Sunday 2 June 2013

More Bream.....Newtown Lake, Highbridge. 01/06/13

So we are almost halfway through the year, the winds have not really left us, and when they have, the temps have not been great. Catches on the whole have been really patchy, plenty of crap weights and struggles, often combined with someone drawing well and running away with the match.

This year hasn't been too bad for me, no outright wins(but then I don't expect any for a while), but a few sections and silvers pick-ups. But more to the point, I am getting back in the swing of going fishing, the last few years have been slack in bankside time. All I need to do now is become just a bit more prepared...........and catch a few more fish.

So this last weekend was due to be warm and sunny.......with a reasonably strong wind!!
I didn't have any matches to go at, although on Friday evening I ventured upto look at Acorn fishery, dragging the family in doing so. It was the 1st time I had seen the venue since the late 90's, but with reading more and more blogs which mention the place, I deemed it a good idea to have a look. I also momentarily consider fishing their Saturday match, but changed my mind on arrival a the fish were all over the 1st pegs you come to, Toby (of Cadbury Angling) was catching a few from the margins with a bit of help with the feeding from Mark Bartlett. Nobody else was fishing, but there seemed plenty of carp in there. I will give it a bash at some point for sure, but maybe a recce session 1st is sensible.

So Saturday came and with nothing to do, I faffed around the house before we decided to go fishing. After a bit of deliberating (I didn't fancy fishing for carp) I had a choice between Walrow, Apex and Newtown. I decided on the latter, a) because I have fished Walrow recently, b) Apex would be rammed with dog walkers and have a great wind on it and c) I haven't fished Newtown for a decade or so.

By the time the car was loaded and I had driven the 10 minutes to Highbridge it was nearly 10am. Now Newtown used to have a reputation for attracting all sorts of 'roughians' due to the location of the lake, but in days past I had some really good bags of bream, tench, eels and odd rudd/roach/perch. It is a deep lake, with an average of maybe 12ft (over 7ft in most margins), going upto 15ft in spots.

I had a quick look over the lake, and the strong wind was blowing towards the far bank, it was warm and very sunny though, however a few fish were spawning and plenty cruising, I saw carp, bream and tench, so I didn't expect it to be easy.
I settled on a swim on the road bank, a nice comfy carpers type peg with room for wife/kids to catch some rays and read books/play cards. I am really enjoying taking the family at the moment, it gets them away from the ps3 and stuff. And they seem to like it too.
It also means I cant take everything I would take to a match, which is not a bad thing.

Tactics would mostly be a feeder at 45yrds, or so I thought. This was 4lb line, 0.12 hooklength (30 inch long) to a size 16 B611 barbless. Rod was Drennan Series 7 12ft competition feeder rod.
I also had my Drennan 13ft Series 7 silverfish rod, I did want to fish the slider, but ended up on a fixed insert waggler, 3AA loaded, with 5 o.8 shot bulked and a single 8 dropper. 3lb mainline to 0.10>size 18 B611 barbless. Fished to my left at maybe 4 rodlengths away from me at 10 o'clock position in 11ft of water.
Bait was simple, 1/2pt red mags, 1pt caster, a handful of worms and 1.5kg of explosive feeder/sonu tigerfish mix for groundbait, which I got my 9yr old daughter to knock up, she's learning well.

There were a couple of guys opposite, fishing the feeder and catching a few as I was setting up, so I had a dozen quick chucks of the feeder to get some bait out. I had a bite after 20 mins, and bumped a little fish, 20 minutes later a more solid pull saw me play a fish for 20 seconds before it fell off, I think it could have been a bream (these deep water bream hang on a bit at times too, especially on light kit). I then started chucking golf ball sized lumps of groundbait to where I was to try the float later on.

As we sat there for a while, loads of fish were moving and they guys were still picking up fish now and then, it looked like they were getting bream and tench. The wind remained strong, but I was sheltered, and honestly thought that the far side would be a better option, but I was comfy so stayed put.
In the next hour I did land a bream of 2.5lb and a roach of 6oz, I also bumped another.
I sat on the feeder another hour, still feeding my waggler swim, but never had another bite. Though the 2 grebes working my side of the lake were catching a few, so it wasn't devoid of fish!!

I set the float up, plumbed the ample depth and cast out, 10 seconds later I was into a bream, on single red maggot fished 2" over depth. As I said, these fish hang on in the deep water on light gear, but it was all good fun, with the fighting like tench rather than bream.
The next 3 hours saw me land around another 10 bream upto 5lb (they go to over 10lb in the lake) and a solitary skimmer on the feeder, all caught on single or double red maggot. I also pulled out of 3 or 4 fish too. I couldn't buy a bite on caster, and worm just gave me bites which I kept missing, all the fish were not well hooked and the bites were delicate. Maybe if I had fished a slider it may have been different.

So at around 4pm I packed up after 5 or so hours fishing.

My catch.

So all in all it was a decent day, I had to keep the groundbait going in, small golfball sized lumps each cast seemed to keep the fish interested.
Newtown is a venue that is underfished, but people should give it a whirl (it is on the Highbridge/NSAA ticket). There are some cracking roach and rudd to over 1lb 8oz, plenty of bream to double figure, a decent smattering of tench too along with odd rogue carp. Some big bags of fish will be had if the conditions fall right.
I did see a shoal of a rudd, some were definitely over 1lb, and there were maybe 100+ fish in the group. I did see a few carp, but they were no bigger than 10lb. Then sun had kept a lot of the fish in the upper layers and it was good to see the fish.

Next up for me is Clevedon's match at Shiplate, on the main lake, next Sunday.

Also, I may fish Thursday's evening match at Sedges (Brick pond), as I never fished last weeks on their canal lake.

Until then, take care and have fun

Lee

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