Trials and tribulations....

 Hi guys....It's been a while since I last put pen to paper so to speak due to a host of reasons but mainly due to ill health again. I won't go into too much detail as at present we still have no idea what's actually going on but I've been quiet poorly since early January and been in and out of hospital having endless bloods taken. I have a camera being put down my throat on Wednesday of this week which I'm really nervous about but hopefully it will give us an idea what's actually going on inside. I've had chest and upper back/shoulder pain for some time and problems keeping food down. Chronic heartburn and nausea which has kept me awake at night for nearly two months now.....It's left me feeling very tired all day and completely lacking in the motivational department. It's had an effect on my work, home and social life and cost me umpteen days off work. 

The worst part being the cost on my mental health....I suffer around December to March every year which I think is due to the long dark nights, shit weather and the lack of being outside but this year has been on a whole new level with the poor health. I've found the weeks just dragging with the desperate urge for the weekend to go fishing, only to have no strength or motivation to go when the weekend arrives. I have a few friends who suffer with their mental health too and they seem to get the same symptoms around this time of year.....with no real reasons behind it. It helps a little to talk about it between us and it's settling to know I am not the only one with this affliction. Anyway, thanks to all of you that have sent me messages of love and support throughout the last month or two....it's truly humbling to know you all care x.

Well, there isn't a huge amount to talk about fishing wise but three trips are past in time and ready for print! I had a little session up the River Wye one day in January and the weather was quite pleasant. I took a light weight bit of kit due to my lack of energy and just a float and feeder rod were needed. I sat on an unhooking mat and armed with a couple of pints of maggots and a small bag of bits and a flask, off I went. 

The river looked a little coloured from run off but was almost down to its normal winter levels. I started on a shallow tributary of the main river with the float set around 3 feet deep. 

A steady flow of maggots by hand and a 12x4 stick float trotted down didn't take long to do the business. I nice bite down the tail end of the swim produced a nice chub around 3lbs. A couple more followed in close succession until drying up about an hour in. 

There was worryingly no sign of the large abundant shoal of grayling that used to reside in the section though....I just couldn't find them. I wonder if they have migrated further up or into the main river during the heavy floods of weeks passed. I packed up and headed for the main river and out came the light feeder gear. An hour in the first good barbel peg produced nothing so I moved pegs again to another good barbel swim. 

This had too much pull in it for my gear and an 8oz lead would have been needed to hold bottom. I made one last move to a sheltered swim with a back eddy behind an overhanging willow. 

A regular introduction of maggots through a blackcap feeder finally got me a bite after an hour and a nice chub of 4lbs found the net. This was followed up with about 6-7 small chub to two pounds. 

All good fun on a 12ft Acolyte with a 2oz tip on. Before the light faded I made my way down stream to a confluence between the main river and tributary and managed another couple of lovely chub to four pounds. 

A few weeks passed and I finally got a chance to get out again with my old mate Simon....

We went for a few hours to Dyffryn Springs with lightweight feeder kit and poles to target small carp and silvers.....just a bit of fun and to put a bend in the rod really. 

It was lovely to catch up with Simon and we had some great giggles and a little match between us that ended up being very close all day! We caught dozens of nice little carp up to 14lbs on both feeder and pole and lost a couple of better ones too. The carp were really on the munch and there wasn't another sole on the whole complex! We caught plenty of lovely silvers too with some great little roach making an appearance. It was a great chance to catch up with Simon and the chance to discuss our up and coming French trip which is in four weeks from today. 

Yesterday I picked up my good old friend Ian Oxley who I've not fished with in about 4-5 years. We'd been trying to get the chance to meet up in a long time but things just got in the way and the days got put back. We made a concerted effort this weekend though and finally did a trip that we'd been discussing for about 15 years! My fluff chucking gear was dusted off and despite a near 8 year brake from Fly fishing off we went to the incredible Lechlade Fishery in the Cotswolds. 

We left at 5am and the weather was dreadful! 5C with horizontal rain! Amazingly as we drove along the M4 things improved and we arrived at a very cold and frosty but dry venue! Ian and I had visited the venue when I worked for Dragon Tackle some 15 years ago whilst piking at Little Farringdon and always wanted to go there to fish it for the monster trout that reside there. It took around two hours to get there and by 7.40am we were sat outside the gate awaiting opening time at 8am. Owner Tim Small let us in at 8 and after pleasantries we were off around the lake chasing dreams! I had one goal for the day and that was to beat my 19 year old PB Rainbow of 8lb 9oz! I knew it was a tough ask but Lechlade offered the best chance anywhere if it was going to happen! 

