Not what I expected

Well its 2 months since I promised to update this and that it would be different to normal but as you will see things have not gone as planned .

I spent my time straight after my last update fishing 4 of the clubs venues for tench , due to wanting to get this done I wont go into details but it was a very successful campaign for them this year , I had 38 over the 2 months I targeted them .

I fished our new lake for 6 sessions which resulted in 34 of them between 3lb 6oz and this the biggest at 4lb 12oz

I then moved onto the clubs estate lake for what was to be a one off visit and after sitting through freezing fog all day I was rewarded with a very late take and a tinca of 5lb 15oz came to the net

My next tench was a bit special as it came out of our special tench lake plus was the first on my Free spirit tench float rod and weighed 6lb 2oz

I moved onto another one of the clubs lakes and again worked very hard for one bite but a pristine 6lb 5oz specimen

My final tench was a bit of a fluke as there a very few in this lake but do run a bit bigger and so was not complaining when this 8lb 2oz beauty showed up

It was now time to switch my attention to the clubs tougher carp but never in my wildest dreams could I imagine what would happen .

My first session was with a mate over 2 nights , sadly he had to leave after the first as an emergency involving work called him away . This session saw a rare thing for me in that I forgot my camera but figured my mate could take any pics , so when he left I knew it was down to improvising with my mobile if the unthinkable and I caught happened , well it did happen and after receiving a ridiculously fast take and a monumental battle I netted this 20lb 6oz common and thats when the fun began as balancing my mobile on my tripod and having to use a torch as a light I managed to take probably the worst picture ever .

I returned to the lake a week later but since my visit someone had posted a fish on clubs page and lake was busy , such is the nature of this lake that get 5 or 6 folk on and unless there is an end without anyone on the pressure puts them off , so I took myself off the the biggest lake on the complex .

Now I dont know much about this lake so had a good lead round , I found a spot at about 30 yards that where a foot deeper and clear of weed , so 2 rods got put out onto it with a big scattering of boilies , for my other rod I found a small hump at 90 yards , so 3rd rod went onto that and I scattered half a kilo with my throwing stick . Over the course of the next couple of hours leading into dark I was getting the odd bleep so turned in confident of action at around midnight I was awoken by several bleeps and I landed and returned a bream of around 6lb , strangely enough I dont remember anything clear about it . At 5am the other rod on the spot ripped off and I connected with a very angry carp which shot towards the margin to my right which actually went behind me , there was no way I could get into the water at this side and the fish hit the overhanging marginal trees and became stuck and after trying everything I could to free it the hook pulled , knowing this was a tough lake left me gutted , I slumped on the floor in front of my bedchair and stared at my rods , when out of the blue the left hand rod at 90 yards took off the tip flew round towards the left margin and by the time I lifted into the fish it was already in the margin trees on the opposite side to the last one but this time I could get in the water but not before struggling into my chest waders , I could see the branch the fish had wrapped the line round and began edging my way towards it ducking under other branches and finally getting to it I realised I couldnt wade close enough to it as the water was lapping the top of my chest waders but having struggled all this way not just with the rod but also the landing net I wasnt giving up and managed at full stretch to free the line the the landing net pole , I reattached the net to the pole and set about guiding the fish which had laid sulking a few yards further down the margin , it gave me no more trouble and I only wish I could have taken a picture as she came over the net cord and near eye level .

Back on dry land , it wasnt as big as it looked at eye level but I was more than happy with a lovely pristine 15lb 6oz common .

If I thought I couldnt top the last session I was completely wrong . My next session was to be back on m first choice lake plus my mate was back joining me , the first night was horrendous we endured torrential rain and gale force winds and on waking up I discovered that once again the clubs less than considerate members had driven their vehicles into the swim and the result was some nice ruts that had filled with water flooding my bivvy , I ended up having to scrape drainage channels with a back stick to free it up .

The wind continued to be very strong and we still had odd heavy showers and no action , now the spot I had my main rod on  was one I had been prepping for a few weeks by using a castable weed rake and regular top ups of bait to prime and this was my first time in it .

