Thursday 26 April 2012

A little poetry....

This first poem I wrote a while back about my favourite place...Redmire Pool.


In the beautiful rolling borderlands of England and Wales, lies a Carp fishing flagship, complete with sails.
A Mecca for many from days gone before, to go down in specimen hunting folklore.
Just a farm pond of three acres in size, a place of sheer beauty, a sight for sore eyes.
It started way back before world war broke out, 50 small fish from a farm that sold Trout.
Slowly they grew into Carp to behold, Mirrors of chestnut, Commons of gold.
The legends of old were true pioneers; they moulded our sport through the forthcoming years.
Bob Richards was first to discover the pool, he knew all too well he’d discovered a jewel.
The cane rod arched over, the battle took place and the fish tore off with incredible pace.
Line he gained back on the spool of his reel, soon he was fetching the gaff from his creel.
A new record Carp and the world had been rocked, the secrets of Redmire had just been unlocked.
Ingham and Walker were next on the scene, never before were two anglers so keen.
They started so quickly to get off the mark, twas Maurice’s rod that took on the arc.
A 28 pounder was hoisted ashore, a wonderful start but they both longed for more.
Walkers turn next in the old Willow pitch; his heart skipped a beat as his line gave a twitch.
The hook driven home the water exploded, his trusty mark 4 test curve fully loaded.
With both angler and fish now reaching exhaustion, the netting was tackled with ultimate caution.
A fish so immense its bulk was unreal, his breathing still heavy from his recent ordeal.
Another new record, how could this be true; a Carp called Clarrissa sent a Zoo.
At 44 pound could there really be more, two records in two years never witnessed before.
Eddie’s monster the talk of the town, the Bishop’s first capture the gauntlet laid down.
Tom Mintram, John Nixon the list grew and grew, Jack Hilton, Bill Quinlan the talented few.
At the forefront of angling the pool then remained, the Carp were outwitted as knowledge was gained.
Yatesy and Hutchy arrived the same day, to show how to catch them in their special way.
Up in the shallows was where Chris could be found, always the stalker not making a sound.
Obsessive, eccentric, a little bit mad, and an uncanny knack for location he had.
His cane and his pen were his fondest of friends, and two grains of sweetcorn where the great Carp upends.
His line starts to move the hook is struck home, the Bishop’s sheer power turns water to foam.
All the while praying his knots would hold strong, his body exhausted the fight took so long.
But finally over the mesh slid his prize, it was then that they realised the extent of its size.
Another new record of that they were sure, long live Redmire forever more.



This next one is a take on William Wordsworth's "I wandered Lonely as a Cloud"

I wandered elegantly as a quill
That floats on high o'er brooks and streams,
When all at once my quill stood still,
An eddy, of golden hopes and dreams;
Beside the river, beneath the clouds,
Fluttering and dancing away from crowds.

Continuous as the roach that shimmer
And twinkle on their gravelly bed,
They feed until the day grows dimmer,
Along the margin full of dread:
For big pike saw I at a glance,
Tossing its fins in sprightly dance.

The roach beside them danced, but they
Out-foxed the jaws of certain danger;
The colossal pike sought out its prey,
In in search of silver, toothy river ranger!
I gazed—and gazed—the scene unfolds
A tapestry of greens, reds and golds:

For oft, when on my creel I sit
In vacant or contemplative mood,
But for now dry fly bumps across the grit
No time now for idle interlude;
My basket with sparkling brook trout fills,
I wander lonely homeward through the daffodils.



Wednesday 25 April 2012

Another update...

Well the weather here has been nothing short of terrible; even if I had planned to fish I fear it would have been a wash out. As it happens it’s been a busy time what with preparing everything for this weekend’s France trip, and it’s very close now with the ferry leaving Portsmouth at 11pm on Friday.
I spoke to the fishery owner, Jon, yesterday and was informed that there is nobody fishing this week. Not sure how that will effect fishing. No bait going in could make them hungry and eager for a few boilies, and that’s where I come in. I made a few kilos of small baits to take, and all told I have around 35 kilo’s to take, I’m told that when they switch on at this time of year it can go crazy. The previous two weeks saw fish, but not many. Having said that, there were some monster carp caught including a new lake record of 48lb 2oz!! That’ll do……….
From what I’m told, speaking to others who have fished there, both in the past and recently, it’s a wonderful place to be, secluded, pretty, and Jon is the perfect host. I must say Friday, although only a couple of days away can’t come soon enough.

I think I will be hosting a live blog on www.carp-forums.com updating every few hours and giving news on how things are going. I'll post up the exact link once it has been set up.....
For a look at the venue log onto www.moulicent.co.uk

Thursday 19 April 2012

A little update...

