Grafham and Rutland Trout Spring in to Action

This April, the flyfishing at Rutland and Grafham has been nothing short of awesome. Some locals I've spoken to are saying it's some of, if not THE best fishing they've experienced since both reservoirs opened, from boats and the bank - and after having fished the two venues a few times this past month, I couldn't agree more.

The methods that have worked for me have been a couple of boobies on a Di7 line, with a cormorant in the middle, or a team of buzzers on a midge tip, or fishing the bung on a floating line.

On our few trips to Grafham this month we've caught plenty of hard fighting fish, including a nice Brownie of 5lb 7oz. On one trip, fishing from the bank along the bowl of the dam, we landed 25 rainbows up to 4lb 3oz in just a few hours, caught on boobies and buzzers fished at long range, as it was a very bright day and the fish were deep.

Also, by accident, whilst practising for matches I've caught three Zander - one from Grafham and two from Rutland - one of which took a small buzzer!! My Dad also caught one on a damsel last week. I'm really looking forward to the predator flyfishing in the next few weeks there.

After fishing my first bank match of the year on Grafham about two weeks ago, the very next day I fished Rutland from a boat. I was practising for the following day's Lexus Individual Championships fish-off with Gary Owen, the captain of the 'Seighford Sharks', who was also practising, but for the Teams match, the day after the Individuals match.

Rutland has fished it's socks off since it re-opened three weeks ago and it didn't take long to catch my first fish - a 5lb'er! We both had another 7 each before returning to the harbour. I caught mine on buzzers fished on a midge tip. The important thing was that we'd located the areas where the fish were holding. Two days later, the Seighford Sharks won the Lexus Team fish off at the places we fished!

In the individual match I was fishing, things didn't go quite as I'd hoped. At the briefing, my boat partner, who had won matches at Rutland before, thought it would be a good idea to head to an area where he'd caught some very big fish in the past, but they weren't there in numbers. Rutland is a massive reservoir and I'd never fished that area before - it was a bit of a risk, but we both caught - I was unlucky though, as the 4 fish I had were all stockies, plus I lost a 5th fish at the last minute. My four were only enough to earn me 12th place out of 24. He, on the other hand, had 5 very good fish - one of them was the biggest of the match weighing 4lb 11oz and earned him a well deserved wildcard place through to the final at Chew in September.

A few days later, the England Youth Flyfishing Team held a training weekend, followed by a match on the Sunday, again at Rutland. I started the practice day fishing a midge tip and buzzers, which worked really well for most of the day, until it became incredibly gusty in the afternoon, so I switched to a Di3 and fished the washing line. Our team had found fish in a few different areas across the lake - I caught 10 whilst exploring the south arm and parts of the main basin. The first fish I hooked was huge, but unfortunately, came off which I think may have been over 6lbs! Not long after, I had one from the same area that was 5+! After a discussion of tactics and locations at The Chequers pub later on that day with my team, we were all very confident we knew where to go and how to fish on match day.

Before we knew it, it was Sunday morning and all the teams were preparing to head off out in to a very rough Rutland. My boat partner was Julian Hubbard, part of the Rio Masters team we were competing against, a top competition angler. One of their team mates couldn't turn up though as he was ill, so with just 20 minutes notice, my Dad was asked to join the Rio team! We split the tackle up between us, as he'd left most of his gear at home, and both ended up 5 minutes late heading out of the harbour after the hooter had blown. Julian and I headed off to Old Hall Flats, where we'd both found a lot of fish the day before.

On my third cast I had a double hookup on the hang! Although I lost one of them, on the same drift I also landed another two. The fish wanted the flies virtually static - the only retrieve seemed to be a slow figure-of-eight - the slower the better! Many of my fish came on the hang too.

I was joint fastest with Rob Edmunds in the Rio Team, to bag up. The match had started at 10am, and we'd finished by 11.15am. My fish were tiny though, compared to Rob's weighing 30lb 9oz with time bonus! My 8 with time bonus weighed only 25lb 1oz, but still a lovely bag of fish.

