Tales of a fairly average angler

Pike.......................

2012-01-26T19:03:00.000Z

I have not been up toomuch recently; work and the poor weather conditions have stranded me at homemost evenings.

This week though Ihave a few days off so I am going to make the most of it. My brother gave me agreat selection of lures as a birthday gift yesterday and I was out on a locallake trying to search out one of the legendary giant perch that inhabit thewater. As far as I am concerned they are still something of legend, I never sawone nor any pike but I did get a better understanding of the lake whilecounting down my lures too the bottom. I was amazed at how clear the lake was,I could easily see the bottom in nearly seven feet of water!

Not too happy.

Today saw me pikefishing on another lake, a pressurised carp lake that is rumoured to hold acouple of big pike. Things got off to a flying start with a sixteen pound fishwithin an hour of casting in, a long lean fish that could do with a couple ofreally good meals inside of her. She took a small dead roach in about threefeet of water just too the right of my pitch, my bait being placed in one ofthe very few small weed free holes. She was unhooked swiftly and returned to sulk by my feet for a little while before moving off. My second bait, which remained untouched,was cast to my left just under a small over hanging branch where there wasanother small hole in the weed. The weed in this lake is incredible; it is sothick and makes fishing there a matter of precision and not just chucking andhoping. I watch a guy with his marker rod casting around for ages looking for ahole in which to place his baits, I carefully noted down the results of hislabours.

I was making up somenew traces the other evening when I decided to use just one single large hookon the trace instead of my usual two double hooks. It is a method I have readabout several times and always thought “I will try that one day too see if itworks” and today it did………………… lucky first try, maybe.

I have caught manypike over many seasons and I would like to think that I have a modicum of skillwhen it comes to catching and unhooking pike but there is always that naggingfear of deep hooking a fish. I strike early enough on the run; I would ratherloose a fish than deep hook one but that thought is always in the back of mymind. While using lures I have noticed that a lot of them have just one largehook too them so it would make sense to do the same with a trace……………. At leastit makes sense in my mind, so I will from now on use just one large hook andsee how I get one.

When the sun shonetoday it was lovely but when it ducked in behind a cloud it was really quitecold but at least the rain held off.

A day on the Frometomorrow, I will hopefully catch a roach or two.

Why do you do it?.....................

2012-01-14T20:18:00.001Z

Ever sat by the river wondering why you do it?

Last night while sitting by the river in the freezing mist, with a nearly full moon, a clear sky and the air temperature hovering just below -3. My landing net frozen to the bank, ice forming on my bag, the rod rings had ice in them and my beard was whiter than normal I began to doubt my sanity!

Why do I do it, I really cannot tell you but it makes you glad to be alive!

Fed up with being cold...................

2012-01-08T17:33:00.000Z

For once I managed to finish work at a sensible time yesterday and once home I headed off down to the river to she her during the day rather than arriving after dark as I usually do.

The car park had a more vehicles in it than I would like, selfishly I like to see just one vehicle in the car park and that is my car! Two guys where having a late lunch, cooking some hot food on a small stove in the back of their small van, it smelled very nice, I had a packet of biscuits and a flask for company that evening which was a poor second I felt.

Having not been down to the river for a few weeks I decided to make good use of the daylight and have a short walk and see where people had been fishing and have a look at the river as well. The usual places where muddy and looked well fished, the river had a foot or so more water in it than my last visit and there was a good bit of colour in the water. I quickly made my mind up to fish an area that had no recent evidence of activity and I set up and cast my baits into the area, one in the deep margin and the other a little further out.

I had set my umbrella up and I settled in underneath it trying to keep out of the wind but I quickly became cold, the wind was bitter and it managed to chill me through my clothing, my feet being the exception, they where nice and warm. I have been wearing this jacket for a few seasons now and I have never been totally happy with it, it is a heavy jacket to wear and very well made but it is not warm and it is not waterproof. Recently I have been feeling the cold a lot more, is age playing a part? I don’t know but it is making for uncomfortable fishing when it is cold.

The swans decided to play their usual “lets chase each other up and down the river all evening” game that I always seem to endure in my swim, four of them where charging up and down trying their level best to drown each other, is it mating season already?

Sitting there cold it was not too long before I started to wonder if coming out was a mistake this evening, the rod tips where motionless, the swans where doing their very best to ruin whatever enjoyment I was taking from being there and the cold was really getting me down.

I stuck it out until ten o’clock but the cold really got too me and I left for home.

Lovely ladies......................

2012-01-02T15:59:00.001Z

New Years eve saw me meeting up with the Tarnished Tail Club to defend my title that was rather embarrassingly won last year with a small Grayling.

An early start, a rendezvous with a couple of others in the lay-by on the A4 and we where on the fishery around 7.30am eager and ready to fish. The fishery is an excellent place to catch Grayling and lots of trout and I was feeling confident that we where going to catch a few between us, but my money was on the dark horse match man from the Midlands.

A shaky I-phone picture.

Tackling up with gossamer fine lines in poor light was difficult to say the least, lots of course language and a few missed eyes here and there but we managed eventually and headed off in different directions to find the fish. I decided to use my Okuma pin for the day, it is about time I learned how to use it and to be honest I enjoyed using it for the day, yes a few tangles and some impossible knots where endured but I soon got the hang of it.

I managed to catch quite a few Grayling and couple of roach, I lost a great looking perch and was smashed up on more that a few occasions by trout, I was using a 1.5lbs hook link! I did manage to catch a stunning little brown trout, around four inches long, it flipped out of my hand and back into the river before I could get a picture, such a pretty little fish.

Smallest fish of the day.

After a brief break for a cooked breakfast we fished on for a few hours and more fish where caught and my reign as trophy holder was over, a very worthy Lutonian caught the fish of the day, well done Mark and many thanks to Colin for organising the day out again.

Today I fished another section of the same river again with the pin and again I really enjoyed it, I am slowly getting the hang of this pin lark………….!

I fished with a good friend who managed to land a couple of trout; I had a couple of bites but never managed to connect with any of them.

Maybe next time.

Down to the river...................

2011-12-30T18:39:00.000Z

After the hustle and bustle of Christmas my need to retreat to the river to soothe the mind and the soul was becoming to much to bear so I hurried of down there this morning to grab a few hours of solitude. I am not too sure when it was that Christmas became such a busy time!

A snaggy perch swim?

I managed to get to the river sometime mid-morning and I was soon set up and fishing a lovely looking snag for a perch or perhaps two. I had a large bucket of maggots and a large handful of lobworms as hook baits, a quiver tip rod and a flask of hot coffee and in my mind I could see a large perch falling foul of my bait……………. The last bit nearly happened.

My first cast to the snag resulted in the rod tip being ripped round and my reflexes leaving a lot to be desired. A quiet half hour followed and while having a coffee the rod tip slowly pulled round and I lifted into a good fish, it came to the surface and I immediately saw it was a good sized perch, quite a good sized perch to be honest and that was as much of it as I saw, it rolled over and threw the hook!

Not a bad chub.

I fished on hoping that that was not to be my only chance of a perch but it was, I landed a couple of half decent chub but the perch never came back.

I will be on the Kennet tomorrow to try my luck with the Ladies.

Have a happy New Year, lets see what 2012 bring us.

Have a lovely festive period...........................

2011-12-18T19:56:00.000Z

"When Christmas comes upon you May happiness be yours, And in the New Year Much good cheer and peace of mind."

George Campbell Hay

Pike

2011-12-06T19:27:00.003Z

I have not been out much since my last post but I had a day of today so I hastily dusted down my pike tackle yesterday and got it ready for a session this morning on a small lake near home.

I arrived a lot later than planned, I was out last night with a few friends at a book signing session being held by Jeremy Wade and then onto a lovely curry house for some food and a couple of Kingfishers. That took its toll on me and I lost the battle with a warm cosy bed!

On arrival the wind started to pick up, not too strong but bitterly cold and I could not really find anywhere out of that wind to fish. I cast out a couple of small dead baits and pulled my jacket around me to try and keep the cold wind out.

It did not take long for my first run, the line tightened and the drop back fell off the line, picking the rod up I tightened into a small fit looking pike. It put up a very spirited fight but was soon landed and unhooked and returned no worse for wear. The lake I am fishing is gin clear, I can see the bottom clearly in five feet of water, so the markings on the little pike where superb, so vivid.

The sun tried very hard to poke through the clouds but it failed miserably, when the wind finally dropped it was quite a warm day but that did not last too long. There where a few long tailed tits flitting between the branches and a little robin was guarding his territory from all comers, the diving birds that drove me mad earlier in the season where busy diving over the bars and a pair of Great Crested Grebes where working the water over my baits.

That one run was all that action that I had but it was a pleasant day out.

A nice few hours with my daughter..........................

2011-11-27T20:16:00.000Z

I managed to get down to the river last night for the first time this week and I was surprised to find the car park empty……………… nobody else was there!

I headed upstream to an area I have fished several times before recently and judging by the state of the area others have been fishing there as well. Two baits where placed into the area and I started to put my umbrella up to shield me from the wind when the upstream rod ripped round, with the umbrella half way up and the wind blowing a light gale I was in no position to strike. A little later I landed a chub which was one ounce over six pounds, a fighting fit fish which looked immaculate.

I fished through ‘til around eleven o’clock but to be honest I was trying to keep out of the wind rather than paying too much attention to what I was doing and I was doing a bit of thinking also. The thought going through my head was something along the lines of “how many times do you fish an area that has given you a large fish before you move on’? I don’t know is the answer to that question, I will admit the pull of that area is too great to be ignored but if I caught the same fish again would it mean as much…………… you can tell I have too much thinking time on my hands.

Today I took my daughter to her favourite small pond to spend a couple of very pleasant hours chatting and missing bites. Between us we managed to miss every bite we had but we had fun in the biting wind.

I need a day off to go pike fishing, hopefully it will come soon.

Many thanks.....................

2011-11-20T13:53:00.000Z

Firstly, many thanks for the kind comments left on my blog and the many text messages I received for my PB, it is very much appreciated. Fred, unfortunately due to cold hands and no glasses I managed to press the wrong button on my I-phone and I deleted your comment by mistake but thank you for the comment left.

Yes, I am still grinning like an idiot and I am still trying to catch my next barbel. I did have one last Saturday evening, a small fish but a lovely fish none the less and on Thursday evening I managed a lovely little chub that once caught killed my swim dead! On that evening there where at least three Barn owls calling to each other or warning each other off, I am not sure and at some time in the evening a Canada goose sounded like it was being throttled………….. a very un-nerving and unpleasant sound!

I fished yesterday, an early finish at work and I was walking along the bank during the daylight hours looking at the river. I have admittedly been putting a little bit of bait, usually just a handful of baits now and then, into a couple of areas away from the normal places. I went to fish one of these areas yesterday, a nice looking area a good walk from the car park, but someone else had been there. There was a large pile of freshly dredged weed piled on the bank, a close inspection revealed lots of snails and Swan Mussel shells in amongst the weed, and evidence of bank sticks being pushed into the soft ground……….. Bugger, I was hoping to have the first cast into there.

I stood there for a while and decided to fish further down the river instead. It was not long before the mist descended onto the riverbank and I was soon wet through, perhaps I should put my umbrella up before I get soaked next time.

This morning I went for a long walk around my local pond with my daughter, we where greeted with this……………….

We need some rain or wind or some frost, this ‘nothing’ weather is doing our fisheries no good I feel, it is the middle of November and there is Blue/Green algae around, that cannot be right.

Wow......................

2011-11-12T15:48:00.000Z

I fished on the river last Wednesday evening with a friend neither of us managed a fish. I fished a little further down stream from my friend; fishing an area I love to fish. I soon found a very large snag that has was not there the last time I had fished there, after loosing two lots of tackle to it I moved further on down the river. I felt that the fish would feed that evening as the conditions where good but other than the two wrap rounds that my friend had nothing else happened.

I fished a different part of the river last night, it is an area I have trickled a small amount of bait into over the past month or two. I have fished the area once or twice and had a couple of wrap rounds but never hooked a fish. I set up two rods and cast my baits into the area in front of me and sat back.

The moon being nearly full last night and a fairly low covering of cloud conditions felt right even if the slight wind felt cold. I had a positive ‘enquiry’ on my right hand rod soon after, if I had not had a cup of coffee in one had and a biscuit in the other I may well have struck at the bite but……………….

The rain started to fall around nine thirty, only gently at first but around ten o’clock it started to really fall heavily and that is when the left hand rod tip flew round and the fish was on. I played the fish for a while and when she started to power up stream I knew I had a decent fish on. Once she was in the net I rested her while I got the weighing bits ready and popped her onto the mat and into the sling. She was a short fish and when my scales swung around to sixteen plus I was shocked, I really did not believe she was that big but she was.

16.02

The fish was well rested and weighed by two other anglers for me, we settled on a figure of 16lbs 2oz, a magical fish for me, one of the big girls from the river. A couple of quick pictures in the rain, my huge frame dwarfs the fish!. She was in excellent condition and when she swam away she swam away very strongly back to the depths of the river. A new personal best for me.

Packing up it was hard not to grin like a small child who had just been given the present of a life time, I was cold and soaked through as was most of my gear but I was happy, happy because the effort I put in has reaped a reward.

I am back out again this evening.

Not a great deal to report...................

2011-11-06T21:12:00.001Z

Another dry net week I am afraid, things are looking grim on the fish front!

Wednesday evening I drove down to the river to meet and fish with a friend, it’s a good job he was there as I had forgotten my bag of bait; I had made it the night before and left it in the fridge! We fished for a few hours, he had a couple of good bites, which he missed, and I sat in my little swim with nothing happening at all.

Today I fished with another friend, he collected me around ten o’clock and off we went merrily on our way to fish a bit of river I have not fished before, we where a couple of minutes from the river when I realised I had left my bait bucket in the garage…………… bloody hell!

We carried on to the river and I used some of his bait. We walked down to the bottom of the stretch and he pointed out various lovely looking areas in which to place a bait and filled me in on some of his catches from the river. He has done really well in seasons past and had a huge fish a week or so back so I was quite excited to be there.

We started at the bottom of the stretch and fished our way back to the car placing a bait in every good looking area. I had a good bite in the first swim I visited but that was to be the only action I saw. I fished about six or seven swims, giving each about half an hour until I caught up with my friend. He had caught a chub but no barbel.

The season has definitely changed, the wind coming from the North was decidedly chilly, and the trees are well on the way to shedding all of their leaves and the bank side vegetation is really dying back. The river was busy on the opposite bank but we where the only two on our side of the river. I had a pleasant day out in the daylight, I would say sunshine but the sun struggled to break through the clouds.

Better luck next time I suppose.

A new rod..................

2011-10-30T22:01:00.001Z

I was made redundant a little while ago and decided to buy myself a small present to cheer myself up. I have for a while now wanted to buy a new quiver tip rod but never managed to get around to finding one. I have looked while in various tackle shops but never really handled one that took my fancy or where comfortable in my hand…………….. I am sure you all know what I mean, not all rods are the same to everyone.

I contacted Bob Gill and after a few emails and phone calls he set to work on my rod, I received the rod last Thursday as Bob said I would and as he intimated I was not disappointed, it is a fantastic rod, exactly how I wanted it. It sits nicely in my hand and it has a plain unfussy look and feel to it.

This is the second rod I have had made for me now, the first by Dave Lumb and I have no hesitations on recommending either to any of you, these two guys are at the top of their game. The service they offer is fantastic as are the end results and when I received my rod from Bob all I wanted to do was to go and fish with it!

That is just what I did today. I should have gone to the spot on the river I have been meaning to perch fish for a long time but being jaded after a long Friday and Saturday at work I opted for the lazy mans day and fished a car park swim on a small pond, at least I am honest LOL.

The season has definitely changed in the past couple of weeks, the air temperature may still be warm during the day but at night the air temperature is definitely a lot cooler. The trees are changing into their autumn coats and the leaves are gently beginning to fall. I spent a lot of this afternoon imagining various races involving the leaves as they where being softly blow across the waters surface. The sun when it broke through the cloud illuminated the flocks of green Parakeets as they squabbled noisily with each other in the trees and in the skies. I have seen and heard these noisy birds for years now but I have never seen so many in one place, I counted four different flocks numbering between eight and twenty birds! Talking of large flocks, I spotted in the distance a flock of what sounded like jackdaws that must have numbered close to two hundred birds……………… imagine them roosting in a tree near you! Mr Heron was busy in the margins opposite me and the kingfishers where busy darting back and forth, I think there where three darting around. There where lots of tits in the trees and a small Robin was busy helping himself to any escapee’s from the bait bucket, a Kestrel glided silently across the sky in front of me, such a lovely bird. On Friday afternoon when I was leaving the yard in the lorry there was a guy who had just pulled up on the waste ground to the left of our yard, he had a Harris hawk on his arm…………….. Just taking it out for a ‘play’ was what he told me, how surreal is that!

Autumn coat.

There are carp in this small pond, I will hopefully fish for them next season with a stalking rod, they where busy crashing out of the water and there where plenty of small fish dimpling the surface and I am sure I spotted a small jack pike in the margins just to my right but the perch where today oddly missing. My lobworms where however left mainly unmolested, I did have a few small nudges but that could well have been small fish nudging the feeder to get to the maggots.

During the afternoon I received a text from a good friend who had just had a large barbel from his river and was obviously delighted with his new personal best, I on the other hand was beginning to believe in the ‘new rod jinx’! I have a couple of superstitions, putting up my landing net first and saying a small quiet thank you to the water before I leave but now I was beginning to think I may well be adding a third. It was looking grim and packing up time was getting ever closer when a small but very welcome perch grabbed the bait and was duly caught and landed……………. Jinx has been broken!

I left shortly afterwards much relieved, a small 8oz perch can mean that much to a person, honestly it can.

