On Sunday I met up
with Carl and Alex, the youngsters that appear in the Anglers Mail,
who had contacted me to create a video for the Nash Peg One website.
Travelling up from their Sussex home we met around 9am in my
favourite swim on my local river Wey. The earlier frost was just
beginning to disappear when they arrived and I was keen on trotting a
float through the swim as I had been priming it with maggots for
around an hour. A couple of sneaky trots earlier had, as expected
revealed the fish were feeding, even though the river was low, clear
and cold. The lakes had frozen the previous night such was the
coldness and my target was a dozen fish in these conditions and come
an hour and a half later two chub, one trout and eight quality dace
were in the net and with the minnows hitting everything in sight and
other anglers beginning to arrive we decided to move upstream. Every
swim I fished produced fish, dace and small trout mainly, and come
1pm we had enough footage to produce the video. This also gave the
two lads an hour to fish themselves and from the email received they
both caught some quality dace plus a modest chub to Alex. I have
since seen the video and was amazed not only with the speed they
produced this but its quality. Obviously these guys know what they
are doing with a video camera. Keep an eye out as I’m sure the
video will be available to view soon.
Monday evening I
had a customer that wanted to try and catch a big winter rudd. Anyone
that’s been keeping up with my blog will know that I have been
having a real head-banger of a winter targeting these with just a few
to show for the countless hours that I have put in, yet having caught
a few days before felt we had a chance. The weather has been slowly
getting milder during daylight, however the temperature soon dropped
at dusk and come 10pm just one chance was forthcoming which
unfortunately failed to materialise. Although Mark went home fishless
the amount of preparation and attention to detail he picked up
throughout the session will certainly put him on the right track for
the future, and as my policy states, if we return home fishless then
a FOC return will be provided, yet I think this will be in the summer
now!
Tuesday I was
looking forward to a days piking on the Wye but reports are that the
rivers fishing badly and as I was teaming up with angling friend
Chris who had just blanked there over the whole weekend decided to
head to the river Loddon instead. Arriving in the early hours to a
ground frost Chris hadn’t even managed to get his second rod out
before a run developed that produced a very long double. Thoughts
were that we were in for plenty of action, yet come 5pm, and with the
temperature now reaching 14 degrees, and after covering two dozen
swims between us, just one small jack had shown, once again to
Chris’s rod.
On Wednesday I had
a customer booked in for a barbel feature finding session, yet due to
a breakdown in communication this had to be re-arranged at the last
minute leaving myself on the river bank with a few to myself. Trying
something different I fished four swims over a five hour period,
managing one modest chub which is a result on this stretch.
With the rain
finally arriving and temperatures well mild I should be out on the
bank, yet a freelance photojournalistic job sent from Anglers Mail
needs producing so it’s of to Bedfordshire for the day. Hopefully I
will be able to get on top of the job and free some time up on
Friday, yet with everything looking spot on, what species will it be?
Everything went to
plan, yet by the time I arrived home and manipulated the images it
was around 6pm, so l decided to have an early night and set the alarm
for 1am, yes 1am! The reason why is with the temperature so good and
hopefully with some warm rain water in the river the barbel should be
crawling up my rods. I also guessed that other anglers would be on
the bank in the evening and felt I would try and fish when the banks
were quieter. The stretch I headed for is difficult, a section where
one bite is a result, yet on arrival found three bivies in the big
fish spots, so much for it being quiet. Covering four swims between
the hours of 2.30am and 7.30am produced just one slight rattle. This
was my last chance of a massive Loddon barbel but unfortunately one
of the big girls didn’t have my name on her. Home by 8.15am I
grabbed a few hours sleep before writing up the Anglers Mail article.
Although I didn’t catch I did face one of my fears full on. Many
will recall a couple of years ago I fell in the Loddon during
daylight and struggled to get out, and that was when I had far less
clothes on, as it was in July. Since then I have always been
apprehensive at roving around a river bank during the dark, yet I
have to say I really enjoyed the session and glad that I made the
effort.
Having everything
set up for rudd fishing and plenty of maggots in the fridge I grabbed
the gear and headed to Frensham. Dropping in a new swim I managed to
spod some bait out albeit dark, drop the rigs over the top and sit
back for a few hours before having to pick the girlfriend up at 11am.
Not expecting much I was surprised when one of the bobbins sprung
into life. Picking up the rod I instantly new the culprit was a rudd
and half way in the other rod signalled a bite. Somehow I managed to
net both fish which turned out to be my target species weighing 2lb
1oz and 1lb 15oz. Two more smaller rudd fell before it was time to
leave, yet at least Frensham said goodbye for another three months in
a nice way.
Last week I
mentioned a gadget called the Ball Maker, well I have taken a picture
so you can see exactly what it creates. It’s not in the shops yet
but is expected to arrive within the next couple of weeks. I suggest
you place your order now as they are going to be in big demand when
they arrive.
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