One little fish

So we're away for the weekend and Jacob asks if I will take him fishing. This was a bit of a shock as he's always been a bit reluctant to go with me in the past. Next morning we were out on the caravan park lake nice and early-ish at around 7:30am.

I set up two rods, one a waggler rod and second utilizing my medium lure rod as a crude sliding bomb set up. A few missed bites on whole worm to the bomb started the session off before I decided to abandon it and concentrate on helping Jacob land his first fish. I did the casting as i just wanted him to enjoy catching and not confuse him with too many of the technicalities.

The first fish came in  soon after casting out, much to Jacobs surprise and obvious delight. Next cast and it was his turn on the rod. The float dipped again and Jacob struck well, wound in the fish and lifted it out swinging it gently to my hand with good control for his first go.

A series of fish came until he'd reached 10 to my 2. Mind you it was difficult to get a look in on the rod once he'd realised he was catching all the fish with minimal help from me. Every fish had to be photgraphed with him holding it up (like father like son). That was until he got a handfull of roach milt on one occasion. I told him it was just milk - easier than trying to explain the truth. (Don't worry he went staight to the toilet block to wash his hands). Eventually the stiff breeze and hunger got the better of him and he toddled off back to get breakfast in the warm. I carried on and managed one more fish on the worm rod, a nice 10 oz roach before the smell of bacon butties cooking had me also retreating out of the wind for breakfast.

Espania mullet and a big old roach

The last few weeks have been a bit hectic with both work and a family holiday in sunny Spain, I've not been out fishing a great deal really and to be honest I've been counting down to the fishing season opening day, I've really missed being on the rivers this closed season so now it's finally time to get back on the banks, I'm raring to go.

Mullet in Spain.....

In  Spain I packed a reel and a few bits including some jigs and lures in the case but needed to buy a suitable rod when we got out there. I managed to find one but only a cheap tourist shop telescopic effort, it would have to do. I looked at the fishing options on the net but was a bit disappointed to discover nothing much to go on in terms of info for the area. I took a walk within the first day or so and found some nice looking rocks to fish from. The first couple of 1/2 hour  sessions drew a blank though and I thought it might be a waste of time. However on seeing some locals fishing from the same rocks later in the holiday I knew it must be worth another punt. With my trusty "slap up fishing gear" rod I managed to get down for a quick couple of hours before sunset and searching for signs of life I found  a shoal of mullet in the swirling cauldron of deeper water directly below the end of the rock outcrop. I decided that the lures I had would not be any help for these fish and so I managed to cobble together a two hook paternoster baited with bread and waited for the rod tip to nibble. The nibbles came and went but in typical mullet fashion were nigh on impossible to hook at first.

Eventually I watched the bread on the bottom hook drift around in the current below me, it suddenly disappeared and a dark shaped could be seen moving where the bread had been. In a split second I had struck and the fish was on ! Success a last, the fish fought well but was no match for the "slap up rod"  and 20lb braid !

 

I caught a smaller mullet soon after, an sadly lost an even larger one that slipped the hook as it violently twisted and turned below me.

A big canal Roach....

Back in Blighty after a couple of  mediocre short lure sessions on the canal catching a couple of small perch for my trouble  I deciding that a change was needed. So at the weekend I set up a rod for canal carp and a float rod to catch bits and anything else that came along. Last time I did this I hooked and lost a carp so decided to beef up the line to 4lb straight through. With the boilie rod in I set about building up a swim. It didn't take long to start getting bites and soon a steady stream of bite size roach and small to medium perch were coming to hand. The boilie rod stuttered off  at one point and my heart was in my mouth until I felt the fish fighting and new it  wasn't quite a carp but not a quite a bream either ? Turned out to be what I suspect might have been a hybrid of about 2lb which probably explained the bit of fight it had in it.
 

 

The boilie rod remained quiet after that bit of action, but the on the float things were hotting up, - I caught a few more reasonable perch in between the blade roach and lost  a better one that had run me round the swim taking line off the pin before slipping the hook just before the net slid under it.

 

Then on the fifth or sixth last cast of the evening I hooked a slow plodder that hooped the rod tip round rather nicely. Thinking bream I just let it slowly nod around drawing it steadily towards me until I caught the first glimpse of red and sliver. Not panicking I readied the net and strangely just glided it over the rim on automatic pilot. I was now looking down at a huge roach. Well huge in terms of my previous catches - in fact it turned out to be my new Roach  PB !

