A vErY HaPPy ChRiStMaS! to you All!

A very happy Christmas to you all from Jeff, Judy, Molly, Zena & Ben!

We're off down the pub in our Santa outfits later...

Tight lines and wet nets in the New Year!

An Anglers Ghost Story - The Watcher in the Woods

Those recent reports of big Warwickshire Avon roach had me salivating at the prospect of catching one myself. Now, just because a couple have been caught doesn't mean it was certain that I would manage one first time out, in fact I think it will be a task to get one before March as they aren't going to be any less common just because of a few fish on the bank. However, just knowing they are around is enough of a spur especially as before these reports I was labouring under the impression that the river simply didn't have it in it to provide them. Now that it is certain that it surely does, the job is made a whole lot easier as there's bound to be more around of that class than just the two we know about.

Bob Nudd goes Punch fishing for Roach

Sent across by local Coventry angler Ivan Scanlon for my delectation and amusement, I just had to share it with you. Bobb Nudd goes trotting for roach with punched bread. Classic stuff!

Red apparel and white hat is great camouflage as fish can't see red, so Dick Walker once said, and a white hat blends with the sky. All true, but people can see it a mile off and I ain't going out dressed like a fireman for nothing!

Off to the river today for spot of the same, let's hope I can put one or two nice fish on the bank myself...

Overnight frost, scattered wintry showers forecast for later, brrrr...

Good luck with your weekend's fishing adventures all, whatever your fish of choice might be.

And cheers Ivan.

On Roach - Warwickshire Avon Über Roach

One day it had to happen, and that day has finally come around. Forget the Bristol and the Hampshire, the Avon of the moment is the Warwickshire one. 80 miles of wandering, willful water has finally matured into a bona fide big roach fishery with the stunning captures of two two-pound fish in as many weeks.

Publishing a Fishing Book - The Crunch (Pt4)

The manuscript is complete, printed and heavy in the hand - most satisfyingly weighty in fact, these 226 pages of A4, single-sided, double line-spaced, thick-margined, 12pt Roman typeface. Now comes the crunch - other people get to read it and that is where I'm sure the fun really starts!

River Roach - Small Stream Adventures - River Anker Recce

Out yesterday on a reconaissance trip searching for pockets of good roach on the small lowland streams of the Midlands. This flushing session was conducted with Molly aiding operations on the upper Anker above Nuneaton and was partially successful in that I did eventually find roach, and of the right size, but unfortunately not nearly so many as should have been there had the river not been dredged and generally messed with over the years and with predictable results - a denuded habitat and few too few fish for so much water explored.

Canal Roach - Ronny and Reggy on My Manor, and other Tales of Hope & Woe

The trouble with blogging about angling is that any angler's blog is, at a basic level, a diary for the blogger to scan back through from time to time in search of archived information. They are just the most effective means I have ever come across for such a purpose as Google's Blogger kindly gives us the means, in the form of various clever sidebar widgets to index and re-access the information at light speed.

Canal Roach - Slick!

Grassy Bend is affected by the worst oil slick I have ever seen on the canal - some worthless turd having seen it fit and proper behaviour to pump out their bilge straight into the cut. The wind is keeping it concentrated in the bend and I guess it'll slowly break up and disperse over time but in the meantime, its disgusting stuff. I don't think it affects the fish down deep until it does sink and so I fished way off to one side of it in clear water.

Canal Roach - Just One Kiss

The only place I know of in the whole of Warwickshire where there really is a chance of a proper big roach is Grassy Bend on the Oxford Canal. I can count the roach I have had from this place on the six fingers of one hand but they have all been over a pound and three of them have been over a pound and a half with the largest at just half an ounce under the magic two. That's quite a pedigree but it takes time for each to come, a lot of time actually,