What a Blanker!

I have not posted for a long time because I have not caught a fish for what seems like an eternity. With the change of season I decided to break the British Zander record and started a campaign on the river Severn near Tewkesbury. However after three straight blanks it need not be a record, any Zander will do, or a Pike I am not fussed! Just something pulling my line. I get really frustrated blanking. I have been trying everything, low resistance rigs, treble hooks, single hooks, fishing into darkness, baiting the swim etc. If anyone has any ideas can they please let me know.
I need a (confidence restoring) break so will be fishing for something different next week but will be back for another record attempt soon.

PIW Friday

This would be a brilliant place to film a horror movie. A misty spooky start to a days Grayling fishing in the heart of the beautiful Welsh countryside. This church is on the banks of the river Irfon, a tributary of the Wye, just a couple of miles from Builth Wells. From the church you can see three houses so I am guessing that there is not a huge congregation attending on a Sunday morning.

The Irfon is a stunning natural, barely fished river that is full of wild Brown Trout and Grayling and I had a brilliant time trotting maggots and landing a fish every other cast. I explored several swims, from long glides to rapids and ended up catching Grayling to 1lb 

and Trout to 1lb 6oz, nothing massive but a super days sport. 

Once the sun came out the church did not look half as scary.

See what I mean, middle of nowhere!

Piscatorial Indulgence Week, Wednesday and Thursday.

Wednesday

Took a break from fishing yesterday but I did introduce my 20 month old little boy to the wonders of the local fishing shop. He did not seem that impressed until I ordered a load of maggots. They are probably pretty fascinating to someone so small, he made lots of noise at them anyway.
Today I headed down to Hardwick lake, part of the Linear complex in search of one of their big Bream. I made up a typical Bream ground bait with Halibut pellet, sweetcorn and chopped worm and balled in a nice carpet to hopefully grab their attention. As hook bait I tried plain old worm on one and a worm sweetcorn cocktail on the other. I felt quietly confident as I have landed them to 10lb 10oz in the past from the very swim I found myself in and those were accidental captures when targeting Tench. How could I fail when I was actually trying for them?
Yes, you guessed it, I failed. I had fish in the swim, they rolled every now and again but the alarms remained silent.

However I did manage to avoid the blank. Early after lunch I had a tentative bite and hooked into a fish that did not put up much of a scrap. That led me to believe it was the target species but then as it came close I could see it was old Tinca. I was disappointed and relieved at the same time, not a Bream but at least it saved an otherwise blank day. I packed up late afternoon to go back to the drawing board.

5lb 3oz

Thursday

A short morning session due to family commitments, I was looking after the kids while 'er indoors went shopping for clothes and to have an afternoon to herself. I couldn't say no as I will be fishing hard over the next three days. Therefore I decided to stay local and popped down to Willow Farm fishery with some worms in an effort to nail a decent Silver Bream.

Same as yesterday I struggled to get hittable bites in a frustrating couple of hours. Yet again a Tench came to my rescue and saved me from a blank.

A frustrating few days fishing but it could all come good tomorrow, I hope so!

Piscatorial Indulgence Week, Monday

I am off work this week purely for fishing but could only manage a short lure session this morning due to family commitments. I spotted this boat moored up on the far bank and I thought it might be an omen but sadly it wasn't. I blanked with not a touch or a follow to show for three hours spinning. I tried every lure in my bag along about a mile stretch, still at least I stayed dry this time!

I did however spend ten minutes watching a dirty great Cormorant trying to fit a large skimmer Bream down it's throat. It failed and moved on, just would not fit in it's throat but the fish still perished. Got some good photos though.

What you looking at!

A Bad Days Fishing.......

..........is better than a good day in the office. I agree with the tacky signs that can be found in equally tacky shops but today I almost disproved it. 

It has been a long time since I have fished due to two weddings in the space of four days, and one of them in Switzerland. I found a couple of spots over there but...

River Vispa, Switzerland

Mountain lake in the shadow of the Matterhorn.

both these waters are pure snow melt, nothing piscatorial can live in either. There may have been a couple of objections if I had gone fishing anyway.

The anticipation for todays trip was therefore quite high. I set off early and managed to get three miles down the road when the Landie started to make a sound like a helicopter was behind me, a blow out on the rear off side. I managed to pull in to a petrol station forecourt and surveyed the damage.

Thats not gonna inflate back up I thought (plus other unprintable comments). The spare is on the back door and the jack is under the front seats so at least I did not have to unload the fishing gear to change the wheel. I put the jack together and went for the wheel nuts. The alloys might look good but they are not made for removal by a standard nut remover. I realised the job was beyond my tools so I had to ring our local garage for assistance. This was beginning to hurt and not the start to the day I needed. 

The bloke from the garage arrived, got the nuts off, went to jack it up to the right height and the whole thing rocked back and fell off the jack. The standard supplied jack is as crap as the nut remover. In one way it was good that it took garage monkey over an hour to change the tyre, It meant I did not look as much as a girl as you are probably thinking. I finally got to the river at about 10.30am.

My plan was to head for the Barbel banker swim, nail a couple and then move on in search of a big Dace. I did get a Barbel but not as quick as I had hoped, but it was a great battle in the fast water and weighed 7lb 5oz. Rolling meat had done the trick again. 

Half a mile downstream there is a swim that is fairly fast flowing and never fished due to its distance from the car park but this means it is very overgrown. I scrambled my way down the bank through the thick nettles and took a step too far, it was so over grown I stepped too far and into two foot of water, lost my footing and got a soaking. I scrambled out of the river, calmed myself down and checked my stuff. My phone and camera were dry and it appeared that I had not lost anything. At least that went my way.
I was soaked through from the waist downwards but it was warm enough so I found the peg and carried on fishing. When I was rolling meat I had noticed a bit of weed coming down stream but did not realise quite how much there was. Within a minute of casting out the feeder was dragged out of position and I was reeling in masses of the stuff.

I managed to keep the chop worm feeder in long enough for two Perch, one not a bad size at over half a pound but the wet feet and the weed started to really get me down and I headed off mid-afternoon.
I got back to the van and squeezed out my socks, 

emptied my wellies,

and went home. Not the happiest day fishing I have ever had!