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So here we are for another instalment of Urban Banx
This time I'm down at Northlands Park in Basildon
It's a really lovely park lake
I've never fished it before but I did walk round a couple of times last week
It can get very busy and there is a good stock of fish in here
There is one particular area that I fancy
The lake is actually broken up into two halves
You've got a slightly harder side where the bigger fish are and then you have got this side closest to us with a bigger head of fish
Due to the fact that it is February its absolutely freezing cold and the temperature will drop below freezing tonight
I'm just going to stick on the easy side and just try and get a bite or two
I'm not too sure what my tactics are going to be yet
I've brought some maggots with me a great cold water bait and probably flick a few choddies about
Lets see what the next Urban Banx brings
Hello mate
Lets get you back in the lake
Well one of eight commons from last night
It really was a productive few hours from three until seven this morning
Hectic sport I've got a couple of others in the net I'm going to get them out and show you and then sit down later on
and run through my chod rig which was the downfall of all the fish I had
A cracking little park lake fish on a beautiful February morning
Here is one of the stunning little mirrors from Northlands it's a real mixed bag you never know what you are going to get
and there is a much nicer one what a cracking fish
It really was a hectic few hours it's gone a little bit slower now the sun has come up
But I've still got a few hours ahead of me to catch some more beautiful fish like this
Do you want to touch him?
Would you like to touch him?
Come on he won't hurt you
Thats it this one is a common carp
Nice and soft isn't he these are all his special scales
He's bumpy
A little bit bumpy yes when you touch over the different scales
He's a carp come and say hi
Look how big he is!
Have a stroke
Oh wow stoke him
That's it
Good boy
Look he's beautiful
We put him back now because he lives in the lake
All the way back down there
Thats good isn't it he can go and have a swim now
Have a nice swim
Say Thank You
Thank You!
Now that is a snag Urban Banx style
I can't believe I landed all those fish in the early hours of this morning and into first light without getting caught on this
Luck really must have been on my side
The bailffs have come down this morning great bunch of lads on here really looking after the place and they have removed it
This will go off to the council get cleaned up and go back to a new home
Brilliant
Pasty bashing
They all count in winter though
There it is the little 10 millimetre choddy I have been talking about
Just nicked in the bottom lip
I did start for the first few hours playing around with maggots and zig rigs and then as soon as I flicked out the little choddy away it went
I moved over to a second rod fishing on it and it has proved productive ever since
Its only a little one but the sun is up now and it looks like it will be a glorious day even though it was freezing cold last night
I'm looking forward to a few more hours fishing
Well its getting on for 11am now and if I manage to land this it will be my tenth fish on a February session from an urban park lake
I can't think of many places I could have gone and had such prolific action let alone somewhere on a day ticket in the centre of Basildon
To say I'm enjoying myself is an understatement I'm loving it
Nice and simple fishing just choddies flicked over to the back rushes
The fish were definitely there last night they seem to be holding up there in the day time
The sun has been hitting it and you have the radiance and the warmth coming off those rushes anyway
I think its a natural magnet and holding area on a water like this
I've just been flicking out fifteen or twenty 10 millers over each choddy and I'm in again
In the grand scheme of things this doesn't feel like a bad fish
Fifty percent of them have been singles anything from four pounds to ten pounds and I've had a few doubles up to sixteen and a half pounds
All in all just great fun
Another nice common
Loving it thank you Northlands Park
Another nice mid double common
I think now that the park is getting busier and there is certainly a lot of people around now
those fish are going to places that they use for sanctuary so I'm going to go tighter to the rushes now for the next couple of hours
A couple of feet off as opposed to the two metres I have been off
Well its probably been in the water for the best part of five minutes
Again I put twenty 10mm Ambers over the top and its rattled straight off
So eleven fish now I think its time to single out a better fish
I'm going to give a snowman a try with a little stick
Just because its a bigger bait and those smaller single figure fish might struggle to get it in their mouths
Again I'm going to clip it up nice and tightly to the rushes
I'm going to take a 10mm pop-up and underneath that mount a 15mm bottom bait
Nice and simple
I've got a blowback rig here with my favourite hook the Twister
I'm going to slide all that down and just to create some separation between the bait and the bend of the hook I'm going to put one of these Pest Off stops on which will lengthen my hair a little bit
and that will aid hooking
Like so
Very simple very effective
Due to the nature of the area that I'm fishing with a lot of chod and decaying weed and rush stems
I've got a nice long Armalink hook link here
Coupled with the fact that it is critically balanced with my little stick that will sink down nice and slowly on top of all the rubbish
and that's fished in conjunction with a Weed Safety Bolt Bead
and a nice light lead so it doesn't penetrate too much into the chod and off the back of that I am fishing with Cling-On leader
Lets get a little stick tied up and clip that over near the back rushes to try and get a better one
I'm just going to take a little pinch of my mix which mainly consists of crumbed up Amber Strawberry boilies
I've got a little bit of salmon fry crumb in there
