On The Beck

Spent Sunday with Phil n Mike ,with rain falling through the week a spot of still water fly fishing was a nice way to spend the day while the rivers are flooded. It was a lot warmer than our last visit but the fishing was quite hard . I only managed to land one fish and lost a couple more, still good to be out . This year I hope my Dad wll be up to getting back on the bank with me , I have not been fishing with him for two years in this time he has had two new hips . Just writing this brins back great times I’ve spent with him from being a little lad he was and is my best mate ,to spend time with him by the water will be great ……. also I can blog about all the fish he wont catch !!!!

Posted on January 29, 2009 Filed Under Fish, Fishing | Leave a Comment

Cheap Fishing Gear

If you are a mad keen fisherman (or woman), then you want the best fishing gear available. But, it can be quite pricey if you shop in the wrong stores. Thankfully, there are a few online stores that offer fishing gear at very reasonable prices. In this post, I will tell you just where to find cheap fishing gear. It is possible to save hundreds of dollars every year by finding cheap fishing gear stores online. For Australians, try the Fishing Tackle Shop to get some of the cheapest fishing gear on the market. They have great deals on tackle, lures, rods, reels, sunglasses, wetsuits and so much more. If you know another fisherman who needs some gear, buy them a gift voucher. For all the Americans out there, try Fishing Tackle Unlimited . They usually have the best prices of any online store. You can pick up some books, DVD’s, shirts, tools, hooks, nets and lights. There is also the usual tackle, lures, rods and reels. You can pay with most major credit cards and have the cheap fishing gear delivered to your door!

Posted on January 28, 2009 Filed Under Fish, Fishing, Sea Fishing | Leave a Comment

Carp Fishing Tackle Review – Kryston Silkworm

I first started using kryston silkworm in 1994!. At the time, I’d moved onto a small north wales club water that had a pretty severe weed problem. Prior to fishing this club water I was quite happy with my merlin/multistrand combi link, I was catching a lot of fish on the combi link but when I came up against the weed I started to struggle a little. The weed I was fishing in was silkweed and a hooklength material like multi-strand was a complete nightmare when fishing in it. As the strands separated the last few inches of my rig would get clogged with silkweed and clearing the weed off my rig became a real problem. Once the fibres of multi-strand were damaged the last few inches of my rig would be weakened and I just couldn’t risk a loss of breaking strain, after all, those last few inches of your rig down to the hook are vitally important!. Krytson Silkworm, use it with confidence! I was desperate for an answer to the multi-strand and silkweed problem so I began to look at alternative hooklength materials. At the time one particular braided hooklink material seemed to be very popular and it seemed to be standing head and shoulders above everything else, that hooklength was the famous kryston silkworm. I had nothing to loose so I went out and bought silkworm in a couple of different breaking strains. The one I eventually settled on was the 25lb version and the day I bought my first spool started a long association with kryston silkworm that is still going strong today!. I could make a few quotes about kryston silkworm based on the information on the kryston website but this is a blog and I’m reviewing silkworm based on my own findings. Nearly 16 years after I first used kryston silkworm I’m still on the very same hooklength material. Yes I’ve tried other materials for short periods but carp fishing is about confidence and I keep coming back to the products I find the most reliable and I promise you, kryston silkworm is one of the very best, it’s just a superb hooklength material. Lovely Capesthorne hall carp that fell to kryston silkworm I like 25lb silkworm because its so supple, coated braids seem to be all the fashion in carp fishing at the moment and yes, they work very well but they lack the suppleness that allows for a more natural movement of your hookbait and for me, this natural movement is a big plus because I want my hookbait to behave as naturally as possible when a carp sucks and blows at the bait. I believe carp reject your hookbait because they’ve worked out that its attached to something and without suppleness this is far easier for them to do hence me preferring silkworm over a more popular coated braid. Not only is silkworm supple, its actually quite thick in diameter compared to most hooklength materials and I think this thickness is actually a benefit if your using it as part of a basic knotless knot setup. Used in conjunction with a nice down turned eye hook like the kamasan b175, kryston silkworm helps create an extremely effective carp rig that turns and hooks carp easily. Use with a pva stringer or mesh bag to avoid the odd tangle The only problem I’ve had with silkworm is the odd tangle, tangles can be reduced by using a coated braid but you also loose the suppleness of your hooklength thats so important. The answer to tangles with silkworm is to use a pva stringer or mesh bag, pva is quite cheap these days and theres a link to Mo’s Co in the recommended sites section of this blog, buying from mo is cheaper than paying top price for your pva in the tackle shop, ditto for kryston silkworm, i buy mine from ebay to save money!. 20lb 8oz mirror from 1994/5, silkworm proved to be superb for fishing in weed! Silkworm certainly helped me unlock that small north wales club water all those years ago, being braid it was easier to get the silkweed off my rigs without damaging them and being so strong I had no problem landing all of my fish from some very weedy areas. Any doubts I had about silkworm rapidly disappeared and my confidence in this hook length material is now so great that I just don’t bother fishing with anything else. I took most of the residents of capesthorne hall on 25lb silkworm and capes is one of the most pressured carp waters I’ve ever fished!. I also use silkworm when I visit heavily pressured day ticket waters like linear fisheries and yateley sandhurst lake . Silkworm has worked brilliantly on all of these waters and a whole host of others too. If you’re just starting out in carp fishing and are confused by all the different materials available to make carp rigs, try kryston silkworm!, I promise you it really is one of the best hooklength materials out there.

