A common common? and kids go fishing!

Hi all and welcome to another instalment of antics from the Supple household! It's been the usual set of weeks guided by long hours grafting for tax ridden pennies and not a lot of spare time for oneself but finally free of the dreaded lurgy that flattened me a few weeks back, I now feel enthused with vigour and energy! UUrgh, who am I kidding? I'm a 47 year old man with physical and mental health problems! In the last few weeks I've given up drinking and also gone on a diet as well. Topping off the fact that I also gave up smoking for the second time in my life back in March this year after a gap of 24 years! God only knows why I started back up? I think down to my friends circle at that time....Still, I have to say that now I'm on this particular diet etc I do actually feel quite a bit healthier and I am actually loosing a bit of weight too. Anyway I digress off topic! Let's talk fishing!!!!

So a few weeks ago I was down the local pond for the usual afternoon session and I was catching a fair few nice fish as usual when a young lad and his grandmother stood behind the railings to watch me for a few minutes...

The young lad named Dyfan seemed rather interested in what I was doing and we began conversation on my fishing equipment and what swam around in the pond. As they stood watching my right hand rod sprung into life and I asked if you Dyfan fancied playing the fish? 

Who was well excited and his nan passed him over the railings to me and we began battle against an angry common together with Dyfan doing most of the work. He did a sterling job and within a few minutes we had a nice common around 10lbs in the net. I asked if he wanted a picture with the fish and he was speechless, bless him! We set up the cradle and I discussed fish care with him and his nan before we grabbed a lovely photo together. A moment I'm sure he'll remember for some time to come! I certainly will as it was a delight to see the youngsters face getting the same pleasure from that moment as I did with my first fish and every fish I catch! Well done Dyfan and I hope to see you on the banks one day my little friend. Needless to say it was a great afternoon and I caught plenty of fish before heading home.

I ventured back out to my secret pool a few times this last fortnight post work and one Sunday afternoon. It was difficult work with little time to really put into the project. 

I do get the feeling that there is literally just a very small handful of commons in there and at best maybe 4-5 big enough to take a boilie. I may be wrong but after sampling it with floaters and seeing the same 3 fish over and over, I reckon that's pretty much it. 

There's definitely more in there but of a much smaller stamp. I grabbed another nice low double figure common on a 2 hour post work evening session before realising the low stock. I'll pop in occasionally to keep an eye on the place but for now I think that chapter of my story is closed. I have in the mean time heard about another possible very big roach spot too so that'll be my next port of call but again it could have some risks attached to fishing there! Watch this space! 

Weekend just gone was a very full one with two afternoon trips to my local pool to try and finish off that part of my story as there's three I still want to catch in there! I started off around 2pm on Sunday and to say it was a frenetic session is an understatement! I have never in all my years had so many runs in such a short time! It was utter carnage.....from the off I was into fish after fish. I didn't have time to even ger two rods out. The bites were coming quicker than I could the rod back onto the rod rests. For the best part, the baits were poled into the swim and before I was retrieving the pole I was into a fish!

I honestly had to keep the rods out for a few minutes so I could eat and drink. Within an hour I was 7 fish up and every single one was a common! I really wanted those last three remaining mirrors and this was not catching them. I moved a couple of swims round and targeted a new area only to have the same level of action ensue there too! In fact it was even more hectic there! 

I spent the whole afternoon basically fishing one rod for the best part and most chucks I had a fish within seconds of the hookbait entering the water. I finished the session on an incredible 29 runs and 27 landed.....even more incredible was that every single one was a common!!! Five of the best weighing over 18lbs and the rest ranging from 6lbs upwards.

After Sundays carnage my back was in bits and to be honest I needed a break! That wasn't really on the cards though as I had promised a friend that I would tutor her step son Riley (12 years old) for a few hours and try and help him catch a few carp. Sunday morning arrived and I picked his lordship up from his step mums house. We got to the lake to find it was rammed solid with anglers and only a handful of the less favourable pegs left to fish. 

