What a session! - Chub, Chub And More Chub!

Decided to join middlesbrough angling club yesterday and spoke to mick and we arranged to fish dinsdale today.

Mick had to help his dad with a couple of jobs so whilst I waited for the phone call to pick him up I headed over croft, unfortunately didn't catch out..
Got the phone call about half 10 and headed over for mick and off to dinsdale we went..

Got there and found col and set up, opted to try inline lead with PVA stick mix.. Tried all over the swim and didn't get anything, had one good bite but missed it..

Col however did get 2 chub, 2.15lb and a 3.06..nice one mate!!

I decided to fish downstream near col and mick! Naughty ;D
I waited a couple of hours then next thing my rod nearly gets pulled in so grabbed the rod and felt like a chub! And guess what!! It was a chub!!
This was my first river chub so i was over the moon, col was over the moon, mick was over the moon and so was Jim after mick sent him the photos

So this is my first chub and my pb of 2.06lb

We got the handshakes over and done with and cast back out, a little bit later Col packed up and went home so I took the opportunity to jump in his peg, so cast a stick mix out and waited for a bit and the rod just kept bouncing, arghh just bloody take!! And nope! So me And mick were like 10 more mins and we will go.. But the bites kept coming but no fish! So we just kept waiting, 35 mins after we said we would pack and we were still there but we deffo were gonna only give it 10 more mins and then we were going..
5 mins past and my rod tip was banging like mad!! Struck and boosh I'm into a nice fish! Another chub.
Got it in the net and weight it and scales went to 4lb 4oz.. Woohoo another new pb.

Mick was jumping for joy and so was I, two pb Chub in a day is sweet...
I was just releasing my chub back into the water when micks reel screamed off, fish on!!!
Yet again it was another chub, mick saved a blank ;)
Weighed the chub and it took the scales to 3lb 4oz

After that we headed home, with both of us smiling :D

Was good to see basha, who was good enough to pop down for a chat.

Mick is my lucky charm, he's got me my first chub, first grayling, first westgate tench, can he help me with my next goal? A tees double pike?

Quick Session On The Tees - Another Summer Pike

Decided last night I would go dead baiting for an few hours, headed down to my banker peg, and got setup.
Opted for two methods one on float and one on ledger both with smelt as bait as that's all I had in freezer ;D

Got setup for about 8ish and had my first run about half hour later, was a very small jack but it managed to get off before I landed it.. Shame :(
Recasted and was enjoying the scenery for a bit when my rod screamed off again, jumped straight on it and had a good fight, with the pike stripping a bit of line off!!
In the net she went! Woohoo
Got her out weighed her and a quick photo and back she went, luckily a bloke just come down as I had a run and he was kind enough to take a photo for me.
The pike weight 8lb 08oz, not a monster but I was happy ;)

Stayed a few more hours without any lucky and packed up about 12ish, the bloke in the next peg was getting plenty of dace and some small chublets, but he did managed a clonking bream of 3.11lb, mental note made!!
He also lost a pike..

Really wanted to stay but had to go home cause missus wanted to go get school uniforms for kids

Enjoyed it though :)

A Day On The Tees - My First Ladie Of The River

Me and mick had a chat yesterday about where we were gonna go and opted for the lower tees

Went and picked mick up this morning and off we went, got there for about 6:30ish.
Got down to the river and it was like a jungle, we we had a quick walk and found a peg we could both jump in.
Plan was to go for the chub, so out came the corn, opted for double corn fished over corn and pellets.

First put in and after about 5 mins had a very unconvincing bite, second put in same again... Deffo chub but missed them!!!!!
As the rain continued to pour down, we were sat behind motionless rods, time passed by and mick went on the maggot feeder and had a few dace..
He then decided to fish the worm and had 2 nice perch of just over a lb..

I was still fish less so jumped on the bomb, I had no maggots and mick didn't have enough for me and him so I nicked a handful and just used double maggot, had a few dace..
Then mick had a stunning female grayling, I was a bit envious as I'd never caught one :(

Then an hour or so later, bang! Start reeling it in and mick shouts its an 'eel'..
Spec savers mick?!?!?!?
And to my surprise it was a lady of the river, a grayling! My first grayling, was only around 10oz but that didn't bother me :)

After a few more dace I opted to fish for pike, managed two runs but they snagged me up both times, didn't loose any gear so always a bonus for me and the pike ;)

Didn't get no more fish, but was happy I got my first grayling, always good to catch a new species.

