It started with a Perch....

Cuton Strikes Back

magicmaggot — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 06:56:00 +0000

Back to the old favourite, and yet again Cuton Lakes came up with the goods. 4 Smallish pike for Andy, two carp for me (17lb 4oz, 13lb 2oz), a nice bream, and loads of autumn sunshine – great! The stock carp in the specimen lake seem to be putting on weight nicely now and apparently quite a few are coming out well over the 20lb mark. I have also heard rumour that some of the lakes big originals have made an appearance recently…ssh!

Sunny Spain in September

magicmaggot — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 13:57:26 +0000

I don’t think I need to say any more than 1.5 days on the bank of the River Ebro – 76lb and 44lb cats for Andy, 67lb cat for me (On carp tackle!) and a 36lb common for Scott (His third ever fishing trip) plus numerous other smaller carp and a number of lost giants including a cat that smashed a 80lb hooklink with me holding Andy in order to stop him being pulled in!

A few good fish!

magicmaggot — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 11:13:38 +0000

The English summer has now passed in a blur of rain, wind and generally unpleasent weather. As usual Andy and I have only managed a few fishing trips during these supposedly warmer months and despite our best efforts have not caught any carp – well I haven’t anyway . That said we are becoming quite masterful specimen hunters of other species in the process; with Andy landing a near 12lb tench and me with a remarkable 11lb 4oz bream. I reckon we should try carp fishing one of our local rivers as I shudder to think how big the chub and barbel we will undoubtably catch might be! A montage of this spring and summers highlights:

Look what you could’ve won!

magicmaggot — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 09:13:41 +0000

Andy and I also managed to sneak in a couple of hours of fishing at Bovington 1 last Saturday. This time we had headed for Cuton Lakes but had been thwarted by an electricity telegraph pole that had blown across the road, so decided on Bovington at the last minute. Given the time limitations and very high winds we opted to fish the car park swim and sat in the boot of my estate car backed up to the lake so we overlooked the rods. When the full time whistle blew it was time for Kevin “I’m not very good” Keagan to celebrate his first win with Newcastle in a good few years and for us to pack up. I picked up my left hand rod first and wound down to a solid snag – great! After the usual tugging and teasing to try and free my rig I gave up and started to pull for a break, but just before the expected “crack” the resistance gave just a little bit. I wound up the tiny bit of slack but unfortunately everything was still solid and I pulled for a break once more, and again it gave slightly, however this time when I wound down the snag was on the move towards me. Then it started to move sideways and away from me again and it was apparent that the snag had come to life. After a fair bit of mucking about Andy managed to slip the net under a section of willow branch containing what appeared to be the contents of a tackle shop and a still very angry and soon to be liberated mirror carp. I have fished Bovington 1 about half a dozen times since joining CAPS and I have failed to catch a carp, so it was with a certain degree of irony that the first one was somebody else’s!

So if you have been fishing the car park swim at Bovington 1 lately and recognise the rig pictured below, look what you might have caught had you not jammed up the rubber sleeve over the safety clip on your bolt rig.

In like a lion, and out like a lamb?

magicmaggot — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 08:51:24 +0000

A successful fishing trip is a real tonic for your angling confidence and the fact I chose to visit CAPS’ Prestons Lake last weekend over the “safer bet” Cuton was certainly testament to this. The weather was rancid for a mid March Sunday morning and hardly conducive to enjoying the first signs of spring; although the low air pressure and corresponding strong south westerly wind looked liked it might be O.K for a spot of fishing. The lack of anglers on the lake suited me just fine as it allowed me to fish right in the teeth of the wind, where the breakers were crashing against the damn wall and once my brolly was positioned and secured I was quite happy peering out from my relative sanctuary at the ensuing maelstrom. I had positioned two of my baits strategically just short of the snaggy old stream bed that runs through the centre of the lake and one about ten feet from the bank where the waves were colouring up the water nicely.

I was happily lost in the fantastic imagery of river fishing for big perch courtesy of Chris Yates’ “How to fish”, when the middle “stream bed” rod reluctantly plodded off. Anyone familiar with fishing Prestons will be more than aware that it contains one or two bream, and my immediate suspicion was that this was what had picked up my honey yuctan boilie. So when a long lean low double common carp eventually rolled into my landing net along with both other lines generously gathered up for me I was pleasantly surprised. The rest of the day past with another couple of bream making an appearance, but catching any carp at all at this venue is a reasonable achievement.

