koiguchi,s way

[koiguchi]

I thought i might start a journal of my fishing exploits, for a number of reasons, but mainly cos i do so many stupid things it might give someone out there a laugh.

So heres a brief outline of me

First off to anyone reading this, i find fishing nowdays hard, not in the way you think, but because i have a disability, which makes it hard in its own way, i dont need or want sympathy, its just the way it is, and im actually just over the moon to be here enjoying what i do, or more likley try to do.

Before my illness and my kids i was a carp fishing nutter, and have been honoured to fish with many names on the angling circuit, and of course be involved in bait and tackle testing, and have pictures adorned across many angling publications, i have been fishing since as long as i can remember, and love all types of fishing including sea, having had my own boats for many years.

I have fished in france at various lakes and on the soane for the catfish more times than i care to or more to the point CAN remember.

I actually havnt fished for the last ten years as i struggled to overcome my illness, actually i did have one session just after i came out of hospital, but that another story if anyones interested il post on that later.

My stroke almost took my life, but im one stubborn bugger and have fought back, nowdays most people are unaware theres too much wrong with me, except for when i get tired, which i do very quickly, then im unable to talk coherently and fall over, i have right sided spactisticy, which is a bugger cos im right handed, or was, im now kinda ambedexerous.

Basically the stroke has robbed me a quarter of my brain, so my memorys like you wouldnt believe, im so forgetful its untrue, my life is awash with yellow post it notes to remind me to do things, trouble is i forget to read the notes.Any physical exerction and im away a stumbling physical wreck.

Pleased with my progress last year i had a yearning to go fishing again, i decided to check out a local lake that i fished a lot in the old days, because of the big fish in it, without being rude i was only really interested in big fish over 30lbs plus, it goes without saying i was over the moon with any fish no matter what size, but it was the big uns that sparked my interest.

The lake and the fish were still there, despite the fact the lake was now deemed incredibly hard, in fact the first 4 months i walked round i never met anyone who had caught a fish from there.

I found this forum, had the pleasure to meet and fish with Tom, and his lovely wife, with Tom often popping over to help me spod etc and for a cuppa etc.

i kinda played at the fishing that year, i was like a duck out of water, i knew what i had to do, but was physically unable to get it right, about this time my boy became interested in fishing and would often join me when karate his first love would allow, between us we slowly got it together and started getting amongst these elusive fish, best for me was a 29lb 12 mirror, and a 50lb catfish, best for Sam was a 22lb mirror and a 15lb catfish, although, i have to say he out fished me big time, he had far more fish out than me.We kinda muddled through the year, it was coming back to me slowly and surley and we were not quite having as many nightmares whilst fishing.

Which brings me to today or a few weeks ago when i decided, this year i wanted to fish like i used to.The following is what ive done since just before x mas, how im tackling my angling and what im gona do, in it will be all the mistakes warts an all, all in Koiguchi,s way.

[koiguchi]

My first problem was bait, and of course money, i needed a good quality food based bait, that i could feed into the lake at regular intervals to fool these fish into thinking the food they were eating was safe, that was going to take a lot of bait hence a lot of money, which of course i didnt have.This is not the only way to fish, but i felt it was going to be the most effective way for me at this lake, given my previous experiences there.

I decided i needed to try and get back into field testing somehow to ease the financial pressure, i thought about going back to my previous bait company and started making enquirys.

As luck would have it i bumped into an old fishing buddy, and we began chatting on line, basically he put me in touch with a fella who was grinding his way out in the bait world, and was looking for decent anglers to add to his baiting team.After a few e mails and phone conversations, and going down to his place to meet, i was in, not free bait like i used to get, but a lot cheaper which would allow me to follow my plan of action.Im no bait expert, but this bait is a very good bait, and one im sure will do very well once its released.

Armed with 20 klo of round balls of good carp grub, and the same in a new pellet that im sure no one has used on my little piece of heaven i was set, well to start at least.

The next problem was some of my tackle was older than i am and was in need of replacement, nearly every piece of my tackle was second hand, bought when i was a mere child.I begged stole and borrowed some money and set about picking up some bargins, made some cracking deals with my local tackle shop and set e bay alight, i was now ready to start my fishing season, oh i joined the lake as a member which allowed me to fish from 7pm sun night through to 7pm fri night, i could fish weekends but had to pay day ticket prices for that, the deal was ok for me because i rarley fish weekends, it just gets to busy in my book, too many lines in the water.

