My First Blog Post - Welcome to Brightlingsea Fisheries

Welcome to my first fishing blog!

As some of you may be aware, I have also recently started a vlog series on youtube (CS Fishing – Go subscribe!)

Since starting my channel I now have the confidence to start blogging along side. I will be writing up one a month to start and see how it goes. I’ve always had a real passion for writing about my fishing trips so I hope this comes across and you enjoy the read – any feed back would be great.

So where do I start? Having just moved to Brightlingsea I was keen to find a local water. I started searching even before we’d secured the house – I must of done my girlfriend’s head in spending more time searching the Internet looking for fishing lakes than I was looking at the house- but it just had to be done!

I came across the famous snake pit and on one of the trips up to view the house I managed to persuade the missus to come along for a walk around and, when I arrived, I was amazed. It was everything I had read about; a proper fishing lake, snaggy as you like, weedy, it just looked perfect. It has a fantastic stock of fish as well – not over stocked – with some decent sized fish to target and start a campaign after…well that was the plan anyway.

That said, all those idea went out the window when we eventually moved in…as we approached the house on the moving day I couldn’t help but notice on google maps a lake just opposite the turning onto our road. After scouring the internet and writing a few messages on Facebook I managed to get the contact details of the owner and, to my amazement, it was actually a fishery – one of the lakes had featured on carp wars the year before.

That was it I needed to see it and, within a few days of moving in I had arranged a walk round with one of the bailiffs. He took us to a lake called  Horseshoe or The Shoe for short. Despite the fact it was now around the 18th of November so the trees were all bare,I was amazed and how good it actually looked and I just knew I had to get a ticket.

The lake is roughly around 5 acres in size and after a long chat about the lake and the stock I was desperate to get a night on there asap. The stock is fairly unknown I believe  as the owner has been undergoing a lot of work around the lake, as well as working to thin the stock out – they believe they have moved 40-70 small commons out of there so far. There are around 5-6 fish over the magical 30lb barrier and one which could go 40+; this supposed 40lb+ fish was stocked into the lake the year before and hasn’t been on the bank since! The thought of catching said fish sparked me up even more: The fish itself is a very long mirror with a few big scales either side – proper warrior!

After a good walk round we then headed for the day ticket lake; this one is around 15acres, loads of snags and an island,  somewhere I could definitely see myself fishing in the warmer months for a few bites if the sysdicate slowed up.

After getting home I soon arranged a session on the day ticket lake before it went onto its winter syndicate. I arrived around 8 o’clock, a bit later than I would have liked but I gave it a good go. I started in a swim which controlled a massive amount of water, an island over 110 yards away and snags to my right. The tactics I used were very simple: that session I fished mesh bags of nutcracker boilies on a Muti rig. I attached washed out yellow on one rod which was cast well left in front of another swim just to my left, but, having the lake to myself, I decided to spread the rods out, my middle rod with the same tactic as before but this time with a glugged white nutcracker pop up – this had been glugging in the nut juice for around a month so the glug had slightly stained the bait a little – this was cast tight to the big island in front of me and my right hand rod was cast just off the side of the island tight to a few sticks coming out of the water. This had another glugged up hooked bait. Having spent a good few hours in the swim, moved the rods around the whole swim, nothing was happening. I decided to reel in and have a good look round. I had been watching my water all morning and hadn’t seen anything – after an hour of walking and checking everything I came back to where I started. I saw nothing anywhere. It was fairly cold and wasn’t really that surprised – safe to say that session ended in a blank. I managed to fit in one more session before the day ticket went on its winter ticket but again I blanked. I found a few fish that time tho but couldn’t get them to get there heads down and feed.

