The Sessions - June 2020
A mixed bag with great results.
I signed off last month after having some great late Spring Crucian fishing on two Cambs lakes and looking forward to getting down to Johnsons for my season target of a big Crucian.
1 June 2020 – Fox & Fields, Cambs
I arrived at 06:00 in the area I liked after plumbing the whole lake, the swim was on the road bank half way along the lake to the left of a platform, the margin was slightly deeper and drops away closer to the bank making it a great margin feature. There was some weed in the swim so 10 throws of the rake soon cleared that and I was fishing by 07:00.
It was hot and sunny at 26 degrees with a light wind. I put both rods on maggot feeders and heli-rigs and recast every 30 mins to keep the swim topped up, as I mentioned in my blog last month there are no silvers in the lake so I didn’t want to over feed the swim.
I didn’t get a bite for four hours and then an 8oz Perch tripped up. Within 30 mins I had a take on the left hand rod that felt like a small Carp and as it powered off down the margin the hooklink went at the knot. As I was setting the rig back up the right hand rod went, this one felt like a Crucian but felt too big, I played it really carefully and as it came up to the net I could see it was a big Crucian, it turned at the last moment and broke the hooklink again on the knot, I was gutted….
I sat there a while trying to work out what was wrong as they shouldn’t be breaking 4 pound mono, I tied both up with knotless knots and put them out again. The only other bite was another 8oz Perch, clearly this lake was not going to give up its jewels easily.
9 June 2020 – Fox & Fields, Cambs
The week since my last session had seen a drop in temperature to 14 degrees most days and it had just started to warm up again.
I went back into the platform swim and put five pouches of hemp and maggot into the swim and started on the maggot feeders as before. I was recasting every 20-30 mins and had not had a touch by 10:00 so changed one rod over to a method feeder and a small piece of balanced fake corn.
By 14:00 I still had not had a take and was thinking of calling it a day when a Crucian rolled over the swim, they carried on rolling for three hours until I finally had two quick takes, the hook pulled on the first and the other was a 1-12 Crucian on the corn, I carried on until 18:00 without another take.
15 June 2020 – River Trent, Sutton
The week of the magical 16th had arrived and as in recent years I took a week’s annual leave, even though we fish through Spring there is still something about being out on the 16th that will never leave me.
I had planned to fish further down the tidal but my pal Jude persuaded me to go to Sutton so we were drinking tea in his garden that overlooks the fishery by 07:30 on the morning of the 15th.
We went onto the fishery for 09:30 and I dropped back in the swim I’d done so well in in March. The river looked completely different and was very low at summer levels, so I got my Deeper out to ensure I found the feature that held the fish. This was located and a marker put in the grass in line with the feature to make casting to it nice and easy, even with the lower levels it was still 11 feet in the area I was targeting so I was confident fish would be there.
It was a lovely day at 24 degrees with a light north easterly wind, I’d set the swim up and was relaxing when my problems started at midday, I was being surrounded!! By 14:00 I had nine people around me, way too many for the area I was fishing and making me feel I was camping before I’d even cast out. I started making a few calls to friends on other sections and they all said the same, it was packed everywhere so any thoughts on moving were out. The furlough scheme was great for keeping people in work and gave the fishing industry a huge boost, but the downside of that was too many people on the bank.
I had a choice of just going home or staying put so I had to try a make good in a bad situation, I put 20 boilies through the swim early evening and then a few spoppers of hemp and pellet at 22:00 before casting out at midnight.
16 June 2020
As I expected I didn’t get a bite, despite re-baiting twice through the night. No one caught all round me, I made a few calls and the only good fish caught were from up in the weir areas. I was pretty sure the Barbel were spawning so made the decision to pack up and go Tench fishing for a couple of days.
Rosewater Carp Fishery.
One of my Carp fishing friends had told me about this water saying he kept catching Tench up to a decent size while fishing there so I’d marked it down for a look in Spring but the lockdown had ruined that. I felt this was good opportunity to go so rang the fishery office before leaving the river and booked a 48 hour trip.
