OFF THE OCHE, DOWN THE RIVER

What's Gone Wrong?

2012-02-19T11:37:00.000-08:00

Some of you will be quick to notice a lack of photos within this post and that's never a good sign is it?

I had a session last Sunday - a day which saw the temperature lifting very quickly from the cold snap we'd endured for the previous couple of weeks. I was on the Avon at Alveston, but a different part to my usual haunt. It fished woefully and I never had a bite. I was initially targeting Chub, but the session ended up with me going for Pike again, but I might as well have been fishing for Marlin!

I blamed it squarely on the section of river I was fishing, as the conditions seemed fine - well, I was hardly going to blame myself was I?! It's a section that I struggled on at this time last year and I figured that maybe history was repeating itself. I convinced myself that the fish had shoaled up elsewhere, as I'd had plenty of bites off another section a few hundred yards away just 2 weeks earlier.

I started to wonder though, when I saw the reports coming in from other bloggers, suggesting that even the banker sections of the upper Avon were now struggling.

This week I had a Friday to spare and I went back to Alveston on my favoured village section. The result was just the same though. No bites and no fish topping. The Pike weren't playing ball either. It's suddenly turned into a tough cookie. I gave up and popped into Victoria Park (Leamington) on my way home to have a quick hour on the Leam. I should have just gone straight home though! Another blank hour passed me by and again no signs of anything fishy.

I had a busy day planned for Saturday, but part of that was to pop into the fishing show at the Ricoh for a couple of hours. I picked up a few bits, including a cheap adaptor for attaching a camera to a bankstick. Finally, no more precarious balancing of my camera on all manner of objects for those self-take shots. If only I had something to photograph...

Some Might Call It Insanity

2012-02-04T08:23:00.000-08:00

I knew it was going to be a cold one and at -7C I wasn't to be disappointed. I briefly questioned my sanity, but then thought about the other options. Either I stay at home and find jobs to do (or more likely someone else would find jobs for me!), or go fishing. It didn't take long to decide!

With ice removed from the car, I was on my way through the Warwickshire countryside to my usual haunt of the Avon at Alveston. Any thoughts of doing anything other than Pike fishing were banished to the back of my mind. Most pegs had ice in the margins, but were perfectly fishable with a bit of thought and care.

I settled into peg 3 and deployed two deadbait rods - one with a large chunk of Sardine and the other with a Sprat. Both baits came courtesy of Morrisons fish counter. My spare freezer at home houses quite a selection of bargain basement supermarket bought baits, to complement the tackle shop deadbait purchases that Morrisons would struggle to sell!

I didn't have to wait long for some action - in fact the first cast with the Sardine to the right hand side of the swim, resulted in a take. It looked a bit finnicky so I had to be patient to let it develop. I connected with the fish though and it came in reasonably easily. Deja vu crept into mind again,as it looked very similar to the fish Brian caught a week earlier. I removed the hooks and gave it a chance to recover in the margins while I prepared to weigh and photograph it.

I put it on to the scales just as a dog walker came by. "It's a bit cold for fishing" he said, while failing to notice me holding a lump of a fish in a dirty great net. I pointed out that the fish didn't seem all that bothered! His eyes nearly popped out of his head when he saw I'd caught something. I was set up for a self take, but his dog got in the way and the fish flipped round at the wrong moment! One day I'll have to get round to posting some of my outtakes on here! Fortunately the dog walker took the camera for me and made life a little easier.

It weighed in at 10lb 2oz, which was 1oz different to Brian's fish last week. A check of the photos when I got in confirmed that it was the same fish.

I moved pegs straight away and went over to peg 4. It produced nothing, so I moved passed the unfishable peg 5 and down to peg 9. It had the advantage of a nice bench, which I was able to customise with my unhooking mat for extra comfort (dry side up of course!).

I slobbed it out for a couple of hours, but nothing showed up. A few snowflakes started to appear and reports on the radio suggested that more swidespread snow was starting to push through the Midlands. As I wasn't exactly bagging up, I took the sensible option of retreating home.

Brian's Day

2012-01-28T08:34:00.000-08:00

Another day out on the Avon at Alveston and this time I was accompanied by Brian on his maiden outing of 2012. We both hedged our bets with some silver fish gear and the inevitable predator gear.

I'll cut my story short by saying that I didn't have a great day. I was plagued by small Dace and couldn't find any way through them. The tip never stopped rattling, but the bonus Chub I was hoping for never showed up. Early on in the session my sleeper deadbait rod briefly woke up and I connected with a small Pike, but the fight was short lived and the fish was off.

Brian was on the next peg down and he was also having the odd Dace. The difference was that he made better use of his sleeper rod. He saw the tip pull round and something was onto his legered Sprat. I popped over to help net the fish and it went in very tamely. We guessed it might be knocking double figures and so it proved - just about! It weighed in at 10lb 1oz. It was an immaculate looking fish and certainly one that I hadn't seen before.

He had a further Pike later on, courtesy of his legered maggot rig! This one was a much smaller and sporting some battle scars. It was 4lb 10oz.

He nearly made it three, when a fish picked up his deadbait just as he was lifting it up through the water. The fish quickly spat the bait out though.

Time for a Change

2012-01-26T13:14:00.000-08:00

With an afternoon to spare, I took the chance of checking out the River Blythe for a change. My only previous trip to the river a couple of seasons ago ended in a disaster with just a single signal crayfish. I was hoping for much better this time around.

I settled into the obvious swim and kicked off by legering 3 maggots on a size 15. It didn't take too long to open my account with a Chub of around 8oz. Another one about of about a pound followed not too long after.

I then had to endure a longish biteless spell, during which time I decided to set up a second rod so I could fish with bread at the same time. That change had an instant impact when I took another pound class Chub on my second drop in with the bread.

Things then went quiet - very quiet indeed. I felt that I wasn't really fishing either rod properly and I decided to go back to one rod with the bread. During the lean spell a Robin popped by to amuse me. I thought the cheeky little bugger was going to dive into my maggot box! It got what it came for though.

The bread was proving frustrating and I had a few occasions where the tip banged round, but nothing was there. It was possibly line bites, but I always take encouragement from any fishy movements on the rod tip. I stuck it out into overtime - convinced that another Chub was going to come. It duly arrived on my very last cast, but at 2lb 15oz it wasn't the clonker I'd been holding out for.

A pleasant little experiment and now I know what to expect, I'm sure I can improve on things next time.

Justice

2012-01-25T14:23:00.000-08:00

I had some work on in Bristol and with the weather forecast looking good, I decided to make the best use of my day - which meant getting the hell out of work as quickly as possible. I closed things off just after midday and was back on the road back to destination Warwickshire Avon. By 2-15pm I was on the bank and ready for some Piking up to dusk.

I'd only got the one rod (my trusty 8ft telescopic) and it was already set up for thrashing a Sprat bait around a few swims to see if any Pike were willing to chase a bait. Nothing happened across the 3 banker swims (conveniently also the shortest walks!) so I broke down the set up and rigged up for a float leger approach on peg 3 with a bigger bait - a chunk of Sardine.

I moved the bait several times to different parts of the swim and was about a coffee break away from giving peg 4 a try. The float then started to bob and I had to wait a short while for it to turn into a definite take. I struck into it and it was very solid from the off. I knew this was another of those doubles that I have been losing all too often recently. .

After a few powerful runs and a couple of close misses with the net, the fish was finally mine. The barbless hooks were nicely positioned and popped out easily. On the scales it went 15lb 11oz. The mat in the picture is 38 inches long.

Having now checked some other photos of a 15lb 13oz fish I caught in December from 2 pegs upstream, it's definitely the same fish - now 2oz lighter. As I also photographed both sides of the fish this time, I compared it to one that Brian caught at 13lb 15oz last February and I can at least say it wasn't the same fish as that one!

I had no other bites, but I was happy to bank a decent fish at last. Perhaps it's now time to turn my attention to other species again. I note there have been a number of 4lb+ Chub showing up in other bloggers catches already this year. Maybe a bit of Chubbing is on the cards?

Could Do Better!

2012-01-23T13:49:00.000-08:00

More Piking again for me this week. I'm convinced that a mid/upper double is around the corner and so I keep putting in the groundwork on my favoured Pike haunt on the Avon.

This week I took a more static approach and rigged up a couple of deadbaits under floats. For this approach I left the smaller Sprats out of it and opted for Roach and Lamprey. After an hour of nothing I couldn't help but have a speculative wobble of the Lamprey as I lifted the rig out of the swim. Bugger me, a Pike grabbed it straight away! It was only a small Jack and it ejected the bait pretty quickly.

I moved off to the next swim and managed to repeat the above feat almost to perfect execution - a long biteless period, followed by a small Jack snatching the bait as I enticingly lifted it up. I ditched one of the float rigs and decided that maybe a more roving approach with the Sprats was in order again. It didn't work though and I settled in with a single Roach deadbait, which eventually resulted in a small Jack.

I don't know whether to call this fish lucky or unlucky. It was battered up and had an awful wound down one side. I don't recall anything untoward during the fight - like a bigger Esox getting stuck into it. Whatever this fish had been through it was still capable of feeding though, but it really needs to get a bit more street wise! It swam off with reasonable intent.

I had one further hook up later in the day on a wobbled Sprat. It was the best fish of the day, but once again the hooks didn't take a proper hold and the fish was gone. It wasn't a huge fish - certainly short of a double, but would have been enough to leave me with a more satisfying feeling to end the day.

Yet again, I've lost more fish than I've banked, which is starting to annoy me. I'm going to take a closer look at my rigs, as there must be a way to improve my chances. I don't expect to bank every fish, but I'm currently around the 40% mark in 2012 for Pike, which feels too low. Time for some homework and maybe a change of hook pattern.

Determination and Consolation

2012-01-15T10:26:00.000-08:00

Things were a little fresher this week. It was -3C when I left home, but on arrival at Alveston it had dipped down to -5C. It was a beautiful morning though and as is generally the case here, I had half a mile of the Avon to myself.

I had toyed with the idea of going elsewhere this week for a spot of Chubbing on a different river, but the chilly conditions were the deciding factor and I needed to be somewhere that I had confidence in. I decided to continue with the Pike theme and to maximise my options I brought a second rod for a static approach, rather than just the wobbled deadbait rig that I normally opt for.

I moved around between pegs 2 and 9 using both tactics. I was getting nowhere fast though and was beginning to run out of ideas. Aided by polarised glasses I eventually saw something lazily following my wobbled bait as I retrieved it close in on peg 4. The Pike grabbed the bait on the next run through, but it tore off at a hell of pace taking line off the reel and I couldn't get it under control. It dived into an overhanging tree and managed to shed the hook, leaving me playing the tree! Although I didn't get a good look at the size of the fish, it felt decent enough by my meagre standards.

I was disappointed, but there wasn't a lot I could have done differently. I thought that was my chance gone for the day, but I pressed on regardless. I moved off again on the usual cycle of pegs and was almost at the point of giving up when I once again saw a fish moving slowly after a wobbled bait back on peg 4. This one didn't fall for the bait second time through, or third, fourth, fifth, etc!

I then remebered back to last week, where a change of approach to a static bait brought an almost instant result - even if I did manage to lose the fish! So, I switched to the float rig with a light bomb just above the trace and dropped it close in. Sure enough, the fish was on to it within a couple of minutes and the float started to move away.

I struck into it and began to play out the fight, which was going totally the plan. I slipped the net in the water and the Pike seemed to be heading towards it nicely, but it then took off in a different direction and the hook pulled clear. I had good sight of this one during the fight and at the risk of repeating last week's story, it looked like a potential low double. A cry of "Aaaaaahhh Bollocks" rung out across Alveston village, as I lifted out the empty wet net.

By now it was personal and I was so determined to avoid a blank that I pushed on again. Full time would be signalled by the start of the afternoon's football matches and I was listening to the build up through my pocket radio. Time was running short and as with earlier encounters, I once again saw a fish moving close in - on peg 3 this time. Again it wouldn't touch a wobbled Sprat. I actually let it follow it close in and watched it inspect the bait, which it duly snubbed.

I then moved back to the static rig and changed over to a Lamprey section. After about 5 minutes the float was on the move and I struck into the fish. I'm happy to say this one ended up in my net, just as I was hearing the football teams running on to the pitch through my earphones. It was the smallest of the fish I'd made contact with during the session, but at 6lb exactly it gave me some consolation.

I'm really enjoying my Pike fishing at the moment and it's giving me a new lease of (fishing) life right now. Going back just over 2 years, I knew next to nothing about Pike fishing and I wouldn't even have got out of bed to fish for them (or anything else for that matter) if the forecast was -5C. I'm definitely evolving into a year round angler, rather then the fair weather one I once was. I'd like to put a bigger Pike on the bank sometime soon though, but for now I'm just happy to have avoided a blank on all 3 sessions so far in 2012.

Jack, Sprat, Deja Vu

2012-01-07T09:34:00.000-08:00

Another day of Piking was in order and this time I felt confident enough to kick it off at the often fickle Ryton Pool. An hour or so of wandering round the whole pool and moving baits through various swims and the confidence had ebbed away! Time for plan B and a trip to the more reliable Avon at Alveston.

The Avon wasn't any easier though and a full circuit up and downstream over the usual banker swims saw me staring a blank in the face. When I'd almost given up all hope I saw something move just in front of me - a Pike showing an interest in my wobbled Sprat. It wouldn't take it though.

Confident that I might be in the right area after all, I then decided to sit it out and changed to a more static float set up - partly for a change of presentation and partly for a much needed hot beverage break. No sooner was I pouring my coffee into the cup and the float was edging away across the river. I put the flask down and struck into the fish with an air of anticipation.

It wasn't a bad fish either, certainly looking long enough to be nudging double figures I would think. Unfortunately I never got to find out though, as the fish managed to slip the hooks during the fight. I was a bit gutted though, as I'd had it pretty much over the net at one point and managed to screw it up. The main failure being that I hadn't fully extended the net pole and had to bring the fish closer in than normal. With a fully exended pole, I'd have almost certainly landed it. My own stupid fault though.

The one good thing to come out of losing the fish was that it made me more determined to put something on the bank. I went back to the wobbling approach and went off on another circuit of the usual pegs. I connected with a small Jack in the next peg down and got exactly the same result - although this time I didn't have a sniff of landing it when it ejected the hooks. Ever more determined I pressed on.

Eventually I landed a fish down on trusty peg 9, scene of last week's only fish. It was a Jack which I thought was suspiciously similar to last week's fish and was caught in the same part of the peg. A quick check of the last week's photo when I got home confirmed it was the same fish.

Peg 7 was the next target and that also produced another Jack for me. A slightly smaller fish taken close in just off the platform. I love the thrill of the take when you see a Pike appear from nowhere, almost under your feet and grab the bait with sheer ferocity and power.

Nothing else materialised on the run back up through the other pegs.

A pleasant day and a few more fish showing than last week - even if a couple were slippery customers! I'm still very much a novice at this Pike game, but I'm gaining in confidence now and quite enjoying it during these cooler months.

It's a Start!

2012-01-02T13:04:00.000-08:00

Well 2011 ended in a bit of a whimper in terms of my fishing - as borne out by the lack of posts I've made recently. 2012 now brings fresh hope and a clean slate with which to start from.

I'm not big on setting targets, as I know I'll generally always spend as much time as possible in the places I enjoy fishing the most. If big fish do turn up, then it's just a bonus. Reports of 2lb Roach showing in the Avon as close as Warwick, has got me thinking a bit for the year ahead though.

I plan to drop a couple of the club books I currently hold, which frees me up to tackle perhaps a couple of other options. I always like to change club waters periodically just to keep things fresh - even if it means going back over old ground, as in the case of perhaps pursuing some Roach potential on the upper Avon.

The club books I will retain are Leamington and Alveston and my first visit of 2012 saw me visiting both of them for a quick spot of Piking. Alveston is a peaceful water and whenever there's anything between a southerly or westerly wind blowing, it's so sheltered from the elements for much of its length.

I wandered down from peg 3 to peg 9, trying each viable swim in turn with a wobbled deadbait. Peg 9 was the only one to throw up a fish though, but it was pretty small at 4lb 7oz.

I tried other pegs but had no luck. I then decided to move on and call into Wasperton on the way home. There were quite a few anglers around for once - presumably Santa had been kind this year and people were eager to test out their new gear!

I wandered upstream, well away from the stiff and chilly breeze that was blowing across the fields from Hampton Lucy. The shelter offered by Scar Bank was much appreciated and made for a pleasant hour or so, while I tried several pegs. Many looked like bankers to me, but none of them produced a sniff of a fish. Still, it got me searching out areas that I haven't walked to in a long while and I can see me returning at some point later in the year.

After blanking during all January visits in the previous 2 years, I was just relieved to have put a fish on the bank first time out this year!

Chilly, But Nice

2011-12-10T08:41:00.000-08:00

I wasn't sure about going out this weekend, but the reality of my impending redundancy is sinking in and I decided that fishing therapy was needed. Pike was the name of the game and I headed for my club stretch on the Avon at Alveston, having raided my freezer for a supply of deadbaits I've been harbouring for some time.

It was -1C on arrival, but it was still and calm and with my multiple layers of clothing, I was actually quite comfortable. With nearly half a gallon of warm drinks at my disposal and half a mile of river to myself, I was quite content.

I fished for about 3-4 hours and only hooked up with one fish on a wobbled sprat, but I was more than happy with it. At 15lb 13oz, it was a personal best Pike for me, but I have to confess to being a tad lucky to get it in. The fish was attached via just one set of trebles and two parts of that ended up being almost straightened during the battle. Luckily they held out though and it gave me the simplest of unhooking tasks.

I did have a close call with another fish on a different peg that followed the bait up as I retrieved it through the water close in. It was a decent fish too - probably another double - and I was sure it would take the bait soon enough on another run through. It didn't though!

Sticking to a Plan

2011-11-13T09:16:00.000-08:00

It was another glorious weekend of weather. I fished on the Saturday and the overnight temperature had remained high for the time of year. It was 10C when I left home just around 7am and rose up to 15C when I packed in early afternoon.

I stuck to a plan I'd hatched when packing up the week before. As I mentioned in my last post, I knew I'd had too many things on the go and the end result was pretty poor. This week I was returning to the same swim and would fish it with one rod only.

The river was a shade down on last week and a good deal clearer. Fish were showing though and with the favourable weather, I was confident. The moon was still visible on arrival and the river was as tranquil as ever.

I set up the wand rod and decided to plunder a back eddy to the inside right of my swim. It had produced most of the action the previous week and more importantly, it was fairly weed free. I decided to play the numbers game of fishing with small baits. I knew I would attract the Dace, but I was hoping that bigger fish would eventually move in over the bed of bait I'd introduced early doors. It consisted of a bread crumb & crushed hemp/halibut mix, with a handful of casters.

I soon had some company to deal with, in the shape of an inquisitive bull. He was no trouble though.

Others soon followed and one of the cows was quite an imposing looking beast - albeit still pretty docile!

The Dace were there from the off and I started to catch them regularly. A change to double caster slowed things down a little, before the rod tip arched round and held solid. This was no Dace! I could see in the clear water that it was a decent Chub and I carefully played it out on the lightish gear. It popped straight into the net with minimum fuss as it happened and I knew it had a squeak of being a pb, as it was a broad fish. I slipped it on to the scales and it went 4lb 5oz - a new pb for me by 3 ozs and a 4th pb of the year.

Nothing else beyond Dace showed up and I decided to have the last hour or so on a different swim that was nestled between a couple of overhanging willows. It was a little slower, but again it produced Dace after a bit of feed had gone in. One further Chub put in an appearance, but it was a much smaller sample around the pound mark.

Back to Basics

2011-11-07T12:42:00.000-08:00

Well, the heavens finally opened up quite a bit towards the back end of last week. As ever, I found myself tuning into the river levels site to view the extent of the damage and I half expected to be facing a river that would be lapping over the platforms come Sunday. How wrong I was. The extra water had seemingly vanished into thin air - or more likely absorbed by the bone dry ground.

At 3C on arrival it was a tad chillier than I'd experienced recently, but it was a beautiful morning and the first task was to capture a few shots of the mist rolling across a tranquil looking Avon.

Downstream:

Upstream:

The rest of the day wasn't worth writing about! I had brought everything bar the kitchen sink with me and I proceeded to use most of it. I had promised myself a Chub session after last week, but I totally deviated from the plan and went for trying a new swim with my experimental head on.

Two Avon rods, a wand, a pike rod and a stick float set up later (not all at the same time I hasten to add!) and all I could catch was Dace. I'm actually becoming quite a Dace attractor these days and I had plenty of action from the little critters on maggots, caster and bread. Not a Chub in sight. Considering how many Dace were about, the Pike were once again conspicuous by their absence.

The only passer by I saw all day was mooching on by as I was packing up and he remarked on the amount of gear I'd got set up. I told him that it was a case of plenty of gear and no idea!

Next time I will scale things back and some of the rods are staying at home. I also think I need to step back to one rod only at a time and concentrate on getting everything right. I know I'm spending too much time fishing two rods at a time very averagely, whereas one rod fished half decently might actually see improved results.

