Nicholas S

Decided to finally have a go for the Barbel that I spotted on the Bristol Avon (see Aug 3rd). After the recent rain the river was a bit coloured and looked spot on so I was quietly confident. Took me a while to find the spot as it’s not a ‘known’ swim. Eventually recognised it (I was on the other bank before so it wasn’t obvious) and after scaling the barbed wire fence and making my way through the shrubbery I was gobsmacked to find someone else fishing there!! Couldn’t believe it. Disgruntled I made my way back to a swim which I had seen a nice fish come out of a while back. Not really too hopeful I cast a few bait droppers, rested the swim and cast out. An hour or so later and it was getting dark. I was starting to think about packing up but decided to recast my bait further downstream, I wasn't too confident in the spot I initially cast out in anyway, plus I figured my pellets would have almost certainly washed downstream. Sitting and waiting for a bite is not really my style of fishing and I was just wondering why I had bothered to go fishing that day when my rod wrapped round and almost got pulled in! Amazed I grabbed the rod to feel a heavy resistance which immediately took off! My heart was pumping the whole time. I find it quite unnerving playing a big fish in the dark and constantly worry about where the fish is in front of me. Thankfully the moon was bright and I could see reasonably well. After what seemed like eternity I slid the net under a glistening Barbel. Stupidly I forgot my scales AND camera so sadly no pics. Being conservative I would have estimated it around 9lb. It was a great end to the evening and I was very pleased to catch my first ever Bristol Avon Barbel!

Interesting to hear about your Thames Chub not feeding after dark Anderoo. On the stretch of the Thames I've fished a bit (further down from you - near Reading) the Chub are all too happy to feed after dark. In fact it's very hard to catch them during the day but as soon as the sun goes down the activity heightens and you catch plenty - I should mention that this has been my experience when barbel fishing with pellets, I haven't targeted them specifically yet. Perhaps this is because the stretch of the Thames you fish has less boat traffic and hence the fish are less wary of feeding during the day? N

Firstly I must apologise for being so behind in blog entries - I have been quite busy and was also away for the past month. I'm determined to catch up however so here's the start of many more to come...! This weekend had been allocated towards a fishing trip in Wales which I had been looking forward to all week. Sadly and annoyingly, the deluge that we had towards the end of the week put an end to that plan as most of the rivers in the area were rising quite rapidly. Instead I decided to have a repeat of the fishing weekend I spend with my fishing pal Alan back in July (see 03-04/07/2010). Saturday was spent on the LRA and turned out to be my most productive day yet – 10 WBT and 7 Grayling. What made the day exceptional was that 4 of the WBT were over 1lb! I count myself lucky to get one over 1lb in a day’s fishing so to get 4 from only 7 fish was quite exceptional. The Grayling were mostly small with the odd one to near a pound. Every time I fish this river I get to know it that bit better and that is certainly reflected in my catch return. Sunday on the Wylye was both enjoyable and frustrating. Enjoyable to be able to fish this lovely stretch and have it all to myself. Frustrating because my flies were visibly ignored by so many Grayling which for some reason were being very fussy. Even the one’s I targeted on the dry fly seemed to miss the fly (at least that’s my excuse, in reality I probably wasn’t quick enough to strike)! Even more frustrating was losing two really good fish, one a large BT which shocked me when it charged away from me taking line of the reel before I attempted to slow it down and the hook pulled. The second was a very good Grayling, it stayed deep but allowed me to catch a glimpse of it looking like a large dark mini submarine before once again the hook pulled! Oh well, it was just one of those days, my final tally was 8 BT and 4 Grayling. The BT were of an excellent size with 6 over a pound in weight.

