What a week !!!!!!!!

I start this blog with a small piece on last saturday and my attendance of an AGM of group I am a member of , to my mind the best group there is . The meeting was superb but the social after started off ok but I made a mistake with an over zealous prank and have spent the last week regretting it . Pm's having been going back and forth between myself and various members including the other person involved and while its now been cleared up and its been said to move on but a conflict of views from a couple of people have at the moment left me confused but am sure it will clear soon .

Right 2 sessions to report and only going to be short . The first was another attempt at catching a carp from the club lake . I picked a swim that meant I was well clear of the lake as there had been a bit of rain over the previous few days and since lake is connected to the river I didnt want a low level swim just in case . In short rods went out around 9am and at 7pm I had a drop back on the 22mm boilie rod and the result was another 5lb bream !!!!!!!! . I hate bivvying up at this time of year as it gets dark at 4pm and dont get light until 7.30am , on the plus side I got a good nights sleep as nothing happened .

When I awoke and went down to my rods the scene that met me were a little bit of a shock as when I set the pod up the front leg was just touching the water but when I looked this is what I found !!!!

That ended that session , my next one was to be another 5 hour session on the Trent and this was eventful but not all for the good . I dropped a dozen homemade boilies about 2 rod lengths off the near bank and set about sorting my rod out , when it was ready to go , I got all the unhooking , weighing and photoing gear ready and sent a 4oz straight lead with a homemade boilie out into the river and returned to the van and got the stove set up in the back and everything arranged round it as rain was predicted I decided to fish from the back of the van so I cold make a quick and easy getaway when time was up with minimum kit getting wet . I sat in the back of the van with a brew and noticed a few angler on the far bank and the antics of one was typical of the anglers that fish that side , 2 barbel rods out and then walked 5 yards upstream and sat on a small box and started fishing what looked like a small feeder rod and cast out , within a minute or so he hooked what was either a chub or roach of about 12oz and rather than go down to the water and net it he lifted p over the rocks and unhooked it and then threw it back , lots of swearing under my breath but karma turned up for a visit and his next cast he obviously had line wrapped round the top of the rod as they was a loud crack and the top 6 inches of the rod snapped off , he stomped off and literally threw the rod in to the back of his car :) .

Karma was about to visit me as one of my mates had called to see me on his way home a guy on the opposite bank had a screaming take and as we watched he managed to lose it , I laughed and remarked I hadnt lost a fish all season and had not blanked on the river , off went my mate and as the light started to fade my patience was tested again as despite it not been dark the head torches started coming on , one in particular who was slightly upstream on the opposite bank had one that would have made a good search light and he was constantly wandering around and lighting the entire area round me up , I kept my calm and he turned it off , within a couple of minutes and my rod arch round and the baitrunner and alarm sang out , disengaging the baitrunner I was attached to what felt like a decent fish , I gained line and brought it back towards me and had it thumping a rod length infront of me and then karma turned up and the hook fell out !!!!!!!! Now normally I am confident of another bite but it was getting late and and I only had an hour before I had to leave . The rod was recast and the light show started again on the far bank grrrrrrrrrrrrrr , with about 20 mins before I was due to leave the rod ripped off again , now my way of playing fish in the dark is to do it without a light on and not put my red leds on until the fish was safely netted , as I was almost ready to net it the idiot on the far bank shone his head torch straight into my eyes , am afraid that was it and a volley of abuse was launched at him and he gave me some back , luckily the fish went in the net first time and on the scales a lovely barbel went 8lb 7oz .

As I slipped the fish back the light show kicked off again and I checked the time there was only about 10 mins til the off so I called it a day early , now normally i try and ignore the idiots and muppets I encounter but the guy on the other bank with his search light had really annoyed me so when I came to leave I spun the van round and pointed directly at him and put the full beams on and shouted across to him , nah then cunt can tha fucking see better now !!!!!!!!!!! Not normally my way but what the hell !!!!!!!! . My next session is 4 days away and is set to be a perch session a club lake .