Its getting colder.................

2011-10-23T17:11:00.000+01:00

Yep, I think winter ison its way, although it is bright and sunny outside as I am typing this.

I have been out acouple of times since my last post and on both evenings I have felt pretty coldas I packed up at the end of the night. Both evenings I have been out I have had a bite but either missed it orthe fish has dropped it before I have reacted to the tip going round. I amusing just the one bait now until the end of the season, in the past I havechopped and changed, I don’t feel that is the right approach I think the fishwill get used to finding my bait in the river and hopefully the fish will becrawling up my rod………….. yeah right, in truth I have faith in the bait andthere is just a little bit of me that is too lazy to keep thinking of new baitsto use.

With the advance ofthe colder weather it is a time to think of new things to put in my flask, Iget fed up with just coffee but as of yet I have not found anything else, Icannot stand tea. Cake on the other hand is something completely different, twoweekends ago I baked a lovely sunken pear cake and last weekend I made a lovelyapple cake, both have fed me well on the riverbank. I will be looking throughthe recipe books for my next baking challenge. I love soup at this time of yearas well, I have some homemade chicken stock in the freezer, I made it a coupleof weeks ago after we enjoyed a roast chicken diner, that will be the makingsof a good bowl of home made soup. I am in the middle of making Cottage Pie atthe moment; I am just letting the meat mixture cool before adding the potatotoping.

Back to the fishing,there have been some very good fish caught in the past couple of weeks so myenthusiasm is still there, I am sure I will pick at least another fish upbefore the really cold weather comes and when it does come I shall be off pikefishing. I have a day on a lake planned for next Sunday, it is a newish lake tome, I have fished it a couple of times this summer for tench but I have a goodfeeling that there are some big pike in there just waiting to be caught.

Be lucky.

A wet net......................

2011-10-16T12:41:00.002+01:00

This weather is odd tosay the least, Friday I went to the river and it was nearly 18 degrees whiledriving down there and just above three degrees when I left just aftermidnight. At one point sitting on the bank I was getting so cold I returned tothe car to find anything I could wear to keep me warm. I was lucky, I had leftmy Muck Boots in the boot and I had an old work jumper on the back seat! Forany of you out there looking for a new pair of winter boots then I can thoroughlyrecommend the Muck Boot, they are brilliant.

The river was verybusy, all the areas I wanted to fish where taken so I had to resort to an areathat was not very high on my list. I have caught fish from this area before and indeed the fishI did catch on Friday night was a fish I caught from there last season, it wasa bit smaller this time though.

The afternoon waslovely, the sun was shining and the birds where busy stocking up for winter. Isaw a kingfisher perched in the tree opposite and although I managed to get acouple of pictures they are not the best. The geese where busy in the skies andthe swans where present on the river, busy keeping their territories safe frominvaders. Swans, they are beautiful birds but they are a pain when they are inand around your swim. I had a lengthy conversation last night with anotherfisherman who had spent the day cursing them on another river but he can tellthat story.

When the sun went downit began to get cold and as I said earlier I went back to the car to get somemore warm clothing, I settled down to a cold nights fishing. I love the coolerweather, I feel it brings a keenness to the fish, they know that the weather isturning for the worse so they will start to become a little more active and alittle more hungry which in turn means they should hopefully become a littleeasier to catch……………….. Famous last words ehh! The fish are now starting tothink about packing on a bit of weight for the winter months and they willbecome heavier as a result. Summer fishing is great, spotting fish and findingthem in the river but always feel that the summer months are for the groundworkin readiness for the darker months.

13.8lbs

Around ten o’clock therod slowly went over and the fish just moved of with my bait, shortly after itwas landed, weighed, a couple of quick photographs and back she went to makesomeone else’s evening.

I was out again lastnight and again it was very cold, damp as well. I fished an area I wanted too,there where a few on the river but they where all in different areas so I washappy where I was. Using just the one-rod, as I did last night, does two rodsincrease your chances or does it just double the disappointment when you don’tcatch anything? I cast my bait just under the tree and sat back to wait, waitfor the fish and wait for the cold. The cold came first and it bit quite hardlast night, I am not sure that the air temp was the problem I think it was morethe damp that made it feel even colder.

I had a really good‘bite’ around ten o’clock, I had the fish on for a brief second but it let goand I was left with an empty hook. I am not sure thinking about it if it was abarbel, I had lots of ‘chub’ bites before and after that bite, the sort thatyou cannot make contact with for love nor money, chub really can be smash andgrab merchants when they want to be.

Now the cold weatheris here I am looking forward to having the banks to myself, I am also lookingforward to doing a little more predators fishing.

A mixed bag......................

2011-10-12T18:08:00.004+01:00

A bit of an odd daytoday, I had no work on for the day so I decided to continue my pursuit of alarge perch, don’t ask me what a large perch is as I am yet to catch anythingyet that could even be considered a ‘good perch’ never mind a ‘large perch’!

A visit to my localtackle emporium to collect my reserved quantity of maggots, no large wormsthough, it would seem Wednesday is a bad day for bait as the last time I wentthere on a Wednesday there where no maggots left. This week I had to settle forsome smaller worms and use what worms I had left over from the weekend.

The car park beingempty obviously upset my thought pattern, I was fully expecting someone to bethere this morning and they would be fishing the very area I had in mind butno, I have the river to myself. I collected my things from the boot of the carand wandered happily of down the river, looking into each area as I went,noting anything of interest. I set my rod up and made myself comfortable andreached for my bait bucket………………. It’s still in the car!!!

I trudge back to thecar, as I opened up the gate to the car park I realise I do not have my car keywith me, back to the swim to get it. I search my tackle bag and cannot find it;I find it in my trouser pocket…………… back to the car thinking dark thoughts andmuttering even darker curses!

I eventually cast inand wait and wait and then get bored and pour a cup of coffee, flask in onehand, cup in the other the rod hoops over and I miss my first bite. I moveafter an hour or so to another area.

Out goes my bait andover the rod hoops and I catch my first Dace of the day, a great big silverything that has taken a fancy to a lob worm, this was to be the first of manyeither Dace or Roach during the day, I only caught one of my chosen quarry andit was probably the smallest fish I caught today.

I was kept companytoday by a pair of grey squirrels foraging in the bush to my right, they seemedto be enjoying the bright red berries and have equally as much fun chasing eachother through the bushes. I know they are not everyone’s favourite ‘invader’but watching them jumping from tree to tree is something to behold. There werea pair of Egyptian Geese on the river today, they make a terrible rackethonking all day, very pretty birds but very noisy.

Not a bad day in all,a few more perch would have made it a better bag but then again some of thoseDace where pretty big.

Barbel on Saturday allbeing well, looking forward to it.

Feuding neighbours......................

2011-10-09T20:29:00.004+01:00

Its been a bit of anodd weekend weather wise, it looks cold outside with the grey skies and thewind blowing but its not! The temperature has not dipped below 13degrees whereI live and has been as high as 20degrees yesterday afternoon.

I drove down to theriver last night to spend a couple of hours with barbel in mind. I managed tofish an area where I have spent a little bit of time before but I am beginningto believe that the fish do not get that far upstream as I am yet to have abite from this area. There is a fairly deep hole just under your feet and whenI ran an echo sounder over it a few months back it showed fish in the area, Ido not know how big the fish where but they appeared on the screen. I know, anecho sounder but I could not resist borrowing it from my friend, more toconfirm what I knew than anything else but I did find a couple of new areas tofish as well. I did find a couple of really interesting features that I did notknow about but as of yet they have not produced. I also ran the gadget over acouple of well know areas and I was bemused to find that some of the holes arenot where the fish get caught, perhaps the barbel do not frequent them!

I fished through toabout eleven o’clock, the rod tip remained stationary during this time and whenthe rain started I decided to head off home.

Today I went perchfishing on a small still water near to home, I wanted to fish a larger waterbut the wind was quite strong and I did not think it would be prudent to sit bythe waters edge and get blow all over the place.

The car park had justthe one vehicle in it so I had the water to pretty much myself and he wasfishing the car park swim; I headed of to the far end of the pond to a largepatch of lilies. I was using an old quiver tip rod; I have a new one on order,a small block end feeder full of maggots and a large lobworm as bait. I did nothave to wait long before the small perch homed in on my bait. I caught severalbefore I decided to move to the opposite bank in search of something a littlebigger.

A scruffy little man!

I had to leave behinda large handful of maggots however, there where two Robin’s in my swim whowhere fighting with each other for any spilt maggots. They are very territorial little birds and they do put up quite a fight before they give in, one of the two was alittle scruffy looking, I am not too sure if he was too well looking at him.The other one looked young and full of life, so I threw two handfuls down inseparate areas so they would not have to fight and moved on.

That is one huge tail!

I cast in and almostbefore I tightened up against the feeder when the tip swept round I and I wasinto a really good fish. The fish tore off and just for a moment I though I hadhooked a huge perch, it was just for a moment because if this were a perch itwould have been a really huge fish……………………. It turned out to be a Tinca Tincawith a damaged mouth!

I treated the mouthwound as best I as I could, I have one of those carp care kits and used some ofthe liquid on the sore areas and returned the fish to fight another day. I wenton to land several more perch and a lovely looking roach but no big perch gracedmy net today.

Happy days.

Perch..................

2011-09-28T18:46:00.000+01:00

I had an unexpectedday off today so I decided to make the most of it and go perch fishing.

The trip to the tackleshop was long and slow and a waste of time, they had no maggots so I had to goelsewhere, perhaps I should have called first.

I eventually arrivedon the river two hours after leaving home and the conditions could not havebeen worse, bright sunlight and a low clear river but hey, I was there and Iwas going to have a go!

Walking across themeadow towards the river I stood for a moment to watch a Buzzard warding offthe attentions of two crows, wheeling higher and higher until the crows lostinterest and they settled in a tree, she then came down and did a “fly by” of thecrows annoying them into chase her again…………… is this a some kind of avian gamethat I have only just become aware off?

There are perch under that tree!

I headed down stream,to a deep shaded area of the river, a deep hole under a tree and the perchwhere there, smashing the lob worms as soon as they hit the bottom. I caughtseveral and moved on, the sun was getting hotter (20 plus degrees at the end ofSeptember is not how it should be) so I headed for the copse and a sunken tree.Again the perch where in an agreeable mood, the worms where not allowed to settlefor long before being sought out by the perch and again I managed to bank acouple.

I moved again to anarea where I had seen a very large fish and I spent a couple of hours catchingsome of its smaller brethren but the big fish failed to materialize.

Today was hard work inthe heat; I am looking forward to the colder weather. As much as I love seeingthe river in her summer/autumn coat I do however prefer her winter attire.

Happy days.

What a racket...................

2011-09-25T17:11:00.000+01:00

I managed to get outagain yesterday for a few hours during late afternoon so I had a look at theriver before choosing an area in which to fish. My immediate thoughts was tofish a deep hole just beneath a tree but as someone else was fishing downstream I decided not to impinge upon his fishing and I headed off down streamto find somewhere else.

The river is in tiptopcondition, she is running clear and the weed growth is still very healthy ifnot a tad too healthy. There are plenty of small fish in the river and I saw ahuge shoal of small perch menacing anything that looked like a meal. The bankside foliage is still green although one or two of the trees are starting toturn colour and loose there leaves, it will not be long before the trees willbe bare. The water foul are plentiful as are the small birds, I saw theBuzzards again high in the sky, and all in all it is a lovely place to be.

Under the tree.

I found an area and Icast in my bait, just the one rod this time, I have decided that unless on alarger river to use just the one rod and the one bait. I have spent too manyevenings wondering if I should move this rod here and that rod there, should Iput that bait over there, in the end I don’t fish effectively. It was not longbefore the first canoeist came down the river, they immediately asked whichside to pass on and did so quietly with no fuss. We share the river and we needto be polite to each other, some canoeist don’t really see it that way but thesame can be said about some fishermen as well.

I settled down andthen it started……………….. in the distance someone was doing his level best tomurder every single not of ever song he was attempting to sing at a level thatwould have drown out the Concorde, it was dreadful! I suffered it for abouthalf an hour and then moved up stream to an area where it was not quite soloud. I have sat on the river listening to all sorts but nothing as dreadful asthis guy. One evening from way of in the distance I could hear a lovely classicalmusic evening followed by fifty or so Chinese lanterns being floated into thesky, that was a lovely evening to be on the river.

The evening turnedcold quickly last night, there was a mist on the meadow and the sky was clear,Jupiter was bright in the night sky and I spotted several satellites speedingthrough the stars, Vega 5 was burning brightly and the Big Bear was just off tomy right hand side.

I ended the eveningwith a dry net, not that that worries me; I have had so many in the past, Ijust enjoy my evenings out on the river.

Happy days or shouldthat be evenings!

Waking up..............

2011-09-21T16:49:00.002+01:00

A change from the normtoday, as I am struggling to catch anything after dark I thought I would get upearly this morning and watch the day wake up.

Usually I fish in theevenings and during the lighter months it is a pleasure to watch the sun godown and with it all the birds and insects, I love to watch the bats when theycome out and if I am lucky enough I love to watch for the owls and theoccasional deer will put in an appearance. With the onset of autumn I miss allof that as when I walk on the riverbank it is generally dark or getting darkand getting cold. This morning I was on the river just after six thirty, I hadmissed the dawn chorus but the world was slowly waking up.

I could hear the earlymotorist driving along the main road about a mile or so away, it was a feintnoise in the background but it was there, the birds where busy about theirbusiness and the insect where waiting for the sun to warm the air. I spotted two deer grazing in the middleof the meadow as I drove down the road towards the car park; they saw me andcarried on grazing.

I headed for an area Ihave not fished in a while, nor has anyone else for that matter and I set up myrods and gently lowered my baits into the river, it was not long before a verylarge clump of weed wiped both rods out and I started again and again andagain! It was hopeless; I needed to find an area out of the main flow so Imoved.

Hawthorn berries

Settled into a newarea I began to watch what was happening around me, Long Tailed Tits whereactive in the Hawthorn tree to my left as where Great tits and Blue Tits, anoisy flock of green Parakeets flew over, making sure that everyone knew therewhere coming. I noticed a large Buzzard high in the sky, there are a goodnumber of them in the skies above the river, some days you will see the pair ofKites that fly low over the meadows by the river but not today. Yesterday whenI was wandering around the river with a small lure rod, I did not have any fishbut I did see a small Kestrel sitting on a low branch not more that twenty feetfrom me.

The swans, such lovelybirds but they are as thick as your average whale omelette, decided they wheregoing to preen themselves in the water just in front of me, no matter how muchI tried to shoo them away they carried on as if I was not there. The Canadageese not wanting to be out done by the swans decided to have a preeningsession of their own, I have never seen them submerge themselves before butthey did today. I saw several different types of Dragonfly when the sun didcome out, I am pretty sure that the large ones where Four Spotted Chasers andthe electric blue coloured ones where Stalk-winged Damselflies, but I could bewrong.

Lots of weed!

The fishing today wasan after thought today, it was lovely to sit there withthe sun coming up and warming the day rather than the other way round.

Out again...................

2011-09-19T10:45:00.001+01:00

I had a few hoursspare yesterday evening and headed down to the river with the least amount ofbits and bobs as I could get away with.

I wanted to fish acouple of areas and found that the river was deserted, the two other caroccupants where fishing elsewhere so I could get on with doing what I wanted todo. I have thinking that maybe I spend too much time in one area, the amount ofkit that I take with me dissuades me every time from moving to the next area. Isuppose thinking about I now it should not deter me at all, when I pack up forthe evening and head home it only takes about ten minutes to get every thingpacked and ready to head towards the car park ergo it should be easy enough tomove. Perhaps it’s a mind set that I have adopted, I chose what I think is thebest area available and I then set my stall out, sit back and wait……………

I have been thinkingrecently that this is maybe not the best use of my time, if the fish are not infront of you then you have to move to find them. Some of the other peoplefishing the rivers I fish seem to have some good results while roving aroundbut then so do the static fishermen. I enjoyed roving around last night, Ifished several areas and missed two bites although one could have been weedsweeping the rod tip round.

The more I fish themore questions I have, don’t you just love it!

At last.......................

2011-09-17T13:50:00.001+01:00

……………………. The wait isover, last night I dipped my usually dry net into the river and landed abarbel!

It has been a longwait and yes I have missed a couple of great bites and lost a fish but I hopenow the fish will come and bit more frequently to my bait.

Being in between jobsat the moment, resting, as they would say in the acting world, I managed to getdown to the river a lot earlier than usual so I managed to fish an area usuallytaken. This area has produced fish to other people but it is not one of themost prolific of areas but it does produce fish no the less. Does dropping intoareas that produce fish make your fish any less an achievement than findingfish in un-fished area? I have tried un-fished areas and to be honest thereason no one fishes there is because the fish are not there…………… its notrocket science i suppose but the appeal of catching from somewhere no one elsehas caught from does rate quite highly in my fishing, that said I do like tocatch fish as well!

The first bite camearound 9.45pm just after the big bright moon disappeared behind a heavy cloud,the rod tip hammered round and caught me by surprise. The moon came back outand I recast, about an hour later the clouds obscured the moon for a fewseconds and bang the rod tip flew round and this time I played and landed alovely 8lbs barbel. That was around 10.45pm and when the fish went back in andswam away strongly the moon came back out and was shining brightly again, Istayed for about another hour under the bright moon without any more bites.

Happy days

A weekend on the Avon

2011-09-11T17:34:00.000+01:00

I collected my brotherjust after lunch and we set sail for the Hampshire Avon to barbel fish for theweekend, it was too be a belated birthday present to him from me.

