Air Temp, 9c dropping to 0c (yep, zero and nearly May!)
Air pressure 1012 and rising.
Full Moon rising at 9 pm.
Swim 6 feet deep, 15 yards out at the bottom of near side shelf.
Interesting session. My target species were Tench, but with it being so cold, although they were about, they weren’t feeding.
Although I’ve had a few small bream from this swim in the past, I certainly didn’t expect 10 fish of such quality. All old original stock too, none of the small head, huge body fish that have shown recently. Overall, very happy with this session. Hey, 16c with lows of 8c next week. More like it, and I may well be back.
After a few years away, I rejoined the London Anglers Association. So many venues for the price of a couple of day tickets, check it out by searching LAA.
Anyways, as soon as my ticket came through, I headed over to Bures Lake in sleepy Suffolk.
Venue: Arlesford Gravel Pit, North Essex 25-27 March 2024 So, having just back from a two-night session over the gravel pit in Alresford (22nd 23rd March) where although I had a couple of fish, I knew I had gotten my attack all wrong. Too many basic mistakes, such as too much weed raking at the wrong times, bad judgement with hook bait choice, and incorrect feeding patterns. I spent all day Sunday thinking about it and decided to head back Monday for another two nights. I chose a new swim and spent longer marking up for features. With two chosen spots, I baited in a way I hoped might work better. I also completely altered my hooks baits. One additional swim I changed was how often I re-cast. On Alton, recasting works brilliantly. On this pit, definitely not. It’s a case of casting accurately, trusting your presentation and sitting on your hands. Boy, was I glad I did.
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This week’s video finds me at Paxman’s Lake in Alresford on a beautiful 65-year-old North Essex gravel pit. I was introduced to this stunning venue by my neighbour, Mark Ost, an old match-fishing adversary from back in the day.
As soon as he mentioned the big tench, I was very interested. Frustratingly, they alluded me this time. However, I like a challenge. This lake isn’t easy, and that’s how I like it. I will be back chasing those big Tinkas and the 30lb plus carp. Overall, I loved the place, tranquil, stunning scenery, and comfortable swims.
More than happy with the results of my first session here.
7th March 2024. Venue: Alton Water, Suffolk, UK. Wind East 10mph. Air Temp High 13c Low 4c. Pressure 1021. No Rain expected.
So, this week I chose a swim I haven’t fished for around 6 years. I had planned on a deep-water swim (30Feet) but due to high water levels my chosen area was inaccessible. I walked around for an hour or two and went on gut-feel mostly. There were a couple of factors though and the most important was the direction of the wind. An Easterly can bit cold at the best of times, let alone in the winter. This swim was out of the wind completely. Also, I was comfortable to cast and good under foot. I’d had enough of muddy swims, skating to my rods and 0’clock in the morning.
A special session:
A few people have asked about my groundbait mix for winter bream. So, here goes. Feel free to ask any questions.
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Air Pressure 1001, dropping, air temp 5c day, 0c night, water temp 7.4c. Wind SW 40mph gusts.
Back for another session on Grassy Bank, 2nd swim, Alton Water. What a change in the weather from 2 weeks ago, from 14c daytime 8c nights, to 5c day, 0c nights. Add in 40mph hour gusts with sideways rain one minute, to flat calm and sunny. Boy-o-boy, that made for difficult fishing. I had intended on doing 2 nights, but these ol’ bones couldn’t take anymore. Still, I managed 11 bream, with the best two fish at 9lb 1oz and 9lb 3oz. No doubles, but considering the tow on the water was so strong from left to right, I had to up the weights on my indicators, and even then, it was far from ideal. It made for difficult bite indication, and in the depths of winter, that’s the last thing you want. Still, I can’t grumble with 11 fish, albeit no sleep as the bites started at 7 pm and continued until 3 am. (no sleep… again)
One last thing, if you’re reading this on WordPress please head over to my YouTube page to watch the videos and hopefully like and subscribe. Here’s the link and a screen-shot of my page:
As you may have noticed, I’ve started a YouTube channel and posted the videos on here. Turns out, when you watch the videos on here, I don’t get the viewing numbers on YouTube.
