Monthly Report June and July 2017
Having missed my monthly blog
last month you will see that I have incorporated the few times I fished in June
into July giving a much longer blog for you to get your teeth into.
As you can see another busy month
with ten guided sessions crammed in, some overnighters at Frensham. Frensham
has been tough, not just for tench but rudd as well and contrary to what you
may have read, multiple catches of either have been rare. Fortunately I don’t
‘big’ my catches up so when a customer books me they know that we are fishing
for maybe one or two two-pound rudd, anymore and it’s classified as a bonus.
The blue green algae once again is rife, however this doesn’t usually kill the
fishing but I’m putting the difficult fishing down to two factors. The first is
Frensham hates a changing wind
and every time I’ve fished the lake this season it’s
been on different one. The second factor is the really hot spell a few weeks ago
warmed the water quicker than in previous years and the small rudd that usually
don’t bother us till well into August were problematic far sooner making
catching by design (maggot fishing) really difficult. Fortunately I may have a
solution to the problem but its early days.
I still haven’t spent much time
on running water and the desire to do so seems’ a long way away. This is
probably due to having lots of contacts that are reporting that they are
struggling and that we needs some flow and colour. You may be thinking we have
had lots of rain, yet when it comes, it comes in force making the small rivers
I fish rise and fall quickly. Good if you have time to react but if like me you
don’t then that brief feeding spell will be missed.
I was hoping to get a few carp
sessions in but due to the water pump on the van going these were limited to
just three, yet every time I went I did manage to hook a big fish, even if they
weren’t all landed. I have to admit that the last Sunday in the month proved
that I’m onto something regarding the rig and bait I’m using and can’t wait to
get out again (tonight) and glide another scalley pest or two my way.
Getting out with new anglers and
creating features has also been fun, such as a day on the Wandle with James
Buckley, bream fishing at The Causeway Lake with my good friend Sam Meeuwissen and
watching Tony Ashbolt take Broadwater apart on a method rarely used there. If
you are catching loads and have a method that you have perfected, and this
doesn’t have to be specimen fish orientated as a match/lure tactic will be
welcomed, and fancy featuring in an Anglers Mail ‘Catch More’ feature then I
would love to hear from you. Get in touch simply by emailing me at –
duncancharman@me.com
Day to Day events.
1st – 7th
/ 06/17 – Basically working on a
number of Anglers Mail articles to get finished before I head of to The
Dominican Republic for two weeks.
9th – 24th
/06/17 – Had a fantastic holiday
in the Dominican Republic enjoying great food and plenty of sunshine, however
on returning the girlfriends found she has a DVT so the expected rush to get
out and spend loads of time fishing has had to take a backseat.
27/06/17 – Having
heard about the great weather the UK had been enjoying whilst away I was hoping
to top the tan up yet my first trip out, a guided session at Frensham Great
Pond coincided with the first proper rain for weeks. Arriving around 3pm,
earlier than planned, I managed to get set up before the heavens opened, which
was more than I can say for brave Lewis who wasn’t so lucky. Apart from the
rain things really did have ‘fish crawling up the rods’ written all over it,
yet we had to wait around three hours for the first bite, then two came along
at once. Both cane from tench, one of 5lb 6oz was landed, the other lost.
Darkness fell and our hopes rose when what was thought to be a rudd was hooked
but this turned out to be a perch. The rain by now even heavier but we braved
it, got soaked and come midnight had landed a couple of rudd, ounces shot of
two pound. Lewis was hoping to beat his 2lb 2oz rudd from last year but as they
say ‘close but mo cigar’. Angling is a strange sport as we joked that when I
returned from seeing Lewis to the car that such a fish would come along and
after casting both rods out for a few minutes whilst I packed up they both went
of producing a brace of rudd weighing 2lb 2oz and 2lb 3oz.
28/06/17 – Having
managed to dry the kit out earlier in the day and with the conditions looking
spot on for a fish or two I grabbed the opportunity of being able to do office
work later in the week and head of to Johnsons for a few hours. Setting up
awkward peg 29 and with fish fizzing everywhere it wasn’t long before the first
crucian saw the bottom of the net followed by five more. Strangely the crucians
this year seem to be spread out more this year with anglers catching maybe one
or two, unlike the couple of dozen the previous year if you found yourself on
top of them, so with six to my name in maybe an hour and a half I was somewhat
enjoying myself. Unfortunately they drifted off and the tench moved in and come
6.30pm, four and a half hours after starting I hadn’t added to my tally of
crucians but eleven tench had come unstuck. The best crucian went 2lb 14oz and
all looked like they had been through a few wars, all lean, tattered a torn
after spawning but as we know they will recover and hopefully with more weed
around and being allowed to get on with things undisturbed we will see a new
year class in time to come.
