A No Show.

 Wednesday and Thursday were reserved for Roach fishing and with my hope of catching a 3lb Roach firmly in mind that was the species I targeted, but to put a long story short the two sessions didn't go to plan as the Roach must have had their heads down and clearly not feeding on both occasions on two different rivers, but on the Thursday it wasn't a total blank.

Amazing speed of the Kingfisher.

Blink and you've missed it.

 Basking in the lovely sunshine whilst quiver tipping for Chub as it turned out, as the Roach weren't feeding the Chub as usual were and I had three Chevin's to 4.14, the others at 4.0 & 3.10, all put up good fights but not the species I set out for and the trip out didn't end there as I had given up hope of attaching myself to a Roach I headed off down to the Thames after dark and went cage feeder fishing for Bream where I was very successful, with 14 caught to a weight of 7lb 14oz and another four of which were over 7lbs, I accrued over 50lb of Bream in just over an hour, they were certainly on the chew.

Nearly mine.

The biggest of the day at 4.14

The biggest Bream of the night at 7lb 14oz.

 But the session didn't end there either, a good fish crashed out just in front of me and my hunch was that it was a feeding Pike, I didn't need a second invitation, within 30-40 seconds of casting out the rod slammed over and whatever it was that crashed out had now grabbed my small diver, I powerful fight ensued on the 6lb line I was using but I've overcome many Pike on lighter gear so I wasn't praying for it to stop and come in as it was fairly impressive, but I had not yet seen it but I knew it was a good one.... Then all off a sudden it came careering out the water and done a brilliant tail walk in front of me, showing me it's full length and as I had just seen the entire fish for the first time it was to be also the last time as it worked the lure loose and flew off into the night, the Pike was gone..... I estimate it to have been around the 14lb mark, quite disappointed to be honest but it wasn't the first time that has happened and won't be the last, nearly time up....one more session today. 

Mirror Mirror.

 Well 5 days remaining of this seasons coarse sport, it leaves me with a small amount of time now to get out but I will hopefully manage a couple of trips out in search of Roach, as like most other species will be looking to spawn soon as spring settles in and they approach top weights and my chance of capturing my "Holy Grail" could be at no better time of the season than now, but let's catch up on a session that I embarked on at first light Saturday morning after Carp on a lake out in Surrey.

 During the morning the Carp were very lethargic and due to the cloudless night the temperature was fairly cool even though the sun was very warm and the first bite came after around an hour of fishing, which was subsequently missed, it all happened so quickly I missed it, but the following 2 casts provided me with 2 Carp, one of which about 4lbs and the other 10 lbs 1oz both of which were Common Carp and the lakes that I visited are stocked predominately with Commons plus a very small head of Mirrors and Leather Carp, I've only had one all season from here and that was 35lb 8oz, so they do get large and 40's do exist too, something to look forward to on 6lb line and a centre-pin on the waggler.

 The bay I was fishing was starting to show signs of activity as tail patterns and small bubbles started to appear, then after five minutes the swim went dead, although it seemed.... I reached into to my bag to grab a sandwich and the centre-pin screeched as a fish made off with my small bread offering, with no need to strike I leant into a good solid fish and for more than 7 minutes it led me the merry dance although I had it close to the net twice, the feisty Carp constantly made powerful surging runs out of the bay and into the lakes deeper water, after carefully getting the pristine specimen to the net I rested up for a few minutes as my arms were shot. I only had banked a Mirror Carp, one of only a few.

Immaculate, I want to catch more like this, very pretty.

Another double, fourth Common Carp of the day.

