#8. First trip of the year...

Firstly, apologies for such a long gap since the last entry. Since my last blog I have been on holiday to America, had Christmas, two colds and suffered the loss of a loved one to take up all my time. Well, I finally managed to get some time for a trip out to the the river the other week before this latest cold snap descended. Having not been for a while I decided a nice simple session was the order of the day and set Dace as the target on the stick float with maybe a bonus Roach 🐟.

A cold winters day..

On arrival the river was looking pretty low but with a bit of extra pace on it, colour was good and temp was around 10 deg. The clouds were overcast to so in all not to bad and ideal for my intended target. I opted to fish the side stream today as in previous years I've found that in the early part of the year the Dace seem to congregate here getting ready to spawn. It's also where the previous year I picked up some Dace to over 1lb. I would be using my small 11ft Drennan Matchpro Ultra Light rod as this works well on the tighter narrow side streams. This, accompanied by my trusty smaller Shimano Stradic reel, 3.2lb Drennan float fish line and a small Dave Harrell stick float would do the business. I used I small size 18 hook to nylon and evened out the shot pattern to suit the flow. For bait I would be using the trusted red and white maggot 🎣👍🏻.

The majestic Hampshire Avon..

First few trots through the swim didn't result in much, the extra flow was pushing the float away from my preferred route through the swim. After getting to grips with the flow I was then able to present a better cast and action and the result was instant. Holding the float back and slowing down the trot had an instant response. The next 10 trots produced 10 lovely Dace all around 8oz and all in tip top condition. The one red and one white maggot combination was working very well. I was also catching them at the top, middle and bottom of the swim which was really encouraging 🎣.

Couple of crackers...

Well the Dace kept coming, with fish of all year classes gracing my net. Occasionally the odd bonus Roach would turn up to with a one or two over the 1lb mark. I was also getting in amongst some of the larger Dace too with a couple of 12oz specimens in the net now. It was at this point the clouds parted and the sun ☀️ came out which meant the fishing was soon going to become more challenging as literally with in 10 mins the bites dried up. At this point I stopped for lunch and re started half hour or so later 🍵.

Roach and Dace showing..

Sadly by now it was bright blue sky and in the next hour I only managed two more average Dace. At this point I decided to call it a day. I was pleased as due to the reasons I mentioned at the start of this blog, this was my first trip out in a couple of months. I pulled in the keepnet and must of had about 10lb or so of Dace with the odd bonus Roach in there for good measure. I was very pleased and it was great to be back on the bank. Plus with some milder weather forecast for the next week it's a good opportunity to get back down and try for some of the larger specimens which will soon be nice and plump ahead of spawning. I can't wait... 🎣😀.

Some lovely Dace banked..

#7. A day to remember...

Today marks 4 years to the day since I had the best roach fishing session of my life on the river so I thought I would mark it by adding this bonus Halloween blog 👻🕷🎃which is a look back in time to a session I had on the 31st of October 2012. It was a halloween session to remember and my best days haul of big river roach I've ever caught numbers wise. Not only that it, was all caught on the Sky Sports cameras for everyone else to enjoy and arguably one of the best river roach fishing sessions ever caught on camera. This is my account of the day and at the end of this blog you will be able to watch the Sky Sports coverage of this amazing session. 😝🎣😃

All the action caught on camera for Sky Sports!

On the morning of 31/10/2012 I met Keith Arthur and the Sky Sports team at Rownhams Services on the M27 which was our usual meeting point. We enjoyed are pre filming breakfast and worked out our plans for the session. We then headed in convoy to the Hampshire Avon where I had decided to take Keith to somewhere other than where we originally planned as the weather forecast was awful and the intended place was to exposed for what we had planned. Upon arrival I wasn't very optimistic on our chances as it was windy and beginning to rain. I had sent my dad and uncle down at the crack of dawn to secure the swims and to drop in some breadcrumb and a few maggots to give us the best possible chance of success. 🤔🤔

Was once the no.1 roach swim...

