tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-91977781159178894212012-02-15T11:35:05.492ZNext Cast...Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.comBlogger3411100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-77895823441497935362012-02-15T11:11:00.000Z2012-02-15T11:18:33.915Z

Saturday may have been bitterly cold but Sunday would be a completely different prospect with the mercury expected to rocket overnight and top out at the balmy heights by noon, of five degrees above melting point, an ambient increase of seven or eight degrees. It would be overcast and later it might rain, with mists and fogs by evening, conditions that would seem perfect for roach, the best

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-52600742716584292392012-02-13T14:42:00.002Z2012-02-13T20:59:44.812Z

I rarely get the chance to fish twice in the same weekend and even less often on the same river, but Saturday and Sunday both threw up opportunities to get out and put in some serious swim caning. I knew it would be hard, expected the worst, but hadn't bargained on granite hard... Saturday morning was preceded by a hard overnight frost and the daytime temperature would never climb above zero

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-9420348694751439222012-02-09T15:55:00.000Z2012-02-15T11:34:33.859Z

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-21580602888810034512012-02-05T16:08:00.000Z2012-02-15T11:35:05.497Z

Forecast: snow by four. Action: there by one. I love fishing in snow more than I do in any other kinds of weather, so I just had to get out to take advantage of it coming through, and the venue of choice, that was the River Blythe at Coleshill, a place familiar to me, or so I thought... On route down the motorway, we passed over the river upstream of my destination but glancing out the window

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-45428179124657971232012-02-03T12:11:00.002Z2012-02-15T11:33:34.378Z

Saturday last, Martin and I fished what looked to be a choice stretch of the Warwickshire Avon. Locally famous for its big chub and double-figure barbel I had high hopes of contacting one of the former and it certainly looked every inch of the kind of river stretch that could turn out a real whopper of a chevin, what with its numerous holts and lairs, undercut banks, rafts, reeds and tangled

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-43342851192149416822012-01-27T10:31:00.001Z2012-02-15T11:33:24.812Z

In the last post I made a video of a roach trip to a local stream where a fish was banked, that on capture and before weighing, I really thought would make at least a pound and four ounces, if not slightly more. I thought it would be the largest roach I had ever caught from the river but the scales gave only a pound and one ounce, which was much less than I would have thought.  Luckily, I

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-87740023526710791602012-01-26T09:59:00.000Z2012-01-26T10:13:30.091Z

After such a grueling session on the Wark's Avon just last weekend I was beginning to doubt the efficacy of my bread disc technique described a few blogs back, but I needn't have worried, it still works a dream, as you will see. Here's a video of an astonishing hour spent chasing roach on a local small stream. The day was perfect for roach, the kind of day roach anglers pray for -- a grim,

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-73700666799784381942012-01-25T09:02:00.000Z2012-02-15T11:33:07.409Z

A number of people have enquired recently about how I make my widget floats, the ones I use for fishing for pike and zander at night. The original article doesn't go into great detail so I thought perhaps I'd create a new one... These floats are cheap (if you like Guinness!) and that's why I made them in the first place as I can't afford to lose shop bought pike floats at upwards of £2.50 each

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-51207561009996753392012-01-23T20:40:00.000Z2012-02-15T11:32:55.182Z

It's about that time of the year when I begin to make serious plans and set objectives for the fishing I intend to do over the course of the rest of it. Completing the book has pushed away the recent past, where I relearned how to fish for coarse fish after decades of neglect, and opened a door to a new phase of my fishing career. Uppermost in my mind is the British obsession with the breaking

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-40582598674310815352012-01-22T11:15:00.002Z2012-02-15T11:30:59.253Z

Up in The Wilds beyond the woods and well beyond the reach of watching eyes is a swim where I've fished three times lately and with mixed results. The first time I dropped in there a few nice roach and a single dace were caught in a couple of hours. Bites, they came every cast but there was a bit of a wait involved before they materialised. The second was an hour spent there, a desperate last

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-57472740124564586092012-01-20T15:52:00.000Z2012-01-27T12:50:42.997Z

I've done a great deal of bread fishing over the last few years and through hundreds of hours of various failures and successes have learned a great deal about this apparently simple bait, so I thought I might fess up about my hard-earned fluffy stuff methodology. As you might have gathered reading this blog I am a roach nut. It's not that I don't love to catch chub, bream and dace, the other

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-32789046020622761472012-01-18T11:01:00.000Z2012-01-18T11:21:31.299Z

One thing leads to another. Limbering up for a possible upcoming painting of a pike. A preliminary study in pencil ...  And the cat looks as if it's staying put. Gets up to all kinds of mischief that would never occur to a dog. Can't keep food out on the side, climbs curtains, scratches furniture, explores places impossible to extract it from but it craps in its tray after just a few

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-33995166099598500502012-01-17T11:04:00.001Z2012-01-27T12:50:18.505Z

