More action for Natasha

Enjoy yourself, cook,eat & drink well, but take it all home after!

Hi all. Well Natasha has certainly had a great end to her summer holidays and the start back to school albeit a tough endurance test when it came to getting out of bed early, was done amicably and all in good manner.

The weekend soon arrived so the few days back at it didn't feel quite so enduring! I have to confess to feeling a little deflated now due to the wife being away for a fortnight.

At this point I will confess that I'm not great at household chores and I hate all that stuff....Fortunately the wife is amazing and cares for all the family! Her cooking is second to none, she works long hours, but still manages to support us all in whatever we do from day to day, even if she doesn't always agree with it.

 Hugely frustrating angling at times!

For that and all else she does for us, I commend her and thank her dearly with all my heart! Despite a few ups and downs we've coped without her and in some circumstances it's probably done everyone bloody good! Especially me! I now appreciate more what she does for us and I'm going to trey and find more time and energy to help her more.....

Low & clear conditions

With regards to my fishing.....I have to be honest and say that I personally haven't really felt much of a pull to go out there. I don't know why but I'm just not feeling it??? Don't get me wrong I have found the 2 sessions I've spent with my daughter Natasha recently, very very rewarding and something I will treasure in the memory banks forever.

But I confess that the weekend I just found it all a bit of a chore. Getting the gear ready, driving to the venue, setting up etc. Just found it hard bloody work. Whether it's down to tiredness or just lack of fish activity at times which has had me lacking enthusiasm I have no idea.

Typical smaller stamp of middle to upper river Barbel

What ever is causing it I hope does one and buggers off soon though as the season is gradually ebbing away into Autumn and the obvious apocalypse of December and winter!

I've found the barbel fishing a little tougher this year, probably down to the tough conditions of high summer. Low water, lack of flow and crappy D.O levels. Albeit I've caught 46 since June 16th which I suppose many would class as pretty darn good. The only down side being that the fish have generally been a lot smaller average than that of last years stamp.

Typically better stamp from the lower club section

There was a double in ever 5 fish I caught last year but this year I've seen 2 out the whole lot??? I can only put this aspect down to the venues I've been fishing and the fact that as a rule of thumb, the Wye in it's middle to upper stretches does generally throw up smaller fish.

My club section however has a great average stamp of fish when they can be found. Last year as I say was a double in every 5 fish caught and sometimes a couple in one evening could be taken. Why this section produces bigger than average fish is a further mystery.

The only good reason I can see for the size variation is possibly down to angling pressure, water flow, feed levels, poaching etc. I think the river there sees a heck of a lot more action than it probably ought to and often gets fished all night by many local lads.

Round 2 commenced and no change! Into them straight away!!

Not that it seems to do the fishing or the fish any real harm. The obvious issues to me are the levels of litter left behind which is not only a shame to see but also tins and such like are potential problem areas for others and animals to hurt themselves on and possibly breeding grounds for bacterial issues like Weils Disease etc.

I had a good mate cut himself on his finger from a left can of luncheon meat a few years back and he ended up with Leptospirosis....believe me it's really not something you want to get! The poor bloke lost copious amounts of weight and was ridiculously ill for months after. The other thing to be aware of in certain areas is Limes Disease cause by ticks....

Fish after fish, the girls on fire at the moment!

Nasty little bastards these things are and something highlighted by top angler and general nice bloke Martin Bowler a few seasons back. So, take care guys and girls, look after yourselves out there and look after each other by taking tins, litter and other general rubbish like discarded mono etc home with you. Not only could you hurt yourself, an animal but you could also end up loosing fishing rights too.

Well, that's enough of me putting the world to rights over boring stuff! I took Tash out Sunday for the day to a local club lake for a few hours with the intention of getting her into a few cyprinids....She told me she wanted to catch a few nice carp as it had been a good 12 months since we'd done any carping together. We turned up to a pretty full pond around 2pm and it was obvious that 99 percent of the fish weren't any where near the bottom layers of the pond! They were all basking in the surface film and looking torpid and miserable!

Natasha really did get to grips with her fishing skills this last week of the holidays.

I set up a couple of short 9ft rods with 10lb line on for her and got her out towards the main feature of the island shallows, where a few carp could be seen milling around. We sat for a good hour with almost nothing to show for our efforts. I broke the silence with the suggestion that maybe a dabble on the surface with a small quantity of chum mixer freelined close in might just do the trick!

Starting to shine with the fish posing!

Natasha flicked out about 50 or so small dog biscuits and sat back and waited for a response. It didn't take long before a few small commons came mooching around at about 3 rod lengths out. We rigged up one of the rods with just a small section of 8lb surface fishing line and a single size 12 hook and banded chum mixer hook bait.

This was then dropped right in on top of one of the cruisers at about 8 feet from the bank. Tash watched intently as the carps lips rose up and engulfed the whole thing in one slurp!!!! Bang, she was in! The reel screamed and the rod slammed over quickly! Poor girl didn't expect quite such a violent take and I think it shook her up a little!

After a few minutes of tussling around with the fish in the margins, she finally netted her prize. A stunning common of around 11lbs. A great start to proceedings. Things carried on from there really. We fed a good steady influx of chum mixers and the carp kept coming back one after another much to Natashas delight.

The rod sung in the gentle summer breeze and the reel buzzed away with the clutch
 set softly. 7 more beautiful carp graced the net before we called a halt to proceedings around 6.30pm.

With tired out arms and a hungry tummy we retired to the car for the short trip home. Successful yet again and looking forward to our next eventful days fishing together as father and daughter.

Tight lines guys
Keith x