Pellet planning

Date fished 22/8/2020
6am until 12.30pm

It is currently Tuesday 18/8 at 6pm and I am starting to think about the upcoming trip. I have recently been drafting the opening paragraphs of my blogs a day or two before as I plan for that trip. Albeit a review of conditions or kit required, as in reality this is what I am doing at this time. The trip does not just start when the alarm goes off. There has been thought and plans made ahead of this. Usually the "where to go?" element. Its not like a stillwater where you can just plonk down and fish. The river levels have to be checked as even in "summer" we can have storms and plenty of rain meaning the rivers are unfishable. So, I am beginning to plan for this next trip, and will take you along with me.

I am not going to be fishing in NE46, but you get the idea.

The weather had been some what indifferent during the week and I am sure the river levels would be reflecting this.

Whizz forward to Friday 4pm.

With Ellis unable to come, it was down to me to decide where to go and pick well! I put some local feelers out and looked at the rain radar and subsequent river levels. After a bit of deliberation I concluded the rivers would be very high and bombing through, so I decided to stay local and fish Tilcon for the Tench and Bream. My last few trips there have resulted in blanks, so I am very keen to address that. I will let you know how I get on tomorrow.

Fishing day

A reasonably early alarm at 5am started the day, jumping in the car I was at the lake by 6am. I had bought Hybrid feeders for a change. I fished one on one of my rods and a simple ledger on the other. Different pellets as bait, Robin Reds in 6mm and 12mm and Marine Halibut in 8mm.
The lake had been managed via recent work parties and looked great. It was very low in terms of water level, but perfect in terms of fish and access to swims.

Some weed had been removed and lillies separated to get access. I cast to likely spots and waited. The fish were crashing about and showing themselves. A large carp splashed right over my right hand rod, a fellow angler looked up because he thought I was in. Sadly not, however ten seconds after the jump, the fish caught my line and set the spool spinning for a few seconds.

The Other angler set up on the far bank and was soon into a fish, sadly he lost it. I watched him fishing throughout the day and he lost two and caught one carp and at 10lb 6oz, was a great fish.

The rain came and soaked everything, I changed pellets, hook link lengths and casting location. Nothing it seemed was going to stop the blank. I chatted with another member who was out to have a look at the lake prior to tomorrow's match. We had a good chat about lots of local lakes and he had some crazy footage from Angel lakes that looked like a Koi pond at a garden centre!

With a mixture of sun and rain but with the constant of strong winds, it was not an unpleasant morning but sadly the fish didn't play ball.

I feel I should take more bait options on my sessions, I would like to make and use a paste type bait. Sometimes I don't have too much faith in pellets. Hopefully I will be saying different next week as I am off to London and intend only to use pellets. As ever, I enjoyed my time on the bank and am looking forward to my next trip on Thursday. I will see you then.....

I dunno!!