Posted on January 27, 2009 Filed Under Fish, Fishing, Fishing Report | Leave a Comment

It’s a bit like waiting for a bus…

Murloc fishery 24th January With the temperature rising, albeit barely, I figured a spot of fishing was in order. As Wifey was heading across town this gave me a perfect excuse to have a go at Murloc Angling and Rural Pursuits Centre. I’ve had a brief scouting opportunity here but this would be the first time fishing in Aghalee. I’ll be moving house nearby soon so it would be great to check out my new local fishery. A quick chat to the bosses and a bite to eat and I was soon on the water. Fred had filled in me in on a couple of possible tactics and also informed that an angler had just managed to catch 20 fish during the morning, things were looking promising. Even so, after an hour of nothing I had settled myself into accepting the fact this could be quite a slow day for me. Soon after, Fred joined me to see how i was getting on, we talked through the rig I was using, apps bloodworm and black buzzer under a small bung, and he seemed sure that I was using the right tactics. It became clear what was going on after he twice noticed the bung going under in a very short space of time, true to form I hadn’t noticed either take. Oops. The fish were taking the flies so gently the bung was just dipping under the water. It wasn’t long after I started striking at the slightest movement that i started getting into the fish, although even though I was getting bites I still couldn’t strike fast enough to set the hook. I moved up a size of bung to let me see it more clearly and was advised by the ever helpful Fred to move to a better position and it wasn’t long before i was into a fish. After striking and having a few nervous seconds praying the fish wouldn’t slip off like it’s brothers, it became clear the fish was securely caught and I could start bringing him in. Within a few yard off the jetty it started getting a bit more complicated, I couldn’t get him any closer to me to land him. As usual Fred and Fly were on hand to help as Fred grabbed a landing net it soon became clear why i was struggling to move such an average sized fish. There was a Monstrous Leviathan attached to the point fly. Yay a double Hookup! After quickly detaching the first fish from the line we manged to net the Biggest rainbow I have seen live, let alone caught. Fred assures me it was well over 3lbs, although if i was to use my tried and tested fishing measuring ability I would say that it was surely over 20lbs. This was definitely the spot. Fred had positioned me over a deep hole where the trout were sheltering from the cold. After the excitement of a double hookup I needed a quick cup of tea so i retired back the lodge. In the meantime we directed another frozen fishless angler to the same spot and sure enough he was almost straight onto the trout. After warming up in Murloc’s luxurious log cabin I was back onto the jetty fishing over the same spot as before. And sure enough the rest of the day was spent with plenty of rod bending action. A big thank you to Fred and his wife and of course Fly the springer for such a wonderful day, I can’t wait to frequent Murloc more often. inspired by my successful days fishing, that night i spent a couple of hours sorting out the crap in my portable ashtray and used line holder fly fishing vest. As you can see i tend to carry far too much stuff around in it No wonder i can’t find anything. Annoyingly once everything was sorted out, the jacket felt heavier than it was when i started. Also judging by the rate I’ve been buying tackle over the winter it could be set to become even heavier.

