29/10/2025 - Time for a quickie?

Just had a fantastic ten days in rural France. Autumn is definitely my favourite time over there - warm, clear days spent walking and foraging for chestnuts, walnuts and fungi. Wildlife was also amazing this time. We saw deer every day, as well as coypu and red squirrels. Also saw kestrels, buzzards, a black-winged kite, a marsh harrier, little egrets, great white egrets and on our last two days, migrating common cranes - very impressive birds. 

Unfortunately our journey back home took an unexpected turn when we docked in Newhaven to find that they couldn't lower the front car ramp. After five hours of them trying to rectify the issue we had to sail back to Dieppe, get unloaded off the back and then drive up to Calais to get an alternative ferry to Dover. Eventually got back to Nottingham 33 hours after we left the house in France having had very little sleep. However, by yesterday the wife had sufficiently recovered enough to drive down to see her folks in Wales.

This left me to my own devices for a couple of days, so with some two week old maggots still in the fridge I naturally took stock of what the weather and the local rivers were doing. Made a snap decision to head down to the Soar again and was out the door as soon as work would allow. Walked upstream to find that the Canal & River Trust had moved in materials and equipment to start renovation work on the "Deep Lock" at the top of the section. Not before time as the old, wooden gates leak like a sieve but it did mean that access over the lock to the island was soon going to be out of bounds, so this looked to be be my last chance for a while. By the time I had got to the swim and got everything set up it was 1530 hrs so I guessed that I had about an hour and a half before dark. 

Quickly got to work with the float rod and whilst bites were initially hard to come by, the usual suspects started to show up, including chub, dace, roach, gudgeon and bleak. The paternoster rod had been deployed as quickly as possible and it wasn't long before the rod tip banged a couple of times and the line pulled out of the bobbin clip. Wound down into what I thought might have been a perch but turned out to be a micro-jack pinned by the size 6 single through the end of his schnozzle. A bit later I unhooked and dropped a small bleak back into the river to see it shoot across the surface but then disappear into a vortex. Quickly wound the paternoster rod in and cast it out onto the same spot. 

Hadn't even got the line clipped up before it was snatched from my fingers. Wound down into something a bit more substantial this time, but still not a perch. Carried on with the float rod until I could no longer see properly and then gave the paternoster rod an extra ten minutes. Was just about to pack up when the rod tip thumped over just the once. Waited to see if the agressor would return but then wound in to find a very dead roach with several puncture wounds - zander possibly? Packed up and walked back to the car, my breath coming out in clouds in the cold air, setting off the alarm in the Canal & River Trust site compound in the process! Will have to see about doing some sessions into dark now for an elusive River Trent zed.

12/10/2025 - Bass at last

Not been a great year for the bass for me, although I have had limited opportunities to be fair. Did have a nice fish in May in Wales when I was forced by the weather and the big spring tides to explore a new section of the estuary, but that has been the highlight so far. 

Was therefore keen to make the best of our trip down to Suanton, so had contacted Joel Squires about hooking up for a lure session. However, did my best to scupper my chances before I'd even arrived. Swapped cars with the wife for the trip and happily waved her off to work on Friday morning before remembering half an hour later that my chest waders were in the boot. Even better, when we stopped at Lidl in Barnstaple I moved my HTO Nebula from the back seat and popped it onto the roof bars so we could load the shopping in. Yep, you guessed it......drove all the way to Saunton before I realised that I'd not put my rod back in the car. However, by some miracle, it was still on the roof wedged next to the surfboards - how lucky was that? 

Crisis of my own making averted, I contacted Joel and we arranged to meet up on the Sunday. He'd wanted to show me a new mark on the coast but the tiny swell was not enough to make it work in his opinion, so we opted to fish the mussel beds in the estuary instead. Come Sunday morning it was pretty cold and gloomy and there was a stiff Easterly breeze, so we had to wrap up for our paddle up from Crow Point to Velator Quay. However, when I met Joel a couple of hours later the wind had dropped, it was a bit warmer and the sun was even threatening to come out. 

Just as well because we were both wet-wading - me because I'm a forgetful idiot and Joel in solidarity. Headed over the dunes and onto the estuary to find one angler already fishing the outgoing tide, but with acres of space we crossed the mussel beds and onto one of the fingers of rock protruding out into the main channel. Started off with a slender scoop shad, casting across the flow and letting it swing in the current. Had done that a few times when I decided to cast it straight down tide. 

