Hi all and welcome to my inane ramblings thread

I'll try to post up the good , bad and ugly sessions and hopefully there'll be the odd fish or two along the way to keep me motivated.

I have some plans pencilled in for the year but carp may not feature until we hit spring.

My focus up to March will be on Pike and Perch, I'm still in pursuit of my first pike in excess of 20lb and looking to improve my current pb perch of 2lb 4oz hopefully breaking the 3lb barrier.

To this end since the ice lid came off Archer I've been down a few times and broken my 2010 duck with a small jack so heres my first fish of the year which shall serve to remind me of my 2010 mantra "Things can only get better"



Some time in March and April I'll be getting the carp rods out at Archer while we take care of the maintenance and improvement of the lake with the scheduled work parties. We've done most of the major work on the lake already so mostly its just topping up swims with woodchip, pruning and planting and repainting the woodwork. We'll also be putting another ton of Siltex into the lake in March as part of the ongoing improvement programme and hopefully getting a permanent roof over the social area.

I'll hopefully get to see how some of the stockies are coming along and if I'm very lucky indeed I'll get to find out how much a particular common weighs. Its a recognizeable fish that I had a few years ago at 17lb but I saw it close up last April and it's a lot bigger now.



Around May time I'll be turning my attention to some unfinished business from last year. I'm looking to catch carp using traditional cane gear from a couple of history waters at least. Mapperley Reservoir is one of them and even though the guys using boilies and modern tactics call it "Heartbreak Lake" I feel confident of getting a result having learned a bit about their movements last summer. With a little bit of luck


I hope to get the chance to fish Redmire with my MKIVs at some stage this year

I'll no doubt have a few short sessions on a lovely little pool I have a ticket for where I use a MKIV with either a Mitchell or a centrepin. Most of the carp are very old and I never weigh a thing.

Depending on whether I get certain tickets this year and other opportunities that may arise I expect to be doing a bit of social fishing throughout the year and hopefully I'll get a chance to fish for the odd whacker.

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Chris Frankish (in the real world)

First visit piking to a water I fished last year for it's carp.
I remembered a conversation from last year which included the words "a real big pike! I wouldn't know an exact weight but it looked over 20lb to me" and decided to spend some time there this next month still chasing that elusive 1st 20.

After turning up to find a covering of ice I went home in order to re group (can one man do that?) and consider whether to head for the Witham or the Trent and to change rigs over to paternoster set ups accordingly. After a time of indecision and a cup of tea I eventually decided to call in at the original venue on my way to the Witham to give it a final check over to see if I could find and wobbly water.

I did!

A trek nearly halfway round found a place for me to present a roach and a pollan, both popped up.

A visit from a friendly Irish chap brought about a take to the pollan which resulted in a lovely, little dark green and yellow jack of about 7lb.

No monster but the first pike from the lake so it put a smile on my face

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Chris Frankish (in the real world)

Just had a phone call which has put a MASSIVE smile on my face

I'll not say owt yet but I promise to do my best with the catch report

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Chris Frankish (in the real world)

Interested party here, especially if it's pike/Archer's related, as i'm off down the lake for a day tomorrow.

PM Mark

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Chris Frankish (in the real world)

Come on then chris spill the beans

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life is like a box of chocolates!!!!!

PM Lee

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ECHO Use your loaf!
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Chris Frankish (in the real world)

I'm really looking forward to reading of all your exploits Chris. Nice to see a blog which covers something other than Carp. you do get amongst the Pike which i like to see and hopefully i'll get out and have one or two myself this year... good luck

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The first rule of Baitboat Club is you don't talk about Baitboat Club

OK, here are the details of the phone call

Brrring brrring, brrring brrring " Hello", "Hi mate it's Rick, you got a pen?" , " Yes mate, what's what?", " you need to write down the date of our 3 days at Redmire that's all "


".......UNREPEATABLE......."

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Chris Frankish (in the real world)

Just a quick entry to report 3 pike from Archer after Rick and I finished doing some work down at the lake.

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ECHO Use your loaf!
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Chris Frankish (in the real world)

That hat is fantastic

Its a genuine one Rich, I brought it back as one of my souvenirs from Russia


The other souvenir was Chlamydia

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Chris Frankish (in the real world)

lol...forget the hat that common lying in the weed is a fantastic.

