alright captains, new to all this last time i wrote anything was cse English failed

i can see this going well if a few get involved the highes and lows of carp angling.

Well my season has kicked off on a local club ticket warrington anglers grey mist mere, you pays yer money you gets yer speck open to one and all poles apart from pauls post on the mangrove, but that's what this blog will be all about so dont be shy if you aint on some where high profile full o lumps at the end of the day a carps a carp and if lads get onto this you will get a good mix covering the whole spectrum.

turned up good Friday afternoon dreading that i would find the place rammed but no! was not to bad at all 10 on and 4 of those where leaving, from what i could gather there had been 2 out during the previous night and what fish had been out lately had all been in the night.

the wind was pushing down into the car park end of the lake which is like a bayish affair so opted for a swim that covers the entrance to the car park bay on the left hand side opposite the the boat house point which covers the opposite side of the bay "rocket science there eh".

to my left there was an out of bounds area of bank maybe 40 50 yards of bank, due to electricity pylons.

one rod was walked up there about 20 yards single 12mm solar jacko special pop up fished 5 inch up "chod style" as its called nowadays off the lead if your an ald un ! dropped in the edge 3 yard out with a couple of hand fulls of bling boilies that i had been air drying and then plugged in hbs hydro stim, salmon oil, and Nash bling dip wanted a load of smell out there, and if something came touching the jacko would nail em not really bothered about feeding them just wanted a lot of attraction out there, and them come a sniffin.

now for the second rod as you may have read elsewhere on the forum Ive got a bit of a foam fetish going on this year, just was really intrigued on what they where doing on the linch complex catching on little pieces of black foam zigged in the night and thought i would give it a go.

the bait ? a 5mm square of solar rig foam knotless knotted to a size 10 kamasan B981 barbless specimen (no barbs rule)the line 10lb silstar match line good for normal floater hook lengths.

so flicked the marker 50 yards out and got 6ft set the zig at three foot and out it went with me not really having much confidence in it
and my attention all on the margin rod.well nothing to be seen down this end of the lake but a few started to show down the other end so sandy the lad opposite decided to move down there for the night which left just me down the car park end.

quarter to one in the morning the zig rods away now i am playing this fish thinking nah cant be its a pike its a foul hooked one ? but no a 17lb leather neatly hooked in the bottom lip, amazed i chucked it back out same piece of foam reckon you can get a bit of mileage out of one piece! hour an half later same rod gives a drop back but this one came adrift after a short while.

that was it after that didnt get a peep on the conventional rod stayed till 11 then went home well pleased, not very often something happens so quickly. now if i had blanked on the foam and caught on the boily i wonder what i would have done next trip ?

Nice one Steve, brought back a lot of memories....

When did we last fish Grey Mist together, it must be 20 years ago....? Days of one rod only (cough!), casting over the pylon wires, bait restrictions, Old Henry, Bernard, Disco Diddy and Corky etc...

The 17lb leather wasn't Junior Larry was it?

I'd be interested to read members theories as to why the black foam works on a zig-rig at night... Sort of challenges the ideas surrounding the use of fluoro pop-ups/white baits does it not?

Keep catching them....

Alright chiefs,

Well paul twas along time ago and not much has changed still bait bans still castin over the pylon. sandys still at it met up with him on that last trip, disco diddy was on rickston spoke to im and where gonna have a re union down oxford with bernard .

so on with the blag,

22.4.06

Now this old haunt has a night booking rule in operation only twelve at one time on for the nights and one night only
phones up wednesday to book on for friday night.... no chance geezer fully booked.

bollox .. right just gonna do a few hours sat mornin give the floaters a whirl me thinks, so that was it plan sorted

rolls up at 8 am its grey n cloudy not to warm kin freezin in fact, but these carp are tame uns they"ve beeen brought up on bait throw it at em there up for it.

1 rod, net, matt and a rucker full of floaters where on,
as expected theres twelve bivvys on but one of the point swims is free winds goin over the back of it doin a slight right to left thing, just nice for gettin a line of mixers goin

starts firing a few out on the same line at regular intervals to create a line in the drift.