By the 2nd morning I was into my last lot of dry clothes and out of the blue my banker rod screamed off into the middle of the lake I lifted into it , the rod hooped over and sprung back , I retrieved the rig to discover my hooklink had cut off half way along . I stood and stared and thought not again , checking the time there was 3 hours of the session left and as unlikely as it was I decided it was worth putting a new rig on and recasting . The lead hit the spot right on the money and having sorted the captive back lead out , I set the bobbin and started to walk away just as I got level with the rod buts the rod incredibly was off again , from the moment I connected to the fish I just new it was special as it tested my CTX to the limit and after a good 20 minute battle I netted my first mirror from the lake . I put in my retainer and went to get my mate who was having a lie in and never heard my shouts for help . As soon as he saw the fish he said thats a 30 . Well on the scales she went 31lb 2oz a new pb and my first 30 , my mate did me proud with the pics and as is tradition with a pb when fishing with anyone I got a bucket of water over my head while returning her .

My last session to report is another happy event . I dropped into the same swim and incredibly after no action for 24 hours the same spot that produced the 30 again produced a bite and after another epic fight I netted a nice looking common . If breaking my mirror pb the previous week I was  shell shocked to find I had now netted a new pb common and 23lb 9oz .

Right now comes an unexpected end to this blog . I first went to Newquay when I was 19 and loved it and for the last 15 years I have been there with my lovely 2nd wife Lou , we love it down there and have spoken about wanting to retire down there . This year we went down and decided to just check out our options , we spoke to the lovely Liz a local PCSO about the good and bad areas and came up with a 5 year plan to find a suitable area and place . Well on the last day of our holiday we found the perfect place and suddenly our 5 year plan became a soon as possible plan . We returned home and sat down and worked some figures out and decided to go for it . The house went on the market , expecting a bit of a wait we were pleasantly shocked as it sold within 2 weeks , added to this the day after we agreed a price for our new home just 7 miles from Newquay and are now just waiting on the paperwork and contracts to be sorted . Theres a good chance that my next update will be from Cornwall .


Well thats all for now ,, I do have a 3 night session planned with my mate at the beginning of september a last hurrah before we move , plus a few shorter sessions which will be reported next time until thanks for reading and tight lines to you all


     

Not many fish

When I originally started this blog my fishing was alot different and fish came regularly but the last couple of years has , as those who read these ramblings changed to fishing in low stock , hard lakes . So updates have become less regular and at times not many fish to report . I have toyed with the idea of trying to do more regular posts but put other things in like , reviews of books , tackle and the like plus some stuff to start debates and thinking .

Now for an update , well still off work and seeing a private counsellor , which is starting to improve my mental state and get me back to work .
Since my last write up I have been chopping and changing between the lake and the river . Other than my annual roach session on local specimen lake which produced just 5 roach to 1lb 3oz and a 12oz rudd .

After this I spent the rest of december blanking on the lake . On the 31st december my wife Lou wanted to have a few hours on the Trent after her first barbel  so while she tried for one I stuck a chub rod out , our only bite came just as we were about to leave as Lou was feeling the cold , it fell to my rod and was a season high chub of 5lb 9oz

On the odd trip I did in /january I caught quite a few chub te smallest of which was 4lb 1oz and the biggest this 4lb 11oz . For some reason the Trent chub just didnt want to co-operate much and bites were very subtle and no matter what I tried could not get them to do the usual wrap arounds .

February I returned to the lake and other than dropping a fish on a session that turned a little cool , nothing much was happening .

For a while now I have been trying to find a multi sectioned frying pan that wasnt £80 or a Ridge Monkey . Finally ebayer came up trumps and for £16 I got this beauty that has been providing me a full English with changing items .

