Long Day, But Worth It......

..... in the end.

 But before we get to the end I'll start with the beginning, naturally. The plan today was to track down a Barbel and doing this by my much loved tactic that counts for a large percentage of my past seasons, rolling.

 The start of the session didn't go to plan and I was pestered by the Chub with three coming to the net with the largest going 3lb 9oz but although they weren't my target it was good fun, I headed off upstream to a couple of swims I know Barbel do frequent but after a couple of hours of searching I hadn't caught my target species but I did hook a Brown Trout whilst rolling roughly 3lbs but unfortunately when it jumped I didn't keep the tension and it came off.

A smaller one about 2lbs.

The biggest of the day at 3.9.

 As my time on the river drew to a close I carried on rolling just hoping I would find a Barbel that was feeding and in the last swim that I fished, on the first roll my antique cane rod slammed towards the river as a fish stormed off, the first five seconds of the fight it was evident I had finally hooked a Barbel, too long since my last encounter and what a fight it was too, for a fish around the 5 -5 1/2 bracket it fought very well and it used every bit of water available to it, five minutes of tussling she finally tired out and I slipped the net under it, a big sigh of relief breathed.

Although it's not a lump it fought very well, 5lbs 9oz.

The second one on the second cast. 4lb 1oz.

 But in typical fashion after waiting all day for one and the previous few weeks, next cast out my rod slammed over again, in exactly the same fashion but this Barbel charged off upstream so fast my centre pin shrilled as the line got stripped from it, a very fast fish against the current to, I just held on amazed at the power that these guys possess and it was only a small one, but it's stamina or lack of showed as it was in the net with in two minutes, the old rod performed very well and it passed the test.

Some wildlife seen about on my journey's.

Roach Quest Part One.

 This season I have set out my stall to catch some specimen Roach, the sort of size that I caught last season and maybe catch a larger one than 2lb 7oz, even though it was a very large Roach and a fish of a lifetime for many a Roach angler up and down the country I am still chasing a new personal best Redfin, my quest may take me around the country to some of the most prestigious fisheries in search of large Roach, venues like, the Hampshire Avon, the Dorset Stour, Warks Avon, Itchen and anywhere else I can find them, I'd prefer to catch my holy grail on a river I think for me it would be more of a challenge although I'm not saying that lake big Roach aren't easy, just wild large Roach for me, gives me the biggest kicks.

 On Wednesday I headed off out in search of Roach, the conditions were ok but not ideal for big Roach but not at work for this week it was on the agenda, I donned my waders and travelled fairly light and a keepnet just in case I got amongst a shoal, it took 3 hours for me to get a bite, it was very tough going, I got my first take in I think my fifth swim, plenty of bait went out in the feeder to stimulate the Roach to feed it took a long time to get them feeding but when I got my first take my cane rod bounced a couple of times and then the rod tip pulled round as the fish picked up the bait and headed off downstream with my offering, a typical Roach bite, so when the fish broke the surface I wasn't surprised to see a red dorsal fin break the water, I reached for the net and gladly slipped it in.

 My first of the session and I weighed it before going in the keepnet, 1 lb 2 oz another pound plus redfin, although I haven't had a two pounder yet the stamp of fish is astounding, but I had plenty of time to reflect on the seasons targets because the bites were so few and far between, it was roughly a bite every 40minutes, but when the next one came the rod tip bounced and slammed around again, another typical Roach bite, after a couple minutes I had number two in the net and they were getting larger, the second one went 1 lb 7 oz, I guessed about a pound and half as it approached the net so I was almost spot on, again I had to wait for nearly an hour.

 Then another bite, which was quite violent more so than the first two, at first I thought it was a Chub, but very quickly discovered it was another Roach, much larger than the others, it darted through the weed and straight towards me across the river, about three minutes it took me to get it close to the net when the unthinkable happened and the hook pulled about 3 ft from the net, a fish that was extremely close to 2lbs if not, a large Roach and losing them under such circumstances is always a difficult pill to swallow. Even though I landed two good Roach over a pound I packed up and headed for home feeling quite gutted, such a shame to lose one so close to the net, it would have been a great finale to what was an incredibly difficult day and patience was definitely needed. 

 But as with all specimen hunting, you have your lucky moments and sometimes your blessed with bad luck, today a mixture of both.