It's hard to write about a blank if nothing happens, fortunately something happened just as soon as Phil Mattock pulled his motor into the car park of the Leamington AA stretch of the Leam at Newbold Comyn. We found a tiny grey tabby Kitty Kat transfixed in the beam of the car's headlamps... I couldn't just leave it there to fend for itself as an easy meal for one of the foxes we later saw

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-70078133784787847872012-01-16T12:59:00.003Z2012-01-27T12:50:07.543Z

What I want to know is this. Is it possible for a pike well in excess of twenty pounds to leap clear of the water and perform the twist I have attempted to depict in the sketch below, a drawing derived completely from the lightning-strike, shooting-star, split-second mental imprint I was lucky enough to have seared into my memory as just such a pike performed just such an act, and just as I

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-12478759515025992412012-01-12T13:15:00.000Z2012-01-27T12:49:58.730Z

Monday morning saw Keith and I visit a hot new tip off in search of a monstrous great perch. Keith is seeking a four pounder now that he's had a few three pounders while for myself, still stuck in sub-two pound land despite having broken three pounds with that fluke capture of mine from Blenheim palace, just wanting to get a decent string of fish to back it up, if not beat it and put it to bed.

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-31265891829964857692012-01-10T12:08:00.000Z2012-01-27T12:49:51.785Z

The annual Coventry/Warwickshire bloggers meet at the Whitefriars Inn in Coventry last Saturday night was a beery affair. They always are for me, and I seem to become unstable unseemly rapidly every time the event occurs. Perhaps it's the atmosphere or the company or the strong ales or all three but two hours in and I'm there in the back garden having a fag standing on legs that feel like a

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-74012891278002458982012-01-04T20:30:00.001Z2012-01-18T07:48:12.945Z

Piking on the Coventry Canal with a sixteen  pounder the best of the lot... Dace Fishing at the Saxon Mill with Keith Jobling Cold Winds at Wasperton. Barbour ensemble of  trapper hat, tartan scarf and fingerless mitts fend it off. The waxed jacket is cheap shite though! What a fishing fashionista I am... ... or tart if you'd prefer!  Molly

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-6923623766114399032012-01-04T17:21:00.000Z2012-01-18T07:47:28.910Z

The manuscript was sent off to Bob Roberts a week or so before Christmas for his immediate perusal and what I thought would be his eventual edit but Bob was quick off the mark and had one half of the book done and dusted and back in the post before I could blink. It arrived back the day before Christmas Eve inked all over with his sterling work. And what fantastic work it is! It amazes me when

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-36903844855488669552011-12-25T09:36:00.002Z2011-12-25T09:37:36.916Z

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!

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-25185797442137818782011-12-19T09:54:00.001Z2012-01-18T07:47:16.955Z

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

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-61636754053890282972011-12-17T08:18:00.000Z2011-12-17T08:37:50.083Z

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

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-48958808905766894982011-12-15T11:20:00.004Z2012-01-18T07:46:57.348Z

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. I always knew it could do it and have heard that it already had but reports heard on the

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-83368616817683158032011-12-14T11:33:00.001Z2012-01-18T07:46:45.582Z

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! Judy cracked last night after refusing to read a single word whilst the draft book was in production,

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-51200629008278440022011-12-12T17:55:00.002Z2012-01-25T23:17:39.005Z

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

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-88743026789296777022011-12-08T09:55:00.001Z2012-01-18T07:46:19.838Z

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

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-65653617992449273742011-12-05T14:08:00.001Z2012-01-18T07:45:59.011Z

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

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-85944390905800633642011-12-03T11:35:00.001Z2012-01-18T07:45:47.101Z

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

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-92088223134912215412011-11-30T10:22:00.001Z2012-01-18T07:45:33.670Z

I can't move on to the topics I promised end of last post. My brain fried. There's too many contradictory signals out there in etherland telling me one thing and the other and I'm afraid that without the truths that come only from, err, what's that damn ism...? Never can remember it when I need to... ... empiricism! - one can never know what to expect. Keith put it best, last night, down the

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-26340297360557328022011-11-29T10:14:00.001Z2012-01-18T07:45:24.350Z

I'm now a nifty-fifty.... To celebrate I invited a load of the bloggers taking part in this years challenge over to the local canals to take part in a roving zander match. The turn out was magnificent with at least ten turning out for the bash and with Phil Smith, Merv Wilkinson and his grandson coming along for a chat too. The venue was the Coventry & Oxford Canals around Hawkesbury Junction

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-54610240584129850842011-11-27T11:32:00.001Z2012-01-18T07:45:12.222Z

Having examined the traditional publishing route and been struck by the massive inequities apparent within it, you just have to look into the alternatives. Ten years ago there was probably only one other alternative apart from becoming a publisher yourself, and that was to publish through a 'vanity publisher', an operation who would create your book for you and sell you all the services that the