In essence you need to click the ‘Watch on YouTube’ button so I get the numbers, not WordPress. Here’s a screen shot…
So, if you feel inclined, I am after a huge favour, please click this link and perhaps subscribe, comment and maybe even like. Thank you, Steve
Back again on Alton Water, Suffolk – 28-02-2024 – air pressure 1021 – Air Temp 8c dropping to 1c at 5am – Water Temp 7c. Wind, West 4mph.
After 3 frosts in a row, I headed for a new area for a 24-hour session. I’d expected the previous cold nights to affect the fishing and that proved to be the case. For all that, it produced a couple of great fish and a real surprise at the end.
Please subscribe and feel free to comment, or ask anything. I don’t do secrets. If I can help someone untangle a knot, and catch the special fish, ‘appy-dayz.
In this video, I’ll look at my rigs for Winter Bream and Tench and talk about what I use them. I also chat about how I believe the fish react to certain rigs and why.
I hope you enjoy and please feel free to ask any questions, also, hopefully, you’ll subscribe to my channel.
It’s been a while since I’ve posted. Most of my recent articles and reports on fishing have been on my Fishing Facebook page. Here’s a link: https://www.facebook.com/NoLimitsAngling
I’ve now created an Angling YouTube channel. Please pop over and have a look, perhaps comment and subscribe. Here’s a link to my No-Limits YouTube channel:
And here’s a direct link to my first Video Angling vlog:
At the start of my Alton campaign 8 years ago, I set myself a couple of targets. One of them was to catch a 10lb Tench. With Covid, sadly we lost several months fishing due to lockdown. This put all my early season thoughts on hold, as it did with many of us.
When the UK government gave us the green light, I was on the bank day one. Normally, I like to start my tench campaign in the middle of March. For sure, a lot of people will say this is too early. To some degree, it is. My thoughts are to get the tench used to my feeding approach and hopefully nick the odd early fish. This has proved successful in the past many times. I recall catching 9 tench from Birchwood Bay in March, around 6-years ago. Much to the surprise of many.
Something came up in conversation the other evening while chatting to a couple of new Alton members. It started when I mentioned what the carp see as normal on a water this size. I suggested for the last 50-years, the resident carp have learnt to associate the sound of groundbait balls and swim-feeders hitting the water with food. If you think, the majority of anglers on Alton, even now are either pleasure anglers or match style fishermen. To that point, they invariably do one of two things, cast out a feeder, or throw in balls of groundbait. Therefore, it is reasonable to believe that the carp now have that sound in their psyche and associate it, rightly so, with grub. Back in the day of 200-peg plus matches, mostly if not all match-men were both firing out balls of groundbait and following this up fishing the feeder.
Many years ago, in my match days, I was fortunate enough to meet one of angling’s greats, Sir Ivan Marks, World Champion. He said to me something that has stayed with me through the years, “if everyone else is struggling, try something different. If the fish were there last week, they are still there now, so catch them.” That comment resonated with me, and to this day, I am always looking to step out of the box and go left. By this, I mean, I listen to what the other anglers are doing, how they are getting on and then try to find an alternative approach.
Many see September and October as the best months to snare a big Carp. For me, it’s all about Bream, who are at their biggest. Not only this, they are by now back in their territorial homes. With this is mind, once you have located the where about of the big gal’s, it is just a matter of baiting up, the right rigs and bait and waiting.
There’s a reason John Constable loved North East Essex and South East Suffolk.
There’s a reason why us anglers also love this part of our beautiful planet.
Here are some of Alton Water’s summer moods, from daybreak til dusk and beyond.
Clearly, when I’m fishing, and taking photos, it’s not just of the fish I’ve caught. Although I may have accidentally slipped a proper Alton Common in near the end. Enjoy, Steve
No-Limits Angling Blog 