Autumnal Avon

2011-10-31T13:05:00.000-07:00

Another couple of weeks have rolled by and things are gradually turning more Autumnal. Having said that, the temperature reading from my car was 15C at 6pm tonight, which is still well above the seasonal average.

At least we had a bit of welcome rain last week and although it wasn't the deluge I'd been hoping for, I did see a bit of upwards movement on the Warwick based Environment Agency gauge I use as my reference point. At its peak around Thursday morning there was around 5-6 inches of extra water which was better than nothing.

I headed down to the Avon at Alveston on Saturday, by which time the extra water had all but passed through. The river looked in good nick and I decided to take the easy access option of the road section. It was a gorgeous morning with a touch of mist.

Having suffered some poor sessions on the river this year, I didn't expect a lot. Bites were plentiful as it happened, but it was mostly from Dace. There were certainly no clonkers amongst them - maybe 3oz at best - but I was just happy to find plenty of willing fish. The bread rig failed to produce the Chub I was hoping for and in the end I enjoyed trotting maggots through the swim on the centre pin set up. I'm still relatively new to the pin, so I'm enjoying practising becoming less clumsy!

The best fish of the session was Perch that was probably a shade under a pound.

I briefly flashed some lures through the swim towards the end of the session - just in case a bonus Pike was lurking beneath my feet at the edge of the weed. Nothing doing though.

I feel there's a Chub session on the cards next time out, as I've largely neglected them so far this season.

Strange Afternoon at the Reservoir

2011-10-15T13:08:00.000-07:00

Family duties meant that the morning was somewhat fragmented, but with glorious weather forecast again, I decided that a Saturday afternoon out was well worth worth it.

I'd actually pinched a few hours of work on the Friday afternoon for a spot of Piking, but I failed miserably across the Alveston and Wasperton sections of the Avon. The only tug on a wobbled deadbait came from a Perch with eyes bigger than it's mouth!

In the end I sat it out with a Lamprey section and for a short while I confess to nodding off, bathed in the warm afternoon sunshine. I haven't been down Waspo for a while and I've honestly forgotten how pleasant it can be. I really must get down there again soon.

I very nearly returned the next day, but in the end I opted for one last crack at the Snitterfield Roach and Crucians. 20 minutes in and it was very quiet until I finally hooked a fish on my light set up - single maggot on a 20 hook (although I think it's more like a 18) to 2lb bottom, with 4lb line on my centre pin that had been freshly spooled up the night before.

The fish was no Roach or Crucian though and it roared off into the distance. I vaguely got some control of the fish at times, but even a bit of wandering to adjacent pegs didn't really help. I was largely powerless and after a 10-15 minute struggle, I was snagged up and the fish was gone.

That gave me a bit of confidence though and so I turfed in some groundbait, laden with pellet, caster and hemp just beyond the marginal plants. A short while later I saw some movement and a bright coloured fish was stirring up the baited area, before it eventually got spooked. That gave me the nudge to rig up a sleeper rod with a small lead. I baited it with bread flake and dropped it over the groundbait.

The float swim performed poorly and I struggled to get bites. Out of the blue, the sleeper rod woke up in spectacular fashion and in a split second it was wrenched out of the rod rest. I grabbed it as the tip hit the water and fortunately I had put the clutch on a loose setting, which helped to cushion the initial run.

This time I was on a beefier set up (6lb main line, 4lb bottom to a 12 hook) and it was just a case of taking it steady in the seemingly snag free swim. During the fight I could see it was the bright coloured fish that had been in the swim earlier. I eventually banked the fish, but I struggled with my net, which is now going to need a minor repair! It really wasn't designed for fish of this size - 12lb exactly.

Apart from that, I struggled to make anything else happen. I hooked a Bream towards the end of the session on the light float rig. It looked around 3lb, but the hook pulled clear and I suspect it was foul hooked, as it fought like a demon (for a Bream) and the only time I had it under control it was coming towards me side on.

So, I failed in my Roach and Crucian quest, but it was an interesting, if slightly strange session.

Return to the Wye

2011-10-10T12:17:00.000-07:00

I seem to have slipped into the habit of infrequent blogging. A lack of fish remains the driving force behind it and I really haven't been able to summon up the enthusiasm to describe more dross filled fishing experiences.

Since the last blog I've had a couple of cracks at College Pool to see if I could sneak out one of the bigger Carp or Bream. The first session descended into farce and nearly ended up very costly.

I'd had two set ups on the go - one with maggot and the other with pellet/bread/corn. The maggot rod yielded nothing but Perch after Perch until I eventually connected with something solid that tore off across the pool towards Wellesbourne at high speed. I couldn't stop it on the rig I was using and to cut the story short, the fish won the battle and snagged me up.

Later on in the session I had just recast the other rod baited with corn, when I turned back to the maggot rod to check it out. Just as I'd picked up the rod, I saw the corn rod fly off the rod rest and was on it's way down the bank and heading towards the waiting abyss. I had to perform a save that Gordon Banks would have been proud of, diving off my box and just managing to grasp the very end of the rod butt at the second attempt. If I'd been a second later, the rod was water bound.

The fish was on and although the clutch was set, it either failed to engage properly or the spool must have got caught up on the bankside. The end result was that the fish smashed me up before I could get my hands on the reel to engage the anti reverse. I called it a day and went home with another spanking from this pool.

I returned a week later around midday to find crazily hot October conditions. I removed the maggot approach, as the small Perch were a pain in the arse the previous week. I alternated bread, pellet, corn and boilie across two rods. Apart from bumping off a suspected Bream, nothing else was doing. When everyone else had gone home, I went on a walkabout to see if I could pluck a Carp off the surface. I was a little more successful with that approach and I had a couple of Mirror Carp out - one around 6lb and the other going 7lb 8oz.

The next week saw me off to the River Wye for a highly anticipated trip with Brian and Charlie. I'd booked up 2 different stretches - one on the upper river and the other down in the middle reaches.

Day 1 saw us above Hay-On-Wye and the plan was to seek out a Grayling, along with Dace and Chub. There was extra water on the river but it was pefectly fishable and the scenery was stunning.

Bites from the Dace came fairly quickly and I had a succesion of them around the 4oz size. The best I managed was a 5oz fish, which gave me a few extra points for the blogger's challenge.

The surprise of the day came in the form of a Bream, which seemed to take a liking for the fast, shallow water. At 6lb 1oz it gave me an extra bonus point too!

I also had a small Brown Trout of about 12oz, although Charlie had a much better sample that was nearer to 2lb.

With no Grayling to be had, we moved up to the faster water towards the end of the session and donned the waders for a bit of trotting.

That didn't work either and I then ended up sitting out the end of the session in the fastest section of all, which was equallly unproductive, but still pleasant on the eye.

Day 2 saw us above Hereford and in the middle of Barbel territory. With no Barbel on my challenge scorecard, I really needed to change that statistic. Otherwise, I'd have to tough it out back on the Avon, or venture further afield to territory I'm not familiar with.

The first swims we settled on did not produce and Charlie ventured up to the next field quite quickly. I stuck it out for a while longer, while Brian opted to sleep on it! Eventually we both made the move up to the next field and settled on an area I was more confident with.

Plenty of Dace were available to a maggot approach, so I hit on the idea of trying to catch a few in the hope of catching a clonker. All the time I was piling in my groundbait/pellet/hemp mix through the feeder, so I was getting a good bed of bait down for a Barbel attack later on. As it turned out, the Dace were of a fairly small stamp with nothing over 3oz. I then reverted back to the pellet approach and sat it out.

It turned into a tough old session and Brian eventually broke the pellet deadlock late in the day with a complete change of approach. He ignored the line he'd been feeding (just on the edge of a crease) for a gung ho chuck towards mid river, with a feeder full of groundbait and a PVA bag of pellets attached to the business end of the rig, With all the baggage on the line, the rod seemed to be creaking as he punched it out.

I have to admit to dismissing the approach, as my only venture into that area of the river earlier in the session resulted in me snagging the bottom and having to replace the hooklength. Bugger me, the next I knew he was into a fish! It wasn't exactly going mad though and we suspected Chub, which turned out to be right. It weighed in at 2lb 11oz.

That changed my way of thinking and I opted for a mid river chuck it and chance it approach. I had to keep one eye behind me though, as the cows (and bull!) were moving in and my rod bag that I'd left on the top of the bank needed rescuing.

Cows and bulls don't really bother me. Apart from having them eat my groundbait in the past, they've never caused me much harm. However, on this occasion I was a little edgy, as one of them was perched a little precariously directly behind me on a steep sloping bank and about 8 foot above my head. With a bull fairly close by I was half expecting the beast to go about his business and send an unsuspecting cow crashing down upon me. With some creative use of the landing net, I persuaded them to move to pastures new.

With an hour to go, I finally hooked into a fish and although I was hoping it was monster Chub, it became apparent that it was a Barbel. The fight was pretty uneventful and I netted a fish of 6lb 12oz. It took a long time to recover - far longer than any I'd caught previously. I honestly feared the worst for it at one point, but with a lot of patience it eventually kicked off into the current.

Charlie took the honours though with his only Barbel, which weighed in at 8lb 8oz.

In case anyone is wondering why a keepnet is shown in the background - it was only used to hold the fish briefly prior to weighing and photographing.

The trip didn't yield everything we'd hoped to catch and I'm beginning to learn that simply turning up to the Wye is no guarantee to catching lots of big fish. I'm learning more with every visit though. I'm also taking some comfort from some of the other reports I've read from the weekend, which suggest we weren't the only ones struggling. Extra water and debris pushing through the river seems to have caused others a few problems too.

As ever, it was a great experience and I'm sure I'll be heading back again next year. It's a magical place to explore whether you catch fish or not. The wildlife alone is a joy and the final memory is of us packing the gear into the van, while listening to an owl hooting away in the tree directly above us. It's a far cry from listening to sparrows squabbling over seed in my back garden!

Little ado and nothing happening either!

2011-09-20T13:21:00.000-07:00

Time for another update - largely to let others know I am still struggling!

I had an unsuccesful afternoon session a couple of weeks ago with Brian on a stillwater near Wolvey. I don't know the name of it (and failed to ask either!) - but it's none of the mainstream venues I've visited over the years.

It wasn't a pleasant day weather wise, or noise wise. A small pool immediately behind us was being used by a group of dog handlers and about a dozen of their noisy mutts of the Newfoundland variety - those huge great things they use for rescuing people. It was a training day.

To be honest I don't think this bunch were up to much, but judging by their continual yapping, they were having a great time. I was talking about the owners there and not the dogs! The dogs were just barking their heads off the whole time.

We stuck it out and neither of us had anything to show beyond small fish. The only thing of interest was a goldfish!

I went away for a few days down the south coast with my better half. Although pleasant enough, there was a tinge of Jim Bowen's old Bullseye catchphrase niggling at me - "Look at what you could have won!"

For a couple of days we stayed near Christchurch and were pretty much equidistant from the Dorset Stour and the Hampshire Avon. Continually passing hallowed ground (river) like this and not being able to fish it, is just painful. I'll share a few pics of my trip though.

We saw a few of these cute looking creatures:

They are pretty good at making fish, mince and small chicks disappear quickly though!

This is the largest water lily I've ever seen by a country mile. Lurking in the water behind it is something you wouldn't want to hook up with though!

The final image is very appealing though. It's taken from a road bridge in the centre of Christchurch, looking down to where a tidal section of the Hampshire Avon runs into the harbour.

The punt is available for hire - which I didn't actually realise until I'd researched it. I recall having seen it on an old Go Fishing episode many years ago. Seems like a pleasant way to spend a day!

On my return I had a session with Brian and Charlie on the Avon at Alveston. We all struggled and the river was still suffering with weed and lack of flow. With Brian suffering more than most (he'd left his sandwiches in the fridge!), we opted to switch to Snitterfield Reservoir (via a sandwich stop!) for the afternoon/evening to see if we could find some points scoring fish for the challenge.

We failed though! Annoyingly I did hook up with a Crucian that looked well over a pound, but it slipped the hook just as it hit the surface. I had a pleasant few hours though catching silver fish.

My other session was on a South Warwickshire stillwater, which saw me catching plenty of Perch to no great size on a variety of baits. I even managed one on bread and several on meat, while trying to prize out a decent Roach or Crucian. Of the four fish I caught that weren't Perch, the best I managed was a Crucian bang on 1lb, which equals my best for the year.

I'd like to think the back part of the month will see an upturn in fortunes, but there doesn't appear to be much rain on the horizon in the forecasts I've looked at so far. I'm going to need a bumper October at this rate.

End Of Month Catch Up

2011-08-31T12:42:00.000-07:00

I've been a bit economical with my posts in recent times, but I have been out a few times during the back end of August. The lack of posts is largely down to a lack of things to crow about.

In all honesty I've hit a rare patch of despondency. Normally at this time of the year I can't get enough of my fishing, but this year I've become a bit subdued. The reason is largely down to a lack of the wet stuff falling from the skies. I'm a river man first and foremost and it's been painful to see the rivers in such poor looking states.

In terms of the blogger's challenge, I have some plans in place for some of the typical river species in a few week's time. I'm pinning my hopes of getting a vaguely respectable looking score on another Wye visit - Barbel, Chub, Grayling and Dace will be the target, with the possibility of a decent Eel maybe.

With that in mind, I've left the Avon alone recently on the basis that if the Wye is playing ball, I can hopefully nail all of my river targets in one weekend. I've therefore been looking at stillwaters to try and pick off some of the summer targets I've fallen short of.

I had another visit to Jubilee pools in search of Rudd, Roach or Carp. I found some of each, but nowhere near the required size. The only Carp I banked looked more like an old strain of Carp and was around 5lb. Poor photo - sorry.

I tried fishing floaters, but the only fish I tempted on that method was a Rudd of about half a pound.

The other sessions since then were all on Snitterfield Reservoir, with Crucians and Roach in mind. The first two attempts were very similar affairs and the fishing was fantastic. I didn't use a keepnet, but I'm confident that I had 20-25lb of fish on each visit, made up mainly of Bream. No Crucians though.

On both visits i was left frustrated by some of the larger Carp. At one stage I had 2 decent looking fish feeding right under my rod tip together, but I just couldn't fool them into taking my bait.

A third visit saw me hooking up with Brian after almost a 2 month absence and things were slightly slower this time. I still had a bag of fish that was in low to mid double figures, but once again the Crucians were absent for me.

All in all, not the most succesful couple of weeks towards challenge points, but certainly at Snitterfield the fishing was very pleasant. It's as good as I've ever seen it and anyone wanting a pleasant day fishing for quality silvers need look no further.

It was so tranquil that Brian once again entered the land of nod! :

Somerset 2011

2011-08-15T11:58:00.001-07:00

Last week saw me down in Somerset for a family holiday. I managed to squeeze in 4 shortish sessions around family duties, although none of them were particularly succesful. I did manage to winkle out a couple of my target species (subject to scrutiny!), but neither of them are much to write home about - but I will anyway.

The first session saw me on the River Brue. This stretch is a standing dish for me on the Sunday of any Somerset break, as it's always quiet and you can practically fish from out of your car. At £2 a day it's a steal and on this occasion the farmer failed to show so it was a freebie.

The fishing was unusually tricky and the Silver Bream I was hoping to find didn't show up. Another species I was hoping to catch at some point during the break did show up though - Eels. I had a couple of them, with the best one weighed in at 14oz.

The second session was on the River Axe on a wide, deep, man made section just above a now defunct sluice gate.

I had plenty of fish over the first couple of hours, but nothing above half a pound. Lots of different species though, with 7 in total, so it made for a bit of variety. The last couple of hours were very slow though. I saw a Pike top in the middle of my swim and quickly engaged the telescopic rod I keep in the bag for these opportune moments. I ran some lures through but the Pike wasn't having any of it.

The next session was on the River Tone. I diverted away from my intended stgretch due to a brisk wind that would have made presentation that bit more difficult on an exposed section. I consulted the map and drove to an idyllic and more sheltered piece of the river in a village further upstream. I could also park on my peg again, which was a bonus. My scout was on hand to check it out for me - Murphy the springer spaniel. He's now 13 years old, but going on 13 months old at times and it didn't take long for him to hurl himself into the swim.

The fishing was pretty poor though and I will blame it on the river this time. It was very clear and weedy, making life altogether difficult - memories of recent struggles on the upper Avon were fresh in my mind! I did winkle out some small fish, but I was taken in by a big Pike that I saw leaping clear of the surface on 3 separate occasions. The telescopic lure kit was soon in action, but I couldn't tempt it. I did briefly connect with a nice Perch though, but it slipped off the hook shortly after the take.

The last session was on the King's Sedgemoor Drain. Yet again, I managed to find another spot to fish from the car. This was a fish a chuck session, but only for small fish.

I did catch what I thought was a very small Silver Bream quite early on, so I was quite happy to go for volumes to see if others were around - and I do believe I got one. At 4oz I know it's still very small, but it's a few more points to my challenge tally if it's the genuine article. It seems to stack up in terms of the eye size and scale counts, but I'll leave it to Dr Hatt to give a final verdict.

Not the most productive holiday fishing I've ever had, but it's always nice to fish on the Somerset levels. There's miles and miles of natural waters with excellent bank access and hardly another angler in sight for the most part. As it's the place where I first caught a fish some 30 odd years ago, it always brings back fond memories.

July Update

2011-07-24T11:49:00.000-07:00

I've had a couple of short sessions in the past week. The first one took me to Jubilee Pools, where I decided on the Horseshoe Pool.

I decided to hedge my bets, using two straight lead set ups - one for a maggot/corn approach and the other with pellet. The Perch took a liking to the maggots and they began to do my head in. I did manage a skimmer amongst them though, as well as a more mature Bream of about 4lb. No photo of it though, as it performed a backflip out of my net, shedding the hook in the process!

As I moved into the last hour of the session I started to see ever increasing volumes of bubbles appearing over the area I'd baited up at the start of the session. It felt like something better was around the corner and I was constantly getting line bites. When the bobbin shot up and stayed firmly in place on the pellet rig, I thought my moment had come. The resistance wasn't quite as hard as I'd hoped for though.

After a brief "battle" I landed a Roach which was bang on 1lb. It had taken a hair rigged 12mm pellet on a size 12 to 8lb bottom - a classic Roach set up!

My other session was on College Pool, which was more by accident than design. I had planned to target Coombe Pool, but when push came to shove, I aborted that idea.

Initially I gave College Pool similar treatment to the approach used at Jubilee. The Perch were an even bigger menace though and almost without exception, whenever a maggot was used on the hook, a Perch was there to snaffle it. The shoals of Perch were vast and whenever I threw in a few maggots, hoardes of fish appeared out of nowhere, competing in a frenzy to get there share of the food.

As a result, I quickly banished the maggots in favour of bread flake, while the other rod had a pellet set up. Apart from foulhooking a Bream of about 4lb, nothing really happened on the straight lead set ups. I'd spotted the odd Carp at the end of the pool, so a quick conversion of the pellet rod, saw me trying to fool a Carp with floating bread. I'm not a lover of Carp fishing and it's something I rarely bother to attempt. Stalking fish with floating bread is something I can make an exception for though - I just love the thrill of watching the take.

The first cast wasn't quite as accurate as I'd hoped for, but a little drift with the wind helped the bait into the right area. Up popped a pair of lips, the bait disappeared and then all hell broke loose. As anyone who's fished the pool knows, the Carp in there aren't massive but they do seem to pack one hell of a punch. Fortunately, I gave it sufficient stick after the initial take to clear it from the snags and then it was just a case of being patient. I eventually won the day and banked my best Carp so far from this pool of 10lb 15oz.
The Carp have really done well for themselves since being stocked in there a few years go at around 3lbs. I managed a further one on similar tactics towards the end of the session. I didn't weigh or photo that one, but it was in the 6-7lb stamp.

Back on the bank...briefly

2011-07-15T13:28:00.000-07:00

I haven't had much to report recently. A fortnight ago I suffered a poor session on the Avon with Brian and last week I accompanied my better half to Silverstone for the Grand Prix. Needless to say I was itching to get fishing again and I sniffed a chance to end the working week at Friday lunchtime for once.

I only had a few hours to play with and after tossing a few thoughts around in my head, I opted for a very lightly fished, slightly mysterious stillwater. The idea was simply to remember what catching fish felt like again and to have a relaxed afternoon, making the most of the glorious weather. I'd seen the weather forecast and it seemed that any further weekend adventures would be somewhat wetter and windier.

The fish obliged in numbers - as they always do on this pool once they realise some bait is going in. Nothing big showed up, but I had a mix of Rudd, Crucians and lots of Perch (of which quite a few were on corn!). The best of the bunch were:

The Perch and the Crucian were bang on 1lb, while the Rudd tipped the scales a smidgeon further to 1lb 1oz - a personal best.

The Best Laid Plans...

2011-06-27T12:41:00.000-07:00

Since my last post I've managed 6 sessions. Being honest, I've turned up for 6 sessions and the fish have largely had a ball at my expense. At a time of the year when I was expecting a bit of a bonanza, it's been the total opposite.

The first session on an untapped stillwater threw up plenty of fish though, but to no great size. It was a pleasant session though and the Crucians decided to show up. The half a dozen I caught were of a similar stamp, but I only weighed the first one, which went exactly 1lb. Aside from that I had plenty of Perch to a shade over 1lb, along with some Rudd and Roach. This was about as good as it got all week!