The journey down theriver was not a long one and we made very good time arriving around fourthirty. We had a good look around the fishable areas and settled on two swimsat the furthest end of the fishery from the car park. The weather wasswelteringly hot and muggy and transporting all the gear deemed necessary for aweekend on the river was a logistical challenge in its self. My brother loadedhis barrow up so high I don’t think he could see over the top and I ended updoing my best impression of a pack horse as I loaded everything else onto myshoulders and around my neck. This was to be my penance for not taking mybarrow! I know there will be purists out there reading this thinking ‘barrow’but believe me with the amount of stuff you need for a weekend away I neededone…………….. honest.

The Avon.

We got our base campssorted and got baits out in the water as soon as we could, the river being veryweedy made this quite tricky but I managed to find a small area between thickruns of weed and I was fairly confident something would happen…………… what do Iknow!

My brother cleared anarea in front of him and set his baits ready for whatever came along and wesettle down quickly enough so the mosquitoes could feed in earnest. What is itabout me that they find so attractive, they feast upon my lily-white Scottishskin and the bites come up like bullet wounds and itch forever, I have yet tofind an effective deterrent after searching for years.

Friday night passedwithout interruption, it was so very warm and balmy. We decided on Saturdaymorning to take a quick trip in the nearest town for a few bits and bobs togive us a break from the ‘action’! On our return we set about baiting the swims again andgetting our baits in the water. Diner was a very simple affair; sausagesandwiches, simple but they hit the spot.

After a very wetnight, the rain hammered down keeping me awake and the mosquitoes again feastedupon me I woke tired and wondering if I am getting a little too old for thistype of fishing. I do not suppose for one minute the fact that my bivvie hadbroken yet again while being put up and as a consequence the front would notzip up allowing everything to wander in and out as it pleased did not help.During the evening l heard a small rodent of some sort just out side the bivviefront and then a squeaking and a flap of wings, I just caught sight of an owltaking off with diner in its talons!

Packing everythingaway on Sunday morning I could not get it done quick enough, my broken bivviewas forced into its bag, probably doing more damage to it but it will be in thebin soon, the rods where quickly tackled down and thrown on top of my brothersbarrow along with everything else, I wanted to get home for a hot bath and tobrush my teeth, they where feeling rather furry!!! We took it in turn shuttlingstuff back to the car park using my brothers barrow and we headed off home soonenough.

As much as I love goingaway fishing, I must be comfortable and this weekend I was anything butcomfortable. I was exhausted after walking for miles in the sweltering heat, Icould not set my bivvie up properly and the rain kept me awake, perhaps I amjust getting a bit old for this type of fishing or perhaps I just don’t enjoybeing away from home for too long.

Tales of woe.................

2011-09-06T18:16:00.002+01:00

Not been in the mood to update my blog for a while, i have had other things on my mind to be totally honest.

I have been out a couple of times, i caught a decent chub and straight after that i lost what i can honestly say was the largest barbel i have ever seen!

I played it to the bank and when i went to lift my landing net up under the fish it was caught in the weed and around a pontoon post, i had to turn on my head torch and that panicked the fish, it turned and bolted and my hook link snapped................. great!

I manged to free my landing net from the post and from the weed but.................

I have a long weekend on the Avon this weekend so hopefully my luck will change.

Out with Fiona......................

2011-08-30T18:48:00.002+01:00

I popped out for a couple of hours with my daughter on Sunday to fish a small pond that I have a ticket for. We have not been out together now for a while and she was eager to beat her dad yet again, she is quite a little fisher.

The weather was not too good, one minute very hot and the next throwing it down with rain, it did not make for the greatest of fishing but the little perch where as eager as ever for a free meal and both of us had good fun catching them.

We decided to move out of the sun and into the shade for a while but both of us felt that the once the rain started again it was time to go home. I love fishing with Fi, she has a sparkling sense of humor and is always great fun but when watching a float it is serious business, she does not miss a bite.She ended the day with a quite stunning Rudd.

Monday I took a wander down to the river with a small lure rod to tempt a perch or two. I love wandering along the river, I feel at home and comfortable there. I am not a people person in all honesty, I feel very uncomfortable around groups of people, and perhaps that’s why I love the solitary existence of the fisherman.

The river was looking as lovely as ever, in the day with the sun up high you can really see into the river and it is a great way to spend a few hours looking and seeing the river. I was suing some small lures I picked up from somewhere, cheap and cheerful and rubbish, they are destined for the bin. I found a small Mepps and tied it onto the lightweight trace; there are some large pike in the river, this did the trick. I had several small perch up to around 12oz but the way they hit the lure is fantastic, they really are stroppy little fish.

Happy days.

A different river but the same result..................

2011-08-27T20:53:00.000+01:00

I popped down the river for a couple of hours during the week, I fished a few swims up and down the river but alas the barbel managed to escape my carefully laid baits……………… shame.

Last night I fished with a friend, he was down from the frozen northern wastelands above the Watford Gap. He has an ambition to catch a barbel from as many rivers as he can, he can cross the river we fished last night of off his list, well done to you mate and so far his quest is rumbling along quite nicely.

She was looking lovely this evening.

I must admit with all of the rain we have had over the past week I did fear that the river would be un-fishable but on arrival I found it almost perfect, ever so slightly fuller than usual with a nice colour in her. My friend had arrived a little before me and had already made himself comfortable in his chosen area; I was ready to fish not long after him.

I have fished this area before, a long time ago; it did not take too long to find the features I remembered from before. It is funny; I cannot remember what I had for diner two nights ago yet when I cast into the small depression in front of me I knew exactly where it was after four years. It is the same with listening to the radio or watching re-runs of classic TV shows, I can remember them almost word for word. Growing up in the 80’s, I listened to most types of 80’s music and now a days when an old 80’s classic comes on the radio I can usually remember the words well enough to sing along. For those radio 2 listeners who do Pop Master I always seem to do really well when there are lots of 80’s related questions.

We where fishing all night so I made myself comfortable, its been a while since I sat in a chair all night so it was going to be a challenge but the weather was with us and my twenty year old carp chair was very comfortable. I have come close to throwing this chair out on several occasions but never have quite gotten around too it, too many memories are attached to that chair, just like the rods and reels I hoard LOL

The night was punctuated by noises, foxes, owls and swans all made themselves heard during the night at some stage and the bats that came out just on dust where very small grey ones, highly acrobatic and very fast across the water.

I did have a half-hearted take during the night other than that the rod tips remained motionless. My friend as I have already alluded too did have a fish during the night but I will let him tell you about that, it is his story to tell.

Out tomorrow with my daughter, she wants to fish a pond for a few hours and show me how to catch lots of fish, she will as well.

Happy days.

Still i wait...................

2011-08-21T14:19:00.000+01:00

Sitting watching the rain battering the windows I was again doubting my sanity, I was planning to visit the river later in the afternoon. The rain finally abated about half an hour before I left the house and the sun came out to dry the wet roads.

Driving down the lane to the river in brilliant sunshine I was in good heart, even when I walked along one bank of the river to find there was no room for me as others where fishing the opposite bank did not put me off, perhaps I under estimate the effects of the sun shining. I loaded up, why do I have so much stuff with me today, and wandered along the lower section of the river……………… she looks good today.

I eventually settled into an area, its one I have fished many times before and thinking about it now I have only ever caught two fish from there and as I write I have only ever caught two fish from there.

I baited my hooks and cast into two likely looking spots and sat back with a coffee. Sitting there and thinking as one invariably does when fishing, I began to think about my baits on the riverbed. I began to wonder if they are sitting correctly, hook points clear from any detritus and not buried in the weed. When I cast in I always wait for the bait to settle on the bottom and then I will very gently pull it back a couple of inches just to make sure all is well and I am feeling for gravel as well. Today was no exception, both rigs where gently eased back and both had found gravel…………….. I sat back with confidence.

Confidence, I have heard say is a vital part of most peoples fishing, well I had plenty of it yesterday but the fish had other ideas, I drove home scratching my head……………… next time maybe?

Back at it......................

2011-08-19T18:53:00.000+01:00

Back down to the river yesterday afternoon, I have had a wonderful time in France, well look after in a lovely place so when I was driving down to the river in the tipping rain something inside my head was telling me I was mad!

Not surprisingly the car park was empty and I had the place to myself. I took a look in the area where I fished last but someone else had decided to have a go in it in my absence and someone has fished there from the other bank also. With the rain coming in sideways I went to find an area to fish under some cover.

I settled into an area I have not really fished much over the years, its funny when you think about it, you can fish a small river for ten years and there are still areas that I have not really had a good go at. The rain was still hammering down but once under the brollie I was soon keeping dry and I had two baits out into a couple of really good looking areas.

The rain stopped for a while and it warmed up a little but that was about all that happened to be honest. The river looked good, I had some fairly decent baits in a couple of good areas but the fish did not fancy it.

Back again tomorrow afternoon for another go before returning to work.

A long hard week.................

2011-08-06T16:46:00.001+01:00

It has been a very long week at work and it has ended with some pretty bad news, a trip down to the river where I could be alone and collect my thoughts was just the ticket.

On arrival the car park was full, so many other people had the same idea this evening. I managed to squeeze into a sort of parking space and I headed towards my chosen area, which was vacant.

I had two rods with me this evening and two different baits, so of hedging my bets as it has been a little slow recently. I bait droppered out a good bed of free offerings into the ‘hole’ tied on my rigs and cast out the baits.

I was down on the river last Tuesday evening with an echo sounder that I had borrowed from a good friend. I have not spent too much time on this part of the river and with the competition on the other part of the river fishing here is probably not a bad thing. I spent a couple of hours ‘sounding’ a few areas of the river, one hole I thought I knew where it was I was so far out I may as well of been fishing in the field behind me I was that far away from it! I found several areas that I feel would produce a fish of some sort, indeed several of the areas showed fish on the screen.

I notice this evening that there where several very large dragon flies in the air flitting about, they could possibly be Southern Hawkers but I am not too sure of my dragon flies, and there where a couple of owls around somewhere behind me also. There where so very large mosquitoes doing there utmost to leave their mark on me and I think I may well have been in the middle of slug city, there where so many of them all around me………………. I hate the bloody things!

I fished through to around mid-night but nothing was biting, It would appear it was hard going on the river last night after talking to a couple of other people, it has been fishing rather well of late but it would appear she is back to her moody best.

I am off to France for a little while, the family holiday, I will catch you when I return.

Keep well.

A bridge over the river Wye................

2011-07-31T17:29:00.000+01:00

I fished for a couple of hours on Tuesday evening with nothing to report other than I left my glasses on the roof of the car and drove of down the road. I realised what I had done a mile or so down the road and turned the car around. I spent an hour and a half looking up and down the lane in the pitch black looking for them with no success and returned to spend another hour or so early the next morning………………… I never found them.

On Friday I made my way to the river Wye with a very good friend, a wonderful river that we have spent so many sessions fishing over the years. I know I have learnt so much while fishing there in the process.

We where to be joined by another great friend and his wife for the weekend, when they turned up later that afternoon we had had a long wet days fishing and where ready for a glass or two of red wine and some good food.

We had fished through a wet and over cast day, both of us getting soaked to the skin but catching fish. Wayne had caught several good chub and barbel up to nine pound eight ounces; I ended the day with a brace of nine-pound barbel.

That evening we put the world to rights over some good wine and port and some very decent food, it was a very late night.

We changed beats on Saturday with my friend catching several barbel and a chub, I finished a long day with just a small chub for my efforts and using a month supply of bait in the process.

The river has changed since my last visit, it seems to be wider in places, the holes seem to be deeper or have moved, perhaps this is why river fishing is such an attraction to us all, just when you seem to get to grips with an area it changes……………. It keeps you on your toes.

I have a great weekend with some very good company, caught a couple of fish and loved being outside in the fresh air in lovely surroundings, the joys of fishing.

Back to the Pat's.........................

2011-07-23T13:49:00.002+01:00

My plan this evening was to night fish on the Loddon but the renewal of an old ticket and the subsequent arrival of said ticket changed all of that.

I have renewed one of my tickets for the tenth season in succession, it is a river that is dear to my heart and one I can never ignore and this season it has called to me even louder. I am not sure as to why I feel I cannot fish anywhere else than on the St Patrick’s Stream but I just cannot get the river out of my head, it gets in there and completely takes over my thoughts. While fishing elsewhere I am always making comparisons to this small river that from top to bottom is somewhere in the region of one and a half miles. Is it possible to fish just the one river and be happy?

In past seasons she has been both extremely generous to me and brutally unkind, one season I caught forty or so barbel in less than six weeks, last season I had just two barbel from her even though I fished at least twice a week……………. Am I mad, quite possibly!

When I arrived last night I the car park was quite busy, I went and had a brief chat with a couple of friends who where fishing for the evening and I headed off in the opposite direction too them and set up for the night. I droppered out a big bed of free offerings and laid my baits over the top, sat back and made myself comfortable. I soon spotted a small Kestrel in the tree opposite; she was being extremely shy and would not pose for the camera and a Lesser Spotted woodpecker was setting about a dead tree just up stream from me. The swan with her three cygnets decided to treat me as a friend but they soon wandered off when I did not have anything for them to eat, there where a few Greylags patrolling up and down as well.

The rain started shortly after I became settled and came down really heavily for about an hour or so, when it stopped the air felt cleaner and crisper and you could smell the air had changed. I am not sure how to describe the air after a good down pour but it defiantly changes.

I fished through to the early hours but I did not have any fish, I had a couple of pulls on the rod tip but they failed to develop into anything. I packed up and left sometime around two’ish I think, I had left my extra sweater at home and was in need of some extra warmth.

Better luck next time, which if I have my way will be very soon.

Fed up......................

2011-07-17T19:23:00.000+01:00

I fished last evening for a few hours, my wife came home from work and I headed straight out as I usually do. I don’t know what your local roads are like but it would seem every road in my area has either road works or closures and last night a simple journey turned into a route planners night mare!

When I finally arrived at the river I was not in the best of moods and I marched across the cut meadows and into the swim I wanted to fish, that lifted my mood slightly as did watching the barn owl for over an hour. She has taken to skirting the cut meadows and hunting in the longer grass edges, she seems to be catching plenty, I saw her return to her nest at least half a dozen times in an hour before I lost her in the failing light. I did at one point see her being mobbed by another bird, it was not the customary ‘bully boy crow’, what is there problem with raptors? It looked like a Kestrel but I cannot be sure as they where a little way off, what I can be sure of is the owl did not appreciate the unwanted attentions of what ever it was.

I cast into my swim, it has been fished recently, the bank side vegetation has been hacked back, as has quite a few of the swims along the river, it has been done very crudely and is a real shame.

I had a few sharp taps on the rod tip, the fish where coming out from the snags and I felt confident of catching a fish. I had a good sharp wrap round just after mid-night but I missed it, while re-baiting I could hear a car alarm and it was coming from the area where I was parked…………… brilliant!

I sat there for a while trying to ignore it but I couldn’t get the sound out of my head, I retrieved my bait and I walked up the bank to see if I could make sure it was my vehicle but I could not be sure.

I packed up and headed for my vehicle. I have to park it in a lay by on a fairly busy road, someone had parked up behind me and it was their alarm that was sounding not mine, my mood just got worse. I should have left my gear on the bank and walked back to find out but…………………

Another chub....................

2011-07-13T18:08:00.000+01:00

I popped out last night for a couple of hours later in the evening and found the car park on the river quite busy.

I wanted to fish a different area on the river this evening, so many angler on the river would force me to fish somewhere else as my usual three or four swims would be no doubt taken. Walking across the freshly mown meadow, that will force the owl to go further afield for her diner, I noticed that my favourite swim on the river was vacant and judging by the lack of foot prints I don’t think anyone has fished it since I was there on Saturday evening. I walked past it to another area on the river and set up my rod and dropped a bait into the deep channel at my feet.

It did not take long before the rod tip indicated that fish where in the swim and a nice five pound or so chub was landed and returned.

I re baited and cast in again and sat back to wonder why nobody fishes my favourite swim. I watched another angler walk straight past the swim and set up just above me on the river, he never looked twice at the swim…………. Odd. On hindsight I should have moved into the swim but I am not too comfortable fishing the same swim every time I fish that part of the river.

I had a few little taps on the rod during the couple of hours I stayed after the chub but nothing else. The owl was conspicuous by her absence and something decided it was going to crash through the reeds on the opposite bank, I did not see what it was but it sounded hefty!

An old friend.........................

2011-07-10T16:54:00.000+01:00

I arrived down on the river just after four o’clock yesterday afternoon to find no one else on the river.

Walking across the meadow I disturbed not only a couple of Wood Whites but also Small Whites and various Fritillaries in fact the meadow was alive with allsorts of flying and hoping insects. I walked past lots of lovely wild meadow flowers, Oxeye daisies, common buttercups and sneezewort to name but a few (more research is needed to identify the rest).

I am fishing the same area where I lost a fish mid-week, it was a real wrap round bite but I was too busy talking to a friend on the phone to do anything about it. I got busy putting out my carpet of bait, about a pint or two of small bits and pieces to get the small stuff on the feed, which in turn will get the bigger stuff interested.

I never really expect any sort of action on the rod until around dusk and this evening was no real exception; the Cray fish being the only distraction from watching the tree sparrows and the willow tits, great tits and lots of swallows wheeling around overhead. I am sure I saw a Water Rail in the water opposite me, she was lurking behind some low branches and I did not really get a good glimpse of her, she was very camera shy. I watched a small grey wagtail in the low branches of the same tree a little while later again it was very camera shy.

By this time several other fishermen had arrived and set about sorting themselves out, I was busy in the meadow trying in vain to get more pictures of the barn owl but she spotted me fairly quickly and changed her patrol route to spare her from the camera lens.

