My First Blog Post - Welcome to Brightlingsea Fisheries

March and April Update.

March was a very slow month for fishing - I had just started working for a new company and early starts meant it was very hard to do quick sessions overnight and, as it was freezing cold, I didn’t fancy the 5am pack away. The syndicate was fishing fairly well for a few anglers which made it hard to stay away, but I was just waiting for the evenings to get lighter so I could have a few sessions after work for a few hours.

That said, I did have a 3 night social over easter weekend with my dad and my godfather which was a frustrating session on the brightlingsea fishery main lake. After baiting a few areas during the week I rushed down there after work on the Thursday and, to my despair, the swims I had baited already had anglers installed in them for the whole weekend.

I was gutted the weather had swung round again and over the weekend it didn’t get much above 7 degress so it was fairly uncomfortable, but the social continued and my godfather struck and I struck a blank. The fish didn’t seem to come out of the snags in either corner of the lake and as all I had was open water, things didn’t bode well for either of us. Despite losing two fish to snags throughout the trip, my father managed to nick a lovely scally mirror the final night from those very snags, so he went home with a spring in his step. At the last social over at Star Lane he blanked when everyone else managed to catch - hopefully next time we will be fishing in warmer conditions!

That was march over and done with...onto April and what a month that was!!!!

April is one of my favourite times to be on the bank as the warmer weather normally starts to arrive, the trees start blossoming and the winter seems a distant memory, and this year has been no different.

Last year I had an amazing week in april landing 6 fish in 3 sessions from a tricky water in Godalming, topping it off with two of orginals -a great month all round, and this year was no different. As I'm sure you're aware we had a very brief warm spell which lasted just over a week and I took the opportunity to start having a few after work sessions; I changed over to my 9ft nash dwarf rods and made sure I cut my gear down to the bare minimum as I was planning on walking to the lake and back every day!

I got down there on the Monday knowing I only had a couple if hours available. I made sure I had a good look round as finding the fish is the most important thing to do on short sessions especially at this time of year as they start to wake up and explore different areas of the lake which they may have not been in during the colder months. It took me longer than I thought to find any signs of fish that first session and by the time I got the rods out I only had half an hour left and nothing came about. I could see a few people had been baiting very heavy with all sorts of bait and it was very visable when I climbed a few trees.

Tuesday was a completely different session - after 5 minutes of arriving I had found a small group of around 15 fish hovering just off of the bottom in the shallow bay. I got beaten to the swim I wanted at the end of the bay, so I setteled for a swim at the entrance to the bay having thought, hopefully, with the pressure of the other angler the fish would look to exit the bay.

The young lad had one very quicky after casting out and I belive the dark common went 26lb 10oz. I was just starting to think the fish had left the bay when my right hand rod went into melt down. The fish quickly got snagged in the margins but I was able to walk out on the point in my margin and relase the fish from the snag and straight into the waiting net - I was buzzing! I could see it was a chunky common and having only caught a few 20+ commons I knew it was my biggest one to date!

The scales spun round to 26lb 10oz - new PB common! For a few minutes I was sure it was the same fish which was caught earlier, but having looked at the photos closer I can see it is a different fish. I didn’t put any bait over the spot, just fished a small braided combi rig with a pink pop up. First fish of the spring for me and a new pb common to match - amazing start!

After my success the day before I just had to get down the lake; I persuaded the missus to come down and have a bbq and a couple of drinks too. She would be arriving at 7ish so I wanted to scout the lake and try and nick a fish before she arrived so I could settle in a swim for dinner. I went straight into the swim at the end of the bay after seeing a load of fish again hovering over a few small gravel areas. I hadn’t even put my bank sticks in the ground and my left hand rod was away! The fish didn’t put up much of a scrap and was in the bottom of my net before I knew it. I made a rookie error and left my tripod at home so I couldn’t take a photo of this common but it was a mid double so I wasn’t very worried. That one was again caught on a small combi rig but this time on a small white pop up. I was over the moon and my missus was just on her way over when the same rod was away again! This one didn’t put up too much of a fight either. That common went 16lb - a fantastic session. I never expected to catch 3 fish in 2 short sessions. I had only been down the lake 6 hours over 3 sessions and caught 3 fish - I was over the moon! There had been a few fish coming out that week to other anglers aswell so the fish were deffienly on the feed!

I managed to get back down the lake the next day. I was planning on getting a take away that night so only had an hour to play wit. I again headed for the bay swim and was just packing away when my left hand rod melted off. This time I couldn’t control the fish and it was heading away from me at some speed. I somehow managed to turn the fish and gain semi control though I had to pile on some serious side strain to keep it away from the small snaggy area to my right. After another 30 seconds of arm wrenching battle it was all over and another chunky common was sitting in the net. I was sure this would be another new PB -  it felt a lot heavier than the last big common but the scales  actually showed it to be 10oz  lighter, but I didn't care anyway - I was over the moon! 4 fish in 5 short after work stalking sessions was mad. I hadn’t expected that at all after fighting so hard for a bite all winter, April just seems like a good month for me!

Now that brings you up to date with my recent sessions, hopefully over the next couple of months I can get a few more fish on the bank. I have a job coming up which is more local so a 7 am pick up means a few quick overnight sessions will be in order!

I hope those of you who have been keeping up with my page have enjoyed it all so far! Please check out my gallery aswell as I will be adding photos to that a lot more often!

Don’t forget to drop me any feedback either on this page or on my facebook!!!

If your out fishing over the next month or so good luck and tight lines!