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-71502057277818259192011-11-26T12:48:00.001Z2011-12-16T11:09:33.412Z

You may have considered writing an angling book, even got some way towards writing one or perhaps wrote a few chapters but put the project to bed meaning to pick it up again at a later date and finish the damn thing. You may even have written the whole damn thing, looked at it later and thought better of it with the benefit of critical distance. In the past months I have hit all the brick walls

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-16077574337535424792011-11-14T13:08:00.001Z2011-12-05T08:56:13.650Z

Now, when I say that 'sometimes, fish don't bite', I don't mean that you're fishing in the wrong place or that you've no fish out front or you're no good at what you're doing or perhaps the baits you're fishing aren't what they want or the way you're presenting it is askew or any of the million and one other excuses that can be made up to justify all the wasted time and money spent on trying to

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-40361553415430511362011-11-05T09:51:00.000Z2011-12-05T08:56:06.714Z

The sixth four hour session after the canal carp and it would be the last whether I caught or not. I should have tried in summer when the fish would have been very active, as now winter approaches, warm weather or not the fish are in transition, assuming their winter habits and lying up in their cold weather habitats. With the light gone by what seems like a preposterously early hour now

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-29405396392010791852011-11-03T09:28:00.002Z2011-12-05T08:55:50.913Z

Another crack at those canal carp seemed a good idea yesterday evening. Warm and pleasant for the time of year and with a little light rain forecast just after dark, not windy, overcast and the moon on my moon-phase widget a neat half-pie, I really thought that tonight would be the night. I had hemp to tempt the fish to get their heads down and stop giving me endless liners and a pocket full of

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-89965428899962524282011-10-31T10:30:00.000Z2011-12-05T08:55:41.711Z

Another two four hour sessions after the Cov Canal carp come to a close without result. The first was a late afternoon into darkness affair and was interesting in that there were no indications of fish at all the two hours before dusk and then as soon as the auto night-lights on the indicators turned on in the half light, the bobbins started to twitch every now and then and the frequency of

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-82805237056532921892011-10-29T09:50:00.002+01:002011-12-05T08:55:28.876Z

When I came up to the Midlands four years ago I started river fishing properly for the first time. I'd been living in Essex my whole life before but river fishing is not really something anglers do down there as the only 'decent' river available is the Lee (or Lea), which is certainly the most polluted and shamelessly abstracted chalk stream on the planet, and the upper reaches, where the

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-17837695311380483222011-10-27T09:32:00.003+01:002011-12-05T08:55:11.568Z

I had to go back. That single dropped run I had was enough to inspire a foray even if the lovely sunny day ahead couldn't tempt me out. This time I took a trio of straightforward baits, pellets and meat and corn, and decided that one rod would be the corn rod and the other the trial rod and the logic being that the carp here would have seen more corn than any other type of bait other than

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-64185254730695139252011-10-26T11:33:00.000+01:002011-12-05T08:55:03.971Z

As it was such a warm day yesterday I thought I'd have a crack at some carp that have been reported out of a notorious local canal peg over the summer months. The towpath grapevine throws up these tales from time to time but as I threaded my way back from the succulent bunches of sweet grapes I was being fed by those who had only heard of these carp and eventually found my way all the way down

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-60226982614156830652011-10-21T02:49:00.001+01:002011-12-05T08:54:57.136Z

Have you ever seen anything like this canal bream caught yesterday afternoon? It's almost a crucian, in fact it behaved like a crucian - fought as hard, was netted and then just laid there in the mesh as good as gold, never paddled a fin, didn't flap about and his mouth barely moved either - I had to prod him just to see if he was still alive! He was, thankfully, and went back with a cheery slap

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-54917976487467929082011-10-19T10:37:00.002+01:002011-12-05T08:54:45.860Z

I've been so busy writing this book of mine that the blogger in me has taken the passenger seat and has been idly watching the landscape fly by as this upstart book writer hangs on to the wheel with his foot to the floor but luckily, even speeding upstarts need a stop off at the service station every now and then so the blogger has been able to stretch his legs once in a while. The word count is

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-39824969050795265672011-10-13T11:10:00.001+01:002011-12-05T08:54:23.251Z

Both the news and the tea were very, very good when I got to the fishing hut  - Danny had broken the British gudgeon record but slipped it back unwitnessed, nonplussed by its size, unsure that it could ever have been what it actually was and even confusing it with a baby barbel! Luckily (for us) he had the proof in pictures which are often better evidence than the fish in the hand and had

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-33167238149600621522011-10-12T16:34:00.000+01:002011-12-05T08:51:47.031Z

It's a funny old game. I fished one of the most exciting stretches of water imaginable just yesterday but decided, as this was my third trip to this gem of a water, that I'd now forgo all the pleasures of swimming the stream with a stick float and centrepin for most of the day catching one grayling after the other, a spectacular leaping trout every now and then, or hooking and losing salmon once