With my other team-mates, Kieran and Ashley both bagging up early too, I thought we might be in with a shout of winning. But Julian had bagged by 1.30pm and a lot of others in the Rio Team did too in the last hour, including my Dad - and it was his team, the Rio Masters, that won, which he will not stop trying to wind me up about! My team came 2nd.

A few months ago, Dominic Garnett, a top angling writer for numerous publications, asked if he could use a couple of my pictures in a book he was writing at the time, called 'Flyfishing for Coarse Fish'. A couple of days ago, I received the book and it looks fantastic. It's about the type of fishing both my Dad and I love - catching different species of fish on the fly, other than trout. It's something we've been doing for quite a while now, and my Dad has caught over 130 different species now on the fly, from tiny Bitterling to Sailfish, so the book is right up our street!

The front cover looks great too - I've only read parts so far, but I'm really looking forward to reading the rest. I would highly recommend it to any angler interested in catching species other than trout on the fly. It would make a great present to any angler, as I don't think many fishermen realise how effective the method can be, and what great fun can be had doing it. It's on sale from May 10th, so I've put a link to anyone interested here.

Hopefully, the weather conditions will begin to change soon as we've had a lot of windy weather, which has made fishing quite awkward at times, especially from a boat. I'm looking forward to fishing a few different places in the next month for trout and other predators on the fly, maybe even Carp if it warms up enough - so let's hope May's forecast will be a lot better!

Another Season Over!

Well, that's another season which has flown by and sadly come to an end. Looking back though, I had many great times and experiences, like fishing with Keith Arthur for Tightlines, plus also fishing for my country with the England Youth Flyfishing Team last July on the Lake of Menteith. I've also managed to catch some lovely fish, a couple of which were new PB's, so I can say I've been pretty lucky!


One of our aims before the end of the season was to try and catch a big Barbel. My Dad had lost a good one a few years back and we weren't sure if it was still around but wanted to give it a try anyway. We knew roughly where it hung out if it was still there, but because we'd been doing so many other types of fishing throughout the season we just hadn't got around to it. So on the eve of my Dad's 50th birthday, off we went for a late afternoon trip and to stay an hour into the dark.

After about three hours in the same swim without a bite, I decided to move to another spot before it got dark. As I wandered downstream I heard an almighty yell from my Dad further up the bank. It sounded like he'd hooked in to a very good fish. As I rushed back I could see it had rooted him in to some snags on the other side of the bank, but after keeping some steady side strain, he managed to steer it free. However, the fight wasn't over and it motored on a long run downstream. After a while of knocking knees, the fish tired and I finally scooped up his prize catch - all 14lb 9oz of it, which had fallen to a couple of lobworms! What a present for my Dad's 50th!


Another present that my mum and I had organised with Keith Arthur as a surprise for my Dad, was a trip to Sky Sports studios to watch the making of the 'Tightlines' TV show. It was a great experience, going to the new studio (on the same day Sky Sports F1 HD launched) and watching Keith and his guest, John Horsey, film that week's show just before it aired in the evening. We were even on Sky Sports News for a moment in the background, walking across to the Tightlines studio! It's like a spaceship in there with hundreds of TV screens, computers, lights and cameras - it's amazing what goes on behind the scenes of Tightlines with Mick (the producer) and his fantastic team. Keith, John and Mick are some of the friendliest people I've met in fishing, and it was great to meet them again. Thanks for a brilliant day Keith!


On the last couple of trips before the end of the season, we continued quivertipping different areas of the river, and although Dad's Barbel, previously mentioned, was the only one we caught, we did manage to bank a few more Chub on breadflake plus a couple of Carp to 14lb 2oz.