I positioned Keith in the middle swim, dad was in the top swim, I had the tree swim and my uncle the bottom swim. While Keith and camera man were getting set up I decided I would have a few runs through with the float to see if anything was about. First cast I was into a dace of 12oz quickly followed by several more. One a chuck basically. The colour of he river was spot on so I knew we had a chance. The dace kept coming for me and on about my 10th trot having hooked a dace on the previous 9, I hooked into what turned out to be the first of eight 2lb + roach this session would bring Keith and myself. The tell tale thump of the roach shaking its head gave it away and in a calm manor I landed the red fin. At 2lb 4oz it was a good start. After this the roach and dace kept coming. Big 1lb+ fish and a 2.1 and 2.2 followed for me before I then hooked into a huge roach. 👌🏻🐋

2lb roach for fun..

At this point cameras where rolling and when Keith could see I was into a beauty the attention was all on me as well as the camera. This made the fight even more scary as at this point it looked like I might have a 3lb river roach on which would have been my 3rd river roach over 3lb. I soon had control of the roach and shortly after it was netted. We later weighed it and it went 2lb14oz. I kept catching and Keith moved down to join me as my swim seemed to be the one the roach were frequenting in numbers. His first few casts he had roach to 1.12 and good dace. His float then sunk and he struck into only his second ever and PB equaling 2lb 1oz roach. He went a bit crazy in the excitement of landing it which made classic television. 😅😅

Keith's special roach...

We then stopped for lunch, which ended up being some lovely chips from the shop in the village 🍟 and a well earned cup of tea. ☕️ After this I had a further three more big roach one of 2lb, another of 2lb3oz and another 2lb8oz with Keith having some more big 1lb+ roach and big dace in between. This was all in the most horrendous weather. We had rain, wind and even hale at times with the sun popping out now and then for good measure. When it got to 3.30pm filming stopped with the light fading. We did a closing piece to the camera and weighed the 2.14. In the film your see the other roach and all the 132 dace in the keepnet. We were all shattered and soaked to the bone but none of us cared a bit as we had experienced the pinnacle in angling and a red letter day to remember. !!

2lb 14oz roach, the best of the day!

I returned many times after this and never again did I catch a roach over 2lb or many over 1lb from this section. They were there briefly and as quick as they arrived, they were gone. I fish the section now and again still but due to groundworks and water flow/extraction the fish just don't get in this section anymore. The odd dace and sea trout is all it seems to produce. Thankfully I have found them in other areas of the Avon and on other rivers. It was right place, right time and I hope one day I can do it all again...

A session to remember...

Now sit back and enjoy the film on the link below and re live one of my greatest ever days fishing the iconic Hampshire Avon for fish that dreams are made from... 😃🎣🍻🐟

Click play above to watch the session

#6. Barbel on the float...

Down the years I have caught some lovely barbel. From big doubles, hard fighting 6s and 8lb fish, right down to young fish of 3 to 4oz. I love fishing for them, such a dynamic and powerful fish that gives you a great scrap. Up untill now I have only ever caught them using static baits or rolling baits though the swims. Well, for a few seasons now I have wanted to change this. It was time to get the lighter tackle out and go about catching a barbel trotting on the float. 🎣

Current low levels make it easy to spot Barbel

I've been targeting roach the past few weeks with some good success. To get the roach confident and feeding we have been introducing casters into the swims. This sends them wild and they just can't resist them. Now this was also the case for the barbel, normally shy and elusive in the day, a regular sprinkle of caster and I suddenly had 5 to 10 barbel in the swim competing with the roach for the caster as they floated by. This was an awesome sight. My two favourite species of coarse fish battling each other for my casters. 😀🐟

Casters are a brilliant bait for all fish..

Having picked off a few nice roach on the float I then suddenly thought now is my chance to have a trot for a barbel as by now there were 10 or so barbel ripping the swim apart for my casters without a care in the world. To prepare I quickly switched over the line on my reel to a slightly stronger breaking strain, kept the same Drennan dibber float on with bulk shot above the hook link and put a stronger hook to nylon on so I had a chance of landing one if I was able to connect. I kept the hook small as there were still roach of 2lb or above in the swim and still wanted to have a chance if one of these got to the casters first. This proved to be the case as first cast a lovely roach took the bait followed by several chub that bruised through the swim to the bait. They weren't bad chub to, around the 4 to 5lb mark. ☺️🐟

The roach initially beat the barbel to it!

