watery reflections

Screaming Reel...

2012-02-26T15:52:00.006Z

After putting in mucho overtime during the week I decided to sneak off from work for a few hours on Friday morning.

A quick drive to Seeswood and I was soon waste deep in the margins chucking lures about. I took two rods on the day for different weight lures. Starting out in the first spot I opted for bigger lures first, but soon moved on to the lighter, more balanced setup. Although that still didn't raise a take in the first swim.

The second swim I had one chuck before I thought I'd hooked the bottom. At a bout 30yards there's a bed of mussels and other snags which the pike petrol but also like eating tackle, so I assumed I was hooked up on that - until the snag started taking line at a rate of knots.

My tackle was a little under-gunned, but still stood up to the fish.

This thing felt immense, especially on light tackle. Obviously my first thoughts were of when I would next have the chance to fill in the BRFC paperwork to claim the next British record pike. But the fight was all wrong, none of the usual head banging anger of a pike. This fish was all smooth force, ripping the braid off the reel and doubling up my rod as it steamed off down the lake.

With no zander or perch capable of this, my next thought was that I'd tempted one of the lakes handful of cats - or I'd hooked one of the few carp in the lake.

In she goes, but that's no pike.

About 10minutes later I found out as a right chunk of a leather carp hit the back of the net - and the front, and the sides, all at the same time. It was of course foul hooked, which was a disappointment, but it was still one of the most exciting fights I've ever experienced. On the scales it went 25lb 9oz, a new PB if it wasn't fouled.

Twice and a bit round the Avons.

Chunk! And the last thing I thought I'd be catching.

With a sore shoulder and a shot of adrenalin still circulating, I slipped her back and fished on in another two spots. One jack of a under 2lb came to a small soft plastic - not quite the same scrap as the previous fish - and then I called it a day, I wasn't going to top the buzz of the unexpected whopper!

The pike proved a bit dull after the carp.

Just a quick note on my new spinning reel, the Quantum Exo. It weighs just 6oz thanks to the extruded design, and handled the 25lb 9oz carp no worries, brilliant bit of kit.

In praise of flask

2012-01-29T20:36:00.004Z

Cold, still and clear. Even the fish knew it was pointless - but they don't have my flask.

Over the last three months I’ve purchased a total of three flasks.

The first was a stylish stainless steel number. Small, sleek and perfect for slotting in the side of the fishing bag I thought I’d done good. That was until I discovered I’d have been better storing my tea in a plastic bag – within the hour my hot drink was barely capable of melting an ice cube.

Second attempt the MO was substance over style. A large blue Thermos model was purchased. Ugly but rugged and up for the task. Except it wasn’t.

Filling this bad boy was a treat - a large opening with a capacious interior, every man’s flask dream. But that was where the nightmare began. The inaugural pouring and the sound of broken glass revealed a weakness at the top of the glass section of the flask. Disastrous, and less than 24hours after purchase. Mr Thermos, hang your vacuum insulated head in shame.

That was when I went for broke out the cheque book.

For my thirty third birthday a week or so ago I received the usual batch of bank notes from family members who didn’t have a clue what to get me. Where as at one time this would have been hastily blown on Xbox games and a new pair of the latest trainers, now at 33 I’m researching the perfect vessel for my hot beverages – I’m sure international playboys and rock stars do much the same thing.

And this is it. 1.2litres of thermal perfection. Double-walled, vacuum insulated with a hammered stainless finish and as rugged as Grizzly Adams in a stab-proof vest. First trip out, tea made at 7am, I was happily burning my tongue on the fifth cup of the day well into dark. All praise the flask.

Next week, shopping for a new anorak.

A New PB

2012-01-24T21:21:00.005Z

The last time I went to the Trent was October, the sun was shining, the water was crystal clear and all was sedate. On Monday it was a different matter.

With the river high and coloured I didn’t even recognise the peg I fished – mainly because the last time I was in it the place where I was standing was now about around 2foot under water.

Still, conditions looked perfect for a zed or two. And both my friend Dave Tipping – who invited me to fish the club section of the tidal stretch - and my hopes were high of a good day ahead.

Coo-eee. Waiting for that double...

With Dave targeting a large slack around an overhanging tree downstream, I set to work on a large structure just in from a large crease on the main flow. The four legs of the structure created a slack behind them, perfect for sheltering prey fish and a great ambush point for predators.

Rig wise it was a simple. Low resistance running leger setups, with a trace (I was trying a product called Tyger Wire but it was prone to kinking) with a 2inch roach hairrigged onto a single size 6 hook on one rod, and a strip of rainbow trout on another.

Hovering over another bleep and bobbing bobbin.

With one bait positioned to one side of the structure and one the opposite side I had small indications straight away. Some from fish, some from flotsam being thrown around in the swirl of the crease. I managed to strike into thin air a few times before something started playing with my roach bait, causing the lightweight Gardner bobbin to raise an inch before it dropped back two.

As my 1.75tc Greys rod bent over I could tell it was a zander and when its head popped up it looked a good one too. It made an effort to fight, but it was soon in the net, on the mat and unhooked.

The scales showed 7lb 8oz. A proper stunner of a fish, pristine and beautifully coloured. The best-looking zander I’ve caught to date in fact and more importantly for me, a new PB. A very exciting capture – I was shitting myself when it came to the net, convinced it would come off any second!

You beauty.

Downstream in his slack Dave had also been having luck. Two fish over 5lb, the biggest going 6lb 10oz and both taken on similar legering tactics with trout strips in single hooks.

I managed to lose one more fish in the afternoon after trying to keep it away from a dirty great snag. But, based on the run – much more obvious and clumsy than a zander – and the short scrap – lots of head shaking – I’d lay money on it being a pike.

Against usual zander wisdom, as the light levels dropped towards the end of the afternoon the indications slowed and stopped. The fact that they were feeding confidently throughout the day in the muddied water meant the darkness gave them no extra advantage to the day I suppose.

Packed up at dark I was home for tea – meaning I avoided the usual, where have you been mood from the Mrs…

Next zander trip might be to the fens I think. I’m going to do a double zed this year if it kills me, so the effort’s going in!

Feeling Pasty

2012-01-10T21:17:00.009Z

Giz a kiss.

Not a lot of blogging been going on here recently. I have been fishing, but only with lures and even though I've caught a few fish it all got a bit boring.

Well the other morning I finally broke myself out of my angling malaise and broke out the chubbing gear.

In my opinion there are few things more satisfying than small river chubbing.

Minimum tackle, roaming around targeting likely looking spots, it’s always great fun – as long as the fish are biting of course.

No such concerns on my first chub chasing session of the year though.

After mixing up a batch of stinktastic cheese paste with the Christmas cheese board left overs – luckily, no one in our house likes the whiffier stuff – as well as a few spicy extras, including chilli powder and ginger paste, I hit the Warwickshire Avon.

The new paste recipe was mighty impressive.

Over the summer it’s been so low you could walk over some of it and barely get your feet wet. Today it was perfect. Not flooded, but with a healthy amount of water and flow, and with just a tinge of colour so the fish can see the bait but not bolt for cover at your slightest twitch.

I small amount of hassle when I arrived involving a bunch of match anglers (I saw four) taking up what must have been a mile of river bank. Each one felt the need to remind me there was a match on - gotta love match anglers...

After a 40 minute yomp to a stretch that I wouldn't disturb the love children of Scotthone and Nudd through undergrowth and over farmers’ fields - I was bushed by the time I got there - I fed my first chosen swim with around eight small nuggets of paste before setting up.

River Avon gnome.

A size 8 Mugga hook tied directly on to the 5lb mainline with a double SSG link leger attached to the line via a float stop. I use a small cork ball hairrigged to the hook to wrap my paste around, it gives the bait a more natural looking balance in the water and an alluring waft in the current that the chub seem to love.

First cast and within 10minutes the tip on my Fox Specialist rod slammed round and a chub of just over 3lb is in the net. Not a bad start.

First cast this blighter turned up...

..from this swim

Onto the next swim and the pattern is repeated. Freebies chucked in, give the fish 5minutes to home in on the stink and cast out. This swim took a little longer to develop – mainly thanks to a birdwatcher coming and standing on the skyline behind me and then a miss-cast into branches. But it still delivered, another feisty chunk of around 3lbs, great fun with a light rod and loads of snags.

I think it's a... chub.

Third swim and the paste worked its 'honking' magic again. First cast and I had a rattle before the tip dropped back and then rammed round almost in the same action. This time it was a heftier chevin of 4lb 1oz.

As with the other spots, with one hooked fish having stormed around the swim, tryinh tempting another to come out of the roots was going to take time – something I didn’t have much of – so I made the move to my last swim of the session.

This spot would have made even Mr Crabtree come over all excited. An overhanging branch had made a big raft of debris on the outside of a bend with a crease running into it from a near-bank obstruction. Prime chub territory.

The paste chunks were flicked, and then shortly after the cast was made. A few rattles on the tip had me hovering over the cork, but it took a while for the fish to find any real confidence. When one did though it nearly pulled the rod off the rest. This one felt better, bending the rod right round as it strained for the safety of the raft, and no doubt a tangle of roots and other branch under the surface.

Because the lady loves milk tray - and chevins.

It finally succumbed to my bullying though, and on the scales it made the same as the previous fish at 4lb 1oz - it felt bigger in the water.

The fish slipped back, my watch beeping for midday and I was back off to the car after a very enjoyable morning.

Softly Softly...

2011-12-03T21:07:00.005Z

The water was fresssssh.

Up at the crack of dawn and out with the lure rod this morning.

Soft plastics have become a bit of a fetish in my fishing over the last couple of months. So armed with a tub of them I hit a very cold and blustery Seeswood pool.

I decided first to have a go at a bay I’ve never fished before. But within a few casts it was obvious that this wasn’t going to be a place to find pike. If it was 3foot deep in the middle it was doing well, and with a lot of the colour having dropped out of the water no self-respecting bait fish was going to be seen dead (or very soon to be dead) there. And, unless the pike had gone all veggie on me, they weren’t gonna be anywhere near the place either.

A few more chucks in swims on the way round to the other side of the water revealed a similar lack of depth pretty much all along the bank.

'Allo.

On the far side though it was a different story. In my chest waders I took the plunge as the drop off on this side is a long way out, but when it does drop off it goes down steeply to around 15 feet give or take. And that was exactly where the fish were.

Cast out, let the lure drop to the deck then twitch it up around a foot in the water and up the drop off and bang.

The first fish of around 2 to 3lb hit a glitter-specked pearl coloured Mikado 7cm shad on a 5grm jig head. The second fish, about half the size of the first, struck the same one, but with a but more zeal and I ended up taking two pieces of lure out of its teeth.

Another one bites the dust.

Switching to a perch patterned shad on the same weight head I hooked into something that felt a bit chunkier but as quick as it was hooked it was off.

Next peg and after just a few casts I hooked into something that felt a lot different to the two jacks. Small pike are manic, like e-numbered up torpedoes with teeth. Over 8lb they get a little bit more considered. This one was in that category. Besides one shake of the head it just plodded around putting a nice bend in my light Fox Rage jig rod before being guided to the net.

Tid-ler.

Biggest of the morning at 10lb 8oz. No, I don't think it looks it either. Podgy and wide though.
Perhaps it's the way I hold 'em.

Shirt but plump I was actually surprised to see the scales go 12lb, with 1.5lb of that being the net – so 10lb 8oz. If I hadn’t weighed it I’d have gone from around 8lb, but I know the scales are correct so I’ll take a double thank you very much.

A great morning’s sport in a little over 2 hours – more than long enough in the water facing down a cold wind after you’ve left your gloves in your other coat.

A steep learning curve

2011-11-26T21:40:00.006Z

Having read about the size of zander that are caught from Grafham for a number of years I thought it was finally time I got my arse in gear and got out there to give it a go.

This year the reports of the place have been mixed, but on the whole the vibe has been that it's fishing super tough - but you've got to be in it to win it.

Booked in and armed with a bag full of lures, I found myself afloat with my usual Anglian Water boat partner and mate Rob Smith in the middle of the 1,600acre reservoir – and then the learning curve started.

As most anglers faced with a new venue do, I’d done my research. Depth is key, as is location, and in the big depths that Grafham has, that means a fish finder.

My Garmin Echo 150 did the job, with the aim being to find between 30 and 50 feet of water and any features that might hold zeds.

A new fish finder - another thing to learn how to use...

The mounting of the transducer was a bit of a lash up - but did the job.

Our first port of call was the tower straight out from the boat yard – mainly as every other boat powered off to the dam wall and I don’t like fishing in crowds.

Grafham's iconic aeration tower

The approach we took was to cover the water around the tower systematically on drifts using wind and drogues. On the drift we vertical jigged soft plastics with heavy jigheads on the deck with one eye on the Garmin.

Some four hours later with nothing to show for it other than an aching arm and a stiff neck from constantly peering over at the fish finder screen we moved on over to the dam wall.

Deeper water and a heightened expectation of a fish we again went with the drift option – you can’t anchor in these depths and without a decent motor to hold against the wind we had little option.

Rob on the job with a bit of bottom bouncing.

On the third drift from the dam tower out over a drop my rod tip bent and juddered with a bite. Now this is where I rue not having fixed a stinger to the tail of my Kopyto lure (schoolboy error) because I hit into thin air on what was almost certainly a fish taking a nibble – and that for me was to be the extent of the action for the day.

During our time at the dam wall we did however get to watch a seasoned pro in action. We’d spoken to the chap earlier while we were waiting for our boats. Loaded with kit, including an electric motor for holding his position and an impressive Lowrance fish finder worth over £3k, he knew the score big time.

Hunched over the screen he meticulously worked his jig over what he later informed us was a very slight depression not too far from where the main pipe runs that joins the two towers. He knew the spot well having it stored on his fish finder as GPS coordinate – and for good reason. Back on dry land he informed us he’d landed three fish, including two double of 16 and 14lb!

We actually saw him catch one of these from a distance, during the afternoon, as it appeared did a few others. Not long after, the boats started to swarm around the area, our signal to move on – like I said before, I don’t like crowds.

The dam end of Grafham where the techno guy had a few.

The move, back to the other tower, was bitter sweet. Sweet in that Rob got a slamming take just as he lifted his lure off the deck from what he said was a very big fish and was most definitely a pike. Bitter, because not 30seconds in to the scrap he had the sickening feeling of the hook pulling his braid going slack. Not a happy bunny.

Although I could diddly squat it was a great day, and I can't wait to go back.

I'll be back

2011-11-13T20:03:00.003Z

A very quick trip back to the canal this evening to scratch that zander itch a little further.

Arriving just as it was getting dark I flicked out a roach chunk and within minutes the tip shuddered and dropped back. I struck into thin air.

Recast to the same spot and the same thing happened again.

Third time lucky and I hot into a small zed somewhere around a pound.

A few more touches on the tip were then met with a complete lack of anything once the darkness set in. The same happened on the previous trip. On this stretch, unlike others, there seems to be a very small window of fishing opportunity on the features I'm fishing. I suspect the fish are then moving on to feed elsewhere, possibly in more open water - two rods next time I think.

