather would be a ludicrous proposition, but only another fellow fisherman would understand the motivation of an angler, and in some way, maybe we are all lacking in sensibility some of the time.

However only another fisherman would understand the rewards to be had from such foul weather. 

9 am was now upon me and my departure beckoned, I just had to make a flying stop at the petrol station and I was away, lake bound.

The winds were indeed strong, every now and then I had to correct the steering through the open areas of the Motorway, mind you, Citreon Picasso's aren't exactly aerodynamically strong.

Finally I reached the car park and to my amazement the banks were totally devoid of anglers. The banks were littered with weakened branches, blown down from the night before. There was a nice ripple on the water and it looked like the sun would be making an appearance. 

I had a walk round the pool and settled for the northern end, right in the teeth of the wind. The sun shone down on this area, so it made perfect sense to pitch up as I didn't see any signs of activity, anywhere.

The wind had dramatically dropped, there was still the occasional gust but nothing to unpleasant. 

To my right was an inlet pipe that flowed in from the pool above, this was an obvious choice of spot. 

To my left was an empty swim, these swims are often occupied by match anglers and as they would fish no further out than a few yards, I deduced there may well be some bait left or at least this area would be known to the fish.

You'll find a lot of the match angler swims are a good starting point, no more than a poles length out, where the frequency of bait would appeal to all manner of fish.

I had decided recently to start using a soup bait style of approach to baiting, no real food items, just a big cloud of attractive liquids which would be placed out using a baiting spoon and a telescopic pole. My theory being that this would attract the fish in without there being a lot to eat, just the few bits and pieces around my baited hook.

Id previously read a piece by Rod Hutchinson on instant baits, who theorised, instant attraction only has a life span of 3 hours for the better part.

So bearing this in mind, I thought it wise to drop another spoonful of soup over the spots every 3 hours or so.

Everything was now set, id managed to creep in, get the baits on the spots and set up home for the day, relatively quietly. 

Now all I needed was a take, id just hoped id done enough and sat down to my first coffee of the day.

It was quite unnerving listening to the branches squeaking and grinding away above my head during the gusts of wind. 

The pool looked quite spooky as the sun drifted behind the clouds. The trees were nearly all devoid of leaves, apart from a few Conifers. The whole place just looked cold and drab. I could hear the faint echo of traffic in the background, a continuous hum, which only added to the ghostly feel.

Id decided to spoon in a little bait in the corner of the pool to my right hand side and then periodically visit this area to see if anything was feeding.
Not a single carp showed themselves at this point, there was the odd sprinkling of silvers showing, peppered around the pool but nothing of any significance to catch my attention. 

I had been checking the baited corner spot every 20 or so minutes, at around 2 o'clock I could see some clouding where I had put the bait.

This was it, this was my chance, I quickly got all of the gear packed up, grabbed a rod and lowered the rig Into position, keeping out of sight.

40 minutes later I had my first take, I scrambled for the net and grabbed the rod. I could tell straight away it wasn't big, although it gave a good account for itself. Darting from left to right putting a good bend in my rod, but it was soon coaxed into the net.

It must have been the smallest carp in the pool at no more than 3lb, I did laugh at myself, thinking, !!!Typical!!!

I plugged away for another hour in the corner, then decided on a move back to my original swim, where I would just flick out a couple of single pop ups and wait the last hour of daylight out.

The temperature had slowly dropped during the course of the afternoon, the sky had darkened and any chance of catching another was slowly dwindling.

I decided to pack up after just one more smoke, which turned into two and then three, but I really couldn't hang on any longer, I didn't want to upset the owner. 

I did bait up a couple of spots before i left, including the corner area with a handful of tigers each, ready for next weeks session.

Although it wasn't a blank session, it wasn't the best either, but at least id had a fish and gotten in some bait.

I was now already looking forward to getting back, and the sessions would only get longer and longer as the Winter progressed.


I hope you enjoyed the read, thanks for looking and until next time
Tight Lines

Introduction

I am not a gifted angler, I wouldn't even consider myself to be a talented angler. I do not have the accomplishments of many, but I do have a couple of attributes shared by everyone, and that's, hard work and drive. I have no visions of grandeur or aspirations to be something I am not, I am just one man who loves participating in angling.
I also believe everyone has a story to tell, no matter how trivial they perceive it to be.I have actually been writing a few bits and pieces down for a while now, only for my own amusement you understand. I have shared some of what I've written with a few chosen friends, but I have never really wanted to make it public until I was begrudgingly persuaded too.

So here it is, the trials and tribulations of a short session angler. Before I go any further I would just like to reiterate that non of my findings have any scientific backing or relevance, they are just aspects to which I have arrived at by experience and common sense. Some of my findings you may relate to, some maybe not, but thats the beauty of fishing, everyone carves their own path and has their own thought processes, driven by their own experiences. There is no right or wrong, just a different train of thought.

