Doing it my way and loving it

Well this is long overdue and unfortunately my plan to make regular notes fell through so this will start off with a quick update of my lake sessions which ended mid october and a few surprises were had as you will read .

First my health issues well I have now been back at work full time for last couple of months , I am limited to what I can do as I suffer from what the doc called " brain fog " , I cant work on moving conveyors with product on as my brain gets flustered and keeps resetting so I have been moved away from them and spend the shift in various sections trimming and deboning chicken sections or sorting and boxing products , it suits me just fine , very little pressure and nice and steady.

Fishing well after Lou's first fish on her weekly licence she decided she wanted to have a go at it full time , so full licence bought and a 2 rod set up sorted for her . To be honest am really proud of her as she has taken to it like a duck to water and while she only fished til beginning of october her results are astounding . Top rod on the lake finished with 50 carp but fished 3 nights a week from April til mid october , 2nd guy had 16 fish , 3rd was me with 11 and Lou 4th with an incredible 9 , I wont go into all the weights but they came in 8 commons from 8lb 4oz to her pb of 17.07 pictured below she also had 1 mirror of 13.01 . My 11 were made up of 6 commons and 5 mirrors the pick of which were a 16.05 and 16.06 taken within half hour of each other but the icing on the cake was my pb which came the same night as Lou's pb common and went 24.01 . In the same session as the 16lb mirrors I also had one of the lakes rare tench of 5.10 that came in the middle of a heavy rain storm .

So since mid october with the river been low my plan for staying on the carp changed as its been about 4 years since we had proper chub winter so back to the river now it was nice and quiet . Now my first 2 sessions resulted in my first river blanks in 3 years , the first was my own fault as I jumped in with both feet and used a single rod but picked the wrong bait , the second blank I actually missed 2 bites . My next session finally produced a chub 4.07 and ended the blanks but the next was another story , the river went into flood mode , now if you have followed my blog for a while you will know I love flood water fishing but despite fishing 3 of my favourite flood swims that have never failed me I never had a touch , no idea why but thats fishing . Then with the river only about 10 inch up I had one bite and missed it !!!!! So 4 blanks in 6 trips 3 of which could have been avoided . Since then I have had 6 sessions resulting in 15 chub between 3.06 and 5.14 plus a barbel of 10.04 all but one of these fish fell to my new recipe cheesepaste , I did have one heart breaker when the session I had the barbel and 3 other chub I suffered a hook pull at the net of a chub that was easily 7lb and would have been a new pb , on inspection I discovered the lobworm I had switched to had folded over the hook point .

My last trip was yesterday but was only for 3 or 4 hours , firstly Lou wanted to try and catch a roach so took her to Woodland Waters with a whip , fishing bread punch and liquidised bread , she managed 3 roach around 6oz , lost what looked like a decent perch and missed a few bites , which given the conditions and getting used to fishing that style she did well and enjoyed it . I then went off to the Trent and discovered 2 guys already on blanking , I later found out one of them was getting unhittable lightening quick bites , if it had been me I would have changed something . I only managed one bite but it was typical of the chub bites this winter , an initial tap followed by the rod hooping over and the line peeling off the baitrunner , they have also been fighting hard in fact until yesterdays went over the rim of the net I thought I had hooked a small barbel but was a pristine chub of 4.02 .

Well thats all the sessions for now but a few final words , my bait is nothing radical just with a bit of a twist , the thing that is radical is my terminal gear and method for delivery , now I am not gonna say anything else about it but one other person has hit on the same idea and getting same results , all I will say is if you have fished the Trent tidal or middle for alot of years then think back how we fished it before big feeders and heavy rods .

To finish one of the clubs I am in run a photo comp for the adults and kids , the winner of the kids gets a couple of donated prizes , I think this year it was a digital camera from one of the members and a rod from another . The adult winner gets a years free membership and the picture is used on the membership card for the following year . The committee pick 2 photos each and then the members vote for the winner . I think you can all guess that I won the adult one with this photo.

Its a good job I did win as Lou will be joining the club next year and we all reckon she will out catch me and only the bailiff will catch more .

My next session will be in the next couple of days and may involve me fishing a small local river that up to now I have only walked .

