Frozen

With the pike fishing proving tricky Steve, Dylan and myself crossed the boarder into Wales...


With a heavy frost last night, and the temperature not poking much above zero today, we planned on doing some ice fishing fly fishing..!


Stocked fish but it's catch and release so they'd seen it all before - and they didn't want to move much in the cold water...


Personally I thought we were mad - fly fishing in this - but we did find a few fish and a great day was had by all...


Dyl won the day, and hopefully we'll be back in the spring sunshine! (Dyl: 4 rainbows, Steve: 2, Brian: 1).

Wye Christmas 2

When some anglers dream of fishing they dream of summer afternoons, hot weather, bubbling tench and cruising carp. I dream of winter mornings, crisp frost and thick fog. And pike.

This morning me and Steve headed out into a perfect morning on The Wye - the pike are playing tough to catch but there might be a monster in the mist...


And Steve had a run and was into a pike while we were still setting the kit up. At 15lb 8oz it was a great way to start, perhaps they were switched on today?

It's worth noting this one fell to one of Steve's favourite pike baits; a mackerel fillet, yeah fillet - I've used whole mackerel, heads, tails and even the middle section but just haven't had the confidence to use fillets - works for Steve, and now it's on my list.


If one was feeding hopefully there were more - we walked miles putting a deadbait in every likely looking hole (and chucking a few lures about) but nothing else wanted to play...

It wasn't until we were packing up as the sun was setting before I had a missed run, a new sprat was quickly cast out while the lure rod was broken down - and it was away. All day but a 14lb 0oz reward was totally worth it - best of the season so far!


Yeah there is blood on the pike - mine! I get caught by the gill rakers fairly regularly and occasionally by the teeth, but this is the first time a pike has ever clamped down and shook - it's like getting your fingers caught in a spiked vice... poor bleak!

Wye Christmas

I've had very little time on the water for the last month or so, and I was really looking forward to wetting a line on my home-turf River Wye over the Christmas break.

So despite being full of cold I thrashed the water to a foam lure fishing for 5 hours on Christmas Eve, I could watch the lure right across the river in the clear water - and despite being really happy with how I fished I couldn't provoke a follow let alone a take.

Today I thought I'd float a sprat about for a couple of hours - and after Roger suggested a move I finally had a run. The float bobbed before sailing off. The pike stayed deep with one spectacular jump - 10lb 9oz - one run, one fish, it's a start...

Jack S...!

Christmas is coming and it's been almost a month since I've been fishing so I jumped at the offer of two or three days chub fishing with James on The Stour.

Things didn't go to plan, it was a struggle. I didn't manage a chub with a trotting day and a bait and wait evening, I didn't hear of anyone else landing a chub either. Except James - the only chub in the river?


Day two and I wasn't really feeling it - so while James went after chub - I went on a lure chucking mission! I nearly always pack a few lures on away days.

While James worked very hard for a second chub. I walked miles and miles for a half a dozen follows and a couple of jacks - love pike and love catching them on lures - so can't complain.


The pike were covered in leaches where they hadn't moved much, the other fish were probably lethargic as well in these weird up-n-down, hot-n-cold winter conditions...

In an uncharacteristicly sensible decision we opted not to struggle through a third day - I probably should go Christmas shopping tomorrow anyway!