Top trumps

Stunning backdrop in Hereford

Another day and another weather front....This weeks trip over to my new water saw me frowning upon the conditions I'd decided to go out in. The rain was persistent and the wind no less vile! To say it was unpleasant was an understatement. The lake was as ever devoid of anglers and up a little due to the water intake of the prior few days. A few branches had found their way down into the swims and some clearance work was required before i could get to the majority of the swims.

Small common for starters

Interestingly the water had a very cloudy grey colour to it and a slightly different smell too. I set up in one of my pre-baited spots for the night and laid back with a brew to await the results of my actions. Well, I waited until around 2.30am before I eventually had any indication of fish activity in the area. My left hand rod gave out a short and fast take which lasted just long enough for me to get out the sleeping bag, before dropping the rig and leaving me sat in dismay. 6 out of 6 captures and now 2 out of 2 blanks.... oh well!

The next trip out was on Sunday. My new angling friend Joel Drapkin....(yep another Joel!) and I went up to Herefordshire to enjoy the day at a beautiful estate lake of 4 acres. The venue set in stunning surroundings and with no company other than that of the wildlife and resident cattle in the field behind us.

Truly stunning scaly mirror from the estate lake in Hereford. Well happy with this one!!!!

Some of you may remember it was the scene of a few nice fish for myself, Joel Biddle and Ceri Jones a few weeks back. Well, this time round we had an idea how to approach the place from the word go. We set up our rods with a view to casting across the small pool to the far side and hit the spots we had results from before with a barrage of Red X and Sea Monster boilies. We fished them on size 4 CBS Saber hooks to Katran Cobra hooklink. We also added a 4.5oz CBS COG lead to the equation too finish off the rig.

Joel and his dustbin lid bream!

I was first away with a stunning low double figure common on the Red X boilie on my left hand rod. The fish kited hard towards us and put up a cracking fight. We grabbed a few nice pics and got sorted for another cast. I had a feeling that things would probably die a death come afternoon as they had on our previous trip, so I was keen to ensure we grabbed as much action as possible while they were on their morning munch.

Within just a few minutes my other rod was away with a slightly better fish on. This one put up yet another cracking scrap and I was delighted to land a beautiful scaley mirror in pristine conditions, The fish there are certainly in dam good condition that's for sure! Joel was next up with a take on his rod. This fish fought a bit more randomly and it became apparent it was a bream of exactly five pounds that had taken his Red X boilie.

Yet another beautiful common. All the fish here are stunners!

Get in son!

It took about an hour before our next bite which was on Joels rod. We'd moved it over to another spot as the original one had done very little to produce anything of any decency.

This take was a one toner! The fish was hell bent on finding the roots of a fallen tree and despite pulling hard Joel was unable to keep it from the impending snag. The fish unfortunately got the upper hand and got away.

I managed the next fish, a nice common of just under 15lbs again in perfect condition too. The wind started to increase and despite accurate feeding and casting we struggled to get any more action until around 2pm. Joels rod ripped off with another hard fighting common on it. This one being the best of the day at 15lb 8oz.

A brilliant shot of Joel with his stunning common. A great day with great company!

We had a great day and it was lovely to get out again to the estate lake. Just wish it fished well all day and not just for the morning. Such a great little place with almost no angling pressure on it. I think I'll try and get another night in this week on the secret pool and see if I can finally temp one of those big mirrors before the river season starts and I have no time for the lakes again!

Tight lines all
Keith

A positive note!

Quality time with my youngest, Natasha...hard earned!!

Hi guys......well after such a crappy few days with the animal mishaps and other stresses etc it felt like our short family break was in dire need!

We had 4 days down south with family and it was truly fantastic to see all our loved ones again after a 6 month gap. I got to spend some quality time with my best pal Stu and his gorgeous girls.




We had the opportunity to chat lots about general stuff but even more so about the oncoming river season! Seems the 6 week wait still left can't do one quick enough for us all!