The second session on a Hinckley stillwater threw up a fair number of small fish, but nothing over 6oz. It's a water that probably needs a bolder approach than I gave it, but as a first session it's given me a better idea of what to expect next time.

The third effort saw me back on the Avon at Alveston for a short session. I had a real shocker this time on a peg I am confident with. The problem is that I hadn't tackled it in the summer before and the bottom weed was worse than I'd imagined. Memories of early season sessions from last season on other pegs, sprung to mind. The whole stretch seems to suffer badly with weed and I need to do some more groundwork. I had a few Perch up to 12oz when I changed to a trotting approach, but it wasn't a wasted day, as I spent a fair bit of time bank clearing to open up some pegs on the faster water upstream.

Part four saw me back on the same stretch of river the following day in the faster water. I had a pleasant couple of hours trotting a stick float and catching mainly Dace, with a few Roach, Perch and Chublets thrown in. When the bites dried up I switched to the lead and found weed again! I concocted a rig to get the bait above the weed and winkled some more bits out. Eventually it became hard work, so for the last hour I nipped back to peg 5 where I'd had a Carp the previous week. I'd dropped a bit of feed in earlier in the day and was hoping something big might show up. I was wrong of course, but I had a fun hour catching more Dace, Perch, Roach and Chublets on the float.

Next up was the one I'd been waiting for - the River Wye. It turned out to be a total disaster for me as I blanked. I did briefly make contact with a fish, but the hook pulled. I have no idea what went wrong on the day and it wasn't down to a lack of effort, planning or mobility. I can't really blame the conditions either - the river was rising, but not exactly at an alarming rate. Having achieved the magic ton on this river (different stretch) last year with similar tactics, I left very puzzled.

Still, it was a lovely place to be and blanking is a lot less painful in such inspiring surroundings. I was with Brian for this trip and he wasn't having much luck either.

The final move of the day just before the heavens opened, proved to be the crucial one, as it resulted in Brian connecting with a fish.

After a fair old scrap, he won the day and banked himself a personal best Barbel of 7lb 3oz. Well done that man!

Then it was back to the camp site to spend what was left of the evening trying to cook food and have a beer under a couple of fishing umbrellas, while it totally pissed it down with rain. The joys of angling!

The less said about the next day the better. Double blank for both us on the River Lugg. Again, I was left scratching my head, as the river looked good and I was totally confident with the swims I tried.

I now have a few days to contemplate my failings before tackling the Avon again.

The Glorious 16th

2011-06-16T08:06:00.001-07:00

I've been a bit quiet with my fishing recently, but I've been busy behind the scenes making plans and giving my tackle a much needed tidy up. However, June 16th saw me kick off a hectic 10 day spell which sees me spending more days on the bank than off it.

I only had a short morning session to play with and it also had to be worked around a 7-45am drop off at Coventry station. Still, 3-4 hours of fishing time was worth the effort and I knew the Alveston Club section (which I've rejoined again), would be fairly quiet.

The pegs in the area I usally head for were occupied, but I had the choice of pegs 1-7, so I settled on peg 5 which is feature packed peg I've managed to overlook in the past. There's a fair depth close in, with plenty of lily pads and an overhanging bush. There's no flow on the inside, but it moves at a steady pace down the middle and there's the bonus of a far bank tree along with more lily pads.

I caught a few small fish quickly on the inside using a home made stickfloat and centre pin set up. Bites dried up quickly though and I needed a rethink. I fed in some groundbait on 2 lines and set up a straight lead rig. After a barren half hour mid river on the lead, I noticed that the inside line I'd baited up beyond the pads, was bubbling away like a witches cauldron. I switched the lead to the inside line, but nothing seemed interested.

I decided to change the presentation and within a minute I'd hooked something that felt quite decent and bolted off into mid river. I was cursing at this point, as the straight lead rod I had just discarded had a slightly beefier set up. Instead I was now left to play a hard fighting fish on a lightish hooklength in a snaggy swim with a size 17 hook. The fish was a strong favourite to win this battle.

With a dose of luck, a bit of skill (?!) and a lot of patience, I won the battle and netted one of the resident Carp - a Common of 6lb 6oz. A rather ordinary fish in Carp terms, but only my second ever from a river, so I was more than happy with it.

I had a few Perch up to about 12oz to round off a short but pleasant morning.

Bank Holiday Blues

2011-05-31T13:56:00.001-07:00

I managed a couple of trips over the bank holiday period, but both turned out to be a struggle.

The first was a largely unplanned effort on the local stretch of canal for about 3 hours. I set up 2 similar lightish rigs with maggot as bait and took a lazy approach of setting up a couple of alarms, while I waited for the fish to home in on the bed of bait I'd introduced. The plan was to mug one of those Silver Bream I've read about in a quick smash and grab raid.

While I was whiling away the hours listening to the cricket, my alarms failed to twitch even once. I moved 100 yards to try a second area and the result was similar - the only benefit being a slightly better reception on my personal radio! After 3 hours I slipped off home with tail between legs and not even a token suicidal Perch to show for my efforts.

On Monday I went back to Ryton with Brian. Sensibly we'd already agreed that the morning was a write off due to a solid band of rain being forecast. I can stand a bit of rain, but if they forecast it will be wet when I start, wet when I plan to finish and very little let up in between, then I tend to avoid it unless there's something special to fish for.

The revised plan was a 2pm start to catch the back end of the rain and then to fish until gates closed around 8pm. The flaw in the plan was that it didn't seem to fully dry up until 6ish, so we suffered more rain than expected.

It was a tough old session with Brian managing one Tench in the 2.5-3lb class. I had two fish of that stamp myself and one better sample that went 4lb 15oz and fought like a demon, along with a solitary Perch.

4lb 15oz

Barry the Fly was also on hand again and he was struggling too - just a Tench and a Perch for his efforts.

Not the best of fortunes over the holiday period and I even gave up listening to the cricket (test match) early on Monday afternoon, having declared it a bore draw in my own mind. Listening to 8 wickets crashing in next to no time (and an England win) would have been a nice tonic while waiting for the Tench to sniff out my bait!

Tenchtopia

2011-05-21T13:44:00.000-07:00

Inspired by the recent reports of other bloggers who've visited Ryton Pool recently, I twisted Brian's arm for another crack at it. Bear in mind Brian was on a run of 4 consecutive blanks at Ryton, I was pushing my luck a little, but he agreed to give it a go.

It was an early afternoon start and I was expecting to find a few others on the bank, but the place was deserted. We took the customary walk around the back of the island and doubled up on the largest of the pegs on offer.

We both balled in on a similar line before setting up our rigs. I set up a straight lead rig and got it up and running, at which point Barry the Fly popped by for a chat. It's quite weird talking to someone I've never met before, who doesn't figure in the anglng press and yet I knew quite a bit about him. He was a very refreshing and honest guy to talk to and I have to admit to sharing his various simplistic views on fishing. Anyone who can catch a 10lb+ Bream and 22lb+ Pike from Ryton is worth listening to. I'm yet to encounter either of these species at Ryton, let alone bank fish like those.

The session went pretty much to plan for me and I took a steady stream of fish throughout. The first few Tench were of a small stamp, before a few better ones moved in. The first better stamp fish went 4lb 6oz.

The next Tench caught me a bit by surprise in that I didn't appreciate its size during the fight. I knew it was a 5lb+ fish, but Brian seemed to be talking it up quite a bit and when I lifted up the net, I knew it was a pb. It went 6lb 12oz, which is over 1lb on top of my previous best (also from Ryton). Having had plenty of 4's and low 5's over the years at Ryton, I was a bit chuffed with myself to finally crack the 6lb barrier- and by quite a way.

In total I caught 10 Tench, which is a record for me in a single session at Ryton. Pick of the others were:

4lb 9oz

5lb 10oz

I didn't actually notice the large blemish on the fish until I looked at the photo afterwards! This one also equalled my previous pb too.

I had a few Perch up to about 12oz and in total I had around 35lb of fish. The really good news was that Brian didn't blank either. He did have me worried for a while, but he managed to put 3 Tench on the bank and I think his faith has been restored - if only a little!

3lb 8oz

3lb 13oz

The larger of the two fish led him a merry old dance and I think Brian was a bit surpsried as to how much power these fish have.

A very enjoyable session and on the way back to the car we passed Barry who said he'd taken 6 Tench himself. They are definitely getting their heads down.

A Brief Catch Up

2011-05-16T12:23:00.000-07:00

Since my last post I've managed 3 trips, but all proved to be fairly uneventful.

The first effort was a return to Snitterfield Reservoir in search of Crucians. I started off OK on the Roach and Skimmers, but I never managed to get a sniff of a Crucian in a 5 hour session. Charlie, fishing on the next peg, managed a couple of them - both would have sneaked over the pound mark I'd say.

Bites petered out for me as the day wore on and another failed Crucian trip was the end result.

The next session was an even briefer affair due to afternoon committments. It was at Jubilee pools on the Island Pool. This time I wasn't fussed about catching anything in particular - it was going to be a short session and I was just happy to catch a few fish.

Momentarily I thought I'd got a bonus silver fish, but I ended up with something that looked distinctly hybridised. It was a nice looking fish of about 1.25lbs, but sadly it was neither Roach, nor Rudd.

I had a number of other smaller fish on the day and as usual for my visits to Jubilee, it rained quite a bit. I really must make the effort to pick a belting day next time when the Carp are likely to be going bonkers on the surface!

Brian returned to action after an absence for this trip and plucked out some small fish. The best of his bunch was an 11oz Perch, which we stuck on his challenge scorecard.

The third trip was to College Pool in the hope of maybe finding a low double figure Carp, one of the elusive Barbel, or perhaps adding to our Bream or Perch scores.

It ended up very similar to my previous visit and it became clear that the fish are well into spawning mode. Aside from the small Perch, proper bites were tricky to come by. I had a fair number of bite indications, but it was mostly line bites.

Brian actually had a bit of early success, but it was to be his only Bream of the session. At 4lb it matched his previous best for the year. If it had managed to retain its fins in better condition it might have made an extra ounce or two though! This fish had seen a few battles in its time I think.

I managed to winkle out 3 Bream of 3lb 11oz (left), 5lb 3oz (centre) and 4lb 12oz (right). I also remembered to clean the camera lense when I got home!

May has proved to be a bit frustrating so far. I'm desperately in need of some inspiration from somewhere...and a lot more hours on the bank wouldn't go amiss either! Only 1 month to go now until things kick off properly again. Holidays have been booked from work in readiness and the an early season trip to the glorious River Wye can't come soon enough. Meanwhile, I should probably be putting my time to better use looking for the specimen sized Silver Bream that live just a short walk away!

Foul play

2011-04-29T08:32:00.000-07:00

I took a trip to College Pool to escape the royal wedding. Although only one person was there on arrival, there were 7 other cars in the car park when we left - as busy as I've ever seen the place! It was a strange day which saw me catch a few small Perch, before hooking up with 6 Bream.

The first was foulhooked and although I landed it, the fish did a bit of a gymnastic movement and flipped out of my shallow net and shed the hook. So, I didn't physically contact that one. The next one I had totally under control, but the hook pulled clear just as I was drawing it to the net. At that point, I figured it wasn't going to be my day!

I went on to land the other 4 Bream, but no fewer than 3 of them were foulhooked. I had been getting loads of line bites and I can only imagine the fish were in spawning mood and just moving across the baited area, but not actually feeding. Occasionally the odd one would snag up on my rig. I could probably have been quite successful with no bait on my hook today!

All 4 Bream were over the 5lb mark, but none of them topped my best for the season.

5lb 2oz

5lb 8oz

5lb 12oz (not foulhooked!)

5lb 2oz again!

21lb 8oz in total, which I'd normally be happy with, but foulhooking so many fish is not exactly pleasurable.

Reservoir Return

2011-04-26T12:22:00.000-07:00

Bank holiday Monday saw me make a long overdue trip to Snitterfield Reservoir. It was another glorious day and I was hoping the Crucians would show up for a few more bonus points for the challenge. Sadly they didn't read the script!

Plenty of fish showed up throughout the day to various approaches and there was always some activity in the water. In all honesty I probably chopped and changed too much and I should have just stuck to a fixed game plan, with more focus on getting the feed right. I still ended up with around 30lb of fish though, so I'm not going to complain.

A sample of what was on offer:

Not an Eel!

Plenty of these averaging around the 1lb mark

A few of these (best was 11oz)

I also had a small Perch, Rudd, Hybrids and a few very small Tench - the first time I have caught any Tench at the Rese, but I'd been told to expect them by an angler I'd spoken to earlier in the day.

Towards the end of the session, I thought I'd adapt one of my rigs and have a crack at the Carp with a floater. I've never had any success with the Carp at the Rese in the past - just a few near misses where the Carp came out on top.

On this occasion I won the battles though and I managed to pluck a couple of Carp off the top using bread. Neither of them were as big as I'd hoped though, but it was good fun nonetheless and I stuck a little more on the challenge scoreboard - enough to trip me over the 200 point barrier.

8lb 7oz
5lb 15oz

I'd been joined on the trip by an old friend, Steve, who was new to the venue. He'd had a little less luck with the Carp, having had one of his pole rigs brutalised by one of the resident lumps. He switched to a rod and line tactics, but never managed to hook another one, although he did catch some nice Roach and a few skimmers on meat instead.

Earlier on he'd caught an interesting fish that I'm still not sure about. Initially we thought it was a Crucian, but the tail is very big and it put me off. That said, I've never seen a really decent Crucian, so what do I know?! Whether it is or isn't, it was a nice looking fish that went 2lb 4oz.

A Score Partly Settled

2011-04-17T06:55:00.000-07:00

Back to College Pool for a brief morning session today. The idea was to get amongst the better Bream, as they've eluded me on previous visits this year. Usual tactics were the order of the day - ball it in at start and fish patiently over it for 4 hours with bread and maggots.

I managed just 5 fish, the first of which was a small Roach to the maggot rig. A better fish followed on the same set up, which turned out to be more like what I was after - a Bream of 5lb 13oz, which stuck over a 1lb on my best for this year. Still a bit short of my target for the year, but at least I'm a lot closer to it now.

The next fish gave an odd kind of fight, which fooled me into thinking I'd hooked a decent silver fish - a big Perch I thought for a moment. It turned out to be a foulhooked small Tench! Another Bream followed later on - this time on the breadflake rig. It was a fish in the 3.5lb to 4lb range and blind in one eye, so I took a quick photo of its better side and slipped it back.

The action was far from frantic though, although I'm sure a light rig fished higher up in the water would have taken plenty of silver fish. I could see a few Carp milling around at the end of the pool, so I thought I'd try for one before calling it a day.

A quick change to the bread rig and I chucked out a controller float with a piece of floating bread, which lasted barely a minute before being woofed down. As ever, the Carp here seem to fight like demons, but I won the battle to avoid it snagging me up and banked a fish of 7lb 4oz. The photo was a bit hurried!

Keeping the momentum - just about!

2011-04-11T13:21:00.000-07:00

Just a very brief session for me this weekend, as it was Grand National day and time to donate some money to the turf accountants. Brian was engaged with family removal work, so I was on my own again. With the glorious weather we were forecast, I couldn't help strolling around the corner for a couple of hours on the disused former golf course, prior to the racing.

I fancied trying the pool we refer to as Parkers, but on arrival I spotted a tent in the far corner. Initially I thought it was a knackered old discarded tent, but a few movements started to appear and it was definitely inhabited - but by what? Now, round these parts you come to learn that it isn't likely to be a group of young Scandinavian females on a field trip. It's most likely to be NEDs, chavs, tramps, or those intent on eating anything that swims.

On this occasion it was 3 NEDs. I thought I might still give it a go, as they might turn out to be quiet NEDs. Bad mistake! No sooner were they out of the tent and the music was turned on and one of them was 15ft up a tree, smashing up as many branches as possible and acting like a prize tool. I don't actually believe they were trying to upset me - this was probably normal behaviour! At this point, I made the sensible choice to up sticks and move 150 yards to the sanctuary of the Crater pool.

It took half an hour to build the swim up properly, but the pool is crawling with fish, so once you have their attention, it's a rapid fire bite a chuck thereafter. Maggots attract too many very small fish, so I tend to stick to the corn on here once they get their heads down. I was hoping to get one of the better Rudd that are knocking around the pound mark, but my best effort in the short time was 8oz, which added a few ounces to my score for the year.

It actually looks more Roach like from that angle, but it was a Rudd. I had the usual mix of fish including a few small Roach and Perch, along with some of the interesting looking hybrids that inhabit this small water.

As always, I had the usual passer by offering advice. Why is it that no matter which of the 4 ponds you fish on this site, you always get told you should be fishing a different pool? To be fair on this occasion I think it's clear that Crater offers the least potential for big fish and I was a bit gutted not to have tried Parkers. Still, it's not too far away and there's plenty of the year left.

Time For Slime

2011-04-03T05:41:00.000-07:00

We had a go at the unpredictable Ryton pool this weekend. I'm not sure sure what's going on with Ryton in terms of the lease with Leamington AA, although I had heard on the grapevine that the owners wanted to increase the price substantially, which may prove too much for the club to absorb.

The club website still lists the Ryton visitor centre as an outlet to purchase club books and still shows the venue map. There's no signs to indicate that fishing has ceased and no word from the club through the website or newsletters that some of us are signed up to. For now, I'm working on the theory that LAA give existing members 1 month's grace to renew membership. I don't have the 2011/12 club book yet, so I'll continue during April to work off the old club book unless something else comes to light. If anyone is in the know, feel free to comment.

On to the fishing and it was a case of persistence paying off. After a slow start which saw just a half pound Perch banked in the first couple of hours, I took the decision to ditch the float rig and go for 2 straight lead rigs fished about 3 rod lengths out over a pool table sized area I'd balled in at the off. It paid off very quickly in the shape of a long lean Tench which turned out to be the best of the day at 5lb 3oz.

Seven more Tench followed throughout the day at various intervals, with the pick of the others being fish of 4lb and 4lb 8oz. I also managed to sneak out a couple more Perch, the best one being a rather plump looking fish of 1lb 3oz which fell to a worm/maggot cocktail.

I also scored a few further token challenge points for a small Rudd of 5oz.

Some of the other Tench:

Brian struggled on the next peg and achieved his customary Ryton blank. For that reason, the day wasn't quite as enjoyable as it might have been, despite me banking almost 30lb of fish.

It's my best ever start to a season at Ryton by a long, long way. Of course, with the Ryton future currently seeming uncertain, the season there might be over soon after its begun.

Slow Progress

2011-03-27T10:18:00.000-07:00

Back to College Pool, or should that be back to school?! It was a tough day (especially the first half) and the Bream mission I'd started the previous week remains a case of unfinished business. I'm not setting my sights too high for the challenge - there's a fair head of Bream in the 4-6lb class in the pool, along with the odd 7lb+ fish that we know of. One of the larger 6lb+ samples that I've had on occasions in the past would give me a solid mark to work from and I could then target bigger fish later in the year on other venues.

After 2 sessions on the pool though, I can't seem to connect with the right stamp of fish. A few hours in and I'd only had a 3lb 14oz Bream and 3 small Perch. The guy opposite had banked a solitary small Barbel before calling it a day, while on the next peg only a Roach and a decent Bream had come out.

Despite nearly calling it a day around 2ish, I stuck it out for an extra couple of hours and just kept fishing over the bait I'd balled in at the off. In the end it paid off to a small extent, as I took 3 more fish in the last 2 hours. A Bream of 3lb 15oz was first on to the bank, followed by an all too rare (for this pool) Chub of 2lb 9oz.

I can recall many years ago when I first fished the pool, it was full of Chub. Very few seem to show up now though, so this immaculate looking fish was a welcome change. I didn't expect to be increasing my Chub challenge score today, but this fish chucked an extra 3oz (or a massive 2pts!) on to my score. The final fish of the day also added 2 more points to my score. It was the species I'd set out to catch, but at 4lb 12oz, it was still quite a way short of my target for Bream.

Sadly I had to call it a day at that time, as I had other duties to attend to. I get the impression that I was probably leaving when prospects were on the upturn and I'd have liked at least another couple of hours. Keith J had turned up was fishing the far bank, so I'll be interested to see how he got on.

Next time I think I'll dig out the pellets to see if that sorts out the better fish. I seem to be in the habit of adding to my challenge score each week now, but at this rate it's going to take me until 2013 to get competitive! I don't have that long! In all honesty, I'm just happy to keep extending my number of sessions since a blank.

Brian is back in action next week so that could scupper any progress! He's dared to suggest the Ryton word - or the Murder Pool as he calls it. He's on a run of 4 consecutive royal blanks there now. I've suffered my share there too and I'm not sure if now is the time to tackle the fickle one.

Spring in the air

2011-03-20T10:39:00.000-07:00

I didn't get around to doing a report from last week's end of season river venture, so I'll start with a brief catch up. Despite the temperatures being a lot healthier, the river fished poorly. We were on the section that we're less familiar with, due to a match on the other section. I ended up moving pegs after a couple of biteless hours - a move that brought better fortunes but hardly spectacular.