The lake was a small water some 15 minutes from my home, about 2 acres in size, maybe slightly bigger, its a nice looking lake with overhanging trees pads etc, the lake bed itself is predomitly silt, with a few harder patches that have produced fish, no gravel that i have ever found, its deep at one end about 20ft going down to the shallows at this moment about 5ft, the margins are deep mostly averaging 4to 5ft, with one small island at the shallow end.My one major concern with this lake was the dirt track road leading to the lake, in past winters i feel the lake has been unfishable due to the problems of getting to the lake via this quagmire of a road, the normal car its a nightmare for, 4x4 no probs, although some work has and is being done its a constant worry about access well to me anyway, there is a space to park further up away from the lake, but it makes a fair walk armed with all the gear needed to the lake for me and my limitations almost unfeasable.

[koiguchi]

My plan for the season, was to start fishing from january, trying to get down the lake for at least 24hrs every week during the first few months, which was scuppered straight away by the heavy frosts, and like most lakes, it froze over, and was unfishable for two weeks.

Not deterd i managed a session as soon as the lake was thawed out, but not suprisingly blanked, but i used the session, to get the marker rod out in other swims, and have a good look/feel about.

Also i started my baiting campaign in earnest, prebaiting various areas upon my leaving.

My plan of attack was to prebait, a small amount, about a klo spread over the deeper marks to start with, 3 times a week, then as we move into february inc the shallows in the baiting.
As we move into march/april i will increase the baiting to 2 to 3klo 3 times a
week, spreading it over the entire lake, but concentrating ontwo lines straight across the lake one at the deep end and one across the shallows, then from april time, i would just bait up, with a couple of kilo when leaving after fishing.

So i have followed this plan so far to the letter, walking down from the far carpark in amongst the pouring rain and freezing cold, to bait up 3 times a week.

I have seen fish bubbling on one area that i was baiting, and in fact a guy was fishing near the area put a rod on it after we had a discussion, and about an hour later i netted a 27lb mirror for him, to my knowledge the only fish out of the lake since very early Dec.

I managed to disturb some carp from a spot close in i was monitoring/baiting, being the clumbsy oaf i am, stumbling down the bank and almost visiting my friends in there territory.

Im off for a 48hr session this week, so we will see if anything developes, by the way im not using the baits im baiting up with yet, im introducing the bait getting them confident on it before i use any, which will prob be in April.

So Tom if your reading this, and are about monday, fancy giving me a hand getting my gear to the swim, cos i sure as hell am not looking forward to it, i reckon its gonna take me about 5 or 6 trips lol, and then im gona be too knackered to fish.

[koiguchi]

So the best laid plans of mice and men, started packing the car this am, got to my barrow to find two flat tyres, no probs pump them up and away i go!!!!

Mmm kids have had the pump, no where to be seen, so knocked on neighbours doors trying to locate a pump and bingo, pumped up tyres, took pump back, finnished loading car, put barrow in, mmm tyres are flat again, must have a puncture, in short ive been buggering about with the tyres for nearly 3 hrs now, and am just giving them there final chance to stay up.

Now of course im exhausted, theres no way id be able get all my gear down to the lake and fish with reasonable dexderity, so my decision is just to pop down the lake quick before i become too useless and put my baits out, and then i will try again with the fishing tomorrow.

What i need is a lacky, any offers guys.Who said fishing is relaxing?

[koiguchi]

So as usual nothing runs smooth, after all my faffing about the day before, i awoke to a dose of manflu, which sapped me of any energy left, so no fishing.

popped down this am to continue the baiting programme to find half the lake frozen again, and with the temps and weather predicted over the next week, it doesnt look like il be fishing any time soon.I will keep trickling the bait in though on a little and often basis.

I love carp fishing

[koiguchi]

Was feeling a little better sunday afternoon, and was toying with going fishing.
Looking up the weather forcast it didnt bode well, but hey when do they ever get it right!!!!!!!

Common sense prevailed and i didnt go, and would you believe it the weather forecasters actually got one right.

So i popped down this afternoon, to continue the baiting programme, and take some piccys.I was suprised the lake wasnt frozen, the water is now up two or three feet, and is up to the very edge of the swims.

It did look gorgeous, seeing the foxes footprints, and a few prints i didnt recognise, and the squirrels hopping from tree to tree, it was deathly quiet in a blanket of white cotton wool.

No sight or sound of fish or movement, but again no suprise eh!!, toyin with going on sunday for the day and night, got to be mad eh!!! but youve got to be in it to win it.

[koiguchi]

Despite the rain, wed thrs and fri the lake is frozen solid, so no baiting, we will see what monday brings.

[koiguchi]

The lake unsuprisingly was still frozen, popped down today and managed to trickle a bit of bait in, temps are not good again tonight, but its a bit windy so hopefully that will stop it from freezing over again, i wont be fishing until next week, hopefully going for 48hrs, but im not going to get my hopes up, this weather is so Extreme at the moment god alone knows what next week will bring, so will concentrtate on introducing the bait a little and often and pray.