29/06/17 – Up at
5am and on the road come 6am, this time heading to SW London to meet up with a
couple of enthusiastic young anglers on the tiny river Wandle to create an
Anglers Mail ‘Catch More’ article. If you are into fishing tiny urban streams
then keep an eye out for this article over the next few weeks.
30th – 2nd/
07/17 – The best part of three days spent in the office getting up to date
with my ‘Where To Fish’ Column, completing the Wandle article plus sorting the
tackle out for a long week ahead, fortunately spent on one of my favourite
venues, Frensham Great Pond.
03/07/17 – Up at
3.30am and fishing by 5am with my customer for the day Barrie. Setting up in what’s known as ‘The sun-trap’
swim and with the weather looking ideal for a bumper catch we had to wait over
an hour for the first bite. The morning progressed in much the same way with
just the odd tench showing and come midday and with four tench to 7lb 2oz we headed
home. The session did allow us to experiment with different rigs and prove just
what a leveller fishing and Frensham Great Pond is as all four tench fell to Barrie’s
rods and mine remained motionless. Fortunately two of the tench came to a
method I’m not that keen on but seeing this it’s time I persisted with it and
hopefully if successful again will make distance fishing for tench at Frensham
far easier.
04/07/17 – Up and
in the office come 6.30am after a great night’s sleep and working hard to get
my weekly ‘Where to Fish’ column sorted nice and early as well as getting the
tackle ready for a nights carp fishing.
05/07/17 –
Arrived at the lake yesterday evening around 7pm with the intension of fishing
at least one rod on zig, a method that I rarely use but with the air pressure
high and the fish in the upper layers it seems the right approach. The lake is
rammed, so after a quick walk found everyone had followed the wind but a quick
look off the back of it, in a shallow area full of wee found lots of carp so
with some space around thought that I could intercept any carp moving out in
the night and that the angling pressure elsewhere may just have pushed the fish
here anyway. Tactics was to fish a zig near the surface and a bottom bait below
whilst spodding some Nash Gyro BugLife over the top. An hour in and the zig
rigs off producing a stunning mirror of 21lb 2oz. Things then went quiet, apart
from a Mallard that had me dropping the zig down as must have been on, or close
to the surface. Sadly that was it on the zig rig but the bottom bait ripped off
twice in the early hours producing two mid-double zip linears, the best 16lb
8oz. Come 5.15am it was time to pack away and head home to get the lady to work
but well happy with my first night targeting the carp at Johnson’s.
06/07/17 –
Sometimes fishing is just so unpredictable it leaves us all scratching our
heads as today I found myself on the banks of Newdigate Fisheries for a day’s
guiding Ian Joyce hopefully to a few tench. Temperatures were soaring with
19degrees recorded at 7am and come 2pm it had passed 30! Clear blue skies also
had us thinking we would be up against it but with a storm forecasted seeing
atmospheric pressure dropping and a nice southerly wind saw the fish almost
crawling up Ian’s rod. Certain methods failed to catch however after a few
tweaks we finally cracked it and come 2pm when it was just too hot to continues
Ian had taken at least fifteen fish including five orfe to 6lb 4oz, the only
golden tench in the lake along with tench to exactly 7lb. Not bad for a day
when many would have stayed at home!
07/07/17 – Spent
the morning in the office before doing my best to locate some canal carp but
three hours walking upstream of Fleet and not one carp spotted. Headed to a
local lake to try and stalk one and got smashed up by one of the lakes biggest
after having to place a bait in a rather dodgy position.
08/07/17 – First
guiding session of the year on running water and it’s in the bid to catch a new
customer his first barbel. Heading to the Loddon, in far from ideal conditions
and on a river that had been given a facelift in the close season (Stanford
End) we headed to a swim that had produced consistently in the past and after
around fifteen minutes the tip flew round only for the line to part as if
someone underwater had cut it with a pair of scissors! Not the best start but
these things happen and at least David had discovered an instant method that he
can take back with him to his local river. Two swims later and a repeat
performance occurred only to see the hook pull on another barbel a few seconds
into the fight. It was going to be one of those days! With the temperature
rising we knew we were up against it and apart from a decent chub bite that was
met with thin air we had to throw the towel in mid afternoon and declare it was
3-0 to the fish!