 

I have witnessed bigger Roach before, like when I fished with Jeff on the Warwickshire Avon a couple of years ago, but now this fish was in the bottom of my net.  The photos were taken and the fish weighed and safely rested and returned back the water. Shame it was a bit of a battered old warrior or maybe just badly out of condition after spawning.  I'd heard some tow path rumours before but now I know they are here I can always try for another in the future.

 

1lb 5oz Canal Roach

 



Gone Spinning - part 2

The girl from accounts said she was going spinning after work, I thought "snap"  but I won't be peddling my little legs off at the gym !!

Instead I managed to sneak in half an hour on a new stretch of river on the way home, where a quick go with the spinning gear produced this little chap.

The stroll between fish-able swims revealed some interesting spots along the way, plenty of chub spots, barbel runs, perch snags and pike holes were noted in the mental map. Hopefully I'll return and give them ago at some point.

Also had a reccy along some of the GU Canal near work at lunchtime. It looks like one of the clearest stretches of canal I've ever seen especially as this was taken at around midday when there would have been some boat traffic ( if there is any along here ? )

Might be worth a go with the spinners or lures. Mind you the shoal of roach that I saw soon had my mind flitting to other targets, one of them was easily over a pound. 

spot the small roach

Here be Monsters ??

Short small river session

With Christmas out the way I was itching to get out on the river again yesterday. I had been given a new rod for Christmas from the wife, so was eager to back out into the countryside to give it a test. I headed out at dawn to the small local river that I usually fish every winter in search of some roach and chub.

On arrival the weather was calm and mild with clear skies. The water was a bit clearer than I had expected since all the recent rain, but I was still hopeful of some action.  I baited up the reliable chub hot spot with some bread mash but then headed to another area upstream where the water is usually a bit more coloured, in the hope of finding some roach.

The new Drennan Red 9' 6" mini carp feeder rod was put into action. It comes with a 1oz and 2 oz glass tip,  perfect for this type of fishing in confined areas.

The swim is on a high bank with a drop of at least 3ft down to the surface, so a long handled net is essential. The shallower gravel run drops into sandy clay in slightly deeper water of about 3- 4ft just in front of a raft that bridges across the river  here. The roach are usually found in the deeper water a few feet in front of the raft.

Fishing 4lb line straight through to a size 10 hook and a sliding link ledger, I started getting bites on bread flake from the first cast, the tip of the 1oz feeder rod tapping away then giving a confident pull forward of about an inch or so.  I missed the first few of these bites but then hooked a roach of about 6oz that fell off at the net.  It seemed to kill the swim for a while, but then I found the bites again a further foot or so towards the raft and into the near bank.  The first fish to be landed was a small chub of less than half a pound, this was followed by four more exact copies. Obviously a shoal of small chub had been attracted and were beating the roach to the bait.  I gave it some more time but no larger fish turned up.

After a while I decided a move was in order so I started heading to the chub hot spot. On the way I could see that someone else had arrived and was heading that way too an was infront of me.  Plan B was a small pool on a bend.  I have never really done that well on here before although there are certainly fish here to be found. Unfortunately I never managed a proper bite in the hour I had left in the spot, just a few slight taps of iterest from small fish I expect.   I made a mental note as it does look good for a pike in the hole below the tree where the water drops down to least 5 or 6 feet deep. That will have to wait for another visit though.


Finally a short book review for you ...

I've just read this book on zander that was one of my stocking fillers from the wife.
Zander, How to catch them, by Barrie Rickards 2011.

A great little book full of history, tips and methods on all aspects of Zander fishing, and for about £10 it's well worth a look at.   I found it confirmed the methods I'm already using are pretty much what Barrie recommends although he made some very interesting and considered arguments on hook choice that I think I'm starting to be swayed towards.  The list of big zander was a surprise to me in the fact that there are quite a lot more massive fish from the Severn in that list than I was aware of - maybe I'll  be looking at a new ticket this year !! ..hmmm.

Your time is never wasted...

I'm aware that some of us bloggers have been slowing down with the frequency of our posts lately. I don't know whether it's down to us all struggling or just that were running out of fresh ideas and interesting stuff to write about ? I've still been fishing here and there but admittedly haven't had much to report, a few more canal zeds, a roach and chub from the avon, and some more failed attempts at sea fishing have kept me busy over the recent weeks through August and into this current month.

Chub

Roach

Micro Zed !

