Dawn raid

I needed to get some more species down on the list for the bloggers challenge and with limited time I decided an early morning attack on the local canal could well give me a few points. I had to be back home for 10am and it was 5.30 when I arrived bankside.

I began by chucking some hard lures about in my favourite Zander swim and despite getting a couple of savage pulls I couldn't connect. A switch to a soft lure saw me land a scrappy little Zed on my first chuck which went 1lb12oz.

 

 

My next cast saw me bump another then I couldn't buy another pull so I went back to the car to swap the lure gear for the float rod and set about trying to winkle out some more fish.

The wind was pretty horrendous which meant I had to fish down the inside track which wasn't where I really wanted to be. I managed to scrape a few different species together though, perch, dace, gudgeon, roach and a roach/bream hybrid, all small but all points!

 

 

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Autumn sessions

Since my last entry I've done quite a bit of fishing, in fact , as I sit here and write I'm struggling to remember it all! The weather has definately taken a turn for the worse of late and autumn is well and truly upon us. For the most part I've been doing a lot of lure fishing as that side of things seems to have taken on a whole new lease of life for me, more on that shortly however. In the meantime to kick things off I'll talk a little bit about a grayling session on the Dove around three weeks ago.

As expected, Phil and I had the whole stretch to ourselves upon our arrival and the fishing started off in a promising way with a lovely Chub falling to phils rod within minutes. After that we really struggled in a couple of swims which was quite surprising really as the fish seemed quite active. A strong and cold wind got up which didn't help the situation but eventually I found a swim where I could sit with my back to it. Bites were hard to come by to begin with but I was reluctant to move and decided to stay put and keep the feed going in. This soon began to pay off as a succession of small grayling and trout steadily came to my rod. After an hour or so I suddenly realised my catch rate was really picking up as was the size of the fish, the more maggots I put in the river the more I was catching. It was one those times when everything seems to fall into place and a nice rhythm was established, cast, bait,wait 30secs, catch, cast, bait, wait 30secs,catch, lovely!

Every fish I caught was full of maggots so they were obviously really having it, even a flotilla of passing canoes didn't dampen their appetite! I lost count of how many I caught, grayling nudging 2lb and trout to over 3lb all came to the net over the next couple of hours before, eventually, I managed to exhaust my maggot supply and was forced to pack up. Nothing big was caught but it was a great days fishing and the beautifully marked trout in the pic below was probably my favourite fish of the trip, a proper wild stunner!

 

After that trip I had a bit of a mishap with my car exhaust so decided to book a day off work to sort it out with a view to maybe squeeze some fishing in aswell. As you probably know by now, I like to lure fish whenever I get a limited window to fish as this technique requires absolutely no preparation and you are fishing the second the lure hits the water. Today was no exception and I headed to a local canal with nothing more than a few bits to do some dropshotting.

The water was fairly murky but it didn't take long to find a few Perch, only little ones but plenty of them. I found the best lure was a little panic minnow but it was the last I had and I was gutted when something nipped the tail of it! It did some damage of its own though as you can see below.

 

The pike seemed very active today for some reason aswell and they took a liking to the dropshot lures.

 

After catching a couple of jacks and getting bitten off I decided to incorporate a trace into my rig. This had the instant effect of putting the perch off but I still managed a couple more pike including a nice one which must've been approaching double figures.

 

 

After that I headed back to pick up the car well pleased with the mornings action. I did have another dropshotting session on a local pool a couple of days later and managed another load of small perch. The water was crystal clear and it was great fun watching the perch attack the lure, such aggressive little buggers!

The next fishing trip proper was to a large reservoir with Roach being the target. Despite it only being a short distance from home I'd never fished it before so was totally unsure as to what to expect other than that the roach averaged a good size.

It was absolutely chucking it down when we arrived but even so the lake itself was still very low after the long dry summer. My chosen spot wasn't any different in looks to any other swim for 500yards in either direction but there was fish showing within casting range so that was good enough for me!

I fished two maggot bolt feeder rigs at around 50yards range and the plan was to keep recasting both rods every 5mins until a good bed of bait was built up and hopefully the roach came on the feed.

Fortunately it didn't take long to start getting bites and soon the fish were coming thick and fast. I was really pleased with the average size aswell with most fish being between 6-12oz and a nice sprinkling of pound plussers chucked in for good measure.

