More Mullet

Bank holiday Monday, great weather forecast and not much else to do and cutting the grass can wait.

Had me second session for Mullet in three days. Why is it that nothing happens for an age, you then take a second to throw some ground bait in and then the float dips? This happened twice today, not just half hearted bites but the type of offer that takes the float down a foot or two, sods law, never understood that statement but that’s what it is I guess.

I managed one fish pictured here, I would give it around 3 ¾ but never weighed it. About 20 min’s later the float stopped its slow wind assisted drift from left to right then shot down. When I struck into the fish it went berserk and jumped clear of the water. It then tore off left, then towards me and then took a screaming run against a light drag for about 15 yards to my left again. I had the fish pretty much beat and was easing it toward the net when the hook popped out. Having had a real good look at this one I would say it was a good 5 ½ - 6 pounder, that’s showbiz as they say…. all summer to catch that one again. I don’t think it would have beaten my PB of 6.5 but would have been a great end to May.

Farnsy and Kim

Friday I took Robert Farnsworth and Kim, a client of Robert's from Nashville. Kim had never fly fished before, so after a brief tutorial we got in the water and started getting after them! Kim picked it up pretty quick and we started bringing some nice fish to the boat. Thursday night was a full moon and mayflies had a major hatch, so considering our conditions, we smoked some good fish! Robert brought this nice little brown to the boat chucking streamers. At the end of the day he broke off on a nice nice fish. We never got a look at it but it had the 5 weight rod bent in half!

The bridges

I forgot to post Last Sunday but I took Lunsford Bridges, his son Todd, and his son-n-law Jeff. We fished for a half of day and the weather was great and so was the fishing! We had good low water and active caddis. All the guys caught lots of fish but Todd seemed to be in the groove and was crushing them one after another!

Nice Rainbow

Thursday I went out for a joy ride with Amy and decided to wet a line in a little spotwhere I can usually can find a fish. The first fish I hooked took off line as if it were a bonefish and it busted off. The second fish I landed was decent, but nothing to get to excited about. The third fish I landed was the fish... It is one of the nicer rainbows I have actually caught myself in a good while...

Valsaline in the Lost Valley with Chris Prior on the Cress Wye

The Straggle!

CP the Canny angler working a pool sweet

I got  invited by Sheffield's 'Canny' Chris Prior again to fish more water that we did not get time in the last outing, the numbers we took last time to the dry were untrue and i was hoping for some same action but with a clunk thrown in if possible.....

Chris had spoken to me on the phone and told me about a lad he had fished with that used vasaline instead of gink and said to bring some along to see what i thought! Well last time i had a sore ring from his spicy chicken so the vasaline purchase would be handy anyway!!

Off to the local chemist and i started to look for a small tub of vasaline, i did feel quite strange as i dont think i have ever bought a tub of vasaline ever as i don't really want to be known as a fudge packer!!

Anyway i purchased a small pot and walked out the chemist with all the Lady's thinking i was going to 'push some stools in'......

I met Chris at 11.30 and we were to meet up with Dave Percival and Chris Dore (river keeper) and have some snappin in duffers hut...

We all sat down to some right good food with Chris P serving a chili con with garlic bread, as usual Percival was taking the piss out of my trainers as this is not the usual dress in the hut, i did tell them to **** off as i am a Stokey Chav and not a Derbyshire 'shit kicker,' he set me up by telling me to put loads of a sause on my chilli, well i took a mouth full and my mouth was on fire with all the lads pissing them selves!! I spoke to Chris Dore the river keeper who has got a big job on his hands looking after this huge stretch of river they have, catching poachers all day must drive u mad, a sound lad who is again like my mucker Jan from the Peacock, is only to keen to help you out... he eventually took us off road in his 4x4 and took us through the scariest tunnel i have seen, a lock and key at each end and in pitch blackness we drove through to the other end...

Chris Dore dropped us off and we shook hands and he wished us luck and we were on our way to the 'lost valley'...

The lost valley as known to the lads in Cress, and the scenery is just breathtaking, i think dovedale is amazing but this is well on par, and better with there only being a few walkers due to the harsh tarain...I read a article in T&S last week  and a angler said that you sometimes get ur blinkers on while fishing and don't appreciate where you are, this is very true and its nice to just chill out and take it in (once u have caught!)

Anyway the fishing....

This is probably the nicest brown i have ever caught

The river was on its arse and in need of a just wash out, the fly life was very sparse and it was obvious it was going to be tough on the dry, we opted to go for the nymph to see if we might get one of those clunkers in there...

We started to fish with a single bug and work the section fishing the likely holes ect, as usual Prior was banging his jokes out having me in stitches!

The fishing was superb as normal and we were catching lots of small browns and rainbows, today was not going to be a dry fly day so we kept on bugging, around the afternoon i spotted a very nice rainbow at the back end of a run, we stood watching its movements and decided to drop a nymph in front of it, at first it seemed to be spooked but on the second cast the fish just came and hit the indicator and then hit the nymph! tightening into this fish drove it mad and i scrapped away with this clunk for a few mins, we dropped it in the net to weigh a cracking 2lbs of wild Wye rainbow, a smashing fish in fine condition, we had done just what i had wanted to do, a wild clunk from the C/L, i have seen well bigger but they would surely have to be stalked out at feeding time...

