Its not getting any easier

Well since my last post I have been back to the Trent 6 times with each one been a challenge .
My first session coincided with the river rising very rapidly and was near bank high , after roaming up and down the stretch it became obvious it was going to be a real struggle and so it proved . I started off with cheesepaste but the rising water and rubbish coming down meant a chub was unlikely , I switched to maggot feeder and fished on the edge of the crease after a few small indications I finally connected with the culprit and it turned out to be a tiny gudgeon which I put on the scales that I had bought especially for smaller species and it only registered 3/8oz .

I continued to get indications that were very tentative , I somehow connected again with a fish that went from been small to something bigger , it became apparent that whatever I had hooked originally had been grabbed by either a small pike or a big perch , which ever it was I will never know as the hooklink gave out . I tried fishing on for another hour but no more bites came .

3 days later and I was back to a falling river with just a small amount of colour . I settled in to the swim that had been producing chub for me since I started on bread and so it proved again as after an hour I finally got a couple of small plucks before the tip pulled slowly round and was in , the bend in the rod and the thump told me I had another chub on its way to the net and in she went first time , not massive but a pleasing 3lb 12oz .

Hoping for more action I wandered downstream 4 swims and released her . I settled back in to my swim and recast . the wind which had been quite light suddenly got quite strong and also swung into the east and the temperature plummeted , not good and my hands started turning blue , then the sleet started and despite sitting in it for an hour nothing show any interested in the bread a switch to maggot feeder for a further hour brought no response and with the weather getting worse I called it a day .

My next session was to be at another stretch as the road to my normal one was been dug up and would be closed to access for 10 days .My alternative stretch is one I normally fish for chub from october onwards and that had produced to great sessions but the last 2 winters with all the rain had meant it hadnt fished particularly well . On arriving I noticed a sign on the fence notifying us that a horse box had broken down and 3 horses were in the field . As we had just had 4 nights of frosts and the river was down to normal level and clear , as well as bread and maggots I had also brought my favourite winter bait of steak and mince .

I started on bread but after an hour and no sign I switched over to steak and mince within a few minutes I had a couple of taps and things looked good but almost immediately the indications stopped . I gave it half an hour more and switched to maggot feeder and scaled down my hooklink . The inevitable happened I received a couple of small taps and a gentle pull and connected with seemed like a nice fish ,mind full of the lighter hooklink I played it gingerly and suddenly had a bumped on the end of the line that felt like the line flicking off a fin but as I got the fish in front of me it gave a thump and the line fell slack , on reeling in the hooklink had gone half way along and think the bump must have the line hitting a snag . Gutted I sat and had a think and opted to change the hooklink to something heavier but used a fluorocarbon . No indications came so decided to go back to steak as the time was getting on , in 3 consecutive casts I had bites and hooked and landed 3 fish but not the chub I expected but 3 roach , 2 were around 6oz and the other was this 12oz one

As quick as the bites came they stopped and off home I went .but was back a few days later to find the river up a little but the colour wasnt too bad . I chose a different swim and the session followed the same pattern as the last but with no indications . It seemed to be going to a blank until just as I was gonna call it a day I had a slight tap and a good pull resulted and I was in again , good old steak and mince again . It wasnt a particularly big fish but was welcome as it came over the rim , at only 1lb 14oz it was the smallest I had had on steak and mince .

I decided to put the rod back out while I packed my stuff away , everything was in the van and when I turned to get my rod the tip was banging like crazy , I lifted into a very heavy feeling fish that was thumping and actually made a couple of runs , everything went through my head small barbel or decent chub the last thing I expected after a decent fight was this 6lb 2oz bream !!!!

