The final trips of 2009 – part 2

Our second 24 hour trip to white springs in October was to be our first attempt at the specimen lake. We arrived a bit late and were setting up as it got dark so it made it a bit difficult to locate exactly were we wanted to fish. I attempted to cast towards the islands with torch light while Barry fished in the margins.

We hadn’t had a touch when dawn came and so we decided to move. I set up on the corner of the pit pond and Barry went back to the Canal. We were joined by Ben later that morning who had come down to catch his first carp. He joined Barry on the canal and we set him up with a maggot feeder.

Although they didn’t enjoy the same success as our previous visit they did land a few fish and Ben did manage to catch his first carp some pictures of which are below.




On the pit I had a big rod tip knock and a couple of bleeps on one rod fishing in the margins. I grabbed it instantly and felt a resistance on the other end and thought I was into a fish. After a second or two I realised that something strange was going on as there was no fight. As I brought it in I then spotted the tesco bag full of mud and water! I’m still a bit baffled as to how I had such a quick and aggressive knock from a tesco bag; perhaps it was a line bite or something?

I re-baited and put it back in the same spot and later in the afternoon I had a screaming take on the same rod. This time I knew it was no tesco bag as the fish charged off into the lake. Barry came over to help net the fish which turned out to be a partially scaled mirror. I can’t remember the exact size but I know it was a low double around the 12 lb mark (pictured below). Barry joined me on the pit late afternoon and landed a couple of single figure carp fishing to the islands.

The final trips of 2009 – part 1

I’m currently snowed in and work is closed for the day so I’m finally getting around to updating things. In truth there isn’t a lot to talk about as I’ve only been out a couple of times since the last update, to white springs on both occasions.

The first of these was a 24hour trip to in October with Barry. We arrived in the evening and began to set up on the pleasure lake where there were still some people fishing including some kids. Unfortunately these kids weren’t being too well behaved and their guardian wasn’t much better. We put up with the shouting, swearing and clowning around for a bit as we set up until one of them cast right across Barry’s swim from the opposite bank missing him by about a metre. He walked off in disgust and sarcastically commented that “this should be renamed the kindergarten lake”, which I found a bit amusing.

Luckily it wasn’t too much longer before they packed up and left by which time the light was fading. I had heard that the carp went to somewhere around the 20lb mark so I set up with larger carp in mind. Between us we were fishing a couple on the bottom and a couple on the surface. The carp could be heard all over the pool slurping and surfacing and it wasn’t too long before Barry had one on a dog biscuit at about 6lb if I remember correctly.

Not long after he landed another of similar size on a boilie but I think our tactics were overkill for the average size of fish in the pool. I had lots of rod tip knocks and the odd bleep or two but it as a few hours before I actually had a proper take, resulting in a carp about 4lb.

At some point in the night whilst I was asleep Barry switched to float fishing worm (with a starlight). He got a lot of bites and landed a few small carp up to a couple of a pound before getting his head down. In total I think I only managed 3 carp before morning came. We were both in agreement that our tactics were overkill given the average size of fish even thought there might be one or two bigger ones.

In the morning we packed away all the carp equipment and moved to the old canal lake with lighter tackle. Barry was on the opposite bank to me and was float fishing and feeder fishing maggots and worm; I was using a maggot feeder and a method feeder.

Things started slowly and I was trying a few different baits such as pellet, pepperami, sweet corn, and mini boilies. I can’t remember which one of us caught first but I think my first fish was a small carp on pepperami. As the morning progressed our catch rate began to increase by regularly feeding the areas we were fishing. Both of us were getting more bites with maggots so I began using maggots solely and by the afternoon we were each catching almost a fish a cast!

Although I was using two rods things got so hectic at one point that I would hook a fish on one rod whilst re-baiting the other. After landing the fish I would re-cast the one I had just re-baited and so forth. Between us we must have landed a large weight of carp all ranging from 1-5lb or so. We also had a few skimmer bream, roach, and Barry had a 2lb 8oz perch to top things off. So we were delighted with our session on the canal and neither of us wanted to leave!

Pictures of the Half Round Ponds

Here are some photos I took of the Half Round Ponds on a sunny day last September. If you haven't fished there before and would like to there are more details available via the Brynmill Angling Club website.

A Thursday night soaking at the HRPs

After checking the weather on both the met office and BBC websites and watching the forecast on TV I managed to convince Barry that Thursday would be a “clear dry night” despite the miserable day. We headed down to the HRPs for about half seven and began to set up in the rain on the central walkway.