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-64193874511925604672011-10-06T12:09:00.001+01:002011-12-16T16:31:37.087Z

Steve Philips invited me over to Seeswood Pool the other evening. It was right at the end of the fabulous October heat-wave which has to have been the best spell of summer weather in autumn I can remember. It was warm and then the clouds of doom came over and the end of the balmy degrees we had enjoyed so briefly was nigh. It was roach we were after and it took a fair walk to get to our pegs

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-2368479137011444122011-10-04T13:52:00.000+01:002011-12-05T08:51:21.401Z

Catching Personal best fish always seems to lead to a temporary downturn in fortune unless that is you hit one of those streaks of luck that leads to two or three in a row, like mine with zander and barbel in February last and then a catastrophic downturn like the start of my perch problems at Weston Lawns in March. I've been back twice to the Lawns in the weeks following my jammy big perch at

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-85271191101387258782011-09-27T13:04:00.004+01:002011-12-05T08:50:53.805Z

I think that the Blenheim trip was the first time I had ever been out on a boat and taken long rods with me and it has to be said that they were a real pain especially when it came to landing fish. The first problem that became apparent was one of space - the long rods (11 & 13 feet) when in transit had to be put out over the boat at the stern and bow and because of all the various bits of gear

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-34389552395856662252011-09-25T15:21:00.000+01:002011-12-05T08:50:36.410Z

You'll forgive me for writing such a depressing account of the first half of day but really there is no other way to describe the slow motion capsizing of our once buoyant optimism. We were now fishing deep water, perhaps nine feet or more just off the bank and deeper still out in the middle and it seemed utterly fishless. My instinct was that we should go back to fish the shallow water up by

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-48122135798431510082011-09-24T14:39:00.000+01:002011-12-05T08:50:18.353Z

Despite over shooting our M40 turn off by two whole junctions through excessive fishing talk then making a hasty turn about and a HTC app assisted re-route through the outskirts of Oxford, Lee and I got to the palace dead on time. It was dawn and the whole Capabilty Brown landscaped valley that the palace sits in was shrouded in thick mist. There we met with Keith, who's birthday bash it

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-30965868461991621362011-09-19T15:09:00.001+01:002011-12-05T08:49:55.730Z

Like all good stories this one begins and ends with a curry... Before setting off for a day out at Stratford with me getting in some serious roach fishing in the Lucy's Mill weirpools and Judy and Molly setting off for a six mile walk downstream through the Seven Meadows and beyond, Judy had prepared a highly aromatic chicken jalfrezi and put it on the side to improve for later. As you

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-92039697362046994222011-09-15T14:10:00.002+01:002011-11-01T08:21:57.386Z

Martin and I mounted a foray after a couple of target species up the Grand Union Canal Saturday last - he after zander and me after zander and silver bream at one and the same time. I was windy and wild but as with all canals in even hurricane force winds you can always find an area that is dead calm in which to fish, so our first port of call was to the windiest area of canal I have ever fished

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-24544090117919661782011-09-13T17:32:00.001+01:002011-11-01T08:26:48.860Z

Keith likes perch... perch likes Keith.... I like perch but perch don't like me. It has to be said that I am, through no reason that I can fathom, its butt. Try as I may I cannot break through into the kind of perch that Keith does. You may remember we enjoyed many sessions fishing after the spiky little fuckers back in Spring? If you do then you will also remember that Keith caught, oh, lots

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-58789281423373077362011-09-07T14:22:00.004+01:002011-09-22T10:24:30.666+01:00

I've just ordered Phil Smith's new tome so I can go get it signed by the man himself at the launch on 17th of September at the Lands End Pub at Twyford, Berks. Just working out how I can wangle the obligatory assuaging of the ire of the house fems who're bound to object if said purchase isn't handled softly, softly like... D'ya think a well planned and executed off the cuff 'spontaneous

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-17344547552661866222011-08-26T13:06:00.000+01:002011-09-22T10:22:00.137+01:00

It's wet all over, and it has been for the last 48 hours. About bloody time! England is enjoying a long needed dousing in H20 and it feels good. At least it feels good to an angler. Can't speak for the sun lovers who have been hard pressed, despite the drought, to find more than a few minutes of proper sunlight between clouds in any given day all summer long. I don't know about you but I

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-18684544690643643332011-08-16T09:48:00.006+01:002011-09-22T10:22:15.039+01:00

The first thing any self-respecting East Anglian sea angler does before fishing is dig (or find) his own bait. You could go to the shop and buy what you need but you do need deep pockets at £10 a pound for live king ragworm or £0.70 per live peeler crab, especially when you just might be chucking all that money at the voracious green shore crabs and shrimps if the fish are not biting.