My pair of Roach 1.2 and 1.7, hard work these two were.

River Trotting.

 Over the last couple of days I have been out on one of my rivers in search of Roach on the first day and then on Tuesday in search of the ever ferocious Brown Trout.

 The Monday was spent in a couple of swims with Chris trotting maggots and bread to try and catch some Roach, in between the storms that bought large amounts of rain we both did manage half a dozen redfins between us but not large with the biggest around the 10oz mark caught by yours truly but Chris wasn't to be upstaged by that, with the capture of a good sized Gudgeon, at roughly 3oz it was a specimen fish, the session unfortunately was cut short due to a prolonged storm that caught us two both out and Stuart too, who only came along to see how we were doing, needless to say we all got soaked to the bone.

A pristine Roach and Chris's Gudgeon.

 Tuesday's session was fished in much better conditions with no rain forecast and actually basking in lovely sunshine, just the perfect weather for trotting and the water levels were back to a normal level, the fishing went well and it wasn't long before Chris had chalked up a nice Brown Trout of 1.4 only his second ever Trout, so it was a great coup for him but his day didn't finish there either with a capture of another Brownie at 1.11, he needless to say finished the session a happy chappy.

 I did however also manage to catch a Brownie and a lovely specimen it was as well, it was also caught on my split cane rod and it coped with it brilliantly, with the display that fish put up it didn't even flinch even with the rod bent double it felt although it still had plenty more to offer.

The first of Chris's pair.

My Trout at 3lb 3oz a stunning specimen.

 Later on in the day I did unfortunately lose a Barbel in a bank of weed, the fish was around the 4lb mark but with the Barbel fishing being so difficult even one as small as that would have been good to land, plus Chris missed his chance to triple his Trout tally when a spotty rose and took his bait but he failed to connect to it.

 Up next, a trip to Marsh Farm for their famous Crucian Carp.

Where Are They.

 It has been a strange start to the river season in a few respects, but the other day just highlighted how strange it has been, I started the day trotting with some Maggots and managed a single Dace of around 6ozs, with plenty of silvers showing on the gravel beds I couldn't persuade anymore to take the bait, later on in the session I changed tactic and decided to try a static bait just off of the main current in a few swims and it took about five swims before I started to get some enquiry's but they weren't typical Chub or Barbel bites, so I sat on my hands and allowed the bite to progress when I had had enough I struck and was met by a tell tale Eel fight and after getting it up off the bottom it skated across the surface, a good Eel of 2lb 3ozs banked ( in the daylight too).

 The session went even quieter after that fish and it felt that everything has just upped and moved off, I fished some good looking swims where I would have assumed fish would be present but I went nearly two hours without a touch, but some hope was restored at the sight of 2 Barbel and a couple of Chub too.

 I ended the session  early as I didn't think anything would change, just everything feels wrong, I'll leave the Barbel until I feel things have changed, or is it my timing that is wrong, maybe they are feeding late night to dawn and I'm missing them?, who knows.

The trap is set.

 

 

The perfect Barbel swim, or so you'd think.

 

No shortage of these Damsel flies, plus an abundance of Butterflies.

 

 

Out With The New and In With The Old.

 Recently I have acquired a great looking split cane rod and after quite a bit of research I believe it's a Sealey 10ft, 3 piece rod and I've had it since last Saturday, at work all week, itching like mad to get on the river with it, it probably hasn't been used in one maybe two decades, so I wanted to give it a go and I thought the perfect species to go after would be the Chub.

 Today's trip for Chub I choose to go to a river I haven't been to in quite a long time and by the looks of things it hasn't seen anyone else, (picture above), it took about half an hour to get to the river, the combination of sun and the occasional rain has allowed the vegetation to explode, with the shrubbery growing to double my height of 6.1, I felt as if I was on jungle trekking expedition.

 With the rod set up with my new centre pin that I was also gagging to try out, I cast out with a lump of trotted sausage meat and the bait barely touched the surface of the water when the rod hooped over, I struck in to the fish immediately and the old cane rod came alive, the fight was totally different from what I usually experienced on a normal carbon fibre rod, every single jerk and dive was amplified through the rod but on the other hand the rod certainly had some strength too. A good few minutes of battling and I had a good Chub in the net.

