The Bull Nose - Preston Docks

Thursday 14th May 2015

This blog post has taken a while to get out there compared to some recently but I'll be honest up front now and say that it has taken me this long to get over the shame of being beat by my mate Novice Dez. Now, nearly a week later, I have gotten over myself and am ready to spill the beans. 

A voyage of re-discovery, that is what sea fishing has become for me over the last 12 months as I look to get back into this side of the sport that I had been on a long hiatus from. With my good pal Danny, as you may have read, we recently fished Rossall beach near the 5 bar gate. It was on the way home from that session we were talking about the options of fishing Preston docks as we had read about on the Internet.

Good fortune saw Danny be able to fish the docks for the first time shortly after the rossall session and then fish it again on the Monday night preceding my visit. He told me that he had fished from high tide down to low water and had around 8 decent sized flounder. So my plan on this Thursday was to fish the tide up to high water and do a kind of comparison to help better plan future visits. A quick text chat with Novice Dez and we had agreed for a Thursday night session and I was picking him up from the docks McDonald's (him and a couple of Big Mac meals) ready for the evenings session.

When we arrived, we were the only anglers on the bullnose so pretty much had our pick of areas. As we had never been there before we had no previous  experience to guide us so I decided we would fish from the wall near a bin, the lid of which had clearly been used as a bait table many times before so if nothing else, I knew folk had fished this area. 

I set both of us up pretty quickly and as a bit of an experiment to see what is the better options, I set Dez up with a paternoster rig where as I had a running leger set up. I figured we could compare the 2 and see which is best. As the water was quite low at this stage, there wasn't much pull on rigs so we could get away with relatively light 4 oz plain weights. Nice and easy. What transpired though was a quiet  session as we approached high tide. No bites registering and the only sign was Dez who had somehow managed to hook through the eye of a swivel on somebody else's lost rig, he reeled that in and the attached Flounder that came with it. I had to make it quite clear to Dez that in our usual mini-competition that I like to have, that this fish didn't count as he didn't hook it - but I did claim the free grip lead that came with it.

As the tide rose, a few other anglers turned up and these guys seemed to know what they were doing. Figuring they were regulars, I watched them set up and they were all using paternoster rigs with heavier grip leads. I changed my rig to a paternoster rig after this but I did wonder why they felt the need for a grip lead - I didn't have to wonder for long though as the pull of the tide seemed to increase dramatically and I was no longer able to hold bottom. I quickly switched both me and Dez onto 6oz grip leads and we were soon back in business but I was surprised by how much the tide pulled here.

About half an hour before high tide the water slackened off and as if by magic we started getting bites. Dez managed to land a better flounder before I got off the mark with a mini one. I missed many bites though, either from being too keen and hitting them too quick or I left them too long - either way it was getting frustrating. Dez made matters worse for me as he added 2 more flounder to his tally before the end of the night. Novice Dez had beaten me 3-1 or 4-1 if you could the snagged rig fish.

So as the session drew to close, I had a think about how it had gone. It was clear from this one session that the flounder seemed to feed better when the water wasn't pulling as much. So with this in mind, the next session I try down there will be planned to start about an hour to half hour before high tide and fish it out. Hopefully that will see a better return. I'm also hoping that I can get some better bait for next time, this session was using up bait that I had in the freezer and had been defrosted and refroze a few times, so it wasn't the best. Interestingly, Danny had mentioned to me that he had taken fish on isomes when he went, the sandy coloured ones in particular. I tried this myself and had no joy, in fact the one fish I had was caught in a 2 hook flapper rig, the top hook using black lug and the bottom using an isome and it was the lug that took the fish. 

Anyway, that was that for Preston docks first outing. I will be returning as it is an easy place to fish with only short chucks and the relative comfort of being able to fish out of the boot of your car as well. I just hope the fish are more obliging next time I go.