Thanks for the reply Matt, you were lucky to fish the water when you did! It's so frustrating when estates lease their water out to agents. N

Dales, see how you get on trotting on the LI, provided the river isn't bursting you won't have a problem catching a Grayling! Plus, you will enjoy the experience much more! N

Feeder fishing with maggots! I hope that's a joke! Trotting is the best and really only way to target Grayling (unless you like fly fishing). Some philistines like to use a maggot feeder but it's not really cricket in my opinion...N

Ice Breaker (http://www.icebreaker.com/site/index.html) are regarded very highly although it comes at a price! N

True! N

Tigger, you should try barbless hooks used for fly tying. The design of these hooks seem far superior to the coarse fishing alternatives and instead of being carbon copies of the barbed model, are designed accounting for the fact that they are barbless, often with a wide gape,short shank and slightly in turned point. Until recently I was completely with you and couldn't get my head around how barbless hooks could lost you less fish. However, when I started using barbless hooks made for fly tying I noticed a considerable improvement. Give them a go! I should also point out that I am mainly talking about losing less Trout and Grayling, I haven't tried them enough on Coarse fish to give a fair verdict. N

It's quite common in both fly and coarse fishing to keep the rod low when playing a fish and apply side strain. In my experience it is quite an effective way of bringing a large fish under a degree of control. Despite the fact that most fisherman are taught to keep the rod tip high when playing a fish this is only actually necessary when netting the fish and possibly can be detrimental beforehand. My guess is that by keeping the rod tip high all the time you are constantly forcing the fish up towards the surface where it is least comfortable, this results in the fish fighting harder or possibly jumping, hence the advice to Robson to keep the rod low when playing the Tarpon. Another tactic which is usually used with large fish that make a habit of jumping is to point the rod directly at the fish every time it jumps putting a bit of slack into the line in order to reduce the chance of the hook pulling. It's not really necessary or common practise in the UK but is certainly done when Tarpon fishing (no that I'm an expert on Tarpon fishing - just watched lots of DVDs . N

There are quite a few rods available in the UK specifically designed for UL fishing. Harris Sports Mail have a reasonable selection. I have heard good things about the Spro rod and have personally used the Greys Prodigy UL rod which is lovely. I imagined neither would have trouble casting those lures. The lures themselves look very nice Newt, are they available through your eBay shop? I would be a bit reluctant to advocate the use of them in waters with Pike, especially with a barbed hook. If it was barbless then I can't see the use of a mono trace being an issue. N

The LIF certainly has Roach to 2lb+ but they are not caught very often (perhaps because they are not deliberately targeted that often either). The lower half of the fishery is slower and deeper and has many spots that look ideal for Roach but when you are only there for a day I always find it difficult to settle down in one spot preferring to rove around as much as possible. N

Just emailed you Rusty. N

Grayling must definitely do jump although it's not that common. As far as I can recall it has only happened to me when using fly tackle and not when trotting, not sure why. Given that you were fishing BC which has an abundance of Rainbow Trout and seemingly no large Grayling (any more) I would bet your lost fish was a Rainbow Trout! As Matt has eluded, barbless hooks are becoming more and more popular in fly fishing, I know rarely ever use barbed hooks. They make releasing fish much easier and although it took me a while to fully believe this, you lose far less fish (particularly Trout and Grayling - even when they jump). All in all it's a win win situation. Matt, where you fly fishing the Avington stretch as part of the syndicate there? I've only glimpsed the water from the bridge at the upstream end on BC but it looks a lovely stretch, you're a lucky guy! N

Count me in, sounds great. Just emailed you. N

Unfortunately not Budgie, kind of need the money! Sorry, N

Still available...final reduction - £115 posted or £110 collected.

For sale. Used literally a couple of times and in mint condition, no scratches, marks etc. Also including a spare battery pack with it. Lovely compact digital camera, model details here: http://shop.kodak.co.uk/store/ekconseu/en_...uctID.147398500 £50 o.n.o Pics to follow.

Couldn’t make my mind up where to fish so I decided to be lazy and fish the reservoir for the Rainbows. To be honest my heart wasn’t really in it and it didn’t come as a great surprise that I blanked.