Like buses

2011-11-11T20:28:00.006Z

After fishing the Trent, Frisby pit, Rutland and the Severn after zander over the last few months without a sniff of zed, this evening I went back to basics and hit the canal.

First swim. Nowt.

I had a two hour window so I needed to make it count. I went to a spot I haven't fished for a few years about 10 minutes from home. Parked up and on the towpath about 20 minutes before dark the first spot I tried yielded a bit fat nowt. So I hiked down to another swim that I was sure would save my blanking bacon.

In the semi-light I made my first cast and I caught straight away - unfortunately it was a tree. No matter, second cast in and the starlight on my quiver tip waited just a couple of minutes before
shuddering, dropping back and then moving slightly forward.

First zed. I might have smiled, especially as I got the foliage garnish.

When I saw the fish on the surface I was actually shocked to see a zander - my mind has been conditioned to pike. It wasn't massive, around 3 to 3 and a half pounds but god was I happy to see it.

Just checking it wasn't a pike in drag.

With him slipped back, a fresh chunk of roach was flicked back out (free-lined on a size 4 hook). this time I had to wait a little longer, but the bite was immense. The tip shot round like a screaming barbel run and the rod was actually moving as I got my hand on it.

One pissed on zed.

The fish was a bit bigger than the first and an absolute nutter. Angry in the water, flaring everything on the bank and still pissed off when I put it back - I'd obviously capped off a bad day for the little chap.

Mission accomplished and I was home - two hours well spent.

Hits and Misses

2011-11-10T22:30:00.003Z

I've been having a right old time with the zeds recently.

Despite fishing the right venues the zander seem to bugger off as soon as I hit the bank, leaving in their wake hordes of ravenous jack pike who are just waiting for my bait to hit the water.

One place that looked like it might change all that was Rutland Water.

Rutland’s been producing some great zander fishing recently. Unlike the monster of Grafham the average weights are much smaller - around the 3lb mark - but plenty have been coming out.

So, boat booked and me and my fishing partner, Rob Smith from Tackle Trade World, had high hopes of a getting healthy bend in our lure rods.

Arriving early, a false start with a leaking fuel line in our first boat wasted a bit of time (better than rowing back to the lodge in a ball of flames though), and even the torrential rain wasn’t putting us off.

With three spots in mind we first targeted the drop off out from a point at the start of the north arm of the gigantic water. Anchored up the lures were cast. I opted for the brilliant action of the Kopyto Relax rubber shad. Bounced slowly off the bottom with a large ball jig head, the movement of these things as they drop back through the water is just too tempting for predators.

Fishing right on the drop off with a weed bed in the shallower water it took about half-an-hour of casting about to get my first take of the day. A good fish by the feel of it, which was only on for around 10 seconds. Bugger.

Next cast though and another hit, this time a jack pike of around 6 or 7lb came to the net – not the species we were after, but very welcome.

After that Rob had a series of hits and a couple of lost fish, turning one of them into the first and only zed of the day – also on a rubber shad. The small size of the zander, and more importantly their mouths meant not all the hits saw a hook up.

Like all of the Anglian Water reservoirs that allows predator fishing, Rutland operates an 18cm minimum lure length rule, although I have it on good authority that this may well be reviewed next winter due to the growing popularity of the zeds.

A very unproductive few hours in the middle of the day saw us try and number of spots (a drop in the ocean on such a monstrous body of water) and we moved in on the shallower water just off a big weed bed not too far from where we started.

The next half hour saw me hook three fish and boat one, another pike about 3lb – a poor strike to fish conversion rate by anyone’s standards. The blue and silver Kopytos again doing all the tempting.

As the rain swept in again down the south arm of the huge water we headed home. A little disappointed with the day, but with a number of other predator anglers reporting blanks on the day, pleased we at least saw some action.

Tipping the Trent

2011-10-12T13:14:00.009+01:00

Back when I wasn't yet a teenager in the early 1990s I used to read as many fishing mags as I could. In those many and varied mags I remember reading about the specimen fish captures of a bloke called Dave Tipping.

Roll on 20 years and I find myself on the banks of the Trent with Dave ready to tackle some river zander.

It's always a bit odd meeting people you look up to from a far. Luckily I'm please to report Dave didn't disappoint and is a top bloke.

He had very kindly sorted me out a guest ticket on a club stretch of the Trent at Cromwell that he's a member of, right next to where the big Cromwell weir is located. And there are some big zeds in there, earlier this year Dave landed a 12lb plus specimen for his efforts.

On arrival we found the best peg right next to the Cromwell lock had gone, so instead we went plumped for two pegs either side of two huge metal posts and a large overhanging tree in an area of slack water.

Fishing two rods my plan was standard zander attack - legered roach dead bait, one whole, one half hard on the deck both on single hooks.

Now the chances of catching a zed in the day on the stretch were slim according to Dave, and a clear Trent and patches of bright sunlight weren't going to help.

My swim on the Trent.

Aside from a couple of bleeps in the afternoon and a few little rises of Dave's bobbins the real action didn't start (as Dave had predicted) until around an hour before dark.

I had a handful of indications, striking into a couple and thin air.

Dave on the other hand had more success. Fishing small strips of rainbow trout on small, single hooks he managed to hit one of the infuriating touches to land a very pretty and healthy zed of around 4 to 5lb.

In fact Dave's set up was very minimal and interesting. He fished two of the old iconic Daiwa Porky Pig feeder rods (still a coveted rod for long range heavy feeder fishing) with Shimano baitrunners over a pair of Delkims. The alarms were really secondary though as Dave fished two medium sized bobbins on a massive drop which he watched like a hawk all day, he was on them for any movement - and it obviously worked.

I on the other hand had no such luck and kept striking into thin air even after I scaled down the size of my bait to allow what were obviously small zeds to get the bait in their gobs.

That was until the very last minute of the session. I was just about to pick up one of the rods to break it down and I had a three blips on my right hand rod.

It was the tidal Trent - although you don't really expect to see one of these swimming about.

Lifting the rod in the pitch black it hooped over. A big zed!!!! It stuck low and then shook its head. In the moonlight I saw it break the surface and it looked like a new pb... until it hit the net. Pike - a proper party crasher as it was a good couple of hours into dark. Obviously no one had explained the rules of predator fishing to this pike.

Dave's swim was a bit precarious.

Dave's river zed - they look much better than canal fish.

Still, it was a decent fish. Over 10 on the scales and minus the net 9lb 2oz. Best pike so far this year and better than a blank.

9lb 2oz pike - bit rude crashing the after dark zed party.

Always the bridesmaid...

2011-10-08T22:34:00.007+01:00

Following my first trip to Frisby where I didn't make the Z-list another was in order to try again for one of the doubles that are being caught form the bit pit.

This time though I wasn't alone with Jeff (Idlers Quest) and Lee (This Angling Life) along for the trip - Lee after the predators, Jeff for the chub and roach (which he'd done a bit of research into) on the venue's river Wreake.

Bleak, and looking more wintery - the way I like it.

Thank god the hot weather had bogged off. The temperature compared to the previous week was proper October, but with the quick change came wind - and lots of it.
I plumped for the end of the lake facing the wind, hoping the bream in the pit would head down this way bringing the zander with them, but it was like being in the jaws of an industrial hair drier set on cold.

Lee in the first swim - not convinced of fish.

Me in full winter gear. Great!

To cut a long story short I didn't have a touch for the first two or three hours, and neither did Lee. So when he suggested a move to a calmer more sheltered spot it was a quick decision.

The new spot had in fact been vacated by a bunch of anglers just an hour or so earlier who had had a good hit of zeds, including three doubles.

Settling in it was like a different water and with the sun setting it felt like fish were definitely on the cards.

As the sun was setting a move gave more hope.

While having a chat with the fishery manager, Chay, my left hand rod cast to a small bay blipped twice but the drop off stayed put. After a quick hold of the line and feeling a small pluck I hit into a fish. Chay, was sure it was a zed, but then the pretty green pattern of a jack broke surface with a single hook neatly in the scissors.

On the bank it looked between 3 and 4lb. No pics (although Lee can testify to its capture) due to not wanted to look like a plonker taking a photo of a small pike in front of Chay - a man who's banked 3 different 30s in his time... Not everyone understands the blogger's need to take a snap of each and every tiddler they catch...

Blank averted it wasn't long before the sound of an alarm rang out again - but not mine.

Left hand rod produced the blank-saving pike.

A few beeps and Lee lifted into a much better class of fish. I don't want to spoil the details as he'll definitely blog this one, but let's just say it anyone of us would be over the moon to get it on out unhooking mat.

Lee hit into a biggy. Jealous... me... god yeah.

Sunshine Silverados: Or how I learnt to stop worrying about twos and love Seeswood Roach.

2011-10-03T20:07:00.007+01:00

The dead trees were a tricky shot, as the decoration of line and leads in the branches showed.

Man it was hot. Hiking around the rim of Seeswood the lake felt like it was getting bigger with every step – and trying to keep up with Jeff ‘the roach’ Hatt, I was getting a right dab on.

It was all the match anglers’ fault. With a grand total of 5 sunburnt competitors battling it out on my preferred bank we were told on the way in that pegs 1 to 28 were booked out, so we had to walk on and round. I’m no maths genius, but that’s over 5 pegs per angler, and they were all together up one end anyway – even with my casting I wasn’t going to disturb them from 10 pegs away….

The hike seemed to be worth it though, giving us a number of dead tree snags to fish to from the bank in our search for the big roach I keep banging on about – and with two of us I was hopeful of making some headway on this session.

This looks to have been where the original stream/brook came in to the area before it was damned at the far end (I assume that that's what happened), with the dead trees in the water forming an avenue where the edge of the inlet would have been. It also means that this end of Seeswood is fairly shallow quite having silted up – and especially so given the lack of rain this summer.

I chose to get in the water and aim towards a crop of dead trees about 40feet from the bank. Jeff carried on to where the main body of the water opened up.

A few balls of Sonubait Dutch Master ground bait mixed with white and a special ingredient went out while I tackled up.

Float fishing seemed the best choice as these roach are shy-biting little buggers. A further nugget of looser groundbait, a spray of red maggots and out want the loaded Drennan crystal. About a foot off the tree – a tricky shot, especially when the wind gusted.

It took a while but after half-an-hour or so the float went and it started. Two tiddlers came followed with a much better fish over the pound mark. From then on in I had steady sport, probably over 20 fish through out the 5 hours we were there and at a good average size of probably just over half a pound.

I had to work for it. The majority of the better fish coming once the swim was more lively and I switched to caster to drawn what I hoped would be big specimens. There were also two distinct periods where the swim went stone dead – one accompanied by a large pike-esque swirl…

By dark the net was heavy and gave up that satisfying flapping frenzy of fish that they do when you lift the net and you've had a good day.

Of all the catch just two were bream with a single perch interloper – all the rest were roach with three over the pound mark. Still nothing bigger than my best from the water, but confidence remains high for winter. Whenever that feels like showing up!

The best two of the day, cracking shot courtesy of Jeff - pupil of the JW school of roach photography.

Unfortunately Jeff had a less successful day leading him to change swims like a gypsy most of the afternoon. Although he did agree that Seeswood should throw up a decent roach sooner or later, it’s just a matter of putting the rod hours in.

A New Record

2011-10-02T20:31:00.004+01:00

I don't normally like to write anything about my job on here, but this weekend was a bit special.

Friday evening I heard that the perch record had been broken by a fish weighing a whopping 6lb 4oz. A fair few phone calls, a bit of work on the keyboard and I got to break the story.

It's an amazing fish and beats the current record caught in March from a commercial fishery (a story I was also lucky enough to break) by an ounce.
It doesn't get any better than this and it's what all anglers dream of, I know I do, and I just wanted to stick the pic of the latest monster up on here - so here it is.

What a big year for big perch!

Read the full story and see more pics here

On the Bread Line

2011-09-25T20:50:00.004+01:00

Another great Seeswood sunset - then the fish buggered off.

After finding a big roach, dead in the margins on my last trip up to Seeswood I've been seeing 2pounders in my sleep.

Time to get serious though. No bet hedging, full on roach targeting is the order of the day.

First thing's first then. Bait. I know the Seeswood roach will take maggot, but that goes for any size and any other species. So for this trip it was bread all the way. A loaf liquidised for the feeder and a a few slices for the hook in flake form.

Fishing a small cage feeder on a paternoster setup to try and get the best indication from the shy-biting little silver monkeys.

The bread went down well.

A handful of casts out to get some bait down and the hook was baited. It took another five or so casts to get any indication and another five until the tip rattled and then moved a fraction, but a fraction enough to hit.

Pulling it out it felt a good fish, and it came to the net at what seems to be a fairly average size for the the Seeswood roach of around the pound mark.

A couple more good but smaller fish also came to the flake until, once again the switch was flicked just before dark and the fish just disappeared.

Fitting with predatory theory there were plenty of tiddlers doing the triple jump across the surface. I've also had it on good authority that when a survey of the water was done a few years ago very good head of zander were found - but that wasn't the only fish eater in there. Apparently some very good cats swim in Seeswood too...

Frisby Flop

2011-09-22T08:44:00.005+01:00

I had massively high hopes as I traveled up the M69 toward Melton Mowbray.

The overgrown island hadn't been fished in a while. I had to hack my own pegs out.

Over the last week or so Celtic Lakes Frisby has produced a glut of double figure zander, with one chap having five good sized zeds between 7 and 12lb in one session. I was just after a bite to be honest, and the conditions looked spot on for it.

Frisby pit has been well known for its big zander for a few years. However, it used to be club owned and they didn't encourage predator anglers for some reason. The good news is the place got bought out at the beginning of the year and now the persuit of zeds and pike is actively encouraged - they're now even running a predator match series.

Meeting up with the owner Chay and his right hand man Dave, they pointed me in the right direction, even boating me out to on of the very small spits of land coming off the central island in the middle of the ex-gravel pit.

Base camp. I thought I saw Bear Grylls in the undergrowth chewing on a vole at one point.

I fished two rods, one either side of the streak of land, both with dead baits - roach and eel section.

After starting off in the more 'jungle-like' back end of the islandm after a few hours I moved on up to the point, to one side of which three of the double zeds had been caught the previous week.

Second long spit of land from the left

First chuck on the other side though and I had a take within five minutes.

The drop off feel back ad the alarm bleeped and as I lfited the rod and felt the line it plucked gently. Hitting it the rod bent over and I thought, this is it, until a jack pike of around 5lb tail walked along the far margin. still, it was a fish - and then all hell broke loose...

First off my phone went, then the alarm on the other rod sounded and I could see the drop off was dangling loose.

Quick as I could I had the still lively pike in my margin and quickly flicked the single hook out of its mouth in the water (hence no shot of him).

Scrabbling through the brush leaving chunks of my legs on brambles that wouldn't have been out of place in 'Day of the Triffids' I got the other rod, struck and felt... nothing. I'd missed the call on my phone too.

