Shakerley mere

Fishing shakerley mere

This was my first session on shakerley mere, it is  17 acres in size and around 4-5 ft deep through out most of the lake. It holds a good head of 20s but can be a quite tricky water to fish! 

I had be doing some research on this lake before the session and i had found that pegs 1-5 and 48-50 are good pegs so as you do first place i walked to was these pegs and of course these swims were already occupied! After taking another stroll around the swim i got speaking to a feller called mat who had a 30lber out the night before, so we took another walk around the lake finding good spots but not being able to fit the bivvys in it was no good, in the end we loaded the gear and walked round the lake to pegs 9-10 as i had seen fish cruzing on the surface.

The rigs and bait 

Using a longer hook link that usuall as the bottom was quite soft where i was fishing and lighter 2oz leads instead of my usual 3oz leads. I was using 11 inch Nash missing link with a Nash size 10 fang twister with a rig ring on the shank just before the bend of the hook, fishing it blow back style with a small peice of shrink tubing on the eye of the hook pushed over the knot, i was using 15mm Nash coconut creme boilies topped with a 12mm matching pop up, sliding down the rig a small PVA stocking of coconut creme pellets soaked in the coconut

Creme booster juice! After each cast i was putting 4 hand fulls of boilies out as free offerings aswell.

I was fishing 60 yards out to a small slope i had found with both rods on that

spot as i thought this was the only thing i could find in the swim, after waiting all day nothing happened it was a warm week and the fish has begun to spawn so i thought our chances where really low, and the fact that the people we had spoke to hadn't nothing after spending 2 nights on there wasn't very reassuring

for us, after spending most of the day getting settled down and eating and sunbathing it came to 6 o clock when i decided to reel in and re bait for the night, after that we sat down to enjoy our tea and then it was time to get some shut eye, being right next to the M6 it was quite difficult to chill out, but yet i fell asleep hoping for a screamer.

I was woken up by a few bleeps through out the night and then finally at 5 o clock the rod screamed off i ran out in my indie and socks and leaving my head torch in the bivvy i soon relised i couldn't see a thing so i kept a tight line to the fish and tried to reach in to my bivvy to grab my light when suddenly the line went slack and the fish escaped! I was devastated after waiting for so long i had messed it

Up! After getting in a little strop with my self i packed my rod away and put it into the bivvy when suddenly the other rod screamed off! I ran out with my head torch on to find the fish had already surfaced, at first i thought it was just a bream then i seen the lovely full scaled body on this little 14lb fully scaled! After

Netting him i tried to wake my friend up to get a picture for me but he was in a pretty deep and having none of it so i let this one go! After that fish i decided to set my other rod back up and get it out there as i thought they are on the feed so i put both rounds back out. Its was around 6:30am at this and i decided to try and get some more sleep. Only to be woken half and hour later by another screaming run! This time landing a stunning mirror carp at 21.07lb

 

After getting a picture and weighing it, i decided to change the baits on Paul's rods as he had nothing all night so we changed his rods over to the coconut creme, the same as i was fishing and cast out and the line hadn't even sank when it started to sail of the reel. It had been out there for no more than 5 minutes and Paul was in resulting in a 18lb for him and also meaning both of us now had a fish from a new lake that people said was a hard lake! After landing that fish Paul was quick to change his other rod over to coconut creme boilies and yet again a bit later on this time around 9:50am his rod screamed off resulting in a 16lb common carp!!

Stunning lake! Stunning fish! Great great days fishing and great company couldn't ask for anything else at the end of the session an old guy we had be speaking to the day before came round and asked us the usual "have you caught anything?" And after telling him we both had 2 fish and lost one, he was quite surprised as he said no one ever fishes these pegs. Moral of this story is dont always try and go for the favourited swims on the lake!

Thanks for reading hope you have enjoyed it and there will be many more to come!

Carp fishing baits!!

In this blog im going to go through some of my favourite ways to bait up and get the most out of baits and also how to maximise the chance of a bite!! So let's start by looking at baiting up!

BAITING UP

Most of my fishing is boilies so my first weapon of attack is the throwing stick which can be a deadly way to bait up with minium disturbance made, it can be quiet tricky thou when first starting out so i suggest just either watching a few videos on how to do it or just get out and do it! Some down sides to the throwing stick are; hard in the wind, baiting up in the dark, close in baiting up, not very gooo for one spot and the main one is the flying bait thieves! They seem to catch them no matter what i try!

So how do we bait closer in?

Simple by using a catapult i can put 4-8 baits out at a time up to 40yards! Ok so some baits maybe taken but still most will get to the bottom for the carp! But what if we need to fish further out on a single spot and bait up in the dark?

 Well then i turn to the spod or spomb these deadly bait deliverence systems make it easy to take 10-15 boilies any where you can cast! Good sides to these are accurate baiting, birds dont like them (on the lake i fish), fish can be drawn to the splash (as it is food for them), easy to use! However down sides are; rod and reels are needed that are capable of doing the job!, makes a disturbance on the water, can scare fish if they are in shallow water. 

So depending on the situations these are the three main baiting techniques i use to get bait out there!!

GETTING THE MOST OUT OF BAITS

Ok so you go to your tackle shop and you buy your usual 4 kilo of bait for a weekend session! Ok now first of all just cause you have 4 kilo of bait doesn't mean it has to all go in the lake! Second of all is VARY THE SIZE so maybe get 1 kilo of 10mm 2 kilo of 15mm and 1 kilo of   20mm this is a great way to do it as you are not feeding the same size over and over its confusing the carp making them easier to catch as they dont get occupied on one sized bait! 

Second of all always have tins o sweetcorn with you no matter what it is a great carp attractor! It goes in all my mixes no matter what! Also be creative dont be scared to make some crazy mixes try it! Go and get a few different oils, groundbaits, things to go in there! A top tip if your using your favourite boilies then crumb some of that up and get it in there! Try sweet mixes or fishy ones or oily or high smelly ones!! 

Glugs are under used i think and they do make a difference on those harder lakes leaving them in from the start of the year or just dipping it in before casting out can make a difference! This will defiantly maximise the chance of a bite with the right bag mix and hook bait and glug how can any fish not want to take it! Apply this to your fishing and you could just get the edge over them crafty carp!

PARTICLES 

Particles can be a deadly way to fish some lakes where maybe its weedy or silty as the particles will sink to the bottom and make the carp scavenge for them also with particles be all different shapes and sizes it makes for a quick and easy spod mix my favourite being corn and hemp which sound simple but you can add anything you want! Some weekends they may like a strawberry flavour or the next a crab and shellfish mix! Also this adds even more attractants to the hemp and corn mix as the oils and smells can go through the layers of water and spread out quite well as you will see with an oily mix when you get a slick on the top of the water!! This is great as that is attracting carp around that area in to feed then leading them to your hook bait! 

PVA BAGS

One quick last thing, solid PVA bags or PVA stockings can be deadly as if offers a small baited area around the hookbait which can be used for a quick bite or as a roving technique! I have found this be a deadly way to fish in weed or to snags where i want to cast to trees and stuff with out my hook getting snarled up into anything! If your unsure on how to tie PVA bags up or PVA stockings im sure there are plenty of videos on the web on how to do it!

Thank you for reading this instalment of Cpt_blanks blog and i hope it has gave you a new edge in your fishing and also i hope it will help you catch more fish and bait up more effectively! Thanks again and i hope to see you on the bank sometime! TIGHT LINES