My next session is totally depressing and I will sum it up as quickly as possible  , I arrived to find the gate shut a lovely new sign screwed to it saying " please close the gate as horses keep getting out " , now the field they are in actually belongs to the club and no one other than anglers are in theory allowed on . Oh well would see what happens , settled in a swim and due to the weather I decided to set the rod up and sit in the back of the van til I got an indication . Half hour in and chairman of club turns up and fills me in on the horse situation , they belong to gypsies , who it seems are doing this all over the area but claim the owner is in hospital and no where for the horses to go , the police dont wanna know . Anyway off he goes and closes the gate .4 hours later and no sign of a bite the bailiff turns up , now Lee is a great bloke but is very bloody minded and left the gate open after about 10 mins some dog walkers appeared from the opposite end of the field and allowed their dogs to bark at the horses causing them to run down to the gate end and despite there been cattle grid they managed to jump it and legged it down the lane . The bailiff buggered off and then things really went down hill when an old guy turned up asking if someone called Kevin was down there , I told him only me here and when he asked about the gate I repeated the above but left out the bit about Lee leaving the gate open . Off he disappeared in his car , some 20 mins later he was back but he just sat in the car suddenly someone came down the other side of the van and a young bloke walked to the back of the van where I was sat and just bluntly said " how much longer are you staying " my reply was about another 2 hours " well you better put your van outside the gate coz I'm locking it !!! " now I know not to tangle with gypsies but anyone who knows me I dont like taking shit either so I stood up and took a couple of steps towards him and told no he wasnt . To my surprise he backed off but that told me to tell anyone fishing down there that if the gate was left open and the horse got out again he would put 50 gypsy caravans on the field and no one would want to fish there . I took a couple more steps towards him and he got in the car and left . I gave them 10  minutes and went and check gate hadnt been locked and to my relief it wasnt . I got the rod back in a few minutes later had a couple of taps that lifted my spirits , the taps continued and I tried hitting a couple but failed to contact so decided to sit and wait , at this point a mate rang and while talking to him I saw a car drive up to the gate and stop for a few seconds then drive off , as it was getting dark I speculated to my mate that it might be the gyspies watching for me leaving and took the decision to leave . I felt cheated as I felt sure I could have avoided a blank .

My last session again didnt go as planned , I took the decision not to go back to the horse stretch for now and headed to the other stretch where I had been told the road works were done but on arriving they hadnt , also the other day ticket stretch that end was a no no as couldnt get to the track so reluctantly I headed to the gypsy stretch . All seemed ok as the gate was shut but not locked so gambled but in the interest of my sanity decided to fish the nearest swim to the gate , now this swim used to be one of my favourite ones and in the past has given me more chub including my 3 biggest and my pb than any other but over the last 2 winters the floods have changed the swim beyond recognition , the topography was totally different plus there was weed growing where before it was gravel meeting silt . I have also christened it the dead dog swim , I have got a picture of the reason but as I am a dog lover and know some would find it upsetting I have decided against using it .

The river was now at its proper level and very clear , so steak and mince was the starting bait .

3 hours and surprisingly no sign of life , I had spent the first half hour releading the swim as I have done in every swim since the bad floods and was happy with where my baits were.

I had some competition on the other bank but I didnt see him catch anything either .

 . I took the decision to switch to maggots in the hope of something been out there . 2 hours and finally the tip goes bang bang and I gingerly played a small chub in to the net only a baby of 1lb 4oz but very welcome . I sent the feeder out again and while I was talking to Lee who had arrived just as I put the chub back I had a single bang on the tip again that didnt develop , Lee stayed for another 10 minutes before going down to check the bottom end of the fishery . I went to reel the rod in to check the bait and discovered the fish was one but must have just sat there , very soon a lovely looking roach of 1lb 2oz was in the net .

No further indications happened and on dark I took my leave . I have managed to speak to the bailiff at the other venue and he has confirmed the road works will be complete before my next session and so may go back there .

First sessions of the New Year

Well after the whip and punch session on the small lake I decided it was time to catch a fish off the Trent on bread , now I have dabbled with it a few times but lacked the confidence that it was staying on and have even tried a couple of the fake ones but to no avail .

So on the 2nd of january I set off for the Trent which had risen a little with the rain and a bit of snow melt armed with a bag of liquidised bread , a loaf and as a back up some garlic meat . Arriving at the river the level was around the same as it had been for my last 3 trips , which all seemed to coincide with the river been high , the wind was the usual straight in your face . I settled into the swim and the first hour produced numerous taps and knocks that never developed but at least I was getting indications on the bread , I decided to try something different and reduced the hook size and tried smaller pieces of bread but it made no difference and after 3 hours indications stopped all together . Switching to meat for the last hour didnt produce a single indication and I suffered my first river blank of the season.

5 days later and I was back armed with bread and this time maggots as a back up , the river had dropped a little but still held a little colour , the wind was a horrible strong gusty in your face again and I have no idea but I selected a swim that I have fished numerous times and caught roach , gudgeon , perch , bream and barbel but never a chub but something told me to give it a go . the rig was a simple running cage feeder and size 8 hook with a piece of flake on .