So until next time Tight Lines everybody

Controversial Chest clearing and a new dawn

Ok so now I am on the mend , its sort all the crap out . First work have been brilliant with me , given me all the support and time I needed and now on a phased return plus away from my old job , yeah I took a pay cut but also a massive cut in stress .

Over the last few months as I have fought this condition , I have taken stock of a lot of things and come to some decisions .

After fishing for 48 years through all disciplines and after a divorce 13 years ago  I relocated to sunny Sleaford and married Lou and its the best thing I have ever done . 9 years ago I decided to so down the route of targeting different species based on time of year and conditions . The only species I refused to target was carp but more of that later .

Now for the chest clearing , firstly lazy and lying anglers , as most who know me will know I despise the weeklies for posting and giving awards to over inflated weights , The lazy anglers are a different breed that come in various forms but these are the ones that I have encountered over the last couple of years , Guys moaning that they have turned up to fish a river and the swims have over grown and they expect them to be cut daily in case they decide they want to fish them , even to the point of wanting most of the vegetation that provides cover on the near margin removing so they can get their rods through and lines not catching , this week I encountered something that melted in to both categories , one lake that I havent actually fished yet on my club ticket gets weeded up bad for 6 weeks or so at this time of year with only 3 fishable swims , now I always carry a weed rake and sometimes use it just to colour the water but yet again the guys who fish it want swims raking , this week 2 of them turned up on the lake I am on , seems they saw a pic of a fish I had caught and even asked the bailiff where I had caught it , when I spoke to them they moaned about the weeded up lake and when I asked if they could rake a swim they said " we aint got time to do that " yet they spent an hour and a half walking round the lake , pure laziness and then we comes on to the lies ,This lake has seen off some good carp anglers yet this guy claimed to have caught 3 during the day when no one else was even seeing them, sounds like jealousy right ? no not from me anybody who catches a carp of this lake earns it , here comes a couple of slam dunks , one of the bailiffs went to see him and he claimed to have just had another fish not 5 minutes previous yet his landing net and unhooking mat was bone dry , add to this he hadnt bothered with pictures of any of the fish , later in the evening another bailiff approached him and again he claimed to have just put a 14lb plus carp back , no pictures and dry landing gear , now this bailiff is always in the case and asked him why his landing net was still dry , the reply was priceless his mate in the next swim had brought his round to net it for him , yeah ok mate and then the slam dunk then why is your unhooking mat dry did you carry the fish to your mates swim to unhook it ? , no answer , nailed you lying cunt !!!!!

The next chest clearer is sponsorship , bait testers and so called bait companies . Over the last 2 or 3 years or maybe more bait companies have been springing up all over and most have seen infighting and splits which created even more companies and of course they needed testers or in most cases customers , now how do you get testers , well to my mind a company does its homework on anglers and invites the ones who can bring something to help the company but no these companies just stick a post on Facebook and ask folk if they wanna be a tester , now comes the sting most of the bait makers charge ridiculous prices for what amount to unproven baits with no track record and give the testers a bit of a discount one little bunny bait guru was charging £11 a kilo for his so called super bait and gave testers a 10% discount , now if they are happy to pay that just so they can wear a little hoodie with theirs and the companies name on it then you are really sad add to this that said test bait is been sold to any fool who wants to buy it again before its even been tested . Some bait companies still run themsleves right and while I have always refused to be involved with anything along these lines I did relent a few months ago but for me it wasnt working out so I left , I recently considered selling my soul to be involved with a terminal tackle company but had a change of heart earlier this week due to something that I read .

Right now for the guides , Now dont get me wrong I can probably name half dozen quality guides off the top of my head who not only offer value for money and will guarantee you will learn loads . Sadly we now have some who think that knowing one swim and have caught in some cases very average fish taking people out and in lot of cases charging well over the odds and doubt passing much info on , now I would never use a guide and its not through any superiority its just that if I want to catch pb or any big fish I want to do it with my own work so it really is my fish , Like I said not for me but there you go if again if people wanna pay these guys then good luck to them ..
If I was to guide I would pick a largest stretch of river and fish as many swims as I could in all conditions and levels and then come the day I would have the knowledge to not only help my client catch a few or the big fish they want in any given situation and explain to them exactly whats we were doing and why .