The lure was taken with a bang within a couple of turns of the reel handle and I had a good scrap with a lovely dark fish that fought all the way back against the current and which went 55 cm on the tape measure. Success! As we carried on the tide dropped away to reveal the tops of the reef. Casting close to one of the outcrops I had a take from another good fish that immediately set off down tide, forcing me to bully it and stop it from going behind the rock. Unfortunately, after a short tug of war in which neither of us budged the hook pulled out. 

Joel in the meantime had moved onto the next exposed finger and had two small fish in quick succession, so I moved over as well to join him. Had a little schoolie myself before Joel suggested we switch to surface lure, so we both put on a large Patchinko. Had one unsuccesful blow up before the lure was taken with a thump by what felt like a very heavy fish that stayed deep and didn't show itself until it was under our feet. Found that it had actually rolled on the lure and that the front treble was nicked in the base of its pectorals, so it was coming in at an angle and therefore not the monster I thought it was. By this time the tide had turned and after having one more tiny schoolie we moved back onto the main body of the reef. 

Sun had come out, the wind had dropped and the sea had flattened off so it looked absolutely ideal for some more topwater action. However, despite thrashing the water until the sun disappeared below the horizon, we had no further interest and headed back to the car park in the gathering darkness. Still, it had been good to catch up and it had just been great to be out in the big space of the estuary. After saying our goodbyes I headed back to the bungalow to find the others drinking absinthe and red wine. Needless to say, dinner was a bit late.......

11/10/2025 - Back scratching on the pier

Our second lads' trip down to North Devon came around very quickly. Doesn't seem that long since we were down in May and it was the same hardcore group of ageing hedonists that made their way back down the M5 once more, cars loaded up with surfboards, paddleboards, golf clubs and fishing tackle. 

The weather on arrival was extremely pleasant and after unloading all the gear into the bungalow we were off down the beach, some of us to make the best of a small, but surfable wave and others to have a stomp in the direction of Crow Point and back. The following morning I was up before first light and on the road up to Ilfracombe for a dabble off the pier. Was a bit of a gloomy morning and I had to wait until about 7.30 before it was really light enough to see what I was doing. With about 2 hours to high tide, the bottom deck was already flooded but with nobody else there I had my pick of the spots up on the top, so headed to my usual "pouting hole". Had been unable to get any fresh worm locally but had a mackerel fillet and some raw king prawns from Lidl as adequate back-up baits. 

Tackled up with my usual scratching rig, a mini two hook flapper with size 14 Kamasan Animals. Baited up with a slither of mackerel belly on the top and a chunk of prawn on the bottom and dropped it down the side of the wall. Ilfracombe can be a bit fickle at times but it has thrown up some unusual species for me, notably my first topknot and a Connemara clingfish. 

Sport this time last year had been particularly fast and furious, so I was a bit disappointed not to get an instant bite as soon as the lead hit the bottom. In fact it was probably a full five minutes before I had a rattle on the rod tip resulting in the first fish of the morning, a rock goby. Next few drops down produced three different members of the cod squad - pollack, pouting and poor cod. 

However, it was pretty slow compared to last visit and I quickly moved onto the next little bay between the wooden mooring posts in an attempt to find the fish. Had another rock goby and a couple of pollack before hooking something much bigger, probably one of the resident wrasse, that immediately stitched me up in the weed. However, managed to land a smaller consolation ballan wrasse a few casts later before spotting a bait ball of small fry being scattered by something bigger from below. 

Dropping the rig through the shoal I immediately had another pollack on the drop on the mackerel belly strip, followed by a sand smelt. Quickly added several of the latter by just jigging the rig a couple of feet below the surface before the shoal moved off and it went quiet again.

Had put two hours on the parking ticket and with about fifteen minutes left the pouting finally decided to appear in numbers and I had half a dozen in rapid succession before I had to call it a day and get back to Saunton. A few other anglers had turned up by this stage, including a mum with her teenage son and a dad with his three young boys, which was not only good to see but also meant that there were some willing recipients for my un-used bait other than the greedy herring gulls. Got back in time to walk over to The Rock at Georgeham with the others for a couple of pints before rounding off the day with an excellent supper at Squires in Braunton - £15 for cod, unlimited chips, a side and a drink - what's not to like about that? 

