Monday 16 August 2010

Sometimes it’s just an excuse to be there!


(09/08/10)

My river angling guru Stu has done all his hard work and for him this week its now time to play with time off work, so I arranged to meet him after I finished work on a new stretch me and Stu have our eyes on hidden deep on the upper Severn on my home soil.

7pm and after battling my way through the hoards of drivers trying to make their way home after a hard days work for tea time, I finally arrived to greet Stu waiting in car park.

I had been to this stretch a couple of weeks earlier just to try it out fishing a likely looking barbel hold up. At the time though I was only after chub and after losing 2 good chub from the swim it was all the confidence I needed to sit it out and wait for a big barbel to come trundling through


Its not a bad way to spend an evening


The upper Severn in places isn’t very wide so I much prefer to use only one rod, this saves any hassle of fish getting tangled up in another line and potentially costing me a fish, another line in the water can also mean I am more likely to spook fish. So with just one rod it would be rude not to be the traditionalist and get the centerpin out to fish the swim Mr Crabtree style.


Was that a twitch!!

Stu not fancying any swims on stretch jumped in his wagon and made his way a couple of minutes down stream to find some more pacey water. With full confidence in my setup
I was able to sit back and enjoy the wildlife and watch the sun setting

I would love to carry this on now and tell you how I hauled a monster barbel out onto the bank by its tail but couldn’t weigh it properly because the scales bottomed out but I can’t lol the evening went by without so much as a tap!! But I can’t grumble it’s the upper, you either blank or you get something decent there’s no in-between

Now non anglers that are reading this are thinking, well what a bloody waste of time he caught no fish. Thing is I was chatting to Stu about this at 12.30pm the same evening about how lucky we are as anglers. Between 7pm and 12.30pm I witnessed, Buzzards, a hare at close range, a kingfisher, 2 swans with 6 signets, an otter less that 2 foot away from me, bats and got to gaze aimlessly at the thousands of stars in the Pitch Black valley lighting up the sky.

Waste of time eh, its not always about the fish ;), But I am an angler and I do want to catch some fish or I might as well start playing golf

It’s now Tuesday night (10/08/10) and all my gear is ready for yet another after work session tomorrow, meeting Stu once again this time on a very local river to us both in search of yet more barbel and chub (hopefully we will be fishing the Welsh side lol)

(11/08/10)

Unfortunately Stu couldn’t join me for another bash at the barbel and chub and because I don’t really like fishing for barbel and chub until autumn time because I feel like I’m missing out on something else my mind was torn. But it didn’t take to long for me to decide to fish for a big bream

With being an office boy its always difficult for me to get out fishing after work, but with gorgeous lakes like the flash it makes all the hassle of getting out worth while.


The flash from the car park

I arrived at 7pm and with both rods already setup they were soon flung out into likely bream patrol routes. I have done a couple of sessions on the flash over the past couple of years but am still yet to catch one. But there are a few in here and a lot that go into double figures.


With both rods out, all you can do is wait

Fishing on the flash though was difficult as usual and I have nothing to report from the session, despite my best efforts those bream once again just wouldn’t feed. I do know the bailiff on the water rather well and he had informed me that only a couple of fish had been out in the past few months. I’m not sure though if that’s because everyone that fishes the venue is after the cats or because the bream really are that difficult at the moment, either way I still blanked lol


At least the rats were feeding


Tick followed tock into dusk on the bream quest


(14/08/10)


Once again I had planned to get down on the canal in search of the illusive big eels, this time though with back up of my angling companion Clive. Although I wouldn’t know if he could join me until 6pm when his wife would be home from work, which was ok with me anyways because I don’t want to get on the canal to early.

6pm came around and it turned out Clive couldn’t make (hope you enjoyed your sailor jerry lol) all day I had been thinking about eels but now the time was right I just didn’t feel like it, not because I didn’t want to go fishing, but because I didn’t want to be up all night again netting 2lb bream. The only other thing I could think of to ensure a good nights sleep was fishing for Catfish on the flash. A quick call to the flash bailiff to see if anything was going on down there because it was closed that morning for an EA fish check. Cliff confirmed though that the venue was open and no anglers were on the flash when he left at 4pm. it was decided then

Arriving at the venue at 9pm because of the police closing a road and it was a race against the light to get the rods up and out. 30 minutes later both rods were armed with lobs worms and were making there way to the gloomy depths.


The area I decided to fish on the flash is where the bank comes back into the water causing a bay (you can clearly see this from the earlier picture whilst fishing for bream)
Hopefully so if any fish move from the bay into the main body of the lake and visa versa I can intercept them in this tighter bit of water.

I didn’t wait long until I was soon getting some action the rods having a sharp take at 11pm but the bait getting dropped before I had time to get to the rod.

That night the heavens really did open and it rained from 10pm until 6am making the fishing during the night somewhat grim but I did still get out of the sack during the early hours to recast because the venue is weedy.


Rig for a monster cat

I slept through the dawn period finally appearing out of the sleeping bag at 8am, but I didn’t mind to much because I put full faith in the bailiffs knowledge that the cats usually come out later in the morning and feed until around lunch time.


The bird life on flash really is something

For some reason this is only my Second visit to the flash this year, once after the cats and earlier in the week after the bream. But I can happily see myself spending a little bit more time on here over the next couple of weeks because it really is a nice venue to pass away the hours


Plant life on the flash

And it looks like I will have to spend some more time on the venue because once again I blanked lol that’s 3 after work sessions I’ve put in and I haven’t even been able to hold a fish.
Since catfish have been chipping away in my mind for a few years now maybe a trip next week might see one climbing up the rod. Until next week ;)


They’re out there somewhere!!

No comments:

Post a Comment