 It was one of the prettiest Mirror Carp I've ever caught and it looks as if it has the capacity to be a very big fish, let's hope it does..... At 16 lb 4 oz by far not the biggest Carp I've caught but indeed very much perfect and the day didn't stop there either with a further two Carp caught, 7.1 and 12.14 these were good battlers but not monsters and then the float started to lift and dip constantly as the Carp finally vacated my very fishy swim and the scores of Rudd moved in but I was unable to catch any even though I scaled down the gear, a lovely afternoon was ended on five Carp and that was a fulfilling days fishing, only a few days left and then it's over to the Brown Trout on the fly, but before then I will targeting some specimen Roach with the view of catching some more 2's and if the weather gods allow a 3lb Redfin.

Specimen Chub and Roach.

 Today's trip out never nearly happened, as I have come down with a bout of the flu and my body feels totally drained but if there is a sniff of a session out on the river bank then I'll get myself amongst it, within reason of course. Today's weather was lovely and the distinct warmth of spring is starting to settle in and with the coarse fishing season finishing 9 days there isn't long to target the likes of Chub and Roach, so these were my target.

 After a very laboured journey down to my chosen destination I selected to fish for Roach first and I set up originally with a stick float and then a wire stem but both didn't provide any enquiries, so after a 20 minute period I switched over to bread punch and a light feeder with white crumb but this approach also didn't work, I assumed they weren't feeding or in the swims I fished but I know fish move so I upped sticks and moved on up in search of some appealing water.

Under shotted so the bait would balance it out.

 The further I walked up the beats looked better more for Chub than Roach, so I set up a Chubber float rig and fished with a mix of Bread, Meat and Cheese, within 10 minutes I had a good Chub on and tearing off around the weir pool that I was fishing, first fish of the day was landed and it looked good too, my first guess was 5lb but after putting her on the Ruben Heaton's it registered 4 lb 13 oz, a good opener to the session 4 hours in!.

4lb 13ozs Chub, not long left now.

 It took over an hour before I got another indication and this fish certainly was miffed at being hooked, a big lump of bread was the winner and after a very good fight by Chub standards I had a substantial Chevin resting up in the net, wasn't sure if it would be heading towards 6lb, certainly had a good frame, the trusty scales gave me an accurate figure.

At 5 lb 9 oz, these do make trips worth it but a 6lb is here.

 As dusk was approaching and I was still feeling very rough I decided to head back down stream and sit behind a ledgered piece of bread flake and fish the creases and hope that as night was settling in the Roach would start to feed as they hadn't had all day and they were proving very elusive, in all honesty the Chub were more than enough and I'm certainly not greedy by any standards, I just did feel that something could happen during dusk and after half an hour or so the rod tipped bounced a couple of times and then the tell-tale jag-jag fight ensued, it felt good and made several strong runs through the current and it took three attempts to get it into the net and when I saw the Roach I knew it was a definite two-pounder, boy I am a lucky bugger sometimes, as the hook was right on the edge of the mouth and only took a little tension and it fell out, lucky indeed, time to marvel, specimen Roach never get old, always a pleasure to catch them and could catch them for the rest of my angling career quiet happily.

Old Father Redfin, get in......2 lb 2ozs.

Just perfect, need I say more.

 Another 2lb plus Roach takes me now up to 21 fish in 10 years of this bracket the biggest being 2.15 which is still my PB and was set a decade ago on the Thames, will I ever get a 3lber?? who knows but I just love catching Roach and I could have had more but I lost 3 Roach in a sunken tree that was in my swim and my bait ran out as I tried to really get them feeding, it was a struggle today but a great finale, I trudged off to the train station like a zombie and fell asleep on the train and nearly missed my stop, ill!!! pfft who cares when you catch fish like that, all was forgotten until I got on the train. 8 days now, tight lines guys.

Traditional Against Modern.

 Carp fishing is always good fun whether you are stalking them out on a quaint lake where a possibility of a 30lb plus is always just potentially a cast away, or you could be sat behind two rods in a bivvy whilst waiting for them to find your bait, I myself will deploy whatever tactic is best for the conditions, but waggler fishing for Carp is great fun and that was my chosen tactic for my 1 on 1 match with my brother Richard who challenged me and I accepted, anything for a bit of fun.