I returned for 2 nights on the lake at the beginning of march and despite things looking good nothing touched my baits . Unfortunately this session illustrated a down side , now any of the knowledgeable anglers reading this will know that gravel pit carp are easily spooked and aware of things on the bank side . So slamming doors , using bivvy mallets , parking your vehicle in plain view and worst of all marching into someones swim , will scatter fish . All of these things have happened to me including having people walking into my swim and shouting are you awake if I am not in plain sight plus walking right up to my rods , one of which is always in my own margin . I pointed this out on the clubs Facebook page and alot understood but others thought I was anti social and one said carp are used to all these things , yeah they are and they understand its a sign of danger . This particular session I was actually in an area that folk dont walk if someone is fishing but today I got 7 female oaps and 1 bloke coming through my swim , despite telling them I was fishing and their werent supposed to be walking there , they totally ignored me and carried on going and then the last woman managed to catch my unhooking gear with her foot and turned round and kicked it . luckily for her my meds have calmed me down . After this I took the action of putting perimeter tape up round my swim . Within a hour an old guy turns up with his dog and promptly tears it down and walks through , I asked what the hell and he just stuck his nose in the air and walked on .
Back to ebay and now got this sign for future sessions

Now I go fishing not just to fish but to chill my head , I am not anti social but I dont want my session ruined by inconsiderate anglers and other folk . If I didnt actually want to catch I would go camping somewhere .

My last session was done against my better judgement . A mate fancied a change and go to the old lake I fished , now I said I wouldnt fish there again but felt even though the usual suspects were still throwing shit about , 2 nights wouldnt hurt , well long story short mate set up to pull bream in and hope carp followed , while I went down the carp or bust road . Result was he had 4 bream and I lost a bream , session was cut short due to the heavy rain causing the lake to flood.

Now the fun begins , my mate left mid morning but I felt that the lake might not move much but sadly it became apparent that was not going to happen , I did a slow pack up and decided to have a couple of hours on the Trent next to lake , big boilie , 1 rod and see if a barbel was at home but after 45 mins I didnt feel like barbeling and left . I was gobsmacked when I had a post from a Facebook page where yet again my old friend and former bailiff had another of his insane rants and calling me a rather less than complimentary name and yet again told folk how he helped me with my last breakdown and got me into carp fishing . 1, the first breakdown was partially caused by his ranting about things and dragging me in , 2 , he got me into carp fishing , really check this picture out from 1985 .

The first of many carp from this particular club lake but as happened in the mid 90's I didnt feel the time was right to go all out carping , now thats changed but was my decision . Am sure someone will read this and pass it on , as thats the way the low lifes are getting their stories , nothing like a snake in the grass .One more thing , when is a birthday present not a birthday present ? Well it seems when you no longer talk to someone and sell it when think you should return it .

Anyway thats it for this time . I hope to get 2 nights on the lake next week . I cant tell you when next blog will appear but in the mean time if anybody reads this a has anything they want me comment on then feel free to let me know .


Tight lines

Where are the mirrors

Hopefully this blog will make sense and if not I can only apologise . The reason for this is that I have had a relapse in my mental health and have been signed off work initially for 4 weeks while my increased in strength meds take affect .

I will start off from where I left off last time . My next trip was after the tufty had become my first bite , settling into a new swim and using my marker float , I found 3 nice spots for my rods , 2 were bottom baits and the 3rd was a chod rig put into some light blanket weed surrounded by Canadian pond weed .

During the hours of daylight I received a few liners but saw no other activity , at 5.30am the following morning my middle rod gave out a few bleeps and on getting to the rod found the bobbin rising and falling , lifting into the culprit , I was relieved to see no birds around but the fight told me it was one of the lakes large bream and so it proved as 10.15 slid into the landing net .

The clarity of the lake was already starting to increase .

My next trip and again I started in a new swim , risking spooking any fish I had a good lead round and found a nice silt patch with a bloodworm bed . 2 rods were placed on it and then just to be different I placed a rod right in the left had margin near the bankside over hanging trees . I scattered 3 or 4 broken boilies and 2 handfuls of hemp in the margin and set my bivvy up well back from the waters edge .

At about 2.30pm the left hand rod in the margin absolutely shot round and the alarm screamed , after one of the best fights I have ever had from a carp and eventually lead a pristine common over the net cord . On the scales she went 20.04 .

