31/03/12

today i went back to hockley but to fish the right hand lake, i was one peg 3 and the fish have recently been in this peg, i started with two lines one for using pellet and the other was maggots, caster, dead maggot and red meat, i wen on the pellet line for the first bit of the day and was catching f1's straight away, not all were big but i didn't mind, i had a skimmer in the mix of f1's, i was mainly catching them on ringers pellet and jelly pellets, later on it went quiet and i tried to catch some fish on the maggot line i had a ide on red meat but than it was roach for most of midday, i went back over the pellet to have a look and i had a skimmer straight away than no other bites and i caught small roach for the rest of the day on the maggot line until with a good hour left i made a margin line and fed maggot and caster it was on my top kit under a tree that went over the lake i was getting some better roach and had some chunky perch which was a good add to my weight i also had a big roach of about half a pound but i had the perch and bigger roach on caster i decided to put a caster on for my last go and i hooked in to my best fish of the day, it was a f1 that was very close to being 3lb which boosted my weight a lot. the weather changed a lot in the day and it was hard to keep fish feeding, i had a total weight of 14lb which on a hard day is a good result. 

24/3/12

today i fished the middle lake at hockley, i was on peg 18 which is a good bream peg, it was very nice weather throughout the day as it was sunny all day. i started by setting up two pole kits for the sane line but with different elastic as there is a lot of carp in this lake, i fed tiger fish groundbait with lose maggot, corn and caster in with it, i straight away had a 11.5lb carp, i went in again on a maggot and had a good bream and i carried on catching good bream throughout the day but on ringers 4ml pellet, i found that the bream respond quickly to a bit of groundbait so i waited to when the bites slowed down before i fed more groundbait, i was fishing about 9m out towards a feature in the island, this is a very successful place in the peg, i did feed a margain but i felt no need to go and look to see if there was a fish there. At about half two the bream stopped so i chopped some maggot up in hope of getting some ide, i went in with a white maggot over the chopped maggot and after about 5 minutes i had a bite, my elastic went screaming out and the fish was staying very close to the bottom, from the glimpse i had i thought it might be a good barbel but i weren't sure, i used a puller kit to help get the fish in but when i had a full look at the fish i saw it was a good barbel, it turned out to be a good 6.5lb barbel, my total weight for the day was 43lb, i had 25lb of bream a 6.5lb barbel with the 11.5lb carp, this was one of the best days i have had for while and one which i never forget, especially because of my new personal record for a barbel, 6.5lb!   

17/03/12

today i fished the right hand lake at hockley angling club, the weather changed a lot throughout the day and it rained a lot making it hard to use the pole, i was on peg 12 and i started with a margin line by a tree and after a couple of minutes of feeding micro pellets flavoured with tiger fish i got a bit from a f1 of about a 1lb which is a good start to the day, i went back hoping for another f1 but i didn't get a bite do after 5 minutes i started an open water swim with maggot, caster and krilled dead maggot i got a quick response from fish and i got a nice skimmer of about a 1lb too. i got a lot of roach on the line during the day and i kept looking at the margin and not a lot was happening apart from catching little roach. i caught a ide or two throughout the day and i decided to start feeding chopped up maggot with caster on it and i got a almost instant response from the ide and had a couple of about a 1lb and under which was a nice fish to catch, as the day came to an end i feed a bit more maggot and got a nice little crucain, with an hour left i only fished the margin and it paid off as i had a 4oz barbel and 2 more f1's of a 1lb, i then lost 2 f1's one which felt  lot bigger than my previous fish, i went back in the margin using maggot and i picked up a small roach and small ide to finish the day, i had around 9lb of fish which was good as it was a hard day. 

10/03/12

today i went to one of the BDAC lakes, the complex is called windmill lakes i fished the lake called Field lake which was a very challenging lake as there is not many big bream there but when you catch one, they are big so it is worth the wait. i was using a feeder with ground bait and sweetcorn on the hook the hole day just waiting for a fish to take it, i fished on peg 11 which is one of the bream pegs and after a while of nothing my rod tip went flying round to see that it was sadly a carp which found my bait, that is the first carp i have had on that method on the lake which straight away made me think the bream weren't going to feed, the carp was just under 10lb which is a small carp in that lake. a couple of other people came and sat on the other lake which is called the swan lake and only caught small fish, later on in the day the sun started to come out and i started to have more indications and then i had a bream have a take and it turned out to be a 5lb bream which again is a pretty small bream in that lake but i didn't mind as it is still a good fish, sadly as the sun came out more the indications started to fade away and i didn't get another bait for the rest of the day, but i did finish the day with over 14lb so it was still a good early march day. 