 The session wasn't in search of a monster but to catch as many as possible, Rich fished the modern way with boilies and all the modern Carp gear, I fished with a cane rod and centre-pin on the waggler with bits of bread. My float didn't stay still for long and with in twenty minutes I was in, 7.14 Common Carp was the first on the bank and on the next cast the bait didn't have time to hit the deck and the float was off again, Rich looked on in shock while his rod laid dormant and another Carp on the bank.

1st blood at 7lb 14, the biggest of the three Carp.

Pretty but bloody noisy.

 By the end of the session I had ended up with 3 Common Carp and a small Bream, Richard finished on......well nout, he drew a blank and made the age old mistake and follow everybody else in regards to bait, tackle and not moving around, if it isn't happening, move. I think the bait selection today was what made the difference, always great fun battling Carp on light tackle and I can't get bored of using cane rods, are you a traditional angler or modern?, traditional certainly won today, quite comfortably.

 After we finished we had a walk down the Thames and bumped into a family friend of ours who owns a couple of boats that he fishes from and showed us a picture of a 27lb Pike he had last week during some of the awful river conditions and had just released a 15lb Pike before we got there, so they are feeding, I may get involved in that, we shall see. Tight Lines Guys.

Royalty Barbel.

 On Saturday I made the journey down to the Avon at Christchurch, to have another go at the Pike but the conditions were set to be very bright with little or no cloud and exactly that happened, not ideal for the Esox but I packed a couple of tins of meat knowing that I could switch to rolling meat if the predator hunt was not fruitful.

Dawn over the flooded Avon at Christchurch.

 My Dad ( James ) also joined me for the day out and his first time down to the Royalty in 25 years plus, so it bought back a lot of memories of very good angling days, his first session on the fishery was when he was 15, all the way back to 1968, when he used to catch massive bags of Barbel during the 70's and early 80's, along with specimen Roach and Perch by even today's standards, this was when the fishing was nowhere near as tough as it is now, these Barbel are probably the most targeted in the country.

Big James ledgering in The Piles.

 Dad was rolling meat for the day and occasionally ledgering where the current would allow, my tactic was both rods tackled up with 15lb line to a 18'' trace and allowed to drift around the swims under Pike bungs, one baited with Smelt, the other Sprat, again occasionally ledgered where I could due to the extra water that is still thundering through the valley.

The Pike baits in the Piles remaining static.

 A few hours had passed and we were both remaining bite-less, we had walked up through a number of great swims, House Pool to The Trammels, Railway Pool to Harrigan's, not to mention that to gain access to all these swims we had to wade through upwards of 2ft of excess flood water that was engulfed the entire landscape surrounding the fishery, by around 1pm we had started fishing the west bank and as there was a Pike angler already fishing at Water's Meet, I then decided to put the Pike gear away for abit and put on the centre-pin and roll meat along the Pipes, through Greenbanks and down to the Railway Pool.

My first chance at rolling the railway pool.

 We both rolled through the long glide together at about 20meters apart and on my first roll past the tree-line at the Greenbanks I got the typical rod wrenching tug that you expect off of a Barbel and no second invite needed for that one, it certainly fought well in the fast water and on light line you could feel every move, 5 minutes had passed and the bronze torpedo was resting up in the net, a good sized Barbel landed and caught on the tactic of choice for the Royalty. At 8lbs 10ozs I was very chuffed with that fish, my first Royalty Barbel caught rolling, result.

Absolutely pristine, typical Royalty condition.

Ready to fight another day.

 Now that I had caught one it filled us with confidence that we would have more joy, but we found it quite difficult to muster anymore interest as the Barbel were still present in the glide between the runs of remaining weed and the fact we were watching them roll on the surface on a number of occasions, but we could neither hook up again and we finished the day just after dark as the twice round trip of the fishery was very tiring for James Snr and on my return to the Avon I returned to London with something to savour again and the day was very pleasant weather and all, not to mention my Dad enjoyed the day out immensely which was more important but he happily took over netting duties and being the photographer.