Heronbrook Fishery - Meadow Pool

Heronbrook Fishery - Meadow Pool

Saturday 9th May 2015

www.heronbrookfisheries.co.uk

Back on Match duty this weekend as I make the trip down to Heronbrook Fisheries. Quite a long trip for a club based in Wigan but over the years this has proved to be one of the fairest match venues we fish. We don't always get huge weights, but what we get is consistent weights across the field. This fact makes me look forward to this fixture on the match calendar and this week was no different. 

I must say though that as I was sat at home drafting the introduction to this blog entry on Friday afternoon, the constant rain that had been falling in Wigan since lunch time was filling me with dread for a washout, in fact I am sure the last time I fished Heronbrook we had really heavy rain as well. Fingers crossed for a dry day on Saturday.

Well, Saturday was far from dry but there were odd breaks in the weather and dry spells. What was dominant though was the wind and as I found myself on peg 18 of meadow pool, the wind was coming straight across me from my right. This made fishing the long pole tight across near enough impossible. Sadly this day will not live long in the memory as I consider it to be my worse day ever on this normally very consistent water. In fact, the day was so bad for me personally, I am struggling to write about it - so to avoid a highly negative blog, I'm just going to summarise the events of the day and move on.

My setup on the day consisted of a track line at about 10m, plus 2 lines down the edge to my left, one at 13m and the other at about 4m. My plan was to feed meat on my track line and corn down the edge.  I decided that with the rain that had gone in the night before, the fishing would be tough so rather than put a full pot in at the start, I would feed the track line with the kinder pot and periodically feed corn by hand down the edge. As it happened, I had 3 fish in quick succession on the track line and by half 10, I was feeling quite positive however this is where the fun ended for me as following the last of the 3 on that initial run, my float was just sat lifeless. I did my best to make it work, I tried changing my shorting pattern, changing my depth, I even changed hook to a different size but nothing could produce another bite. Just before 12 I managed to fluke a fish as I lifted my rig to ship back and refeed, I felt a heavy lump. I quickly landed my 4th fish which was firmly hooked in the top lip - I would have sworn it would be foul hooked given the way I hooked it. That 4th fished signalled the end of any action I had on this day and as I sat for 3 hours, totally bite less, my frustration levels were rising dramatically. I'm sad to say that eventually the frustration got the better of me and half an hour before the end of the match, I packed up.  As the club also fish for team points, I was obligated to weigh in so the nets stayed in for now and I got the gear ready for the weigh in.

The weigh in proved to be a real mix bag with a much greater spread of weights than we are used to here. Top of the shop was Dave Leonard with a very respectable 79lb off peg 42, 3 more weights over 70lb made the top 4 with Jay Berry, Matty Ruddy and John Ruddy weighing in 74lb, 72-8 and 71-8 respectively. There were 3 weights in the 50's. The rest were spread out with 40's, 30's and 20's being placed on the scales. My 4 fish went 15-8 and even with Frank Aspinall making it a joint 15th place for me by placing the same weight from peg 21, I wasn't last as poor old Mark Anglesea - not normally used to being down this end of the results - weighed in just 11lb.

So with the 3 matches I have/am due to miss, the 11 points I gained from this visit (once visitor placing a are discounted) has pretty much seen off any chance of getting up to the top of the league this year. So it looks like I am playing for pride on a match by match basis now for the rest of the year.

Rossall Beach

Sunday 3rd May 2015

Rossall Beach - 5 Bar Gate

High Tide: approx 11:30 (8.3m) (www.tidetimes.org.uk)

With no match scheduled over the long weekend, a pleasure session was on the cards and for this sesson I had decided that I shall turn my attention to the sea for a spot of beach casting. A quick chat with my pal Danny Lancaster and we had agreed the day would be Sunday but now needed to decide just where to fish.  We are still getting to grips with the venues available to us in the North West so after a bit of research on line and  some advice seeking on the 'Lancashire Sea Fishing' Facebook group, we finally decided we would fish Rossall Beach at the 5 Bar Gate.