Finally where am I and where am I going . Well as I said earlier I have never really targeted carp , my reasons were that I didnt like the way the carp scene was going , I am not a runs or easy venue angler , never have been and never will be but the club lake I am on is far from any of those . The carp while not massive are very elusive and seem to break all the rules that normal carp follow but when you catch one they are immaculate and thats all thanks to the bailiffs who police the venue and ensure all fishing have the correct landing , unhooking and weighing equipment and that they use it . I fished it a few times last season as you will have read about in my other blogs , I didnt intend to do it again this year but with my health issues and antics of other river anglers I decided to chill on the lake but now have decided to go all out for these carp and keep updating my targets as I achieve one , I will of course come winter or floods enjoy the odd barbel and chub session but you will read about that in the blogs that will follow .

The final piece of this is only been added with the news that has come out this week and thats the British Record Carp , now if any of you have followed this story will know the captor has received death threats , now that is well out of order , The owner of the fishery has reportedly admitted to a national newspaper that the fish was farmed to its present weight abroad and shipped to the fishery only 2 weeks ago , this morning its been reported that it may now not be accepted as the record and in my mind rightly so , its a shame that angling has come to this where the size of the fish is most important and that alleged well known carp fishery owners now think its acceptable to go to these lengths to get anglers in to fish the lakes , this is by no means limited to carp , as the same has happened to trout and catfish and I suspect it wont be long til the barbel record goes to a stillwater fish . Sad but true . I will from now on refrain from getting involved in posts that in the past I have waded into . One particular angler has taken exception to 2 of my posts this year which were not that bad while posting and liking things far more wrong but I will get away from that .

Finally ( thank god I hear you all sign ) is what was accepted by most for what it was but for 2 anglers , cant call them friends , who took a almost vicious attitude to my posts regarding my new angling mate Trevor , now am sure that some found it wrong but said nothing but its one thing to think its wrong its something else to give me abuse , call me a liar and generally give me grief . Trevor has been out with me on nearly every session since I got him , yes if you call him by what people were then it seems wrong but also we since found a website run by a black lady from the Congo who is now trying to bring them back as she and other people from the Congo and other black nations see them as nothing more that toys , which they and she also commented that the people who were causing the problem were white people who were been over sensitive and finding offence where there shouldnt be any .

Well thats it other than this pic of me and Trevor trying to decide what to try next to fool a carp . In a couple of days when everyone has had time to read this and scream at me I will put a proper fishing blog up

Another long overdue update

Well my plans to update more regular has come unstuck . Its been a busy few weeks , not just fishing sadly but as I type this things are finally looking up and stablising .

As some will know I have been off work due to mental illness for 7 months and have been given counseling and in the last 2 weeks returned part time to work on phased return . Its going ok so far and have been told that my hours are in my hands and not to try and do more than I am comfortable with.

Prior to returning to work and on my return from my annual holiday in Newquay my mother was taken ill in the nursing home and sadly passed away with me and Lou at her side . It should have knocked me back but at the moment I am still waiting to grieve despite having to make all the arrangements with Lou's help with the funeral been held in my home town of Sheffield .

Now to the fishing I had a planned float session but it didnt happen due to the monsoon that came but did manage a few hours into dark with a lead rod and a new bait with a good result , I had 5 chub between 3lb and 4lb 4oz which is pictured below and 3 barbel which went 8lb 3oz , 8lb 15oz and first double of season at 10lb 9oz

The next session was a mix of good and bad , I was fishing the middle trent while Lou fished the lake behind me . Unfortunately Lou blanked despite having several bites but no contact with fish , not sure what happened but decided to look at the rigs before her next session . Me well first night was quiet as was building the swim but luckily with what followed I managed this 8lb 12oz barbel .

The second night that I thought would be better fell apart just around tea time when the circus on the opposite bank started to appear . In the end there was 5 bivvies , a shower tent, gazebo and of course the bbq all in a double swim , just on dark I knew my chances were ruined as they started a generator up and a flood light lit up the entire far bank and also most of the river , this stayed on til 6am and needless to say I and no one else had a sign of a fish . This was the start of what will come later .