I managed just 4 fish - all different: Dace, Roach, Chub and something that looked a bit hybridised to me. I thought I'd got a decent Chub, as the fight was fairly spirited, but when I saw a brief flash in the water, I began to wonder if it was a monster Roach. When I netted it, the Roach theory was quickly put to bed (not a red fin in sight), but it looked to me like a Roach/Bream hybrid. I didn't weigh it but it was in the region of 2.5lbs.

Brian managed just a solitary Dace.

On to this week and the weather forecast promised us a stunning Saturday and it didn't disappoint. That said, I had to clear ice off the car before leaving and I was hoping the chilly overnight temperature wouldn't kill the prospects.

I had been mulling over the Leamington AA opportunities open to me and in the end I settled for College Pool in search of Bream. I'd had a good day for them in March last year, so I figured on a repeat. I bumped into a chap called Paul who I quite often see throughout the season. He was just setting up and reported that fishing on the pool had been slow so far this year with just the occasional better fish showing. I settled in on the next peg.

I balled in a few balls of groundbait into the usual 15+ foot of water and fished over it with a straight lead on both rods - one baited with red maggots and the other with bread. It was a slow start, but I'd heard a few small fish being banked on the next peg so I was optimistic.

I picked up a Roach of 5oz to get me off the mark and boost my challenge score by an extra 1oz! I feel like a prize idiot weighing fish like this!

The next fish gave me a strange dull fight. I thought it had to be a Bream and not a terribly big one, but when it surfaced my jaw dropped. It was a big old Perch and a country mile over my pb. It just rolled nicely into the net and meant that I had joined in with the bloggers Perch party! It weighed in at 2lb 12oz, which stuck nearly a pound on my previous best.

I picked up a few more bits during the day before connecting with a couple of Mirror Carp - both on maggots and both led me a merry dance on lightish gear. Sod's law, the bread rig sat close by was more geared up for the Carp but they didn't want any of that!

Anyway I won both battles and twice increased the weight of my best Carp from this pool - also increasing my challenge score too. It's good to see the Carp in the pool are packing on the weight now

7lb exactly

7lb 10oz

Paul on the next peg had started to get amongst some nice Bream (my intended quarry!) and had banked 6 of them. I was intent on catching at least one and I even extended my stay to try and prove a point. My patience was eventually rewarded, but the result wasn't what I'd hoped for. A Bream graced my net, but at 3lb 8oz it was a plenty short of the required target and didn't increase my challenge score.

In total I had around 22lb of fish, which was very welcome after the indifference I've suffered on the river this year. I'm starting to subscribe to a theory now though. I've had 2 decent sessions so far this year and what's the common theme? - both times Brian wasn't with me! I always knew he was jinxed!

Pre-bait for Pike!

2011-03-07T13:07:00.000-08:00

With just a week of the river season to go, we returned to the Avon in the hope of a points scoring bonanza. Having had a near 2 week lay off I was itching to give it a real good effort - so much so that I indulged in a little pre-baiting the afternoon before. It was a nice idea, but we failed to reap any obvious rewards from it.

I wasn't overly chuffed with the 0C temperature reading when I got in the car. I've come to learn that whatever it's reading when I leave home, it always seems to be 2C colder on the stretch I was heading for.

I winkled out a couple of small Roach early doors on maggot, while the other rig (on which I alternated bread and worm) remained pretty motionless. With bites drying up, I started to set up a float rod when I saw the maggot rod arch right over and then spring violently back. I grabbed it and it felt like a small fish was on initially, but it then seemed to wake up.

I confidently expected to be attached to a points boosting Chub, but after a brief battle on lightish tackle the fish surfaced and into the net popped a small Pike of 3lb or so. Not what I wanted, but it seemed to set the tone for the rest of the day.

Brian wasn't fairing any better, although he amassed a mammoth 5pts for a 1oz Dace! He'd been after Pike already and I now decided to join him. It wasn't too long before his Lamprey section was on the march and although Brian allowed the take to develop, the single hook rig he's been trying out didn't connect. A few minutes later and exactly the same thing happened again. We got a good glimpse of this fish though before it made off and it looked a definite double.

I was next into the action when my line started to tighten up and the rod tip began to arch over. I connected with this one and thankfully the hooks (I was on trebles) held firm. Although only a small Pike, it stuck a few extra points on my tally at 6lb 8oz.

Brian's turn next and this time the single hook connected and held firm - and it needed to! The fish led him a merry dance and went under a landing stage and did a 360 around the support. I think we both figured this was going to end with the fish winning again, but I managed to net the Pike and Brian was able to slacken off the line so we could get it banked. As always, Brian seems to go a bit better than me on the Pike scores and this one went 8lb 5oz.

Not the day we'd hoped for, but pleasant enough nonetheless - it certainly beats watching Coventry City trying to play football by a long way!

A Bit of Solitary

2011-02-22T12:52:00.000-08:00

A change of plan this week saw me and Brian on the Avon on a Sunday. In some respects it was a blessing not to be out during Saturday's rather damp and cool conditions. Instead we faced a coolish but dry day and a river that was about 10 inches up and coloured after the previous day's rain.

Usual tactics came to the fore with 2 feeder rigs with baits varying from maggot, worm, bread and meat. The Lamprey also came out of the bag in the hope of attracting a Pike.

We spent 4 hours trying to entice something, but precious little happened. Conditions certainly could have been a little better and any fish was going to be welcomed. In the end I managed just a solitary Bream of 2lb 15oz.

If nothing else, it extends my run of non-blanks to 3 now!

Next week sees an enforced lay off as we have a freebie to watch the Sky Blues take on Leicester City. I certainly wouldn't pay to watch them when I could be fishing, but the free food swung it!

Second Best

2011-02-11T11:54:00.000-08:00

I pinched a Friday off work and had a day down on the Avon at Alveston with Brian. Boosted by a decent effort there last time out, I figured I'd got things sussed out. The weather was very pleasant and it was all set up for a productive day.

Things didn't go to plan for me though and the Chub and Bream I was largely planning for, didn't show up. It wasn't for the lack of trying though, but in the end I had to admit defeat and resort to the scratching tactics I'm more familiar with.

There were plenty of bites to be had on the float line and I amassed a few small fish to get me away from the intensity of staring at two pretty motionless quiver tips.

Brian had no success up to that point and was moving into the land of nod. A bite on his maggot rig saw him connect with a small fish that very quickly became a much bigger fish. A pike had scoffed whatever he originally struck into and he was left to pick up the pieces. "It's a double" he claimed, but I quickly dismissed it as maybe a 7lb fish and decided against getting my specimen landing out of the holdall.

How wrong I was! From my angle it didn't look huge, but when I had the task of trying to get it into a largish match style landing net, I suddenly started to get worried. This was a PB in the making for Brian and I didn't want to screw it up. Luckily the Pike played ball and went in first time - with a bit of a squeeze!

The size 14 barbless hook had lodged itself on the outside of the Pike's scissors and popped out easily. Despite a lot of willing, we couldn't get the scales to hit 14lb - Brian settled for a very respectable 13lb 15oz. Although not caught by design, Brian is taking credit for his Lamprey dripping approach. He'd already had a Lamprey section on the go earlier on and had a constant stream of juices oozing from it into his swim. Maybe that was they key?

Brian's other main action of the day came on his bread rig - yes he had some success even if I didn't! A Bream of exactly 4lb graced his net.

I managed 6 species in total - two of which don't count (Minnow and Bleak). The other 4 don't amount to a lot, but for the challenge scorecard purposes here goes with the best of each:

Dace - 2oz

Perch - 11oz

Roach - 4oz

Pike - 4lb 11oz

The Pike also fell to a Lamprey section fished close in under a float. Brian also had a tangle with another Pike, but the hook didn't set and fish got away.

A pleasant day though and the honours most definitely sit with Brian on this occasion.

Phew!

2011-02-06T10:44:00.000-08:00

I was out on my own this week and the venue choice was made simple by the conditions. The wind was blowing a gale, so I headed off for the shelter that my club stretch at Alveston provides. There's a bank about 40ft high that surrounds the village section and blocks out any south westerly winds. So while all around was very blustery, I found myself in somewhat tranquil conditions for the whole day.

With my current run of form reading blank, blank, blank, blank I needed to fish a peg I had total confidence in. Peg 9 was the choice and was actually the last peg I caught on at the back end of December.

I set up two feeder rods using a concoction of about 4 parts liquidised bread and 1 part fishmeal based groundbait. I've become a bit more organised recently and I'm starting to freeze up any old bread that would normally be binned. I'm then liquidising it as needed the day before I fish. The freezer is also housing a supply of deadbaits too, in case I fancy a spur of the moment predator session.

I fed the bread mix through both feeders, but opted for different hookbaits - bread flake on a size 12 on one rod, with 2 or 3 maggots on a size 15 on the other. I tend to use the odd numbered hooks in the Kamasan b711 range quite a lot for my maggot fishing. Both rigs had tails of about 2.5ft to 3lb bottom.

I decided to cast fairly regularly to keep the bait going in and I didn't have to wait too long for my first bit of action on the bread. The tip pulled round and I just needed to lift the rod, which was met with a fairly stiff resistance. I knew it was a decent fish and I was hoping it was a Chub, as it would definitely be a personal best.

I played it carefully and when I got a glimpse of the fish I could see it was a Carp. Although a little disappointed that it wasn't a Chub, this was going to be a first for me, as I'd never previously caught a river Carp. The fight went to plan without too much fuss and the fish was banked. It weighed in at 6lb 2oz.

Not a monster in Carp terms and in challenge terms, it's not going to make much of an impression either. As I joked to Brian in a text, I'd get more for a 3oz Dace! In this instance though the figures don't really matter - it's nice to put the river Carp issue to bed at long last and more so at this time of the year when my fishing has been very barren. Suddenly 4 blank weeks became a distant memory.

Things didn't really take off though and after a couple of hours I decided to rest both lines and have a mess about with a float rig. I managed a small roach that I didn't weigh - I don't think it would have made 1oz, before snagging up my rig and losing the hook. I then saw a decent fish top on the feeder line, so I went back out there again. The difference this time was that I switched the rods over and fished bread on the right hand rod.

A steady run of fish then started - all taken on bread:

Chub 2lb 6oz

Bream 4lb 5oz

Chub 2lb 7oz

Bream 2lb 7oz

Bream 2lb 5oz

Smack on 20lb in total, which I'd take any day on a river. I packed in around 4-30pm and went home very content. 57 percentage points on the challenge board, but in all honesty if any of these fish remain on my scorecard at the end of the year, something will have gone badly wrong. It's just a relief to be catching again.

Pastures New - Same Old Story

2011-01-30T10:11:00.000-08:00

Saturday rolled around again and it was time to end the drought. Both Brian and I had a few things to sort out, so it was a delayed start which curtailed the session into an afternoon one only.

I was less than impressed by the tempertature again though - a mere -1C while I was doing the rounds in the morning and it was barely above freezing when we set out. We had hoped to fish one of the local ponds, but the ones near me were frozen up, so it had to be a river.

We headed out to the south side of the city and I suggested taking a look at a section of the Avon near to Middlemarch Business Park. We parked up and took a short walk across the scrub land and found a very fishy looking bend with enough depth to entice us into having a go. It was either that, or 15 mile drive to the usual areas we fish and with time against us, we went for it.

Upstream:

Downstream:

Light feeder / bomb set ups were deployed and even the Pike rods came out for a while. You know where this is going don't you? Yes, we blanked again and in royal fashion. I went on the move for the last hour or so and found another cracking looking run not far from the hotel, but it didn't deliver either.

January has come and gone and I'm stuck on a blank. I thought it only fitting that the blog should be renamed for a while, in honour of this non contact (with fish) pastime I am participating in! I'm still upbeat though and given some better conditions, things will improve I'm sure. On a positive note I'm no further behind than I was at this time last year!

I had a bit of a recce on the Sunday and I've eyed up a couple of interesting new spots on both rivers and ponds. I have a couple of others I want to visit during the week if I can sneak out of work early one day. I'm sure I can blank on them all given the chance!

Business As Usual

2011-01-23T13:16:00.001-08:00

River Avon - Alveston.

With Brian busy with business duties, I took on the seemingly fickle Avon on my own this week. It was a bit of a rush job though. I had to be back home by 12-30 to provide a taxi service for Mads, who was having an afternoon meal and booze up with the girls.

I needed to be on the bank shortly after first light to give myself a reasonable shot at it. I was pleased to see my car free of ice when I was loading up just gone 7am. The temperature was 1C when I set off, rose to 2C as I skirted through the city, but dipped back to -1C on arrival at Alveston at 7-45.

I went for the upstream end peg, which is a totally new one for me. Looking upstream:

And downstream:

The peg didn't produce though, despite it looking very fishy with the overhanging features on the near bank. I moved a few pegs downstream to tackle the wider section by a big bend, where I could chuck a feeder into a far bank slack.

I chucked feeder after feeder and I all got as a reward was a single bite that I duly missed. One burst maggot represents some progress I guess!

That's now 3 blanks on the spin, although I've probably only spent 10 hours on the bank across them all. I'm remaining positive though and something has to happen soon (please!).

Things in common

2011-01-17T14:13:00.000-08:00

Q - What have I got in common with Coventry City right now?
A - We've both scored blanks in 4 of our last 8 outings!

Yes, another blank at the weekend at College Pool. It turned into a fairly brief session with Brian, which neither of us really enjoyed. The wind was blowing a gale and and it wasn't pleasant.

I'd hoped the Bream might play ball, but it wasn't to be. I dare say if I'd have scratched around in the margins, I might have got off the mark, but I'm trying to avoid desperation tactics at this stage. Another angler was doing just that and had 5 small Roach on pinkies.

Maybe January just isn't my month - I blanked on both January visits last year! The river levels are looking a lot healthier now and for the week ahead and we seem to be promised some very settled weather, if slightly cooler and more normal for the time of year.

I can't recall the last time I had three consecutive blanks, but it's very much on the cards right now. Expect a few expletives in my next post if it happens!

No photos this week - I just couldn't summon up the enthusiasm.

Simple Arithmetic

2011-01-10T12:46:00.000-08:00

Coventry Canal, Sutton Stop - Saturday 8th January 2011.

The first session of the year brought about fresh enthusiasm with the onset of the bloggers challenge. At 7-10am, my last moments of beauty sleep were interrupted by the mobile going off. Brian kindly informed me it was chucking it down outside and so the session was put back half an hour or so. Back to sleep for me then!

By 8-30 the rain had gone through and I'd joined up with Brian down the cut. After hearing of Jeff's 15lb+ Pike the other week, the choice of spots was simple - down to the marina entrance. I set up a Pike rod and chucked out a deadbait. I also set up a feeder for a maggot approach, but I don't know why and it didn't last long before I opted for a two pronged Pike attack.

To cut to the chase, neither of us had a sniff and after a few hours we decided to try the opposite side of the road bridge, negotiating the rather chilled out swans on the way.

Things were certainly different along this stretch and large parts of it were still suffering from slabs of ice. Of all the places I fish, I think this one wins the least desirable award - here's a delightful shot of my M6 swim:

Upstream is marginally better looking. Is it me or does the forlorn figure standing by the canal appear to be contemplating throwing himself in! By this time I felt like joining him I think.

We moved from swim to swim and I left a static deadbait out in each, while wobbling a deadbait through on the other rod. I never had the slightest touch all session. Brian wasn't quite as adept as I was at avoiding bites and he did end up with a chunk out of a deadbait. Over a beer that evening it was suggested that the bite marks in the deadbait, might actually have been human teethmarks! Brian firmly denies such slanderous talk.

So, blankety blank to kick the year off. Simple arithmetic: catch bugger all = 0% - simples! No need for spreadsheets. Memo to Keith - next year don't worry about giving me read-write access to the sheet until at least the 3rd week of February!

Not what the doctor ordered, but there's a long old road ahead. Plans are being drawn up for the assault on the challenge, to the point that camping gear is now coming into the equation and I'm also researching Catfish opportunities - something I didn't think I'd be doing! They are closer to home than I'd imagined though.

All Change

2010-12-30T06:02:00.001-08:00

My final session of the season was on the Avon with Brian. Initially we had toyed with the idea of a pool, as I'd checked out the river levels before leaving and it was obvious the river would be up a foot or so. However, with stillwaters still struggling to thaw themselves out fully, it had to be a river or nowt.

Alveston was a fairly easy choice for me. There's a long peg (9), that always has a bit of a back eddy, is fairly deep and it's more than big enough for two. Although the river was tanking through a bit, it was still easy to hold bottom with normal leads / feeders in the slacker water on the inside of the main flow.

Things had definitely changed in the week since my last visit. Previously it was almost 10 degrees cooler and crisp and white all round:

This time things were much greyer and the river about a foot higher and with plenty more colour. Landing stages were partially submerged along the whole stretch and the water was lapping over the top of the bank in places.

It became obvious fairly quickly that it was going to be a grueller. We both set up two feeder rods and just decided to sit it out for a few hours. Debris was constantly fouling our lines and optimism was waining.

I pulled in a line that had become fouled, only to find a Gudgeon attached to the hook - along with a pile of debris. Lucky for me, that was my first Gudgeon of the year in Brian's presence, so it stuck another point on the challenge for me!

I then made a switch on the other rod and went for bread flake to complement the liquidised bread I'd been feeding. It eventually paid off when I had a proper bite and I assumed I was into a Chub. I was wrong though and the culprit turned out to be a welcome Bream of 4lb 3oz.

Within 10 minutes I had a take on my maggot rig and this time I was even more convinced I was into a Chub. It was a very dogged fight, but yet again I was wrong and it was a another Bream - this time a much smaller sample of 2lb 9oz.

Nothing else put in an appearance and we called it a day at lunchtime. I was more than happy with a couple of fish to be honest, as I thought a blank was a more likely outcome. The river was clearly dropping during the few hours we were there, so hopefully it will soon be back to a more settled and appetising state.

"You Must Be Mad"...

2010-12-24T09:00:00.000-08:00

...Those were the words that were hurled in my direction by one of the locals, as I made my way back to the car. Given that it was -2C when I arrived and had only risen to 0C on leaving, coupled with the fact that I was fishless, I could kind of see their point!

The plan for the day was actually totally different. I'd got a free day and with the weather looking nice and settled (if cold), I fancied using up some old maggots and bread on the river. I'd decided on the Lido as it would be easy to access in the conditions and I quite fancied chucking a couple of feeders out from the sank bank area.

Well it all went belly up at 6-30am when I discovered one of our cats had pebble dashed the front room carpet again. The poor little fella had a case of the runs last week, but seemed to be over it. Not wanting a sick cat over Christmas, I had to cancel my plans and take a trip to Nuneaton, to be relieved of a few quid.

By 9-40am we were back home with a sulking ginger tom, albeit he had the last laugh by leaving a deposit in his box for us! Could have been worse - he could have left it in my slippers!

Anyway, it was too early in the day to write it off, so I decided I'd have a couple of hours of Piking. So it was into the freezer for a supply of Morrisons sprats (a bargain at about 75p for two dozen) and off to the river. I decided on the Alveston stretch rather than Lido.

As I mentioned earlier, I didn't bank any fish, but I did hook a Jack. It was on for a few seconds, but slipped off the hook as I bent down to pick up the net. I didn't get any further knocks, but it was just a bonus to be on the bank again. I wasn't the only one fishing - I saw what was either a Mink or an Otter working the far bank late in the session, while the usual Kingfisher put in an appearance too.

Merry Christmas and tight lines to anyone out fishing over the festive period. I'm hoping to get out again myself at least once more before the new year, so maybe there's at least one more fish to be had in this year yet!

A Brief Respite

2010-12-12T08:26:00.000-08:00

River Avon, Alveston. 8-45am to 3-30pm.

It was very pleasant to wet a line again in somewhat better conditions than we have seen of late. I did manage to get out briefly since my last post, for a couple of hours Piking on the Avon at Wasperton with Brian. For completeness I'll keep the report simple - we double blanked in royal fashion!

Back to this week's activities and we decided to fish a new part of the stretch. During the summer months the stretch nearest to the Wellesbourne to Stratford road has been off limits due to the uncertainty of the parking. It's a bit precarious trying to park on overgrown grass verges and you were never really certain what lay within them and what damage you might inflict of your vehicle.

Cold weather knocking back the growth, coupled with a bit routine maintenance and suddenly parking spots now opened up before our eyes. The plan is to make the effort next year to take my strimmer down pre-season. It will be time well spent because the walk to the river is just 30 yards, rather than the usual 300 yards.

Although it's only a few hundred yards upstream of the village section, it was nice to tackle a new stretch. It's a short section of maybe 15 pegs with a right angle bend right in the middle of it. Most pegs seemed to have one obvious feature on either the near or far bank and we settled on pegs 4 and 5.

I set up a couple of feeder rods with the intention of using one for bread and the other for maggots, aiming towards a far bank overhanging tree. I also had a stick float set up, to trundle it down the river with a centre pin - something I hadn't done for a while.

The float line produced just a single Dace, but the feeder rods were getting plenty of attention, albeit the bites were very shy. I had two rods on the go, but with the bites being very tricky to hit, I had to scale back to one rod so I could give it my full concentration.