Could it have been a zander? Probably. A pike would still have been munching away I reckon. I had another bite like that later on too. A quick trio of blips on the alarm, the line moving up and then nothing.

Shortly after the spurt of activity some more action. Rain. Loads and loads of rain. To the point where I'd have been drier in the lake.

I did have the sense to have taken a brolly with me, but out of the several I have lying around I grabbed the crappiest, leakiest waste of material ever.

With the rain came a huge drop in temperature and no more action of any kind until my time to be picked up at 7.30.

To add insult to injury I got a phone call from Dave just as I was wondering where he was with the boat to tel me the outboard had packed in. An hour or so later of standing in the dark, the rain and the cold (I'd also packed up at at 7,30 so I there wasn't even the chance of a sneaky last gasp zed either) Dave emerged rowing the boat. What a day.

I'm getting fed up of posting near misses or just straight blanks. Next time there will be a decent fish on this blog!

That two pounder turned up

2011-09-16T21:08:00.002+01:00

A quick lure session around Seeswood this evening threw up several things:

- a pound plus perch first cast
- several plastic bags
- a manic jack pike and...

this monster roach.

It was bobbing around dead in the margins and was pretty honking and bloated. But the length and depth of it was immense, well of the 2lb mark.

You can see the shoulder on him

I didn't weigh it, basically cus it niffed something rotten and I wanted to get it back before the net melted, but next to the Avons you can see its size.

The more you looked at it, the bigger it got

The reason the pics are so shodddy and that there are none of the perch or the pike are that with camera draw and button presses the old 'no CF card' flashed on the screen at the back... the MRs had nicked it for something. Glad I didn't catch the double figure zander that's in the post.

Show me the light

2011-09-14T21:35:00.003+01:00

They've arrived.

After catching a 5lb plus zander on the canal last year courtesy of a rubber shad with a chemical night-light inserted into it, I've decided to take the luminous lure thing a bit further.

Bask in the glow! Stick em under the head torch and they're ready to go.

After catching a 5lb plus zander on the canal last year courtesy of a rubber shad with a chemical night-light inserted into it, I've decided to take the luminous lure thing a bit further.

Stick these vintage Bill Lewis Rat-L-Trap lures from the US under a torch for 30seconds and they glow like a sun burnt chicken at Chernobyl.

Stuffed with ball bearings they're a' rattling too.

I think these boys will get a work out on the canal with a bit of night time lure fishing first to see if they work as good as they look.

Full Moon Blues

2011-09-13T19:39:00.004+01:00

Waiting for the silent killer - the buggers never showed up though...
That's the moon by the way, shot's a long exposure.

The wind howled as the full moon rose, and while the lights of the distant cars streaked through the inky dark the perfect setting formed for the silent killer to sense its prey and strike in a fury of teeth, and blood, and scales.

Actually my first zander trip of the autumn didn't quite workout like the piscatorial Agatha Christie novel I'd wanted.

The scene was definitely set. I'd had a load of roach on red maggot before the sun went down, a couple of which were dispatched for super-fresh bait. The wind was blowing a gale - so much so that the platform I was perched on shuddered and shook on the more violent gusts. And the moon was out and full, and occasionally masked as clouds sailed across the sky at a rate of knots.

The rickerty platform that's become my favorite haunt. I know no one else fishes it because I accidentally left a stainless bankstick on it last time I went, and it was still there when I went back!

The same things happened as on my last roach trip where the silvers fed hard right up until just before the sun set, at which point it went stone dead besides the odd loan, big fish rolling out in the dark - one even crashed right at my feet as I set over the edge of the platform, scaring the 'Poirot' out of me.

The fresh bait was chopped into one head and one tail section, mounted on single hooks and cast out. One to the side of the swim the roach appeared to have just vacated and the other to the front of a point where I'd been feeding maggots for the last hour.

My alarms sat motionless for an hour as the line sat slack out of the end of the rods. All of a sudden the left hand rod was lit up by the red LED and the silence was shattered and the lightweight nanobug bobbin shot up. As my hand moved over the rod the bobbin dropped back and there was nothing else. A line bite from a rogue bream or a dropped run? On inspection of the bait there was no damage, so I suspect the former.

A few hours later, packed up and on my way back to the car I stopped to chat to another lone angler who revealed he was also chasing zander for the first time this autumn.

He also revealed that last season he had struggled to catch one of the predators from the lake where as before hed taken a number of fish with 8lb being the average weight. Was that good or bad news? I'm gonna go for good, fingers crossed I'll see an eight very soon.

Avon Calling

2011-09-06T21:16:00.007+01:00

4lb 2oz chub sucked in a free-lined lob.

I bloody love autumn. And with the temperature cooling off and a good downpour I got my cheque in the post to rejoin Plough AS and get back down on the Avon.

With rain yesterday, throughout the night and some this morning I was expected a healthier looking river than I'd been told to expect by the Club's secretary. However, the water runs off the Avon pretty quick and the stretch was painfully low.

I went to the river to try my hand once again for barbel, but after trying one peg where I saw plenty of them last year and not getting a sniff, I decided to chase the chub instead as I didn't have much time and still wanted to put a bend in the rod.

The swim that last year held loads of chub and a few barbel appeared barren other than tiddlers.

Moving around and fishing the deeper pools revealed lots of smaller fish shoaled up and attacking my whole lobworm hook bait - great to know as most of the river appeared absolutely devoid of life. One pool on a bend looked bang on for a greedy chub, especially under a overhanging bush so I dumped my tons of kit (why do I always kit myself out like a packhorse with too much crap!) and had a cast.

The freelined lob fished on Gardner long-shank Mugga size 4 hook was flicked out just by the edge of the bush. It floated down and under in the flow and hit the bottom. After leaving it there for 30 seconds I lifted the rod up and flicked the bait up off the bottom to try and entice some interest. One pluck, two plucks and I struck into what felt like a right lump.

After trying to get into the weeds, the bush and the mud bank at my feet I netted a 4lb 2oz chub.

Despite fishing on for a while longer and trying various other likely looking spots that was it for the session.

Roll on the rain!

Left in the dark

2011-08-31T19:06:00.004+01:00

I'm getting bored of pounders now

I had high hopes for this short trip to Seeswood.

I'd left it a bit later in the day so that I could get the roach feeding as the light was fading and then fish through for an hour after dark - my thoughts being that the bigger fish that have so far given me the slip would come out and feed with a little less fear.

Well after balling in a bed of groundbait laced with hemp and maples I started fishing. Once again the bream were about and I caught a few fish of a few pounds, one of which, a roach hybrid got my heart pounding when I thought I'd hook a roach of getting on for 3lb - before tI realised one of its parents had been 'slabbish'.

I did managed two roach in very quick succession when the place camce alive for just 5minutes as the light faded. The wind dropped and there were fish all over the place, the two roach falling for hastily dyed, float-fished red sweetcorn - the making of which caused me to look like I'd just murdered something in my peg.

Both fish were around a pound. One under, one dead on.

Once the light had gone and the isotope was twinkling on top of the float I was confident I'd be bathing in roach soup any minute... any minute... any minute...

Not one single bite came after dark. Not only that but the place felt dead, absolutely baron - you can always tell when there are no fish in front of you.

So that was it. Roach will now be targeted in the day.

Just a quickie

2011-08-21T20:43:00.006+01:00

Best fishing of the sesh, another proper pap photo.

Sunday evening is fast becoming Seeswood evening for me. Another 3 hours was spent down there, this time chasing bream and roach.

As I've said on here before I think there's great specimen roach potential in this water - something I'll be spending a lot more time on when the colder weather of autumn turns up. On the other hand, the biggest bream I've heard of is 6lb, although I reckon there must be bigger in there.

This evening I went after the two species on the float. Bait was half-a-pint of red maggots, 1kg of fishmeal groundbait and a tub of worms.

I decided to fish on a platform towards the shallower end of the lake. Last week while I was out with Gary I'd seen some good sized fish moving around in a bay shaped area which looks like it's hardly ever fished due to the pegs being a bit difficult. The platform itself needed waders to reach - and even them you had to work your way through reed and horrid, bank mud which stunk like a tramps feted crotch.

The good thing about fishing in this spot was that the platform takes you out past the drop off some you can fish the deeper water without casting out too far allowing for better presentation and baiting.

Two roach, shocking photo. Plus I look about 12-years-old for some reason

A couple of balls of ground bait went out at about two rod lengths distance followed by regular pouches of maggots - it seemed most effective with a pouch, then cast then two more puches, a pouch being around 10 maggots.

After around an half-an-hour and few missed bites I hooked my first fish. Fishing at about 2foot depth in around 5feet of water I hot into a fish that i thought was going to be a new PB roach. I wish it had been, instead of the 4lb 12oz bream that came to the net.

After that it was roach all the way apart from one more bream of around 3 and half pounds.

Three hour bag

A couple of hours in I switched to worm and single maggot on the hook. I thought I might pick up a couple more bream or bigger roach. Instead the fish seemed to get smaller until I had the best roach of the evening on the drop of just over a pound.

Three hours in and the maggots and ground bait were all gone so I called it a day.

Canal zander fishing next I think...

Chuck, squelch, rip, blank.

2011-08-16T20:25:00.006+01:00

It was a lovely evening, but as this ain't a picture of a fish, you know it was a blank...

The impending start of my new job gave me a great excuse to get out with the rod on Sunday evening and 'take my mind off it all'.

A lack of bait, well, anything wriggling, meant the lure rod was dug out and the lure bag dusted off before I got to Seeswood at around 5pm.

Once again I had the place to myself - weird place, some times rammed to bursting point by the lager-swilling bivvy brigade, others its as if no one else exists in the world, until a car whizzes along the dam-side bank.

I was expecting some company though, after emailing Gary Thorpe and arranging to meet up to chuck a few plugs.

I hadn't been to Seeswood for a few weeks and the first thing I noticed was how low the water was. Some of the pegs where you normally need to 'don the waders' to reach the fish were dry. Speaking of which I was wearing my waders for this session, but after about 10 minutes they proved as useful as a politician during mass riots.

Forceps plugged the leak, but not for long

Stepping through some undergrowth into a peg I failed to notice a sudden drop, and the bit of metal sticking out from the back of that drop. A quick walk into the water later and it was evident that said bit of metal had put a dirty great hole in my right hand wader and the water was, for want of a better less anatomical term, pissing in.

I did try to stem the tide with a pair of forceps, which worked well until walking through some other undergrowth they came off and once again my right peg took a soaking.

To add further insult to injury I then took another kick in the spuds - or at least somewhere very close - when stretching to climb up onto a platform I was confronted by the comedy noise of a ripping crotch... brilliant and my favourite pair of fishing trousers too.

Up to that point, in between the litany of disasters, I had been chucking various lures into various swims at various distances. Shads, cranks, spinners, spoons, jerks and even surface lures had been attached to the wire trace, all tried at different retrieves and depth. But when Gary arrived later on I'd not had a single pluck - unless you count the immovable object that had kept hold of one of my little Kyopto shad for posterity.

I had this all to my self. Somewhere out there there's a double-figure zed with my name on it, or a jack pike barely able to get its chops around my lure - at this point I'd have taken anything...

We both carried on chucking, retrieving, walking (in my case squelching like a bunch of randy frogs) until we got right around the lake. At this point Gary, who'd had as much luck with the toothy fish as me called it a day. "I'm going to have a few more chucks, mate" said I as we parted. Two casts later and one of my favourite lures, a flashy little Rapala shad rap number had also become another bauble on an unseen underwater christmas tree snag of fishing tackle.

Taking the hint I left with my tail between my legs - well, I needed something to stop my boxers showing through the gaping hole...

Chub and sun stroke on the Warks Avon

2011-07-31T14:08:00.005+01:00

My biggest fish if the session. 4lb 6oz.

The Avon at Harvington looked great when we arrived early on Saturday morning – aside from it being super low, super clear and the sun shining through like a Gestapo interrogate lamp…

Still, we did spy a few small barbel flashing, a shoal of sizeable chub and loads of smaller fish mincing around so hopes were high. Anyway, the weekend wasn’t all about the fishing with a load of the midlands blogging boys descending on the stretch of the river for a get together.

The first of these I met for the very first time was Gary Thorpe (http://gaza-2010-diary.blogspot.com/) – a top chap who I had the pleasure of driving down to the stretch with.

On offer at the stretch was a choice of fast and shallow water, or a much deeper, slower section. We plumped for the former, thinking of barbel and chub.

To be honest my angling was fairly cack on the day. Laying down a bed of bait for barbel with a dropper I soon got distracted by some large chub shadows out and to the right as the shallower water dropped off to a deeper and steadier glide.

After feeding pellets soaked in tuna flavouring for a while I broke out the float rod, waded to mid river and started trotting through a banded pellet. A couple of casts in and I had a fish of 2lb, which fought like a little demon.

A little later on I landed a 4lb 6oz chub on the same tactic which for some reason came in like a paper bag until it was alongside me and then went nuts, a lovely healthy looking fish.

Throughout the day I fished like this in between walking about to see the other guys. I even managed to time it spot on to see Andy (piscatorial pass times) hoik out a 12lb pike – and witness Jeff masterfully winkle out a gudgeon.

The only barbel I saw came to Martin’s rod. Two tiddlers, the first I which I saw him playing after hearing his clutch screaming off – even the little ‘uns go like the clappers.

Unfortunately I had to cut my trip short and leave in the evening – probably a good think as I felt proper rough the next day after drinking nothing while standing in the river soaking up the raging sun for hours on end…

Great day though, and a lovely section of the river I’ll defo have to go back to.

One of Martin's barbel

Gary's swim. Apparently a fair few big babs have come from a run under the tree on the far bank above Gary's head.

My swim. Not a bad view, eh.

The lock sysem at the stretch. Full of big carp and tench, apparently

A fix at the Priory

2011-07-12T17:20:00.009+01:00

At 91-years-old my grandad's no spring chicken. He still loves his fishing though, but after 80 odd years of casting a line this summer is probably going to be his last based mainly on his eyesight.

As such, for his last session on the bank, I thought I'd take him to one of the prettiest fisheries I know - Lemington Lakes in the Cotswolds.

Getting there midday and after taking advice from the fishery staff we plumped to fish the smallest of the waters, Priory.

Crucian carp and tench were the target. The tincas don't run to monster in Priory, but there are some very big crucians - although for today we'd just be happy with bites and a bit of fun.

Priory's the smallest of the lakes at Lemington but the prettiest by far

He may travel light but that's only because he's carrying 8 decades of experience

The weather on the day was blazing hot, and unfortunately very bright. My grandad did score on the first chuck with his first ever crucian carp - he's a Coventry canal and river man - but after that it was a case of eeking out a few bites while waiting for the cloud cover, and then the action began.

The tench, none bigger than around 6 ounces loved the double red maggot hookbait, we had a hat full. But it was the tentative blips on the float that singled crucian that got the adrenalin going. I scored two half decent fish, one of 1lb 4oz and a new season best of 1lb 9oz.