On the subject of canal zeds, I've been wondering about the effects of the fish culling that BW have carried out during their electrofishing campaigns in recent years on  stretches of the midlands canals.  If they are taking out numbers of the larger zander and also pike to appease the match anglers  then this may explain the numbers of small zeds that we encounter on these systems.
I just wonder if they were to leave nature alone to do her thing there might be less of these smaller zander, as their numbers would be kept in check by these larger fish, giving a chance for the smaller roach,  gudgeon and other small canal species numbers to recover?


On to the Sea Fishing in Lincolnshire...

Blow lugg territory

lets pump it !

I also spent some time on the Lincolnshire coast trying in vain to catch firstly smoothhound, then when I couldn't get any peeler crabs I fished for anything that would take my bait. The bait in question now being freshly dug lugg worm.  Well I say dug I actually bought a bait pump and used that to pump out some blow lugg on the low tide, with some limited success. The locals round these parts all seem to pump for worms, but as I learned they go for the larger Black lugg that will only appear on the lowest tides of the cycle and will bury themselves in vertical holes. This is where the pump comes in, the pump is placed over the black lugg cast and the worm sucked out of its lair before it knows what's happening. 

blow lugg cast and blow hole

The blow lugg however lives in shallower tunnels that loop round in a U shape from cast to blow hole, so the most effective method is to dig them out with a fork to avoid breaking them.  I didn't have a fork with me only a kids plastic beach spade and after some considerable effort I failed to find any worms with it. So, instead I tried angling the pump at 45 deg to the hole to try to get some worms out intact.  I as able to extract a few as well, enough for the session and without ripping too many to pieces.

it's a fish delacacy round these parts

 This was not the right tide for black lugg so the blow luggs were the only option I had anyway. I 'd bought my bait pump from a local man who also happens to sell frozen baits to the tackle shops and anyone who managed to find out abot him. His frozen baits would always be my back up option, but I was determined to find my own bait.  He told me how to go about it and where to find the beds of black lugg ( on the right tide). Alhough this didn't help me on this visit, I am all set for my next visit in the Autumn when the bass and codling will be in, along with hordes of whiting. Shame there were no fish about during my 4 days there ! Appently there had been little caught for the past weekor so.  And it was also noticable by the lack of other anglers on all the popular marks - which says it all really.

One thing I realised whilst spending most of  my available fishing time (early mornings) hunting for bait rather than fishing, is that despite blanking during this trip,  time is never wasted especially while your learning about  new styles and techniques of fishing and even new bait gathering methods. In fact lugg worm digging could be a pastime in it's own right !

A few summer Zander sessions...

Since the last post I've been out a few times and although I've caught fish, there has been nothing too exciting to report.  I'm also finding it difficult keeping a focus on the challenge points.  I still have a few species to attempt yet which should not be a problem in catching them but I'm strugling to get motivated for them.  I'm also conscious that time's slipping away for a some of the summer species especially eels and catfish also crucians and big rudd. I will have to get my act together if I'm going to try to claw a few more points back on the board.

I'm still itching to catch a river zander and my recent attempts on the trent have been fruitless although I did seem to have a fish pick up the bait on my last river session. Winding down  to feel for the fish,  I felt nothing!  This is an area of the river where they are more of a rumour than a fact, and hence not exactly prolific, so I shall probably try some more likely areas as we head towards the Autumn to give myself a fighting chance at least.

I have also been trotting for roach and bleak, which kept me occupied for a couple of hours building up a fresh stock of deadbaits and quietly hoping for a bigger sample of roach - although one never came I was really enjoying trotting a line in the upper layers of a deep 10 ft stretch just before dusk, watching fish topping all around and competing for my regular introduction of casters. Some of the roach I saw were certainly pushing the pound mark, however I could only manage a string of their smaller brethren like this one above. There were some monster bleak too.

A specimen bleak?

