After yesterdays Death By Freezing Wind at Four Oaks Fishery it seemed like madness to venture out today with the forecast highs set to be similar. The difference was…NO WIND! It was positively Tropical out there. Excellent, time to get up super-early! By 9:30am I was in the shower after a quick cup of tea. A nice breakfast, another cup of tea, finish yesterdays blog, fire out a couple of emails, (“Dear BT, Your Website Is An Awful Piece Of Crap Although Your Football Coverage Is Getting Better, Michael Owen is learning to talk some sense” etc.) another cup of tea, make a flask of tea (in case I forgot to have a cup of tea in the morning) get the gear into the car, cameras, bait, put my warm clothes on and I was fishing at Four Oaks at the crack of dawn, about 11:30am.

Now because the wind was down I decided to give Heron Pit a go. However I noticed a LOT of black, dying weed covering a good fifty percent of the lake but there were a few clear swims and so I chose one. After about 40 minutes of not so much as a nibble I took a wander around the pool with a whip and some maggots. The whole time I was there I didn’t see any sign of fish at all. No fish were jumping, swirling, topping, blowing bubbles or performing Olympic Synchronised Swimming for my viewing pleasure. Very odd. No bites, no nothing. I was the only one at Heron Pit and it appeared this included the fish. The black dying weed might have something to do with it or maybe it was just me?

So, after another 30 minutes of bite-less hell I hied my way over to Pete’s Pool. One angler was there but he had blanked thus far. Mind you, he was after bigger stuff than me. Worms, corn, pellets were his bait, I only had maggots. His quiver tipped rod was firmly set, ready for the Big One, which, sad to say for this nice gentleman, never came on this day. Clearly the sudden chill in the weather and the water had cooled off feeding for some of the bigger species.

That said, compared to Heron Pit, Pete’s Pool was alive with swirling fish. I secretly thought to myself “Perhaps the owners need to rake the rotting black weed out of Heron Pit before it kills the fish” but now my secret thought is longer a secret. I am clearly a Security Risk because you have read my Secret Thought about raking the weed right here. Maybe I’m wrong about the Black Creeping Decomposing Slime Covered Weed, maybe it’s harmless. But, to my untrained eye (that’s the left eye, he’s the wild one; my right eye is tame and opens and closes on request) the fact that I’ve called it “Black Creeping Decomposing Slime Covered Weed” makes it look pretty bad to me. If someone could reassure me otherwise it’d be much appreciated. I noticed a couple of FABULOUS reviews of Heron Pit from a few years ago on the Fishing in the North West website, maybe it was just me being a bloody awful angler?

[wpgmza id=”12″]A tribute to the Roach at Four Oaks…the Bouncing Roach marks the spot.

But, on to the fishing at Pete’s Pool. It was fun! Some nice fat early Winter roach were obligingly taking my red single maggot. They were in great condition (the roach, that is. The maggots were in critical shape having been impaled by a hook and then chomped at by the roach). The tactics were, 4 meter whip, fishing 6 meters out on a long line, light pole float, size 18 hook, 2lb hook length. I had to fish right on the bottom, the fish were not interested in mid or top water presentation. Bites were quite tricky to spot at times but I bumped just two fish and caught bunches which is pretty good for The Man Who Was Born With No Reflexes.

No other species turned up for my catching pleasure which just goes to show what bad sports bream, carp, tench and all the other coarse fish species were at Four Oaks on this day. Here’s something interesting: I mixed up a few maggots with cinnamon powder and hemp oil, just enough to use as hook bait. It worked! Bites on the Cinnamon and Hemp Oil flavoured maggots definitely attracted bites much better than the Maggot flavoured maggots. So, informally, we can definitely cement Hemp Oil and Cinnamon Powder as the two best bait additives thus far. Still, there is much more testing to be done and much betting and speculation before I can make an announcement to the Fishing World as to the best stuff to dip your maggots into in order to catch fish when fishing. (Put your money on “The Water”).

I should give another mention to the SJCAM SJ4000 WIFI Action Camera I’ve been using these last couple of trips. As well as the video below, all of the roach still photos you see in this article were taken by the same camera. They’re actually video “captures” from moving video. I’m really getting into this great little miracle bit of gear. It’s a “Miracle” because for £65 I don’t think you can beat the Value For Money it offers. Mind you, you have to beware, there are fakes out there with the same name and for less money… thankfully the SJCAM Official Website has a Serial Number checker so if you buy your camera through Amazon and it turns out to be a fake be assured that Amazon will stick up for you and you’ll be refunded. So far, I’ve no complaints, I haven’t been able to find any fault with it. I’ll keep using it in the coming days and weeks. Hopefully it’ll record some bigger fish!

Yes, this is 7 minutes of me catching fat early Winter roach at Four Oaks today, but admit it, as anglers you all love this stuff! I have to say I’m addicted to YouTube videos showing Coarse Fishing Persons catching Coarse Fish. Watching them always makes me want to get onto the bank at the earliest opportunity.

Note the Seller is “Mini Kitty”…that’s the same Seller I bought mine from through Amazon and the camera serial number checked out just fine on the SJCAM Official Website. I see the price has gone DOWN by £3 since I bought it. Bugger.

Don’t forget, if you enjoy reading this blog don’t keep it to yourself! Tell your Fishing Friends about The Compleat Angler Website and make their lives a misery too!