As we had never been there we decided to arrive a bit early to have a scout around and then settle down to fish the tide up for a couple of hours before fishing it back it down - this was following advice from helpful folks on the internet who advised that the tide can catch you off guard here if you are not familiar with it, so fishing this way in daylight will allow us to see where it comes in for future reference.

Following a cheeky breakfast, we arrived at the mark and noticed a group of anglers unloading in the car park. We had a quick chat with these guys and found out they were fishing a match so we decided to stay out their way and settled further up the beach. There are permanent peg numbers marked on the wall here so for reference we fished between peg 95 and 96.

Already we could see some obvious gulleys that would create a target area and also where these will fill up with the incoming tide and potentially cut you off if not careful. 

We settled initially just on the edge of the shingle area and set up stall. My set up was a straight forward single hook clipped rig using a 150g weight. Bait for the first a cast was a single frozen lug worm. Danny's set up was very similar.  It didn't take us long to be ready to go and agree the obligatory pound bets for first fish and biggest fish (we are match anglers at heart).

Due to me not beach casting on a regular basis, I always find my first cast on any session to be a bit tentative and this was no different as my initial cast went off to my right and fell a little shorter than I would have liked but I decided it was good enough and left it.

Its fair to say that me and Danny are quite keen to get this beach casting lark sussed and so far we haven't blanked.....so add to that the unknown of having never fished here before and we found ourselves full of optimistic anticipation.

As the session went on, I found myself getting much more comfortable with my casting again and after a bit of chopping and changing with rigs, I eventually settled on a 2 hook clipped rig using a 170g weight. I found this weight seemed to give me a better cast and the 2 hook maximised my chances of hooking a fish. The session itself was slow though with only Danny having signs of a bite as we hit high tide. At this stage in a beach casting session, without fish or bites to show for my efforts, I tend to find myself doubting the rigs that I am using, doubting the area I am fishing, etc etc and this all results in rapidly diminishing confidence.

We stuck to our guns however and it wasn't long before Danny was reeling in a small Dab to take first blood and the first quid.

I am sure Danny won't mind admitting though that he didn't see this fish bite and it was during a change of bait that he reeled in this welcome prize.  This fish was well hooked so it's possible it could have been on the hook for a while so with this in mind we thought it prudent to reel in and change bait more frequently in case we couldn't see the bites. As I did this, I was rewarded with the same thing, a small Dab on the hook. Whilst not in the ideal way, this did mean that I had managed to avoid the blank.  Unfortunately for me, this fish was also smaller than Danny's so he was winning the race for the biggest fish as well!

As we fished the tide down, the fish were notable by their absence.  Danny did manage to snare another which we thought was a Dab but in closer inspection there were feint orange spots visible so this could have been a small Plaice.  It also meant that with no further fish showing for me, Danny had also won the second quid for the biggest fish if he day.  Eventually the tide dropped sufficient for us to call it a day and we packed up, blank avoided but not the most productive of fishing sessions. Once we had the car loaded we took a little walk around the area again to have a look at the beach we had been fishing over to look at the gulleys. Between us we had decided that it could be worth trying to fish this area at low water as it looked like there was some deeper water just beyond the beach that was beginning to show itself. Maybe an idea for next time. 

All in all a good day and a good scouting mission for another beach mark for future sessions.

Next Weekend

Next weekend will see me switch back to coarse fishing and back on match duty at the famous Heronbrook Fisheries. Having missed 2 matches, I am already seeing my name slip down the league table and with at least one other guaranteed missed match, I need a good result to keep me in contention of a good league position.  This match will also see me give my new Nick Gilbert pole elastic a first outing - let's hope they bring me some luck.

Tight Lines

Big Dipper's Angling Diaries

Quick post tonight guys to give my mate Martin a plug for his blog...........

