A break at last!

 

I'm thoroughly enjoying the new job but I have to confess to feeling absolutely exhausted by the end of each day as it's 12 hours from start to finish with the near on 3 hour round trip commute! 

That aside I'm picking up the daily routine fairly quickly and settling in with all the staff. I've had a few good laughs and making friends too, which is great for my mental health. I've been suffering from extremely painful feet for around 18 months now and finally got to see a specialist last week about the problem. 

The appointment went well but unfortunately showed up a much deeper problem set within my back and not my feet. 

During my time as a courier for one of the large parcel delivery firms I worked 6 days a week delivering very large items often well outside legal health and safety restrictions and despite my worries we were told to get on with it or face being got rid of. Terrible company to work for and zero care for their staff. 

Long story short I badly damaged my back in 2 separate places and have 2 herniated discs, one upper back and one lower. Both will almost certainly need operating on. I'm hoping both can be done at the same time and maybe I'll have some form of relief from the ongoing pain soon. Anyway, apart from these woes all else is good and I'm at lest able to enjoy my free time still wetting a line!

The weekend arrived and I got to finish early on Friday. I jumped in the van and headed down the local urban pool for a bit more time. 

I'm kind of restricting my time on there to evenings/late afternoon sessions to get the best out of the fishing. Fridays session started with a small mirror from my usual spots taking my Nutty Bait Wafter. I'm fishing the wafter with the top cut off and a small fluoro pop up section put on top like a hat. Varying the colours on the day to test results. So far the orange seems to be best????

I'm presenting the bait on a spinner rig and a size 6 barbless curve shank hook The lead arrangement is simple with a 2 feet section of clay coloured tubing, hybrid lead clip and a 2.5oz flat pear lead. 

The boom section is one of the excellent fused low level Ronnie booms from Gemini which come in packs of 3. These are very good and have lasted lots of fishing trips so far!

Second fish of the evening was a very surprise Bream! The fish being one of the biggest I've heard of from the venue at 10lb 4oz. My second double figure bream from the venue. I rebaited and had to wait about an hour before bagging my last of the evening a nice little common.

Saturday morning was spent sorting out a bait delivery and grabbing some kit ready for other sessions this weekend. I left the house around 3pm to head back down the lake for another bash. The lake was a lot busier today and I was stuck a bit on swim choice as there was 8 anglers on taking up the majority of the good pegs. 

I opted to drop in on the end of the group and tag a spot just off my usual area. Unfortunately the ducks and geese spend a lot of time on this particular set of boards and to say it was a shit house was an understatement! 

After I spent a good ten minutes clearing off the mountains of shit I impaled some stage stands into the boards and finally got round to setting up the buzzers and rods ready for the evening.

It was very slow going on the lake and only Ben a few swims up was having any sort of success with 6 fish up to 18lb 14oz. I sat it out and finally got a run around 5.30pm only to have it come off! I rebaited and almost immediately received a take on the other rod only to have the same thing happen yet again! Very frustrating but it happens! The lads just up from me left at 6pm so I opted to move one swim up away from the shit and flies.....

It turned out to be a wise move as I positioned both rods on the money using the baiting pole, only to have the left rod rip off as I was retrieving the pole from said baited spot! It had literally been in the water for twenty seconds! The take was brutal and I had to drop the pole and take up the fight. Fortunately friend Darwin was on hand to come over and retrieve the pole for me as I set about battling a very good fish. 

After a good 5 minutes of tussling for priority I sunk the net under a fish I instantly recognised as one I had caught early summer of 2021. This fish is known as Number 2. I last caught her at 20lb 4oz but this time round she looked a fair bit bigger. Darwin was disgusted with me as it's a fish he's never caught and really wants her. (sorry Dar!) Pics were taken and I weighed her in at a great new weight of 23lb 7oz.

My next take came from a small common on the same rod just a few minutes after recasting it again....2 more commons also came in very quick succession before the light started to fade and I started to pack away my kit. After the last fish I decided to cast rigs rather than pole them out and spread a small helping of Nutty Bait singles around the spots. Around 9pm I had an absolute one toner of a take on the right hand rod which resulted in a very strong fight. I was making headway on the fish and about 2 minutes in the hook suddenly lost its purchase. 