No further action occurred on this session . My next session was to be more a few hours leading swims as I didnt have the night to play with , half way through my 3rd swim and signs of rain started , rather than go straight home I dropped in to the swim where I had the common and just put one rod down the margin . The wind suddenly increased in strength and swung straight at me and the rain went nuts , climbing into the back of the van with my receiver I shut the doors and sat to wait it out , I had 2 bleeps on my receiver and that was it , the rain eased and on getting out of the van the rod tip was bent round tight to the right , lifting the rod I could feel my lead running down the line then nothing , winding in I was gutted to discover I had been cut off on the margin zebra mussels .

My next 2 trips were in new swims that produced nothing , the lake was starting to fish even harder .

Success on my next trip though as dropped into a swim with some very deep water , 2 rods put on one spot and bait spodded over the top , the other was a chuck and chance it , hi viz pop up launched 70 yards into open water all on its own .

Nothing happened until 8.30am the next morning when I received what looked like a typical bream bite on the pop up rod but on hitting it , it became obvious this was no bream and after another epic fight another nice common slid into the landing net .

On the scales she pulled the needle round to 21.15 and a new pb !!!! A very happy Bob packed up a couple of hours later .

2 days later another new swim but no success but I did have some good fortune in that I met another member and after a long chat we agreed to help each other out through the winter .

A week later back over to the end of the lake I had the last common from but a new swim facing the same area of water . While setting up I saw half a dozen fish show , not all carp but a few bream as well plus some bubbling .

I decided to fish 2 rods on my normal tactics and the 3rd was deployed using a method similar to the ones the other member had mentioned . no action occurred til       when the bobbin did a yo yo impression and this time it proved to be another one of the lakes big bream that tipped the scales at 11.04 .

 I took a week off due to other commitments but on my return settled in to the swim the pb common swim . 3 different approaches , 1 rod hi viz pop up , 1 fished bottom bait over half a dozen broken boilies and the 3rd was the same as had produced the bream on the last trip . With no sightings of fish and no action all day I was just in the middle of a call to my wife Lou when the bream rod bleeped and the bobbin pulled tight and held there , after a wet sack of a fight I netted another bream that was obviously an old fish and didnt look its best that weighed 9.04

All was quiet and I retired to my sleeping bag , a single bleep around 10.30pm saw mr sit up and watch the bobbin pull quickly up the blank and the baitrunner ticking , bream or so I thought but no it was another common , that yet again went mental , relieved to get it into the net , up on the scales and 19.10 and just like the other 2 absolutely pristine .

My last trip was a 2 night affair that resulted in a blank but not before I lost an unseen fish that may have been a bream .

That brings this upto date , I am unsure of my next trip as I am concentrating on getting my head right but hopefully a nice quiet session at the lake will help .

Until next time when I hope to report my first December carp .

Take care and tight lines

Moving on and new beginnings

Not sure if anyone will read this but.........................

Well its been 10 months since my last blog and the promise of more regular updates has not happened as alot of things have happened .

This will be a brief summary to bring things up 8 weeks ago and will contain no pictures ...After I will tell you about the last 8 weeks and what promises to be an interesting and new beginning .

Well from october til xmas I was on the river chub fishing and catching a few upto 5lb 10oz and added bonus was avoiding the barbel and only catching 3 x 9lbers .

The xmas arrived and so did the rain , the river was in flood in conditions that wasnt conducive to chub fishing and not wanting to fish for barbel I opted to return to the lake and try for a winter carp .Over 10 sessions where the lake was constantly in flood , with it been connected tot the river , including a couple where I was nearly under water before I left . Unfortunately the carp never turned up and the sessions I did catch it was usually just a couple of bream .

As the river season ended the lake was still high but it was low enough to get to some swims that had been inaccessible til now and I finally managed to finally catch 2 carp within half hour of each other , both commons going 17lb 8oz and 10lb 6oz .
This proved to be a false dawn and it was back to bream again , It took me til mid may to catch another carp and again it was a pair of commons of 16lb 4oz and 14lb 8oz . Up until my annual holiday in july it was just the odd bream , just before my holiday I did 5 nights and due to various reasons spread it across 3 swims , which resulted in just 2 bream . For the last 2 nights of the session Lou joined me and within 12 hours of getting there she managed a lovely 14lb 14oz common .

