“I recently took a nice chap called Keith fishing for a one to one lesson on our Milton Lake as he wanted to catch some tench and crucians. I took him to my favourite peg 20 on the lake and showed him how to prepare the bait, as we were going to fish with soft expander pellets on the hook. Armed with a few red maggots, some pellet micro feed to get the fish interested in the first place, I showed Keith how to tackle up his 13ft rod with a small light waggler set up and size 16’s hook. I then spent ten minutes demonstrating one of the most important parts of setting up, plumbing the depth accurately. Keith was a good pupil and I knew we were going to have a real good lesson and catch a fair few number of fish as the evening went along. I always fish for the first half hour, as I can then demonstrate where to put the float in the swim and how much to feed and how often plus it helps to show how to kick off the peg and get the fish to feed confidently.

As per normal, the crucians were in a finicky mood lifting the float up and down without taking the bait properly. I stressed to Keith that this was normal crucian activity and after a while they would settle down and start to feed with confidence after they had got their heads down on the micro feed. Every now and then a tench would take the bait and a terrific bend in the rod would be seen until it succumbed to the landing net. Now it was Keith’s turn to have a go and in the next three hours, with me by his side, I witnessed an angler having the best fish catching action of his life. Keith was beaming as fish after fish graced his path including a personal best crucian of over 2lbs. I estimated that Keith had well over 60lbs in a four hour session, good going by any novice’s standards. I got as much pleasure out of the lesson as my pupil did and one of the most satisfying aspects I can pass on to anyone apart from how to catch fish and fish safety is how to have passion and enjoyment out of your sport. What a great evening’s lesson that was.

The lakes at Bury Hill are fishing really well now that the spawning is out of the way for another season. Last Sunday on the Old Lake, Fairfields AC held their latest club match along the Long Bank with a nice 74lbs of mostly bream taking top honours. Feeder tactics and hair rigged 8mm halibut pellets accounted for the winning bag. Temple Lake our specimen member’s only lake has produced some stunning fish this past few weeks and Dean Jones had a cracking 37lbs plus Mirror Carp in the early hours of last Sunday morning, what a great catch.

In my last blog, I mentioned that I had set up a Bury Hill midweek open match diary and these are the dates. If you are interested to book in please call me on the shop number 01306 883621. Draws are at 8.30am with fish times of 10am to 3pm ticket costs are £20 all in.

14 July - Old Lake Long Bank
28 July - Old Lake Front Bank
4 August - Milton Lake
18 August - Old Lake Front Bank
1 September - Old Lake Long Bank
8 September - Old Lake Front Bank
15 September - Old Lake Long Bank

Last Sunday I was in match practice on the Royal Military Canal, near Hythe in Kent. Apart from a big eel, it was tough going but I am full of confidence that the team I fish for NDP10 will have a good start to the first round of the Kent Angling League, which runs all through the months, except December, finishing in March 2011. Individually it’s a good league for me and team wise we won three rounds last season and looking to improve on that this term.

With some good weather forecast these next few days why not pop down to Bury Hill and have a go, with bream galore on the Old Lake, hard fighting carp of all sizes up to 14lbs on Bonds Lake plus stacks of tench and crucians plus big roach on Milton Lake, life just cannot get any better.

‘Tight Lines’,

Russ Evans.”