I was playing the numbers game to try and snare a 2lber but there was just too many smaller samples in my swim. I ended up with somewhere around 30lb of roach I'd say with the biggest I weighed going 1lb5oz. I have no doubt that 2lbers exist in the lake but it'd take a lot of fishing to find one given just how stuffed the place is! A water I'll revisit with different tactics next time I feel.

Since the roach trip I've been pretty much 100% lure fishing or more specifically, Ultra light lure fishing. I met up with well known angler and lure fishing guru Steve Collett who has kindly been showing me the ropes with the whole U/L concept.

Tiny lures, fine wire hooks, pencil thin rods and miniature reels are all part and parcel of this style of fishing and some of the tips and edges that Steve has passed on have been real eye openers. Balanced tackle which allows you to see and feel even the shyest of bites is the key to getting the most out of U/L as is technique. After seeing Steve in action I realise what a newbie I am to lure fishing and how much scope I have to refine and improve my technique, it's like a hidden world has been opened up to me!

Another major thing which Steve has helped me to overcome is my reluctance to lure fish coloured water. I always had a mental block about chucking lures about in coloured water thinking if the fish can't see it then they won't take it, how wrong I was! An adjustment in technique and the confidence to keep plugging away was all that was needed and after witnessing Steve catch a zander in the most coloured water you could imagine I set about trying to catch one of my own.

In the end it took a couple of trips but catch one I did and, although it was small, I can't overstate the significance of the fish in terms of confidence building. I feel ready to take on the entire midlands canal network now! my next blank trip will certainly send me crashing back down to earth but there are exciting times ahead I feel.

 

 

 

 

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July back end

As the title suggests this little update is about my fishing in the latter part of the month. We've been experiencing something of a heat wave of late which, for someone who despises the sun like myself, has made for some pretty uncomfortable fishing.

First up was a session on a new stretch of Trent and although it was a daylight trip I was still hopeful of a barbel as the area is known for producing one or two in the day and recent rain had caused the river to rise and colour up a little.

Small pellet hook baits on fluorocarbon hooklinks were to be my main line of attack and it was apparent from the start that this was highly attractive to the local roach and bream population! No barbel were landed but I did get plenty of bites from a succession of nice roach and a couple of bream.

 

 

My next trip out was an afterwork evening trip to one of my favourite bits of Trent with Phil and the lure rods. After a slowish start we started to get a few however, both opening our accounts with a pike apiece.

At one point I managed to find a real perch hotspot and lost count of how many I caught from it! Every cast was a coconut and I reckon I must've had somewhere around 12-15 from that one swim alone!

In another swim I hooked a very good pike indeed, certainly upper double figures and I realised my net wouldn't be big enough to land it. In these situations I usually glove the fish out but the swim I was in was on a very high bank and I couldn't see an easy way down to it. The fish was well beaten but as I faffed about trying to clamber down to it a final flare of the gills dislodged my tiny lure and it made good it's escape, gutted I was!

Soon it was too dark to carry on and I was well happy with three pike landed and a ruck of perch in just a couple of hours fishing, shame about losing that big one though.

My most recent trip was a late evening rendezvous with some Trent barbel. I didn't arrive at the river till 8pm as with the hot sunshine I didn't see the point in getting there any earlier. I planned to stop till around 12-1am seeing as that covered the hours of darkness when most action seems to occur.

I wasn't to be disappointed either, at bang on 10pm, just into dark and right on cue, I landed my first barbel of the evening at 10b4oz. Another followed exactly and hour later at 11pm which went 10lb12oz and I thought to myself how strange a coincidence it would be if I caught another at midnight.

In the event it was 12.15 when I caught my third and final barbel of the evening and although it very nearly pulled my rod in on the take it proved to be my smallest of the season so far at 6lb4oz, in fact I think it's the smallest I've had from the Trent for a good couple of years, always nice to see the next generation of doubles coming through though.

 

 

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Xmas social in search of Roach

The other week myself and a few of the lads at work were talking fishing and decided that a Xmas trip to a local pool would be good for a few laughs. Much banter ensued over the next week or so about who was going to catch what and a lot of time was spent discussing the days menu which pretty much consisted of bacon with a side order of bacon topped with liberal doses of more bacon!