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-56831723863774348442011-08-09T12:05:00.005+01:002011-09-22T10:22:28.676+01:00

Bass have occupied my dreams of late... Then an offer come over the ether to write editorial around a Honda ad about night fishing with illuminated lures. In the video they are fishing out of Brixham and catching big bass at night over a wreck somewhere far out in the English Channel and this sparked a train of thought about the possibility of catching bass on illuminated lures at an old

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-24395114301034831562011-08-04T11:59:00.012+01:002011-09-22T10:22:41.917+01:00

The Great British Fish-in is a national institution. A load of blokes who may or may not even know each other but who are bound loosely together in piscatorial brotherhood by dint of a shared interest in all things fishy get together on a stretch of bank along some stream or around some puddle to ostensibly, apparently and purportedly but not necessarily or even actually, catch fish. The broad

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-73230108231115244362011-07-26T13:09:00.006+01:002011-12-16T16:32:28.692Z

Summertime, and the fishing is easy... Too easy for me it would appear as I always seem to lose interest this time of the year. Bass fishing, my fishing of choice when the sun is warming the mudflats and luring the silver bars within inches of the shingle in inches of water in search of easy pickings, is at its best right now but alas the sea is not only distant, but an increasingly distant

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-88672191603994541702011-07-12T10:39:00.003+01:002011-11-01T08:23:28.495Z

We were after grass carp and a pleasant day spent fishing floaters for them but an hour spent on the chosen water observing fish rise to a stream of wind blown chum mixers revealed that the carp were a fraction of the size we'd been led to believe and that grass carp were not amongst them. So much for fishery puff. So, it was decided that a swift move was in order before we got caught for a day

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-46254696859458711902011-07-06T10:26:00.005+01:002011-11-01T08:09:44.385Z

Fishing in places where monsters lurk has been an abiding theme of my year's angling so far. Two trips to Marsh Farm after outsize crucians provided me with an inevitable personal best for the species for in such a place as that fish over two pounds are the stamp so I would have been a very bad angler indeed to have failed to improve upon my previous best of one pound six. As it happened I beat

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-81634473106594857982011-07-05T17:36:00.000+01:002011-12-16T16:32:46.135Z

Roach are the most infuriating of fish. Go to a commercial fishery and chuck in a handful of maggots and they'll be a net full of sub pounders by tea time but go to a river and do the same and it won't work most of the the time, unless it's a day when it does work of course, just to make matters worse. The canal however is another matter entirely. Use maggots on the Coventry Canal and you

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-91298769440833369162011-06-22T14:27:00.012+01:002011-11-01T08:22:33.927Z

Steve of Watery Reflections dropped me a last minute proposition on Sunday. 'Jeff, fancy coming on a trip early Monday morning after a record perch, all expenses paid, bait and tackle provided?' Well, I was all set on washing my hair on Monday, but... The destination was Hanningfield Reservoir, an inland sea down in rural Essex. This place used to be one of my childhood haunts as I was born

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-23954001644990062382011-06-17T12:50:00.008+01:002011-11-01T08:16:26.602Z

Wasperton on the Avon has not been my favourite of river locations having suffered two royal blanks out of my only two sessions there to date. It's not as if those sessions were uninteresting as the scenery around those parts of the Avon is well lush, but I had no action at all in the hours fished and on the Avon, which the EA have pronounced the 'best stocked river in all Blighty',  I do want

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-72579541924628057582011-06-15T13:34:00.218+01:002011-12-16T16:33:11.935Z

Keith has made me aware of what I am, or rather what I have become. A gongoozler, or someone who watches the activities of the canal network. Not a trainspotter in any sense but an idler in essence - one who watches things happen at lock and basin but at a remove, a distance, observes, is not involved in any direct way, is a spectator, an onlooker. I am involved though. I fish it and I'm known

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-75393451436614978452011-06-13T08:26:00.264+01:002011-11-01T08:22:50.782Z

I'm really into the gravel pits this summer. It's a rekindled old flame as I always did love to fish the pits down Essex way for carp and tench but when I lived there I never really considered just what it was I had on my doorstep as I wasn't that concerned with catching lumps at that time. I remember a conversation I had with with the bailiff of The Chase in Dagenham (a twenty minute walk away

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-78330429612673969862011-06-07T00:23:00.011+01:002011-11-01T08:17:00.969Z

The Coventry Canal gave up one of its secrets on Sunday afternoon, something it does every once in a rare while and when it happens it's always well worth witnessing. Most of the time the Canal is silent, opaque and mysterious and you could be forgiven for thinking that very little of any consequence lives in it. However I have been privy to a number of brief revelatory sightings of its

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-87180865519574225772011-06-05T12:18:00.006+01:002011-11-01T08:17:27.985Z

In my new found enthusiasm for figuring out the foibles of large stillwater bream I decided that I'd need to have at least two waters to fling a feeder at in order to be able to compare and contrast data sets. With a little googling I found one not too distant that contained them in small numbers of the required size. Also, I had it on an eyeball from Lee that the other pit was still choked with

