Pleasure Fishing on the Itchen.

 

 To kick off the year I paid a visit to the Itchen with my younger brother Rich and the plan was to drown some maggots and catch what we could. The river was up a bit with some colour but absolutely fishable, the plan was to move around and trot areas where I know fish hold. The main target was Grayling but hoped to locate some Roach which I know frequent a couple of areas.

 We woke to find the car enveloped in ice and took 10mins to get the car loaded before leaving, the patterns are pretty awesome!  

 The banks were just as cold too as the lines froze with every cast, that made the first 2 hours very difficult, I must remember to bring glycerine to help! 

 It took a while to finally get some fish on the bank and the first fish of 2025 was a 1.8 Grayling, on the Wylye these are below average, for the Itchen these are good fish! The Grayling came at decent intervals with the average being below a pound but was just happy catching, Rich struggled to get bites and the line lay for him was a constant struggle as when he did get bites he wasn't able to connect owing to the pick up costing him tension, I wanted him to get more on the bank but he battled with his own presentation as well as fleeting taps on the float, I combated this issue early on as we started on the same 7BB floats but switched over to a 5.6g titanium trotter where the additional bulk made the taps more pronounced and hittable but Rich didn't want to make the change over.

My best of the day, 1.10 but that dorsal fin!!!

 It just shows ringing the changes makes a big difference. As the day wore on the fish came steadily with more Grayling but very few Trout, the consecutive nights in the minus digits must have slowed them right up. As dusk approached the fishing ratcheted up a couple of notches as I opted to fish bread as I knew where we finished up held Roach, soon enough the Roach and Grayling started to come with another 4 fish of 1.6-1.10 coming to the net and two lovely little Roach, typical that happened. Dusk came and went with little time to extract their bigger shoal mates but know where they are and will return on the tip. Just what the doctor ordered :) 

2024 Review.

 

 The past 12 months have really been lean in terms of angling opportunity, being self-employed was supposed to mean more time for me (potentially), that has not turned out to be the case, my last 10 years have flown by and expectedly busier as that time has marched on, now time is very sparse when work and family have been taken into account, that said I think it has been a calender year that has surpassed expectations.

 January consisted of a trip to the Wye where I managed five Barbel which included 2x 9's as I turned the screw on my 40 Rivers Challenge in less than ideal conditions - 25hrs of fishing across two days ( blog here: Jan Wye trip )

Best @ 9.2

 February is always a random month, never know what conditions are going to prevail, but sometimes, even when the conditions are rubbish something tells you you should get out and make an effort, them gut feelings are almost always right and learned to listen to them and bloody glad I did, because I caught a fish I'd worked very hard for and represented possibly the best fish of the year. The month of February could have been even better if it wasn't for the last minute loss of a river Wye double just a few feet from the rim of the net, the sense of loss was epic which haunted me for weeks. ( blog here: River Itchen Giant )

River No 24: 15lb 2oz

 

 March was once again lean in fishing time and only managed one trip for Grayling where I had fish to 2.6 and one trip to the Wye to try and put that previous loss to bed, unfortunately for me that didn't happen and scratched around for bites, seven Barbel in two days with the best only going 7lb.

 April was going to be the start of my Bream campaign where I had a certain water in mind, the target a 15lb specimen, I didn't think I would crack it on my first trip! 15.10 to be precise and what a fish it was. It began to cement my thinking that the Bream when they feed in big weather systems feed off the back of the wind rather than follow it, this did lead to additional fish as a result. PB Bream time!

 May only had one trip on the bank and that was back on the Bream trail, unfortunately the fish began spawning a bit earlier than the previous spring so I will bare that in mind! I did catch six doubles up to 13lb 2oz, those big ones had other ideas, this spring I will start my bream campaign as soon as the river season ends. More Bream!