Disappointed but not beaten we headed off round the lake to our first swim. A rather tight not beginner friendly swim, with snags either side and not much else going for it. We set up the kit and Riley poled a bait out either side of the swim to possible spots. We discussed his angling career thus far and his prior six or so carp he'd caught to 11lbs off the top on bread. He'd never caught ledgering before and just another small jack pike to his name.

I really wanted to get him into one of the better pegs but for the moment we'd have to make do. His first bite came on the jungle spot to our left and a quick sharp pull ended in a rig being retrieved a little bit too soon as I think it was a liner he struck. We repositioned the bait and sat back to discuss rigs etc only to then have a violent take on the right hand rod down the margin. 

We nearly lost the rod in the lake as the take was so intense! Riley jumped up and grabbed the rod. The fight was epic with both scrabbling for the upper hand. The 13ft Dream Makers were in hindsight a little bit big for Riley but he made the best of it and got to grips with the front drag reels and big rods. 

Finally after an epic battle I sunk the net under a wonderful common for him. I looked in the net to see a rather large lump of fish. We got the scales an mat ready and quickly discussed fish care etc before lifting her clear of the water for the pics. Riley was gob smacked at the size of the carp. It dwarfed his original PB of 11lbs and I was sure it was going to do twenty plus! Well, it did! In fact it was 22lbs in weight! What a way to start proceedings! We got some amazing pics and memories before Riley gently released her back. We tried in that swim a bit longer but to no avail. 

Around 3.30 one of the lads packed up so we moved around to his spot. We were a little hemmed in with anglers on both sides so opted for another move to the far side of the lake. We dropped onto a known hot spot and straight away Riley was into fish. They started to come thick and fast with doubles flying left right and centre. The only downside being a snag which was claiming as many fish as he was landing. After a few hook pulls he was looking a little disappointed so when I saw one of the hot pegs was going to be freed up I suggested another move. 

Off we trudged again back around the lake and into the new spot where I'd bagged up the previous day. Could it kick off again like Sunday? Yeah of course it could! Another 2 hours passed and by 8pm Riley was 10 fish up and buzzing with excitement! 

A great session that I'm sure we'll bother remember forever! He did exceptionally well and I was impressed with just how quick he picked it all up. 

Well done my friend and I look forward to your company again at some point in the future! Well, that's it for this instalment and with just a short week in work this week I have a nice long weekend to come! If I can find the time to sort my van and kit out then I would really like to get up to Hereford post work Friday afternoon and try to get myself my first barbel of the year....I can't believe I've not had the chance to go after them properly yet this season....time hasn't been my friend this year. Oh well, lets see how the week pans out. Tight lines all and see you soon x.

A cheeky common!

 Hi all! Well, yet another week of un-summery conditions for the best part and then the weekend arrived and it steadily got worse! I was on lates this week so fishing after work had to take a back seat till today (Sunday). So last weekend I was on the back of feeling very poorly with Covid symptoms albeit did a negative test and didn't feel well enough to leave the house until Sunday. I'd been looking for many years at some little pools not far from my house on google maps and wondered if any of them were at all accessible or even contained fish at all? 

We'll after some debate and a bit of info from a friend, I ventured down for a little look at one of these said pools. On arrival it became apparent that the place had literally been left to its own devices for many many years! Over grown, razor wire everywhere and broken gates. No no fishing signs or private land etc signs visible though which filled me with some hope. It was a bit of a trek from the car to the lake and I knew it was going to be a case of fishing very light if I was going to chance a go on there. It took me half an hour of crashing through mud, bushes and undergrowth before I finally found the pond. What a pretty little lake it was too.... but was there anything in there? I sat in a couple of spots for about 2 hours and saw absolutely nothing! 

Sod it! I walked back to the car and drove home to get my kit. I grabbed just essential bits in a rucksack and a couple of 10ft Scopes, net, mat and some bait. Off I went and just over an hour later at 6pm I was setting up very quietly in the corner of the pool out the was and unseen. 

