The Return of Jack

Wednesday was the Rip Van Winkle silver fish open at White Acres and a match I was looking forward to. But when I looked out of the bedroom window all I really fancied was a duvet day! It was a complete white out with a very heavy frost. If I didn’t have to drop my daughter at school I could have been tempted to have another hour or two. When I got there I was surprised to see around 15 anglers in the car park which is good turnout for midweek, but with such good fishing I am a little surprised that there are not a few more. The match was to be split between the Match Lake and Jennies and I really fancied the high bank, it seems a long time since I was last there. The bag of dreams was good to me and out came flyer peg 25, I had a little bit of stick from the organiser Rip Van Hull, but he trusted my drawing arm and asked me to pull one out from him, I obliged with peg 7 on Jennies. I was pleased it wasn’t my peg; I needed the change, I have been in that area a fair bit recently. The lake looked fantastic, a hint of mist over the water and frost everywhere. Fish were topping all over the lake, and they looked like they were big roach with the odd skimmer thrown in for good measure. I think we all couldn’t wait to get started. For me it was going to be pole and it was going to be shallow. My first rigs were two J10c 4 x 12 floats for fishing caster shallow, they had a .12 hook length to a size 18 t213 hook. Just in case, I set up a deep rig which was a Cralusso Capri .5 gram float to fish in the deep water. I also had an edge rig to target those VIP’s which comprised of a J1 4 x 12 float, t213 size 16’s hook. At the start I fed 4 balls of ground bait containing casters and a few worms at 7m and started loose feeding casters by hand down the edge. I also loose fed casters at 13m and started fishing there shallow. There from the start I had a bite first drop in and a 1 oz roach was the culprit caught at about 18’’ deep. The next 15 minutes or so produced around 20 similar sized fish, the size was a little disappointing but I kept on with it as not much else was been caught around me. After an hour or so fish were still coming very quickly and there were a few better samples starting to show. I could see Harry a few pegs to my left catching skimmers on his deep rig. I was chatting to ‘8mm Lazell’ who was fishing the feeder in my swim to the left, he was hoping to find some F1’s he told me that he thought Harry may be slightly in front, but it was close. At around that time I hooked a bream of around 1 ½ lb which really kept me interested! The match went on catching at the same rate with all different sized fish, mainly roach with the odd roach bream hybrid and Rudd. In fact it only slowed when I had a go over my deep rig to see if there was anything feeding over the ground bait. I didn’t give it very long as I got no immediate bites and to keep in touch with the other anglers in the section I felt I needed to be feeding the net. The edge as well In the last 30 minutes I had a look on my edge line and there were fish there, small roach were coming every drop and as it was fishing to hand, I stuck with it. The good thing was I managed a couple of 1lb plus Perch and a 1 ½ lb bream which was a nice end to the match. I have had some great fishing recently but this match has to go down as one of the best. Middle of January and I recorded 44lb 3oz of silvers! Harry had 41lb for second on the lake; he caught mainly skimmers and a few perch brilliant fishing. Overall the match was won by Rip Van Hull who had 45lb of F1 carp caught on the feeder from peg 7, Oh man two good draws in the same match, just hope I don’t use all my luck drawing for somebody else! Individual League With White Acres fishing brilliantly, Sunday just could not come quick enough, but there was a wicked frost every morning and by Friday there were rumours that it was freezing over again. Not what you want to hear when it’s all fish count, no doubt it was going to shoal those carp up again. Fortunately the ice had all gone by Sunday and that meant 36 happy anglers at the draw. Pegs on the Match Lake, Jennies and Trelawney were in the hat. I ended up towards the rear of the queue and was happy enough with my draw of end peg 13 on the Match Lake. The peg had won the previous round with silvers but you were going to need some carp to win the match today. All the league leaders had drawn good pegs, Harry Billing had drawn peg 7 on Jennies where Tyrone won the Wednesday match with 45lb from.  Andy Partridge was on peg 24 on the Match Lake and Clint Elliot had drawn the best of all with end peg 21 on Trelawney so it was going to be an interesting match. A repeat performance? Naturally I hoped that I could catch some fish up in the water after Wednesdays match but the frosts had taken their toll and the colour had dropped out of the water. I was ever hopeful as the first two rigs set up were my shallow rigs. In fact I set the same tackle up as Wednesday but I also set up a straight lead rod to fish towards the island hoping for a carp or two. My main line was at 13m and at the start I fed this swim positively with four balls of ground bait containing some worms and casters. Loose fed casters went down the side hopefully to encourage some of those big old perch. I also loose fed the pole line and that’s where I started, fishing shallow. After 5 minutes without a bite it was clear it wasn’t going to be a repeat of Wednesday! I had a cast just short of the point of the island with a 6mm pellet and a T bag. I left this for around 15 minutes without so much as a liner. That told me all I needed to know and that rod was up the bank. I had to concentrate on the long pole. Pole only from now on After a few minutes on the pole I noticed Tyrone next to me on peg 14 strike into a fish. I was interested on seeing what it was, and was pleased to see him net an 8oz skimmer. I looked back to see my float dip, it was also a skimmer but around a pound, a nice start. The next 90 minutes was good with a few more skimmers of varying sizes coming to the net, best bait was worm but I had a few on maggots. With 2 ½ hours gone I lifted into a bite and a load of elastic came out of the pole tip. I joked with Tyrone that it was one of the new Barbel that had just been put into the lake. I was hoping it was, as we had a side bet on the first one to be caught! In the end a big Perch of around 2lb surfaced and I was pleased to put the net under it, a very nice fish but it didn’t have Rip Vans nugget attached to it! Carp showing The catch rate really slowed down between the 3 rd and 4 th hour with just the odd small roach putting in an appearance. I had tried shallow several times and my edge but nothing was showing, those frosts had really had an effect but to say it had been so cold the lake was fishing very well. Looking up the lake, along the high bank I could see a few carp making an appearance. Some anglers having two and three carp on the lead. ‘Wrong Lake’ on 26 had five in the net and I was thinking they were all knocking me down a few places. The end of the match came with a flurry of skimmers I had three or four in the last 15 minutes, probably the fading light spurring a few on the feed. I had drawn scales and was first to weigh, I was pleased with my 33lb of silvers, it was more than I expected. I was even more pleased to find it was top weight on the lake, just edging out Andy Stevenson by a pound. The better news for me was that it put me third overall behind ‘Tourettes Taylor’ who had 36lb and match winner Clint Elliot who romped the match by a country mile with 71lb of carp and F1’s. The fishing at White Acres has been absolutely fantastic during the winter period, with another month or so of our league to run we are all hoping to have a few more good days fishing before it is handed over to residents. This week’s top six 1 st Clint Elliott Preston Innovations 71lb 1oz 2 nd Nigel Taylor Kernow Match Group 36lb 5oz 3 rd Stewart Lister SPRO 33lb 0oz 4 th Andy Stevenson White Acres 32lb 0oz 5 th John Rennie White Acres 30lb 4oz 6 th Trevor Conroy Kernow Match Group 29lb 2oz League positions after round 9 of 15