I lost count of the number of missed bites on both bread and maggots and I couldn't crack it no matter what combination I tried. I managed to winkle out a dozen fish during the session - half of them Dace and the other half Roach. They were of no great size - perhaps 5oz being the best fish, which was a Roach that took a piece of bread flake.

Brian wasn't exactly pulling up trees and he had leapfrogged me, having moved from peg 5 to peg 3. He'd had the odd Dace and Roach, but then struck into something better just as he was about to join the land of nod! Wide awake now, he carefully played the fish in without any fuss and it was a nice Chub of 3lb 1oz. He'd recently acquired some new scales courtesy of his birthday, so they have now been christened!

I have to give full honours on the day to Brian - most species, most overall weight and the biggest fish. I don't tend to lose out on all three counts that often on a river, so although today was a long way from a royal blank, it was still an early Christmas stuffing for me!

That said, I totally enjoyed the day and the challenge of trying to get to grips with a new stretch. I'm looking forward to fishing more of it over the next 3 months - weather permitting! The upstream end peg looks like a classic Chub swim, while the slacker water on the inside of the big bend looks nailed on for some Bream. Hopefully I'll prove myself to be right at some point fairly soon!

Jacks

2010-11-20T09:28:00.000-08:00

River Avon - Alveston. 9am to 11am.

Brian was otherwise occupied again, so I decided to have a couple of hours Piking on the river. The river was in decent nick and is looking more and more wintery with every visit.

Today's approach was going to involve a sprat, wobbled / sink and drawn through the river. The back up was a telescopic rod to thrash a big plug around the river, but it didn't see the light of day as it turned out.

I went for trusty peg 9 which has thrown up a few small Pike this Autumn already and it didn't disappoint. 20 minutes in and I'd banked a couple of Jacks around the 3lb mark. Both fish came close in and it was good fun watching the take happen right in front of my eyes.

That was it for that peg, so I moved downstream to peg 6. Almost instantly I had a take, but the fish slipped off. It wasn't on long and I was fairly confident it would take again quickly. Straight back in and a fish was on again, but the result was similar. This time the scrap lasted about 15 seconds before the fish got off and I thought I'd buggered up my chance.

It wasn't to be though, as it was third time lucky on my next cast - not sure if it was the same fish being incredibly stupid, or perhaps a different fish. It was just another Jack though - slightly smaller than the earlier two if anything.

That was the end of action. I tried a few other pegs and retraced my earlier steps, but nothing else was doing. I had a bit of a comic moment on peg 2 though. I made the cardinal sin of not giving the staging any respect. Wet, muddy boots coupled with damp, slippery staging = accident in the making. No sooner had I stepped on to it and my feet were in front of my eyes. I went crashing down and landed squarely on my back and was left staring at the cloudy sky - rod still in hand of course!

It was more funny than anything and apart from a small twinge in my back and achy little finger, I was none the worse for wear. A few beers and I won't notice a thing.

As I was packing up a couple of unusual birds (for these parts) dropped past. I can't recall seeing any of these on my fishing travels before:

A pair of black swans. I wasn't sure at the time, as one of them appeared to have white feathers beneath the black when it stretched its wings. However, a bit of research shows that they are supposed to have white flight feathers, so it seems they are the real deal.

Blank

2010-11-14T10:24:00.000-08:00

River Avon, Wasperton. 8am - 11-15am.

With Brian working this weekend, I mulled over my options on Friday afternoon. In the end I plumped for a short morning session on the river, with Barbel or Chub in mind. I figured that the conditions were pretty good for extracting one of the resident lumps.

I checked out the EA river levels site and it confirmed that the river was just starting to fine down again after the rain earlier in the week. The EA site quite useful for gauging the state of the river and it should come into its own during the winter months. It may have been covered in other blogs, but here's a link in case anyone hasn't discovered it yet:

http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/homeandleisure/floods/riverlevels/120748.aspx

The river was maybe a foot or so up and it looked promising.

I tried pellets and meat (spiced and plain), but I couldn't get a bite and I royally blanked. To be honest I've suffered many a blank here in search of Barbel, so it's nothing new. I'm never put off from returning though, as I know it contains the fish of a lifetime. One day...

I amused myself for most of the session by watching the plentiful bird life, which are now a lot easier to spot amongst the bare trees.

In case you didn't spot it in the above photo, here's an enlarged shot of a Kingfisher that was working down the far bank and dropped in at my peg briefly.

I hope he did better than me!

Avon Perch pic

2010-11-07T10:30:00.000-08:00

Brian has kindly sent me a photo of Charlie's Perch taken from the Avon just over a week ago - a fish of 3lb 5oz.

No fishing for me this week, as I was back on the oche for a change.

Mythe Farm Changes

2010-11-01T14:29:00.000-07:00

This is mostly for Jeff's benefit, in case he hasn't seen it:

http://www.mythefarm.co.uk/fishing.html

Season tickets only now, at £60 a pop. Interesting change in policy considering that the numbers of guests showing in the visitor book were a little on the scarce side. I assume they just want to keep things simple and if they have a handful of takers, then it's no less worthwhile than it was on a free for all basis. It's also easier to administer I guess. Or, maybe someone has approached them to make it a bit more exclusive? It's certainly buggered up some late season plans I had in mind!

I'll keep a watchful eye on proceedings for now I think. I quite liked the place, but for £60 I could get myself an awful lot more water elsewhere. It will be interesting to see how many takers they get and whether the part season ticket proves more popular.

The Lagoon

2010-10-31T10:14:00.000-07:00

Lanny's Lagoon - 8am to 5pm.

Having looked at our challenge scorecards there were some glaring Carp misses. We haven't spent any time chasing them this year and time has pretty much run out with the temperatures dropping. I'd remembered reading some posts from other blogs about this venue, so I suggested we give it one day to put the Carp points to bed.

As some of you are no doubt aware, two weeks previously it had been a murder scene and the fishery had to close while investigations ran their course. Reminders were clear to see on the way in with posters asking for help. We were first to arrive, closely followed by two more anglers who were also fishing it for the first time. They did start to fish, but left very quickly and we ended up with the whole place to ourselves for the day.

We went for the main pool as it held more species we wanted to go at. Leaves were a major problem though and one side of the pool was largely unfishable. We settled on pegs 6 & 7, with Brian taking peg 6 as it had less trees to get tangled in! He also had the benefit of the feature boat in his swim - the resident bird scarer.

I plumbed up and went for a float approach just beyond the ledge into about 7 feet of water. Over an hour in and I'd had nothing. Brian on the other hand had gone for a straight lead approach and first cast scored a bullseye by hitting the feature boat! No damage was done though and it wasn't long before he had his first fish on.

I was pondering over my baiting plan at the time and he shouted over that it was a Ghostie. Initially I thought he was pulling my leg, but it looked genuine enough to me. It was an ugly looking bugger though and weighed in at 2lb 1oz. 2 points to Brian.

Brian continued to catch a few fish while I was blanking - Hereford in reverse as he put it! I eventually started to pick up a few bits fairly close in on a more regular basis, when the owner came round for his money. We chewed the fat for a while, during which time he said that some fish had recently been stocked from Abbey Fields Pool in Kenilworth. He drew attention to a Koi Carp and an Albino Carp that had gone in during the stocking.

No sooner had he walked away and I was into something better, which I soon discovered was a Common Carp of maybe 4lbs. "2 points", I shouted, "but only if doesn't come off". Why did I say that? I played it very carefully with light tackle, but the size 18 barbless pulled out when I thought I'd got things well under control. Nil points!

Fish were topping all round the swim so I moved up in the water to see what was on offer. Although the ever increasing volume of leaves made life difficult, I started to catch regularly at 18ins deep, picking up a few Crucians to close on 1lb. I didn't need Crucians though, but I know a man who did! The occasional Rudd also made an appearance, but nothing to nick the bonus point.

I kept ringing the changes and a decision to drop back over an area I'd baited early doors, proved to be a very wise move. A decent fish took the bait straight away and again with light tackle I had to play it carefully. I eventually saw the fish and realised it was a pale looking fish I'd tossed a few pieces of bread to earlier in the session when it swam past my rod tip.

Although I was on light gear, the fight went without a hitch in the seemingly snag free swim. When Brian stuck the net under it, we realised it was probably the Koi Carp the owner had stocked recently - something he confirmed when I showed him the photo later. It was a stunning fish of exactly 9lb.

I was no longer bothered about the earlier lost common. I caught some more bits, but nothing else of note, although I did momentarily connect with a lump of some sort. However, all I got for my reward was a big scale on the hook, so it was no doubt foul hooked.

Brian tried for some Crucians but he couldn't find any. He nearly snared a decent Carp though that was feeding on the surface, but it wasn't having his bread.

Commercial Carp fishing isn't my cup of tea, but this place definitely wasn't in that mould. It came across as a more laid back fishery and the woodland setting is quite pretty. I imagine when it's in full bloom in the summer it's even more appealing. Quite a pleasant little place really and somewhere I'd happily pop back to during the close season.

Finally I must give a mention to a session Brian and Charlie had on the Alveston stretch of the Avon last Thursday. They had been texting updates to me throughout the day at work and I was most peed off not to have witnessed the day's events. Brian bagged his best ever Bream at exactly 5lb, while Charlie had a stunning Perch of 3lb 5oz! Apparently it had been pestering him all day, attacking fish on the way in and he snared it with a livebait in the end. Brian's camera was out of action, but there are some photos on a mobile phone that I'm hoping to get hold of.

He also had a couple of small Pike on legered maggot! I suspect they are sitting in wait near the baited area and nailing the prey fish the moment they put up any resistance to the strike. Annoyingly, he lost a small Carp of about 4lb close in, which would have been his first from a river.

Further Wye Adventures

2010-10-24T10:53:00.000-07:00

After the stunning experience on day 1, I had a tinge of regret going into day 2. We had opted to fish the Hereford & District AA waters near the town, opposite Belmont golf course. This stretch has a pedigree for throwing up big weights if conditions are right, but reports suggested it can be a moody customer. Today it was in a mood!

Access to pegs was difficult (mostly steep banks), albeit if it had a few more feet of water on, it would actually be a lot easier. We settled on a long double peg that looked inviting enough, but I had a bad vibe from the off.

We tried everything throughout the course of the session (even pulling out the Pike gear), but the fish weren't having it. All we could catch were tiny Dace and Minnows that were plentiful in the margins and Brian decided to fill his boots with the latter to earn a point for the challenge. I forgot to mention on my day 1 report that I sneaked a Minnow out, much to Brian's annoyance. He took great pleasure in ticking it off the list!

Despite only being about 8 miles away from where we were the previous day, it felt like we were fishing a different river. Other anglers trudged past reporting similarly poor catches, so at least we weren't alone. The main excitement was the occasional stray golf ball plopping into the river a few yards downstream. A busy Kingfisher gave some entertainment though and the sunny conditions made for a fairly pleasant day. Just a pity the fish weren't interested!

Next time we won't make the same mistake - we'll go for 2 days on the WUF waters. There's no guarantee that they will fish well, but the whole experience was just that bit more private and special. Although day 2 was hardly a hellish experience, I can get the whole dog walking, gate slamming, "caught anything mate?" experience quite easily on the Avon if I want it.

Wye Adventures

2010-10-23T09:04:00.000-07:00

Wow, what a river!

I'd decided to make a trip to the River Wye after I'd read some of the reports on the Wye Usk Foundation site. At up to £20 a shot it's not a cheap day ticket, but for a one off experience it had to be worth a go. Brian was up for it, so we planned a 2 day trip, with the second day being a more leisurely approach nearer to Hereford.

Day 1 was on the Lower Ballingham beat which is between Ross-On-Wye and Hereford. The stretch is just outside the village of Hoarwithy, tucked away amongst some stunning scenery. The approach to the fishery took us up the valley and once we got sight of the river with mist rolling along it, the anticipation started to rise.

We parked up at the end of a disused railway line and reality kicked in. We we basically at the same level as the old bridge and although the river was maybe 20 feet in front of us, it was about 50 foot below us! Having brought everything bar the kitchen sink, we now realised we had to lug it down a long flight of steep steps.

As we had the luxury of Brian's transit van we had chucked in a wheelbarrow to make transporting the gear a bit easier - not banking on 50 steps of course! We carried the barrow down and went back for the rest of the gear. To be honest it probably did us good because it was very cold first thing and the ground had a fair old white covering. The exercise warmed us up and the sight of steam rising off Brian's head was quite amusing!

Having done some homework, we knew that it wasn't going to be easy finding swims that were easily accessible. A walk two meadows upstream found just 2 pegs, so we came back to the old bridge where there was a double peg. It looked shallow though and there were a couple of dozen swans camped across the river rooting around for food, which was likely to make like difficult.

We wandered downstream and found one peg which looked fishable for two with a bit of creative gardening. We decided to give this one a go as it was in an area where the river looked a shade deeper, albeit there were no obvious features. The plan was to give it about 4 hours and if it wasn't producing we'd hop in the van and try the extreme downstream section about 3/4 of a mile away.

I kicked off with a pellet approach, using an open end feeder loaded with hemp / halibut crush / crumb mix. I admit to being clueless with pellets and I've never used them. However, the reports suggested that pellets were the way to go, so I tied up some hair rigs and bought a job lot of halibut and crab pellets.

I didn't have to wait too long for the first bite. The tip flew round, but I quickly realised my mistake. I was using a baitrunner reel and I'd got the settings wrong. The reel was in free spool mode and when I grabbed for the rod, in the excitement I didn't enagage the reel and created a mighty bird's nest on the reel with the freshly loaded line. I had to reel the fish in by pulling the line in by hand, which is not much fun when your attached to a Barbel. I won the battle though and was on the scoreboard with a fish of 4lb 13oz.

The next few hours was just a procession of Barbel. Here's a few of them, starting with the pick of the bunch which was the 4th fish of the day and weighed 8lb 10oz:

This one was 6lb 13oz:

After 10 barbel, things started to slow down. I wasn't sure if it was the now bright conditions, or whether the swim had been emptied or the fish spooked. I switched to maggot and had instant success with a Chub of 3lb 9oz.

Another one of 3lb 6oz followed very quickly and then the Barbel moved back in and I had 4 more of those. The best of them was a long lean fish of 7lb 10oz.

At this point I'd started to do some serious maths and began to realise that I might just break the magical ton for the first time - I was in the high 80s. Frustratingly Brian was on a blank, sitting just 15 feet upstream from me and using the same tactics.

He eventually opened his account with a Chub of 2lb 2oz and there was a sense of relief that he was off the mark, but it wasn't the Barbel we both wanted him to catch.

I pressed on with the maggots and picked up a Chub, then a Barbel and I was now just 4lb 2oz short of a ton. One more lunge on the rod tip as we entered the final hour, resulted in a 4lb 12oz Barbel and I'd done something I never imagined possible. 100lb 10oz of fish from a low, clear river, following an overnight frost. Wow!

I admit to slightly switching off at that point, but there was still a mission to be accomplished - a Barbel for Brian. He manfully stuck it out and went for crab pellet or bust and it paid off. He hooked into a Barbel and I think I played every moment of it with him. He guided it in carefully and it weighed in at 4lb 8oz. Relief all round because time was running out.

Just like buses though, he wasn't done and 2 more Barbel graced his landing net in the next half hour. The last one was the best at 4lb 9oz and also gave rise to probably my favourite picture of the year so far. Barbel, with the moon just poking up over the trees and reflecting in the river. A perfect end to a stunning experience.

It's something we will definitely do again next year. I can thoroughly recommend the Wye Usk Foundation to anyone. There are cheaper options around, but the package gives you a good degree of exclusivity (depending on choice of venue), which just makes the day feel so much more special.

For the record, the full scorecard was:

Sean - 16 Barbel (4-13, 5-2, 3-7, 8-10, 6-12, 6-2, 5-12, 6-13, 6-12, 5-0, 7-10, 5-5, 4-11, 5-4, 4-15, 4-12); 3 Chub (3-9, 3-6, 1-15)

Brian - 3 Barbel (4-8, 3-7, 4-9); 1 Chub (2-2)

A report from day 2 on a different stretch will follow tomorrow (the pub is beckoning me now!). As a taster though, a fair summary would be utter shite! Definitely a case of after the lord mayor's show - but that's fishing I guess.

Make Hay While the Sun Shines

2010-10-16T11:41:00.000-07:00

River Avon - Alveston. 8-15am to 5pm.

We decided to revisit the scene of last week's enjoyable session. Unlike the previous visit, we were greeted with sunshine and a flat calm river with a tinge of mist - most idyllic.

We figured on the theory that if it isn't broken, don't fix it and so we headed for the same pegs as last week. Tactics were similar. In fact tactics are fairly similar most weeks for me. 5 balls of bait on the feeder line, 2 on the close in float line with a couple of bait droppers full of maggots and loose feed regularly over the top.

Bites were once again plentiful in both our swims, but they were far harder to hit this week. In fact we missed far more than we caught. By midday we'd both had our quota of small dace. The odd Roach, Chublet and Bleak put in an appearance too, but the best fish we could muster was a solitary Perch each in the 8-10oz range. It was frustrating more than anything.

I brought a few small Sprat deadbaits with me, so with last week's Pike in mind I set up a rod to do a bit of wobbling. It didn't take long to get the first hit and the culprit was a fish I'd have to describe as a Pikelet. I wouldn't call it a jack for fear insulting jacks! Nonetheless, it was nice to bank a Pike by design for once.

Sorry for the photo which is more hands than Pike, but it was a feisty little devil that wouldn't stay still.

I pursued the wobbling and had another fish straight afterwards. If the previous one was a Pikelet, this was a MicroPike:

The Pike continued to harrass and taunt us for the rest of the session. I had another take on a wobbled bait but the hook didn't set. A Dace caught on the float rig also got a right old mangling from a Pike that held on for a fair while before deciding to give it up as a bad job before I could net it.

At the death I lost a better fish at the net that looked in the 7lb range. It had taken a small fish and managed to get itself hooked, but unfortunately the Pike spooked at the net and the small hook pulled out at the end of its run.

Brian also had a go for them with a lure and he managed to hook one close in, but the hooks slipped early in the fight and the fish got away.

Between the Pike action I did manage to get some action from another predatory fish. I had been after a decent Perch by legering worm to no avail. I'd only just switched back on to the float line with a couple of red maggots when I connected to this fella:

It weighed 1lb 10oz and is my best for the season so far. I still can't crack a two pounder from the river though!

In terms of the day, it was another big thumbs up for the healthiness of the Avon - loads of fish topping and biting throughout the day. The signs for the future also look good if the huge numbers of small fry in the margins are anything to go by.

Next stop for both of us is the River Wye for a 2 day stint. Most of my prep work is now done, but with serious volumes of hemp cooking still outstanding, I don't think I'm going to be too popular at home over the next few days!

Faith Restored

2010-10-10T10:25:00.001-07:00

River Avon, Alveston.

If you've read any posts from my previous visits to this stretch, you'll know it has been a struggle. Aside from the odd slab and Chub, it has yielded precious little else. I'd liken it to the Leamington AA's Wasperton stretch - very difficult in the summer months when the water is clear and the fish lie low in the weed & cabbages during the day.

10 weeks on since our last visit and Autumn was clearly taking hold. The willows were starting to look a little sorry for themselves, while pegs that had previously been difficult to fish due to heavy weed / lily growth, were now very managable. We settled on a couple pegs we'd never fished before that were midway bewteen 2 areas we'd struggled on previously.

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The wind was blowing through a fair bit directly downstream, which made float presentation difficult. Equally, it didn't help bite registration on the tip either. However, I decided to start off with the tip and balled in the customary 6 balls of groundbait just beyond an overhanging willow towards the middle of the river.

First chuck and the tip banged round. I thought I'd imagined it, or had perhaps knocked the rod accidentally. I'd always struggled for bites here in the past! I cast out again and the tip banged round again - definitely a bite this time and I was now starting to get hopeful. Third cast and I finally hooked a fish - a Roach of about 5oz. The bites continued consistently and Perch, Chub and some Dace soon followed.

Then I connected with something all together more solid that I wasn't sure about. It felt too ponderous for a Chub, but was a bit more spirited than a Bream. It woke up a bit more when I got it close in and I could see it was a decent Chub. It went exactly 4lb and was in mint condition. Quite unusual in the larger Chub I tend to catch - they generally seem to be the battle hardened old warriors bearing various scars.

After the Chub I continued to pick up bits and Brian was doing likewise on the next peg on a close in float line, while hoping for something bigger on his leger rig. I saw him leap up and his float rod arched over. The clutch gave a bit of line and he was into something a bit more interesting. Brian carefully played the fish and we eagerly awaited a glimpse of his prize. I assumed it was a Chub, but we were pleasantly surprised when it broke the surface and we saw it was a Tench. It weighed in at 3lb 2oz.

I recounted my encounters with river Tench over the years and I could only recall having caught 8 of them in just under 20 years and none in recent memory. It was Brian's first from a river and put a big smile on both our faces. Brian also needed a Tench point, so to pick it up from a river made it very satisfying.