15 mins ones up, just takes 2 then he"s gone mmmmm nice

rolls a smoke , couple more pouches same line, now i am alternating between a pouch of mixers and a pouch of cat biscuits the mixers they like but just peck at em taking random ones they dont really keep there heads up, cat biscuits or little floatin troutys are are a different ball game they keep there heads up taking more than one at a time time and thats what you want to be flicken your hook bait amongst.

the wind drops slightly and 2 hit a patch of cattys.
Bring forth the rod !
the set up, medium size mcf egg type controller, 4ft 10lb silstar matchline, size 10 kamasan b981 barbless (club rules) now heres a wierd one floaters are banned but i follow the barbless rule

to be continued the mrs wants to check her mail

Right on with the blag,

Hookbait, 14mm white dynamite spicy shrimp n prawn pop up trimmed down a little, no rule breaking there if any one comes a sniffin, just an awesome fly hatch going on in the lake guv, look at em there right on it putting a boylie to em!,.... know what i mean

The wind drops a bit and about 70 yard down the line there up 4 or 5 fish, gotta get a bait out to em ! chucks it out right over an electricity line... MARVELOUS !

Now as you would expect as i am sortin the rod out the wind drops even more and cue the carp there's a few having a go now and i am racing to get set up again.

controller on ,pouch out , swivel tied pouch out, hook, another pouch and so it went gotta keep it going over them or they will drift off with the floaters over to the other side of the lake

gets it sorted and its back out there no probs this time and there's still a few at it. now this all happens in seconds..swirl controller moves strike where in just like that buzzin

doesnt feel to bad this not zippin about just a nice steady bit of weight to it, gets it about 10 yard out and it doesnt wanna come up, take your time, its give and take deep boils coming up it goes to my left then i just start easing it up controllers out of the water now its tiring a bit now, then its off again takes some line just backwinding nice an steady slows then its back to me again controllers up nice boil ping and the controller slaps back on the surface BAST.RD ! I HISS Gutted weve all been there.. peaking then wallop your brought down with the fastest come down ever

well gettin on for 11.30 by then so called it a day on a high note well an truly learnt, but i will be back and there gona get some beachy therapy thatl learn em !

so that was the fishin for this week.
Today the 23rd i went on a work party down the shire and took my frustration out on a tree with me bow saw

and a couple of guinness later whilst writing this i feel much better

Friday night, 28.4.06.

BLANK........NUFF SAID !

Cheers Bert it just wasn't worth writing about....turning up and just ending up with a vacant swim aint my cup of tea far to busy a place at the weekends.

so the decision was made no more nights just 2 or 3 hour trips early morning / evenings on the floaters.

just gonna skim through the week cos i cant be arsed fluffin it up

sat 6th morning a double mirror

sun 7th morning a double mirror

Tues 9th evening a mirror and a common

Thurs 11th evening two mirrors and lost two

sat 13th morning a mirror.

so that brings us up to date, couldnt have timed it better with the weather and i am now getting my summer colour at last

Paul you mentioned hook length material for floater fishing elsewhere on the forum i know we used to use the double strength a lot when it first came out but changing it after every fish is a pain i dont know if its improved any from when it first came out it may have as there's a few articles etc in the mags recommending it have to buy some and have a look.

the stuff i have been using the last couple of seasons is.. silstar match team 10lb 0.22mm its nice and supple and floats well with a bit of fly floatant on it, it is a bit stretchy as well.
was having a mouch in the tackle shop yesterday and came across some stuff by fox i liked the look of...fox match micro plus so got some in 10ld 0.22mm and 8ld 9oz 0.20mm its a nice clear colour and low stretch have tied a a few rigs up but havent used it yet...the fish this morning was on 3 inch 15lb and a size 4 now what i mean .

may go this evening

update sadly no fishing this week due to bad shift at work and the weekend weather not ideal for short floater trips, roll on next week the shire is calling.... if all goes well

Well guess who got his dates wrong no start in the shire until the 9th June

Numpty,.... did my last work party on sunday for Hawkstone and the draw for swims was held for the kick off on the 9th only having done 2 work partys out of a possible 5, LAAAZY SOD ! i wasnt in the front running for picking swims.