The biggest fish of the day. Not a giant at 1lb 9oz but a lovely looking cru'

These tiny tench were 10 a penny, but you never tire of catching tincas, no matter how small

The man who taught me to fish - 91 and still catching

After about 5 hours of fishing we'd had loads of tench and a fair few Crucian - and the old man had had a belting day - much better than sitting in the rain for 2 see-through perch on the Cov canal.

As luck would have it a spring chicken did turn up

Severn zander: in search of the toothy grail

2011-07-04T13:05:00.010+01:00

It's a zed, but only a quarter of the size we were hoping for

Just over a week ago the forth largest zander ever landed in the uk was caught from a stretch of the lower Severn by a barbel angler.

Two men, fueled by the thought of banking a zed to rewrite the rule books took it on themselves to find this stretch and target the monsters it contains. Riches, glory and the envy of every predator angler in the land were sure to follow. Here is their story.

Actually those two blokes were Jeff (idlers quest) Hatt and myself on another long shot adventure akin to the recent record perch hunt debacle. Although this was a little different.

I had it on very good authority that since the start of the season, as well as the 19lb 12oz boilie caught fish, a number of high teen zeds had been landed from the short stretch of the waterway. No wonder then we had high, high hopes.

The plan saw us arrive at the river Sunday evening. Our first job to have a walk around and suss out he pegs.

The spot where the fish had actually been landed was little more than a dirt shelf at the bottom of a cliff. Unfortunately most of the other pegs followed suit, making the majority unfishable for us as we were to dig in for the night.

The two spots that were fishable were still tough cookies for a number of reasons (dusty balconies carved out of the bank with shovels and the comforting thought that one false move in the dark would see you plumb up the marginal shelve in with your boots), but we grabbed them and got on with the task in hand.

The pegs were cosy and treacherous in equal measure

The constant trickle of dirt from the cliff face on to the bed chair was nice...

... but once I was in the view was spot on

My approach was fairly simple. Two rods with legered deadbaits fished on bobbins and alarms.

The rigs featured heavy leads on leger stems with big, low-resistance run-rings. 20lb trace wires to single size 4 hooks held roach section and an eel or lamprey square.

The river was pretty deep, dropping off swiftly at about a rod length out. With the river flowing right to left, my left hand rod was cast just on the top of the drop off around 6 feet out from an over-hanging bush, the right hander a bit further out into the faster flowing trench.

This created it's own problems with the line bowing and lifting the bobbins. What I ended up with were the rods pointing skywards to lift as much line out of the flow, the baits positioned at a 45degree angle to the peg and one of the bobbins slightly weighted resulting on a fine balance between resistance for any fish taking the bait and allowing the bobbin to hold position to give decent indication.

Although the river was alive in the evening with pike leaping, silver fish toping and fry scattering before unseen predators my alarms remained silent. I did experience a number of shrill bites on the left hand rod, striking onto a few of them, but I'm sure they were line bites.

I also had a very strange phenomenon of the left hand rod tip pulling round and shaking as if a fish was savagely pulling away on the bait, but the alarms remained silent and the bobbins didn't move. That happened at least three times. I still have no idea what it was or how it could happen.

I fished through from around 6.30pm to 9am, watching the light change and the kingfishers pass over the airspace to the bats. In the end the only zander I saw was a 5lb plus fish landed a few hours in by Jeff - a catch at the time got us tingling at the promise of a night packed full of runs.

Just before 4am. I may have been sleep photographing when I took this

Disappointing? Of course. But you've got to be in to win it, and every bip of the Fox Warriors and the twitch of the bobbins was joined by the vision o a trophy shot with a 20lbzed in the back of your head. It was worth it just for that

There were eels all over the shop - I bagged a few on on a ink legered bunch of maggots for the percentage challenge. This one did have a head, it was just covered in dust.

I did manage to catch something though, a couple of eels on a legered bunch of maggots at around 1am. Every percentage point helps...

Jeff's fish that got us very excited. The only zed of the trip

Baking Roach with a pinch of Salt

2011-06-27T12:32:00.011+01:00

Playing a roach in across the flat calm water

'At least twenty 2lb roach so far this season'. That's the record the bailiff told me he'd had when we discussed the subject of roach fishing.

Did I believe him? Any seasoned anglers never really does, basically we're all cynics and take everything with a pinch of salt, but then again every seasoned angler also holds out a little bit of hope that these kind of tales are actually true and that the big fish are only a cast away.

Well today I decided to give Heir Bailiff's boasts the benefit of the doubt and go in an early start in search if a 2.

Big Drennan loaded crystal waggler was cast to around 60 metres

Even at 6am it was hot. The sun was clear, the sky blue and the water like glass it was so still.

My plan of attack was a big loaded waggler fished at distance in about 8feet of water. Groundbait with hemp and maple peas added in then caster fished over the top.

It took about half an hour to get the swim going. The first bite resulted in a good solid roach of around 10 ounces. More followed. Feeding around 10 caters every cast and a small ball of groundbait every fish I got to the point where I was getting a bite every cast. as usual with the roach I wasn't hitting everyone, but it was a lot easier than fishing for them on the tip.

I also lost a few fish due to trying to bully them quickly away from the swim and save spooking other feeding fish.

I didn't count the number of fish but there were plenty in the keep net by the time I packed up at around 11 - at which point it was baking hot.

There would have been more but for the family of swans and then ducks that moved into the swim to cream off the particles of hemp that floated up from the groundbait and stopped me feeding and at some pointed casting for over half an hour.

Every fish save for a rogue bream of 4lb 4oz and a tiny perch was a roach. The biggest, a long an pristine fish looked to me to be at least a pound and a half when I netted it, but the scales showed 1lb 4oz - the exact same weight as my best from the water.

Was the bailiff full of bull then? Possibly. I bet he never weighed one of them for a start. He could well have been catching fish around the 1lb to a 1lb and a half mark and, as they do look so much bigger than 'bits' roach at that size, ticking them off as 2s. But then he could be completely genuine and I just haven't found the fish yet. I will keep persevering.

A bag of silver with a good average size of roach which has been consistant over the past three visits

Bonus bream was treated to yet another poor self take

As was the biggest roach. Note the cap turned around to take photos delivers flawless novelty condom head effect

Not a bad bag of roach, the possibility of a 2 is definitely there

One more for good luck

Back to school

2011-06-24T22:22:00.006+01:00

You can't beat a bit of float fishing for scraps, can you?

It's easy to get caught up in having the best tackle to hunt down the biggest fish with the newest 'fancy Dan' rigs wearing all the latest clobber, carting bells and whistles along the bank with you.

And it's easier still to forget that angling's supposed to be about fun, relaxing, having a bit of a laugh with mates - and that's exactly what I had this evening.

It actually felt like I was at school again. Float rod, bag of bits, a pint of maggots and, well that was it, all plonked by the side of a small pond 30 seconds walk from my brother-in-laws house. It's one of those places you cut your angling teeth as a kid because you couldn't drive anywhere better and lashing your rod to your bike and pedaling miles was to much of a pain in the arse.

We weren't after monsters (we being me, my brother-in-law Chris and his mate, Chris 2) just anything that would give us the buzz of a bite on a single red maggot. And even though from the off to the end it absolutely chucked it down, none of us cared. And neither did the fish.

The Chris' looking a little chav

The pond is very shallow in the margins, so I targeted the large head of roach about 30 metres out, fishing shallow and spraying 10 or so maggots over the top every 30 second.

It took a bit but once the switched on I was getting a bite a chuck - hitting them though was another matter.

You could go mad with it. Not only were the bites no more than the slightest of dips, but hitting them at that distance proved very tough, and then keeping the fish on even more so for some reason. A switch to a wider gape Drennan hook helped a bit as did shotting the float down so just around a cm or so of tip showed, but I still lost more fish than I managed to bank.

By the time it was dark we'd all caught quite a few and on very light float gear it was a hoot - just what you need after a hard week at work. Proper schoolboy angling, you can't beat it.

My swim. A broken pallet and mud. A school boy's angling dream.

I shocking picture of some of the roach on an unhooking mat. Probably the worst fishing picture I've ever taken. The shadow? A basic schoolboy error.

The Great Record Perch Hunt

2011-06-21T22:34:00.011+01:00

Dreaming of a 7lb sergeant

The dream-shattering bleeps of the alarms hit me at 4am.

By 5 the car was loaded, Jeff (Mr Hatt of Idler's Quest fame) was in the passenger seat and we were speeding towards our destination.

At 8 we were firing up the motor on the two man boat and heading off across the vastness of Essex' Hanningfield reservoir - known for its game fishing, but recently made infamous for its monstrous, potentially record-breaking perch.

Three over 5lb have been caught in the last few months. Rumors abound of a 7lb plus specimen... now that's a stripy and a half...

Armed with lure and float rods our target for the day was to catch one of these stripy leviathans. Glory and riches were just a cast away. The British Record Fish Committee were on speed dial.

Well that was the plan, but like most angling plan it didn't go quite as intended.

Firstly at around 100 acres Hanningfield is nothing less than daunting. Its deep too, god knows how many cubic litres of water are in there keeping Essex lubricated, but those monster perch could have been in any single one of them, at any depth, and maybe not hungry.

We targeted the obvious spots. Structures, deep drop offs, weed beds, the aerator line which run across the centre of the water, but after a couple of hours in the baking heat we'd had zip.

Lazily running small shads, jigs and crank baits through the clear water all of a sudden we were shaken out of our lure fishing malaise as the reservoir unleashed hell.

All of a sudden Jeff's small zander patterned crankbait was hit by something fast, vicious and very angry. The strike on the lure was so savage that I sh$t myself, let alone Jeff, and as the light Fox Rage jig rod strained and the clutch clicked round the fish jumped, seeming to spend more time out of the water than in.

Unfortunately it wasn't the perch we were dreaming of, but the rainbow trout gave such a scrap it wasn't an issue. We were both taken aback by the gusto of the 3lb silver torpedo now in the boat.

And that was how it was for the rest of the day. No perch, just trout, each with more pent up aggression than a sexually frustrated Mike Tyson - all of which was used to smash into the lures harder than any coarse predator I've ever known. The use of braid mainline meant that every twist, struggle and vibration of the fish was felt roughly up the rod and through your arms.

Chuck...

...Play...

...Land. The Hatt in full trout mode

Over the next 8 hours or so we lost count of the amount of fish caught (a number of which ended up being invited back for dinner), the majority coming from a spot next to a river inlet. The most memorable fight came from a larger than average trout that hit Jeff's lure, leapt clear of the water shaking the trebles free before managing then to hook itself in the tail.

With a hook in its arse it went bonkers, as any of us quite rightly would.

Working the lure through in a shallower section. That perch never did strike though

A brew to calm the nerves

The way the trout hit the lures resulted in the majority not actually being hooked in the mouth but around the outside of the mouth and head - we lost more fish than we caught. I'd put that down to the trout hitting their prey fish as hard as they could to stun them before eating them - although I'm not expert in game fish.

In the end we opted for smaller lures in an attempt to get cleaner hookups, it seemed to work too - myself switching between a Salmo perch crank and a small bright red striped number (found in a tree on the canal some three seasons ago) and Jeff a flashy perch/rainbow trout hybrid number (purchased for a around a quid while on holiday in Spain last year) and that SPRO zander pattern plug that has tempted the first fish.

What's the weather doing recently? After checking with the BBC I packed coat, over trousers and even gloves but ended up with sun burn...

By the time we headed back to the jetty after 10 hours of casting and fighting fish I was knackered. No perch but what a great day's fishing. Trout on lures - I'd recommend everyone gives it a go at some point.

The ones that did the damage. Bottom: My lucky Salmo perch lure. It's been bagging pike and perch for 14 years and even in that state it caught a trout on the first chuck.

Tip top

2011-06-05T21:38:00.004+01:00

The tip rod getting a much needed work out

Sitting behind a pair of bobbins and buzzers does get a bit dull after a while. In fact give me a choice and I'll go for a float any day of the week - although it's not always the best method, hence the alarms.

One of the approaches I use the least, outside of rivers, is quiver tipping. With that in mind today I set off after roach, on the tip.

It was pretty cold and windy when I got to the water. A few balls of hemp and corn laced groundbait went in and bites came from the open end, semi running feeder rig came within a few casts.

Now I'd been told that there are some good roach in Seeswood and I plan targeting them properly for specimens later on in the year, but I was good smacked by the size of the one's I had.

1lb 4oz. Shonky pic, bad angle, but it is he weight.Bloody photographs

Besides one smaller fish and a rouge skimmer all the fish were roach all on or over the pound mark. The biggest being a ragged looking block of silver muscle weighing 1lb 4oz. I'd say on average this was one of the best roach fishing session I've had.

In typical roach style the bites they gave were very hard to hit. Little taps and rattles designed to give the angler a nervous breakdown. I didn't hit any for a while on a size 18 with double and single maggot. A change up to a 16 with double maggot did the trick though and then, when a bite looked hittable a fish was on with a flick of the 1oz top.

In all I had probably 20 fish - keepnets are banned from the water until June 16th and I lost count. They were still feeding hard when I ran out of ground bait and feeling in my fingers after three and a half hours.

The main thing though is I know they're in there and I sure there are bigger. Bring on the twos!

The Boy Strikes Again

2011-06-05T10:27:00.003+01:00

Drennan Cup contender?

Another hour on the bank with the boy this weekend - anymore and he gets a bit bored.

I even treated him to a new elasticated whip, which he christened with a bag of rudd and perch. Including this one.

He's now n about catching a pike. Maybe when he's a little bigger.

Chasing the Olive

2011-06-05T09:53:00.008+01:00

I've known about Napton reservoir since before I started school. My now 91 year old grandad used to fish it back when it was a mecca for big tench in the hallowed days of the Coventry Specimen Group - although that was when a 6lber would be enough to turn you into a specimen hero. Strangely though, I've never fished it, or even visited before a trip for a few hours after work this week.

First impressions were how small it was. I had expected it to be about twice the size it is, but that was a pleasant surprise.

I had a quick stroll round an after chatting to a pole angler on the causeway who revealed that very little action was being had by anyone, I decided to fish at the far end of the water, mainly to get away from the other anglers that were all in the pegs closest to the car park.

The first thing I saw when I got to the far end were three carp, probably just into double figures, cruising together on the surface, followed by a much large fish launching itself out of the clear water. Very encouraging.

The only trouble was that this end, although looking great, was very shallow and very weedy. I had to search for a spot where my bait wouldn't disappear in a blanket of green.

Running method feeders on lead core leaders with short 5lb hooklinks were cast out. Hook bait was fake popped up corn on one, 10mm single boilie on the other.

A few balls of groundbait went in along with the mix on the feeders which I recast every 20 minutes during the few hours I was there.

I didn't have the best of starts when the bail arm on my baitrunner decided to engage itself on the cast and somehow manage to rip half my fingernail off. With bloody everywhere though I fished on (what a hero, eh...).

After around an hour of blip and beeps from liners and pesky ducks and coots diving down and catching the line - one of them gave me a screaming run which saw me jump on an promptly skid on my heels down to the waters edge and very nearly into the wet stuff - I had a proper bite.

