A week of floods and fishing

As January passes us by, the rain seems to have been an ever present across the county. I fished on one of the Amal member clubs( Broome Angling Society ) lake called BJ's, its a true gravel pit,  normally clear, weedy and fishes pretty hard, mainly due I suspect due to the large amount of natural food,  the resident carp are averaging 12lb or so with some bigger girls from the original stockings pushing 20lb. Its not unknown to have blanks here, in fact several blanks on the bounce. I went to view the lake one afternoon after some days of heavy rain, the lake was top of the bank ie 18inches up and chocolate, I ran home and grabbed the kit, I fished for 3hours, the first fish a 14lb 8 beauty of a common carp caught on hair rigged pellet coupled with a PVA bag of 4mm pellets , came from the middle of the lake, the second fish couldn't have come to a more different method, freelined lobworm 2rod lengths out, again a common topped the scales at 10lb exactly. I didn't take photo's due to the fact my radio died so I put the camera batteries in the radio, and it was so wet and cold that they stayed in the radio. So chuffed with my evenings sport I went back two days later, and after 5hrs without even a line bite I retired to the warmth of home.
I was aware after a few dry days that water levels were dropping so not wishing to miss the chance I fished below Barrow Deep Lock, just where the canal outlet meets the main River Soar just yards above Barrow bridge. I fished two rods one with 14mm Halibut pellet and the other with white chocolate boilie. My left rod bobbin rose an inch after an hour, then the bite alarm light up the reel span, I thought it must be a carp....................no, an angry 3lb8 chub scrapped to the net, looking really washed out with all the coloured flood water, and defineately not the carp I'd hoped for.
My last trip out was a match on the Barrow canal with the lads from Bingham AC, I didn't get lucky with the draw bag in that I missed the end pegs, the canal was still coloured though not quite the filthy chocolate of two weeks ago. I didn't think bread punch would be a goer, but I fed it just to see, I was wrong it did get a bite or two but with the slight flow on the canal I feared my feed would be all over the shop, so I fished a metre and half further up the shelf in 3foot of water and less flow, and there I caught steadily, fish between 3oz and bottle top size, despite feeding some casters they just wouldn't have the shell's. The angler to my left had 3 netter perch in the last half hour and I feared a stuffing was on the cards, thankfully my 3lb 4 was enough to win, but luck played its part again, Dan on peg 1 nearest the lock had a nice deep peg with some potential for better quality fish, and so it proved today, Dan hooked a lump on worm hookbait, it snagged him then came free, only to have the hooklink break possibly damaged line caused by the snag, his mainly punch caught catch went 2lb10. Third was 1lb14, so the canal was defineatly coming back to form, I'm looking forward to the next match in two weeks.


AMAL Business


The Amal's Stillwater Fishpool near Waltham on the Wolds, is fishing as most lakes are at this time of year, someone's going to sit on the fish and trick a few into taking the bait, others are on an empty peg and despite some astute angling, fail to get any action. Member club Ratby AC fished there last week and the result was 

In first place was Dominic Lanni  with 17.11 off peg 6 using maggot on the pole.

 In second place was Paul Cayless with 10.14 (peg 12) and third was Billy Hill with 4.12 (peg 18) many thanks to Ratby chairman Geoff Winder for keeping me up to date with their results.

The Amal has just had its quarterly meeting, no major issues to talk of, the clubs finances look like showing a profit for the first time in several years, this is down to the hard work of a dedicated committee and member clubs who actively use the Amal waters as well as subscribe to the club. Thank you to them all. The match bookings for Amal waters are as follows

Water Booked                                   Date of Booking     Booking Club

 Fishpool                                              25th January            AMAL
Fishpool                                              1st February              Ratby AC
Barrow AC                                          2nd February            Bingham AC
Fishpool                                              15th February            Ratby AC
Barrow Canal                                      16th February           Bingham AC

Fishpool                                               22nd February           AMAL
 Fishpool                                              2nd March                 Bingham AC
Fishpool                                              8th March                 Ratby AC

Fishpool                                               22nd March              AMAL
 Fishpool                                              29th March               Ratby AC

Fishpool                                                18th April                AMAL

Fishpool                                                26th April                AMAL
 Fishpool                                              11th May                  Bingham AC