I'd watched a few online vids on YouTube about the venue and spoke to a couple of mates that had fished there in the past. I had a good idea of my approach and a little more knowledge about the place before making the first cast. We headed off around the lake and chose a spot each around the far side of the lake. The venues levels were over the bank in many places with flood water from the small rivers either side of the venue leaching over the bank into the lake. This had not only clouded up the water heavily but also reduced the overall water temps. We knew it was going to be hard but after 4 hours we'd not has a single follow from a fish when fishing down in the water with sink tip lines and intermediates. 

A host of flies were tied on and chucked at the fish to no avail. I was starting to think that it was going to be the most expensive blank I had ever experienced! As the sun finally reached it's peak around 12.30pm, the temperature rocketed up to the mid teens for an hour or so and suddenly there were a few fish starting to show in one of the south easterly corners of the lake. 

I swapped over to a floating line, 12 foot leader and a Catswhisker fly. I decided to totally change tactics and fish much higher up in the water column with short sharp pulls. I got my first pull around 1pm and it caught me totally off guard and never hooked up! I couldn't believe it......Was that my only chance of the day gone begging? 

I made another cast to the same area a few times and finally I got a hookup! It went like a rocket and tail walked a few times too! Ian came round to net the fish for me and it looked close to my 8'9 oz PB! The fish was dispatched quickly then weighed in at 7lb 6oz! A great fish but not quite my PB...Oh well at least I hadn't blanked. I had a couple of quick nips on the fly over the next few casts but nothing came of it. Ian dropped in behind me and we changed swims. He was quickly into a good fish and after a spirited fight I netted a rather fat looking rainbow for him. With a PB of 10lb 6oz this looked close for him! We dispatched and unhooked the fish then weighed her at 11lb 3oz. A new PB for Ian! A great fish. 

I went back to my spot and it was about half an hour before I got another chance. This one felt a whole lot different to the first fish and after a great scrap Ian netted it for me. This was going to surely best my PB? Ian took the fish round to his scales for me so I could carry on fishing where I was. He looked across at me and shook his head....I was gutted as I was sure it was a PB.....'Sorry mate but ........you've got a new PB son!' Hell yeah! 11lb 2oz! What a result....19 years in the making and the rusty old git had managed it at last. I was ecstatic to say the least. I went back to the fishing and after an hour the light was starting to go and with it the suns warmth. 

I thought we'd had our fill and Ian was starting to pack away for the day. I had a last few casts in the first swim and after spotting a wind knot in my leader, I cut off around three feet of the line reducing the leader length to 8 feet. I then made a recast feeling less than confident with just minutes to go. I was then shocked to have the rod almost torn from my hand with in seconds of the fly settling! Number three on the line and after a few minutes of battling the fish, it came to the surface covered in big black spots! Oh my god, it's a big brownie! 

Now, my brown trout PB had stood at 3lb 4oz for so long that I actually couldn't remember when I had caught it? This thing looked big though! Please don't come off I said to Ian. The fight was erratic and heart pounding before Ian scooped it up in his net for me. The feeling of relief was immense! On the scales she went 8lb 8ozs! A new PB by miles! So pleased, I was literally shaking till I got home at 8pm! I went in the house with the bag of fish and the wife and kids were blown away when I showed them the monsters we'd caught that day! I can't wait to go back! Well there we go....that's about it for now. I have a lot of very stressful stuff to sort over the coming weeks and the next bit of free time will be the annual work party trip over to Nicks lake in 4 weeks time. It honestly can't come soon enough now. Tight lines all.

The Roach Factory!

 This last week's been very busy all round with a few days spent in Milton Keynes at our VW Training centre, where I had some team building and personal experiences. The whole trip was very entertaining and enjoyable, getting the chance to meet some fantastic lads and lasses from our Audi Family all round the UK. We were given a few tasks to do as teams and some personal training aspects to complete as well. 