Well my next session was when Lou told me to go fishing for a few hours and relax from all the funeral stuff so rather than drag all the gear I decided to just take heavy stick rod and half gallon of maggots , found the Tidal very low and had to drive a fair way to find a swim that didnt involve wading through loads of mud to reach river . Well after 3 hours of running stick through I finished with around 90 fish mostly roach to the 1lb one pictured all arty below and dace , also had 2 nice perch and couple of bleak , now the set up I was using has landed carp to 16lb and barbel to 8lb 6oz but yesterday I hooked something that went on an initial 20 yard run and then stopped , started bringing it back upstream and it just stopped dead and then shot another 30 yards down stream , this went on for a around 15 minutes where I would gain 10 yards then lose 20 in the end the fish just hit the bottom and wouldnt shift until the hooklink wore through and it was gone , a while later what looked like a cat fish swirled in the margin so whether thats what I had hooked god knows but it was 3 maggots on a 14

Again my next session was a relax on river so nipped off to tidal and stuck a couple of rods out , river was running off all afternoon and was bit low , had one rod with boilie on that never had a sign and other started with fake corn over a bit of hemp and pigeon conditioner through feeder plugged with damp pellet , after 2 hours of nothing decided to switch corn to a krill dumb bell and just use pellet in feeder within half hour had single bleep then a screamer on it and landed this feisty 7lber , stayed til midnight when the tide really rushed in and had 3 quick bream , interesting thing was that about an hour in to dark there was alot of fish crashing so may need to do a full night and see what happens

Well next was 48 hours on the lake and had this 11lb 8oz common and a bream around 5lb but star of the weekend was my wife Louise Beal who did the business with this 8lb 8oz common carp unfortunately she wasnt confident enough to hold it just yet but it was a bit lively after a couple of hours in the sack , she also added bream of 4lb 14oz and 4lb 8oz

On this session while setting the camera up Dizzy decided to get in on the act and wanted to know if I had a ghost carp 

Just had 2 nights on the Trent but not the 2 I envisaged , Had a look at tidal and swims we fancied for some float fishing were a little to dangerous to get down to so after a drive around we settled on a club water on the middle , starting on the float I had 2 nice roach first 2 run downs then couldnt get through perch , after about an hour a pike about 10lb went airborne after a perch I had on and that killed the swim ,  Out went the lead rods and just on dark the maggot rod produced and eel of about 2 and a half pound that at one point grabbed my finger . Went boilies on both rods for the night one produced a roach of about 12oz and all was quiet til 2am when the other rod took on a life of its own and resulted in a fin perfect barbel of 6lb 11oz , I have decided anything other than a double is just piced on the mat . 

After a conflab the following morning a move was on and we finished up back on the tidal is some new swims with the theory that we wont learn owt by fishing the known areas , well the maggot was getting nailed by dace after dace which would have been nice but not on 7lb mainline and size 12 hook with 6 maggots on . On dark and eel showed up on maggot only about 1lb , so boilie on both rods . Nothing happened til just after 2am again when the downstream rod gave a single bleep then the upstream rod over the space of 10 minutes gave either 1 or 2 bleeps every couple of minutes , out to investigate expecting a bream but found the line right downstream and quite heavy , it soon became apparent that it was a barbel as it plodded and thumped , after 5 minutes the fish came up in front of me and went nuts , into the net it went and on lifting it I discovered it had gone round the other rod and so had get that line clear before taking up to the mat , a superb fish of 10lb 15oz , now putting them back is always a challenge but this one took it to a new level , after it seemed to have fully recovered it went on its side , holding its tail again it tried to kick to let it go and again on its side but this time as I went to grab it , it broke free and splashed me and came up on its side just below me , now normally I have the net with me but couldnt manage net and sling so there was only thing for it I shot down the margin and just got hold of it and this time off it went the fact that I was now stood knee deep in the trent in a pair of shorts with only wellies on was immaterial , fish was safely returned and so what if I had 2 wellies full of water . I got back in bed and that was the last action of a very eventful 48 hours 

Thats the last session I will report on for now as my last session was something very special and also a sign of things to come . 

Tidal wash out and redemption

Well my head has been in a half decent state last couple of weeks so am going to do another update starting with an opening night wash out on the Tidal Trent .

Getting a txt at 5.30am from Jon Preen saying he was at the fishery and when I would I be there , arriving about an hour later and after a look around settling into a swim I suddenly realised the season didnt start for another 15 hours , meant I could prep the swim and relax . Now the fishery has some over friendly cows and so precautions have to be taken and banksticks and tape or nylon rope are the order of the day .

