A New Challenge....

Dunes Lake, Bake Lakes, Trerulefoot, Cornwall

 http://www.bakelakes.co.uk/

I've just had a week down in Cornwall & Devon with work and I managed to get a few hours on the bank-side at a great little fishery just off the A38 at Trerulefoot, Cornwall.  I had planned on getting out earlier in the week when I was down in Falmouth, but the weather on the Tuesday was rather nasty and so I was forced to spend the day stuck in my hotel room going stir crazy and climbing the walls.  I had to make do with scouring the internet to see if there were any local tackle and bait shops where I could get my maggots but the only shops I could find were mainly sea fishing places.  Undeterred I found a fishing lake not far from Saltash, that the website I was using said that the fishery sold bait as well and as I was due to head that way the next day on my way to Plymouth it seemed the perfect answer to my problems.

I had been given an old float rod by Shaun Hartley, and I was planning on using this on my trip.  It is a big old rod with brass connectors and the reel is held in place by just two rings which are pushed tightly over the reel foot.  Because I am new to fishing I have only used rods that have reel seats that screw down to hold the reel in place so I was looking forward to using something different for a change.

I arrived at the fishery after driving down some of the narrowest lanes I have ever been down with the hedgerows whipping the van and in places grass growing through the tarmac because no-one had driven down there for years.  After navigating the lanes and finally coming out on some decent roads I saw the fishery signs and followed them to my destination.  The lake at Trewandra Farm is a wonderfully secluded place and there were a few carpers fishing there but unfortunately I was unable to join them because despite what the website I found the venue on said, there was no tackle and bait shop on site.  I was forced to look elsewhere for bait and headed into Saltash where the closest tackle shop was and so set off, mindful that every minute spent sat behind a caravan on the A38 was a minute lost on the bank-side.  I found the shop on a side street just off the main shopping street and took my bait box down to make my purchase of some juicy red and bronze mixed maggots.  As I got through the door the owner reeled off a list of baits available which were all for sea fishing and when I said I wanted maggots he told me that he didn't keep them because he had no space for them.  I was gutted, he had every bait available for Carp, he had spod mix, boillies, pop ups, pellets of every size but no maggots and I was starting to think I wasn't going to get any fishing done.  The owner told me I might have more luck up at Bake Lakes where he was sure they sold maggots, and gave me directions to the lake.

Armed with a new confidence that I was going to manage to get a few hours fishing done I set off for this new venue and headed back into Cornwall along the A38, and followed the directions to the Bake Lakes.  I found the lakes easily enough and made my way into the cabin to pay for my day ticket and purchase some elusive maggots.  I asked the young lad who took my money for a pint of his finest only to be told he had sold out.  I couldn't believe it, do the Cornish have something against maggots or something ?  He was helpful though and told me that if I used micro pellets to attract the fish into the edge and fished the margins with soft hooker pellets I'd definitely catch.  I only had Strawberry flavour soft hookers and a few Krill flavoured with me and apart from the very first fishing trip I'd made with Luke back in May, they hadn't been of any use.  I trudged off to my peg on the Dunes Lake convinced that I was going to blank, but rather than dwell on the negative I looked at the situation from a positive and remembered that I got to sit on the bank-side while Luke would be stuck in the office.  I would be out in the sunshine while others would either be sleeping after a night shift, sat in traffic in their van or stuck in a sterile office environment.

My swim on the Dunes Lake

I set up the 10' float rod at first to see what I could do in the margins but before getting any gear out I dug out the 4mm micro pellets that Damian had given me at Woodhall Lakes a few weeks ago and threw a few handfuls into the areas I was going to try.  The fish were all over them as soon as they hit the water and from what I could see here were some right big lumps patrolling the edges.  I set up the peg with everything to hand and made my first cast into the area just to the right of where I had fed.  I had watched Tight Lines on Sky a few weeks ago and they said that the undertow in the lake would always work opposite to the wind direction so any food introduced to the swim would move opposite to the wind.  Not fully understanding how this would work I dropped the first fruity flavoured pellet into the swim and waited.  Within seconds there was activity on the hook and it disappeared a few times, returning straight away to the surface.  Luke and Damian have been telling me for weeks that I was striking too early, so this time I waited before doing anything and my first strike produced a little Roach.  With one fish under my belt I felt confident enough to carry on using the flavoured pellets, armed with the knowledge and satisfaction that I wasn't going to blank.