Posted on January 25, 2009 Filed Under Fish, Fishing, Fishing Diary | Leave a Comment

Well worth waiting for

The chairman’s letter confirming I had been accepted into the B.C.S.G also reminded me of the need for us to supply material for “The Carp” he said it didn’t need to be of a technical nature, whew, glad about that. The letter did however suggest sending in a picture of a good fish and a letter describing its capture and the circumstances leading up to it, so here goes. The fish is a lovely Common of 27lb 12oz caught from Englefield Lagoon in late April 2004 and is one of the most satisfying captures I have ever made. Now the problems start because the more I think about it the more I realise that it is not that simple. The circumstances leading to that capture take me back to that eventful day 30 odd years ago that was to shape my fishing life for ever. Who would believe that a quiet evenings Tench fishing would result in a life long Carp angler. I had arrived at Cottage Lane, 4 small lakes controlled by Reading & District that provided excellent mixed fishing for all. My tackle was a home made 12ft float rod, Mitchell reel loaded with 4lb line straight through, bait was sweet corn that had soured. Over the course of the next few hours I was to land 11 Carp to 16lb and lose 5 others, to say I was hooked is an understatement. The next couple of years saw me at the lakes at every opportunity learning my trade and catching some good fish to low 20s. Being fortunate enough to live in an area that has a multitude of waters within easy reach has always been a bonus and enabled me to fish a fair variety of waters. So from Cottage lane we moved onto Orchid Lake in Oxfordshire, night fishing was syndicated so initially we could only fish days. Now this was a different ball game all together, low stocks and high natural food meant that we struggled big time that first year then our luck changed as we were invited to join the night syndicate. Life became a little easier as people talked to us and pointed us in the right direction and catches started to come our way culminating in the 31lb 11oz fully scaled that can be seen in, “Then & Now”. Over time we fished many local lakes including the Yateley complex but always came back to Reading & District waters as they controlled several excellent and challenging waters including Englefield Lagoon that held and still holds some very big fish. And there starts another story which I will only touch on briefly at this time. The big issue with Reading & District at the time was that it only had one lake on which it allowed night fishing so I approached the Association with a view to setting up night fishing on its suitable venues. The outcome of this was that I became heavily involved in the administration side of angling for the next 20 plus years setting up what is now a very successful Specimen Group and taking on various other roles culminating in my becoming Fisheries Officer for Reading & District. The creation of the Specimen Group enabled many of the Associations members including myself to extend our Carp Fishing activities onto a number of other venues including Englefield Lagoon. Work commitments meant that I only dabbled on the lagoon until a few years ago when I was put in the envious position of being able to retire at the ripe old age of 52. My commitment to the Association increased around this time as I took over the role of Fisheries Officer but late Feb 2004 saw a baiting campaign being planned and put into practice. The previous year had seen an area that had previously been out of bounds due to the power lines become available for fishing as the lines went underground and this was the area we concentrated on. As we steadily applied the bait we could see the fish becoming more and more confident until we had over a dozen fish regularly visiting the area to feed and by late April we could hold back no longer and our first trip was planned. I arrived at the lake early afternoon and got set up, as everything was quiet I put out a little bait and got my mates bivvy up as he could not get down until after work. I cast out around 4.00pm, one rod at about 80yrds just off a gap in the shrubs etc that grew out in the water and one rod at about 10yrds close to the roots of the vegetation to my left. This area of the lake was just like a Mangrove Swamp, probably why the fish liked the area with such a safe and convenient bolt hole to hand. The third rod would be a roaming rod fishing more to the main part of the lake to try and pick up the odd fish as they came and went from the area. Now it was a case of sitting back nice and quietly as fish had started to come within a foot of the bank. It was satisfying that after so many years of dabbling and playing about on the venue we had now embarked on a serious campaign, and as I sat there absorbed in my daydreams the left hand indicator screamed into life. As I lifted into the fish I knew it was a good one and the nerves began to jangle as my, at this point, unseen quarry did every thing in its power to get back into the Mangrove. The line sang as I held on for dear life, this one was not getting away, very gradually the fish moved away from danger and into the more open water from were I was able to play it to the net. By this time the light was starting to fade and as I lifted the net and fish onto the waiting unhooking mat I had still not seen it. My hands shook as I peeled back the net and shone the torch onto this glorious fish, my first from the Lagoon, a pristine common weighing in at 27lb 12oz to say I was over the moon would be an understatement. I was still shaking 45 minutes later when my mate arrived and did the honours with the camera. What a way to start a campaign, since that first session we have caught a number of good fish and will continue fishing the venue for some time to come as we have seen some very large fish to keep fishing for. The nice thing about the venue is that these lovely creatures do not all have names, most have never been caught and that’s the challenge that keeps us going back. Tight Lines Ralph Dennett Reading Berks