The day finally arrived and in the event only three of us turned up, all of us being somewhat jaded from a few too many ales the night before. As daylight began to creep in we quickly realised the lake looked rather frozen and were gutted when even half a house brick couldn't make a dent in the icy barrier. A walk around to the other side was a bit more encouraging though as the ice had cleared enough to enable the three of us to get in comfortably. We had to put up with a cold wind in our faces but at least we were fishing.

 

Steve and I fished for the Roach whilst Tim had his sights set on a Carp or two. I kicked things off with a couple of 8oz roach straight away and the action continued throughout the morning. Steve and I matched each other fish for fish and Tim even managed a couple of redfins on his Carp gear. Considering how cold the weathers been of late the fishing was outstanding, the quivertip was rarely still for more than a few minutes and a few of the Roach were easily getting on for the pound mark.

Just after Tim had cooked lunch in the worlds largest frying pan (it had two handles!) Steve, who was stood in my swim, spotted his quivertip move slightly and made like a man possessed back to his rod in time to strike into a good fish. A nice Perch appeared from the depths and upon netting it looked well worth a weigh. At 2lb6oz it was a new PB for Steve and added nicely to an already enjoyable day out.

 

Bites slowed up as the afternoon progressed and we decided to pack up around threeish. Steve and I both had double figures in our keepnets and Tim, although he found some very greedy roach, never did manage that carp. It had been a good day out though and its certainly fired me up to get out there again with renewed enthusiasm.

 

Incidentally, since my last post I've discovered a new App which is compatible with blogger and allows much greater control for editing posts and adding pictures. For anyone else who uses a tablet or phone to blog and who has experienced the same issues as me check out Blogsy on android and itunes, its well worth a look.

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Commercial Perch - Following new leads

Saturday 24th December

Its Christmas eve, all presents are bought, food is sorted and all the other little jobs that go hand in hand with Xmas are taken care of . Now i find myself with a free day what do you suppose i should do with it? ask a silly question!
The rivers looked well out of sorts for some Chub action which is what i really fancied doing so instead i decided to head to a small commercial fishery in Derbyshire which id been tipped off about. Its got form for producing some good Perch and although it had been originally brought to my attention over a year ago this was to be my first visit to the venue.
The weather was overcast, windy and cold as i stepped out of the car and it wasnt showing any signs of getting better so i headed for a spot where i would have my back to the wind. Id been told it was very good fishing in the margins but upon seeing the lake for the first time i was shocked to see that the majority of the reeds in the edge were completely out of the lake due to the water level being nearly 3feet down! A legacy of the ridiculously dry summer weve just had.

The water levels were well down

There was still one or two nice looking spots with reeds still in the water although subsequent plumbing revealed them to be very shallow . I ended up opting for an open water swim which at least appeared to have a  bit of depth to it and i reasoned that given the low levels and cold conditions, the fish would be as deep as they could get, thats what i hoped anyway.

It looked the part but it was only 18inches deep

I setup a tip rod, baited it with a Prawn and cast in . After about 10 minutes i recieved a real wrap around of a bite and i couldnt believe i missed it . Over the next hour the same thing happened another 4-5 times despite changing my hook size and even the bait size. It didnt matter anyhow because whilst i pondered what i was doing wrong, watery sunshine began to appear through the clouds and the bites dried up completely.

I switched to floatfished maggots and began to pick up  a few Roach and Gudgeon straight away. Some of the Roach were clonkers , a couple were certainly over the pound mark . I discovered id forgotten my scales when i decided to weigh one so i cant be sure on exact sizes.

After a while i decided to feederfish the maggots further out to see if there was any Perch in the deeper water . It turned out that there was! the little chap in the pic below perked up my confidence a bit but it was pretty short lived because his grandad refused to play ball and the Skimmers moved in .



All too soon it was time to pack up and even though the big Perch didnt show i certainly saw enough to make it worth a return visit . Merry Christmas everybody!