Stu, Nik and Milly! xxxx

After the little break it was back home to the grafting of bait rolling and sending out orders....business is now very good with regular customers coming back for more every week! We told you guys it was good bait!! lol

Just before we went on our excursion I did a quick overnighter on the new pool. I got down the waters edge mid afternoon with the idea of spending a few hours fish watching. This didn't come to light as another guy was on the water and we spent a few hours chatting and drinking copious amounts of coffee! This only meant one thing for me.....about 12 trips to the nearest tree for a pee due to my stupidly small slack bladder!

Eventually I managed to get my kit sorted for the night and after all the pleasantries were exchanged I made haste to get my rods out before darkness fell. I just managed to get sorted in time and got under the covers for a nice nights kip. This was interrupted no less than 4 times by Mr Bream!

All around the 5-6lb mark but not what I intended to catch this time around! The sun started to break through the early morning mist around 7.15am and just as I was starting to come to life, a stunning dark coloured common cleared the water just over my baited area. I sat up and watched intently and as if by my own control the right hand rods bobbin almost shattered the rod blank! I sprang up and grabbed the rod to be met by a solid resistance. The fish had found the weed and was holding deep in it!

Eventually a lovely common on the Mimicker hooklink and leadcore!

A good thorough helping of pressure from my end gently eased the fish back and before I knew it I was sinking my net under another beautiful common of just under 11lbs. Not a monster by any standards but my what a stunning looking fish! I'd decided due to the shyness of the fish, that I'd start using the new Katran Mimicker hooklink and leadcore with one of our 3.5oz cog leads and a size 8 saber hook. This really nailed the fish and showed the effectiveness of the rig for my next trip.

The next outing was to be on Monday 28th and after spending the day rolling bait I decided to get the gear back down the pool for another go at the place. It was almost dark on my arrival and after putting out about a kilo of red x a managed to get the brolly and bed up together before the heavens opened! And by crikey did they! Not the best time to find out you have a leaky brolly! After 7 years of abuse she'd finally given up the ghost. Oh well, a makeshift plastic bag on the inner arms diverted the flow of rain water into a corner away from my already soaked bedchair cover.

I just managed to get my head down for some well earned shut eye when the left hand rod slammed off at a rate of knots! The take was so violent that it snapped the screw holding my stage stand in place clearly off, taking the whole bloody thing over! I was up and on it in a flash thank god, or I might have been a rod and reel down! The fish fought very hard for a few minutes before succumbing to the net with a weed covered nose. The new rig was doing the trick from  the off! I'd also decided to up the size of my hooks and hook baits from a size8 to a size 4 and the baits from a 16mm to a 22mm! This had the desired effect of removing the pest bream from the equation! I weighed and photographed the fish up the bank and after inspection I settled on 19lb 14oz. Another very pristine common carp. My forth from the tough little venue. I released the fish away from my swim and got another rig tied up ready to go out to the spot. I put around a hundred freebies dotted about the swim and made the cast into the inky blackness. Plop, bank on the dollars I thought!

19lb 14oz of golden beauty! AMEN

I got back into bed and made myself a hot drink whilst surveying the chances of another fish???? Could the swim do 2 in one night after producing one so early on? I'd have to wait and see.....I settled down for the night but found it remarkably difficult to sleep even though I was totally smashed. I lay there thinking about the list of jobs I had to complete the following day amongst other silly thoughts! Eventually the thoughts turned to those of the mind of someone past consciousness and my next recollection was that of a belting take on the same rod at 4.10am! Another blistering take that clattered the bobbin against the rod butt with incredible power! I stumbled out of bed feeling drunk from sleep and hit into another very strong fish. Fortunately she came out the weed with little grief and all to quickly she was in the net looking back at me through the light of my head torch. At 19lb 3oz another common, I was thoroughly pleased to have cracked 2 in one night from a water that struggles to do a fish a month at times!

19lb 3oz and two for the night! Made up!

I packed up around 9am and left about a kilo of Red X in the swim and headed home for a shower and a days work in the unit rolling bait for customers. It got to 5pm and I was just itching to get back down the pool for another go! I finished my work for the day at 6pm, had some tea, kissed the wife and kids before reloading the kit into the motor for round 2! I arrived at the pool around 7.15pm and again found myself to be the only one there....Lovely! The gear was quickly unloaded and ferried round to the swim before unleashing another torrent of Red X 22mm's for em to munch on! The left hand rod was into action within almost no time at all and at just 9.15pm I had my first take. Another monster of a bite! This one felt a lot bigger than all the fish I'd hooked in there to date and she found the weed and lily pads with too much ease. I applied as much pressure as I dared and with slow and steady effort she came towards me. I kept the pressure on steadily and she came out into open water. I got the net ready and held on with a tight grip as she came to the surface of the water. As I reached out to net her the hook lost its hold and I was left to see her slip back into the darkness with my rig unattached! I felt sick!