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-26343075409151582552011-06-03T12:13:00.006+01:002011-11-01T08:18:07.906Z

Lee Fletcher came over to my local silver bream emporium yesterday evening to see if he could wangle one out for himself as they have seemed a quite safe bet this season with no less than... wait for it... steady in the ranks... eight, yes that's eight whole silvers banked since end of April. Whooo - eight - who'd have ever thought that? I personally have had only six as two of the total fell to

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-36767397542273715402011-06-01T12:07:00.004+01:002011-11-01T08:18:37.744Z

'Next to actually going fishing ' Say's Phil Smith, 'the anticipation of the trip is almost as exciting' There's a lot of truth in that but I would add that often the anticipation is far, far better. Yesterday was such a day, a day that began with high expectation and boundless enthusiasm for the projected trip where I would, according to my overactive imagination, catch not only a

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-82919679957103962662011-05-30T10:47:00.001+01:002011-06-14T02:00:35.732+01:00

I takes some getting used to does this commercial fishery angling, what with well stocked tackle shops on site, toilet blocks fit for a royal visit, a cup of fresh tea hand brewed by the fishery matriarch whenever you want one and often with a choice of ponds offering particular brews of species and as with Saturday's trip with Martin, single species lakes, which is something that I find very

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-59076764519566577662011-05-22T11:05:00.016+01:002011-11-01T08:19:02.282Z

Despite having plenty of opportunity to chase other more points-worthy species on the challenge scoreboard, silver bream have been uppermost in my mind over the past week or so and chasing them for a couple of hours around dusk every evening has been what I've been up to. And I've had a few more up to a pound in weight amongst some 'normal' bream and a welcome ten ounce roach, but nothing much

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-48111218097746445612011-05-18T09:15:00.006+01:002011-11-01T08:19:14.931Z

It's interesting to note that after catching three PB tench on successive trips that my interest in catching an even bigger tench has vanished. I went out after one, of course I did, but on the bank I found myself scanning the horizon for signs of bream, of all things. I set up and cast out only to sit down and find myself wondering what it was that a big bream might like as opposed to what I

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-10346867946759729042011-05-14T22:20:00.011+01:002011-11-01T08:19:26.503Z

At this time of year many British anglers interested in catching very big coarse fish are trying terribly hard right now to catch the females of certain species as they fatten and fill with spawn. Some fish have already shot their load: perch did it in April and I know that the canal bream have already done their thing, but silver bream.... well I don't know about them. It's 'generally accepted'

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-20617627686227899772011-05-11T13:12:00.313+01:002011-11-01T08:19:50.149Z

A 3.30 am start is no big deal for any normal angler but, through lack of a nightcap (Judy has suddenly banned alcoholic beverages from the household, Monday through Thursday...) my occasional insomniac tendencies kicked in, and so I managed about ten minutes of cat-napping in an attempted three hour stint of sleep, eventually resigning myself to the waste of energy trying to sleep had become

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-52628719029157370722011-05-09T12:58:00.009+01:002011-11-01T08:20:21.474Z

Gravel pits - I haven't fished one in years. I grew up fishing an old style pit complex in Essex, originally exploiting the ancient Thames gravel terraces, gravels laid down since the last ice age that from time to time throw up elephant and hippo bones and also flint handaxes fashioned half a million years ago by our distant ancestors of the lower Paleolithic. I have one myself in fact, found

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-40521598554605022011-05-05T10:43:00.016+01:002011-05-22T11:17:24.030+01:00

below is a spreadsheet I've come up with to explain what is happening with our challenge and how things might well pan out in the future. There are three competitors listed here, the top three as things stand right now, and that's Keith, myself and Danny. The scores are expressed as an advantage/disadvantage with regards to the entire field rather than as a points total over the nearest rival as

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-2401871796361998962011-05-01T14:51:00.004+01:002011-05-13T22:50:14.629+01:00

Big fish are my passion and the bigger they are, the more I enjoy them. That's not to suggest for a moment that I don't enjoy catching small fish because I do, just so long as they are pointing at something larger to come but when the times arrives when it is clear that a water will not be throwing up any more surprises in terms of ever larger specimens then my enthusiasm wanes away to nothing.