We know how he felt, but worth the effort.

 Maybe one last trip down before the end of the season on the Royalty, maybe target just Barbel. Another result on the Royalty, Tight Lines Guys.

Lovely Chubly.

 Ever had a dilemma where you have a day off work? and you know your going to utilise that day fishing but just had no concrete plans and couldn't decide where to go or what species to target. Today was one of those days and after much deliberation before breakfast I choose Chub, the great thing with Chub is they feed in almost any condition, I packed a tin of meat, block of cheese and a loaf of Warburton's, off I went.

 I picked probably the best day of the year so far to go fishing weather wise, I packed light so I could cover a decent amount of river. The first swim I fished in didn't yield any fish or bites but I knew that it would take time to locate the shoals of Chub that exist and maybe even a Carp or Barbel in the deeper stretches, it took 6 swims in total to find a fish, first take took a long time to come but I had little enquiries on the float with nout clear cut, my first hittable bite was a cracking take and a very sturdy fight followed, the fight was probably the longest I've encountered off of the species and then the Chub came to the surface out of the murky water, straight into the net. A good one bagged.

 A good 5lb plus Chub, which was swiftly followed by a another Chub of 4.7, the Chub were really starting to feed in earnest and with in ten casts I had a further 4 Chub and two of those were also 4lb + fish, 4.3 and 4.15, it was a good head of fish in that swim and it wasn't done either. The swim went quiet for 20-30 minutes but I stuck to it and carried on trotting with just one more take, another cracking Chub of 5lb 5oz, two 5lbers in a day is good going, great fun too on the centre-pin.

The two 5's, 5.9 and 5.5, both in immaculate nick.

A good batch of Chub, 4's and 3's, plus a little one.

                                    

The Chub swim, Chub aplenty, 9 from this swim in the end.

 Near the end of the session I put some bread on as the cheese and meat bites dried up, within a few trots I struck into a bite that looked very Roach like and the fight, the same, but maybe because it was a Roach, after that I fished on for around an hour but not another touch towards darkness, packed up and headed home, another good day out and plenty of my target species caught, including to five pluser's and one an ounce shy of five too.

A pristine specimen of around 10ozs.

Hurricane Force Chub.

 This morning Roach were on the agenda and my Dad decided to come and join me in pursuit of a good Roach and I am still searching for my Holy Grail, a 3lb Roach. Having looked at the weather forecast all week and this morning I didn't feel over confident but there's always a chance of a surprise, the country was issued with a Red warning for the 100mph plus winds and in Surrey we were expecting winds of up to 80 mph, but we were both hoping that we would escape the wrath of Mother Nature for a few hours.

 Cue...... the river...... my exact words were to my Dad was, "erm I don't think we are going to catch any Roach today", the river was up so high and coloured as I was expecting a little but after having no rain for over 24 hours we thought the river would have emptied most of it and fined down, but we were wrong, so in these conditions the only species that is mad enough to feed is a Chub, it wasn't long until Dad took one on the trot, a good scrap but it was never causing any issues.

Dad's 3lb 15oz Chub

 It was only his second cast into that swim in particular and that was the only take in that swim, not alot happening we folded away and headed off up river and the wind was already battering us and the rain started to come down and it wasn't pretty, we were both soaked through to the bone and I had suggested we couldn't get any wetter, so I stuck it out for a fish of my own and it took around 25 minutes until I finally got a belter of a take, two minutes later I had a good sized Chub in the net, an easy 4lber.

My 4lb 9oz Chub in the torrential rain, should have been a six for the effort.

 That was it for the session, we had had enough of the weather and retired home to get dried off, will the rivers return to normality before March 14th, somehow I doubt it, such a shame, anyone for a bet on a hosepipe ban this Summer !. 