But hopefully ive got a goodun, as its in an area that sees a good bit of carp traffic early morning as they leave a couple of bays.

they dont tend to stop and feed in the evenings in that area but in the mornings they will have a munch.

all this picking swims a couple of weeks in advance aint my cuppa as you cant know what the weathers going to do really, but can always move if needs be. but where ?... best to start making excuses now

My first choice was snaffled by one of the young lads it will be interesting to see how he gets on

so that's it basically unless we get another spurt of the warm stuff and i resume the short trips on the floaters, depending on what shift i am on, that's the blag uptodate.

so tight lines chiefs,.... and may your pussy's be even tighter

Pink pads swim eh!
Sounds good to me, although 61 could be better.
I'll be in Italy myself, so good luck, and save some for me.

60 not the pinks you where only 1 out victor

That's the one I meant, I mis-read the draw results and thought you were in 54.
See you've taken your guinness with you.

A good swim choice, go catch 'em captain.

Cheers mate

Ste, I hear few mirrors in Hawk nowadays...what happened to the ones we played with....

Grey Mist has done a 28 linear - bet that's one I had between 12-15lb in the 80's.... The two previously bigger fish that went 30's are down 3lb plus in weight... that's gotta be because of the closure and no bait going in last year...

Rammed at the moment, loadsa carp - school holidays...

pimp ta one in tha morn'n tha zig rods away now i am spendin' this 'fizzle clockin' nah cant be its a pizzy its a foul hooked one ? but no a 17lb gangsta neatly hooked in tha bottom lip, amazed i chucked it back out same piece of fizzle reckon you can git a bit of mileage out of one piece . Hollaz to the East Side! hizzle an hiznalf hustla same rod gives a drizzop back but this one came adrift afta a shiznort while , ya feel me?.
'

lovin ya style of eriting fella!! hehe

Only i an i knows a can spit dat sh\t laaaaaaaa

Paul, there's not many of the old strain mirrors left in there ?? there are a good few low 20 over the dam strain in there nowadays though, the commons still rule the roost though.

was lucky enough to get back in there in 2004 still a beautiful place and not a ticket i will let go again, had some good times on there mate ghilleying and honing my camera skills with you.

Rammed that mist is permanently chocka the worst mistake i made this year was not doing some other shire work partys thinking ah i will just have a mess about on the mist for a few weeks then head to the shire.... its a nightmare, there queuing for swims

did 2 nights as mentioned in the blog and that was enough
maybe do a couple more short trips on the floaters.

talking to the lads on there the fish have dropped the club allso treated the weed which wont have helped either.

it was nice to meet up with diddy and sandy on there good lads who have kept on keepin on

heard that theres a lot of carp migration going on again up there john will they ever learn

From where to where ?

PM if you like

The Paddocks got a better stock than Cuttle Mill these days ?

AAAAARRRRRRGGGHHH!............. Its lookin sweet for a bit of early mornin floater fishing me thinks arrives at the lake 5.30am only 3 cars in the car park wow !

gets out the car and scans the lake, flat calm little bit of mist the sun just starting to bang the left hand side yippeeee.

but no somethings ammiss wheres the twelve bivvys ?

ching the penny drops, out with the card "MATCH "

Home to mow the lawn and get lashed aaahh therapy

Sunday the 4th.

after yesterdays missfortune i headed down the shire to put some bait in my drawn swim.

well they where at it like knives sex was all they wanted

got a couple of nice shots of them at it...



.....still despatched 10k of nashes finest into my pitch gotta make space in the freezer for the zyme

will give them four days to get on it and after all the shaggin gets outta there system fingers crossed the timing should be right for learning a couple.



or will i be taught ?

Well i learned em and then some cheers uncle pete
I do wish i could do all that atmospheric stuff but i cant and to those that can hats off to you fella"s .

Well done again Steve...
It would be a good story

Tudge i dont know how you do it mate but you do it ever so well .
Me i have it all spinning around in my head but to actually put it down in black and white and to get those thoughts and feelings down in a coherent fashion would be "HARD WORK" as the shire feltcher would say.
i mean where looking at 8.30 now i would be at it untill the crack of dawn to get it accross, and i am up for work at 4.45 for work, just a lazy cunse .
anyway you keep on keepin on cheif

Ta captain