One out of three an't bad

It started as three and ended with one. The catcher alone headed out in conditions that would have made Scott of the Antartic think twice. Car packed the night before, red maggots purchased and coffee galore. Optimism as ever the motto of the crusading angler. 6.15am dark, cold, car frozen. Such a contrast to the mild day before. Typical. Race down the A50 found a Cudmore very busy with Milo one of the main lakes and a match pending at 7.20am! Mentalists.

But luck was with the catcher the hot peg on Milo was free. Quickly paying,loaded up with kit and slipping in the mud the peg was claimed for Queen and country. Feeder, red maggot feeder and off I went.

10 minutes - nothing? 20 minutes - nothing? 30 minutes - nothing? And so it progressed for one and a half hours. Not one angler on the lake appearing to have a bite.

With enough being enough plan B was launched. Loaded up with kit headed to Drumble. Well to cut a long story short. It warmed up a little. Fished tight to the island when I could. Caught 5 carp and 4 chub on red maggot. Fished until 10am on Milo and from 10am until 12noon on Drumble. Pleased with result. Nice session in very cold conditions. There is hope amigos!

Casting to Home Furnishings....

With both Anglers freed from commitments this weekend there was a hastily arranged session at the Butterley Arms.
7am and 11 degrees seemed 'do-able' for a few of those pesky bream from the 80's. Nico arrived to find Cootcatcher beating a retreat from the Carp Front back to Swanwick ...... a wave of the hand had ended the masterplan and it was all downhill from there.

We hummed and arrrhed and eventually did the only thing we could which was to place ourselves on the viaduct in prevoiusly fished pegs ( they didnt produce that time either).....

We knew from that moment it was going to be tough.....

An early liner for Nico was a false dawn and for the next 2.5 hours our tips never moved....

The monotony was broken briefly when Coot hooked a Jack Pike on the retrieve but lost it just as quick.

We discussed Weddings / Decorating / Family / Work / United / Every possible angling scenario and much more.....it wasnt to be.

With both flasks being drained the writing was on the wall....at 10.30 we called it a day....

Shellshocked.

The Bailiff also came with tales of winter carp shoaled in 3ft of water?...mmmm....


Derek contemplates the Megan Stammers scenario....

 
               
Butters in Autumn

Late Summer Butterley - A winners tale

With summer drawing closer to its end, and the mornings a little damper, the cobwebs a little more visible it was time to revisit that craggy viaduct known as ' The Rocks'.

Plans were made but not too intense, both anglers knowing what it takes to draw fish from the butterley gods on these pegs.

Nico arrived early and set about the long walk ( it seems long even with light kit) to the pegs the sun wasnt up but forecast was great, and no need for anything more than a polo shirt at 7am said it all....it was going to be a scorcher.

With customary skill the two now middle aged anglers clambered over the ' Leap of Faith' past the reed peg and into the unknown ' Chris Yates' area.....it holds many a secret and usually a tit with a rod pod dressed in green!!....today it was coot catchers turn to work his magic. Nico took a peg just this side of 'Yates' and with both Feeder and Waggler rods ( and as it turned out later Pike) kit it was the first visit to Butterley maybe since May for Nico....what would the water dish up today?

Sensas Breme and Dynamite Baits Swimstim were mixed 50/50 and Nico also had 2 pints of Bronze Maggots ( more on that later) with the usual Ringers Shellfish and pellets

Within 15 mins on the first cast with a baited hook Nico was into his first fish.....blank avoided.




Number 2 soon followed and from then on it was a steady 1 here and 1 there...Derek also having a couple a little later on pellet

Now this was all lovely but there was a nagging issue here....we wanted to fish waggler!!....both anglers reluctantly set up wagglers expecting a stream of roach to make up the numbers!!....it wasnt to be....both Anglers plumbed to find around 13ft of water straight off the bank side.....shallow it was then....

With 6 bream in the net Nico changed to waggler and began a pattern of catapult, cast, and repeat.....it was very quiet. After 5 mins a stray carp snatched a maggot shallow and charged off into the distance...the hook pulled and grateful in a way.....back to silvers....



