Another eve at Ashmoor

With the Wife finishing work at 2pm and me still continuing my week off it was another perfect opportunity for a fish.
Ashmoor again for no other reason really than its fantastic, by far my favorite fishery.
I decided to start on the flat bed feeder method on lake 2 fishing the close margin and the odd cast to the far margin.

Both areas seem to be fishing well and I was having a ton of Carp, Bream and the odd Roach/Bream Hybrid from the off.
The flat bed feeder method is a cracking way to get a bite, I was using a small to medium feeder with a short 5lb hooklink to a size 14 with a plastic Caster on a hair berried under the grounbait, the groundbait itself was part swimstem, part Roach and Part Bream groundbait, basically the left overs from the last few sessions.
Feeder fishing is one of if not my favorite form of fishing, I simply love it, and its a method I feel most confident in so I was really enjoying this session, plus I was doing a bit of filming for a YouTube channel both me and Steve are setting up.

As the sun started to drop it was time to put the feeder gear away and get the floater kit out.
The gear I use for Ashmoor is the same every time, a Barbel rod and medium sized reel, 6lb line straight through to a size 12 hook baited with a lump of crust, I use a bucket bag with all my kit in, a mat and net conclude my gear, simple yet very effective.

As the fishery was now empty, bar me and Steve, its easier to walk around and just drop a few dog biscuits here and there and wait for Carp to turn up, which they did, not quite as explosive as the last evening I fished here but there was still a fair few had off the top up to about 5lb so nothing huge but great fun.
As the sun really dropped we put the banger on for the night and left.
As usual a cracking few hours fishing but where to next....

A Well Deserved Fish.

After a very stressful day at work and now with 9 days off I decided to pop to Ashmoor for an evening's surface fishing with Steve in toe.

I wasn't going to bother to be honest as I was knackered by the time I got home about 6:30pm and was wondering if there was going to be enough time for a fish, but I shouldn't of worried.

We pulled into the car park about 7pm and had the lakes to ourselves, which was nice, tackle could not have been more simple, Barbel rod, medium sized freespool reel and a size 12 hook baited with a bit of crust, no floats or shot etc, simple fishing, just how I like it.

As time was limited we walked around the lakes baiting all the areas we know to produce, after the lap it was time to grab the gear and find some fish, which took about 10 seconds and I had a Mirror on, only a couple of pounds but any fish after the day I've had was very welcome.

The bites came steadily throughout the couple of hours fishing, I had so many I lost count after 10.

As usual Ashmoor provided some cracking sport with Carp to over 8lbish and an unbeatable way to relieve stress.

And with a few days off hopefully I can get a few more days down here as its always been a home from home and the fact its owned by my good friend Steve's Grandparents makes it just perfect.

Barbel Bashing at Ashmoor Lakes

At long last it was time for the start of a weekends fishing. First up Saturday was Ashmoor Lakes, lakes stuffed with fish of all sorts of shapes and sizes, I was just going to target all that swims as its been a while and just need a bite or two.

I was not going to delude myself, it was pretty cold so was not expecting a massive amount of action, I decided to start o the feeder, towards the car park corner on Lake 3 using a flatbed feeder and fake caster for bait. I was getting bites but nothing much so I changed over to a maggot, I had a couple of small Bream but nothing else so I moved behind Steve onto Lake 2 with instant results, first fish was a Barbel, which was the last fish I thought would be on the feed, but in the next couple of hours I had 4 Barbel only up to a pound or so but an unbelievable fight for it size.

Sadly the weather soon changed and it got very cold, all it took was a slight wind and it was enough to turn the fish right off.

After an hour or so of the freezing wind and no bites we decided to call it day, we had had a few fish between us so all was good and we left in high spirits.

You can't get better.

This month we decided to fish Ashmoor lakes, mainly because we was unsure on the weather so decided to keep close to home, plus we love this fishery.

I picked Steve up at 6:45 and arrived at Ashmoor around 7am.

We grabbed our gear and headed around the ponds for a look. Fo

r a change we headed to the far side of lake 2. I had a Barbel rod set-up for Carp and a flat bed feeder on a quiver rod for everything else. I was experimenting with my Carp set-up and had 6 solid PVA bags on leaders ready made to tie on and try, first was a bloodworm dumbbell tipped with flouro corn packed with 1-4mm pellet. This was placed in the corner along the bank, and before I had even sorted the next rod it was away, a lovely Mirror was my prize of a few pound, great start. Next I put out a peperami dumbbell tipped with pink corn, again in PVA bag put in the same place. This time I even got round to sorting the other rod then it screamed off, and another Carp was in the net. I put a pineapple pop up out next and carried on with my feeder fishing, which was disturbed yet again by the alarm with another Carp. With this I put the Barbel “sleeper” rod out the way so I can concentrate on my feeder fishing.

After a couple of Bream and a small Carp it slowed up, so we moved back to our old favourite swims the other side of the lake, I feeder fished the island in front of me and had my sleeper rod fishing with the yellow pop up in the edge. I was catching well with many Carp and Bream but started to slow. I swapped my feeder rod for float rod and started fishing in the edge with instant success, adding Perch and Barbel to the tally of fish. The sun was now well up and it was surprisingly really warm for March, so I shallowed up and started Rudd fishing, I have no idea how many I caught but it was a lot with the odd Bream and Hybrid.