I set up 3 rods with very basic blow back rigs on and a small PVA bag of pellets and broken boilies in and put them around the swim, taking advantage of a lovely looking nearside over hanging bush to my left. 

I sat for about an hour watching the lake, seeing no life whatsoever.....Was there a fish of any kind in there or not? I was questioning my sanity when all of a sudden the left hand rod to the bush let out a double bleep. I sat patiently and watched the bobbing gently fall towards the floor as the Siren gave out a further 2 more bleeps. The lead had moved so I felt I needed to strike....

Well, it turns out there are fish in there as all of a sudden I was attached to a very leary fish that held deep and headed out towards the centre of the lake. The fight was utterly epic! This thing was on bloody steroids! It was honestly one of the hardest fighting carp I've caught to date! What a scrap! Around 10 minutes passed before I finally slipped the net under a fantastic, seriously long common of 17lb 2oz! This thing had the length of a very big fish but felt hollow, which was obviously down to it's life of feeding on naturals. I was really surprised the fish had responded to a boilie and pellet approach but clearly it was very hungry! 

I got some pics of the fish and slipped it back to it's very deep hole. I popped another rig out and pinched myself on finding a virgin pond with some carp in it that had clearly never been caught! Time passed by and the light started to fade away. I started to pack my kit up when the left hand rod was once again doing the drop back! I struck into a solid resistance same as before and yet another very hard fighting fish bent the rod double. The fight was unfortunately very short as I suffered a hook pull just a minute or so in. 

I packed up and headed for home feeling very pleased with the results of just 3 hours down there. I will be back soon.....Back to this weekend and with just a short afternoon session to utilise, I decided to get back down my local urban club lake for a few hours. I've still got 4 left in there to catch and today felt like it was the day for one of them to fall foul! I dropped in a peg above my buddy Tom who had had a couple of nice fish in the morning and by 1.30pm I had a rod positioned tight up against the far bank under some over hanging trees. Using the pole at 40M to my advantage and placing the rig, 3oz lead and a good helping of Infusion boilies, pellets and Mulberry particle coated in Salmon Oil into the swim quietly. 

I dropped said rig into a place and retrieved the pole to set up rod no 2. I was just putting a boilie on the hair when off went the first rod. An absolute belter of a take. All the stuff went flying off my lap and I lent into a nice double figure common. A great start....I then got the other rod out only to have the exact same thing happen with that one! I couldn't get both rods out at the same time! This went on most of the afternoon with 12 takes occurring and landing 10 of them! A couple of rather chunky commons and mid shift on the left hand rod I had an absolute screamer of a take! I lent into what felt like a much better fish. It felt slower and heavier than all the other fish of the day so far. 

The battle ensued for about 10 minutes before I finally netted  very nice looking leather carp. Could it be one of the four I was after? Surely not! I got the scales set and camera and mat at the ready. I reached into the net to unhook her and as I moved the net mesh aside I caught a glimpse of the fish. I was sure it was 'Angel'. One of the final four! I was so excited!!!! Unhooked, I moved her over to the mat for weighing and pics. She went 20lb 5oz and after looking through some online pics, I realised it was Angel! What a result......Just 3 to go now then and then I can move on to fresh new pastures! This week is early shifts so I may pop down to the secret pond for a few hours post work.

 Well, summers really been a belter so far eh? Bloody awful in truth and I feel like we're already staring down the barrel of autumn already. I was looking forward to long sunny days around work where I could venture out to fish the river after a barbel or two but to be honest I've not felt the urge to do that this season, yet. I'm currently really finding it difficult to get the motivation up to go anywhere other than right on my doorstep. The biggest problem that occurs from this is the serious lack of fishing venues near to my home. Well, one's of any quality that float my boat so to speak..... It seems that since Covid, everybody is now angling and it doesn't matter where you go it's rammed! I really can't bring myself to go to a day ticket venue any more especially near to the weekend! It's crazy how many swims are taken pretty much all day, every day! 