Check it out at

https://mworswick.wordpress.com/

Woodshaw Reservoir

Woodshaw Reservoir

Sunday 19th April 2015

With me missing my next match due to me getting involved in some stag do frolics, I was anxious to get a pleasure session in sometime - otherwise it would be a long wait until the next match I can attend on the 9th May. So it was very nice of Mrs Fishernutstu to give me a free pass today to visit Woodshaw Reservoir.  Woodshaw is another water on the Warrington card and this was set to be only my second visit to the venue ever.

On arrival at the water, there were already a few anglers on, which meant that the pegs I was thinking of trying were already occupied. A quick chat with the bailiff for some advice saw me make my way to peg 15. Under advice, I set up my stall to fish the short pole for the day. I set up 3 rigs - 1 to fish to my right and left on 5 sections, in the same depth of water about a metre from the bank, the other 2 were straight in front of me at 6 sections, one on the deck and one up in the water. Woodshaw is only a shallow venue so none of my rigs were much more than about 3 1/2 feet deep.

Bait choices for the day were to be quite simple. I had a pint of maggot and half a pint of caster for fishing straight in front me and softened 4mm pellets for the left and right swims. I pumped a mixture of 4 and 6 mm expanders for the hook as well as having a small selection of soft hookers.

To start my session off I put in a cad pots worth of pellets on the left and right swims and then went out on the middle swim with a maggot hook bait and the bottom rig. Catapulting maggot over the top I was instantly catching small palm sized Roach, each taking the maggot hook bait before the float had settled.  After 15 mins or so of this routine it was clear these Roach were there in numbers and were never going to let my bait get to the deck so I changed tactics slightly and potted in a large pot of maggots and pellets and switched from a bulk and 2 dropper set up to fishing the bulk just above my 6inch hooklength. Whilst this worked in the sense of being able to get my bait to the bottom, it was still only small Roach and the odd skimmer that were taking whatever hook bait I put in front of them. Feeling this is not the kind of day I wanted, I put in another large pot of maggot and pellets and picked up the rig for my left hand swim.  Filling my cad pot with pellets and going with a 6mm expander, I placed my rig in and waited - my thoughts were on the reported Crucians and Tench that inhabited this water and I was wondering if they had started to wake up. Well it wasn't long before I got my answer as a nice Crucian of around 1lb was happily swimming round in circles on the surface in front of me as my float sat motionless - was it going to be one of those days? Thankfully the answer was no, as out of the blue my float dipped beneath the surface and I was soon playing a nice fish to the net - I can't decide for myself if this is a Crucian, a Brown Goldfish or a hybrid of the two (could it even be a dreaded F1)?

This seemed to be a trigger as I was getting bites frequently on this line for a while from this point. The small Roach and Skimmers were still there in numbers but at least on this line they were complimented by some bonus fish in the shape of some decent, odd looking hybrids, Tench, larger skimmers to 2lb and Definite Crucians.

This line generally produced for the rest of the session. During odd quiet spells I tried the right hand swim but this produced nothing and I also picked up my shallow rig every now and again and had fun picking off shallow Roach on caster, some were coming in at a nice size too. Eventually the sun came out and it was right in my eyes so I called time on the session at around 2:30pm, quite satisfied and looking forward to coming back to Woodshaw when the fish had properly woken up.

It'll be a couple of weeks now until I get out again so I'll be doing some housekeeping with the tackle in that time, mainly changing reel lines and pole elastics - incidentally I have opted to give Nick Gilbert's pole elastics a try this time based on many recommendations from friends.

Until the next time - tight lines

Old Hough Fisheries - Big Max

Old Hough Fisheries - Big Max

Saturday 11th April 2015

As I approached the latest match in Pem Centrals calendar, there was a high expectation of a good day on the cards. We had started to see some improved weather over the Easter weekend that had continued into the week, catch reports at the fishery, and at many others, were showing signs that the fish were finally on the move and I was going into the match with a win under my belt from the previous match. All ingredients for a good day on the bank.  So......it was probably quite predictable that as the weekend approached the warm settled weather we had was due to make way for overnight rains, lower temperatures and increased winds. Very typical.

