Mersey Charter Boat Fishing - Tuskar

Well, the sea fishing session scheduled for 27th Feb didn't half turn out to be a faff. Due to forecast strong westerly winds, our planned session on Blue Mink didn't go ahead.  We had already had one session cancelled in January, and now at the end of February we were really on last chance saloon for some Winter Cod fishing so we were determined to get out somewhere. Danny had managed to do some ringing around and got us availability on a boat out of the Mersey. Only 4 of us this time as 2 had dropped out from the original party but we arranged a day, slightly shorter at 5 hours but still enough time.

We had booked aboard Tuskar, skippered by Stan Dickinson. We arranged a 9:00 AM pick up and after a bit of running round to pick Dez up in Preston, via a McDonalds breakfast, we arrived at Priory Wharf for collection around 8:30. We were all anxious to get on board and as we were setting up waiting for Stan to arrive, we were getting ourselves psyched up for a good day. Stan arrived bang on time to get us, first impressions were great, nice sized boat with plenty space to move around and get comfy. Once loaded we were off into the Mersey to our first mark.

View of Priory Wharf as we made our way into the river.

Our first stop saw us on the outside of the main river channel, close to the Bonded Warehouse, the tide was on its way out so was pulling a bit so we went in with 16oz weights on a running leger with a trace of about 4/5ft long to a single 2/0 Aberdeen hook. Danny was first into fish on the day and first strike was a small codling, but still a keeper.

First fish of the day for Danny

Danny added a couple more to his tally before anybody else got in there but eventually Craig and Dez got off the mark with a Dab each

A Dab for Dez

I was left trailing behind with no fish, and I wasn't shy about letting folk know, but after a change of tactic that saw me switch to a shorter trace and pennel rig I eventually got off the mark with what turned out to be probably the biggest fish of the day

Codling for Me

As the tide slowed a bit we moved into the main channel of the river for a bit, hoping the fish will have moved in there where there was a bit more pull. First drop in here for me resulted in another codling although this one was too small to keep so went back safe and sound.  Strangler though that seemed to be the only fish to show on this line.

Once at low water, Stan moved us across to the other side of the river, roughly outside Wallasey Town Hall steps where we would fish until home time as the tide turned and started to come back in. This proved to be a slow line and I think a solitary undersize Codling by me was all this line produced on the day. Stan explained to us that by this time of year we had missed the best of the Mersey Cod fishing and that Nov/Dec was probably the best time for it. We knew that really but wanted to give it a go anyway. As Stan called time I think we all had a good day, some nice views on the day too, especially of the Liverpool skyline.

So, final tally of the day. 

Danny - 3 Codling (2 in size), 2 Dab

Craig - 1 Dab

Dez - 1 Dab (plus about a million crabs and the worlds smallest starfish)

Me - 3 Codling (1 in size)

Final thought of the day - poor Dez doesn't have much luck with the target species. Of the last 3 times we have been out, once for Tope and twice for Cod, whilst not blanking, Dez has failed to catch the target species. Next time he comes out, I think we'll target Pouting and at least give him chance of catching something he wants!!

I would recommend Stan for a days charter fishing in the Mersey, knowledgeable and nice guy - check out the details at http://www.charterboats-uk.co.uk/tuskar 

Getting back in the swing - Horns Dam and Woodshaw Reservoir

As I have previously mentioned, I had been on my little break from fishing but as the new year arrived I was ready to get back into the swing of things. However, the weather and other factors have been against me and so far I've only managed 2 outings.

Horns Dam 

The first session I had was a first visit to Horns Dam in Goosnargh, this was also my first session with my old pal Martin for a while so I was looking forward to it.

After a nice breakfast at a local cafe, we arrived at the fishery. We fished on the dam itself and pegged ourselves on the dam wall end.  We both decided to fish the feeder for the day. My set up was a basic running feeder rig with an 18 inch Hooklength to a size 20 Drennan Silverfish match hook. My groundbait was a mix of brown crumb and bait tech special g. A few loose offerings of hemp and pinkies were in the mix with maggot or pinkie on the hook.

