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Always Learning - Justin Grapes
I had the opportunity to do a two-night session at the weekend, which began after work on the Friday afternoon. I had a spot in mind that I was sure the carp would visit at some point during the session. When I arrived at the lakes, I found that there were quite a few people fishing the lake I fancied but, as luck would have it, enough of the area and swim was free so I took my gear out of the van and made my way down.
I was familiar with the swim I picked and I’ve caught from a couple of places in that area in the past so I took out a rod and had a cast, just to make sure the spots were clean. After that, I put in about three catapults of 10mm and 15mm Nutcracker pop-ups onto each spot. I like to put baits of different size into the swim, just to keep the fish off their guard and moving around to find it.
My choice of rigs involved two on the naked chod and one bottom bait with a lead clip set up on it. These rigs were a starting point because I planned to chop and change if I thought I should be getting some action but wasn’t. I started by fishing three different spots and seeing what happened with fish shows or bites, then I planned to move a rod onto another spot. The evening went by with not much happening or any indication at all really (except I did have a carp crash over one of my spots in the night so I was hopeful of some action) but nothing of note happened during the hours of darkness. As it grew light and I woke to keep an eye on the water I had a single bleep on my closest rod (which gave me confidence that fish were around somewhere) but as the hours ticked on the confidence started to drain away.
I left the rods out until around noon, then I reeled in and went home for a shower and a bite to eat. On my arrival back at the lakes, I mulled over whether to put in more bait but, as I reckoned the fish had been there at some point, I put some more boilie out on two spots and left the other spot alone. By this time a couple of mates from work, John and Mark, had arrived to fish one of the smaller lakes so I popped over to spend a couple of hours having a BBQ and a chat before returning to my swim just before dark to cast out again. That night went by very quickly without event or indication or fish showing at all so after the morning bite time I made my way home with my tail between my legs again, but some good news finally came when I heard that John had caught a nice common carp from the smaller lake he was on.
The next weekend was scheduled to be a weekend away with Darryn, his partner, and my better half as a present for Darryn’s birthday but we started to hatch a plan to get some fishing in as well and, as we weren't very far away from Grafham Water, I made the call to book a boat for the day. Neither of us had fished Grafham before so we had no expectations of catching anything but it would be a good learning exercise for the future.
After a great evening involving food and drink and a hot tub, we were up bright and early the next morning to get on our way to Grafham. After a short trip up the A14, we parked and looked for the first time at that big sheet of water and the first thing we both said was: "Where do we start on here?" I had dug out a few pictures of perch that had been caught here the week before we arrived, but they only gave us a small clue about where to start.
After paying for the boat and getting it sorted, we were afloat and intent on starting at one of the water towers. There were a couple of other boats that had got out first and they were already fishing so we had a slow motor around to see what came up on the fish finder. After a few minutes, we found a shoal of small fish and made the choice to start while anchored. I had a hit from what felt like a half-decent fish on the first drop down and when it popped up it looked like a nice perch, around 2lb in weight. I was over the moon to have caught a fish at all because I class myself as a novice at this sort of fishing.
After that it went quiet so we decided to move and continued to do that for a few hours, but we couldn't tempt any more fish until late in the afternoon. Finally, we found a spot with lots of fish showing on the finder and within a few minutes we both had hits on drop shot gear. Then, just as things had slowed up, I had a fish which felt like a bigger perch but it threw the hook half-way in. To say I was gutted would be an understatement but shortly after that Darryn had a small pike so that took my mind off it a little.
While all this was going on, the weather had taken a turn for the worse and it looked like there were a few thunderstorms about. One was coming straight for us so we took cover under the trees on the bank and waited for it to pass. After that, we only had about an hour before we had to leave to go and start a BBQ for the ladies, who had been shopping all day. We didn’t catch anything else but went away with a bit more knowledge about the water for next time and we talked about going back in a couple of weeks.
My next trip would see Darryn and me going back to the Trent for a night, going after the barbel again. It was only planned to be a short session and, with the stretch we were exploring unlikely to be fishing very well, we hoped we could get some sort of action from the barbel. After the usual boring trip along the A47/A17, we arrived to find there wasn't many people on our chosen stretch at all.
We went for the same bend we fished a few weeks before, where the flow comes to the inside bank. As we had about an hour before it got dark, I decided to get some bait into the river first and chose some boilies. Quickly after, I brought the rods out and made up a dozen PVA bags of boilies up just in case we had a few bites. I placed one rod about half-way across the river, where I could see a crease in the flow which screamed ‘fish’, and I put the other rod downstream and closer to the bank because there was more flow there.