There was a few Carp cruising about on the surface so I decided to have a wonder around and found a few fish in lake 1 around the pipe, there was two younger anglers fishing lake 1 in the far corner but they had no luck, and after catching 5 off the top I did wonder why they was not following suit.

I returned to my swim to finish the day float fishing and catching a few more.

As usual we end the day with a shed load of fish and wondering why people fish anywhere else, and the fact there was 5 other people fishing which only one other angler caught a couple of fish, what they do is just mind boggling.

THE BIG ONE
Day 1

I look forward to this show every year as its the only one I really go to as moat are far to far away.

A lot of people say its just a big fishing jumble sale, which some parts of it are, but there are some real genuine bargains to be had on either low budget gear or top the range. I couldn't wait.

We arrived a little early as usual and parked near the front thanks to the VIP tickets. As we started walking towards the entrance we saw a massive queue, gutted, until a man on the other side was shouting for VIP ticket holders, where the queue was in the warm, that alone was worth the extra money as it was FREEZING outside.

Once in we decided the best thing we could do was spend our food voucher which came with the ticket on a bacon roll and inspect out freebie bucket, which this year was very good.

We then set about having a good look around and seeing who had the best bargains.

I always go to the show with a wish list and as much cash as I can, this year I had decided to upgrade my luggage and buy a new barrow along with a few other bits.

As I had already began upgrading some of my luggage to the Trakker NXG range I decided to look for more of the same.

We soon came across a stand selling a whole lot of Trakker products so I checked there prices to online prices which they beat with ease. So after being at the show only about half an hour I had already brought a shed load of gear and saved in excess of £100, bonus. This required both me and Steve to carry back to the car where we also met up with Richard Pilchard. One of the other things we love about the show is being able to buy pellet in bulk with no postage costs, normally 5-10kg each would be fine but his year we was shocked to find there was none, not happy.

Still with other things on the list we carried on. We stopped on the Guru stand for a chat and picture with gold medalist and great angler Dean Macey, top bloke, sadly the camera was in the hands of Richard and although my camera was in intelligent auto (Noddy proof) still blurred the picture.

One of the other things on my list was a Barrow, I had two in mind either a Carp porter fatboy or Daiwa infinity freeloader, turns out I couldn’t find any Daiwa Barrows but got a cracking deal on the Carp porter with around £30 off the retail and had a water carrying kit thrown in, nice.

We stopped in the Browning stand for a chat and a picture with the very modest Bob Nudd.

Then headed to he Anglers Mail stand for a chat and a picture with John Bailey, who really is one of anglings greatest, a truly nice bloke with plenty of time for his fans.

With a few other bits and bobs brought we decided to call it a day, well the show anyway, and headed back towards Basingstoke for a couple of hours at Ashmoor, it was supposed to be the River Wey in Farnham but as the car had a lot of kit in it I decided it best not to leave it parked in a random car park.

So armed with trotting gear and very light hooklinks meant for dace we started to fish at Ashmoor, as usual it didn’t take long to catch, first fish was a Chub, the second ever I have caught from here so was delighted. The next was a Carp, which on a 2.6lb hooklink was a bit hairy but great fun, the fish was a real little cracker, only about 4lb but nice all the same. I then moved over the other side and had another Carp a little smaller. Then we decided we was out of our minds, it was freezing cold and headed back.

A special thanks to Experience Fishing in Newbury for bringing a Disney Princess rod to the show for me to give to my Daughter on her birthday, a great tackle shop and some cracking guys.

THE BIG ONE

Day 2

Today was more of a 'Meeting the stars' day for us and indeed for my son who really wanted to meet the star of River Monsters Jeremy Wade, which after a short wait in the queue was were we headed.

My son armed with his birthday money brought his DVD's and book, all signed and a picture, never seen him so happy, and luckily although only 10 he is fairly good with a camera so took a couple of pictures of us with Jeremy to.

Next was to meet the man in red but now Camo Jan Porter, a true gent, and although recovering from illness still braved the show, and had time for a good chat and a picture. Still on the Shimano stand was Mick Brown, who we have met many times and he even recognized us, which was nice, after a long chat about fishing and editing software for the computer randomly we had a couple of pictures and carried on.

Although I am not a hardcore Carper and couldn’t have the time to be I do understand the obsession, and many have made a great carrier out of it, chasing monsters, one of the greats is Terry Hearn, so we had to have a chat and a picture. As I watch fishing programmes at home all the time most of the family do get board of them very quickly, but there are a couple of shows that me and my son watch together, one is River Monsters, the other is the recent Mr.Crabtree, and although we had some pictures yesterday my some was eager to meet John as well.

A few pictures were taken with Liam holding Koi Hodgson and John Baily next to him, then we decided to call it day, I was knackered.

Call the Big one what you like but I believe it is a cracking show which seems to be getting better every year, and you can save a fortune if you no what your looking for, and I highly recommend the VIP tickets, not only do you park allot closer, you queue inside, get a bucket of really good freebies, a food voucher and 2 day pass for £25, well worth it and already looking forward to next year.