This isn't normally the sort of fishing we do towards the end of the season, as I love jigging and drop-shotting for Perch at this time of year, but we'd taken advantage of the conditions better suited for chub and barbel, although we did slip in one last outing before March 15th for Perch. They didn't really seem to want to play ball, but we were kept busy with plenty of small jack Pike instead, which are still fun on lures. It took me a good couple of hours before I hooked the first Perch, which unfortunately, I lost and was pretty sure it was a good one. My Dad and I both left the area for a little while, returning later where, on his first cast, Dad hooked, and this time landed, what we think may have been the same Perch that I'd lost earlier. It was a fish of 3lb 5oz which I hooked first on a drop shotted split tail shad, but this time took a jigged shad.


Unfortunately, that was the first and last Perch of the day as we packed up early, deciding to fish the last couple of hours for chub instead. We caught no chub but I did manage to catch a nice Common Carp of around 9lbs which was great fun on my quivertip rod.

That sort of rounds up our season - one I will look back on in the future as one of the most enjoyable I've had. I just hope next season will be just as memorable! Now I'm focusing on trout and practising for some matches, having already had a couple of good trips to Grafham - but that's for the next blog next month!

ADB Coaching Certificate and River Lea Chub

Back in November, I attended a two weekend course to try and gain a Level 1 ADB Coaching in Angling qualification, as I'm very interested in becoming a fishing guide or coach. I've just received a certificate in the post saying that I have passed, which was great news! Hopefully, in the next few months, if I can get some practice, I will try for the Level 2 qualification, but I know this will be a lot harder to achieve.

Just over a week ago I had my College half term, so I was able to fit in a bit more fishing than usual. However, because of the extremely cold weather, most of my local rivers were frozen over - only stretches that had a good flow were fishable. My intention was to fish for Perch, but because of the ice, that was out of the question. I didn't want the ice to stop me from going, so instead of jigging for Perch, my Dad and I decided to target Chub on parts of the Lea that hadn't frozen over.


It's always exciting quivertipping for Chub, so I was really looking forward to our new plan. The first few days of half term were unbelievably cold, so we fished short sessions, starting late in the afternoon and staying a couple of hours in to dark. Considering the sub-zero temperatures, we managed to catch a few nice fish, landing Chub up to 4lb 11oz, some nice Bream, to just over 5lbs, a Common Carp and a beautifully marked Brown Trout.

As the week progressed, it began to warm up and the ice eventually disappeared, so we were able to get back to what we'd originally planned at the beginning and lure fish for Perch. The water temperature was still extremely cold, but it didn't stop a few fish from feeding, and on one afternoon trip, managed to land 4 Perch and 2 Pike. The biggest Perch I caught was 3lb 1oz, caught on a curltail.


We decided on my last day of half term we would have another go at trying to catch a big chub, so the evening before, we thought we'd introduce a few free offerings of cheesepaste and bread. Afterwards we would then try and catch a big perch that I'd mentioned at the end of my last blog that my Dad had lost.

We got to the area for the last hour of light and it didn't take long to hook that perch, as I caught it on my first cast!!! We're pretty sure it was the same fish, as there aren't many big ones in that area. It was a cracking fish but didn't weigh as much as we thought it might have done - the scales read 3lb 3oz, but it did look quite a lot bigger when it was lying in the net. Sometimes they can be deceiving! However, it was still a great fish, so I wasn't moaning - but my Dad was, as I'd caught his fish! Sorry...


Returning to the areas that we'd prebaited was well worth the effort as I caught a new P.B Chub of 6lb 1oz; and what a great looking fish - it was immaculate.


Between us we also caught 3 more Chub to 4lb 11oz, plus a nice Brownie, all caught on quivertipped breadflake. We had another trip the following weekend to the same area, and I managed to catch 2 more nice Chub, weighing 5lb 7oz and 4lb 10oz. My Dad also caught one slightly smaller too, again all on bread.