Martin was the first to catch and I had a much slower start but we both caught reasonably steadily throughout the day. Martins stamp of fish was noticeably larger than mine and he seemed to be catching more frequently. He was using a different groundbait mix to me but he was also casting a bit further than me. Who knows what was giving him the edge.

I did chuck together a waggler rod for a bit of a change and had a good run of small roach to keep me busy. 

It was a good session to get back into it and a new water for me that I liked and will defo go back to in the future.

Woodshaw Reservoir

The next session I had was on one of the Warrington Anglers waters that I now have available to me, Woodshaw Reservoir.  Having never been to this reservoir before, the little homework that I managed to do indicated that it was known as a good tench and crucian water in the warmer months but less information was available for winter. The information I could find said that there are roach and bream present so with little else to go on I decided to target the skimmers and bream with a pole approach. I fed 2 lines at 13 metres, one fed heavy and one fed sparingly. My groundbait mix is one that I have used on my local canals with good success and that was sensas Magic mixed with brown crumb and then darkened with a bit of black tracix. I took only maggots with me for hookbait but I did have a tin of corn available in the bait bag if necessary.

Woodshaw Reservoir peg 21

The venue is quite shallow but reasonably consistent depth so I was able to use the same rig for both swims which made it much easier. After feeding both lines as described, I started on the lighter fed line, potting in 10 - 15 maggots. I wasn't expecting a prolific session but with no indications after an hour I switched to the heavier fed line in the hope that some fish had moved in. Sadly, this didn't work either as I still had nothing to show after a further hour. A switch back to my lighter line saw me hook and land a small roach but I was confident it was more fluke than design. By midday I had only the one fish and decided that a stretch of my legs was in order.  As I walked around the lake I had a chat with one of the other anglers (who later turned out to be one of the venue bailiffs) and he told me they had been catching on punch. He was even kind enough to give me a slice of bread and a small ball of liccy to get my swim going. I went back to my peg and set up a short pole line for the punch and fed the liccy on this before re-feeding my other lines in the hope that leaving them a while will see something move over them later.  Despite the local advice, the punch line didn't produce anything for me on this day, despite giving it a good go. I must admit I was contemplating an early exit from the fishery but what was meant to be a last look on the longer lines saw me hit a run of Roach that took my tally to about 15 fish. This restored my faith and I carried on until about 3:30pm and ended the day with 20 nice redfins.

Outlook

After this little dip back into coarse fishing I've got another boat trip planned aboard Blue Mink. After that I'll be on full on prep mode for the years match calendar. Until then.........tight lines

What happened next?

Its been a while since I last posted on here. My 'break' from fishing continued with only odd sessions here and there.

Let's get up to speed.

Pem Central finished the league as I mentioned in my last post. As I write this I don't have a copy of the final results to hand but I do remember that following a close fought battle and a worse score deduction, Wayne Fairhurst came out on top with Alex Yates pushing a very close second. Mark Anglessey claimed 3rd place to complete the top 3. I was next in line in 4th place, which I am very happy with in my first year back with the club and gives me a target for next year - top 3. As a bonus, my team consisting of Alex, me and Paul McCann came out on top of the team league. A good year for the club, tipped off nicely with an AGM held at a local Chinese with a few beers. Good times. 

I have managed a couple of sea fishing sessions since my last post as well. The first of which was a trip aboard Blue Mink in November where we were hoping for a few cod to show. Sadly, the cod didn't show in numbers and we were 'dogged' out by ravenous dogfish. A few whiting showed as well with only 9 cod boated, compared to the 43 Andy had on the boat on his previous outing. I managed 2 of those 9 cod and they were both keepers so kept me fed for a day or two. The second session was on the 29th December when I teamed up with Danny Lancaster and headed to Otterspool prom for a spot of beach casting. Was a good session to dust off the cob webs as I hadn't been casting from from the shore in a good few years. A very positive start saw both me and Danny catch on the first cast each. Danny had a small pin whiting but my fish was a cod, just in size and was potted the day after for my dinner. That was it though on that sessio. With no further fish showing for either of us. A few lessons learned for our next visit to the area so hopefully we will have a better return.

