In our never ending search for new places to fish, we've come across a new still water Fly Fishing venue in the heart of the Southern Hampshire Countryside - Meon Springs, is located between Winchester and Petersfield and offers tuition for beginners like Fishing Fools, Tackle shop on site and a Fish Credit system for those sessions when you just can't catch - Find out more details in the Fishing Venues section, along with contact details

The CLA game fair week is finally here, and this year it will be at Blenheim Palace, running from Friday 22nd July 2011 till the Sunday 24th July 2011.  For those of you who've never been before, this is one of the highlight shows in the Fishing / Shooting / Farming and Countryside Calendar... Well Fishing Fools enjoy it anyway   This year, they have Fishing Village, with Fly casting leasons, events, and tackle to purchase... can't wait - The surroundings are stunning with Blenheim Palace providing a superb backdrop - tickets are available at the gate, but if your planning to go on the weekend, make sure you leave home early as the traffic can be a nightmare !  More info on what is at the show is available on the CLA Game fair website.

After having allot of enjoyment fishing on the rivers, the time had come to upgrade the unwieldy 13foot float rod, to something a bit more friendly and all round for use.

 

As a new comer to fishing, I was looking for a rod that offered good versatility while not breaking the bank.  After much reading, googling and comments on the Fishing Fools site, the decision was made to go with the Shimano Vengeance Barbel rod with 1.5lb Test Curve - at just under £80 this certainly wasn't the cheapest rod  but read on to see the complete review.

With a few successful fly fishing trips under our belts at some idyllic Hampshire trout lakes, I thought a quick post about a little gem of a book we've picked up, that we think is an asset to the tackle box.  As you know we are complete novices here at fishing fools to fly fishing, the whole process of picking which Bobbie, Peacock, Buzzer should be used seemed liked a dark art, and was certainly a long way from the size 16 hook and maggot used on most course lakes  

We are no experts in what bait trout are feeding on at different times of the year, but with the aid of a little pocket book called "Pocket Guide to Matching the Hatch" by Peter Lapsley and Cyril Bennett, we have certainly started to try and have the right fly for the season .  We like this book as it's very concise on what bait to use, nothing complicated and some good clear pictures - It's ordered by Month, and venue (lake or river) - All you do is select the month your fishing in, and the book suggests what Lava, Fly's and other temptations the trout are likely to be feeding on and then matches these to fly types.  It's then up to you to select the colour, weight and embellishments - but for novices like us, it really helps and being under £10 won't break the bank either.

 

I recently managed to find time for a night fish on a lake. I' no expert in night fishing for Carp or anything else but I always enjoy those late night beeps and the feel that you have not slept for weeks.   After much research I found that braided line was not allowed on the waters I was going to fish.  This left me with Mono, I did some further research and found that mono doesn't always give you the best presentation.  Further research pointed me to something called Flurocarbon    

This type of line according to the scientists is almost invisible under water and also has the the benefit that it sinks to the bottom.  I decide to buy some of this line which was not all that cheap.  when buying the main line I also found IQ Fluorocarbon which is a softer version which helps make better presentation of the bait on the hook link.

There are many different baits for fishing and its never easy to decide what bait to take with you. One fishing day I arrived at the tackle shop and was thinking what bait to purchase.  I had planned to use maggot and look for any type of fish. Whilst talking top the guys in the shop the discussion of works came up.   I had never looked in to using worms and was a bit sceptical. 

As I was fishing a river I decided to go for lob worms,  a tub of 10 to be exact.  When arrive to the river and getting setup I was ready to open the tub which contain some soil and the worms. After getting one of these little mingers out of the tub I then placed the whole worm on my hook the worm then wriggled and came of the hook. I picked the it up and noticed it had split into two worms. With one of them I pushed it back on the hook and moved it further up the hook shank.

What did you do on Friday 29th April 2011 ? Royal Wedding D-Day  We here at Fishing Fools took the very hard decision to brave the elements and set out on a fishing trip for the day.  The venue of choice was a 10 Acre lake with access for Members of the Ringwood District Angling association just outside Ringwood.  This lake is a Fishing Fools favourite, as it's of the beaten track, and offers a nice relaxed days course fishing...on arrival, it was apparent that many other brave soles had decided to venture to the lake, with their being only a few swims left and standing room only !  We ended up with a small swim located round by some tents ! it seems the farmer who own's the field also let some "party" goers setup for the celebration.  Not to be out done, we setup the Korum day shelter, and popped a union jack on top to celebrate the occasion. 

After some time away due to other activities we are now back! and boy do we have a lot of things to discuss. 

There have only been a small number of fishing trips but there have been a number of intersting finds, so keep reading and hopefully over the next few months we will catch up with the back log of articles.

I did manage to get down to the Throop recently and for the day I thought I would try a bait out.  I went to the shops and purchased some chilled puff pastry and a large peice of extra mature chedder cheese. 

Once home I flattened the pastry out and rolled it reallt thinly, ontop of the pastry I grated all of the cheese. Using my hands I encased the cheese in the pastry and made a rather large ball I kept kneeding the ball to combine the cheese and then stored the paste in a bag.

I  hoped that this smelly pastry would catch and when I arrived to the river I found the paste worked wonders I caught a number of roach and chublets. Hopefully with a  bit more time I can perfect the paste and catch even bigger fish.

Its been a rather odd summer of fishing this year and we at fishing fools haven't really had the time to get out and fish.  There have been a number of trips but one outing does spring to mind.

After receiving a gift of a wooden fly box I though it was time for me to pop over to the lovely Moorhen trout fishery to see if I could finally catch one.

It was a rather cold over cast day and I was really up for the days fishing. After having a cup tea and paying the fee for rod hire I walking over to the lake and scanned the water for movement, it was a rather busy day on the lake so I opted for quiet area of the lake.  After a while of casting I started to get into a routine. I changed flies a couple of times and eventually I could see the fish moving around.