The light is fading so it is time to put a bait in the water again, within fifteen minutes of casting in I have landed a large chub, six pounds and four ounces is a healthy sized chub. I cast out another bait and settled back to wait for the swim to settle down, touch ledgering I could feel that the Crays had given up for the night either that or the chub had driven them out of the swim. I felt a good tug on the line shortly afterwards but it let go whatever it was.

Not much of the fins are evident.

Just after mid-night and I am satellite spotting, looking into the clear night skies and pointing my I-phone at everything that is moving. I have a brilliant app that tells you what you are looking at in the skies above. It was during this period of distraction that the rod tip flew round and I hooked a barbel, a strange but brief fight ensued and I eventually landed a barbel of just over nine pounds………….. She was one I caught last season and she had lost a few ounces. As soon a she was in the net I recognised her as the fish I had last season with no fins, all her fins seemed to be missing. I had a better look at her this time round and there appeared to no sore areas or calluses or even any scar tissue around the fins and from memory they appear to be bigger than they where last season. The anal fish appear to be bigger as does the pelvic fins and she looked healthy enough, she certainly swam back well enough.

I thought about staying for a while longer but I had had a very early start in the morning, I was on the dreaded M25 by 6am heading for the other side of London, it was now nearer 1am that mid-night and I was tired and cold, so I decided to head home.

Off the mark........................

2011-07-03T15:08:00.001+01:00

Out again this evening, back to the same river but a different area.

On arrival there are a couple of cars already there but no one fishing on the section of river I am interested in so I had the pick of the river. The river is fairly low at the moment so I decided to target one of the deeper holes this evening as I am sure the fish will be laid up in or very close to one of them.

I made my choice and set up my rod with a bait dropper on the end and deposited a fair bit of free stuff on the bottom of the river, a handful of slightly larger baits where tossed in over the top of the bed of bait. My choice of weight this evening is one of those that imitate a natural looking stone, with the lack of flow and not needing to cast too far I thought these would be a safe bet to use.

Off she goes................

The owl was out again quartering the meadow behind me and again I tried very hard to get a good picture but she spotted me quite quickly and changed her route in and out of her nesting site. I was not too worried about the owl, I had spotted a red deer in the long grass and spent a good while watching her and I managed to get a couple of shots off before she bolted at the sound of a dog barking. The bats where coming out to hunt, I had one take an insect off the back of my chair a little later in the evening, while sitting there I heard a small ‘scuff’ on the back of my chair and saw the bat fly away. The swallows where still wheeling in the sky when I eventually cast my bait into the swim, the light was fading but my hopes where rising.

There where a couple of real big splashes at the far side of my swim and the rod tip was dancing, there where fish in the swim. Just after eleven the rod tip slammed round and I hooked into my first barbel of the season. I did not weigh her but as I had my camera out a quick couple of pictures and back she went. She was a little slow to recover but she did recover and swam strongly out of my hands, soaking me in the process! I sat down with a big cheesy grin, do I go home now or do I have another go?

First of the season.

Being greedy I cast out and just after mid-night I lost another barbel, one second she was hooked and I was playing her, the next nothing was there, she had let go!

I cast in again, just after one I had a full ‘three foot twitch’ and I just sat there and watched it happen, the fish even took line from the centre pin…………… now was the time to go home!

Watching the owl..................

2011-07-02T13:45:00.001+01:00

I was out on the river last night, sitting by the river after a long week at work was just the fillip I needed. Work and traffic this week has been terrible at best and as usual the best is saved for Friday evening!

Arriving at the river at least an hour later than I planned I headed towards one of my favourite areas on the river, with just two cars in the car park my chances where good and to my relief no one was in the area I wanted. Someone had been there; all of the foliage that hides you from sight had been beaten down to make a huge hole……………….. Why?

I set up my bait dropper and laid out a bed of particles with a few bits and pieces in amongst the small particles and then I took out my camera. Where I have been fishing for a couple of seasons now there are several barn owls that quarter the meadow behind me, last time I was down there one took a small mouse about fifty feet from where I was stood watching without my camera.

Not the greatest picture.

I spotted her soon enough but getting close enough to take a picture was the difficult part and with the light fading it was going to be difficult. Four times she came close enough but I think once she spotted me she decided to change her patrol route, as I did not see her after the fourth fly past. I saw flocks of long tailed tits mobbing anything that vaguely looked like a seed head, Swallows where wheeling in the skies and the bats soon followed…………….. It is just lovely stuff to see.

I carefully laid a single hook bait down over the bed of particles, lowering it as gently as I could as not to spook any fish in the swim. I love to sit and touch ledger, with the line between fore finger and thumb you can feel the heart beat of the river, the very pulse of the water flowing down and over the riverbed. You can also feel even the gentlest of plucks from the fish of which one I missed and the other I caught.

The swim went quiet after I had returned the chub to the water and with tiredness getting the better of me I decided it was time to head off home.

Out again this evening.

A day out with my dad....................

2011-06-26T17:36:00.001+01:00

Today I collected my dad around ten’ish to go fishing; it was the first time in around twenty or so years that we have headed off fishing somewhere together.

We have not cast a line together for ever it would seem, he has fished in the past with my three younger brothers but he has not been out on the banks for around three seasons now………………. And it showed LOL

Pop's

We headed for the small pond that Fiona and I usually fish, my hope was that it would provide suitable action for the two of us and it would not be a struggle, there is nothing worse than taking someone fishing and then not catching. We both set up float rods and we both fished maggots on the hook.

It was hot, very hot and sitting under an old oak tree it was a little cooler but not much. We fired maggots out over the floats and lots of small Rudd came to the surface to intercept them and we caught one or two of them along with a few angry perch. Perch are aggressive little fish at the best of time but one or two that I caught today had a proper attitude about them, shaking their heads while on the hook and when in the hand the fins came up and they looked really aggrieved.

We fished and chatted for a couple of hours, the heat finally getting the better of us after a couple of hours so we headed off home, both of us hot and bothered and tired…………………. Where will the next trip be too in 2031 :)

Bulls in the field....................

2011-06-21T19:18:00.001+01:00

I sneaked out again, under the cover of dark rain laden clouds I drove down to the river.

I wandered across the field, a field with a couple of young bulls grazing in one corner, keeping a respectful distance I did not waste any time in crossing towards the area I had in mind. I have a thing about our bovine friends, like our equine friends I do not trust them; I keep a very respectful distance from both.

There where two guys fishing the large pool, which meant that the area I wanted to fish would be free as there was only one car in the car park and indeed it was. I set up my rod and tucked myself under my brolly as those rain laden clouds where beginning to leak quite heavily. I sat there watching the rod tip waiting for any indication that the fish where in the mood. A few small fish where topping and I heard something much larger crash just a little down from where I sat.

At her lovely best

Watching the river flow by and my mind begins to wander as it always does. The river is looking lovely as she always does, always changing her moods she is never the same on any two visits. Sometimes the water is low and clear, sometimes it high and pushing through, sometimes she is coloured and sometimes she is gin clear. Sometimes she gives up her jewels and sometimes she doesn’t, I don’t begrudge her when she doesn’t, catching fish should never be the only reason although sometimes when I cannot see the river for the rushes catching is everything. On occasions in the past when my ego has been soaring high the river has grounded my feet so fast it is quite humbling.

I did have a couple of small indications, one I could have hit into but I missed it……………… no second chance tonight, that was it, the swim went quiet after than.

Out again soon.

I am weak...................

2011-06-19T19:12:00.001+01:00

I am too weak, I cannot help myself……………………

I visited a river last night with a friend, we sat there behind motionless rods for hours, the rain fell and I felt a little cold when the wind was blowing but I enjoyed being back on the river.

Mike had fished my old favourite river the evening before, I had popped down to say hello to Mike and Paul and the river looked absolutely superb and she was in a good mood, fish where caught.

Mike and I visited another river this evening, one I have fished for a few season but not this area so it was too be a learning curve for me as well. We had a short walk along the banks but to be perfectly honest it did not matter how far we walked ever swim looked like a suitable home for a barbel. Mike fished just below me on the river and he suffer the same fate as me, a dry net which was a shame as the river did look as if she was ready to give up a fish or two.

Sitting there watching the rod tip, something I have missed over the past couple of months, I felt at home with the flowing water. All thoughts of catching big tench or mythical carp where flowing downstream and out of my mind, how does running water do that too a person……………. Or is it just me?

I have spent most of the day today getting my gear ready to go out this week and fish for barbel, I have made some bait and tied a couple of new rigs, the ruck sack is packed and I am ready to go………………….. like I said I am weak

Tench fishing......................

2011-06-12T16:25:00.000+01:00

Arriving at the lake there was a few drops of rain in the air so I hasten to my chosen area for the night. I walked around the lake to the far bank but when I got there it does not feel ‘right’ so I carry on walking. All week I have been thinking about that one particular area and when I get there I don’t fancy it. I eventually end up in an area fifty yards from the car par only I have walked the long way round to arrive here!

I quickly set up my brolly and position the bed chair under it, everything else deemed necessary for a nights fishing was placed under the bed chair out of the rain. I set up my marker rod and start to explore the area out in front of me, I soon find a plateau with three feet of water over it and the area in front of me is just under six foot with a thin carpet of weed. It took a while but I managed to find a small hole in the weed and that is where my freebies went it and my tench baits as well.

All was well, the rain soon dissipated after a heavy shower but I was dry and warm and the kettle was on and the lake was looking lovely. The dark clouds had passed overhead and where at the far end of the lake, the sunshine was illuminating the tree and the contrast between the black clouds and the sunny green trees was quite stunning. The coots soon moved in over my baited area a where soon to be incurring the wrath of my cursing, I cursed them for several hours before they buggered off for the night!

I can see you............just!

Around ten o’clock a small mouse came out of the undergrowth and was quite happy to sit their on it haunches eating pieces of corn I had left on the bank, bold as brass he sat there until he had had enough and then he just sauntered off back to where he came from. It was soon after this that I had an aborted take on my right hand rod; on hindsight sitting here typing I feel my leads may have been just a touch too heavy. I know it is just not cricket using mini running leads and boilies for tench but…………………..

There was a party being had in one of the large private houses over behind the woods, why do people with the worst taste in music have the loudest stereos? The music was bad enough but the language of some of the guest was truly shocking, men and women using language that would make a navvy blush. A sure sign I am getting old!

I fell asleep sometime after eleven, I had crawled into my new sleeping bag and I was away within seconds. I was awoken by a couple of beeps from my alarms and I looked up to see two small kingfishers sitting on one of my rods facing different directions. They chewed the cud for a moment or two before heading of for a busy day in opposite directions.

I put the kettle on and the coots appeared, many more of them than last night. I think I may have had every coot on the lake diving over my baits this morning! After a quite period of cursing the coots under my breath and the dark clouds gathering in the skies above me I decided that it was time to go, there is only one thing worse than setting up in the rain and that is packing up in the rain.

New life springs forth....................

2011-06-06T20:13:00.000+01:00

I popped out for a couple of hours yesterday morning, too a new lake that I have managed to acquire a ticket for recently. This season I want to fish nearer home so driving across the country to the lovely river Teme and the mighty Severn will not figure too much in my fishing this season. I figured out a while ago that I was doing too many miles and not nearly enough fishing so I started looking locally and I must admit I have found a real gem with this lake.

Looks lovely.

It is a bit of an unknown quantity; lightly fished for the past few seasons and the stocking levels are as such an unknown. It looks like it should hold fish, both carp and tench, I saw a small pike while sitting watching the water, it just drifted past me from one reed bed to another.

I arrived on the lake just after eight, I had until mid-day to fish but I decided to have a little wander around with a pair of Polaroid’s on before settling on an area to fish. I had a tench rod with me and a large bucket of hemp and corn with a good handful of maize mixed in for good measure. Plumbing the depth in front of me it was clear that the margins deep, six feet less than a rod and a half out and the water was crystal clear.

Sitting there I watched swarms of pinhead fry swimming in front of me, a small pike as mentioned earlier, sparrows and long tailed tits, a couple of noisy green parrots and a little wren who was very busy in the reeds. A family of coots decided to dive on my bait, I never realised they couple dive so deep, a pair of swan cob’s made a nuisance of themselves and a guy with a lovely little dog stopped to say hello.

Five of these little fella's!

Time as always flies and it was time to pack up all too soon and while packing up I noticed for the first time lots of small frogs, at one time there was five of them on my chair, new life was making itself seen.

Although I had some very interesting patches of tench ‘bubbles’ around my float but it would have been too perfect if the float were to have dipped!

Carp..........................

2011-06-04T16:25:00.000+01:00

With an early finish from work, I decided to take the afternoon off I headed to the pond looking forward to some piece and quiet.

The traffic was light so I made very good time and the car park only had a few cars in it so things where looking good. I stopped to chat to one guy who had had a rake of fish during the past couple of days and he was packing up to go home, I headed off to the opposite bank and the shade of the large oak that occupies that particular corner.

Rods where quickly set up, usual baits and tactics where employed and it was not too long before I was sitting back and enjoying my surroundings, forgetting the grotty week at work that had just finished. James was soon to join me for the nights fishing. A mother Great Crested Grebe who seemed to catch small fish for her youngster and then proceed to swim away from her chick fascinated me, diving and I can only presume feeding the chick under the water. I presume she was feeding the chick and ultimately teaching it where to find food under the water as every time she dived under the water the little one would follow. I watched the little one attempting to swim under water and it reminded me of a small child swimming with their face under the water for the first time, head under and feet splashing away on the surface…………. It will soon learn.

Wait for me please mum!

James arrived after a while and set up camp next too my campsite, carp fishing is not really fishing it is camping with fishing rods J and once he cast out we quickly set about putting the worlds to rights, no subject evaded our opinion!

As usual there where plenty of fish showing and a few where landed, bream where showing here there and everywhere and where also being caught, much to the chagrin of their captors.

A nice small double figure carp.

Diner was cooked expertly by James and demolished even more expertly by my good self, a curry cooked on the bank is far nicer that one at home, a bit more talking and it was time to retire. I had my first fish, a mid single figure carp at around half past eleven and I lost another at about two in the morning and around five in the morning I had a decent double figure fish. Two bream followed shortly after wards, one during the cooking of breakfast. James had a couple of small knocks on his rods but alas he ended the session with a dry net.

A lovely night out.

Yet another small carp..................

2011-05-28T15:36:00.001+01:00

I have not managed to get out for a while due to one thing or another so yesterday it was a delight to finally pull up the car park by the lake once again.

As usual the drive home on a Friday was horrible but that is forgotten now as I am loading my new barrow with the mountains of kit that one needs to go carp fishing now a days!!! The lake is busy, very busy; there are no vacant swims on the car park bank which is a shame as the sun stays on this bank a lot longer than on the opposite and it stays a little warmer into the evening but not to worry, I quickly head off to the far bank.

I find a small area and set about getting my rods baited and cast into the lake and getting myself comfortable for the night. The rods are cast in, not too far as it is not a huge lake and the kettle is on. I love sitting back on a lake with a fresh brewed coffee and just listening to what is going on around me, rain is not forecast so I have no brollie up this evening, sleeping under the stars. There is a lot of birds in the trees, I see long tailed Tits, a whole mob of them working their way along my bank picking every seed head clean. I can hear a black bird singing her song and there are several wrens in the bushes beside me. There is a small mouse wearing his dads hob nailed boots crashing around in the undergrowth near my bed chair. I try to tempt him out with a piece of my cheese roll but he was ever so camera shy and I failed to get even a blurred shot of him, likewise Mr Heron who likes to fly up and down the lake, I never seem to have the camera ready when he flies past. I could hear a woodpecker in he copse behind me, I could not see him though and the Great Crested Grebe with her noisy offspring where cruising up and down looking for food.

The bats came out just after 9.15pm and again I was treated to an amazing display of flying skills, laying back on my bed they where literally flying two feet above my head, small bats flying in and around the tree line and two or three much larger bats hunting over the open water, perhaps these larger bats are Brandt’s or Common Pipistrelle’s as they like to hunt over open water but I am just guessing.

I fell asleep sometime just after ten and just as I was getting into the ‘dead zone’ that is deep sleep, does the whole world cease to exist when you are asleep? I remember reading an article somewhere that seemed to suggest it did, one of my alarms sounded and I had a fish on. A short tussle and a lovely looking big scaled mirror carp of perhaps ten or twelve pounds was unhooked in the net and released, she never left the water before being returned. I cast out and fell asleep again quite quickly.

At some stage during the early hours I applied the ‘long distance release’ method so aptly described by John Gierach, yep I lost one! We as anglers have all successfully managed this at some point or another and we have a wide range of excuses as to why this happens, mine on this particular occasion was due to being half asleep and poor angling technique!

I woke in the morning to the sound of my mobile phone ringing, my wife calling me to say good morning, it is always a delight to hear her voice. After a cup of coffee and a good stretch I decided it was time to head home.

Another small carp....................

2011-05-14T20:05:00.000+01:00

I arrived at the pond at just after six o’clock to find a few vehicles in the car park but not as many as last weekend. The usual swims where taken so I staggered round to the opposite bank and to a swim slightly further round than last week, heading away from the maddening crowds.

The rods where baited up and cast into the pond, the bed chair was set up and tucked neatly under the branches of an oak tree so I put the kettle on. Sitting back with a nice cup of coffee it was not long before the fish began crashing out of the water and breaking the surface. There is always a lot of fish to see.

I heard a buzzer go off in the distance and a fish was duly landed and around nine o’clock it was my turn. The takes are violent, the bait-runner races off and you are convinced that you have hooked a monster, when landed they are usually a lot smaller than you first imagine. This one was un-hooked and returned safely without the fish leaving the water, it swam away without a second thought.

A few more anglers turned up and settled down for the night and I turned in after watching an excellent aerobatic display by several bats, two of which where absolutely huge! I did not put the brollie up as it did not look like rain and I was under a tree. To be honest I slept rather well between dropped runs, I suspect the large head of bream where the culprits.

