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

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...

 Hi all, I had a few spare bodies staring at me in my blank box over the last few months. In December I finally had a few hours spare to try out a new paint job. (New to me anyway) A few test cards later and some frustrated attempts I decided on three colours to play with, Eath Brown, Hunter Green & Canary Yellow plus Standard White and Fluorescent Orange, all of which I made myself. I kept the threads simple using only two, Yellow/gold and black. There are eight of these floats in total, all in balsa and with hardwood stems. Here is a short video of one float which shows it in great detail. I was expecting to ruin a few floats but luckily I didn't, also, I was not sure about the paint job initially as I usually like things crisp and precise which is the opposite of what I was trying to achieve with these floats, but, for a first attempt, I am rather please with the results. The Avons below have the same diameter balsa body, but, are heavier than the previous Alloy Stem Avons a...

 Got a call this weekend from John Derbyshire asking to fish a certain stretch of the River Irwell. We arrived on the river at 09.00 I set up the new "Shallow Water Loaded Stick Float " and my Acolyte Plus.  ( New section aquired).  🙄 The run was only two and a half foot deep so ideal for these floats which are almost fully loaded. The Ginger Assassin was on the next peg up with a MK I Irwell stick. (You have that some years pal) so at least we could take the piss out of each other if we blanked.....lol The previous night I had been grayling hunting (pics below) on a stretch higher up river so I had a rig nearly ready. The liquidised bread went in first followed by some seed. Maggots  and seed would the be dripped in constantly with the odd ball of bread to top up the swim when it died a little. Basically I caught from start to finish. 09.00 - 14.00. Plenty long enough for me as I am not getting any younger. All caught on a centerpin and stick float set up. https://...