Well I have nothing much to report on the fishy front I’m afraid, a bad back caused by lifting things incorrectly at work meant that last weekend was spent resting up, thinking about fishing, but not actually doing any. I have, however, been preparing things for forthcoming trips, namely France next weekend. Rob and I are due to set sail on Friday 27th and are spending a week at the beautiful Moulicent in Normandy. And I have to tell you, I really can’t wait. Everything is just about ready, lists checked and double checked, but the time is really dragging now that’s it’s getting so close.

There have only been two parties on so far this year as the place is closed over the winter period, and so far things are fishing quite slowly, although the odd fish is coming out and at a great average weight. The weather conditions aren’t helping with rain and temps of minus one overnight, so I guess winter tactics are still the way forward. But looking at long range forecasts we could be in luck for our week, although a lot can change so we’ll have to see what happens when we get there.
Redmire is another trip on my thought radar, a week in July is every anglers dream, but that what I have, and I’m sharing it with three very good friends, so whatever the fishing may be like that week, I’m sure it will be a time to remember. On this trip, and due to securing the whole pool during phone wars day, I wanted to take three passionate anglers along for the ride, three who knew all about Redmire’s history and charm, but had never actually experienced it, for I believe everyone should at some point if they can!

So that’s it for now, short and sweet but a little insight in what’s been happening.

Wednesday 11 April 2012

Traditional Carping

This peice featured in last weeks Carp-Talk, for those who missed it........

When you hear the term “Traditional carping”, different people think of different things, and I guess it all depends on what era you’re from personally. For the gentleman who was around on the late fifties/early sixties it would mean fishing venues such as Beechmeere, Redmire Pool and Woldale. It would mean using cane Mark IV rods coupled with Mitchell reels or centrepins using bread paste and potatoes as bait and their heroes would be men such as Jack Hilton, Dick Walker and Maurice Ingham. Now if that angler fished in the seventies he may be using fibre glass rods with Cardinal reels, monkey climbers and have heroes such as Rod Hutchinson and Chris Yates and use the first prototype boilies or particles, I class this more “old school” than traditional. But for an angler such as myself, a relative newcomer, traditional carping is about what I choose it to be, having not fished through any of the aforementioned eras, I am at liberty to see traditional carping however I see fit, and having deep interest for carp fishing in the early, pioneering days, I choose the early Redmire days as the golden era and the one that conjures the most passion.

Making Traditional Quill Floats

First you’ll need to find a colony of Geese that have moulted.

Image

Cut it to length and remove all the flights with scissors and a Stanley blade.

Monday 9 April 2012

Easter Bank Holiday: A good start but a bedraggled end

Saturday 7th April
I set out on Saturday afternoon, it was late, after 3pm, but the plan was to assess the situation on a club water I’d not spent a lot of time on before, to get a feel for the water for a couple of hours with a view to returning the following evening for a night session with Daz. I really wanted to fish Thursday night into Friday, but my new membership car didn’t arrive in time.
Saturday morning I took Mum shopping, the post still hadn’t arrived and I had resigned myself to spend another day home and pray that it would arrive soon. But on returning from shopping it was there waiting for me. So I gathered a few things, the bare essentials and drove the 15 miles to the venue. I arrived at the water sometime after 3:30, walked around the middle pond and immediately saw a couple of fish cruising in the upper layers. I tossed out a few mixers and watched as they were completely ignored. I had a brief chat with the only other guy fishing and headed up to the top pond for a gander.  I walked the perimeter looking into the deep margins for signs of fish, but there was nothing there, not until I came to the weedy corner, the pads were just beginning to emerge and the carp were sat, quite happily among the new shoots. I watched and thought about introducing something to see if they were interested, but two mallards headed straight for me and I could see exactly how it was going to pan out. So I left those fish to their relaxing and returned to the middle pond, perhaps I’d even set a rod up.

Saturday 7 April 2012

Carp-Talk Feature...Traditional Carping

This week you can find an article on Traditional Carping by yours truely on page 80.

Wednesday 4 April 2012

This Weekend's Adventures...

This weekend was a very untidy one, I hadn’t really thought through exactly what I wanted to achieve. There is not too much to report really, but I’ll document the weekend to keep the diary up to date.  I knew I wanted to catch some fish, wasn’t really too bothered about large ones, just so long as I found some action. So the schedule was to fish Dryad on Friday night through to Saturday afternoon and on Sunday a trip to a private water was arranged through an invitation from a friend where something very old could well turn up.