It is Neil, I'm hoping to renew my acquaintance with her later this year so that I can find out if she weighs what I think she does.

A quick 3 hours down at the local pit brought me a small jack, again well marked because of the clear water (I'll take a photo when (if?) I catch one into double figures so I can show you all what I mean).

The weather really changed after a couple of hours and what started off as a bright, sunny afternoon turned into a freezing blizzard

At least I had the foresight to wear my thermal tights

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Chris Frankish (in the real world)

Go on then Chris, now you have mentioned it you better have a pre-catch size guestimate! It certainly does look a lovely fish.

I'm not commenting on anything else, the direction of the blog is slightly disconcerting. Chlamydia and now tights.

That common looks awesome. Good luck tracking it down

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I'm not saying a word Mark, you'll have to catch her before me to find out for sure
There are bigger commons in there I'm just well impressed how well she's come on.

Chlamydia, Tights!!

There could well be anything appearing in my blog fella, my mind has a tendency to veer off on all sorts of tangents

Another 3 hours chalked up down at the local lake and had my first blank.
I'm working my way around the lake swim by swim and decided today to add a 3rd rod to the campaign. I'll fish small deadbaits on the 3rd rod as there are some very useful perch and chub in the lake so who knows

Down at Archer for the day tomorrow with Cookie for another crack at the pike. I now know for sure theres at least one over the 20lb mark

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Chris Frankish (in the real world)

Good luck Chris.

If you are willing to take a tip from a relative Archer virgin, stick some freebies out first thing.

On both my last sessions i have chucked out some small Mackerel / sardine / Herring chunks along a few different swims. Quite a bit of bait - maybe 5lbs worth of fish.

The first session one of the doubles had a few chunks at the back of it's throat. The second session most of the bigger fish (including the 20) had been feasting during the day. My Mat looked like a fishmongers slab at the end of the day

As you know i did not get a pic of the big un' but for reference it was an old fish in pretty poor condition. If that's the only one in there (which i doubt) i don't think you have many seaons left to catch it.

"willing"?

After the haulin session you had on Monday Mark I'm well open for any advice from your good self. (Let's face it I need all the help I can get ).

Looks like a dig about in the bottom of the bait freezer is in order tomorrow morning

BTW, were you "roaching" on the float or feeder?

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Chris Frankish (in the real world)

I'm sure there is some beginners luck chap, the blanks are as sure to follow as a hard on in the morning when you wake up.

Little feeder, red Maggots, chucked out far enough to get some reasonable depth 40-50 yards. I managed to get a good freezer stock as well as the liveys i used on the day. Probably why there were so many pike around.

The swim i was in was the one known as the armchair as you suggested but i'm sure anywhere along that stretch will produce. It's probably going to be a tad colder tomorrow than it was on monday but you have similiar air pressure and a reasonable northerly as there was then.

Some days you go fishing and you enjoy every minute of it. You don't catch a pb or bag up big time but you just really enjoy a day's fishing. Today was one of those days

A days piking was on the agenda with some maggots and a feeder rod thrown into the mix purely to catch some livelies in order to help drum up a bit more pike action. Rick and I set up together so that we could make it sociable, my rods fished to the left , Ricks to the right and both of us chucking out a feeder rod in front.

Enough pike came along to the deadbaits to keep things interesting but I have to say that once the roach moved in I was having a fantastic time pulling out one after the other. Averaging 4 to 8oz and in absolutely pristine condition at one stage they were coming at one a minute. It took both of us back to our match and pleasure fishing days and made us feel young again if only for a little while .

I normally move the dead bait rods about every 40 minutes or so but I was so engrossed in watching for bites on the tip I forgot all about them

Rick had brought along some "flavour enhancer" as a birthday gift so we spiced up the coffee with it and toasted "a damn fine day's fishing!"

A final take as we were packing away finished the day off a treat.
I finally had a pike on that took line fronm the spool and showed me it's muscles and bent the 9ft spinning rod into a proper arc.