Bites continued in numbers but they were very difficult ot hit on the feeder line. I switched to worm and instantly had a better fish. It didn't actually feel very big at first but it perked up when I got it close in. My jaw dropped when I saw it was another Tench. Having not seen one for years, we'd had one each in the space of an hour! It weighed in at 4lb 10oz, which beats my previous river best by 9oz.

Later on another angler popped round for a chat. We mentioned that we'd had a couple of Tench and he seemed perplexed. He'd fished the area for 20 years and had never seen one. Pure luck on the day, or just skillful anglers? I'd like to think it was the latter!

I messed about with the feeder rig, changing from lead, to groundbait feeder, to open end feeder. The results were pretty similar though - plenty of Dace. I decided to switch to a float rig for a change and to see if I could tempt a decent Perch. Earlier on Brian had spotted a Carp slurping bread off the top in the margins, but when I looked down I couldn't see a Carp. I did spot a very long Perch though - certainly a 2lb+ fish (which would be a personal best for me).

I started to catch small fish at a fair old rate close in - mostly Dace and some Bleak that were taking the bait on the drop. I then had that all too familiar feeling where a little fish turns into something bigger. I knew I had a Pike on, but I didn't know if it was hooked or just holding on to the fish. When it surfaced I could see a red maggot just on the outside of its jaw, so I knew I had a fair chance of landing it.

It was only a small fish of 3lb 6oz, but it was Pike point for me and of course a bonus point, albeit it wasn't exactly a challenging target to set!

We carried on catching bits for the rest of the day, but Brian pulled out his lure rod when we watched a Pike leap clear of the water to the left of my swim. Several casts later and he'd had nothing and was about to go back to the float fishing when he had a take close in. I went over to net it, but the fish slipped off the lure. Brian's Pike curse seemed set to continue. Defeated, he vowed to try again during the last 15 minutes of the session. I'm pleased to say he was duly rewarded for his persistance and took the Pike honours with a battle scarred fish of 4lb 8oz, which earned him the bonus.

It was a very pleasant day with us sharing somewhere in the region of 30lb of fish and suddenly this venue doesn't seem that bad after all. Hopefully it will continue to fish well through Autumn into Winter and we'll certainly be back for some proper Piking fairly soon I think.

As well as the Pike, Brian picked up points for Tench, Chub and Bleak to earn 5 points on the day. I had to settle for a sole Pike point. From nowhere, Brian has now sneaked up to just 3 points behind in the challenge. Game on!

Double Blank

2010-10-04T12:45:00.000-07:00

Oxford Canal - Near Tusses Bridge

The title says it all, but if you were in any doubt as to how frantic the action was, a picture will do just as well:

Rip Van Jona

We had an afternoon/early evening into dusk session that consisted of a little dabble with maggots for silvers, coupled with a pop at the Zander. Both ideas failed miserably and we royally blanked. At least some sport on the radio kept me awake!

On a brighter note we've booked a couple of days on the River Wye later in the month for a spot of serious Chubbing / Barbelling (better not be Double Blanking!). Someone will probably be piking too if he finds out they go 30+!

I've already started stocking up on kit /baits, as reports suggest the fish are serious pellet munchers, while the river eats terminal tackle. I always get an air of anticipation whenever I go to a new venue - and more so if it happens to be a river. Given the pedigree of the Wye and the scenic location, the anticipation is at record levels right now. I bet it pisses down and blows a gale for those 2 days now! Fingers crossed it doesn't though.

Trout Pics (from August)

2010-10-01T13:59:00.000-07:00

I've finally received a couple of pictures from the family outing earlier in the year.

http://upperavon.blogspot.com/2010/08/family-trouting.html

Versatile Tackle

2010-09-28T11:18:00.000-07:00

Some items of tackle perform just one function. Others have a main function, but can be used (and often abused!) to perform other tasks. What is the most versatile item of tackle though?

My vote goes for the humble extending bankstick - the larger type that extends from about 4-7 foot. It's forever digging me out of a hole and is one of the items I can't do without.

I thought I'd pretty much exhausted the list of uses it has over the years such as:

- As a rod rest (great for deep swims just off the edge of a platform, but equally good for keeping a quiver tip high off the water).

- As a keep net handle (again great for deep water swims).

- As an emergency landing net handle because accidents do happen with the carbon net poles! Also use it for my big Carp/Pike/Barbel landing net.

- As a reel retriever. Twice now it's been used to retrieve a dropped reel from a river with a cheap plastic pole rest attached to it.

- As a chopper of undergrowth.

- As a tool to free up line when it's snagged in lilies.

- As an umbrella pole. Emergency use only of course, but I once somehow forgot my umbrella pole. However, the umbrella fitted nicely over the top section of the bankstick.

- As a walking stick when clambering around muddy and slippy banks, or when wading.

- As a supporter of bait waiters (rarely used for this purpose, but sometimes useful in the deeper, siltier pegs).

Aside from potentially being quite a useful weapon if the need ever arised, I didn't imagine I'd find any more uses for it - until last last weekend:

The place I was fishing was less than ideal for getting a signal on the phone. When sat at my peg I couldn't get a signal. However, I could just about get a slight signal just above head height, which is not exactly condusive to comfortable fishing!

Although it's not exactly the end of the world, it's just nice to stay connected in case of accidents. The missus's car hasn't been on the best of form recently (now booked in for MOT), so you can imagine the grief I'd get if it breaks down while I'm fishing and the phone isn't playing ball.

I needed a solution so it was out with the trusty bankstick, extend it to full length, fix the phone onto it with some elastic from a spool of line and hey presto:

Mobile phone mast!

Now I know what the more astute amongst you are thinking - if it only works above head height, what happens if it rings? I'll cross that bridge another time! To be fair it worked nearer to where I'd parked up, so I'd just have to take a short hike to get connected. At least I'd know someone is after me!

I also have a rucksack which I'm yet to find an alternative use for. One of my cats has ideas on that though!

Bits and Bobs

2010-09-27T13:41:00.000-07:00

Not too much to report from this week.

I had a few hours on a new stillwater to test the water, so to speak. Perch, Perch and more Perch - 50 of the little buggers to be exact and 49 were in the 2-4oz range. Only one better stamp of fish at about 12oz showed, despite trying worm for long periods.

The only other fish to show were a small Rudd, a Crucian of about 10-12oz and a nice Roach of 15oz. I can't seem to crack the 1lb barrier for Roach or Rudd this year - I've had both to 15oz now.

I had a check on my wormery on Sunday and the lobworms look great - some right old snakes in there. In fact there seems to be more lobs in there than I can recall putting in! The redworms are conspicuous by their absence though. I did find some, but nowhere near as many as I seem to recall putting in.

Cead Mile Failte

2010-09-19T12:07:00.000-07:00

River Blackwater - County Waterford, Ireland.

On the last full day of the holiday I managed to secure a short morning session on the local river. I had squeezed a few essential tackle items into the boot of the car before we went away and I was half expecting them not to see the light of day. But, the opportunity arose and Madeleine seemed happy to have a lie in while I went looking for fish.

I had done some research on the area before I went away and it wasn't great. It's mostly game fishing on the Blackwater - something I have no clue about. I did stumble on some coarse fishing though, controlled by the local club - Cappoquin Salmon & Trout Anglers Association. At 3 Euros for a day ticket, it was worth a shot. I had also searched out a tackle shop which was also situated in Cappoquin and they were able to supply tickets. It was a perfect plan it seemed, but all was to go wrong.

The tackle shop was part of a post office / gift shop and was another of those multi purpose shops you often stumble on in Ireland. The fishing side of it clearly wasn't the main purpose and the lack of coarse tackle was obvious. Still, I didn't need tackle - just a ticket and a few maggots and I'd be on my way.

The day ticket was no problem, but the maggots were a sticking point. He didn't sell them! Given that he'd told me the coarse fishing was 99% Dace, that was my main bait out of the equation. The nearest maggots were a 40 mile round trip! Had I been going for a full day I might well have stretched to making the trip, but for a 3 hour session, I wasn't going to those lengths. I'd make do with bread and corn.

I turned up at the stretch around 8am and quickly realised it was tidal and at fairly low tide. I spotted fish topping throughout the stretch, so I was fairly confident. I set up in a flattish area close to the water and began some random casts to see if anything was around. Nothing was showing and my set up wasn't exactly relaxed - I had to hold the rod because the area was concreted. Confidence was now ebbing away - along with the tide.

I then moved a few yards upstream and trotted a float through for a while, but it was much the same result. I could see plenty of fish topping further out again, so I went back to a straight lead. I also moved about 10 feet back from the water on to some rocks, where I was able to jam the rod into them and have a more comfortable set up.

I started to get some indications on the tip, including one decent bite that seemed impossible to miss - but I did! Eventually I did hook a fish on corn, but the smile was quickly wiped off my face when the fish slipped the hook on the way in.

It was quite interesting to watch the change in tide during the session. With Warwickshire somewhat lacking in tidal rivers, it's something I've not really encountered before. When I'd arrived, the river was flowing at a healthy rate towards the sea. Within a couple of hours the river had risen a foot and the flow had reversed.

I packed in at 11am - fishless. With a few maggots, I'm sure it would have been a different story, but that's life. It was nice to wet a line in Ireland again - something I haven't done for 10 years. I can see a plan being hatched for a return fishing based trip at some point in the not too distant future. Not to the Blackwater though - I'd be heading somewhere with a bit more of a Roach/Bream pedigree.

Jubilee (and it rained again)

2010-09-19T10:22:00.000-07:00

Jubilee Pools - Island Pool. Friday 10th September. 6-30am to 1pm.

A somewhat belated report, due to me buggering off to Ireland only a few hours after the session finished. Brian had a spare day so my plan was to get up early and have a few hours of fishing somewhere local. Then, head off home for a couple of hours sleep, before tackling the drive to Fishguard.

Jubilee was a fairly easy choice, as it gave us a squeak of a chance of kickstarting our challenge again. Frustratingly, the last couple of months have been very disjointed and we just haven't really had many opportunities for joint ventures.

We headed round towards the point and settled on a couple of pegs to the side of it, in a sheltered bay. We had fished these pegs at this time last year and we didn't fare too well on that occasion. Why did we choose the pegs again? Well, it was pretty much a case of other pegs being a bit too precarious looking. With the ground being damp and slippy, many of the pegs in that area of the pool are prime candidates for a head over heals gambol into the wet stuff. The actual staging is fine on all pegs, but the access down steep slopes needs a bit of care at times.

I set up a bomb rod because I'd spotted a decent fish topping about 30 yards out and it didn't look like a Carp. There were also quite a few bubbles showing out there. I chucked out a few balls of groundbait and left the bomb rod to sleep peacefully on an alarm set up.

I also set up a float rig and balled in half a dozen balls of fishmeal based groundbait into about 8 feet of water. I kept the loosefeed going in over the top of it and although it wasn't an instant start, things began to pick up about an hour in. I started to catch small Perch, with the odd Skimmer and Roach thrown in - all on the float line.

The bomb rod was fairly quiet, but I did get the occasional fish on it. Eventually I hooked into something a bit better on the float rod and for a while I thought it might be a Tench. Then I realised it was a Bream and thought it may have been foulhooked because it was giving a fair account of itself. It was hooked fair and square though and went exactly 5lb.

The day continued in very much the same manner, with a consistent stream of smaller fish interrupted by two other better quality fish. One was a Tench that felt more like a Bream to start with, but it eventually woke up and had the usual spirited thrash around that Tench are so capable of doing. It was 5lb 2oz.

The other decent fish was a bit more of a sterotypical job. A Bream that surrendered faster than a Frenchman and simply popped up and rolled over into the net as per the rule book. It was the best of the bunch though, at 5lb 10oz.

I mentioned rain in the title, as it's becoming a standing joke with us at Jubilee. We've only fished it 4 times in the past 2 seasons and every one has seen some degree of rain during the day. The first of those sessions last year saw us take an absolute soaking and things have just continued from there. A day of dry weather fishing at Jubilee would be nice!

I was happy enough with the session though, which saw me catch aboout 20lb of fish. Brian caught some silver fish, but nothing to add to the challenge tally.

Ryton Rudd At Last

2010-09-05T09:21:00.000-07:00

I've had a couple of sessions at Ryton this week. The first session was a bit of a spur of the moment session, which would be fairly brief and with no obvious plan to it. The lack of a cunning plan was all too obvious!

I arrived at Ryton to find a few anglers around the picnic table area and I saw another one round the back of the island. With another angler marching up the bank alongside me, I decided to backtrack and take up the Information Desk (peg 1).

I then proceeded to screw things up for the next 3-4 hours! I couldn't seem to settle on a tactic and I couldn't buy a bite either. I was also becoming more and more infuriated by the number of Carp I could see milling around on the surface a fair way out - too far out out for the gear I had brought.

I decided to stick it out on the float line that I had groundbaited and eventually dropped a leger rig close in alongside it. A Roach of about 3oz attached itself to my leger rig, albeit not registering a bite. Later on I did manage a Tench though, which went exactly 4lb. Well that's what I thought! Later on I rembered I hadn't zeroed the scales for the net (first time I can recall doing that!), so I'll deduct 14oz for the net and settle for 3lb 2oz instead.

I even managed to make a cock up with the photo - forgetting to notice the slight incline where I took my place while the timer did it's stuff. I figured I might as well edit my head completely out - something that has often been suggested in the past I might add! Oh well, it's enough of shot to prove I actually caught something.

The second session on the Saturday had a bit more purpose about it. I arrived slightly later than planned at 8-30 and to my surprise I had the place to myself - not a single car in the car park either. As it turned out, I never saw another angler all day - quite odd given the decent weather and it also being a weekend.

I marched round the back of the island, as I figured that the ramblers might be plentiful and I wanted a bit of peace. I settled on Roger's peg, which I hadn't fished this year. I had spotted some bubbles a good way across to the left of the swim (which would be attacked with a leger rig), while a few bubbles were also showing close in directly in front of the peg and would be attacked with a float rig.

I was in two minds as to whether I should ball in the groundbait. Would it spook any fish that were already seemingly in front of me? Or, would they simply move on anyway if I didn't get some bait into the swim? Should I go for a softly softly approach? I guess this is the real art of fishing - knowing exactly how to extract the best of the situation, by feeding it correctly.

I mulled it over and decided to ball it in anyway! I eventually figured that if there were plenty of bubbles on the leger line, then I always had that back up if things backfired on the float line. Being optimisitic I recalled previous sessions from last year where the groundbait really got the fish rooting around. I was hoping for the same here and if it meant spooking fish for the first part of the session, I'd take the risk.

I started the session confidently, but 2 hours in (of a planned 4-5 hour session) and I was starting to think the Ryton jinx was going to strike me again. The leger rig wasn't producing for me, while the float rig was only giving the occasional hint of a bite, but nothing worth that warranted a strike. Bubbles were not appearing on the float line either, while the leger rig wasn't producing either.

A small Tench of about 10-12oz got me off the mark and came as a bit of a relief. There definitely seems to more of these smaller samples in the pool this year, which has to be good for the years ahead.

A further Tench followed soon afterwards, this one being around 2lb.

I then missed a decent bite on the leger rig and things seemed to be heading in the right way. It then went a bit quiet again, but I was more confident now.

The next fish was very welcome though - my first Ryton Rudd. These infuriating red finned creatures have eluded me all year at Ryton, but at last I had caught one - a fish of about 6oz. Next cast, another one took the bait, albeit it slipped off the hook on the way in. I went on to catch 3 more Rudd, all of which were in the 10-12oz stamp.

I had a couple of token 3oz Roach before I finished off the day with 2 more Tench which went 2lb 12oz and 3lb 3oz. I did remember to zero my scales for those!

I'm not sure where the Perch have gone this year. I don't seem to be attracted to them like I have in previous years. Maybe they are more interested in gorging themselves on the smaller fish that have turned up in numbers this year.

Although I had better results at Ryton last year, I still think it's an ever improving venue. I think the cold start to the year has made comparisons a little difficult too. There's definitely a better head of fish in there now and more variety with the Rudd and a few more Roach. Judging by the numbers of Carp I saw towards the middle of the pool, they are still there in healthy numbers too. It will be interesting to see if the Pike fatten up a bit this year - a decent twenty must be on the cards with all the extra food in there now.

A Family Trouting

2010-08-19T13:44:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday saw me heading to Grantham with Madeleine for a gathering with her family, with lunch at her dad's house being the order of the day. These gatherings are always pleasant enough, but this one had other benefits.

A few years back her dad moved into his current house. It's a typical newish build 2 bed mid terrace. Nothing remarkable, but it boasts a small stretch of the upper reaches of the River Witham running at the back of it. When I say at the back, I mean quite literally. The boundary of the house runs right up to the river, albeit it's currently fenced off slightly short of the river and left wild.

Previous visits have always been out of season, but I had discovered that it did contain a few fish. On a previous visit her dad had demonstrated their willingness to feed by tossing in a big chunk of bread, which was instantly gobbled up about 10 yards below his house. I was intrigued and we felt that they were probably Chub.

This time around we were in season and I'd been given the go ahead to take the travel rod (which I'll discuss later). After a nice plate of veg and a barbecued Steak, followed by dessert, I was ready for action.

It's only about 6 inches deep directly behind the house, but there was a bit of hole just as the river swept round a bend under a willow. The fish were sat just in the hole. I dropped a few bits of bread in and the fish were taking them confidently, so I was equally confident too.

I wasn't sure how best to tackle it so I started out with a controller float to aid with casting. First trot down and the float was struggling to run through above the weed and I had to recast. The second trot through was more successful and I hit the deeper pool. The response was instant and I hauled the fish upstream through the weed.

It wasn't a Chub though. It was a Brown Trout of about 12oz, which came as a bit of a surprise. I talked Madeleine into having a go and she managed to hook a fish fairly quickly. Unfortunately, we had to run the float a bit further through and she found herself playing a fish and a willow! The fish shed the hook and willow trashed the float, leaving just a swivel on the line.

I ditched the swivel and carried on without a float. Cast followed cast and I was struggling to get a bite now. I was near to packing up. The fish had clearly been spooked and had seemingly backed right off. Madeleine's sister, Nadine, did a bit of a recce for me by walking about 20 yards downstream (technically onto a neighbour's land!) and peering through a small hole in the willows. She assured me that fish were still there.

The next trot through I took a gamble and went a bit further downstream and round the bend with it, to the point that I couldn't see the bait. I knew I was on dodgy ground if I hooked anything, but I was getting desperate. Nadine spotted my bread appear in the swim above the fish and gave me a running commentary of how far off the mark I was. "Your 3 feet short" came the call. I released a bit more line and a cry of "he's got it" was met with a simultaneous jerking around of my rod tip. It's nice to have good ghillie!

I too was then playing a fish, weed and willow at the same time. With a bit of patience and some extreme luck I managed to get the fish out of the snags and it was again another small Brownie of about 12oz. I called it a day at that point, figuring that the swim would be pretty much knackered now.

It was an unexpected bonus session and it just goes to show that a small stream in an urban area can throw up the odd surprise. Better still when you can take advantage from the back garden! In case anyone is wondering, I was sporting and no Trout ended up on the BBQ! They went back to fight another day and will no doubt end up being eaten by some Eastern European sort!

I mentioned my travel rod earlier and it's a cracking little tool. It's the Rovex travel version of the John Wilson Avon Barbel Quiver rod. I actually have the normal 2 piece version of the rod, which also comes with 2ft extension to take it from 11ft to 13ft. To be honest, the extension on that rod makes it a bit unbalanced and I only use it if I need the extra length when legering. At 11ft, it has been a great all round rod though.

The travel version is 11ft and doesn't have the extension. It comes in 5 sections - 4 main sections and then an option of a float top or one of 3 quiver tips. It packs away very compactly and the extra joints don't seem to compromise the rod at all. Definitely one of my better buys.

Somerset 2010 Part 4 - River Huntspill, Sloway Lane

2010-08-16T14:25:00.000-07:00

Thursday saw my last session of the week. No trip to this area is complete without tackling the mighty Huntspill. The section I had chosen is actually the least daunting part of the river, as it's more like the width of the Avon along the Recreation Ground in Stratford. Other sections further upstream are more like twice as wide.

Although it's called a river, it's actually an artificial river with a sluice at either end. It was built during WW2 with a dual purpose - partly for essential water supplies for manufacturing and partly for drainage. At 5 miles long and fishable from both banks almost all the way, there's a big volume of water to go at.

Upstream

The upstream section here isn't fishable as it's kept as a nature reserve. In the far diatance are the sluice gates where it enters Bridgwater Bay.

Downstream

I fished the first peg below the bridge, hoping for a bit of shelter from the very brisk wind. I had been to the tackle shop in Highbridge earlier and the guy who served me always asks where you're going. His advice never changes - if you're after silver fish, then fish anywhere you like - the river is solid with fish.

Proper Bream are a bit harder to come by, largely because there aren't huge shoals of them. With 5 miles of very wide and very similar water to move around in, they take a fair bit of locating. Again, with about 4 hours to play with, I wasn't going to waste my time looking for them, but it didn't stop me chucking in 8 cricket balls of groundbait. You have to be optimistic that they'll show up!

Bites were slowish to start with, but as I kept the feed going in, the speed of bites picked up. Half an hour in and it turned into another bite a chuck session, but the stamp of fish was pretty poor - lots of 1-2oz fish. There was plenty of variety again though.

