Drennan Cup on the Horizon?.

 Ever since I was a child learning to fish with my father I have always had a relatively competitive outlook to my fishing, this was natural owing to two brother's who also fish and we are very similar age, we used to try to better each others PB's over most species that were available and although this was good banter between us at an early age I soon became detached from the competitive side of angling and have adopted a more nomadic style of fishing and spending many hours just thinking on how to improve my catches and indeed sometimes just to catch.

 It may seem I catch just about every time I go out and invariably that does happen but it's not without having to tough out times when it seems the waters are devoid of fish although I know it's not the case. But of late I have struck gold with the capture of some magnificent wild river Roach, my all time favourite species and to catch such rare specimen's is testament to what our rivers can produce should the condition's and many other variables be in your favour on the day, I will always maintain that location is half the battle won with large Roach.

 Having caught these specimen redfin's I thought why not send them to the AT and see if I could win a little something, last month I won my first Drennan Cup award and £80 richer, snazzy baseball cap and pin I thought "that's good init", so upon catching my season best of 2.10 the other week I thought I'd send the photo in and see if I could get in the rag again, low and behold I got a text from a mate last night saying congrats on another award, I thought "oh shit", I honestly hold no expectations at all about anything like this but to now have 2 awards this season and it's only December the ever competitive drive that I've quelled over the years is threatening to breach it's walls, I don't want it to be a campaign to try and get more but I intend to fish the waters that I want to fish and if it happen's then absolutely brilliant, I would be elated beyond description but I will enjoy my time on the bank regardless as to whether I'm catching or not, that's always been my outlook and will never change.

This week's issue. Boom.

In Search of a Personal Best Chub. (Part One)

 It's been quite a few years now since I experienced a special moment on the Chub front, I have had red letter days on a few occasions, the stand out one of course for me was a short session on the Thames which was almost 5 years ago to the day when I managed to catch a brace of 6lb Chub (6.10 & 6.4) on bread link-ledgered over a large bed of liquidized bread, I remember landing the first and was in disbelief by the sheer size of it and not twenty minutes later I hooked and landed the second six, what a day that was and the brace shot was amazing. A few months down the line my computer crashed and it corrupted the HDD and I lost absolutely everything including the photo's of my 2.15 Roach which was also caught on the Thames.

 That was a very painful scenario but over time you realize that the photo's can be erased but you will always remember the catches and I do remember them like they were yesterday and still very fresh in the memory, so since that shitty incident I back everything up on a secondary HDD to prevent a total catastrophe again. It has been quite a long time since I have had what I regard as a Chub red letter day and these don't seem to come by too often. So on to the fishing and with about four hours to utilize I decided on heading out for Roach seeing as I am in a self confessed purple patch but I quickly found out the condition's were not favorable and the wind was absolutely atrocious in the swims I wanted to fish, so I quickly bailed out on that idea and headed on up around a mile or so to Chub grounds where the wind wasn't so keen.

 At 20mph or so at times things were still far from easy but the sight of a bent rod very early on, in fact the second trot at around 25 yrds soon made it all look a little brighter, the float buried itself very confidently which was a good sign they were feeding, for Chub standards it was a very strong fight on the pin and gave a great account of itself in the turbulent water between myself and the shoal, a large set of lips broke the surface and it was clearly a good fish and it didn't look far off 6lbs, what a start I thought but then I quickly descended into a panic as I realized I let my net up by the keepnet another ten yards upstream so I ended up guiding it through the snaggy inside edge to my starting point, thankfully the hook-hold was solid, trying to lift it up with one hand was never going to happen as the girth was simply too much for my decent sized mits, the Avon's were pulled straight out of the bag and put a number to a beautiful looking winter Chub.

Lovely rubber lips at 5lb 12oz.

  Not bad for a first fish from the swim, very nice indeed and it didn't take long either for another fish to show up and put another great fight up, a far side submerged snag did cause a couple of heart in mouth moments as the line went solid but quickly came free, a short fight from there resulted in yet another Chub that looked comfortably over 5lb!, during casts I was cursing something rotten but by the end of the trot I was happy as a pig in sh*t, I was hoping it would continue as the second Chub weighed 5lb 9oz and what do you know, the next four trots resulted in another two fish of 4lb 14oz & 4lb 10oz.