I was using one of the reels that I had bought from a colleague with 10lb line because after seeing the size of some of the fish I was a little concerned that I'd end up getting a lot of line snaps, so I went for a heavier brown line on the waggler because the lack of maggots meant that I wouldn't be using the feeder rod which I had planned on.  My only concern were the hooks to nylon I had because the line on those were no more than 6lb and if anything heavy got on the hook it would be there that it snapped.  I managed to get myself in allsorts of tangles and spent a lot of time trying to sort my line out rather than fishing, so I decided to get the old float rod out that Shaun had given me.  I also decided to use the Carp reel that Luke had given me when I first started fishing.  That also had a heavier line and I set everything up with two float stops, a waggler in a float adaptor in case I wanted to swap, between them down to a No 16 Snap Swivel and a Size 14 hook on a 8" lead.  To make sure the line dropped I used 4 x No 8 Stotz and I was ready to go after plumbing the depths to ensure I was presenting correctly and not fishing too shallow or too deep.

My first cast with the new rod was a bit of a surprise because the rod was so heavy compared to the modern carbon rods I've been using and the reel seat took quite a bit of getting used to, but it's action when casting was wonderful and I hit the spot that I had been aiming for.  It took a while for things to settle and I fought the temptation to reel in and cast again, not letting my impatience get the better of me which is something I find myself doing now and again.  The float was dipping and rising but there was no sure indication of a bite and again I had to fight the urge to strike too early and my patience was rewarded when the float disappeared under the surface so I counted to three and then struck.  I had a fish on and he was a big one compared to my usual catches of small Perch and Roach.  I had so much to remember to get this one landed and I was a little nervous with no Damian, Luke or Richard there to guide and advise me.  I let the fish run a little on the clutch and then dipped the rod slowly as I wound the line in at the same rate, when the tip of the rod touched the water I stopped winding and slowly lifted the end of the rod and repeated the process again, letting the fish have a bit more line off the clutch, reeling him closer to the surface until I could see the head.  I played the fish for no more than 3 or 4 minutes but it felt like a lifetime as I tried to steer it towards the safety of the landing net and the bank-side.  The fish gave one last flick of his tail but it was tired and soon in the net and on the bank-side with me.  I had landed a nice 2lb Common Carp and was more than pleased with myself.

2lb Common Carp

The rod was so heavy and after about 30 minutes my arm was beginning to ache but the pellets were working for once and I was catching a lot of small silvers from the margins so the aching was quickly forgotten.  I had planned on leaving around 3.30pm and as the clock crept slowly towards 3pm my rod went mad and the line started flying out.  I managed to grab the rod and felt the pull of something big as it raced out towards the open water.  It had all happened so fast, the float moved slightly and was then gone in a heartbeat.  I pulled the rod up to try and slow whatever was on the end down, but remembered that I was losing a lot of fish that way in previous weeks and I dropped the tip slowly and began reeling in.  The fish made a dash for the reeds on the left of the peg so I moved the rod to the right, keeping it level so the fish would be forced up; it then made a dash for the reeds on the right so I moved the rod accordingly and I caught a glimpse of the beast....It was a Mirror Carp and looked bigger than the earlier Common.

My personal best for a Mirror was 1lb 8oz, which I had caught at Friezeland Lakes back in May and I already knew this was a lot bigger, so I had now put pressure on myself to get this one landed.  The fish was fighting and thrashing around as I got it closer to the bank and it made a dash for the safety of the underside of the wooden platform in the peg, but instinctively I lifted the end of the rod and stopped it from reaching it.  The fish now surfaced and was on it's side, but having watched Luke and Damian when landing a Carp I knew that there was a chance it would find enough energy to go at anytime so I was careful not to let my guard down.  The fish rolled and made a dash for the open water with a powerful kick that almost caught me out.  I let it run with the clutch for about 20 yards but I knew that it was finished now and after reeling it in I soon had my landing net underneath it and it was on the bank.  It was a 4lb Mirror and I had smashed my PB.

4lb Mirror Carp

The fact that I had landed the fish myself, hadn't panicked and had to rely on others to land the fish like my previous bigger fish sent my confidence through the roof.  I felt so good about myself and what I had achieved that it turned my week around.  Up until that point it had been a bit of a grind and I was struggling with a few things because of issues at work with the installs I was working on, the fact that I was away from home and had forgotten a letter I needed to book a speed awareness course.  They weren't major issues but collectively they were starting to get to me and I could feel the familiar signs of things getting on top of me appearing.  The session at Bake Lakes put a stop to all of those feelings and I started to look at things positively again and stop worrying about things that I had no control over and really didn't matter that much in the long run.

