Friday the 15th August Deep Hayes

On Friday Night I decided to try my luck at Deep Hayes.

I arrived at the country park pool at 6 o clock so I only had a few hours fishing.
I decided to opt for a hair rig and a ledger with a strawberry pop up. An Hour had past and I hadn't had a single bite. So i decided to change to a tiger nut boilie. Within ten minutes my bite alarm was screaming, but it wasn't to be. I manage to miss the run as I was preoccupied with a cup of tea.

I then decided to recast, with awful consequences, I manage to cast straight up a tree. O dear! So the next ten minutes were spent climbing a tree and retrieving my hook bait and ledger and line. By using a my extend able rod rest. I managed to get it all back without falling out the tree into the pool.

I recasted again and within Ten minutes I managed to hook a carp, but again it escaped me. It seems that i am out of practice with long range fishing. I will have to retry and see if i can land my first carp at Deep Hayes.

Crakemarsh, 10th August

On Sunday the 10th

I woke up with excitement a bit later than I planned to wake up by 3 hours or so.

After a 25 minute journey to Crakemarsh, located just outside Uttoxeter, which is part of the Leek Moorlands fishing club. I got there at 9 thirty.

I have tried to fish it a few times this season with little or no joy apart from the odd tench,bream and one carp (5lbs). Its a very hard pool to fish and you certainly need a lot of patience with it. I still haven't figured it out, in terms of what method is best, but I have seen a lot a carp next to the margins.

So I decided to fish with the wind blowing on my back and next to the lily pads on the right hand side. It seemed like a good choice as the water was fairly still compared to the rest of the pool.

Previously I had been throwing little freebies in so this time I decide to put a lot more on offer.

I also opted for a hair rig on my float with cat food as hook bait.

After an hour or so, I started to see a lot of movement in the lily's and few swirls next to my float. Then suddenly my float darted under the water into the lily pads. I pulled away in hope that the fish was still attached. To my relief it was, after 20 minutes of fighting I managed to land a 15 half lb common. It didn't have a mark on it. Its the biggest fish I've caught all season and the most beautiful. My extra baiting paid off.



After that I didn't get many bites until 5 o clock and then my float started to go under and I had another carp at 8 half pounds. I also managed to catch a small greedy baby carp and 1 and half pound Crucian carp.

I will certainly look forward to Crakemarsh again.

3rd August, Hamstall Fishery

On Sunday, the 3rd August

Me, katie, Amy and Dan set off on an hours drive to Hamstall fisheries located near Rugeley on the edge of Staffordshire. Its a day ticket venue that charges £6.

Amy had read about the venue via their website and it seemed promising as the average carp caught on pool is said to be 12lbs.

So with our bushes tails set high we set off and once we arrive we found that there wasn't many pegs free and struggled to find a peg except towards the far end of pool three.

There was plenty of movement in the water and I felt reasonable confident that I would land a carp. Instead i managed to cast my float into the tree. A great start. But My float was saved by a friendly man fishing opposite. He shouted "do you have any tape?" I replied "yes" and went over. He start to unscrew his landing net and asked for the tape. He then tape his cigarette to the end of his landing net and moved towards my peg. And burnt the line that was attached to the float and tree. The float dropped in the water and was saved from a hanging.



I then start to fish and missed a few bites, but I managed to get a carp revisiting my swim by offering him free cat food and floating bread. I though it would suely take my hook bait. But it never did.

And sadly this was the story all day.

Never the less, i really enjoyed my days fishing at Hamstall and was really impressed my the facilities and the size of the carp that everyone else was catching. And found the venue to be very relaxing.

And many thanks to the friendly Liverpudlian fishermen.

Basford 1st August

Last night I decided to go to Basford for a couple of hours, I did intend to go to Crakemarsh, But i was running a bit late. So I decided to go to Basford as it is closer.

When I arrived I couldn't see much movement, so I decided to take a bit of walk before choosing a peg. Once I made my decision I baited up an area with Sweetcorn, It wasn't long before I had a few bites, but it turned out to be skinners. So I decided to use double sweetcorn to avoid the little fish, but that didn't really work. So I changed my tactics to floating bread.

At first It didn't seem to work either, then a few carp moved into to swim. They started to take off the top. But It was very hard for me to detect the bites and I couldn't really see my bread. Eventually I managed to catch one, it was a mirror carp at 9lbs. It was difficult for me to land it as I had made a make shift landing net from my tent poles. As I broke my previous net at Turners pool earlier in the week. But my make shift net managed to hold out until I got it on the bank. But it would survive anything else. So that was the end of that.