Slim Pickings, Happy New Year All!

 

 I've barely fished since my last blog post, work and family reign supreme, that said I have been out twice, both in search of Roach, where I am currently targeting real big ones are possible, an outside chance of a three-pound specimen which would certainly be a truly momentus catch should I manage to find and land one!

 On my first trip I struggled for the first half day as a solid high air pressure and freezing cold night and biting wind made it very uncomfortable and the fish clearly weren't too bothered in feeding, thankfully I had a very productive final 3hrs where I managed over 20 Dace, most of a good size with half a dozen around 10-11ozs, 12 Grayling also came to the net along with four Roach with best weighing 1lb 11oz which was lovely to see after such a long hiatus from the H.Avon, for me dusk came and went too fast and it was off time, I could not wait to get back.

 A week later I did manage to get back and conditions were very similar with cold brisk winds blowing upstream just to make things harder, one thing I know very well with Roach is presentation is king and if its off even a tiny bit the fish will not touch it and felt all day I fished well but just could not make it happen and came away with a couple of small Grayling and slim Sea Trout. 

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.

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 

Wading About for Ladies.

 

 As the season drew to a close I got an invite from Mike once again to join him on the beautiful Wylye, how could I ever say no!!

 Conditions apparently were testing and so it proved to be, when I arrived some parts of the fields were underwater! most areas I've fished previously were boiling torrents and the bank as treacherous as you could imagine given the levels, without waders it would have been a total waste of time. 

 The first 6hrs of the trip were very hard going indeed with just 6 proper bites and five of them were Grayling with the best just over 2lbs, I really did wonder whether it was going to get better in the evening and thankfully for me it did! 

 The final two hours provided much better sport, not sure why but glad it did switch on, that final stretch provided a further 13 Grayling with 2 of them over 2lbs ( another at 2lb 1oz and my best of the session weighing a pleasing 2lb 6ozs ), that was backed up with numerous decent 1lb+ fish with two 1lb 15oz specimens chucked on top for good measure.

2.06

 That did mean however that my quest for a 3lb+ Grayling rolls onto next winter, I knew it would be tough but it has not been easy at all, nevertheless the fish I've been catching of late are of a superb standard and one can never tire of runs of 2lb+ fish!

 Until next winter....

 Best fish: 2.6, 2.1, 2.1, 1.15, 1.15 & 1.14.

 Also after my recent trip to Drennan HQ I collected a couple of new bits to try and absolutely loved how easy the new 15ft Acolyte Specimen float rod managed in that pacy water, I can not wait to tackle some summer Barbel and Chub with this rod 😍.

Feel It In My Toes.

 

 Hmmmmmm.....winter.....I spend months looking forward to it then you remember it's never easy fishing, even when you think you have sussed out a venue. The question I asked myself, can you ever have somewhere truly sussed out? Rivers always like to keep you on your toes and the winter just makes you focus your aim that much more acutely.

The Perch water that I'm currently blanking on.

 In a week where I went fishing for Perch, Grayling and Pike all in separate sessions. For the Perch I have a venue that I've been targeting recently and with that initial success I thought I was on to a winner but have subsequently blanked the following 4 trips and left somewhat uninspired, I put it simply down to the sharp downturn in temps. However my next target shouldn't suffer from a dose of the "I don't wanna feeds", and with that I made the 109 mile drive back down to the Wiltshire countryside for another go for a Grayling of my dreams.

 The grass was crunchy underfoot, the river still up but crystal clear given the drop in temps and my maggots lay almost dormant in their tubs as -5c temps kept them subdued, I could only hope they would all either be useful feed or the single maggots that would tempt a lady onto my size 16 wide gape hook.

 All the previous sounded perfect, problem was the Grayling very quickly seemed to be off the feed, a couple of very good looking swims that have done fish for me in the past were devoid of Grayling and to make matters worse the sharp decrease in temps meant the Trout were feeding in ravenous fashion, buggers could not be avoided! 

1lb 14oz.

 It took me hours to finally find an area where Grayling were feeding and they took ages to tempt, hours of trying and numerous runs trotted I finally started to get some decent fish but the effort put in this time wasn't rewarded in the fashion I usually experience, that was until I connected with a big Grayling just minutes before dusk, a big powerful fish made its way very slowly up the run and in hindsight should have walked downstream to intercept it knowing how many fish I'd lost throughout the day, alas I didn't and the frame of a mid-2lb specimen showed itself in the gin clear water just a rod length out before it came off, I was just a little bit pissed off, that fish would have made my day and in the famous words of Rex Hunt, " Yibbidy Yibbada that's all folks". Not the day I was expecting but, that is winter fishing, it rarely plays to the script and Friday was no different.

1lb 13oz

Prime trotting country!

Oh and a dead Otter in the margins.

 So given that tough day on Friday I decided it would be a good idea to go deadbaiting on the Rother for the day on Saturday. Taking my new Drennan E-Sox Piker 12ft dead-bait rods out for a maiden fling I hoped they would get a beating! 

 Wrong....I spent the day trying to no avail and ended up as ghillie for his royal highness Brian-of-Nazareth, shame Brian didn't hook the one prior to his Erling Haaland look-a-like as that would have been turn up, alas he didn't catch it and I blanked....Where did I leave my golf clubs? 

Ladies, Ladies, Ladies.

