Mike’s Diary
April was good - very good!
Posted in Mike’s Diary on 08th May 2011After 5-months away from the lakes and rivers I was determined to make April count and set aside at least 3-nights a week to fish. After all, it's probably the only month I can fish this year due to commitments with the new house build at our Springwood Fishery.
I decided to concentrate on my Glos syndicate water, a vast pit rich in natural food but the perfect place to put the new Black Snail through its paces! That said, I started off with the B5 and this accounted for a couple of 30's in quick succession (as it does!). I then decided to switch to the Black Snail (after running out of B5) which was the very first time I'd used it on the lake. Just a few hours after introducing 3kg of the new 'black stuff' to an open water clearing amongst sparse weed I managed to bank a lovely dark common of 32lb - what a start!
A hat-trick of thirties from a very tough venue was pleasing enough, but there was more to come! I returned the following week armed with the Black Snail and managed a 5-fish haul, including one of my target fish - an immaculate 34lb 6oz leather. Nine fish in April from a lake where half a dozen fish a season is considered good going surpassed any expectations and was enough to keep my fire burning for the months that lay ahead...
Corker Pop-Ups
Cork dust pop-ups have a number of advantages over other pop-ups.
1) Made with identical ingredients/attractors to free offerings and send out the same food signals.
2) More durable and less prone to ‘theft’ from nuisance fish, crayfish and birdlife!
3) They can be pierced with a baiting needle without losing buoyancy.
4) Brilliant for ‘snowman’ presentations where you can trim down the corker pop up with scissor blades to achieve the perfect level of buoyancy required.
5) Ease of use.
Top tip for long term buoyancy
When fishing pop-up rigs in deep water for long periods of time or on waters where bird life can be a problem, drill out a cavity in the corker pop up with an 8mm drill bit then plug it with Gardner Tackle’s cylindrical high density rig foam (yellow). Then pierce the corker pop up on to your hook/rig, making sure the baiting needle goes up through the yellow foam first, then secure with boilie stop. I guarantee you that you can leave your pop up out there for 3-days if needed with no loss of buoyancy! Further to this, in the unlikely event that a diving coot or tufty unknowingly pinches your pop up, you are still fishing a nice visual yellow ‘fake’ bait.