Chunky old chevin.

 I had found a good stamp of fish and was hoping that a six or a seven was in amongst this shoal somewhere and that I may be lucky enough to catch one, the wind whipped up really strong and changed direction slightly which did not help me at all as the line now kept going around the pin and got to a point where I could only cast once the wind died down enough for me to present a bait, this meant I could only cast once every four or five minutes which was bloody stupid but simply couldn't cast across the river to the holding spot where the shoal was and when I did make it the wind would put a wicked bow in the line and drag it into the inside edge which was no good for me.

 The wind after a little while did allow some more fishing and whilst I wasn't fishing I was introducing caster and maggot into the swim to stimulate the remaining Chub in the shoal to continue to feed and run a generous flake of bread through and the next two trots through bought another two Chub one of which was another five-pounder at 5.04 with the other around 3lbs, by the time I had finished nine Chub came to the net in total which was fantastic fishing, a six didn't show but I'm sure they reside here, somewhere. I photographed the largest three of the bag and then released them all fighting fit and hopefully coax that grandmother of their's that I'm interested in meeting her soonish...

What a pair Chevin's, 

Another good Chub gives up.

 It was a very tough day's fishing, the condition's made proceeding's very awkward but this will certainly be classed as a red-letter-day, I've never done three 5lb Chub in one sitting so that was to be up there with the best of my Chub catches, question is will I get a bigger one this season?, I certainly hope so. Until then tight lines and be lucky.

Cutting My Teeth.

 It's been a very long time coming but after so many years of reading reports, seeing images and hearing many good thing's about the River Itchen I had finally got the opportunity to "cut my teeth" on this historic waterway. About time too aswell, I have been lucky enough to fish a few of this countries many chalk streams with many successes on various fronts, all I wanted for this visit was to enjoy myself, catch many fish with the view of also targeting the Roach population that reside there.

An early start.

 For the trip down I was joined by Brian and met up with Mick and Jeff for a day's trotting and quiver tipping, for Mick this was his first stab at a chalk stream and I'm sure he would enjoy it, who wouldn't. I started off at the free stretch before the fishery opened but I never managed to connect with the only bite I had, then once we had made our way up the track to the top of the beat our sights were set firmly at trotting for Grayling.

What a looker....and a Grayling.

Beautiful fish.

 Thing's were bit of a slow burner apart from the dirge of small Grayling and Trout but when the better fish were located the fun began, a couple of pound-plus Grayling came to the net with the largest at 1.06, with the Trout coming in at around 3lbs which were fighting very well but in doing so were ruining run after run, on game fisheries that is to be expected, I did learn a couple of good thing's for my long trotting as I was adjusting on my 20-40 yard trots, if you've never been to the Itchen it's wider than most chalkstreams, most importantly wider than I'm used to so I had to adjust angles and trot technique so the bait would run the creases where a majority of fish would be.

It looks very good but this swim didn't produce.

A lovely place to fish.

Mick doing a spot of posing.....

Some of my friends.

 For the remainder of the day I continued to fish likely areas and a plenty more fish came by the net but nothing of note with half-a-dozen Grayling to a little under 1.06 but nothing large showed up and as dusk settled the constant flow of Grayling in a swim that looked very Roach like, certainly a swim I would have thought they'd exist but they were a no-show, conditions were okay and the tackle was right, just the bigger fish were not interested in feeding, but the company was great and would like to do it again but a change of venue I feel would be more productive and can't help but think this fishery in particular is living on it's reputation as opposed to current catches, but these things happen. 

It's Been a Good Month.

 Recently the Roach fishing has been on another planet with three specimen's over the 2lb barrier banked, many many hours of fishing has gone into my quest for large Roach this season alone and I feel the hard work has paid off, although I don't want it to end there I am certainly chuffed with the results, the best time of the year for Roach is now upon us and a trip on Friday is booked to cut my teeth on another of England's beautiful chalk-stream's for Roach, a small gathering of blogger's will also be present for what will be a lovely day out in the countryside in great company.