I have also been plugging away with the lure fishing (sorry for the terrible pun). This is becoming a real live hate relationship for me as I love the method but I am really hating the fact that I am struggling to get into any fish. I am confident that I am not doing anything massively wrong, just need to get that first proper fish and confidence will rise and I am sure that will also see the fish count rise as well. Watch this space!!!

Do what's planned for 2015? One thing that I observed towards the back end of 2014 was that I was getting a bit fed up of fishing commercials. It's something I am beginning to notice a lot lately and I think is becoming quite a common thing. So I've decided to try to remedy this issue for 2015. I'm still going to fish te commercials with Pem Central and no doubt for pleasure sessions as well but I've decided to join Warrington Angers this year to get access to some new waters with more variety. I'm also going to stick at the lure fishing and continue my sea fishing revival that I've had going on. Fingers crossed that this will keep the interest going throughout the year. I'm also going to try to update this blog a bit more often in 2015.

So that's up to date. It's New Years Day 2015 and as the chaos of 2 young kids on Xmas holidays continues, I'd like to wish all my blog readers a very happy new year and all the best fr 2015.........may your lines be tight and your keep nets full.

Cob House

It's been a few weeks now since we made our trip to cob house fisheries. After the visit, I went on a self-imposed break from fishing for a few week, I've still not been out since actually. I never intended for the break to include my writing on here but as it happens it did.

So to catch you all up, a few of the lads from Pem Central plus some others known to the trip organiser went for a 3 day jolly boys outing to cob house fisheries from 24th to 26th September. We had all been looking forward to this trip as with a lot of talk of massive weights, expectations were high.  Unfortunately the fishery was having some trouble with one of the lakes we were supposed to be on for the Thursday and Friday, so a last minute change saw us move from Wyatts lake to a match across 2 waters, oak and laurels, with the idea being that we would split across the 2 waters and then swap round the following day. However, on the Wednesday we were on Laugherne Island.

Wednesday 24th September. Laugherne Island.

With the expected tactics of short pole apparently dominating the other waters, the option of fishing the feeder on Laugherne Island was not to be refused. If nothing else but to give me a bit of variety on the trip.

My peg was a nice looking one with the point of an island within casting range.  With my main focus of the trip bring fun rather than serious competition, I planned on a simple approach.  Pellet feeder to the island, pole down the edge with corn and groundbait and finally pole at 6/7 metre with corn and pellet.

I started on the pellet feeder and had one carp early but it was slow and only one other had shown by the end of the first hour.  I had started feeding groundbait down the edge from the start and with the slow going on the feeder I decided to take an early look down the edge.  A single grain of corn on the hook produced a few small roach, not quite the intended quarry so I tried a switch to double corn on the hook but the roach were persistent and still all I could manage from the edge.  The other pole swim produced one carp and one roach but never felt right for reasons I can't explain so I quickly abandoned it and went back to persevere on the feeder. A golden hour on the tip boosted me to 10 carp before it slowed again and left me waiting.  2 more carp followed in last hour. The massive weights we were expecting didn't materialise and only 2 weights over 100lb were recorded on the whole match. My 78-8 was enough to win my section.

Thursday 25th September. Oak

Day 2 and my draw saw me on Oak lake and I must be honest, it didn't thrill me as the lake didn't look nice and was nothing more than a square hole.  Not a huge water and my peg was close to a corner so my tactics were simple. Margin pole line at 5 sections in deeper water and 5 section pole line in front.  I had heard that the fish in this lake were larger than we had seen the day before so it planned on corn down tbe edge swim and pellets on the short line - feeding 6 mm and using banded 6 or 8mm on the hook.