By now all I could see was barbel in the swim and they were not at all spooked by the capture of the roach and chub in the slightest. I then knew it was only going to be a matter of time before I was to connect with a prince of the river. The next trot down I had a barbel inhale my caster but before I could strike it had exhaled it in an instant. Strangely, it didn't spook, nor which did any other the other barbel in the swim. They kept on feeding on the casters. I quickly re baited my hook with double caster and began another trot. About 15 yards into the trot a barbel rose up and gobbled my bait. I struck into it immediately and BOOM fish on !! The barbel shot of downstream like a bullet and into the far bank cover. The clutch on my reel was screaming and I was giving it as much pressure as I dared on the lighter set up. I need not have worried as my Drennan Acolyte float rod absolutely bossed it. The rod is so well balanced it made playing this barbel an absolute joy. I soon had the fish under control and shortly after it was resting in the net.

A stunning float caught barbel 

It was an utterly gorgeous plump barbel in the most awesome condition. A reel live wire who really showed off well for the camera with its dorsal fin perked up the entire time. But best off all it was caught on the float using conventional float gear. I was made up with it and now I can't wait to catch more barbel on this method. If you've not tried this method for barbel give it a go, I can't recommend it enough 😃👍🏻🎣🐟

#5. All aboard with the lure master...

With the dry conditions continuing and the rivers still not on there best form, I felt this week I fancied something a bit different fishing wise. With the weather forecast looking favourable, a number of options were on the cards. Do I head north and go for some bream, with the chance of another special fish, or try the canal on the drop shot for some of the larger resident Perch or have a day out on the boat on a reservoir. Well, a quick call to my mate Lee Garner and it was decided that option 3 was to be the decision. A day out on the boat after Perch and Zander seemed the way forward. We both decided there was one place where we felt we might have a good chance of a good day and so the boat was booked and off we went. ⚓️🛥

The chance of a fine Zander or Perch here

We arrived at the reservoir early in the morning. The sun was out with a few clouds in the sky and not to much chop out on the water due to the light breeze. First things first we went to the onsite cafe and had a full English breakfast and mug of tea. Pukka it was and would set us up nicely for a day afloat. I asked Lee to provide the tackle and rods for the trip as he's got some of the best lure set up I've seen and is arguably one of the best lure lads in the uk. He's even represented the UK in lure fishing competitions so I was in safe hands. With the gear sorted we donned are Anglian water life jackets, loaded the boat and with Garner at the helm we set off into open water. 🚤💨

Style Icons ...

With the knowledge Lee has of the venue we were soon heading out to a specific area of the reservoir. He had brought some sonar equipment we were going to use to help find the areas to target but sadly this failed on us. So we only had previous knowledge to go on. I felt we were in the right place as a number of other boats soon arrived in the area. As many of you know, most of the fishing at Grafham is done drifting using a drogue to slow the drift down. This was the approach we took to cover the ground to try and locate fish. 🎣🐟

Set up was fairly straight forward as Lee was providing me with everything for this trip. I was using a custom lure/jig rod Lee had brought from America. It was stunning and coupled with a beautiful Abu Garcia reel it was the absolute dogs! We were using various coloured jigs from black and silver ones to bright green and yellow. Lowering them down to the bottom, once on the deck just lifting them up and down slowly and occasionally leaving it there and allowing the rock of the boat to do the work. 🌊

Brighter lures got more interest this time

It wasn't long, I think about our 3rd drift that Lee got the first enquiry on his rod, a sharp bang, typical of a Zander, followed by a couple of thuds. He was quick to stike but sadly there was nothing there. Annoying this was but gave us confidence we were in the right area. It wasn't to long after this I got my first bite. It arrived at the time I was on my phone so I was slightly late striking but I did and the fish was on. I played it well and it was heading to the surface. Lee was getting ready with the net and at that point the line went slack and the fish as off. It was hard to tell what it might of been, I initially thought perch but I will never know. 😒😑😅

Not an easy water at all ... 