Early days at Crayfish pool when it finally went well!

I can remember not so long ago when I had a syndicate ticket on the famous Crayfish Pool and you could literally rock up any day of the week and see no more than 1 or 2 anglers at absolute most on the venue and you had no waiting list in place...now it's a wait of 5-10 years for a ticket on some of these places! What the hell happened to our sport to make it so busy everywhere? I've had a few recent evening sessions at my local urban club water post work and an odd weekend slot. Fortunately it's still a fairly quiet little pool with plenty of water to fish. The fish have responded well to my tactics this summer and I've managed to amass a fairly decent amount of captures so far since late April. I've had a couple of repeat captures and many small commons that have been returned without pictures but there's also been some lovely scaley one's caught too. I'm currently digesting the idea that there's only a few left to catch in there which includes 3 of the A-listers that have so far evaded capture from my side of the fence. It's odd how certain fish can do this and others fall foul to similar tactics and areas of the lake, even to certain anglers. 

This last fortnight has seen 3 separate fish get caught between myself and another competent angler just days apart from each other. 

Quite amusing to see him with one then 3 days later I've caught it...then a few days later I catch one and he then gets the same one 2 days later. 

I know it's a small water but there's definitely something in it I feel that makes certain fish fool foul to certain rigs, bait, tactic, area or in this case certain anglers. It it that our approach is the same? The areas we fish similar or just pure luck? We'll never know.....food for thought though and the age old saying of fish get caught from certain areas is very true in my eyes. 

The carp are creatures of habit and generally visit the same old areas day in day out and chose to eat or mill around in these areas. If you can pin point these areas and exploit their potential then that is the key to catching particular fish and becoming successful on your chosen water. Looking back at the Cray in particular, my first season was a bloody hard one! I spent 150 plus nights on there in the first year for just 5 bites and 4 landed! It was tough going to say the least. I questioned my sanity when re-joining the second season as I literally left there empty handed on the majority of visits. I just couldn't get to grips with the place, worrying about my bait, my rigs, bait placement and overall very low confidence in my overall approach to the venue. 

The second season came and I spent far less time worrying about all the above and concentrated my efforts on just two spots that had done me a bite or two the previous season. This proved to be key in the grand scheme of things and later ended up with my catching everything I wanted from the venue bar a couple of rogue fish. Well, roll on 10 years and I'm now considering my next move within angling and what, where and how to tackle a new challenge...I love quiet out the way secluded venues but there's nothing remotely near to home that offers this....I'm therefore on the route to considering more urban waters that fly close to my requirements. 

I hate the idea but I can't see any other options bar moving house, which is obviously not on the agenda when you have a wife, kids and many ties to your current home. My other option is to just concentrate on Euro trips? I've banged this around in my head a lot and before changing jobs it was on the agenda but with limited holiday time now back in full time employment, that's sorely off the table or for the foreseeable future anyways. 

So here we are back at fishing the local pond for upper twenties and high doubles....Ah, it ain't so bad I guess....the lads on there are all a good bunch. The fish are pretty good looking for the best part and sport can at times be frenetic. At least it's a mere 20 minutes from home. So over the last fortnight I've had about 5 or so evenings to pop down and a single full day. They've all fished pretty well with around 30 fish or so coming to the net. 

I've spent a bit of time down there coaching a couple of regulars who were struggling too and it's generally just been easy, nice fishing. I'm still after the couple of bigger fish but to be honest if they evade me this year at least it gives me a reason to continue turning up down there and having some fishing on the door step so to speak. I'm currently suffering from a nasty bug and bed ridden which has scuppered any plans I had for after work sessions this week as I'm on the early shift. 

That along with the fact that the girls have been away on holiday in Portugal for 10 days has meant that I've had my hands full with household duties as well. In a household of around 100 animals it's been challenging to say the least! I can't wait for them to come home so I can get a bit of respite! Well, there we go, that's about all the news really....not much going on and very little on the calendar at present but hopefully that will change soon. Tight lines all. x

Have Spomb will catch!