After the loss of the big fish, I just had the feeling that was going to be my lot for the night but I still made the effort to tie up another rig and PVA bag before retiring to bed for the night. I awoke around 7am to find that I'd had no more action on either rod. As I awoke I saw a huge mirror crash out over my right hand spot but I had to be away at 7.30am so sitting around to wait for a take wasn't going to happen this time! Gutted! Never mind, she'll be there for my next session I hope!

Tight lines all
Keith

Continued success!

After the very successful trip to Herefordshire at the weekend, I was hoping my luck would continue on my tricky new little water I'm concentrating on.....Well I was again lucky! My first trip up there produced a stunning 24lb+ common on a quick overnight session and this time was no different!

I made the drive over late afternoon, after a terrible day at home.....The last few weeks have been a little difficult to bear at times. We had a few mishaps with the business and a nasty incident of our beloved female tortoiseshell cat Chloe having a fall in the garden at home and breaking her neck. She died in the wifes arms on the way to the vets, which was extremely sad for us all as a family.

To top this off, If you can believe it....our oldest cat Ash suddenly came down with a severe case of heart disease and after a trip to the vets on Tuesday, we had to make the conscious decision to have the gorgeous boy put down....we were all devastated to say the least. Well after such a horrid day, there was only one way to spend the evening consoling myself. Get the rods out on my quiet little water!

I arrived down the pond to find as usual that it was empty! Just the way I like it! I dropped into the same spot I fished last week and opted to fish two very likely looking spots that i had been gently baiting with the ever awesome CBS Red X boilies! I've been trickling them in over the last week or two into a few likely looking spots and it appears the fish seem to like having a few free meals without the fear of a hook in amongst the offerings.

I got the rods out into the weed free spots and threw out around a kilo of Red X around the two rods. I presented a critically balanced pop up on one rod and a Red X Pop up just pinned to the deck on a KD rig on the other. Both using Katrans amazing Joker hook link, which blends in incredibly amongst all the bottom debris! I sat back with a coffee and awaited the light to fall away.

I snuggled up and listened to the owls and a male fox calling and drifted off into a very peaceful sleep. This was much needed after such a busy and depressing week....It wasn't too long before a few liners started and the next thing I know I have a bream around 5lbs in the bottom of the net. Not what I came for but a welcome catch all the same. I must remember that introducing pellets isn't the best plan of action in a bream heavy water!

Well, needless to say my next fish around mid-night was also another bream! This one again around the 5lb mark....I decided to introduce a few more boilies without the pellets this time and recast into the inky darkness in the hope that my next take would be a chunk!

I got back into my sleeping bag and tiredness hit me like a train! I was in the middle of a very deep sleep and as usual I had turned my buzzers down to silent and placed the sounder box just above my face in the arms of the brolly. This insures that I hear the take and it keeps the noise down to a dull shrill! Around 4am I was blissfully counting sheep when there was the most viscous take I think I've ever witnessed from my right hand rod! Using braided mainline only intensifies the take but it was so violent that when I jumped up to grab the rod, I actually struck the wrong rod as it was causing so much movement on the stabilized buzzer bars!

After hitting the wrong rod and realizing my mistake, I chucked the rod down into the bush and grabbed the hooked fish....It didn't really do much to start with as it was heavily covered in weed. I pulled and kept the pressure on the fish and gently she came back through the weed and small lily pads. Eventually it became lighter and she hit the surface free of the weed and lead free too. I quickly stuck the net under her and she went ballistic at that point....thrashing around in the net, I made sure she had plenty of mesh and water to move around in before going to set up the mat and camera.

My second fish from the new water and at 20lb 6oz a stunner to boot! Well happy!