07/10/2025 - P is for......?

After not much deliberation I decided to have one more go after the big perch I'd spotted on the River Soar a few sessions ago, although by now I was beginning to wonder if I had actually been imagining things! 

Finished up at work and made it to Kegworth for half past three and then slogged it upstream once more. Saw that the beds of floating pennywort were really starting to take hold in places and there was a great big raft of the horrible stuff caught in the lock, ready to be released downstream by the next boat. Arriving in the 1980's from Argentina as an ornamental plant without any of its natural pests or diseases and with the ability to grow up to 20 centimetres per day under the right conditions it has since run rampant all over the country. Despite the hard work of the Environment Agency, the Canal and River Trust and volunteer groups, physical removal and pesticide control have only been temporary solutions as it can rapidly grow back from any small surviving fragments. 

However, hope now lies with a South American weevil, the adults and larvae of which consume the pennywort and limit its spread, with trials underway to determine its effectiveness as a biological control. Until then we'll have to wait for the first big floods of the year to shift the stuff and send it off down to the Humber. Had the whole stretch to myself again, so was able to drop into my favourite spot. There was still a bit of colour in the water, which still suited the bleak as I had half a dozen on the float rod in quick succession so the perch paternoster was soon deployed on the crease. Didn't have to wait long for a response before the rod tip started nodding and the line pulled out of the clip. However, wound down to feel only token resistance, a greedy little perch being the culprit. 

Popped him back with a message for his grandma, rebaited and swung it out onto the same spot. Within minutes the bite alarm signalled another take and this time I felt a decent weight on the end. 

However, was quickly apparent that it was the wrong species and after a short scrap the first pike of the session rolled into the net. The little snapper caught me unawares as I was unhooking him, twisting and driving two of the long, needle sharp teeth in the front of his lower jaw into the ball of my right thumb. Spent the rest of the session mopping blood off my centrepin and cork handle of my float rod as a result. Carried on catching bleak, dace, chub, roach and gudgeon on the float while every so often the paternoster rod next to me would rip off. Unfortunately it seemed as if the pike were back in force as I landed another three but had numerous other "smash and grab takes" where the rod thumped over and I wound in to find that the hair-rigged bait had been snatched clean off the hook. 

Did have another perch on my last bleak but it was barely bigger than the first one. The "ghost" had eluded me once more. Perhaps I'll come back with a fat lobworm when it gets a bit cooler, although I'll probably still end up catching pike! In fact I think I've caught more pike from the Soar this year "perch fishing" than I did by conventional means all last winter.

Headed home after another hectic session with my now swollen thumb throbbing nicely! Two days later it's only just stopped weeping and is starting to go back to normal so thankfully a trip to the doctor's for some anti-biotics isn't required, although the explanation would have been good - on a par with when I had to get the wife to take me to A&E after getting the urge to do some drunken whittling in the garage at ten o'clock at night and putting the knife through my palm in the process. Got a weekend in North Devon coming up next so will hopefully get a bit of mixed fishing, including another go for the bass on the lures with Joel Squires. They've been like hen's teeth for me so far this year so think I'm due one. Fingers crossed....

29/09/2025 - Another bumper session, but still no big stripey

A sunny, warm, dry spring has contributed to this year being a "mast year", where trees and shrubs produce and abundance of fruit, seeds and nuts. Happening roughly every five years this strategy is known as "predator satiation" as there is far too much food for birds and mammals to consume, so some seeds inevitably escape to go on to grow into new saplings.

One crop particularly in abundance locally is sloes, the blackthorn bushes adorned with clumps of fat, purple fruits. Full of tannins and far too astringent to eat by themselves as they suck all the moisture out of your mouth (a good trick to play on your kids!), it only takes some cheap spirit, a bit of sugar and some patience to turn them into something delicious. After a quick walk around the block with a couple of plastic bags at the weekend we had more than enough to make a couple of batches of our favourite seasonal tipple - sloe gin. What's more, after a couple of months the gin will be decanted off to mature and a cheap bottle of red, a bit more sugar and a splash of brandy added to the marinated fruit to make sloe "port". 

