Can't buy a bite

I headed down to the Match Stretch for the day. As there was a match on in the evening. I made my way down to peg 20. It's quite a walk when you're fully loaded with gear. The fishing was awful. I hardly had a bite all day, I fished from 11am until 10pm and didn't catch one fish. kenny came down for a few hours, and he had one bite and one fish, a roach of around 2 ounces. I enquired how the match fished, apparently most anglers struggled and the winning weight was around 3lb. The sluice is just not fishing well at all, It's a real head scratcher. My theory is that the water is way too clear and that perhaps farming chemicals have washed into the drain from the surrounding fields. Either way I'll be giving coarse fishing on the Sluice a rest for a few weeks.

First Yarrow Brown Trout and a River Ribble session

A Surprise catch! Brown Trout from the River Yarrow Croston Brown Trout around 10oz

Ben's absolutely stunning Barbel of 9lb 5oz

Safely returned back to the water

I decided to head to my local River, The Yarrow today. The water was very clear but the weather looked threatening. Armed once again with my Feeder rod and a pint of maggots, my target was to be Chub, or anything that was passing really. My first fish was a perfect little Dace another soon followed. Soon after the bites dried up. Gord came down for a nosey, as he's never fished The Yarrow before. Tooled up with his lure rod, the temptation for a cast of two was too hard for him to resist. He headed to the Weir Pool "Watch this mate I'll go and catch my first Yarrow Pike" Remarkably he had a follow after only a few casts, a Pike of around 5lb followed his lure but backed off at the last second, seemingly spooked by something, it sensed something wasn't quite right. A quick lure change and a couple of casts later, he was into a Jack Pike of around 3lb. True to his word, Gord did catch his first Yarrow Pike and it took him around 5 minutes to do so. My highlight of the session was a stunning little Brown Trout. I was quite shocked to catch a Brownie, as I didn't know they were in the river.

More Fishing..........

A innocent conversation with Ben about the days fishing events soon led to another session. The word Barble was mentioned. That was it! The seed was well and truly sewn. I picked him up at around 21.30 and we made our way to a fabulous part of the River Ribble. This was the first time that I'd fished this river. Ben talked me through the set up and what to expect from a Barbel session. We were rods in by about 22.00 and the anticipation was brilliant. Within the first hour I had a strong pull on my rod, I was later to learn that perhaps a fish had moved my bait and I'd become snagged. Within about 2 minutes of my pull, Bens rod bent round and his line was stripping off his reel. He was in! And it look like a good fish too. And what a fish, after a good scrap he was soon cradeling a Barbel of an impressive 9lb 5oz. A cracking fish mate, well done! There was no more action for either of us, even though we stayed until almost first light, finally calling the session to an end at 3.30 in the morning. Lets just say I'll be giving Barbel fishing another go sometime soon

A great session goes tits up!

Nice Tench at 4lb 10zMacro shot of Tench's eye

Nice Roach from the match stretch

I met Beef at the Match section of the sluice at 7.00am. Coarse fishing was the order of the day. I fished my Tip rod on the maggot feeder. It wasn't too long until I was into my first fish. A decent sized Roach, I didn't weigh it but did take a picture. A much smaller Roach soon followed, then I played and landed a cracking Tench of 4lb 1oz. It was in cracking condition, and has probably never been caught before. There is such a difference between the Tench you catch on the Sluice than on Hurlston Hall, the Sluice Tench fight much harder for one. I also had a Hybrid of around half a pound. Then it happened It came! And it covered the whole area in which myself and Beef were fishing. Like a carpet of green, it took over the whole match length. DUCK WEED! It was like someone turned off the fishing. It was game over, we couldn't buy a bite. We made the decision to pack up and move to a different drain.( F.A.O Gary and Julie Shhhhhhhhh! ;-) The drain that we moved to didn't fish well at all. In fact in the whole time I was there I had one Roach, and that was about 1oz. I think Beef had about 3 bites all day. All other anglers struggled, in fact many blanked. Beef pointed out to me that he's not caught a fish since we last visited Rosemary Wood fishery on the 15Th of May. A frightening statistic. Ben came for the last hour or so to try out his new lure rod. He didn't manage to winkle anything out though. On the whole today was pretty disappointing, as I'm convinced the match length was going to fish well today.

First Sluice Tench of the season

3lb 8oz Tench

The weather was lousy today. I waited for a break in the rain and headed to the match section of The Sluice. No sooner than I arrived it started to hoof it down. Typical! Not to be out done by bit of rain I set up anyway. My first course fish of the season on the Sluice was to be a nice looking Perch of a few ounces, another soon followed and then I was into a proper fish. My tip rod, shot around and I hooked into a decent size Tench. Alas I lost it when it took me into the weeds. It wasn't too long until I was into another. This time I was more successful. It weighed 3lb 8oz. Not one of the bigger residents but a good start to my Tench campaign.

June 16th Opening day of the season

My only catch of the day, but very welcomeDid someone mention meat?

I had arranged to meet Ben and Chris at the Sluice. Our main target was to be Pike and Tench. I arrived at around 9 o'clock in the morning, Ben and Chris had set up earlier. Beef made a guest appearance for about an hour, he's still recovering from a few days away. Without waffling on too much about the days events, it can be summed up quite easily. Disappointing! Although Ben had caught 2 Jack Pike earlier in the morning, by 14.30 in the afternoon this was the only bit of action between us. Chris had more than enough by this time and made a swift get away. Just myself and Ben left (Both just as stubborn as each other) we decided to change location and head to Sixfields. It was a bit of an upheaval but we'd walked quite away down the Sluice and figured it best we packed up earlier rather than at dusk. The highlight of the session by far was Ben's Bank side cuisine. A Smorgasbord of carnivorous delights, more than enough to settle the hunger of Rex and his companion. As for the fishing. I was heading for a certain blank until right at the end when I hooked into a Pike of around 4lb's caught on a Fox Micro Rooter. I'd snaffled it from Ben. There were quite a few other anglers on the bank, and one thing is for certain, we didn't see anyone else catch a fish. By all accounts it would seem that the water is far too clear, and this seems to have switched the fishing off. For once I'm hoping it rains, as this will get the fish moving, and should induce feeding.