Lot's learned and then a fantastic afternoon long driving experience where we got the chance to drive many vehicles from the range. There were 3 standout vehicles for me which were the RS6, eTron GT and the stunning A8L. All three cars being utterly fantastic to drive! The RS6 is just a savage beast and gives serious smiles per mile! I've included a short video of the insane sound etc.....

Anyway, back to the fishing and this week saw me take a few days holiday down South in Hampshire chasing those ever elusive Roach. I arrived at 6.10am Sunday morning after setting off at 2.30am! 

Despite being exhausted I got there and set up in a fairly good peg. The day was tough going and despite putting everything into it I struggled to make much of a dent in the fish stocks other than some nice sized Dace. 

Day 2 was a lot better as I slept in the van outside the fishery and got first choice of swims for the day.....I jumped into a well known hot peg that I've done well in before and got straight onto the float. I set up a 15ft Acolyte with a 12x4 stepped balsa float, 16 hook to 3lb 8oz hooklink and 2 reds. The first few trots saw me miss a bite before the next chuck threw up a good 1'6 roach. I started to introduce a handful of maggots every chuck and kept the line as best as I could through the swim. 

Just below is an overhanging tree which is usually good for a bite but the weather had left its branches hanging a bit low and there were a few bits of line hanging from it making a trot under very tricky! I continued the same line through and each time it was almost a bite a trot! Every fish was almost a pound and things were going well. 

By lunch I had taken 30 plus roach from the swim but I felt a better one was surely on the cards soon. I had a couple of visitors pop in to say hello and after they'd left I restarted the trot through confident it would keep fishing. Around 1.15pm I had a bite 3/4 of the way down the trot and I hit into a very solid lump! This fish felt like nothing else I'd hooked that morning. It clung to the bottom and just nodded its head in typical roach manner. 

I held my cool playing it gently and after 5 minutes I started to make some headway with it. I saw the fish flash and it was a huge roach! Easily a PB! I got the net ready and pushed it into position ready to pull the fish over the lip. As she came to the surface, she rolled over and out came the 16 hook! I was utterly sickened! I felt like I had been punched in the guts. I retrained my thoughts and put fresh bait on, trying not to think about the one I had just lost! 

Next few trots were fishless then finally a nice 1'10 showed up to the party. A few minutes later I had a visit from friend and Club Carp Sec Ian Stone. We chatted for a bit and I continued to work the swim. As he was about to leave I had a bite and the tip sat solid! A good fish was on! We both stood silently as I held on to the fish which sat deep down in the water column. It took a good few minutes to get her up and Ian readied himself with the net for me. Eventually he sunk it under what looked a belting good roach! In very dark bronze colouration a stunning roach of 2'1 bettered the days catch rate! 

What a result, target achieved. The fishing continued to be excellent all day and by close of play I'd caught around 65 roach and about a dozen dace including 2 of 14oz! Day 3 was a similar early start and setting up in the dark in the same swim as day 2. On arrival I was met by my good friend Ruppert who introduced me to the legendary Alan Storey....

Now Alan is as far as I'm aware, the only human alive to have caught a 4lb plus river roach and a 4lb plus still water roach too! What a fantastic bit of angling to catch them both! He has the river Frome record and has numerous other big 3lbers to his name as well. The bloke is literally roach angling royalty! What a lovely fella too, very nice to have met him and chatted for a while. He's a wealth of knowledge and I feel very privileged to have met him and listened to his great stories of big roach captures I can only dream of emulating! 

It was also great to see my old pal Ruppert who isn't shy of catching a few big roach either! The blokes a roach fishing machine! Almost certainly the best roach angler I personally know and a bloody great fella too. Ruppert has been great in helping to push my roach fishing skills further each time we speak. He's like Alan, a wealth of knowledge, skills and has brilliantly developed his own feeder techniques that I have posted on here some time ago to capture more big roach than I can conceivably believe! Both him and Alan are legends in their own right! 

The fishing was a little tougher than day 2 but plenty of pound plus fish found the net once again up to 1'12 and included an epic battle with a 6'8 sea trout that took a liking to my double red maggot hookbait! I finished the day with a total of 129 roach for the 3 days including 17 over a pound, a 2'1, a sea trout and 3x 14oz dace!