Happy moments...

 Earlier in the month I received a lovely surprise as I submitted my photo of the 2.05 Redfin that I caught, which won me my first Drennan Cup award of the season and in fact ever, I feel I may have won a couple previously with certain fish I have caught but never gave it a thought and part of me didn't really bother as I was just happy to be catching such clonking fish of various species, nevertheless I sent my photo off with a little spill and I duly saw this in the next weeks edition, £80 richer and a cap to keep my bonce warm come the cooler months, not too bad eh!. With another entry currently with the guys at Drennan for the 2.10 monster I had the other weekend, although I don't think it will win an award even though it was a real tank and it weighed every ounce of what it looked.

 I did slip out for a couple of brief session's over the weekend to target Bream and Carp on the Saturday morning which saw another canal Bream slide into the net which weighed a Shade over 5lb, where as the Sunday morning was spent searching out Pike in the post-industrial landscape of London, targeting a double figure Pike is always a nice target but I didn't manage it although I had two young Jack's smash my already battered diver, a theory I have is if the lure looks battered it's probably because the Pike actually like it, the pattern seems to do the business and a replacement may be needed soon as the teeth marks and chunks missing out of it are starting to break up the colours, but it was great fun, I did however have a couple of bailouts as another three Pike turned at the last moment before striking the lure, one of which was probably around the 14lb mark which would have done just nicely indeed.

Not so impossible are they now, worked them out I believe.

No Zander in the Cov'.

 I'm joining the party fairly late here but better late than never I suppose, after Saturday's fantastic trotting session I was buzzing and I woke up on Sunday at 6am still buzzing, the freezing cold certainly didn't put me off as I was to meet Ricki and Brian at Euston for a jolly up in Coventry on the Cov' canal in search of our usual quarry, Zander.

Such a stunning fish, made up for sure!!.

 Now I have been here twice so far and traveled back home with my tail firmly between my legs wondering what went wrong, I was determined to improve on my poor track record for Zed's by using a two-pronged attack.

 Once arriving in the town centre we decided to chuck some lures about for a few small jack's but I only managed to watch on, my lures got a couple of little knocks but nothing clear cut, so after casting an hour away or so we hopped into a taxi and joined the angling collective for Jeff Hatt's birthday Zander bash, don't really know what a collective of fishermen is called so I'll go with "Madmen", the condition's weren't ideal but we were there and I wanted to make the most of it, it was great to catch up with some of the guys I haven't seen since last year's meet and fish, but also great to meet up with the likes of Lee, Ben and Keith who I haven't met before but felt I knew them through reading their blogs as they probably felt by meeting myself and the other angler's who they'd yet to meet.

 For a majority of the time I spent nattering away to fellow bloggers/anglers about recent ventures and taking plenty of plaudits for this enormous Roach that fell to my trotted maggot/caster combination but I did come down to also banish my canal duck for Zander and I was determined I'd do it on this trip, my sleeper rod was chucked about to try and coax a fish to feed whilst I fished a small 5g jig with various bodies and colour's, the fishing was hard but as dusk was approaching I had a subtle bang which I struck into and a fairly dainty fight played out in the track of the canal, I knew it was a Zander so I really wanted to land it, it wasn't long either before it got mugged and I punched the air which delighted me no end as it was my first Zander on an artificial too.

A very welcome Zed getting "Papped".

 The rest of the evening was spent trying to bag myself another but a couple of half hearted runs from the Zed's proved to be it and we all retired to the pub for a drink or two.....

Chalkstream Specimen Roach.

A teaser for what's to come.

 For Roach this season has been good already and I have high hopes for the rest of Autumn and Winter as plenty of trotting will be done during the colder months, looking at the forecast over the last few days this morning didn't look appetizing at all so I caught up on some much needed sleep and a few errands which needed sorting out, as mid-day came and went I decided to grab the trotting gear and some waders with the view of spending around four hours on the bank.

