Catch Up

It's been a funny few months with not a huge amount going on for me. Between a knackered right elbow which had me unable to lift a rod to Rob having various junior commitments I've not had a huge amount of actual fishing.In saying that we've been out and about as ever with some success and in fairness some poor days too.
Off the back of the Leinster Junior Team qualifiers we've been on Corrstown quite a few times. Pleasure days have produced bigger bags with the best going to Rob of 169 fish in 4 hours, that said his few match days havn't thrown up anything like that but around 50 to 60 has been an average. He hasn't had great success in the 2 qualifiers, coming 4th in both but thats enough to keep him in the mix and theres one more to go on the canal at Ferns Lock at the end of May.

169 roach for 16lb and ozs, nice

Getting on that team will see us in Cork at the end of June for the annual junior interprovinces match.

More for the experience of it all, Rob is having a go at fishing the NCFFI (float only) qualifiers for 2013 International Teams. We were on The Barrow a few weeks ago and although he didn't have his best days fishing a few fish were caught on what was a difficult day for a lot of serious anglers. Some of the venues being used have been on our "to do" list for a while now so it'll give us a chance to go and finally fish them. The second qualifier is on Inniscarra in Cork, one that we're really loking forward to and allthough Rob will be fishing along side some of the countries best match anglers it'll give him an opportunity to fish the place prior to the Inter Provinces match, which will help.

Mark and Vinnie to his right !!!!

Playing with the big boys now...

One of our clubs FTI AC,  has had a couple of monthly meetings which we've attended, Corrstown was good and very enjoyable but the more recent one on Scur wasn't great, with my dodgy elbow having me in such a mess that I couldn't lift the rod on the odd occaision when the tip did go round.

A cracking Perch for Mac

As ever with FTI AC gigs the social side is more important which was just aswell as the fishing itself was poor enough, we had very little to show for the effort but it never really matters.


Ollie never even wetted a line.....

A Different Angle

I'm in C&J Angling getting bait for the weekend and one of my favourite venues us throwing up
a few fish on the feeder but from the other end of the lake. Theres been a bit of bait going in during the week and a few lads fished it yesterday so up and at 'em. Bad news on the Sunday evening from
Joe, it fished poorly yesterday they struggled.

Oh Yeah, wheres my rod ?

We've arranged to meet Davy from FTI and as we set up and get sorted I'm unsure what might happen.
The wind had changed to a SW and theres more cloud then yesterday, I'm thinking we might be OK.

The word was skimmers and hybrids were coming out but no bream as yet. I decided to take no chances, Kamisan Animal in a size 16 to 4lb hooklength would tame any hybrid I figured.  I knew the area had been fished the day before with nothing much coming out so a bit of a teaser around how much bait to put out. I settled on 6 casts of a closed feeder with caster and choppies and then on went the hooklength. With little happening to three rods it became apparent early that we were going to struggle. I then had 4 wee skimmers on double red mags and thought maybe we might be on to something. The other two lads weren't having any better luck, it was slow.

Another roach going in the keepnet

The SW wind was off our backs and with the odd glimpse of morning sun it was pleasant enough, time for a cuppa. After a brew I decided to slow things down and clipped on a small feeder and a single red maggot. Not long after the tip bangs round and it's something better than a wee skimmer.

A couple of minutes later and a bream, yes an actual bream is gliding over the surface of the water into my landing net. Right then bugger that, bigger hook a 14 Kamizan Animal and big lump of worm on the hook, I'll have a few more of those please. No actually I won't,  an hour ish went by without a bite. Worm, mags, caster, pinkies  and various combinations of them were all tried. Out of the blue a couple of small slow pulls on the tip and before I knew it a new PB Bream of 4lb 4ozs is in the landing net.

4lbs 4 ozs

Not the biggest bream by any standards but my biggest.

Davy was packing up at this stage with little to show for an early start. Rob was getting a few roach having changed to a smaller feeder, a longer hooklength and no worm in the feeder. Not the bream he would have loved but bites nonetheless, he's finally christened the "New" Rod.