18 1/2lb of last knockings pike, the biggest I've had this winter

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Chris Frankish (in the real world)

GET IN!

Peachy looking fish Chris - I feel you closing in on the 'magic' 20 lber



I can picture the scene now- "For f*cks sake Cookie, get a picture of me bending into this, i will lean back and make it proper Hollywwod"

You're not too far wrong there Mark , it was impressive to say the least when it went on a run, flat rodding Chris as he slackened the clutch...looked all a 20 with a head like a gator.

One of the most enjoyable days angling i've had for many a long time

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Lincolnshire Poacher

Top bombing chris,that 20 going to come soon Talking of flat rodding tony got done by a 5lb pastie today

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life is like a box of chocolates!!!!!

He needs to be eating more spinach then

Working on it Lee

Another enjoyable day with Rick down at the lake. Nothing big but a steady stream of roach to the feeder and pike (mostly to Rick today) saw us entertained.

I've been practicing my "chinning" of pike since I saw how much easier it is to handle them whilst fishing with Mark the other week. Pleased to say that I'm getting the hang of it (mostly down to confidence) and haven't used the net for the last 20 odd pike landed.

Only one injury ,from a flying treble, on the palm of one hand

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Chris Frankish (in the real world)

Practice makes perfect Chris - you are fishing a good lake for plenty of practice..

I very rarely use a net, only if the swim dictates it or the fish is very big. I just think it's a lot better for the fish - if you keep your forceps in your pocket you will have most fish back in the water within 10 seconds. Having to lift a net, wander to the mat and then potentially unhook a fish and net at the same time can take ages.

You will loose the odd fish at the hand, but it's worth it. Just be wary of the big fish because even if you have a good grip inside the mouth they can catch you unawares with a bit of flapping.

No practice today Mark

9.30 - 17.45 sat in the cold at the local lake with 3 deadbaits in the pond.

I read Carpworld from start to finish, including the ads

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Chris Frankish (in the real world)

I did another half day on the local pit without result on Thursday. I say no result but being there resulted in a chance meeting with another angler who provided some good first hand information about the size of the pike in the lake.

Sometimes my eagerness to talk to people I meet on the bank produces a lot of good info.....

..sometimes I end up spending hours talking to nutters

Yesterday down at Archer with P1mark was a very bitter sweet affair. Some good conversation and company made the day worthwhile in what I think was probably the worst weather I've been out in all winter. A vicious 30-40mph wind driving sleety rain into your face and hands while you waited for a lull in the wind so as to manage a 30 yard chuck with a 6" roach isn't fun.

Especially when you're standing in the lake at the limit of your thigh waders and the waves are washing over the top

For some reason I had just the one jack all day whereas Mark had 15 or 16 fish to over 18lb from the same swim. I analysed everything I did throughout the day , baits I used, size of hook and so forth and found no particular element that would explain the difference in catch results.

Some once said that if you eliminate all the possible alternative answers to a question however strange the remaining conclusion is it MUST be right.

So, basically I'm a crap angler

Here's my "huge" pike from yesterday..

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Chris Frankish (in the real world)

I have no idea either Chris. Other than the fact i only use fresh baits (by fresh i mean i only freeze them once), and you will use them.....err...not quite as fresh. Not that i think that will make such a big difference anyway.

who knows, i would not try to analyse it, just shrug your shoulders and say 'that's fishing' and bank a big girl next time out mate.

By the way, did i tell you i injected all your baits with vinegar when you were not watching?

Vinegar?

I thought that was an attractor Mark, been using it for years

Had another day at Archer last Tuesday with Rick.

Things were a lot better weatherwise and enjoyed feeling the heat of the sun on my face for the first time this year.

I had one idea about my lack of fish the last time out which seemed to make sense. I figured that if the fish were becoming used to finding whole and part fish on the lake bed then popping up up deadbaits a foot was probably not a good idea. I realised that last time out I had 2 rods with popped up baits on and one with a bait hard on the deck.

My only fish came to the bait on the bottom so I decided to fish all my baits on the bottom this time out.

My catch rate doubled!!!!!!