The river was a little bit up but nothing too bad , Deciding to use a feeder on the upstream rod and straight lead on downstream I set about finding the right weight to hold bottom and settled on an 8oz feeder and 6oz lead .

As for baiting up my thoughts were get a bed of bait down using a bait dropper and top up as necessary once the season started with a spomb . My initial bait was a bucket of hemp and pigeon conditioner plus some of my chosen hookbait which were garlic spam and the Hookbait Companies amino crustacean boilies .

Things were looking good as I shared a brew with Jon but things took what was to turn out to be the start of our plans falling apart . Another member of the syndicate turned up and settled upstream of me probably 20 yards closer  than I would have felt was comfortable and in the next half hour nearly caused the first disaster , while he was messing about setting his shelter the over friendly cows showed up and as he had no protective fence up , which is the first job , they got close , I gave him a shout and what he did next could really have caused me or Jon some serious problems . Now there was about 50 or so of the cows in this particular group and he promptly jabbed the front one with his landing net pole and all hell broke loose as they stampeded down stream at us , luckily there was a big nettle bed between us and the cows veered round it and kept going narrowly missing us both .

That obviously didnt go down well and when Jon went to check his permit things got worse as he was obviously planning on using 3 rods which is against syndicate rules as it is on most of the Trent .He wasnt happy and try to defend it but was told a straight no .

We continued to add bait through out the hours leading up to magical midnight . Grabbing a couple of hours sleep , I was woken by our friend upstream or to be more precise his super bright head torch shining through my bivvy door . Checking the time it was 10 minutes to midnight , grabbing 2 cans of Speckled Hen I headed to Jon's swim , we cracked open the cans and poured half in to the river as a gesture to the river gods and drained the rest of the can . Noticing the river hadnt actually dropped since we had got there . Jon launched his rods into the river bang on midnight and we watched as the leads that were static hours earlier swung round , retrieving there was weed everywhere , after several casts trying to find the distance where he could hold for any length of time . I returned to my swim and didnt make my first cast at 1am I dropped it just 4 rod lengths from the bank , realising all my bait was mid river I decided to spomb a few over the new short spot , heres where our friend proved to be a pain again , dropping the empty spomb on the line where the leads had landed I clipped up and when I started to retrieve the guy upstream rod started bleeping when he struck my spomb went up stream and then the penny dropped the muppet had cast right over the river and his leads had swung right across me . Getting my spomb off his line I watched as he retrieved both rods and the line was going beyond me and half way to Jon . By now my leads had moved and when I reeled on in to discover it full of weed in became obvious that the rising river on the middle was now coming through to the Tidal and bringing with it all the debris from the work parties that had been left on the bank . Me and Jon had a meeting and checking the levels online and the weather forecast it was obvious that come the high tide later in the morning would almost certainly cause us to be in bivvies full of water . We took the decision the packing everything into our vehicles except the bivvies and bedchairs and get some sleep for an early pull off . That done by 2.30am we settled down for  a few hours sleep but yet again our friend was to intervene , first he was still trying to fish at distance and every time he retrieved he walked all the way down to the edge of my perimeter rope and dragging weed out and clearing the weed off into my swim and worse still having his super bright head torch shining all over my swim and lighting mine and Jon's bivvies up so down went the doors and off into the land of nod .

Now most of the waters I have fished have had the odd problem but to have all this happen was bad enough but when the guy upstream's mate turned up at 6am and walked passed out bivvies singing and shouting are you awake , well given my current health issues it made my piss boil !!!!!

On getting up I went down for a quick brew with Jon before the final pack up we sat amazed as upstream guy started to retrieve his rigs again only this time he didnt stop at my tape but ducked under it and walked through my swim and under the downstream rope and stopped mid way between me and Jon and retrieved what looked like a washing line of weed , at that moment my mobile rang and it was my mrs , while I took the call Jon had a word but seemed to get nowhere , when I returned the debate had gone back to using 3 rods , I know Jon has written the conversation down for possible later action but this guy was verbally abusive about someone who had complained about others using 3 rods , I stuck my final words in by saying you cant fish 2 rods what sort of mess would we be in if you used 3 !!!!! He got the message and buggered off .

I think there will be more to come on this story as the guy obviously has little regard for other anglers or the rules .