I switched to corn, but it didn't have the desired impact. Bites were consistent, but much slower. The stamp of fish didn't improve much though - very littlle over 4oz. The wind continued to pick up and was making the presentation awkward at times.

Although I had a good few fish, I doubt I caught much more than 6-7lb in total. Bites were fairly easy to come by, but it still felt like hard work to build up a weight. It never ceases to amaze me just how many fish there are in this river. As the guy in the tackle shop says, you can catch plenty of fish from absolutely any peg across the entire 5 mile length. It's a far cry from the middle section of Wasperton!

Somerset 2010 Part 3 - River Tone, Newbridge

2010-08-16T13:35:00.000-07:00

The Wednesday saw me heading out for session 3 and with other family members due to visit Taunton, I took the chance to venture a bit further south to the River Tone. It's a river I had never fished before, but a bit of research beforehand meant that I knew the areas where I could get a day ticket courtesy of Taunton AA.

I believe there is actually some decent free water in the town centre, but I didn't fancy the hassle of trying to park up and locate it - especially as I had a springer spaniel in tow. Ideally I wanted a quiet, dog friendly, section so I purchased a TAA day ticket and headed for their Newbridge section a few miles out of town.

There was a sluice at the bridge and although I liked the look of the run off just below the sluice, the access wasn't easy and I wasn't in the mood to start a major gardening project just to do a few hours of fishing. Above the sluice it looked deeper and was easily fishable. Fish were topping regularly and even though the water was clear, I fancied my chances as there was a nice bit of weed cover close in that I could fish just beyond.

If you ever suffer with clear water problems, I have a handy solution. Obtain yourself a springer spaniel (all mad as hatters!), point it in the general direction of the water and it will do it's stuff with endless enthusiasm. Clear water is no more...

The fishing was instant and I caught from the off, right up until I left. I gave it a bit of groundbait, but nothing of any notable size turned up. I wasn't too bothered though, as I caught several species, but in the main part it was Roach, Bream and Hybrids up to 8oz.

The stamp of the Roach here was better than I have generally encountered on other natural venues in the area. They were 4 to the pound, or 4oz I guess! When Kev turned up I let him take over for an hour or so and he never stopped catching either. One of the many typical stamp of Roach he took:

I didn't have a keepnet with me for the holiday - I didn't want it stinking the place or the car out all week. I would certainly have been well into double figures for this session though. A very pleasant day and not another angler in sight.

Somerset 2010 Part 2 - River Axe

2010-08-15T14:13:00.000-07:00

Monday was a washout and became a shopping day, so session 2 was on the Tuesday. My mother had an afternoon bingo session lined up in Weston-Super-Mare, so I headed in that direction to meet up with Kev later in the day.

The River Axe at Bleadon is only a short drive from W-S-M, so I decided to give it a shot. There's a sluice gate at the road bridge and I used to prefer to fish the section below it. However, it got took over by a private club a few years ago, so I had to fish the much wider and deeper stretch above it.

It wasn't as deep as normal though due to the sluice gate being knackered - something I'd been told about by the old boy in the tackle shop. That had left the river much deeper below the sluice, but 2-3ft shallower above it. There was still a good 9ft of water though. The bank in the photo below is normally under water and fishing has to be done from the platforms. If I'd fished off the platforms on this occasion, I'd have been 4ft above the water!

The session wasn't terribly productive for whatever reason and bites were at a premium - quite unusual round these parts. I managed the odd fish though, but having stuck a bit of groundbait out, I was hoping to get amongst the Bream, but they failed to show up.

Aside from the Roach (above) and a Hybrid of about 8oz the only thing of note was an Eel of 1lb 9oz, that I neatly lip hooked - you can even see the maggot in the photo!

Annoyingly for me, I now seem to be be running up a number of non counting fish for our challenge! Rules are rules though and to be fair, I do spend more time on the bank than Brian, so it's only right that we only count fish caught during joint ventures.

Rain set in for the day and I gave up the ghost when Kev had to leave to collect my mother from the bingo. Even Murphy was happy to get back into the dry - quite unusual for a spaniel!

Somerset 2010 Part 1 - River Brue

2010-08-15T13:05:00.001-07:00

Last week saw me heading down to Somerset for our annual family excursion. Although both me and my brother need little excuse to head down to that part of the country, it's something we've done every year to give my parents a week away. Numbers were unfortunately depleted this year due to my dad suffering a stroke last year and he was unfit to travel this time around.

I managed to fit in 4 short sessions during the week and I'll be posting some reports over the next couple of days - it will take me a while to catch up!

The Somerset levels are where I first began to fish as a kid on holiday over 30 years ago. It's an area that just grabbed me all those years ago and I've never lost the enthusiasm for it. For anyone who fancies peaceful river/drain fishing - and I mean really peaceful - then it has so much to offer.

Miles and miles of rivers and drains, with endless numbers of pegs, plenty of fish and hardly another angler in sight - and we're in the middle of the holiday season! During my 4 sessions I saw just 1 other angler and it wasn't as though I fished remote areas. Every peg I fished was within 100 yards of my car.

Session 1 was on the Sunday and I headed for the River Brue at Merry Lane, East Huntspill. It's one of the smaller rivers in the area and I knew of a field owned by a local farmer where you can drive behind your peg. It's only a short field with no more than 7 pegs fishable and the river is about the width of the average canal, but about twice the depth.

On arrival I was shocked to see that the farmer had applied a 100% price hike. Is there no end to the money grabbing in today's recession hit society? I had to dig deep and find an extra pound now! He used to charge just £1 a day, but now it's £2. It's an absolute steal and I'd more than happily cough up a fiver.

I set up a stick float and was happy to while away a couple of hours catching bits on a lightish maggot set up. Things went to plan as I caught a small Perch and what I believe to be small Silver Bream in the first 2 runs down. I'm not an expert on the latter and it's only from reading some of Jeff's (Idler's Quest) posts on them, that I've started to keep a watchful eye for them. I must have caught them in the past and just classed them as small Bronze Bream. What I caught, definitely had the distinctive large eye and I had several more during the session.

Anyway, the 3rd trot through saw me connect with a lump and I had right old scrap on my hands with 2.5lb bottom to a size 18. It was an odd fight and when I eventually got see what it was, I realised it was a Bream. Why was it fighting like a demon though? Another couple of minutes of battling away and I discovered the answer - it was foul hooked. I got top side of it though and it went 4lb 11oz.

No more Bream showed up, but I went on to catch plenty of various other species including Dace, Roach, Rudd, Gudgeon and Hybrids, albeit of no great size. I did catch one other better stamp fish - a Perch of 1lb 5oz.

I didn't have my camera with me for this session, but my brother (Kev) did pay me a visit late on in the session. He took a few photos for me and was on hand when I caught the Perch. I'll post some photos when he sends them over to me.

Edit - photo of Perch now added. Sorry about the weed - the swim was full of it and loads of it ended up in the landing net.

In the Garden

2010-08-01T13:34:00.001-07:00

I was doing a bit of work in the garden today, so I thought I'd check out the progress of the small wormery I knocked up from some spare wood a few weeks ago.

Scraping just under the surface I was happy to find quite a few worms like this:

I topped it up with some unused redworms and some kitchen waste. Hopefully by Autumn I'll have a good supply of Perch bait.

The pond I put in during the summer is coming along nicely now.

A newt moved in a while ago and seems content, while a few tadpoles were acquired when they stuck to my net during a visit to Jubilee Pools earlier in the year. There are frogs aplenty too - spot the frog!

No fish though!

Running Out Of Excuses

2010-08-01T12:55:00.000-07:00

I saw out July with a session on the Avon with Brian at Alveston.

Any thoughts of trying the upstream section were instantly off limits due to a match. So, it was off to the usual section at the village end. Shunning the first few pegs (which was my call - possibly a bad one), we took a walk down to the middle of the section.

I gave it a positive approach and heaped in the groundbait and took time out to set up two leger rigs. We'd had a chat in the week and Brian had a theory that we needed to fish big baits and go for the larger fish - the theory being that maggots weren't exactly working wonders. He also suggested trying a popped up bait to overcome the bottom weed which is a bit of a nuisance on parts of this stretch.

I went along with it - but only partly. I rigged up a pop up boilie on a hair rig for my sleeper rig. This is totally new territory for me - I've never fished a pop up before. Testing it in the margins, it worked a treat - I'd go as far as to say it was the dog's taters. This couldn't fail to snare a fish surely?

The other rig was a bit of a cop out - straight lead with a size 15 Kamasan B711 hook that could be used for pretty much anything I had at my disposal. I went for the braid option today, in the hope of getting better bite registration. There was a flaw in the plan - if the fish aren't biting, it makes sod all difference!

The sleeper rod slept - the alarm only giving out the occasional bleep as debris fouled the line. The other rod produced nowt but a handful of Dace and a Bleak. Brian tried various things, but had no luck at all - his only fish being a half pound Perch taken almost at the death, close in on a float rig.

For the last half hour we both flung out lures in desperation, but it amounted to nothing. With tail firmly between legs, we retreated back to the van - soundly beaten by this venue again. Sometimes I wish it was a crap hole of a place to fish and it would be a lot easier to overlook it. The problem is that it's a cracking looking fishery, peaceful and not a boat in sight.

I think it's going to be a venture up the other end of the section next time, but not before we've had a visit elsewhere. We need to get the challenge back on track, so next time we'll be heading for somewhere that will hopefully give up a few points a bit more easily.

Bretford Obliges

2010-07-22T14:27:00.000-07:00

Thursday 22nd July. River Avon, Bretford. 10am to 12-15pm.

This is a new stretch to me, having just joined a club that controls the fishing here. Although I had never even seen the stretch (other than from the road bridge), I sort of knew what to expect having read Jeff's (Idler's Quest) posts on his visits here in the past (when CDAA run it).

Time was short, so it was only going to be a very quick exploratory session to suss the venue out for future sessions. With just one meadow on offer I started at the far end and worked back to the bridge. It was choked with weed and I only found two comfortable swims.

The first one failed to produce and all I could catch was weed. I quickly moved on to the better looking swim further downstream. I could see a Chub of about 2lb grazing on the surface, which instantly gave me confidence.

I started out with a maggot approach and after a few minutes I caught my first fish of the day - A Perch of about 4oz. As I reeled it in I noticed a bow wave appear at right angles to the line of retrieve. I figured it was probably a Pike.

A few minutes later I was into a second fish and this one was very lucky. A Pike was definitely in the swim and I managed to haul it clear of the water just as a Pike launched at it. It was a Perch of about 6oz.

Out with the Pike gear and I thought it would be easy to catch the Pike if he was in this sort of mood. Sadly though, he didn't fancy the taste of anything plastic and I didn't get any interest from it.

Back to the maggot rig and it wasn't long before the tip slammed round and this time something more serious was on the other end. I got the fish under control quickly by hauling it into the weed under my near bank and sticking the net under it. I think it felt safe in the weed but didn't figure on a net being thrust under it from above! It was an immaculate looking Chub of 3lb 3oz.

I had some left over meat from a couple of days ago, so that came into play now. Another Chub soon obliged, albeit a smaller fish of 2lb 6oz. I didn't get any more takes after that. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me today. The session was hastily arranged and as I was expecting to do a bit of walking, I scaled things down a fair bit. The camera was a casualty in my haste to get out the door.

This looks more of a Winter venue to me and as it's only a shade over 15 minutes from my house, I can see me having a good crack at it later in the year when the weed has died back.

Alveston Struggle

2010-07-22T14:09:00.000-07:00

Wednesday 21st July. River Avon, Alveston. 9-15am to 3pm - With Charlie.

This was another poor session for me. I really need to have a rethink about how to tackle this stretch, as that's two garbage sessions on the bounce here.

This time we tackled a different area (pegs 3 and 4), but I lost confidence very early in the session. I'm sure if I had scaled down the tackle and perhaps come up in the water, I'd have caught more fish, but I'm not giving in to Bleak bashing just yet!

My sum total for the day amounted to 4 Perch, a Roach and a couple of Chublets. Charlie did a little better, but stilll would have struggled to scrape 2lb. The most interesting part of the day was when Charlie spotted a decent Perch continually swimming around his keepnet. It evaded capture, but it was definitely a 2lb+ fish.

No photos - nothing worth getting a camera out for!

Barbelless (after extra time!)

2010-07-22T08:28:00.000-07:00

Tuesday 20th July - River Avon, Wasperton. 10am to 4-30pm.

I decided on a short session targeting Barbel or Chub. I planned to give it until 2pm and tot take it from there, figuring that the weather or the quality of the fishing would determine if the session went into extra time.

The approach was simple - straight lead, 8lb mainline, 6lb hooklength to a size 8, with a flavoured meat as bait. Hemp and caster were loosefed over the area - well they were catapulted into the willow slightly upstream and I kind of hoped they would end up somewhere near the hookbait. I should really have got the bait dropper out.

An hour or so in and I got the first bite, which resulted in a Chub of about 1.25lbs.

I had nothing else over the next couple of hours, but I was getting the odd line bite. I thought it was small fish, so I switched the rig over just to satisfy my curiosity. Fishing caster, the next 20 minutes were fairly hectic and the tip never stopped moving:

Dace

Roach

Gudgeon

It was alive with small fish, but having proved my theory, I went back to the meat set up. 2pm came and I decided to give it a bit longer. Within 10 minutes I had my second bite on the meat and fairly quickly found myself attached to a snagged fish! I changed the angle by moving downstream but it wouldn't budge and I figured I'd lost this battle as I couldn't feel a fish on the other end.

I gave it one last shot using the trusted method - slacken off the line, count to ten and then crank up the pressure again in one quick movement. Luckily it worked and the Chub came up out of the weed. It wasn't a huge fish, but a better sample at 2lb 8oz - the photo was a bit rushed and some of the weed is still attached to the fish!

This renewed all hope again and I gave it another hour and then a bit longer and a bit longer. Foolishly I felt confident of getting a Barbel or perhaps a better Chub, but it didn't happen. With Madeleine needing a lift from the train station I had to call it a day at 4-30.

Just before leaving I spoke to an angler who had set up near the Hawthorn bush. He was new to the area and said it was his first season fishing the Leamington waters. He said he's had 3 Barbel from the stretch this season, two of which were doubles - biggest 12lb 8oz. Very nice!

Better than last week

2010-07-19T12:30:00.000-07:00

Monday 19th July - Ryton Pool. 9am to 2-30pm

I have been fishing since my last post - on the Avon at Alveston on Saturday with Brian. I will spare you a full blown report and will simply say it fished like a bag of nails.

I don't really know what was wrong. The river looked OK - a little more flow, but no real colour in it. I had just three Dace and a couple of Perch for my efforts, which were mainly aimed at the larger Bream or Chub. Brian had an equally miserable day, somewhat compounded by losing a decent fish close in that we didn't actually get to see. Judging by the jag jag nature of the fight, I think a Perch was the likely culprit.

Moving on to Ryton, with unsettled weather forecast for the rest of the week, I thought I'd start the week off there and try to put the frustration of previous Ryton visits to bed. I stuck with peg 16 again and gave it plenty of groundbait to start with. This time I stuck with a single line and gave it a generous helping of hemp.

The Perch arrived quickly and I caught two in the first few minutes before it went dead for a long period. Eventually another Perch came along, but there were no signs of the Tench in the clear areas.

By late morning I was very close to giving it up as a bad job and moving on to a peg near the car park, but I started to notice a few bubbles creeping closer to my baited area. I persevered and it paid off with a small male Tench of about 2lbs - crap photo I'm afraid!

The bubbles intensified and over the next 2-3 hours I managed to bank 4 more Tench - a very small one of maybe 12oz (no photo), another about 2lb and two others both of which went 3lb 8oz.

For good measure, a Roach even put in an appearance.

That's not the full story though because I lost a Tench of about 2lb when the hook slipped out at the net, while another decent fish tore off into the weed and shed the hook, leaving me playing a huge clump of weed!

All things considered a much better effort at Ryton and faith is gradually being restored. The Tench are definitely on the feed there right now.

Ryton Frustration

2010-07-14T13:26:00.000-07:00

Tuesday 13th July - Ryton Pool. 9am to 1-30pm

With rain forecast for the afternoon I decided on a morning session at Ryton, followed by some long overdue decorating. The latter of which does not thrill me, but it does help to secure me a few points in the missus' good book. At least it better have done so!

I wandered round the back of the island to my favourite peg 16. I noted the weed growth on my way round and it was a good bit more vigorous than it was last year. However, my chosen peg was clear enough for the area I intended to fish.

I deviated from my normal approach for this swim by feeding groundbait on two different lines. I had seen a lot of Tench bubbles, but the fish were clearly well amongst the weeded areas. I was hedging my bets in the hope of persuading them out into the clear areas.

I caught 3 Perch and a Roach in the first hour, none of which were of any size - in fact the Perch were of a much smaller stamp than I'd previously seen at Ryton. Things then went a bit quiet, but I could see the bubbles continually fizzing around the swim and getting closer to the clear area I was fishing.

As is often the case, the wildlife started to muscle in on the action and in case I was in any doubt as to where one of my baited areas was, a helpful swan was on hand to mark the spot!

I continued to feed the other swim and in the end it paid off when I hooked into my first Ryton Tench of the season - a fish of 3lb 10oz.

Another one followed later on, but it was probably the smallest Tench I've had from Ryton, at maybe 12-14oz.

It was a frustrating session because the swim was definitely alive with fish - the bubbles just kept increasing as the session wore on. Bites were hard to come by though, but I'm not sure why. I've used similar tactics in the past and have had a few sessions where I've taken half a dozen decent Tench to over 5lb. I would have liked another hour or so as I felt confident of catching more, but the rain was setting in and I was pushing my luck if I didn't get any work done at home. With regret, I had to call it a day.

I'll give it a go again next week hopefully, to see if I can set the record straight.

Learning the Leam

2010-07-13T13:39:00.000-07:00

Saturday 10th July - River Leam, Offchurch. 8-30am to 12-30pm

I had a change of plan and decided to spend a morning doing something I've managed to put off for almost 20 years! Although I've been a Leamington member on/off since the early 90s, I haven't fished the Leam all that much. Indeed, I've never fished it at Offchurch at all - until now.

Previous experiences of the Leam have not been too kind to me. With large sections of the club waters running through urban areas, I don't really have the inclination to fish them all that much. I generally figure that if I'm going to travel about 15 miles, then I might as well make it a few miles more and have some guaranteed peace.

Offchurch is a bit more appealing though, as it's well out of town. However, apart from having a look over the bridge in the past, I'd never got round to a serious walk along the stretch. First port of call was the end of the stretch and then I'd meander my way back to the pool below the bridge to finish with.

I was pleasantly surprised by the peg at the end of the stretch - a very fishy looking pool immediately below a narrow section:

I didn't have a great deal of action though, but a Roach and a Dace put in an appearance.

Although I'd have liked to stick around and try other methods, I was intent on moving around a bit as I wanted to make some mental notes about as many pegs as possible. Next time I think a pole might be the order of the day here.

I moved further upstream and spotted a couple of Chub around the 1lb mark in a reasonably accessible swim. They soon buggered off though and my "stealthy" approach definitely needs a bit of refining I thnk! Bull at a gate springs to mind. However, I did go on to catch loads of small Dace. The next peg was quite similar, but I did also manage to catch a small Chub.

I carried on upstream and found an area I really liked the look of. It was relatively deep run of maybe 6-7ft and looked perfect. It didn't produce a single bite though, which surprised me.

The bridge swim failed to deliver anything other than Minnows. Again, my clumsiness approaching the swim didn't do me any favours. When I finally stuffed my float up the willow while trying a clever cast, I called it a day.

Nothing of any real note to show for my efforts, but I now know what to expect from the stretch. I know it holds a few decent fish from various things I've read and I think I have a fair idea of the spots to head for now.

Cyprinus Leuciscus Cephalus

2010-07-02T14:37:00.000-07:00

Brian had a session on the Avon at Alveston last Wednesday and reported taking a fish from off the top on bread. I'd been led to believe it was a Carp and I was quite admiring of his feat, bordering on a tinge of jealousy.

I tell no lies about my Carp fishing prowess, simply because it doesn't exist. I don't target the species unless they make it plainly clear they are depserate to be caught and are likely to fall for a fairly unsubtle approach. To that end, I have never caught a river Carp, but secretly I wouldn't mind opening my account.

I received a photo of Brian's fish (taken on a cameraphone) by email and it looks to me like it's doing a damn good impression of a Chub!

Either way, it's Brian's best Chub of the campaign, so I thought I'd share it on here.

A Session in Pictures

2010-07-02T13:54:00.000-07:00

I wasn't going to bother to report on last Saturday's session on the River Blythe because it was dog awful. I've decided to make a token gesture though, so I'll just let the pictures do the talking:

"Brian ignores the tempting looking weir pool run off, figuring that a bait presented up a tree offers better prospects!"

"Any minute now..."

"Aliens - bigger than transit vans!"

"Must be German. He's grabbed the towel and staked out his sunbathing territory!"

"His use of the V sign suggested he was not happy to be dumped into a dirty bait box!"

