Short evening trip to the river

I had a few hours spare this evening, so got to the river about 9pm with the idea of fishing until dark. After putting 10 droppers of hemp and some hookbait samples out, I was hoping for a barbel. It didn't take long for the rod to start knocking, but nothing concrete happened for a while. I spent a good while calling out to an owl that eventually landed directly above my head in a tree - a wonderful sight. Clearly didn't like the presence of another 'owl' in its territory.

Eventually, as the bats came out and start causing havoc with the line, the rod hooped over to the bite of a fish, which ended up in this chub. Despite a few more knocks, that was it for the session. Saved a blank at least....

Opening day on the River

My opening day plans were changed but I did manage to get a few late evening hours. On turning up, and walking 20 mins to my chosen peg to find daz b aka barbelboi hogging it, I disappointedly settled for a swim further downstream. Mind, once I'd settled in, seen a bit of activity and located a lovely lie between two trees on the far bank I was happier.

First cast on pellet resulted in a typical knock knock knock of a chub saying "I'm here, please strike". Which I did but unfortunately lost halfway back. Seemed a big fish that.

It killed the swim for a while before an unmissable bite resulted in a bream - I was surprised given the fight it gave.

After hearing the whispers of a big barbel being caught upstream, I though to myself "I knew they were in the oxygenated water" and decided to concentrate on chub. First cast with the usual evening bait and the rod flew round resulting in this 4lb chub, which had clearly been having far to much fish loving for one season....

A little while later, as night drew in, the rod started giving me the tell tale knocks and I soon struck into this really hard fighting chub, which I would love to catch again in prime winter condition.

I walked back wth daz, congratulating him on his capture - well done mate!

Great to be back home

First bass session of the year on the stunning yorkshire coast

Went for the bass this morning, conditions just weren't right though, a bit too choppy with the wind coming at me making it hard to present the lures properly. Nice morning though, and a bit of exercise getting down to the beach and back up again......

It was quite interesting to see the different actions and suitability of the bass lures, some just couldn't cope with casting into wind but the action and depth was spot on, others went out like a bullet. 

An evening after tench...

Had a few hours spare yesterday evening, and with the clear skies and warmer weather i decided to try for tench. I've been fishing a new water without success to date but the fish in this clear water are mint looking so I was after one....

I was using my new greys prodigy rods with Shimano aero 4000s, and decided to try mussels on one rod and method feeder with boilie on the other - I had been pre baiting with a specific boilie for a month or so so was confident they would work. 

As the sun dropped below the horizon, tench activity became clear with big fish rolling and fizzing indicating feeding fish. After repositioning the rods, I soon started getting the odd liner as a fish was rooting around on the method feeder. With hand hovering over the rod, it soon shot off and a spirited fish resulted in this tench, nothing massive but happy to break my duck on this pond. 

The rivers will soon be open, but I'm quite happy at the moment fishing other places. Considering trying for bass at the weekend which should be interesting