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-41233612442583782852011-04-27T12:58:00.014+01:002011-12-08T09:35:57.743Z

Yesterday was a historic one in angling with no less than three anglers setting out from home with the sole intention of fishing for silver bream and silver bream alone, and without heading for a certain commercial fishery, Mill Farm in Surrey, the Mecca of the species and home to a string of five or six recent past record breakers, to do so. Nope, these intrepid individuals weren't after Mill

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-28307734248176127092011-04-22T19:28:00.011+01:002011-05-13T22:49:52.150+01:00

We went on a long, long walk last Sunday, Judy, the dog and I. A nice Sunday morning stroll that then became a hike and later a near marathon when we decided, with good reason, to take a trip up the Ashby canal as far as the Lime Kiln pub on the A5 and then turn about on ourselves after a pint (me, two) of cool beer. What we hadn't bargained for was the incredible inaccuracy of canal-side visitor

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-79142795383914746102011-04-13T10:03:00.007+01:002011-11-01T08:21:10.972Z

Keith and I met up last night for a crack at the perch of Brookfields, a local commercial complex that is documented in match reports as containing four pounders. We've tried the particular pond that contains them, a pretty reed fringed water that would be an idyllic place if it were not for the proximity of the M6 motorway a number of times, but have yet to catch a single perch over a pound,

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-40073971762956226152011-04-07T11:57:00.004+01:002011-11-01T08:23:13.805Z

My perch woe continues - what was a bit of a joke a few weeks back has become something else entirely. I know it's a quirk of statistics, this inability to catch a perch over the weight of one pound eight ounces, but it's getting to the point now where it seems that there is something else at work. I got out to meet Keith at Weston Lawns Friday last, a place that not only contains plenty of

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-14649929659379217752011-04-01T11:58:00.004+01:002011-05-22T11:16:29.390+01:00

Keith swung round my way yesterday afternoon spouting what I thought was some cock and bull story about how he'd discovered some bylaw clause that allowed us to fish the Avon right up till March 31st so we could actually get in a little very late season barbelling if we abandoned our plans for perch fishing at Weston Lawns and went to Stratford instead. Turns out he was right! You can indeed

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-55459966741944035052011-03-31T11:57:00.005+01:002011-11-01T08:29:23.982Z

I'm being stalked by domesticated albinos and now, stock on the hoof...! Last night I went fishing at the Pit Pool just to see if I could catch a bigger silver bream than my biggest example from the pond — a whopper of seven ounces or more — and had a terrible time of it. Things were progressing just fine with the swim building nicely and a healthy procession of small silvers, skimmers and

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-57320704466079812132011-03-29T11:47:00.017+01:002011-11-01T08:29:44.372Z

It's been a harsh winter and with a couple of months of ice and snow from November onwards it has seemed like a very long and protracted one but now that spring is upon and the clocks have gone forward lending us late evenings in which to play, I've a sorted out a new summer fishing wardrobe out of last season's knackered old rags in fetching light greys, buffs, faded greens and the like - just

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-38322724586063216232011-03-24T12:43:00.003Z2011-11-01T08:23:37.770Z

Like most anglers I'm a weather freak, constantly scanning the Met Office website for news of upcoming weather events that might hamper or indeed, improve fishing prospects. The short range forecast for the coming week looked very bad for my prospects with a rash of unseasonably warm days coming along coupled with bright clear skies that would bring on the carp and tench who do like an upturn in

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-25950747445720543972011-03-18T10:56:00.102Z2011-11-01T08:29:57.698Z

After publishing a piece concerning perch and my ongoing and frustrating problem with passing a certain weight of them you'd be forgiven for thinking that I'd just made up what follows for dramatic effect, for the sake of a good story... believe me, I often think my entire life pans out along a rolling story-line that I have no part in the authorship of and this continuing sub-plot of perch

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-67993588851906210702011-03-17T09:59:00.009Z2011-11-01T08:30:06.284Z

In my mind, perch have been growing in significance recently. This is due to many things coming together in my head at once not least of which is the closing of the rivers and the lack of anything else in ponds and lakes feeding in earnest right now, the females being as heavy as they will be all year long with their spawning coming up in April, having also a couple of waters at the extreme

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-30844720552699947552011-03-14T10:14:00.006Z2011-03-25T11:46:04.274Z

I regret to have to inform you that the Coventry Canal between the M6 bridge, Exhall and bridge 13 in Bedworth has been electro fished by 'two men in a boat' who worked the section 'all day long' and took away 'two truck loads of fish' and drove them to 'a still-water up north,' according to my sources. Apparently the valuable cyprinid species; the roach, bream, carp, tench, etc, were taken

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com34tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-30494887566423346232011-03-09T11:16:00.018Z2011-11-01T08:30:23.872Z

It was Keith who predicted what would happen next... after enjoying a purple patch of just one week's duration in which I would break two personal bests by large margins, I would then end up looking at my reality from a false and dangerous perspective - omnipotence - and I would henceforth step into any fishery and believe that I had a God given right to its largest fish and that it would no

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-69490430654977266152011-02-27T08:59:00.001Z2011-11-01T08:31:03.381Z

Wandering around a wild water with all my provisions on my back and stalking never before caught fish is my idea of angling heaven, but on the other hand it has to be said that commercial fisheries without proper facilities are a real let down... Bury Hill from above the clouds. The old lake is the big lake and we were fishing the West bank opposite the island. The boat anglers in the far

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-3964728502325630762011-02-26T12:17:00.002Z2011-11-01T08:31:15.567Z

