Monday 24 February 2014

Meat Eaters...


...And 15 minutes of madness!

A few hours on the river this afternoon and the plan was to keep mobile and ledger a cube of luncheon meat in a few likely looking swims, hoping for a big chub or barbel to break up a fairly poor season.

I did find a couple of chub, but not the monsters I was after, both being about a pound. I didn't take any photos - convinced I'd find a bigger one.

Last spot and running out of time I had a few knocks on the quivertip before the rod bounced round. Not the chub I was after but a 4lb 15oz brown trout, unfortunately about 3 weeks too early, and still out of season.

Luncheon meat? And I was surprised they ate sweetcorn!

The trout was quickly weighed and photographed and I held her in the net for a few minutes to recover. I flicked out another piece of meat while I was waiting.


She swam away strongly and I looked over at my rod nearly being pulled in... Another trout, this time 3lb 14oz...

I then repeated the process, as this trout swam away my rod slammed over again... Another browny, 4lb 4oz... Fifteen minutes of none stop action, all be it from the wrong species.

This time I didn't put a cast out while he recovered in the net, any chub in the area would be miles away and I didn't want to disturb the trout any more than I already had.


Next time I head back will be in a couple of months, and I'll be armed with the fly-gear. Bet they're harder to catch then!

Thursday 13 February 2014

They Think It's All Over...


And looking at the weather they could be right! 29 days left...


Photos of Penton Hook 'Island' from BBC News.

Saturday 1 February 2014

Best Laid Plans


Chasing ladies... A trip to the Avon with James and his brother Richard after our first grayling each, and things didn't go to plan...

Getting lost, walking miles in the wrong direction, five minutes of poaching (right stretch, wrong side of the river), someone phoning the police (reporting us for poaching), eventually finding the bailiff (who explained to the police it was a mistake) and with his help we finally found our stretch...

And it was so flooded we couldn't get anywhere near where we wanted to fish...

We started fishing at midday - 7 hours after starting out! Float fishing maggots for the unlikely grayling and ledgered deadbaits hoping for a flood water pike...

Long story short(ish); two dropped runs and a 2lb 8oz pike for me, Richard had a pike about the same size and a handful small silvers, and James briefly hooked into a good perch...

Not the day we had been looking forward to all week...

Then we missed the train home!