I had two jacks this time

Rick, next to me, had about 10 so I'm still wondering if I'm just unlucky at the moment or I'm consistently cr*p

Friday afternoon saw me down at the local lake again for a few hours. No result again but a good lead from a chap who stopped by for a chat regarding a good spot for sizeable pike.

On packing up the zip on my Fox 3 rod pouch broke and my efforts to fix it have so far proved unsucssessful.

I had planned to hang the pike rods up at the end of February and get some time in with the perch now that its March but I can see another couple of weeks piking happening on a stretch of drain and a stretch of the Witham before the season ends because of the info I've received lately.

Saturday was spent down at Archer again and even though the switching cold wind had us moving swims twice in order to stop us both turning blue we managed a dozen fish between us. This time it was a 50/50 split and as I can't remember doing anything different I figure either I'm getting better at this angling business or my luck has changed.

I may start buying lottery tickets

I've packed away my main piking set up today and exchanged it for a lightweight mobile set up involving a pair of 9ft rods so that I can cover a few stretches of the local drains and the Witham this coming last week of the season.

So , March 15th then becomes the end of my piking season for sure now


...probably

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Chris Frankish (in the real world)

I hope the mobile approach works and you manage to find the fat lady before the singing stops fella I know how much effort you're putting in for that 20+.
I've got a cane rod sat in the garage that needs to see carp action before we go to Redmire so on top of the Archer sessions i hope we can find time to visit another special pool

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Lincolnshire Poacher

Well the fat lady didn't make an appearance today mate

First trip down to the river this afternoon. Just a short 3 hour session to check out the state of the river in order to make any neccessary changes to tackle and figure out the best method of fishing. The rivers fining down nicely and is running steadily. I'd be in need of some more lead in order to hold position down the middle but I think I'll fish as I did today by having one rod fished stret peg style against the marginal reeds downstream and trotting a suspended deadbait downstream, rigged so that I can retrieve it slowly sink and draw fashion.

With the cut down set up (see below) it was easy to cover half a mile or so of river in the 3 hours.



The slow retrieve of a 4" roach successfully fooled a jack of about 6lb in the 2nd pitch and unfortunately that was the only action this session. I lost a set of gear in the last swim which was next to the bridge. Differerent angles of pull did no good and a slow , steady direct pull with 30lb braid just ended up snapping the braid. A pushbike no doubt thrown from the bridge by the local youths

I still left the river with a smile on my face though after witnessing yet another "red sky at night" sunset, lovely!

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Chris Frankish (in the real world)

Nice read Chris, I am sure you will bag that 20 sooner rather than later.

What 9 foot rods have you gone for? I am after some stalking rods myself.

One of them is a 9ft spinning rod I bought years ago in Iceland, no, not the frozen food store

Its been a very versatile rod over the years and I've caught salmon, sea trout, brown trout, rainbow trout, plaice, coley, perch, double figure carp and now pike to 18 1/2lb on it.

The other ones a Wychwood Extracator 9ft 2.75tc Stalking rod which only saw it's first outing today so I can't tell you how it performs but it certainly looks and feels quality especially when you consider their available for £35. Being only 9ft it seems quite stiff at 2.75tc so it should be able to "flick" a 2oz lead out easily I only need to find out how it handles big fish at short range.

A pike or carp over 20lb will do to start with as a test

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Chris Frankish (in the real world)

Many thanks - I'm sure you'll get a biggun on them soon

March 15th, being the last day of the river season, heralds the end of my winter piking campaign.

I've been out quite a bit this last week on the local rivers and drains using a very mobile approach and although I've managed to cover a good few miles the pickings have been slim indeed. Two jacks landed, two baits pulled away from very small jacks chasing and a dropped run which I had today. I struggled last winter on the rivers and I don't know why I stuck another weeks time into them again this year? Maybe I was just grabbing a bit of nostalgia having spent many years match fishing the rivers in the 70s and 80s and I just wanted to pay homage to the last week of the season?

Two positives though.

Firstly I think I've successfully eliminated quite a bit of water from next winter's mission for a 20 and secondly I'm sure I've lost a stone with all the excercise I've had this week

A couple of pics taken along the way..



the spot below looked very "pikey" but produced nowt. A pack of frozen roach for anyone spotting my float


Time to unpack the carping gear but I've got a couple of trips planned chasing big perch before I succumb to carp fever completely.