 

The second part of my week off begun on Monday with a trip to a venue I've not fished before, the very pretty Shearwater fishery in Wiltshire. I booked on using the very good Gocatch App and on arrival just 4 other anglers were on for the night with some very wet and windy conditions forecast for the next 48 hours. 

I opted to fish peg 1 at the far end of the lake and in the shallowest section of water. I could see a good few fish moving around at about 15-16 wraps so opted to target the area with a good helping of boilies, particle and a bit of pellet in the spomb. As soon as I started to introduce bait it was obvious that the fish were homing in on it! 

I put around 5kg of bait out and proceeded to cast all 3 rods onto the area just a few feet apart from each other. The action started within minutes and the bites came thick and fast! My first couple of fish were small commons around 8-10lbs and it was pretty obvious there were a lot of fish in the swim. 

My next run resulted in a very nice scaley mirror and then it went quiet. I decided I'd put some more bait out and bang! As if like flicking a switch, they were back again homing in on the spombed in bait. Around 6 fish then came again in quick succession before I had the same result again. 

Again I spombed another 5kg out and again the result was the same.....More fish, commons to double figures and a couple of scaley mirrors too. I kept the swim going all afternoon and then got a good helping of bait out just before dark in anticipation of a busy night. 

The wind by now had picked up to around 40 mph and the rain started to fall very heavily. I battened down the front of the bivvy, had a bite to eat and climbed into bed but only for a split second as I was once more away into a nice mirror. 

This was followed up with about 5 more fish before things quietened down enough to get a bit of sleep. I didn't bait up after 1am as I was starting to feel rather exhausted! 

First light saw me being battered byt heavy weather and a very incessant swine of a grey squirrel who seemed hell bent on eating everything in my bivvy! 

I ended up barricading the bivvy all round to stop him getting in! After attempting a little bit of shut eye 

I started the baiting up process all over again to receive the exact same result as the previous evening! Fish after fish fell to the approach! By late afternoon I was up to 35 runs and 33 landed! I was so worn out that my second evening I didn't bother to bait up in the hope 

I could get some well needed sleep. This wasn't on the cards and the bites continued throughout the night until 10am the following morning by which time I can honestly say I had caught enough fish! 43 runs and 37 landed. 

A very enjoyable yet tiring session! I still had 4 days of my holiday left and contemplated a trip down to Hampshire to fish a club water but to be honest I was so worn out that I took the easy option of heading home for a bit of sleep. 

I chose to do 3 evening sessions at the tail end of the week at my local club water instead and started out mid afternoon on the Thursday. in a swim that looked quite lively. 

I introduced my rig and bait with around 20 free offerings of Nutty bait crumbed up and a small amount of our Rod Hutchinson Mulberry Particle in the Bushwacker pole. It didn't take long before the weeks action was once again flowing at a fair rate! 

Bite after bite came and by close of play at 10pm I'd had no less than 19 takes and landed 15 fish! By far my best session on the venue to date! The next day I had to wait till mid afternoon before there was a break in the weather good enough for my old bones to tolerate! On arrival the lake looked very different and almost devoid of fish in comparison to the previous day. 

I didn't let that put me off though and dropped onto the same spot as the previous day. Same tactics were employed and it took about 2 hours to get the first bite. It then started to pick up once more and bites started to flow with a similar regularity as the Thursday session. By 10pm I was once again in double figures on the fish count at 11 with the biggest being a lovely common of 19lb 4oz. The last session of the week was a full day out on the lake on the Sunday. I arrived just before opening time at 6am to grab the same swim yet again as there were still clearly a lot of fish in that area. I got the rods out by 6.15am and my first take came at 6.50am from a very nice mirror carp of 20lb 3oz, a fish known as 'Drop scale'. 

