A  year ago, I visited a small secluded day ticket water, hidden away in the wilds of Berkshire, West End Fishery in a rural hamlet that lends it’s name. A carp fishing friend had spoken of the big roach that were taking his carp baits at the tree lined pond and I went along for an afternoon visit. On that day I fished with bread punch and groundbait on the pole. I caught roach from the off and after 30 minutes began catching 8 to 12 oz specimens. The bailiff came around for his ticket money and watched me catching on the punch and I commented on the “No Keepnet Rule” to which he replied, that it did not apply to roach, only carp. On that day my net was in the van, but I always resolved to return for the blog.

I was a bit late returning, due this summer to the continued high temperatures, but now cooler in the low teens, I arrived mid morning this week hoping for a red letter day. The empty car park was a bit disconserting, as before I had stuggled to find a vacant swim. I dropped off early at a bay between two trees and began plumbing the depth, finding a drop off from three feet to four feet, five yards out, gradually increasing to six feet seven yards out. Last time I had fished a foot off bottom and caught in the lower two.

My pole rig was a 4 x 16 antenna float, shotted with the bulk two feet from the size 16 barbless hook, with two No 8s down to the 6 inch hook link. I had mixed up a tray of strawberry groundbait, ground hemp and liquidised bread, squeezed up into egg sized balls, dropping one six yards out over the drop off. There were a few leaves on the surface, but there were plenty of gaps to fish between and within a few minutes the float dipped, came up, then sank out of sight. I lifted and missed it. My 7 mm punch of bread was gone. I plopped in another ball of feed and cast over the centre of the spreading ripples. A repeat bite, but this time I paused, watching the line follow the float. Resistance and the bounce of a roach pulling out the elastic from the pole proved contact. As I netted this slim 9 inch roach, I double checked, as it was very chub like. A voice behind made me jump. It was the bailiff, who confirmed, that it was OK to use a keepnet for roach. He also spoke of a 2 lb roach coming out this year, plus a couple of pound plus fish

Encouraged, I fished on, the roach fighting hard, some getting off before the net. I decided to change the elastic from the heavy red, to a lighter green and went down to a 6 mm punch. A small common carp scrapped hard and riggled out of my hand into the net.

The wind was now getting up, blowing more leaves onto the water, these catching the line as they passed and dragging the float. I was still hooking fish, but washing lines of leaves were now acting as sails, causing slack line and more lost fish. A carp took the bread on the move and charged off, hooking itself, only to come off a few minutes later. I had another good roach, which I managed to net, however the enjoyment was over as conditions continued to worsen. I’d had enough of this, when match fishing in Winter Leagues, when every point gained in a section, made a difference to the Team’s standing at the end of the match. A single gudgeon precious after 5 hours in the wind and rain.

The biggest roach of the afternoon.

A powerful drift began moving from behind the island in front of me, bringing a four foot deep mass of moving, sunken leaves from the trees on the other side. There were now no open spaces to fish through and I packed up. The result of the two hours fishing, 11am until 1 pm was a dozen fish and probably a dozen lost fish.

Bank to Bank leaves.

The outcome of this has to be another visit. There are plenty of good roach here. On reflection my Edgemonster pole is probably too stiff for bouncy roach, my previous visit being with my 11 metre Shakespeare pole, which works well, as it has a softer action and a fine top joint with a medium strength elastic.

The Bread Punches

About 3 lb of fish from a difficult swim.

It has been a while since I have been able to devote a day to go fishing and this week was no exception, with various social committments filling the blank spots on my calendar. This week, a fishing window opened up on Friday afternoon, when my wife declined a joint grass seeding operation in the garden, due to a sudden cold snap. She obviously saw my fishing mind ticking over and said the magic words “You can go fishing if you want to!” It was already past 3 pm and my options were few, but Savernake Pond is only minutes away in the car, which was already loaded from my recent outing on the River Cut. All I needed was to swap the float rods from the car, for my 10 metre pole, grab some liquidised bread from the freezer, microwave some hook bait punch squares, then steam them over the kettle, while making a flask of tea, grab my camera and get changed at the speed of light, like Superman. By 3:15 I was waving goodbye to my wife and by 3:30 unloading the fishing trolley at my preferred Savernake swim.

Before tackling up, I mixed up my usual groundbait of liquidised bread, ground hemp seed and strawberry flavoured crumb, adding water to form soft balls, that would break up on impact with the surface of this shallow pond, targeting an area eight to ten metres out. With that done, I tackled up with a 16 x 4 antenna pole float to a size 14 barbless hook, complete with a 7 mm punch of bread. Since my last visit, more rain has increased the depth, but set to two feet, my rig was still dragging bottom. No bites? I catapulted a few small balls of ground out and cast over them. A bite on the drop. The elastic shot out of the pole tip, as a stocky junior common ran away from the strike.

Judging by this small common, the carp were already showing an increase in weight over those that I caught six weeks ago, no doubt helped by the local mothers feeding the ducks along this stretch of bank. Another one taken on the drop.

I shallowed up by a few inches and adjusted my shot for a slower fall through and followed with a small ball of feed. The float buried again and another chunky common came to the net.

These were not giving up once hooked, although the heavy elastic soon brought the little battlers under control.

I had been watching some large carp on the surface along the island bank, nosing among the snags, but now they were close to my swim and I chanced my arm with another ball of groundbait, while putting an extra joint on the pole. Even with the additonal two metres of pole and swinging out the pole rig, I was still a couple of metres short. I couldn’t see the fish clearly, their dorsal fins were visible, while slight movements were causing swirls on the surface. My float lifted, then moved to the left, before sinking. I lifted into a heavier fish and the elastic came out, adding to the weight if the pole. This was not one of those big lumps, but a better fish all the same, throwing up a cloud of black mud as it fought back. I ran the pole back, using my trolley as a roller, until I could detatch the top two and slipped the net under a carp that fought well above its weight.

