First Session of the Year with Luke....

Saturday 18th March 2017
Mereside Pools, Cloweswood Lane, Earlswood, B94 5SE
Pools 1 & 2
Weather - Overcast with spells of light rain
Temperature - Mild(ish) when out of the wind, Cold in the wind

I have a new favourite fishing venue and I am 100% sure that I will be heading around the M42 to Junction 3 on a regular basis from now on.  It wouldn't suit some anglers and I can't see Damian fishing there because it isn't the sort of place he favours.  He likes those big expanses of water where he can cast some distance and possibly catch something in the 20 to 30lb range and with the huge Earlswood Lakes being right next to Mereside, he'd soon be off over there anyway.  This is a venue where you go just for the sheer pleasure of fishing for anything at all, big, small and for a variety of species.  There are three small pools all located a very short distance from the car park and you can easily move between all three and fish each one, as Luke and the kids did.

Saturday's are usually my weigh in day at Slimming World, and I have been quite good about attending the early morning sessions, but the lure of fishing proved to be too much for me today and I decided to skive off this weekend.  I have to blame Luke for this though because up until he sent me a text asking me to get him a pint of milk for his coffee I was going to go, but you can't leave a mate stranded with no milk, it isn't the done thing and so I sacrificed Slimming World for a mates urgent needs.  An act of selflessness that anyone would do in the same position that I found myself in.  Armed with the aforementioned milk I headed off to Earlswood via the M5 and M42, arriving about 30 minutes later at about 08.00 to find Luke and the kids set up on Pool 2.

Luke and his tribe

I walked down to the bankside and was met with the news that Lauren had claimed first blood and was off the mark with a small Gudgeon already.  I was also told that the cafe they said was at the fishery on the website has closed down and isn't there anymore.  Bang goes a nice bacon and sausage roll then.

It was the mere mention of that Gudgeon sent shivers down my spine and I was gripped with the fear that I was in for a day similar to the day I had with Paul Pountney at Awbridge and I was going to be plagued by these tiny fish.

I set myself up after handing over the milk and had a look at the chosen spot.  As you can see from the picture, the reeds and other plants on the margins are not yet fully established yet and the lilypads in the middle of the lake were just starting to develop, but they should provide some cover for the fish and I decided that it looked like a float rod sort of day.  I unpacked the trusty Maver Abyss X 12' Match rod from my holdall and set up with a medium sized clear loaded waggler with 4 x No 11 Shotz weights down below the float.  My next task was to plumb up and so I started off about 3' from the margins and found it to be around 18" to 2' deep, I slowly moved out towards the lilypads and went out about a rods length and it dropped down to about 4'.  Further out it dropped again and by the time I was just in front of the lilypads I was looking at about 4'6" of water.  It was at this point I wished I'd remembered to bring a marker pen from the van to mark the line with the varying depths and I suppose I could have walked back to the van to fetch one but I figured I could remember.  If truth be known I couldn't be arsed really, though as you can see I didn't have far to go to get to the van.

Not too far to walk really

My laziness won the day and I was soon making my first cast of the day to a point about 3' from the edge of the lilypads, into a little area right in front of me.  Luke was set up with his feeder rod and said that he'd had a few line bites but nothing else.  I was sure it was a waggler type of day and so decided to stick with my choice despite Luke's choice.  My first few casts were a little wayward but I eventually hit the spot I had intended to and began throwing little amounts of maggots out to draw the fish in.  I was aware that I hadn't done this on Thursday and I was going to concentrate on the one particular area as Paul had instead of chasing the ripples.  Having to throw the freebies out with my left hand meant that they could go just about anywhere so I went for the trusty catapult and was putting down a nice steady amount of 4 or 5 maggots every 30 seconds.  One of the things the professional match anglers tell you in the magazines is too feed little and often, so I was going to do just that.

