29th January 2012 - Gimingham Lakes

Early start at Gimingham Lakes. Weather was pretty pony, but we gave it our best shot.

Quick walk around lake and returned to Foxy's car to find it full of smoke. A rogue handwarmer charcoal had started a wee fire in his car. Oops....

We set up in the first swim (in the icy rain) and started fishing. I decided to plumb the depth and found it to be around 12-18 inches. Time to move me thinks....

Round to a swim called "3 man" for the rest of the day. Fishing hotdog sausage on a hair. Used the ML's and the Traverse X rods...

Not a sniff... Nothing.... Nada......

Cold and wet, but still had a great time and enjoyed Mr Robin's company. He was the only creature I could entice with my bait.

Hey ho..... that's fishing for you.

Reely Retro

Ahh.... The old Ryobi ML3.5C's were dug out of the shed last night

These will get a hammering this year....

Last used in 1999 for Pike and bought around 1990? ish when I first got into "serious" carp fishing.

I stripped the 20 or so miles of line off the old girls and set about trying to work out why the freespool click wasn't working on one of them. All sorted now. Just needed a little clean up.

I've got some 8lb and 12lb Daiwa Sensor bulk spools on the way (E Bay - £6.75 each) and I intend to use these reels when i'm fishing bigger fish lakes along with the good old Shimano Traverse X Carp Rods (See? Told you i'm into Retro!). I may even unleash the Optonic Super Compacts if we do any night sessions this year.

I can't see the point in upgrading any of my gear. As long as it's not faulty/broken, then it'll catch fish.... Simple as that really.

My mission for 2012 is to fish regularly with my partner in crime Foxy, make some little comedy fishing videos and put a 20lb carp on the bank. I'm fairly confident we can do this ;)

Thinking of getting a new landing net. My specimen net is looking a wee bit tired these days.

Roll on Sunday - Pray for good weather!

22nd January 2012

Foxy and I headed to Roughton for a day's fishing.

We kicked off around 7:45 and fished the far end of the lake (the same swim that i'd fished towards the tail end of 2011).

Weather wise it was very windy and around 6 degrees at best.

Foxy was first in at 9:15 with a lovely ghosty common weighing in at an estimated 6lbs. A really pretty fish.

Foxy with shocked looking ghosty...

We then fished on for a while with no takes. I even set up a 5m whip with double maggot, but no joy on the tiddler front.

At around 11:30 ish we decided to shift to the other end of the lake. Things were very quiet.

We moved down to the other end and I fished one line close to the reeds and one slap bang in the centre of the lake.

First out was a 10lb 11oz common at 14:00.

Nice common. My first double since I began fishing again. Woo Hoo! 

15:15 saw another common. This time at 7lb 11oz.

Covering mouth to avoid having to listen to him swearing at me...

Lasty, around 16:00 I had the best fish of the day at 10lb 12oz. This was a belter of a scrap. I was on a 4lb hooklength, so I had to take it really easy. I'm just glad that the colder weather had possibly sapped some of his energy. Had it've been summer, I think he would've kissed me goodbye...

10lb 12oz. A lovely fish and a great scrap.

All three fish were caught on chunks of hot dog sausage fished on a hir rig. Method mix was squished onto a feeder, but I have doubts as to whether this was being very effective. A few loose offerings were also popped in from time to time. Not too much though.

Once again the wonderful (and cheap) Drennan Red reels and 11ft Avon rods did the trick. 6 lb mainline and a 4lb hooklink with a size 12 hook. Simple fishing, but I have to say...... Bloody good fun! :)

Next stop? Hopefully Gimmingham this coming Sunday for more of the same.

Great fun....