Summer loving.

What a busy few months it has been for me this month. With the job I’m on coming to an end and the hand over dates coming closer I have been working some serious hours but have managed to fit in a few sessions on Oxlease on the Linear Fisheries complex, and just got back from a weekend on St Johns. I have also fished the BCAC this year representing Trakker with my dad Greg, and we fished our qualifier on Walthamstow 2 3. We also fished the Eric’s Cup on there a month before but unfortunately didn’t qualify but we got a feel for the place and were determined to qualify for the bcac . I managed to get some great info from fellow team member Dave Levy which we put to good use and managed to qualify in 2nd place( thanks mate) which means we are through to the semi-finals which are to be held on Barston.

As I mentioned earlier on I have been fishing a bit on oxlease and have had some great results! The first session was to last 48hours, and when I arrived on Friday afternoon, as always, it was pretty stitched up so I just slotted in where I could. The first thing I noticed was none of the anglers fishing were putting much bait out, which I can never understand on these sort of lakes with such high stock levels. With that noted, the first thing I did was find a nice spot and put a fair amount of bait on the spot, which consisted of Baitworks Atlantic Heat groundbait, Atlantic Heat pellets, 3kg of crushed Atlantic Heat boilies, hemp, 1kg of sweetcorn and a good dosing of Hot Fish Oil, which I then fished 3 solid bags over the top.

The session went well and I managed 8 fish up to 28lb 6oz, which I was more than happy with. This gave me the bug to get back up there ASAP, but I knew I was busy for a couple of weekends. I managed to get some free time but could only manage to do a quick 24hr session on a Saturday, not the best time to be going up Linear, but I had to get back on Oxlease as I knew there was a good chance of a 30 or two, so with the car loaded I was off and en route to linear. When I arrived at Oxlease I was surprised to see a few good swims free and after a quick look in the right-hand island peg it didn’t take me long to decide where I wanted to be. I decided to fish 2 rods out tight to the island and only put 3 Spombs of the same mix I used on the last trip over each rod just enough for a bite and then the 3rd rod I found another spot and heavily baited it with just boilies this time, to see if I could maybe nick a bigger fish.

It was a quiet night on the island rods but I managed a 26lb 8oz mirror off of the boilie spot, and a good night’s kip. I was up first thing and re-baited one of the island rods and the boilie rod, but with plenty of fish up in the water I decided on a Zig on one of the rods. What a manic day it ended up being! I took four off the island and two on the Zigs to 31lb 2oz and a 27lb 4oz off the top. What a great 24hrs it was!

I had planned a social with one of my mates, Scott Vowles, and my old man, and we decided to try and get back on Oxlease, but with the UK Carp Cup being held on Brasenose One and Two, unfortunately the complex was pretty rammed and we couldn’t get on Oxlease. However, we managed to get on St Johns, and luckily enough I managed to get in the peg known as The Dugout, which is where I had some of my spring success from, so was well happy with that. We all managed to fish near each other which was good for us, as this session was all about relaxing and having a giggle, and if we caught fish it was a bonus. I got all the rods out and put 25 Spombs over the top and then enjoyed a few Thatcher’s Gold and good BBQ with the lads. First thing in the morning my middle rod was away with a slow, steady take.

The fish weeded me up early into the battle and I wasn’t sure if it was still on but applied steady pressure all the way to the net and netted the big ball of weed. I put the rod straight down and started to break the weed away, and was blown away with what I saw once I got all the weed out the way. We weighed the fish and it was 30lb 4oz of beautiful St Johns common – what a fish to start your session. My old man had two in the night with the biggest being a 26lb 4oz common. With it being one of the hottest days of the year and the bites starting to dry up me and Scott decided to go to the local Sainsburys and grab couple bags of ice for the cider, a couple of ice creams and a much needed cold drink.

We then went and had a look over Brasenose One and Two to see how the lads are getting on. We went and sat with a friend of ours Nathan who was on B2. He ended up qualifying, so well done mucker! Me and Scott decided it was time to get back over to St Johns and get the rods back out and order our curry! Was another quiet night for me but my old man and Scott managed a few between them. Scott had two upper doubles and my old man had 23lb 12oz common and a 29lb 8oz mirror. Same thing happened for me in the morning, my middle rod ripped off and I was rewarded with a low 20 and then about half an hour later, the right hand rod was off and I managed a cracking 25lb 10oz mirror. I had nothing for the rest of the day, but my old man plugged away and had a 22lb 12oz common, 22lb 10oz mirror and a cracking linear at 21lb 10oz. It was a great weekend had by all and we will definitely be doing it again sometime soon!

Until next time,