After my last session and forgetting my remote camera control, I was this time determined to get a decent pic of results! I spent a few minutes insuring all was set up okay and that everything was wet and ready for the impending kipper! I lifted her free of the water and onto the waiting mat and sling. At 20lb 6oz I was greatly appreciative of yet another stunner common of over twenty pounds. A great start to my new campaign!

I'm having a few days away from the bank and a bit of time off with the family over Easter now. Going down South to spend a bit of time with loved ones.

I hope you all have a wonderful Easter and just remember to enjoy the company of your loved ones as life is so short!

Kindest regards
Keith x

Odds and sods.....

Wild torpedo!

Jay with a nice little common

Hi all! It's been a little tough getting out to fish of recent as the business has taken off in such a way that I've been an almost permanent fixture at the boilie rolling tables the last few weeks!

Not complaining of course as it's great to be busy.....I've had a couple of short sessions, a pair of overnighters and a quality day out last Sunday. I'll start off with a brief day session I had on a local club lake with my good mate James.....I arrived around 9am and set up in one of the less popular swims as the usual suspects were hogging the best pegs and firing all over the entire lake???

Great start to my new water attack!

Never understood why people do this? The majority of fish are under your feet in yet casting to the other side of the lake seems a more viable option....I on the other hand set up two rods to fish my nearside marginal shelves. These were set up with the essential Prawns glugged in our awesome CBS DMPT glug!

It didn't take long before I had some action and a stunning wild looking common snagged itself. A great little scrap ensued before eventually I had hold of her. The rest of the day was very slow and I only managed a shed load of bream for the rest of the day. James had a couple of nice tench and finished off the day with a lovely fish off the margins on a CBS Cream Divine Pop Up!

Hectic fun on the top in mid April!

The following week I decided to do my first overnighter of the year on one of my new target waters...It's a very tough little cookie to catch on and it's almost un-fished to be honest. Just the way I like my waters.

Well, I settled down for my first night of the year and introduced a little bait into my swim. Things were very tough and the temperature dropped away dramatically over night and thick fog formed on the lake. There was little action and I suffered my first blank session in as long as I can remember!

Immaculate uncaught common! Awesome!

I ventured back out almost exactly a week later to find things a little warmer and drier than the prior week! This had seemed to spur the fish on a little and after a quiet few hours into darkness and after a brief snooze. I was awoken by a gentle few bleeps sounding from my left hand Delkim. I watched the rod tip and sure enough it was nodding away! I struck into a good fish which plodded around in the thick weed before eventually finding the net and awaiting scales. 24lb 2oz of common gold! A cracking start!

Great fun on light rods!

My next session out was a brief few hours of surface fishing with my good mate Joel. We fished a club water with our floater gear and found around 15 fish each were happy to oblige! Great sport so early on in the year!
We even managed a couple of nice fish on retro tactics, using a center pin and float tackle in the margins to tame a handful of lovely commons!

Sunday saw a cold start in Herefordshire but after a long drive up to a new venue, Ceri, Joel and myself were very happy to find our chosen venue looked in top notch form....A 4 acre estate lake set back in beautiful countryside was to be home for the day. With an unknown stock size or quantity, things looked a little tough from the onset with just Joel landing a couple of small roach on a corn/lobworm combo on the float.

Beautiful common for JB!

After some hours of struggling, I decided to put out a carp rod at the windswept end of the lake, into an unfishable corner. This did the trick and just quarter of an hour later I was hooked into a lovely pale coloured common of 13lbs. This fish had never seen a hook as far as we could see!

It wasn't long before the lads followed suit and within the hour we had a couple of rods placed along the far margin with a few Red X and Monkey Nut boilies aimed at the fish! Joel was next to find a fish and a blistering run came from his Delkim! A great fight ensued and finally he subdued a stunning common of just under 16lbs. Ceri managed to hook one then just as we were weighing Joels fish! This was a little smaller but the peach of the day at 13lb 8oz and a really pretty scaly mirror carp.

Ceri with the most stunning of Mirrors! WOW

It just goes to show that there are still a few very underfished waters out there even in this day and age! You just have to be prepared to hunt around for them and look in unusual places! Don't ask me where the place is though as this is my little secret for now! I can't wait to get back!