Day 4 I decided to change venue and headed over to my beloved Stour at Throop in search of a 6lb plus chub to finish off my week down south. I knew it would be a tough call but set out to try and bag one on the float. I set up initially in a spot I've done well in in the past and after around 8-10 trots through, I finally got a small chub of 3lbs. 

I continued to keep the maggots going in and had another 5 chub to 3lb 14oz. I then lost a small sea trout and the swim then died on its feet. I couldn't buy a bite! I moved up river to a corner swim with less flow and started on the feeder to no avail. I then switched over to the float and started regular trots down battling a very awkward face on wind that pushed the line into the nearside marginal reeds. Despite feeling like I was making no headway towards getting a bite, 20 minutes in I finally had a good bite that I hooked. 

This fish felt much bigger and just hugged the bottom of the river. I kept the pressure on and just gently played her to the waiting net. On the scales she went 6lb 1oz! Another target achieved for the trip. I couldn't believe my luck....a 2;1 roach and the a 6'1 chub! Fantastic! After that the swim died and I left for the journey home. 

Change of plan!

I got up at 7am and ventured out to the van to find about 12 foot of ice attached to it! ARGH it was a bloody cold night that was for sure! -5C apparently and it felt every bit of that! I drove down to a local commercial 30 minutes from home to find it had a 3" thick lid on it! 

That was any ideas of Perching out the window. I sat for a few minutes debating whether to head home or somewhere else? I opted to head up to my club stretch of the Wye after a quick check on the river levels. 

I dropped into AD to grab a pint of whites and then drove the further half hour up to the river. On arrival it was clear to see that they had had a really cold night up there! 

The trees were literally blast frozen and it was bitter! I donned the essential 50 layers of clothing and opted to travel light with out a chair. I chose to fish a swim that I had caught a fair few chub from in the past and set up a lightweight 20 gram black cap feeder, heli-style with a double red maggot presentation to size 18 hook and 3lb hook link. 

I made a couple of casts into the swim to get a bit of bait in and then sat on my unhooking mat drinking a cuppa. I had a guy turn up behind me who wanted the same swim and we had a nice chat for over an hour. While he stood with me I had a great bite on the quiver rod and the tip went over in true Chub style. 

The fight was pretty sketchy as the fish ploughed all around the swim in strong current and the lightweight tackle did little to tame the fish. A good 10 minutes later I slipped the net under a proper lovely winter Wye chub of 4lb 13oz. Well worth the effort! The chap left me and I sat for another hour bite less so I felt a move was in order. 

I moved about 150 yards up stream to a new spot that I had caught in well before. It took about half an hour before the first bit of action and with the same tactics employed as before I found myself attached to another nice chub. The action continued for the next 3 hours with 11 chub finding the net. It was great sport for the weather conditions and albeit they were all pretty much a similar 2lb in weight, it was great to put a bend in the rod in such hardcore conditions! 

As the light started to fade I kept the bait going in steadily and a quick tap tap bite was struck into and a very different feeling fish fought it's was back to the net. On inspection it was a nice little Grayling that sat in the net and I got some quick snaps before slipping her back and packing up for the hour long drive home. I took a few picks on the way back to the van as the scenery was utterly stunning! I have a few days booked off in a fortnights time so I'm hoping to head down south to the Avon for a bit of seasonal bliss featuring the ever favourite big Roach! Fingers crossed the rivers in decent shape and they're on the feed!!!

Work party 2

Chris picked me up from work on the Friday lunch time and we drove down to Portsmouth for the overnight ferry to St Malo. The crossing was a little choppy but fortunately it was my turn for the lower bunk so it wasn't as awkward as our last trip over in March that saw me either weightless or stuck to the ceiling of the cabin as we peaked and troughed over 20 foot waves! 

I awoke at 5.30am to the sound of piped music through the cabin speakers. 

It's about the worst kind of music you can imagine....really cuts through you like a hot knife going through butter! 

Still, it wasn't as bad as Chris's start to the day! He decided to get up and use the shower in the cabin for a freshen up....it went well...he switched on the shower only to have the shower head fall off the connector and then having it fly around the room like a caged wild bird! It was flipping hilarious. God knows what the cleaners thought had gone on in that cabin after we vacated it??? 