Nobody home

I was up around half past five and enjoying a cup of coffee whilst watching the pond waking up, watching the mist rising off of the pond, being burned off by the weak morning sun. I was watching the ducks and the Grebe with her chick began their days foraging for food along side the coots. I heard a woodpecker in the woods behind me and I spotted a Greater Spotted having a right go at a dead tree behind me. I tried as hard as I could to get a picture but never managed a decent shot. I watched a large black and red caterpillar climbing a reed stem in the front of my bed chair and several dragonflies warming themselves in the sun on more reed stems. A large heron was being harassed by a couple of spiteful crows, they seemed to be affronted by its very presence on the pond and where doing their best to shoo him away.

Enjoying the sun

I had another dropped run around the time I had to pack up and head home; again I think the culprit was a bream. I used to suffer the same sort of think many seasons ago on another lake, in the end I gave up with fishing there because of the sleepless nights.

Carp fishing....................

2011-05-07T22:23:00.000+01:00

I met up with James on the pond again this evening; he had arrived earlier in the day and found a nice area of the pond for us both to fish. I received a text from him sometime in the afternoon to say he had had a nice double figure fish and that the pond was looking lovely.

After a torturously slow drive home, why is when you are in a hurry to get somewhere nobody else is? I arrived at the pond around 7.00pm and promptly loaded all the kit that I deemed necessary for twelve or so hours at the pond onto my back, around my neck and into both hands and began the walk around the pond to where my friend had sorted out a swim for me. Half way round I realised that all those silly looking wheelbarrows that I see people pushing around are actually a really good idea.

Setting up my rods and trying to get a bank stick into the ground was a challenge, as with my last visit I managed to get the front stick in but the rod butts would have to settle on my bait box. This later was to be a bad idea, as you will read. The weather threatened rain so up went my brollie and the bed chair nestled under it just nicely, all my kit was under the brollie so nothing would get wet……………. Well that was the theory at least. My Fox Oval I must admit is a nearing vintage status, purchased in 1993, it is fair to say that maybe its water proofing qualities are not what they used to be, shame really as I thought I had at least another ten seasons worth of use out of it J

Laying there watching the lightning in the sky and listening to carp jumping and crashing around all through the night was a lovely time, having rain water dripping down on my face most of the night was not a pleasant experience, no matter which way I faced my face got wet. I noticed a couple of small bats in the air earlier in the evening, maybe Pippestrelles or maybe Daubentons, I am not too sure but I do know what they where feeding on, I was eaten alive by insects they missed while feeding, most of the night in between the down pours and showers.

James had a run and landed a fish expertly around one o’clock, a small fish of about five pounds but it put up a real good account of itself before being netted and returned safely. There where lots of buzzers going off during the night and from what I could hear a good few fish were landed. I had a couple of bleeps and that was it for a while. I decided to change my rig around two thirty, I changed from a ‘chod’ rig to a straight forward pop up, popped up about six inches and it was only out there around half an hour before I had my only fish of the night. A small washed out common of about five pounds graced my net, it had run through my other line and caused a huge mess and I managed to loose both back leads as well………….. great!

With all the rain, some of it quite hard, where I had to re-cast both rods after the debacle of landing my small fish, I noticed that where the rain had fallen it had flicked up all sorts of grit and crap onto my reels and all over my spools. Before casting out again I had to clean down my reels and spools to make sure that the grit was not going to cost me a fish later on. As it turned out I needed not have bothered.

Breakfast was served around half past eight; James cooked up a great plateful of sausage, egg, bacon and black pudding, washed down with a cup of coffee, lovely.

We both decided that we had had enough, I was ‘damp’ and tired, I did not sleep at all well and James was also keen to make a move, so we packed up and headed of home.

I hope to be back there maybe Friday night or maybe Saturday, not sure which.

A carp.......................

2011-05-02T20:43:00.000+01:00

I picked up my friend James this morning around 7.00am and we headed of for a days carp fishing on a club lake that we both have a ticket for. On our arrival we found that there was not much room for the two of us to fish so we decided to head for another small lake not to far from where we where, it is one we fished together not so long ago.

A large swim was chosen so we could fish together and we cast out, me to the right hand of the swim and James to the left hand side. I was using two different boilies; one tipped with a piece of plastic corn to make it slightly more buoyant and the other was just straightforward bottom bait. James I believe used the same bait on both rods.

My carp fishing has never been of a scientific nature especially the baiting of the area in which my hook baits are placed. Rather than spodding freebies out as I have tried in the past I like the ‘scatter gun’ approach and catapult a few baits in the area where my hook bait is. I do on occasion use a stringer of freebies or a PVA bag but I figure that if that is everyone else’s approach then a scattering of baits may well catch usually wary carp off guard.

Not the biggest but its a start!

That’s is my theory anyway and today it worked, just after 10.00am my left hand rod was off and I hooked into a small ten or so pound carp. Once landed and unhooked, a few portraits of my own ego where taken and the fish was slipped back for another day. The fish fought very well but it did show some signs of damage especially to the dorsal fin, it was split in several places and the tail fin also had a small tear in it, this however did not appear to hinder the fish in any sort of way as it swam away very strongly. The fish while on the mat did regurgitate a few of my freebie baits, which would indicate that it was out there enjoying them.

I took a picture for a couple of younger anglers a bit later in the day, they had landed two fish from the same swim at the same time, a nice little mirror carp and a small common, the where chuffed to bits and who can blame them the fish looked in pristine condition.

That was all the action that both of us had during the day out, we did see quite a few carp rolling and splashing about and we also saw a grass snake swimming along in front of us.

Back again on Friday for another go.

Out again this morning.....................

2011-04-30T19:55:00.002+01:00

I fished yesterday instead of watching the wedding, they are a very handsome couple and I hope they are very happy together.

I fished the small pond again today, arriving early there where plenty of other anglers they before me but they where all fishing the car park bank so I wandered off to the other side. I plonked myself down in a swim and I set up a quiver tip rod, an eleven-foot John Wilson medium quiver tip with the top two eyes broken of so it is about six inches shorter than it should be. I decided that I want to try and tempt a tench; I know they get caught from this small corner of the pond and wanting to step up my line strength I thought the quiver tip would be the way to go. A small maggot feeder with a two-foot hook link and a size ten hook was the tackle for the day.

It was a slow start, no bites for the first half hour but they then started to come, lots of these brown gold fish/crucian fish. Personally I cannot tell the difference although those that I talk too down there always catch large crucian but small brown gold fish, I find it’s the other way round! The quiver tip pulled around steadily most of the morning but no tench where caught, lots of rudd, roach and the goldfish/crucian. Some of the bites where real whackers, pulling the rod right out of the rest and the culprits where roach, nothing big, the biggest being about a pound but all lovely non-the less.

I packed up around mid day as I had a really bug head ache coming on and the two people who set up next to me decided the best way to fish the small pond was with a three ounce lead and buzzers……………. Not my cup of tea.

I am out carp fishing on Monday for the day and looking forward to it.

A very Good Friday.......................

2011-04-22T14:20:00.000+01:00

An early start this morning, I was out of the house just before six o’clock and fishing by half past six and it was just as well as by nine o’clock the pond was nearly full with anglers. I thought I would have the pick of the swims but how wrong was I, there where several early birds fishing before me this morning.

The sounds of the woods around me where amazing, so many birds starting the busy day by making themselves heard. I had a sparrow in the bush to my right busy collecting nest building materials, as was the small robin in the bushes to my left. Again I heard the cuckoo and at least three different woodpeckers in the trees to my right hand side.

I walked down to the shallow end and had a look to see if anything was moving, after twenty or so minutes I decided to walk back up towards the deeper end of the pond. Two rods again this morning, one with a small float and a piece of maize as a hook bait fished over a small bed of maize. This was the first time I had used maize before and probably the last, I much prefer sweetcorn and so it turned out did the fish, the float remained motionless all morning.

Such a wonderful colour.

The second rod was my usual float set up and fished with a single maggot to a 1lbs 8oz hook link. As with the tomes before on this pond it took a while to get the fish going, but after around half an hour of steady feeding with maggot the roach and the rudd started to come to the net. The rudd is there a lovelier colour than that of the Rudd’s fins, where high in the water and taking the maggot on the drop but they liked to move in and out of the swim and when they did move the roach managed to get a chance. Around eight o’clock the float dipped and went off to my right hand side and when I struck into it, it just kept going where it wanted too, I had very little control. I initially thought it was one of those horrible ‘brown gold fish’ but when I saw it just before landing I saw it was a tench, a small fish but a tench none the less.

My first tench for so many seasons.

The fish once landed and unhooked, I took a couple of quick pictures and returned her to the water. Thinking about it on the way home, I think it may have been the first tench I have caught in fifteen or so years. My initial thoughts where it was around ten seasons or so but I have been barbel fishing or fifteen or so seasons now and I cannot remember catching a tench since starting to barbel fish. It was not the biggest of fish but it has certainly made my morning.

An early morning start..................

2011-04-16T18:12:00.000+01:00

Well, earlier than I normally manage to get out, I arrived at the pond around 8.30am.

The pond looked lovely this morning, a couple of others had arrived before me but I had the pick of the rest of the swims so I chose to head towards the opposite end to the dam.

I set up my two float rods, one being an Avon rod with a float on it and a large piece of bread, pure Heath Robinson but it worked well and I caught a good number of those ‘brown goldfish’ things. There was a for a period of time lots of tight ‘fizzing’ bubbles around this float, tench was my guess. There are some in there and I am yet to catch one.

Somewhere around a pound and a half.

The day pasted with me catching lots and lots of rudd, a couple of really nice crucian carp and a good few roach as well but only three small perch graced my net today. One of the Crucian carp I caught was a lot larger than any other I have caught, I would say around the pound and a half mark but without any scales with me today I am only guessing.

The ducklings have been reduced to four; they stayed with me most of the day, helping themselves to my maggots as and when they pleased. Three Greylag geese decided that the two Canada geese where two too many on the pond and spent all their energy chasing them off of the pond as noisily as they could.

Cheeky monkey!

I took a little wander about mid-morning to stretch my legs and I spotted two Koi carp sunning themselves a little further round from where I was fishing, I watched them for about half an hour and they slowly disappeared, perhaps I will have a go for them one afternoon soon.

After packing up and walking back to the car park I heard my first cuckoo of the year.

I enjoyed my morning out; it is nice to fish when the day is warming up rather than cooling off.

Gudgeon................

2011-04-13T19:27:00.000+01:00

After dropping the girls off at the airport this morning a friend of mine picked me up and of we went to fish one of the ponds on our ticket.

I believe my friend has fished there before, catching a ten-pound carp, he was to try his hand at carp fishing again today and I was to use my usual approach of float fishing with maggots. Once we arrived at the pond we decided to fish together in one large swim and I soon started to catch lots of small roach and silver bream. This was too much temptation for my friend and he set up a float rod for himself and kindly gave me control of one of his carp rods…………….. For all it was worth, a carp worried neither bait!

A very small Gudgeon.

We fished on until lunch and then retired to the pub for a really decent lunch and a lovely pint of beer and then returned for the afternoon session. We set up in a different swim and fished on as before and the results where the same only this time we seemed to drop onto a shoal of Gudgeon and I seemed that every cast would result in a Gudgeon.

A lovely day on a nice pond with a good friend and a net full of fish…………… it doesn’t get much better.

Guests in the swim.....................

2011-04-10T21:05:00.000+01:00

I returned to my little pond today just after lunch and I was stunned to see that a convention of men with extremely long poles had descended on my little piece of heaven LOL

The poles that some of them where using where so long I swear they could have taken my eye out on the opposite bank. I found a small swim and set up my float rod and quickly began to catch roach on single white maggot at about thirty or so feet out. After a few fish the fish moved and I played the ‘follow them around the swim’ game, I does not matter how many maggots you put in one place the fish always move around. I caught lots of fish on the drop, long before the float settled it was away so I had my rod in my hand most of the afternoon.

Feeding time!

I had this little lot in my swim most of the afternoon, swimming past me right at my feet and helping themselves to anything that I left lying around on the bank as you can see J

I like my little pond, it is a peaceful and tranquil place, somewhere I like to go too to chill out and enjoy a few hours. Today unfortunately was different. About fifty yards round the pond from me was the loudest person I have ever had the misfortune of meeting on a pond, not only was he loud but every other word was an expletive or a extremely loud belch. I know I am no paragon of virtue and yes I can swear with the best of them but…………………… words fail me! This is the same pond that I fish with my ten-year-old daughter, fortunately not today though.

I finished the day with a decent bag of roach, crucian carp and perch, in fact from what I could see of the rest of those fishing they all enjoyed a good day.

A new pond today.......................

2011-04-02T20:16:00.000+01:00

I managed to sneak out today for a couple of hours this afternoon so I decided to fish a new pond.

I have joined a new club for this season; it offers me a good variety of new places to fish in new surroundings and hopefully some new species. The pond I tackled today is not too far from home and I can be there and fishing within thirty minutes.

I used two rods today, a float rod with a single maggot on a size twenty hook and the second rod had a size ten on with four pieces of corn tipped with a couple of red maggots. This rod was to be fished just on the edge of the drop off and is a slightly heavier set up than the float rod as there is a lot of decent sized small carp in this pond.

I started to catch roach quite quickly with the float rod and they just kept coming, each and everyone of them was very lively and gave a very good account of themselves.

The second rod was quiet most of the day but I did miss one small carp, the line straightened and I struck into the fish but did not manage to hook it. I had a couple of small carp come into the margin just at my feet to pick up some pieces of corn that I had dropped into the margins. From what I could see of the two common’s they looked fit and near on perfect. I watched a carp programme on the telly the other evening, it was all that was on, every fish that was caught had really sad looking mouths, so much damage to them where they have been caught time after time. Watching that really made me quite sad to be honest.

I am on a work party next weekend on a new piece of river, hopefully I will be able to learn something of the piece of river and lend a hand maintain it.

A lazy couple of hours on the pond........................

2011-03-13T20:12:00.001Z

After my efforts on Friday evening I decided that today I would spend a couple of hours fishing on the pond by myself, Fiona has a friend over for the afternoon so I am off out.

After getting there and realising that I had left my maggots at home, cursing all the way home and then driving back again I managed to get set up and settled quite quickly. I was using my float rod with a second heavier rod set up with a large float and six pound line, this was to be cast to my left just to the edge of the dead reed bed with about six maggots on the hook. My float rod was to be the main rod and I settled into a routine of casting and then throwing in some maggots until the fish started to feed. It did not take too long, within half an hour the fish started to feed and I lost most of the first dozen or so fish until I got into the swing of things, lots of small roach and perch came to the net.

I was in the process of un-hooking a roach when the other float went charging of across the pond, by the time I had finished with the roach the float stopped moving and what ever it was had let go. It did not move again all afternoon.

Lovely.

Towards the end of the day I started to catch small rudd and a couple of crucian carp, only small but lovely all the same

Lice?

I also notice that a few of the roach had lice on their flanks, little round things with tiny black bits, I removed a good few of them from some of the fish but there was a lot of them.

I am fishing in a friendly pike match next weekend with the TDFC after that I hope to have a rest for a few weeks and wait for some warmer weather.

Saving the best 'til last...................

2011-03-12T14:11:00.000Z

My last session on the river before the enforced lay off and I am pleasantly surprised to see that there where only three cars in the car park.

I could see one of the car owners walking across to the mighty Thames and the other two where within fifty yards of the bridge, that put paid to my plan as the swim I fancied and had been baiting was taken so plan B was to fish further down stream.

I set my two rods up and dropped my baits into the river, soon after I had a visitor, a man from sunny Hull. He was fishing with a good friend of us both Monty D on the Kennet and popped down to say hello. It is always good to see friendly faces on the river and to have good conversation with a friend, I tried to convince him to get his rods out but after being on the river all day he was in the mood for a Chinese and a beer. I hope the Trent will be kind to you on Monday mate and say hello to the North man for me J

I recast around 8.30pm and waited, around 9.00pm I had a knock on the down stream rod but nothing happened until about ten minutes later the rod nearly flew out of the rest. I hooked and played the fish for a few minutes and when I landed it I saw it was a good fish. I let the fish rest for a good while and then popped her on the scales and then I started to worry about getting a picture. I knew the bailiff was up stream so once I was happy the fish was well rested and was a comfortable as possible I went and asked Phil to take a couple of snaps and also confirm the weight for me.

She weighed in at 14lbs 4oz!

I was elated; my second fish from the river all season and it was a lovely big fish, a nice reward for my efforts this season on that river. It is my last session on the rivers until June or maybe July, plans are a foot for new stretches of river to fish. I will be fishing a lot closer to home next season, no lines will be cast into the Teme, Severn or the Wye next season, the Kennet, Loddon, Thames and the Wey will be very much my home for a while.

Off to the pond tomorrow for a couple of hours on my own.

Another chub.................

2011-03-08T18:24:00.000Z

My plan was to be out each evening this week on the river in a last gasp attempt to catch another barbel but as I sit here typing this my plan has failed!

I have run out of bait so I am spending this evening making some more and I will probably listen to the Royals on the radio playing the Tractor Boys.

I did manage to catch another chub last night though, a 6lbs 8oz beauty. This fish was totally different to the last one, it was long and lean, I would say it was a good couple of inches longer than the other one. It had a few knocks and bumps on it and it looked like it had been around the block a few times.

That was my only bite of the evening and I left soon afterwards as the temperature had dropped to minus 3!

Out again tomorrow evening.

A cold day out........................

2011-03-05T18:12:00.001Z

Just a quick note today, more of an update than anything else.