 June came along with many plans in mind but the re-occuring theme of limited came to bare once again, but it didn't stop me achieving something I've wanted to do for eight years! I've had many "two pound" Rudd off the various fenland waterways but that "three pound" specimen eluded me, until the 17th of June, 3lb on the button and my season was made already, anything else was / is a bonus. 3lb River Rudd

 During July I made a couple of trips to the Blackwater and one to the Nene in search of Barbel of course but the prior resulted in just a couple of five pound Barbel and my Nene resulted in a blank but possibly should have been a lot better, but I'll learn from that mistake.

 August is usually a very good month for stalking with the long summer days but this time around I was met with poor barbel conditions on the Wye and the Aire / Wharfe trip was a total blank as the Wharfe was un-fishable where i planned to head and the Aire didn't produce a bite for me.

 September was a whole lot better than the tosh of the previous two months, first trip of the month was spent on a fishless Kentish Stour (as per usual) but my next trip up to the midlands proved to be a roaring success! Two rivers fished on consecutive days resulted in catching my targets off both rivers which started off on the Nene and ending a three year stint when a powerful 12lb 8oz specimen was banked, not to be completely content I drove to the Soar the following morning and spent the day walking the stretch and sunbathing before getting the rods out just before dusk, the following hour and a half was epic, two chub, 1 bream and a old warrior of a Barbel weighing 12lb 9oz ensured this trip will be remembered for a very long time and as my challenge goes it was a pivotal 24hr window.

 Nene trip - Nene Double - 12.8  Soar trip - Soar Double - 12.9

No 25

No 26

 October is my birthday month and normally a great month for Barbel and so it proved! I didn't catch much else but a Wye double figure Barbel was high on my hit list and didn't expect it to happen as the previous 9 trips had just been a case of catching fish and hope for the best. She was close to the mark but my god I was stoked it made it having come close with one last season and losing a certain double last winter. Wye trip - Wye Double - 10.1

No 27

 November I managed two trips on the bank and had a lovely day trotting for Chub, a decent keepnet of skelly's to 5.1 warmed me up nicely, then a trip to the magnificent R.Wylye for Grayling where I managed my best haul to 2.6, a lot of younger ones coming through which is great to see!

 December consisted of two trips once again, one of the Kentish Stour resulted in a couple of Chub but the Barbel remained elusive, no such issue on the Dorset Stour though as I managed to pick one up on the maggots in very testing conditions but not a double, so my trips to the DS aren't over yet.

 I wish you all a happy new year, I saw my new year in with the mrs and friends with a hangover...another year older but not wiser, anyway, onwards we go, the best 3 months of the season for specimen fishing is upon us! Let's go get em.

 Total sessions over the calender year: 25! A shade over two trips a month, that is awful for me, but over the bloody moon with what I caught.

Back on the Dorset Stour.

 

 It's been a couple of years since I last visited this big fish mecca and it's been too long really, on Friday I put that right. The plan was made a couple weeks ago and that was to do three days down there. 

 My approach was to fish the float during the day and have a sleeper rod for Barbel in the margins with a big lump of meat, the issue with this plan was all of this was before I'd seen the river and found out the conditions were actually pretty poor. The colour was very heavy with no more than 3 inches and trotting maggots with that lack of visibility was always going to be hard, arguably the point that was even more challenging was the river 24hrs before I arrived was 11.4c and when I arrived on Friday morning it had slumped to 7.4c! sudden drops in temp, especially that sharp are never good omens for targeting Barbel. 

 Now I have got all the excuses out of the way as to why I wouldn't or probably shouldn't catch a Barbel I went and did just that, much against the odds. Having persevered with trotting maggots for 4hrs without a bite I opted to switch to two static rods but seeing as I had lumped out a pint or two of maggots I suspected if anything was feeding on them then I might stand a chance of picking it/ them up with it plonked on the deck! 10 white maggots impaled on a short hair and a PVA bag crammed full of white maggots was cast out just behind a dead/dying weed bed and that was the rod that stormed off within 40mins, my hunch paid off this time around and it was a brilliant take and fight in the pacy flow.

D.Stour 7.13 winter powerhouse.

