Fishy Picture Post - a Barbel from the Avon

Kate has kindly sent over the pictures of our camping trip to Anchor Meadow on the Warwickshire Avon last month. I lost a big fish at tea time Saturday and later caught my best ever barbel and what follows are the pictures that tell the story!

Here There be Monsters...

Keith invited me along to a local commercial fishery after big perch the other evening; he'd heard reports that the water concerned had thrown up two giants in a recent match, both over four pounds and both still at large! How could I refuse?

Extreme Expert Casting with the Centre Pin Reel

There are numerous 'distance' casts possible with a 'pin', most of them rubbish, none of them great, but nevertheless all are a means to a rather good end, that of using such a lovely thing as the centre pin reel in the first place.

Slogging one out...

I'm the kind of person who once he picks something up is loath to put it down, hemp fishing for river roach for instance, my current fad, and so, on Saturday I went back for more. I should have known that nothing ever works out quite so well the second time around. Second time is punishment time

A hemp fishing masterclass from Angling Ways by E.Marshall Hardy, 1934

I've mentioned the following extract from Angling Ways by E. Marshal- Hardy a number of times in previous posts and it is first rate guidance for anyone attempting to fish the seed in my limited experience.

Small Stream Adventures - Revelation

I had my tooth fixed the other morning, a gold crown makeover for a molar that broke in half a couple of years back whilst on a particularly testing job. There was no time to get to a dentist at the time so I had to pull the loose broken half out, and then in time it just became manageable, and so I never got around to it. It was Judy’s fault

Seedy Experiments...

I had to try hemp at some point, having no other option on the canal when all other possible baits had been rendered useless by the evil twins - the ravenous attentions of perch and the stark inattention of roach

Post Scriptum

It has just occurred to me that I forgot to mention two very important things in the last post.

The first is that I tried twitching the bait, two maggots on a size 16, half way through the period when the perch started to feed. What was happening was this

...That Ends Well

I took a morning dog walk along the canal the other morning and met up with one of my towpath acquaintances walking his new labrador puppy, and he had something interesting to say. We met last winter when I was roach fishing in the ice, he is also an angler and one who took a keen interest in my exploits. We talked about the size of the roach I'd caught and he remarked that they were quite an unexpected size for a canal. I've met him many times since and talked general fishy stuff, but this time as soon as he saw me he mentioned that a two pound roach had been caught in my winter spot just recently.

Handmade Swan Quill Waggler. Step 3

At last I have sourced the paint for the float tips - Humbrol's Fire Orange - procured from the local model shop. Now I can get along with the completion of these experimental floats of mine, maybe even get one in the drink where it belongs.

All's Well...

We were to do the canal on Saturday but a slight change of mind on Kevs side meant that a local river trip was feasible so we did what self respecting anglers do and opted for the chance of better fishing - and a river obviously was the preferable option.