 A large Chub of 4lb 13oz, just the test I hoped that the rod would get, a proper thick set fish and come the winter it will be a certain five pounder, next cast after releasing that Chub I had another one of about 3.8 yet again it gave a good account of itself, I gave it 20 minutes and then moved down river where I did catch a couple more Chub to the three pound mark and another good Roach of 1.3 also being caught on the cane rod.

 As the day wore on I changed venue and headed off over to one of my ticket lakes in search of Carp, my target was to catch one of the resident Carp on my cane rod, really give it a stern test as most of the Carp are Common's and they are crazy fish so I will get to see how good it is.

 After two hours of stalking I managed to get catch a couple of Common's both off the top using crust, both of which provided me with the test that I craved and it passed with flying colours, the relic that was hidden away from the world in a basement finally got it's new lease of life and breathed once again, just a pleasure to use such a fantastic rod.

First of the two at 7.7 (above), the smaller at 6.3.

Little Piece of Heaven.

 This morning I headed out for a short session in search of Carp, the lake I headed off to doesn't hold any large Carp, maybe running to 15lb tops but they are very well marked fish and the colours are stunning at any time of the year, the lake isn't large but is quite deep towards the middle, but today I just took a small stalking set-up and tracked down some fish, but it wasn't long after I set up at around 5;30am, when the sound of thunder rolling in the distance started to get a little bit louder and more consistent, Lightning is always a concern when your fishing and the concern was increasing as the morning progressed.

 But not allowing the potential bad weather affect play I carried on walking around the lake and spotted a few fish bubbling, their identity unknown as they were buried entirely in the dense weed that has consumed some of the water, but in the early morning the lake did look so peaceful and I could just relax and wait for a Carp to come and find me.

 Time started pressing on and I had to pack up around 8, so I had time to get home and then head off to work, the Carp were feeding and occasionally taking pieces of flake off the surface but they seemed quite weary for reasons unknown, but for another hour I carried on but to no avail, but it wasn't time that was to curtail my trip but the bilious grey cloud that looked as bad as it sounded, now streaks of lightning were visible across the brightly lit sky and the claps of thunder were almost instant, I wasn't going to hang around in it, but funnily enough I didn't see any rain at all, just lots of pent up electricity, I shall be back for these little guys and who knows I might get a surprise in a form of an elusive Tench or Bream.

Without the dodgy thunderstorm, it was all in all a lovely morning's fishing even if I didn't catch anything, just being there makes it worth while.

Redfin Riot.

 Well not quite but the day as you could probably gather was myself in search of some more red fins, my quest for a river 3lb Roach is my ultimate angling goal, not a target for the faint hearted as it is a target that could quite possibly never be achieved but I'll try everything possible to make it happen all I need is for that one fish, that one chance then it is up to me. But let's leave the world of fiction behind and enter the present world that doesn't involve 3lb Roach although I wish it did, maybe a 2lb Roach today will be great and that is achievable although again not guaranteed.

 

One of the runs I fished for the Roach, just downstream it widens and deepens.

 It was a roasting hot day that without shade would have been quite unconformable, so had to find some shade, my tactic for the afternoon was to use a Drennan stick float 3BB and 3lb line with my trusty 10ft trotting match rod, the ideal Roach fishing tackle, travel light and fish light.

 The first hour brought about a few Chub to 3lb and a few small species, Gudgeon, Minnow and a solitary Dace, but I hadn't had the one species that I wanted so I came off the maggots and went on to the bread and within five minutes I got my wish when the float slid away and I was met with a stronger than normal fight, a nice Roach was on and darting through the runs of weed, navigating the floating weed was the difficult part it had already bumped off three fish, but after a couple of minutes a pound + Roach was sat in my net, 1lb 4oz on the Avon's, it has been a good start to the season, all my Roach have been over a pound since the season started.

  A lovely dumpy Roach, it took just over an hour to get my first one, then two casts later and I was to get a fish I did not expect, I know they are in here but very rare and over a pound even rarer, that fish was the Rudd, the fight just as good as the Roach before maybe even a little stronger, the fish took the same path as the Roach to the landing net, which happily slipped it over, another English species caught, the list is starting to take shape now.

