A welcome return to night fishing.

Hi all, welcome to what’s been happening this month, both on the fishing front and my work with Wolf. The fishing was a month of two halves weather wise, the first trip of the year to Trent View Fishery weather wise we had sunshine and 20 degrees, my next trip a couple of weeks later to James’s water-Stickney Brickyard for some filming, it was -5 degrees! No wonder the carp aren’t responding well.

Firstly, if you remember last month, I mentioned I was speaking to a few bait companies as to who to join, following my parting of the ways with another company who I had been with for many years (25 years in fact!). After a couple of conversation with Fenton and Neil at the DT factory, I have joined the DT baits team. They have a terrific range of baits, both fresh and shelf-life and, which are proven catchers of carp for over 30 years. I remember back in the late 80’s when Erics Angling moved into its new Shop, Eric was one of the first to stock DT baits back then, they have stood the test of time, no doubt about it. So, I am looking forward to getting to know the team and working with them to help grow the brand and maybe work on and develop a few products.

For our first night fishing of the year, we had a trip to Trent View for the very first night on the bank after the easing of lockdown, it was so great to be out for a few days, I had been looking forward to this for weeks. Myself, Alex my son and Clint met for three days on the bank. Like most Carpers, it was just great to be out again. We had swims in the shallower area of the lake, which we felt would give us a good chance of a bite or two as the carp were starting to appear here as things had been warming up a bit. As we arrived and were setting up, a very brisk wind was blowing. Which seemed to be pushing the fish out of the bay, probably the angling pressure may have had something to do with it as well. I opted to fish one rod at the bottom of the far shelf on bait, which was chopped and crumbed N-Blend boilies and Monster Particle mix, with an N-Blend wafter hookbait fished over the top. The other two rods were fished down the middle line, one on a 3-foot Zig with a small washed out DT Zinger pop-up. The other rod, was a trimmed down DT N-blend wafter on a short rig with a small PVA bag of N-blend pellets, which is a tactic which has served me well on previous visits. Clint was fishing in the swim next to me and was fishing similar lines but without the Zig.

Having just joined DT, both Clint and I were keen to try out the new bait we had with us. Clint had opted for the Fish with Blood and Orange. I had opted for the N-Blend. We had both spent some time at the factory a couple of weeks previously going through the baits that DT have on offer and chatting with Fenton and Neil. One thing I always do when trying bait is to taste it as well as smell it. Sometimes baits can have a strong smell that attracts anglers but then they don’t taste the bait as well. This is when you can tell if a bait has a good overall flavour, as well as just tasting ‘right’, is it too sweet, too sour, too bitter? This can all impact on how the carp react to eating the bait you are using, and whether they will continue to eat it, once they have had a small feed on it. You can get a better idea of this by chewing them up yourself, which is OK with things like the N-Blend, but not so great with Fishmeals! Anyway, we had both decided to use different baits, which is down to personal preference at the end of the day. Although while fishing we were fishing a similar way, by that I mean chopping, crumbing and mixing with the DNA matching liquids and Monster Particles.

It wasn’t long before the far rod was away, which was nice, however the line parted on the mussels in the weed, which wasn’t so nice! So that was my first chance fluffed! We then had two days of lovely wall to wall sunshine, which made it nice to be out, but the carp weren’t there. The best thing to do would have been to move swims to where the carp were showing, but the lake was full, as most were that starting week. So, we sat it out, chilling with the odd beer. A change in conditions on the last night brought them moving back to our area as we were due to pack up, typical! Clint had a Mirror at first light and not long after, my Zig rod was off! Great I thought, least it’s not a blank for my first night fishing trip of the year, however it came off shortly after hitting into it, oh well…We said our goodbyes and headed for home, it had been a great few days, just being out on the bank, hopefully a sign of things to come for us all as some form of normality returns for us all. Trent View is a great Fishery, Ian and his team always look after us, can’t wait for a return visit in May, maybe we will do better then.

My next trip was to do some filming for Wolf on the Icons and the new Mozzi Zappa, due to a last-minute change in plans, we headed over to James’s water, Stickney Brick Pits in East Lincolnshire. The forecast was that it was going to be cold, well! They weren’t wrong, it was Baltic! It was -5 degrees both nights, and the second night was more akin to January fishing than April, with snow and hail turning to solid ice by morning. It is a lovely lake that James has worked hard to create, small bays, nooks and crannies and very scenic, but sadly the carp were not moving very far or not my way anyway. The filming was a challenge due to the ever-changing light levels as well. So, all in all a bit of a challenging trip all round, but it was good to get to know some of the other team members a bit more. I have used the Icon Qi alarms in some severe weather now, we fished in Storm Alex in France last Autumn, fishing at extreme range in strong winds and heavy rain, without any false indications and they worked all the time. I have fished all winter in varying degrees of freezing, damp weather and this weekend it was -5, everything was iced up and frozen solid, still the Icons worked perfectly. The batteries are just starting to go off full power to mid-power, so are lasting well. The alarms are certainly proving their worth.

That’s it fishing wise for this month, I’m hoping to get back to my regular Sunday nights on the A1 Pits for a few weeks, which I have really missed with all that’s been going on, then we have some filming due in May at Berners Hall with the DT Baits team. I’ll let you know how we get on, until then take care or yourselves and your families.

Catch you next time.

Andy