Christmas Has Been and Gone, it's Time to Catch Some Fish

I hope everyone's had a good Christmas and not too much festive cheer lol, I managed a trip to Fishpool, as I got to the lake the sun was shining over the lake and even though I may be biased the lake looked a picture, the bare tree's and the starkness of the different tree types was quite a sight.

 It was a very blowy day after two days of wild and wet weather so I wasn't too surprised to see the lake was well coloured, and with the mild temperature (12`C) for the last three days I did fancy a fish or two, I had the good sense the previous wet evening to go out on the lawn and collect some lobworms, the thought process went along the lines of, if the carp don't oblige, I can have a go for the big perch that are in the lake, my PB perch came from Fishpool almost 12months ago at a weight of 2lb 12 and quite lean with it I think a 3lb er is defineately on the cards. So I set up a bomb rod and fished 10mm punched bread or sweetcorn, pinging some 6mm pellets over to the spot I'd put my bait, I didn't have to wait too long for the tip to smash round and the 1st carp of about 3lb graced the net, followed by four more, they all looked in tip top condition, fit and obviously in fighting condition judging by the way each one tried to pull the rod into the lake. One fish in particular was a cracking mirror carp, maybe a pound, but gorgeous scales and colouring, this fish is one of our "ownbreds", they are the smallest in the lake but they are worthy of a photo or two.

So I thought ok the carp are having a go, lets see if the perch want to play too, fishing a small waggler in the middle I hooked one of the lobbies, pinched off his tail and cast in, 20mins before it moved, and it was soon apparent it wasn't small, suffice to say in the next hour I had some fantastic sport, I caught 6perch the best went 2lb 8, I was gutted and felt sure it was 3lb as it was so chunky

the best four perch went 7lb 8, I was chuffed and frozen by then, so I packed up one happy little camper.

AMAL Business
The AMAL are constantly in need of financial support, we are an umbrella organisation who's affiliate clubs pay a subscription to belong to the AMAL and their members can reap the benefits, those being the fishing rights to almost the entire length of the River Soar from Abbey Park, Leicester to Pillings Lock at Barrow on Soar, the ability to fish at Fishpool once a day ticket or season ticket is purchased. Back in the 70's the AMAL boasted 40 odd clubs and river matches were 100peg affairs and the revenue received easily paid for the water rents, nowadays the subscriptions we receive fall some way short of our outgoings so we actively lease out Fishpool  to our member clubs for matches and also the AMAL are running a monthly Saturday match, I make no apologies for the fact that the lake is occasionally unavailable for day tickets or our season ticket holders, without the extra revenue generated by these matches, the AMAL would have folded long since and no one would be fishing our waters. So below is the new match booking list and its a bit busy for a couple of months

Water Booked                                   Date of Booking     Booking Club
Fishpool                                              4th January                Ratby AC
Barrow Canal                                      5th January               Bingham AC
Fishpool                                              18th January              Ratby AC
Barrow Canal                                      19th January             Bingham AC
Fishpool                                              1st February              Ratby AC
Barrow AC                                          2nd February            Bingham AC
Fishpool                                              15th February            Ratby AC
Barrow Canal                                      16th February           Bingham AC
Fishpool                                              2nd March                 Bingham AC
Fishpool                                              8th March                 Ratby AC
Fishpool                                              29th March               Ratby AC
Fishpool                                              11th May                  Bingham AC
Fishpool                                              17th August              Bingham AC
Barrow Deeps                                      28th September       Bingham AC
Fishpool                                              1st November           Ratby AC
Fishpool                                               29th November        Ratby AC


Thanks for reading and if anyone's got  any news please let me know, cheers Ian

As Winter bites, so do the roach on the AMAL waters

As far as my fishing goes, I have to confess I haven't wet a line since the Fishpool grueller of the 24th November, work is still coming in as fast as I can complete it, which for a gardener in December. really is something and with the season of goodwill just around the corner and the unknown fickleness of the  weather in January and February, I'm taking all the work I can get thank you.

AMAL Business

I'd like to thank Dan for letting me know about a fishing trip to  a section of AMAL water on the Soar in Thurmaston, down Mill Lane to be precise,  there is a turning basin and locks here with a small weir pool too. Dan fished a sloping grass bank he affectionately calls " The Grassy Knoll" which seeing as he fished on the anniversary of JFK's assassination, makes him a braver man than me :-) his peg offered depths between 6 and 12ft and he caught roach on punch on a short pole line but after seeing another angler snare a 3lb bream, Dan tried his longer pole line into the deep water, to no avail, and on return to his roach line it too was devoid of fish, so a bit of chopped worm fishing produced some nice perch to finish off his net for the day. Dan kindly e mailed me a photo of his catch too, thanks Dan

 

One of our members clubs had a match on our canal length at Barrow on Soar, Bingham Angling Club fished on the 8th December, it was typical of the Barrow canal of late, a really close match where angling skills are rewarded with some cracking nets of fish, in 1st place M Fielding caught some nice roach on punch for a total of 5lb4oz, 2nd place G Adams had 4lb9oz and with 3lb10 , 2lb11 and 2lb8 filling the rest of the frame it was a match in the truest sense of the word. Richard Landon is the chairman of Bingham, and he rang me to say he would like to run a series of matches that switch between Barrow canal and Fishpool, we decided it would be best to limit the matches to 14 anglers as this number can fish both venues comfortably without being sat on each others knee. I'll be in touch with Richard to confirm the matches will go ahead, and I know the places will be snapped up quickly, with ME being on the list please Rich ;-).

The Soar Valley Winter League has now finished, and with some of the weeks coinciding with a rising river the SVWL have used quite a few pegs on our Deeps section and so when the match organiser sent me the cheque in respect of pegging fees I was pleasantly surprised with the total, I'd like to thank Brian Hull for his promptness in letting me have the cheque and his honesty in respect of letting me have an in depth breakdown of pegs on the AMAL waters, cheers Brian.

So my last bit of news is that I will be running a match at Fishpool on the 29th December, anyone wanting to fish please let me know via this page, cheers for now guys , Ian

Here's the latest match bookings for AMAL waters

Water Booked                                   Date of Booking     Booking Club


 Barrow Canal                                      22/12/2013                   MatchCatch
Fishpool                                                29/12/2013                  AMAL