 

My biggest and only Rudd so far this season at 1lb 7ozs, absolutely pukka!

 

The previous 1.4 Roach ( top ) and the Rudd at 1.7  ( bottom ).

 

 Brilliant to catch a Rudd, on rivers they seem to be so rare I only catch a couple a season, that's including a fair amount of time fishing the tactics that do pick them up, about 30 mins after that capture I did finally get another bite, something that didn't seem very forthcoming during the whole session, it's usually bite a chuck or two but today the heat on Sunday kept a lot of fish from wanting to feed so I was picking off the odd one, hardly any Chub much to my delight as they can ruin swims single handily, that bite though was off of another Roach which seemed to bit a little larger than the fish prior and after a couple of minutes of it ducking and diving through the vast beds of weed it too ended up on the bank.

 

 

1lb 9oz Redfin largest of the day.

 

 Another good Roach, this stamp of Roach is fantastic, such a pleasure to find a shoal of fish like this, I had searched for years with my dad just to find a holding spot for Roach and now as the years go by we find more and more stretches that hold good fish, the river Mole is going to be my next target as there are some good places for big Roach there too, with a 3.13 Roach coming off of there last season, which was in the angling press but the youngster who put it in there said he caught off of a different river, to protect the fishery he fishes which is fair enough and I know where he caught it but that will remain mine and his secret.

 

 Will I ever catch a 3lb Roach who knows what the future holds.

The One That Got Away.

 On Friday morning I got up early, 4am to be precise and grabbed the Carp stalking gear for a couple of hours fishing before work, owing to the lovely warm weather the Carp are on the feed big time, so my plan was to find out where the scum lines were and if everything went to plan that's where I'd find the Carp.

 With only a couple of hours of to spare I didn't have a long time to hunt them down, but I didn't have to wait long and the first few Carp I saw were only small to medium fish up to 15lb or so, not large but great fun on the centre pin, but my efforts were reserved for a lump and after about half an hour, one big Common came from underneath the raft of floating seeds and leaves, sucking everything up it could find but using the centre pin it was proving very difficult to cast to, my range probably gets to around 20 -25 yards and this fish was patrolling a line of debris around 35 yards out, it's huge mouth hoovering everything in sight, oh how I wanted it to be my lump of float crust and after an hour of trying to fashion a decent chance at getting close it finally decided to head closer in, so I cast about 6 foot to left of it and the slight sound of the light peacock quill float and couple of shot hitting the surface seemed to had caught it's attention.

 Within 20 seconds it's mouth opened up and Whack!!! my float rod bent double when a massive Common stormed off with me in tow, I had hooked a proper lump, first estimates I put it at around the 25lb mark, just what I was looking for, 5:30am and I'm already having a workout that would banish the need for a gym and I only had it on for around 3 minutes, then the fight turned sour, as the fish started to get it's bearings the fish all of a sudden created a master plan and headed straight for a tree-line, you could see where this was going, but with the relatively light gear I was almost powerless to stop it and 30 seconds later, it was gone........ my chance had come and gone, diligently watching it for my time to pounce and it was the tackle selection they maybe let me down, but you live and you learn, after all these years of fishing for Carp, 6lb line was probably never a good idea!, but the 20 the other day was landed on the same gear, if that tree line wasn't there I would have bet a wad of cash that would have been landed, clever sod.

 Maybe next time I will land my quarry.

A Little Off Topic.

 Between my work and my fishing and the other half Lucie, I do also play football for a club, but last Sunday I travelled up to Burton to the St.George's  FA HQ to play a final of a tournament that we have been in since August last year and we finally got the dates released last month, so for nearly four weeks all the team were buzzing, I for one couldn't wait and after a 4 hour coach journey through the English countryside we reached the complex, by now everybody realizing that the time had come, a day for all of us to savour, but after having team photo's and then our coach giving us the formation and team sheet, I was to start in my favoured right wing position, the nerves started to creep up on me but then it was time to get the game face on, the rest was history.