Posted on January 17, 2009 Filed Under Fish, Fishing | Leave a Comment

49th Chain O Lakes Ice Fishing Derby and results

FOXLAKEFISHING http://foxlakefishing.com/forum/index.php This is the results for the 49th chain o lakes Ice fishing derby Musky ——No legal caught Northern Pike Large    34       Ray Winkowski Small    25      Kyle. Miller Walleye Large   17  7/8    Steven Heelein Small   14   1/8    Jarod Fires Bass-large and small mouth Large    20 3/8    Joe Vermillion Small    14 3/8    Dayton Beyer Catfish Large   28       Chris Zahn Small   18 ½    Nate Lubkeman Crappie Large   14       Lonnie Luberman Small     4       Ray Winkowski Striped/bass Large  16       Jeff Parsons, Jr. Small  10 ½       Dayton Beyer Perch Large    9  7/8    Nick Seamon Small    3       Mitch Young Bullhead Large   No entry Small   No entry Bluegill/sunfish/rock bass Large    9 ¼        T. J. Foss Small   2 7/8       Ray Winkowski

Posted on January 15, 2009 Filed Under Fish, Fishing, Lake Fishing | Leave a Comment

Fly fishing substitution

Okay I know i’ve posted this before, but after spending a great deal of time trying to substitute real life fishing with youtube videos. I still rate this as my favorite. I hope to get out soon, I’m going a bit cabin crazy without regular fishing expoits.

Posted on January 15, 2009 Filed Under Fish, Fishing, Fishing Diary | Leave a Comment

Solid Silver

I knew today that I had some free time the question where to spend it . Mike had been out Saturday with Phil but the -5 temps made the fishing hard. The weather had warmed over night and we had the first lite rain for weeks. My first thoughts was to make a trip to the Dane, it takes me a good half hour along the M6 and with the low temps and clear water I had a feeling the going would be tough . I have had some nice fish off the local brook , the recent good Roach on caster was still at the back of my mind. So when Pete rang to say he was ”playing out” my mind was made up. The last time I fished maggot I found a switch to caster brought me more fish, this was because I hid the hook in the hard shell , I think the Roach have been taking loose feed all the times I’ve fished but seeing the hook avoided my attempts to catch them . I looked hard for a fine hook and the one I chose allowed me to hide the hook very well. I also decided to fish small in every way, I took the smallest stick float and cut the stem down, this float needs 2 no4 shot, I use Styl shot on the fine line, low diameter lines are pre stretched mono and the slightest damage weakens them. The Styl shot is best, another advantage you can move it up and down your line very easily ,if a fish runs into a snag the shot moves avoiding lost fish. I also used some of the new 0.08 hook-length which as a good breaking point of nearly 3lb . While doing this Mike rang to say he would meet us for a few hours. Mike was fishing the spot which had brought us fish recently ,today they had moved . Even though little rain had fell the water had rose and also carried some colour. So the hunt was on. I commented to Mike how the spot upstream where the river narrows may be worth a cast. We both had a Roach each before I tried it. The Roach seemed to be lined up for me a succession of ”solid silver” winter Roach followed. Some of these fish must be approaching a pound Mike thought he had left is scales in the car, when we got back he found them in his pocket …. ah well . This set up makes such a big difference, I have had quite a few Roach over the last few months ,now with the new approach I’m sure my catch rate will increase greatly. On the river Dane quite a few years ago I had some cracking Roach I used this method but with caster to great success .On my recent visits no Roach so this tactic may well be the secret. I then got a little Perch followed by a better one which I lost .If the weather stays a wee bit warmer the next week or so should be interesting .