Lots more fishing coming up soon. I'm off out tonight for a brief overnighter on the tricky little pool, hoping for one of the bigger chunks! I hope you all have a wonderful Easter and good break from the grindstone! Tight lines all and see you soon.

Last day of the river season 2014

It's finally here....And I feel really sad to see the 2013/14 season go. It's been the best ever year I have spent of our river systems in the UK. Even though we have had one of the wettest and windiest winters in history, with torrential down pours leading to incredible levels of flooding never seen before. It's still produced some unbelievable fishing in the quieter times.

Stuart Andrews with his incredible 7lb 1oz Dorset Stour Chub!!

This last ten or so days has been no exception with the national captures of chub, barbel and pike soaring as the fish go on a last minute munch up before the close.  I first have to say a huge, mahoosive, congratulations to my best pal Stuart, who despite having a lot less hours to fish these last 2 years due to the added responsibility of his gorgeous young family and beautiful little daughter Millie, has managed to grab what little time he has to fish and grabbed himself a few great fish along the way.

The wonder Wye again fishable after a 6 month flood!

This week he saw the close out in style with a huge chub of 7lb 1oz from his ever faithful Dorset Stour. The winning tactics were a touch ledger set-up with CBS end tackle and a River Monster Boilie.

My last day on the river was a frantic one to say the least! Despite telling the wife that my last 3 trips out were going to be the last session of the year, I still managed to talk her into letting me grab the last few hours out to try and bag a nice barbel! I didn't get down the river until what I'd class as nearly the end of the day at 11am! This was due to taxi driving the family around from work, school etc.

7lb 10oz first of the session!

To my delight though there was only one other guy fishing our whole club section! Almost a mile and a bit to our selves! The swim choice was relatively easy as I've become accustomed now to which swims fish at particular times of the day.

I opted for a peg I've caught from regularly in the day before. It's a heavily fished swim but not everyone knows how to fish it correctly. The weather was decidedly cold due to a bout of extremely thick freezing fog which made visibility very low.

Fish no2 at 8lb 5oz

Two rods were set up with a feeder on the up stream rod and a straight bomb on the down stream. I coupled these up to our ever faithful CBS Gravel Leaders and 3oz of weight on both. I opted to fish a long 3 foot hook length with the ever reliable River Monster Boilie in tow on each rod!

Before casting out, I gently plopped around 20 medium sized bait droppers full of  halibuts, green betain and shrimp pellets, in 2mm, 4mm and 6mm sizes. This was all placed in an area the size of a dinner table and I then proceeded to place the upstream rod about 10 feet down stream from the initial baiting area and the left hand down stream rod about 20 yards further down stream.

And 1 makes three! 7lb 7oz of pure gold!

I then sat back to await the results. It took about an hour for the first reaction and as the sun started to finally break through the cold fog, I got my first take on my left hand rod. A few quick trembles and then a crashing, rod bending slammer! I was in! The center pin reel clicked away furiously as the fish headed out into the deeper water of the middle river.

This made for a really awesome scrap on the lightweight 10lb main line to 8lb hooklength! The river still had a pretty good flow to it and 5oz was just enough to hold bottom mid river! This fish was hell bent on seeing the far margin and I had to pile on the pressure as a few canoeists headed down river towards my hooked fish.

Fun on the pin for JB

Eventually the fish tired and I was able to get her under control and into the awaiting net. On the scales she went 7lb 10oz. I was over the moon as it's the first time i've ever caught a barbel on the final day of the river season! More was to follow though and within half an hour i was again away on the downstream rod. This time a stunning barbel of 8lb 5oz graced the net. To say I was excited was an understatement.....what a way to end the season. Last week, 3 twenty pound plus pike and an 8lb 15oz barbel and now I'd had two more stunning Wye barbel too.

With Joel turning up at 2.15pm I wanted to get him a fish as quickly as possible as he only had about 3.5 hours to fish after work. The baited swim seemed the best probable option for him, so I proceeded to put about 10 droppers full more of the pellet mix into the swim before his arrival. Within minutes the tips were starting to twitch and it was only a few more minutes before the down stream rod was once again saying good bye to a good deal of line!

Joel Biddle and his 9lb 2oz Zoo Creature!!!