So that brings you up to December! I purchased a ticket for the shoe at the end of November and on a Sunday I had a few hours free time so I headed off for a few hours fishing. It was fairly early, around 7 o’clock,  it was still dark outside which was good as I wanted to get there for first light. When I arrived I was the only one on the lake which was good news. I had a good look round, climbed onto the island and checked all the margins. I found a lot of hard spots in the edge which could be good in the warmer months, but no fish were found. I decided to set up in a swim called the ‘single swim.’ I had a little lead about and found a nice hard spot roughly half way out. There was an island opposite the swim so I flicked a rod over there. You can use 3 rods on the syndicate but I decided to get my dwarfs out for the day so I only fished 2. Both rods, again, were fished with a Muti rig and the ever faithful nutcracker. I didn’t feed that much at the beginning of the session, just a few 14mms around each rod. After another frustrating morning not seeing anything along my bank, I thought they had to be around there somewhere as that bank held the deeper water and it had been quite cold over night, under 0 on a few occasions, but still nothing. I had a good walk round towards the end of the session and dropped in  few handfuls of bait back on the spots I was fishing. The spot in the middle just felt right for some reason, I couldn’t describe the feeling I just thought it was going to happen…but it didn’t.

I ended up fishing that Friday night after work – back into the single and again blanked! Not the best started to my Essex carp fishing at all – 4 sessions, 4 blanks, not even a bite.

It was a week later when I next got down there. I had the day off work so I got down there early and set up in the car park swim. Having fished it all morning without a bite, I had a wander. I walked into the end swim; it was freezing cold, it felt really uncomfortable, I said to myself surely they can’t be here but then out the blue 2 massive balls of fizzing came up. Before I knew it I was in the swim 2 rods ready to go out –  I changed my muti rigs over to the hinge stiff rigs but with a semi stiff boom as this end still had weed present. I put a few handfuls of half and whole 14mm and 18mm nutcracker, swiftly followed by both of my rigs. The traps were set. It must have been 5 minutes before I started getting liners on my rod – my confidence shot through the roof! I actually did a little youtube video talking about what I was planning to do with my channel over the next year – as soon as I posted the video my right hand rod pulled out of the clip and I was away for about 10 seconds. I don’t know what happened but the hook just came out. To say I was gutted was an understatement. Carp 1-0 Callum, but I wasn’t giving up. I knew that session was over, but the very next day I got rained off work early morning so, I got home, showered and shot off for a few hours with minimal kit. I went straight into the end swim where I had lost the fish 24 hours before, both rods went out perfectly. A few hours went past and it was getting dark, time was runnning out and unfortunately the session ended in a blank – I couldnt believe it, I really thought it was going to happen.

That was my last session before Christmas as I was due to fly out to Tenerife for my 21st with my family. After a lovely 11 days in the sun I started thinking about fishing again, I had been thinking about it a lot of the time out there but the drinking helped me to forget! We stayed down in West Sussex where we used to live for the festive period and came home on the 27th. Come the 28th I was back on the bank – with the missus back at work for a few days I thought it would be rude not to! 

When I arrived I had a good walk round – I didn’t manage to find anything. Having known a fish was caught out of the car park swim I looked at the water and realised I would get a better line angle from the swim next door as there was an underwater snag and I could pull a fish away from the snag easier if I was to get a run. I changed my tactic completely this session and fished 3 solid bags filled with nutcracker 18mm crushed up and matching pop ups. I wasn’t really looking for features just casting them around every 3 hours. Nothing happened before dark. I cast my left hand rod close to the big island infront of the car park, my middle rod I changed to a hinge stiff rig and cast that into the bay (as there was more bottom weed there I thought a hinge stiff rig would be better presented,) my right hand rod was cast to the other island and  I was more than happy with all 3 rods. It went dark quickly and I was soon tucked up in my 21st birthday present – a Nash 3 legged, 5 season sleep system. I put the football on and cooked my steak, laughing as Palace were beating Arsenal but that didn’t last wrong! The night went by without a touch however the lake freezing over but as the rain arrived that morning it soon put a stop to that and my session!

Not a great start to my years ticket on the shoe, but a definite learning curve. I love fishing new lakes, I love learning each session, its not all about catching fish each session – I mean I love to catch, but I love the learning proccess and I can’t wait for the new year. As I write this I know one of the other members caught a 31lb common last night so big up for that!

You are now up to date with my fishing in Essex so far! Hopefully next month is more exciting but who knows January is just as hard a month for fishing as December…only time will tell! 

I hope you enjoyed the read – till next time! 

Tight lines.