Til then tight lines and watch those head torches :)

Back in the Groove

Back to the Trent for another dinnertime til dark session . Arrived at the river to find it up about 10 inches and on getting out of the van it was spitting with rain so on went the gortex jacket and had a walk up to the end swim where an angler was bivvied up , he reported he had a small barbel and a bream during the night but other than that no sign , he also told me the river was dropping . At this point the heavens opened and I beat a hasty retreat to the van and the rain turned to hail . Jumping in the van I chucked the gortex jacket on the passenger seat and discovered my norgi shirt had been below the jacket and was soaked , off it came and on when the van heater to dry it , the wind was coming across the river into my face so decided to sit it out in the van til the rain eased which took around 45 mins , up went the brolly and the essentials were placed under it , I opted to fish just one rod and went with my home mades which have been producing consistent action . In went 10 boilies a rod length off the overhanging tree . Everything set and out went the rod . I had to wait about 10 mins for the first bite which brought me a nice 3lb 8oz chub that been in the wars .

All went quiet for the next couple of hours and I had a nice chat with an angler who had travelled up from Hampshire , we talked about big roach and chub .He went to find a swim and about 10 mins later Mick the bailiff turned up . I can honestly say that he is the best bailiff I have ever met , he makes everyone brews and has even cooked folk meals , he treats everyone the same and dont put up with anyone breaking the rules . He had brought me my big water carrier that i had managed to leave in his swim a couple of weeks ago and also a new sleeping bag to look at that he couldnt get on with , which I snatched his hand off for a bargain price . Mick had just left me to set up when off went the rod again and this time it was obviously a better fish when it came over the rim of the net I thought it might beat my current pb for chub of 5lb 12oz but it fell a little short but was a superb 5lb 6oz and think before the end of the season it will make 6lb .

 

I recast the rod and knowing they take time to settle from margin swims I didnt expect anything to happen but as I glanced to see how Mick was getting on with his setting up as I know he needs a hand with his huge gas bottle I heard a beep from behind me and the rod tip bouncing and discovered the culprit was a bream around 5lb . I took the decision to put another half a dozen baits in and leave swim for half hour while I had a brew with Mick and help him finish setting up .

We had a good chat and a brew and I left him to it under instruction that I return for a brew before I left for home . Back at the swim the rod was put back out and I stood looking at the river when the visiting angler came past as he was leaving to got to an angling talk near by . As we had another chat off went the rod and I was in again and again it was a chub this time a scale perfect 4lber .

I put the rod back out and just dropped another 4 baits in and made a brew in back of the van as the sun dropped and darkness started to decend I had another bream of around 3lb . I looked at the swim and just got a feeling there was one more fish to come , so I txtd my wife Lou to say I was staying for another hour . Rod out and another 4 baits with it and I settled down with a brew to watch the last light fade .

Sitting there I started to feel like I really was back in the groove after my meltdown in August . I was starting to look like my feeling of one more fish was wrong when the rod went mental and what was obviously not a bream or a chub tried to empty my reel . On disengaging the baitrunner it stopped the fish dead in its tracks and it came back upstream but held out in the flow and plodded , 3 times it came to the net and made deep powerful runs , it went through my mind that it could be my 2nd double off the stretch but on the scales went 9lb 6oz , a lovely looking fish .

I decided to call it a day and packed my gear back in the van and went and had a brew with Mick and decided that my next session will be back on the lake to try and catch one of the elusive carp . 

Tight lines and thanks for reading 

You never stop learning

The title says it all about what follows but could also have " and never stop making mistakes " added to it .

As I said at the end of my last piece my intention is to do a full night for carp one session and a short river session next . Well my last session on the lake was another bleepless blank but I made a couple of mistakes , firstly with low temperatures and possible frost predicted I totally picked the wrong swim , it had no cover and I really should have gone for one of the swims with overhanging trees with the chance of deeper water and also the temperature be a little higher under cover . I picked 2 spots to put my rods on , one was put on  a gravel patch at 25 yards and the other up the margins on the edge of a small patch of lilies . Despite watching the water all through the day until dark I never saw a sign of a fish of any species .
The following morning I decided to gamble and put the lily rod at distance , as I wound in a fish crashed out at 90 yards and I immediately put the rod on the spot , within minutes 2 more fish crashed in the same place and my confidence went up then my 2nd mistake became apparent as either a large perch or jack pike crashed through some fry next to the lilies , at this point I regretted not bringing my lure gear . Despite leaving the rods out til the last minute nothing happened .

