Canal Roach & Bream - A Gentleman's Exchange

A rather good blog appeared on the local scene last February. 'Float, Flight & Flannel', by George Burton is a fishing/wildlife blog that held an immediate appeal to me because George fishes the local canals for roach, as do I. George's enthusiasm arises from the fact that he is, or rather was, a match angler now entering into specimen fishing for the first time, so at every turn he encounters new problems, problems that will be familiar to anyone who stalks big fish. Consecutive blanks for instance...

Casting Practise - Cock-ups, Crack-offs & Confidence

Getting back into distance casting after nearly decade away from serious shore fishing is proving fun. There's so much to think about, especially when faced with getting coarse gear to perform like beach gear does. The rules are the same, distance is achieved more through correct technique than anything else, but the tackle needs to be just so otherwise technique fights against bad gear, and loses.

Big Pit Bream & Tench - The Dark Interior...

Friday evening saw Martin Roberts and myself humping out gear down the bank of a nearby gravel pit after the first tench of the year. I was after big bream too, but hadn't any confidence in my swim choice for that species as it doesn't have much form for them, however, I wanted to try out a maggot feeder fished helicopter style, and at range, just to iron out the problems. My swim choice soon proved bad for that too, the cast requiring a short wade into the water just to give enough clearance overhead through the narrow slot of the trees either side of the peg, consequently I had to cast directly overhead on a short drop to the lead like carp anglers habitually do, not at an angle of 45 degrees to the vertical and with a long, steady, power building arc firing a lead hanging from drop half as long as the rod itself, as a beach caster would. Consequently, my range was 50-60 yards absolute maximum. Which seems a long way off when the lead splashes down, but really isn't.

Zander Tag - Respect is Due...

Appearing now on walls and bridges down the Longford cuts. At last, a tag that inspires me enough to take a picture and shout its merits to the world. 'Rob' not only knows his fish and how to draw them anatomically correctly with all the fins in the right places, but he also knows exactly which fish live where he chooses to tag, for this is clearly a zed. 

At last, a tag writer crawling out of the cesspit of merely pissing up walls like a dog marking territory and progressing onwards and upwards to adorn them with something an angler can consider and admire!

Respect is due...

Stillwater Roach & Perch - Master Caster

Off to gloucestershire for the day. Last trip to this fishery saw a couple of good roach come to net and perch of an encouraging size. My plan was to go for both at once, so, two matched rods fishing the same float rig, one fished in the margins for the perch, the other a couple of rod lengths out for the roach, prawn on the hook for the first, maggot or caster for the second.

Big Pit Bream - In Advance of Better Things

Monday morning, Keith and I set out for day session at Kingsbury Water Park to fish the 47 acre expanse of Bodymoor Heath. My diligent research suggested a water where a double-figure bream, one of my targets for the coming summer, was indeed possible, but very unlikely because of its enormous head of fish a quarter of that size. My research also led me to the conclusion that whatever I wrote about our day out, would be ten times the information you'll find on the water from any other source, which is incredible considering how old the huge Kingsbury Water Park fishery complex is.

Canal Silver Bream - Ne'er Cast a Clout...

The Old English. What did they know about modern weather, eh? What did they know about global warming, Huh? Nuffink, I'll warrant. They did know a bit about old-fashioned weather though. It's an English obsession is weather, not that we get extremes that would scare anyone half to death, like the approach of a vast rotating thunderstorm dripping with tornadoes ripping homes and cows from their steads, shredding and chucking them in the air like so much confetti, and poleaxing people with shards of flying 4x2 and deadly green-stick fractured bovine shin bones.

A General Notice to all Angling Bloggers - I Crashed my Widget!

A few days ago I decided to edit my blogroll, ditching all the dead blogs and every single one of those who have not seen fit to link back to Idler's Quest in some way despite Idler's Quest linking to them for well over a year. Anyways, in doing this I seemed to have overloaded Blogspot with deletion requests, and crashed my widget. It has not been the same ever since...

Big Pit Bream - Where a Season Ends, Another Begins

Hanningfield is now well and truly under my skin, and it was there, floating about in a boat, that I realised how much I love the idea of fishing in waters where there's chance of a British record. I've been thinking about that ever since and planning to visit waters where that chance is real, rather than imagined. I don't care how remote the chance is, so long as there is a chance.