Not to be down hearted, I went into the match with optimism. After stopping by the butty van in Middlewich for a tasty barm and a good chat, the lads made our way to the fishery. By the time we were doing the draw, the rain had all but stopped and we were left with just the strong winds which seemed to be coming across us regardless of where we were pegged. My draw put me on fishery peg 4. On this peg I had the corner of the island to in front of me as well as an empty corner to my left with an aerator.

Peg 4 - Home for the day

In a bid to keep things simple, I decided that I would fish this match with a 2 line approach. I set up a banjo feeder to fish to the island, and also give me the option to cast to my left near the aerator; I had softened micros for the feeder with various pellets and bandums for the hook. The other line was a long pole line at 14.5 metres were I would feed softened 4mm pellets and corn with pellet and corn options for the hook.

To give me a back up, I also plumbed a margin line but based on pre-match advice, this was only there as a back-up and I had no real intention of devoting much time to it.

At the all-in, I fed a pot of corn and pellets on the 14.5m pole line and then picked up the feeder rod and cast to the island. With the wind coming across from my right, I found casting accurately quite difficult but was just about managing to cast to the island. I stuck on this for approx half an hour but with no bites, not even any liners giving away the presence of fish, I decided it was worth trying the pole. I shipped out to the 14.5 metres but after only a short period of time I realised that this was going to be too difficult a fight against the wind so I was soon picking the feeder rod up again. The pole would have to wait and see if the wind dropped.

This time however, rather than casting to the island I turned to my left and cast towards the aerator in the empty corner of the lake.  Landing just off the right hand corner of the aerator, casting was notably easier in this direction with the wind now coming from behind me.  After a short wait the tip shot round and I was soon playing my first fish of the day which was a nice carp of around 2-3lb.  The switch to the aerator line appeared to be a good move as I steadily caught a number of fish from this line over the next 90 mins and I was feeling confident that I was beating most people I could see at this point, only the guys on the far bank from me were unknown at this point. At around the midway point in the match this line started to slow so to give it a rest, I decided to plumb an extra pole line short at around 5 metres. I fed this the same as the long pole line and went back onto the tip. Despite having a couple of smaller fish from this line it was still noticeably slower than before so I took a look on the short pole line. Presentation was much easier on this line but after 10 or 15 mins with no signs, I felt it was not going to be a day for the pole and decided if I had to sit out for bites, I would do so on the feeder.  What happened next however changed the whole outlook of the match for me as this time, I decided that I would try a cast to the island again as Paul to my right and Frank to his right had picked up a couple of fish on this line. Despite using the same clip that I had set up with, my first cast back on this line saw me land on the island and subsequently snagged.  Despite my best efforts, I couldn't free myself from the snag and had to pull for a break. At this point my head went and despite setting the tip rod back up again and getting back out to the aerator line, I couldn't settle myself back down and felt this affected me for the remainder of the match. I did manage a couple of extra F1s to the net but at the all-out I couldn't help but feel I had wasted an opportunity for a second match win.

As the scales went round, it was obvious that the day had been tough for all. The bank to my left, which was pegs 33 to 28 had produced only 2 weights over 20lb, with Mark Anglesea leading the way on 25lb 4oz. Turning the corner into the far bank from me Denis Darby set a new top weight with exactly 50lb from peg 22. This proved to be the top weight of the day. Ste Green and Dave Benson to the 2nd and 3rd place spots with 29lb 4oz and 28lb from pegs 19 and 12.  I was last to weigh in on the day and my total fell just short of 20lb at 19lb 12oz.  I was a bit disappointed with this result as I felt the peg was worth double that with aerator feature and the wind blowing into it. It was enough to see me finish 7th out of 15 on he day. I did pick up a section win though so not all lost.

