Stewart Bloor

Field Tester

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May is a great month as the days are longer and the fish are often very obliging. As someone who fishes all-year round I certainly appreciate it as the summer approaches. Anyway, in some ways I decided to go back to the colder months, as I targeted chub. I’ve had some good fish from the local canal in recent years and that’s where I headed.

My bait was hair-rigged Barbel Stix, and although they have now been discontinued, that won’t bother me too much as I will just turn to boilies instead. In the meantime though I’ve got a couple of packets of bait to work through. I fished with a quiver tip and a single rod, which may be an unusual approach for many when fishing hair-rigged baits, but it works.

As far as angling is concerned, think outside the box and fish there as well. If something works, do it. I also fished for carp, with the more conventional rods-on-the-pod approach. Over the last month or so I’ve been using some of the new non-bait products that SBS is now marketing. The Enigma hooks have been doing the business during this period.

A couple of things impressed me when I first handled the hooks. Firstly that they were well constructed; they look solid and that immediately gives you confidence. Secondly the point was very sharp and more importantly, stayed so after lots of use. I think SBS is onto a winner here, why not add a packet to your next order, if only to try them for yourself?

I don’t know about you, but one of the great things about night fishing is watching the sun rise. I captured a great sunrise, by chance really, as I only have a cheap camera. I liked the photo so much though that I now use it on my Twitter, Facebook and YouTube sites, as well as the header on my website. You can’t get too much of a good thing!

The carp above was actually caught while I was after tench. Some anglers us the term ‘nuisance fish’ to describe something that turns up that they weren’t after, but in my vocabulary there is no such thing. All fish are very welcome, although of course it is nice to bank your target species.

Boilie-wise I’ve been fishing with M1, M2 and corn-shaped poppers – the old traditionals. While I do fish with the more recent additions to the SBS stable, there is still something about the more established baits that I find irresistible. And most importantly, so do the fish! Out and about yourself? Tight lines!

See you next month.

By: Stewart Bloor