Blogging Pheonix from the Ashes @ Oak Spring Lake Fisheries

After a long time (due mainly to infrequent fishing trips and family focus) I am finally beginning to add to my blog again.
Now with my son in toe, I see myself with Mark testing a new water on a 24 hour session and young budding angler Finley.

Location: Oak SPring Lake Fishery ( https://www.facebook.com/oakspringlakes/ )

Swim: RHS far end (NNE) double swim

Date: 10th October 2020.

Session Length: 24 hours 09:30 - 09:30 (BST).

Weather: high 13 - low 8; predicted good weather but damn inclement, a fair bit of rain!

Atendees: Mark #BoilieGun, Richard Short (Me) and my son.

The lake: With a natural feel and lilly pads still holding their own in October you instantly get a feel that you are going to be fighting against bloodworn, snails, bugs and so on needing to find something that rngs the dinner gong for the fish.

Proprieter is pleasant and helpful, toilets are present on site, guard dogs appear to be very good at their job but settle easily.

Swims are worn but acceptable, with considerable rain, some post fishing cleaning of equipment will be needed.

Watercraft: Whilst spending the first hour setting up Finleys 9ft telescopic, it is evident that there are tench and carp moving.  The lake is not restless but with the recent rain it is considerably coloured.

Considerable movement can be seen between the pads but conversations with other anglers suggest the carp are traditional with margin fishing.

Expecting a relatively easy fish once quality bait has been introduced my son was th first to scratch on our peg with a perch, (could there be Pike we wonder).

Evening sees a 7lb common banked by Mark which is suggested is less than average with closer to midnight I find connection with a slightly smaller common.  Both cooed by Bloodworm boilies although Baitworks Monster Red receiving interest.

Nothing more, potentially due to the biblical weather and shallow (plummeted to 5 ft max.) depth. 

An amazing result - River Carp on the bank

Location: River Medway.

Swim: Section of water undisclosed due to privacy reasons.

Date: 15th June 2015.

Session Length: 3.5hrs 7:30pm - 11pm (BST).

Weather: Probably no more than 8 Degrees Celsius and dropping; clear skies and no rain.

Party: Nic Haslem and Richard Short (Me) followed up at 7:30.

 

 

This is a post which is a long time coming and follows many years of research, pre-baiting in different sections of water, over night sessions, and fruitless returns to home. 

 

With a slightly later than anticipated arrival and less than satisfactory gear packed I arrived at the pre agreed location which has many rumours associated to it.

 

A swim with little more than adequate casting space and a few low power / BT lines overhead had been initially selected by Nic.  Upon review however the swim, as the light was fading looked cracking.

 

The bait I was using was a mix of Mainline activated hempseed, dyanbaits chill hemp, swetcorn, river water and maggots for hookbait in Van Den Eynde Vanilla powder.

 

After a few good sized roach laid to bank on a Drennan Specialist Feeder rod (the hooklink was a 16 to 5lb at this stage and lucky too) a cast mid water in an eddy to the rear of the bridge pillar was expected to be one of my last.  The water was almost static (assuming the weir had been adjusting too and fro further downstream) and I was carefully considering a last orders pint in the pub. 

 

All of a sudden a very gentle "pull" type bite was followed by a slightly stronger one and as I struck Nic's first comment was "oh, a decent eel eh" then was it a chub, however I suspected otherwise as the fish kited from left to right of the swim with little space and overhanging branches causing havoc.  It was clear by this point that it was a carp but all of a sudden the thought of catching a river carp, especially on light tackle became quite daunting.  The fish took me through branch and root, before,a fter some good netting from Nic and very gently playing by myself this edge of closed season Carp met with the inside of our net. BONZA!

 

 

It was agreed that after recording the fish with old coarse fishing Shakespeare scales which has seen better days the fish looked and felt considerably heavier than its weighed in result of 15lb!  My first ever river carp and from my most local section of the River Medway; this really could be one of if not my fish ever and certainly most rewarding and pleasing return to this blog and fishing after my son had been born!

 

The night ended there with a repetitive comment from myself for the rest of the night....WOW....WOW....WOW!!!!

Natural Magic

Lake: Tricklebrook Fisheries Specimen.

Swim: Swim 14 (I think; far side second up).

Date: 26th October 2013.

