Broad Acres 24hr winter session
To get 2018 off to a great start, myself, my dad and my friend Lee decided to brave it out in the cold and get our first 24 hour session down for this year. We knew it was going to be a cold one, but you never know just how cold it is once you stop moving and it's midnight but a bit more on that as I go on.
So the choice was Broad Acres in the Bromsgrove area, a venue with four lakes with the main lake being the one with the biggest fish. I'm not talking 40+ but the biggest being a 28lb common. Seeing as it's winter we didn't want anywhere too hard to fish; we wanted action over a long wait to just blank. So, we rocked up hoping to drive to our peg only to find the bank sopping and boggy. We had the pleasure of carrying the gear to our swim. We decided not to go too far and chose the swims which were in front of two islands. It was much more shallow up our end than the bottom and two lads already had three fish out before we even setup, even though we got there before them. With a North Easterly wind I wanted the right side of the main island, as this is where the water was much calmer. I assumed that although the fish could be in the deeper areas down the other end of the pool, I wanted a feature to fish to and was confident fish would be there for the calm water and over-hangs.
After playing kite with the bivvy in the wind I got both rods out. I put my left rod to the right side of the island on three artificial corns on a hair rig with a small lead shot on the hair to allow for the corn to popup just off the bottom. For the second rod I decided to go with a ronnie rig and a NASH Strawberry Crush popup, which I put out in the middle where there is a gravel bar that runs between both islands. I was hoping to pick up a fish going between them which I have done in the past. Neither of us had a bite in the morning. It wasn't until midday I had my first carp on the popped up corn, nothing spectacular at only around 5lb. However, the common was more than welcome, especially for this time of the year and it was my first fish of 2018. After that I had a pickup on the ronnie rig, but struck into nothing. I decided to try some PVA bags full of maggot, bread crumb and micro pellet, keeping the food quantity down. However, I failed to bank another one that day and decided to revert back to just single baits with no PVA. On the left Lee also managed to get a small common around the 5-6lb mark and to my right my dad also had a common around the same stamp. The main thing is at this point none of us were going home with a blank!
As the night was drawing in the weather got colder and the wind was still howling. We decided to get the bucket fire on the go to help defrost our feet and to keep the spirits high to what was hopefully going to be a good night for a bite. However, with the temperature falling to 0 degrees it was going to be a cold night. With the bivvies on lock down we all had a few beeps between us on the night. Lee managed to pick another one out around 4am but nothing else came out. The morning after couldn't come quick enough and with the condensation freezing and forming a sheet of ice I was eager to get out and have a recast. It was slow again throughout the morning, so I decided to change the ronnie rig and go for a small simple slip D rig which I have had lots of fish on from this lake. I went with a fluro pineapple popup hoping that would be more visible. I put that rod out towards the island on my right just left of it. It wasn't long before I was into my second fish and this time it was a little bigger, a 14lb common. It was more than welcome and certainly worth the long wait. No other bites happened that day and it was more or less pack up as fast as we could to get into the warm car.
Compared to last winter it went well, even with only two fish. It shows how bad last years winter fishing went! I learnt a few things and I think if I was to change my hook bait a lot more that session I might of been able to nab another one or two fish. I also learnt that PVA bagging is not always the way, sometimes it's best to not introduce any free offerings and use single baits, and couple that with frequent casting to different areas.
Thanks to the many cups of tea, cuppa soup and lasagne we survived the bitter winds to have another crack at it again soon!
Tight Lines
Ricky Davies
So the choice was Broad Acres in the Bromsgrove area, a venue with four lakes with the main lake being the one with the biggest fish. I'm not talking 40+ but the biggest being a 28lb common. Seeing as it's winter we didn't want anywhere too hard to fish; we wanted action over a long wait to just blank. So, we rocked up hoping to drive to our peg only to find the bank sopping and boggy. We had the pleasure of carrying the gear to our swim. We decided not to go too far and chose the swims which were in front of two islands. It was much more shallow up our end than the bottom and two lads already had three fish out before we even setup, even though we got there before them. With a North Easterly wind I wanted the right side of the main island, as this is where the water was much calmer. I assumed that although the fish could be in the deeper areas down the other end of the pool, I wanted a feature to fish to and was confident fish would be there for the calm water and over-hangs.
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| Broad Acres Fishery |
After playing kite with the bivvy in the wind I got both rods out. I put my left rod to the right side of the island on three artificial corns on a hair rig with a small lead shot on the hair to allow for the corn to popup just off the bottom. For the second rod I decided to go with a ronnie rig and a NASH Strawberry Crush popup, which I put out in the middle where there is a gravel bar that runs between both islands. I was hoping to pick up a fish going between them which I have done in the past. Neither of us had a bite in the morning. It wasn't until midday I had my first carp on the popped up corn, nothing spectacular at only around 5lb. However, the common was more than welcome, especially for this time of the year and it was my first fish of 2018. After that I had a pickup on the ronnie rig, but struck into nothing. I decided to try some PVA bags full of maggot, bread crumb and micro pellet, keeping the food quantity down. However, I failed to bank another one that day and decided to revert back to just single baits with no PVA. On the left Lee also managed to get a small common around the 5-6lb mark and to my right my dad also had a common around the same stamp. The main thing is at this point none of us were going home with a blank!
 |
| Frosty morning sunrise |
As the night was drawing in the weather got colder and the wind was still howling. We decided to get the bucket fire on the go to help defrost our feet and to keep the spirits high to what was hopefully going to be a good night for a bite. However, with the temperature falling to 0 degrees it was going to be a cold night. With the bivvies on lock down we all had a few beeps between us on the night. Lee managed to pick another one out around 4am but nothing else came out. The morning after couldn't come quick enough and with the condensation freezing and forming a sheet of ice I was eager to get out and have a recast. It was slow again throughout the morning, so I decided to change the ronnie rig and go for a small simple slip D rig which I have had lots of fish on from this lake. I went with a fluro pineapple popup hoping that would be more visible. I put that rod out towards the island on my right just left of it. It wasn't long before I was into my second fish and this time it was a little bigger, a 14lb common. It was more than welcome and certainly worth the long wait. No other bites happened that day and it was more or less pack up as fast as we could to get into the warm car.
 |
| 14lb Winter Common |
Compared to last winter it went well, even with only two fish. It shows how bad last years winter fishing went! I learnt a few things and I think if I was to change my hook bait a lot more that session I might of been able to nab another one or two fish. I also learnt that PVA bagging is not always the way, sometimes it's best to not introduce any free offerings and use single baits, and couple that with frequent casting to different areas.
Thanks to the many cups of tea, cuppa soup and lasagne we survived the bitter winds to have another crack at it again soon!
Tight Lines
Ricky Davies
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