We moved on and drifted several other parts of the water, covering as much ground as we possibly could. We both had a few more bites each but again nothing would come of them. We chopped and changed lures and tried different approaches to seek out the fish which was proving hard. Speaking to other friends we had out there on other boats the going was tough. Not much if anything was being caught at all. Even the Trout boys seemed to be struggling. 😤

With time in the day getting on we settled in another area that was to be are last patch to try for a fish. The area was calm and if anywhere was gonna produce I was confident it would be there. And sure enough it did. On the second drift, Lee 's rod bent over and he was into a fish. At last. It wasn't to long that a Zander broke the surface and was on board. Not the biggest but the first I had seen in person. Impressive looking predator with some serious teeth. 😬

One for the future but a welcome fish

The fish was quickly returned and that proved to be the last action of the day. By now the water had a bit of a chop on so annoyingly we got slightly soaked on the way back to the jetty. I didn't care as it had been a great day out in the boat with a good mate and a good experience for me to further my lure skills from the master. We are hopefully going to try another reservoir in a couple of weeks again on the boat and I hope then to be able to break the Zander duck. Though for now, It's Grafham that's holding all the cards, until next time.... 🎣🐟

I will return Grafham ...

#4. Go with the flow...

It's no word of a lie that my favourite form of fishing is trotting the stick float. In my opinion you just can't beat it. The moment the float dips and u strike into a fish is just pure magic. The last few months the opportunities to do this have been limited due to the heavy weed in the river. But after the recent wash through of rain water and the cooler weather the weed has started to clear. So this past weekend I thought I would get out and do some trotting 🎣🌧

I decided to have an early start on Sunday so I could cover a few places. On arrival the river was looking pukka. Some extra flow and a really nice tinge of colour. This filled me with some definite confidence as the rivers down here have been gin clear for weeks. 🏞

River looking spot on

As always tactics were simple, a light well balanced rod with light line. For this trip I would be trying out some Drennan dibber floats. There really light and would be great when targeting roach that are often quite easily spooked. There designed for pole fishing but a friend recently explained there benefit when targeting silver fish in tough/summer conditions. For bait I would be using caster and maggots with bread for back up if required.

Drennan Dibber's are perfect for clear rivers

Well, I got off to a good start with a nice roach pretty much first trot, which was soon followed by several more over the next hour. When bites dried up I moved to other swims with gaps in the weed picking up the odd roach and perch. I also managed a few clonking gudgeon which were great to see. Always wished they could grow to a few pounds as they would look epic. After a few hours bites started to dry up and it was at this point I noticed the river changing. The level was dropping and the colour was beginning to clear out 😦😔

The Roach were on it

It was at this point I decided to make hay and call it a day on this part of river and move over to another section where I fancied a go for some dace. It's a little early yet for dace fishing for my liking but having picked up a dace of 12oz a few weeks back I thought it worth ago. I used the same tactics as I had for the roach earlier in the day. Well, it was clear the dace were in the swim as I had a fish a cast. Sadly, not the big dace, though there were some big dace in the swim, the small ones were on it in a flash. This is normally the case this time of year and I say small ones, they were all around 6/7oz 🐟

An average Dace for this venue

All in all it was a good day roving about on the stick float. Conditions still aren't quite right for this form of fishing and as the temperatures continue to drop it will only get better. I can't wait for autumn and winter when I can really get some serious trotting done. Then I can really get amongst some of the special silver fish I'm lucky enough to have on my patch using the best form of fishing I know 😃👍🏻🎣

#3. A change in season...

With summer drifting further into the past and the autumnal feeling in the air, I was at a bit of a loss as to where to venture out this week. The weather forecast wasn't the greatest, wind and rain forecast on the south coast. A drop in temperature to.  My local Hampshire Avon where I normally fish is also very weedy still, there are signs of it starting to turn brown and it's slowly beginning to break up so it won't be long. Weighing it up I felt my best chance of catching was probably another overnight trip up to the River Trent.