A fantastic day on Windermere

The Piking Pirate had sent me a text message during the week. "WINDY when u ready. fishin good" Now how tempting of a text was that? So I arranged for a session on Monday 9Th. A very early start. I was up at 3am and at his house for 4am. Gordie was very optimistic, the weather was perfect the moon phase was excellent. "We're in for a good day today mate" He said. He as usual was right. He absolutely Cained the fish on there today. He had a very good run of fish, he boated 9 all together, the largest being around 17lb. Most of the Pike fell to dead baits, the odd one or two falling to lures. I had one fish in the boat, although it was an absolute cracker, quite possibly one of the biggest Pike I'll ever catch. I struck in to it and Gord guided me through it. I was using my light spinning rod and according to Gord it was bent over like an 'O' "It's a miracle that the rod didn't snap". "It's a good job I've got a strong heart" he said. When we boated the fish it became apparent that I'd caught something special. I'd landed what he refers to "One of the Super Tankers" He placed it in the sling and I waited for the verdict. "What's your PB mate?" "12lb 90z" I answered. I'd shattered it. She weighed a staggering 26lb. I was over the moon. With Gord's guidance I'd caught the fish of dreams. Only 4 days earlier I was chatting to Ben that this seasons target was to be a 20+ fish. I knew I'd raised the bar with that statement, but with a lot of time and effort I considered it possible. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I'd achieve it 4 days later. I will be eternally greatful to Gord for my monster catch, and without a doubt i owe this catch to his guidence and knowledge of the water. He is the stuff of legends

New Venue is truly outsanding

First Fish off the new water

Common Carp 9lb 2ozBest Fish of the session at 13lb 15oz

Mirror Carp 10lb 6oz

I was up at 4 am this morning, I had arranged to meet Ben at our new Carping water. I arrived in good time at 5 am. Ben had over slept but to his credit was at the bank side by 5.45am. I took my time setting up. I knew I had all day, so I didn't want to rush and cock things up. My tactics for today were to set both rods up on 'The Method' and to experiment with baits. My first run came at just after 7.30 and I landed a Bream of around 2lb's. I had a good few hours to wait until my next run which came at around 11.20am This was a much better fish a Common Carp at 9lb 2oz a little under half an hour later I was in again, another decent Common Carp and a little bigger at 13lb 15oz, a great fish. It was to be around 7 hours until I was to have any more rod bending action. At around 18.30 I landed my first Mirror Carp of the session, a good size at 10lb 6oz. All fish with the exception of the largest Carp fell to 'The Method' and 15mm Mainline Strawberry pop up boilie. The larger Carp succumbed to double pineapple flavoured maize. As for Ben well no matter what tactics he tried today he just couldn't winkle a fish off. His only run of the day coming when he went to his car to get his jacket. I heard his left hand rod starting to strip a bit of line, I hasitated for a while but knew I had to strike into it. Fortunately it was only a Bream of around 1lb, and luckily the fish found freedom when i puposefully let the line go slack. This is because it was a brand new rod and reel and he'd have killed me if I'd christened them. :-) All in all we had a fantastic day today, we had the luxury of a cooked breakfast on the bankside and the weather held out all day. We packed up just before 23.00pm that's around 17 hours fishing. We finally called it a day when Ben struck into his first screaming run of the day, as I returned with the net I saw him holding his bait in his hand. What had happend? This is the moment he deserved he'd waited 17 long hours for this. We deduced that it must have been a liner (A fish swimming in to his line) We've found a great water here and I can't wait until we go back.

I've unearthed a real cracker of a water

I went for a short session today at a new venue that I was interested in fishing. I set my gear up but was only there to get a feel for the water and to see if there was any other anglers there who's brains I could pick. This venue is absolutely stunning set in beautiful countryside and the water is gin clear. I will be fishing this venue a lot in the future and will only refer to it as 'The Water' This is because I don't want to publicize it too much on my blog and spoil it for myself. I've noticed from my blog statistics that a lot of my page hits come from people searching for waters that I have mentioned. I've unearthed a real cracker here and would like to keep it this way. I didn't catch anything today but I have arranged to meet Ben there and will be making a very early start tomorrow morning.

Wyreside on St Michael the return

Fully loaded and ready to go

Another 24 hour session was booked onto Wyreside On St Micheal. The last time Myself and Beef fished there we didn't get much action, apparently this was down to the fact that the Carp had started spawning. We decided to purposefully target the Catfish in the lake which run up to a staggering 41 lb. The traps were set and we settled down for the night. I was very comfortable, as I'd upgraded to a Nash indulgence bed chair and a T F Gear Force 8 bivvy. However the fishing was once again disappointing, not so much as a twitch or a beep in the night, in fact not even the whole time we were there. Once again we both blanked on this water. Our conclusion for this venue is as follows..... Although it is a very well kept fishery, and the fish are large and plentiful, there are 15 pegs on this lake which for it's size is around 8 or 9 too many. It is a victim of it's own success as it is highly pressured by other anglers. We will have to give this venue a wide berth for now. The highlight of the session was when I crept up on Beef's peg and pulled his line, he very nearly fell in the water. The footage can be watched below ;-)