Monday 23rd May Great Somerfords Moor lake
Ian had wanted to catch some tench and there cannot be a better water to fish then the Moor lake at Great Somerford. The lake is about 8 acres in size and produces plenty of tench to 8lbs. There is little weed but plenty of food for them to grow on. We agreed to meet near to the fishery. We were soon →
20th and 21st May Horseshoe lake
I was probably the first Tench Fisher up at 4am and I spombed out more hemp (about 1pint) and half pint of dead red maggots the 52 yds. I say the first up, at 2am something daft time Andy caught a splendid 10lbs 8oz tench. Brilliant! The surface of the lake was still in the first light. Straight away the diving birds bless them were →
Tench Fishers fish-in Horseshoe 19th-21st May
I had been looking forward to this session for ages. The Tench Fishers is a small group of very friendly anglers who get on so well for a single species group. The web site is friendly with no bitching, and is open and informative. The annual fish-in session was organised as per normal at the Carp Society Horseshoe lake. The fishery is →
A night with the Angling Stars June 4th
Just got my ticket to meet Famous Angling stars in a pub just up the road. Martin Bowler who lives near me has organised an event on 4th June. It's at the Crown Inn at Giddea Hall. It's in support of the MACMILLAN cancer support. Start at 2pm and finish at 11pm. There is BBQ and lots of fishing talk. Please contact →
A local lake Boyd Valley
I had arranged to meet Nick for a spot of carp fishing on a local lake only 1.5 miles away from home. Boyd lake is a small well stocked lake with carp up to about 16lbs. It's fed from a spring and it was lower than normal probably from the lack of rain we have had recently. There are roach, →
Back to business Horseshoe Lake 9th to 11th May
After enjoying the previous weekend fishing with the Kid's, it was time to get back to the pursuit of the large tench in Horseshoe. I got home at noon on Monday and was ready by 3pm for close to 48hrs fishing on Horseshoe. I arrived at 4pm and spoke to Miles and David in the office to see what had →
Centre Parcs Warminster May 7th and 8th
Well a little break was planned with some friends to travel just down the road to Warminster and stay at Centre Parc's. There are so many things to do it's difficult in fitting everything in. A few of the Kids in the party wanted to try some fishing in the lake. I've seen people fishing there before but never taken →
Star wars day May the 4th be with you! Horseshoe lake
What I find wonderful about fishing overnight is that you don't need an alarm clock to wake. I find the first bird to sing is the robin followed by the blackbird and then the song thrush. The crescendo from these birds is enough to wake anyone. Often you hear the cuckoo early too. He was there on my last visit and again this →
May 3rd Horseshoe lake
This was to be my first visit since just before Easter. It was said to me that there were only 2 swims available over the Easter period, I'm not sure but if it were true then the Carp Society did very nicely. It's good because they had a rather quite winter with the lake frozen and then the carp taking →
30th April Great Somerford Moor lake
I had promised Dave a session on the lake learning about some of the rigs and methods I use to catch the tench. From this he could practice this on the Frampton on Severn gravel pit he fishes. We met early at 6.30am on the bridge over the Bristol Avon at Great Somerfords. The gravel pit we were going to fish →
29th April Great Somerford Moor lake
The Royal day had arrived and I was up early to take advantage of the great day. My mate John was supposed to be at my place at 6.30am, he was early at 6.20am which gave us a head start to drive up to the lake. Six of us were having a wedding breakfast for the Royal couple, well not →
20th April Horseshoe lake more tench
I was up at 5am having had a good nights rest. There was a full moon but was just on the southerly horizon. There had not been a breath of wind all night or the early morning. The carpers had been very busy during the night with plenty of fish being caught. This early in the morning the lakes water felt →
19th April Horseshoe lake and tench at last
The weather had been warm for about a week now and I had thought about returning to Horseshoe lake in search of those large tench that thrive there. I was hoping that the gloopy weed that had driven me off last time had gone. I set off from home at 5.30am with the sky already lightening in the east. It just →
14th April a commercial break at Emerald Lake
John had been asking me to go fishing with him for ages. Somehow the time had not been right due to holidays for him and me fishing for the roach and starting tenching. He doesn't belong to any of the same clubs as me so we invariably end up at a commercial fishery. We both decided on Emerald Lakes at →
You gotta have some fun in fishing! Watch this!
Depending on your Internet speed you may want to pause it while it loads! Other wise it's a bit frustrating. Or once started change the 360 on the youtube bar at the bottom of the screen from 360p to 240p. It's only a bit of fun.
12th April Moor lake Great Somerford. 8 more tench
Well here we are again on Moor lake. I'm still waiting for Horseshoe to settle down. Probably might go next week. The weather was starting to cool down from the 20's over the weekend to about 15c. There was still plenty of sunshine and a brisk south western wind. I arrived at about 7.15am and made my way to the swim →
8th April Moor lake Great Somerford, tench at last.
I must admit last night I just threw the stuff in the garage and had a hot meal and a shower. I was tired from getting up at 5am and wasting a day on Horseshoe. Well it wasn't wasted it just wasn't productive. Today I thought about a leisurely start after breakfast and tidying things up. I opted to change from →
7th April Horseshoe lake
Well this was my first visit to Horseshoe for the tench fishing. A few had been coming out but in deeper water of 6 ft or so. However I decided because the temperature had been close to 20c for the last few days that I would try in summer bay to see if they had started to move in there. Arriving →
April 5th, 35lb common carp, 3lbs 12oz roach and 2lbs 12oz rudd
Well I wish I had caught these. But if you read my previous blog of March 28th (Aprils blog) you can see that Dougie had an awsome catch of speciemen fish from Willow. He kindly sent these on to enable me to put them on here. So well done Dougie top angling and top Bloke too. Click on the images below to enlarge
April 3rd grinding vitalin quickly
Vitalin as we know is a great basic ingredient for the method mix. I've got plans to use this on Horseshoe this year as the basic mix but add some molasses and other bits and pieces, mainly maggots corn and of course casters. The problem that people have is that it is time consuming doing it in a blender reducing the →
Willow lake 30th March four 3lb plus roach in just over 24hrs
Well after a few forecast showers during the night I was up and casting out at 5.45am. Hugh and Gary were about at the same time. The geese fight was still persisting on the island day and night. There was a slight breeze coming from the south but it was warm. The sky was clearish but rain was forecast for →
Willow lake 29th March, two 3lb plus roach
Now the Greylaged and Canada Geese fought it out all night for nesting rights on the island. Wasn't much difference than the day really. I woke with a slight frost on the bivvi at 5.45am and recast. The bobbins still super glued in place. The sun was up early and no sign of the rain forecast for the evening. There →
Willow lake 28th March
Well here I was with the last session on Willow lake in Oxfordshire home of some large roach. Previously I had caught a pb roach of 3lbs 10oz which is a pretty large roach. Setting off at 5.30am towards the lake it was a cloudless sky but still dark. Arriving at the lake at 6.45am and the sky lightening I could →
22nd March Tench preparation
Here it is 7 days and no fishing. Normally this time of year I'm sorting out tackle for the summer, getting reels repaired and serviced. I also re-spool my reels with new line ready for the off. Clean and put new batteries in the ATT alarms. My tench fishing will be on Horseshoe Lake at Lechlade. The water does through up →