Artificial Bait Heaven For Pike.

 Since the extremely wet and unsettled weather has hit us I have been busy in buying lures and anything else artificial that may grab the attention of a dormant or feeding predator, a range of brands including Savage Gear, Rapala, Mepps and Abu Garcia, plus also some lures from Decathlon online which do good lures which will hopefully get some usage.

 One of the Rapala F-9 Fire tiger divers have already had a Pike of 4.10 and no doubt will catch more.

The Lure of Pike Part Two.

 After a long week at work, Saturday was looked forward to with much anticipation, the incessant rain has meant the rivers are still rising or maintaining there levels so it was down to targeting a Reservoir or a lake for a Pike or two, the forecast was not looking to clever but I really wanted to get out and after a bit of thinking I went down to one of my ticket waters in search of an Esox.

 Recently I had purchased some more Rapala lures and today I used them to try and tempt some predators, Pike on this venue go in excess of 20lbs but are seldom caught due to the lack of anglers chasing them which is where I come in, there is a possibility of something more special than that, it is somewhat an unknown entity, but it isn't an easy water as I have found out over the last half dozen trips or so.

 The rain throughout the morning was whipped in by fierce winds, but you can't catch them sat at home, with in 20 minutes I had a solid take off of a Pike I would have thought but the hooks didn't set and it took another 40mins before I got another opportunity, the take caught me totally by surprise as the Pike charged out from under the bank I was standing on, most exhilarating it has to be said, the fight didn't last long but it was great fun, a good little jack of 4lb 10oz.

Small but welcome.

One snaffled Rapala.

 I stayed for about half-an-hour after that Pike and did have two more takes, another of which was a Pike that I bumped which was quite a bit bigger maybe 7-8lb and the other being a Perch that was hooked on the chin, whether it was hooked properly at first and a set of hooks came free who knows. Unfortunate, but at least I did not draw a blank, another Esox towards my target, am I going to reach it? It's not looking straightforward as I thought it would be in September.

Wet, Wet and Wet.

 In fact more like sodden beyond recognition, this was my conclusion of the Britford stretch of the River Avon, the target was to catch my first ever Grayling, one of any size would have been great, a total success but we were met in Salisbury by a raging torrent, 3 foot of extra water and it had dropped 8inches from two days before, "oh damn", I thought.

Dawn at the Salisbury Avon.

The three musketeers, Myself, Brian and Richy.

 Joined by Brian and my younger brother Richard we were all very confident in catching a Grayling, buoyed by the history of the fishery for what it provides we thought we couldn't go wrong, well we couldn't be anymore wrong, the old river is where the Grayling shoal up but that was totally unfishable due to the ridiculous amount of excess water travelling through the Avon valley.

My only chance of a wet hand.

 After around 4 hours of finding our way to the fishery we finally got to our port of call and tackled up with the excitement of what could happen on the next cast, but that excitement didn't last too long as the 35mph gusts took some of the shine off and the absolute lack of fish activity, for me it was a glum day with only a couple of baby Brown Trout caught and a take on a jig off of a sturdy looking Perch of maybe 2lb +, which disappointed a lot but it was the way that the day had gone, up at 5am, started fishing at noon and packed up by half four to catch our return train home which we missed. Summed it all up.

Salisbury Cathedral in the distance.

Almost unfishable, such a shame.

More than 3 foot up and pouring into the adjacent fields.

 It was all in all a disaster for me but Brian caught a small jack and Rich caught a jack of his own and a baby Grayling, although it was no longer than my index finger it was a Grayling, congrats although I would like one just a little bigger, needless to say I will go back and I will catch one, but not until this constant deluge ceases to batter us, my local Thames is still hammering through and in awful condition, it had been since around the 23rd of December, fishable by the end of the season I hope so but not holding my breath.

 I deserve a red letter day after that effort, fish gods are you listening. Until next time tight lines.