Anyway we packed the rest of the gear away and left the fishery , calling at Mc'ds for a breakfast wrap we then carried on to have a look at a club water , finding only one person on who had caught 2 barbel in the first 2 hours and then lost 2 due to the weed he had reeled in and was waiting to see if it cleared . Jon took the decision not to fish but to go home and wait for another day . Me been me I picked a swim I know I could hopefully have a chance of at least a bite .

I decided my best chance of a fish was to go steady , I put 4 or 5 broken pieces of spam 2 rod lengths out in front of where my bucket was and also a handful of cheesy garlic halibut pellets , single rod swim so a 4oz lead with a 2 foot hooklink with a cube of spam hair rigged this was cast so it was rolling under the tree branches . Within 20 mins the rod hooped over and the alarm let out the sound we all love , lifting the rod I connected with a very angry fish that gave one of the best accounts a barbel ever has , 10 mins later I lifted the my prize onto the mat and my first fish of the season was pristine 9lb 9oz beauty .

I gave it another 3 hours but my only other bite resulted in a hook pull .

My next trip I ended up in the same swim for a quick overnighter . This session proved to be another eventful one but this time for the right reasons .

I went with one rod again and decided to try meat again as a starter and quickly had 2 chub around 3lb each . I felt having avoided a blank so soon it was time to switch bait and give the Hookbait Companies Amino Crustacean a proper try . The result gave me this barbel of 8lb 1oz .

After dark I think I found my winter chub bait as the amino boilies produced 15 chub between 3lb and this 4lb 2oz fish .

My last session to report was a bit different as it was my wife's birthday weekend and she had asked for a fishing license and to try fishing , so I took her on the club lake we fish and she usually just enjoys the relaxation and wildlife , I took the decision she would be best trying for the lakes bream while I stuck my rods out for a chance of the carp . Now my wife Lou has only had about 6 or 7 goes at casting with my carp rods so I was a little surprised and impressed when she hit the same spot at 35 yards with my 1.5lb tc specialist rod every time and even more so when I got her to spomb over the top .
The weather at times was challenging as we sat through light and heavy showers , around 6.30am Lou was into her first ever fish and landed this 5lb 1oz bream which Dizzy our dog wanted to get in on the picture of .

During the night she unfortunately lost a fish , I managed to have a bream on my left and right hand rods and then my middle rod which I had launched to a weed bed 70 yards out with a small pineapple chod rig livened up and I had another of the hard to catch carp in the shape of this 10lb 2oz common.

 I added 2 more bream and Lou lost 2 more though I have no idea why .

Now since my initiation to carp fishing last year and Lou starting to come with me my cooking has had to take on a new dimension as the single stove just cant cut it for 2 so heres the new kitchen .

Our meal was this and I'm sorry for the ketchup , consists off minted lamb steaks , new potatoes , peas and carrots .

The fishing was slow and we had the mother of all thunderstorms , which Dizzy hated , at one point we couldnt see the lake for rain , it then hailed and the aftermath resulted in this rainbow .

 

We packed up and on getting home Lou came out with , I would like to do it again and so now we are sorting her a full license and she is on the waiting list for club membership .                                         

The last hing to add to this blog is one for the train spotters as Lou wanted to see the Flying Scotsman come through Newark , so we went to another club water next to the railway line and I managed to capture this short video .         

Well thats it for now but am sure will have more to say soon .

Tight Lines everyone                                                                                                                 

Not alot to say

This is another of those quick updates with little content . Since my last update I managed to get out 3 or 4 times before the end of january on a mostly flooded trent resulting in 25 barbel including 10 doubles to 10lb 12oz .

Since then I have had some health issues regarding my blood pressure and what was work related stress , after various tests I am now still having blood pressure problems but have an hospital appointment on 4th july as they found anomalies in my blood and urine  , my mental health is something else as I am now suffering from High anxiety and depression caused but multiple things and am waiting on the local mental health unit to get get in touch to arrange some form of counselling or help . On 3 lots of meds and while I have good days I am nowhere near been myself and still having some bad slumps .

Fishing wise I managed a few hours on last day of river season resulting in 2 x 6lb barbel and my last fish of the season this perfect 13lb 6oz .I also have this pb chub of 6lb 4oz .

