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Well I have done another 72 hrs on black swan with no fish again :-( but on this trip I saw some of the fish first hand as I canoed around the lake, I cant explain the excitement as up until then it was just other peoples accounts of what they had seen!and everybody asked the same thing how big well to that I always respond I don't know, because fish are very deceiving and the only way to know is to catch them and with some calibrated scales weight them! although no fish I had a couple of mice join me and my first grass snake which is always nice to see as you know we are getting away from the bad weather! Next week will be my last session on black swan until the 15 of June due to the closed season lets hope I can get one on the bank next week to get me off to a good start for next season!well here are a couple of pictures I have taken this week!the biggest issue this week was dog owners with no control over there animals and no bags to clean up there pets mess!!

Tony Celticbait Strevens

A big hi to Celticbait users and followers,

Just returned from an eventful week at Abbey Lakes in France. Fish were few and far between on all the lakes there, but still winter conditions out there with minus 4-9 the first 4 nights with high winds and rain. The complex only produced 8 fish in the time i was there, 2 of which fell to Abbey Master Jeroen Flokstra at 40lb + 1 mirror and 1 common.
Anyway i set off from Scotland on the Friday morning trailer and car loaded for the drive down to Liverpool to pick fellow Celtic bait friend Mark,loaded his gear a bite to eat then on the road again down to meet up with Brain and Daniel at Black swan lake in Reading to pick our bait up the new crustacean to test. Brain very kindly lend us his bait boat with echo sounder a god send out there, and a big thanks for that :o). Then the fun began, found i was minus a wheel on trailer !!!!! So after pumping the the tyres up on remain 3 we set off at about 3 am from Reading heading for Dover, fog on motorway kept your speed down which helped the trailer some what lol.

Got to Dover 5 hrs before ferry so opted to pay extra for the earlier sailing. After a spot of breakies and a cuppa we where off to the the shops, bottle JD and 2 union jack t-shirts later sat down to try and get a bit of shut eye, to no avail, going fishin lol. good run down apart from trying find the entrance to the fishery.
Arrived mid afternoon by this time i was a zombi, had to wait till 5pm to get sign in at the lake, so off to the shops for some grub and beers, just happened to come across a nice bar for a drink too!!! Having booked in Mark and myself took pegs 17 and 18 as this commands a lot of water. Got to the pegs to find a Dutch guy in swim 18 ! so opt for 17 and 17 1/2 think this is better known as Jo`s swim lol.
Rods out bivvy up i needed to sleep for a week, few peeps in night think was just the wind blowing, up sunday weather was a little better wind dropped some finished unloading and decided to set the bar up , that`s my trailer,it has an awning that fits round it. Well following 3 days was like hell wind rain 2nd night my bivvie took off in the night !! glad to say i had just got out when it went :o( managed to get my bed chair out and slept in trailer that night. Luck would have it no damage to it and erected it further up the bank with extra pegs.
Sadly was my first french blank but had 1 good run but failed to hook it, fun was had by all and fellow anglers enjoyed the socials every night in the bar. Arriving back in UK the following Saturday we headed back round motorways to Liverpool and dropped Mark off and carried on to Cleverly Bridge fishery for a few days fishing and a break on the way back to Scotland.
Had fished the venue twice before with 2 blanks so was hungry for a fish, first night i caught a small common , a low double but a fish ! second night had a good take and struck into a fine 24+ mirror so that made my week in the end. Both on crustacean 20mm due to high volume of big bream in the lake at present.
Sorry my first blog is a little long but will learn to cut them down " promise" but hope you enjoy reading it. Will be back out at Abbey again end off Aug. and possibly a quick dash ova for a long weekend if space comes up and for sure some lakes in england this year.

This 15lb Common was caught on a Members Water fishing along side a set of Lilly pads & weed bed.

My end tackle included Korda Heavy Metal Tungsten Tubing to a lead clip with a 1.5oz lead, Korda N-Trap Hook link with a Nash TT Fang x size 7 Hook with a rig ring to make a blow back rig. I was using a 14mm Crustaceans Boillie topped off with a piece of yellow plastic corn with a small bag of chopped Crustaceans boillie's to cover the hook point. 

On the 17^th March 2012 I set off for one of my last sessions on my syndicate, as I have decided to join a new lake from the 1^st of April.

I got to the lake to find nobody else fishing, with pick of the swims I took a walk round in search for some fish and after about 20 minutes or so I found approximately 10 fish in the corner of a small weedy bay. I then went about setting up my two rods slightly away from the chosen swim so I didn’t spook the fish, the rods were loaded with a 14mm G-Nut Dumbbell and a 14mm Crustacean Boilie, added to these were small mesh PVA bags filled with Celtic Baits high quality pellets.

My first rod was cast at around 20 yards to a hard gravel spot, I then placed 10 freebees around the hook bait and pellets. My second rod was placed no further than 1 yard off of the bank to a small silty spot in between some weed. I lowered the bait in about a metre away from 3 fish, slackened the line off and placed the rod on the rests.

5 minutes later the rod 1 yard from the bank was tearing off, I lifted into a hefty weight and commenced battle with an angry carp.

After a long fight the fish was slipped over the drawstring into the net. I then weighed the fish and took a few photos before releasing the pristine common back into the water.

18lb 8oz Common caught on a 14mm G-Nut Dumbbell

The rod was then placed back on the spot with a few free baits spread around the silty area.

No longer than ten minutes later my right hand alarm was screaming for some attention, I lifted into the fish and endured a long slow fight, after a little while the fish was staring at the spreader block having been beaten and scooped into the net.

18lb 8oz Mirror caught on a 14mm G-Nut Dumbbell

By now the fish had moved out of the corner of the bay due to all the commotion, I decided to up sticks and move to the other end of the bay to try and snare one as they exited the area. The bay and the main body of the lake are split in two by a large gravel bar, I decided to fish one rod in the shallower water on one side of the bar, then the other rod was positioned on the other side of the bar in the deeper water.

After half an hour of watching fish cross over the bar and out of the bay I was beginning to think something wasn’t right, all my doubts were soon erased when my right hand swinger pulled tight to the rod and line began ripping from the spool, after a short spirited fight a small common was in the net, I then weighed the common, took a couple of snaps and slipped her home.

12lb Common caught on a 14mm Crustaceans Boilie

After the third fish it was time to pack up and head off home, despite the poor weather I managed a few fish with the help of Celtic Baits top quality products, its safe to say I was one happy angler!

Check out our 2012 carp fishing pictures!
http://www.celticbait.com/gallery/2012