Friday 12 Aug 2011

A canal side Damsel fly

Having not caught a zed for a while I popped down the Birmingham Fazeley canal for some easy gratification.   I found some moored boats in my first choice of swim and from my position near the bow end of the furthest boat, I was still able to cast to the far bank trees where there would certainly be some zander lurking,

My home made bobbins are set to sit just on the waters surface to help stop them swaying in the wind, I find it so much easier watching two of these together, rather than two floats along the far bank.  I can get straight onto the bites, sometimes setting the hook as the bobbin is still rising towards the rod blank.  With a float set up I have had more deep hooking issues than with this method, although it is very important to keep a taught line when using a ledger rig so that the take is registered straight away. The bobbin doesn't always rise up very far, in fact any movement can be a taking fish. It's harder to explain than to see in real life, but you soon learn to tell the difference between a gust of wind moving them and movement by a fish. The bobbin may only jerk or vibrate which in my experience will be a fish picking up the bait. You should treat it as a take and don't wait for it to develop further, but wind down and feel for the fish then strike it.  If the bobbin is moved by the wind it will just sway from side to side and settle back to it's starting position. Of course on most takes the bobbin will rise straight up to the rod confidenltly, making these pretty unmissable.

I usually give it no more than half an hour before moving to the next area as the fish will generally take the bait within 10 minutes or so if they are there or in feeding mode.  It was soon time to move on so I decided to head for the next patch of trees about a 100 yards down the tow path.  Gathering up my gear, as I pulled in the second rod I noticed that the roach dead bait had some tell tale slash marks in its flank.  Oh well at least I could come back and try here later if I had no success further down.

The rods were straight out in the second swim, it took literally 10 minutes before the left hand rod was away the bobbin dancing a jittery dance towards the rod.  I hooked into a solid feeling fish, zander tend to have about 30 seconds of strong fight in em before giving up and surfacing before reverting to some hectic head shaking in an attempt to shed the hook. Sometimes  it works too -  as I found out when this one shed the hook as I drew it towards the net !

about 2lb or so

I soon had another take on the same rod in the same spot, again this one shed the hook.  It was third time lucky before I got one in, although it fought harder than the previous two  even taking a little line before I netted it.  I checked the single hook which was still sharp the fish being hooked clean in the scissors, so I was happy to re bait and cast back out to the spot.

I had fish number two on the bank shortly after,  the biggest of the night but still only about the 3lb bracket.  It was interesting that all the fish came from a small gap at the end of the trees, any cast made by the other rod was ignored.  This might be explained by the theory about these fish packing into a tight shoals all huddled together. A cast made anywhere else nearby, and you would think there were no zander to be found !

bigger at about 3lb

The final take of the night came about 11 o'clock from the same spot again, this fish slipped the hook again, such is the fate of a zander angler sometimes.  I don't like to use trebles as they just make life too difficult especially with these smaller canal fish. You could argue that I would land more fish with them maybe, but when I started out zander fishing a few seasons back  I still lost fish on trebles anyway, and got in some right old trouble with deep hooking and trebles getting caught up in the net.  You get none of that problem with a single hook.  There must be the perfect single hook out there for my style of fishing I'm sure, one that will never lose me a fish, but as yet I haven't found it.  For now I will have to hope my luck holds out if I ever hook into that monster zed I'm waiting for !

On that canal again...!

Jeff on a mission

I'd threatened Jeff that I'd stop by on the way home after work one evening to have a go at plundering his hard found silver bream swims.  Luckily Jeff was more than generous and hospitable in accommodating me in my pursuit of a new pb, and so at 6pm we were heading down the towpath to find the swims and talk tactics.  Jeff put me in the 'most consistent' swim and he started fishing  a few yards up from me.  After looking through my float selection I opted to set up the rod with one that had 'far bank canal waggler' written on it and was lurking unused and unloved at the bottom of my box. Well I was aiming to fish the far bank on a canal after all, so it seemed a good choice to me !

First cast with a flake of bread on, the float settled then sailed under instantly resulting in this old stalwart of a roach weighing in at a reasonable 13oz.  A new years best and an increase of 8 oz to my challenge score.

Unfortunately that was to be my one and only bite all evening. I tried sticking it out in the same swim but I must have either over fed with bread mash or had spooked the shoal away up the canal into Jeff's swim !

Jeff fared better after losing a couple of bream whilst chatting to a passing native, he managed to land a nice male tench in another swim to my right that he'd pre baited when we arrived.

I carried on hoping the silver bream might come on the feed in my swim as dusk drew in, but it was not to be. The towpath behind me was busy all evening what with with bike riders, joggers and then Jeff traipsing up and down swim hopping till he'd managed about three bream and two male tincas to my one solitary roach.

 

Ah well there's always next time ..!

This week - some ups, some downs

I returned to the tench lake this morning to pit my wits against the lakes residents again.

