60 Second Blog Roll - Wet Weather Carping

Changeable Conditions!

Brew-on! First outing for the Kelly Kettle!

Welcome to the second in a series of posts designed to be a quick read, generally an update on days on the bank that don't warrant a full article... 

With a week’s annual leave I recently made it out to a couple of local fisheries to attempt to close out a couple of targets. The first of these trips was on a rain and windswept Wednesday. Being the only person on the fishery had its advantages and disadvantages… I had a choice of pegs but was heavily targeted by swans limiting my potential to introduce bait into the margins and the fishery informed me it would be closing three hours early at 4 pm. Given the weather I set up beneath my brolly in a sheltered spot and was thankful for my Kelly Kettle to provide the occasional warming brew!

I had a productive morning targeting bream on the method feeder and once the swans moved off to the other half of the lake I managed to set-about finding the big carp with a few hours to go.

Tardip-boosted fishery pellet

Baiting the margins with fishery pellet soaked and boosted with Severn Valley Barbel Products Tardip, I didn’t have to wait long for the carp to descend upon it. I set up two margin approaches – the pole for when I was sheltering from the elements beneath my brolly in a fixed peg and then Torrix and ‘pin for roving. Hookbait was Severn Valley Barbel Products paste, in Severn Berry, on a Size 10 Guru QM1 hook. I always fish dead depth when margin fishing and saw no reason to make an exception 

The first fish was a pretty fish of only about 6lb, but the larger fish obliged thereafter. There was no sign of the elusive twenty I was hoping for, but with a couple of fish of 16 lb+ I wasn’t a million miles away. I’ve included the best of the bunch below, together with a picture of the weather!

Howling wind and driving rain! 

14 lb 06 oz

16 lb 08 oz

16 lb 04 oz

14 lb 10 oz.

Severn Valley Baits Partnership

After a few conversations with Adam Sheriff at his tackle shop just outside Bewdley, I'm delighted to announce that Severn Valley Barbel Products are now supporting my blog!

I've been using Severn Valley bait for the best part of a decade now. I first heard about their dominant flavour, Ambush, speaking to some of the anglers who frequently fish the middle-Severn. The initial feedback was that it 'stinks to high heaven' and barbel love it. A quick visit to the tackle shop at Bewdley confirmed the feedback as a heady waft of pickled onion monster munch nearly knocked me off my feet on stepping through the door. Christ. From that moment on, the rest of this story would be a long potted history of my barbel catches. I've used Ambush as my go-to bait for barbel ever since and they've caught me barbel all over the country.

Ambush is by now nothing short of legendary on the middle-Severn and the barbel have certainly seen plenty of it. Familiarity certainly doesn't seem to put the barbel off as I catch as effectively on the Severn still as I do anywhere else. The strong scent of Ambush gives it great pulling power in summer and winter alike and my own experience tells me that barbel lock onto it quickly and confidently.

Since I started the blog I've always maintained that I would only consider recommending products where I sincerely believed in them. It is that reason why I am so delighted to have partnered with Severn Valley and it feels like a very natural fit.

For those of you not aware, the bait is supplied as: 'Hooker' pellets in 8 mm, 10 mm, 14 mm and 16 mm; feed pellets in 3 mm, 4 mm and 6 mm; boilie dumbells; groundbait; a quick-melting paste; and Tardip glug and booster. The flavors are Ambush (think pickled-onion monster munch and roasted garlic); Severn Berry, Lamprey Juice, Spicy Frankfurter and Krill-it.

The Severn Valley Bait Range

My top tips...
(1) Go Ambush for barbel. Every time. Keep a few of the other flavors as a change bait - the hookers will happily last for a couple of years and seem to retain their strong scent. I top up on ambush regularly, but a few tubs of change baits last me the whole season.
(2) 6 mm and 8 mm pellets are great for big roach. Whether it's because they look like hemp or because the fish are used to picking up the loose offerings that get washed downstream in the flow, big roach are definitely honed onto small halibut pellets these days. I'll be breaking out the Severn Berry 8 mm's after the silvers early in the new season!
(3) Boost bland fishery pellets or cheap particle mixes with Tardip liquid booster. Just pour in a tablespoon as you soak your pellets in water and they'll have far more pulling power than even the smelliest premium pellets.
(4) They're not just for Barbel! I've caught loads of chub, roach and carp on these baits. Severn Berry is my personal choice for carp and roach and Krill- it for chub, but in truth they all seem to work.

I only have one word of caution. Find somewhere outside of your house to store it. A shed. A garden bin. Bury it down the back of the garden. Just don't keep it in your house. Pure and simple the stuff honks. Don't get me wrong, it's not an unpleasant smell in itself, I just like to have boundaries between the smell of my fishing bait and the rest of my life and world.

For anyone interested in giving the bait a try, I'd recommend starting out with a tub of 14 mm Ambush Hookers and a matching tub of paste. All of the Severn Valley Bait Range can be bought at Bewdley Tackle and Leisure or at Adam' online store, here: http://svbp.co.uk/

I'm looking forward to working with Adam to spread the word and field test new baits as they're developed!

Tardip boosted particle - great for short-session margin carping

Sportfish Photo of the Month Winner (Apr '19)

When I started writing this blog I hadn’t quite anticipated how writing would influence another growing hobby of mine, photography. With the blog in mind I’m rarely on the bank these days without a camera, even if it’s simply a trusty smartphone. I find myself thinking more carefully about the shots that record my time on the bank and have taken great pride in some of the results.

Being inherently competitive and to increase publicity for the blog I’ve decided to enter a few photos in various photo competitions, run by tackle companies or local interest groups.

It’s with a huge amount of pride that my entry of a brown trout, small but perfectly formed, was successfully voted joint Sportfish Photo of the Month for April 2019. Amazingly there wasn’t a single vote between myself and John Waggot’s Bohar Snapper!

Joint Winners - my own brown trout and John Waggot's Bohar Snapper!

A huge thanks to Sportfish for running the competition and everybody who voted for me!

Sportfish, award winning game fishing tackle supplier

I’ve included the other shortlisted photo’s below for anyone interested to see the competition, Torben Meldgaard’s 'Sunset Sea Trout' was perhaps my favourite, a shot which really captured the atmosphere of the moment.

Torben Meldgaard’s sunset sea trout

John Warburton's 18lb 3oz Rainbow trout

James Lister's first trout of 2019