We got set up just in time as the light was fading and the rain eventually eased and the skies cleared as expected. On previous trips we had targeted mainly the lily pond and so this time I wanted to focus on the other pond and so I put both rods into that pond whereas Barry hedged his bets with a rod each side.

It had been dark for maybe an hour or so when a car came down the track and stopped in the turning circle and turned its lights off. They hung around for maybe an hour before heading off and to us it looked like a young lad and a girl. I have seen cars come down at strange times in the night at the ponds before when I’ve been there. Lights go off and they hang around for a period of time. They must come down to chill out and smoke or something as they have found it to be a little hideaway. I have no particular objection as long as they aren’t there to cause trouble but this behaviour could be a bit unnerving if you are night fishing alone. One night three cars and a moped turned up and carved up the track a bit wheel spinning as they left.

After our visitor had left we carried on chatting for a while and were beginning to wonder why we hadn’t had any action when we were alerted by a couple of beeps on Barry’s rod. We were stood over it as the fish bolted and it developed into a run. As I waited to net the fish for him I could see that it was a common carp which I’d never seen from the ponds before as all the carp I have caught there have been mirrors. After deducting the weight of the sling we agreed that the small but chunky common weighed in at 11lb 6oz.

Barry's HRP common carp

Having photographed and put the fish back we were chatting for maybe another half an hour I had the same scenario on one of my rods. There were a couple of beeps that caused us to dash to the rod then a short wait for a couple of seconds before a run developed. This time we landed a mirror carp of 11lb 8oz just slightly heavier than the common. I chose not worry about photographing this fish but to get it straight back in the water. If it was daylight I would have but my camera is a pain in the arse to use at night as it just shows a black screen when focussing, so it means taking a few photos and looking at them and adjusting to get a half decent shot.

I’m guessing it had gone 0100 am at this point and we went to get our heads down. We were both on a bedchair out in the open with a sleeping bag thrown over us. I was alerted a couple of times to the odd beep on one rod and eventually I jumped up as it developed into a run. I shouted to Barry but he didn’t move. After a few seconds the fish buried itself in weed and for a minute the line was solid and I thought the fish was lost. I moved up the bank to change the angle and began to gain some line very slowly. I grabbed the torch and I could see that I was towing in a huge clump of weed but in the middle of it I could see the back of a fish.

I shouted to Barry a couple more times as it was proving a bit of a struggle but he didn’t wake up. I struggled with the torch and net and eventually had a net full of weed with a fish in there somewhere. I pulled away handfuls of weed and eventually found a mirror carp of an estimated 9 lb. Eventually Barry was woken by the torchlight and got up to ask me what was going on just after I had returned the fish.

After re-baiting etc I was back lying on the bedchair but not yet asleep when I heard Barry get a take. I went over and netted a mirror carp for him. I can’t remember what we weighed it as exactly but it was of similar size to the one I had had at around 9 lb. Barry is more keen to document all of his fish and requested a photo so I am therefore able to supply one for the blog.

Barry's mirror carp

Barry had another run sometime later which I must admit I slept through. He told me that he was into the fish for a matter of about a second and didn’t even get a chance to get a feel of how big he thought it was before the hook pulled out, or so he thought. When he went to re-bait he noticed that the hook had actually snapped on the lower shank just where it started to bend just leaving the hair and hook shank. This is something I’ve never known before possibly the hook had a manufacturing defect?

It was soon after that I felt a drip on my face. This followed by a few more drips that soon became a downpour. So much for the “clear dry night” that was promised. We each had an old umbrella but they didn’t really cover the bedchairs and the intensity of the downpour meant they leaked slightly also. The bottom of our bedchairs got a soaking meaning I was soaked from the knee down.

The rain eased off and I tried to get comfortable again. I was nodding off when I felt another drip and another downpour began. All in all I think we had four big downpours and got absolutely soaked. It was actually hailing at one point! This made the rest of the night very uncomfortable and we didn’t get anymore sleep. I will never trust the weather forecast again and I don’t think Barry will trust me again!

I had had some knocks on one rod that stopped after a while and normally I would have checked it but it got left as we were too preoccupied cowering from the rain. When we checked our baits in the morning we found that three out of four rods had no bait. This was also a bit strange but I’ve known it happen with the Vitabaits boilies as they are quite soft. We headed off by 0830 giving me just enough time to get back unload and grab a shower before getting to work for 0930.

Evening at Gowerton

After finishing work on Tuesday I headed down to Gowerton with Ben my housemate with the hope that he would catch his first carp. I set up one rod for him on a method feeder and pellet and the other with a boilie. I set two of my own rods up one with a boilie and one with pepperami.