I have not felt up to much other than this but had a couple of sessions lasting a few hours on club lake trying to find a double figure bream but only managed them to 9lb 2oz pictured below  but did have a new pb on 3 pieces of fake corn in the shape of this 19lb 8oz pike .

Well unfortunately thats it for now , hoping in the next few weeks I will have my head on the mend and whatever is wrong with my blood and urine may have been sorted .

The rivers open midnight wednesday and hope to have a couple of hours .

Well hopefully my next update wont be as long a wait as this one , in truth I have been writing this one for the last month such is the state of my mind , putting words into sentences aint easy .

Tight Lines to you all where ever you may fish

Floods , floods and more floods

Well theres still no sign of our proper winter weather instead we are getting warm weather and loads of rain , so its still no chubbing chance and getting out has been down to experience of swims at normal level and what they will be like with extra water on . My first session was New Years Day and was just a mid morning til dark one , I drove to my usual chubbing stretch just to get a sense of how the extra water had effected the river level , on arrival I discovered the river as carrying around 5 feet of flood water but more surprising was the fact that there was already a dozen anglers already fishing , as I have said previously , normally at this time of year all these anglers are staying in doors but the mild winter means they are still active . Having had a chat with few of them and watched as those in what should be the best swims in high water and offering advice as those in them were fishing too far out but it seemed to fall on deaf ears . Not fancying any of the remaining swims given the river level , I had a drive to my other club stretch downstream , in contrast to the first stretch there were no other anglers on it but thats not unusual as last winter I fished it all winter and never saw another angler til the end of february , I walked the entire stretch looking at various swims that I knew would be both fishable and likely to produce with the extra water , settling in a swim which had a very deep margin with a gravel bottom with a snag below it and an overhanging tree above that slowed the flow and created a crease that directed all the flotsam coming downstream away from the spot I intended to place my bait . Due to the nature of the swim and the conditions I opted to fish one rod .

My plan was to fish meat and as a baiting plan I put around 2 pints of hemp on the crease and around a dozen small cubes of meat and then leave it for an hour ,having put the bait in I poured a cup of coffee and had a wander down the bank . I returned and put a bait out and sat and waited , watching as various size bite of trees , numerous bottles and even a couple of large water barrels went by . Things were looking a bit bleak when suddenly the rod lunged over and the alarm screamed and the baitrunner gave line , playing barbel in extra water is always a test of your tackle especially your knots but all held firm and I netted what I thought may be my first double of the year but in the scales said 9lb 12oz                                                                                                                                             

I  safely returned the fish in the next swim down and then decided to have a recast and give it another half hour but no further action followed and I returned home . As a side issue if you remember from a previous blog about the butchery they had inflicted on the lake next to this stretch , well with the river been up all the lake swims were under water but due to the work they had done the one swim that would have been fishable in these conditions was now dangerous as anyone who didnt know about the work would be fishing on bricks and rubble or if they went any further than 2 rod lengths out then on retrieving either a fish or their tackle would snag the front of the railway sleepers they sank into the swim , despite been advised not to another knock on from the new swims is the water they have displaced which was close to flooding the track to the river and given the other end of the lake which connects to the river with a small bridge over the inlet would be under water so the river , unless people are willing to wade through water on the track would be now inaccessible.                            

My next session was a bit of a bonus , I dont normally fish sundays but the sunday after New Year my wife Louise and I were supposed to be having a walk round the syndicate lake I am hoping to join unfortunately Louise is having a bout of sciatica and didnt feel like it and asked if I wanted to go fishing for a couple of hours , well after given it a few minutes thought I thought why not , I opened a can of meat and cubed it and set off , now having looked at the EA website for the river levels I knew the river had risen another foot or so and decided it was the first club stretch I had visited New Years Day as the other would have access problems , on arriving I was greeted by the river within a couple of feet of bursting its banks and 3 anglers again in the swims nearest the car park and where the better slack water was , again they were fishing too far out .Having learnt from my previous session I didnt offer any advice . Now knowing this stretch very well and having fished it all conditions over the last 7 years , I knew of one other swim that would give me a good chance of a fish given the river level and thats this cattle drink , arriving at it proved me right as it looked spot on for a fish .                      

