Homemade weed rake

During the warmer months a few of my tench waters are often choked with weed, leaving very few fishable areas. Occasionally a rake is available to clear swim but more often than not these communal rakes disappear, sometimes snagged on the bottom but usually they end up in the boot of someones car.

I had needed my own for a while but after struggling to find something suitable online I decided to make my own.

The box section, threaded bar, nuts and washers cost less than a tenner, a mate welded the box section for the price of a couple of pints and I 'liberated' the cordage from work. The main cost was time, it took a lot longer than to finish than I first hoped it would, not having the time to complete it in one go, I had to squeeze in 10 minutes here and there. I finished it earlier this month and tested it last week.

Not the most complex designs, but it works well and its built to last

A couple of recce's and a DIY bait bucket

Whilst working this week I managed to fit in a couple of recce's during my breaks. Both are back up waters for when the rivers are in flood over the winter.

The first is a lake which used to hold a good head of double figure pike, the water has been in decline for the last few years, but stillwaters that hold decent pike are few and far between in my area so it's definitely worth a session or two.

The second is a commercial style water that holds good perch, well massive perch, a 'four' came out this week, three pounder's come out fairly often and two pounder's are pretty common. No silly rules, reasonably priced day ticket, livebaits and two rods allowed, sounds like a good place for a bit of a perch campaign. The venue also has an on-site tackle shop so I had a quick look around and found a livebait pump in the bargain bin.

Bait bucket

After struggling to find a suitable livebait bucket I made my own a few years back, very basic, a green bucket with a lid, a length of cord with a peg and a reed clamp. Holes were drilled into the bucket and the lid, which when submerged provide enough water exchange to keep any baits in top condition. The bucket is usually dropped in the margin and secured to some backside vegetation with the reed clamp. If needed (and the margin depth allows) I can use the peg to secure the bucket into the side of the bank, which helps keep the bucket out of view of prying eyes...

The pump will mainly be used whilst roving and moving pegs etc...

Quite pleased with how it turned out, hopefully it should be getting a testing in the morning.

Homemade bait

Over the coming weeks I will be targeting the tench on one of my club waters. The water isn't easy to get results from but is a nice place to spend a few hours with a slight chance of increasing my p.b. As of next month I should be working away, luckily there is a water within 10 minutes of my digs that holds tench to over 7lb and bream into double figures. Again this water isn't easy but hopefully with a bit of time and effort I can get some decent results from it.

Over the last couple of weeks I've been thinking about baits and methods, I've narrowed down a few methods to try but I was struggling to find some small(ish) boilies locally. Anyway I've had a go at making my own 12mm hemp and sweetcorn boilies.

First attempt at bait making, if they work I'll post the recipe 

After searching the Asian/health shops for a few ingredients, purchasing a small bait roller, messing up the kitchen I'm pretty pleased with the bait. I'll be out giving the boilies their first outing tomorrow, I'm half expecting to blank, but you never know...

A quick update, some DIY tackle and an early Xmas present

I've had two sessions since my last update, both during the period of unsettled weather we've had, both on the river and unfortunately both sessions ended up as blanks. The first session I was after pike on the the middle reaches of the river, I had one take but the pike got off after about 10 seconds. The second session was much further upstream, I decided to try a rod for the chub as well as the pike. The river was slightly higher than we had anticipated, which meant the pegs we wanted to try were unfishable.

We decided to fish an area slightly downstream but it seemed very shallow and I wasn't confident in that area so after a couple of blank hours we moved to a stretch with some more depth. There was another angler on the bank targeting pike but he hadn't had a touch all day. Despite having some success earlier in the season on this stretch, I wasn't surprised when I went home with another blank.

DIY tackle

Over the last couple months I've had a go at making a bit of tackle. I've made some leads, a few pike floats and a drifter.

I had been planning to make my own leads for years but never really got round to it. I managed to get 10kg of lead for free so I though I'd give it ago. I ordered a mould, watched a couple of videos on YouTube, set up the stove and give it a go.

The mould makes 2.5 and 4oz grip leads, which are ideal for the rivers I fish. I'll order a mould for distance work/still water leads in the close season.

The pike floats are made from hardwood dowel and finished with a clear lacquer. I put some effort into making these as the usual shop bought balsa efforts don't last 5 minutes in my hands. Hopefully these will last a long time, I have also started making a lighter version that can hold starlights and hopefully I'll get these finished before I get out for my first zander session.

The drifters are made up from various bits of tackle (John Roberts rigid tube, poly ball, leger bead, tail rubber) and the vanes are made from coloured bleach bottles. They are cheap, easy to make and should last a while. I'm making a shorter semi loaded version for the shallower still waters I fish.

Early Christmas present

I have been needing/wanting a better/longer landing net handle for a while and made a couple of hints (well a link to the website) to my girlfriend. The net handle arrived today and after convincing Lindsey that I needed it NOW, she caved in and gave me it early.

The net handle is the Trefor West Lone Angler - Mega Landing Net Handle. I'd heard good reports about the handle and my initial impressions agree, it's a beast! It's a bit heavier and thicker than other net handles I've used in the past but it feels solid and looks like it will last years.

I'm out for a couple of sessions in the coming week so I'm hoping I can keep a pike hooked long enough to bring it into netting range!

Still Perching

I had another short session on a farm pond today from 1130 to 1530hrs. I opted for a 2 rod approach, 1st rod with a ledgered worm and a pva bag with chopped worm/caster mix and the 2nd rod was to be  a float paternostered live bait.

Ledger rig with home made light ledger stem

As on previous sessions I used a short whip to try and catch some small perch for bait. It took around 30 minutes before I started getting bites on the whip line, after another 20 minutes or so I had 4 or 5 suitably sized baits in the keepnet. I lip hooked a small perch on the paternoster rod and continued fishing for baits in the margins.

Lip hooked bait on the paternoster rig

Bites were hard to come by on the livebait and worm rigs. I kept feeding maggots over the live bait to attract some small bait fish into the area which would hopefully attract the larger perch. Eventually I had a bite on the worm rig, which resulted in strike into thin air, a quick check of the bait showed the small fish were the most likely culprit. The float on the whip slid under and I lifted into to what  appeared to be a slightly better fish, however it turned out to be a foul hooked frog !

I eventually landed a couple of fish on the worm rod but these went no larger than 5 or 6 ounces, I ended the session with 11 perch, not what I was hoping for, these perch are proving to be harder to catch than I thought they would be. 

My homemade ledger stems seem to work well, they slow the fall of the lead through the water so they don't sink into the silt and help keep the line off the bottom. I will be using these whilst targeting eels in the coming months.

I am aiming to get back on the pond next week possibly using the long pole and a running ledger rod both with worms as live baits haven't fared well so far.