The same thing happened after the second bream, my swim went completely dead.

A very quiet hour or so went by after the second bream so we called it a day and started planning another trip, as we do.

F Lock That

Sunday 11th and theres a Royal Enfield CAC match on the canal. I had to miss it but got th results
pegs at one end threw up some decent bags of skimmers, with 12lb and 9lb being best. A midweek trip was planned and GaryK and Ron Durkin joined me for what we hoped would be a god day.
Ah the best paid plans eh ?
We fished away from early, Ron in the swim that had thrown up 9lb, Gary in the one that threw up the 12lb and I got the duffer that had thrown up 4lb. Theres a decent bit of colour in the swims and we're
all confident. Never mind eh, not a skimmer to be seen anywhere , not much of anything to be seen actually.

It was cold, very blummin cold and with few fish being tempted we packed up earlier than had been planned and headed for home.

Good day that, FTI A.C.

Kyle tried a feeder line

The second FTI A.C. meet up went ahead last week on Corrstown and what a cracking wee venue it is too. We'd picked it based on the idea that all things being equal everyone should catch. Anyone that knows our club meets will know that we often, far to often have poor days, fishing wise.

It also gave "Team Kavo" another chance to figure things ahead of Robs rapidly approaching
Leinster Junior Qualifiers.

As it turned out only one member of The Team pulled up on the bankside but I'd keep to the plan and fish a short line, so out with a 4M whip and I'd stick with it regardless. We'd done well at
5 & 6 M's but in the never ending quest for speed we'd agreed to give it a go and see if we could get them closer and therefore quicker.
I was using a 1Grm Sensas Guilliamme float a nice to hand float but in lots of ways it didn't suit. We will probaby have one last session on here so might give the float another try. I kick started with 2 large balls of
Sensas Lake &  Gros Gardons (In my prebaited swim !!!) and was getting the standard small roach from first put in. The thin bristle on the float was really good for seeing small bites from small fish but it took to long for the float to settle after each put in. I was using a .75Grm Olivettte with a couple of small droppers under and no amount of moving and adjusting really sorted it. A one handed ball of GBait with pinkies and or caster was chucked (left handed would you believe) on the float as I struck each bite and I seemed to be going along quite nicely.
After a couple of hours it slowed, a few fish for 15 mins, then not a bite for 15 mins. I cut back on the feed, smaller balls and not so often kept fish in front of me but the bites were definitely taking longer.
We eventually called it a day at  2 O' Clock and the weigh in was quickly underway.
Everyone had fish but with Garyd having over 100 we all knew who had the better weight.
So it proved to be, Gary had 9 lbs and some ozs, pretty much all caught at 13M, I think.

108 for 9lb Something, I think.... Sorry Gaz

I had clicked 77 times and was figuring on 6Lb odd and it was enough to give me 3rd.

Davy fished pole tactics with a waggler road !!!! and had a great 7lb something for second place.

Who needs "Automatic Fish Catchers", eh ?

Nice day, nice fishing, nice venue, nice company, like I said, Good day that...............

Strange days indeed

Myself and Rob had planned on a rematch after our recent Roach bashing contest but that bed is just far to comfortable and despite a few calls between 06.00 and 07.00 hrs there was no budging him so I spent a day in the garden, seriously.
I'd arranged a day with my good mate Davy from FTI A.C. and as I scrapped the ice of my windscreen at 05.00 hrs this morning, I might have finally accepted that theres a madness inside me.
We were due to meet a couple of hours later at Annaghmackerrig in darkest Monaghan.
A pleasant enough drive had me there easier than I expected and as the icy darkness gave way to a bright blue sunny sky, I figured it was going to be a tough one. What I never figured on was a locked gate across the roadway !!!!!!!!
Davy bless him, was armed with various angling guides, including the countries latest and greatest
published guide. It's a pity none of these so called guides pointed out the problem with the gate.
I suppose in fairness theres a possibility that the gate wasn't locked on the day that this particular water was sussed out for the guide. We had a bit of a walk around and pleasant and all as the surroundings were we elected to move on.
Thirty short minutes later had us pulling into the car park of Sillan and we dropped our gear on the jettys for what would be a quick couple of hours.