It wasn’t long before I had a knock on the pepperami that was placed in the margin but after nothing more materialised I decided to check it. The rests weren’t in the ground very well as it was a bit hard where we were fishing and so the rear rest began to tip. This pulled the rod tip of the second rod around and I was in the process of trying to push it back into the ground when the rod tip began to sail around again. It wasn’t until line began to be pulled off the reel that I realised that a fish had actually picked up the bait at that exact moment in time.

It felt a pretty good fish and I got Ben over to help with playing it etc to get a bit of a feel as to what a hooked carp feels like. Once landed the fish weighed almost exactly 12 lb after the weight of the wet mat/sling had been deducted. Unlike the carp from the HRP the Gowerton carp seem much less chunky and can therefore appear bigger. I also think that the Gowerton carp can sometimes fight harder for their size.

After this early success I was reasonably confident that we would get some more. After a knock on the method feeder I checked it and the pellet was gone. I then put sweetcorn on it and put it back in the same place for Ben. An hour or so later I saw him jump up and he was into a fish. He let it run initially from the margin but unfortunately I think he didn’t keep enough tension as the fish turned towards him and this allowed the fish to slip the hook.

We fished into dusk and I missed one more drop back bite before we packed up. We didn’t have as much success as I’d hoped and Ben still hasn’t yet landed his first carp properly but I’m sure its only a matter of time (if he continues to come fishing that is). The one carp we did land was a nice one though and I have finally replaced the batteries in the camera so there are some pictures!

Two nights at the Half Round Ponds

After the capture of his carp from the HRPs last time out I managed to persuade Barry to join Brynmill for the year. We then decided we’d give the HRPs a go on Friday night. We headed down the ponds for about 19:30 and set up as quickly as we could on the central walkway between the two ponds.

We both started initially fishing into the lily pond in adjacent swims. I was using my trusted Vitabaits boilies and but Barry was using lobworms with a float and starlight with the hope of also tempting some evening tench as well as carp.

It started well as I had a take almost before we had completely set up and landed a small carp of about 8 lb or so just as the light was beginning to fade. It was then a bit of a wait but I had another take and landed another mirror which we weighed this time at 10lb 12oz so just making it into double figures. I then re-baited and put the rod this time into the other pool so that I was fishing one into the margins of both pools. Barry by this time had given up with the float and done the same.

I was woken some time later after a fish had picked up the bait on the rod that I had put into the other pond. This time the fish felt much more powerful and I’m sure it was a good fish. Unfortunately it got me snagged and I lost it. After that disappointment I we settled down again and I was starting to dose when I heard a faint beeping and noise of a reel clutch from one of Barry’s rods. I jumped up and started to run over and gave him a shout. He had nodded off and by the time he was up I had graded the rod and was into a fish. It turned out to be another mirror carp that just made it into double figures at 10lb 8oz. I should point out that it wasn’t really his fault he didn’t hear the alarm as he had borrowed them from me and it only gave a very faint beep when we tested it as the battery really needs changing.

Some time later I had another take on the rod in the lily pond and we netted the biggest fish of the night at 12lb 4oz. Due to our success this far we were in good spirit even though we had had hardly any sleep but then the rain came. I didn’t have a watch so I’m guessing this was around 3 am and this made things pretty miserable as we had no bivvy to shelter in. We had been out in the open on bedchairs and had to cower under umbrellas as best we could. It was also a colder night than we had anticipated and it soon became uncomfortable.

After enduring the cold and rain for a while we decided to move so that we were both fishing at the bottom of the walkway near the car park. I was fishing both into the lily pond and Barry the other pond. I reversed the car close to the walkway barriers and we got into the car to shelter with the windows down so we could hear the alarms. At around 5:30- 6:00 a couple of other anglers turned up and I think they spoke to us as they went passed but in my half asleep state I didn’t manage much of a response. It must have bee quite comical for them especially as I had a take not long after and the doors of the car flung open as we charged towards my rods. It turned out to be small carp in the 6-8 pound region.

At about 8 am we packed up and headed home so that we wouldn’t be in the way of the Saturday coaching session. All in all it had been a good night apart from the cold and rain with six carp landed and one lost.

Following Friday nights success we decided to return for Saturday night and we arrived back at the ponds at about 19:00. This time we set up on the opposite bank of the lily pond so that we could erect the bivvy so as not to be as uncomfortable as the previous night should it decide to rain. Again it wasn’t long before I was into a fish and landed a mirror around the 8 lb mark as the light was fading.

