Bank Holiday Blanking on Blackleach

I think it was Martin Bowler of AT that said a blank was all part of the journey to the next good catch (or something like that) - well after this weekend i have mixed feelings on this!!!

For those who dont fish BLACKLEACH its situated in Walkden just off Hilltop road - the country park has lots of dog walkers etc - the fishing itself is restricted to the pegs - the non fishing area is the conservation area - which is where the wildlife congregate - its also a silty area so the Carp and bream spend most of their lives there - only the nomadic tench and silvers get about the lake.

There are some real whackers reported: pike to 30lb, tench 12lb, i have seen bream to 7lb in big shoals, perch to 4lb roach 2lb+ and eels to 6lb (i did see a dead oen about 4lb).

Saturday on Blackleach

Another 4 hours at 5.30am resulted in no tench (was gonna be a 6 hr trip but cut it short to get back early for browny points) - got to Blackleach in my favourite swim and set up 2 rods on the method / alarms, made about 6 casts in each peg with a combo of vitalin, scalded halibut, corn and crumb.

Made sure i wasnt on the weed and kept it as accurate as possible - my dad was on the float in about 10ft of water some 20 yrds out - feeding corn/bread and hemp,

All angles covered i thought.

I got a few bleeps on the alarm - probably liners - good to see some fish moving but not near my bait.

I took a walk to see other fishermen (8 in total a blackleach record) - one guy i would call a "pleasure angler" - no fancy gear - feeder rod in the air as if he was fishing a river and feeding groundbait/caster - he had missed a wrencher of a bite- i spoke to him for 10 mins sharing experiences and he showed me a couple of fish he caught the day the before on his camera and said his pb at Blackleach was 11lber.

Until that conversation again i thought i was beaten by Blackleach - but this just spurred me on - fishing what a leveller - just when you thing you know a place and in this case a hard water that never throws out too many tench but they are big!!! then.... you talk to a guy who gets results without doing anything more than you are doing - hows that for an incentive....

So was it just a bad day for feeding, was i in the wrong peg (doesnt matter how good you are if fish are not feeding in front of you) or was i using the wrong tactics? the exploration continues

but for now i thought i would share with you some of the catches i have had on this water.

pls keep the comments coming

until next time

mancspurs