Roving and Stalking

Morning Session

Fladbury Mill and Weir

It was already baking hot when I got to the river this morning, not ideal conditions but angling is all about opportunities and making the most of the conditions. Put a bait in the right place and the fish will generally accept the offering so with that in mind I donned the waders and proceeded to trot some luncheon meat in a swim that can only be fished from in the water.
I would love to say it was easy but it wasn't however eventually I hooked up and had a terrific scrap from a part-tailed 8lb 6oz specimen.

8lb 6oz

An instantly recognisable fish should it grace the bank again.
I decided it would be a case of catch a fish and move on to the next spot plus I needed to get out of the sweaty waders, they were beginning to get a bit wiffy!
The next swim proved fruitless but the third one gave me an instant bite, a small Chub that was no match for Barbel tackle. Interestingly it still had spawning tubercles which is late in the season, unless they are having another go?!

There wasn't long to wait before the rod hooped over again and this time I enjoyed a feisty battle from a small five pound Barbel.....

Easy does it.....

Steady on............!

Now you're mine

An Afternoon Stalking

With the sun now burning away at its highest point of the day I gave up on the river . The kids had gone to the cinema with Gran so not being one to look a gift horse etc I decided to have a look at Stubb's pool on the way home. 

Stubb's pool in it's heyday was a great place for a spot of Carping, plenty of doubles and twenties and also rumoured to hold a couple of thirties. Nowadays it is just a shadow of that former self, the great flood of 2007 ripped away most of its stock and subsequent floods have not helped the situation either. It is just far too close to the river. My mate Jim had been quite damning about the place recently so I wandered down there fearing the worst. 

In the end I was pleasantly surprised with what I saw. Quite a number of flood survivors were sunning themselves around the lake and the banks were well overgrown telling me they had seen few visitors of late.

Armed with a bucket of dog biscuits I walked the perimeter baiting various spots to try and get the fish going. They took only a slight interest in the free floaters but that was enough encouragement for me and I set about trying to tempt one.

It proved to be quite difficult. Having only a few competitors the fish are choosy and quite skittish not being used to human presence. Still preferable to a massively overstocked puddle.

I was just about to move pegs when out of the corner of my eye I spotted a nice ghost carp sidling along the island margin. The cast made was near perfect more out of luck than judgement and the Carp made a beeline straight for the bait, I couldn't believe my luck when the floater disappeared and the hook found purchase in the Carp's mouth!

It came across the lake reasonably easily but once it was under the rod tip it played merry hell. For a good ten minutes all I could think about was how small the size 12 hook was in its mouth but thankfully it held firm and eventually I slipped the net under what was obviously my biggest and best looking Ghost Carp ever.

12lb 13oz

Stunning whichever way you look at it

A quick photo shoot and she was away back into her watery home and I went back to mine to cool off and down a cold beer.

Back she goes