Cooling off

Saturday 26th March

For Saturdays trip i was back on the pit i visited last week. The weather forcasters had given out a cold front coming from the north which meant quite a drop in temperature for this weekend and they were right. Daytime temps had been up to 17-18degrees in the week but as i drove to the lake the gauge in the car was hovering around 5degrees, not good for Tench.
When i arrived i was surprised to see that the lake was really busy, in fact i couldnt get anywhere near the area i fished last week as it was totally stitched. With this in mind i decided to head around the far side which looked pretty clear . There was a couple of other chaps also unloading their cars so i had to be quick, oh the joys of day ticket waters!
After a Linford Christie style sprint i arrived, totally knackered, at a peg which gave me good command of quite a bit of water without the threat of other anglers cutting me off. Once id composed myself i set about having a lead around to check the weed situation. I found that the clearest area seemed to be to the left of the swim at around 50yards, anywhere closer or to the right of the swim was hopelessly weeded out so i decided to put all my eggs in one basket and fish both rods to the clear spot.

Shortly after casting in the Roach started attacking the baits the same as last week but i was using long hairs so it took a bit longer before the inevitable happened and i hooked one. Over the course of the morning i ended up hooking several but they seemed to be a better average size than the ones last week. All were 8oz+ and i weighed the biggest at 1lb2oz, a nice fish.
I wish the Tench and Bream were as forthcoming but unfortunately they werent! A nice Bream rolled over my baited area at lunchtime and gave me a nice confidence boost but it wasnt to be, other than the Roach, nothing else wanted to know. A Carper fishing nearby had a Bream of 10lb+ and another had a 22lb Mirror but they were the only other fish to be caught around the whole lake as far as i know.



After packing up at teatime i stopped off to have a look at another pit id been tipped off about and was quite impressed with the look of the place. It was a far cry from the pit id fished earlier in that there wasnt a soul fishing on it whatsoever! Thatll do me i thought, once the weather improves ill give it a bash.

Roach, a mission accomplished

Friday 4th March - Sunday 6th March

This weekend was one that i had been waiting for with particular anticipation, 48hours of Roach fishing on a lake which would probably give me the best chance of landing a 2lb+ specimen that ive ever had in all my years of angling. Id heard about the place on the grapevine about 18 months ago and fellow SVSG member Rob had already been for a taster session last year, landing some cracking fish including a 2lber. The venue is a three hour drive from my house and with big Roach being a bit thin on the ground in my locality it was time to bite the bullet and get my arse down there.
Rob joined me for this one and we set off at 3.30am with the intention of arriving as the gates opened at 7. After an uneventful drive we arrived a bit earlier than expected which gave us a bit of time to walk around the lake and select a couple of likely swims. There had been a hard frost overnight but even so there was a few Roach topping in the middle which served boost the old confidence a bit. There was five Carp anglers on but they were still in bed so we couldnt tap them up for any info. Shortly afterwards the bailiff opened up and as we paid him he informed us that a 2lb Roach had been caught the previous weekend so there was one or two showing.
As we setup the sun made an appearance and the frost began to disappear quite quickly . I went about setting my house up first but Rob had his rods out before anything else and it paid off because he landed a 1lb9oz fish before id even cast in! "Good here innit?" he grinned.
After the early success there was no more action for an hour or so until my right hand rod signalled a bite and i ended up bumping the fish on the strike. We were both using bolt feeder rigs with tiny hooks and it soon became apparent that if we struck then the fish would invariably bump off as i found out to my cost on my next bite too. A gentle lift into the fish was what was called for and i soon landed a pristine bar of silver which weighed 1lb5oz, only an ounce off my pb!

With one apiece under our belts we settled down and concentrated on getting some bait out in front of us. All 4 rods were fished at the same range, about 30 yards, and spread along a strip about 30 yards long. We had a gallon of maggots between us and we were recasting the feeders every 20 minutes to build up a carpet of feed. Thankfully the lake only contains a few small Roach aswell has the big ones otherwise it could have been a bit of a nightmare fishing single maggots on the hook like we were doing. My next bite a couple of hours later turned out to be a new PB of 1lb7oz, it was another pristine specimen and i was over the moon!



A quickfire fish of 1lb4oz followed within minutes leaving me gobsmacked at the sheer size and quality of the fish present in this water. As the day began to turn to night, Rob had added a couple more pound plus fish to his tally and we both had a couple of tiddlers too. Rob assured me that the place really came alive at night and sure enough from about 7pm onwards we had several bites in quick succession.

I had another PB at 1lb8oz and Rob had a Stunning brace of 1lb13oz and 2lb3oz, the 2lber being a new PB for him. The sky was very clear and the weather was shaping up for another frost so it was really quite bitter and I finished the night off with a 3lb Carp before retiring to bed and warmth. At 3am i was awoken by a Carper in the peg next door who was trying to land a fish which had swam along the bank and through my line. It was quickly sorted though and i was soon taking pics of a nice 20lb Common. As a bonus though the sky had clouded up and the temperature was on the rise.