A low double from Prestons

Treble Twenty (Part 5)

magicmaggot — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 08:12:09 +0000

The weather on Monday deteriorated rapidly and the wind was proving to be a real challenge for my now firmly battened down brolly. The evening passed without further disturbance and we both hit the sack early feeling duly tired from 3 nights under canvas. I was rudely awakened in the middle of the night by Andy’s bite alarm as the bobbin dropped to the floor, it was pouring with rain and the wind was blowing harder than before. Fortunately for Andy I had gone to bed with my all in one water proof thermal suite and boots on and was able to get to the rod in a matter of seconds. The alarm had now silenced and the bobbin was still flat on the floor as I picked it up and wound down the slack to find firm resistance at the other end. “Is it any good mate?” a voice enquired from within the warm dry interior of Andy’s bivvy, “Reckon so” I responded knowing that this was certainly bigger than his earlier tench. Thirty seconds later Andy was in the driving seat as the wind blasted the rain unsympathetically into our faces, this fish was a lot more compliant than the previous two and was soon in the net. I checked the time and it was 2am so decided not to disturb our neighbour again for his scales and I rummaged in my bag for our old spring balance. This common carp was the opposite in proportions to mine being short, and deep and it was no surprise when it pulled the balance down to 27lb, so allowing 1.5lb for the net Andy had beaten his personal best by 4.5lbs with a creditable 25lb 8oz.

Tuesday morning was again serenaded by Andy’s alarm, and yet another tench graced the unhooking mat. It had almost been forgotten that the primary reason behind this four day campaign was for Andy to catch a big pike, and each day he had studiously fished dead baits of differing size and species using every method in the book, and apart from a mysterious “one toner” that resulted in a strike into fresh air he hadn’t had a touch. So on Tuesday afternoon as we packed up he decided to give his spinning rod an airing and flicked a silver spoon out speculatively into the deep water, reeled back all of a few metres and he was in! A feisty jack pike was soon doing it’s best to tangle the lure, landing net and itself into an inseparable mass. Fortunately when it clamed down we were able to easily free the pretty little predator making a fitting end to a truly memorable fishing trip!

Thanks to all the staff at Linear Fisheries!

Treble Twenty (Part 4)

magicmaggot — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 07:03:06 +0000

The crystal clear water shelved very rapidly down to 9 or 10 feet in front of our swim and still quite deep in the water we could see a smallish looking carp spiritedly fighting away “Looks like a low double mate!” exclaimed Andy, as it continued to swim to my left and I applied side strain in response. However the battle had only just begun and the fish proceeded to stay deep swimming left and right in front of us, at some points pulling so hard that it took line before I could turn it. I was still under the impression that this was just a very angry low double and after 10 minutes Andy accused me of “milking it”, which in fact was quite the contrary as I was giving it a lot more stick than I would have done had I known the truth about the size of my opponent. When it eventually came to the surface we could see that it was in fact a common of considerably larger proportions than first thought, and as Andy strained to lift the newly occupied landing net, it looked like another personal best was definitely on the cards. We borrowed some accurate scales from the guy fishing two swims along from us and when they eventually settled on 28lb 8oz I was absolutely buzzing!

Monday morning arrived quickly and I opened my eyes and looked out on a beautiful frosty morning, feeling grateful for my four season sleeping bag. The majority of the night had been disturbed by the security alarm at the cement works, which had now been replaced by the chunnering of diesel engines as people arrived for work. Then for the first time in 50 hours one of Andy’s rods screamed off, and this time it was my turn for some netting duty. The culprit was an absolutely pristine almost luminescent tench of around 5lbs which looked fantastic in the early morning sun, and Andy would have to wait a bit longer for an encounter with the lakes larger inhabitants.

Treble Twenty (Part 3)

magicmaggot — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 06:40:39 +0000

My rods had been in their rests for all of five minutes and I was faffing around trying to get the bivvy up when the totally unexpected happened. In fact it was so unexpected after 36 hours of inactivity that it was Andy that alerted my attention to the fact that my right hand alarm was screaming and the bobbin dancing away as copious amounts of line span off the reel. Startled I grabbed the rod disengaged the bait runner spool and wound down to the reassuring solid plodding of a fish on the other end. At this point in the story it’s worth stating that my current personal best carp was around 16lb and it wasn’t immediately evident that whatever was on the other end was any bigger than that. As it steadily plodded in it felt heavy but didn’t take any line and I stated to my brother and the chap who’d joined us from the neighbouring swim that it might be a very big bream. At that very utterance it came to the surface in direct contradiction to my initial diagnosis and a beautiful long mahogany, chestnut and gold flank rolled just below the surface about thirty yards out. It was definitely a carp much bigger than any I’d caught before and my nerves started to kick in, “Please don’t let it come off” was the prevailing thought in my mind as it plodded around under the rod tip refusing to give up. After five minutes we lifted a long mirror carp onto the unhooking mat that was clearly 20lb plus, in fact 23lb and a new personal best and what a beauty!