A cold wind was now blowing along the pond and I removed the two lower joints, as it was becoming impossible to hold the pole steady. Sinking the pole tip prevented the float from skating across the surface and I continued to catch.

It was fast approaching 6 pm and was having trouble seeing the bites. I had dropped a few smaller fish off the barbless hook, but I guessed that I had netted about twenty fish, the one below being the last.

Bread punch continues to be my only bait and once again it did not let me down.

These carp continue to grow at a noticeable rate and hope that they are willing to feed during the colder months. When I first moved to this area, Savernake, or as I nicknamed it the Duck Pond, was full of 2 to 5 lb common and mirror carp, which would feed, even with ice in the margins. I look forward to those days again.

Promises of rain by the smiling lady weather forcaster on TV, had persuaded me to sow grass seed on my parched lawn, but after days of watering by hand from deminished water butts, a warning of a 90% chance of heavy rain was ignored by myself, when I set off in bright sunshine for a late afternoon session on the River Cut a few miles from home.

Passing areas of bare gravel and mud, covered by falling leaves, I continued downstream looking for a swim with some signs of flow, to no avail. This once fabulous stick float trotting river, now resembled a shallow pond, but on the outside of a long bend, the floating leaves were sluggishly creeping past the opposite bank. This spot would have to do and I searched the depths of my tackle box for a small canal waggler, finding one with chipped paint on the reed antenna, but locked to the line with 2 BB, 2 No 6 shot down the line and a size 14 barbless hook, an easy underhand cast with my lightweight Hardy 12 foot float rod, put the float close to the bank. The 8mm punch of bread was taken on the drop and a six inch chublet was the first fish in my keepnet.

While tackling up, I had mixed up a small amount of light groundbait of liquidised bread, ground hemp, mixed with strawberry flavoured fine crumb, which I added enough water to just hold together, when lobbed over to the other side, breaking up on contact with the surface, forming a cloud. The last thing I wanted was to build a pyramid of hard balls on the bottom, that would not break up, due to the low flow. The groundbait was certainly attracting something, as showers of fine bubbles began erupting from the bottom. In the middle of the bubbles, I got bites, but few fish, all small, most of which fell off the hook. The tiny roach, chub and dace were not worthy of my keepnet and I threw them back, but the gudgeon were bigger. I persevered with the 8 mm punch, as a carp kept swimming through the swim, nudging at fallen leaves. It appeared to be about five pounds, and cruised within inches of my bank and not interested in my bread, when offered in front of it’s nose.

The wind was getting up, blowing through the trees behind me, and soon rain was showing on the surface opposite. I had no waterproofs, but pulled my hood to cover my cap and repossitioned my bait apron over my legs. At least the rain was warm. Whoosh. Like a mini tornado, the wind and heavy rain rushed through the little river valley, stripping leaves from the trees.

Like a tap being turned on, the river began to flow again, gradually increasing. Upstream the river is captured by several lakes, while it serves the town as a drain for its surface water, flowing south to north and the mighty River Thames. Silver fish began replacing the gudgeon, as the float made progress down the swim. The float went under and the line followed. The rod had a bend in it. At last something was fighting back. It was a small roach, but much bigger than those before it.

My bread was super soft now in my bait tray, due to the rain and possibly easier for the roach to mouth, whatever the theory, my next bite produced a better roach that fought all over the swim.

The fresh flush of water was obviously a tonic to the fish and another ball of groundbait created a cloud that visibly drifted downstream. A cast to the middle of it brought a sailaway bite, that took line, the strike being more of a lift into a moving target, as my rod bent round in response. Was it that carp? The line went solid, then came free again as the fish headed upstream, still pulling hard, then turning to the middle hugging the bottom. I was convinced that it was a carp, until a muddy chub surfaced ready to be netted.

This was not as big as I thought, but it had tried to get under a snag earlier and got buried in the mud, its mouth was full of the black sludge from the bottom.

Throwing in a ball of feed brought another quality roach searching through the cloud, with an instant dive of the waggler. I let it continue to take line before lifting into this hard fighting fish, the roach running upstream against the current, then curving across to my side, before surfacing to slide into the landing net.

I began catching gudgeon again and scraped up enough feed for a small ball, but decided that big was better and pulled out the ingredients for another few balls, tipping them into my bait tray, then mxing them with my left hand, while I watched the float, holding the rod with my right. Two more gudgeon added to my catch, while this went on, before glugging in some more water from the bottle. Rolling up another ball with my left hand got me into trouble, when the float went down and I hooked another good roach with my hand in the bait tray. Lifting my right index finger allowed the roach to run, while my left hand disengaged in time to grab the handle on my ABU 501 and bring another pristine roach to the net.

The flow was now slowing again and the first ball had only brought a small dace and a couple of gudgeon, so in went the second, more gudgeon, then solid resistance and a run with the characteristic thumping fight, as a roach zigzagged down the swim. The light was going already and once netted, I decided to pack up.

Deciding to fish with the waggler rig had made a difference to presentation, allowing very light shot down the line, although I was expecting to make contact with that carp at any time during the afternoon. Likewise, the constant bursts of bubbles could have been that carp rooting about in my groundbait, or as I suspect it was a colony of bread stealing crayfish.

Another good reult for the bread punch.