James' Angling Adventures.

 With all the attention focused on the weather and the battering we were due to receive, I was only really thinking about one thing fishing wise and that was what new features the felled trees would create on my local rivers, a mixture of back eddy's, riffles and fast straights, channelling out fresh new gravel beds where silt used to lay and also creating hold ups where fry can escape the flood waters and all spots where the bigger fish can rest up and intercept food off the creases.  As for us anglers these new features are always good places to cast a line as they will always attract a range of different species of fish and make them hotspots for anglers like myself to target, but this doesn't always apply to just rivers, lakes are also affected by the weather and for my target on this occasion, trees and bushes in the water or overhanging shrubbery where Pike and and Perch hide are perfect areas to cast to as these species of fish tend to use them as stations where they

 Thursday just gone I joined Jeff Hatt on the Coventry canal with the intention of snaring a Zander, in my 21 years of angling I have only ever managed to catch one of 2.6 and only ever been in connection with one other which was a low double on the Thames and spat my bait 10 feet from the net, a very agonising experience but these things happen in fishing.  This season my predator exploits restarted with a trip to the canal in Jeff's town, armed with a batch of Roach from the tackle shop and also a bag of sprats, the plan was for us both to work likely looking spots using float tactics with scaled down gear due to the tentative nature of Zander, usually I'd fish with small trebles but the single hook approach seemed to be the right approach as the results of the days fishing suggested. We both walked about 4-5 miles in search of the right spots and the first mile or so of canal was very clear and ideal Pike territory but they weren't on the agenda so we carried on unti

 The last couple of weeks finding time to go fishing has been very difficult and when I've managed to get out it has been for fairly short sessions, these sessions have been for a range of fish, Chub, Barbel and Brown Trout, the Brown Trout trip was actually made in the back end of September and I was accompanied by James Snr, or the old man as I call him, we both fished a rod each and both did reasonably well, but the day was dad's with the capture of a superb brownie of 4lbs 4ozs, a real chunky fish but I did have my opportunity to catch a large Trout but when I hooked it the line glanced it's teeth and she was gone, great shame but a good result for James and he left a happy man but I did manage a couple myself.  A perfect formed male, which fought extremely well and only his second Trout of the season, the guide was shown how to do it. Well done though old bean.   A very dark coloured Brownie around the pound mark, a good little fight but very short lived the t

 An early morning start for a Barbel was my plan for a couple of hours to beat the rain, my tactic was relatively simple with a link ledger employed to get the bait on the bottom, with the river up around a foot and colored I fished the spots I know and with lots of debris along with leaves coming down it made holding bottom difficult, but with all that assumption based approach to my fishing, within two minutes my rod slammed around downstream, but funnily enough I didn't see the take, I was feeding a friendly Robin behind me and the butt of the rod smacked my ankle which alerted me and the fish didn't need hooking as the take was sufficient enough to set the size 8 barbless and after a good fight as usual a Barbel appeared out of the murky water and headed straight into the net, that was quick......a nice little Barbel too, perfectly formed and immaculate, one for the future and on the centrepin and cane rod it was most enjoyable. Another 4lber, good fun. Mrs

 .....Gets his present, on Monday I turned 26 and had the day off work sorted out a while ago, choosing what to target was fairly difficult as there was the Pike and carry on the good vein of form, go after some large chalk stream Rutilus Rutilus or spend a few hours roving for a Barbel and after much deliberation, that was my choice.  For October the weather was very warm and it still felt like summer and with the sun out, hardly any clouds in the sky, fish with a pair of polariods on were very easy to see and saw fish in swims that I haven't seen them in all season, though I haven't fished for Barbel much due to my targeting of the Pike recently and a mix of different species in the earlier part of the season, but both the Barbel and Chub were in positions that were almost impossible to cast to or even trot down to and maintain good presentation.  One Chub did slip up, a chunky 3.5 taken on the ever impressive cane rod trotting a small piece of meat, second cast and

 With October the 1st marking the beginning of the usual Pike season I had a trip planned back to the Royalty to try for the large population of Pike, as they hadn't been actively fished for since mid March I guessed there would be no better time to have some fun with the dead baits and a batch of Rapala lures.  This time I made the trip from London to Christchurch at 6.30 after having missed my first train due to my own stupidity, but I did not want to dwell on it too much even though I sat at the train station for a further 57 minutes waiting for the next service, I on a couple of occasions thought about turning back and jacking in the session but after a period of time I talked my self out of it and stuck it out, how glad I was by the end of the session that I did chose to wait, 2 hours later I was rolling into Christchurch and came across the river Avon on the way into the station, it looked in perfect condition as it did last year.  I started to bubble inside with a m