A weedy Avon

The drive up again was blighted by stupid traffic yet again on the dreadful M25. It's still amazing me how 4 lanes can be so clogged on a weekend in the mid afternoon. I think next time I will take the A34 and A43 to join the M1. I don't know why they bother having speed cameras on the M25 as u never move fast enough to even consider speeding lol 😡😤

I arrived at the Trent around 8pm just as the last bit of daylight was turning into night. To my surprise after the recent rain across the Midlands, the Trent was painfully low 😦. There was barely any flow what so ever which did dent my confidence a bit. My mate was already set up and fishing. Turned out before I arrived he had already had a barbel run but lost the fish to a snap off on the jagged rocks on the river bed. This helped fill me with some confidence we may be able to temp out a fish or two.

I was using my normal Trent barbel set up, tripod with two rods on cage feeders and long rigs. 15 mm boilies as hook baits but this time I had pre soaked them in a krill flavoured glug. My god did the glug smell but the barbel love it apparently lol 😷😷

Pungent 😷

After about 20 mins I had a run, the isotope was moving all over the place like a sparkler! Feeling confident I lifted into it and soon realised it wasn't a barbel. After a short scrap the fish was in the net, a chub around 3lb. It was a stocky fish with lovely summer brassy colours to it. I quickly put it back and re cast the bait. This was shortly followed by a couple of bream. The Trent bream in this section are actually quite a good stamp. Annoying when barbel fishing but with an average size of 7lb ish there not to shabby ☺️

Shortly after this I had a good run on my downstream rod. Lifting into this take it was clearly a big barbel. It was solid and stripping line at will with big, powerful lunges. I managed to get the fish under control and was playing it well. Sadly, shortly after gaining this control it took me down into the rocky bottom and snapped me off. I lost the entire rig and just got back some line which the first meter off was completely frayed 😔. This was to be the last barbel action of the evening as all the remaining runs were bream. 

I slept in the car and woke early to get a clear run back down south. Nearer home I decided to have a few hours on a local pit for bream. I'd not fished this pit for a while, so was intrigued to try it and this proved to be a a good call as the rain descended so it was quite nice to get under the brolly and watch the bobbins. I fished for around five hours and managed a couple of bream weighing 9lb 2oz and 9lb 4oz 😃🎣

A moody Bream 

On the way home from the lake I decided I would stop at Hampshire Avon and check in on how the level and weed was looking. It was still quite high and weedy but I found a large gap in the weed and still had the barbel gear in the car. The light was fading into darkness but I had some small boilies in the car still and fancied a quick go for an hour or two. I cast one out into the gap in the weed and sat back watching the isotope. After about 10 mins the tip began indicating a bite which I lifted into and connected to a fish. It wasn't a barbel and I was thinking a small chub. As the fish moved into netting range I turned on my head torch and the light illuminated a gorgeous roach slipping into the net. I was surprised it took a mini boilie but then I remembered when my good mate Ryan Hayden had a roach haul on the Thames using them. 

I popped the roach on the scales and it went 1lb 13oz, I fired off a few self takes which sadly came out badly. The focus was messed up. Thinking it was a fluke I returned the roach and re cast looking for barbel. Slightly later I had another similar bite which turned out to be a second roach 😃 which looked a little plumper. This one was an honest 1lb 15oz. This pic turned out much better thankfully. 

Almost 2lbs of river perfection 😃

It was soon time to call it a day. I'm a purest so I'm not sure I'm happy catching them on boilies but it's possibly something I need to think about on my acolyte and lighter gear. As you know, big river roach really are my favourite fish so it's always nice to get amongst them. We're see how things pan out but it's certainly opened my eyes to other ways of tempting the most beautiful fish the river has to offer 👍🏻🎣

#2. Breams Can Come True...

For me there's always been something quite mythical about big gravel pit bream. Large shoals of big, bronzed, dustbin lid sized bream mooching about in the depths. Not everyone's fish of choice and to most carp anglers a complete pest. But not to me, I love em and have fancied a go for em for a while now. September is a good time to bream fish as well, so I recently decided to venture out to a pit where I know a few good fish reside 😃🎣

Rods out!

Well, as usual living on south coast, practically every lake I want to fish I have to head north. This one was not to far a run in the south of the country. Usually the M25 is a cruel bitch for me but on this occasion I chose to go up the night before and stay in a travelodge just down the road from the venue. This paid off as traffic was light and by staying close to the pit I did not need such an early start in the morning 🚗🚗

M25 behaving itself!

