Here, There and Everywhere.

 As this post's title suggest's I have been about like a two-bit brass, but there was a challenge set for each of these foray's with the ultimate outcome not always what I had planned. The little excursion's started off with a trip to a relatively local fishery in search of Tench and Orfe, having a fair bit of knowledge about the venue I offered my Dad a day out, one thing we didn't factor in was the typical English weather and the heavens opened on numerous occasions with which it dumped shed loads of cold rain and killed off the fishing every time they got going again, a wasted journey.

Trotting for Stour Chub.

 Next up was a trip to the Stour for a blast at their seemingly endless conveyor belt of big Chub, at times it seems like it does 6lb plus every week and although size isn't everything I have always wanted to fish the Throop fishery so whilst being on holiday I decided to give it a try, condition's were okay I suppose for early September, set in fairly picturesque scenery I attempted to catch Chub using two different techniques ( Rolling & Trotting ), both of these tactics are by far my favourite. The amount of trotting opportunity was drastically reduced due to the amount of weed and the fishing was pretty tough, I spotted various Chub to roughly 5lb in a couple of swims and also a few big Roach around the 2lb mark with one certainly an easy 2lber, big fish for sure but they weren't in a casting position, another time they will be targeted, I only managed to hook up with one Chub but lost it almost immediately as it rolled on the surface.

Looks great and the scene of the lost Chevin.

 At roughly 5pm I decided that it wasn't really happening so I decided to head over to the Royalty and do some rolling for the last couple of hours and after having a quick chat to a couple of anglers I got on with the fishing and as dusk gave way to night I had a vicious take and was locked into battle with a really weighty feeling Barbel just at the top of Greenbank's, I was in contact with the fish for over 5 minutes and as I thought I was overcoming it the line and fish went solid, I immediately knew what had happened and walked downstream to try and tease the fish out of the weed bed that she had ploughed through but unfortunately the damage had already been done as the hook had been transferred and the fish absconded, rather annoying and I was to leave Dorset without a fish to show for my efforts.

 Back to my local bits and Roach were on the agenda, after my 2lb plus beauty last week I really wanted to catch some more big fish and plenty of bait was ready-all I needed was the fish to feed, 9 hours later and no Roach showed up at all, plenty of silvers including a plump 11oz Dace and 2 river Carp, both around the 2lb mark made surprised appearances, a bag of nearly 20lb was managed in the end which was primarily Dace of an average weight of 6-7oz.

Just some of my Roach defying bag.

Monster Minnow's

 Today was my last day off and a trip to the River Itchen was planned but the weather put the mockers on that, so again I decided to stay fairly close to home, as the rivers at the moment are not really in perfect Roach condition's I sought after some big Dace on the upper reaches. I took my brother Rikki out for the day and we had a cracking day catching loads of Dace ( the largest I caught was 9oz 6dr ), stacks of Roach to around 3/4lb, a solitary Trout and river Rudd!, these are extremely rare and I only know of a couple caught in this river system in particular, certain section's were quiet too which just goes to highlight just how transient the shoals of Roach and Dace can be, being prepared to hunt them down is a must and never expect to find them in the same swim twice, fun fun fun.

Looking good.

Best of the day at 9oz 6dr.