1lb 8oz Common Carp

One last cast got me onto another Common, but this time it was smaller at 1lb 8oz and I ended the day with two Commons, one Mirror and nine Roach.  Not bad for a session well out of my comfort zone, with just Strawberry and Seafood flavoured pellets for bait.

See you on the bank-side....

A Day to Escape

Coot Pool, Hunnington Coarse Fishery, Hunnington, Halesowen

Every year they hold a 'Picnic in the Park' in Warley Woods, just across the road from me, and every year people flock to the event for whatever they do over there.  It has become a matter of pride for me that I have never once been over there and I have no intention to ever go over there either.  It winds me up if I am brutally honest because the people who do go think it is fine to leave their cars wherever they like, often across my drive, and when I ask them to move so I can get the van out I have had to put up with whatever vitriolic outburst they feel they have a right to come out with.  I have tried asking the administrators of the Woods to place cones out along one side of the road to stop their guests blocking a narrow street, but every year the same answer is trotted out that they always ask people to park their vehicles in a considerate manner.  I have yet to see this considerate parking, and I have made it my self appointed duty to prevent them from parking on my side of the road.  Last year I went out and cut the hedge, throwing the clippings onto the road to prevent them from parking there, another year I put cones out to make it look like there were roadworks underway and another year I sat outside on a deckchair taking photos of the cars and informing the drivers that I would be sending the photos to the Council to highlight how these drivers had more or less blocked the road and would make it almost impossible for the emergency services to get up or down.  You could say that I have become a little obsessive with the issue, so this year I decided to go out for the day instead and let them park wherever they wanted to, I wasn't interested any more.

I decided to spend the day on the bank-side instead, where I knew I would be relaxed and chilled out and not get wound up by the visitors to the event in the park.  I decided to give Hunnington Coarse Fishery (http://www.hunnington-coarse-fishery.co.uk) a try after hearing positive reports from loads of people about the place who had fished there.  It is one of those places that seems to have always been there and I must have gone past the gate thousands of times whenever I have driven that way to or from work, but I had never even thought of stopping until now.  I had a look at the website and decided that I would give the Coot Pool a try because it is one of the pleasure fishing pools and has a good mix of coarse fish in it.  I had treated myself to a few new bits of kit that I was eager to try them out to see if they would improve my performance from the bank and presentation of bait to the fish.  I had been getting increasingly frustrated when fishing with the waggler floats because invariably the shot would slide up and down the line and the float would move around, so I was never sure if I was too shallow or fishing over depth.  I had seen people mentioning Float Stops in various articles in Anglers Mail and Improve Your Coarse Fishing, so I bought myself some of those as well as some Float Adaptors which had also been mentioned in these articles , so that was another purchase.

Now one of the most frustrating elements of fishing for me is getting the shot onto the line because the little round shot are a nightmare to sit on the line and never seem to close despite being squeezed with my fingers.  As soon as I let go they fall off and I have to start again.  The smaller they are, the harder there are to get on as well and when you're far sighted and struggle with anything up close and personal it is a right pain.  I had seen a product by Preston Innovations called Stotz which are cylindrical shaped shot and don't roll around.  I had to have them and bought the adaptor called the Shotta and a pack of Stotz, sized 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12, which would be perfect for the bulk weights on the line.  I couldn't wait to get started with my new kit and left my local tackle shop with my newly acquired kit and pint of mixed maggots ready for the next day.

I was planning on making an early start but felt drained after last week's adventures up and down the M6 so decided to go around mid-morning before the people for the Picnic in the Park started to take over the street and my blood pressure went through the roof, so I left around 11ish and arrived at the fishery about 11.30.  As I pulled up to the gate I noticed a few sign on the gate with the usual things found in fisheries, but one stood out that said "Beware of the Dog; He bites, You have been warned"; well I am a little nervous around dogs I don't know, especially one's with a reputation for being biters.  I gingerly opened the van door and started to slowly slide from my seat, just as my foot had touched the tarmac a voice from behind me said "Alright mate".  I was back in the van in an instant, door slammed shut and my heart in my mouth.  It turned out to be the owner coming out to get my money rather than have to come down to the lakes to collect it, and he found it very funny.  I paid my £6 and had a chat with the owner, who could not have been more helpful, about what pool to try and the general rules and I was off on my way.