A couple of days later, the weather looked perfect for some jigging - overcast and mild. But, although the conditions seemed perfect, the Perch didn't want to play ball, and we only managed to catch 2 of around 1lb 8oz each. We did catch 3 Pike though, and one particular fish that my Dad caught surprised us both. Normally, when we're jigging for Perch on the Lea, most of the Pike we catch are Jacks - sometimes, if we get lucky, maybe catch a scraper double. What we thought was a big Perch turned out to be a 17lb 13oz Pike - a fantastic fish, which had taken a small, jigged shad, and was also a P.B River Lea Pike for my Dad. That's why I'd always recommend using a trace, even when Perch fishing.


Last month, Total Flyfisher kindly published another article, which I wrote about a great trip to Walthamstow Reservoirs flyfishing for Trout, so if anybody is interested in fishing the Stow, I've pasted it here:


Yesterday I was at the Carpin' On Show at the 5 Lakes resort near Maldon in Essex. There were lots of big names there in the fishing world and I spoke to a few such as Jerry Hammond and Les Webber MBE. I was with Shuttleworth College helping out on their stand and although I don't do a great deal of Carp fishing (and when I do it's normally on the fly), I found the show very interesting.


We haven't quite made up our minds what we'll be fishing for yet for the last couple of weeks of the season, but I'm going to try and make the most of it if I can!

Big Perch below Zero on Jigs and Drop Shots

Since the new year, fishing has been quite challenging - My Dad and I have only fished rivers and they've been very low and clear. Combined with hard frosts, and now snow, this makes for tricky fishing. Even though the bites have slowed up, it hasn't been impossible and we've still managed to entice some nice perch into taking our lures. We've caught a dozen or so over 3lb to 3lb 9oz, plus some good 2's. They've all fallen to jigging and drop-shotting soft plastics, plus a couple on crankbaits.



We've also had a few jacks plus a nice surprise Brown Trout of about 4lb from the River Lea, which fell to a curltail. In the last couple of weeks as well, an article was published in the Angling Times on 27/1/12, which I wrote about catching our 100th Perch over 3lb. I've pasted it below:


Every now and again fishing throws up some unexpected experiences - not long ago we were lure fishing the River Ivel, when my Dad cast a 2.5" shallow diving crankbait across the river - he twitched it back a couple of times when, from nowhere, a Kingfisher dived in after it! Luckily, it missed the lure by about an inch - my Dad's fished all his life and this was the first time he's had one actually go for his lure! Mind you, it did look realistic!



Another really strange thing that happened recently was whilst jigging the River Lea. We located a small shoal of Perch and began catching a couple. Whilst my Dad was unhooking one of about a pound and a half, he laid his rod on the bankside poking it out over the edge of the river and let the jig fall to the bottom, so that no passing dogs would be able to eat it. After unhooking and returning the fish he picked up his rod to make another cast, only to find another Perch on the end! This one was quite a bit bigger and weighed 2lb 12oz - it had eaten the shad as it was lying on the bottom, motionless.


For a change, we have also had a couple of afternoon/evenings out quivertipping for Chub. We've tried some spots not renowned for many, but looked 'Chubby'. So far, we've only managed to catch 4 - the biggest, my Dad caught, weighing 4lb 7oz caught on bread. He also lost a nice river Carp that afternoon, and all I caught was a Pike that took my bread as I reeled it back in!


Last Sunday, we decided to take a look at the River Lea to see if, and how much it had frozen over. Where it looked OK, we'd fish for the the last couple of hours and in to the dark. During the night, it had snowed heavily around the South East, covering the countryside with a thick white blanket. Driving was a bit dodgy, but we did manage to reach and check out some of our favourite Perch spots. Unfortunately though, we found that most of the Lea had well and truly frozen over.

After an hour or so we did find some fishable water - not an area that we find productive usually, but we thought we'd give it a go anyway, seeing as there wasn't anywhere else to fish! By this time the temperature was dropping like a stone - it began to get uncomfortably cold at around -6°C, the braid was freezing up in our guides, and an Easterly breeze made it feel like conditions you'd normally find in the Arctic. Even though the sun had set, because of the reflection of the full moon on the snow, it made it seem eerily light.

