28/06/08 – Silverlands Lake

Weight – 103lb 10oz
Catch – 28 Bream.
Weather – Drizzle to start. Became brighter with sunny periods. Moderate breeze
Water temp – 18.5c > 19.0c

Working in financial services has meant the current credit crunch has had its effect on me. I had planned to fish Tony Rixons Float Only League, however pressure at work and worry about money, meant fishing took a bit of a back seat.

Fortunately I survived the company restructure and redundancies. In fact, the future is looking quite optimistic, but time will tell.

As for the fishing, not fishing a league competition meant I had some spare time to fish other venues. To be honest I really wanted to fish the Lands End open today, however I am still waiting for a replacement section for my pole and since Lands End is pole venue with islands at 16m, I decided to give it a miss. So why Silverlands? I was really impressed with the place following my trip with Mark a few weeks ago and I might not get another chance for while due to match commitments from July onwards.

My intention was to fish the waggler and use the feeder/lead as back up. My objective was to catch some of the big bream. It was another early start and at 5am 14 balls of groundbait, micro pellet and sweetcorn went in at 25m. Whilst I let that settle I set up the rest of my kit and got myself comfortable.

I started on the waggler, but I was soon fishing more and more overdepth to counteract the effects of the tow. I managed 1 Bream of the float, but I wasn’t happy with the presentation.

Reluctantly I picked up my tip rod and cast a leger rig out with double hair rigged corn. Blow me if the rod wasn’t nearly pulled into the lake after 5mins, but after 90mins I’ve only got 2 fish. I had been catapulting 4mm expanders over the top of the feed area, but I needed a rethink. I had 2 choices, either throw in more balls of groundbait or switch to the feeder. I settled on the feeder.

I started to catch, but only sporadically and after an hour, the swim seemed to die completely and I thought the session was going to peter out, with only 25/30lb in the net

I switched back to feeder after a brief spell on the waggler and decided to catapult 2 pouches of 4mm every other cast and this seemed to kick start the session with a fish nearly ever cast. I kept chopping and changing hooklengths and bait. I settled on a short hooklength with double hair rigged corn and a longer hooklength with double or triple red maggot and single grain of corn. All of sudden I was thinking about breaking my silver fish record of 67lb. When I passed that target, a silverfish ton was a possibility and the fish were still coming.

When I am catching big fish, I weigh the fish as I go along, simply because its easier than trying to weigh a big net of fish unaided and it was better for the fish.

I was nearly at the point of packing up, but I needed 1 more fish to be certain of the ton. That last fish took 20 mins to catch and I was 2mins (honestly) away from packing up. The last fish weighed 3-11. My total weight was 103-10.

What an excellent days fishing. I worked hard to get the right presentation and continually changed the hooklength and/or bait to keep the fish coming. The irony of the session was I nearly didn’t bring any sweetcorn. Having been previously told that maggot was the bait, which highlights the need to be open minded. Of the 28 bream caught, 18 were on sweetcorn, the biggest being 5lb 1oz and 13 were over 4lb.

15/06/08 - Westerleigh - Old Lake

Weight - 7lb 7oz
Catch – 3 Tench, 3 Perch, 3 Roach, 1 Carp, 1 F1, 1 Bream.
Weather - Sunny & cloudy. 1light shower. Cool when the sun disappeared.
Water temp – 18.0c > 18.5c
Match – Glenfall Club Match

This was 2nd club match of the year. The 1st was last month at Horseshoe Lake, where I came 3rd with 7 carp for 85lb. The match was also a knock out competition, the eventual winner winning next years membership. At £75 it’s worth having.

We were due to fish the old lake, which had 16 sensible pegs, although you could fit a few more if required. The lake has 2 areas. Deeper open water, which is called the bowl and then at the shallower end there are 3 islands.

When we arrived there were carp moving around, so I was quite optimistic, however 16 members turned up, so the fishing was likely to be hard. For the knockout competition, I drew against Graham, who would be a tough draw, particularly if he drew on a few fish.