It was feeders all the way, with caster and hemp for feed and red mags for hookers. I think we both knew it'd be tough but a biteless hour or so in what was a bitingly cold wind was tough. We chatted and laughed and then right out of the blue my rod is lake bound. Grab, lift and yep thats a fish and it's tearing round all over the place. Minutes later and it's netted, the hook is re baited and out it goes again, theres fish about and I'll have more please. Well actually I won't at least not immeadiately.
All quiet again and we decided to pack up and hit the road, as I'm putting things away I've an eye on the tip and suddenly out of the blue the tip is banging round. Lift and yep it's another one, this one seems better again and minutes later it's in the keepnet. You just never quite know with this fishing lark, strange days indeed.
Now heres a very very rare photo and for sure I've never seen anything like it before,

And yes, back they went

Out to the local...........

One of my all time favourites

Friday morning last, had me back on my local canal stretch for the first time in what seemed ages.
Circumstances have meant that my match fishing is on hold for a while and as a result I havn't been on a canal for to long, it really was great to be there.
It was a bit of an odd decision to give it a go as I know it well enough to be aware that there'll likely be nothing there. Despite the mild weather chances are the fish are still in the harbour and so it proved to be. A biteless hour and a half had me quietly doubting my sanity but some times it's just enough
to be there. The sun came up and a quick move was made about a 100 yards to my left. 

Sunny days and canals, hmmmmmmm

The move got my anticipation levels back up but it didn't last long and after another biteless hour,
I finally got the sense to accept that yes, they probaly are still up in the harbour.
Despite the dry net, I headed for home with a dirty big smile on my face. I consider myself very fortunate in that it doesn't happen all that often and consider myself even more fortunate that I still love it even if the fish don't play ball.

Like a nice bit of Cod, Battered......

On the road and todays plan is a wee experiment.  I'm fishing standard pole tactics at 9M and Robs
on a 6M whip. The venue chosen is particularly deep with depths of 15 foot and 10 foot each.
On what was quite a windy day I went with a 2Grm Preston float, tied to Preston .128mm line with
a 6 inch hooklength of .104mm. In "old money" thats 3lb to 2 lb lines. At the bizz end a size 18
Drennan Silver Fish Hook

Rob is fishing in shallower water and using similar enough kit other than the float was  1Grm and the hook was an 18 Drennan Red Maggot.
We also chose to experiment with groundbait, or at least the colour of it. The mix itself was equal
amounts of Sensas Gros Gardons, Sensas Lake and brown crumb. Rob added Black Tracix to his,
I didn't. We decided on a 4 hour "match" so at 10 a.m. it was All In.
I elected to use a pole cup for precise feeding, Rob chucked it in by hand. I started by feeding 4 balls
with caster and chop worm, Rob went with 2 balls with caster and hemp. By the time I'd finished feeding the little beggar had 6 roach in the net !!! It's an early indication of how the next few hours
are going to go I figured and I was right. Initially we were catching at the same speed and he was keeping about 6 fish ahead of me. After 1.5 hours he was 20 odd ahead of me and I knew at that stage how the next few hours would pan out.

I was right and as the time passed by my attempts at keeping up were useless. I stuck with it as we had agreed to see how the two different tactics compared. I had been feeding with a pole cup for accuracy but that just added to my time not catching so I changed to feeding by hand. I was so far behind at this stage it really made no real difference.  So we'd figured a few things out but we've still things to be sure about. Groundbait colour and the amount needed is next on the list, hopefully we'll get out again next weekend and we'll sort that out then.

Next time Rob gets the dodgy tactics.......

163 of the little beauties, top job