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Chris Frankish (in the real world)

Back after the first nights carping this year.

No cane rods or heron alarms this time just regular 21st Century carping with all the bells and whistles.



Well, not quite all the bells and whistles, I avoid using a pod wherever I can and bait boats are just plain cheating .

Great to spend a night down at Archer again. I first fished the lake back in 1999 and it’s like a second home now.

Twas a major job sorting out the gear and, to be honest, getting my carping head on was difficult after a long Autumn and Winter chasing perch and pike. Still I got there in the end and turned up at the lake to find just one member fishing.

Now, bringing along materials was the excuse for the session, along with a bit of work Rick and I were going to take care of ourselves, so our choice of swim was something of a compromise. We needed to be where the work needed doing.

I didn’t complain that that put us on the back of a cold wind.

I got carried away with the catty and throwing stick and probably put too much bait over the first two spots I fished given the conditions so decided on a single, high attract bait should be used on the 3rd rod.

Not a bright pop up but a big ,pasted up bait which has proved itself time and again in cold water conditions.



A few brews and a lot of chat took place between Rick and I during the evening, I spent a healthy night in the cool fresh air and we got all the planned work done today.

No carp to report from this session but it’s still early days and the behaviour of the coots, grebes, kingfishers, chaffinches, bats and all the other inhabitants of the lake told me that it won’t be long before a carp hits the bank.

Back there on Friday for the weekend work party, come on you cypries

Spring, I love it!

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ECHO Use your loaf!
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Chris Frankish (in the real world)

Friday to Sunday (26th to 28th) spent down at Archer for the work party weekend. Great to be down there again and with it being a work party I was looking forward to catching up with some friends. I also had the pleasure of meeting the new members as well and all I can say is that we all blanked in the best of company

All the work got done, well, up until we ran out of paint and wood leastways and although no carp were caught the good atmosphere around the lake made for and enjoyable session.

Someone (no names mentioned eh Mark ) tempted me off my healthy diet on Saturday night with a delicious sausage,mushroom and pasta meal. I did feel guilty afterwards but the guilt must have ebbed away by Sunday morning when I was tempted once again, this time by a bacon sarnie

Some fish were seen around the lake so,( even though this weeks forecast is rubbish), I don't think it'll be long before they start playing ball.

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Chris Frankish (in the real world)

Might as well feed all the other anglers, as the carp certainly were not eating much.

Pleasure mate - anytime.

Oops!

Finished some business earlier than I thought I would today so got an extra chance of some fishing. I was planning to do Saturday and Sunday night on the syndicate with Rick so one option was to go a day early. Or, I could have taken one rod and spent the afternoon stalking, or , as I still had some lobworms and maggots, I could have an afternoon/evening session for perch on the small pool.

Eventually plumped for chasing some stripeys down at the pool , more because I'd not been down there since last October or thereabouts.

Arrived to find carp everywhere, sculling about on the surface, feeding in the margins...typical

Started with the float rod feeding and fishing red maggots. The hot time here is usually the last hour before dark which is true for a lot of perch venues but theres definately better chance of some perch sport come dusk if you've been banging the maggots in for a few hours.

The rudd came steadily to double maggot with the odd larger specimen popping up so I made a switch to bread flake to see if I could winkle out a few more of the bigger rudd. The first chuck in with bread brought a better rudd, the second chuck saw me connecting with something which took me straight into last year's pads and snapped the 3.2lb bottom easily.

Probably a carp!

With the chance of a carp picking up the bread I elected to bait up with a lobworm. I was going to leave them untill dusk but thought I'd check if there were any perch or tench coming over the maggots yet.

The 3 swan loafer cocked, then sank straight below the surface! A timely strike met with a lively resistance and the jagging type of fight preceded the arrival to the net of a lovely , fat stripey :happy:

A quick weigh confirmed that the fish was over 2lb and as such made the trip succesful.


The next chuck in saw the float's immediate disappearance once again but this time a tench was the culprit. Not the intended species but I wasn't going to complain about an afternoon featuring a few hard fighting tench.