The rod was almost pulled from the rest through the violence of the take! I grabbed the rod and watched the fish tail walk clear of the water! Not something I have ever witnessed with hooked barbel before but this fish acted more like a wild salmon than a barbel!

After a few more aerial acrobatics and twisting the living daylights out of my mainline, I eventually gained the upper hand and bagged another stunning bar of Wye gold. 7lb 7oz this time round.
I set the rods back up and got ready for Joels arrival. When he finally got there I immediately told him to get into my seat and concentrate on the two rods already in the swim. Things had quietened down somewhat but I was adamant there was a good chance of another fish from the peg.

Back you go my beautiful!

Joel sat there patiently watching the tips with intent. It wasn't long before we both spotted a few trembles on the right hand tip. Suddenly it sprang into life and Joel jumped up into action. Never having played a fish on a center pin before made for an extremely exciting chain of events for him and despite a first few initial fumbles, it wasn't long before he was playing the fish like a true master!

This fish acted totally differently to the others of the day so far and hung tightly to the bottom of the river bed. I knew then it was likely to be a better fish. The fight ensued for a good 10 minutes before Joel managed to grab the upper hand over his prize. The net was eventually sunk under what looked a great fish. Joel was clearly very excited and having only caught a handful of barbel on 2 other trips, this also being the first in daylight hours, it made for a great few minutes. The scales pinged round to a delightful 9lb 2oz. Joel's second biggest of the species. Well done mate!

Stunning gold bullion!

The rest of the afternoon went by quickly and despite me landing a smaller barbel of 4lb 14oz on a maggot madussa rig, very little else happened before Joel had to leave. Unfortunately this was when the swim again woke up and after a good pasting of mixed pellets with the bait dropper I was sat with a pair of rods that trembled and wobbled with anticipation of a real good bite. It took around an hour before my first real solid wrap around on the right hand rod. This led to yet another arm wrenching battle with what appeared to be yet another great fish. The reel screamed and I sat back for a hard slog! The 1 3/4 lb tc rod buckling under the load! The fish had clocked a few downstream snags and was relying on them to rid itself of the hook and of course seeing my ugly face!

9lb

It took a lot of patience and effort to shift its efforts from the snag and eventually I grabbed the opportunity to slip the net under her. The best fish of the day sat looking up at me.....9lb 7oz to be precise! What a result, 5 in the bag for the day!

With that I started to pack away as the light had pretty much gone. I slowly packed away all non essential kit and had one last cup of coffee. It was then that the left hand rod pulled over like it was attached to a U-boat!!! This fish felt again heavier than the last and was on the same course for the marginal snags! Immense side strain was applied and she diverted her route to the center of the river and then the far bank some 50 yards over!!!! There was no stopping this mutha! She was going an that was that!

The sun setting on the final day of the river season

The fight seemed to last for what seemed like an eternity! I just couldn't make headway on her. I was beginning to think that maybe I'd hooked a carp? The fish did a quick fly though the swim up in the water and I took the opportunity to flick on the head lamp and see if it really was Moby Dick I was attached to or if I was being the 'Dick?' It was a big old barbel! No 6, I couldn't believe my luck.... The fish battled on for another few minutes before succumbing to tiredness.

To be honest it was him or me and he caved first! As it was the last cast of the day, I cut the line above the net and rested the fish in the water for a few minutes while I readied the scales and camera etc.

BOOOOOOOOMMMM A double to end the season! 10lb 3oz!!!

Could this last fish of the 2013/14 river season be a double???? That would be an incredible way to see it out I thought??? Well, on the scales she tipped around to a magical 10lb 3oz! Just doing the double!!! I couldn't believe it! What an end to the season. Thank you River Wye.....I'll be back in earnest in June to plunder more of your wonderful delights! But for now I bid you fair well!

Tight lines all and I hope your end to the river season was as delightful as mine and Joels!

Keith x

More end of season success

Still smashing through and very murky!

Hi guys! Well, what a result in the change of weather this last week! Who could have believed that less than 3-4 weeks ago many of us were sat under water in lots of the UK and cold wet and weather seemed like it would be with us forever! At last though there seems to be a bit of respite from it all and a little bit of springtime warmth from a watery sun!