There was a storm forecast for the afternoon, but it was just glorious sunshine as I arrived bank-side and there was just one other person fishing in the pool, but he looked like he was fishing in the Arctic the way he was wrapped up, so I set up at the opposite end of the bank to him and decided that my best option would be to fish in the area around the only feature of the pool, the intake from the top pool.  A bank about six feet high separated the two pools and water came down a pipe into the Coot Pool, and I have learned that it is areas like this where fish will gather.  I set up my 10' float road with my new balsa wood float that I got free with the Angler's Times.  It was supposed to be for trotting on rivers, but I just wanted to try it out so I put two float stops and a float adaptor on, with 5 x No 8 Stotz over a Size 16 hook attached to the main line with a Size 16 Snap Swivel.  After plumbing the depths and setting the float accordingly, my first cast had me onto a small Perch on the drop....At least I wasn't going to blank

My peg at the Coot Pool.  The inlet pipe is just out of shot on the left.

The afternoon passed in a wonderfully relaxed manner with one eye on the dark clouds heading my way from the West.  It looked like the forecasters were right, but I had a plan, a flask of coffee and some cheese and onion sandwiches on crusty bread in the van.  The rain clouds arrived after about 90 minutes and my plan sprung into action.  The van had been arranged so everything could be put in the back without taking anything apart and within three minutes it was all packed away and I was pouring myself some coffee.  Mr Arctic was busily packing all of his gear away and drove off, leaving the whole pool to me.  Several others also decided to head home, but there were a few diehards who carried on fishing under their huge umbrellas.  I was content with my coffee and sandwiches just watching the rain coming down.  The rain passed and I was soon back out there fishing in the sunshine until the next round of rain.

Richard Symons told me that fish react to the change in pressure in a storm and I did notice there was a lot more activity from the Carp in the pool, but I was enjoying myself catching a nice mix of Perch, Roach, Silver Bream and Rudd.  Nothing huge but at the end of the day a catch is a catch.  As the afternoon progressed and I had to go through another mad dash to get gear stowed when torrential rain hit again, but I managed to bag 19 fish so it was a great day for me, except when the owner scared the life out of me for a second time when I was balanced on a very dodgy footing right near the water as I unhooked myself from reeds.  I was chuntering away to myself and trying to stop myself from going in the drink, when a booming voice behind me told me that he was closing up at 6pm but I had until 6.30 if that was okay....I think it must be his hobby scaring people !!!!

As the sheep were let into the field, I packed my gear away and headed home, happy, relaxed and with another great fishery to add to my favourites.....

See you on the bank-side...............

The Benefits of Fishing....

Somewhere on the M6, The Midlands, Staffordshire, Cheshire, Greater Manchester and Lancashire

This week has been somewhat brutal on the body with daily trips up and down the M6 from Birmingham to the untamed wilds of Lancashire and back.  I have been leaving at around 2pm every day and not getting home until gone 2am, and it is now starting to get to me.  I have just one more trip to do and then I will be all done with my daily treks along what is probably the worst motorway to travel along through the day.  The usual suspects, doddering old fools who just sit in the middle lane doing 49mph, BMW, Audi and Mercedes drivers, hog the middle and outside lanes making any kind of progress at above 50mph almost impossible and only succeed in winding up everyone else.  The only good thing I can say about the whole experience this week has been that I have noticed just how many great looking places there are along the M6, where you could quite easily let the madness of that concrete ribbon, that blight on the landscape, pass you by and do some fishing.  Since I started fishing I have often caught myself noticing stretches of a canal, lakes and pools, rivers, but this week I seem to have noticed it more.  There are small rivers, canals and lakes all the way from Walsall to Lancaster, which I had never really given much thought to before, but now they kind of stand out more.  I can't really explain why.

I think this is what appeals to me about fishing though, it has taken my mind off everything else going on in my life and given me something new to focus on, so the things which were giving me stress and lead to the depression now have less resonance in my life.  I have time to sit and think bank-side and see things with more clarity and clear my mind of the negativity which I had surrounded myself with and allowed to take over my daily life.  I had started to think that I didn’t have any fun in my life any more and I was in a world of self pity and despair, spending so much of my time working and taking care of day-to-day business, and that I had forgotten that it is vital to take at least an hour every few days to ENJOY ourselves. This can be as simple as something like taking a walk in the park, reading a book, doing a bit of DIY or tidying the garden. Finding that one activity that you enjoy most, especially if it can be with others, is vitally important to treating your depression and anxiety.

