The Bivvy

Ok time to pair down my tackle oooer…
summer stalking is the name of the game. After work fishing is going to be all about float and floater fishing. This means I’m going to try and make my summer stalking kit:

6′ rod setup for margin fishing
11′ rod setup for floater fishing
Small bag or bucket to carry bait, camera and bits
Unhooking mat
Net, scales and sling

My unhooking mat folds and has handles so I might get away with being able to carry most of it in that.

Bits I am going to need:
Shot
Hooks
Floats
Controllers
Swivels
Float stops
Beads

Ah well had a couple of things to do earlier and then decided to leave the lake alone. There is a 48 hour carp match on now so the lake is closed to others till Sunday morning. Going to sort out rods and stuff tomorrow as I think I am taking too much stuff with me that I could leave at home. Im not sure what can go apart from the spod and marker rods. When the president of the club came trundling down the drive the other day I got “that’s a lot of gear to catch fuck all”
From him. When I looked I had to honestly reply that apart from 3 other setup rods I had the minimum required by the rules to fish there plus my holdall I’m not looking to lose the barrow but have less in the car. I have a saloon so it’s not the best fishing mobile in the world

I currently take:
Quivver with 6 rods all setup (stalker, floater, 2x carp, marker and Spod) also the landing net handle.
Bait bag (I have a smaller one but this is light)
Holdall (has rig bits, cattys, tackle box, leads, personal bits, rigs box)
Net, sling, scales
Beanie Unhooking mat (regulation size)
Chair or bedchair

Hmmm

Got to the lake late and after chatting with Charlie and Dave for a bit I got fishing even later probably got fishing around 1pm and can’t believe that was only an hour and a half at the time of writing.

Nothing yet although there have been a couple of liners on the right hand rod. I’ve just recast the rods putting the left one in a different spot. In fact I just had a massive liner on that rod and saw the fish boil on the surface! Come on!!!

Update: I had a take from the niche by the rocks but lost it in the snags, brought in a twig I am definately going to try fishing locked up or at least a lot tighter than I have been in future when near snags.

Fishing in the muck… There’s a lot of scum in the margins today and the water is quite low. which means I’m having to get the tips under water to avoid liners from all the crap floating by.Had what I thought was a good take but nothing on the end. This was on the zig rig but on closer inspection a big lilly pad had floated near my line and was probably responsable. Gonna change the zig to a bottom bait soon as there’s no action on the top now.Nothing today either Charlie turned up to do a couple of nights. He had two fish in quick succession! One from the margins, one from the pads in the middle of the lake. The man is a carp catching machine! I’ll probably do a night with him soon, maybe tomorrow but I really have other things to do in the evening.  He uses the iChing to determine where to fish and it seems to be doing him well. On his previous 48 hour session he had 25 fish!

Glorious day but after losing the ghostie I really didn’t feel like fishing. I respooled my reels with berkely trilene big game in 10lb breaking strain instead. Dad helped me as I always get in a state it went on nice and tight with no coiling off the spool afterwards.

Today I am on The Cell and the Chilly Tuna boilies. Just had a big liner on the cell rod am fishing the swim called The Grotto again today. This swim is where I caught my first carp at Tykes.

I have one rod under some reeds (cell) and the other under an overhanging bush (tuna). Both have my usual sticks of scopex squid liver pellet, tuna, salt and chilli. I’m making fresh tomorrow and will add in cell response pellet too.

Gutted… Had a bite at about 4pm on the chilli tuna with pink popup rod. I was playing it for about a minute when the line went slack and a big ghostie boiled on the surface as if to stick to fingers up at me while ejecting the hook

Which leads me to today… I’ve brought with me 0.5kg each of The Cell and Red Fish frozens. Nothing so far but there have been some heavy knocks on the Red Fish rod. I’m gonna have another chuck with both rods in a mo and will let you know what happens later

Ok rods are back out. I’m now fishing to the same area with both rods but still the two different baits. Lets see what happens in the next couple of hours…

Nowt happened to be honest. I recast with snowman presented baits as that is what I was catching on before. I fear this decision was too late and I packed up about 5.

Well I’m now 2 days into my 2 weeks off work…

I didn’t fish Saturday as I went bait shopping and then to a good friends birthday. I picked up 2.5kg of The Cell and Active Maple 8 as planned from the bait and feed company.

Sunday I felt rubbish so didn’t fish then either.

I then blanked spectacularly on Monday. One dropped off and a couple of aggressive liners was all that happened. My mate Rich had 2 off the top on a ledgered controller float.

Today I had a, just about, proper bream but that’s all. Rich had 3 off the top on his ledgered controller.

I now have one bag of prawn boilies, which I forgot today, and one bag of strawberry bait to use and then I will be on the halibut stuff. I just sorted that lot out as I am going to do Thursday and Friday night at the lake and will get it all in over that time. I’ve made 3 bags of it about 2.5kg each plus I have a bag of boilies, some popups, a bag of pellet and another bag of drilled pellet. A fair amount but it will soon go over 48 hours.

I’m still wondering if I should stick with particles or become a boilie angler. I’m not sure the particles are working to be honest. I think on the 24 hour session I will fish one rod over boilies and the other over groundbait/particles. I still have a bucket full of seeds to cook plus the prepared left overs still in the freezer and it is a cheaper way to fish. However if it’s nor working then it’s just a waste of space and money.

I showed up at the lake about an hour and a half ago. Since then I’ve been transfixed on several carp cruising about in front of me. I quickly sorted out my surface rod and set about trying to winkle one off the top. Although one is still cruising around and others are showing I’m yet to tempt one to take my whittled popup. I have no floaters with me unfortunately so the going is harder than it might have been

Stupid carp!! I caught nothing ok my whitlled popup. One carp even swam right under it twice! Ah well next time…