Coaching coarse Fishing

A warm one today. Started off in the lodge the lads making rigs for the days fishing. We caught steadily on the bottom and top it went a little slower as the sun come up. Later in the session we were freelining with a pop up close in but the fish were a bit further out so instead of having to retackle adding a surface float we found a stick on the floor, attached it to the line with a clove hitch, cast out to where the fish were and the bait was quickly taken by a nice mirror. Good old natural stick.

Some nice catches of carp today at Grove Farm, Hadlow. We caught on the bottom and the surface, on a cold northerly wind.
As these lads have quite a bit of experience in fishing, we got them to make there own hook lengths, which is a good fishing skill to learn and is always nice when you catch a fish, caught on a rig made by you.

Today was the day, for us, that surface fishing started at Grove, for this year. Over the last few weeks there was the odd fish to be had on top, but they were feeding really finickily, but this afternoon once the lake water warmed up, the fish were on the feed. Dig out the floaters.

The difference a few weeks makes in fishing, we were struggling at Shorne for silvers before the school break, but now with the water Temperature gone up slightly, there was plenty of silvers to be had. Today we practiced using a disgorger, the crucial thing keeping the line tight. Easily done by trapping the line and shot between your legs with your knees together. Sorted.

Fishing in April can be really tricky, sunny conditions and a cold easterly wind do not help. Patience was needed today but we were rewarded. It was a case of trying different baits to find what they wanted on the day. It seemed to get better as the day went on and the lake water warmed up.
A good sign today, was one lad had a go on the Whip for silvers, feeding little and often he got into a shoal of roach, which was good to see.

Each year our Mental health groups on Fishing for Schools courses produce some wonderful Artwork, that goes on display in the lodge at Grove farm, Fishery, Hadlow college. Throughout the year we have many schools fishing at this wonderful haven. Our message is aspire to be.

A decent session at a club water today, fishing a chilly north- easterly which can be tricky. At the start of the session a carp angler walked by at the end of his session and was over the moon with a 29lb 8oz carp he had caught and said it was caught inches from the bank in the margins. Then another angler turned up and fished the peg next to me and fished the margins and never stopped catching carp. I normally start further out and fish the margins later in the day as a match angler would, but today was a different story and a lesson learnt.

It was a biting wind today at Grove farm and the fishing started off hard. The normal method feeder and 10mm wafter that is the chosen method to snaffle a few carp wasn't working, we tried other baits, corn, pellet but with no joy. Thinking that in hard conditions we normally use finer tackle - line, hooks etc ,we decided to do the same with our bait, using the same wafter that hadn't been catching, but in a 8mm, smaller version, bingo.
A real lesson learnt for all of us.

Our school students catch a lot of big fish throughout the year, but through the harder months it can be a bonus just to catch a fish. After last weeks session where one single roach was caught, we went into todays session fearing the worst. So it was nice today to see one of our students catch four silvers, 2 roach and 2 perch, he loves his fishing so it was great to see it was him that had a red letter day. He was over the moon.