3 days later and I decide on a river session that was to be short one of just 4 hours . On arrival I found 3 anglers already on the stretch one of which had been there overnight and not one of them had managed a single bite !!! . I took myself into an area with no one near me and having surveyed the swim and conditions I decided there was room for 2 rods , one was to be fished with some cheese squabs I have decided to try the other wold have my home made boillies on . Everything set up and a dozen baits pt on each spot at this point the wind was starting to get a bit strong and swung straight into my face . About an hour in and I get a bang on the boilie rod and then it went over after a spirited scrap a beautifully conditioned chub of 2lb 6oz was landed .

The rod was re-positioned and I settled back in my chair at this point the weather took another turn for the worse as the wind moved slightly round and started hitting the inside of the brolly , I made the decision to put the brolly away and put everything in the van and sit in the back of it , having just got the brolly down it started spitting and hurriedly got everything into the van and settled to sit in the back now it looked like this would be ok but the rain got heavier and was swirling round so I spun the van round so I could sit in the passenger side and see the rods . The rain was now at its heaviest and the wind was rocking the van and completely out of the blue the boilie rod alarm went on a one toner I leapt from the van and expected to be connected to a barbel but it was thumping and plodding in front of me , then my mistake of the day occurred there was room for 2 rods as the tip of the rod I had the fish on caught the line of the other , it took at most 5 seconds to free it but in that time the fish had dived into the reeds in the margin and appeared to be stuck fast , releasing the pressure and suddenly I spotted a nice chub flashing just below the surface , I could work out why the fish was not taking line as it seemed the lead was snagged and I was using my usual running rig , I tried going above and below the fish to free the lead but to no avail , as a last resort I decided to try handling while having the landing net nearby as my fear was that if the line broke the fish would be tethered . The rain was now bucketing down and making my hands numb I began hand lining and suddenly the snag began to move the fish got close enough to get the net under and as I it went in the hook fell out , putting the net with the fish in safely in the margin I continued hand lining and out came a large tree branch , lifting it out I put it at the side of the rod rests and then set about sorting the fish out which turned out to be a scale perfect chub of 3lb 15oz .

Having returned the fish , I set about sorting the tree branch out , now we all know how good chub are at shedding hooks and leaving you attached to weed or snags , well this one had somehow in a matter of seconds wrapped the braid hooklink round the lead swivel and then the mainline round the tree branch about 5 times . Had the hand lining not worked I had already decided I was going into the river to free it .

I recast the boilie rod and wound the other one in out of the way . I made a brew and sat in the van as the rain continued after about half hour the rain eased and I decided to call it a day and go home .

Bad weighing or downright lying 

You will see that my biggest chub weighed 3lb 15oz , not 4lb as some wold have claimed . Now this has been going on for years but over recent months it has become almost standard for some to either make a mess of weighing their catches or deliberately lie . Now we all make mistakes but not to the extent of some of these guys , 20lb barbel that at best are 13lb , the only way you can do that is have scales that have multiple rotations and misread but a discrepancy of that much wold be obvious , not deducting the weigh sling can add a couple of pounds , to make matters worse these fish are been sent to the weekly magazines and are actually winning awards and cash prizes , why the people at the magazines accept these is a mystery . Any one on any of the forums or facebook will have seen the debates and even people defending these people but for me there is no defence and this wont ever stop until the magazines grow some balls and refuse them , if they opened their eyes they would see its one of the main reasons why people like me refuse to buy them.

Stealing ideas and passing them off as your own.

Most of you will know where this is coming from and thats people who come onto forums and ask advice and then pass it off as their own ideas . Over the last 4 years one particular individual has not only done the above but has also used bait recipes given to him in good faith and not just used them but started marketing them as his own , most of the baits have been successful but he started trying his own recipes which dont work too well but he has testers who have the same standards as him and catch fish on other baits but state that they have been caught on his . Any questioning of him is met with derision and people are blocked then slated with no chance to reply . I have at times got too involved in trying to expose him not out of jealousy as he and his testers state but since he charges more for his baits than proper more reputable bait makers do , I feel ripping honest hard working anglers off who are looking for an edge but for the most part are been duped needs exposing .

There yo are a some what different blog to normal but I felt I needed to say these things .

Til next time tight lines to all