Now, here's where the "Oops!" comes in.

The owner appeared behind me so I met him with a friendly "halloo" and proceeded to tell him about the sport I'd had so far.
He listened quietly until I finished and then simply said "It's the close season Chris, there's no fishing in the close"

Oops!

I apologised profusely and started packing away

Chasing my first carp of the year again this weekend on the syndi.

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ECHO Use your loaf!
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Chris Frankish (in the real world)

Great session ! And you were lucky in more than one occasion, i guess. Fishing during the close season is a serious felony ...

And a nice Perch you have got there

_________________
"nil illigitimar carborundum"

Nice striper DKM

Poaching from the landed gentry eh? Tut tut

_________________
My mother never saw the irony in calling me a son-of-a-bitch

Well, to update my ramblings I have 3 more nights to report down at Archer. Two nights this weekend just gone and one the weekend before.

I still have to make contact with my first carp of 2010 even though fish are coming out from the lake. I can't say I've just not been on fish as I set up the other week at the mouth of a bay having counted 18 carp from up the tree. Even though the fish out so far have been the stockies I know that the big girls are moving about because I've seen em

I figure that I made a pretty basic error that first night as I used the marker to pinpoint a couple of spots exactly and completely forgot how paranoid fish get in that bay

This weekend was a bit of a compromise as I set up in a swim close to the work area on a work party weekend but still disappointing to drive home after another blank yesterday.

I've decided to try and get a few day only sessions in these next few weeks with 1 or 2 rods and the minimum amount of gear. I seem to be able to find them alright I just need to be mobile and leave the marker rod at home

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ECHO Use your loaf!
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Chris Frankish (in the real world)

I'd started to write a lengthy account of the weekend session at Archer but decided rather than go through chapter and verse of rigs and baits used to merely say that I enjoyed the weekend immensely even though I still have to have my first carp of 2010.

Enjoyable because of the company at the lake (only the two but qualitys better than quantity in my book ), because the sightings of carp moving around the shallows raises the confidence no end (even though I have a tendency to get sidetracked and spend more time watching them than fishing for them ) and because the evening air finally had that summer feel to it as I sat outside the bivvy watching over the lake as darkness fell.

Its a good job that it's not just about catching carp for me but as its closing in on May now I'd appreciate the thrill of hearing a one toner soon.

Looking forward to this weekend's social at Callum's lake. Don't know how much time the rods will be fishing though...I do have a habit of enjoying good conversation and 10 minutes chat can turn into hours of gassing

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ECHO Use your loaf!
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Chris Frankish (in the real world)

Agreed, you spend an inordinate amount of time gassing and drinking / eating other peoples sustenance , and a good old chunk of time wandering around looking for fish.

To be honest, i wish i would get into the habit of taking my rods out for a few hours in the day and go and do a bit of stalking.

It seems however that neither your own, or my approach seems to be paying dividends at the minute.

Silver Lake Social 30/03/10 to 02/05/10

A big thank you to Callum and Bri for their efforts in both organising this social and for being marvellous hosts down at the lake. Great meeting you both along with the other local lads down for the weekend.

The Lake
A long and thin lake with depths down to over 20ft and incredibly clear water. Anyone who’s never fished a clear water venue would be well advised to book 24 hours on the venue just to experience this amazingly clear venue. So different to so many of the same old, same old day ticket waters Silver Lake provides the opportunity to overcome some real challenges on the way to capturing some really good looking carp.
Apart from the fish appearing on the lake’s website there are some elusive carp to substantial sizes present which have so far evaded the attempts of the various anglers fishing there. I’d love to get to grips with a certain long, pale mirror I saw there whilst Callum was showing me around.

I saw for myself how spooky these clear water fish can be when one carp bolted in the opposite direction once it caught sight of a just a handful of my spod mix I’d thrown into the near margin of my swim. A real confidence booster!

Birches 2
My swim draw turned out to be Birches 2 which was handy as my best mate Gypsy Rick was right next door in Marshes. One of the swims with a little more distance to the far margin, about 65 -70 yards I’d estimate, an average depth of 11-12 foot and a nice marginal tree on the left hand side. Callum had advised fishing to the far margin but I simply couldn’t ignore the nice spot I found off the marginal tree so one of the rods was fished my side of the lake.