 

...And no, not those kind of ladies, I mean these! battle worn, hard fighting and smelly...well that could relate to some of the human type but this time around I am talking of the Lady of the Stream (Tymallus Tymallus or Grayling). Around mid-November I tend to get the Grayling itch and dust off the trotting gear for a day out chasing a 3lb specimen which still eludes me.

 The day started off in less than ideal fashion when I got about 6miles into my 104 mile journey the break heat shield on one of my wheels came completely loose after going over a series of potholes, I had to jack up the car, remove the wheel, remove the heat shield, refit the wheel and tighten up the bolts, that cost me a good 20mins which had a knock on affect as I hit the beginning of rush hour traffic on the A303 which was slow with people heading toward Salisbury and neighbouring towns for work. I on the other hand had fishing to get on with and this was all a bloody inconvenience!

As anglers we really are lucky.

 Finally I arrived, about an hour later than I wanted. However I still caught the captivating sunrise which is of stark contrast to the dross we've put up with for weeks now! The river was high and waders were a necessity to fish half of the runs, the high water bought other challenges too as the water was really turbulent and Grayling aren't usually keen on staying in unstable water, problem was a lot of the river was like this and did limit the amount of water I and later on Mike would have to fish.

 That said I got off to wonderful start as my 14ft Acolyte Plus float rod was put into action with a 2lb 6oz specimen which was swiftly followed by a smaller fish of around 10oz then the float sailed away for a third time in as many trots with what turned out to be another two-pounder weighing in at 2lb 4oz, quite the start!

2.6 BOLM!

2.4 

  The sun was lovely and warm and the fish continued to come to the white maggot, reds really weren't working and in the end gave up on them, when the white maggots were going through the sport was steady. A few more average sized fish came to the net and the total was steadily rising past the twenty fish mark and another two-pounder (2.01) joined them, which was then followed by a slight lull in sport before I contacted what turned out to be the biggest of the day, a strong fight in the pacy main flow which made for a good video opportunity, see link here → Locked into battle!

Best of the day at 2lb 8oz.

 A pristine male Grayling, so not quite "a lady" but a fine specimen all the same. As said previously fish were not east to find and sport became really patchy, nevertheless I was still catching the odd fish and as dusk was fast approaching my tally steady increased to 31 Grayling with another three fish over 2lbs ( ending up with seven over 2lbs and two others that weighed 1lb 15ozs ), it was my best haul off the Wylye yet, a special place and feel very privileged to get the opportunity to fish it!

Another low 2...

...Followed by another...

...Finished off with this lovely 2lb 4oz female.

Big Grayling, Barbel No-Shows.

 

 A good three weeks has passed since I had a decent trip out after anything so I had to put that right. After an exchange of messages Mike and I were R.Wylye bound, however given the fact Brian hasn't had much chance to get out following his invasive treatment I thought it would be good to get him in on the act and get amongst some of the best Grayling fishing this country has to offer, very kindly a couple days later I got the all clear from Mike that Brian could come along, I had a sneaky feeling he would enjoy himself.

 Before we stepped foot on the R.Wylye part of the plan was to target Barbel on the R.Itchen, conditions were poor but I am just conscious that we have so little left of the season and would love to get one more river chalked off, however after a few cold hours trying I called it a night around 0300 as I needed some kip so popped to the car for some shut eye. 

 Unfortunately even after a quick fire 30mins rolling meat in the morning which resulted in nothing so we made the 40 mile journey north to the wonderful surroundings of the Wiltshire countryside with the target of trying to achieve a long standing desire of mine, a three-pound specimen Grayling, a fish that has eluded me for the six years that I've been trying (admittedly not very hard), I hoped I would put that right.

 My tackle for the day was my 13ft Drennan compact X-Tension float rod, centrepin loaded with 4.4lb float fish line and an 18'' 3.6lb flourocarbon hooklink and size 14 wide gape hook (micro-barb), a 7BB wire stem float fished with a combo of red and white maggots but not mixed.

Got the trots....

 My day started off really well as I had banked fish of 1lb 10oz, 2lb 1oz and 2lb 2oz in quick succession and hoped the day would follow that similar vein of form. Within thirty minutes the swim had gone pretty quiet so I decided to move on up the river and quickly crossed paths a spirited 1lb 15oz specimen before finding a few smaller ones between 7ozs and 1lb 12ozs ( slightly bigger ) it wasn't until after I'd photographed a beauty for Brian that was when I started to find some better fish much further downstream. 

2.2 & 1.10 under very gloomy skies.

 A super two hours followed where even though it was very hard graft getting bites and indeed keeping the Grayling on the hook a run of six fish came weighing 1.10, 1.12, 1.8, 2.2, 2.4 and a mega looking 2lb 11oz pewter clad beauty, which incidentally is the third 2.11 Grayling I've caught and all represent my personal best, can't seem to get away from that number :) but with such a pristine fish who could be unhappy about that!

A mint 2.4

Then this amazing creature at 2lbs 11oz

Always wanted this shot!

 That run of fish seemed to spell the end of my days big fish as I wrapped up the day with five fish over 1.8 to 1.12 by which point the sun was going down and we both called a day, Mike had had a great day too landing a couple of 2lbs Grayling and a handful of smaller fish and Brian' day...well you can read it here Brian' Blog I think he would say he had a "cloud nine" kind of day. Must say I really enjoyed myself too.