Coarsefish Torbay Fishing News
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The last week in November and still leaves are on the trees in my back garden.
On a practise visit to Milemead the carp were splashing in the margins and I started off just wearing my polo shirt again.
But it looks like some frosts may be setting in as we move in to December.
I set up on peg 9 on the Match Lake to see how the silvers would respond if I fished a rig that was suitable for landing carp too.
Plumbing carefully showed that the deeper water has a bottom made of very sticky silt. When I dropped a 20g plummet down hard, it would get stuck in the silt.
Moving out to 12m, I found the silt stopped and the bottom became firmer.
That was where I decided to cup in four balls of groundbait with chopped worm and caster in.
I left the groundbait line for half an hour to settle before going over it with a 0.5g rig.
The depth is about 5' and I used a normal bulk and two droppers rig on the J-Range J8 float.
This float has a nice teardrop shape, heavy wire stem for stability and a thin but hollow bristle to hold up biggish baits.
Mainline was 0.16 to a 0.12mm hooklength, size 14 Tubertini 808 and doubled No6 elastic. It was just about strong enough to deal with carp, I needed to see if the skimmers would have it as well.
I had a great few hours, with proper net skimmers and a few tench coming to worm heads.
Interestingly, I had to swap to double caster for a few fish, and then back again to really keep bites coming.
Topping up the groundbait line was by quietly rolling in a decent ball full of casters every third or fourth fish.
It was a good workout before the third round of the Stafford Moor Winter League.
I think silvers could play a big part in the results in these next two rounds, but carp will still decide the main places...
For anyone wanting ideas for Christmas, check out my Amazon listings here: Amazon.
They are not my products, rather, they are a selection of things I enjoy or things anglers may find useful.
There are books and music, as well as winter clothing and the kind of camera kit I use for both stills and filming.
I am adding new products all the time, so keep checking back to see what's going on.
Also, I will soon include bits of kit that are recommended by other people I work with.
These will be things like compact cameras and different types of fishing kit. So, go take a look.
Don't forget to send me a friend request on Facebook if you are a user, or click the button below to follow me on Twitter. Hopefully I will be announcing plenty of new WRITeANGLE magazine content for 2012 through both Facebook and Twitter, so make sure you keep up to date.
I don't have a WRITeANGLE magazine article prepared for this month due to having so many other articles to get finished before I go on holiday.
Look out in January for: Winter Margin Mayhem! It's not shot yet, but I can assure you that I have a great way to target carp in cold water.
I also went to...
Somerset's South Drain is a venue I had never been to. I have always tended to stick with the River Huntspill or King's Sedgemoor Drain previously.
A very early morning start was needed to get some filming done for Dominic Garnett's Fly Fishing for Coarse Fish film. 5am on a frosty morning is not my idea of fun!
Unfortunately, heavy rain the day before saw the drain really dirty, and Dom only managed one tiny jack in the morning.
We decided to move to the Bridgwater Taunton Canal near North Newton, where we were relieved to find clear water.
A further three hours of roving and filming saw another five pike on the bank.
This 5lb fish was the best of the afternoon and fell to a pink fly! It seems that bright colours are top, closely followed by black when looking to catch pike on the fly.
Closer to home...
Fishing the second round of the Stafford Moor Winter League, I drew peg 30 on Tanners.
It is a good peg, but probably only worth fourth or fifth in the section unless something went seriously right!
I have noticed over the last couple of years that there are always big carp to be caught down the edge early on the far side of Tanners.
This day proved exactly the same.
I fed a couple of grains of corn next to the platform on peg 29, and after feeding my silver fish line, I dropped in a grain on the pole.
Within 20 minutes, I had two double figure carp in the net, and everyone else in the section was trying to follow suit.
Luckily, my hunch that they only feed early proved correct, as no one else had more than one carp there before they moved out.
My rig was a slim Mosella Manic Impact 6 in 4x12 on 0.18mm Silstar Matchteam straight through to a size 16 B911.
Elastic was black Lastix, and I had little trouble landing the fish.
They seem to have one strong dart and then just plod around under the pole tip for five minutes.
After that great start, the rest of the match was very hard, but by fishing for silvers on the long pole I managed to sneak third in section with 37lb 4oz.
To cap off a hard day, my team had won with 11 points from Stafford Moor on 14.
Where I'm going next...
I'm hoping to fish the Exeter & DAA Christmas Match at Kia Ora again this year.
Last year we had to break several inches of ice, but it was worth it, as the fish fed, even if they were a bit finicky.
I finished with a nice net of skimmers for third place.
They were mainly 4-8oz stamp, and came to 4mm expanders over small balls of dampened micros at 8m.
My rig was a 4x16 Carpa Chimp on 0.16mm mainline with a size 18 B911 hook on 0.12mm line.
More like a winter carp rig really, but shows that even when it is bitterly cold, skimmers will have it if the feeding is correct.
I cupped in a marble-sized ball of micros whenever the bites dropped off.
It would take ten minutes for the fish to come back after feeding, but that was safer than trying to force the peg and possibly blow it for the day.
Time may be against me fishing the match, however, as I have lots of paperwork to catch up on before I go away to India the following weekend.
As I will be away over the whole of Christmas and New Year, I will not be posting a December News page. Wishing all readers a happy Christmas and a peaceful New Year.
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all images and text are copyright Steve Lockett 2008-2011