Wet but mild

Lovely day on the Wye
but crap fishing!

Happy New Year Guys & Girls!

Well, it's hear and by god has it bought with it some horrific weather conditions! We spent last summer screaming out for a bit of rain and now we've got far far too much!

Typical! Albeit it has meant that the weather has been unusually mild for the time of year. Even up here in the Welsh hills its been 8-10 deg C at night! Unheard of in late December and January.... I have unfortunately been too unwell to enjoy it for the best part though.

Tough fishing in wet and
cold conditions

Since late October my health has slowly deteriorated and I've found myself struggling to get by from day to day with immense chronic fatigue and many other health problems including stomach issues and a very low blood count.

Standard for the day...Under the brolly!

This has meant many doctors appointments and as we speak I'm awaiting a referral to the Hematology department to find out exactly whats causing the problems.

The Tench loved the CBS Micro Boilies!!!!!

Anyway, despite the crappy weather and even crappier health issues, I did manage to get out for the day with my mate Joel Biddle just before Christmas for a day on a low and clear River Wye, in search of Monster Snappers!

The day passed by with no action and apart from Joel loosing a big fish to a snapped wire trace, we came home empty handed!

 We decided we'd start the New Year with a day session on one of our club ponds with just lightweight match gear. The 1st came round quickly and we met up at in the morning around 8am.

Our first choice venue fished very hard and after 3 hours of sitting without a sniff....we decided to change venue and fish another small club pond. A short 15 min drive later and we were setting up next to each other and trying to stay dry under our brollies while the wind and rain had other ideas!

Winter Crucian fun!

JB started on the waggler and I started on the 8m pole. Chopped meat cubes were chosen as bait and a few quick small carp made for a good starter for six! Things then died off as quick as they'd started and despite plugging away at it and Joel loosing a good fish from the off, things turned very tough! All we could bag were a few odd skimmers, roach and perch.

A change over to CBS micro boilies and things again started to happen. Joel went on the straight lead and I opted for a pellet scoop feeder and we instantly started to get among some better fish again.

I managed a lovely Crucian of around a pound and a half and Joel started to find a few nice Tench. This carried on for about 2 hours until the light started to ebb away finally and just as we were thinking of calling it a day, I had a good pull round and a great scrap started. The fight lasted around 5-6 minutes and it was clear this was a slightly better fish than we'd been catching all day.

A lovely end to the day ... 11lb 6oz common on a
CBS Micro Pear drops boilie and 3lb hook length!

I finally sunk the net under a stunning common of 11lb 6oz. A great end to a very tough but thoroughly enjoyable day. We managed to catch no less than 7 different species of fish from a water with lots of fresh, cold water influx from the stream and rain fall. The day ended as it had started with an immense down pour that drenched us and all our kit! Lovely!