Now from the season ending til this point despite the club having a very positive AGM desnting voices were rumbling in the background . Certin people were feeding rumours to others who then passed them on to me and others , this came from people I thought I could trust. While I was on holiday the hot weather was affecting  peoples inability to think and fish safely . On returning off holiday we took the decision not to have our usual 3 nights on the lake due to a mixture of the weather and the still rumbling politics. I did do an overnighter on the river and managed a 5lb chub and 2 bream .


At this point it all blew up , after been told more things and allowing myself to get wound up and I made a post on my Facebook page about someone connected to the club without naming them . The next thing I know the chairman contacts me saying someone had forwarded  my comments to the committee and would be facing some kind of punishment .

The following day I went in the tackle shop and was met with a comment from the manager " whats this about you been banned from fishing club " . I left it a week and then contacted the chairman , I learned 2 things , firstly the person I had blamed was wrong and secondly I wasnt banned but was on a final warning as the chairman had actually stood up for me , I thanked him for that . I had up to this point virtually decided to leave the club and was on the waiting list for a couple of syndicates waiting lists , I reflected on this and made a decision with Lou that we would stay in the club but wouldnt be fishing the lake and stretch of river any more .

 This decision was taken after discovering that the person who reported me was actually someone close to me . I am not going to try and find out who despite now having a good idea who it was and as I have moved on . Now I had more decision to make and it was helped by a chance conversation with a really nice guy I have fished with a couple of times who pointed me in the direction a couple of lakes with a stretch of river nearby , following a 6 hour walk round the venues , yeah they are a bit bigger than the last one and also having a go with marker rod I seemed to have been put onto perfect venues for me , weedy , low stock of good fish and not just carp , full of features , not easy but just right for me .

I had intended to leave it here but have managed 2 x 36 hour sessions on one lake and have managed 1 tufted duck so far but already feel at home . I also managed a couple of hours on another lake with my float rod and caught 23 roach all around 8oz to 12oz but discovered its got lot bigger ones , major bonus there , I then spent another couple of hours checking the river out and caught more roach to 12oz . My last session was a trip back in time as I fished a stretch of the Trent I had not been on for 30+ years , it had changed in the shape of alot of bottom weed but was obviously still full of quality fish , sadly I wasnt properly prepared but learned alot for next time and it will probably be my first choice for winter chubbing .

I will leave it there for now but will do my best to update my journey more regularly . At present only people who have seen me on the venue know I am on there and I wont be telling anyone but am sure it will come up soon .

Tight lines to you all 

Resurrection

Well hello all , before I explain why this has not been updated for a while I will give a final tally for the period mid october til seasons end , it consisted of 48 chub to 5lb 15oz and 27 barbel including 21 doubles to 11lb 11oz , the vast majority came to my own cheese paste recipe , which a few people have messaged me asking for but it's only been given to one person and that was a birthday present .

Right here we go , its been 7 months since the last update and to be honest up to a couple of weeks ago when 2 or 3 people enquired asking why there had been no update . I was going to scrap it .

WHY ? Well I did something that I never normally do and let someone get to me to the point that I just didnt wanna know .

I make no apologies for naming the person responsible , he is a guy named RAY OLDFIELD , who is a member of the same club . Now as most folk know I have had some mental health problems last year and this guy who had I given loads of advice on fishing a certain section of the Trent , decided to make 3 or 4 insulting comments about my intelligence on the clubs facebook page , which the admin let go but when I told him that if he approached me on the bank then he would be sorry , I received a pm from one of the admin telling I was in danger of been banned .

A couple of months later when I had been catching really well and as requested by the clubs committee I was posting my catches on the facebook page , unbeknown to me Mr Oldfield had blocked me , I then received a message from a friend saying he couldnt believe I had not responded to Mr Oldfield's latest post , I explained I hadnt seen it as it was obvious he had blocked me and asked the friend to screenshot it and send it to me . I was raging when I read it .