The match was quite a simple one to be honest and doesn't make much to write about.  Rotating through the swims kept fish coming but corn line was by far the best. Generally the best tactic was to hook a fish and feed straight away before playing and landing the fish.  A steady match saw me put 152 lb on the scales, a good weight but only enough for 4th on the lake.

Friday 26th September. Laurels.

After match talk on Thursday described similar fishing on laurels as I experienced the day before only a much smaller average stamp. My draw saw me pegged next to a wooden jetty style platform. On the Thursday, Mark had fished this peg and he had told me he caught between the platform and a bush to his left, in a small hole but he said he had to stand up a lot to see his float. With this in mind, I based my attack on the same area with back up swims to my right margin. This match was another straight forward one and from the all in I settled into a rhythm of 'stand up, lay rig in, bite, fish on, feed, sit down, land fish'. This was simply repeated for near enough 5 hours. I had a couple of issues where some fish had gone to the jetty and I was wrapped up but steady pressure saw me get all those fish out bar one. I must say that is not really my preferred style of fishing and I got a bit bored at one stage and went for a little walk. Even with that break, as soon as I sat down the same rhythm was off again. At the end of the match, I was knackered and knew I was in with a good weight but with the average stamp being about 2lb, and my biggest only being about 4lb, I didn't expect my weight to go as big as it did. I weighed in 248lb to set a new personal best match weight and win the match. A red letter day? Maybe but not a way of fishing I could cope with all the time.

Now what?

So, to bring us up to speed. Since the cob house trip I've had a break, I was ready for it but in honesty it was largely born out of other commitments.  Pem Central have also since had their last match at Heronbrook - I'm not sure who won but will do a run down of final results when I know. 

So it's all down to my winter campaign now. Not sure what my plans are yet but a sea fishing trip is defo next on the agenda and then I'll see where I go then.

Rosemary Wood - Moss Lake

After around 6 months of action, this match was to draw a close to my campaign with Pem Central this year. Prior to going into today's match I was sitting 3rd in the league but as I was going to miss the final match of the year I needed a good result at Rosemary Wood to try make a claim for 3rd place in the league.

After a good breakfast (where would fishing be without it), me and Wayne made our way to the fishery with Wayne telling tales of a poor day there earlier in the week when he went for a sneaky practice. So at the draw, talk was rife with poor reports from rosemary wood and worries of a fish kill being rumored from a fishery we are visiting later in the month, potentially more on that to follow.

My draw put me on peg 45. End peg for the day but at the wrong end of the wind and whilst I have fished the boards before, I've not fished this peg.

Plan for the day was meant to be a simple one. My main effort was going to be focused on the pellet waggler, with a feeder rod set up to fish either the method feeder or straight lead. For the first time on Moss Lake, I actually took my pole and fished a short pole line against the reeds with krill and tuna groundbait and sweet corn.

At the start of the match, I expected most others to go out on the feeder to start with so I planned on going straight out with the pellet waggler. I was using 11mm pellets today as normally the wind here is quite breezy but typically today it wasn't too bad. After 45 mins on the pellet waggler I had only a skimmer of about 1lb to show for it so I decided to try the feeder. Starting initially on the method feeder I had a wrap round bite on my first cast and was hoping this would signify the start of a bagging session but sadly a single carp of around 2lb is all that came of it. After trying the feeder for a while with no further success I decided to try the waggler again as I had been getting some line bites on the feeder whilst I was feeding pellets over the top. Another fruitless period in the waggler and by this time I was starting to lose faith, and interest if truth be told. A switch to the feeder again saw another solitary fish followed by a long period of nothing.

