Hide & Seek

Trying to find those masters of hide & seek - the big chub! And I found at least two of them, spooked the first before landing the 5lb 2oz chub above. Hopefully there are more in the shoal - and hopefully even bigger. But it's time for them to hide again - I'll find 'em!


Wandering about searching the river for chub I also banked 15 barbel to 6lb 3oz (a 6lb 2oz fish above), spotting them - then drifting a piece of meat or bread down to them. A rather splendid afternoon! My Small River season total now stands at 96 barbel.

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And James is on a roll, barbel number 21 added to his 40 River Challenge - nineteen to go... Blog post is here.

Mixed Bag

An afternoon wander looking for my first pound plus roach of the season - and I found one at 1lb 2oz - over time and on the last cast. But it was a bit of a mixed bag up until then...


Eleven brown trout to about 4lb...


Twelve chub to about 2lb...


Two barbel, great fun on the stick 'n' pin...


THREE goldfish! Two of these...


And one of these - someone must have emptied their pond!!

Out Of The Band

This poor old barbel had some sort of elastic band stuck around it's head - and it looks like it's been on there a while. Just goes to show what can happen to the crap that's thrown/wash in. I cut it free, hopefully it'll recover quickly - they're tough old fish in this river!

Brown Hairstreak

One of Britain's rarest and most elusive butterflies, I've caught glimpses of them high in the trees on known breeding sites over the past couple of years - but I've never got close to a photo opportunity - so it was a real surprise when I was sat in my garden having a cup of tea and this one (a male female) landed next to me! Species 48.

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And James has reached the half way point on his epic barbel challenge - 20 doubles landed with 20 more to go! A massive milestone - nice one!! Blog post is here.

Bread!

A morning flicking a bit of bread about; surface, slow sinking and ledgered - can't beat a bit of bread! And seven barbel (to 8lb 10oz), two chub, an eel & a surprise trout. Plus a XL pair of men's shorts!

Smash & Grab

With transport & traffic on my side I could fit in a couple of hours on the chalk stream - it wasn't! Barely an hour - but enough time for two trout & two chub on the stick 'n' pin - quick smash and grab mission - and back home in time for breakfast & medals!

Rampant Rabbit II

An afternoon wander down the Small River and six barbel banked, including the Phat Gurl at 9lb 1oz (down from 10lb 14oz at the start of the season). A 5lb 6oz barbel pictured above.


As normal - a bit of climbing about in the nettles - the things you find on the riverbank! And it's not the first one I've found, perhaps it's not just the anglers enjoying the river?!

Lakes: Carp

A trip to the Lake District and I joined top local angler Terry in search of a few carp. Tucked away in the corner of an iron pit we were using method feeders and a choice of worms or prawns for bait.

A slow start but after about half an hour the action really warmed up; at times the fish were hitting the bait on the drop! Carp between two and twelve pounds with a few bream and perch in the mix.

In 7 hours we must have caught well over 50 carp between us, surrounded by beautiful countryside - it was very difficult to drag ourselves away! Massive thanks to Terry for the invite - a great day!!

That's not quite the end of the story - on the way home we stopped off at an abandoned trout lake - with untapped pike potential. I will be back when the leaves start to drop - to be continued...


A fully scaled mirror carp (caught by Terry).


My first perch in over a year - on the last cast.


Double bream hook up, we had a few double carp hook ups.


Best carp of the session - lovely double figure common.


A stunning mirror carp.

Closer To Home

After the trip to The Wye & Blackwater I thought I'd have a roll closer to home - was hoping to stalk fish but rain & flood water put pay to that - but eleven barbel to 7lb 0oz found the net - lovely!


I don't generally do tips & tricks, but these are quite handy - I normally carry a couple of snap on ledgers when rolling - for a quick change to static fishing - for those hard to tempt barbel!