This was a comment during an exchange with my mate Jon Preen

" I have only ever had an issue with TWO people on here ........... you and your mate ....... basically for the same reasons .......................... both posting self promoting rubbish ................ and if you think its only me who thinks that ........................... wake up mate theres plenty ............. just that its me who speaks up "


The first thing I did was post a new thread saying that I would no longer be posting my catches or offering help and advice online but only face to face after had met them . Within 5 minutes the post was pulled , when I asked why , I was told it was because it was not fishing related and it would give new members a bad impression of the club , When I questioned why Oldfield's post had been allowed to stay , the answer was that he had removed it and apologised to the committee , I pointed out that it had been on 4 hours and he had not offered me or Jon an apology , not that I would have accepted it . Now I have had problems with certain members of the old committee in the past but this stank so I decided to leave the facebook page . Obviously I received numerous messages of support from those who know me well and told me all the comments made by this sad little man were out of jealousy , but unfortunately as I still have a few issues so the blog stopped .

So where am I now , well I was convinced to rejoin the club facebook group , unfortunately my request was declined and after a few pm's to admin and the chairman , I was told why and at the time just let it go but then last week I was allowed back on , so its the start of a new beginning so here we go.

To catch up on 7 months of fishing would take too long so here is a brief catch up . I spent the first few weeks of the close season eeling with plenty caught but the biggest was only 2lb 7oz .

Carrying on from my decision to spend all my time carping including weather permitting even during the winter , sadly to date the lake has fished harder than normal resulting in just 3 mirrors to 19lb 2oz and 3 commons to 14lb 8oz plus one lost , never the less I am thoroughly enjoying it .

I was also guested onto a huge gravel pit with the chance of upping my bream pb but just fell short by 2oz with this 11lb 8oz specimen

I have left the river until now for 2 reasons . firstly my urge to catch barbel has ebbed away and secondly and most importantly was antics of the anglers on the opposite bank ruining it .

I have also made changes to the groups I am have been a member of for some time , firstly I have left the Barbel Society for no other reason than I have stopped fishing for them , secondly I have left the Tenchfishers the reasons for this is that I feel there is now a 2 tier membership , where some are seen as superior to others but my main reason is that there is a growing number of extremely 2 faced members , who in public they come across as nice folk but are nothing short of shithouses .

The other changes have been on some of my rods , as many of you will know from my earlier posts I have been switching all my rods to Free Spirit , well going back even further some of you will remember I had an issue with a certain companies tench rod and was very unhappy with them , well it failed again and I decided enough was enough and I invested in a Free Spirit tench float special to date I have not managed a tench on it yet but have had numerous bream to 8lb 6oz on it plus plenty of roach to 12oz , next spring I have been put onto a lake that produces alot of tench to float tactics in the 6-7lb range .Also at this point i decided to sell my 2 avon specials made by the same company as the problem rod and have so far only replaced one this time with a Free Spirit special at 12ft and 1.5tc , which was given its first outing a couple of weeks ago and managed to land a chub of 4lb 7.5oz unfortunately I had forgot my camera and had to make do with this picture using my mobile .

My 2nd outing was supposed to be after chub and roach , to this end I started fishing using hemp and pigeon conditioner in a small block end feeder with sweetcorn on a size 14 hook.

After 2 hours no roach or chub had showed up but then again neither had anything else but that changed in the blink of an eye when the rod hooped over and on my light chub gear the fight was intense but finally a 9lb 3oz barbel slipped in to the net .

!0 minutes after return the barbel and the rod went again and in to another fight with what was obviously another barbel and this 9lb 13oz specimen joined me for a pic .

At this point I decided both a move and change of tactic was called for , I settled into another swim and switched to cheese paste , the chub decided to play hard to get and after trying a few tweaks I finally managed one battered sample of 3lb 8oz .

Well we are now up to date so what are my plans my plans for the coming weeks , well during the day and leading into dark I will be roach and chub fishing and through the night I will be carping but on the river .

There is one final thing thats happened and thats 3 weeks ago I wrote my Red Pat van off and have now replaced it with a white one .

Well sorry for the ramble and chest clearing but hopefully things will return to normal next time .

Till then tight lines and I will leave you with this sunrise from last week .

