The bit you should read.

I’ve always been an angler and after around the country moving I wanted to discover and document the best places to fish (where ever I might be) in the way of rivers, lakes, canals and ponds. When previously fishing in South Wales I often fished in club and winter league matches, however living up north presented me with new challenges, venues and angling clubs that I acquainted myself with. Now down in the South West I plan to do the same.

This fishing blog details my angling adventures around the UK (although depending where I am in the country I also sea fish from both Boat and Shore, Carp, Pike and Fly fish). I will be giving a summary of 3 values considered by most anglers as well as the additional Disabled Access rating. Since being diagnosed with CIDP and regaining my motor function Disabled angling and Disabled access is now something I always consider when visiting venues. They will all be rated on a scale of 1* to 5*;

1. Fishability *****

2. Accessability *****

3. Value for Money *****

4. Disabled Access *****

I think these 4 points are the key issues which are readily identifiable with all anglers. Feel free to take a look and add your own comments along the way!

Sunday 22 April 2012

Trip #27 - Non Go Bye Farm - Bottom Lake (2nd Visit)

Easter weekend had arrived and the weather was not living up to my expectations. My brother had arrived and I had promised to take get him out on the bank at least once while he visited. Although Yorkshire has a whole multitude of venues to choose from I wanted a reliable one where I knew fish were going to be caught no matter what the weather was going to throw at us. With that in mind we ventured out as soon as the torrential rain had stopped, packed the car and headed for None Go Bye Farm.

Lots of work has been carried out on the main island.



On arriving the weather looked like it could break at any moment and seeing that the First lake was very busy we made our way down to the bottom lake where I have caught fish before. I noticed some fairly extensive work had been done on the island of the lake and a lot of the previous plant life and more importantly features have all but vanished! So looking around it seemed like all the “best” pegs were taken. We decided to set up on the far bank away from the rod, I was going to be fishing the pole and Mathew had decided he was going to fish a small Banjo feeder for some of the Carp that I knew the lake contained.  I would be fishing 2 lines, one heavy using meat for the carp and one light, fishing using casters over maggots, for Rudd and Ide.
The weather didn't help!

Starting with double maggot I shipped out not knowing if the recent ground work would cause the fishery any problems. However my fears were waylaid and first bite came exactly as expected. My float had not been cocked straight in the water for 10 seconds and it darted away. The first fish of the day was a small Rudd of a few ounces. It wasn’t long before I saw Mathew with the feeder rod in hand catching his first fish of the day too!

Non Go Bye is a reliable venue and I would recommend to anyone that it is worth a visit, but fishing is not without its harder days and although I caught steadily all day, I only saw 2 other anglers catch Carp, which was slightly frustrating as on my last visit to this lake they had been prolific along with the tinca’s! Still I was catching well and decided to double up fishing double caster on the hook. This proved an instant success with the stamp of fish being 2 – 3 ounces bigger than they had been on straight maggot. Feeling bold I shipped out my 2.5lb rig again with double caster and waited for another scale perfect Ide to find its way to my net.

I am always weary of fishing a lighter set up on more commercial fisheries like this one and my next bite proved my worries well founded. The float disappeared and the number 8 elastic I was using stretched away, disappearing down into the water. This was no Ide, and the way the fish was fighting made me think that it didn’t know it was hooked! That was my fatal thought. An instant later there were 3 huge boils under the water as the fish powered away. The accelerated so fast that within seconds the elastic had bottomed out snapping my line. I was left sulking at the one that got away in front of my little brother! That was it, all bets were off. I was fishing next to the lilies until I caught a Carp to redeem myself.

Unfortunately this redeeming Carp never came and the rest of the day was spent catching perfectly conditioned Ide up to around 1lb on every type of bait I could think of. It would seem however as though the disruption caused from the works on the island has left fishing the feeder or ledger more difficult than it has been previously been on this venue. Though it may have just been a poorer day for what is otherwise an excellent fishery. The next time I visit this complex I will be fishing the canal lake, this lake is the only I haven’t fished and is supposedly where you can take the highest weights. I hope that is the case then next time I pay this fantastic fishery a visit.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Paul,

My name is Howard, I'm on the Go Fishing forum (Hbomb).

I might go fish up at non go bye on the canal lake on Saturday 10th May. Just send me a message on the Go Fishing forum if you fancy joining me if I go.

Cheers, Howard.

omeed said...

Hi Paul,

I went to None Go by last Wednesday and had such a good time I went on the saturday as well. On both occasions I was on the 'CANAL'.

Baring in mind I'm relatively new to fishing (used to go when I was a young lad), and have just been using a whip in the canal (7 silvedrs being my best catch - 1 being about 1.blb), I was thrilled to catch 36 fish on my first trip to Non Go By! This included one bream of about 3 pound - which was double anything I'd caught in my (until this point) 4 week forey into fihsing.

I then eyed up a pole (the ron Thompson gangster pole - cheapest one going - to get me into it), and planned a second trip to Non-Go.

Well I be jeseus! I only went and caught about 6 carp of around 4-5lbs!! And lost count of my total 'fish-count'.

I found I was getting loads of little silvers and hate it when I have trouble getting hooks out of the tiny ones when it swallows deep. I decided to go for double maggot (size 20 hook, 1.5lb hook length) and pulled out a small common about 2.5lb!

Interesting, I thought. So i went for more double, and eventually triple maggot. this is when the carp starting landing.

I got snapped off by some big lump and moved up to size 16 hook and stuck to triple magot.

Had a great day.

My Pole got pulled in at one point. I was being very naughty and put the 'gangster-pole' down for a matter of seconds (having walked along to another peg - away from all other anglers) and some moster took it under right before my eyes. I thought I was hallouscinating (cant be bothered to spell check that - but think I'm close)!

Any way, it emerged about 40 seconds later about 30 meters down the canal (right where the lillys are - near the entrance/car park). I snapped out of my swearing fit and grabbed by landing net, ran round the other side of the cananl and spent the nex 5 minutes getting my pole out. The fish had snapped off after snaggin the line on one of the crayfish traps.

Incidentally, the traps really work. I had to pull one out to get my line un-snagged and there were 3 of the little fellas in there!

So, after this ordeal I went back to the spot I had stalked out, got my pole set back up, and dropped my line back in, aling with a gradual sprinkle of maggot and hemp. Within 1 miunte I pulled out one of the aforementioned 4lb carp.

I was happy as larry.

I noticed you wrote about the pond in Cottingley springs..

I read your blog and went down there today. It turns out it's only 5 minutes drive (literally) from my house.
It looks incredibly active down there, bubbling and showing all over.

I saw a huge carp skulking around, followed by its buddy. I'd guess it was around 20lb.

Anyway, i'm off there tomorrow. Starting with som silvers, then gonna try for something bigger.

Might see you around some day.


Omied


I'm sure you'll remember that name if we ever meet - not too many Omied's on the Yorkshire banks.




Bristol Angling Centre said...

Looks like a good venue and an interesting read

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