I was now pinning my hopes on my short pole line. A look here with corn on the hook produced a run of small roach and skimmers. Eventually, my enthusiasm, along with any hopes of a good result here, had all but disappeared and I sat the rest of the match out with the bomb in the hope that a big carp would pick up my single 11mm pellet. With half an hour to go, enough was enough for me and I called time on what was the worse match  of my year.

The weigh in showed 7lb-odd for my efforts and whilst the venue had fished poorly all round, I was only good enough for 13th out of 15, and to be honest I was lucky for that as Dave Benson on the next peg chucked back at least 10lb so I could have been one place lower.

Well do e to Alex, who chalked up another win and looks to have all but secured the league win, providing he can get a half decent result at Heronbrook in a few weeks, I'm sure Wayne and Angy will push him all the way though.

Hall Lane - Gwen's Canal

Saturday 6th September and as I awoke this morning I was greeted by grey skies and what looked to be a promise of rain this morning. Typical following a week of reasonably consistent dry weather. 

Sure enough as I got to the fishery, the rain was threatening even more and after taking a quick walk down the water, the rain made it's presence known. As is true to form, I have brought neither my brolley nor my boots so I was in for a soaking in the morning and a hope that it dries up in the afternoon.

For those that haven't been before, Gwen's canal is a long straight length canal, very uniform and a very fair match venue and in my opinion, the best water on the fishery.

Once all the guys had turned up, we had only 13 on, but what it did was give us some space and we decided to peg it roughly every other peg.  I drew peg 7, from which I was hearing its poor and never frames but also that it's a great peg. It's always hard to decide what is a genuine report and what is just pre match banter so I decided to ignore those and just see what the day brought.

My plan for day was to fish short of the far bank, about 13.5 metre, in about 3ft of water and gradually follow the fish up to the bank if they backed off a little.  I wanted to keep bait choices simple today so on this line i simply used a mixture of 2 and 4 mm pellets from marukyu j pellets and Skrill ranges and used the same soft hookers. I set up 3 rigs for this line, one to start with and then a few shallower ones for following them up to the bank.  The only other rig I had set up was a short rig, fished on just a top kit and short 3 section. Here I set my rig about an inch over depth and fished dead maggot over a bed of groundbait. My groundbait mix for today was a 'use-up' mix containing the leftovers of a bag of old ghost green alga and some marukyu 101 to bulk it out a bit. 

My peg for the day.

At the start, I fed my main swim with about half a pot of my pellet mix and then fed my short line with a ball if groundbait and about half a pot of dead maggots.

I went straight onto my 13.5 metre line and after a short wait I was getting bites and catching the odd fish. If I'm honest, it was a bit slow going but I was catching, after 2 or 3 fish I started to introduce some feed via a toss pot after every fish. The bites were coming but I was also getting a lot of missed bites that was becoming a bit of nightmare with soft hookers so I made a slight change and tried a banded 4mm pellet instead. This seemed to do the trick and I started hooking fish but they were reall small baby carp and this possibly explained the tricky bites I was getting on the bigger, soft hookers. Already though, Dave Bemson on peg 4 and Ste Green on peg 9 were catching more frequently and what looked like a much larger stamp, more importantly though, they were catching them tight across. So I made a decision to try across so on went my 16metre section and I had a look, but not before I fed another ball of groundbait and dead maggots on my short line. I had a couple if fish right across but all the issues I had at 13 metres I was also having against the bank, so after about 90 mins I refed my 13.5 metre line, put a small pot of pellets against the bank and decided to have a look short.

This proved to be a major turning point in the match for me as I started to put a run of good sized fish together and make up for the slow start. I was feeding small nuggets of groundbait and a small toss pit of dead maggot after every fish but sure enough, it wasn't long before the small fish made an appearance again so I decided to put a big ball of groundbait on this line and try against the far bank again, but this time using dead maggot and feeding groundbait. This did the trick and a run if better fish followed until the small fish showed up again. What followed for the rest of the match was a pattern of me fishing short until the small fish turned up, when they did, I'd feed heavy and move to the far bank and vice versa. Other than a quiet last half hour I caught well for he rest of the match and really enjoyed the day. When the all out was called I had 67 fish on the clicker but was unsure of my weight due to the large numbers of small fish that I had. I made a private estimate at around 40-45lb.