I fished last night on the river, found a lovely little crease and put a couple of baits on it but no joy. I gave up when I put my head torch on and saw that the landing net and unhooking mat both had a frost forming on them. I know I am keen but……………..

Today I took my daughter over to the pond again, she asked me during the week if I would so we picked up some maggots and a junior guest ticket this morning and set of just after lunch. We started on the opposite bank to the one we normally fish, I wanted her to have a chance of catching a ‘brown goldfish’ as the do like to tug the string but it was too cold, the breeze was positively arctic.

We move round to the other side and immediately felt a lot warmer sitting in the wooded area and the fish came onto feed shortly after wards. Fi was getting some real decent bites and she managed to land a few good roach. I on the other hand was getting some really small and finicky bites, I managed to catch a few small roach and a tiny perch but both of use missed more fish than we caught.

Fiona worked out where to catch her last fish from, she knew the fish where not in the open water so she positioned her float right next to the small dead reed bed to her left and that is where she caught her final fish of the day.

She is beginning to work this fishing lark out. J

A PB............................ chub that is!

2011-03-02T18:37:00.000Z

Yes, a new personal best chub last night, all 6lbs 9oz of it!

I was surprised to have the river to myself last night as the car park was empty and stayed empty while I was there.

I set up in a swim that I had been trickling a small amount of bait into and cast both rods out into the river. The river was up a foot or so and had a fair bit of colour in it but not too much rubbish was coming down, I did get wiped out twice but I think the swans where responsible for that as they where upstream rooting up the bottom.

6lbs 9oz a new PB.

It was really quite cold last night, perhaps why I had the river to myself, but around 9.00pm it felt really quite warm, warm enough to take my jacket off and it was about 9.45pm when my rod tip whipped round and I hooked my chub. I knew straight away that it was not a barbel but when I landed and weighed my chub I was chuffed, I had upped my personal best by 8oz. If it had of been another ounce heavier it would have popped. I took a couple of very poor pictures on the mat and returned the fish safe and sound to feed another day.

Should it count because I was not chub fishing?, would you discount a five pound roach if you landed it while fishing for something else……………….. Exactly what I said to my friend when he suggested that maybe it should not count, he laughed J

I left shortly after I returned the fish, as it turned cold again; I believe it is to remain quite cold for the next week or so, great! I think I have had enough of this cold weather; it seems to have been cold forever.

Happy days.

A morning in the sunshine......................

2011-02-27T16:24:00.001Z

I have spent a lovely morning on the pond with my daughter today.

We arrived around 9.30am and it was a glorious morning with the sun shining and it was warmer than it has been for a while now.

Lovely in the sunshine

The swim I had in mind was being fished so we fished on the opposite bank in a swim I have not fished before. I had taken along a small ten foot rod for Fiona and I was going to leave her too it while I fished alongside her with my own rod. I set up both rods and a quick casting lesson for Fiona and the fishing began.

Fiona much to my surprise was casting her rod as if it was second nature, flicking a small float basically where she wanted too and she was catching fish also. Sitting beside her in the sunshine was lovely, both of us fishing away, catching a decent bag of fish between us. Fiona was quite at home baiting her hook each time but when it came to unhooking her fish she was a little hesitant so I unhooked them for her.

I lost another really good fish during the session, again it picked up my bait and swam off, I struck into the fish and at no time did I have any sort of control of the fish, it just swam away and broke my hook link in the process! I caught a small rudd and showed Fiona the difference between a rudd and a roach, she gave me one of those “you really did not have to show me that dad, it is obvious what the difference is’ looks.

The sun ducked behind the clouds and the rain started, little drops to start with and soon the temperature dropped and the rain became heavier and with Fiona getting cold we headed home but not before Fiona caught the largest fish of the day, a lovely 12oz or so roach.

A nice one to end the day!

Roll on the summer when the ponds are alive with feeding fish and I can take Fiona out to catch small carp.

A bite ......................

2011-02-26T13:35:00.000Z

………………. And I bloody missed it!

I have spent weeks now waiting for my first bite and when it comes I missed it!

I have managed to get to the river twice this week, Wednesday evening was very uneventful for me but I did take a picture of a huge fish for someone else, I wont go into detail as its his fish to tell everyone about.

There must be a fish in here somewhere!

Friday and I am on the river early, around half past one and the car park is full to bursting, all of the usual swims are taken so I went and sat in the swim where I photographed the fish on Wednesday evening. After casting in and sitting there for a while I began to get a bit twitchy and my mind started to think about the big fish, as far as I can work out it has been caught three times this season and from three different areas, it certainly gets about.

A large mink swam across the river straight for me and started to climb out of the river in front of me, when I shone my head light on it shot of down the river at lightening speed…………… horrible little thing! It was just then that my rod tip wrapped round and line came of off the drum, I struck into thin air!

Back down there again this week, I am determined to catch one last fish from the river before I move onto pastures new next season.

Grumpy perch and gentle roach...................

2011-02-20T20:10:00.000Z

I fished the little pond again this afternoon; I slid off just after lunch and was casting into the lake around 1.30pm.

I fished with my usual method of a small float and maggots and was soon catching small stroppy perch, missing more than I caught!

Stroppy little stripy!

A little later and some roach started to come my way, I was casting just a little further out and I was picking up a roach every third or fourth cast, nothing too big, I would say my largest fish was just short of a pound in weight.

The skies where cold and grey accept for a period of about half an hour when the sun broke through the cloud and it was lovely a real pleasure to be out.

There where a few occasions when the float disappeared and I lifted the rod into the strike but there was nothing there, I suspected that the infamous ‘brown gold fish’ where to blame and towards the end of my afternoon I caught a couple, one was a real belter, somewhere in the region of a pound and a half and a very lovely rudd graced the net just before packing up time.

A lovely little rudd

I am growing very fond of my little pond!

Still struggling.......................

2011-02-19T14:38:00.001Z

I have been out twice this week; Tuesday evening for a couple of hours and the river was very busy where I fished a swim that has produced for me in the past but this evening nothing was happening or at least not for me.

Yesterday I had the afternoon off so my plan was to go and fish a different river, as I am getting very despondent fishing the river that I am currently fishing but when I pulled up at the car park I spotted the water laying on the surface of the grass and thought to myself “if I go in there then I am not coming out again” so I carried on driving to my usual river.

I walked up and down to have a look at the river but each area looked pretty much the same and as I have spent so much time on here in the past it is difficult to find new areas to fish. I settled into the swim where I had my PB from last season, that seems so long ago now and when I think about it I have only caught one fish between then (Oct 14^th 2009) and now as I write from this river…………….. That is a very poor return by any ones standards.

Sitting there was difficult to be honest, my confidence has taken a real hammering on this river, I need to make a break and fish elsewhere but I am too stubborn!

I lasted to around 8.00pm before the cold got too me, it was the excuse I was looking for I think, so I packed up and headed for home and a nice glass of Rioja.

Back to the pond tomorrow.

Brown goldfish?..........................

2011-02-13T19:45:00.001Z

Today was wet and windy and it got rather cold towards the end of the day but I still enjoyed my few hours out this afternoon at the little pond.

I collected my friend en-route and arrived at the pond just before 2.00pm, we had both decided to fish the other side to where we normally do for a change. Setting up and plumbing the water in front of me revealed it to be around five foot deep and a large “perch bobber’ type float with a lob worm was positioned right by the sunken lily pads and my other rod was to be fished using a maggot and a small float.

I was soon into small roach on the maggot rod and I have a small perch let go of the worm once I had got him up to the surface. My friend caught a ‘brown goldfish’ soon after casting out weighing in at about a pound; fishing in the next peg he popped round to show me, as I have never seen one before. He caught several earlier on in the week and the bailiff informed him that they where ‘brown goldfish’!

A 'brown goldfish!'

It’s is funny, I have never heard off or seen one of these fish before but I managed to catch five of them today, my friend had several more as well, and I have never caught one before today but once I caught one they seemed to come along like busses. I caught mine on single maggot and whole lobworms as well; my friend seemed to be catching his on lobworm tails. Looking at the fish they appear to be some sort of small carp and the have a lateral line that looks like it has a stitch running along this line, a tiny horizontal black line running along the scales.

I have enjoyed my day today and it has started me thinking of next season, do I want to river fish next season, I am not too sure I do, the more I think about it the more I want to give them a miss and stick to the still waters.

Still with a dry net.....................

2011-02-12T15:59:00.000Z

I have been out a couple of times this week on the river and on both occasions I have come home with a dry net!

Tuesday evening saw me on the river for a couple of hours where of fished a couple of areas but nothing was doing.

Last night it was standing room only on the river, the car park was rammed with vehicles. I fished a swim that I am not to use too and managed to land a large willow branch twice but it alluded me on both occasions. I think with the change in the weather it is bringing more people out onto the banks with the hope of catching a barbel or two before the end of the season.

Off to the pond tomorrow, I am going to have a few hours after lunch.

2011-02-06T17:20:00.000Z

I took at trip to my little pond again today with my float rod and a new ‘match style’ reel. I have decided to by a small ‘match’ reel to use instead of my 54, I have found that the line lay on the Cardinal is not the best when casting small and light floats around so I have bought a reasonably priced ‘match’ reel.

The weather was quite blustery and I felt there could be some rain today; I did have a few spots of rain but nothing serious. I had some maggots with me and cranking things up a notch I took some brown crumb ground bait as well. I found in one of the many buckets that are in my garage one that was half full of brown crumb, I really do not know when I bought it or how long it has been in my garage but I thought today was the day to take some along.

Lots of small roach just like this one.

I had my first bite on my second cast and it produced a lovely little roach, the next hour or so would see me bouncing off, puling out or just missing bites. I changed my hook link several times convinced I had a blunt hook but every time I struck into a fish I contrived to loose it one way or another. I changed to yet another hook link and started to catch again, I scratched my head trying to work out what was going on!

I have lost a couple of larger fish in this pond, there are small carp in it, and again I lost two substantially larger than I am used to fish, one weeded me and the other snapped my 1.8lbs bottom. So I decided to fish with my 4lbs main line straight through to see if I could catch what ever it was that kept breaking me, the bites dried up. I changed back to a 1.8lbs bottom and the bites started again catching lots of small roach and smaller perch and once again I snapped up on something larger. I cast my second rod into the area where I am getting snapped up, this rod has 6lbs line straight through, a size 8 hook and a huge lobworm intended for a big perch or at least that is the theory. I continue to get bites and catch roach and perch on my float rod but nothing on the second rod although the line did straighten once but then slackened off.

Anyway, I ended the day with a good bag of roach and perch and flummoxed by what ever it is that keeps snapping me up. I am pleased with my new reel, it sit very nicely on my rod and is a smooth as. I will be back there again for a few hours next weekend.

Getting bored........................

2011-02-05T13:45:00.001Z

I have been out a couple of times this week to the river with no success at all, I have fished several swims with a couple of different baits but nothing has happened.

There have been plenty of people on the rivers and I am inclined to believe that something must have been caught as the same areas are being targeted by lots of rods, everyone is fishing with two rods at the moment down there.

I fished one swim, I cast out and snagged, lost my lead. The second cast into a different area of the swim I snagged something else, lost the lead and the hook link this time, that should have told me to go home but I didn’t.

I used some pellet mash last night, the first time in a while and instantly remembered why I stopped using it………………. It stinks, my hands and clothes absolutely stink of pellet and when I had to retie a rig last night the pellet oil on my hands made it nigh on impossible to tie it without it slipping.

I am beginning to get fed up with this barbel fishing lark, my enthusiasm is definitely on the wane where barbel is involved. I have fished long and hard for them for the past fifteen or so seasons now, maybe next season it is time to look elsewhere to cast a line. I have just spooled up a new reel with some light line to go float fishing tomorrow and I cannot wait, where as thinking about which nights to go out barbel fishing next week has me coming up with all sorts of excuses as to why I cant go!

Weekend away..........................

2011-01-30T20:05:00.000Z

I fished on Thursday with a friend on the same pond as Wednesday and between us we caught a few fish, I had another fairly decent roach and lost something that felt so much bigger……………… all lost fish are so much bigger!

Saturday and Sunday saw four of us head down to Christchurch to fish the Royalty on the Saturday and then to Throop for the Sunday, staying at the Royalty View guest house on the Saturday night.

I fished in the car park pool with two dead baits for pike and the wind was bitter but I had been told that pike had come out of the pool in previous days so I toughed it out. I did have some other advise but some one else was fishing there. One of my friends also fished the day for pike, dead baits before lunch and lures after lunch. My other two friends trotted all day with floats and maggots for one small brown trout between them.

Sunday and after a great cooked breakfast we collected out tickets for the Throop and headed of, in the wrong direction to start with but we eventually found the river.

It was a chilly start to the morning and like the others I wrapped up warm, later when the sun came out I was beginning to rue the amount of clothing I had put on. The Stour is a lovely river, I have only seen it twice but I really like the place. Anyway, three of us trotted with maggots and had a few minnows and a perch between us, one of us pike fished and drew a blank.

Hard conditions and not really knowing the river probably did not help our cause but we enjoyed our weekend away, we had a good curry and some great beer on Saturday night and I am sure we will be back down there again sometime soon.

A fish at last.......................

2011-01-26T18:47:00.000Z

No not a barbel but I did have a lovely few hours fishing a small pond today. Although the weather was not the best, very grey and overcast and drizzle came in patches I still enjoyed my few hours.

My wife and daughter have bought me a new Drennan float rod as a birthday present and being a big kid I was very eager to try it out and with the rivers being a little out of sorts at the moment I decided to go to a pond today.

I found a nice little spot, tackled up and fired out a few maggots over my float. I had a large worm free lined to my right hand side next to an old patch of lilies and I was float fishing over a small drop off. The rain was to start soon after I cast out and it took me a while to start catching fish but once they started to bite they kept on coming to the net.

A nice roach, for me anyway!

I caught a fair few on the float, topped by a lovely roach of 1.4lbs and I had a small perch on my free lined lobworm………………. Happy days!

Back there tomorrow with a friend for another go.

Update..................

2011-01-22T21:32:00.000Z

Well, i have been out three times since Monday evening.

Monday, i got absolutely soaked to the skin, i was roving around trying different swims for a half hour at a time, travelling light with no umbrella and no bites!

Wednesday, i sat it out in one swim and had no action!

Tonight, Saturday, i tried a couple of swims but again not a sniff. The afternoon was pleasant enough but once the wind picked up it was bitter down there and with the water temperature at 39 degrees i knew i was on a hiding to nothing.

Getting really fed up with this barbel fishing lark, still i have a few days of this next week coming so i am going to try and catch a big perch................... at least i think i am :)

No fish yet.......................

2011-01-15T14:39:00.002Z

An earlier finish than usual from work saw me on the river around six’ish last night. I was surprised to see it was still in its banks and that the flow was not a much as I thought it would be after the recent rain we have had.

There where a few cars in the car park this evening and for once the owners of the cars where fishing the same part of the river as I was, usually most head of upstream or seem to have done this season.

I settled into my chosen swim, the one I had planned to fish, and cast a small boilie with a small bag of crumbled boilie into the river. Pulling back I found the small patch of gravel and I was happy that my bait was in the right place. Having left home earlier than normal I had made a food flask full of Thai Green Curry soup and after polishing that off toot sweet, must remember to get some more of that it was lovely, I started to trickle in some broken bits of boilie into the swim.

The forecast was for rain this evening but the skies had cleared and a cool breeze was coming across the fields bring the air temperature down and the bright moon light I don’t think helped my cause. I had a couple of more casts and changed swims after about an hour and half but I could not tempt a bite. A couple of the other fishermen walked past me a bit later but they had no luck, things are a little grim down there at the moment.

Back out again Monday evening of the weather is ok, my luck is going to change soon, I can feel it!

Too cold for me....................

2011-01-09T20:51:00.000Z

Today the sun was shining and it was warm…………. For a while anyway.

I had a few hours to myself so I went to the river with a bucket of maggots and a float rod. On arrival I must admit to being somewhat surprised at the level of the river and the colour of it. The river must have been at least two foot up and it had that chocolate tinge to it, this was not what I was expecting to be honest and my confidence nose-dived.

I started off in a couple of glides where I had caught fish before and never managed a bite, there was nothing was showing at all. I moved down the river to a couple of other glides but nothing happened. All the time I was wandering around I kept thinking that conditions where ideal for barbel.

I returned home and swapped my float gear for my barbel gear and was on the river within an hour and a half with a large lump of meat cast out under an over hanging tree branch and a boilie in a depression midstream. All was well and my confidence was strangely high and the sun was warm on my back.

My plan was to stay until around nine o’clock but once the sun went down and the skies cleared the temperature dropped to minus one and I had a light ice forming on my chair! When the wife rang me and told me that she would be dishing up diner around six thirty I was thrown into a quandary, sit there and freeze or go home and enjoy a Sunday roast.

It was a tough choice but I believe I made the right one.

The first fish of the New Year...............

2011-01-02T20:26:00.000Z

An early start for myself, James and Wayne as we head of to the Royalty for the day, armed with our float rods with no thought of barbel…………… well not until it was too late, when we arrived it looked like the river may just give up one of her precious barbel, not to worry we are here to trot for the day.

We bought our tickets from the tackle shop and headed down the small lane to the car park. Every time I drive down that lane I often think I would love to live down there, such a lovely little lane.

