Wednesday 22nd August River Wye and success again
I have guided Laurie and Ian before on the Bristol Avon for chub but this time they wanted to fish the river Wye for barbel. As most of you know it's not a difficult river to fish once you know where to find the barbel. However when you have little free time to go fishing like Laurie and Ian have then →
16th August and river Wye fishing
Nigel had asked if I could guide him on the Wye in catching some of the beautiful barbel that frequent the river. The weather had been very mixed in Bath and we had plenty of rain with the Bristol Avon rising over the last few days. I was wondering about the Wye, however it did rise but not by very →
August 14th, last nights fishing and sharks
Been fairly busy over the last week or so and angling has taken a bit of a back seat. However yesterday late afternoon I decided to venture out onto the Bristol Avon in search of chub. I have found a swim that contains some better size chub probably close to 6lbs. I arrived in the pouring rain to find that →
6th August River Wye in summer at last!
Well it was time to get back on the river again, this time with a friend John. I know he was really looking forward to the trip. However I got the call from him on Sunday morning to say that he had done his back in......Where........in the pub. Now this is the second time this has happened. I remember a →
1st August and back on the Bristol Avon
I hadn't been fishing the Bristol Avon too much recently. Since the start of the season the river has been up and down like a Weston Super Mare donkey as we say around here. However with the sun of the previous week and the important dry spell the river was still pushing through but the river was very clear. For me →
Tench fishing at Horseshoe and Bradley’s
What is it about fishing. One session you can fill your boots and have a a couple of "red letter days" then the sun comes out for a few days and things go completely downhill. Paul and his son Alex had wanted to catch a few tench and a good few weeks ago we agreed that late July would be →
A few days guiding with Paul and Andy on the Wye
Andy and Paul had contacted me back in early spring asking whether it was possible if I could arrange a few days barbel fishing on the Wye. They had been fishing the Severn recently without much success, well not exactly true Andy had been struggling. Paul is a very accomplished carp fisherman and had seldom fished the river let alone →
11th July and 4 X 8lb plus barbel on the River Wye
The difficulty in fishing the Courtfield stretch of the river Wye is getting a place on the beat. The quality of the fishing is superb and therefore people book well in advance such is the popularity. The only problem with this is that you cannot predict what condition the river will be in. Last week for instance it was up →
Bradley’s lake Tench fishers fish in! July 6-8th
I had almost given up on the tench fishing for the year. Everything seemed to be conspiring against me in catching some good fish. Dave Rogerson our Regional Organiser had booked the north shore on Bradley's for us Tench Fishers. Last year we arrived to find the tench spawning and not at all interested in feeding. It was blistering hot and →
Short session 3rd July Bristol Avon
I only had time for a very short session on the upper Bristol Avon. I had wanted to return to where Archie and Trevor had seen that 9lb barbel. Sure enough the large barbel was there in the shallow water. I couldn't see the other two smaller barbel that accompany it. The water had increased in flow and colour since Sunday →
1st July guiding Archie and Trevor on the Bristol Avon
Trevor and his lad Archie had booked a session with me to fish for chub and barbel on the Bristol Avon. So Sunday saw us meet up on the upper end of the river close to where they live. First we looked at the river and decided that it was worth putting in some hemp near to where a shoal →
Couple of good chub from the Bristol Avon 27th June
Tell you what I read a very interesting post on facebook regarding guiding. In a nut shell it was about whether a guide should fish when they are guiding. My view is that they shouldn't unless the client would like to watch and learn. Demonstration is part of learning and to see how it's done correctly is a good starting point when establishing a →
26th June Fishing on the river Wye. What a session!
I had booked the beat earlier in the year on the middle stretches of the river Wye. The problem with booking early is that it's impossible to know what the weather will be doing and what state the river would be in. Now as we all know June has been one of the wettest on record and this has been reflected →
Ist Guiding session on the Bristol Avon for 2012-13 season
After the difficult 6 weeks or so after the sudden death of Dad it was good to be guiding again on the river. Luke and his Dad Steve had wanted to catch some chub and barbel from the Bristol Avon. The family had given Steve a voucher for a days guiding for his birthday present. The river had not been fishing particularly →
1st session on the river
Well how quickly time goes. I've just returned from a 2 week holiday on the lovely island of Fuerteventura. Lucky me, well I should say we for the better half enjoyed it too. For a change I had decided to have a two week break knowing that the tench would be spawning (which they haven't) the river would be in →
25th May, tench fishing tackle for sale!
Well I've just returned from fishing Horseshoe again for 48hrs and blanked. Well I say blanked but a 2lbs 2oz perch and 1lb rudd and a small roach didn't actually set the world on fire. Unlike the weather which did feel rather warm. The summer bay was closed off for the carp to spawn and guess where the tench were, →
Not the best of weeks.
I haven't been able to fish much over the last few weeks. My dear Dad passed away suddenly at the age of 85. This leaves Mum who needs some help. So I've pretty busy doing the normal things that you do for arranging a funeral etc. I'm not going to write too much hear about him. Other than I will →
May 8th and 9th and Tench fishing on two lakes
Dan from Cadbury Angling joined me for a tench fishing session at Great Somerfords. We arrived to find a blustery wind blowing from the south. The lake looked perfect, the level was at the highest that I had ever seen. To start with I put out some hemp and dead maggots with just a few live ones via a spomb. Not →
Talk at Wiltshire Barbel Society and a great video on barbel care.
I was invited by Des Richardson to give a talk at the Wiltshire Barbel Society regional meeting last night. The subject matter was about enjoying the journey towards achieving our goals in fishing. For example we set these ultimate destinations (pb's), but along the way we should enjoy the journey. So my theme was about this journey in catching personal →
30th April Horseshoe lake and more carp, oh and one tench
When is the weather going to warm up. I arrived at 7am on the Monday with the rivers flooded due to the incessant rain we had over the weekend together with the gusting easterly winds. I had a quick look around and couldn't believe I was the only angler on the lake. The problem they had with the carp deaths →
Tenching on a cold Horseshoe lake and finish with 2 big carp
Mick my tench fishing mate had a terrible time on Horseshoe last week. Not a bite for 3 days and nights. Him and his mate Lee didn't see a single fish! I know it's been hard. I had planned to fish for two days this week again for the tench. Winter bay was going to be my starting point, however the swim I →
April 19th and a session with David and Jordan (father and son)
David had planned to come to the UK from Boston for a family holiday and had asked me to guide his lad Jordan on catching a few fish. Now as you may know most of the angling in the USA is for large and small mouth bass. So when I asked David if he wanted to fish for coarse fish →
Horseshoe for the 3rd time and a better result.
The car was packed on Sunday morning and a good lunch inside me saw me heading off to fish Horseshoe. The weather forecast was not very good frost on the night followed by a cool northerly wind. Then the wind was turning to the south west on Monday, then heading for rain early Tuesday morning. The forecasters were spot on. I →