After a quiet night fishing wise I decided on another walk around the lake now that the sun was showing its face again after a full night’s worth of drizzle. Bright sunlight really does show how clear the water is in the lake but I couldn’t quite manage to get this onto a photograph even with a polarized filter. Wandering around the lake did reveal what a truly special oasis this was literally just outside town.





Saturday night saw me successfully notch up a good 7 or 8 hours kip ready for an early pack up so that I could pay close attention to John O’Driscoll’s rig clinic held in Bri’s awning. Very enlightening indeed, cheers John.



I was particularly impressed by a pop up rig John showed us and tried to take a photo for this thread. Unfortunately its not too clear in the tumbler we used so if you want to find out more you’ll have to attend one of John’s rig clinics. By the look on the Q’s face he was quite dismayed by my choice of camera setting for the photo .



The weather might have been cold and wet for most of the weekend and I'm still to catch my first carp of the year but the friendly banter and excellent hospitality throughout made for an excellent social. The lakes in good hands and I see a good future for it and it’s wonderful carp. I’m sure I’ll be back.

Thanks all.

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ECHO Use your loaf!
Angling Trust Its for you!

Chris Frankish (in the real world)

7th to 9th May

Back on Archer for the weekend for the last big work party of the year and STILL chasing my first carp of the year

With a cold N/NW forecast for the duration a walk over to the far bank would have put me in any sun that came our way and , more importantly, at the back of the cold wind. There were however a couple of swims on the roadside bank which afforded protection from the chilling wind. I stopped the car to check on one of them which was at the mouth of a bay and it was free. A 400 yard barrow journey turned into a 20 yard,chucked out of the back of the car trip and I was in with the house up in no time. I did everything short of actually chucking the rods out as we were expecting a delivery of 20 ton of limestone at the other end of the lake which needed signing for. A good opportunity to put in some bait whilst leaving the swim free of lines.

With the hope of a fish during the night and the prospect of a day's work tomorrow morning I got tucked up in the bag fairly early after a chinwag with Phil who was in the next door swim.

For the first time in a long time I was woken at just after 6.00am by a take

The right hand margin rod was away and the rod bucked in the rests because of the tight clutches unwillingness to yield much line.

A mental stockie was on the other end and what it lacked in size in made up for in spirit and twice travelled under both the other lines reaching the opposite margin. I told myself to stop f***ing about so much once I saw it's size and my first carp of 2010 was soon in the net.

I got Phil to do the honours for me.Even though it was only an upper single it had been a long time coming and I was made up with the capture. The fish was the one my missus chose on the trip down to Berkshire last November so I rang to tell her...forgetting about her Saturday lay in

With a happy heart I set off to get the work started for around 9.00. The 20 ton was gonna take some shifting but thanks to the cracking members we've got on the syndicate by early evening the work was all done and we gathered around the newly built Archer roasting pit for the trial run of this year's Hog Roast at the social.

Washed down with a couple of tins of Boddingtons the roast pork was a tasty and satisfying end to the day.

Rather than a pic of the stockie I'll leave you with a video of some pork



PS, a little bird told me that Summer was arriving shortly so I'm dusting off the cane.

_________________
ECHO Use your loaf!
Angling Trust Its for you!

Chris Frankish (in the real world)

he needs some help in cutting meat,looks like a good social
uncle jim
KIR

Hello,
Interesting rumblings dontknowmuch, sounds like it good social i see woody allen there to.
Tone

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get on the choddy 100000 carp anglers cant be wrong.

The weekend at Archer wasn't a social guys it was a work party

I'll pass your comments on to Rick Jim. He used a machete as his butchery tool but maybe theres a better sort of knife available for bankside butchery?

Maybe worth having a word with Bryn about producing a Vision "Choppa" or "Karva".

"woody allen"
We get all the best people appearing at lakes "oop north" Tone

Suffice to say the initial trial of the roasting pit was deemed a success and this year's Archer Fundraiser should leave no-one hungry

_________________
ECHO Use your loaf!
Angling Trust Its for you!

Chris Frankish (in the real world)