After setting up in a somewhat awkward swim, I spodded out a healthy bed of freshly cooked hemp, almost two pints of maggots and a few balls of groundbait laced with casters, corn and molasses.

With the table set I punched out the feeders, maggot aligner on the right, popped up corn on the left and sat back to contemplate what might be. I didn't have to wait  long as the maggot rod was away within half an hour of casting in.  After slipping on my arse on the way to the rod I managed to get back to my feet with rod in hand bending into a nice heavy lump that kited steadly to my left. The fish came in quickly but was reluctant to come up in the water. It hugged the bottom and felt nice and heavy. Soon it was close in and I reached for the net somewhere up the bank behind me, I stumbled around grabbing for it.

With the net now in my left hand, I was readying myself to claim the prize.  Giving the fish some side strain I got it up on the surface, a huge golden flank emerged, looking every inch a PB shaker if not  breaker of somewhere between 7 and 8lb I would estimate. Suddenly it lunged down hard and fast as they tend to do, but stupidly I'd forgotten  to check my clutch and it was set way to tight. The rod hooped over as the fish plowed down to make a break for it - the hook pinged free and the fish was lost.  I was just ever so slightly gutted as the realisation of what had just happened sank in.

The next take resulted in another hard fighting tench, this time the clutch was good and the fish was played in carefully, after a tussle trying to get it off the deck it was finally on the surface. This was a big male, very dark and lumpy, I was ready with the net, the fish not yet ready to be netted headed for a snag to my right,  I'd almost  stopped it but it managed to reach some thin wispy top twigs from a sunken tree branch.  Somehow the hook was transferred from the fish to the twig and another fish was gone.  Arrrgh.

I was pretty deflated by now and thought I'd surely lost my chance of any fish.  But after a couple of hours of  moping and cursing my luck, I was  suddenly fighting another tench and this time it was actually drawn all the way over the rim of the net for once. But before I had time to think, the other rod was away and I was now faced with the problem of how to get a second fish in with one already in the net.  I somehow scooped the second fish in without the first escaping. I'd quickly gone from losing two fish, to havng two in the same net in what was a very hectic couple of minutes.

A brace of average females......

These were both females of similar size, I weighed the biggest at 5lb the other was a good four I'd say. The next feeding spell came about half an hour later, when the next shoal came through my swim and brought two males to my net, again both at the same time.

.... the males to match

My morning session was up soon after and it was time to pack up and go home.  There were still some indications happening on the rods, so maybe there would have been a few more fish, who knows?
I can't wait to get back on the lake for an evening session during the week.

Biggest Male at 4lb 5oz

Earlier this week....

For my first session of the week, I fished a new water to try for some crucians. After checking out the likely swims I picked one and started setting up the float rod.  I pulled out the centrepin as I'd been waiting for an opportune moment to put it to use. Unfortunately I'd left 6lb line on it, hardly light tactics conducive to crucian fishing. Luckily my margin pole saved the day, so i attached a made up rig and fished as close in as I could. After a few hours I ended up with a small net full of roach bream and hybrids, no crucians but it was a pleasant enough session all the same in nice surroundings, I vowed to return in a months time when there would more chance of them feeding consistently.

April so far...



Due to one thing or another (new job & family holiday) I've only managed to get out a couple of times since my last post.  I float fished caster and corn on a small pool one Sunday morning to see if the numerous tench in there were active yet, but only caught roach.

Then last night I rushed from work to get to the Tench lake I usually fish to have my first session of the spring on there. By the time I got back home to collect my tackle, changed and headed down to the lake it was already 6:45pm. Some of the lads that fished last year were there too, so after a bit of a social chat I finally got to my swim just after 7pm. This didn't give me much time, still I was there now and as the fish do tend to come on the feed in the last hour of light on this lake, I hastily got the rods out into the water.  There was not much action in my swim and apart from two line bites on one rod there were no takers.  I stayed on till about 9:30pm as it was a cloudy mild evening and I was hoping one of the big slabs might put in an appearance after dark.

It was one of those sessions where your not really feeling into it, probably because I was in too much of a rush.  I couldn't take my time to search the swim with the marker rod and build it up with careful baiting, so it was chuck it and chance it affair really.  As it turned out the session was more useful to me in blowing the cobwebs off.  I just needed to re-accustom myself of all the small intricacies that are involved in this style of fishing. What with using critically balanced baits, marker floats, clipping up the line etc etc..  Now that my mind has had a chance to re connect myself with the lake and how I want to fish it this year, I can get better prepared for my next session.  I think it's a little too early for the full on - fill it in particle bait & spod approach yet, so I might experiment with pva sticks and with my usual maggot feeder over the next few sessions, and see how they compare against each other.