Job done I would have been happy to have gone home on Sunday morning, but we still had two and a half days left so back out went the rods. The weather started to change that afternoon and we had a few hours rain, which eventually cleared early evening to reveal a superb display of stars as Andy cooked up dinner. After eating we sat out listening to the radio drinking a celebratory cider or two as the sky cleared completely and the temperature dropped rapidly. Then out of the blue bleeeeeep and my left hand rod was soon doubled in recognition of the solid resistance at the other end of the line, the bait had been positioned just off what appeared to be the edge of an old weed bed where Andy had seen a decent fish crash out during the day and what ever I’d hooked had swam straight into the remains of it. Fortunately for me the late winter weed had been a long time dead and it didn’t prove to be quite the sanctuary my quarry had hoped, and it was soon moving freely again, with much less resistance than before. The strange knocking sensation and lack of fight made me think that perhaps I’d hooked a big eel, and I wound down hurriedly to bring it to the waiting net, however for the second time that day I was very wrong and my 2.5 test blank begin to regain its test curve as the fish that had been swimming towards me started to kite to my right, and then back across in front of us into the light of Andy’s head torch….

23lb and a new PB!

Treble Twenty (Part 2)

magicmaggot — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 09:05:02 +0000

I had decided to opt for the more exposed of the two billets available – my already well used second hand Stealth Brolly that I purchased off E Bay last April. On the other hand Andy was cosily tucked away in the relative luxury of a fully enclosed JRC Bivvy complete with winter skin. The night had passed with only a few bleeps and peeps from our alarms probably signalling passing ducks or moorhens, and when the sun came up at about six and beamed straight into my rather exposed face I was eager to get the marker rod out and properly position my rods.

We had set up on the east or “social bank” of the lake and I placed my three different baits at different ranges to keep my options open. When Andy eventually emerged he set about switching all three of his carp rods over to dead baits, as was to be his strategy for the next four days. The day passed without so much as a sniff on any rod, but we kept ringing the changes and I set about baiting a few areas for the night – if we had nothing by morning we would move. A bad omen was England beating France in the Rugby as the last time this happened during the 2007 World Cup we were fishing Yateley South Lake and ended up blanking.

Sunday morning peered under my brolly without any sign of a fish and we discussed our options for moving. When we arrived all the swims on the favoured road bank had been taken apart from the one in the corner as you come through the gate which we neglected assuming that if it was any good it would be occupied on a Friday night. However Andy had been eye balling it all Saturday and as it remained vacant he wandered round with the marker rod for a closer look, and after a cup of coffee I loaded the trusty bank butler and we commenced moving. After five trips the job was done and I chucked out my three baited rods at random whilst I started to set up camp for the second time…

The view from the second swim.

Treble Twenty (Part 1)

magicmaggot — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 16:37:55 +0000

The winter seems to have flown by, and as we get our first glimpses of spring it’s hard to believe that I’ve been writing this blog for over a year now. Over the last eight weeks Andy and I have managed a few day trips to Cuton Lakes and as usual it hasn’t disappointed with both of us catching a few fish on each visit. However with Andy’s return to his adopted home of Australia fast approaching we have decided it’s time to up the angling stakes a bit.

We had been planning a lengthier fishing excursion for some time, giving consideration to numerous options including sturgeon fishing in Canada, a quest for Nile perch in Egypt and the universally popular carp fishing in France. However it soon became apparent that the rather exorbitant costs associated with the former two destinations would prove prohibitive, and we decided that France or perhaps the UK would be more realistic options. After much musing we decided to stay in England and go away for an extended weekend in February as this would allow Andy to pursue a long standing ambition of catching a big winter pike. The venue we had chosen was the well known day ticket fishery near Oxford; Linear Fisheries. The complex of varied lakes has a reputation for producing some big fish of all species throughout the year, and we thought that a few days on the banks of St Johns Pool or Hardwick would give us a good chance of a personal best each.

So with my old faithful Peugeot Estate packed to the nines with fishing tackle, bait, food, and plenty of warm clothing I braved the Friday afternoon traffic and set course for Brighton to pick up Andy. Having added a further 20 stone to my payload and completed a 230 mile round trip, at 9.30pm we eventually pulled into the Linear Fisheries car park. Tired but full of enthusiasm and expectation for the 90 hours of piscatorial indulgence ahead of us, we loaded up my “Super specialist bank butler” (Old Travis Perkins wheel barrow) for the final part of the journey back across the road and around the bank of St Johns Pool in search of a vacant swim to set up camp for the night. After the inevitable faff of setting up in the dark and blasting six rods into the relative unknown it was early Saturday morning before we were kicking back for a well earned night cap and a snooze.

A couple from Cuton Lake