Fishing at Peterstone Lakes–26th August 2013

By Martyn Russ & John Rees

After a great days match fishing on the Willow pond at Cefn Mably myself and John decided we would do a bit of Carp Fishing & Specimen hunting at Peterstone Lakes just out side Newport. Peterstone is the home of the Birch Syndicate one of Wales’s largest Carp fishing club and has lakes stocked with some massive double figure carp. We had chosen a perfect day as it started warm with a little cloud cover and was set to become sunny around lunch time or just after.

    

We had decided to set up 2 rods for ledgering after the carp both on bottom baits to start. Again i was using me Bait Runner reels loaded with Carp Force Fluorocarbon Fishing line that i got from Total Outdoors. On the business end we were using Core Zero Leaders from Taska with Captive Camo Braid hook links down to a size 8 Carp Force wide gape hook. On one we put a tuti fruity boilie with a PVA full of Pellets and our special ground bait. On the other we started with a Banana & Hemp Boilie but ended up changing the rig to a Chod Rig with a Vanilla Pop up.

    

We both also decided that we would do a bit of stalking and hunting for the Carp instead of just sitting there waiting for the bites to come to us. I had chosen to fish the feeder rod with a running feeder rig and a short 4inch hair rig on a quick change bead. John had decided to fish a pellet waggler set up with a 6 inch floating hook link hair rigged with dog biscuits. I was the first to catch on this method with a lovely little 7 lb. common followed by John with a nice 10 lb. common that he managed to get off the top with the dog biscuits.

    

Now considering not many people were catching around the lake we were doing very well and continued to catch several nice carp up to a high of 15 lb. Half way through us fishing our separate methods the rod with the vanilla pop on a chod rig suddenly ripped off and resulted in me catching another common around the 15 lb. mark. I also managed a nice little mirror and a lovely white and yellow Carp.

    

I have to admit i had gone fishing with a bit of reservation set in my mind as the lakes we were fishing on have been heavily fished for the last 6 weeks due to the summer holidays and all the groups that had been there fishing. I honestly thought we would find the fishing hard and to get bites would be difficult but i was surprised how well we actually did. We had a great days fishing and i can’t wait for our next adventure.

Wet Nets & Tight Lines

Willow Pond – Cefn Mably Lakes 23rd Aug 2013

By Martyn Russ, Trish Lloyd, Brian Lloyd & John Rees

By the time we got to the Willow Pond at Cefn Mably Lakes in Cardiff there were all ready loads of people set up in their swims fishing so it was a mad rush to try and get a decent swim for the day. My mother & Brian set up in swims next to each other and myself and John decided to share a swim as their wasn’t many left. The sky was slightly overcast and it was very warm so we could see a lot of fish surfacing.

    

Myself and John decided to start the day off on the pole with shallow rigs fishing up in the layers and my mother and Brian decided on fishing the feeder on the bottom. John started to get a couple of bites and landed a couple of small fish including the smallest barbell we had ever seen. I decided on flicking out a couple of dog biscuits covered in bloodworm glug to see the reaction of the fish and the carp seems to love them so both myself and John changed over to our rods fishing a pellet waggler and a dog biscuit on the surface.

    

We had cracked the method of the day when, with constant feeding little and often, we induced a competition between the carp on who would get the bait fist and by the end of the session they were taking the hook bait as soon as it hit the surface. We managed to catch between 20 and 30 tidy carp ranging from a couple of pounds to around 7 or 8 lb. being the largest. It was a brilliant days fishing and made a change from only going after the biggest of the carp as the small ones don’t half put up a good scrap.

    

My mother and Brian started off slowly but soon got into their rhythm and were landing some tidy size fish. Carp and Bream were both on the menu for Trish and she seemed to catch on the pole just as well as on the feeder. How many fish they caught i don’t know and lost count but every time i looked over one of them were landing fish. I have to admit it was great fishing at the Willow pond and i recommend this venue to any one especially beginners as bites are plenty. Using the simplest of tackle and the easiest of methods you are sure for an active days fishing.

     

Tight Lines & Wet Nets

Fri 2nd August - Willow pond Cefn Mably Lakes

with Patricia Lloyd and Brian Lloyd

 

              

Bri and I decided to try fishing Willow Pond, which is suitable for beginners as well as experienced anglers. It has Carp to 7lb,Crucians, F1s, Bream including black bream.

    

We both decided to use our feeder tackle as everyone seems to use poles on there. Also since I've just had major surgery didn't want to over exert myself with handling a Pole.Hooked a lovely 5lb mirror within the first 30 mins, using Halibut flavoured luncheon meat and halibut ground bait. Brian used strawberry ground bait and soft halibut pellets. He was much slower to start off waiting a good hour for the first fish. As our swims started to build up the fish were coming thick and fast.