The next day began very slowly and after missing a bite first thing it was a couple of hours before i had another which resulted in another Carp hooked. This one was a bit bigger than my 3lber from the night before and i never really stood a chance with a size 18 hook and a 2lb bottom. Suffice to say it led me a merry dance before breaking me off. 

At about mid morning i hit into another Roach which felt a lot better than the others id had, taking line from the off. After a quick tussle it was obvious that this was a better fish and upon peering into the net i knew id finally caught what id came for. The scales registered 2lb2oz, i was blown away.

It was a magnificent fish in every way, and even as i write this now im still a bit shell shocked that ive caught a 2lber, happy days indeed.
Anyway, back to the session, that fish signalled the start of quite a lull and it was late afternoon before we started getting bites again. A flurry of tiny Roach saw us into darknes which is when once again Robs swim really came to the fore. He went on to land something like 20 more Roach over the pound mark between six and midnight, no more 2lbers though. I had a fish of 1lb10oz plus some tiddlers to round my day off .

After a good nights kip and an early rise it was time to pack up the gear ready for the long drive back. I recast the rods just before i started to tidy my stuff up in the hope of a last gasp lump. Once eveything had been put away i picked up my left hand rod and packed it away, just as i put it in the bag the other signalled a bite and i found myself connected to a Carp. With nothing to lose i decided to take my time with it on the light gear (2lb bottom) and couldnt believe it when i eventually landed it, a great way to end a great session!



Winter Warmers

Sunday 16th January

Will someone tell me whats going on with the weather? After all the snow and ice of the last few weeks everything seems to have been turned on its head this week and weve got mild winds, lots of rain and daytime temperatures comfortably over 10 degrees. Double figures in January? im certainly not complaining about that one! On the flipside however, the rains raised the river levels dramatically and put lots of colour into them which put paid to any Chub opportunities i was hoping for this week. I didnt fancy a grueller chasing winter Barbel so with the lakes de-icing themselves nicely over the last week i decided to target Roach and Perch on a little gem of a pool i know just down the M1.

Phil was to be my partner in crime for today and we both had high hopes for a good days fishing. The place is known locally for its specimen Carp but its also a pretty special silverfish water and with this in mind i went straight in on a bolt-feeder setup with maggots. I began by catapulting half a dozen tiny balls of groundbait in, i didnt want to introduce any via the feeder as i didnt want to overfeed the swim. the only thing going in the feeder itself would be maggots and even then it would only be every third cast, upping it to every second one if they were having it.

I didnt have to wait long for a bite, probably about 10 seconds to be precise! the tip went around and a skimmer of around a pound was soon languishing in my keepnet, hopefully a sign there was a few fish feeding. Sure enough, over the next hour or so i went on to land a succession of Roach, real quality fish too. As you can see from the pic below, you dont get many to the pound! 

The bolt feeder was working a treat with every bite rattling the rod in its rest as the fish hooked themselves, all had to do was land the fish, rebait and recast, easy! After a while though the sun made an appearance the bites stopped abruptly. After a bit of headscratching and seeing a couple of fish jump in front of me i had a feeling the fish had moved up in the water column in response to the increased light levels and the bait falling from my feeder on the cast so i tackled up a float rod set shallow.

Immediately i was back amongst some fish and even managed a couple of nice Perch which surprised me considering how shallow i was fishing. Soon enough the bites on this line dried up, probably due to the fact i was fishing at range and the wind made baiting up with the catty nigh on impossible. Back to the bolt feeder it was then.

As morning turned into afternoon the action slowed quite a bit compared to this morning but even so i was still getting bites. This time though i was getting a lot more tentative plucks instead of rod wrenchers. The sky began to cloud up just after lunchtime and it wasnt long before the first spots of rain began to fall. I put my brolly up only to have a strong gust of wind destroy it by turning it inside out and ripping a big gash in it, serves me right for buying cheap crap i guess.

I continued to catch a few throughout the afternoon by alternating between the float and the feeder including a nice brace of 2lb Perch the biggest of which went 2.5.



