Well just got back from my 1st session since the 16th june,work and bad weather have kept me away from the river bank,however with more bad weather forecast for the week ahead i went out at about 7pm for a couple of hours and found the river about a foot higher than the last time i'd fished.Looking at the banks the river was dropping down from about 3 foot higher than normal at this time of year.Again i was into fish from the off with 5 takes in 2 cast's they seemed to be queing up to swipe at the fly and the first hour resulted in six pike in the 4-6lb range.After this it quitened off so switching to an ultralight outfit i tried for some chub but only managed 2 more pike.

So not to bad an evening really.

waiting's over

I've got to admit that the 16th june didn't really mean much to me upto a few years ago.All my local waters are open year round and so the 16th became insignificant.But all that changed about 4 years ago when i started to fish the river.Suddenly the 16th took on a new meaning and i'd spend the day's from the 15th March waiting for the season to start.Although the river doesn't produce large fish(13lb's the biggest i've had from there)what they lack in size they make up with in numbers and fighting ability.So it was that i was up this morning at 3.45am and off to the river for a few hour's before work with the fly rod.First cast started off the season with a fish around 4lb not big but great fun another 5 fish followed in the next couple of hours biggest around 7lb before the sun came over the trees and it was time for work.



Just a word on the tackle i use,the rod's a 9ft 10#,reel a lamson litespeed3.5,line 11# floating pike line,leader 6ft of 25lb amnesia and a wire trace of 20lb drennan green pike wire and flies i tie myself mostly bucktail deceivers in grey/white,red/black and orange/yellow which cover most situations other essentials i use are an orvis stripping basket,polaroid glasses and chad caine gloves to stop raker rash to the hand's as all the fish are held in the water whilst unhooking(although i forgot to put them on this morning and paid with a cut left hand)

about time

When i started this blog i hoped to have something to write in it but to be honest i've not had the time or the inclination to go fishing for the last couple of month's,3 short sessions with the kids on the canal yielded nothing apart from a tiny perch on a mepp's spinner.Anyway i decided i'd drag my carcase out of bed this morning,so i was up at 4.20.After 5 minutes i had a 4lber on one of my PB gliders in a firetail pattern,after this i had a few follow's that seemed quite interested including one fish with a dark patch on it's back that looked into double figures which is a good fish fish for this water,it's done much bigger fish for me but generally 4-5lb is the average.Moving along the bank to the next peg i changed to one of my secret weapon's a glider in clown colour i call the "fathead glider"this lure came about from a lure i made someone on the P+P forum a couple of year's ago,although i wasn't to sure of the original it caught a new lure caught PB for the lad it was made for at 16lb if i remember correctly ,and then his mate caught his PB on it at 18lb all in the same session.At this point i told him i needed it back but for some reason he wouldn't let me have it.Still not to keen on the design i changed the tail of the bait from the original and the "fathead"was born.However on this occasion the second cast resulted in an absolute thumping take which saw the fish go airbourne on the strike after short fight at short range i handlanded what proved to be the pike i'd seen in the previous swim,i cut the hooks and took a quick picture and she swam off no worse for wear.The rest of the session didn't result in anymore fish just a couple of missed takes so i was home for 8.30 then McD's for breakfast with lorraine and the kid's.

micky mouse

as the title hints at we've just got back from 2 week's in florida where we had a great time going to all the parks,swimming with dolphins at discovery cove the works.this as you can imagine left little time for anything else but me and leon managed to sneak away for a couple of hours so i could try to catch a large mouth bass. After first visiting walmart to pick up a rod and a few lures we stopped at the nearest lake anyway first cast with a manns baby1- in shad colour produced a thumping take close in and my first bass was on the bank within 2 minutes of starting.A couple more followed about the same size and that was it fishing wise.However i was well chuffed to have caught and on the trip back i watched man u beat roma in the champions league at miami airport,a great end to a great holiday.