My next chance was a bream at 11.45am and then I hooked into a really decent mirror at midday only to lose it due to a large amount of lost, snapped off monofilament trailing from a tree into the lake and tethering up on my fish. I managed to shake the very snagged fish off the barbless hook and then removed the line with the aid of my spomb rod and a large lead. I was gutted to lose the fish as I'm pretty sure it was one of my target fish. I got my head back into the game and started to catch a few by early afternoon and by close of play I'd once again had 15 runs and landed 14 of them! Another cracking day out. That wasn't the end of the results on the lake though as later in the week I returned for a brief evening session post work. 

Shit happens

After what feels like a millennium, I've finally got a week off work and the chance to wet a line. I started the break with a trip over to Farlows Lake near Iver in Bucks with my bestie Chris. The whole week had been planned out to precision with two venues linked up to spend a whole 10 days away. Unfortunately the day before we were due to leave I had a call to say that we had been double booked on the second usually exclusive venue and the week was out. Gutted but Chris and I made the best of the shit situation and left at 5am Wednesday morning for the 3 hour drive to London. 

We were greeted by a very busy venue with just a small handful of the least popular swims free. We spent 2 hours walking round and discussing our limited options. After lots of deliberating we decided to fish lake 2 and acquired swim 12 which is a large double occupancy swim with the most water coverage and the open water to a big gravel area mid lake. 

We had a chat with Fishery Manager and good mate Charlie before setting out. In all honesty neither of us were feeling very confident but we cracked on with things and got the van unloaded in the swim and started to get set up for the 3 nights ahead. 

We'd just got our bivvys up when Chris out of the blue told me he'd forgotten 2 ruck sacks which contained all his end tackle, head lamps, buzzers etc....What a nightmare! 

We took a walk round to the Tackle Shop on site and he had to purchase some new alarms and a few essentials for the week. The rest I lent him. We got some rigs tied and some bait out to the bar at 16 wraps with a spomb. 

A 5kg mix consisting of pellets, particle and boilies of mixed shapes, sizes, flavours and colours was carefully cast out to the spot and 2 rods each placed on the money. Chris and I also placed a rod in the nearside margins too. 

Chris was first up to get a run and his middle rod was away to the bar. A very strong take that unfortunately ended with not connecting with the fish. He was again away though a few minutes later on his margin rod and a great close quarters fight ensued with a stunning Colne Valley Mirror of 19lbs gracing his net. 

We both then had large bream before settling in for the evening session. We both spombed a good quantity of around 5kg of just boilie in at tea time after a few more bream had been on the spot. We decided to leave the particle and pellet out of the equation using a boilie only approach.

 

We settled in for a rather quiet nights fishing with nothing more than a couple of bream for our efforts. A recast was made around 9am and shortly after I had my first proper take of the week on the middle rod. 

A real screamer of a take.....The fish fought slow and heavy all the way in to the left margin where it spent a few minutes trying to snag me up. It finally left the area but the fight now felt rather stranger than before???? 

I was now attached to two fish rather than one! Chris netted the carp for me and behind it there was now a large bream attached as well via a rig it was trailing. It turns out that the bream had been snagged up in the margin and the carp plough through the area picking up the rig and freeing it from it's tethered trap. We dealt with the offending bream and then set our sights on weighing and photographing the lovely 26lb common now on my mat. 

A couple more bream found the net before another lovely long common graced the net around 5pm that evening. Chris was really struggling to get through the bream and it seemed like the only spot really producing the carp was my middle and left hand rod to the bar. This became apparent as at 18.30pm I had yet another strong take landing a stunning double figure Mirror carp. We had a bite to eat and sat back with a cider and some good banter watching the new series of Monster Carp on ITV with Dovey and Spooner.....I have to say, what a great production and one of my favourite TV shows of the modern era. Well done guys, excellent tv for the masses. 