Short but chunky. My first Napton tench and of 2011

After a short scrap he was on the bank. At 3lb 3oz he was no monster, but nice to see none the less. He fell for the fake corn so I switch over to that on the other rd too, but nothing else followed. At least I've finally been to Napton though.

A baptism of breaming

2011-05-22T09:41:00.007+01:00

Scenic but bloody freezing when the wind whipped up

I've joined a water that I've driven past almost on a daily basis for decades but never fished. I'd estimate it to be around 60-70 acres in size, part of an old estate and, according to the crooked toothed, weather-beaten anglers I've spoken to about the place, full of bream, roach a few big tench and zander.

It also has a small head of large carp which means the inevitable 'geezer' carpers who reek of dope, lager and essence of 'what you looking at?' and 'see this side of the lake, it's all mine'.

Anyway, bream. I was inspired this week by meeting up with the chap who has just a few days ago broken the bream record with a fish of over 20lb (you heard it here first guys). I wasn't anything quite so epic, anything over 5lb and I'd be happy. So, armed with ground bait, rods setup to fish method feeder style I donned waders (the fishing on many of the pegs is from platforms out from the bank) and got casting.

The fishing needs waders. The right one has a leak. Great...

Sonubaits method mix, lashings of hemp, strawberry additive, sweet corn and mixed sized pellets went in the bucket. Hook bait was hair-rigged fake corn on a size 10 hook.

The bobbins never stayed still, I rethink is needed to target the bigger bream

Fishing about 40yards out, from the off the bobbins never stayed still. Liners and small fish playing with the bait I only received one proper run which resulted in nothing on the strike.

I did however manage to hit one of the smaller jumps of the bobbin, pulling in a small bream of around 2lb.

With the amount of little uns making the bobbins dance like Disco Stew on acid a different, more targeted approach is needed to get the bigger fish. Spodded particles, straight leads and bigger hook baits, probably boilies, next time.

The only fish of the evening. A 2lb skimmer.

Soft drink, hard fight

2011-05-08T21:07:00.007+01:00

No water, just add coke - The fish love the fizz.

I bloody love Parkers Pool. Not withstanding the half submerged wheely bin, the empty vodka bottles and the occasional dirt bike-riding chav it's a lovely little place.

Lilly-covered, island-dotted, tree-lined; it reminds me of another free water small water, stuffed with tench I used to fish when I was a school boy. The fact that it's at the back of an industrial estate, right next to a train line and frequented by dog walkers with more tatoos than a Mexican prison just makes it feel even more special, like an unseen haven invisible to everyone besides a few anglers who know the treasures it contains.

It's not just the Parkers 'atmos' I dig though, the fishing is pretty good too. Take tonight for example. I had a couple of hours to once again try and hunt down a Parkers' crucian carp, and getting there at around 6pm, my approach was the same as last week - sweet, sweet groundbait and float fished corn.

Of course the wind had other ideas about my dainty presentation. Gusty, unpredictable and generally a massive pain in the arse the localised hurricane lasted for at least and hour in which time only a few rudd made an appearance on the bank, until it suddenly dropped and then the action started.

The first bite was so shy it almost appologised for itself, a tiny shudder and a drop by a few mill - that was enough. A quick flick of the rod and a harder fighting, heavy fish looked for the lillies/tree roots/reeds (it appeared to go for all at once), but, after loosing a few fish last week I was prepared with a slighty beefier 1lb TC rod - the fish didn't have a chance.

On the bank and at 1lb 2oz it was my first Crucian of the season. It was actually quite a funny looking fish with a large indented section either side of its back, as if it had been attacked by a heron or cormorant at younger age.

It's a fish. A crucian by all accounts Result!

A few more small balls of ground bait - made sloppy with coke - and the next cast produced a much better rudd of 14oz. Then came another almost non-existent bite. This time the culprit put up a very impressive performance before showing itself on in the net as a pretty little crucian - all 1lb 4oz of itself.

Like buses. The second crucian came soon after.

No record nudger, but at 14 ounces it's the biggest rudd I've had this season.

Happy with that I fished on, and I'm glad I did. Another shy bite and I struck into what I thought was the mother of all crucians. Until, at the net a plump, dark common carp rolled into the mesh.

A nice bonus - wish it'd been a crucian mind.

A few casts, a few more good quality rudd and then I called it a day. Like I said before, I bloody love Parkers pool.

Swinging (em in) in the rain

2011-05-07T12:00:00.005+01:00

Today a small pond in Bedworth, tomorrow the World Championships?

I'd been promising my boy, Max, that I'd take him fishing for a while. Typically it was chucking it down on the very morning I said we'd go, but go we did, armed with half a pint of maggots and a top kit.

We got to the 'crater pool' at about 10. It was drizzling, but not too bad. I'd set everything up at home so it was just a matter of hooking a maggot and swinging it out to the swim.

Last time I took Max fishing he was only 3 and he didn't do much other than touch the fish when I caught them. He's now 4 and a half and he made his dad very proud by catching a rudd on his very first cast.

A picture of concentration

Max had plenty of perch as well as rudd

He was a bit iffy on striking, but he soon got the hang of it and in the three quarters of an hour we were there he caught around 25-30 fish, perch and rudd, some of which we kept in the net for a shot of when my boy became a proper fisherman.

Blow me

2011-05-02T20:06:00.004+01:00

Looks warm, but it was ruddy freezing!

I hate wind. There's no other weather that makes fishing more difficult. I'll fish in the freezing cold, the driving rain, the searing heat, gloom, brightness, fog hale, sleet or snow, but wind... count me out. There's no other more confounding and generally blood boiling weather to ruin a day's fishing.

Yesterday I called short an afternoon's fishing down the canal because of it. The wind whipped down the cut with an intensity that moved most of my features to the other side of my face and made float fishing more a chore than the usual joy. That combined with a never ending series of barges queuing up to rev their smoking engines in my swim and I only stayed for a few hours.

This evening I thought I'd grab a couple of hours over at the crucian pool near Bedworth. I mixed groundbait before hand and took minimum tackle - more of a case of giving the local scallies less of a target than me less to carry. However I failed to notice that the wind, still apparently determined to try and recede my hairline through none genetic methods, was now not only gusting but also freezing.

I arrived at the pool at around 5.30, raked a small swim between the lillys and dolloped in two ball of ground bait - a red Dynamite Baits bream jobby with a yellow swim stim effort peppered with micro pellets and corn and mixed with coke (tench, bream and crucians love it sweet).

I had a quick flick out with the maggots I had left over from the cut session. First cast one small rudd, second cast another small rudd, third cast yet another small rudd... you get the picture.

Good to see the pool's still chockers, but I want better fish and hopefully a crucian carp or two.

With corn on the bites were less frequent but definitely a better stamp of fish. Rudd up to 12oz and a couple of better swimmers that got away. One was a good rudd, the other could have been a crucian or, fingers crossed, a tench (not seen one from there, but I'd like to think they're around.)

Not the biggest, nor the smallest, but the one that turned up when I remembered to take a photo.

Anyway, back to the wind. After hooking several different bit of foliage thanks to the gusts, striving for presentation that wouldn't leave even the village idiot of the fish world laugh at my hook bait and the aforementioned freezing nature of the wind - I was lucky not to cut myself on my nipples I can tell you - I gave up. I'd probably had around 20 fish so not a dead loss, but no crucians. I can't wait for the proper summer to turn up.

Carp-o-rama

2011-04-14T19:59:00.006+01:00

For one reason or another I haven't been fishing for a fair number of weeks. However, I got the chance the other day, for work as it happens, so I jumped at it.

Me and my fishing 'buddy' Rob set off early to the lake in Oxford that we had special permission to fish for a large pike (and we're talking British record large) that is supposed to live in there.

To cut a long story short, this is a commercial lake, with a difference, and the pike fishing did not go according to plan. There were so many carp that every five minutes the alarms sounded and the drop back indicator...er... dropped back as fish caught the line, while pike floats were clobbered by hungry lips.

I changed tactics half way through the day to target perch, but we weren't allowed live baits and besides one stripey of half a pound my worm and prawn approach resulted in carp after carp after carp after carp... The average size was around 7lb, but I did manage to land a fish of 19lb 15oz.

To be honest it got boring in the end - one of the reasons I don't like commercial fisheries too much. But in an angling drought, any fishing is refreshing. Besides, soon be time for tench.

A touch of frost

2011-03-20T13:40:00.003Z

Up at 5... shivering

First over-nighter of the year after work last Friday. Rushed to get the paper finished, sped over the the lakes, bit of chat with the owner, grabbed swims, cast out, pitch camp, drank beer, ate pizza.

I was after anything that was swimming. There's big chub and a few hefty bream in there.

Head torches seemed insignificant compared to the daylight level of illumination the supermoon was kicking out. no wind, no cloud, rising air pressure. Any self respecting fish would be buried in the deepest, darkest hole the middle of the lake.

By 10pm I could hardly feel my feet - thermal socks and boots were pathetic. The bivvy was white with frost by midnight and sleeping was tough going thanks to the goose circus. Had a screaming run at 2am. The agony of getting up wasn't worth the view of a swan having swam over my line and sped off over the water.

Previous nights dinner and a hard frost - I thought it was supposed to be spring!

Up at 5, a hard frost and still nothing on the water. Not even a roach topping.

Left at 8. I;d had a total of 2 single bleep liners, and the two guys I was fishing with had had even less. Still, nice to be out...

My mate's set up. Very tidy, but it didn't impress the fish.

Zed hunters 1

2011-02-21T20:17:00.010Z

Ben's zed from the first cast of the day

5.30 am and I'm on the M6 heading to Cambridge. By 7am my mate Ben and I are trudging across the flat landscape of cambridgeshire, laden with tackle, heading for a spot on the river Cam where last year the bearded man had a zander of over 12lb.

We walked a long, long way - Ben assuring me it would be worth it. Well it was, but not for me on this trip. Fishing two rods each, I was still setting up and Ben was just adjusting the alarm on his first rod when the line tightened and he lifted (no striking, he's another proponent of the circle hook) into the 8lb 2oz zed above. What a fish, and the average size on the stretch. Lucky for Ben he got it in as the hook hold was minute - still not convinced by them circle hooks... Still, a good and exciting start.

Fen country. Bleak

The fish was taken on eel section, so I fished with eel on one rod and roach tail on the other. Both legered, eel with trebles, the roach with a single 2/0 hook.

We worked the section by moving rods up and down to locate the fish. A while after I had a screaming run - not typical zander behavior. A jagged fight later and an angry little 6lb 8oz pike was on the bank. This fish also went for eel section.

Small and I was after zeds, but better than a blank

Another while later a second pike took my eel section. This one was slightly smaller, so I didnt weigh it. Probably 5 to 6lb. Between the two pike Ben lost two more fish - them damned circle hooks...

Pike 2. They love the taste of eel

We fished on until dark. We both had indications which shattered the baron silence of the landscape - I had something playing with a roach head for about half an hour over several casts to the same spot. Could have been a small zed, or an eel and we know they're around after finding this big fella freshly dead in the margins.

Dead eel freshly killed - but by what?

Missing his tail I reckon this mature 'snake' would have been maybe up to 4lb in his pomp. Wouldn't mind catching one of those for the percentage challenge.

The eel next to my camera lens cover

Next trip to the Cam will be planned very, very soon. Just one run here could easily chuck up a double (I'd like a 50 percenter on the board) and the end of the season is coming up quick. Watch this space.

The Biggest Fish of All

2011-02-14T17:56:00.008Z

Small commercials are getting known for their big perch potential

My brother was up from Somerset and we don't often get chance to fish together, so we planned a day chasing carp at a local small commercial. Well that was part of the plan but after hearing this fishery had been producing some big perch to pleasure anglers I had ideas - chasing a big stripie of my own.

Saturday morning and we loaded up the car. Cold, windy and bright it didn't look brilliant - as usual I had to watch all the decent fishing weather pass by during the week through the office window while I was chained to my desk.

We set up a two carp rods, taking one each should we get any runs. Throughout the day we tried all sorts of baits - from fluro pop-ups and large pellets, to fake corn, all combined with pva bags of soaked and stock pellets along with different glug. The result of our hard work? Not one blip of the alarms.

No carp, I blame the drop in temp over the last few days

Not to worry though because plan B payed off well. Dave (my brother) fished maggot for small stuff while we waited for the carp. He actually put together an impressive bag of roach averaging around half a pound with the odd small perch and gudgeon.

Dave wearing every bit of issue clothing the RAF has ever given him and an average roach from his haul

I nabbed a few of the smaller roach and set out after perch. Hook lipped with a square of rubber ban to hold them in place (barbless hoos only) I presented them using a large loafer weighted with an olivet with a small swivel before a 5lb braid hook length to a size 6 Drennan super specialist hook.

After half an hour of the float bobbing around it suddenly went mad and I spotted the roach head for the surface while another fish jumped clear of the water - a sure sign a perch was lurking near by.

The float then disappeared so a couple of seconds later I hit into it. The rod (Fox specialist 1lb TC combined with a small Shimano reel with 5lb line) hooped over, the clutch chirruped and then nothing. I'd missed the hook up.

Another cast to the same spot and a minute later the float buried again. This time I hit with a solid hook hold. A few jerks and head bangs later and the fish surface. God did it look huge.

Fat bellied and big mouthed - yes, I mean the fish

Ooo, good pinch but lacking dorsal

Cracking!

Netted, on the bank I weighed it in... 3lb 5oz. I could have sworn it'd be four. It looked like a monster, but then big perch always do. That's a new PB for me, never had a perch over 3lb before. Needless to say I was chuffed.

After that Dave had plenty more roach, I had no more perch - but who cares after a perch like that! I'll back after a four asap.

Scuuuuuuuuum

2011-02-03T14:29:00.008Z

Amazingly I got a fishing pass from the Mrs for a second day in a row, so I headed back to the scene of yesterday's roach-fest (I use the made up term loosely) to see if I could winkle out some more silver.

This time I went lighter. The day before I was using a 1lb TC 12 foot Fox specialist rod with 4lb line just incase I came across a big chub. Today it was my 13foot Shimano Powerloop float rod (my first proper rod I had for Christmas 16 years ago) and 2.8lb main line.

I started off in a different swim to the previous day. Feeding casters and white maggots I winked out a single dace using a home-made quill float from my granddad's float box that's more than 60 years old - still does the job though.

Then nothing. And as I only had an hour and a half fishing, instead of flogging a dead swim I quickly moved on to the spot I fished the day before. However, the conditions had changed and so had the fishing.

A drop in overnight temperature and with bright sunshine the fish had moved under the cover a raft of scum at the end of the swim's run - it's was the sun that would have pushed them back into the gloom.

Same glide, but a load brighter - the fish had buggered off in search of cover

The scum gave the best chance of a bite

Feeding maggot and caster it was hard work, with the only indications coming by attaching a heavier 'bobber' style float that could push through the surface scum to present the hook bait right under the raft and leaving it to waft in the current.

I had two bites in my short window on the swim. One from a small but muscular roach and the other from a powerful (for its size) chub of 3lb 5oz that took me all over the shop with my size 18 hook clinging on to its top lip.