[koiguchi]

As usual in my life, things have turned on there heads, and im off today for a 24hr session as my mate unexpectedly has the day off, and is going to help me get my gear down to the lake, and help me pack up tomorrow before he goes back to work.
sounds so stupid, but im like a dog with two dicks, ahhhh to be fishing again at last.

Temps mean im gona have a heavy frost tonite, so not great, but hell ive caught in heavy frosts before, it just feels so good to be out there again.

Once again i wont be using the bait ive been introducing, im trying desperatly to hold off using it for as long as possible, but ive got a good bait that has caught a lot of fish for me before, so im quietly optimistic.

Wish me luck, im gona need it

[koiguchi]

So met my lacky down the lake as agreed, and he kindly transported my gear for me, with the promise of returning today to help me back with it all.

First problem, on arrival, the main area i have been fishing in the winter, and the only place where i have seen evidence of fish, was still Frozen, albeit the warmish wind lol,pushing that way was defrosting it slowly, but not quickly enough for me to be able to set up, in the area i wanted.

problem two, the lakes water levels was ridiculously high, all but two swims were under water, theres no room on the very thin pathways to put a bivy up top, as one side was wooded and the other a very steep bank.

I opted for a swim just below halfway down the lake, i felt the fish were hanging about just off the edge of the deeper water where the water temp was a more stable and consistant temp, i remembered in past years them hanging about in 7ft of water in a area of 10 to 12 feet deep, from this swim if i was lucky i could manage to get at lest one rod in this area.

I wasnt to dispondant, as i had planned to fish on the edge of the deeper water at night, but move down towards the shallows during the day time, in the hopes a few moving fish would move into the shallower warmer water as the the sun got up, my feeling was they would then go back to the deeper water in the evening as the temps dropped again.

So with plenty of time before darkness fell, and pretty much knowing the area in front of me, i opted to put my left hand rod a couple of feet off an island in a bed of where lillies would be in the summer, depth was a suprisingly 6 feet, i fished a pop up straight off the lead 3 inches or so.

Rod two also went to the left of my swim, as you can imagine, the island and the pads are pretty well hammered by anglers in the summer, however i knew through having the ability of sleeping in short sharp bursts, and therefore being awake when other anglers were asleep, that the fish, in the summer anyway actually seemed to have a spot about 10 feet off the end of the pads were they liked to feed, this was confirmed by plumbing around last year and the discovery of a hard patch amongst the very silty bottom.So out went rod two with a critically balanced bottom bait, and a few broken baits around it..

Rod 3 was a more difficult cast for me, i have a bait boat due to the fact i cant cast with the accuracy that i used to have before my illness, in my infinate wisdom i thinned out my tackle to the bear essentials to make it easier for my non angling friend, and had left the boat at home, mmmm i was now regretting this.
In this swim the big tree to my right had overgrown high up to make casting difficult at any angles apart from straight, and the wid pushing up towards the deep end and the tree made thing even more difficult, needless to say, i manged to fish for flying fish on two occasions and lot one set of marker gear.
After many attempts, i managed to get my marker exactly where i wanted against the snags on the far bank and clipped it up, bringinging it back, i laid two rods side by side on the floor and walked up the path until the line hit the clip, i then walked back and clipped up the rod i was fishing with and a piece of tape was added in case i got a fish.All i had to concentrate on now was the line of the cast, the big chimney in the distant background. A few cast later and i was more than happy, walking round to the far bank to drop my freebies in.

My 4th rod was cast up the lake, to the deeper area, but i couldnt quite manage to get it exactly where i wanted it due to the poxy tree, id already re tackled twice.So i had 3 rods out i was more than happy with.And one in an area or there abouts.

By this time i was exhausted, so just sat on my chair for an hour to recover, i then set up home for the night, got everything in its place, i like to exactly where everything is at night, only leaving out what i need, including making up some pva bags for the casts before nightime, and one extra for each rod just incase lol yer right.

As it happens i decided apart from the far right hand rod, i was happy with the positions and would leave them out for the night, so i only redid the right hand rod as darkness fell.

At 2am whilst pacing the bank, a fish rolled up the deeper end over a place i had been baiting, for the past 8 weeks, a place that was frozen up until dark? dont you just love fishing.

Thats all the excitment that occured, i was pleased to see a fish roll, the first one for a good few weeks, packed up at 11 am this morning in a heavy heavy frost, local radio said it would be minus 2 last night but it felt colder, my mate on picking me up, said he went out at 10pm last night and it was -4, which would make more sense, as i had to break the ice to get my two left had rods out of the water this am

So there you go gents no stories of fantastic big fish being landed, in fact this was my 8th trip in a row of bankety blanks, with most being trips of 34 hrs minimum.

Please feel free to comment, any tips comments youd like to make, on what im doing, even if its to say im bloody mad, its all good, cos i am lol.