A very poor picture

The river appeared to be quite low, certainly lower than we had seen it before, we discussed this while tackling a brace of “dog’ rolls supplied by Wayne (married life has definitely changed himJ). We tackled up and headed off on our separate ways, well I went in a different direction to them two. I headed for the boathouse pool to fish it from the top corner trotting down towards the boathouse. On my third trot through with a single white maggot on a size 18 hook and 1.5lbs bottom I hooked a fish. This fish shot up river, then down then back up and ran me ragged, I panicked because I had no idea what I had hooked and with the very light tackle I was using I did not want to try and bully the fish to the net. I eventually landed my first ever sea trout, not a big one, I would say it was somewhere between 1.5 and 2lbs in size. Initially I thought it was a salmon, no I have never seen one of those on the bank either but after a conversation with the bailiff he told me there where a good few sea trout in the river so I figured there was a good chance it was a sea trout and not a salmon. I took a picture using my phone camera but it is poor to say the least, I had opted to leave my proper camera at home, what a fool! (I have since looked up a sea trout and it looked pretty much just like the fish I caught)

After a few more trots through I move up stream and saw both James and Wayne fishing the Trammels area and Wayne was soon into a fish. His rod was hooped over and it appeared to be a good fish, a good fish up until he landed it! Even from where I was stood I could see his embarrassment and James had a huge smirk on his face…………………. He had caught a Royalty bream LOL.

We fished on, I fished several swims but with no success so when lunchtime arrived we took a break and had a very nice lunch in a local pub. After lunch we returned with a newfound optimism and it worked for both James and Wayne, James had a brace of chub and Wayne landed a very small brown trout. I trotted on but failed to get another bite.

Looking up-river with the left hand side.

The river kept dropping, I was later informed that it was a due to the tide going out, again I took a couple of poor quality pictures of the boathouse pool but I don’t think they show how low the river was.

I packed away my tackle with a smile, I had enjoyed my day out with a couple of really nice guy’s who love their fishing, I had caught a fish from the river and it was a first ever fish as well………………… I know, it doesn’t really count as it was a fluked fish but let me revel in some glory first before shooting me down JJJ

Trout, trout and more trout................ and a couple of ladies as well!

2010-12-31T18:22:00.000Z

Today was my last session of this decade and I spent it on the banks of the wonderful river Kennet.

I have been invited to fish in the annual “The Tarnished Tail Club” Grayling day out at Barton Court. We met up in the car park at around 7.30am and introductions where made, rods tackled up with some quick chitchat and we where away.

My plan of attack for the day was to trot with my cane and Cardinal 54 using maggots as bait and hopefully get a good bend or two in the rod but alas the cane became very infuriating and I soon changed it for a carbon float rod. For some reason today using the cane meant every cast saw a tangle of some sort, I am at a loss as to why. While I was tackling up my carbon rod my friend Mark landed two very nice trout from the car park pool, they where lovely fish and they where definitely “keepers”………………. Not that any of us did.

I wandered along one bank trying every likely looking glide and back eddy but with no luck until I found a small sluice gate and fished into the tail of the run off. My second trot through saw me hook and land a Grayling, not huge but as it turned out it was big enough. I wandered on round the river trotting through everywhere that looked likely to hold a fish or two but nothing was interested. One of the other guys caught a decent sized roach from the glide behind me and another one of our party had a couple of trout in the glide just down stream from me so people where catching fish which was good to see.

Around 11am we met up at the hut and had bacon and sausage butties and a mug of coffee, all kindly supplied by the organiser of our day out, we had a quick chat and again we where off to fish.

One of many!

I returned to the small pool where I had caught my Grayling from and proceeded to catch lots of trout both brownies and rainbows, I also had a brace of smaller Grayling but lost a good-sized one to an inadequate hook hold!

I eventually gave up after catching lots of trout I stopped counting after fifteen. I wanted to catch more Grayling but was unable to locate any more, the ones that where in my glide where spooked away by the greedy trout.

As it turned out the first Grayling I caught was good enough to take the trophy and the roach caught by James was good enough to take the “other species” trophy. I think everyone caught lots of trout but very few Grayling.

I have had a lovely day out with some really nice people on a wonderful river, cant wait for the next one.

Have a wonderful New Year.

Years end....................

2010-12-23T19:24:00.000Z

Well it’s the end of the year and with the snow and the festivities both upon us apart from a day on the Kennet with some friends on New Year’s Eve I cannot see me being out on the banks again this calendar year.

This is my second attempt at ‘blogging’; my first ‘blog’ disappeared into the ether never to be seen again. Where it went I do not know, the IT guru at work suggested that it had been deleted…………… if it was then it was not by me!

I have tried hard to keep my blog as readable as I possibly can, I know it is not to everyone’s taste but I have had a look at the statistics related to my blog and it would appear that I have had over 5000 hits during the ten or so months it has been going. I have had people from as far a field as Australia, Uzbekistan, several from Russia and a couple in the USA all who have read my blog at some stage this year. I have published over 120 comments left by readers, there has been a few that I have not published and will not publish, language such as that used in those comments do not deserve any air time anywhere.

I know there are far more popular bloggers out there but I will continue on in the New Year and hopefully keep my blog as simple and readable as I can.

Have a great Christmas and a very good New Year to you all and thank you for logging in.

My River...............

2010-12-18T19:20:00.001Z

Sitting one afternoon watching a stationary rod tip, the barbel where obviously content to sit in their snaggy homes rather than breaking cover and fall foul to one of my baits. I began thinking about “my river”. You know the one, the river we all have in our heads, the one we all want to discover and want to keep to ourselves.

The river I want to discover has to be small and intimate, a stream really not a river, a river sounds to big and far to important too never have been discovered. I do not want it too be too long but not too short either, around a mile or so in length will do. I want to have discovered it while out with an old fashioned map book, looking for another larger river but stumbling upon this small an insignificant thread of water, threading its way alone quietly and unassuming across meadow and field, through an old and ancient copse. I want it to make me instantly forget about whatever river it was I was I had originally looking for. The car park needs to be ever so slightly over grown, to have that abandoned and forgotten look about it; it is a car park but only if you are not to worried about the odd scratch to your vehicle. The padlock on the gate will be rusty but it works, magically with the club key that I have in my possession at the time, I really do not recall this river being listed in my club handbook.

I need to park up and decide that this is an opportunity far to good to be missed so you I will pull on my boots and with a small bucket of bait a few bits and pieces, a rod and a landing net I will decide to ‘explore’ my new river. And it will be my new river because I have discovered it; no one has been here for a long time.

I am now walking along the slightly over grown and un-kept banks when I push my nose through the nettles, wild grasses and rushes to see the water and within an instant I will have that child like wonderment welling up inside me, pushing all that adult stuff to the back of my mind. Water has the ability to all distract all fishermen, hold them with a child like fascination. How many times have you poked you head over a bridge parapet and grinned like a small child, your imagination running wild and that is long before you spot any sort of fish…………… if like me then it is every single time water comes into your sight line.

I will spot a shadow in the weeds, not quite seeing the whole fish but my heart will skip a beat because it is a barbel, no mistaking that tail, nothing has a tail quite like the barbel. I will cautiously throw out a small handful of sweet corn, bright and instantly recognised by all that swims as a good food source, the fish will move to intercept a grain a returns to her station. I will see smaller fish a little down stream are intercepting the grains as the run through the glide, roach, red eyed and red finned and large, a winning combination in any fisherman’s book. I will flick out another two or three grains of corn and again the barbel moves effortlessly and intercepts two this time and returns to her station the third grain drifting along to be fought over by the roach. I will estimate the size of the barbel at around three pounds, not huge but all barbel regardless of their size are a prize to be held, especially from a new place.

Half an hour has ticked by; I am not too worried, today I have all afternoon and I decide to look a bit further down the river. I come across an over hanging bush, I can see the polished gravel, gleaming like fools gold on the river’s bed, running below the bush on the river bed, my instinct tells me that this is a feeding area and a popular one at that. I deposit a small handful if corn grains onto the run and sit back and wait to see what happens. I can see swallows in the skies, I can hear a black bird, there are wood peckers in the copse to my right, I heard at least two earlier doing their worst to an old silver birch tree and I have just heard a kingfisher’s high pitched squeaks as it signals to all and sundry that it is coming full steam ahead down the river, it passed in a neon flash. I can see a pair tree creepers running up and down a tree trunk as I am sitting there, coots and moorhens are arguing further downstream, they are the original feuding neighbours, they will never live together in harmony. I can see alders and willows along the banks, there is a gnarled old oak standing proud in the field behind me, how many stories could it tell if could talk, I am sure it must be three or so centuries old. How the world has changed since it was a tiny acorn.

The grains are still there after a long half hour so I move on to another area, slightly wider and slightly slower this time, cabbages are on the inside bank and where they end the water is deeper and darker. Casting in a small lead and counting down it appears to be nearly nine feet deep, pulling the lead back gently along the bottom it reveals a area of silt and a there is gravel there also, this is noted.

I have been ‘discovering’ my river for several hours now and many plans are being formulated in my head, all thoughts of fishing today are pushed aside, discovering and charting a new river are far too important to worry about casting a bait. I have watched several small barbel leisurely going about their business, not hurrying, just behaving as Mother Nature had intended, I observed perch smashing into minnows, scattering them across the surface of the river, I saw a menacing looking “jack’ pike lurking in the cabbages earlier on, as with all “jacks” they do not need to be doing anything to look like they are up to no good, there are to my mind the delinquents of all water systems. On the bed of fool’s gold I found earlier I espy a pod of larger barbel, large enough to justify my mad grin and that self-congratulatory ‘told you there would be a big fish in here’ speech I am giving myself. Six large fish came into view and picked those grains of corn up that you scattered under the bush earlier on. I had almost walked past the bush before I remembered those two-dozen or so grains I had left there earlier. Once I peer in I instantly become a voyeur, a voyeur into the watery world of the barbel, as much as I watch barbel I will never start to begin to understand these beautiful creatures of the river. There are larger than the ones I was watching upstream with their dark olive back, bronzed flanks, they are lean and fit, it is as if they have just swam out off the pages a book. My jaw has dropped; I am starting to grin and shake, laughing quietly to myself. If some one were unfortunate enough to see me at that instant they would have mistaken me for an escapee from Bedlam but discovered rivers do not get any better than this and at that moment in time I did not care what any one might think of me, I had just stumbled upon my “perfection”

My next visit to the river is to be a week later, I was so very careful to mark its location on the map, and even so I still managed to loose it for an hour or so before finding it again. Everything has conspired against me this past week, some unknown force has played cruel tricks on me, robbing me of that time to fish, time for my plans to be set into motion, all the money in the world cannot stop the clock ticking. I pull into the car park and I am relieved to see no fresh tyre tracks, no one has discovered my ‘river’ in my prolonged absence. Tackle is a bare minimum, small rod, centre pin reel and a bag of corn, the “Golden Grains”.

Dropping my first baited hook into the area where I saw the small barbel a week before and you wait………………… not to long, the bait is taken and a short fight later see’s the most perfect barbel on the bank I have ever seen, all 12oz of her. When they are this small they are absolutely perfect, every scale is perfect, the fins are perfect and the shape is exactly how a barbel should be. If I could catch fish like this every time I cast a bait I would be a very happy and satisfied man. Sometimes, well most of the time, size is deemed important but small barbel are just too perfect to be ignored.

My day ends with a larger fish breaking me and leaves me laughing, several small fish have fallen to my bait that day and the large one got away. Why are the ones that get away always large fish, you never see them but you just know they are big, you never have a tail to tell of the small fish that got away.

When will I get back there, not this week that is for sure, family and work are calling, barbel will always come a close third to family and work.

Chasing the ladies....................

2010-12-11T20:50:00.000Z

The weather has warmed up today for the first time in a while and I have the day to myself…………………… so I am off fishing!

My enthusiasm for all things barbel has taken a serious nosedive recently, is it the weather?, I don’t know but today I will be chasing the “ladies of the stream”.

I collected my maggots from my local tackle shop, lovely people in there, always served with a smile and always chatty, their maggots are always top quality. A quick drive to collect my friend and we are off to a small section of the river Wey.

There are more cars there today that I have ever seen there before but there is plenty of room on the river section especially when the others fishing are fishing the first one hundred yards of the river. We tackle up and then wander up the small river; I start to fish the first long straight and my friend wanders further up to a very lovely looking glide.

A small handful of maggots are tossed into the water around the float as it trundles down the river following the flow and remaining just above the water enough to show me that there is no interest in my bait. I move on to the next glide and then the next and the same story unfolds, the float trundles along on its merry way without disturbance from anything other than the odd sunken snag or dead weed bed. I received a phone call from my friend the “RodBender” and true to form he had a beautiful “lady” in the net, a fish of about a pound and a half looking resplendent in very grey conditions. A very quick picture and she was returned to the water, sitting there for a moment regaining her composure and the turning in the current and disappearing. That was the closest I came to a fish today.

We fished on, running our floats through every likely looking glide without any luck, I did have a couple of bites but they where at such a distance I did not manage to make contact with the fish. I was using a thirteen foot float rod and I was wishing that maybe I had a longer rod to pick the line up at distance a lot quicker, another rod to add to the collection, a collection that will only ever stop when I am dead and buried J. I saw a couple of deer grazing in the fields behind us and a large black and white cat on the opposite bank which at first glance appeared to be stalking my friend but settled for a mouse to take home for tea instead.

I have enjoyed my day trotting on a small river today, a dry net admittedly but that does not spoil my enjoyment, it is lovely just to be out there, enjoying a lovely place with a good friend.

I have the day off next Sunday, I hope to be on a river somewhere again chasing the “ladies” but then again the pike are calling.

I wonder how my friend Peter Kaye faired today?

Best laid plans and all that.........................

2010-11-28T19:13:00.002Z

The plan today was to fish a very nice piece of the Hampshire Avon, I have a couple of friends who look after the stretch and where quite happy for me to go down there today and chance my arm.

Well that was the plan but after a long hard struggle with a rather fine bottle of white port the night before I lost the fight, woke up late with a thumping headache and decided to stay locally for the day.

The river looked really good when I arrived and with the air temperature at -3 I thought I would have the river to myself, no such luck, there where another two fool hardy souls on the river!

I had a bucket of maggots and half a dozen slices of bread as bait, a float rod and a light Avon rod. The plan was to trot with maggots and then if a chub showed any interest then I would use the Avon with a large piece of bread to try and tempt a chub. As with any best-laid plans things don’t often happen as you plan them. I could not find any small fish and the chub where conspicuous by their absence.

I walked up and down any tried my luck in most swims, in one I found an area in the middle of two flows where the float would sit quite still and not move. Three or four times I cast into this area to make sure I was not snagging the bottom but there the float sat as still as you like. It amused me for a couple of minutes until I realized there where no fish in the area so I moved on.

The bank was really cold, the air temp was below zero but the new boots kept my feet really warm and dry so I am really pleased I bought them.

Standing watching a float trundle down the river makes me realize that there is so much more to fishing than sitting behind two stationary barbel rods. For too many seasons now I have been obsessed beyond reason trying to catch barbel but I think that may well be coming to an end. It has been such a long time since I have caught carp and pike, roach and tench; I will be re-focusing next season and looking at some different places to fish.

I have next Saturday off so the pike rods will get a dusting down and at dawn I will cast my first pair of dead baits into the lake after my old friend the pike……………….. That is if the weather is conducive and the port bottle does not resume the battle J

At last a bite......................

2010-11-23T19:03:00.000Z

There was only one other car in the car park last night when I arrived which surprised me because the weather was quite pleasant when I arrived around 8pm.

Unashamedly I headed for one of the nearest swims, I was only there for a couple of hours so I did not want to wander too far so I dropped into the second swim from the car park.

The river was looking good, slightly lower from when I was down last time and there was hardly any rubbish coming down the river. Both rods went out, one with a choco-orange boilie with a paste wrap and the other had a different boilie with a stringer attached.

I had to recast around half past nine, a drifting reed stem caught my line and dragged my bait out of position. I cast a bit further down from where I was sitting and just after ten I had my first bite in ages. The rod tip pulled round with that jagged motion and then straightened back, this put me in a quandary. I was already late, I wanted to have left the river by now but…………………

I gave it another hour but the bite did not develop any further.

Of to the Avon at the weekend, roach will be target and maybe a pike or two, that’s if the weather holds.

Still no fish.................

2010-11-21T11:05:00.003Z

I have not posted for a while simply because there is not a lot going on!

I have had several sessions since my last post without any sort of interest what so ever in my baits. The weather is a little hit and miss, one aborted session a week or so ago i was pulling on my leggings when the thermometer showed that the air temperature was minus three! Any of you who read this will probably agree that fishing for barbel in temperatures as that is sheer folly, so i went home to watch the Manchester derby, i wish i had stayed put!

Last Saturday saw my brother on the river with me but family matters dictated that i had to leave fairly shortly after arrival and as my brother was a guest he had too leave too. As the conditions looked very good he was understandably very annoyed as was i but the wife rarely asks me to come home so when she does i duly oblige.

I was out last night, fished a totally different area of the river but again not action, the temperature was not that low but when i left just after nine o'clock there was no other cars in the car park, i was surprised.

Looking at the long range forecast it appears that from Wednesday onwards it is going to turn quite cold so i hope to get out on Monday evening and see what happens after that, if it is too cold next weekend i think i may well dust down the pike rods and have a nice day out fishing for my old adversary.

Good luck if you are out this week.

A very cold day....................

2010-11-08T12:08:00.000Z

I ventured out again yesterday mid afternoon to fish the river, the sun was shining and I was glad to be outside.

On arrival to the river there was only one other car in the car park so I decided to walk along the river to see what she was looking like. She was a little on the low side with very little colour but there was lots of rubbish flowing down the river.

I settled into a swim where the bank was slightly higher behind me, the wind although not strong was cold and it was coming across the fields and after about an hour I felt I had at least made the right choice comfort wise.

Two baits where placed on close to the bank just far enough out to avoid the weeds on the inside but not too far out that I would catch most of the debris coming down the river and there was a lot more now that earlier when I had a walk along the bank.