I arrived at 16:30 and started to look round. It’s a 39 acre lake that was previously a Trout Reservoir and was popular when it first opened for Pike trials many years ago. It had changed a lot since then with a lot more bankside vegetation and trees making it a nice looking lake and place to be.
With the Carp only going up to low 30’s it doesn’t get to busy and there were only two anglers on, fortunately one was a Tench angler and he was happy to chat and was very helpful. He’d caught Tench to nine plus so that was very encouraging, however he did say the bites had dried up over the last month.
I got the leading rod out and started to cast around in some of the better looking areas. I found one swim I liked towards the top corner that had a gravel bar running parallel at 45 yards out with a lovely clear channel in front of it at 11 feet deep, this looked the perfect spot for fish to move through so I set the swim up. I did this just in time as a huge storm came over and it poured with rain and didn’t stop until 21:00, this still gave me enough time to put some bait on the area. I made up a mix of 1 pint of dead maggots, half a pint of casters, half a can of sweetcorn, 1kg of hemp and an equal amount in volume of small pellet and put 25 spombs on the spot.
While it had been raining I set the rods up, two were set up with 45g method feeders and 3 inch 10 pound braid hooklink to a size 14 Barbel hook. One was baited with two t-rigged fake casters and the other with two small pieces of fake corn, both baits balanced the hook perfectly. The method mix was made quite sticky so that I could leave them out a little longer without having to keep recasting.
The third rod was set up with an 2oz inline lead, a 4 inch 10 pound braid hooklink to a size 10 Guru MWG hook and was baited with a snowman with a 12mm Pandemic and a 10mm Black current pop-up, this was popped up an inch.
17 June 2020
The night was quiet but I expected that due to the disturbance of setting up and the baiting up late. It was a damp, misty morning but still felt warm at 05:00 at 14 degrees. I put another 10 spombs of mix out and recast the rods at 05:30.
The first bite came to the fake corn 40 mins later, it wasn’t big at 4-15 but very welcome as it gave me the confidence my approach was working.
The sun finally came out mid-morning, however there were more storms forecast on the north easterly wind. I decided to change the boilie rod over to a maggot feeder and heli-rig, with a three inch hooklink and a Guru MWG size 16 hook with two red maggots on the hook, recasting all three rods every hour. Tench were staring to roll over the spot so I felt certain I would catch more.
The next bite came early afternoon again to the fake corn and it was a better fish, a male at 7-03. I topped up the swim with another 20 spombs of bait mid-afternoon just before a huge storm that lasted four hours.
Almost as soon as it stopped raining the maggot rod went with another female at 5-13 but that was the end of the action for the day.
18 June 2020
It poured with rain most of the night making recasting a pain, I topped the swim up again at 05:00 with another 15 spombs of mix.
I’d made another slight change baiting one of the rigs with a piece of real corn along with a fake piece, I was getting no problems from silvers so felt I would be ok with real corn. That rod went first in a flurry of three bites in an hour, the first went 5-14, the second came to maggot at 6-03, the third was on maggot again but I bullied it a little too much and it came off.
I kept recasting and eventually the corn rod went again with another high 5 plus female before I finished my 48 hours. An enjoyable session in difficult conditions and a lake I will concentrate on next Spring.
Johnsons Lake, Marsh Farm
Finally the time had come for my first trip to the Crucian mecca. Due to the lockdown the club had put a 24 hour limit on the lake for the first month and I was going to leave it until I could do 48 hours due to the distance I travel but with a new weather front coming in with warmer days and a south westerly wind I was desperate to go.
I’d left Rosewater, got home and changed the tackle over, replenished the food and bait bags, had a shower and change of clothes and drove down to Godalming, getting there late in the night. This is a good time to arrive as the day anglers have gone home and I can hopefully secure a swim that I want. I had a walk round and found the swim I wanted free so loaded the barrow, got round there, set the shelter up and went to sleep with the alarm set for 04:00.
19 June 2020
It didn’t start quite how I planned, I overslept the alarm waking at 05:00 to find one other angler on the lake in the swim right next to me, the swims on the Railway bank are close together so I couldn’t believe he’d set up so close with the whole lake free. However as things turned out it didn’t matter and he has turned out to be good company on a couple of sessions since.
