Crakemarsh 13th 2009

So for the first time this season, i decide to go to crakemarsh and try my luck.

It was a bitter cold day, but i had got a new stove to make fresh cups of tea.

I decided to fish off the spit as i had spotted one of the few carp moving that day. And decided to try pop up sweetcorn for first time with it been the start of spring. I didn't have much success all day. I had one bit and managed to hook the fish only to lose it after a few minutes.

However i did see a couple of carp jumping, which was encouraging. Hopefully i will be able to catch something next time.

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.

Turners Pool 28th July

Having finished work early on Monday, i received a text message from Amy and Dan inviting me to join them at Turners Pool. I agreed and made my way up there for about 2pm.

Turners Pool is located on a farm and is a day ticket pool just outside Leek, with plenty of carp in it.

Once i finally found my way to pool, thanks to Amy and Dans directions. Amy told me that she had caught three carp and Dan had caught one.

There where a couple of free pegs to the side of them, so i decide to fish next to them as they said they had seen alot of carp jumping there.

After an hour of fishing i was in, and i managed to catch a 2lb carp by floating bread and I/Dan also managed to break my landing net.

Time moved on and i wasn't having a much bites and the carp had moved out further to sun bath. So i decide to move down peg as i could hear a few tell tale sounds of carp sucking next to the reeds and trees.

So i scattered some bread about to see if i could locate them, after sometime i found the ones that were interesting in eating the bread. As well as the squirrel that had pinched two rounds from me.

Amy and Dan were laughing as they were been plagued by crab fish. Its all fun in the outdoors. You dont get that interaction on a PlayStation or Wee.

After locating the carp i managed to Hook an 8lb mirror carp. the biggest out of the seven that i caught that day.

Although i didn't manage to catch a double, i really enjoyed catching carp, they really do fight there.

Anyway thats my story, i am sure Amy and Dan have a lot more to tell about there experience.

Amys Story:

Turners pool was a fantastic day for all of us, I had never been before but Dan has always raved about it. We tried to go a couple of times earlier in the week, however both times we went it was too busy and there was no pegs avaliable much to our disappointment. we finally learnt our lessons and the next time we rang the pool fist. we called on the monday morning to hear that it was finally not that busy....

It was a beautiful Monday morning, around 10am when we finally setup our gear at the perfect spotwith just enough room for two. Me and dan were both ledgering and float fishing with two rods each






I set my float up with luncheon meat and our secret addition while dan went with the bread approach and on our ledgers we both had boilies on rigs.

It was fascinating to see how much activity was in the water and how many fish were jumping.

After Just a few minutes my Float had some exciting bites until it finally disappeared and I caught my first carp of the day (much to dans annoyance) ;0)



However after baiting the area with Ground bait and a few extras Dan got his first Carp of the day on Floating bread (it was also the first time he had caught carp with this method) it was a little bigger than mine, but as I reminded him it wasnt a competition.



Over the next few hours there was a lot of activity around us resulting in many bites and 2 more Carp for me both around the 4lb mark. However I was unable to get any pictures as they were feisty buggers and I felt it best to put them straight back before I dropped them. When Barry (Dave)joined us it was a 3-1 victory to me. We had a few bites on the ledgers but nothing took the bait.

After about 20mins of Barry being there he was catching quite a few and soon took me over (again much to dans annoyance :o)

Barry in the next peg

After the quiet spell wore off I was a little bemussed by what was happening to my float. Something had bitten it which I presumed was a fish however instead of taking this under it went on a little walk with my float. After what must of been 2 minutes of me just staring at it wondering what was happening I gently lifted my rod out of the water, only to see some scary looking legs wrapped around the meat. My first thought was Ive caught a trantula until i realised it looked more like a lobster. I soon discovered I d caught my first Cray Fish (not to my liking) After a few screams from dan telling me to not land the creature from within I finally managed to shake him off.

My bait soon went again, this time a had a nice Carp on the end, as I was reeling it in I again noticed the tranula looking legs attached to my line further uo my rod...yep I caught another Cray fish!!! They were everywhere and even dans floating bread started to go for walkies



My Fourth Fish and Dans Second



Barry also had a great day. Catching aroun 6 Carp and two others







At around 8.30pm we decided to pack up as we were the last on the pool. we had an eventful day and after many hours me and dan both got 6 Carp. However one of Dans was a baby one so technically I won.

The Squirrel that stole Barrys bread:

Deeps Hayes 27th July

It is was a nice baking hot day, so i thought to myself why not go fishing. So i got in touch with Ben and he said he wanted to try out Deep Hayes in Longsdon. I said ok.

Deep Hayes is a part of the Leek and Moorlands fishing Club, which we both got a license for this year for first time in ten years. There is just one pool there. But the other waters which are apart of the club are Crakemarsh, Herionmarsh and the river Dove and Churnet.

Once i got there i could see lots of Carp on Top, I arrived a little later than Ben had already got there and he informe me that he had caught a 10lb carp on top. With his first cast by surface fishing.

So i was eager to get fishing. As i was setting up i could see alot of movement on top.

So tried surface fishing, but it wasn't to be, I didn't get a single bite. So i switched to float fishing and still I didn't get a single bite.

In turned out that i didn't get a single bite all day. Ben didn't manage to catch anything else either, but he did have more bites than i did. Well done Ben