Still got to work on the self takes.. and holding fish.

My head isn't the shape of a novelty sex toy by the way, its just the hat...

SALVATION

2011-02-02T20:17:00.005Z

Something very cool about a scale perfect roach

A new month, a new chance to get my net wet for the first time in 2011. And the plan was to do that chasing roach on the Leam.

Things looked good too. The temperature had been climbing all week and it was nicely over cast when I got to the bank.

I started on the tip. Link legering caster on a size 16 - one fake, one real, always seems to work for me.

The first swim gave me a few taps, nothing hittable, or at least, I didn't manage to hit them.

After that for the next hour I walked a lot, cast a lot, and saw not one fish. So I went back to the original swim and set up for float fishing. A small single swan shot loafer, or a 2g olivette as it was, with a size 12 hook - I've started using a hook sharpener on my points by the way, and I can highly recommend it. SUPER SHARP!

The first and last swim

Anyway, a trot with bread flake while feeding caster and a few bobs and dinks showed me the fish were there. Then bam, a bite and hit a fish. My first fish for several weeks and a beaut of a roach at 10oz - I thought it looked bigger in the water.

The biggest of the day, just shy of 4lbs... by exactly 3lb 6oz

Changing between caster and bread I kept the bites coming, and besides a nice dace of 5oz they were all roach - all around 5-6oz.

The lone dace in a shoal of roach

I was only there for a few hours, it was muddy, it rained, but I haven't enjoyed a session as much as this for a long time.

Barking up the wrong tree

2011-01-17T18:52:00.004Z

The tree behind where I was sitting. Very pretty.

ANOTHER SODDING BLANK. Well, to be fair to myself (and spare my sanity after three trips without a single bite) it was the wrong day to go. All weekend the pressure had been rising, the sky had been uber moody and the conditions were spot on for fishing. And all weekend I'd sat at home after blowing my weekly angling pass from the Mrs on a session the following Monday - which started with a very cold and clear night, saw a noticeable drop in temperature, and, after a bit of fog, was very bright. Not so good for fishing.

Anyway, come Monday - also my birthday for which my wife and son got me a pair of Shimano 4010 biomaster II reels (can't beat the late 90s XT-7s, especially in front drag) - and I had planned to pike my way around a canal basin near Atherstone. Perfect, other than the fact that when I got there there was no water in that particular stretch thanks to British Waterways closing two locks and pulling the plug out. Got a good look at the topography of the area for future reference though.

To make matters worse, on my dejected way back to the car I some how managed to get one of the trebels on my made up rods stuck in the groin area of my trousers. Much comedy ensued... if it had happened to Frank Spencer. As it was I just swore, bled a bit (my thumb, not my groin) and then swore more and louder.

The swim opposite the boat yard. At least it had water in - not so sure about pike though.

Change of plan, change of venue. Back to Nuneaton and a wider section of cut opposite a boat yard I'd seen in the summer. Looked good to start with. Two dead baits. One presented popped up, the other suspended using a sunken float paternoster rig. My hopes were actually quite high.

It started off foggy. Then the sun got his hat on, hip hip hip hurray... cobblers...

I tried loads. Change of baits, placement, presentation (although I was only there for the morning). But then the sun came out and with no bites I went home for cake and candles, and to look for feeder rods on Ebay.

Anyway, back onto the zeds mid week, and I'd better see some action or I'm diving in the canal and using my teeth... you hear me, fish!

Stuck in the blocks

2011-01-09T17:38:00.007Z

I'm in. My name's down for the 2011 % of record weight challenge. Unfortunately though, I'm yet to get the party started after two, yes two, blanks in a row. It's not good for the ego.

Last weekend I managed a couple of fairly cold hours at hawksbury junction on the canal after pike. It was nice to get out in the fresh air and shake off the funk of Christmas, but with it being the only stretch of canal free of ice for miles around, it was taking an angling hammering - although Idlers Quest Jeff still managed to winkle out a nice fish the day before I was there, so I'm blame him...

Anyway, today I managed to obtain another pass to get out on the bank - this time the river Avon. The BBC weather guesswork looked promising, with rising temps. However, after having to scrape thick ice off the windscreen due to a hard frost while being blinded by the sun thanks to a clear sky, the conditions as I set off just before 9am looked bloody naff.

I got down to the Avon, hauled my roving gear (I need to revise that as I tend to turn what should be a light weight approach to fishing into a hernia-inducing, Herculean task loaded with 'just in case' items) and got fishing.

The river was the complete opposite to the last time I fished it in December - what had been low, clear and relatively slow was now high, coloured and pushing through at a proper rate of knots.

Licking through - the fish had obviously all been washed away...

First approach was maggot - feeder and a double on the hook. Second was bread - liquidized in a small cage feeder and flake on the hook. Third was cheese paste - straight lead and hair rigged paste (marmite an stilton mmm,mmmm) around a cork ball.

This was one of the swims today - note the branch just above the water

Same swim last session - that's the same branch a good 2 foot above the surface

To cut a long story short, I had zip, nothing, bugger all! However I did get to test my new rod - a Shimano Purist 1.5tc barbel 11-12foot with a selection of white glass push in tips (perfect for chub too). Good god what a rod. Light, slim, understated and a feel of real quality. I get a twinge every time I see it - I just needed a fish to christen it!

So, no points as yet, but I'm formulating a plan based on waters, months, species and tactics as we speak. And if the worst comes to the worst I have Bowler, Miles, Hayes and Wilson on speed dial...

Winter, warmer

2010-12-11T17:47:00.004Z

Bright but warmer than it had been in a couple of weeks.

Thank god for bit of a thaw - sentiment echoed by anglers across the UK no doubt. With the Arctic conditions laying off a bit, for the time being anyway, I decided to break out the quiver tip and get down to the river Avon.

The conditions of the river were a slight bit more couple than usual. Not a lot more water in the river though, and with the ice and snow melted the mud was thick and claggy.

Traveling light for bait I took bread (liquidized for feed, slices for hook bait), two tubs of fluro pop up boilies (thought I try them out) and some a batch of cheese paste with special ingredients - terrible pong, but killer for chub.

Getting down there for around half nine I started by plopping in a couple of small balls of bread into two likely looking swims as well as a few tiny lumps of cheese paste.

The rid I used was a basic running link leger setup. Three Swan shot on a link of around 3 inches to a running bead, stopped around 2 feet from the size 10 hook by a float stop with two rubber beads in between.

At the business end I put a short hair with small cork ball to wrap the paste around. The weight of the paste balanced out the cork making it waft around in the flow - or to anchor it I moulded a small amount of tungsten putty an inch or so from the hook.

For fishing bread I took the cork ball off and wrapped a large flake of bread around the hook's shank - and took off the putty.

Second swim with the raft of debris - but no fish.

In the first two swims I had no joy. Not a nudge on the tip. So I moved to another swim some way down the river where I'd had quite a few chub before. As usual there was a large raft of debris caught on a tree branch on the far bank. I show in for chub I thought. A bit of bait went in before I cast out.

I had one bite from the swim, which some how I missed. Keeping me entertained though was a robin that was more than a bit interested in my bread.

The fearless robin that even hopped under my seat to nick bread at one point.

One more move even further down the river and a straight slow flowing section of the river framed by ice that I hadn't fished before. Another raft, another swim that looked a shoe in for chub.

One flick out with bread on the hook and a little tweek. A second cast another tweek, a quick strike and a fish on.

It fought very well on my light Fox rod but it wasn't long before a chub of 3 to 3.5lbs was in the net. And that was the day for me.

Chubby chub chub - saved from another blank!

Frost. No bite

2010-12-03T21:04:00.006Z

Cold and foggy. But still worth the effort. Please note Rob's grandad blanket. His hearing trumpet and zimmer frame are just out of shot...

Norfolk never happened. After booking the boat, talking to those in the know, stocking up on extra bits n bobs, tying a bin full of traces, making detailed plans of tactics, purchasing new thermals and getting a bit exciting about fishing the broads the guys I was going fishing with called it off at the eleventh hour due to the weather. Never mind, would have been bit nippy out there on a boat anyway, and we'll get there in the new year.

I still had the day booked off work though, and I wasn't going to waste it, so me and Rob hatched a plan to tackle the pike of Bishops Bowl near Leamington.

I put a couple of calls into Shaun, the owner, about which pools were frozen and how the fishing had been. Apparently a few pike had come out, but my water of choice - the great Green Hills - was frozen solid. Mitre pool had a bit of ice but was still fishable in spots - so Mitre it was.

We rocked up at about 9.30, it was cold. Below zero cold. We checked Green Hills anyway and after seeing several penguins, what looked like a yeti, and Torvill and Dean cracking out the Bolaro across the main lake we concluded it wasn't for us.

Thanks to Jack Frost having gone nuts the night before Mitre too was now mostly frozen, save for two pegs - not a lot of choice then. But at least we could cast a line.

We chose to fish in the same peg so at least we could discuss the onset of frost bite with each other.

My 'assault' consisted of a legered set up on one rod with a popped up whole roach/ whole sardine/ half sardine changing throughout the day. This was cast to the ledge of a large drop off in front of us.

The other was a float legered small, whole roach in the margins alongside the ice to snag any marauding predators.

New drop off bite indicators didn't seem to cope with the cold too well, but never got the chance to prove themselves. Getting the rod rests in the ground - the equivalent of three days down the gym.

To cut a long story short, we didn't have a touch all day. 6 cups of tea, two bacon sarnies, a sly choccy bar, but not one bite or movement. We didn't even see a single fish in the gin clear water or even topping anywhere on the entire lake. If they had any sense they were in the deepest hole they could find - which was on the other, unfishable side of the water under the ice, or they'd just gone down the pub.

Not that that matters because in the snow the 'Bowl' was a great place to be. Shaun came round a couple of times for a good chat and me and Rob talked fishing and other manly stuff all day, in between complaining about how cold we were - that's what you get for going fishing in sub zero temperatures...

The Bear Grylls of the angling world - he fashioned the hat from a frozen squirrel just minutes before

NorfolkBound

2010-11-29T19:21:00.003Z

Gear, tidied and ready

Korum Ruckbag. Genius bit of kit or over priced gimmick. We shall see.

The weather eh. Rubbish. The canal's like one big novelty ice cube with the zander chilling underneath it all. Hopefully we'll see a thaw next week, but as for this week, zedding on the cut is well and truly off the menu.

My thoughts then have turned to a trip to the Norfolk broads at the end of the week,

Pike stuff, aching for a 20

New drop back alarms will be perfect for the zander and pike when the cut defrosts.

The boats booked, the local expert's mind picked and the tackle very nearly all ready. And speaking of tackle I've made a few extra editions, including a new Korum ruckbag (with solid table top design), a pair of drop back bite alarms (another Barry McConnell creation) and a pair of ESP 3lb TC 12 foot specimen rods. I've also reloaded my baitrunners with some new 15lb line and tidied up my predator tackle boxes ready for those Norfolk pike.

New rods strapped - 2 ESPs and one E-Sox boat rod. Strapped up and all ready to rock.

A 20 would be nice, but with the jack frost on a bender at the moment, just to catch and not suffer from frost bite would be nice.

At last!

2010-11-12T09:02:00.006Z

Silly scarf, big zed (for the canal, anyway).

Fishing the canal again, this time a bit further along from our favoured spot near Long Itchington, Rob and me plumped for a different angle of attack on the zander population.

Lures were the order of the day. Specifically small rubber shads and some modified bass items that I sorted out early in the season just for this kind of work.

Chucking artificials meant we could both have a good explore of the canal and try and keep a bit warmer - when we arrived at around 7pm the grass was already crunchy with frost.

After about on hour of casting in to the dark with no takes (unless you count the tree and boat rope that had two lures...) I had a slight pluck on the line as I bounced the lure off the bottom at a slow pace. Then there was the mother of all takes that arched my new Drennan E-SOX boat/lure rod right over. I'd actually thought the rod was a bit too over gunned for lure fishing on the cana, but in the gloom it looked and felt perfect for the job.

I thought initially it might have been a pike, but when the eyes shone back in the torch light and we saw the silvery gill plates it was obviously a good zander. So good in fact that it had to fold into the net instead of going straight in.

Weighed in the net the scales showed over 6 and a half pound. The net weighed in at just under a pound so a figure of 5lb 10oz was arrived at.

Typically both of us had relied on the other to bring a camera in a move that made the Chuckle Brothers look like a slick operation. Rob did have his iPhone though, but in the dark the video is the best we could get.

In typical canal fashion I then went on to catch a hefty television ariel before losing the winning lure on in the dark depths on a snag that felt like it might be the roof that said ariel came from.

Still, very pleased and the spot of capture is now well marked for fishing with deads very soon.

Dace ace, zander anger

2010-11-02T21:26:00.004Z

Ever wondered what garden gnomes do at night? They go zander fishing.

Since my last post I've been fishing a few times. Twice I blanked, and as I don't enjoy not catching, it's safe to assume nobody will enjoy reading about it.

Last week I went zander fishing with Rob of fur feathers and fins blog. Targeting the locks at the Blue Lias stretch of canal near Long Itchington, we fished for just a couple of hours after work, making our way up and down the locks giving a swim half an hour and then trying the next likely looking spot. I had two runs. One resulting in a fish, which felt and looked above average, being played to the net before shaking the hook. The other a dropped bait.

I new record dace for the river Anchor... ever caught on the float...

on a Sunday... maybe... where's the number for the BRFC....

Next was a trip to the river Anchor with my brother-in-law. I was shocked at how low the river still was, but the fishing was still good. Loads of dace, with some quite big specimens that would have got Dennis Flack excited, chub, gudgeon and rogue roach of a nice size.

Naff photography. But not a blank

Zander fishing again. Same spot on the canal as the week before but on my todd - hence the frankly pap quality of the photos. I did catch though. One run, one fish.

I'm always impressed by the condition of the fish from the canals, mint and fighting fit.

With the amount of zander fishing me and Rob are getting in now, we're learning loads. The tactics are getting honed, I've got some more 'winning' ideas in the bag which I think will make all the difference - I just need some bigger fish!!!!

By the way, other than one report of a pike, is anyone else surprised that with all the dead bait going into the canal from the guys on these blogs no one has hooked into a single jack?

Latest zander. Small but perfectly formed.

Two fish, one blank

2010-10-09T08:26:00.004+01:00

Anyone else finding canal zedding totally addictive?

After writing about the biggest brace of perch ever landed in the UK, along with an angler who's just 3 fish away from having caught 400 Irish 20lb plus pike, I was more than in the mood for a bit of predator fishing of my own this week. So I arranged to meet my fishing amigo Rob on a stretch of the Grand Union canal not far from his house at Long Itchington.

Overcast, windy and fairly warm for this time of year the conditions were ok for another zander session. Tactics were as usual, roach/rudd section on a size 1/0 Mustad long shank barbless hook legered with a fox leger stem to lift the line off the bottom and give the fish less resistance.