10/7/17 – With a
WFT opener needed by the end of the week and the rivers and canals fishing
badly in this hot weather headed to a local club water and took around thirty
carp in not much more than three hours but unfortunately none made double
figures.
11/7/17 – Can you
believe it, just like last year and the first Farnham Angling Barbel Teach-in
is set to be a washout with heavy rain forecasted from 4pm. Words can’t really
express just how uncomfortable this turned out to be for myself and six unlucky
anglers as it started as forecasted and never stopped with around two-inches
falling whilst we were there. Waterproofs designed for angling proved useless
and I might of well have been wearing a mankini as come 10pm I was soaked to
the skin, shivering and in need of a hot bath. The river’s form didn’t even
make up for such a miserable evening with just one fish hooked that decided to
bite through the hooklink, a pike I guess. On a positive note I have received
many thanks for the evening and the tips passed on and await a few catch
reports from the anglers in due course.
12/07/17 – Spent
the morning in the company of Tony Ashbolt at Broadwater Lake producing an
Anglers Mail feature on the pellet waggler. If you are a regular and struggling
to catch then you really need to keep an eye out for this feature as it will
seriously increase your catch rate here!
13/07/17 – It’s
all go and after getting the rudd tackle sorted headed to Frensham Great Pond
to meet my customer for the day Tim McIntyre. Small rudd proved problematic but
persistence paid off in the shape of two specimen rudd, late into the night
weighing 2lb 3oz and 2lb 8oz.
14/07/17 – Having
got back from the guiding session at around 2am I had a decent lie in before
setting about getting a few features with pending deadlines underway.
15/07/17 – Mid
afternoon headed to Weybridge to take some wedding images for my good friend
Jake Lund, Congratulations!
16/07/17 – Spent
most of the day in the office writing up my ‘Where to Fish’ column for AM.
17/07/06 – In the office early so that I can write up
last week’s Pellet Waggler article before getting the tackle sorted for a
nights guiding at Frensham. Arrived at 4.30pm to find an easterly wind blowing
so took a chance and headed to an area that wasn’t very productive last season.
Reports are that fish, albeit just a few fish and no big hits were coming from
all areas so it seemed the perfect time to explore. Straight away it was once
again obvious that the small rudd would make maggot drowning impossible until
late into the night and so it was. I managed a 2lb 6oz rudd
around 11pm plus a
tench at 1am which raised our hope but apart from a few sucked maggots this was
all we had to show for our efforts come first light. Topping the swims up with
bait the tench seemed to switch on around 7am and a quick flurry saw myself and
John land five fish, the best maybe a scrapper six.
18/07/17 – I was
hoping to be back at Frensham for another guided session tonight but with water
dripping from the van I had to postpone the session and with a storm brewing
might just have done the right thing, however I know just how well fishing can
be when the atmospherics take a sudden drop. Managed to spend a couple of hours
sorting the kit and doing a few tidying jobs in the fishing shed later in the
day after a few hours sleep.
19/07/17 – Spent
the day in the office getting my AM ‘where to fish’ column sorted.
20/7/17 - Another
office day, this time manipulating Jake Lund’s wedding images along with nine
holes of golf with my mum at Bowenhurst golf course. The five irons working a
dream as is the putter but it was strangely my short game to the green that let
me down.
21/07/17 – I did
have a customer booked in for a day’s tench fishing however he had to cancel
and reschedule it for next month. All in all this week’s gone from being a busy
one to a complete nightmare, what with the van which is now fixed, I couldn’t
even go fishing myself, however on the positive side at least I am ahead of
myself for once in the office.