Although the fishing wasn't the best mainly due to the river up and down like a yoyo, the entertainment was... Slightly worried about mick though, he kept shouting,
'You saying its not ok for a man to wear a bra'
as well as other stuff!

First Ever Session @ LadyWood - Few Carp For My Efforts

Finally got some time to have a few days away fishing, I opted to fish ladywood lakes for a 48hour session..

Car packed and off we went to mirfield, arrived at around 8am Monday morning to fish the 10 acre lake!..

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Had a quick look around the lake and nearly all the pegs were full, great.
We got to the far end of the lake and seemed to be a fair few fish showing, so I jumped in peg 14, was looking good for a bite or two the first few hours but nothing, then the wind changed direction and seemed to push the fish out of the corner I was in.
Got to about dinner time and I decided to get the marker rod out, reason I left it so long is I didn't wanna scare all the fish that were in the corner where I was.
Flicked it out all around my swim but couldn't find many features, just seemed to slope off from 9ft a rod length out down to 21ft.
After finding this out there was only really one thing for it, fish the margins!!
Chances of catching a carp in deep water in hot weather isn't likely.

Owner came round at tea time and I got some pellets off him (5kilo for £10, bonus!) and some specially made dumb bell boilies,
So brought the rods in and took off the bright fluro, they been doing the damage down there but not today! so dumb bell on and tipped it off with some pink korda corn, fished it over a solid bag down the margins with some nice slack lines.

Evening and night past without a bleep, but then around 5am my left hand rod screamed off, and I was into a fish.

First one in the net! And were off :D
Only a baby at 8.11lb but means I saved a blank

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Put the rod back on the same spot, same bait over a soild bag of pellets,
So back to sleep for a bit.. Dreaming about catching fish when the rod screamed off again!!

This fish didn't feel heavy but it put up an awesome scrap.. 2nd one in the net!!

A nice 9lb 15oz common

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By this point I couldn't be bothered going back to sleep so I just chilled out for a bit before making some zig rigs, didn't really wanna fish zigs cause I had no subfloats to make an adjustable one, so threw one out in the middle @ 12ft but it was in 21ft of water, not ideal :(
Just casted it out and put the rod down and the left hand rod screamed off again.

Felt like a better fish and it was, a nice 14lb 0oz, proper little fatty

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The day pasted by without a touch, not even a touch on zigs.
Evening and night went by and not a bleep, had a run early morning but struck and there was nothing there.. Got to about 9am and packed up and left.

Although I only got 3 fish I done considerably well, there was 16-18 of us fishing the lake and at least 10 blanked and a couple only had 1 fish.
The lake had fished its tits off over the weekend and the owner said its never seen back to back action like it did this week.
Although I didn't have one of the better pegs on the lake, but certainly wasn't the worst ;)

I did wanna move pegs for the last 24 hours but couldn't as I wanted to go to the other side of the lake where the fish were due to wind direction but was only one peg and wouldn't of been room for my mate, wasn't I didn't wanna leave him, was the fact I owned all the cooking equipment and he would of got hungry >.<
So lesson learnt! Go on ya own...

I will deffo be returning, prob not this year as I've got one more 48 hour session at another venue to do then onto the green monsters the mighty pike ;)

A Quick Productive Session - More Westgate Tench

Went for another trip to westgate, got there about 6pm, opted for the method feeder fishing a 4mm cell pellet, had a few wrap rounds on the rod but no fish,  wasn't til it got dark the tench come out to play!.. I was only fishing 3lb line as I forgot my reel with 6lb line on, oops!!
Hit into my first proper bite and bang a nice small tench of about 1lb, 15mins or so later bang! Another small tench..
By this point it was pitch black and the isotapes came I to play and really helped ;)
Rod went again and this time was a small bream of prob just over 2lb...