I drew permanent peg 19, which was behind the islands. I wasn’t disappointed with the draw, since I had some room and I had seen carp moving around. Graham on the other hand drew peg 16, which was opposite an island, but he didn’t have much room either side.

My intention was to target the carp, which averaged 2-4lb, with a few bigger lumps. I thought 20-30lb would be a good target weight and as such brought plenty of pellets (micros, 4mm & 6mm expanders), paste, some corn and a handful of red maggot from yesterdays session.

Directly in front of me was a channel between 2 islands. The left hand island was 10m away, whilst the right hand island was 9m away. I also had loads of margin to my right and Ian was pegged 10m to my left.

I started off feeding the left island and the point of the right hand island, with micro pellet and a few expanders. I also started feeding the right margin but the intention was to leave it well alone for at least 3 hrs. I started on paste in front of the right island, using the paste as my only feed, but I didn’t get a bite for 30 minutes, which was a worry, because very little had been caught so far.

My 1st fish came from the left hand island on 6mm expander, but it was hard going. After 2 hours it became obvious the fishing was really hard, even fishing maggot on the hook only resulted in small fish.

I had a heavy & a light rig set up and decided to stay on the light rig (.13 hooklength to a 16 B911), fishing 6mm expander and simply wait for the bites. I cut back on the feed, using a tosspot, instead of a cup. Concentrating on the point of the right hand island, offered reasonably deep water tight to the island. I still continued feeding the margins, still hoping for a few carp to turn up late.

To cut a very boring story short, I struggled, but eventually managed to catch 1 carp, losing 2 others, 1 which broke me in some sunken snags and the other ran behind the island.

Ian to my left had managed 2 carp, 1 of which was the laziest carp I have ever seen. It just flopped around on the surface. Other than Ian I knew I had beaten the pegs around the island, including Graham, so at least I was though to the next knockout round.

At the weigh in I was surprised to find my 7lb 7oz, was enough for 6th out of the 16 anglers. The best weights came from the open water and only 21lb won the match.

14/06/08 - Silverlands Lake

Weight – 27lb 10oz
Catch – 9 Bream, 1 Roach.
Weather - Sunny & cloudy. Very still start, then a slight breeze.
Water temp – 17.5c > 18.5c
A days fishing with Mark Poppleton, or Slider to those who know him from the Total Fishing forum, is always interesting.

I regularly correspond with Mark by e-mail, where he tells me of his great catches, the matches he frames in and then he goes fishing with me. He seems to think I am some sort of jinx. The last time we went fishing was at the Curry Pound on the Kennet & Avon Canal in Devizes. His e-mail went along the lines of I caught 27 tench, it was great. We turn up I catch 1 tench & 1 bream, whilst Mark caught 1 roach!

So when I received an e-mail from Mark saying he had recently been to Silverlands Lake, where 1 of his mates had been catching 100lb bags of bream I was interested, but I should have known better.

Silverlands Lake is just outside Lacock in Wiltshire. I had never seen the place, but I had sourced advice from a number of people. What I was told is the water is mainly fished by the bivvy boys for the carp that are few in number, but do exceed 20lb+. I was also told the lake was only 3-4ft deep and fairly uniform in depth, but the stories of big bags of bream had been confirmed. What was interesting was the required bait. Although these bream must see a lot of pellet & boilies, red maggot was the best bait.

So at 5am, yes 5am I turned up with a load of micro pellet, 2kgs of groundbait, 3 small tins of corn and a handful of red maggot.

When I first saw the lake, I was very impressed, it looked very natural, there was an early morning light mist coming off the surface of the water and the prospects looked good. Most of the lake was taken up by bivvys, but Mark & I found a spot to fish.

The intention was to fish the pole, although I had been told the feeder works well here, but personally I prefer to watch a float, than the tip of a rod. The problem however is I’m waiting for a no5 section for my N47 pole and I have been using a super taper section (replaces no.4 & 5 section), which I managed to leave at home!
Fortunately I had brought a waggler rod. So 7 balls of groundbait, with loads of micro pellet went out at 20m. Mark settled at 13m, although he commented his peg was a foot shallower than the last one he fished.