I couldn't believe it! 3 loses and four landed. Oh well, can't complain to be honest as the venues been pretty kind to me through the last few sessions. I may pop back down this evening for a bit but I have a day out with good friend Simon tomorrow at Grange Springs, chasing small tench, perch, bream and small carp on float and feeder gear. Just a little bit of fun fishing really and chance to catch up with one of my best friends! 

Talking of best friends, I'd like to finish up todays blog with a little mention of one of them...Chris Davies, French fishing partner and all round great bloke! He's just returned from a trip over to Molyneux in France, a venue I fished back in 2016. He had a fantastic week with a PB common of 32lb 5oz and 14 other cracking carp for a total of 400lb 8oz! What a week bro! Well done!

More evenings!

This last week has been long and short on spare time as it was my late shift week in the new job and getting home at 7.10pm every night and working Saturday till 2pm meant very little time for my regular bankside jaunts. 

That aside I ventured out on Saturday evening for a 3 hour session back down my local urban club water. There was only one other angler on the pond so I headed back to the area I fished last week and dropped two baits onto likely spots. I've been doing very well recently on Gemini fused low Ronnie booms with either a pop up or wafter presented tight to the bottom. 

The venue is quite shallow at 2-5 feet and a mixture of clay, stones and silt. Lead core and other leaders are banned, so tubing is the only available option and in a clay/gravel option they blend quite nicely into the bottom makeup. 

As the evening progressed a couple more anglers arrived to fish. The lake was decidedly quiet throughout and it was around 9pm I got my only real piece of action....a very positive take on the Nutty bait natural wafter. 

The spool spun as the fish took off on an abrupt run to the right. A good scrap ensued and after a great fight I eventually sunk the net under a lovely 19lb mirror. I grabbed a couple of pictures and slipped her back as the rain started to come in and I wanted to get home before I got a drenching! 

Sunday morning came round and I had a few jobs to do at home including washing the cars and getting myself ready for work on Monday morning. By 3pm I was ready to get back out with the rods again over to the club lake. 

On arrival there were 3 already on and another 5 about to set up! Busy busy! I grabbed the swim next to the one I fished the prior night to target a similar area that I had seen fish in all week. As I was setting up in the rain I saw 3 different fish clear the water in my spots. 

I couldn't pole the rigs out as the wind was too strong for that meaning I had to cast instead. I opted to put both rigs on to small pva mesh bags of crumbed up Nutty Bait with the obligatory pop up on one and a wafter on the other. Both slung into the likely areas. I sat for around 2 hours without so much as a sniff. 

As the light started to slide away a bit Mike set up next to me and proceeded to catch a chunky bream on his solid bag and pellet approach. By now the wind was dropping away nicely and I could finally change my approach a bit and place both rods out with the baiting pole at around 45M. 

Rigs were placed in the pole and shipped out with a good 20 or so crumbed Nutty baits and 4-5 solid baits in the pot. We sat and chatted a bit before finally half hour later at around 6pm I got my first take of the day. 

The rod rattled off nicely and a nice common of 16lb 2oz fought right up to the last! I got the rod ready to go back out and suddenly heard my other rod bleeping....another great take on the right hand rod! This fish felt much better and ran me ragged around the area I was fishing. 

The fish stayed deep and fought really hard for a good 8-9 minutes before finally succumbing to the net. I popped her on the scales and she went 18lb 3oz. Both rods now out the water meant I had a bit of prep work to do to get them both back out fishing again. Baits were reapplied to the rigs and floated out to the same spots with the Bush Wacker again and I sat back for a chat with Mike. 

It didn't take long before the left hand rod was once more off again with a great take. This fish fought a bit different to the last two and after a few minutes I was the captor of a very pretty Zip Linear mirror. What a stunning fish....one of a couple in the lake and in pristine condition. I got the rods back out but unfortunately that was it for the session as things went decidedly quiet thereafter. I'm hoping to get out for a longer session this coming weekend all being well as I have Friday afternoon until Monday evening off work. Hopefully I can find somewhere to fish!

Short session brief

Well, started my new job last week! Finally working in a nice environment at last and not being treated like a piece of shit like the last 10 years! 

It's so nice to be working for a company with morals and to finally have some form of job security, something I've not had for many years. 

I feel like a bit of a spare part at present as I'm gently learning the processes and procedures but as each day goes by I feel like I'm starting to pick stuff up. 

So, the weekend arrived and I have to confess to feeling a little worn out as the days are a lot longer than I've been used to. Saturday was spent laying in bed being lazy watching Netflix and eating crap.....just what the 'doctor' ordered....