Firstly I thought It might be wise to give you, the reader, an idea to what I favour in relation to waters, tactics and approaches. This may help you to understand why I fish in such a way now and give you a little insight into my background. I also didn't want to solely write about rigs, baiting applications and all of the paraphernalia associated with fishing. This has already been widely covered by all manner of outlets, and for me this is just one aspect to fishing.

There is so much more to our beloved sport, the sights and sounds, the smells and feelings that often get over looked in the modern world of angling, but they all play an equally vital role in the overall picture. I will make reference to tackle and approaches where relevant and I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I have writing it.

So where to start?

I suppose you could place my favourite kind of waters into two categories, Estate Lakes and Tiny Intimate Pools. As Im going to concentrate on the latter of these two wonderful places ill try to explain why and hopefully put to rest some of the myths that surround these little magical waters. Small pools offer a level of intimacy, because you are fishing for your quarry at very close quarters, you actually feel more involved with the fish. I would guess its like stalking but with two rods. These waters also offer a level of skill development, because you are so close to the fish you can watch their reactions to a multitude of applications and it forces you to hone your skills as an angler, i find this aspect particularly enjoyable, especially when it starts to work in your favour.

One thing I have noticed about these little pools, the fish are particulary shy due to angling pressure. Think about it, these fish have nowhere to run or hide, every inch of these little intimate pools are exploited by anglers for the best part of the fishing season, so these fish, especially the bigger resident's build up a certain immunity to getting caught.
More so than bigger waters, (let me just clarify my thoughts for you) I would classify a smaller water as to being no bigger than 10 acres, a medium water to being 10 to 30 acres and a big venue anything above 30 acres. In a pool the size of one I am fishing now at 2 acres it receives anywhere in between 6 to 8 anglers per week day. This number significantly rises over the weekend to 10 to 12 anglers. Thats 3 to 4 anglers per acre during the week using a minimum of 2 rods each. Whereas a 20 acre pit may only receive 1 angler per acre, giving the fish ample room to hide out in relative peace and quiet.

It is also a common misconception that these smaller waters do not contain the bigger more sort after fish by much of the carp fishing fraternity. You only have to look into the history of Redmire, Ashlea and Home Pool to realise these elusive big carp do indeed exist in comparatively small pools.The problem as I have pointed out, is these fish are for the whole a shy creature, due to the pressure exerted on them by anglers.

Now im not for one second going to try and convince you that carp have super intellectual strength, but they do learn by repetition and association as do any species of fish.I have been fortunate enough to watch these heavily pressured fish and how they behave once confronted with the many baiting applications and rig presentations we carp angler's place before them. They treat everything with a little more caution, and I would guess this would be the case for every water with the ever growing popularity of the sport. However small pool fish do have, for what I believe, a heightened cautious instinct, (again I shall reiterate my thoughts). I would suspect the vast majority of anglers simply turn up on the bank, whack out a couple of single baits and proceed to catapult out a number of free offerings and sit back and wait it out. This method soon becomes associated as dangerous by fish, and in turn they learn to treat such situations with a degree of suspicion. Not an intellectual thought on the fishes behalf but more of a learning curve through repitition and association.

Many years ago while fishing a gin clear 9 acre gravel pit, I had the chance to observe the fish and their behavioural patterns at close quarters. Treating everything with this heightened suspicion I talked of earlier, anything new, anything out of the ordinary was treated with a greatly increased cautious approach. In fact it is my firm conviction that these fish know that these baited spots are traps and should be avoided at all costs.
Think about this, you are placing something completely alien into their home. Its like you coming home and finding a great big pile of food in your front room. Wouldn't you treat it with the same suspicion as carp, wouldn't you be thinking "this wasn't here earlier"It is my belief that this is the starting point of a fishes cautious behaviour, I believe they know the bait is there the instant its introduced, I also believe they make a mental note of the area and drop back to the spot, sporadically during the course of the day to assess the situation. By assessing I am talking about lines, I have witnessed fishes behaviour bumping into lines, and shooting off into a nearby safe sanctuary.

I remember one particular occasion watching a group off fish, patrolling around the gravel pit I talked of earlier. There was a fisherman on the bank opposite to me who was having a slow pack up as it was Sunday afternoon. You'll find this quite a lot with weekend anglers, turning up on a Friday afternoon to early evening and then leaving on the Sunday afternoon to get home to their Sunday roast. The fish had been patrolling right past the anglers baited area's, particularly the one his middle rod was fished over, and stopping for a few brief seconds and off the fish went on their way. I found this quite fascinating at the time, and I was quite comfortable being perched up in the Willow tree I was watching from, so I decided to sit it out a little longer. Eventually the angler had all of his gear packed away, with just the rods remaining laying out across the bank. The fish casually patrolled round again, stopped again temporarily and off they went.