  

Now the place to cast in this swim in these conditions is 2 rod lengths beyond bush on the right but upstream where the main flow starts and using just enough lead to hold so that after a few minutes you can lift the rod tip and bounce the bait a few feet downstream , so out went the rod and I walked to the edge of the river on the left and put 4 pieces of meat on the same line the rig had been cast , now most folk think I a little crazy going out in these conditions but more so this day as it had been spitting with rain all morning and now it started pouring down and with me roving I had no brolly .after about an hour and a half the rod pulled over and I was connected to was obviously another barbel but this one did something that in these conditions they rarely do and thats ran for mid river , now given the bush on the right my usual plan is to go to the left and play the fish from there but as this fish hit the flow in mid river it either shot down stream of its own accord or the flow took it , there was no way to play the fish from the left and so had to grab the landing net and head downstream after it , my first problem was to get the line over the bush which meant holding the very end of the rod butt as high as I could , just managing to get the line over the bush and now the fight was on ,pumping the fish back upstream and gaining and losing line but finally I slid the net under her 25 yards downstream of where I hooked her .I carried her back to the swim and rested her in the margins while I got all the unhooking and weighing gear ready , on the scales a very satisfying 8lb 6oz . Having released her and watched her disappear back to where she belonged . I was now soaked through and decided that was it for me and walked back to the van . I stopped off to see how the guys at the first swims had fared and but they had not seen a sign of a fish .                                                  

My final session for this blog was yesterday and the EA site showed the river had risen again but was holding steady , on arrival I unsurprised to find no one else there , I walked the stretch as far as the cattle drink and could see the river had burst its banks and had actually dropped a few inches but was still over them , back to the van and it was to be the cattle drink for the first couple of hours and the same plan as last time , the picture shows the river was a little higher than before , in fact my chair that I took the pic from was actually on the track that vehicles use .                                                      

Now my plan was fish this swim for 2 hours , walk back to van and have some lunch and a coffee and then if no one had turned up drop in the swims at the bottom of the stretch . Well after an hour and a big fish crashed in mid river and that was the start of odd fish showing all over the river for the next half hour including watching decent size perch chase a roach of around 4oz through the cattle drink its self , no seconds after this happened the rod tip sprang back and then wrenched over and the baitrunner went nuts , having already accessed that getting over and round the bush this time was a non starter so went left and out as far as I safely could and the battle was on after a few close calls of runs nearly through the bush and then feeling the line grating on the margin rocks I netted another good barbel , going through the usual weighing process the scales revealed another close to a double at 9lb 7oz .                                                                                                                                               

I didnt fancy another cast and so headed back to the van . dropping my tackle in on the swims I fancied , after a bite to eat and a coffee I went back to my tackle and quickly checked my mainline and found a foot or so of damaged from the fight and grating on the rocks and so cut this off and then checked the swim out , the first thing I noticed was the river was starting to rise again .

Knowing where the actual margin rocks were I cast 2 rod lengths beyond and sat down , within a couple of minutes I noticed a small vibration on the line and rod tip , then nothing about 15 minutes later and the rod started tapping and hitting it thought I had finally hooked a winter chub but when I netted the fish I was surprised to have a small but perfect barbel of 2lb 12oz .                                       

Now while I was happy to have caught I felt something bigger must be about , I recast and when after an hour nothing had happened I reeled in to find the meat had gone but had seen no sign of a bite ,it was now just going dark so out it went again and within seconds the rod shot over and I was attached to something that didnt want to stop running , 10 minutes or so later and the fish is near me and coming upstream , as it got in front of me it dived and the tip sprung back , I was gutted as it was obviously a good fish and on reeling in found the hook link had been cut through , another decision had to be made now pack up having caught and get home earlier than expected or tie another rig up in the dark and have another cast , I just felt it had to be the latter , given the dark I managed to get a bait back in the water fairly quick and to my surprise 5 minutes later and off it went again , this time I took my time and made sure I played the fish longer in the flow away from the bank and this time netted what was obviously my first double of the year and one the scales she went 11lb 1oz , now I had a new problem in that I wanted a pic of me holding the fish but only had the long rod rest I had my rod on as I had left my short ones in the van , I rested the fish in the margin and set the camera best I could , the resulting self takes werent the best but better than nothing .                                        

Well thats it for this write up and my next session is 4 days away , the river is rising slightly again and with the forecast should be still high by the time I go again but there is also a forecast for colder weather so who knows what will happen . Til next time as usual tight lines to you all