Derek worked hard to fish at depth and then later on a maggot feeder but with the exception of one big bite it never really paid. Nico used approx 1 pint of maggots in the catapult over an hour to tame two roach and a perch.....again it hardly seemed worth it.

Today was a species match and Nico had 4 ( Carp, Bream, roach, Perch) Derek had only 1 ( bream)....could weight / number and species go to Nico ??? never heard of....

Derek then hooked a roach ( loaned by Nico speciesmaster) and tried for a pike or very big perch....neither were hungry as the little roach towed Dereks bobbin around the margins like a little boat.....

With the Sun high and both anglers back at distance on the feeder it was proving too still and warm to have high hopes for the next couple of hours....with Derek having moaned for over 2 hours about the colour of the maggots ( they werent red) ??

Nico snagged one Bream short in 14ft of water and a late one to push his tally to 10 for the session. Derek finished on 7 but banter and private pegs ruled the day.

The nets dried in the now scorching Sun and my face felt a little red.....the kids pointed that out as i walked in the door....

Casters / Maggots and Worms next time?





      

TV Detective Appears at Festival !!

Zip Nothing Motionless Still Dead Lifeless Stationary

My tip for fours hours on the rocks at Butterley. Pointless Weird Waste of time Will try again Sunday

Ultimate Angler 2012 - Are you brave enough!

Having had time to reflect the writing of this account doth prove no easier to write. As usual the festival provided the main escape for the trio as they sort the opportunity to escape from the challenges of family and work life. New tackle was view, reviewed, discussed, purchased and old tackle sorted, organised, packed, unpacked and polished in readiness for the sessions ahead. But as usual too much preparation was bound to lead to chaos. Gaining an early pass I headed to the mecca Spring Lea a day earlier than Nico. Arriving mid day Friday, setting up a small tent in Olympic timing and in desert temperatures. A customary walk around all the lakes and establishing which lakes had matches on etc, the brollie went up at the base camp to protect myself from melting and reading a few pages before the white van A Team BA style came wheel spinning across the field as Dangler arrived. Quick discussion under the protection of the brollie resulted in Mallard being chosen for a session on the waggler. Picking pegs 7 and 8 with easy access from the road and the ability to place the cars behind the pegs we set up and started to work through the 6 pints of maggots. Small bits proved a frustrating foe as both CC and Dangler missed fish or snagged small perch. A change to fishing fairly close in, steady feed of pellets and pellet on the hook resulted in a few carp.

A few carp in CC hooked a zoo creature and after a lengthy battle as captured in the photograph above, the fish below came to the net. Weighted at 9.5lb best fish of the day and the weekend. Not bad on the waggler and good sport. The session continued with Dangler ending with 5 carp for 5lb and CC 8 carp. Fished 1-6pm in hot as hell temperatures. Pleasing to catch as not a lot going on else where around the lake, but as usual fished the worst part of the day. 6pm-9pm would have been interesting. Shower, two pints in the local and fish&Chip followed. After a good nights sleep Day One of Ultimate Angler loomed.

Day one saw the Dnagker as BA from the A Team, Day two the Dangler transformed into Magnum PI zooming in his white van into the arena at 7.55am. Anglers decided that Orfe was the logical option after practising on Mallard the day before? Pegs 34,35 and 36 were chosen and they awaited the arrival of Nico. Not to let the team down Nico arrived on queue after ignoring all speed restrictions between Nottinghamshire and Shropshire, like Smokey and the Bandit, but this time more like Feeder and the pellet.

It was now time for the Ultimate Angler 2012 to start. First learning point was that using 3 methods means bloody ages in tackling up ready to fish. It was calm, dead calm so obviously feeder was the best option! CC fish first cast of around 5lb, Dangler and Nico early fish, but then very little. I tried fishing every peg, Dangler had a few more. After two hours fishing and 3 hours tackling up, teas, moaning and cobs it was all square.