Posted on January 11, 2009 Filed Under Fish, Fishing, Fishing Diary | Leave a Comment

Sea Kittens? More PETA Nonsense

Just received this from Ian James : “Just when you thought you had seen it all… On January 11th, I was giving a quick talk at the Zone J section of the O.F.A.H (Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters) here in London. At the meeting I heard the term “Sea Kitten.” The good folk at PETA have started a campaign to have fish renamed as sea kittens. If you don’t believe me, here is a quote from the PETA web site. “Of course, if you look at it another way, what all this really means is that fish need to fire their PR guy—stat. Whoever was in charge of creating a positive image for fish needs to go right back to working on the Britney Spears account and leave our scaly little friends alone. You’ve done enough damage, buddy. We’ve got it from here. And we’re going to start by retiring the old name for good. When your name can also be used as a verb that means driving a hook through your head, it’s time for a serious image makeover. And who could possibly want to put a hook through a sea kitten?” If you still don’t believe me, click the link, and while you are there, you can create your own sea kitten. No guff! I just know that this is going to drive up the price of Friskers cat food as this, and the Cat’s Whisker fly pattern, will be the only two items which will be productive on the sea kittens. Still, I dare say that if I keep a bit of fur on my sea kitten fillets, it will help to prevent freezer burn. learn more … http://www.peta.org/sea_Kittens/about.asp “ I have no comments – at this time.

Posted on January 11, 2009 Filed Under Fish, Fishing, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

How To Catch 20-30 Salmon per Day

How To Catch 20-30 Salmon Per Day Maybe someday I’ll write a book where I’ll lay out in point by point detail the all the necessary factors to catch more salmon in one day than most people catch in a year. But to lay this all out in detail might take a larger manuscript than even the Bible. There are so many variables and nuances to the art of salmon fishing, it would be like writing a book on how to play golf. You can read all that has been written on the subject, but there is no substitute for experience and raw talent. So I’ll spare you the manuscript on the finer points of salmon fishing, and give you the three steps necessary to catching 20-30 plus salmon per day. I warn you though, it’s pretty insightful stuff. If you miss any of these steps… , the success of your fishing expedition will be in jeopardy. OK, here it is. Step 1. Go to the right place Step 2. Go at the right time Step 3. Go with the right guy THE RIGHT PLAC E There you have it. Having fished the west coast of North America for the last 30 years has given me a pretty good handle on where to find the best salmon fishing. Of course it’s not limited to just one area, but I do have my favorites. Vancouver Island ’s west coast is a super highway for salmon from thousands of rivers and streams from central California to Alaska . THE RIGHT TIME Depending on the species of salmon you wish to catch, contact us for best times. Generally, the second half of July through the end of August is prime time for Chinook salmon. August through September is best for Coho or Silver salmon. Contact us for more detailed salmon run analysis for the coming year. THE RIGHT GUY Often the right guy will have recent pictures of fish on their website. If you see many pictures THAT AREN’T DATED, chances are they are quite a few years old and do not relay the current fishing conditions in the area. We try to post pictures on the fishing reports over the whole summer to let prospective guests see that they have a great chance of getting a well deserved fishing trip.

Posted on January 5, 2009 Filed Under Fish, Fishing, Fishing Diary, Fishing Report | Leave a Comment

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