 My heart understandably was racing as it felt like a decent fish out in the flow, but when it came up out of the murk I could see it wasn't a double but I could not be disappointed, I was just thankful to catch one in the conditions to be fair. Plus as it turned out that was to be my only excitement of the day and in-fact the whole trip, as I had weighed up my options given the fact the river hadn't risen much more than half a degree and the torrential rain gave way to clear starry skies and the temperature plummeted, by 11pm I had had enough and did not fancy my chances on improving on the one fish, I will return soon enough when conditions improve. Just thankful I didn't blank and drove back home and in bed by 1am.

 Lesson learned and this 40 Rivers Challenge is all about learning and pitting my whits against not just Barbel, but also the river that I'm tackling and the conditions which during the winter are often touch and go, sometimes the decision to go and fish is one of impatience but given how few my chances have been this season I had to at least try. Maybe next time I will come away with a prize worthy of the efforts put in. 

40 Rivers Challenge Update.

 

 As we have now amazingly crept into December already I have had a cursory glance back at what has so far been a pretty lean season in terms of fishing, Barbel included. 

 The first six weeks of the season I drifted between the rivers Blackwater, Nene, Bourne and Wye. Incredibly over those seven trips I only managed three Barbel with the Wye only producing one fish in what was a seriously disappointing period.

 The back end of July through to early September actually proved to be even more baron where not even a single Barbel hit the back of the net, that period of the season I do often find brilliant for sight fishing but this season was poor!.

 As September began I found myself back on the banks of the R.Nene for the seventh time and by the end of the day river number 25 of my challenge fell in the shape of a stunning 12lb 8oz specimen which bought closure to my time on what is a lovely river, the following day I tackled the R.Soar, a river many had told me would be a very difficult river to tackle and with good reason, but somehow I managed to unearth another nugget of luck and around 24hrs after my Nene success I had nestled in the net a rare Soar beast, she was a "dino soar"! weighing an extremely pleasing 12lb 9ozs.! 

 That result had me beaming from ear to ear, not that the Nene fish already had me on cloud nine. 

 My next two trips were to the R.Wye where I once again opted to try my luck and on the first trip I only had an afternoon's fishing where six hard fighting fish came to the net. However the following trip 4 weeks later concluded in a very different fashion! Well into darkness my rod hooped over after hours of inactivity and very quickly I knew it was a big fish. The power and determination of good Barbel in flood water is why you do have to step up the gear! 

 After 10 visits to the Wye equating to nearly 200hrs of angling ( mainly last winter ) I had achieved something on the Wye I hoped I would but didn't think I'd do it in 10 trips, a period of 5 years and 30-40 trips was more or less what I had assumed I'd need to achieve my target but am chuffed it came good!

 The magic number had been achieved, but only just, 10lb 1oz.

 Since that fish on the 3rd of October I have only been out once for Barbel and that was the other day on the Kentish Stour where the Barbel once again remained totally elusive.

 The stats so far this season read....

- Mileage : 2561

- Sessions : 14

- Blanks : 8

- Barbel : 14

- Doubles : 3

Doubles % to sessions : 21.42 (so far)

NO 25: R.Nene - 12.08

NO 26: R.Soar - 12.09

NO 27: R.Wye - 10.01

 

Trotting Heaven.

 

 Whenever temps start to fall one of three things happen, one we know the shortest day of the year is approaching, two I'll still be wearing shorts and t-shirts to work and three Grayling will be on my mind! 

 Once again I had been invited to fish the river Wylye for Grayling by Mike and I could not pass up the opportunity. I had a sleepless night on Wednesday owing to my youngest being a tad poorly and the excitement to get back on to big Grayling territory. 4am I was up and by 5am I was leaving for Wiltshire.

Let's go! 

 I arrived in the murk and got myself suitably dressed and armed with 3 pint of maggots to drown, could that 3lb specimen I've been seeking for a few years now finally be found and landed? I was certainly going to try and early on I found a couple of willing fish which were held up in tight pockets. Within the first 2 hours I had managed 4 fish with two weighing in at 2lb 5oz and 2lb 1oz, a cracking start and could only hope things would continue in that manner.