Bait today was the successful (successful when I used it on the Royalty last J) chocolate orange boilies, one had a matching paste wrapped around it and the other had a small PVA bag of small pellets and crumbled boilie attached to the hook. Short’ish hook links where deployed and a small back lead was attached about three foot up from the swivel. Using a back lead I hoped would help keep the hook free of any debris that would wrap itself around my line.

Once the sun went down the temperature really started to plummet, don’t get me wrong it was not too warm when I arrived but the sunshine leads you to believe it is warmer than it actually is. I popped back to the van to find another fleece and my leggings and began to feel a lot warmer. I have recently bought a pair of Muck Boots and last night I was very impressed as to the way they kept my feet warm and dry, my walking boots I think have now past their sell by date and are destined for the bin.

I have also changed my reels over from the tangled ridden Shimano’s and have gone back to using my trusted old Suveran’s. After a few casts I began to wonder why they have been sat on the self for so long, I know the Shimano’s have a bait runner facility but I am having real trouble with mine, probably down to poor angling I know but they are not inspiring confidence.

At one stage during the evening there was a thin layer of ice forming on the back of my chair, the chilly air temperatures and the chilled wind combined to make a cold few hours, once the cloud started to come over the evening began to feel a little warmer.

You have probably guessed by now that all this rambling is heading to a dry net evening and you will have guessed correctly. Today the wind is lashing the rain against the windows as I write this so I am wondering when I will get out again, hopefully tomorrow evening but it may be Wednesday.

A brace of blanks...................

2010-11-06T12:02:00.000Z

Not a lot to report on my side of the fishing to be honest, I was drenched last night while messing around with my bloody bait runners, they are destined for the bin I feel!

I fished for a couple of hours last Tuesday evening but never had a touch; much the same as last night.

While at a local supermarket today my daughter waited very patiently to make a donation to the old guy with a box of poppies. He was obviously being berated on the mobile phone by someone as all he kept saying was “yes I am sorry, no I wont do it again”. He put the phone in his pocket and turned to my daughter with a smile and told her it was his wife on the phone and he was in trouble, “good job I have a big box of poppies to shift today” and laughed.

Driving home it made me chuckle, there he was, dress immaculately with a huge amount of medals adorning both sides of is jacket, I can only imagine the horrors he faced while in service but the thought of going home to an irate wife made him think twice…………………….. how many of us big and ugly and all as we are have been in that boat LOL

On another note, well done to Simon Asbury on his momentous capture this week of the river Dove record barbel. I have met Simon on a few occasions through both our associations with the Teme Severn bait team and a nicer more down to earth guy you will not meet. Its been a good year for him, an new arrival in the family and a record fish……………….. well done mate, really am chuffed for you.

Right, into the garage now to change the reels over, going to dust down the Suverans, they have caught me a lot of fish in the past, not sure why I ever changed from using them (scratching the head icon).

Be lucky.

A Royalty double.......................

2010-10-28T16:54:00.000+01:00

After spending a couple of hours yesterday soaking up the rain on the river while trying in vain to tempt a decent sized perch a trip to the Royalty to fish for barbel in what promised to be a dry warm day was just the tonic.

The plan was to fish the river on the night ticket, something I have not done before but my friend who was with me has done several times before and very successfully. I took advice from another friend, Paul Martin, and ended up fishing a swim that I sort of had in mind but with the advise of both friends I cast into an area that maybe I would not have. The river was running a couple of inches higher than when my friend was there on Friday evening and running clear. There where a few anglers there but not as many as I thought there would be.

My friend Kevin was to start around Waters Meet and then he moved to lower down the river, he ended the evening with a bream for his efforts.

Around six o’clock I had a slow but positive bite on my right hand rod, this had a small choco-orange boilie with a little paste wrapped around it. I struck into the fish positively and the fish kept low and powering up the river testing the clutch of my reel. I was trying to treat the fish with ‘kid gloves’; I did not want this fish to be yet another lost fish either through hook pulls, line/hook links breakage or any other sort of gremlins I have been suffering with this season. The fish eventually came to the surface and I immediately saw the length of the fish and I felt a mild panic starting to creep through me, I definitely did not want to loose this fish.

I managed, more through luck the judgement, to position the fish upstream from my net and let her glide straight into the net……………. Perfect.

I called my friend Kevin and he helped me weigh and photograph the fish and then return her safely to the river, she took a couple of minutes but she was away strongly to hopefully be a prize for some other lucky angler.

It is only my second Avon barbel but the difference in the colouration of them to the fish I am used to catching from my local rivers. The deep bronze colouration on her back was stunning; she was long and lean and looked an extremely fit fish.

Sitting there with that stupid “I have had a Royalty 12.10 barbel” grin on my face it really did not bother me much that I had only a couple of half hearted knocks for the rest of the evening. As I always do I sent out a few text messages to friends to let them know, I know its childish but I always do it, some of them where very kind with their return messages.

We left around eleven o’clock, there was a lot more rubbish coming down the river, the swans where up stream from me and I think they where rooting up the bottom and releasing lots of weed which kept wiping me out.

I was chuffed to bits, I had just had a river best.

Happy days.....................

2010-10-25T18:14:00.001+01:00

Today Fiona and I decided to go and try to catch a few fish, I have the week off, as does Fiona, it is her half term.

We decided to visit Pavilions Pond, it is on one of the tickets I hold, Fiona can fish there with me on my ticket unlike the other ticket I hold, their rules state I must buy her a guest ticket or a child ticket for the season. That is such a shame as the two of us enjoyed a day out during the summer on one of their ponds, it was only after I found out I need to buy her a ticket for the day.

Anyway, armed with a bucket of maggots and large helping of enthusiasm we set of to fish for a couple of hours fishing. The pond is small, an acre or two in size with lots of good stages for us both to sit and fish safely, in fact there where at least two other guys there with their off spring so it would appear it is a popular venue for children.

We tackled up, just the one-rod between us and while plumbing the area in front of me I was soon to find the drop off which was quite step and quite deep. We cast out and where soon getting bites. The bites where infuriatingly unhittable, it took several attempts before we landed a perch and a roach between us. It was very chilly on this side of the pond so we moved around and sat in the sun. After about half an hour we moved again, it was scorching in the direct sun light.

The last swim we fished gave us a few more fish, perch and roach, and again had a very steep drop off a couple of rod lengths out, it would appear that the pond is quite steep sided under the water.

I had a lovely couple of hours out fishing with my daughter, really took me back to when I used to fish with my dad, something I have not done for quite sometime now.

BBbrrrrrrrrr.............

2010-10-24T15:38:00.000+01:00

The cold evenings are still here and the fish seem to have gone missing!

Nothing to report really, i am still out there trying hard using a few different baits but with very little is falling to my rods.

I have a week off now, i am going out perch fishing on Tuesday, it will kill two birds with one stone, i can have a look at other parts of the river while fishing with lures for perch.

Fingers crossed.

Perch in the sunshine......................

2010-10-17T20:06:00.002+01:00

I spent a few hours on the river this afternoon with a bucket of lobs and a quiver tip rod in a vain attempt to catch a monster perch.

Driving to the river my hopes where beginning to fade as the sun was getting brighter but hey ho, in for a penny in for a pound as they say. The car park had a few cars in it and I could see a couple of the swims I had in mind where vacant so my spirits lifted slightly.

My tackle was really as simply as could, a free running ring and a short power gum link with a couple of the Fox weights on it, just enough to hold bottom and a size ten hook and a big lob on the end. I cast into the first swim and held the worm back until it was just under a weed raft and I waited almost heron like. This was the swim where a largish perch grabbed a minnow a couple of weeks ago but today with the sun high in the sky and the air temperature quite high there was nothing doing, no twitches or knocks.

I moved swim and tried again with the same results, no action. In my third swim I managed to catch a small perch of about 12-14 ounces, a stroppy little thing that had gulped a huge worm down almost to it tail, getting the hook out was a major feat but the small fish swam away with a swagger to fight another day. Is this a common problem with perch, do they always deep hook themselves or is my technique not quite up to scratch?

That was all the action I had, I had to get home for dinner but I enjoyed myself, it is amazing what barbel fishermen will tell you when you declare you have little interest in barbel and that you where fishing for perch…………….. Well this afternoon my barbel blinkers where no where to be seen.

I am currently reading a good book about perch fishing, written by Bailey and Miller, they extol the virtues of live baiting for perch, not sure it that is quite my cup of tea to be honest but I am sure that dead baiting may well be an avenue worth exploring.

It rained!

2010-10-16T17:20:00.001+01:00

I took a wander out again last night, down to the river with the hope of catching a barbel. A friend of mine had arrived early afternoon and sent me a message telling me that he was the only one down there, great I thought, I may well get into the swim I wanted……………….. not a chance, by the time I arrived the car park had five other vehicles in it and I the swim I had in mind was taken!

I had a good catch up with my friend and when I established my intended swim was taken I set up in the swim I have had my one and only fish from the river this season.

This evening I decided to use a boilie and stringer approach, a boilie “bit” was on the hair and a few bits of boilie where strung along a length of PVA and dropped into the margin, too much rubbish in the main flow for my liking.

I think the only thing of note that happened apart from one of the other guy’s telling me he had a four pound chub was that it rained and the air temperature had dropped a bit by the time I had packed up, in fact I felt quite cold by the time I started to drive home.

I am due on the river tomorrow to perch fish up until dark and then barbel fish into dark but I think I will leave the barbel rod at home this time. I am still feeling the effects of the cursed man flu and I do not feel 100% yet.

ZZZzzzzzzzzzzz.....................

2010-10-13T18:17:00.001+01:00

I went out last night for a couple of hours, more to keep me away from the t.v. and watching yet another woeful England performance, the game to watch was my boys playing the world champions and giving them a good fright :)

I wanted to fish a certain swim but someone had beaten me too it and to my second choice swim also, so i settled into a swim just down from the carp park. I used my usual methods, mini mix mash and a boilie, and put the radio on very quietly to listen to how well England would do.

I remember the second half kicking off, when i woke up it was quarter to twelve and i was late, bugger!

Needless to say i blanked but i did have a wonderful few hours asleep LOL

Frustration.........................

2010-10-10T11:05:00.002+01:00

Yesterday saw me on the river yet again, having been confined to barracks all week with the dreaded “man flu” I was ready for some fresh air. I am useless when I am ill, I always feel like I am just about to die.

All week I was hatching a cunning plan; during the daylight hours I was going to fish for a huge (huge to me anyway) perch that grabbed a minnow a couple of weeks ago and then when the light faded I would fish for my favoured barbel.

The swim I really wanted to fish was taken as where the two other swims I had in mind so I had to have a walk and a think over where I want to cast for the perch. I settled into a swim with an overhanging tree and a weed raft at my feet, that should provide plenty of cover needed for the perch to hide.

Tackle for perch was a John Wilson Quiver system rod and my trusty 54. Now, putting this rod together is quite a feat, including the extension ‘dolly’ the rod was in five pieces and while using the rod it was very cumbersome and a really very unpleasant experience. The quiver tip was changed twice and was still very floppy yet very non-responsive (a rare feat of engineering I know) when the smaller perch where setting about my worm bait. I had one small and vey unfortunate fish almost pass the hook through it before I realised it had snatched my bait. I managed to remove the hook and the fish swam away but I am sure a more responsive set up would make the process a little less stress full for the fish. I managed to catch a few, the first was by far the best and a quick picture using the phone and it was returned safely to fight another day. I sent the picture to Monty who was having a day out on the Kennet, his response was along the lines of “what’s that, a bloody Ruffe”, my firework was well and truly extinguished J.

I set up the barbel rod, chose my spot and lower my bait in and then packed away the perch outfit, forever I feel, I really did not like using that rod. It is funny, I have had several Wilson rods in the past and they are all lovely rods to use, the blanks where soft and responsive with back bone, in fact I still use my old Wilson carp rod on occasions and do not have any complaints about the rod or the performance…………………. Maybe the blanks have been changed over the years.

After a couple of hours and after hearing a fish crashing around in the swim above me I moved into that swim. It was number two on my list of swims but was occupied when I arrived. I cast my boilie and lead wrapped with the mini mix pellet mash out into a hole where the fish was making itself heard, in honesty I have hardly ever fished this swim before and was surprised by the depth of the hole I had just cast into. After about half an hour the rod hooped over and the ratchet sang, the fish had picked up the bait and rocketed off across the river! I connected with the fish and felt a grating on the line and then “ping” no fish……………………aarrrggghhhhhhhhhhhh!

I retied a rig and recast but that was it for the evening nothing more other than a couple of liners. I did think about moving but I remained convinced that I would have another bite from that swim, there is nothing quite as optimistic as the fisherman is there?

I packed up and drove home shortly after mid-night very disappointed.

Sitting here now typing this and thinking back as one does would I have improved my chances of I had off moved? There where fish in the area, they where making it quite clear that they where around, splash and crashing as they did.

Can any of you recommend a decent perch rod by the way, it is clear that my chosen tool is not up to the job, where have I heard that before LOL.

Teme Tigers.............................

2010-10-03T19:13:00.000+01:00

I have spent my weekend on the Teme with a very good friend.

We set of on Friday afternoon and drove through some really bad weather, the rain was relentless and the traffic was slow but when we eventually arrived at the river it was a journey worth making. The rain in the valley had raised the river level slightly, around a foot I would say and there was a lot of colour in the water.

We walked down the lower part of the river and I pointed out to my friend some likely looking areas and baited a few with a handful of small pellets. We walked back to base camp and tackled up and went to catch a fish or two. The rain had abated and the sun was actually coming through the cloud filled sky, with the promise a barbel and some lovely swims to have a cast into things where good.

We did not catch anything that evening but we did enjoy a nice pasta meal and a bottle or two of red wine and some good conversation.

The next morning was to start slowly, the river had dropped and there appeared to be a little less colour in the water. After a bit of breakfast and a couple of cups of coffee I ventured into my first swim of the day, my friend was off down the river before me. Sliding down the bank and nearly into the water, hearing a loud crack and thinking “please, not my rod” I managed to break one of my landing net arms before I had even managed to cast a bait. Sitting there trying to regain my composure you begin to think of what would of happened if I had actually gone in………………. my conclusions where not good!

I moved swims and caught my first of four fish soon after, I around a foot of water close in on the bank. My friend took a few pictures (when he sends them to me I will post one up) and shortly after lunch he caught a fish himself. We wandered up and down the bank, trying all the likely looking spots, some more likely than others and while I managed a few more my friend only had the one fish.

We decided it was time for diner and he cooked up a superb curry and after coffee I was done in and turned in for the evening, I cannot believe how tiring it is sitting around all day watching a rod tip, the fresh air really takes it out of you.

It was around 1am when the rain stared, it was not that heavy but it was falling all night, I lay awake wondering if I was going to be able to drive across the fields and up the hill in the long wet grass that was growing on clay. We decided when we woke up to cut and run, head for home so we loaded up and off we went…………….. not too far! I could not get any sort of traction trying to go up the first slope so I tried the longer way around and again I was stuck, my friend was pushing the back of the van, I saw him slip over in the wing mirror and thought to myself “bloody hell mate, this is no time for clowning around, I am trying to concentrate!” I managed eventually to gain traction and we drove out of the valley very slowly and much relieved, I have not managed to get stuck before and I did not want that to change today.

We had a great weekend, even though we cut our stay short by a few hours but if we had of left after lunch as planned I am sure we would be still there trying to get to van out!

Dry net again

2010-09-29T19:20:00.000+01:00

Went down the river last night for another go to see if I could tempt a barbel to the net and to meet up with a couple of friends.

Using a chocolate orange boilie again on the hair I had mixed up a load of my seed bait with all sorts of bits and pieces in it, crumbled boilies, mini pellets and slightly larger hook bait pellets. I took with me an old carp rod to use with the dropper; my thinking was that it would cut out the need for sitting there in the dark tying a new knot to the hook link.

I droppered a couple of pints of seeds into a nice looking channel and right into the small depression in the river bank and gently lowered my bait over the top. It being a muggy and over cast evening with a hint of rain I felt really quite confident, if I did not catch a fish I was sure one of my two friends would, conditions seemed ideal.

The three of us fished up to midnight and did not have so much as a chub rattle between us, a couple of fish had been caught during the day but the evening session did not give anything up.

A weekend on the Teme is coming up this weekend with another good friends so happy days.

Nearly a stripy.................

2010-09-26T20:37:00.000+01:00

Having an afternoon off today and planning ahead by buying a couple of pints of maggots yesterday I went down the river to trot for silvers for a couple of hours.

I love spending a few hours wandering along the river with minimal tackle and trotting through any obvious swim for anything that will take a maggot. I must admit it sort of takes me back my youth when I used to have the “barest and crudest of tackle” to go fishing for anything I could catch. Catching fish smaller than the hook I was using at the time and using line you could dredge the local canal with and floats that, well didn’t float. I am sure all fishermen have gone through those times; I suppose it is all part of the “learning curve” that we all must travel to become what we are today.

I fished several swims, quite a few actually, I find that running a float through swims helps me understand where the river is flowing, where the current is at is fastest and where it is at its slowest, where the float drags along the bottom where the bottom undulates and finding the snags also. All of this information is stored for later sessions fishing for other species, it all helps build up a picture.

I caught loads of small fish; Dace being the main fish caught along with minnows, I had several small Roach as well. While reeling in one small minnow a large perch flashed out of the weed and grabbed the minnow and would not let go. I played the fish for a minute or so, using a 1.8lbs bottom made it quite hairy at times but just as I reached for the net the bugger let go!

I had four pound main line on the spool so I put on a slightly stronger hook and loaded it with maggots to try and tempt it from its lair……………… time really fly’s by when you are totally absorbed with your task and when I looked at my watch I was shocked to see that I had spent an hour trying to get another strike for my stripy predator friend but time was against me and I had to go. Another time.