Business is brisk with lots of bait orders and plenty of new CBS Tackle flying out the door which is great as it means you lovely lot are getting out there and living the dream!

I've had a few stressful days with some crappy ongoing health issues and lots of stuff in the diary which has meant I've basically over cooked my brain yet again! Not that I ever had one! I have however managed a couple of trips up the river in Monmouthshire and caught a few very special fish....I decided that despite the river Wye still being fairly high, I'd chance what I thought would probably be my last trip of the 2013/14 season up there last week.

The Monnow looked a lot less fearsome!

I ventured up on the Thursday with the sole intention of trying to bag myself a big old snapper! I've not tried hard for them this year but I've certainly fished for them more than I ever have in past seasons. I have to confess that I'm rather enjoying being an 'ALL ROUNDER' style of angler rather than just a carp crazed bloke.

It's meant that I have had the opportunity to meet many varied people and fish a lot of new venues I would probably have never even looked at before? It's been quite enlightening and certainly very enjoyable! I think I've probably learnt a hell of a lot too!

21lb 11oz and happy as a pig in the proverbial!

Well, the first of my two sessions from last week started up on the wonderful little River Monnow. A tributary of the mighty River Wye. The reason for opting to fish the Monnow was simple in that it had a vast quantity less of water piling through it than the still very high Wye. There was a particular spot that took my fancy and after finding a couple of slack water eddy's near the inside margin. I chucked out a couple of ledgered dead baits.

I chose to fish a Herring on my right hand rod and a larger 2/3rds of a whole Mackerel on the left hand one. The Herring had a syringe full of one of our new CBS Predator oils directly slammed into it and i left the Mack to do its own thing....

I still had to use around 4-5 oz of weight to get the baits to sit remotely still and with a good bit of colour in the water and heavy silty crap coming down all the time, it wasn't likely to be the easiest of days fishing! By 12.30pm I had been sat patiently for around 2 hours with nothing to show for my efforts. That was until suddenly my left hand rod awoke and a few bleeps sounded from the dormant Delkim alarm. I picked the rod up off the rests and payed out some slack and awaited further bite registration....A few seconds later there was the obviously tell tale signs of a pike having a good nibble at the Herring bait. I gave it a couple of seconds, tightened the clutch and set the hooks home.

Instantly I was met with a very solid weight of fish and a very powerful surge of speed as she ramped off over the other side of the river. The fight was short but sweet and I quickly got the fish into the back of the net. I set up the camera for a self take and zeroed the Ruebens ready for her. On the scales she went around to a magic 21lb 11oz!

Pike no 2 and another twenty...... This one was 22lb 6oz!

I couldn't believe my luck as it was the fish I was really after to end the season on! I slipped her back and recast the rig with a new Herring attached to the snap tackle. About an hour slipped by before the same rod was once again twitching and then a small amount of line was taken from the spool. I approached the rod and payed out a little more  line before eventually setting home the hooks.

Again I was met with a solid resistance and yet another very powerful fish! This one came in a little less easily and after a really solid fight i was once again the proud captor of a really fat looking hen fish! On the scales she went 22lb 6oz! Another twenty in less than an hour! What a day!

My luck was to end there and despite loosing another monster to a hook pull, the rest of the day passed without so much as a sniff!

The Monnow looked stunning in the morning mist and sun!

My next session which came around quickly, was on the Sunday. After a really hectic two days of bait rolling, kids birthday parties, helping out in my mates reptile shop and 2 nights of almost no sleep.

I was about ready to drop to the floor with tiredness....I got to bed on the Saturday night around 12am and found myself awake again around 2.15am. I lay there thinking about the fishing and eventually the pull was too strong.

I just had to be out there! I loaded the car, had a bit of breakfast and made a flask up before making the 60 mile journey up to the river. I found myself setting up on the lovely little Monnow again around 4.30am in the dark. There were a couple of guys fishing the swim I had fished the couple of days before and much to my disgust they left a ton of litter, shitty tissues and general angling crap behind them when they left! Disgraceful !!!!!!

First ever Monnow Barbel and first of 2014 at 8lb 15oz!