At the risk of being predictable, another glut I was keen to make the most of was the fishing on the River Soar and a meeting down near Leicester gave me another opportunity to drop in at Kegworth on the way home. Had got the float and the perch paternoster rods with me again but I'd beefed up the latter, bringing my Greys Specialist with the 1.75 lb tip and replacing the fluorocarbon hooklink with a fine wire trace, both in response to the recent pike activity. There had been another car parked at the bridge but as I got close to the swim I spooked a little egret, so was confident that nobody had preceded me. Arriving at the vacant swim I was surprised to see that the rain over the weekend had made a difference this time.

The river was running much closer to more normal summer level and even had a hint of colour. There was also a lot more foam coming down from the weir, including the odd "iceberg" and a combination of extra flow, colour and foam usually means one thing - bleak! Wasn't disappointed as first trot down resulted in a slither of pearlescent silver that went straight on the paternoster rod and out on the crease. Quickly had several more, the float often skittering across the surface before it had even settled, so soon had half a dozen in the bucket. Bait sorted, I carried on enjoying the fishing, adding a few roach, dace and the odd chublet. Had set the paternoster rod up right next to me, so spotted the tip nodding and had the line out of the clip before the bite alarm sounded. 

Wound down to feel little resistance, so was expecting to see a greedy perch. Instead it was a perfect, tiny pike - predator in miniature. He wasn't even hooked, just grimly holding onto the bait, so carefully popped him back making sure there wasn't any of his larger brethren hanging about first. Carried on with the float rod, adding gudgeon, silver bream and a small perch to the species list. At one stage I caught some movement out the corner of my eye and glancing up I saw young fox picking his way along the end of the gardens on the opposite bank, possibly a descendent of the tame fox that used to live on the island and that was fed by the barge owners. Started getting into some better dace and was bringing one across the surface through the foam when the inevitable happened.

There was an eruption of water, a brief glimpse of a green, spotty flank and the fish on the end of my line was gone. It wasn't really surprising then when the the bite alarm went off a few minutes later and I picked up the paternoster rod to feel a decent weight on the end. Got him in a bit quicker with the Greys Specialist and although I'd taken the precautionary approach with the wire trace, found that he was hooked nicely in the scissors. Was therefore an easy job to pop the size 6 out and release him a few metres upstream out the way. Re-baited and deployed the paternoster out on the crease again, but the alarm stubbornly remained silent for the rest of the session, that big stripey eluding me once more. However, I'd had another enjoyable session and bagged up on the float rod again.

Packed up in the gloom and headed home, the surface of the river alive with dimpling fish. Don't know what I'm doing next, but I may have to tear myself away and try another venue.......or not!

26/09/2025 - Plagued by pike

Had another few days over in Lithuania last week to see the lad and his girlfriend. For a change we rented an apartment on the Coronian Spit, which if legends are to be believed, was created by the giantess Neringa to protect the Lithuanian coast from storms sent by the evil dragon, Naglis. 

A UNESCO World Heritage Site and national park, the narrow strip of land has a freshwater lagoon on one side and the Baltic Sea on the other and is covered in pine forest, a lot of it historically re-planted in the 19th century to stabilise the sandy soil and stop the settlements being swallowed up by sand dunes. Did lots of walking and had some great food, including fish and chips to rival anything I've had in the UK. The chef's secret? Curry powder in the batter! The lad is doing a PhD on birds of prey and we managed to see spotted eagles and a juvenile white-tailed eagle while we were there, along with cranes and great white egrets. Also saw deer tracks and lots of signs of wild boar where they had rooted up the road verges right into town. 

Was indeed a stunning location and one we'll hopefully visit again soon. However, came back to earth with a bump with a sh*t week at work, so decided to have some time to de-stress. Finished up at 3 o'clock, quickly popped in to Stapleford Angling for the usual "pint of mixed" and then headed to the River Soar near Kegworth. Walked up to my usual spot up by the weir and was soon up to my knees in the river and happily running the stickfloat downstream through the swim. Had a few dace and chublets from the off and was bringing another fish in when a spotty, green torpedo appeared from nowhere and snatched it clean off the hook! I then had to contend with this un-wanted attention for the rest of the session as, along with several other abortive takes, he managed to successfully ambush me at least another half a dozen times.