Sports, games, reading, and outdoor activities provide us not only with a distraction from the mental condition, but help fight isolation and obsessive thinking. Prior to taking up the sport, my life consisted of getting home from work, closing my front door and shutting myself away from the outside world.  It wasn't unknown for me to go from Friday evening until Monday morning without speaking to another person.  I would get up early, potter around the house not really doing anything constructive, get tired around mid-morning and sleep on the sofa.  The housework would never get done, I would spend hours just looking at photos of other people enjoying their lives on facebook, feel sorry for myself and head into a period of self pity and perpetuate the negativity.  Depression and all of the associated problems that it brings is like a vicious loop which it is surprisingly easy, or was for me anyway, to break away from.  A couple of hours on the side of a lake has provided me with the boost that I was looking for in addition to the medical treatment I am getting with my medication.

Stolen from Matt Hayes' facebook page

The tablets do take the edge off things, but they aren't the be all and end all of my treatment.  If it was that easy then Doctor's would only have to prescribe patients with a supply of 'happy tabs' and everything would be fine.  You really do need to find a hobby that gives you the boost required to kickstart life and enjoying yourself.  I am lucky to have people around me who love fishing as much as I have started to, they support me, they give me advice, they give me confidence and they give me their time.  I doubt very much if I would have ever taken up fishing if it wasn't for them, and they will tell you how much I used to e opposed to the sport.  I couldn't get my head around trying to hook something in the mouth and dragging it from it's natural environment in the name of fun.  It just felt wrong to me, but I hadn't really tried it.  I'd been fishing with my Dad but all he had done was get angry with me because I did this wrong or that wrong, but now I had blokes around me who showed me where I was going wrong, who took time to show me the best way to do something and who encouraged me.  I think my dislike of fishing was more to do with the memories of being shouted at and criticised when I was younger rather than any environmentalist or anti fishing ideals.

Fishing has numerous benefits going for it as an article in the on-line Western Morning News of March 2015 points out.

1. Ups your Vitamin D
It doesn't have to be sunny while you fish, simply being outside will help your body top up its very critical vitamin D reserves. Vitamin D helps regulate the amount of calcium and phosphate in the body, keeping your bones and teeth healthy, and has also been strongly linked to helping battle depression.

2. Ups your concentration
Being outside also ups your ability to concentrate, according to research in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. Apparently, walking in nature or simply spending time under leafy trees prompts "electrochemical changes in the brain" leading to a "highly beneficial" state of effortless attention".

3. Lowers your stress
Several surveys of keen anglers have found that their main motivation is not just about what they might catch, but about what they can leave behind. Nearly 90% said escaping crowds and de-stressing was their ultimate goal, and there are now even charities supporting the power of fishing to treat Post Traumatic Stress.

4. Helps your heart
If you do catch something, and it's an edible oily something, then you've got yourself a low-fat meal that's packed with blood pressure-lowering and heart disease-reducing omega-3.  (This applies to game fish only though, salmon, trout etc)

5. Keeps you fit
It might look like a lot of sitting, but actually, a good fishing session can be very good exercise, toning your arms, and, say the experts, burning between 250 calories (if you are just sitting) and 500 calories (if you're angling in waders).

6. Gives you a challenge (and perspective)
Like any sport, fishing helps fill that basic human desire for purpose. "Fishing, like many outdoor activities or farming practices, puts you at one with nature. You're the hunter, the provider," says Lucy Downing of Visit North Norfolk. "You belong and have a purpose. In all, fishing takes you back to the very essence of humanity – giving you a sense of place in the world."

7. Boosts friendship
While there is no specific scientific formula for what makes a good male bonding activity, one that includes hunting things, buying lots of kit, and having an easy excuse to take along some beers is probably a good enough guess.

Certainly, a National Angling Survey a few years ago revealed over 38% of anglers were introduced to fishing by a parent; 19% by another family member and 26.6% by a friend – "suggesting that familial and friendship groups are vital for the development of angling participation".

Of all of those points raised, the one that stands out for me is the last one.  I have yet to meet a fellow angler who has failed to wish you a cheerful good morning if they are walking past your peg.  I have never known such a friendly bunch of people and they don't judge you either, they openly and freely offer advice on things and try and help you if they can and they will stand and talk to you about the sport for hours.  Add to the mix the owners and staff of the numerous tackle shops around the country who don't judge you whether you are a complete novice such as myself or an experienced angler.  I have found that these people are only too willing to give you the best advice on gear, where to fish, how to fish and what I should be aiming for with my development.  I don't think it would be too over the top to say that it feels like being part of a huge brother/sisterhood.....

See you on the bank-side....