New stretch of the Bristol Avon fly fishing for Chub. Wasn’t a great session really. Despite the fact I could see lots of Chub the deluge which greeted me soon after I arrived seemed to put them down and they just weren’t interested. Eventually tempted a nice fish but stupidly tried to hand land it in the water. It spooked and the hook pulled! Oh well, lesson learnt

A week’s holiday with family in the north of Scotland near Ullapool. Unsurprisingly I managed to fit in some fishing where I could! The scenery, wildlife and fishing were fantastic, the weather unfortunately less so but it didn’t really dampen spirits. On the long drive North I stopped off at Pitlochry to have a punt at fishing the Tummel, something I’ve been meaning to do for a while. The river is lovely but I was woefully unprepared with my small brook rod and no wading staff. The Tummel is extremely powerful, scarily so, and wading without a wading staff (and probably a life jacket) is plain stupid. In this instance I managed to fashion an impromptu one of a large stick I found on the bank but it wasn’t ideal. This was my first experience fly fishing such a large river for Trout and Grayling and apart from numerous Salmon Parr my few hours fishing was very unsuccessful. The water there seemed ideal for Czech Nymphing and on my next visit I will certainly be trying this with a much longer rod this time! During the week I managed to fit in a couple of fishing sessions, usually when the weather was poor and people didn’t fancy venturing out (except me!). The following pics were all take on the most spectacular walk into the Mountains on a day that started out with the most miserable weather. Thankfully the weather improved as the day wore on but everytime I tried to have a cast in the one of the myriad of Lochs on offer I was virtually eaten alive by midges and had to retreat! Blissfully a wind picked up and standing right in the face of it I was finally able to have a few casts and much to my surprise caught some beautiful hard fighting little wild brownies. It was fantastic fun and I could have stayed there all day but I cleverly managed to forget all my food and drink and by the time the evening had arrived I was famished! I should mention I spotted the most stunning Black Throated Diver on the Loch I was fishing, a very rare bird which I have always wanted to see, that really made my day. My second fishing trip was spent on the River Garvie; a small spate river which connects a large Loch to the sea. It used to be famous for its Sea Trout but sadly now (thanks to Salmon Farming) is better known for its Grilse but still has a moderate run of Sea Trout. I arrived on Wednesday evening in the most atrocious weather, driving rain and gusting wind didn’t make for enjoyable fishing conditions but I was pretty certain from the fishes perspective this was pretty good weather! I stayed out until about 11pm and was very pleased to catch two lovely small Sea Trout (of about a pound) with a couple more lost. They were only the second and third Sea Trout I had ever caught (first and second on the fly) and I was over the moon that I had managed to catch at all! I also lost a couple more – they were pretty adept at shedding the hook in the rushes! Returned early the next morning and managed one more Sea Trout of a similar size quite quickly but then struggled for bites right through until the afternoon whereupon my Dad arrived and promptly lost what we think was a small Grilse on his second cast! Much to my annoyance I also think I lost a small Grilse just before I was about to pack up, what an end to the day that would have been but sadly the wait for a Salmon goes on! On a separate day we all had a very enjoyable day on a boat visiting the Summer Isles with some boat fishing thrown in for good measure between islands – it was mainly Mackerel bashing but the odd Pollack also made an appearance. Final day was spent on a lovely Loch boat fishing. It was fantastic to be able to practise traditional ‘Loch Style’ but despite the Loch apparently being stuffed full of small brownies, I wasn’t that successful. I think between me and my Dad we managed around 9 beautifully marked brownies. It didn’t really matter that we didn’t catch much; just being in that environment is enjoyment enough. On the drive back to the house we saw two Golden Eagles (separately)! It was a lovely end to the day. I really can’t wait to return here, it really is an amazing place and a fisherman’s paradise.

Price reduced to £120 posted (£115 collected). N

No thanks Gary. N

Ha ha, I think Rusty is mostly cured now so I hope this doesn't tip him over the edge again! Yep, other one is provisionally sold. I was thinking maybe £125 for the pin for those that are interested. N

For a sale is a J W Young Purist II 2031: http://www.jwyoungs.co.uk/puristii.htm This is just the reel (no case or reel guard). Reel has never been used so is in excellent condition. There is a very small minor scratch on the back plate (so small it's not really viewable from the pictures below), apart from that could be new. Looking for £120 posted (£115 collected) - price reduced