Rising at three in the morning to prepare bait & tackle for a 4:30 departure and then embarking upon a one hundred and twenty mile journey on a maiden visit to ye olde english estate lake in pursuit of a monstrously large specimen of a certain imported 'pest' that at close of play, at end of day, must be thrown back! may seem like the height of folly to those unfortunates who never had their

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-60020983745797207902011-02-22T12:39:00.001Z2011-11-01T08:31:36.556Z

Keith and I got out to Stratford and Lucy's Mill for a barbel session last night - the river was in what looked like fine fettle for the species with the level falling after recent rains but still pushing through at quite a rate - the water a rich brown with frothy suds coming off the weirs and drifting around the mill pool. Perfect conditions, I thought, for my new and very pungent bait which

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-54368887432718980812011-02-18T10:19:00.000Z2011-03-03T09:23:48.650Z

I really should have packed down the roach gear a little earlier in the evening and started the barbel session sooner because by the time I'd dismantled and re-mantled the made up rods from zander ready to barbel ready, with all the tying and threading that operation requires, I'd missed half the prime time around dusk and it was almost dark when both rods were finally cast and the general area

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-83744214083660522952011-02-17T12:18:00.000Z2011-03-03T09:23:43.042Z

Before setting out yesterday for Stratford upon Avon and my beloved Lucy's Mill with Lee Fletcher, I'd spent the morning preparing myself for a two pronged assault upon two species of fish - roach during the daylight hours and then barbel around dusk and into darkness. The roach prep was easy - nipping across to the local superminimarket and purchasing a loaf of Warburton's blue was about it -

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-59784449137655580932011-02-15T11:24:00.000Z2011-03-03T09:23:35.445Z

All of a sudden some really good perch are turning up to the fishing challenge competitors - Andy and Danny had a nice haul of them up the cut the other day with the best brace falling to Danny's rod and these around the two pound mark - that they went out for roach is neither here nor there - they had worms as backup and the perch were obliging. Then Steve managed a cracking three pounder out of

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-12136391924565176632011-02-11T10:20:00.000Z2011-02-18T11:21:49.529Z

This last fishing week has been a ragbag of apparently disconnected short sessions without any great result from any one of them but all, in some way, instructive. Last Sunday I managed to wangle a whole day at Stratford only to arrive and find the place all but un-fishable due to the high winds blowing straight up river - five degrees change of direction either way and it would have been

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-58208890477388191432011-02-05T12:12:00.000Z2011-11-01T08:31:49.664Z

The prospects for the success of this late winter campaign of mine hinge upon two things, firstly that the local canals contain two pound roach, which is an established fact, and secondly, that the Avon at Stratford contains them too, which is a fact I have to establish myself. It also requires that I be able to catch them. Now, I have already proved that the Stratford roach are easily caught

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-16152721002855646762011-02-03T10:58:00.000Z2011-11-01T08:32:05.315Z

You may have noticed in recent posts that I am now the owner of a pair of buzzers? Well, I haven't used buzzers in decades - the last buzzers I owned were a pair of the first Optonics ever to hit the shops in the early eighties. At the time they were a revelation to those inured to the struggle with Heron buzzers and their ilk, of which I'd a home-made pair built at great labour expense and

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-14021918438038969102011-01-31T19:32:00.000Z2011-11-01T08:32:18.589Z

I love fishing the river at Stratford-upon-Avon. Not only does it contain some of the largest fish of the many species that it is possible to catch along the whole river, it also has tons of character and the whole gamut of river fishing possibilities going for it. My first love is fishing the weir-pools at Lucy's Mill. You never know what's coming along next — fish maggots and you might get

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-30580219187602107002011-01-31T12:35:00.000Z2011-12-16T16:34:41.773Z

What with one thing and another my traditional winter specimen roach campaign, a pursuit that should have been well under way by mid-December at the very latest, has been postponed and delayed, deferred and waylaid to the point where half of its potential has already been spent leaving just two months in which to attempt to scale the slippery peak that all British coarse anglers with a soul call

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-19475655880320336392011-01-27T10:13:00.000Z2011-11-01T08:33:09.288Z

The mild spell is over. The forecast for the next five days is for temperatures in the West Midlands to hardly rise above zero by day and at night to stay well below, which means a frozen canal no doubt, and no fishing to be had in it for some time to come. They even say that a little snow is possible today... With all this in mind I went out with Molly Monday last on a ten mile round trek

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9197778115917889421.post-50106460419790246172011-01-22T17:52:00.000Z2011-11-01T08:35:22.619Z

Keith's comment on my last post requests that I gather together a number of ingredients that could be cooked up to provide the perfect angling video moment... 'Personally I'd like to see: - an underwater shot of the fish moving about an hour or so before you arrive, just going about it's normal business. - The fish moving towards the baited hook. - Every bite you recieve in close-up (HD,

Jeff Hatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16164198326538064799noreply@blogger.com3