Chris retired to bed around 11pm and we settled down for the night. Around midnight my left hand rod was away with a great scrapping carp yet again....Another scaley one found the net and I grabbed a few pics before once again settling down for some well earned zzzzz's. Sleep was not on the agenda though in the fishes mind as bream after bream ensued! At 2.45am I finally received a proper take and bagged one of the best looking mirrors of the session at 23lb 9oz. 

I slipped her back and tried my hardest to get some sleep amongst yet more bream for both of us throughout the early hours. I had a lost fish due to a cut off at 11am on Friday morning....I think this was almost certainly due to the huge numbers of very sharp swan mussels present on the bottom of the lake bed. The line had been damaged badly and I actually lost a couple of rigs on the cast due to snap offs. The last carp of the session came mid afternoon in near 30 degree heat and was again a very very pretty mirror! 

As the afternoon progressed the bream became incessant again and so did the amount of anglers and visitors to the venue! We had a party going on in the swim next to us with dogs, beer, loud radios and generally ruining the vibe behaviour going on. Vehicle after vehicle flowed behind us and endless people asking how long we were staying for. 

It got to a point where both Chris and I had literally had enough and we decided to pack up and head home a day early. 

A great shame to be honest as the fish in the venue are beautiful and only spoilt by the visiting hoards of numb nuts, many not even fishing! I'm looking at this weeks weather and formulating a few ideas for the weeks fishing and may mix it up a little with some varied types of fishing. We'll see what the week has in store! Tight lines all

Keith x 

 Hi guys....I'm sat in bed on a very lazy Saturday morning with some rather gloomy clouds outside the window and heavy drizzle. 

I feel like we need a really good storm to clear the air to be honest as it feels very clammy. In truth I'm suffering a bit with my mental health this last few weeks....there's a few reasons it's come about again but last weekend was the icing on the cake really. 

I had to take a few days away from the new job as we had a very serious incident to deal with at home. 

On the previous Saturday evening two idiots from a local village took it on themselves to set alight to the grass area above our land and it took hold very quickly burning it's way across a large area of the hill behind our property. 

The fire brigade put the fire out to an extent but by Wednesday afternoon it was again raging and heading towards our home and our small holding!  The brigade were quick to respond and 5 teams from the South Wales area came to our aid with a helicopter flown by a fantastic pilot. 

The fire raged on for a couple of days but Wednesday night we were up till 3am with hotspots flaring up continuously. I spent the whole evening up the hill with the brigade trying to help where I could but the damage that occurred was like nothing I've seen up here from fire in nearly 20 years. 

Very sad to think of all the plants and wildlife destroyed by what can only be considered as just heartless idiocy at a level beyond comprehension! I honestly don't understand what is gained in pleasure from an act of arson? Anyway, fortunately the scene is now quiet and after some incredible work from local fire brigade, friends and loved one's, we're all back to relative normality! 

Fishing has taken a bit of a back seat this summer since starting the new job....I seem to have almost no time to go out as I'm either in work or totally exhausted from the 11-12 hour days I'm putting in. I spend the whole week looking forward to going at the weekend only to feel too tired to go or lacking in motivation by the time the weekend arrives. I have a week off in about a fortnight so I'm going to make the most of that when it arrives and go out after some carp at a very special venue I have occasional access to.

I ventured out on my own for an evening chasing hounds about 2 weeks ago at a new mark I'd only fished once before with Chris and it fished very well! I used my usual prawn approach and put two rods out as far as I could hit and awaited the action. It came thick and fast with 9 landed and 3 lost! A great evenings sport! 

I watched a young lad and his uncle walk to the shoreline on my left as I just returned one of my fish and the young lad looked amazed! As I walked back to my other rod, I saw a good pull on the rod and another decent hound was hooked up. I beckoned the young lad and his uncle over and gave him the rod to play the fish. I introduced myself and helped young Charly land his first ever fish. He looked absolutely amazed when I we banked the hound and I told him he'd caught his first shark! Well done young man!