The rain got heavier and heavier and it was getting dark so we decided to call it a day. I lifted my net out and was pleasantly surprised to find id had around 20-25lb of mostly Roach, the biggest of which was pushing a pound. Phils net turned up the biggest fish of the day in the form of a 2.10 Perch which was PB for him. All in all a pretty good day for January! 

The Weather begins to turn

Thursday 23rd September

Short and Sweet
I decided upon a quick evening session after work tonight. With the nights drawing in much more these days i was really up against it timewise and so i opted for a spot of livebaiting on a local stretch of the river Soar.

My gear was already made up so i was able to get fishing really quickly upon arrival and it didnt take me long to catch a dozen Bleak and Chublets for bait. Out went the paternoster and within five minutes a small Perch hanged itself on the hair rigged Bleak.



I had hoped i wouldnt be plagued by these small Perch but my hopes were in vain unfortunately as i proceeded to take a succession of them to about a pound. After an hour of this, the contents of the livebait bucket were running dangerously low and i was literally down to my last two. I put the larger one on the paternoster to my left and the smaller went out to my right under a tree as a free rover beneath a chubber float.
It wasnt long before the chubber sailed away and my strike met with something a bit more solid than the smaller perch previously and sure enough a better fish was soon wallowing in the net. At this point the paternoster rod decided to lurch violently towards the river and i was forced to grab it and try and secure the netted Perch at the same time. The rod stealing culprit turned out to be a turbo-charged Jack of about 5lb which tailwalked several times before i got it near the net. The drama wasnt over yet though because, just as i was about to net it, a much larger Pike shot in out of nowhere and T-boned it straight across its middle! The big croc swam out to mid river with it before letting go and i then netted the poor jack as quickly as a could before the big one moved in for a second attack.
All this time the Perch, which looked to be over a pound and a half, had remained in the net and the hook had actually fallen out so i was quite lucky it seemed.



After this i packed up as it was getting too dark to see and i had no more baits anyway. Thatll be the last of my after work evening sessions for a while i think as it will be dark to early to make them viable. I may have the odd Barbel trip though.




Sunday 26th September

"Fledgering"

I really wanted to fish the Trent today but with its current weed problems it would have been a nightmare so i went out to a local day ticket lake instead. The lake is extremely deep and has some great Perch and Roach fishing holding numerous specimens of both species. Ive only ever fished it for these species in the depths of winter before and had done well so i was hoping for a good days sport in the current Autumnal conditions. Phil joined me as he hadnt done much on the lake before and was keen to get amongst them.
I went straight in with feeder tactics and after steadily building up my swim with bait via the feeder for half an hour or so i soon started to catch a few. Phil was also catching too but we were getting well pestered by a young swan which simply wouldnt take no for an answer in its attempts to deprive us of some bait. Even a couple of gentle prods with the net handle didnt send it packing so we just had to put up with it unfortunately.


Several nice Roach, some Skimmers, Crucians and even a small Tench put in and appearance before bites suddenly slowed right down. Neither of us could work out why and put it down to the usual midmorning to midafternoon lull which seems to affect us wherever we go.
I did notice that i was getting a few plucks though as the feeder was dropping through water after casting and this gave me an idea. I wanted a much slower descent of the bait than the feeder would allow. Due to the range being fished and the 25ft of depth i was fishing in, float fishing wasnt an option, or was it?
I rummaged through my box for the biggest waggler i had and set it up in place of the feeder on a link about 2ft up from the hook. I then bulked all the shot directly below the float and added enough to only just sink it. This big float with all the shot could be cast to my feeder area quite easily and with it being on a paternoster off the mainline i would be in direct contact with the hookbait and not pulling through the float when bites occurred. The idea was to cast out and let it sink slowly on a tight line waiting for the tip to wrap around.
It worked a treat, i found i had to turn the reel handle very slowly to stay in contact with float due to the wind but the bites were mostly unmissable wraps on the tip and i went on to bagup with a succession of decent Roach, perch and Skimmers. Phil set the rig up too and also did well with it.
By the end of the day both of us had taken around 30lb of silvers apiece and even though the real specimens had eluded us it was a great feeling to have used a new technique to such deadly effect. Phils best fish of the day was a Perch of 2lb on the nose and mine was the Crucian/Goldfish looking thing pictured below which also went 2lb.

The weather has really started to turn quite cold over the last few days and a change is definately in the air. It wont be long at all before the trees start losing their leaves, the first frosts arrive and all my favourite methods and baits begin to come into their own.

