James' Angling Adventures.

 2017 has been so far dominated by Roach and to be honest I'm not complaining, the consistent dry, cool and cloudless days have meant that sport has been very good, two large bags of river Roach has really got me in the groove and loving it. What more could an angler ask for but be on the banks with the opportunity to catch such elegant fish.  A change of scenery was in mind but the quarry very much the same and notably the appearance of lots of game fish was likely, just like when you buy a bag of liquorice all-sorts and my favourite ones with the little aniseed balls are few and far between, just like the Roach. I knew selecting Roach amongst the hoards of Grayling and Trout would be tough but it was challenge accepted, one that I happily took, with the morning's sport being fairly slow Brian and I peered through the polariod's in search of the distinctive shapes. It took a few hours to find them, however, inevitably the tell-tale silver flashes could be seen over

My angling partner for the morning.  Finally with this prolonged cold spell I have only just fancied targeting Roach, yes I can target them all year but this time of the year the redfins are holding good weight and slowly increasing as spawning time approaches in a couple of months. Having struggled to get above 0c for the last five days and consistent frosts for as many days would have allowed the inhabitants of our rivers to slowly come out on the feed, the conditions look favourable too for a couple of trips during the week too after work, it's cold I know but these are the best condition's to target Roach.  Having woken up this morning with the beginnings of a stiff cold I reluctantly crawled out of bed after a terrible night's sleep, my only motivation to get out of bed today was the Roach, the distant possibility of a two-pound Roach is far too much of a lure to ignore, I've had an eye on a couple of spots that I thought could produce and last season I vis

 For my birthday back in October my better half purchased me a rather unexpected present, a GoPro Hero 5 Black, it was probably the last thing I'd have added to my angling arsenal, probably due to the cost but seeing as that was taken care of I had to get out and use it. It took me a while but whilst I'm still learning the features three months on I'm using it to spy on fish under water and also pulling stills from the under water videos I've shot.  Although I haven't done much I have managed to cut some fairly decent images I feel and when recorded in 1080p and higher resolutions up to 4K the stills are pretty impressive, here are a few and at some point I will try to put some up on a YouTube page that I might create, I have to be brutally honest though I'm not massively keen on the video aspect on certain venues as I do not want to be giving anything away so most if not all of the filming will either be done on extremely well known fisheries, fisheries tha

 On my social media page I have been very happy to have posted some pictures of landing myself a piece of angling history with the purchase of said rod in the title, I couldn't have been more excited when I learnt of its sale on eBay, for many years I've wanted to own one and the price of them has been the stumbling block. This time around though the price was right and I couldn't have coughed up the money any quicker. Once I had confirmed the purchase of the rod I organised to collect that evening and the hour drive was filled with anticipation.  Upon arriving at the sellers property I saw an immaculate and seemingly unused Mark IV leaning against the wall of the passage, there it was! After all these years my chance to own one had come, all I was thinking about once I had collected it and left was when would I get the chance to use it?.  It didn't take long.....next day actually and what better way to christen a new rod than target a wild river Barbel, jus

 For a specimen angler I typically like to target big fish, but sometimes I like nothing more than building up a swim and staking out the keepnet in anticipation of a good trotting session. Recently I had a good trip for Dace and that fuelled my want to search for some Roach, so when half a day cropped up a week or so ago I headed out with a loaf bread hoping I could locate a shoal of redfins.  The conditions were absolutely spot on and I couldn't have asked for more, the river was carrying some colour but not too much that it would mean slow sport, half a loaf went out in crumb and little flakes to entice the Roach to feed with abandon, the far bank crease was my marker and on the first trot down the float slipped under and my target specie darted through the swift water towards the net, they were feeding! And hard!.  Within ten trots I had seven Roach in the keepnet with the best around the 1¼lb mark, three of which were over a pound, brilliant fishing and for next three

 Since November I haven't managed to connect to anything large Grayling wise and I know the right locations are being fished, conditions in fairness have not been perfect on any of the trips but when you travel a round trip of more than 5 hours you have to stick to it. Armed with three pints of mixed maggots, bread and sweetcorn I was ready, arriving at dawn with the intention of fishing through dusk and make the absolute most of the opportunity. What is there not to love about a brisk winter's morning trotting.  Brian and I decided to fish areas we knew fairly well and things were looking hard from the beginning as we noticed immediately that the river was up 2-4 inches but running like chocolate, not what you want to see when targeting Grayling, more akin to targeting Chub. Nevertheless we got to building a couple of swims each and working them furiously. When fishing for Grayling usually I find either bites come really quickly or they take a fair amount of time wher

 When the year started I had so many ideas in my head but knew that some would have to be put off as time would be slightly tight, one of my biggest wishes was to track down a double figure canal Bream and after a short campaign after my return from Asia I achieved it, but that wasn't the only target I set that I achieved, below is a short snapshot at how the previous twelve months unfolded.  January was a Dace month, a few trips were made and I had huge success, having landed a great haul of big Dace I lost the largest I contacted. 15oz 4dr was the biggest I slipped into the net and larger I know existed. Dace weren't the only species I roved about for, Barbel also made an appearance with a few landed and two into the double figures. My largest Dace of January. A pair of large chalkstream Dace.  One of two doubles caught in consecutive swims.  February was much the same as I targeted the Dace shoals as they fed through the winter, plenty of rain had risen