As expected the fish took a little while to turn up and I landed a 1lb skimmer after 30mins. My waggler rig was a 3ssg Drake Loaded Bodied Waggler fished slightly overdepth, which was sitting perfectly in the calm conditions and that was a problem. The weather forecast was for cloud, showers and a breeze. What we had was flat calm & bright conditions, hardly the best for to catching bream.

As the session progressed it became apparent we were going to struggle, due to the weather. There seemed to be fish in the swim, but they weren’t taking the bait confidently, until the sun either went behind a cloud or the breeze picked up to create a ripple.

To help keep the fish in the swim I catapulted a pouch 4mm expanders, every cast, which seemed to helped. After 3 hours the swim died completely, so a further 6 balls of groundbait went out, plus 3 pouches of expanders. Fortunately the bream returned and I snared a few more bream, before the swim completely died.


I only weighed 27lb 10oz, which was lower than expected, but the quality of the bream was impressive. The biggest weighed 4lb 5oz, but they were healthy classical looking bream, who have obviously got big on pellets. I will definitely be back. As for Mark, he managed 4lb of bits. He felt fishing the waggler further out was the key for success on the day, however the most important thing is its 4-0 to me so far this year!

11/06/08 - Horseshoe Lake

Weight - 118lb 6oz
Catch - 13 Carp, 6 Bream, 5 Rudd.
Weather - Sunny & cloudy. Some light rain. Slight Breeze.
Water Temp - 21c > 21.5c

I wanted to further practice the pellet waggler. Unlike my last session, I came with 2x 12ft reactorlite rods, with 2 differing hooklengths. So why 2 rods? Basically its a time saving exercise. 1 hooklength was 6" long, whilst the other was 9". Its surprising how much 3" can make!

The rigs used

The session started very well with 11lb 14oz carp 2nd cast, after that the fish came steadily. The longer hooklength worked the best, but it was noticeable the carp weren't really having it. Normally the carp would push the bream & rudd out of the way, but there was hardly a ripple on the surface and it was bright, which seemed to unsettle them.

Over the 5 hours I fed 8 pts of 8mm pellet, but in the last couple of hours I had to vary the feeding pattern to entice the fish. Sometimes I would fire in 3 quick pouches of pellets, then cast over the top and sometimes I would stop feeding all together for 5mins.

10lb 10oz Carp - look at the size of that tail!

Instead of getting stronger the session tailed off. In fact I didnt catch for the last 45 mins. I think the weather conditions were a little against me, plus I didnt have a back up plan! Anyway it was good to get some practice on the pellet waggler.

01/06/08 – Fishponds

Weight - 160lb 13oz
Catch - 17 Carp, 3 Bream.
Weather - Cloudy & muggy, slight rain at times. Very calm.
Water temp – 17.5c

My favourite method here is the pole & paste. Last month I caught my personal carp of 19lb 8oz on the method. Although I have caught shallow on the pole, I have always struggled to catch on the pellet waggler. So today’s session was about catching on this method. I also had the pole & paste as a back up.
After 45 minutes I managed my 1st fish. The following 3hrs, I fed 6 pints of 8mm coarse pellet, which resulted in 10 carp up to 12lb 12oz and 2 bream. During those 3 hours I continually messed around with hooklengths ranging from 6ins to 2 ft. The shortest hooklength was by far the best.
To be successful with the pellet waggler, is not to be lazy. Before I cast I fed 8 pellets, cast, feed a 2nd pouch of pellet and then a 3rd. All this in a 60-90 second spell. It is rare to catch a carp if the bait is in the water for longer than this. On the pole you should be lifting and dropping continually, so you must apply the same principle to the waggler. I am by no means an expert on the method, but I am determined to master it.
The remaining 2 hours of the session was spent fishing the margins on paste and caught a further 7 carp and a bream.
Overall I am really pleased with the session. I felt I managed to sort the pellet waggler for this water, but the practice was useful for a forthcoming trip to Stafford Moor. As for fishing the paste, I am really confident on it, but fishing the waggler offered me a challenge, which on this occasion was successful.