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

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 pleas

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 re- shape it fo

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-chrstening-r

I have been a “ Bad Lad "   on Ebay again .  😈 An Abu 506M Closed Face Real has been on my hit list for a while now for silver fishing on rivers in the winter months. Today I took delivery of one. It is in good condition and ready to use even though it is over 30 years old . . . . 😲 I decided to change the line of course, so,  I took a trip to  “ Elton Tackle “ in Radcliffe  and purchased  two spools of Prestons Reflow Line. One spool for the mainline on the real and another, lighter spool for hook lengths. I prefer pre-stretched lines on closed face reels. They do not have the longevity of some of the standard lines but presentation it vastly improved when the pre-stretched are used as mainlines. I currently have an Abu704, but, from now on it will use this with heavier pre-stretched lines on the Irwell for the big chub and monster brown trout. May be the ribble if I am feeling brave. . . Lol To aid in presentation I apply some silico

I haven’t been working much on a Saturday lately but been sucked into my house renovation so fishing has still been difficult to organise but a chance call from “ Red Head Fred “ ( John Derbyshire ) asking me if I fancied a quick rod sharing session on the River Douglas was well and truly snapped up !!!!!!!!! We meet at Johns new gaff and he gave me a quick tour whilst grabbing some bits for our quick roving session. Fifteen minutes later we piled in his van an hot tailed it off to the stretch we usually fish. Now, this stretch suffered from a pollution incident a few weeks ago. We were all still fuming so an exploratory session was needed to see if there was any detrimental affects on the resident fish population. Here is the link to the pollution incident. http://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/news/14776557.Chemicals_cause_of_river_fish_deaths/?action=success#comment_17041124 We only had three hours as I had to be back home for 17.00. As we arrived at our first r