Round Two - The Waggler. Not the first choice of method for the trio especially when the pole is to hand. Anyway much like the feeder, fish came fairly equally across the three anglers. Odd roach, odd carp, odd bream - total mixed bag. Again a break, banter, teas and reflection.

Round Three - Pole - this would sort the men from the boys. Nico quickly into catching ide at his feet one every minute of good size. The pressure was on. Dangler in the dreaded middle peg went a little further out but was plagued with small stuff. CC caught ide and small stuff close in always feeding the margin for the last hour.

Well fish kept coming. Plenty of ide for Nico with CC responding with carp from the margin. Dangler increasingly frustrated by 'bits'. With the final whistle approaching it was between Nico and CC, neck and neck. CC then hooked a decent carp in the margins of 5lb pipping Nico to the finishing line for Day one. CC 37lb Nico 32lb Dangler 15lb

Nice net of fish for Nico. Orfe classic.

Well after fighting their way through the Shrewsbury Flower Show massive the trio managed to have a few pints, green chillies, curry and a 5 minute firework bonanza in preparation for Day 2. CC woke to the feeling of being microwaved and feared that Day 2 would not happen. Medication, water and sausage roll to the rescue. With local knowledge Trevors lake was chosen. Snake lake with evidence of carp and ide. When we arrived it looked as dead as the photo above and over the session got worse. Dangler was allowed an outside shot of catching up by being given Peg 1 with features a plenty. Dangler promptly took advantage of these by using a black rubber band as elastic and allowed each carp hooked to swim into the mangrove swamps. Result lost more fish than caught. Nico and CC played a tactical cat and mouse game, matching fish for fish and CC ensuring Nico never made up the 5lb difference. Even the one carp Nico caught was luckily equalled. A frustrating session typical snake lake - forget it unless you are right up against the far bank and in amongst the mangroves and the lost float grave yard. Anyway after the usual 4 seasons in one day with down pours. The final weight in came. Nico 14lb Dangler 13lb CC 16lb Or something like that! On reflection and like many other things in life - it took a long time coming and over too quickly. Enjoyed it and the lesson learnt is avoid Trevors. Evening session must be on the cards as Spring Lea appears an evening venue. Centenary next year will need some thought. Match on, game on, fish on!

Trophy back where it belongs. Roll on next session. Need a Nottingham session in Autumn at the mighty Butterley !!

Flower Festival Takes Shrewsbury by Suprise

TUA.....Poster Campaign

The Ultimate Angler

3 men

3 methods

Only 1 winner

Springlea welcomes back the 3 amigos for the 3rd Summer Festival

Pellets, Pegs, Banter and Curry.....A winning combination 

 

Tickets are £5.00 pre ordered or £6 on the day

The Dangler will be signing copies of his new book " How to Dangle the Hydro"

  

The Fab Four

A strange session at Butterley. Supported by the Gilly Nettle we settled on the Chris Yates peg on the rocks. Nettle quickly got into routine and barked as if she owned the lake at railway workers, baliff and other fishmen with much gusto. Slow start a stockie of about 6lb and a skimmer - smallest I've ever had out of Butterley about 6 oz. Then nothing. Bait switch to meat saw a short wait after piling in the bait. The tip went round and a steady fight followed. As it neared the net a larger than usual back pierced the surface and thoughts of buying a larger net ran through my mind. Eventually after a few swipes a 10lb plus fish was beached.

Nettle keeps watch for those Butterley Zoo Creatures.

Another three zoo creatures followed on meat, all 10lb plus and all at distance. Plus another stockie and 2 real bream. Decent session and food for thought. Have they put on that much weight. Need to beef up to 8lb line.

Last big fatty comes to the net on the very last cast of the session. Estimated 60lb in a few hours. Gentle warm up for the festival - are you watching Nautilus and Dangler!

Carry on Lakeview

Not much to say on this one. We fished Serpent. Fished hard. Weather good but previous few days had been monsoon. Few carp. Lost a few. Appeared to be up in the water or in the margins which we figured out in last hour. Confused as matches won with 100lb plus. We need to know how to fish it. Nautilus bravely shows how little is in his net.