We started the short evening session just before dark, fishing a marina area for around an hour without luck other than a short one toner for Rob which was either a zander which ran and then dropped the bait, or a liner from something else. We did, however, quaff plenty of tea.

A move to a section next to a bridge also yielded less than nowt, prompting yet another move.

The section we chose after this was up from a lock with an over flow that looked perfect for bait fish. The wind direction and flow also meant that any warmer surface water and food bits would be heading down to the section, which also had a good bit of overgrowth on the far bank. Spot on for zeds.

10 minutes after my bait was cast the bobbin and alarm went mental and I lifted into what felt like a nice fish. Within a minute or so a fat little zander was in the net, unhooked, photographed and back in the cut.

Best fish of the session. Great condition fish, like all the ones

I've seen from the canal.

Big gnashers designed for stabbing bait meaning when you get a dropped bait it looks like dracula's had a go at it.

Next cast and another 10 minutes the alarm went of again. This time it was the smallest zander I'd actually ever seen. Feisty though, flaring its gill covers and dorsal as well as showing off its chompers.

A titchy and thoroughly pissed off Grand Union zander

That was the last action of the evening and the rain, that was forecast for 9pm, started falling at less than a minute past 9. Michael Fish would've been proud.

I'm sorry to say that Rob, who was fishing exactly the same tactics and bait as me, had a big fat blank. That's angling.

We'll definitely be fishing that stretch again though. It looks like it has a lot of promise and I'm sure there's a nice big hungry fish with his name on it somewhere in there.

Quick cut

2010-10-01T20:27:00.007+01:00

Canal - dark. Grass - green. Boats - a pain in the arse.

Two hours after work to get down the canal, chuck in some dead fish and pull out a live one. Easy? Mmmeh. I didn't have high hopes to be honest. Although a good dousing of rain throughout the day and fairly overcast conditions were a good start.

Got to the canal by Tusses tackle shop at around 7. It was still light, just.

Both my rods were already made up, so it was just a case of finding my spot, baiting my hooks, setting up the bite alarms and casting out.

First cast to an over hanging tree and, while I was busy fiddling with the other rod, a single bleep and a slight rise of the bobbin signaled that there were Zeds in town.

The bobbin dithered and the rose again. So I wound down and lifted into the fish. A zander of nearly 3lbs. Not a bad start.

Small zed, Single hook went straight in the scissors. Unhooking was easy.

The second rod was 'plonked' the other side of the tree while I rebaited the other one. Roach tails were the order of the day, presented on long shanked Mustad 1/0 hooks.

This lot was legered on the deck on one rod, and lifted slightly off the bottom on the other using a fox leger stem to lift the line off the bottom (less resistance) with the roach tail popped up with foam.

The second rod had been out around 3 minutes before the alarm beeped and the bobbin moved again. Unfortunately before it could develop any further a dirty great long boat came steaming through the swim, meaning out had to move both baits - back leads are a no no for zander in my opinion.

Once steam boat Willy had buggered off a quick recast, set the alarms and bobbins... and steam boat Willy's mate comes chugging round the corner at warp mark 4.

By this time it was dark, and the temperature was dropping off, and although I had now developed higher hopes and tried several different swims along the cut, there was no more action. Maybe it's time I tried a different stretch.

By 9pm I was back in the car and heading home.

Just the one rod next time so I can cover more ground easily. Keeping the bite alarms though. You can't beat the beep for an adrenalin rush.

Hey to Zeds.

2010-09-13T19:09:00.003+01:00

Zed ahoy! A Coventry Canal Zander. Small, but perfect.

After my last trip out zander fishing I subsequently found out that the Ashby canal was electro fished to remove zander following some stretches of it being designated a SSSI. At least I had an excuse for blanking. The shame of it is that some 12 years ago, when I last fished it for zander, before I left the midlands in search of fortune and glory, it was brilliant.

Anyway, on top of the electro fishing tip I also got lots of info on other venues - many of which I plan to try out over the winter. I also chatted with a mate of mine about trying a stretch of the Coventry Canal I had been chatting with a tackle shop owner about through work.

I got to the stretch before dawn. Tactics for the short session were very basic. Roach tails presented on a single size 2 hook to 10lb braid, float fished under a small, preloaded pike float set in place with float stops either side.

The fishing was fairly slow. Nothing before dawn so I kept on the move. I was joined by my mate Rob at around 6.30am and he was also targeting zeds with exactly the same set up.

The conditions, to be honest, were crap - bright sunshine and loads of boats.

However, as soon as there was a little bit of cloud cover to block the sunlight, Rob's float bobbed, swayed, and started moving sideways before sliding out of view. Rob waited, tightened down to the fish and then lifted into it. A perfect zander of around 2lbs - Rob's first. We were both very chuffed.

Rob with his fish. Very happy as was I.

Another hour passed, as did loads of boats, without any action. The sunlight issue didn;t get any better either. Rob managed to winkle out another bite though, but struck a bit early and all we saw was the back of the fish, another zander, just before it let go of the bait.

We gave up and called it a day not long after.

With reports of an 11 pounder having been caught there recently and my 'spider fish senses' tingling when it come to the sort stretch, I'll be back when the conditions are more favorable to zander hunting.

Zander, man.

2010-09-02T19:43:00.004+01:00

Zander fishing again - bring on the autumn!

It's nearly that time of year when the temperature drops, the edges get icy and pike gear comes out. In fact it's that close I'm getting a bit itchy, so to indulge my cravings for some predator action I decided to try the Ashby canal near Market Bosworth for the resident zander.

It was a last minute plan as I'd just got back from a holiday in spain. So I grabbed a rod, a few bits of tackle and some dead baits from the freezer and got to the tow path at about 6.30pm.

The Ashby canal was the colour of milky hot chocolate.

Not attractive but I suspect it's pretty good for the zeds.

The set up was simple. A running ledger featuring a large ringed swivel to the lead to give as little resistance to potential zander as possible. I'd made up a length of 7 strand wire with size 10 trebles for a delicate presentation of small roach dead bait - this was injected with air to pop it up off the silty canal bottom with some tungsten putty used just up from the top treble to keep the tail end of the bait on the deck.

The bait was also slashed and stabbed a bit to get a bit of flavor out into the murky water.

Zandavan rollover jig. An effective bit of kit.

Bite detection was from a Fox Micron Mini alarm combined with a Zandavan rollover jig. Now I'd never used one of these jigs before, although they'd been on my radar for a while. Made by eel guru Barry McConnell (a very nice man by the way) the jig is very low resistance, perfect for Zander. Have a look at www.zandavan.co.uk

It's nice to travel light. I only saw three people all evening and no boats!

After setting up and casting out to the far shelf drop off I set the alarm and jig ready to go. To be honest I didn't expect to get anything until at least 8pm, which was around the time the sun started going down and the light levels dropped. But at around 7.30 the alarm blipped, the jig arm rose and I struck into a fish.

Unfortunately it didn't stay on very long. Either I struck too early or it was a small fish - there are plenty of 'schoolies' in the Ashby, or at least there were when I last fished it. I'm pretty sure it was Zander though, after seeing a very brief glimpse of a back before the line went slack.

Either way, it was some action, and it gave me a whole load of confidence.

Trouble was that confidence was a bit misguided. I fished on until after 9pm into the dark with not even a twitch for my efforts. This is my first blank of the season! Had to happen sometime I suppose.

I called it a day, especially as the canal was very dark, I was on my todd and there were some noises going on the blackness of the surrounding fields that wouldn't have been out of place in a horror film...

I don't really like fishing alone in the dark in the middle of no where. Yeah I know, a big girl.

All in all though, it'd fired me up properly for the autumn, and for some more (or just any) zander. Anyone got any suggestion for some likely venues around here - other than the Avon and Coombe?

A drop of rain

2010-08-16T20:04:00.006+01:00

A slightly coloured Avon whipping through compared to the last time I was here

We had a drop of rain over the weekend, at last. Just what the low and crystal clear rivers needed - not to mention the fish.

So, after managing to bag couple of hours with permission from the wife, I went to the Avon to see if I can winkle out a barbel.

The new rod gets a work out, very nice little tool it is too

The other reason for wanting to go to the Avon was to try out a new rod. A 12 foot Greys Prodigy TX specimen rod with a 1.75lb TC. Sensitive enough to see little nibbles as well as set and hold small hook with low diameter hook lengths, but with enough backbone to hold bigger fish without too much worry.

Getting to the river I had it all to myself - the first time that that's happened- so I picked a peg I'd never fished before and settled in.

The river was up, probably by over half a foot and it had a nice tinge of colour.

Pidgeon feed particles with pellets and sallips (different shaped pellets)

I started by feeding a load of seed particles that I'd boiled up the day before, as well as a few pellets (lamprey and halibut) and Teme Severn sallips. They were plonked into the swim just up from a big overhanging bush with a bait dropper - the water was whipping through, so loose feeding was no good.

The rig was more then up to the challenge of a barbel, if one came across the business end

My rig was 10lb mono main line through to a 10lb Drennan braid hook length. This was tied onto a size 6 hook with knotless knot so I could hair rig two sallips in place with superglue. I also pinched two small pieces of tungsten putty onto the hook length to try and keep the line pinned to the bottom as the barbel are hard fished for down here and I get the impression they're easily spooked. I needed a slightly chunkier weight that would hold bottom so a couple an ounce and a half gripper lead on on a running leger was used.

Lots of debris made for almost constant tip movement, but the bites were obvious

The fishing was slow. Three bites in three hours. But from two of those came two fish. Unfortunately neither of them were barbel (still illusive after four session, but I'll keep plodding on), but chub - both around the 4lb mark, so I'm keeping my average size chevin at a good mark.

One of the chub. The usual, unmarked and great condition fish (that's a big specimen net by the way...)

Peppered with Sergeants

2010-08-08T17:12:00.005+01:00

Slammed! The perch were loving a bit of shad.

There are a number of benefits to my new job, one of the better ones of which is that we own a stretch of the river Nene just down the road from the office. Yep, that's right, a stretch (some 2 miles of bank) just for the team, only a handful of which ever fish it. Not bad, eh!?

Last Wednesday then I decided to go and have a dabble. the best way in my experience to get to know a new water is to take my lure gear and have an explore. So that's what I did.

Starting at the one end next to a bridge I spent a few hours trying various swimbaits, cranks and shads to see if the clear, weedy, slow running water would chuck up a jack or two.

The water was crammed full of fish. Shoals of roach followed in the lures. Some of which were a decent size and make me believe there are probably some clonkers in there. I've no doubt there are tench and bream too and there are definitely some big carp - one of the guys from the office had three 20s in one night out of there and a double the same night I was fishing.

Unfortunately though I didn't see any pike - not even one follow. With that amount of bait fish in the water though, I'm not surprised. I would have to put a lure on a pike's nose and seriously piss it off to get a strike. Bring on the autumn!

I did manage to get a bit of action on the shads though. A bright yellow 4 inch kyopto shad got the perch going. I had five in total. All of which really slammed into the lure. Nothing huge, but good fun none the less.

I'l be after those suspected clonking roach very soon.

Pesky Polski

2010-08-01T21:40:00.003+01:00

After missing out on a barbel trip to the Avon (ill in bed revisiting the previous days food intake) and then an organisational cock up with a trip to Napton (Keith (Warwickshire Avon) said Thursday, I read Sunday) I managed to get a few hours in chasing the crucian at parkers pool.

Frankly though, I kind of wish I hadn't bothered.

On arrival it was a pleasant as ever. Float fishing corn I was getting a few bites and a few nice rudd came out. But the first decent fish I hook into I lost in the weeds – and it felt like a good little lump too.

Then something happened I hadn't seen before - although I've been talking with people about it all week.

A pair of eastern Europeans turned up at the pool, rods in one hand (no reel, just line tied to the end ring from what I could see) plastic bags in the other. I didn't see them catch any fish, they buggered off to one of the other pools, but I'm sure that those bags would have been heavier when they left and the pool lighter of fish. That put me in a mood.

Following that some young punk on a quad bike started doing laps of the pool and honing up and down the paths right past the signs that say they're not allowed. A bloke stopped him, I thought to tell him to stop, but it turned out to be his dad who told him how he was going wrong with his throttle (effing and blinding every other word of course as he spoke to him). Then the little got carried on but louder and faster than before.

Then loosing two other fish that felt heftier than the first I lost just compounded things.

I sloped off home to moan to the Mrs.

Didn't take any snaps either, just one of those days.

Pin the pellet on the chub

2010-07-22T21:49:00.007+01:00

First fish of the evening. A sucker for lamprey pellets.

I have been absolutely rushed off my feet since my last fishing trip due to starting a new job. But I did get the nod from the Mrs and find a spare couple of hours after work this week to get down the Avon.

Barbel were on my mind as I've yet to hook into one down there, they just keep taunting me from the tree roots, but there were some chub the size of spaniels gliding about in the low and clear water, so what ever took the bait, I knew I'd be in for a good scrap.

Getting to the river about 7pm the first thing I did, before anything else... was tread in a fresh and not too solid dog egg that some considerate pooch owner had left in the middle of the foot path. A lucky omen or a brutal summing up of the evening ahead? Whatever, I made my way to the spot I'd fished on the last visit while stopping to have a nosey in other swims, chat with another Plough AS member and vigorously wipe the stinking bowel movement of something that must have been the size of a Great Dane of my Adidas.

The Fox specialist was this time combined with my old centre pin which hasn't seen the light of day since I did a bit of perching last season. That's far too long for such a fine and weathered piece of kit, so with fresh line it was back in action.

Ledgering with a lead just big enough to hold bottom in the fairly rapid flow was the order of the day. The swims are too pokey and snag ridden to make using a float viable, or any fun.

The business end was a size 6 Drennan specialist hook with a knotless knot hair rig and 2 foot hook length, a couple of which I'd tied up the night before while watching the River Monster DVD for a bit of inspiration.

The hook bait was a pair of teme-severn 15mm Lamprey flavoured pellets superglued together onto the hair. This was fished with a small sausage of smaller pellets in a PVA bag place gently next to the tree roots in the swim just outside the cover of a raft of debris that is formed by the same tree's branches as they dip into the flow.

Once the bait was in I moved the rod back so the top was just poking out of the bank grass and sat down to wait for a bite.

After about 10 minutes there were a few plucks but no possitive bites. The grass around me though had turned into a zoo, with mice, shrews, pigeons, crickets and a couple of swans all apparently oblivious of me sitting in the middle of them.

My first bite did come, just as I re cast the bait (this time with no PVA bag). The pellets didn't even hit bottom before the were snaffled and the rod banged round.

A chub of just over 4lbs. Happy with that.

After the scrap I chucked out a few handfulls of pellets and moved up stream to another swim that I'd baited up an hour earlier.

This one was more open with another brilliant looking raft of debris in it, but this time at the end of the run as opposed to the head as with the first swim, meaning I could chuck in just off it and make the bait waft temptingly into the dark, where hopefully the fish would be queuing up.

Second cast and at the front of that queue was another chub. Livelier than the first and desperate to stay where it was it's one of the best scraps my slim Fox rod had ever had. A lovely to play on the pin.