Then Sunday afternoon I decided I'd head down to my local urban water for a few hours to see if I could pester a carp into taking a bait. I arrived just after 1.30pm to find just 2 other lads fishing and after a little chat I got the gear out the van and settled in a spot that's done a few bites for me this time of year before. 2 Rods were set up with a meter of rig tubing, safety hybrid lead clip and a 2.5oz lead. The rig itself being a spinner rig with a size four curve shank and one of our new Nutty Bait wafters on each rod. 

I then poled these out to the far marginal shelf with just a handful of broken baits and about 4 whole ones in the cup. It was about 2 hours before I had any action and the left hand rod was first to go with a nice steady run. The fish scrapped hard to the net and a beautiful dark little common was the first of the day. My next chance came about 40 minutes later on the same rod but this time the fish kited along the far margin and picked up a trailing line that was hanging from a tree opposite. 

Annoyingly the idiot that had over cast had then pulled for a break and it had clearly snapped at the reel, leaving around 50 yards trailing into the water with a 3oz lead on! This got wrapped around my line and eventually cut me off. 

I took the other rod out and had a cast around to see if I could trap the trailing line. After about 6 casts I tethered up and began pulling the line to hand. I recovered the whole lot thankfully but it cost me a much bigger fish. 

After the casting round, I was a little worried I'd disturbed the swim too much for another bite but to be honest I shouldn't have worried as about half an hour later the right hand rod was away with a much better fish on. The fish kited hard to my right into a small bay of snags but a little side strain saw her free and in open water again. A good scrap ensued before finally sinking the net under another very nice common of 19lb 2oz. 

I rebaited the rig and put it back out onto the spot with the pole and small helping of Nutty Bait boilies in 15mm. Again it didn't take long before action commenced and the right hand rod was away with yet another common of 16lb 15oz. 

It was turning into a reasonably good afternoons fishing after all! My final fish came around 7.15pm to the left hand rod and yet another nice scale perfect common of 14lb 14oz graced the net. I did a little filming for the team and got some great footage with even a small carp jumping clear of the water and even captured the moment I had a screaming run as well! I've added a link to one of the videos featured on our YouTube channel below. I then headed for the hills of home as It was an early start on Monday morning in work. I don't think I'll get out much now till around the end of next week due to work commitments and late finishes.

Rod Hutchinson YouTube Channel

The work party!

 

Hi all! 

Been a couple of weeks since I last posted anything here, mainly due to a few trips away and lots of changes around our household too. 

So I'll start with the changes......As many of you will know I have been a self employed courier for one of the big parcel delivery companies since 2015. 

This has had it's ups but I have to confess it's had more of the downs. The industry has gone through many changes since Covid 19 and albeit a terrible global situation, it was actually hugely beneficial to the delivery firms. The roads were quiet, customers were forced to stay indoors and they had nothing better to do than sit around ordering shite they didn't really need on their phones and computers! Lots of work for us guys and girls. Since then, things have obviously gone back to some normality but with the war in Ukraine, massive cost of living hikes and the biggest hit for vehicle users being the huge hikes in fuel prices! 

This has utterly destroyed the likes of many drivers lives, including my own. I actually couldn't afford to run my van to go out delivering! The costs started to out way the profits considerably and said company refused on at least 5 attempts to give us even a hint of a pay increase to cover our expenses, which were now hitting over £2K a month before making any profits.....impossible to continue. So, after massive debate with myself, family members and friends, I have made the jump to go back into full time employment. 

It's not something I thought I would ever do as I value my spare time and being able to pick and chose time off, to an extent etc. I'm 47 years old, with no pension, no real career and an aging body that lifting a tonne and a half of parcels a day cannot withstand much longer. Therefor I have taken a job back in the motor industry working for VW. 

I will be training up to work in the parts department and to be honest I have trepidations but I am also very excited to finally be using my mind again for something other than 'drone' work! I will more than likely have far less time to fish from now on but I hope that the weekends and odd holiday days will feel much more valuable to me. So, that's the news part out the way! Let's get to the fishing!

A fortnight ago Chris and I met up with our good friend Nick and his mate Jack for a week away at his lake 'Carp Hunters' near Chateauxbriant in France. A venue we visited twice last year....The aim of this trip was to get lots of works around the venue completed alongside a bit of fishing as well! 