I did notice a pattern developing, the fish were cruising round every hour or so, gently and quietly going about their business, but the same route each time and stopping momentarily over the baited spot. It wasn't until the angler left that I noticed a slightly prolonged spell of investigation the next time the fish came round. Then I could see clouds coming up from the lake bed, the fish were feeding and feeding strongly by the looks of it. This wasn't an isolated incident either, during my time spent over the gravel pit I witnessed this behaviour a few times, at first I thought it may of just been a simple case of timing. My theory being, the fish had become conditioned to the time when they were most at risk from anglers over the weekends, and for the better part this did hold some truth. It was only when I started fishing that I could see fishes reaction to lines, they knew something was wrong from the off at the mere sight of a fresh new baited area, but the lines zipping through the swim only confirmed their suspicion. Now I don't believe they can see lines, but bumping into them does inspire caution, reiterating the need for me to re think my approach.I spent the first six weeks on this pool just merely watching the fish and the angler's to see if a pattern formed. In the mean time I was using the opportunity to do some prebaiting.
A pattern did emerge, 80% of the angler's would re cast twice day. Once as soon as they got up in the morning and once before going to sleep at night. To my mind this was only reaffirming that the anglers were still present, and it actually greatly reduced their chance of getting a take.
This was the first water I had fished where I could watch fish, see their movements, watch their reactions and above all else watch the correlation between fish and angler, it really was fascinating stuff and I learned such a lot just through observing. This is why these waters are tricky, im not saying they are harder than any other waters, just a different set of challenges. I remember talking to a number of anglers at the gravel pit and being told I would have to wait a long time before any bites would occur. Stories of no action for 5 to 6 months were common place and I slowly started to plan my approach for my first weekend.

So bearing all of the information I had gotten in mind I started to think about my approach. Timing would be of the essence, most anglers were fishing from Friday to Sunday so I decided to fish from Friday until Monday night, giving me and the fish another 24 hours of quiet time. My application would be simple, 2 rods fished with two small pva bags of boilie crumb and blended up vitalin. No sizeable food just powder and attraction. I had spent 6 weeks baiting up with vitalin and boilie crumb balls and I felt sure this would pay off. Even though all of the anglers were using 3 rods Id chosen to fish with 2, I find a lot of the time a third rod just isn't necessary and it would keep my disturbance to a minimum.

The next step was line concealment, as I would only be fishing to a clear spot 20 yards out I felt backleads would be the way forward. There was a bank of weed between me and the clear area, so as long as I could get the backleads past this point the last 2 or so metres of line would be pinned down. The only other development would be to sit on my hands during my session and wait it out. This was harder than I first thought, but once the rods were in on the Friday they were left alone for the duration of my session. As I was fishing so close, bankside disturbance would have to be kept to a minimum, the bivvy was set up right at the back of the swim under a heavily leaved tree, you really couldn't see me at all from the water through the bankside reeds. I sat on my hands all weekend, waiting and waiting, the gremlins started to creep in on the Saturday night but still I sat, waiting. My first fish came on the right hand rod on Sunday afternoon, a lovely 23lb 6oz Mirror,

To say I was happy was an understatement, I had actually caught a fish from a very hard water and now I could relax knowing I hadn't blanked. To be honest I was so happy with that fish, catching another didn't even enter my mind.8 o'clock Monday morning I recieved my second take, and I was soon holding my first ever 30lb fish for the camera.

I was over the moon and a few of the regulars were a little surprised to see what I had caught.
That session has always stuck in my mind ever since, it has always been the basis on what I am doing now. If you think outside of the box, take all that you have learned and make a few minor changes, it can pay dividends.
Thinking back now, I don't think it was one aspect that caught me the fish, it was more of a culmination of tactics that lead to my success and its something that's stuck with me ever since.I will always look back fondly over my time spent on the gravel pit, it taught me so much about the behavioural patterns of fish and I think this maybe why I have a special affinity, a sense of home on small intimate waters, which really leads me on to what I'm doing now.

First and foremost, my fishing has significantly changed, I am now no longer able to do the long sessions I am used to doing, so the waiting aspect has gone, as most of the rules above still apply to my fishing ive had to adapt my fishing accordingly. My stealthy approach has had to be fine tuned as im fishing very short sessions, creeping up and keeping bankside as well as water disturbance to a minimum which has now become all the more prevalent. I always remember a phrase by Chris Yates I think it was, but don't quote me on that. "If the fish know your there you have already halved your chances" this is particularly the case with smaller pools.

My rig presentation has never really changed since the gravel pit, it has taken a few detours over time but its basically the same set up I have always used. If im honest my approach of recent years has been a bit lazy and as a consequence my catch rate has significantly dropped. Why I have gone through this period I couldn't tell you but early last year I rectified the problem and my captures have indeed increased. The only real big change I am about to go through is bait application. I can't rely on the fish getting used to a pile of bait over time. I now have to try and create chances very quickly.

Right that's it for now, I hope you enjoyed my ramblings and I wish you all the very best in your own pursuits.