Roach city

Saturday 18th September

Todays session was to be a bit of a fact finding trip to a top secret bit of river with form for some monster Roach. The idea was to go down and get the lie of the land for possible future trips over the winter, swim depths, layout and features would all be noted. The venue is very close to a town centre (hence the cryptic title of this entry) and fishing isnt strictly allowed as far as i know so a covert early morning strike was to be the order of the Day.

I was joined by my mate Paul and both of us knew the rewards were there but with everything against us it wasnt going to be easy. After negotiating some railings and parking our gear on a narrow ledge on top of the steep bank we quickly commenced fishing.The water was painfully clear and even in the dawn halflight the bottom was quite visible over much of the area.

We both caught several Perch to around a pound fairly quickly but no Roach even though they were topping fairly regularly out there. The sun was coming up rapidly and one or two people were starting to appear ,dog walkers and joggers, time was running out. Paul decided on a quick move downstream and i stayed put hoping my mashed bread would attract a monster redfin. Pauls move paid off somewhat with two chunky Roach falling to his breadflake almost straight away, in my swim however the minnows had moved in with a vengeance.

With the raised light levels it was plain to see that the big Roach werent in residence today apart from one that looked about 2lb which soon melted away to wherever its brothers and sisters were hiding. The public were out in force by now so we decided to head for home with quite a bit to ponder on. Wed only been fishing for about 3 hours but it was plenty of time to find out what we needed.

This was to be my only chance of a trip this weekend due to various commitments but it was most enjoyable fishing in the complete unkown and tempting a bite or two with the added danger of being chucked off at any minute!

Below is a pic i took earlier in the summer of a couple of Roach in the stretch, i know its a bit crappy but the pic does give some idea of how clear and shallow the water is. Both fish were 2lb+.

Will the Weather ever make its mind up?

Friday 20th August

As the title of this entry suggests, weve been experiencing some very changeable weather patterns of late and today was no exeption. Heavy rain one minute and bright sunshine the next, surely the fish must be as confused as the rest of us! Never mind, at least weve had a bit of water going into the rivers which should perk the fishing up a bit hopefully.

This evening i headed back to the same area of Trent that i fished last Sunday exept i had the stickfloat in mind cos the spot i fished last week had a lovely crease which screamed Roach. When i got there however the river level had dropped about 6 inches from last week and most of the colour had dropped out of it too. The meant that the crease was now further out and much less pronounced but it still looked worth a go especially as the right hand margin had now become a nice slack area which looked good for a Perch or two.

I soon had the stickfloat trundling along the crease and by feeding a combination of maggots and hemp i was soon getting a bite a chuck. Small Perch were the main culprits but they were interspersed with a few Bleak and the odd nice Roach to about 6oz. After catching the Bleak i setup a livebait paternoster on a second rod and placed it in the slack downstream.

Within minutes it pulled over and a small perch was brought in and this was subsequently followed by another soon after. After that the paternoster proved to be quite slow with just two small Pike to about 7lb caught over the next couple of hours. The Stickfloat provided some good fishing though and i caught steadily throughout the session.

Archie Braddock was fishing the next peg upstream and i stopped fishing for a while to have a good chat with him. The guys been fishing the Trent for many years longer than i am old and i wanted to pick his brain for a few ideas. In true Archie fashion he didnt disappoint and i packed up my kit with some good food for thought.

Sunday 22nd August

The weather was very sunny and warm today so rather than heading out with the full kit i decided upon a bit of lure fishing on my local river Soar. I was getting follows from microperch every other cast on a mepps comet but didnt get anything positive for ages until i finally caught one of about 6oz. Thinking the fish might be in the faster more oxygenated water due to the bright conditions, i headed for a new area near a weir.

First cast brought a small Chub of about half a pound which was encouraging but knowing the area is usually a good bet for a Pike or two i switched to a larger lure. After a good search around with it i eventually hooked a fish which turned out to be a very good Perch, unfortunately it spat my lure back at me after much head shaking leaving me somewhat gutted. The lure i hooked it on is pictured below and as you can see its a good mouthful for a Perch!

After that as i headed back to the car, i saw a couple of Jacks in the margins but they werent the slightest bit interested in anything i put in front of them. Ah well, at least i didnt blank!