Anyway, on the road down to the lake and we arrived half hour ahead of owner Nick and got about the business of a walk round and make a few decisions on what works needed to be done around the lake before we closed up for the season. There had been some very strong winds since the last party had left in early October and at least 4 or 5 trees had come down around the complex. These would require some heavy works to remove. 

With the daylight slipping away quickly and forecasters predicting some very heavy rain overnight, we decided to get the shelters up and get rods out before dark. 

Chris and I had already decided on swims and stuck to our usual spots. We both had 2goals for the week which to be honest were exactly the same! To catch Orange Spot at over 40lbs and Louisa at over 40lbs too! A tall ask in a 5 acre venue with around 150 carp in it during November! 

I cooked us all up some food and the 3 of us sat back with a beer and the boys had a smoke. It was amazing to be back out in France at one of our favourite places to be! The darkness fell quickly and before we knew it we were heading off to our bivvies with full bellies ready for a good nights sleep. 

As Chris had driven and due to the incoming storm, he decided not to fish the first night but I couldn't wait to get a rod out! I put four rods out in usual spots and baited lightly with crumbed RH Nutty bait and some particle over each rod. 

This turned out to be a mistake as I got plagued by Bream over the particle! I made a very quick change over just before the rain started to fall at 9pm and went onto larger hook baits. The only rod I kept different was the right hand inside margin rod which had a pair of tigers and a plastic corn topper on it. This was placed around 30 yards down the margin to my right. I climbed into my bag to warm up and settled in to watch a bit of telly on my iphone. 

I started to feel sleepy around 11pm so turned off to get some sleep to the sound of torrential rainfall on the bivvy. Around 3am I had a couple of bleeps on the right hand rod. I rolled over to look at the rod tip and under torch light I could see it was just gently plucking away. I thought it was almost certainly another Bream so slowly put my wet weather gear on and boots before suddenly the tip flew round and line started to peel from the spool! 

'That's not a Bream!' The fish hung deep down the right hand margin not really doing much other than just plucking away and taking the odd few yards of line...a typical big fish I felt. A good ten minutes passed by of tussle between us both before finally I sunk the net under a thick set mirror. I had this very strange feeling that this fish looked familiar???? I rolled the net to the side and on it's flank was the unmistakable Orange spots! I couldn't flipping believe it! First carp of the trip and it was the Spot! 

I rang Chris immediately. 'Hi bro, I've got one in the net and it's big....' 'What fish is it?' 'You won't believe me...' 'You haven't?' 'I have....lol' 

We agreed to leave her in the sling till the rain slowed up enough for a few shots. I was gutted though as I wanted a daylight shot really. 

We waited about an hour for the rain to slow up and got a few shots. I had a further common of 12'8 and a mirror of 18'14 before sun rise and then we started on the lake works. I was on chainsaw duty and Chris and Nick on clearance. 

Luckily Nick had acquired an electric Quad Bike and trailer over the summer and this made movements a lot easier than our previous work party trip. 

We got to work on cutting down what was left of some of the over hangers from the storms and a couple of leaners that were now very far into the water and posed a hazard to fishing situations. 

A couple of them were pretty big and required us to make up a makeshift winch using ratchet straps from Chris's van. We made short work of it and got the majority of the heavy stuff done by late morning. 

We had some tea and got the rods out for the night. I lost a fish early evening which saw me take to the boat for a battle which ended up with my tackle losing the day. 

Another bream fell foul to a pop up and after that it was a quiet night for me only interrupted by an early morning mirror of 24lbs. At this point I'm going to admit that the week kinda went mental after this point and much of what happened Chris's end is a blur! Other than to say he smashed it is an understatement! My phone was on fire from calls that he had a fish then another and another! The guy was unstoppable! He was on a mission to bag every big fish in the lake! 

I think he started with Mel at 35lbs and then had Scar at 38. I think? The list just went on and on! I quietly progressed with a few more twenties including the Long Common at 26'8, The Italian Football at 26'14 and another of the A-listers 'Willing and able' at 31'12. In amongst the carnage we carried on with bankside works and got the place looking absolutely superb and by late Tuesday most of the heavy work was finished. Chris continued to obliterate his way through the stock with a couple more thirties and a few small commons! I had another mirror of 27'2 and a few mid double commons before a very quiet day on Wednesday which we spent just chilling in our bivvies. 