Boring Butterley

Went caught very little. 2 carp and 2 bream from memory. Where are all the fish? Heart not in it. I'll be back. Rocks. Red Letter peg.

Brails Fooled

Once in a life time session?

Friday 8th June 2012 12 degrees gales and heavy rain Plans of Higham Farm and tench were abandoned as the rain continued and the w looked a little less threatening. After crawling out of bed, making sandwiches, breakfast and changing the selected tackle and bait a session at Butterley with a quick escape if the weather proved too much the chosen approach. The new enhanced and repaired seat the chosen key piece of kit and chasing the wind as advised. Ended up the red letter peg and battled for the first hour to fish and keep a brollie in place on solid rock and concrete. Well in for a penny in for a pound. With Lucy having friends over this was an opportunity to have a good 6 hours. Banged out a good 15 feeders, went for the method feeder and meat as bait. Nothing cast one, then cast two rod wrapped round and a carp sped off across the lake. After a good battle a solid 6lb carp came to the net. Then off it went catching through out the day on bollie, pellet and meat ended with 27 bream and 4 carp. If it went quiet i.e. two casts and no sign out went 10 feeders of bait. Plenty of pellets and meat went in. Seem to hold them for a while. Plenty of fish need plenty of bait. Session of a life time and it just got better and better. 100lb of fish. Just got to get the conditions right.

Butterley is bouncing back

Wednesday 6th June 2012 Red letter peg is always the barometer for Butterley. Fished the morning and ended with 2 carp and 10 bream. A solid session which shows the potential. Uneventful except for age old stories from baliff of bream shoals that would fill the pacific ocean and roach as big as Moby Dick. Does he have a set script? One key piece of advice was follow the wind.

Sweet and Sour

Sherwood Holmedale Nicholson smashed Nicholls with 9 fish to 2. Fishmeal sour destroyed by sweet bombay mix Fishing sensibly with feeder versus spacker. Again enough said. Nice fish Nico.

Nicholls 2 Nicholson 1

Wednesday Evening 3 Bream Hot as hell Never going to catch Enough said

The monster still sleeps

Fished 8-11am Bollies and pellets as bait Used new Dutch Master Rocks Two classic Butterley Bream Not a touch after bream both in first hour Water high, weather cold POOR!

The Count of Monty Cudmore

News Headlines Dong - Nicholls up at 4am Bong - It stopped raining Bing - Nautilus picked up keen coot on road Dong - sleepy eyed chat on way Bing - Weather cold Bong - Dangler set for Arctic sea fishing Dong - 7am start and pegs selected Bong - Sat on each others knees Dong - The Count catches only carp in lake! Bong - Pellet, meat and maggots Dong - Crabtree tries large pineapple and loaf of warburtons in margins but fails Bong - Those on best pegs catch nothing - but also decide to sit on each others knees Dong - Is it a gay lake as everyone on our side sat tight - other side of cables straight side? Bong - Not enough line Bing - Nautilus decides to fish right handed and cast to every peg on lake Dong - Worms again ignored Dong - Overflow of lake a river Bong - Count Dangler tries out smurf outfit Dong - Water cold Bong - All good fish but not enough of them Dong - Slow Bong - Totally switched off at midday after a run of a few fish Dong - Where is the warmth of spring Bong - Want revenge Ding - Count has less than 1 fish per hour Bong - Nautilus has two tench in 7 decrees temp Ding - Win for Coot but only 12 fish Dong - Sausage cob and banter the highlight Bong - Await festival dates and Centenary session 2013 Dong - Coot in trouble with Misses for ringing by accident on way Bong - Session certainly the lull in the storm as wind and rain returned Dong - Coot only lost one feeder on island Bong - This time last year Dangler had already had 100lb at Butterley, Kelly Jones Nicholson had a tan and the Coot was dreaming of moving to the doorstep of Butterley and Sophie could still possibly have been a boy Bing - Frustrating game Dong - In the words of Arnie - 'I'll be back!' Bong - Rain will eventually stop - maybe? Wicker at Milo

The Boys REALLY Enjoying it

Just when he thought he had got it going!