2.05

 Fishing oddly was hard in areas as I suspect a combination of the heavy floods condensed the fish and then freezing temps kept them there because once I had located shoals the bites came thick and fast, some were Grayling and some were Trout which at times were so hard to get through, so I deepened up to try and get through water column faster and give Grayling a chance and this did work in parts. 

 A number of young fish between 2oz and 1lb 8oz came to the net but found it challenging to get any bigger fish and going on catch reports since the grayling season opened it has been slim pickings largely. Finding the shoals weren't easy but once achieved I was catching and around 3pm I did manage a couple more good fish of 2lb on the nose and my best of the day of 2lbs 6oz, a really nice deep bodied fish which hung deep throughout the fight which was very satisfying and nervy in equal measure.

Best of the day, 2.06

 Just before those two 2lb fish were caught I did hook a very heavy fish that I do feel was a Grayling but was unseen, once it hit the main flow the strain on the hook hold was clearly too much and it slipped away, that said I am very impressed by the new XT maggot pattern from the new hooks that will be launched in the spring from Drennan Int', I've been using various patterns this season and I am, currently very happy with their performance and also now been using the Acolyte Specimen Float rod "15ft" and again has performed very well with some very powerful fish on the light gear, if you are looking for a lightweight but powerful float rod for Chub, Grayling, Barbel etc then this rod is most certainly what you are looking for, its a stepped up version of the acolyte float rods including ultra. 

 The only downfall with this time of the year is the short days and by 1620 I had lost almost all light and that bought down the curtain on yet another thoroughly enjoyable days fishing!

Trotting heaven.

Stiff as a .... sock 

Chub Day.

 

 Last weekend I finally got the chance to do a decent amount of fishing, a whole day has been hard to come by of late and armed with a loaf of bread and some maggots I made the most of my time.

 After weeks of heavy rain it was nice and settled, which did bring its own challenges but with some knowhow chub are willing beasts. The river was very low and very clear, not terrible conditions for chub if you can find them. I knew where they would be held up but catching them was proving to be a proper challenge, my first half an hour proved completely baron, I turned my attentions to my approach and stepped down my hooklength from 6lb flourocarbon to 3.3lb, dropping the float and hook size too.

 Within three trots the float slipped under and I was latched into a hard fighting chub which put up a good account of itself. Once in the net I started to ball up tiny bits of white crumb to keep the fish occupied, on the scales this one went 5lb 1oz, not a bad start at all! Once the keepnet was erected I got to fishing the swim a little harder and the bites came more readily, infact my next 20 or so trots after making that seemingly enormous changeup twelve chub came to the net and lost another two! I could not quite believe how tightly packed they were, but once they were confidently feeding they were hanging themselves.

 Amazingly still once the swim slowly died off as the fish wised up and a couple more came to the net the first fish was the best with most in the 4lb bracket, given that number of fish I was hoping there would be at two to four 5's or maybe even a 6+ amongst them but it wasn't to be, just glad to get a bend in the rod.

 After exhausting that swim I went for a walk downstream around half a mile to another run that looked good for trotting and once again it took a good twenty mins or so to get a bite which resulted in a chub, that was it for that spot and a few more moves resulted in nothing. 

 With the sun dropping by this point I went back to the swim I had the single Chub from and opted to fish maggots instead of bread and fed the swim consistently and within my first five trots the float darted under and was met with some serious resistance, the kind of power chub simply can not generate, so it could only be a barbel or a rare carp! five minutes or so passed without seeing the culprit had me wondering if I was actually going to see it! Then a couple of minutes later, out of the depths a barbel appeared! 

 It really was turning into a great day on the float but nothing big, to be honest it was nice just to get out and do some fishing.  

Filling In the Time.

 

 Fishing of late has taken bit of a back seat recently owing to my constant hectic work schedule, so in this episode of James' Angling Adventures we re-cap on the highlights of how my season has gone so far and I have to be honest given how little fishing I've done the rewards have been pretty good! Work as always gets the blame for curtailing my angling but also when faced with a little bit of time to go fishing I find myself too tired to get myself going and get the car loaded and set off. I don't know if that's normal or if I'm just getting lazy as I ticked past my 37th birthday last Monday.