 I arrived at the river with maybe three hours in total, so I got straight to running maggots and casters through whilst I got my gear sorted, the wind wasn't really affecting me as it turned out I was slightly protected which was lucky and the river was a bit coloured up so I fancied some fish trotting and with my recent form for big Roach I wasn't discounting the fact that I "may" end up catching at least one. The sport to start off with was very slow and it took nearly twenty trots to get a bite and maybe another ten to hook up, first off was a stunning silvery Dace of 6oz or so which was sporting a very podgy frame, this is good news as they are clearly munching in earnest for the cold months ahead.

A lovely brace of Autumn Chub.

One of my typical trots.

 Talking about the cold, I had only been fishing for maybe 20 minutes by that point and my hands were at the point of falling off!, it was a challenge to keep them warm to a point I could operate the pin, but a few more fish started to fall to my single caster trap and a quick succession of Dace and Chub got the hands warming up, although I avoided putting them in the water as I didn't fancy ice-block mits, the Chub were starting to come in at a good size and managed two of 4lb plus which was accompanied by a dozen or so Dace to 11oz roughly although I didn't weigh them. The bites started to tail off as dark was falling but I knew that if I was to come into contact with a leviathan Roach now was the time, a couple of Dace came to the net around 8oz and then out it happened, it had to, the river looked perfect, up half a foot or so with a lovely tinge to it and cold night before usually gets them feeding.

A right fat....stonking Dace at 11oz.

A stunning 2oz 1dr Gonk for good measure.

And some big minnows too....

 The bite was just like any other but the fight was hard, today I changed from a 3lb bottom to a 5lb bottom as I had a couple of line breaks with Chub snagging me up, this made no difference to the Roach as it was clear she wasn't in a mood to come in, the fight was dogged with the tell-tale "jagged scrap" whilst it stripped line from the pin, when she broke the surface I shat myself mentally and almost physically, it was big and I could see my puny size 18 hook in the top lip with the maggot dangling on the line by the knot, seriously I've never got a net ready so fast before, Mr Bolt would have been impressed by that speed!, but I knew this fish was very big, three-pounds??, I did for a while think so as she dived back down towards the bottom, I just had to keep the tension, a few more nervous moments passed by, then the head slipped into the net quickly followed by the rest.

Absolutely stunning, my largest for quite a few years. 

What a "clonker" as Wilson would say.

 I said to myself "It's bloody big but is it that big?", what it lacked was depth I believe to do 3lb, the length and width were perfect to reach or surpass that "Holy Grail" landmark, she went on the scales to dispel any doubts about the weight. 2lb 10oz of pure and utter jubilation, immense, amazing.....I could go on but alas I shall leave it there, the rest of the session was spent trying to coax more Roach into the net but it seems that I found the only feeding redfin or the only one to be foolish enough to be caught, I believe it was the latter but I digress. I'll just look at the photo's with the largest of grin's. It's been a great day. Off to settle an old score in Warwickshire tomorrow, it's Zander, Pike and Perch time.

An Autumn Gem.

 It's clear by now that I have taken to this canal fishing and it has certainly enchanted me, it's definitely not the scenery either but the fish that do call it home, as I have said in previous posts there are very little stocks and catching them isn't easy as there is plenty of water to hide, so this morning I set off for a short trip as the BBC weather app showed that a day of poor weather was on it's way, so I arrived at around 8am and set about searching the water with the polaroid's at a quicker than usual pace, I knew I had roughly an hour available before the rain was to arrive and break up the water hence making stalking almost impossible, so I set up before starting instead of setting up when I've spotted fish as I have missed a couple of opportunities because of this.

 The tactic I use now is simply a size 8 barbless hook and a no1 shot an inch from the hook baited with a piece of flake, no freebees, no nothing. I found that using a float put the Bream and Carp on edge as it represented something "alien" which I'm certain put the fish off from feeding on my would be tasty offering, it took around 45 minutes to locate fish and when I did a shoal of lovely Bream where hovering over a gravel patch in roughly 6ft of water, I squeezed out the excess water from the bread flake and sent it on it's way down, it didn't even touch the bottom when one Bream around 7-8lb sucked in the bait and I missed it, totally amazed at how I never connected but it happens.

