The Best Laid Plans...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.