I am very fortunate that we have a stunning caravan at the beautiful village of Summerhill in West Wales. As coincidence would have it, the caravan is only 8 miles away from Ian Heaps's stunning Holgan Farm Fishery. This is a great bonus as it means that I can mix family weekends away and holidays with fishing.
This particular weekend after a great day geocaching with the family on the Saturday I was off to fish the open at Ian's which this week was on the Tench and Crucian lake.
This lake is turely stunning and landscaped beautifully with a big lilly pad in the middle, which is the ideal hiding places for the big old tench that live in there. The lillys are not so good for the anglers though and if you are not geared up right for them it can be costly.
On the day after the usual social and catch up in Ian's den, I drew peg 11which was down the bottom end of the lake and an area that I had fished before.
I planned 3 lines of attack, a 2+2 line a 13m line to the lilly pads and an edge line.
On the all in, I cupped in a ball of the fishery Sensas pellets and Special G gold on the short line then a few more on the long line to the lillys with a helping of corn to boot.
First off on the short line it was a bit slow, and a bit frustrating as I lost two good crucians at the net before finally getting one. The bites were a bit finicy though so I went long to the pads to see what would happen. The bites there were instant and I caught 2 quick fish before losing one in the pads.
These crucians are very much like F1's, you have to keep searching for them around your swim and keep alternating to get bites. For the next few hours thats exactly what I did swapping swims and baits until I would get a few fish.
As the afternoon went on, I started to put a bit of food down the edge line which was 8m to my left against a fishy looking hedge feature. First put in it was fish on and a nice 2lb Common was in the net. Then very quickly it died again, so I decided to put some chopped worm in over the special G gold mix. This was instant and for the last hour I did manage to put a run of fish together and enjoyed some great fishing from these hard fighting crucian carp.
Weighing in a few people around me had tipped back as it had been a difficult day so I fancied my chances of a frame. I weighed in 29lb 8oz which was mad up of Crucians, 1 Common and 1 Tench of about 2lb. I ended up 3rd with that, and agonisingly only 1lb away from 2nd. the match was won with 42lb which were all caught on maggot close in.
It was enough to beat the old master Heapsy off the next peg by a good 10lb as well!
Cracking day though and a few beer tokens to spend in the caravan site clubhouse!
Find out more about the fishery at http://www.ian-heaps.com/
This particular weekend after a great day geocaching with the family on the Saturday I was off to fish the open at Ian's which this week was on the Tench and Crucian lake.
This lake is turely stunning and landscaped beautifully with a big lilly pad in the middle, which is the ideal hiding places for the big old tench that live in there. The lillys are not so good for the anglers though and if you are not geared up right for them it can be costly.
On the day after the usual social and catch up in Ian's den, I drew peg 11which was down the bottom end of the lake and an area that I had fished before.
I planned 3 lines of attack, a 2+2 line a 13m line to the lilly pads and an edge line.
On the all in, I cupped in a ball of the fishery Sensas pellets and Special G gold on the short line then a few more on the long line to the lillys with a helping of corn to boot.
First off on the short line it was a bit slow, and a bit frustrating as I lost two good crucians at the net before finally getting one. The bites were a bit finicy though so I went long to the pads to see what would happen. The bites there were instant and I caught 2 quick fish before losing one in the pads.
These crucians are very much like F1's, you have to keep searching for them around your swim and keep alternating to get bites. For the next few hours thats exactly what I did swapping swims and baits until I would get a few fish.
As the afternoon went on, I started to put a bit of food down the edge line which was 8m to my left against a fishy looking hedge feature. First put in it was fish on and a nice 2lb Common was in the net. Then very quickly it died again, so I decided to put some chopped worm in over the special G gold mix. This was instant and for the last hour I did manage to put a run of fish together and enjoyed some great fishing from these hard fighting crucian carp.
Weighing in a few people around me had tipped back as it had been a difficult day so I fancied my chances of a frame. I weighed in 29lb 8oz which was mad up of Crucians, 1 Common and 1 Tench of about 2lb. I ended up 3rd with that, and agonisingly only 1lb away from 2nd. the match was won with 42lb which were all caught on maggot close in.
It was enough to beat the old master Heapsy off the next peg by a good 10lb as well!
Cracking day though and a few beer tokens to spend in the caravan site clubhouse!
Find out more about the fishery at http://www.ian-heaps.com/