Purplepeanut007 PP007 FLOAT MAKING & FISHING ADVENTURES - THE RIVER IRWELL AND BEYOND.

For the last few months I have been trying to get John Derbyshire to join Little Britain Anglers. Two weeks ago I showed him and his pal Paul Johnson around our little club. Both were impressed with the set up and promised to join in a couple of weeks time. Today was that day. . . . . I arrived at 08.15 having already organised our session with Eric Owen & Mick Doddman. The lads weren’t their when I arrived so I took the decision to fish an un-favoured peg. “ The Sunken Tree Peg “  (The one I caught my first  Irwell chub on in fact) Leaving the fliers for the newbies. 😉 I decided after a quick try to put my favoured Irwell sticks back in my bag and took out a loafer as the pace of this peg is fierce to say the least as the run is spawned from some shallow rapids bellow the willow peg. It is a very difficult peg to fish on the float. The river cuts into the near side where there is a submerged tree. This peg screams big fish but only fish to ab...

I was luck enough to be given a Trudex and A Mitchell Match 440A by  . . . .  " The Casterman " last year. These reels were in desperate need of refurbishment but I have neither the time nor the skill to accomplish this so they were used as they were, well, the Trudex was. " The Mitchell was in a right state " A chance viewing of the Trudex on one of my float pictures ignited the interest of a reel refurbisher named  . . . . . . .  " Victor Homewood " . . . . and he kindly offered to refurbish them both in exchange for a float or two. 😉 Here are the reels in their sorry state . . . . . . Trudex Mitchell Match 440A And here they are now.  😊😊😊😊 Trudex Mitchell Match 440A I am more than happy with the results Victor. I may even be christening the Trudex on Sunday at L.B.A. on the Irwell with John Derbyshire & his pal Paul. PS : Victor has just contacted me and sa...

This is the first float to come off my new mini lathe. Its an old style " Pike Bobber Float " for live and dead baiting. It is a steep learning curve but, at last, I feel I have something to show all of you. 😊 Cork bodied (turned by myself ) with a birch stem. Jay feather inlay with two  satelliting jungle cock feathers. Fluorescent pink paint and a brass eye. This is how it looked fresh off the lathe . . . . As I said its a steep learning curve for me: 1) Using a lathe.  2) Working with cork. Both had their challenges but a feel I have come out of the other side with a pretty good effort. With a little more practise I feel I can get this pattern looking a much better. This is how it looks now. What do you think ? 😊 Any constructive criticism is always welcome. Until the next time . . .   TTFN . . . . Peanut. If you would like to look at all of the hand crafted floats I make p...

The reason I felt guilty regarding the purchase of the Abu 506 was because of this beauty below. 😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲 This is the Abu704. For less than £20.00 including postage on ebay I just could not resist this with 3 spools supplied to.  😲  !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Just goes to show if you look hard enough there are still some bargains out there on ebay. 😉 I have one of these already. 😈 It cost me £30.00 second hand with one spare spool so this is a bargain. I had dropped my older reel on the floor at home. The floor is solid oak so it was like dropping in on a slab of concrete.  !!!!!!!!!!! The reel was fine apart from a small dent in the cowl but just a small dent altered the cylindrical shape of the spool slightly. It also made it very difficult to remove and replace which is a must with these reels. It also hindered the line release from the spool. I have no doubt one of the friendly engineers at work could r...

After my last successful outing catching chublets on the River Irwell I decided to try and replicate these proceedings a little further upstream on a different run and hopefully add some more useful information to the collective. The run I had chosen had various characteristics. At the head of the run the current is very fast and shallow it then calms down a bit and splits into two currents, one on the near bank and the other on the far bank. The currents then split again one down stream and the other back on its self forming an eddy on the far bank. “ Plenty to go at here I thought “ . . . . . LOL To be honest with you all I have fished this run before but the last floods had changed the river considerably .I fished this run last  October and did quite well. It was the Acolyte christening blog,  the day resulting in some nice chub and good brownie. Below is the link to the “ Acolyte Christening Blog “ http://purplepeanut007.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/acolyte-plus-chr...