It wasn't long before I had my first bite and I reeled in the first Roach of the day.  It was a stunning example with ruby red fins and in wonderful condition, one of the best examples I've ever seen.  The colours were stunning, the silver scales really popped and the contrasting fins and tail gave it a HD quality.  It really was an impressive fish and not too bad in size either being about 5 to 6 inches long and about 3 inches deep.  Luke looked up from his peg and even he commented on how nice it looked.  I now wish I had taken a photo of it but it slipped from my grasp as soon as I had removed the hook from it's mouth and was back in the water.  My next fish was a Bream and again the silver sides and dark fins really stood out in the subdued light of the day.  I quickly followed this up with another Bream and two more Roach, all the same wonderful quality as the first.

During this period Luke had swapped his feeder rod for his float rod and I suggested he tried fishing just in front of the lilypads on the edge where it swept around in front of him.  It felt like a real "the student becomes the master" moment, as if Luke Skywalker was tutoring Yoda.  My suggestion worked out and he was into his first fish and I had a little smugness type of feeling.  Luke then said something which really lifted my spirits when he said that I'd become an angler, a proper angler.  Up until now I'd considered myself a real novice but he said I had a natural ability for the sport and was getting good.  After Thursday, when I couldn't get past the small fish, I had resigned myself to just being one of those who catches small fish all the time, but some of these Roach were amongst the largest I've ever caught and I'd worked out that by using a bigger hook size, a No 16 rather than a No 18, I was able to bypass the smaller fish who would be spooked easier by the large hook.  Now my confidence had been given a really nice boost.

After about 3 hours we had a walk up to the top pool and had a look there after Rhys came back from one of his expeditions and had watched the only other person fishing land a decent Carp.  He wanted to fish up there after seeing this, especially as he had been having little joy on our pool.  We agreed it was far less windy up there and so we all made our way to a new location.  Luke was first to catch a Carp from the reeds next to his peg while I was setting up and pretty soon I added another lovely looking Roach to my haul which now totaled 19 fish for the day so far.

After an hour or so of fishing I had managed just a few more Roach and a Gudgeon and I was beginning to regret the move but then I caught the most beautiful golden coloured fish.  I thought it was a Golden Orfe at first and then thought it may have been a Crucian Carp, but whatever it  was, I'd never seen one before.  I'm still unsure what it is but after looking in my species guide when I got home I think it may have been a Rudd.  The photo isn't the first one which was a much more colourful gold than this one.  The first one was perfect, no discoloured scales like the one in the photo, just a uniform colour all over.

Is it a Rudd ?

Luke had to leave early because he was taking the kids to see the new Disney film, Beauty and The Beast and Rhys had been having an almost constant whinge about the cafe situation since he'd found out.  It had become like a white noise that Luke was doing a sterling with and just ignoring.  At one point Rhys had asked me if I had been born in Birmingham and when I said I had indeed, he then followed it up with "Where is the nearest cafe then ?"  I began to explain that Birmingham, compared to Burton-on-Trent, is huge but he had a far away look in his eyes and I was a little worried he was looking at me the way cartoon characters do when they're hungry and all he could see was a giant bacon roll.

Luke left about 2.30pm and I had the whole complex to myself.  I toyed with the idea of getting the pole out and having a go with that to see if I could get a bit more confidence using it but figured that I was having so much success with rod and float that I could ruin it.  I did get my Maver Abyss X 12' Feeder rod set up though because I could just leave that out there on the rod rest and carry on with the float rod.  I had a few knocks on the feeder and the tip did a few violent bends but I was using an old D.A.M. Cammaro reel which needs a good servicing and a new line.  The bearings must be dry or need replacing because the action was very jerky and I lost every fish that had been hooked.  Time to pack that away and stick with the float rod.

I stayed until I couldn't see anything in the dark and finally left about 7pm but in that time I had caught a total of 35 fish:

Roach - 22
Bream - 4
Gudgeon - 1
Rudd (?) - 2
Common Carp - 4
Mirror Carp - 2

Some of he best of the day

It really is a lovely little complex and very much suited for the sort of angler who just enjoys catching fish, any fish and one I will definitely be visiting on a regular basis in the future.

No fishing planned for next weekend and the weekend after Luke and I are off to the Northern Angling Show, so I am going to have to try and sneak a quick session in when I can over the next few weeks.

See you on the bankside....