As we sat there having a chat in the darkness, we heard a couple of big splashes which sounded like barbel so we were hopeful of a bite. Darryn’s rods sprang into life as soon as it got dark, but not in the way he was hoping and for the next few hours he started catching bream after bream. Although it was nice to be getting bites I'm not sure if he was so happy to be catching bream. So, I left him to keep pulling them in and went to get some kip, but not before I had a recast with another couple of PVA bags.
After I heard Darryn’s alarms go off again, I drifted off to sleep only to be woken up by my right-hand rod screaming into lift. As I fumbled about, putting on my boots and getting my head torch in position, I picked up the rod and felt something powerful on the other end. It seemed like ages before I could get it close and just as I got it to the bank it would power off again with ease, but after what seemed like ten minutes she was in the net and it looked like a double-figure barbel.
Still half-asleep myself, I shook Darryn awake to take pictures for me. I'm not sure he knew what was going on but he soon came around and took some photos. At 10lb 5oz, I was over the moon with my result and it was a River Trent PB to boot. After releasing the fish, I sat back and got myself together before I had a recast on both rods. Nothing happened for the rest of the night but, as I had had some action the previous morning, I was hopeful of another bite. To cut a long story short, nothing else happened and we made our way back to Norfolk around lunchtime. I was very happy with my one fish but I'm not sure Darryn was too keen on the ten bream that he caught.
The next day, I was going back to school for my first day’s training to become a Level 1 Angling Coach. This is something I've always wanted to do – to give something back to fishing and help others into the sport – so I will keep you posted on my progress in future posts.
We planned a trip back to Grafham for the next weekend but before that came around I used my lunch breaks at work to have a play with the lure gear. I’ve started to do more drop shotting and this seems to work with regular catches of perch of all sizes. Recently, I even managed to land a 2lb 12oz perch on a 3cm red and white paddle tail covered with Fish Dynamix’s Bioedge Crayfish Bait Wand, which they seem to like.
As the next weekend drew close, I rang Grafham Lodge and booked the boats for both days. It was going to be just me and Darryn on the Saturday but our good friend Shaun planned to join us on the Sunday. After spending the last few evenings reducing my kit into a rucksack, I was now ready and really excited for this trip. Saturday morning arrived and I made my way to Darryn’s place where we loaded his van with what seemed like a bare minimum of kit, which makes a change!
After a quick breakfast stop on the way, we arrived at Grafham full of hope for the coming day. As we went out, we moved towards the spot where we had finished the time before. We arrived and I was into a hard-fighting perch on the first drop down, which was around the 2lb mark again, and shortly after that Darryn was into a perch as well but it went quiet and we started another drift.
We continued to do this for a little while before trying another couple of areas, but with no joy. The day went on and, after investigating lots of likely spots, we moved back to the lodge bank and had a go in the shallower water there. We had about two hours left in the day and by this time we were pulling our hair out. With it being weedy in this area, I chose to drop shot but with a difference – by casting it and slowly bouncing it back over the weed. After a couple of casts, I had a hit but didn't connect.
By this time, Darryn was using a jighead and had a hit as well so we both concentrated on jigs and started to catch perch from up in the water. We made a couple of drifts over the spot and found the fish were mainly in around twelve to fifteen feet, so we anchored up and continued to cast for the last thirty minutes. We both had several perch that were just over 2lb each, but none of the notorious Grafham Monsters showed themselves. But in the end, after a tough session, we went away excited for the next day.
Sunday came and Shaun was at my house early and we made our way back to Grafham after picking Darryn up en route. After paying for and sorting out the boat, we were afloat again and heading to the area where we had finished off the evening before. We started jigging straight away and after a few casts I had a hit and was into a perch, which turned out to be about the average size of just under 2lb. On the end of that drift we then found a group of trout and all three of us had hits off them. I did manage to hook and lose a small pike as well. We moved onto a different spot after a couple of hours but only caught trout from there.
We moved to a couple of different spots without much joy. We tried moving over to try a shallow area again and started to get some action straight away. Shaun had his first perch of around 2lb and he was chuffed to have had one on his first-ever trip there. We then moved about 50 yards and anchored up again and I had a perch of average size, on the drop shot this time, but it went quiet after that so we moved back over to the bank where we had started. We hoped the perch were going to move back into that area again, like they did the evening before, but this time nothing turned up, except lots of trout hits, and it finished as quickly as it had started.
We had all had a great day with lots of laughs and a few fish (which is what it's all about, isn’t it?) and the big perch will have to wait until we know how to fish it properly. The next month will be quiet for me on the fishing front, with a holiday coming up and the recent introduction of a couple of kittens to the family, but with my lunchtime fishing and hopefully a session or two on top of that, I’ll get my fix.
So, until next time, tight lines and enjoy your fishing.