I had a small common and lost one to a hook pull on the Wednesday. Thursday was much better though and Chris finally got to revisit his Orange Spot capture but not at over 40 unfortunately. She was a couple of ounce up since my capture on the first night and as it was mid afternoon I grabbed the chance to get a few daylight pics with here. Result for both of us! That evening I had 'De vito' at a new top weight of 34'2 and then 'Mel' up to 37lbs!!!!She'd gained 2lbs in 4 nights! We had decided to up our bait introduction early on and it was really playing into our favour! 

The fish were really on it and munching their way through all we gave them. Chris introducing Sticky Krill and I was on the Rod Hutchinson Nutty bait! They were loving both! By Friday we only had about 6 of the really big ones left to catch and Chris had caught 'Mini Fridge at 37lb and 1/2 ounce in the thirties too! The guy was smashing it! We only had one fish left we both wanted though....Louisa! And It was Chris who had her on the last night of the trip! He had previously caught her at 39lb 15oz back in March and was his current PB. 

He called me to say he had a reasonable one in the net. I went round to find a rather large chunk of fish in the net which he hadn't realised! I knew straight away it was Louisa and she looked big! Well, 41lb 12oz big! Chris was ecstatic and to be honest I was absolutely over the moon he'd caught her and set a new PB. A bit gutted I'd not caught her myself but to be honest I've caught plenty of bigger fish in my time and this moment was a very special one for him and I didn't care that my luck wasn't in this time. There'll be plenty of other opportunities I'm sure. 

The Friday night saw me bag the Mini Fridge again for the week and up 8ounces to 37'8 and a nice fat 24'8 mirror in the early hours of Saturday morning. 

We spent the Saturday morning clearing up our own stuff, washing out the cabin and kitchen and shower etc before switching off the water for the winter and our return in late March 2024. Nick bid us farewell at midday and Chris packed the van while I grabbed a cheeky few hours in the snags with a bit of left over bait. 

It was a blustery day and I poled our a few baits to one of the far end snags. It produced a bonus 16'12 common before we had to call it a day and head off to St Malo for the evening ferry. Another absolutely incredible week that saw us totally smash the lake records for many of the fish and for the most caught in a week! We had 40 fish including 5x30's, 5x20's, 11 doubles for myself. 5x30's, a 41'12 and 4x20's for Chris! In total we caught over 1000lbs of carp between us! Unreal! Can't wait for March now when my other pal Simon is hopefully joining the crew for a work party trip! 

A little throw back.....

 Due to the inclement and let's be honest....bloody awful weather we've had this last fortnight or so, I've decided to spend my weekends at home and leaving the fishing for those more hardcore than myself. As I age quickly I realise that getting to my fave venues to fish is often more of a painful affair than it used to be when I was 10 years or so younger! 48 this week just past too! 

With the lack of angling I have been looking through some old pictures I had and it got me thinking about some of my old fishing sessions when I was much younger that I had never written about. I thought I'd make a start with a few here and there from now on as a bit of an autobiography. So here's the first story.....During the mid to late 80's and very early nineties I lived in the New Forest and spent my time fishing many of the local day ticket venues and club waters around the area. Probably one of my favourite venues was a wonderful now syndicate venue known as Sway Lakes, near Lymington. Sway is a very pretty complex with lots of rearing ponds around it for the koi breeding shop that they have on site. 

This has been running since I can remember and the fishing was almost always a side line for the owners. I first came to learn about the lake when I was about 11 years old and my late father Chris took me there for a days fishing. Back then we were very amateur with just a handful of tackle items to our name. Fishing was generally done with fairly inadequate float tackle and worms, maggots, sweetcorn or bread as bait. My first few trips I caught a few Roach, odd Tench and a good helping of Perch. I saw the odd angler with 'carp gear' catch an odd carp but I wasn't bothered what I caught really back then. 

As time progressed I caught more fish and gained some newer tackle and more expertise. I also made some local friends who were also into fishing and there were 5 or 6 of us that would fill up the swims and socialise on regular occasions. I was starting to get into my night fishing more and more and my parents were allowing me some freedom to go on my own or with mates. 