The ferry over was rather rough and the Portsmouth to St Malo 11 hour crossing spent in our bunks was an interesting affair. I had the lower bunk on our last trip so drew short straw of top bunk on this trip....needless to say it was a tad uncomfortable at best! 

The ship was in a 10-12 foot swell over 8-10 secs which meant I was either ten times my body weight being pulled into my bunk as we dropped into the waves or weightless as we crested and peeling myself from the low ceiling! 

The journey couldn't be over soon enough and before we knew it we were in France and on our way down to the lake. 

First morning was spent getting the houses up and then we went on our first mission to clear some leaning trees from recent storms. I went hell for leather with the chainsaw and Chris was on retrieval duties. It pissed it down and the wind howled but we cracked into it and got finished by 3pm. Time to get the rods out. Chris and I opted to fish either ends of the lake with Jack doubled up next to me in the middle. Jack was first up to catch with a small double figure mirror. 

Chris then bagged the sturgeon at 18lb before catching a stunning 33lb 8oz mirror to get things really going. My first night was quiet with just a small common finding the net before I also bagged the sturgeon for my sixth time in three trips! Mental fish! We then cracked into some more bank side works with burning of timber and some roofing repairs done before we were once again free to fish. 

I cooked up a lamb Balti and we headed to our swims for the night. Chris bagged another stunning mirror around 1.30am and Jack had a nice fish over thirty as well. 

I had yet another quiet night with just a small common around 9.30am before we started working again. Once again we were on repair and rebuild duties and the bankside I had started to repair back in July last year was next on the agenda. More corrugated sheets were inserted and some more poles placed into the lake bed before back filling behind the sheets with rubbles taken from another local fishery friend. The lads put together some new Rattan furniture for the balcony and I made a Red Wine Stew with potatoes before we were free to once again fish the night. I had a slightly better afternoon with 4 fish finding the net including a brace of mid twenties before darkness fell. 

That night there were a few good fish caught for Jack and Chris bagged a new PB 39lb 14oz mirror known as Louisa! A great capture and awesome fish! I had a couple more mirrors and 2 small commons before daylight. With just a few hours left I was feeling a little deflated due to still not catching a fish over thirty from the venue and the others catching 5 over that weight so far that week! 

Jack and Nick were heading home on the Friday night and that left me just one more throw of the dice. I baited up for the night as I had been with Infusion 18's on the hook and a scattering of the same around the area before settling down for the night for an early start back at the ferry terminal. 

Around 11pm I had a cracking mid twenty mirror and I settled back down to the sound of the owls and frogs. I awoke to the sound of a one toner at just after 2.15am! The rod I had repositioned into open water was away and heading up the lake towards Chris! I lent into a good fish and the fight commenced. It was fairly short lived but clearly a much better fish. I got the scales set and weighed her in at 30lb 2oz! Finally one over thirty pounds! 

I was starting to feel like the venue was becoming a bogie water for me! I was top rod for the week with 19 carp but the other two had more bigger fish....guess you can't win em all? There's still lots to do around the lake and I'm hoping to get back out in July with Nick again to complete some fencing and the bankside repairs.

On my return I had the interview with VW and obviously got the job which starts this Wednesday. That gave me this weekend free to take a brief trip down south to a new club venue that opened it's doors for the first time in over 16 years. 

The complex has seen just a handful of anglers in this time and it's completely unknown what stock levels are left in the 14 lakes. 

The majority of the anglers turning up chose lake 2 which was the only weed free lake on the complex and clearly the water with the majority of fish still left in it. 

The others were all very quiet and just a few of the stock seem to remain. The club have their work cut out I feel but with the team they have in place, it won't take long for them to get the place back up and running into a wonderful complex again. 

That said, we did see a couple of quite large mirrors, commons and a couple of chunky grass carp too. I fished one of the more out the way lakes and after spending 6 hours clearing 3 small areas of weed, I presented 3 spinner rigs and pop ups into the cleared spots. 

I knew it would take a while for the fish to come back into the swim after such commotion from the raking etc but that night around 1am I had a reasonable take on the middle rod which ended in a brief battle with a chunky bream of 10lb 5oz. 

I had to pack up in the morning due to unforeseen reasons and headed home Sunday afternoon. Well, that's it for now! I may try and squeeze a few hours in tomorrow down my local lake before starting the new job on Wednesday! Wish me luck......Tight lines all