More of the same

2010-06-24T12:56:00.000-07:00

Thursday 24th June. River Avon - Alveston. Sean & Charlie. 9-30am to 3pm.

I was a little worse for wear at the start of the day, having spent a few hours on the pop the previous afternoon / evening. Still, it was all in a good cause and a hangover is far less annoying when fishing is on the cards.

I moved a peg further downstream for this session, with Charlie occupying the next peg below me. Both of us boshed in about 10 balls of groundbait before tackling up. I decided to just go with a straight lead rig, figuring that there was enough bait out there already. Charlie did likewise, but he also set up a pole to catch a few bits close in.

An hour or so in and Charlie had bagged some bits on the pole, but couldn't get a bite on the feeder. I had no fish, but I was getting plenty of bites on the lead that I couldn't connect with. Eventually I got lucky and bagged me a Bream of 3lb 11oz. Charlie got in on the action later when he had one of exactly 3lb.

My peg didn't take off and my next two fish were a Gudgeon and Bleak. Then the tip slammed round with a bit more purpose and I was into another slab - or so I thought. It was the usual slow uneventful fight, but when the fish surfaced I saw it was a decent Chub. I've never known such a lethargic Chub and it weighed in at 3lb 8oz. I had a further Bream of about 1lb and a small Dace.

It's not proving easy on this stretch (could be down to the angler though!), but there are some rewards to be had with a bit of patience.

Back on the Avon

2010-06-21T13:45:00.000-07:00

River Avon, Alveston. Saturday 19th (with Brian) & Monday 21st (with Charlie)

I've now had a couple of sessions on the Avon at the same location - Alveston. It's a totally new stretch to us and we had no insider information on the hot pegs - that's if there are any such pegs! We just fancied a change from the Warwick book and for just £3 extra we joined this stretch instead. Being just a single stretch about half a mile long, it doesn't have the variety of water that Warwick boasts, but first impressions are that it's a lot more peaceful and it's totally boat free.

Saturday - Bloody hard work

We arrived just before 7am and expected to find a few locals around, but the place was empty. After a walk up the bank to the tempting looking pegs in the mid teens, we were disappointed to find a few of them unfishable. Bank clearing seemed to peter out in the main part around peg 7.

We walked back to the entrance and settled on pegs 1 and 2. Both were perfect looking stick float pegs, so that's what we both opted for, along with the obligatory feeder.

Looking downstream from peg 2

We both caught early on, but not in any great numbers and certainly not in terms of size either. The best I could muster was a bonus Perch of 13oz. I switched from stick to feeder, to stick, to feeder and so on....

I never had what I'd describe as a proper bite on the feeder and bites soon dried up on the stick line. I was devoid of ideas by lunchtime, which begs the question - "Why the hell did I stick it out on the same peg for a further 4 biteless hours?!"Although I was liking the general mood and ambiance, a few more fish would have been nice.

The only highlights of the day - and I say that in the loosest sense of the word - were that we both scored a couple of points each for the challenge. A Bleak for me, a bonus point for the Perch, while Brian opned his Dace and Gudgeon accounts.

I did have a bit of fun trying to outwit a Pike in the last hour. The 2lb or so of fish in my next were all huddled together at the top of my net, clinging on to life by virtue of the thickness of my keepnet. The Pike was sizing them up from all angles and kept bashing into the net. I decided it was time to tick Pike off my challenge list!

The lure approach failed miserably, so it was out with a wobbled smelt and within a minute the Pike was attached, but the hooks didn't set properly and he freed himself. It didn't deter him and he spent the rest of the session staring out my net from various angles. He wouldn't take another wobbled Smelt though!

I took the chance during the barren few hours to wander up to the unfishable pegs I'd liked the look of. Half an hour of scything away and 3 of them became fishable again,ready for another day.

We left a bit jaded and dejected after a long day.

Monday - Things are looking up

This session was set to be much shorter at 4-5 hours. I was determined to fish the deeper water on one of the pegs I had cut out. Charlie settled on the upstream peg next door.

My peg was a bit hampered with casting by the trees above, but I'd figured that it was going to be deep close in and I'd probably ball in on a close line. I set up a stick float on my long rod, but when I plumbed the depth, I discovered that the deep water was uncomfortably beyond the stick line. Bollocks! I caught a few Dace, Bleak and Roach but the set up was all wrong and I had to retackle with a waggler to get better presentation and to make for better casting.

I caught the odd fish on the waggler, before setting up the feeder rod. I balled out 8 big balls of groundbait loaded with caster and hemp and left it to settle for half an hour, while I struggled on with bits on the waggler line. Having had little success I decided to concentrate fully on the feeder for the last half of the session.

Almost instantly I started to get bites, but I couldn't hit them. Eventually I did connect and I was pleasantly surprised to find it was a Bream of about 1.5lbs.

I was kind of hoping that it would signal the start of a Bream bagging couple of hours, but it didn't take off. I had the odd fish here and there though, including Perch and Chub, to take the species count up to 6.

Charlie had another species to add to that - an Eel of about 1.5lb to 2lb. Sadly he returned that before I could get a photo. He had other bits from the 2 pegs he tried, but bites became harder to find as the session wore on.

In the last hour I finally found a better fish though, in the shape of a Bream of 4lb 2oz.

A large Carp was spotted leaping clear of the water and crashing amongst the lily pads in the background of the above picture (directly opposite peg 15). Looking at the notes in the club book for peg 15 it says "Swim feeder directly opposite to lily for Bream and Carp". I can't argue with that!

Not exactly a bagging day, but more knowledge gained and the first proper fish has now come out. Optimism is back on the increase - for now at least!

Business As Usual

2010-06-14T14:24:00.000-07:00

Saturday 12th June - The Crater.

With Brian unavailable I decided to fish locally again - the old golf course is a few minutes walk for me. Once again I was totally unprepared, but I've come to realise that a tin of sweetcorn is all that's needed for a bit of sport on these ponds. I did have a bit of groundbait to spare though, so that went in the bag too.

The plan was to see if Parkers contained any better Crucians than the ones I had caught on my last visit. Time was again short as I had things planned from 12pm and and I didn't leave the house until 8-45am.

I approached Parkers and found that a big tent had been set up immediately behind the swim I fancied. I walked around the pond but the only viable alternative was the peg on the main walking route. I set up and had a 15 minute dabble, but nothing was interested.

Then the tent's inhabitants started to emerge. First a young child who kept spilling over into the wet grass every few yards. An adult followed and the noise level started to increase, as the pair interacted with each other. More were sure to follow.

Faced with that prospect, I could sit there and carry on regardless, hoping for bites to start and for noise levels to drop. Or, I could bugger off 150 yards behind me to a Rudd filled paradise. OK it's far from paradise, but there's plenty of quality fish and I had the pond to myself. I buggered off!

I had a bite first chuck, but the fish dropped off on the way in. It then went quiet on my next cast, so I opted to chuck in 5 balls of groundbait laced with corn. Again, I was hoping one of Carp might put in an appearance. I gave it time to settle and fished the waggler on a totally different line, much further out.

Bites came quickly on that further line and I gradually shortened up throughout the session (over the groundbait) and the bites were fairly consistent. Every time they stopped I just tried a different line and seemed to connect with fish instantly. It's almost like they got spooked and backed off a bit onto a different line. Then they moved back to the original line.

The tent gang - 2 kids and 3 adults (one female) - joined me part way through. Bloody great! I leave them to their own pond and they still came across to bug me. The couple amongst them were having a bit of a barney on the way across to the pond and it continued as they were selecting swims.

I'm becoming a magnet for relationship disputes this year - twice now I've witnessed the fairer sex dishing out abuse to their partners on the bank. I'll happily take my abuse at home, but not on the river bank please! They were an odd bunch - it's perhaps best left at that! Suffice to say I don't imagine they'll be troubling MENSA in the near future.

Although they weren't interfering with my fishing, I was mindful of the time and I decided to leave them to their own devices. I'd caught the usual half a stone or so of Rudd and Hybrids. There were no big fish - the best probably about 8oz and almost all were in the 4-6 oz range.

As I packed up, one of the kids pounced on my swim immediately. I hadn't even finished packing up, but to be fair he was very polite and asked if he could jump in there. I asked him what bait he using. "Sweetcorn" was the reply. I gave him the thumbs up, told him where I'd baited up and left him to it.

As I walked past one of the adults, he enquired "Is this Weston Lawns?". It's an easy mistake to make I guess!

My river ticket came through the post today and I'll be heading down at the weekend. A warning to anyone heading for the river - Sunday is a non-starter in certain areas (unless your very early or a sucker for punishment) as the club card displays Sunday 20th as "Raft Race". It's the annual charity raft race from Wasperton to Stratford. I think the upper end of the Wasperton stretch (Oak Tree) on the Leamington book avoids it, but my new waters are bang in the firing line a few miles downstream.

Good luck to anyone wetting a line on Wednesday.

A Welcome Change

2010-06-05T06:44:00.000-07:00

Saturday 5th June 2010 - Hawkesbury Golf Course. "Parkers" Pool.

This was another brief session and started a bit later than planned due to me waking up with a thick head. It wasn't beer related for once - I think I'd thoroughly dehydrated myself a day earlier with all the walking and climbing through undergrowth I'd done. A couple of tablets, a good guzzle of water and another hour in bed did the trick and I was revitalised for a 3 hour morning stint.

With time against me, I had to go with whatever bait I had to hand and that meant bread, corn, worms and pellets were on today's menu. I headed for Parkers, as I wanted to have a pop at the bigger Roach, Rudd or Perch, with the outside chance of hooking one of the larger Carp.

Fishable swims are now at a premium on this water and I settled on a relatively clear area well away from the normal dog walking route.

I was expecting a slow start on the corn, but my float buried so quickly I didn't even have time to put the rod properly on the rest! I'd plumbed the depth, set up a few inches over depth and shotted the float down perfectly. So, having cast out and then looked down towards my rod rest, I was shaking my head as to where my float had gone when I looked back towards the water. The penny then dropped and I struck into a Rudd of the usual stamp for this complex.

The action was fairly brisk for a good hour or so before it slowed down a little. All fish up to this point were Rudd or Roach in the 4-6oz class, with the occasional one looking a shade nearer to 8oz.

Then I connected with something a lot more spirited and I started to get excited, thinking that I'd cracked it with one of the better specimens. Although slightly disappointed to be proven wrong, it was still a pleasant surprise to catch my first Crucian from the site - a fish of about a pound.

The sport slowed for a while and bites became harder to hit as the fish had probably backed off a bit and became a bit more wary. With limited room to work with, there wasn't a lot I could do apart from put more feed in and be patient. The fish kept coming at regular intervals though and once again one of them was a Crucian similar to the one I caught earlier.

I've called it a Crucian, but is it? It's a lot darker than the other fish. I'm no expert when it comes to the Crucian v Brown Goldfish debate, so if anyone has any views, feel free to comment!

I didn't take the keepnet on this visit, but I estimate I had about 7lb of fish, which made for a pleasant morning's work.

Fish Spotting

2010-06-04T12:36:00.000-07:00

I took some time out today to check out a couple of new venues for the season ahead. I thought I'd post a few pictures I took on my travels.

Stillwater Pics

River Pics

Roll on the 16th!

More Rudd

2010-06-03T11:44:00.000-07:00

Wednesday 2nd June - Hawkesbury Golf Course

I had a 4 hour slot (door to door) to cram a session into and so I decided to stay very local. I didn't even pay the tackle shop a visit, so the bait was simple - bread, corn or some left over pellets.

I opted for the pool appropriately named by other bloggers as the Crater. I had the place to myself on arrival which I thought was odd on a sunny day in the school holidays.

It didn't last for long though and I was soon joined by a family of three. To be fair they got on with things without too much fuss, although I was getting a bit edgy when one them seemed to be eyeing up a spot very close to me. He decided against it and moved to the far end of the pool.

I always get intrigued why people have to consider fishing so close to you when there's plenty of comfortable pegs elsewhere. It's not as if there's a flyer on the pool - it's so small almost every swim is accessible from any other swim!

I remember a fishing trip to Ireland many years ago and day one saw us trekking down hills and over boggy fields to get to our intended spot. It wasn't anywhere special with recent hot form - just a nice peaceful spot not too far from where we were staying. We set up 3 in a row and got on with the job.

Shortly after setting up, a mini bus full of Geordies rolled up and started looking for available pegs. Room was getting tight and one of them asked if he could fish between Nick and my brother. Nick told him something along the lines of "There's hundreds of miles of free fishing in Ireland and I haven't come over here to have you sitting on my lap". The bloke got the message!

The action on the Crater was slow to start with, but I eventually started connecting with Rudd. I'll put the slow start down to the lack of maggots to kickstart things. Once they started, the action was consistent throughout and I caught Rudd, Roach, Hybrids and Perch - all on corn or bread. The total weight in about 3 hours of fishing was 5lb 15oz. The best fish was a 14oz Rudd (not part of the challenge, sadly for me).

As I packed up, one of the other lads showed his predatory side and was determined to muscle in on my swim before his brother (who had eyed it up earlier) had a chance!

I did have a chat to another lad during the session who had popped over from the other pool - the old Parkers pool from years ago. I had looked at that pool on my past and it was heavily weeded with few fishable areas of any size. However, he assured me it's the best pool on the site and has big Perch (3-4lb), some big Roach and Rudd in the 2lb class and some Carp up to 10lb that had been caught this week.

It doesn't take a lot to realise I'm not a Carp fisherman. It's not that I hate Carp, it's just that I prefer to fish for other species. Or is that just a thinly veiled way of saying I'm crap at catching Carp?! I do like to go for Carp if the opportunity is there though and generally that means chucking a floater at a fish I've spotted cruising around. It either takes it or it doesn't - I don't usually have any back up plans.

On Thursday I took the chance to have a look at a different stillwater venue I stumbled across by accident on the net. It totally intrigues me and I can find no information on the fish it contains. All I know is that it's a season ticket only venue, but it's a similar price to a club book. I love fishing new venues completely blind and not knowing what to expect. Maybe it's going to be crap, but for the cost of a night out, I might just unearth a gem. Nothing ventured nothing gained, but I wanted to learn a bit more before parting with any cash - accessibility and peacefulness being key to any decision.

As it was a fairly hot and still day, I was hoping that a brief visit would give me an idea of what to expect. One of the pools on site was gin clear and although there was some fry in the margins, I couldn't see any signs of a proper fish. On to the next pool and this one was coloured and looked more inviting. I fought through some trees and into a clearer area leading to a high bank.

There basking in the sun were 3 carp, all within easy range of a floating bait and just loafing around. All of them were doubles and the largest fish looked to be knocking 20lb. It's definitely got me thinking long and hard now and more so because I suspect the venue is very lightly fished. Maybe there is a Carp angler in me yet? I did see plenty of small Rudd too, so I know what I'll end up catching!

Nice Day for Ducks

2010-05-30T10:15:00.000-07:00

Jubilee Pools, Horseshoe Pool. Saturday 29th May. Sean & Brian. 9am to 4pm.

After another poor showing on a pool, I'll be glad when the rivers open. Not that I'm going to turn into some bagging machine on the rivers, but I'm just more at home on them. 18 days and counting...

We decided on a leisurely start to the day on the basis of the weather forecast, which suggested wet weather would strike in the early hours and the situation would improve early afternoon. I figured that a lazy start would allow the worst of the weather to go through, but it backfired. The rain was just kicking off as we arrived at the venue and stuck with us for several hours on and off (mostly on though!). This pair were happy though:

The pools were fairly empty when we arrived and we opted for the smaller Horseshoe Pool. We found a couple of comfortable swims with plenty of shelter and we were optimistic enough. This is not a water I'm overly familiar with and so it was just a case of scratching around on one rod, while also employing a sleeper rod to see if anything big would play ball. A third rod would target any surface feeding Carp that came into range.

I put a decent bed of bait down into 8 foot of water and then spent what felt like an eternity setting up my rods. It took a couple of hours before I started to get indications on the waggler rig and I proceeded to miss bite after bite. They were very finicky bites and I felt that whatever was responsible would be pretty small anyway.

Eventually I connected with one of the culprits and sure enough it was a small Perch. Another one followed next cast before something a bit more substantial grabbed the bait. The fish tore off and my lightly set clutch did it's job perfectly to avoid an unwanted break off.

I'm starting to trust the clutches on reels a bit more these days. To be fair it's quite a decent reel and I shouldn't expect any less really. Although I still tend to play fish on the backwind, it's nice to have that extra security from a trustworthy clutch.

After a fair old scrap the fish finally gave up and surrendered into the net. It was a welcome Tench (female) which is actually my first of the year and it went 3lb 11oz. Excuse the photo, but she was a spirited little bugger and would not stay still for long.

Things didn't take off though and despite alternating between maggots, corn and pellet/paste across both rigs, I struggled to find anything more than small Perch and Roach. There was one exception though which came in the form of a Bream of 3lb 5oz on the sleeper rod:

A slightly better photo, as this fish was a bit more placid. However, unbeknown to me, someone appears to have slipped a pair of comedy breasts beneath my jumper!

Brian had a bad day at the office with nothing of note. A couple more points in the challenge pot for me though.

An Odd Day Out

2010-05-24T13:30:00.000-07:00

Saturday 22nd May. College Pool, Wasperton. Sean & Brian. 8am - 4-15pm.

A bit of an odd day this turned out to be. We had planned to go to Snitterfield again and I had beefed up the bait quota accordingly, as I felt a bit undergunned the previous week. I'd also tweaked the rod bag and changed a couple of rods over. We then made a last minute change of plan and went to College Pool instead!

Not to worry, I wasn't overly inconvenienced, but it meant my usual 17ft rod wasn't amongst my chosen weapons. I therefore had to opt for a feeder/lead rig, a slider rig and a floater rig on standby. I got to my peg and started to set up, but I realised I'd left all of my food and drink, plus bits of bait in Brian's van. A great start, but the walk would do me good.

I got myself set up before going back to the van and Brian had kindly mixed up a load of groundbait for us. I balled the lot into my swim a couple of rod lengths out, with Bream in mind again. I then went for a walk just as a rather odd couple (a bloke and his missus) arrived at the pegs directly opposite. Aside from the peg nearest the car park, the whole pool was free, but they settled directly opposite us.

As I walked back to my peg, I felt the volume was a bit louder than you'd normally expect. It wasn't the bloke though - it was the missus. Over the next couple of hours she proceeded to give him all manner of abuse, in between moments of pure ecstasy as she caught some of the small Perch. One moment all was jolly as a Perch was swung in to hand, the next minute it was "you ****ing this" and "you ****ing that" and "if you ever come home in that state again...".

Brian and I were looking around for the hidden camera, as we figured this had to be a wind up for some TV show. The comedy act only lasted a couple of hours and we were back to a somewhat more normal setting as they headed off. The poor bloke took a right pounding though!

Tranquil waters

By this time I had caught a few Perch before getting amongst the Bream. I caught 3 in quick succession on the lead for a total of 11lb 13oz. Then nothing! Not a sniff for the rest of the day on the lead. Why did they turn off? No idea? I figured I was in for another hectic day, but it wasn't to be.

I spotted a Carp or two surfacing so I tried to nick one off the top to get myelf on the scorecard for Carp. I did manage to hook one after a long wait, but it did me almost instantly. In my defence I wasn't really in the the best peg for Carp - but I knew a man who was!

I then decided I'd have a wander to another peg to try and access the Carp better. Bizarrely I'd managed to tackle up my rod missing out the top 3 (yes three!) rings. So I retackled again and after my first cast I realised I'd managed to loop the line over around the rod between two of the rings. Time to retackle again! I put it down to the hot weather. When I finally got the rod in action, I think I'd spooked the Carp. Or maybe I'd just sent them into hysterics with my ineptitude. One did lower its guard briefly and slurped the bait, but I didn't connect with it. I gave up and went back to watching a static tip.

Brian sensed the chance chance to have a go at the Carp and borrowed my rod. It's a new stalking rod I bought a few months ago. Although I haven't used it much, I'm yet to open my account with it. Brian had been having his usual unlucky day and had lost a couple of decent fish already, but had taken a few of the small Perch. He dropped some floating bread out and it looked like his luck was set to continue as piece after piece was slurped down, but his bait remained untouched and ultimately it was the last piece in the water.

Patience (or is it stubbornness) paid off and he did get amonsgt the action though and despite a plucky Mirror Carp trying to ascend up an adjacent tree, he managed to land the fish. It was 6lb 3oz and improved on his best for the year.

I went for a brief walk to see if there were any Carp in the margins. No Carp, but loads and loads of small Perch sunning themselves:

We were set to finish at 4-15 and I had already started to pack up a bit early as I had a bit more gear to tidy up. Brian had gone over time (memo to self to get some rules for this!) and I wondered when he was going to pack up. The next thing I knew he was into another fish - again on my rod! This one was also tamed after a spirited fight and it went 7lb 3oz. I won't proclaim it to be a venue record, but it is the biggest Carp I've seen taken from the pool. It's encouraging to see them putting weight on.

So, about 95% of the day's total weight was taken on my rods, yet I still end up catching the least weight! No challenge points for either of us, but Brian has now increased his standing for Mirror Carp.

11lb 13oz of Bream