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.