A little bit of crushed hemp and a little bit of my favourite groundbait Roach 3000
I've also added a little bit of the Strawberry Oil Pallatant
Again this is something that I am mega confident in especially when the water is cold
So a nice little bag there tie an overhand knot in it
and I'll just tie a second overhand knot in it ready for the next time
Cut that off
This little stick is doing more than one thing firstly it is putting a lovely parcel of food around my hook bait
When that breaks down my snowman will sit nicely on top of it
Secondly it is masking my hook point
Like I said I am fishing over some chod and rubbish out there the last thing I want is for my hook point to become masked when it hits the bottom
and thirdly it will help straighten out my rig
As soon as the lead hits the water I will feather down the cast with the plan being that this will kick over and sit nicely
A really simple method and certainly one that catches a few fish
Hopefully today one of the better ones
I've got a big loop in my hook link
I don't tend to mess about with link clips or hook link tails
The fact that I have a big loop there allows me to easily pass my rig through and because the braid is doubled up here it creates that boom for me
Plus I've got a big ring swivel there
A very simple but effective rig
Lets get this one out and put a bit of bait round it they are clearly liking a bit of bait today
What a quality little common jet black and very different to the others I've caught and that is what makes places like this so exciting
You never know what you are going to catch next
Well its two in the net at once it really is proving to be a hectic session that is thirteen fish now
Still nothing on the snowman rig but if this keeps happening
I am definitely going to bring in another one of the choddy rods and switch that over to a snowman too
There comes a point where you are aspiring and now I'm after a 20 pounder I know there are plenty of them in here
I'm going to keep trickling the bait in and up the bait size and try and get one of those better fish
Another little Northlands Urban Banx carp love it
Just had the first take on the snowman rig and although its no monster
It does seem like a slightly better fish so my thinking paid off
Excellent
And here I am with another cracking common
It's proving to be a really productive session
Doing it
Well I've got another couple in the net at the same time
I've got a gorgeous little chestnut brown common and a slightly larger fish
There you have it the successful snowman rig
You can see there that the tubing that was right on the bend of the hook has been blown back down the shank as the fish has tried to eject the rig
Sadly he couldn't this time absolutely nailed
I think he's a bit of a character
Number sixteen and this is a real stunner almost fully scaled a right little treat
What an absolute stunner
Love it
Come round here mate just carefully stand on the wood
That hand up here and this one here
This is going to reel
Don't lose it Bailey
Yeah Bailey!
There it is! It's a big one Bailey
Its a big one Bailey
Are your arms hurting?
Eurrrgh disgusting
This is the special food we caught him on can you see that that's what they like eating
Is that dead?
No!
Oh you;re funny
We hope not
Are you going to pick it up?
Go on Bailey be a man don't be a poof!
He won't hurt you
Do you want to touch him?
Just stroke him
I like fish!
Go on Bailey just touch him
Noooo
Kiss it and release it
Noooo!
(kiss it)...on the lips
Are you coming in for the picture?
Go on Flo Phoenix get in quick
Go!
Number seventeen and I've had a bit of help here haven't I mate you helped me bring him in I can't take credit for doing this all on my own
Did he pull hard?
Here is the other rig I have been using to great effect this session
Its a chod rig and I know I have shown you one of these before on Urban Banx down at Rochford
and I'm sure you are all aware of the rig
It can be used to great effect when fishing over choddy and silty bottoms
The particular swim I have chosen I have got this big bank of rushes with lots of dead weed and decaying rush stems
So I can present a bait nicely over the top of it
One thing slightly different I'm doing is I've actually gone down a couple of hook sizes
Normally I'd use a size 7 Twister but I've actually gone down to a size 10 that's because I am using a much smaller hook bait
I'm using a 10mm pop-up as opposed to the normal 15mm I think it works wonders at this time of year
The fish are particularly finicky
They are waking up from their winter slumber and that smaller bait can trick them
A lot of people that come down here I would presume are using 15mm baits so again its something slightly different to what the fish are used to seeing
The other thing that is a little bit different to the norm is I'm using a new leader material
I can't praise this stuff enough its called Cling-On leader it's basically a leader material with no leadcore inside
but its still ultra heavy but more importantly its ultra supple so it will follow every contour I'm fishing over
Out of the seventeen fish I've had fifteen have been on the chod rig it's just a great cast anywhere rig but if you fish it effectively
and keep the bait trickling in over the top with a nice spread you can keep those fish grubbing around looking for food
they come across this and they get nailed every time
I don't know if you can see behind me all this bread that is drifting past
I've said it before about these park lakes this the carps natural diet
Even on a day like today in February there are people coming down and throwing loaf after loaf after loaf in
You'll have noticed on my chod rigs and my snowman rigs
I've been using white Amber Strawberry again its that colour association with food
I know they go round eating bread and I'm giving them that same colouration in the form of a boilie
Well my 24 hour session at Northlands Park is coming to an end this is my eighteenth fish and I'm blown away by the sheer amount of fish I've managed to catch
It really has been a memorable 24 hours
I'm going to get this one slipped back and we are going to head off home now
See you soo