 Unfortunately the game didn't go to plan and at half time we were 2-0 down, at half time a few of us vented our frustrations at the way some of the team were playing, we hadn't travelled all that way up and work so hard to get here to go home and lose and by the 65 minute we were level, the choice words at HT seemed to have paid dividends but come the end of the final we unfortunately conceded a third goal and we were unable to get an equalizer, losing the game 3-2 we were all gutted and I was extremely miffed at the result, never had I felt so upset at losing, bearing in mind I only ever do something to win it, needless to say the journey home wasn't as good as we hoped, everyone in a state of disappointment.

 But apart from the result the day was brilliant and something I won't forget in a hurry, got changed in Paul Gascoigne's changing room and had a tour of the complex and we played the final in the England squad's indoor training pitch in a state of the art dome with the new 5th gen artificial turf, a dream to play on, plus everything was laid on by Beko, Toshiba and the FA, a truly great day.

 I wore my usual number 9 shirt for the match, below are a few pictures of the final.

 

Warm up.

 

 

Me playing the ball out from defence.

 

Myself tucking away a penalty to make it 2-2.

 

 

A dejected team, all of us looking annoyed at the result.

 

 

Standing next to David Beckham's England shirt.

 

 

The team hotel at the ground.

 

 

One of the outdoor pitches that the national squad train on.

 

 

Summer Carping Part One

 When the sun is out this warm and for the period that it has, it has to be said there isn't many more species better than the Carp to target, as they all start to cruise the surface in search of daphnia and other surface and water born creatures, stalking for Carp is great fun and finding them whilst they are feeding between times that they aren't basking in the sun, location of the fish is key, bait selection is often the good old Pedigree chum mixers soaked for 24 hours to soften them up, to fish for them I prefer to free line but that does have it's limitation especially if they are at range and on some of the lakes I fish, margin fishing for Carp isn't possible.

 But I sometimes use a controller float to get my range, the gear of choice I vary between fixed spool reel when I'm fishing at distance and a centre pin when at ranges of 0 - 35yrds as the fight on the pin is brilliant for Carp.

 The tactic of a float and the centre pin was deployed and I was joined for an evening session of stalking by my dad James Snr, who isn't shy on catching Carp through stalking and I have learnt much about Carping from him since the ripe age of 6 when my first ever Carp was a 16lb 10ozs fully scaled Mirror Carp and had my first 20lb + Carp at the age of 7, I owe a lot to him for many aspects of my angling style of today but it was the tutor of old being taught how to do it with 3 Common Carp being landed and a 4th missed when my float buried itself but unfortunately I didn't connect to it.

 My first Carp of the evening was a chunky Common of 14lb 15oz which put up a good fight on the light 6lb line and pin, after a battle of around 7 minutes she lay rested up in the margins, after weighing the fish I slipped it back without any pictures, for I was focused to try and get a second, but a second didn't come for a long time.    2 hours to be precise and plenty of stalking until I did get a shot at another fish when my bait must have sunk below the surface because I didn't realise I had a take until my float slid away confidently and hooked into a fish and it didn't seem large at all, it came up to the surface slowly and didn't fight strongly at all for about 3 mins, when it approached the net it came to within 4 foot of the awaiting net when the fight changed drastically, all of a sudden it felt like scrapping and charged off on a 80-100yrd stretch, all I could do was place my thumb on the pin and apply what pressure I could, a supposed little Carp turned out to be a decent one but how big I could not tell.

 10 minutes had now elapsed and the Carp was still hammering it's way across the bay in front of me stripping line and was by this time collecting a lot of weed on the line which was making the fish heavier all the time but the pressure on the line and the hook hold wasn't good but the weed did also start to cover up the fishes head so the fight became more of a plod, a couple more minutes passed when I had finally got it back to the net and she slid in first time, bearing in mind it was pitch black by this time I didn't see the fish until I tried to lift it out the water, when I realised I had banked a big double maybe even a 20.

 As soon as I got her on the mat, we both said a twenty, it was plainly obvious, a real thick fish with a width of around a foot, with an almighty paddle at the business end, 20lb 7oz my best Carp of the season so far, but I do fancy some bigger than this fish as I know in London the are waters available to me that hold Carp over 45lb +, what a tale that would be eh?!

 The night didn't finish there either with a further capture of a 16lb 8oz Common right at the end of the session but the night belonged to the twenty for it's fight of two halves, what a contrast, I hope for some more of that but I would love a couple of twenty pound Mirrors, maybe even a thirty.

 Tight Lines until next time........