We all started to fish Sway regularly and started to catch quite a few fish. Bare in mind that in those days, bedchairs, bivvys etc were a thing of the future! We were still using 45" brollys, tarps and old ex army tents etc and sun loungers. Many nights were spent shivering and wet under the stars! We also had fairly inadequate rods, reels with no drag systems and leads tended to be drilled bullet style which just rolled down the far shelf and tangled up your rigs. How we ever caught much I'll never know? 

Now, there was a swim at the end of the lake known as the bottom bay. It was a large circular swim with a wire fence at the end to stop anglers walking around to the far margin. The far bank was always a good area to target and a lead positioned 4-6 inches off the margin was a sure fire way to get a bite! Bare in mind also this was pre PVA bags, bait boats etc too! I remember one particular 3 day session I spent doubled up with a friend Mick in the swim. The fishing had been particularly tough going and the previous angler had struggled to get a bite in there. 

I chose the right hand side of the swim up to the fence and Mick had the left entrance to the bay. My idea was to cast our rigs over to the far side bank when things were quiet and I would then sneak under the wire and crawl round the bank to then position the baits in the water by hand and introduce what could only be described as a shit load of micro pellets over the top! At the time I was messing around with my first home made baits and using Nutrabaits Sting Fish mix with a Chocolate palatant and these were hand rolled and presented over the huge bed of pellets. This same technique was applied to all 6 of our rods and done when nobody could see us from the house behind. 

It was very cheeky but my god was it exciting! The fishing was explosive and that 3 days were some of the best I ever had at the venue! Both Mick and I caught continuously throughout the session with numerous twenties coming to the nets. At that time a twenty plus fish was a fantastic capture too! 

On another occasion I was fishing with 5 friends and we were all spaced out along the bank with Scott and Johny in the bottom bay. Now, none of us were particularly naughty lads but we liked a mess around once in a while and at the time we did start trying new things like smoking. 

On this one occasion Johny had set up 3 rods in the bay and his middle rod, having no buzzer on it.....He'd put a 2 pence piece on the spool and a biscuit tin underneath the spool as an audible alarm. We were all sat mid way along the bank 2 swims up having a 'naughty' cigarette or two. 

We had called Johnys middle alarmless rod....'Dong rod' as it made a clonking 'Dong' noise when it went off! We sat up around midnight talking about girls, fish, etc and smoking a pack of twenty Marlboroughs when all of a sudden we heard a Dong sound! It was obviously Johnys rod! We all jumped up and ran towards his swim along the high bank that separated the swims. Now, Scott hadn't smoked much before and I think it had gone to his head just a bit as all I remember was watching him run about 10 yards before wobbling to his left and plunging around 8-10 feet down the bank into nettles and the waters edge. Needless to say none of us helped him back up! We were in fits running past him to see what treasure Johny had on his Dong rod! 

As it happened, it was a mid double figure fish we used to call the Camel as it had a weird warped shaped body. I later went on to catch the same fish a couple of times but it never really seemed to put much weight on. We often had fun down there and Scott was also often the blight of much of our gags. We turned his bivvy round one night so his exit was into the field behind rather than to his rods. We would then get immense gags from setting his alarms off and watching him try to get out his bivvy into the side rather than that of the exit he had set up! Night time jump scares were a regular occurrence too with masks and capes donned to scare the absolute shit out of each other! 

Another fun game was 'Rat Rod'....we would set up a piece of line and then tie on piece of meat and throw it up the bank before placing it on a buzzer. We would then sit and wait for a screaming take from a rat running off with said meat item! Huge laughs were had. 

I also remember a visit to the venue when I was 16 with a girlfriend. She was quite large up top shall we say.....and we went for a days fishing, I chose the furthest swim up the lake away from prying eyes so we could have a little bankside fun so to speak! Well, I couldn't have written a more annoying situation as every time I got to nearly seeing those fabulous knockers, I had a run! I purposefully chose that swim as it was quite a duff one as a rule of thumb. 

Not that day though! You honestly couldn't write it! Every time I got near her the buzzer went with another fish. It's probably one of the only times I can remember that I really didn't actually want to catch a fish! In the end she got so fed up she got a lift home and left me at the lake with the fish! I never did get to see her knockers! Still, at least I got to catch some great mirrors that day including my first ever twenty pound carp! 

RIP David (Dai) Davies 37

A week ago today we lost a good friend David (Dai) Davies 37 I first met Dai back in March this year as he was one of the Managers at VW that interviewed me for my new job position. 