The following morning I arrived at the lake at first light, enabling us to get the pegs we wanted on the far bank under the cover of trees. It's not a heavily fished gravel pit but with rain and wind forecast if offered shelter, making it the most suitable spot. 

Fishing would be over a slight gravel bar at about 40 yards out. So first things first I chose my area using a far bank marker and began to spod out some particle and attractant. This consisted of a fine mixture of hemp, oats, caster, maize, molasses to add flavour and few other little bits. 5 to 6 spod fulls over my chosen area was plenty to begin with creating a cloud effect and covering the lake bed with some free offerings 🍽

Spodding out!

Once this was out there working its magic I set about tackling up. My rods of choice were two Drennan Tench and Bream specialist rods. Both 1.75 tc, coupled with a couple of shimano bait runners spooled with 8lb line. At the business end I would be using the method feeder tactics with hair rigged pop up sweat corn and size 14 hooks. A tired and tested method for bream and would also catch me any tench that may come my way. 

The method mix I like to use on the feeder is a simple bream method mix. It smells so sweet and I also like to add a little tutti fruity attractant to it for extra flavouring. Then mix it with a little lake water and Its good to go. It almost smells like something I could eat myself 😋

Having aloud around half an hour after spoding out I was set up and ready to go. The wind that was forecast was not materialising and the sun had come out. I set up the rod rests and turned on my alarms and made my first two casts. These method feeders fly through the air with little effort allowing me to hit my baited area with little effort what so ever. I attached the bobbins and sat back for the waiting game to begin 🎣🙏🙏

Tactics for the job!

By now the sun was up and warm and with it shining on my face I started to become sleepy and began dozing off 😴😴😴 Some 15 mins later I was woken with the buzz of my right hand rod going off. Oosshh I had a run but was it a bream? That question was soon answered when I lifted into it and got a few thuds on the rod. Definite bream lunges, after a minute or twos scrap my mate arrived from the swim next door to do the honours with the net. I swung the rod in and a beauty of a dark bronze male bream slipped into the net. A few quick pics and a quick weigh and all 9lb 12oz of him was swimming back off into its watery home 🎣👍🏻

Bronzed beauty!

About an hour later I had another run on the right rod, another bream was on the way in but this time I would have to land it myself as my mate had gone to get us some refreshments. I was just getting the bream into netting range when my left bobbin shot up and I had a double hook up! I was then playing both fish while trying to keep them clear of snags. This proved to be a nightmare and after a few mins the lines became tangled. At this point the second fish topped the surface, a huge bream that would easily be a pb. It was just at that point after struggling to keep pressure on both fish that the larger bream bolted into weed and the hook pulled 😭 

Dustbin lid slab!

After a few expletives I composed my self and went on to land the other bream. An 8lb 8oz bronzed slab. I've never seen such fat bream! I quickly got both rods back out thinking a large shall my have moved in. Nope! For the next two hours I don't have a sniff. Not even a bleep or a twitch. At this point I decided to spod out a bit more bait. Another 3 or 4 spod casts as bream can quickly hover up bait in no time at all 😊

Another hour passed before I got my next run. It felt a good fish and then it broke the surface. It seemed reasonable. My mate again arrived with the net and as it slipped into the net it was then we realised it was one of the bigger bream. There all roughly the same size in diameter but all of the bigger fish have such fat bellies. I was a bit nervous as It had to be a good double to break my pb. I needed not to worry as the scales went 12lb 10z. My pb was smashed and I was ecstatic. A few pics later I returned it 🙌🏻😃🐋

My new PB of 12lb 10oz

After this my session was relaxed with a further bream banked weighing 9lb 3oz as well as a 7lb 7oz tench. My mate also managed a 12lb 7oz bream and a tench to. At this point it was mission accomplished so I decided to call it a day. I left the lake buzzing and can't wait to come back in a month or so when hopefully the bream will be munching hard ahead of the winter and I may be able to smash the pb once again... 😃🎣

Breamtastic Session!