Almost ready to give up, my Dad hooked in to what he thought was a snag, so he started lifting it from the bottom. It wasn't moving, so he thought it was probably a branch... until he saw a huge stripey laying on the surface in front of him. Unfortunately, before he could grab the net, it shook it's head a couple of times, threw the jig, and disappeared. He was so annoyed with himself - as he thought it was a branch, he hadn't set the hook properly and reckoned it could have gone 4lbs. He was well and truly gutted.

Seconds later I also had a bite. Mine was nowhere near as big - a fish of about 2lb, but it was still nice to get a bite in sub zero temperatures. It was a big shame about my Dad's Perch, but we'll definitely be back for that one... watch this space!!

Christmas Crackers - 100 Perch over 3lbs

First of all, Happy New Year to anyone who's reading my blog, and let's hope this year's going to be a good one, especially for fishing! We were meant to be fishing today but the weather is terrible - 90mph wind gusts and heavy sleety rain, so we thought it would be best to give it a miss and I'd get down to the blog.

Apart from the Fur and Feather trout match on the Millenium Lake at Rib Valley which went well (my Dad came 5th), all of our fishing has been exploring miles and miles of bank with our lure rods, hoping to connect with some big Perch. Although we often come back with aching legs, it's been well worth the effort, as we have landed plenty of nice stripeys to nearly 4lbs plus we've landed our 100th Perch over 3lbs between us. When I caught my first 3lb'er at the age of 11, I never thought I would go on to catch so many more in the next 6 years.

The last two Christmases of 2009 and 2010 we have fished for a few hours on Christmas Day. In 2009 we were on a fishing holiday in Costa Rica where I hooked a huge Caiman which had eaten a fish that I was reeling in, whilst fishing on a jetty trying to catch different species on the fly, and last year we walked for miles on Cayo Coco in Cuba with our fly rods, seeing what we could catch.

Keeping up with our tradition, on Christmas Day this year, we decided to sneak out for a couple of hours first thing, aiming to be back for around midday. Instead of opening presents, we were out to catch ours! At first light my Dad and I were roving the banks of our local river with lures in search of some nice Perch.


It took about half an hour before we got our first bite, which had nailed my Dad's shad as it fell on the drop. At 3lb 5oz, we'd achieved our goal of a 3lb Perch on Christmas Day - what a present!


Another half an hour later I had a fish of just over 2lbs on the drop shot from a different spot, but this wasn't to be the last. The action continued all morning and the only thing that stopped us was my Mum's four bird roast and the family coming round! We landed 9 Perch in total, with 5 good 2's and, to really round things off, Dad had another Perch of 3lb 5oz further downstream - those stripeys must have had 'jigged shad' on their menu for Christmas day, as it seemed to outfish the drop shot that I was using most of the time. It was a great way to start the day, and nice to get some fresh air before tackling the Christmas roast!


We've also managed one trip on the Thames targeting stripeys. Unfortunately, that trip wasn't successful, with just one Perch of 2lb 2oz. Before we started fishing we thought we would be in for a good day as the river was looking perfect. I can only imagine that salt had worked it's way in to the river through the ice melt, as a couple of days previously we had had a short, sharp cold spell. That's my excuse anyway!!

My Dad and I have also had a couple of sessions exploring the Ivel. We had plenty of action, mainly from small jacks, and although we didn't hook in to many Perch, we did land a couple of good'uns - the best one weighed 3lb 12oz, which my Dad caught on a twintail.


I know many people will have their resolutions set for the new year. I haven't got down to thinking about mine yet. At the moment, I just hope I can continue catching, and enjoying my fishing.

It's getting colder... but the fishing's still hot

Since I first started my blog I have tried to write it about once a month, but unfortunately, this one's fallen a bit behind as it's been a very busy period. I've fished a fair bit over the last few weeks flyfishing for trout, jigging for zander, plus lure fishing for Perch on our local river. Not only that, I've also been fishing or netting lakes whilst at College - can't be bad, can it?!