Anyway, I set up two ledger rods with a CBS River Monster Boilie on each and gently swung a 4oz feeder into the middle of the stream. I sat for about 2 hours and as the sun started to lift up into the sky, gently clearing the early morning mist, my right hand right suddenly pinged back violently. A good drop back bite! I lifted the rod up and struck into fresh air??? I reeled down to find that I had hooked a fish but it had traveled on a slack line towards me!

11lbs of Jack!

She then powered away and it was apparent from the word go that this was more than likely going to be my first Monnow Barbel and first of the year!  After about 5 minutes of tussling around and fighting to see who was boss, I netted a stunning and perfect Monnow Barbel of 8lb 15oz! I was so chuffed!

Another 12lb 3oz Pike

The fishing then died a death big style! I couldn't have bought a bite???? As the sun arose high in the sky and the day raced by, my angling partners for the afternoon arrived. Ryan and Mike setup next to me and we all spent the afternoon chasing pike. The lads struggled in the bright light and it was left for me to get all the action with two small doubles of 11lb and 12lb 3oz before a repeat capture of the 21lb fish I had caught on the previous Thursday. This time a little down in weight at 21lb 5oz.

The lads tried really hard to get a fish, moving several times and trying all manner of baits and spots before eventually calling time at around 6pm.  I sat it out for another hour in search of that final Barbel but only managed a small chub around 3lb for my efforts. I eventually called it a day and with a very tired head on my shoulders, headed home to bed!

A repeat and down in weight to 21lb 5oz ....but who cares!!!

I'm out with Joel on Friday afternoon to try and tempt one last Barbel before the season ends! Wish us luck and I wish you luck with your final few days of the River season too. Lets hope its a blindingly good end to it!

Tight lines all
Keith
x

Starting March with a bang!

A good start!

Well, the end of the official 2013 fishing season is almost upon us! And I feel rotten about the whole thing....I can't believe we've had such a bloody awful few months of high water making the majority of rivers totally unfishable and now we have to wait another 3 months before we can again enjoy the true pleasures of wild fishing again!

Joel and I have both been chomping on the bit for a few weeks now to get back on the wonderful river Wye.

11lb 4oz snapper

We decided this weekend we'd try a bit of trotting on a small river called the Trothy. Now, it's only 6-8 feet wide in places and for most only 3-4 feet deep in high water conditions. This didn't put us off though as the main river Wye was yet again sitting at around 3m and lapping the bank again.

Joel had hardly ever float fished a river and certainly never with a center pin reel. I gave him an hour long master class and within an hour of trying it himself, he looked like a true master of the fine art!

13lb 3oz end to the season!

I opted to fish a little further upstream and try the feeder in the deeper water. We spent 3 hours flogging a dead horse. The fish just weren't there or really weren't interested.

The owner of the beat told us that there had been a major amount of mink on the beat throughout the season and that the EA had spent some time there doing drainage and also a collection of mink to lower the quantities. Whether this had any effect on the angling we won't know for the moment but I'm sure time will tell.

Around 12pm we decided it just wasn't going to happen for us on the Trothy, so we hit the Wye with our Pike gear in an attempt to bag a final nice snapper each before the season end....Joel and I found a nice back eddy with some surrounding heavy tree encroachment and opted to place a couple of rods each into the boils. Joel went for an oiled up Herring dead bait and I fished half a Mackerel, both on a leger rig.

Awesome 17lb 4oz PB River Wye Pike for Joel Biddle!

Joels was first to go and he struck into a hard pulling fish which almost immediately shook the hooks out. Joel rebaited his rig and flicked the rod back into place. It was then my turn to bag a small jack pike around 7lbs. As I was returning the Jack, Joels rod ripped off again and he hastily netted a stunning PB Pike of 17lb 4oz! A wonderful winter coloured river chunk that took a liking to his prototype oil glugged Herring hookbait and prototype snap tackle.

As time passed so did a few more fish! Joels rod sat strangely quiet but I was to follow on with some great sport, bagging 2 more stunning low doubles of 11lb 4oz and then a lovely 13lb 3oz pike to finish the session off. Hopefully I'll get the chance to get back out again this week as I still have visions of a big Perch whilst the weather is still fairly cool out there!