The wind was really bouncing the quiver tip all over and I was doubting whether I would be able to see a bite but after 20  minutes the tip tapped then pulled round and I struck into a heavy fish that thumped and swam upstream as I played it the rod kept thumping and I took my time as thiss could be my first fish off the river on flake after 3 or 4 minutes a lovely chub came over the rim of the landing net . On the scales it went 4lb 13oz and was perfect .

My confidence in flake grew with that fish and gave me another bait for winter . Now I now that alot of times you get a chub on the Trent and put it back even if you walk it a few swims downstream yo have to wait for up to an hour for another bite but I was happy to do just that . Half an hour later and I made a mistake , I hooked a snag and a steady pull resulted in me getting all my tackle back and on the hook was what looked like a piece of bin liner , now I checked the last few inches of the hook link for damage but found none . Within 10 minutes I had a few taps and the tip started pulling round and I lifted into what felt like another good fish but 2 quick thumps and it was gone , on retrieving the rig I found the hook link had broke about 3 inch from the swivel , I can only think that it had been rubbing on something when I pulled out of the plastic bag . The wind was getting even worse and knowing that losing a fish could pt them off for longer than if you put one back I decided to move swims , a walk up to the opposite end of the stretch gave me a choice of 3 swims that the wind was blowing downstream in and not in my face , these swims are known for barbel , carp and chub but normally mid river to far bank which were not options given the extra water and light gear I was using , I took the decision to give one of them ago but fish the near margin . An hour on bread produced nothing . Off came the cage feeder and big hook and on went a blockend feeder and size 16 hook and I switched to maggot for the last hour . bites were instantaneous not form chub but quality roach , I took 9 all over 8oz with the biggest been these 2 of 1lb each .

I missed quite a few bites due to the wind but throughly enjoyed it.

My last session of this write up was yesterday and having complained about the wind if the last 2 sessions all I can say is that yesterday was the worst I have ever fished in and was more an endurance . I settled myself into a swim and out went my bread rig , the wind was supposed to be a south westerly so slightly downstream and in my face but was more like a north westerly upstream and in your face but this changed ever 10 minutes or so and with frequent drizzle it really was quite uncomfortable at times . Now I dont use a brolly for these short roving sessions instead relying on my thermal gear . After 3 bite less hours the tip banged and I struck into what was obviously a chub and without too much drama it slid into the net . Another scale perfect young looking chub of 3lb 2oz

At this point the rain stopped and I decided to have a roam up to the swim I had the roach from on my previous trip as the wind should now be over my head , half way to the swim and the wind got even stronger the the heavens opened , when I got to the swim the wind was in every direction and it looked unfishable so I dropped in another one that had a little tree cover but not a lot . I spent the last 2 hours on the maggot and lost what felt like a small chub and suffered so many smashed maggots where I never saw an indication due to the wind and I decided to take my leave , halfway back to the van and incredibly the rain stopped and the wind died down !!!!!.
My next session is in 2 days time and the forecast is for high winds and wintry showers , so it should be another interesting day .

Last session of the Year

Well been out for last session of 2014 . It was only a quick 4 hours so decided to go back to the small lake to fish short pole with liquidised bread and punch . Due to the snow and mins temperatures we have been having I threw my heavy duty weed rake in the van which also doubles as an ice breaker .

I arrived to find about 85% of the lake frozen , the 15% which wasnt frozen was at the shallow end and the reason for it been clear was the water circulation pump was on .

I settled on a swim next to tree near where the lake was still frozen .

I set my old telesnatcher up to fish the telescopic top 2 metres to hand , as the swim was only 3 feet deep at 4m I added 2 of the put in sections , I fed a couple of plugs of liquidised bread and out went the rig . Experience has told me that if the punch is going to work it will inside the first 20 minutes , as it got close to that mark and not a sign I was starting to get a little concerned when the float stuttered and then disappeared , I lifted into a small roach and that was the beginning of constant bites , I had some hemp with me to feed a little every so often as I have caught on it before in these conditions but it started to become obvious that the temp was not rising as the water covering it kept freezing . I was having problems with the bites been tentative and the float was a little higher than I would normally like , now when I was younger and match fishing canals regular I shotted my floats with size 10 ,11 and 12 shot and at some extremes size 13 !!!! Now I can hardly see the slot in a 10 let alone the others , I tried putting a 10 on when fished this method in February and had no chance so I sought out one these handy little things , it cost next to nothing but it worked a treat today so am well pleased

 
The stamp of roach was not that big but they were regular .

I had around 15 this size but the slightly bigger ones turned up .