Lovely chubbly

Well a few sessions and few fish to catch up with . first session was between xmas and new year . Lou wanted to catch a small fish , so sorted my old telesnatcher out and we went off to local lake after 3 hours and Lou getting chilly she had caught 3 roach around 4 - 6oz and lost what I think was a decent perch all on bread punch . Now it was my turn , Lou went home and I shot off to the Trent for a couple of hours , river was normal level and clear I only managed 1 bite ( which was to become a recurring theme ) but made no mistake with this 4lb 2oz chub .

A couple of days later Lou arranged to meet her mate for lunch , so I took the opportunity to sneak off for a couple of hours . After missing a couple of bites on cheesepaste I made a couple of minor adjustments and snared the next one resulting in this 4lb 13oz chub but yet again that was it .

A short trip in early January produced not a sniff on a river carrying 3 feet of flood water I would have bet on a barbel , A week later and back again , plan was to fish a couple of hours into dark but to stay overnight under brolly , the wind was shocking and swung everywhere and brought rain with it , I had to reposition brolly 3 or 4 times and ended up using van to aid as a wind break .

Mid afternoon and rod hoops over and battle commences with a january double figure barbel of 10lb 1oz

A while later and a couple of bangs on the tip and I added this 3lb 4oz chub .

I had a bite to eat and relaxed for a couple of hours and suddenly rod was off again and a 9lb 9oz barbel was netted , shortly after and the last fish of the session turned up in the shape of barbel no3 weighing 9lb 7oz

Well today aint gone to plan . Was slightly later leaving home , called at local Mcd's for breakfast but shut for maintenance so headed to Newark and looked everyone else had . Got to lake in time to help one of lads sort a fallen tree out . Go round to see another mate who had managed to get boiling water on his hand , out with first aid kit and germalene on it . Off to fancied river swim it was up about 2 foot and bits of dead weed coming through , get chatting to another guy . Hour later set off to swim just as someone else drops in . 2nd choice swim taken so in to 3rd choice got one rod around 1pm and within 10 mins had a chub do the i will leave you playing this tree branch trick . At 5pm upstream rod takes off and in the 6 or 7 steps it took me to get to the rod 30 yards of line gone , what followed was the hardest fight off any fish I have ever had , at one point it snagged my lead in an overhanging tree and I ended up perch precariously on margin of swollen river trying to free it and luckily it pinged off , the fight continued and I finally netted a 10.13 barbel after 20 minute fight !!!! I added a 7.14 , 6.02 and one around 5 .Guess the debris coming down 
put the chub off 

My next session was my 2nd blank of the year and another 1 bite day , unfortunately I was taking a pee , a bit like the fish that picked that exact moment to ram the tip round !!!!.

The bite while peeing happened again the next session and it was made worse by the fact that the way the tip shot round the fish had to be on but it sprang back nearly as quick , thinking fish may have another go I left rod out for another 10 mins then wound in to find the hooklink had broke on my figure of 8 loop . Bearing in mind the 1 bite situation things didnt look good but 2 chub in half an hour saved the blank , fish of 2lb 11oz and 3lb 10oz.

February arrived and getting to river and finding it was up and rising it yet again became a barbel or nothing looking session . First fish I connected went mental and gave me a very hard tussle but turned out to be this baby of 5lb 7oz

With half an hour of session remaining my february double turned up in the shape of this pristine 10lb 2oz fish .

With the weather on the turn and the river dropping , I arrived to find ice in the margins and a cold foggy morning , I also had this buzzard for company .

This again turned into a 1 bite day and came 2nd cast and another pristine chub of 2lb 14oz.

The last session for this blog was a couple of days ago and forecast was for a high of zero degrees and an easterly wind chilling it to around minus 4 . I sat through rain , sleet , hail and snow all for 1 bite an hour before I had to leave , luckily I hooked and landed what looked like it could be a low 4lber but turned out to be empty and came in at 3lb 13oz .

Well thats it for now , the river season dont have too long left and I had planned to have a go for a big tidal barbel but the chub are about and conditions are right so its lovely chubbly to the end now . Next season I have decided to make a massive change in the species groups I am in , I will be leaving the 2 I am currently in and have applied to join the Chub Study Group , as I write this I have been informed they are full but have done an introductory letter to be printed in their next magazine to see how feelings are about me been allowed in .

Well thats all for this ramble . Tight lines to you all