 But it's not the first time I've cocked up on a guilt-edged chance so I continued as planned and as I had found fish I continued to hang around the shoal of Bream, after 5-10 fruitless minutes of angling the bread in the paths of awaiting mouths I didn't manage to get another fish to commit then I spotted a large frame on the bottom move, all the time I was in that patch I never thought it was a fish but the large shape turned out to be a really lovely Carp, oh it was just what I wanted to find, so now the heart rate was cranked up a few notches I had to keep my cool, I flicked the bread about ten-foot past the Carp into the main track and slowly drew it back as it sank towards the bottom, as it got around a foot from the bottom the Carp turned straight for it and as that happened an even larger Carp came out of know where and sucked in the bait, being able to see the bread disappear was brilliant and my heart rate really went through the roof, exhilarating stuff I can tell you, the fight was rip-roaring, lunge after lunge and the runs were so bloody powerful I feared my 8lb line wouldn't stand up to the task.

 Nearly 10 minutes had passed before I got a netting opportunity and when I did she still didn't want to know and charged straight back out before I could scoop her in, it was not in a forgiving mood, but to that point nor was I, I wanted her more than she wanted to escape and after playing her with a degree of caution towards the end I bagged myself an extremely stunning Autumn Common Carp which spun the dial comfortably past 20lb and settled on 23lb 9oz, get in there my son!!!!.

After quite a few blanks it was most certainly worth it!, what do you think?.

The heart rate took a little while to drop but I finally got there just as the heavens opened and I watched my catch swim strongly out of the net back into anonymity, what a fish from a canal.

The Pursuit of Hidden Treasure....

.....in plain sight. Our plethora of canal waterway's in and around London gives the opportunity of endless miles of fishing, although just because there is miles and miles of water doesn't mean that there is endless supply of fish, I know all too well that there are hidden gems in what would be regarded by most as a dump, tip, s**thole and so on, you get the picture. Some sections aren't very nice and there are some unscrupulous folk that loiter around to make you feel uneasy at times, when fishing that is the last thing you want to feel. Since April I have made numerous trips to the canals to unlock some monster fish of various species and I have done so, the challenge remains to catch what is probably the pinnacle of canal fishing, with a ten pound Bream and a 30lb Carp my ultimate targets, these are unlikely targets on most fisheries let or lone a canal as wild as you could imagine, not stocked, not looked after (fish wise) and seldom fished.

 I have seen both of my targets already and come next season I will resume my canal fishing, I can't wait to tell the truth but this season isn't over yet and I resumed my hunt this morning, with the weather looking rather bleak I still fancied a gander with the stalking gear, the wind was a slightly strong to start with but I know with the mild weather and recent rains the Bream and Carp should be feeding well, arriving just after dawn I set about finding fish and then get a bait in their faces and hope they would oblige, it took well over an hour to find a shoal of fish but once I had I stuck to them like s*** sticks to a blanket, I finally got my chance when one peeled off the shoal and made a bee-line for me, the bread went straight in front of it and the bait disappeared, no waiting for any indication as I struck immediately and hooked up with another ancient elusive canal Bream, a brief scrap on 6lb line and she was mine, such a dark fish as the water is gin-clear and they have practically no cover.

A little wet and wild but who cares!.

 After a couple of photograph's and a quick weigh, this beaut went 7.04 and my third 7lb plus slab off of this canal in particular, although this is a big Bream for a canal I seem to be avoiding the larger fish, either they don't feed or are just very bloody smart. As soon as I hooked that fish I saw the remaining shoal disappear in an instant, I knew it was time to move. Further on up I searched through water and continued on doing this for around 4 miles but it was just empty, this is what is going to make this challenge of mine so difficult as the fish do move a lot!. Pinning them down is not going to be easy, with info on these canals extremely limited due to the lack of footfall angler wise, but this is a good thing too as the fact that not many fish it makes my target easier if that makes sense, less people fishing for them makes the stocks less pressured.

 I continued on for a little longer before backtracking to see if I missed anything on my way up and half way down I bumped into a monster Mirror Carp of anything between 28-32lb, a big stocky Carp which had a lovely scale pattern too as in the clear water I could see all of it. I tried everything to catch her but it was on a mission somewhere and not in a mood to feed, hopefully I'll find her again in a grubbing up mood. Until then I will lament on what could happen on the next trip. Tight Lines.