The fish kept drifting in and out of the swim and I saw a couple of swirls that suggested that the perch were about but I never saw one . I had a rudd of around 8oz and then added this small gudgeon .

Now I have been struggling with a virus that was making my chest tight for the last 4 or 5 days , been out in the cold was not helping and then the complex workers started burning some old trees and the smoke started coming across where I was and so decided to call it a day . I ended up with the solitary rudd and gudgeon plus at least 40-50 roach , all in just under 4 hours fishing time so was very pleased given the weather .

My first session of 2015 is the 2nd january and at the moment is to be a trip to the Trent were I intend to try a small cage feeder with liquidised bread and punch .

So will wish you all happy new year and tight lines for 2015

Tough time of year

This will be a brief update as had 5 sessions since last update and it really has been tough .
My first session was to be a perch session on club lake that had produced a couple of 4lbers to live baits that were been fished for zander . On arrival it was clear the connecting river had been up and flooded the lake again and my chosen swim was a little boggy .

I dont do live baiting so opted for legered prawn on a very resistance free rig fished over a mix of riddled mole hill soil , meaty groundbait and predator plus liquid with some chopped prawn added . the other rod was a float set up fish small pieces of prawn over the same bait . After 5 hours including 1 hour into dark I had a single bleep and nothing more .

3 days later and I was back at the same lake but was caught in 2 minds and in the end did neither particularly well . I opted for a different swim and fished the same prawn leger rig down the margin and a maggot heli rig at 30 yards as the lake has a healthy head of roach that have gone over 2lb to boilie fished by the carpers . It was a very cold day and again I never had a bleep or saw a fish of any description show .

I needed a change and to find some fish and this coincided with my mate Mark coming up from London for our annual roach session on the specimen lake . As usual maggot heli rigs were the order of the day and with a very strong wind putting big waves on the lake and a very strong under tow , things looked excellent . As it was a social session we opted to fish a double swim and sit nder the same shelter . The rods were set up and clipped at the usual 65 yards that took us into the deep channel where the roach patrol when its cold and theres a good tow on . We both put 6 feeders of maggots out before putting a baited hook in , mine were flavoured with the usual curry powder while Mark used some girly Southern flowery flavour . Now the thing on this lake is the fish moved constantly and you rarely catch all day so we knew we would be able to have a good catch up . About an hour into the session Mark has the first take but managed to lose it , some half hour later and my right hand rod sees the bobbin rising and falling about half inch , very usual and after a few seconds of this I decided to lift into it , fish but with the wind and tow it wasnt til it was in the margin did I realise it was one of the 1lb+ fish , on the scales and she went a lovely 1lb 3 and half ounce .

All went quiet for me but Mark was getting regular indications he managed to land 3 one of 1lb 1oz and the other 2 around 10-12oz but also lost a couple . The only action I was seeing was from this cheeky chap who kept heling himself to my maggots .

We sat and talked about why Mark was seeing the most action and reasoned it was probably due to the undertow taking most of the bait to his left hand rod which was the one getting all the action . Around 3pm and the mad frenzy we come to expect arrived . I added 4 more roach between 12oz and 1lb 2oz in the space of around 10mins while Mark had 5 more including 2 of 1lb 7oz in the space of 10mins which are his new pb .He also added what we thought must be a record roach but turned out to be a 4lb 4oz bream . The action stopped as suddenly has it had begun , we stayed an hour into dark but no more action followed .

My last 2 sessions were supposed to be roach and chub on the maggot on the Trent but on arriving for the first one I found the river up about 4 feet and a horrible grey colour .

The swim above has a lovely crease across the front which is more pronounced with extra water on , it took me 2 hours to get an indication a single tap that I left for 10 mins before reeling in with no other sign , to find both maggots looked like they had been hit with a hammer , a typical sign of roach . I shortened the hooklink and recast after 20 mins without a sign I retrieved the rig to findone maggot had been nipped on the end . I recast again and watched the tip intently , I noticed it looked to slightly tremble and decided to hit it the result was everybodies favourite fish a gudgeon .

I added 4 more gudgeon over the next 2 hours before leaving .

My last session was yesterday and I spent a good hor looking at swims on 2 stretches before ending up close to where I fished my last session , the river was up another couple of feet but the colour looked better , a very strong in your face wind ruled out fishing the same swim so I moved a few swims round the bend where I knew there was another small slack the result was another gudgeon haul this time 8 of them , I also missed so very unmissable bites which are a mystery . After going years of not seeing the once prolific Trent gudgeon it seems they are making a comeback , which is great news .

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