28 and Counting.....

 The title at first might not make much sense but all will be revealed later. After a great day yesterday it would have been hard act to follow, but a plan was hatched. This was to try and get my angling partner Brian on to a personal best Roach and Dace, we saw some Roach of Thursday that would make the most experienced a quivering wreck, looking across the backs of Roach pissing all over 2lb and heading to 3lbs was awe inspiring, absolute monsters.

 Seeing as we didn't contact one of the biggun's yesterday we decided to give it a go again, I have been very lucky over the years with large fish over the two-pound mark, 27 to be precise, so I think Brian had served his apprenticeship and I felt it was time to show him a couple of the aces tucked up my sleeve, a very early start again wasn't what my body wanted as I peeled myself out of bed, but somewhat reluctantly I made it to meet Brian and blindfolded we headed to a secret spot of mine that I know holds Roach of dreams, the task was for him to catch one.

 Initially I was happy just to lead him in the right direction but once arriving we agreed to fish consecutively upon captures of Roach, when we arrived the Roach were topping in mid-river which was a good omen as they are often feeding quite well when they do that. Brian's first Roach took a while to materialize but materialize it did, a sturdy fight in the flow was ended abruptly as I slipped the fish into an awaiting net, a lovely pristine fish of 1lb 4oz 4dr, not bad at all. My turn.......it didn't take long for me to contact a Roach and it was a Roach of "Fish of a Lifetime" proportions, another large Roach was snared but not before it gave a good account of itself in the turbulent water, this was to be Brian's first ever sight of a 2lb Roach and I think he was pretty impressed as I always am, not a shame that I caught it but wanted the guest to feel the elation that such a large fish gives you.

Bloody awesome. 5th of the season over 2lb.

 On the scales she registered a very pleasing 2lb 2oz 5dr, just the tonic for witnessing them yesterday and not catching. A cracking fish and that was my fifth two-pound Roach of the season, what a season it has been!. Back to Brian and he didn't take long to contact another fish but unfortunately escaped, then a carbon copy take on the next trot resulted in the same manner. Then the moment he and I hoped would come, the float slipped away in what was a mental twenty minute spell as the Roach were hard on the feed. His rod was being put through it's paces as a large frame of a Roach approached the surface clearly over 2lbs we both got very excited and I exclaimed "be careful now, that is a very big fish", not to put pressure on him, then after we both got a perfect view of the prize the hook inexplicably slipped and with one sharp flick of the tail it had vanished from sight. That hurt!.

 Although the next fish wasn't as big as the one just lost it was still a corker which spun the dial around to 1.10, it was turning out to still be Brian's best trip with a record brace for him, very happy days, the loss of that monster will play on his mind until the day he breaks that milestone, but baby steps are the best way. Back to me and the bites were still coming but losing confidence quickly, I knew it was nearing the end of the "Gold Rush" and that things would dry up if they weren't kept occupied, knowing this made things easy though and within ten minutes I managed another large Roach that looked every bit of two-pound but ultimately missed out...just, at 1.14 it was a cracker and great too see such a stunning fish, two big Roach in a day? I was certainly done and Brian had had a great morning too. The action on the Roach front did slide off a cliff but Dace did put in an appearance occasionally to break up the monotony of dead trots.

Just missed out on the magic mark, but a real beauty all the same.

 Time for a move and we travelled a good few miles before we arrived at our next beat, this one was in search of monster Dace, this season has been fantastic for quantities of large specimens and hoped to put Brian on a personal best, I know the stretch very well and if things aren't happening I usually know where it can work. The Dace weren't where they have been of late and were held up in a hole just 5ft long and 3ft deep, watercraft is paramount in these situations and with this we both managed Dace with Brian managing a new PB of 10oz 5dr and I managed another big one of 12ozs on the nose, a fantastic two days of fishing. Shame it was over but I'm all fished out now and it's midday on a Saturday and I've just finished this write up. Well done mate.

Another real big Dace. I was happy, honest!