2lb wild rainbow in superb condition

All at the Ready, Chris was not smiling 10 mins after!!!

Chris Dore (River keeper) and Chris Prior

Season Review

For me the fishing season runs from June to May and I usually like to take a few weeks off during April & May, simply because the fishing during this time, particularly May can be a bit dodgy with spawning fish.

On a personal level the last 12 months has been hard. Back in June my parent company made a decision to sell off the company I worked for. I had to make a decision about either continue working for my existing company or move to the parent company. In the end I moved to the parent company in August with a mandate to set up a new service, however progress has been painfully slow and it is only recently that all my hard work is starting to bear fruit.

As for Sue, I have never known someone to have such a bad run of luck, but I think (& hope) she has settled on what she wants to do for the future. Having given up trying to find a full time job, she now wants to run her own business selling AVON and Ann Summers. Sue's problem has been the 2 fold, firstly she spent 20 years in the motor trade and secondly she was a manager. Unfortunately, with so many people looking for work, it appears potential employers are seeing 20 years motor industry and immediately discounting her managerial skills. So Sue has decided to set up her own business, building a sales team for AVON and Ann Summers. There is some serious money to made if she can grow the team large enough and I have told her if it gets to the point where she needs to employ someone to deal with admin etc, I will be her man. That way I will have more time to go fishing! Unfortunately, that will be a few years away.

With such a tight financial year, it has meant I haven't been able to go fishing as often as I would like and that's one of reasons why I focused much of my time at Lands End during the winter. Ironically being on a tight budget and seen me have one of my best seasons. Having to limit what bait I take has allowed me to focus on how I approached a match. Previously I have been guilty of taking too much and confusing myself, but by looking at how other anglers approach their matches, such as Tony Rixon and Rod Wootton has allowed me to be more confident that what I am doing is right and I shouldn't keep chopping and changing.

Fishing has certainly kept me sane these last 12 months, although there has been some lows, as well as some highs.

The lows – Being dropped by Maver Veals wasn't unexpected and on reflection I should have dropped myself months ago, however I honestly thought I would back straight financially sooner and able to commit the necessary time.

The big low for me however was the Lands End Winter League. After the 6th round I was lying 3rd overall, but the last 2 rounds weren't kind. A draw on peg 55 Johns, although normally a decent peg, on the day the weather was getting milder and there was a real strong westerly blowing. So whilst everyone had some sort of ripple, my swim was flat calm and the fish simply didn't want to be there. The last round saw me draw the wrong end of Sydneys lake and as a consequence I dropped out of the top 7 and no money – gutted.

On the positive side, I had some seriously big weights in the last 12 months, 5 tons, 4 double tons and a personal best 335lb. I also managed a personal best match weight of 218lb, which was a club match record, well up to last month anyway. Whilst that was a memorable match, probably my best result was at Rood Ashton, fishing against 18 locals, who normally approach the lake with the method feeder and pole/paste. According to the locals my pellet waggler approach wouldn't work because the lake was too shallow! 45 carp for 133lb and a convincing match win proved otherwise.

Of the 37 matches fished, I've picked up in 24, which has been very helpful, collecting more money than I have paid out and during December to February I picked up 10 times from 11, its just shame that during March a run of poor draws halted that little run.

So what about the future? Being a glass half full type person, I am hopefully that the next 12 months will see Sue and I back on a even keel. Both our jobs are showing signs of going in the right direction, so hopefully in the not to distant future I can commit to more fishing.

28/05/2010 - Winterbourne Duck Pond

Weight – 44lb 13oz
Catch – 72 Skimmers, 1 Tench
Weather – Sunny, blustery at times

A trapped nerve in my back, prevented me from fishing last weekend. I had booked today off with the intention of going to my club water, however Sue needed the car (I'll be glad when she gets her own). I decided to still have the day off and got Sue to drop me off at the duck pond for an afternoon session.

When I arrived, someone was already in the bus stop swim, but the water level had dropped about 1ft, so I chose the slip way off the dam wall, which would offer the most depth at 2ft.

Nothing complicated today, a roach 4x12, .11 bottom & 18 silverfish pellet hook & double 5 elastic, fished at 11.5-13m towards the island and 11m down the left hand margin towards the road wall. Initially started feeding 4mm pellet & maggot via a toss pot, but soon reverted to catapulting 4mm. After a slow 10mins I started catching nearly every put in on double red maggot. After 40mins I ditched the maggot switching to soft pellet and the skimmers kept coming , although after an 2hours the swim was slowing, which coincided with the wind picking up.

A switch to corn helped and for the remainder of the session, I kept swapping between pellet and corn. When the main swim went quiet, a look down the left hand edge produced the odd fish, including a lost carp when the hook pulled, but most fish came at 11.5m. A 2½lb tench went a welcome change from the skimmers which went up to 1¾lb.

In the end I had to get Sue to pick me up earlier than intended , because I was running out of 4mms, having fed 2pts. Whether the drop in the water level had concentrated the fish in the deeper water, I'm not sure , but this beat my previous best silvers weight from the venue by 9lb.