Session Length: 26hrs 7am - 9am (+1 BST).

Weather: Based upon MET office data 16 degrees Celsius (day peak) & 13 degrees Celsius (night peak) winds up to 45mph & rain expected.

Party: Paul Weston & Richard Short (Me) with Tristan Hattersley, Mark Adams & Nic Haslem to follow.

 

Starting at 7 am prompt I arrived to see Paul was minutes ahead of me; just enough time to walk around the lake and drop a bucket in his preferred swim.  I think I selected swim 14.  We were fishing into the wind on the far end side of the lake at the deep end so had high hopes considering the potential weather forecast.

 

We were both baited up, swims were set up and were fishing with loose feed over before 08:00.  Around 09:30 Paul had returned to his car briefly to pick up a couple more items with me covering his rods.  His alarm hit monotone from the first indication; in a split second I was on his rod struck into the run, immediately Paul took over.  I felt good momentarily and then kited across to the middle of the lake where Paul gained control briefly until a hook-pull decided his fate for that run.  The Mainline Activ Maple 8 or Cell & Milky Toffee pop-up snowman rig was clearly drawing the fish in. 

Upon discussing with the bailiff shortly after it was apparent that either the four anglers who had been fishing for 24 hours previously had not had a beep; we may be in the right place.

Paul continued to fish at mid water using CC Moore northern lights wafters as one hookbait and a Cell and milky toffee pop up snowman set up, on coated braid with last section stripped back to create a hinge against a weighted putty bead, size 6 Arma hook with a shrink tube kicker.

I, on the other hand had decided to fish margins and close to the bank areas, specifically local to either grasses / reeds.  I was fishing 1 rod to my left 4ft from the ban and two rods to my right no more than 18ft out and within 4ft of each other.

I used minimal loose feed carp pellet over maggots and grated bechelan paste and fished all three hook baits with Mistral Bait 15mm isotonic rosehip and cell pop-up on a ringed blowback short soft length to bolt rig.  I created a rough mix of krusha boilies and cell response pellet mixed with active hempseed groundbait to form a stick mix (tightly bound within stocking) and threaded the hook length through.

After a specimen roach appeared to have too much interest in a cell 10mm Cell hookbait  around 11:00 Paul's middle stow bobbin flung off and line disappeared into the water resulting in a 10.5lb mirror on the bank; pressure off!

In my swim after getting a "lot of chatter" on all rods at circa. 13:30 my left alarm screamed off with considerable colouring of the water (quite shallow close to the reeds).  After a commensurate amount of time the cracking mirror was landed and weighed in at 26.5lb

 

Mark and Tris arrived and shortly after Nic arrived and managed quite a collection of decent size roach and perch on maggot and lobworm respectively before the evening set in.  Tristan was pleased with a greedy perch which  put a bend in his feeder rod.

 

 

 

The severe pre weather of St. Jude's storm rattled our bivvies through the night albeit I still managed to get interest on all three rods. Around 08:00 the next morning after a late night re-bait one of my close together baits (middle rod) screamed off to result in a 22lb mirror.  On a role with the natural based boilies.

 

Shortly after Mark changed a rod to match the catching cocktail and within 10 minutes was satisfied to winkle a gorgeous circa. 10lb beauty.

Following the above, completing the session with a breakfast and cuppa ensures my return to this lake along with further use of the Natural Magic Isotonic Rosehip boilies.

Proof of Life along the Medway River

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EWLRob1YT8

Low-Light DSLR Photography

Wet wet wet

Lake: HFF Specimen Lake

Swim: Bus stop RHS

Date: 24th August 2013.

Session Length: 24hrs 7am - 7am.

Weather: Based upon MET office data 23 degrees Celsius wet bulb  88%RH day 17 degrees Celsius wet bulb  74%RH  night.

Party: Mark Adams & Richard Short (Me)

 

Starting at 7 am prompt we were given the grace from mother nature with at least an hour or so without any rain at all although we knew the forecast predicted constant heavy rain until Sunday 3am and it was delivered.

 

We set up and fished without baitboats and baited simply as little cloud or particle bait would retain its original position.  We were however aware that the water was suitably coloured therefore bright colours may well play a good part in the strategies.  It was raining continually!!!!!

 

Following an initial bait plan little changed and after resting the bus stop double swims (me on RHS) I decided to test the rear of the island stalking but to no avail.