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Was just about to pack up and rod went again, this time was a awesome tench of 3.11lb and a new pb for me ;D
Things were getting busy! Line and rod tip twitching with line bites, was to good of an opportunity for me tench to go home yet! Managed another bream of just over 2lb again..
Kept the micros going in to keep the tench there and then hooked on and it went mental and snapped me :(
Got set backup but used my last method feeder! Bollox..... So had to use my pellet swim feeder which I'm not a fan of, anyway it did the job and bagged me a new pb tench of 4lb 1oz

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After no more bites for about 20 mins I was getting tired so packed up and went home a very happy man! Fish ain't the biggest in the world! But westgate is such a solid place to fish it gave me great satisfaction bagging 6 stunning fish.

Westgate and my first ilucive tench - WOOHOO

The chosen venue today was westgate for the 3rd time in a row trying to catch this illusive westgate tench..

Mick has been kind enough to help me out with venues/rigs since I've started to fish rivers over the last few weeks since I joined stockton ac.

Most of you will know from the blogs I'm a big carp/pike angler so fishing for smaller stuff isn't my strong point, give me a specimen carp rig and I'm well within my comfort zone ;)
But sir mick came to my rescue and today he helped me bag my first westgate tench, its only took me 3 goes lol, wasn't a monster only about 1lb BUT he has also helped me achieve my pb bream of 3.03lb..

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I was fishing the lift method and wasnt catching, so mick was kind enough to show me a new method to fish (one i already knew but wasn't confident with), and In the end I finished the session with 8 perch, 1 hybrid, 3 bream (3.03lb, 2.04lb, 2.06lb) and a 1lb tench.

Some people might think well that's not much, but the venue we fished is well know to be a solid place to fish, and I caught more in an evening that the people who had been there all day and evening :D happy days!

All were caught using my new drennan feeder rod curtious of jim for selling me it and dropping it off for me :p
(Cheers jim ;) )

Mick bagged the biggest tench of the trip at 3.07lb and he also had a nice bream!

Really enjoyed tonight, different from how I normally fish ponds..
Big thanks to mick for the help..

Quick Over Nighter On The Swale - A New PB!!!

Got down on  the Swale last night about 6ish and all setup for 7:30, took me that long to choose a peg! Was canny busy last night and all the good pegs were took or so I thought ;)

Fished two rods both with cage feeders and 2ft hook lengths, one with corn one with pellet over a bed of groundbait and mixed particles..

I was sat down on the next peg with two lads having a few beers with them, always nice to meet new people when fishing :D

Anyway got to just before 12 and I said I'm sure my bite alarms just lite up, didn't light up on the receiver? So went over to check and all seemed fine, whilst I was there I went to take the rod out the water and the line was over my other rod, hmmm seems I had a run!.. Started to wind in when alls I felt was bang!!!! Fish was still on!! After a good long scrap one of the lads from the next peg come and netted it, got it up the bank weighed it and the scales went to 5.15lb... New PB woohoo..
I was happy I improved on my 4.08lb from last week (which was my previous personal best)..


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Went to sleep a happy man, wasn't bothered if I caught any more cause that was 2 in 2 and 2 personal bests in 2..
Got to 2:45 and my rod screamed off again! This time the one with pellets on.
Fish headed straight upstream? Wasn't expecting that I thought they normally went down stream.. Got the fish near the edge and then it decided it wanted to go in the snags...
So tightened the drag up and was trying to hold it away from the trees, thought my arm was gonna get ripped off, ran down the bank and netted it.
I could see straight away it was deffo bigger than the last, I took the hook out the fishes mouth and noticed that the pressure the fish was pulling at whilst I was holding it had snapped the tip of the hook off :/
Note to self: don't use korum specimen hooks again...
Got the weigh sling out and zeroed the scales, put the fish in and scales went straight round to 9.01lb!! W00000T another pb!! I was on a roll ;)

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So rebaited both rods and at about 6am, the sweet corn rod screamed off again!!!! Couldn't believe my luck :D
After another battle with a barbel I got it in weighed it and scales showed 7.09lb..

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This turned out to be one of my best and most rememberable river trips yet :)