Where I was sat there is currently 4.4m underwater.

 The Spring kicked off in fine style with a hat-trick of Bream on my first trip with fish registering 11.13, 13.7 and a new personal best of 15lb 10oz which to my amazement came after a pretty tame indication but the fight for a Bream was awesome. Link to session here --- Dream Bream Trip

 The subsequent visits for Bream either ended in blanks or scratched around for bites but did get one more decent trip in before they began to spawn. Link to session here --- Another Good Bream Trip.

 Once the Bream spawned my attentions turned to the start of the season that wasn't far away and amazingly on my first trip for Rudd once the season opened I managed to achieve a milestone that I had been longing to reach in 8 years of angling on the Fenland waterways, that milestone was a 3lb+ Rudd which was achieved by the finest of margins! Link to session here --- Dream Rudd Start

 Once I had achieved that my desire to get back on the Fens waned somewhat but with the rivers now open Barbel would soon be on the agenda but it did take me quite a while to resume my 40 Rivers Challenge and after a few sessions flitting around the country my long wait for a R.Nene double ended in fine fashion as a beauty weighing 12lb 8oz slipped into the net after a tense battle amongst the pads. --- Link to session here --- Nene Double Delight!

Bottoms Up!!

 The very next day with little time to bask in my success on the Nene I managed to do the unthinkable and caught a brute off the R.Soar just 24hrs later, like London Buses....my journey home was one of pure joy. Link to session here --- Soar'ing High!

Kentish Stour Stealth.

 A week later I went back to the R.Wye in search of a double and get myself up to 27 completed rivers but with a decent effort applied I was not fortunate to do so, three weeks later I went back with renewed vigour and after a total of 168hrs spent over 10 trips I at long last got the fish I had been searching for but only made the cut by a gnats whisker! but that was all I needed, I felt I had deserved that fish absolutely! Link to session here --- Wye Wonder.

 And since that trip to the Wye / reccy on the Teme I haven't wet a line, over two weeks ago... anyone who thinks being self-employed means you'll be able to have more time off don't get it twisted, you'll end up doing more, the money is too good to turn down and you'll find yourself busier than ever before.

Northern end of Windermere.

 Anyway that's my fault :), I hope you enjoy this little catch-up and hopefully we can catch a fish of our dreams and pray the rains ease up so the rivers will be more accessible than they were last few winters.

Teme Tiger Recon - Part 1

 

 Following on from my big result on the R.Wye and only 36 miles from the R.Teme it seemed to be the logical next step, at 7am I was cruising up the M50 bound for a date with a Teme Tiger, a Barbel from here is reputed to fight harder than any other Barbel in the country, that was a reputation I wanted to test. Having seen the Teme for the first time I was keen to get started and I was warned about the banks and they weren't wrong, steep, very slippery ( mainly owing to the recent floods that were running off when I got there, possibly 7ft had already dropped away with possibly another 3ft or so to come off ), it made fishing difficult as there wasn't many pegs to target as they were very unsafe, but I got to work on the ones I could. 

 The swims looked perfect where I could fish, but there really wasn't much to talk about during the daylight hours as I didn't have a touch and darkness didn't bring much else barring a couple of Chub, the one below and a slightly better one of 3lb or so was all I had, the rods were pretty quiet and around 11pm I decided to call it a night and headed home, I will return when conditions are good again.

River Wye Double, That's A Wrap!!

 

 AT. LONG. LAST.

 This part of the challenge was always going to be a difficult owing to the amount of Barbel and indeed Chub present. I have spent over the course of 10 trips (including this trip) 168 hours of angling with 62 Barbel caught, the 62nd being the one I was after, everything in between has been enjoyable and testing in equal measure. 

A wonderful part of the world, what a vista.

 Learning a river that was in flood 9 trips out of 10 had presented a challenge in itself but with my experience increasing with every trip I never once felt out of my depth and conversely enjoyed the fact it wasn't a gimme.