As well as all of this, I've also just completed an ADB 1st4sport Level One Coaching in Angling course - I find out how I've got on in about two months time - I'm really hoping I've passed!

As part of our College course we have had to prove that we can fish all methods. So far, we have fished the stick float, feeder fished and ledgered on a variety of venues from small, fast flowing stretches of the river Ivel and Ouse to the College's own estate lake. There are still more trips to come and whoever catches the most species at the end wins 'The Golden Maggot' trophy. So far it's going well apart from losing a nice Carp on the College's estate lake a couple of days ago, the first Carp to have been hooked from the lake in a very long time and a species, I doubt, my College group and I will get another chance to fish for.

The trout fishing has been brilliant. At the end of last month I fished Pitsford in the Tom Bilson Memorial match, which was a great turnout - congratulations to Phil Longstaff on winning the match. Since then, I've had a couple of trips to my local Rib Valley lakes, and a bit further afield, Farmoor. At all of the venues I've visited since the beginning of November, the best methods that have worked for me have been either one of two approaches - a couple of boobies on a Di7, or a floating line coupled with a long leader, fishing the Washing Line method with nymphs on the droppers, and either a dry or small booby on the point. The latter method proved to work well a few weeks ago when Steve Cullen, the editor of Total Flyfisher, organised a new 'Winter League' match which would be fished at various venues across the country during the winter months. The first of these matches was to be fished at Elinor in Northamptonshire. I'd only ever fished Elinor once back in August, and my Dad had never seen it before let alone fished it.

When we arrived, everybody put in a pound which, at the end of the match, would be the prize and given to the winner with the most amount of fish. We headed off to our starting areas and I chose to fish up the top end of the 50-acre stillwater, where I'd fished in the summer with my mate, Ashley. I started with a floating line and a 16ft leader, with a red diawl bach on the top dropper, a UV cruncher in the middle and 'The Thing' on the point. On my second cast I hooked in to a fish on the cruncher and landed my first Rainbow of the match. It was very windy and difficult fishing into the wind, but I managed to land 8 more before the match ended at 3'o'clock. From what I'd heard, people had struggled, but there were 2 others that had also caught 9 fish, so there were three winners! Gary Owen took the bottle of whisky, whilst Charlie Abrahams took half the cash prize with myself. My Dad managed to catch 5 fish, mostly on minkies. Looking forward to the next one!


Our most recent trip trout fishing was at a venue where my Dad had been meaning to visit for quite a while. It was the first time he'd fished there since 2002, and he'd told me that the fishing at Walthamstow reservoirs could be challenging but very rewarding once you hooked and landed a fish, as they fought like stink and were normally a good size too.

We started off fishing the corner of the No.5 reservoir along the causeway. It was so foggy that we could only just make out the silhouettes of 3 or 4 other anglers not far up the bank as we arrived. We both set up Di7 shooting heads. I tied on a single booby on an 8ft leader, whereas my Dad used 2 boobies on a 12ft leader. On his first cast his fly was hit so hard by a trout, that when he struck into it, it broke him off. On his second cast he hooked and landed his first fish of the day, weighing 3lb 14oz. Not long after, I landed my first Walthamstow rainbow, another good 3lb'er.


After catching 6 more fish we decided to move up to the other end of the causeway, to the water inlet joining the 4 to the 5, and there I had a cracking fish of around 6lb!


Roving along the banks of the No.5 produced another good rainbow for my Dad. Time was beginning to run out so we headed back to where we had started in the morning, my Dad changed over to a floating line with a black buzzer on the dropper and a bloodworm on the point. These were a couple of the food items we had found in fish that we had spooned that the trout were feeding on, and as the day progressed they'd moved up in the water. By the end of the day we landed 19 super rainbows. It looked like we'd timed our visit well as we'd heard the reservoirs had been fishing really hard, but after stocking them a few weeks earlier, not only were the newly stocked fish feeding, but it had also switched on the bigger resident fish.