We started the weigh in at the far end of the canal and the first 3 anglers set a good benchmark with a leading weight of 67lb coming from Wayne Fairhurst while Bob Crank and Mark Anglessey were only 4oz apart on 54-4 and 54-8 respectively. The weights dropped a bit as we made our way along the centre section of the canal but as we got up to Ste Green we were back in the 50's as his weight went to 52-0. Feeling me and Ste had similar numbers, I felt my smaller stamp would put me lower than that and my 45lb estimate might have been close however, as always proves to the the case, I was very wrong and my weight went to 52-12. A narrow next peg victory over Ste for me. Only 2 left to weigh ad Dave Benson was clearly going to challenge for the lead. His 2 nets went to 89lb, a cracking result. Only Alex left to weigh off the end peg. His total went to 58lb putting him 3rd overall. With Dave and Alex both placing in the match, that meant I won my section by double default and saw me finish 6th overall. 

I wouldn't normally be overjoyed with a result of 6th out of 13 but truth be told, I've had an enjoyable day, which given my current form, is a massive improvement in itself and I will say that I did really enjoy the day.

The league is looking really tight at the top now with Wayne and Alex sharing top spot with 2 matches to go and with the ability to drop our worse result, it looks like it's going all the way to the wire. I am currently in 3rd place and would be well in contention if it wasn't for the fact that I'll be missing the last match.

Rosemary wood next for us and that will be my last club match for 2014.

Lure success (kind of)

I managed to sneak out for a couple of hours on Sunday afternoon with the lure rod, so moving further up the locks from rose bridge, I tried the basins around top lock and the Kirkless inn.

The usual snags were plaguing me again though as the first cast with a drop shot setup resulted in a snag and eventually my 6lb flurocarbon leader snapping.

Setting up again I switched from a drop shot to a small jig head, initially a ecogear shirasu head but after 2 more snags took the only 2 of those I had, I switched to a fox micro jig. Targeting the canals perch, my main lure for the day was a ecogear grassminnow s. Moving up a basin to just outside the Kirkless inn, the lock overflow was pouring in and creating a crease in the water along the near margin. I targeted this area on a slow retrieve, opting not to jig along the bottom to try and avoid the snags. To my surprise I felt a little bite and an over keen strike saw me lift a small perch clear out of the water. It stayed on the hook for only a split second before making an escape. A bit eager on my part but at least the take was more success than I'd had on my previous outings so I was feeling good about it. I moved on at this point and tried a few other areas, thinking the commotion will have disturbed any other perch in the area. Sadly the other areas were not as productive so on my way back home I tried the basin outside the Kirkless again. After trying a few casts around the same crease with no success I was ready for home when I decided to try out one of the more unusual lures that came in my ecogear pocket in set. It's an 'extra zone' bug ant style lure that resembles a small crayfish I suppose. Anyway, I gave this a few casts and on my second retrieve I was lucky enough to get a strong take and a giddy fight soon saw another small perch making it's way to the bank. Sadly this came off the hook again before I properly landed it, in this instance though I'm pretty sure that the jig head I was using was a bit small for the lure so I'm going to try a bigger head next time. 

Anyway, all in all I think it was a successful trip and certainly an improvement on my previous lure Fishig sessions. I still need to plan a longer day with the lures and try to find somewhere with less debris beneath the surface.

My attention is now turning to hall lane. I think I'll be needing some new rigs for this one as I think I've pushed the limits on the ones I have tied up at the moment.

For any snapchat fans out there, I've recently moved into this domain, search for fishernutstu. I plan on using this to upload instant shots from my fishing trips.