Fishpool                                                 26th May                AMAL

Fishpool                                                 31st May                 AMAL

Fishpool                                                 5th June                   AMAL
 Fishpool                                               7th June                   Charnwood Hookers

Fishpool                                                 12th June                AMAL
 Fishpool                                              17th August              Bingham AC
Barrow Deeps                                      28th September       Bingham AC
Fishpool                                              1st November           Ratby AC
Fishpool                                               29th November        Ratby AC

So that's about the lot for now, any questions, catch reports and the like please let me have them cheers Ian

One Week, Two Matches, One Fish, In The Payout Twice

Well that was a week that was, the first outing was the monthly Amal match at Fishpool, the lake was still carrying colour from the Christmas rains, but the morning of the match saw the thermometer go to minus 4 and cat ice had formed at the shallow end of the lake, 8 anglers had booked in, 6 showed up the other two had spoken to me the day before and there was no suggestion of a no show but they did, no call no text, sooo annoying. The match was hard, if you had any wind on the water in your peg you blanked, if it was still you stood a chance. My step son Ryan fished but decided he couldn't afford the pools, so I paid his pools on the proviso that I claimed half his winning should he pick up a brown envelope, suffice to say he drew probably the best peg on the lake ( 10 ) , fished it like a pro and won with 11lb odd four carp on bomb and corn ,

2nd weight from peg 12 was 9lb 5 three carp and some bits well done Geoff Bloxham, and a hard earned third by Dave Kimber with 12 fish for 1lb 12, as he wouldn't stop telling us , he had more fish than the rest of us put together lol. So ryan won and despite my biteless blank, I removed 20quid from his cold fingers, cheers Ryan ;-)
And so to the next Sunday and an invite from Bingham AC's chairman Richard Landon to fish their winter league on the Barrow Canal, as I'd mentioned a few weeks ago this water never floods even when the Soars "bombing through "and so it was proven on the day, the canal resembled cold tea and a cold wind with the promise of yet more rain meant we were in for a grueller. 5 hardy souls made the draw and I suspected end pegs would be a premium, I drew peg 2, oh no, so I planned a groundbait and pinkie line just going up the far shelf and a similar line on my near shelf but 6m to my left thus having my back to the wind and potential rain later in the match, at the all in I primed my lines and sat down for a coffee and Jaffa cake breather before fishing, this was disturbed by the guy to my right having a roach first chuck and I thought , well its either stuffed with fish or this guys lucky, he failed to worry the fish after that so it was the later lol. I couldn't buy a bite despite scaring myself with the size of the hooks I was using, 22's and 24's , help. Then I noticed some bubbling on my far shelf line so I switched rigs and put a tiny piece of worm and fluro pinkie over there, more bubbles and I feared it might have been a carp , which would have seen my tiddler rig off in the blink of an eye, the float dipped and I lifted into a solid thump, I drew the pole back and after a quick tussle netted a big bream, yeh, I cupped in a few dozen casters and some bubbling continued for another hour but no bites followed, the wind picked up, my fingers froze and the switch to my fish laden nearside line produced, not a single bite , so that was it. 4lb 1 went the big girl, with 4oz coming 2nd and 3oz third from end peg 1. I didn't have to endure more than an hour of ribbing after this, my new nicknames now "Spawny Twat" So I picked up the brown envelope through my own endevours this time.

AMAL Business
One of our member clubs Ratby Ac had a match at Fishpool on the 4th January, a great result came from the lake despite the coloured water and pretty rubbish weather, it went like this

 In first place was Dominic Lanni  with 21.14 off peg 10.

 In second place was Tom Watt with 14.07 (peg 6) and third was Billy Hill with 9.04 (peg 8)

There will be a delegate meeting on 21st January at the usual place, there are no issues that I know of but that's the idea of the meeting to get some feedback from the member clubs. Match bookings are as follows

Water Booked                                   Date of Booking     Booking Club

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                                               7th June                   Charnwood Hookers
 Fishpool                                              17th August              Bingham AC
Barrow Deeps                                      28th September       Bingham AC
Fishpool                                              1st November           Ratby AC
Fishpool                                               29th November        Ratby AC

So that's about the lot for now, any questions, catch reports and the like please let me have them cheers Ian