 The river had been up to a shade under 4m and I was keeping an eye on the river as I only had 2-3days available, fortunately for me my planned days were forecast to be bathed in sunshine, not ideal for Barbel but at least I wasn't going to get wet, so with the level at 1.98m when I arrived I felt like a couple of Barbel would be possible. However...the Chub were ravenous and made fishing difficult, every spot I dropped in the Chub made themselves known, missing many but landed 26 Chub with the best possibly a 5-pounder which went unweighed, that said it wasn't all Chub as 3 Barbel also got in on the act, all three were around the 5-6lb bracket which were great fun in the pacy water off the slacks.

 Once dusk had come and gone I thought the best time had gone so I decided to drop a handful of small boilees and pellet in a swim next to where I was cooking dinner and let that rest whilst I filled my face. The plan for the night was to give it until midnight - 1am and then grab some sleep and arise around 6am to get back on it.

 A few hours passed by with the odd knock on both rods but put it solely down to debris coming downstream, around 2240 I got a steady pull round on my downstream rod which grabbed my attention momentarily, I thought it was more rubbish collecting on the line but with a 2oz lead on in the margins I hoped it wouldn't move out of position, I began to sit back down when it pulled round a little more forcefully by which point I felt it was now dragged out of position, I picked up the rod and lifted it up and BANG! the rod slapped round, that gentle pull round and hold twice must have been now what I was latched into and it felt like a big fish straight away, very slow and deliberate in the flow I knew it was a good fish so I played it sensibly and within 3-4mins I caught glimpse of it and was very confident it was the double I sought! 

 Soon enough the fish slowly tired and slipped over the cord of my net, it surely had to be the fish I desired, it looked a double! 

River No: 27 ✅ Get in there!!!!

 Once I had set up my camera, tripod, laid out the mat and got the scales and sling set I lifted her out and felt like a double all day long, on the scales it was a lot closer than I thought it would be, she settled on 10lb 2oz but weighed her again just to confirm and actually settled on 10lb 1oz the second time around, so I went with the lower of the two weights, but it didn't matter, it was my WYE DOUBLE!!! 

Excellent !!!!

 The cheesy grin told you all you needed to know, plenty of effort 290mile round trips, enduring very cold nights, long periods without a touch last winter, this was my reward for the efforts pumped in, Barbel  number 62 was the magic fish.

Cheers all.

Leaving for the last time. Diolch Afon Gwy.

Wye Not.

 

 Yes, Wye not indeed, I can't think of many places that I have fished that look so good whatever the time of year. This time around I didn't have long available. On my way over to the river I swung into the Drennan HQ to pilfer some goodies and chew the fat with Peter and the boys for a couple of hours, always great to hear Peter's stories of an era long before I was conceived! During my time there we also did a product launch video for the new collapsable specimen nets ( 28", 32" & 36" ), these will be available in all good outlets imminently.

 With my time in Oxford up I hit the A40 toward Wales. A quick swing around to Brian's to collect him and we were Wye bound, full of excitement at the prospect of a bumper day we got ourselves ready quickly...however, for me at least things didn't quite happen. I spent the first couple of hours scratching around for a nibble, it really was slow going with the Chub action even being eerily quiet, normally I'm cursing them but I wasn't on this trip.

Mmmm meat!

 Think my first Barbel came around 2-3pm to which a couple more followed but not big enough for weighing and pics but estimated them to be between 5&6lbs. Not bad fighting size and boy did they give it but I wanted something more substantial. Slightly more substantial I got, a couple of hours later I found another pod of Barbel which all weighed over 7lb ( 7.03, 7.10 & 7.15 ), the fish were better but a feeling suddenly came over me that my time on this particular section is coming to an end, as picturesque as it is, safe and secure and night fishing access it ticks all the boxes, I just don't know if I'm going to get that 10lb+ specimen. 

7.15

7.10

Brian latched into a fish that went 9.04

 I think a move is on the cards soon...however I planned to stay the night but as the temperature tumbled toward 4c I thought better of it and kindly Brian's folks allowed me to stay at their place. Cheers!!!