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

 Morning all, My fishing mojo has dissapeared once more, I have not been since last September!!!!!! With the clocks going forward and extra time one the bank I chose to go to a local commercial that a friend of mine owns. Fishing the Match Lake I opted to rotate 3, close range swims at: 9 o'clock 12 o'clock 3 o'clock to give the swims a rest after catching a few fish. Float used was a small, hand made, shallow water stick float or dibber if you are fishng still waters, coupled with a Bob James Centerpin and a 15 foot Drenen DRX rod. After intoducing some micro pellets to each swim I started off on sweetcorn which produced a few small F1s but bites quickly dried up.  Next to to try was banded pellet, again, I had a few fish then the bites dried up. I was 50 minutes into a 2.5 hours session now and only had 6 fish.....and not very pleased with my performance!!!! My last bait to try was home made paste, a bait I have used more frequently, with great success over the last three...

 Morning all, I have been promising a work colleague Dan that I would take him fishing the last few months. Last night we were both able to finish at a similar time and head off to the lake for an dangle in the sunshine. Unfortunately, due to unforseen circumstances, Dan was unable to start the session with me but promised to meet up around 20.00 at the lake. To save time I told Dan he could use my setup when he arrive to save some time. I had a quite couple of hours to be honest with just three carp and some silvers and was looking forward to talking Dan through the simplist form of pin fishing, (To me anyway) which is fishing down the side on bigger baits. Dan has been around a bit the last few years. The last fish he caught was in Cambodia which was a .........He stole the show on that day catching the biggest fish so I new he had some fishing experiance just not on the pin. Dan eventually rocked up at the venue with a smile on his face and eager to fish. We could not have asked...

Morning all. Both John and I where off to a new stretch of the river today. Our chosen destination was the Wye Lee stretch of the River Wye near the bridge pillers. We arrived to find ourselves the first people there so had the pick of the pegs. John already new where he was gonna fish as did I due to short recce the night before. John was in the the first peg next to the pillers. A bit of a boilly, washing machine peg due to all the sub-surface obstructions. It looked very "Barbely" but he may well loose some end tackle. A bonus John had was we had witnessed a barbel capture from there the night previous so at least we new the were in the vacinity. It had been very warm the past week. I had my suspicions the barbel may still be spawning, or at least cleaning off in the fast water. My choice of run was a double croy. A croy is something like a jetty of rocks, man made, in this case, heading out into the river to about 40 feet. A double croy has the same jetty of rocks mirrore...

Morning all, I have not been up to much this last month due to illness but thankfully I was ok to travel when it came to a River Wye trip organised at the begining of the year.  Ross-On-Wye in Herefordshire was our destination for three nights, fishing stick & pin for chub and barbel with a pal of mine John Derbyshire. DAY 1. Travelling in Johns van the trip down to Herefordshire was smooth & went by the numbers. We arived around 11.30, checked in our digs, gabbed a bacon butty and went to reccy the nearest stretch of river. The river was spot on carrying a little colour, with a lovely large gravel bed, perfect for trotting. Tackle wise I opted for a 14ft Harrison SU. a Bob James pin & 6lb line. Bait wise we feed pellet, meat and fished meat on a size 6 hook. Float wise I chose a Heavy Wooden Stem Irwell Stick due to the fact that the river is shallow, approximatly 3ft and pushing through a bit. The large dome on the float also gives you flexibility of bait size when us...