    

Bri experimented with other baits, like a chocolate and tiger nut boilie which the carp seemed to love, it wasn't long before he caught me up and passed me. I lost count after 50 fish and Bri was well ahead of that. I had a good few Bream in my count, about 15. the rest were carp. Bri only had a few bream but loads of good sized carp 3 to 5lb. We had a great days fishing at the Willow pond in Cefn Mably Lakes and was exhausted by the end of the day with all the fish we caught. Can’t wait for our next fishing adventure so watch this space…..

Wet Nets & Tight Lines

Cefn Mably , Carp Pond–10th August 2013

Martyn Russ, Trish Lloyd, Brian Lloyd & John Rees

After having a a couple of weeks break from fishing we had decided to pay our local carp fishery another visit and see what we could catch. Myself, John, Trish and Brian had originally decided to fish the bridge pond at Cefn Mably Lakes but when we got there we saw that the actual pond was a lot smaller than what the pictures on their web site made out and there was no way we could use the big carp gear on this venue as it was really designed for pole fishing or waggler and feeder fishing.

We then decided on fishing the Carp pond and set-up swims close to each other along the one bank. My mother and Brian had decided on fishing the feeder where as myself and John had decided on fishing ledger & Zig rigs. We had chosen a good day for fishing, or so we thought at the time, as there was plenty of sunshine with loads of low cloud cover. I had decided to start of with 2 bottom bait rigs and John had decided on the same to see if we could encourage the fish to start feeding. After an hour and no signs of any life, apart from my mother loosing 3 quite large Carp to the reeds and lilies next to her swim, i decided on changing one of my rigs over to a Zig rig set at 4 foot using a red zig aligner and red foam. Within 10 minuets of me casting the zig out the rod zipped of and i had a screaming run. I struck into a tidy 6 lb. Carp that didn’t half put up a scrap.

    

As soon as we realise they were going for the Zig John changed one of his rods over to a zig to see if he could get them biting and had the other on a small pop up rig with a vanilla white pop up. Brian was the second person to strike into a nice big carp that was definitely double figures but lost it just after the strike and watched the fish flip its tail in disgust and swim away leaving a huge bow wave. Again my mother lost another fish to the reeds and lilies next to her. This is really strange, i thought to myself, usually Brian and Trish would be wiping out the fish even on difficult venues where other fishermen seem to struggle. No one else around the lake was catching either, we couldn’t work out why. The weather was good the water seemed slightly murky but clear enough, not too clear to spook the fish but clear enough you could make out their outlines when in your swim.

    

We continued to fish the venue for the day but no other fish was coming out. Martin from Penarth turned up and set up camp at the start of the pond and decided on fishing 12mm halibut pellets on the bottom using a hair rig and low and behold he started to hit the fish. He managed 4 good fish over the afternoon witch was better than everyone else as all round the lake they were struggling for bites. After a few hours i realised that they were just not interested in the Zig’s anymore and decided to put one rod back on a bottom bait. The set up i was using was Carp Force 15 lb. Fluorocarbon fishing line from Total Outdoors and a Core Zero leader from Taska. Using a safety lead clip with a 2oz weight on i was using a 15 lb. braided hook length with a size 8 Carp Force wide Gape hook tied with a hair and knotless knot. I had used a snowman set-up with the bait consisting of a Tuti Fruity 16mm Boilie with a 10mm white tuti fruity pop up on the top.

    

John had settled on using a running chod with a core zero leader down to a 3oz weigh on the one rod and then he decided on something a little different for the second rod. He took a self weighted waggler, normally used for match fishing, and placed it on his line like a controller float. This ran down to a size 8 Carp Force wide gape hook with a hair with 4 peace's of vanilla corn on it. His other had a Spicy Peanut Pop up on. Whilst he was sat watching the float, fishing close to the lilies in the margins, his other rod ripped off with a screamer but where he had his other rod in his hands and was slightly delayed in getting to the bite he missed the fish and bumped it as the hook pulled from its mouth. This started to get to John and made him even more determined. Then suddenly, after placing the rod with the float gently on the ground, i noticed the float twitch. As i said to him “You better grab that before it goes into the water”, the float shot off and the rod started to move towards the water at an alarming rate. John jumped on the rod and struck straight into the fish. The fish then ripped off taking loads of line with it. John managed to get it under control and played the fish in to land himself his personal best of a lovely 12 lb. Common Carp. This made him more than happy and made up for a difficult days fishing.

    

I have never known my mother and Brian to ever blank and thankfully Brian managed a couple of fish on the bank a nice little bream and quite a large Rudd. My mother seemed to have quite a difficult time with the fish as she kept getting hook pulls and also the smaller fish kept on stealing the meat of the hair and not giving positive bites. It was one of the most difficult days fishing we have had so far this year. That’s how it goes sometimes and you just have to take the bad with the good. I am sure next time they are out they will get loads more fish as they normally do. At least i got a chance to try out some of my new carp equipment including the new Black Zero Stalking set with Black Zero bite alarms and indicators and John got a chance to try out his new reels and managed to get himself a new personal best. We had a great days fishing even if there wasn’t the amount of fish on the bank we would have liked but there's always next time!

Wet Nets & Tight Lines