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No wonder the weather is such a talking point in the British Isles, with this
week’s Angling Journal entry showing why. At this time of the year I’m usually
well into my autumn and winter species, instead I found myself in polo shirt
and shirts and still sweating in the intense sun. The thought of being shrouded
in a Sundridge suit was akin to being staked out in the Sahara. Even in the
shade of the common beech trees I fished, the sun’s rays filtering through the
leaves was enough to think this was the middle of June not some months later.
But rather than complain I took advantage of the conditions to have an
afternoon’s carp fishing on Seggy Pool (photo 2) in Shropshire.
The venue is on the Kinver Freeliners ticket and you can access details of the club via my Angling Journal home page, or of course through an internet search. The club currently has a
full membership but if you like what you see then get your name on the waiting
list. It’s definitely a club worth joining and the addition of waters that they
have made in recent months merely adds to the attraction. The Seggy Pool
though, which is part of the Dudmaston complex spread over a wide area, is one
of the original Kinver venues.
This was just the third time I have fished it and I give the history behind that in the video that accompanies this article. If you are new to my Angling Journal – and there are people
coming on board all the while – then every Saturday I publish an entry that
consists of an article and a video. The two complement one another and I often
describe them as two pieces of a jigsaw. Anyway, I digress, so back to the
fishing on the Seggy.
I fished the left side of the dam as you approach the lake from the woods walk. I made my base alongside the small cluster of common beech trees that are growing along the edge. They
really are magnificent trees and that’s a photo (4) of one of them that I took
on my back looking up the trunk. Of course, being National Trust, the whole
Dudmaston property has some amazing trees – both native and introduced. Usually
the type of fishing I do allows me to take in the wider world around, and as a
naturalist that suits me. If I’m concentrating on a float it’s not as easy to
look away as if I’m using bite alarms, but in context my multi-tasking skills
aren’t too bad.
This occasion though, with rods fished on bank sticks and Fox bite alarms to alert me to the first sign of action, I was able to relax a little once the rods were cast out, hangers
clipped and baitrunner facilities engaged. There were a number of winged
insects around including the impressive brown hawker, even a butterfly put in
an appearance lulled by the false sense of security that a bit of sun provided.
A couple of sightings of a kingfisher calling in flight, along with a raven
heard but not seen, completed the natural world highlights.
On arrival, as you can see from the video, I put out some Vitaflake mix. This is the SBS version of the popular Vitalin that many anglers use these days. The advantage of the bait company one
though is that it contains ingredients such as milk proteins, hemp, CSL and so
on. Once mixed I added some Whisky Link to give it a label. Within minutes of
going out the bottom of the shallow lake started to stir and bubbles
accompanied the cloudy water as fish of all species and sizes homed in on the
buffet. I also catapulted Proactive pellets out on a regular basis to keep
everything topped up, as well as more helpings of Vitaflake.
Another SBS product of course, the Proactive pellets are a mixture of various pellets in different sizes, thus giving a spread of breakdown times. Although the way the fish were feeding I don’t think any of the bait ingredients put out had much time to do anything
other than be eaten. The business end of the bait saw me fish an M1 pop-up and
an M2 bottom boilie. Both were 12mm, dipped in respective flavours and cast out
in PVA bags with pellets and loose boilies. In addition I also threw boilies
out during the session as free offerings.
My bait approach worked as a steady trickle of runs saw me lifting into fish, although I did get a few hook pulls. I remedied this by keeping a low angle as I struck and played. With the
water being very shallow and the back lead hanging on the strike, the direct
contact with the fish wasn’t as good as it could have been. So instead of
holding the rod high I kept it low, struck and played to the side and that did
the trick.
I lost count of the total number of fish in the end, but the pop-up boilie easily out-scored the bottom bait. The 3 photos above show selected fish and as you can see, not monsters
but definitely great fun to catch. And ultimately isn’t that what angling
should be about? It might sound paradoxical but I’m both deadly serious and
totally enjoy my fishing at the same time. And as I approach my 50th birthday
in the spring there’s no letting up on the enthusiasm either. In fact I find
that is merely intensifying as the years go by. Every time the bite alarm came
alive at Seggy and I was into a carp it was with as much passion I struck as
when I was a child and lifted into my first ever fish, a gudgeon on the
Staffs/Worcs Canal at the Bratch in Wombourne.
I enjoyed my session on the pool and this will probably be my last carp session of the year. I say probably though with deliberate intention, after all I never know what the future holds
and I don’t need to. A far as my angling is concerned, although I do plan
ahead, nothing is ever set in stone. As long as I’m enjoying everything that’s
the only issue for me. And that’s one issue that has no issues. (Published
October 15 2011)