A Game of Three Quarters

Chub after dark...
I've been fishing a particular stretch of the Avon looking for what in Wark's Avon terms would count as big roach. I don't actually know what a big Avon roach looks like, my never having caught one, but I'm sure it must be one over a pound and a half. Whether they go over the two is probable, even likely

Canal Zander- Lucioperca Problematica - Operation Zed! Night 3

After my mad evening last week pulling my teeth out over the impossible zander up the cut, I had all kinds of subtle (and crude) ideas about how best to tackle this 'funny peculiar' fish. I'd missed half of the runs completely, hooked five fish and only landed three, and that's not very good, is it?

Scratching the Itch - Perfect Cadence

A river roach personal best...
Morning was over, in fact it was way past noon when we arrived back at the fishing hut where the other members of the party, Leyton, Simon, Sash and Paul were already gathered brewing up the tea and we got to sit and exchange stories over a steaming mugful and a bite to eat after what had been, by every account, a fabulous morning

Scratching the Itch - Imperfect Cadence

A fabulous fishery...
A month ago I was invited to join Keith and a group of friends on a trip to the River Itchen in Hampshire, an offer I accepted of course, and accepted without a second thought, I might add.

Because to my mind the words 'chalk' and 'stream' when they come together mean only the one thing...

Huge roach...!

Canal Zander - Lucioperca Problematica - Operation Zed! Night 2

I noticed in the afternoon that the starlights on the floats from the night before were still glowing enough to enable another zander trip into the night, so I got my gear together and was up the cut by three. My plan was to fish a float rod for roach and put out a sleeper rod for the zeds, then move back to the basin just up from home and fish by the moored boats and into the night for zander.

Canal Zander - Lucioperca Problematica - Operation Zed! Night 1

Keith came over to my stretch of the Coventry Canal the other night for a spot of Zander hunting and I joined him. He's after a five pounder for his fishing competition and despite landing 13 from the Avon thus far has not got over this apparently difficult hurdle, as yet.

The Tricky Art of Catching Bits

Fickle roach...
'Bits' is what us anglers call fish too small to get excited about, especially when they are hauled out one after the other. Actually it's far harder to haul a net of bits than it might seem, as I have found out.

Warwickshire Avon River Record Fish List

I've been trawling around the web this morning and looking for any reliable reports of any big fish from The Avon and its tributaries, so that I know what I am aiming to surpass when I fish it, but mostly so that I know what kind of weight represents a specimen fish for the Avon catchment.

The deceptive image...

Fish and apparent scale...
Last time out with Keith we wound up in the Greyhound for a post-session drink and the conversation got around to the apparent size of fish when seen swimming in water and their actual size when on the bank. We discussed how fish look an awful lot smaller 'in' than 'out', in fact we agreed, the difference is remarkable

Three men in a big boat

I was outside the Greyhound having a fag and a pint with Judy and our mates when I overheard fishing talk, as you do, between a couple of blokes attached to our crowd. A boat trip was being organised out of Lyme Regis and on enquiry it transpired that they were short on numbers, so I pledged myself in. Not having been out on a boat for few years now it seemed like a good prospect and though it was some distance to travel for a days fishing, not beyond the pale. If the weather was fair then I would not drop out, I promised. Foul weather, well, we'd have to see!

Jeff Needs to Try Harder!

I've been neglecting the blog a bit of late so it's time for a bit of a round up I think.

The canal has switched on again, well the perch never stopped after they woke up in spring, but the roach are back. I have been out after them on a few occasions and have had fish up to three quarters of a pound and they are coming regularly enough to make the fishing worth my while.