The wind was blowing nicely into the area I was planning to fish right on the edge of a large weed bed to my left. I decided to go back to braid hooklinks and set up with 35g method feeders, 5 pound braid and size 14 Barbel hooks as I couldn’t risk the breakages I’d suffered with Supplex hooklink
I’d thought long and hard over groundbait, everyone tended to use a bed of crumb groundbait with nothing in it, baiting quite heavily to start with. I decided to go completely opposite and use only what was on the feeder and make mine sticky with a lot of different food items in it of different buoyancy levels, so when the fish attacked the feeder some food would lift up in the water and some would stay put on the bottom. I added shrimp, caster, hemp and micro pellet to the goundbait and mixed it up with liquidized sweetcorn. My hookbaits were two small pieces of balanced fake corn on one and two fake casters on the other, both balancing the hook perfectly. My plan was to recast every 30 mins.
The morning was quite wet and cool with light showers but the wind was constantly blowing into my area causing a lovely ripple on the water. The fishing was simply fantastic and I doubt I’ll ever have a Crucian session as good again, I finished the day with 29 Crucians to 3-10, a fish that is a known 4plus but was down in weight due to spawning.
20 June 2020
My plan was pull of the lake at 10:00 so I arranged with my new pal Adrian that he would drop in after me. I’d slept from 22:00 and was up at 04:00 to start again and the fishing just carried on where it left off, it was amazing!! I finished the session with 41 Crucians with 17 being 3’s to a PB of 3-10, 8 Carp to high doubles and 13 Tench to 5plus, fantastic fishing! During the session I’d experimented with hooks and hook baits which undoubtedly cost me fish but was valuable for the tougher times to come in late summer and autumn, but I caught on a number of different fake baits and small 8mm boilies. I settled on a hook, the Guru MWG Super in size 14, which ticks every box for my Crucian fishing.
The journey home simply flew by and I was still pinching myself when I got home…..did that really happen?
25 June 2020 – River Derwent
The warm weather had arrived and it was up to 32 degrees most days, I had a free night to fish and wanted a double figure Barbel for June so went up the M1 to the Derwent. The section I fish is good in hot weather and there is normally never anyone there so you can imagine my horror when I got to the gate to find three cars in the car park and the field full of teenagers swimming and with music pumping and BBQ’s. I’d done a night visit at work, had a 45 minute delay due to a car fire on the M1 and driven 96 miles to find that, I just wanted to turn around and go home.
I walked over to the river, the groups of teenagers were jumping off both bridges and swimming and wading the length of the section. The area I wanted to fish was taken with three families fishing and BBQing. I walked the length of the section and as the evening started to draw in some of the people started to leave including the families that were fishing so I went over for a chat. They hadn’t caught anything but more importantly for me they hadn’t put much bait in at all. Knowing the section as I do, the swim is a night swim and doesn’t generally fish well in the day unless it’s flooded so I weighed up my options, if I’d arrived and they’d all gone home without me having any knowledge they’d been there I would have gone in that swim, so that’s what I did setting the swim up for 21:00 after being on the river 4 hours.
I got two rigs out on double 15mm boilie, one Addiction / one Asbo on each hair and put 20 boilies through the swim, sat back and relaxed and heard a noise behind me, I turned round to find another angler, which is rare on this section, who promptly set up right next to me, I couldn’t believe it, he had the whole section but sits next to me….. I thought the trip was destined for disaster.
Shortly after my upstream rod went over resulting in a long skinny rough looking 5plus Chub, it looked that rough I didn’t weigh it and slipped it back, however that was enough for my new “friend” to disappear
The next take just after midnight made it worth the trip with a Barbel at 10-11.
This was followed by a beauty two hours later at 12-09.
Two hours later the upstream rod went again and this one felt heavy and plodded about, my head torch battery had run out so I had to bundle it in the net without which felt difficult, when I got it in a looked at the fish I could see why, it was a Common at 21-09.
As I was slipping it back I completed a full house when the other rod went with a Mirror at 14-06 to finish a great short little session
Until next month tight lines and be lucky 😊
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