24/07/17 – Spent
the morning getting the rods ready for rudd guiding session at Frensham. On the
bank by 4pm and set up ready for my customer Scott come 6pm. Everything looked
spot on with fish moving over our baited spots come dusk however the small rudd
explosion made maggot fishing frustrating and come 2am, along with lots of
small rudd the only sizeable fish were a couple of modest tench. I tried
plastic, small pop-ups and then boilie bottom baits but apart from one more
small tench it was obvious that it just wasn’t going to be. One thing that may
have accounted for the difficult session was that the temperature dropped dramatically
overnight to the extent that you could see your breath, usually meaning it’s as
low as 7 degrees. This small rudd explosion is early this year; usually you can
get away with maggot fishing till maybe the first week in August. Unfortunately
these shitters (anglers keep saying these are good for the future, however with
a dozen cormorants working the lake early morning it might not be as they won’t
turn their nose up of a two pound plus rudd!) will now be with us till the
first few frosts chill the waters so with one more guided session later this
week, and if things turn out similar, I think it will be time to leave well
alone for a few months.
26/07/17 – Spent
the morning writing up most of my AM WTF column before heading back to Frensham
Great Pond to guide my good friend Adrian in the hope of replicating the
session with Paul Garner last year. After the eventful/uneventful night on
Monday I decided to steer clear of the popular Oaks swim and head elsewhere and
come 10pm thought I’d made the right decision when a rudd of 2lb 10oz graced my
net, the biggest I’ve heard from the lake this season. Unfortunately that was
my only bite, however it’s a step forward in catching my target fish without
being kept awake all night with tiny rudd. Another major problem was my swim
seemed to be covered in silk weed and every time I wound in had to stop at
least twice to break this off my line and from around the tip eye. My rig was
also covered in the stuff so another problem that needs to be addressed.
Adrian, who obviously I spent most of the time with, fared somewhat better,
even after reeling in his rods at 1am and casting out again at 5am. He managed
a cracking rudd too plus four tench and didn’t suffer from the silk weed
problems I had. Once again the session got off to a good start but the expected
rush of tench as dawn broke never materialised, however it was a great session
and one where lots was learnt ready to take into the next session. One thing we
did noticed was the amount of natural food in the water as looking in the
landing net found an abundance of life, most evidence were the amount of big fresh
water shrimps! Why should a fish want our bait when they have these and evidence
why the fishing has been hard this season.
28/07/17 – Had a
brilliant day guiding the dad’s at Lodge Lake Newdigate. Arriving just after
7am and having the lake to ourselves the guys fished just one feeder rod each
and enjoyed a ten fish catch, shared out equally between them. Mick was off to
a flyer with four fish quickly landed which included an orfe of 5lb 3oz
(personal best) and three 4lb plus tench. Things then went quiet before adding
another good orfe early afternoon. Dad seemed worried about the lack of fish
but then an orfe and tench settled his nerves. Strangely things seemed to pick
up just after lunch with three more fish including an orfe of 5lb 7oz and two
tench, including the biggest I’ve seen from the venue and a personal best
weighing 7lb 9oz. It could have been much better for him but two lost 5lb plus
tench and an orfe managed to shed the hook. The reason for me guiding the dad’s
was that they have had a bad run of late at more local venues and I just wanted
to take them to a great venue with some stunning fish, sit with them and iron
out a few small problems to put them back on track. Don’t get the wrong
impression that Lodge Lake at Newdigate is easy, it’s far from it and if you
arrive and fish thinking this then you will probably come unstuck. I’ve fished
the lake for the past three, maybe four years and I do feel that I know how it
ticks and if approached correctly can get the best from it. If you fancy a day
here then why not book a guiding day? Just email me –
duncancharman@me.com. The only downside
to the day was to find ‘blind eye’ dead, an orfe that has given so many anglers
a personal best. Unfortunately she seemed to be unable to get rid of her eggs
back in the spring and I must admit I feared that she may become spawn bound
which she did, however nothing ever lasts forever and with an influx of new
orfe earlier in the year will provide us with plenty of sport in the
future.
29/07/17 – A day
in the office doing fishy paperwork.
30/07/17 – After
last night’s rain I wasn’t surprised that only six anglers were fishing
Johnsons when I arrived at 8am. Apart from one angler who had landed a number
of fish, everyone else had struggled and with few fish showing me and Chris
headed to the middle of the railway bank. Chris unfortunately blanked but I managed
four bites resulting in one lost carp, a suspected lost rudd plus a 4lb tench
and 21lb 4oz carp. I was doing something completely different to Chris and most
others on the lake and seem to have something working for me. It’s certainly
not perfected but with nine bites in three sessions I’m getting close. Can’t
wait to iron out all the creases and enjoy the rewards, it won’t be long!
This weeks guided sessions