Unfortunately, on each occasion the ensuing tug of war either ended in a bite-off or the unfortunate dace or chub being spat out (retaken and spat out again on one occasion!) before I could trick him into the net. At one stage he sat lazily finning about six feet in front of me like a dog waiting for a treat. He must have sneaked in even closer a bit later, because when I dropped a chub back in by my side the surface of the water suddenly erupted scaring me witless. Despite this I built up a decent mixed bag of fish, adding roach, bleak, perch and gudgeon to the tally. After a couple of hours I got the Drennan medium quiver rod out and tied on a "dink dink" rig again, casting it to the tail of the swim in the hope of a better fish. However, by the time I'd finished off the maggots in my bait pouch I'd only managed to add another dozen modest dace and a single chub, so swapped the dink dink for a perch paternoster. 

I was a bit cautious about putting this out given all the pike activity but as I'd not seen any for a while I put on a small bleak and cast it out away from the "hot zone". After a while the quiver tip registered some interest - a couple of quick taps before hooping over. Picked up the rod to find the bait had indeed been taken by the target species, but not of the calibre that I'd seen on a previous session. Put another small bleak out onto the same spot. After a few minutes the rod lunged over violently but immediately sprang back. Wound in to find that the bait had been stolen, so put my last one out. Again it wasn't long before rod tip was being pulled over. However, this time there was a more weight on the end of the line and after a dogged fight a jack pike slid into the net. Wasn't sure if was the one that had been hounding me earlier, but he was certainly fat enough. 

The light was going by this stage anyway, so packed up and headed home after another short but eventful session. I'll have to see if I can get another one in while the going's good.

09/09/2025 - Dink dink dace

Had a window of opportunity open up for me and with local the rivers having benefitted from a splash of rain I decided to head down to the River Soar again. 

Popped into Stapleford Angling for a pint of maggots and a quick chat before heading down the short distance down the motorway to Kegworth. River was gin clear and there were clumps of the dreaded, bright green, floating pennywort starting to take hold everywhere. Once up at the weir I could see that, despite the recent rain, the water level was even lower than my previous visit and the bed of lillies that I'd been standing in had already virtually died off. On the plus side I could see lots of small fish milling about.

Started off with the float rod but had to wade out a lot further in order to reach the main flow. However, after I'd settled and run the float down a few times it was obvious that the fish were up for a feed. Whilst the chub, dace and bleak were waiting out in the flow, if the float went offline and ended up in the slacker water the roach and small bream (possibly silver bream judging by the size of the eye relative to the head?) were there to take advantage. 

Carried on for about two hours, buidling up the swim and amassing over 60 fish before I decided a change of tactic was in order. Had a brief dabble with the feeder rod at the end of my last session that had me thinking that the better fish were hanging off the back of the swim and mopping up any loose feed that made it through to them. Had therefore come armed with a new weapon - the "dink-dink" rig. Made popular in the 1990s match scene and used to such good effect on rivers like the Trent it originally consisted of a block-end feeder running on a large loop with the hook tied directly to the "tail" of the figure of eight loop knot. Bob Roberts devotes a short chapter to the history of the dink-dink in his excellent book "The Mighty Trent". 

However, for a more contempary take on the method and the version of the rig that I was using on this occasion see Rikki Richard's YouTube video here. Baited up the size 16 widegape with a couple of maggots, filled the black-cap feeder and then lobbed it out to rest at the far end of my float swim. The rod had been in the rests for literally seconds when the rod tip started bouncing violently and I lifted into a small chub. Quickly added a couple more before some better dace took over. It is obviously a very effective method, but one that requires very little finesse or skill as there is no need to strike as the fish basically hooked themselves! In fact, trying to strike just results in missed fish. It's also very intensive as the feeder needs to be re-filled as soon as it is empty. Consequently, after adding a dozen dace along with a bonus perch, I found that I had quickly run out of maggots. 

With about half an hour of daylight left I therefore swapped the dink-dink for a perch paternoster rig, popped on a small roach that I'd retained from earlier and dropped it in the margins to my right. Whilst I'd spotted a decent perch last time out, this was more in hope than expectation as I'd not seen a single sign of any predators on this occasion despite the presence of large numbers of silver fish. True enough, as the darkness descended I wound the rod in and gave my un-touched bait his freedom back, packed up and headed home. With more rain forecast this week the rivers will hopefully get another much-needed refresh, so we'll see if we can fit in another session somewhere.