Being only mid April it's still pretty early for the Tench on this lake, in fact I don't think I've yet caught one this early in the year from here. So it was encouraging to hear that there have been a handful of reasonable fish out already this month to some of the other lads, and a few nice bream too.

I can't wait to get the chance for a proper session on there now.

Angling for Roach.....

I picked up Jeff Hatt (Idlers Quest) around 12 noon and we headed off to the Warks Avon to plunder the roach stocks that he's found there.  Due to the fast approaching end of the season lay off on the rivers, I rightly or wrongly decided to "hedge my bets" by taking nearly all  the tackle I own with me to cover all eventualities. This is never really a good idea I know, and so it proved when I got loaded up at the car ready to walk to my swim ! 

Somehow, I didn't collapse with over exertion, and made it to the chosen swims with my small mountain of rods, reels and bags of bait and tackle.  Jeff headed off to fish his banker swim and left me to explore a similar looking area.  He told me where he had landed a solitary roach from previously and left me to find the shoal.

I set up two rods initially, but quickly realised one rod would be the only way to detect bites with any chance of hitting them.  I soon began systematically searching areas of the water in front of me to find any signs of fish.

Soon into the session, no more than say an hour,  Jeff popped over to see how I was getting on, he seemed surprised that I'd had no bites to his 3 fish !  I felt the same but for the opposite reasons.  After Jeff went back to build up his tally leaving me with more tips on locating the fish, I was left gripped by a desperate need to catch something and save myself from a blank and certain embarrassment. 

Still struggling a while later, having only spotted a solitary tremble on the tip once, I headed down to see what Jeff was doing right that I wasn't.  Jeff had landed about five or six fish by now and showed me the stamp I could expect in his keep net. They were all pushing a pound or just over and I was quietly astonished at such a collection of prime Avon roach. As I stood there, he was getting proper taps on the rod tip that were more akin to the chub taps and pulls I am well used to hitting.  He confirmed the need to sit on your hands a bit and wait till you get that good pull on the tip that is an unmistakable take. 

Now re-invigorated, I rushed back to see if I could get a similar reaction going in my swim.  Within minutes of trying I'd found the "dining table sized hotpspot" and the bites started coming, the only problem now was that unmissable though they were,  I somehow managed to miss every one !! 

I did eventually hook and land a fish and punched both hands in the air to signal to Jeff, but then as I checked the net, joy quickly turned to slight despair as I realised that my roach had a distinct look of the Abramis brama about it ! You bounder - I said, or something similar, trust me to land a bloody hybrid. Nice little fish though it was, it was not going to get me any points on the score board. 

I soldiered on, missing more and more bites, until I decided enough was enough so moved further upstream in an attempt to get a better angle on the line at the point where the fish were biting. This was because of the strong flow coming from across the river towards me on the near bank at quite a pace. I was fishing against this crease upstream in the slacker water and therefore any bites would effectively become drop backs.  I don't claim to fully understand the mechanics of it,  but I think this was causing me to strike against a slack line even though the tip was being pulled forwards in the usual way, by fish that can be notoriously finicky to hit at the best of times.  Once I'd moved  20 yards upstream, I recast to the spot and waited for the pull down on the tip. When it came soon after, I hit it and connected instantly with a nice little roach of about 5oz.

Spot the difference

Great I thought,  I've got it sussed now,  the angle on the fish is in my favour. Unfortunately that was to be the last of the bites. I tried back at my original position to make sure I was hitting the right area but the feeding spell had finished.  The light levels had now started to fall and I guess the roach were retreating to safety to avoid the marauding predators that would be emerging from the cover of shadows to savage any stragglers left out and exposed. I headed over to photograph Jeff's fish for him and to witness the total haul of nine prime fish including an equal Points challenge Roach best of 1lb 6oz. Those fish were pretty damn breathtaking to behold (to me anyway).

As the roach had now definitely gone to bed, I set up a zander and a barbel rod to try to maximise the session. Jeff did the same except for barbel only and was soon into a fish, but I'll leave that story  for him to tell.  Me, I couldn't really get into it as I was just mesmorised by those roach I'd seen.  I'll be back for another crack at them before the close season that's for sure.