Top 3:

1st: Dennis Darby 50lb

2nd: Ste Green 29lb 4oz

3rd: Dave Benson 28lb

Sections (by default):

Section 1: Mark Anglesea 25lb 4oz

Section 2: Stuart Rourke 19lb 12oz

Honourable mention to George Derbyshire who weighed in 12lb 8oz of small silvers, none of which looked to be over 4oz. Well done George.

A further stag do sees me missing Pems next match, which is at Partridge Lakes, so my next scheduled session will be the 9th May when we head down to Heronbrook. Will have to wait and see if I can manage a sneaky session before that date.

Drennan Acolyte Ultra - First outing

Worthington Lakes - Arley Reservoir

Monday 6th April 2015

Now, I love waggler fishing, in particular, I love waggler fishing for silvers but with so little of my time spent doing it due to fishing matches dominated by pole and feeder techniques I have never been able to justify a really good rod for the method. So, with a bonus coming my way I decided it was time to treat myself. After much deliberation (and I mean more than I have done for any other rod purchase before) I settled on the Drennan Acolyte Ultra at 13ft. As you can imagine, once the rod was in my possession, I was keen to get it in use so I settled on a visit to Worthington lakes where I have had good days previously fishing the waggler up in the water - what better way to give it try.

At the venue I decided to fish Arley Reservoir which is the middle of the 3 lakes on offer at Worthington. The red arrow on the image shows where I pegged myself and I had a light but cold wind blowing in my face.

The venue was very foggy as I arrived which made it very cold. I expected the fog to lift as the sun got up but the reality was that I had to wait until midday before it had cleared and started to warm up a bit. 

The view I had for most of my session

Tactics for the day were going to be quite simple. I set up a 4g loaded waggler at around 5ft deep and cast it just as far as I could comfortably catapult my loose feed, which was a good tub of mixed maggot. It doesn't get much simpler than that. On previous sessions, I have been fishing this method here and had  large numbers of Roach, Perch and Hybrids so I was hopeful for a good day - I even took my keepnet in the hope that I could get a nice bag picture for the blog. The fish however had other ideas. After a slow start I managed to christen the rod with a nice Roach.

The Acolyte popped it's cherry with this Roach.

Sport was slow though with long gaps between bites. Eventually, after taking my eyes off the float for a second to pour a coffee, my float was under again and this time there was a bit more resistance at the other end and a short but spirited fight saw me land this 1lb+ skimmer.

Skimmers up in the water

By midday, I had added another 2 Roach and a nice Hybrid to bring my tally to 5. Not exactly the busy session I was hoping for but enough to demonstrate the performance of the wonderfully light and responsive Acolyte, that was truly a joy to use. 

A great piece of kit - Drennan Acolyte Ultra

This was followed by a long baron spell and as I searched the depths between 3 and 7/8ft, the only reward being a brief moment where I hooked one of Arleys resident Carp. I think I foul hooked it to honest as I was sinking my line but after an initial run towards me, the carp just about put a lovely bend in the rod before shooting off like a rocket and straightening the hook. The battle lasted all of about 12 seconds. As I was getting ready for leaving, I decided to empty the keepnet and allow it to dry for an hour whilst I had a few 'last casts'. Disaster struck though as clumsy old me managed to stand on my Daiwa Tournament landing net handle and truly flattened it - well done me. Luckily it was the butt section and I still had a usable landing net as one of the last casts resulted in a final Roach to bring the closing tally to 6.

All in all, an enjoyable day even if it wasn't as productive as I would have initially hoped. The session did however serve its purpose and I am pleased to say that I am the owner of a wonderful piece of kit in the Drennan Acolyte Ultra and I am looking forward to giving it more use in future sessions.

Next session for me will see me back on the match scene as Pemberton Central make their way to Old Hough fisheries to tackle 'Big Max' and I have a winning streak (of 1) to maintain so the pressure is on.