Posted on January 25, 2011 Filed Under Fish, Fishing | Leave a Comment

Top 10 Bass Fishing Lakes in Arkansas

Explore the top ten bass fishing lakes in Arkansas that every bass fisherman should visit.

Posted on January 25, 2011 Filed Under Fish, Fishing, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

Bristol Channel Ventures

Wayne Thomas ventures to Ilfracombe, North Devon, in search of cod, huss, spurdog and possibly a big conger or two aboard charter boat, Jay Jay.

Posted on January 24, 2011 Filed Under Fishing Diary, Sea Fishing, Sea Holidays | Leave a Comment

River too high to fish? Head for a local lake – Fishing Blog – The …

There are some good options for anglers who want to get out, but it doesn’t look like the rivers are among them. Just as the stream-flow charts were reaching normal levels, they all started rising again Friday. Spencer Lake in Mason …

Posted on January 24, 2011 Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

Mali Fishing Video: Fishermen Clear Lake In Minutes

Everyone loves something they can’t have, even if it’s a wriggling fish in the mouth.

Posted on January 24, 2011 Filed Under Fish, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

Donde se puede coger 14 carpas más de 20kg en una semana?

Más información aqui: Artículo GRATIS desde la revista CARPdiem número 11. Descargar y disfrutar.

Posted on January 23, 2011 Filed Under Fish, Fishing | Leave a Comment

Tips To Catching A Barracuda

Looking for a new hobby? Try barracuda deep sea fishing. Nothing is more exciting than the battle between man and fish on a nice cool sunny day out on the ocean. Fishing for Barracuda is one of the most popular sporting options on the great ocean water. Today we offer you some tips to catching

Posted on January 23, 2011 Filed Under Fish, Fishing, Lake Fishing, Sea Fishing | Leave a Comment

Photos: New Giant "Bearded" Crayfish Species

Scientists have found a unique new species of crayfish in Tennessee and Alabama that is twice the size of other crayfish in the southeastern U.S.

Posted on January 22, 2011 Filed Under Fish, Fishing, Sea Holidays | Leave a Comment

NorCal Fishing News: Guided Ice Fishing offered at Caples, Red Lake

Tahoe Fly Fishing Outfitters in South Lake Tahoe is putting down the flies and breaking out the ice augers.

Posted on January 22, 2011 Filed Under Fish, Fishing, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

Georgia’s Fish Museum Turns Into Budgetary Debacle

While no one should doubt the value of encouraging citizens to fish, Georgia residents will be feeling the pinch of their state’s $14 million fishing museum until at least 2026. That’s how long it will take the state to pay off the bonds issued to fund former Gov. Sonny Perdue’s “Go Fish” project — which happens to be in the politician’s home town. “With a large state deficit looming, Go Fish has become a cautionary tale about the long-term ramifications of prerecession decisions. The state must make bond payments for the museum for the next 16 years. Meanwhile, cuts are being proposed to the state’s college scholarship program, health care and the prison system .” Robbie Brown in The New York Times . (Thanks to Ron Swegman for this link.)

Posted on January 21, 2011 Filed Under Fish, Fishing | Leave a Comment

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