23rd and 24th January and a good few chub and bone fish.
I had decided (the wife really )decorating would be on the agenda for the last 10 days or so. Looking at the weather it wasn't such a bad idea as the fishing would have been poor. At times I felt like a decorating slave! Decorating and cleaning cars are a couple of jobs that never motivates me. Never mind I notched up →
Hard going on the 7th and 11th Jan
Martin had been wanting to go fishing for pike ASAP. The rivers though had other thoughts. Band upon band of rain came west and unloaded it's moisture over the west country. I have seldom been so frustrated at watching the levels going up and down. January the 7th provided a short spell of the river clearing in colour. The flow was →
4th January 2013 and perch fishing.
Well what happened there then! Christmas just flew by and the next thing it's the new year. I had planned to fish the river today but a call from Andy and Mike saying they were going to fish for perch had me changing my plans the night before. The river condition was betwixt chub and barbel and perching sounded good to →
Sunday 23rd December
A great friend Steve Spiller, or now ex friend took me to fish a very secret lake that holds some huge pike. The lake is so small it's ridiculous but it has plenty of food fish in there. The bailiff showed me a couple of photo's of a 32lb and 27lb pike caught the previous week. I thought here we →
Barbel fishing again after the recent rain, 21st December
I went to the works disco last night at a posh hotel. They played the twist, so I did the twist. They played jump, so I jumped. They played "Come on Eileen"... got kicked out after that one! Well having moved Mum (hope she isn't reading the above!!!!!) to a apartment close by and having spent time making sure she was fine it was time to →
Tuesday 11th December and 6 pike
The forecast was for temperatures to plunge to -5c overnight, and sure enough it did. I was driving to the upper reaches of the Bristol Avon and the gauge said -4.5c, foggy too. The river had been steadily dropping in level. The colour had gone too. I was shocked and surprised to see the river had changed with the floods over →
Perching again on a different commercial.
After Andy putting me in a banker swim last week where he had never blanked and I did, never fills me with confidence. So this was it off to another commercial about 40 miles from home. We arranged to meet at about 7.15am and it was Andy who beat me to it by a couple of minutes. Again he graciously put →
30th November piking on the river
The river had been in flood for the last week and with the last few nights of frost it was starting to clear quickly. Andy and I headed off to the lower end of the Bristol Avon in search a of few croc's. Dead baits and sink and drawing was to be the method. Sure enough the river had gone down →
Friday November 23rd time for a change, perching.
My Mate Andy has been promising a trip to a commercial fishery where there have been some large perch coming out for a good few years. He arrived a little earlier than me and bless saved the best swim for me. Well he said it was the best swim! Our bait was to be prawns supplemented with a sprinkle of maggots →
A few days on the Avon and Stour and two 6lb chub.
Having just returned from the Itchen on Thursday evening it was Friday lunchtime by the time I set off to fish the D.Stour and the H.Avon. The method was going to be trotting with maggots being the bait again. The weather promised to be mild for the Friday and Saturday, but with a hard frost on Sunday morning. I arrived to →
River Itchen and loads of grayling, big roach and a salmon.
I've been looking forward to this trip for sometime. I had arranged for 5 other anglers if that what you want to call them to fish the Lower Itchen Fishery. I have fished with these guy's for more years than I like to say, Colin, Alan, Steve, John and Tony thanks for very special two days. As you do for this occasion →
Hampshire Avon for a few hours and a 6lb 6oz chub
With all the rain we had on Sunday I was apprehensive about the state of H. Avon. I was due to be spending a 4 day period on holiday near Ringwood. On my way down I peered over the bridge at Woodgreen and saw the river dirty and high. Higher than I had seen it for a while. As I drove →
4th November Chew Valley lake and the last attempt at the pike this year!
Driving towards Chew at 7.30am in the morning the rain was pouring down as it had been for the last few hours. There was flooding on roads where I hadn't seen it before, with the land saturated with water then the extra amounts just poured from fields and lanes. I just made it through a couple of large floods on the →
First a couple of short sessions during the begining of Nov
Firstly the Bristol Avon colour cleared and it was possible to float fish for a change. Trotting is s great method. You need to keep the feed going in. Feed is normally red maggots. I tried this on several swims and caught in all of them. No large chub but to just under 4lbs, great fun on 3lb hooklink and size 18 hook. →
27th October and Chew Valley
This was one of my days on the lake that I've lived close with since I was a child. This doesn't mean you know Jack sh^t about it. I've never cast a fly. Plenty of dead baits and lures but for little reward. But living 30 minutes away doesn't mean anything when booking and knowing what goes on. I'm not sure →
25th and 26th October river Wye
Well here we go again on the beautiful Wye. Chris was desperate to catch a barbel, he had been with other guides on the more difficult southern waters and had failed. So he contacted me and I suggested we try for the them on the river Wye. Arrangements were made and we meet early on the Thursday 25th. I had →
Sunday 21st October river Wye
After coming back from a glorious week in Cornwall on hols it was great to be back on the bank again. This time it was to try and catch Phil and Ed a decent barbel each on the Wye. Now down Cornwall way we had very little rain and sat outside for lunch most days, but I can see that the →
10th October Bristol Avon and a 9lb and an 11lber
The rain had poured on Thursday and Friday taking the Bristol Avon up again perhaps about 6ft. My mate Andy phoned me on Friday while I was on the Wye, to say that he went to Lacock and saw it was rising very fast and rushed off home........not too sure what he is talking about here, but can only assume it was the →
River Wye with Rob and Steve 4th and 5th Oct
Both Steve and Rob had wanted to share in the success of the Wye barbel fishing this year. So after some discussion we decided on the 4th and 5th of October as a good date to fish. Both Rob and Steve are accomplished carp anglers and have been fishing together for ages so it was good to meet them both. First →
Dorset Stour and Hampshire Avon in two days
Believe it I've not fished the Hampshire Avon and Dorset Stour this season, being very busy on the river Wye and helping people catching a pb barbel. So the first session was on the Stour where the river looked so different from previous years. Weed growth changed considerably and a new learning curve.Some had grown in places never seen and others there was →
Sunday 9th and Monday 10th September River Wye and 41 barbel
Richards Mother contacted me sometime ago to purchase a voucher to give to him on his birthday. After his birthday he contacted me and during our discussions on what type of fishing he would like to do and species to target we decide that barbel and chub would fit the bill. He also wanted to add another day to the session. He →
This week Monday 3rd September 2012
I had guided Nick before on the Bristol Avon with his mate Steve. This time Nick wanted to see if we could catch a few chub, barbel and large roach.....so he wasn't asking for much in one day. So Monday came and it saw us heading off to the Bristol Avon. First stop was to fish a swim that produces some →
30th August and a fantastic day’s barbel fishing with Dave
I had fished with Dave several times over the years and introduced him to some good waters where he has caught some splendid fish. Dave had expressed an interest to fish the river Wye. Well I couldn't ignore the request as the river and the beat I'm fishing is really doing well. It had been a busy week as I had →
27th August river Wye with Alex and Paul
Paul and Alex had fished with me on a disastrous tench fishing adventure at the end of July when the weather got hotter and hotter and the tench decided to spawn. We saw plenty of tench close up at Bradley's however they were not interesting in feeding. I have seldom failed in getting results but this one just couldn't be →