Cut down those bloody trees

Cudmore 12th April 2012

Milo

Peg 13

Keen as mustard the boys were back at Cudmore 7am and racing into the car park. Bait and prep of hook lengths etc where bound to pay off and revenge may have been possible for DN. Anyway after a brief debate and with the whole lake for our taking we went for the same peg as last time! The split out into the lake with the island straight in front. JN donned a woolly hat and layers were applied as the weather again failed to get anywhere near double figures.

DN firstly unveiled his new secret weapon, a 9ft wand built for fishing tight pegs and sitting on each others laps. Perhaps a chain saw may have been a better option or would the wand magic up a few fish (hope you like that!).

Anyway the lads went for the standard approach of cage feeders and red maggots.

First cast bite and fish on and off, then the same again, followed by hooking the tree, island, breaking a tip, losing feeders and generally moaning at every opportunity about sitting so close on the same peg. But the fish did come!

JN cast to the left of the island - steady eddie in his new hat. DN carpet bombed everywhere else in an attempt to hit a six pence, but in fact bombed Dresden and half of Germany. Moaning, swearing and getting frustrated the Lancaster Bomb continued to unload its payload of pellets, casters, red maggots and groundbait. But the fish did come!

JN like Geoff Bycott at the crease, carefully playing the balls that could be played, not taking any chances and building up a swim. But the fish did come!

Anyway chub, barbel, skimmers, bream all came. A steady flow all day. Weather was up and down but the fishing was good.

JN when things went quiet on maggots switched to pellets and the fish continued to come!

DN just got frustrated and looked to the heavens.

JN bagged all day, fish after fish. 42 in total for an estimated 60lb plus and DN around 30 fish. Most fish between 1-2lb.

Hot peg with main swim to left of the island.

Bloke claimed a friend had, had 70 barbel earlier in the week. Busy feeder fishing. Good weather and increased banter with third musketter would make this very interesting.

Good session and food for thought. Two nil down however we avoided the April showers.

A Titanic Session!

Arrived at the mighty Cudmore at 7am to find a few fellow keen anglers rolling into the car park. After a freezing night and midweek snow, it did not bode well for the lone musketter, his normal companions busy fighting other causes, one with cable and the other with a caravan. One for all and all for one.

Having paid the charges I selected the same peg as last time fearing the old scenario of if only I'd fished............ Setting up on Peg 13!! all was well despite the unlucky number . But the weather was arctic, as the anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic's loomed, ice bergs could potentially have been floating across milo.



Then boom, an ice berg hit the Nicholls ship, the cold waters flooded in, the ship was going down. Bait and fishing tackle first into the lifeboats. Well one foot anyway, I now knew the true meaning of cold and an exact understanding of the temperature of the water and how hard the challenge ahead was going to be. Where were the other musketters? Why weren't they also freezing their nuts off, with wet feet and the prospect of catching nothing after an hours drive?



However the band played on, by chance an extra lifeboat had been placed in the car and on went the boots, but the prospect of frostbite was not appealing. Anyway a steady morning session. 9 Chub by 12 noon, all to red maggots on cage feeder with pellets and groundbait. Some close to island some further away. Casting a little randomly to gain a bite. But by lunch fairly happy with cold conditions, life jacket, snood, coat, thermal suit, woolly hat and two hoodies on.

But as the temperatures reached the dizzy heights of 8 degrees the bite increased and fish after fish followed. Mostly chub with the odd skimmer, smallest fish 1lb.



Skimmer comes to the net.



Typical chub. Biggest of the day was around 2.5lb.



Only barbel of the day around 2.5lb.

Anyway the more I fed the more I caught. A good pint and a half of maggots, plenty of pellets and groundbait. As the day went on if I didn't get a bite it was due to the bait had gone. Lost count but 1 barbel, 30 chub and at least 10 skimmers wouldn't be far off.

At conservative 50lb on a very cold day can't be bad. In the summer one of the those island pegs will lead to a real net full. Or are they shoalling due to the cold?

Rematch with PC Thursday or Friday.



THE END