We waited up until maybe 1 am but without any action so after checking baits etc we decided to get our heads down. We both jumped up sometime later as I had a take on my other rod. I dashed to the rod and as I looked at the alarms in my half asleep state I could see that both latching LEDs were on and I made an instant decision to strike the right hand rod as the run had apparently stopped. Unfortunately it was the wrong rod and Barry grabbed the rod with the fish on. The rod I had struck was only placed in the margin and the rig flicked over the other line when I struck and somehow caused a calamitous tangle. To make things worse Barry was struggling with the fish that had buried itself in the lilies.

Eventually we lost the fish and I was left with a birds nest tangle to sort out. This took a while and meant that I had to set both rods up again after. Even so once fishing again I was still confident that we would get some more action. I was proved right when Barry had a take on a rod that was fishing almost right under our feet placed only about a foot from the bank.

Again it turned into a bit of a calamity as he tripped and was sent sprawling as he leapt out of the bivvy. We weren’t sleeping in the sleeping bags but were just throwing them over us but I guess he had it hooked under his feet as he jumped up. After landing on his knees and sliding into the rod pod knocking it over he did manage to grab the right rod unlike myself previously. The fish turned out to be the smallest we had landed from the ponds so far at about 6 lb.

As we got our heads down again it was beginning to get light and it wasn’t too much longer before I heard the first car arrive. I was then a bit surprised when I had another run and landed another carp again in the 8lb region which turned out to be our last bit of action.

I was a bit surprised at the number of single figure carp we landed over the two nights. I fished the ponds a fair bit last September and caught a few and the average was bigger. I had a few around the 11 lb mark with one or two bigger ones but I only remember landing one single figure carp. I’m not complaining of course as I’m well please landing 9 carp in two nights isn’t bad. I’m not too disappointed with only losing two considering the volume of lilies in the pond.

One point I would note is that I personally find it much easier to land the fish when fishing over the top of the lilies and not casting to them. By this I mean fishing in the margins where it is possible to keep the line as vertical as possible above the fish if it dives into lilies left or right. By casting over towards lilies the line is at a much steeper angle and the longer the fish is allowed to run the more it can wrap itself around stems etc. The two fish lost were when the fish was hooked further out and managed to dive into weeds or snags. We landed all fish hooked in the margins as I was much easier to prevent the fish snagging.

I apologise for the lack of photos but at the time I still hadn’t replaced the batteries in my camera. We did have Barry’s camera but for most of the fish we decided just to return them as we didn’t want to mess about with cameras in the dark unless we caught a real monster. The following picture is one we took of the very last fish we caught on the second morning as it was daylight at the time of capture. The weight is estimated and although it appears small all the HRP fish are chunky and I consistently under estimated the size of the ones that we did weigh.

Belated Update

I haven’t been out fishing much of late but I did manage a full day on Sunday. Prior to this I had only been out for one short unproductive session at the HRPs. Initially there were two of us that went down to the Fendrod Lake on Sunday but we were later joined by two others. The two that came later were quite inexperienced but fancied giving fishing a go. A lot of my time as therefore spent with them setting things up, explaining, demonstrating etc.

Through the course of the day we caught loads of perch on maggots both on a whip in close and with a swim feeder cast further. The perch were so easy to catch that they even stopped putting maggots in the feeder and were randomly casting anywhere into the pool and still bites were almost instant. We did get one or two other fish which I think were dace; and one bootlace eel. I did intent to get a photo of our catch when we emptied the keepnet but the batteries in my camera were completely dead.

I think they had an enjoyable time catching the small perch but decided to leave the two of us to it mid afternoon. We then decided to pack up and move to the HRPs for the evening. Baz my fishing partner missed a couple of bites on his float but other than that things were pretty quiet. As the light started to fade other anglers at the ponds began to pack up and head off until we were the last ones there. I sat in my chair wondering how long it would be before Baz came over and asked how much longer we should give it.

It wasn’t long after that he did come over to ask if I had a starlight thingy as he could no longer see his float properly. I had just said to him that I’d give it another ten minutes when we were alerted to the sound of a screaming clutch from his rod in the next swim. A quick dash and he was into a fish that proceeded to plough through a lily bed. The fish never got completely snagged and he could still feel it and occasionally I caught glimpses in the torchlight. After about a 15 minute struggle the fish was free from the lilies and shortly after I managed to net it. The fish was a mirror carp and weighed 14lb 8oz in my mat/weigh sling combo. Given that the wet mat weighs close to 2lb the actual weight was therefore closer to 12lb 8oz, unfortunately we have no evidence as we couldn’t photograph the fish as the batteries in my camera were dead. 99% of the time waiting that extra five or ten minutes makes no difference but on this occasion it did and it was good to finish off the session with a nice fish on the bank!