Probably my favourite species to target at this time of year though, are Perch. Our recent trips jig fishing have been trying to hunt down large stripeys along sections of our local river, the River Lea.

Although it's getting colder, it has been, for November, one of the warmest on record - but the sport has been great. We've caught some lovely Perch mainly on shads and small plugs, despite the low, clear water and the fluctuating weather conditions. Yesterday saw the first 'sharp' frost in Hertfordshire, but we still managed to catch Perch first thing in the morning even though the outside temperature was reading -4°C in the car! It was a good day and we landed 17 Perch to 3lbs exactly. Over a few trips, my Dad and I have banked plenty of good 2 pounders and 11 over 3lb, the two biggest weighing 3lb 11oz.



Although my Dad and I haven't really fished for Perch on the fly for a while, I had an article published in December's Total Flyfisher about targeting big stripeys with fly gear. I haven't caught a really big stripey from the Lea yet on a fly but it is something I intend to try and do in the coming months.





Another trip that I'd almost forgotten about was Zander fishing at Grafham. It was a really tough day. Unfortunately, I lost the first two fish I hooked, and we only managed to catch 2 around 7-8lb. My Dad did have a nice Brownie though weighing 5lb 13oz which took his jig on the drop.


I'm hoping December won't be too cold, like last year, so that we can get out as much as we can. Maybe we might try and get a couple of trips in on the Thames or try somewhere completely different.

Autumn Action!

I can't believe how quickly this year has flown by! - and now it's that exciting time for predator fishing, but I want to fish so many different places I find it difficult deciding where to fish next! I've now left school and started at Shuttleworth College on an Extended Diploma in Fish Management Course (fisheries studies), which I'm really enjoying and finding very interesting.

However, of course, I'm still fishing on my days off and over the past month I've fished in the EYFA Captain's Day Match - it was a tough day on Grafham where it rained and hailed so hard that it looked like we'd all fallen in at the end! We then returned to Grafham with lures targeting Zander, Perch and Pike. Our first trip was unbelievably windy making fishing jigs and drop shots close to the bottom very tricky; holding anchor was near on impossible. Luckily, it didn't stop us from catching a few nice fish including a cracking perch of 4lb - my biggest from Grafham.




I wrote a story about the day which was published in the Angling Times on October 4th, which I've pasted below.

We also had a trip to Hanningfield Reservoir hoping to encounter one of the big perch we've heard about there, but unfortunately, failed miserably! We searched hard but couldn't even find a small one. Then on October 1st our local Rib lake, part of the Rib Valley Lakes complex, opened to predator fishing. Being just a few minutes from home, my Dad and I couldn't resist a crack at it. On the same day last year we caught 21 Pike to 12lb 3oz plus some nice Perch to nearly 3lbs, all on lures. The forecast for the day was 30°, and bright sun - hardly suited for any form of predator fishing - but we were still determined to give it a try!

It was incredibly busy, which didn't come as a surprise with the weather being so hot and the fact that October 1st had fallen on a Saturday this year. Whilst we were fishing I looked up and noticed a car hurtling down a steep hill towards the lake - it was parked at the top of the hill and the driver had forgotten to put the handbrake on. Luckily for some anglers at the bottom of the hill that were in its path, it crashed into a tree on its way down. There was an almighty bang and the car was a complete write off. Apart from all the mayhem, the sport wasn't too bad but the amount of people fishing limited where we could fish, and there was very very little room left after 1pm - not ideal when fishing lures and you want to be on the move. However, we caught 13 Pike to 13lb 1oz and two small Perch, on jigs, jerkbaits, spinnerbaits and drop-shots - most of these came at first and last light.

Last but not least we've had a couple of late afternoons jigging for Perch along the River Lea, catching some jack Pike and small Perch up to about a pound. Hopefully, when the frosts start maybe some of the bigger stripeys will come on the munch. I'm really looking forward to targeting these fish with lures and flies in the coming weeks, as well as some of the sport that may lay ahead this winter, for trout and all other species.