 

Once returned (after baiting the furthest most) channel between the island and the far bank catapulted with 4mm carp pellet and Mainline Activ-Maple8 tipped with matching hook bait a clockwork orange pop-up from the closest bank a well placed bait complete with matching PVA solid bag rested from circa. 13:00 til 15:00 when bang a rapidly increasing run started! Noting the weather had not desisted this 21lb beautiful French common was tamed to the net in full rain downpour.

 

 

Thereafter, yet another common was caught in the early evening on the same bait and same location with a little and often loose feed baiting strategy; 24lb with a scar 2/3rd of the way along (possibly signs of a sporning wound slowly repairing).

 

 

A fellow angler appeared later in the evening with a request for a photo of a lovely 27lb fish in swim 1 however from the bus stop end activity wasn't far away with Mark having  a slight bobbin lift which resulted in a full run and a catch of a cracking 27lb mirror on Stickybaits Krill from the LHS bus stop swim.

 

At 03:00 (in the still constantly pouring hard rain) I dashed out of the bivvy (totally dazed from mid sleep) to a close in (circa 20ft) from the bank run which took line close to the island and back; this UK PB was netted and weighed in at 34lb 2oz. which fell to a CC Moore N Gage XP pop up tipped boilie with maize loose feed and a small bag of 4 or 5 boilies.

 

 

One of the wettest and craziest weathers I have fished in and one of the happiest days in my UK angling; HFF speci lake  has done it again!!!!

Etang Bertie 2013

Once again, the terribly excited group of anglers (Claire, Jim, Nic, Paul and I) set off very early in the morning (20th July 2013) to catch a ferry from Portsmouth hopefully ending our journey by the glorious banks of the Miller's Lake Etang Bertie.

The convoy met at Wrotham hill and consisted of Paul and Nic in the van and Jim, Claire and I in their Peugeot.

Unfortunately mid journey to Portsmouth the Peugeot decided it was not going to be a smooth journey and the AA was required.  Very luckily all was not lost.   The van seated three and the BMW touring bike was used to successfully reunite all by the lake at just gone midnight.

Nic, Paul and I were able to just manage to do a spot of necessary shopping before arriving at the lake and using playing cards, fairly selected the preference of swims. By this time we were all essentially set-up ready for the night and ready for fishing.  Nic had already started to fish and managed to wangle out a fish and again learnt lessons previously known "don't use poor and faulty rigs".

The weather good warm; circa 30 degrees Celsius with little recent rain or change in weather and clear skies.

The swims were as follows;
Claire: Field swim
Jim: House swim
Nic: Top bay (small fish corner)
Rich (Me): Point
Paul: Bendy Bivvy

Whilst the following days saw good fishing with the below attached catch list the fishing was, we believe hampered a little by the relentless dry constant heat over 30 degrees Celsius.

Through conversations with other anglers it seems, however, the only lake to be at; it is the most beautiful lake and also when all other lakes switch off (certainly the carp) with the peak heat, Bertie still offers the chance to catch through either stalking or sensible fishing.

My first full night and day saw a 34lb 6oz Mirror fall to Stickybaits Krill boilie and trimmed almond goo fed pop-up critically balanced on a Fox Armo SR size 4 KD rig. 

Also a couple of Bertie's gorgeous French commons and an always surprisingly agile sturgeon were caught on Mainline Activ-Maple 8 and Cell Snowman rig respectively.

Fish were regularly landed through the days although it took me a bit of a reminder course from Paul on the skills or stalking before I was able to hook my first on double maize.  By Christ was it a steep learning curve following in Paul's footsteps with a cracking fully scaled mirror from near the far end outlet.

Noting this, Maize is, to date, probably the most successful all round bait although it did appear that whenever Activ-Maple 8 or Cell was used with the already successful Tiger Nut flour boilies and extract serious activity wasn't far away. 

By far the most enjoyable time was after dusk; often as late as midnight when a sudden random noises came from bite alarms from Nic, Paul and my swims.  One night this "crazy time" resulted in a triple hook up and 3 happy lads..... the crazy commons....... (left to right 27lb, 25lb and 26lb I think)

The catfish fishing has progressed immensely since the first year and experience along with true angling has enabled us to draw out some monsters from the water.