It came to the net in the end, just as a pair of young swans were being chased through the swim by another, very angry looking, and bigger swam. The wildlife down there just have no respect for an angler minding his own business.

The scales showed 4 and a half pounds. Happy again.

The bigger of the two. Catching the fish appears to be easier than taking a decent snap. Got to get that sorted - but at least I remembered the camera this time...

Once the fish was back in the water the light was going to the point where I had to stick my headlamp on to pack away - and dodge the poop on the way back to the car...

Stress Relief

2010-07-11T21:34:00.004+01:00

I've committed the worst sin of blogging. I went fishing and forgot my camera. So this is a words and no pictures post. Sorry.

I start a new job tomorrow, so to stop me pacing around the house like a zoo-kept big cat, I chucked a few bit of tackle in the back of the car and headed off to Parkers Pool in Bedworth.

Bait was sweet corn with some red crumb ground bait, green swim stim and casters.

This visit to the lilly and weed chocked water I went tooled up with a home made swim rake (after half an hour with some pig iron, a drill and an angle grinder it looked like something used by the less squeamish members of the Spanish inquisition) so I spent the first 15 minutes getting a mix of weed, lilly stems and stinking, decomposing leaves out of the pool to create a small swim.

Ground bait went in and within a few minutes there were signs of life – raking a swim, although a massive intrusion and disruption to the water, always seems to get fish buzzing.

Setting up was straight forward. 3 lb main line, still water blue insert float, size 16 hook with a 2.5lb hook length. Hook bait was sweetcorn fished about an inch over depth.

The rudd kicked things off, taking the corn on the drop and off the bottom, with the total by the end of the night being around 15 fish up to just over a pound – I think there are some very good rudd in here if you can get them out.

The crucians also made and appearance, some of them more than once.

In the first half an hour I hooked into a fish that bolted off into the lillys and bust my hook length. After that I went to 3lb line straight through to a Drennan specialist size 16 hook.

Later on I caught the biggest crucian of the session. One of 2lbs (my best ever as it happens) that put up a great struggle – a gorgeous deep fish in superb condition. When I took the hook out what did I see? My hook length and hook in the corner of its mouth. So an hour and a half after being hooked this fish had come back for more grub and got caught again!

Two other crucians also fell to corn, one of around a pound and another a few ounces bigger. Both also great looking fish – which you would have seen, if I'd have remembered the camera.

I even got home in time to see the end of the World Cup final. Spain have just scored, I should have stayed with the fish...

T-minus 120 minutes...

2010-07-07T21:08:00.015+01:00

I found myself with a 2 hour window to have a crack at the chub and barbel of the Avon. Not a moment to loose then, and with a small ruck sack, one rod and a landing net I was almost running through the fields to get to the bank.

Today I wanted to target bigger fish. A walk along the Plough AS stretch earlier in the week had allowed me to find a couple of likely looking spots – one that was home to at least 3 decent sized barbel and a small shoal of impressive chub when I peered through the nettles. So this was where I headed first.

Perfect for the fish, less than perfect for fishing – but bloody good fun

The swim was snag city. An overhanging tree created a raft of flotsam and jetsam as well as shooting out roots and branches all over the place making casting very difficult. I could see the chub moving in and out from under the raft, but the barbel stayed put, just showing their tails and the occasional white belly from under the safety of cover.

I baited up before moving away from the swim to tackle up.

Bigger fish and a tricky swim called for a heftier than usual set up

With a tight, difficult swim, plus the chance to hit into some large barbel, I upped my usual tackle. My Mitchell bait runner reel loaded with 10lb Fox Warrior line was combined with my Fox Specialist avon rod. At the other end a size 10 hook with a short, 4-inch, 8lb hook length was delivered to the bottom by a running lead ledger set up. The length of the tail was around 2.5 feet, this was to try and keep the line between the rod tip and the bomb away from the hook bait and not spook the fish – both visually and physically if they brushed the tightened line.

Keeping it simple with a running ledger.

Hair rig stop is a grass stalk – easier than the plastic dumb bells to fix on

Bait was basic too. The chub loved the big pellets

Bait was sweetcorn and hallibut pellets, pre-drilled so they could be hair rigged to the hook. The bait and bomb were simply lowered into the water, as close to the edge of the raft as the branches would allow. The trouble with the low clear water conditions and the close proximity of the fish was that any movement, and sound, anything out the of the ordinary put the fish on edge. You could see them get cagey straight away.

With the bait in the water I pulled the rod back so that just the tip poked out over the river. I lay back in the shrubbery. And then it was a waiting game.

Just as a shrew squeaked its way out of the long grass to my right, my rod tip bent off left. Striking it, the fish went off very well, straight under the raft and banging against the roots. This was why I'd beefed up my kit, and with the rod tip right down under the water I managed to get it out and into the net. A chunky 4 and a half pound chub - one of the smaller fish I'd seen milling around in the swim!

4.5lb chub took the bait ahead of its (mostly bigger) rivals, and then

scared everything else further into the undergrowth

Following the noisy scrap from the chub, the barble and other chub were long gone, and with the time ticking away I decided to move onto another swim.

Low and clear with easily spooked fish

The water levels on the avon are pretty low, and with the pressure the fish have had in the first 3 weeks of the season mean they're getting exceptionally canny.

Given this, and the fact that I was moving to less snaggy water, I changed to a lighter setup with 5lb line straight through to a size 6 hook with the idea of freelining bread.

After getting a small shoal of fish taking crust and flake noisily off the surface, I flicked a lump out, floating it down the current to where the fish were moving. It was quickly snaffled by a pair of rubbery lips resulting in a nice little fight and a long, lean chub of between 2.5 and 3lb (I didn't weigh it).

After that I was satisfied, and with my 2 hours expired I made the hike back to the car a happy man.

A smaller, greedy chub taken off the surface

Prizes arrive!

2010-07-02T14:32:00.007+01:00

One of the more maverick Kays catalogue poses

Covered in big teeth marks by next weekend... we'll see

My competition prizes turned up today.

The beautiful OSP Rudra 130SP jerk bait (in the Haso T-06 model no less) looks deadly. Hopefully the pike will think so too when I test it out next week.

I also got a T-shirt. They didn't have any Large left, so I got an XL. At least if I ever need a bivvy, all I now need to buy are the poles. A great T-shirt though and one that will get plenty of bank side wear, and hopefully covered in a bit of fish slime too.

A big thanks to James at Plus Fishing

Every cloud...

2010-07-01T21:55:00.006+01:00

Fishing can be the best thing ever. Indeed in my mind it’s definitely up there at the top. However, some times it can be the most frustrating, punishing and hateful of sports, when being there isn’t just enough, because being there is bloody miserable.

Let me explain.

Thursday evening after escaping from work I headed excitedly to what was going to be my first session on one of the stretches of Avon owned by the club I had just joined (thanks to Keith of WarksAvon for pointing me in the right direction).

I got to the bit I wanted to fish and after a sweaty hike to the river with my pared down tackle – one rod, land net, bucket for bait and a small rucksack for bits, bobs, camera and a couple of bananas for sustenance – I started to have a good look around for likely looking swims. My target for the evening was chub, and if the odd barbel wafted along all the better, mainly though, I wanted just wanted to get a good feel for the place to plan future trips.

I was actually quite surprised to find the place deserted – all the more river for me. I had a good mooch around before deciding to dump my kit and have an explore through the nettles, aiming to get to a tree on the bank.

And this is where the evening started to go down hill.

As I got to the tree I decided to get a better view by treading on an old stump and placing my hand on the tree to steady me. However, there was already someone where I wanted to put my hand, a ruddy great grass snake enjoying a sun bathe.

The snake shit itself. I shit myself. The snake slithered/dropped off the tree. I stepped backwards and fell into the afore mentioned nettles.

Getting over the shock (yes I know, very wimpy), I hauled myself off to another swim, feeling the tingling of stingers all over my hands.

The first swim. Blood thirsty mosquitoes, killer snakes – this is Ryton, not the Amazon!!!

The next swim was under a tree with a shallow 20 foot run from under a bush on my right to a reed bed on my left. I made up some bread mash and dropped a few balls in at the head of the run.

Tackling up I used a simple running link ledger set up with 2SSGs on a 4 inch tail up to a small swivel cushioned by a rubber bead and stopped by a small float stop. The main line was 5lb with a 3lb hook length to a size 16 hook.

Bait was a bit of bread flake.

Through my “Ray Charles” polarized specs I could see around 6 nice chub milling around and taking some of the larger bits of bread. I estimated them to be a maximum of 2 o 2.5lbs. Not monsters, but well worth a crack.

Ray Charles, the army years. Big mozzies called for big coat, followed by big sweat.

I held off casting in for a bit to get them eating a bit more freely, and once they were, plop, the SSGs sailed in and the canny chub gently ghosted off into the tangled undergrowth at the side of the swim. I did see a few of them again, but not on the end of my line.

What did I do wrong? I think I should have free-lined to start off with, the chub seemed more easily spooked than most chub I’ve encountered. But it’s all part of the learning curve on a new water.

The only fish from the first stretch. Small, but I was happy to see him.

Even though the only fish I managed to tease out of the swim was a small chub of just under a pound I was still getting loads of bites – just not the kind I wanted.

The mosquitoes around there were the size of house sparrows, and they got a right taste for me. It got so bad I had to wear my heavy waterproof camo jacket to cover up. In the heat it was bloody horrible. So when a herd of young cows then decided to take a paddle just 6 feet away from where I was fishing, I packed up and decided to try another stretch of the Avon down the road.

There's a massive split on both sides of my bucket, dear Liza.

The trouble was, when I got there, there was a match on (to be fair I had seen the date marked in the club information I’d received). Bugger.

So I tramped off to the far end of the stretch, out of the way. During this tramp I managed to slip over and land hard on my bucket full of bread mash, breaking both sides so that the handle was useless. At this point I was getting thoroughly fed up.

The second swim, and the chubby lookin' raft. Middle left.

In the end I settled in a swim well out of everyone’s way, with no snakes, no mosquitoes, no cows, no stingers, with my split bucket by my side, and set about the serious business of catching chub.

The swim was gorgeous. A narrow 30 foot or so glide along the near bank with overhanging trees on the right and a raft of debris at the end that only the dumbest of chub wouldn’t see as prime real estate.

After half an hour on the link ledger set up though there was nothing doing, save for a few tap taps from smaller fish.

Not one to make the same mistake twice (normally it takes well over five times before I get the message) I stripped everything off the line, tied on a size 6 hook and sailed a large piece of bread down to the raft. Once there I held it back so it swayed seductively just under the edge of the debris.

What a relief. The chub that changed my mood for the better.

Bang. On the second attempt at this the quiver tip belted round. Getting the fish up to me through the snags was tricky, but I managed it and was greeted by a beautiful silver lining to my black cloud of a session.

Weighing the chub in the net it went just above 6lbs. A pound off for the net and that’s 5lbs 4oz. Take into account that my scales are a decade old and a bit shit. And I’d put it at just under 5lbs.

Mood. What mood.

Lucky old me!

2010-07-01T14:16:00.013+01:00

Just heard from the nice guys at plus-fishing.com that I've won an OSP Rudra SP lure and T-Shirt!

Blog link

Brilliant. Can't wait to introduce it to a few pike.

A golden goal

2010-06-29T22:24:00.008+01:00

I wonder how many people went fishing for crucian carp this week. A few more than usual I'm guessing after Martin 'fish magician' Bowler's escapades on Catching the Impossible and Hugh Miles', the series creator, article in this week's Angling Times. And I was one of them, finding a few hours after work to catch my first crucian of the season.

In fact I'd aimed to catch a few last week, fishing a little pool not too far from where I live. However I was later told that the pool wasn't where the crucians were at all and that they actually lived in the next little pond along – hence why I didn't catch any...

Now this water, known by other bloggers as Parkers Pool, was a completely different prospect fishing wise. Extremely clear and shallow it looked like a graveyard for lost tackle with a maze of unseen snags under its rafts of lilly leaves and carpets of pond weed.

After two laps of the pool (it's not very big) I could only see a hand full of places where it was possible to fish. I immediately discounted the majority of these due to the position either being too close to the path and therefore the packs of dog walkers, or being obvious and well used fishing pegs – I don't like to fish where other people fish if I can help it, I'm more of a 'beat your own path' kinda guy.

I finally settled on a gap framed either said and above by trees and with a small opening in the lillies in front of me of about 4 x 3 foot.

Tight, weedy, challenging – and very enjoyable for it.

Maybe a bit of raking next time would mean I could have a chance of landing the bigger fish I connected with though.

Tackling up then I went for a light and sensitive approach, as, everyone knows, crucians can be fiddly little buggers when it comes to bites. Plus, with the clear water. I at least wanted to give myself a chance of tempting one onto the hook.

My set up consisted of 2.5lb line through to a 1.8lb hook length to a size 16 hook. Float wise I decided on a 3BB Drennan still water blue with the bulk shot round the float and a single number 10 shot down the line about 3 inches above the hook.

The bait, a single piece of sweetcorn was fished on the bottom, with the dropper shot suspended off the deck.

The float stem was sensitive enough to shoot up in the water if this dropper shot was messed with, making for fairly delicate indication.

After baiting with ground bait and corn my first problem was the amount of room I had in the swim. My 13 foot rod was just about a foot too short to simply drop the bait and float in place, and casting was out of the question. The technique that worked best was to stand up, lean out and delicately swing the bait into the hole and then position the float above it as best I could.

Every cast would see the float would take a while to settle thanks to the army of small rudd that would bat the corn around as it sank to the bottom. And every now and then a larger fish would come along to snaffel the bait giving me a welcome distraction from waiting for my real target.

Some of the better rudd that went up to around 10 to 14oz

On three occasions I struck into fish that were much better. I'm pretty sure that they were all bigger rudd, but I'll never know as they tore off into the forest of roots and weeds (they didn't have to go very far) before I know anything about it, breaking my hook length with ease. After the third break I changed to a size 14 Drennan Specialist hook straight through from the main line.

As the light started to fade the rudd really burst into life. You could here them sucking food from under the lilly leaves and you could see the reeds and weeds shaking as they pushed their way past. At one point I chucked in some bread to see large rudd backs come clean out of the water to take chunks of it.

I did actually at one point have a good think about shallowing up and aiming for them. But I managed to resist and remained focused on trying to catch the species I'd come for – you wouldn't see Bowler chancing different species willy-nilly, would you.

Bubbles!

As the rudd came alive so did something else. And as the trailer of fizz made its way from between the lillys and out in to the swim my float took a breath, dithered and then slunk away.

The strike was clean and the fight jagged and dogged – that's not a rudd... And as I slipped the net under the fish I had a whooping great smile on my face.

The prize. Dark back, golden flanks, big brown eyes and no barbules.

Not a hint of brown goldfish about it either.

Not a monster, but I put it at just over a pound, which was good enough for me (sorry about the photos, my lens has started to play up for some reason and I forgot to take my tripod). And as it was the fish I had specifically gone out to catch, I was well chuffed.