The only Pike around here these days.

Chalkstream Specimen Dace.

 Today was supposed to be so different with a trip to Hants Avon planned but the weather predicted was looking very poor and I did not want to be fishing through what I had to endure on Thursday, so I made the decision to bail on what could have been great session and spent the morning faffing around at home to see if the rain would abate, midday sailed by and still no luck, it wasn't until 1:30 that the rain finally relaxed, the wind was still very strong but I seized the opportunity to get on the bank albeit for 2-3 hours max.

 Dace were the target and I had a couple pints of maggots to get through. The river was up by a foot or so and coloured but I fancied building a glide and see if the silver darts were home and looking to munch. I set up with a 6AAA balsa float and a size 18 hook with two white maggot and one caster at the business end, fishing the bait around 6" off the bottom I found the Dace after a slow start and bites were thick and fast but couldn't hit most of them, my hunch was the Dace were hitting the shot on the way down and throughout the trots, the wind made life very challenging and I was missing some bites I really should have connected with but during the 2hour session I finished up with a bag of 17 Dace to 12oz 2dr, with 11 over 10oz.

Three of the best, largest at 12oz 2dr.

 A proper shoal of Dace and they all seemed massive with the smallest around 5oz, a Chub of 3lb also made an appearance but nothing else fell to my crafty trotting setup, considering the conditions I'll settle for that definitely with the limited time available too.

Raining On My Parade.

 For over a fortnight I have been patiently waiting for this morning to arrive, 0430 and it was time to get up, it was raining...collected Brian en-route, it was raining...got to our destination and guess what it was still raining. My target today was the Roach and in previous trips I have seen them to upper-two pounds loitering around the slightly deeper area's, a decent head of Grayling do live in this stretch and can range up around 2lb plus, two of which I have managed last season.

A fantastic way to spend a morning.

 Fishing this beat is a joy and I decided to start in a pool towards the top of the beat, I began trotting the pool and caught a few Grayling to around a pound, the fight's are so predictable but still I couldn't prevent them from escaping capture, as the morning wore on it was much of the same and by 10am the rain came back again and gave us both a thorough soaking before making way to fairly stable weather, we knew this wouldn't last so I made the most of it, taking over twenty Grayling in under 2 hours was pretty good going and a few Trout also making way to 2lb or so, the Roach though were still proving very elusive and locating them would prove to be the stumbling block.

Beautiful action, beautiful floats.

 I arrived at a swim where I saw them back in February and plotted up with the view to trot the area to a foam, through the coloured water I could make out the frames of some very large Roach, by large I mean two-pound plus and a few more appeared amongst the weed as I got my eye in, having found them it was a case of now presenting the bait to them whilst combating the 20mph winds and driving rain which was threatening to spoil our day out. After an hour or so I had only bumped one but then out of nothing the float stopped and slipped under, no invitation to strike was needed and immediately I could see a substantial silver body arc up off the bottom, I exclaimed to Brian I had a lump on and he headed straight over to me before I'd even got her in, with the hook clearly threaded through the top lip on the edge I really wanted to get the fish in the net before the hook fell out.

A typical Grayling in great condition,

 It was one of those catch 22's where I love the fight that specimen Roach put up but equally wished they wouldn't as it doesn't do a lot of good for the nerves, thankfully she did cruise into the net and I knelt on the sodden ground holding a cracking warrior of a Roach weighing 1lb 14oz, not a two-pounder but equally as exquisite, I do love Roach that aren't pristine and fin perfect as I love the individuality and character that battle scars and missing scales creates, pukka!.

ah, that's more like it, 1.14 of Test Roach.

 I continued to fish amongst a shoal of very big fish but I was to be frustrated by a combination of the Roach's stubbornness to feed and the weather doing it's best to annoy, the weather got so poor that I decided to sit out some time in the hut just to try and dry out marginally, a slight break in the rain saw me head back out quickly before dusk and managed another half-a-dozen Grayling to 1.04 and another Trout. A thoroughly enjoyable day and another lovely Roach to add to my collection.