Dai and I hit it off from the word go and our joint passion for fishing, similar music tastes and general sense of humour made for some great laughs in the short time we knew each other. 

Dai was a very kind, loving man with a huge knowledge and passion for his job within the automotive industry he had been involved in since leaving school. 

Dai joined Mon Motors VW in Merthyr at the tender age of 17 and worked his way up the ladder throughout the business to become Parts Manager. He was way more than just a parts guy though! 

Dai had mastered all the company roles including servicing dept and knew cars like the back of his hands. 

Dai trained me up quickly within the parts department and within just a short space of weeks I was up and running on my own. His knowledge and memory blew me away. He had the ability to pick up on the smallest of mistakes and rectify them in seconds. What took myself and others an hour, he would achieve in 10 minutes flat. 

What set him aside though was his great sense of humour.....often very dry but always highly amusing. Dai shared my love for fishing, especially that of Carp fishing. When I started he had a small but growing knowledge of the sport but wanted to learn mush more and improve his captures. 

We spent many hours discussing fishing amongst quieter times in work and even shared some quality time on the bank together too. 

I enjoyed watching his angling skill grow in the short time we knew each other and I looked forward to spending time out with him again. As you'll have read in previous posts, I took an internal transfer from VW to work for Audi six weeks ago and it was Dai who signed off on my transfer. I am forever in his debt for his knowledge, kindness and friendship. Without these I would not be in my current position and with the knowledge I now carry forward into my latest job chapter. Dais passing leaves a huge hole in all our hearts and minds. Especially his lovely wife Angharrad. I know everyone at VW is in a huge state of shock and grief.....I feel for you all and send my deepest condolences. RIP 

Big changes!

 As the title suggests, there have been big changes in our household again in the last fortnight. I had requested an in company transfer from VW to Audi back in early September and finally got the nod a fortnight back to start. 

It was fantastic news as the commute is far easier each day and my son Tom already works there meaning we can car share, saving precious pounds on fuel! 

So far it's been nothing short of brilliant and I'm really enjoying the new challenges and the much larger more electrified atmosphere! The cars are also fantastic! 

We have some utterly divine machines coming through each day, some just make your mouth water! Everything from R8 Spiders to RS6 and RS eTron GT's! Which at present are one of my favourite cars on the road! I'm working with a really lovely bunch of people and despite many outcomes being the same I'm having to relearn my job to do it the 'Audi' way which is fantastic and challenging at the same time. I get a little time out on the road each day delivering stock to our other garages in Chepstow and Bristol which also breaks the day up nicely too.

Anyway, enough about cars....Fishing has been a little trickier of late in part to the weather being so up and down. Last weekend Simon invited me for a day up the Wye on a guest session on his club ticket. We had an early 5am start and were fishing by 7am. 

The water looked spot on for a full on days action but by the end we were feeling a little hard done by as it fished rather sporadic. We tried numerous swims with the faster, shallow sections fishing better than all other spots. Simon had a nice barbel around 7lbs and a few small chub and 2lb barbel. I had a good session bagging around 25 small chub to 4lbs and 2 small barbel of around 2-3lbs. We really had to work for the bites though and struggled to hold the fish in the swim for any length of time.

This weekend I was stuck to near home as the wife had the car and I had to use the van which is very fuel hungry. I ventured down to my local urban water for a few hours and dropped straight onto the fish with carp coming from just seconds after dropping the bait in with the baiting pole. Unfortunately none of the ones I was after but 17 commons and mirrors found the net in just 6 hours fishing.

Today was a similar affair with warm sun and a clear sky. I changed swims today and had 5 hours in one of my favourite spots. Again it was action from the off with 9 finding the spreader block today including a fat old bream as well. Great sport and plenty of bends in the rods.We booked our ferry crossing tonight for a return work party trip to Nicks beautiful Carp Hunters Lake in France in November. 

It'll be similar to our last trip over in March where we got lots done around the venue ready for the first clients of the season. Just this time it'll be tidying up for the winter period and repairing any damaged fences or swims etc. 

I'm also hoping to start getting a few trips in to Llangorse soon after the big old pike! It still feels to mild yet though. I'll give it a few weeks to start chilling off I bit I think.