03/03/12

today i went to hockley angling club and by the look of the weather i thought i would catch sine big perch, i fished the peg 15 on the right hand lake, i set up two lines on the pole one over a groundbait and another over chopped up worm and maggot, i first looked at the groundbait line and nothing happened for an hour, then i hooked into what i though felt like a decent fish but it turned out to be a fail hooked ide but it was still a fish, i then put more groundbait in and the bites started coming but i was missing a lot of them, i thought it was a good time to have a look at my over line with a maggot on the hook i started to catch more fish although they were small roach for a while, it then went hard again, so i put more feed in both swims, i caught a couple of small roach on my groundbait line and then had another look on my other line with a maggot and ended up catching two 4oz perch which was a Small relief, i then went a long time by only catching a couple of small roach, into the afternoon i started to feed more worms to hope i would get a big fish there, i had a bite nearly straight after i put the feed in, it was a big f1 but it sadly came off at the net which was a huge disappointment as i knew that might of been my only chance to get a big fish, to knock my confidence even more i started bumping big fish, in a last ditch attempt i feed more and waited on a big bit of lob worm, then my work paid off as i was into another fish, and it was a bigger perch, i was so grateful i landed it as it as just under 2lb, i finished the day with only about 4lb of fish, i knew after that terrible session that i had chosen the wrong peg as it was to far in the corner and i needed to be close to the middle of the lake, this was a terrible start to fishing in march.   

25/2/12

today i went to the lake hicks farm that you would know in my previous posts, it was very nice weather at the start of the day and i was confident i was going to catch well.
i started the day using my rocket picker rod and the banjo feeder with tiger fish pellet and corn i had no bites till about 10am and it was a small 1lb carp after that i had another bite no long after and it was a 1.5lb carp bringing my total up to 2.5lb. during midday the sun was in and out making it hot and then cold which isn't good when you are trying to catch. at about half one i got another bite and it has a 0.5lb carp taking my total to only 3lb, it then went very quiet again but i finally got my fourth fish which was a 1lb mirror carp which meant i was on 4lb. i knew i had to do something and as the sun had been out for a while and i knew i had been dropping corn in the margin throughout the day i got my pole out and had it ready to go in the edge. i noticed carp starting to come into the margin as i could see their tails in the water and i saw one big carp around the 8lb mark. i went in with my pole to try to catch one of the carp down there and after a little while my float went under but it was a carp knocking the float with its tail and it bolted, i then thought i weren't going to catch one, but i saw the big carp again and a small one and as soon as my float went under i made contact with a good carp and i was very lucky as it turned out to be the bigger one which weighed in at 7lb bringing my final total up to 11lb which was only 1lb than what my dad had who was fishing Pole all day and catching a lot of 3-5oz roach, at the end of the day i was very pleased with this weight as it was a very hard day and i ended up beating my dad and catching a lovely carp. 

windmill lakes, feild lake

this is part of BDAC's lakes and is on mountnessing road, this lake isnt a place where you can go and catch losts if fish, it has mainly carp up to over 20lb, it also has a very small shoal of bream that average around 5 or 6lb and there is a small shoal of tench that go up to about 8lb. this is  very nice lake which has a rumor that there are bigish perch in it but i have never seen one come out. they have a lot of small bream and roach in which is promising for the future of the lake. to catch the bream in this lake fish the widest side or between pegs 9 an 12.

Hockley angling club (middle lake)

this is another lake in the Hockley complex, this is an amazing lake with carp going to over 15lb, it has bream, roach, ide, chub, barbel, gudgeon, tench and perch, the barbel in this lake can go to 9lb and the lake has a large areas of water to attack, it is sometimes annoying to fish properly for silverfish in the summer as of all the tents there and the amount of carp feeding there but is a great place to go in the winter to get some bites. i would highly recommened this lake for all anglers as it has so many species in and will fish for everyone if they do it right.     

Hockley angling club right hand lake

this is the next lake i normally fish it is a very nice lake which has a lot of cover on rainy days. this lake has a lot of different species of fish in, including tench, bream, crucians, roach, perch, f1's, ide, barbel, carp and the odd rudd. this is a perfect lake to come to and catch any specie, it has 15 pegs on and the best in my opinoin are 2a,3,5,8,9,1,13,15.  

Hicks farm

this is one of the lakes i fish often it is a small carp lake in hanninfeild this lake belongs to the BDAC and has a average carp size of about 2.5lb it also has roach and a lot of gudgeon in which are pests in the summer, so it is a great pleasure venue.  

The Banjo feeder (by Preston)

I would like to start this blog of by talking about the Banjo feeder which is an amazing make by preston as when you look at it you might think it wont work, but you will be wrong, the banjo feeder works, it is a really good idea as it leaves the bait open for fish to take the bait, i would highly recommened it at any lake with smallish carp in as it will work a treat.