 About a fortnight ago I also took young Dan out for the evening again, this time doing some beach fishing on the coast near home. We met up with good friends Lee and my bestie Chris for an evening on the hounds. Dan had no idea what to expect other than what I had told him about the sport. We set up about an hour before low water and sent a couple of prawns out towards the horizon. 

Chris was first up and had a bite within minutes of casting out. A nice hound of around 6 pounds. As the tide turned all hell broke loose and it was nothing short of carnage for 3 hours of fishing! We couldn't keep a rod in the water and Dan had a great time landing no less than 9 hounds! 

I had a little play landing 3, Lee had 2 and Chris had 4! It was bonkers fishing on our side! The bites were coming so quick and and so often that we had numerous double hook ups! I think Dan had a good time....

He looked exhausted from pulling in so many fish by midnight. What great sport! The river season has obviously commenced too now but all I've managed so far is a quick evening session where I didn't see any barbel at all! It was a chub fest though with around thirty finding the net. Every fish was very skinny and most full of milt! I gave up eventually as there were so many chub I couldn't keep a line in the water long enough for a barbel to find the bait. Think I'll give it a few weeks for things to settle before trying to get amongst the barbel again. 

 

It's been a rather quiet few weeks on the fishing front here with almost nothing to talk about to be honest....I've been putting the hours in on my new job and there's pretty much zero spare time for anything other than eating and sleeping. 

Chris and I hooked up with another friend Steve for an afternoon/evening session at Marcross beach a few weeks back in search of hounds, The fishing was hard going and Chris had an eel and some dogs, Steve had a couple of dogs and I had my first hound of the year and a small ray. 

I also had a day out with 3 friends from work at Dyffryn Springs. One of the guys had only fished once before and we had a great day learning the very basics of casting, striking and fish care etc. 

We all had a great timer and everyone caught a fish or two! This last few weeks I've questioned my decision to change my career and go back into employment but in truth I'm certainly less stressed out than I was working for myself. 

The money is less but I'm just being more sensible about how I spend it and trying to gather up what I do have for the times I do have free. 

This being said, I had a trip back down south to a club lake that I caught a large bream from back in April a fortnight ago and after leaving work at 12.30pm I made the 3 hour drive down for a long bank holiday weekend. Things didn't go at all to plan and I hit holiday traffic which included some terrible driving and numerous accidents. I arrived at the lakes around 8pm that evening after a horrid 8 hour drive! I found the lakes very quiet with just 2 on for the night. 

I met a very nice guy who chatted with me until around 10pm before I set up for the night. This turned out to be unproductive and I awoke at 5.30am to the sound of splashing around in the margins and the inevitable spawning going on. I met up with the clubs fishery manager and we had a walk around the complex with my drone to do some aerial footage for the club. 

Very little showed up and it was concluded that there really is not very much in the entire complex to fish for. I went back to my swim and spent a night camping with the mindset of an early drive home empty handed. 

As predicted that was the case and Sunday was a quick pack up and return drive home to a family afternoon at the beach chasing smoothound. 

The girls came with me and we had a great afternoon with the dog and some family time searching rock pools and bathing whilst waiting for a smoothy to bite. The situation was that between 6 anglers fishing there were just 2 hounds caught all day, I had one of them and lost another. Things were very slow. 

Weekend just past was a similar event with Chris and I hooking up with Steve again at Marcross. We arrived at the beach to find a match in progress and nothing had been caught all day! Steve decided to stay till 3pm but Chris and I called time and walked back to the van to go try an alternative venue a half hour west. The venue was much choppier and despite finding a cracking human free area, we stood for 6 hours without so much as a nibble! 

Tough going all round at the moment with many carp waters closed due to spawning, the river season not quite upon us and the sea species not really inshore yet either! 

Slow pickings.....I have a long weekend ahead this week starting with an evening of Cricket on Friday at Sofia Gardens watching my local squad Glamorgan take on Yorkshire in the T20 blast. Then maybe a fish or two on Saturday or Sunday.....we'll see what happens!