The final session I have to report was Tuesday evening after work at Singleton Boating Lake. I got down there at about 18:30 – 19:00 and set up a method feeder on one rod and a float on the other. As I was setting up I saw a carp of I’d guess about five pounds leap out of the water at about ¾ the distance to the island. I had read on the angling club website that they were in there but this was the first evidence I had actually seen. As I watched I saw a dark shadow of a fish moving about just under the surface which I’m certain was a carp if not the one I had seen earlier leap out of the water. I then spotted a shoal of about eight dark shadows under the water which I think were bream and I’d guess may have been in the 3 pound region.

Spotting these fish gave me a bit of confidence and I aimed the method feeder in there general direction. With the float I fished maggot in the margin in front of me and soon began to get some bites. I pulled out a few perch before switching to bread and sweetcorn to see if I could tempt anything else. The change of baits meant the bites dried up until I did eventually get a good bite on sweetcorn which I subsequently missed. I then had a really good knock on the feeder rod which I also missed.

I re-baited and re-cast the feeder rod and switched back to maggots on the float rod. After a while I started catching perch again and had literally just swung one into hand when I had a big knock on the feeder rod. I struck into a fish on the feeder rod with my right hand whilst holding the float rod and perch in the other. I then dropped the small perch back into the water to land the fish on the other rod. It didn’t feel a huge fish and as it broke the surface I saw that it was a damn eel that had taken my hair rigged pellet. After unhooking and returning the perch on the other rod I decided to pack up as the light was beginning to fade.

Back to some basic coarse fishing

This week I've gone back to trying some basic coarse fishing that I used to do as a kid. One reason for this was for my housemate to come and have a go at simply catching some fish as he is new to all types of fishing.

I bought a pint of maggots after work Wednesday evening and we headed down to Singleton boating lake. I have never fished there before so I fancied it for a change. As I began to set up I realised that I had brought the net handle but not the net and by the time I had gone back to get it it must have been gone 7 pm.

We had a go at float fishing for an hour or two and it all started ok with a small bream. Unfortunately eels moved in which i'm not a fan of. I dont mind cathing any type of fish but I have a dislike to eels. I think we caught about four of the damn things with one being quite sizeable.

On Thursday evening I went down to the Fendrod to try the same. This proved a lot more successful and I had several perch and the odd roach to a reasonable size. I went back again on Friday and again had a lot of sucess with the perch, this time I was using a feeder. On both evenings on the Fendrod the bites were quite speradic. I would have a spell where I was getting bite after bite sometimes as soon as it hit the water. This would be followed by a spell of a few minutes with nothing.

I hope to get back into coarse fishing properly in the future and fancy trying to get some bream and tench from the fendrod. Any tips anyone?

Bracelet Bay, Southgate, Langland Bay and back to Swansea West Pier

Some views of Swansea West Pier

A couple of pictures of the dog fish we caught


Last week me and my housemate continued to explore a few sea fishing spots in the evenings. On Monday we headed out past Mumbles and on to Bracelet Bay. We parked in the car park by the kids playground area and went out on the rocks. The tide was almost fully in but was on its way out. In the couple of hours we were there all we managed was one weird looking thing which we believe was a long-spined bullhead having looked at pictures on the net. This was caught float fishing with lugworm although I did also try using silver shrimps and also fishing on the bottom to no avail.

On the Tuesday evening after work we headed out towards South Gower and ended up at Southgate. We went for a bit of a stroll and found that there are some accessible areas on the rocks that we might try in the future but we decided not to atempt it this time. We then continued to Caswell Bay but the tide was in and there were a lot of surfers and body boarders there making it unfishable from the beach.

Our final destination was Langland Bay where we dicided to give it a go for an hour. Having gone to the far edge of the beach to keep out of other people's way we soon found there to be an excessive amount of sea weed and abandoned fishing. I did notice people fishing off the rocks further around so maybe thats somewhere to try in the furure.

On Wednesday evening we went back to Swansea Pier. In the two hours we were there we managed four dog fish and a crab between us, all of which we put back. This is mainly because I'm not really sure how to prepare and cook dog fish but I have since been researching online so the next one we catch may not be so lucky! In truth we were just glad to catch something having not had much success in the previous two evenings.

Some pictures of June and before

A common carp from Gowerton


A Fendrod bream



A freshwater muscle that attached itself to my hook at Gwinear. This is not a trick honest! When I reeled in to check my rig and bait this muscle was attached to the hook.



A bag of small fish from an afternoon at the HRPs



A Gwinear mirror carp

18 lb Gwinear mirror

18lb 8oz HRP mirror

11lb Gowerton common

The orange koi carp from Gwinear