Almost The Weekend....

Yesterday whilst in the local indian takeaway, I bumped into an old school friend who I hadn't seen for years and used to fish the river with, after an interesting conversation of what we'd both been upto led to, lets have another session this weekend, so yeah I said great, it'll be interesting to have a proper catch up, so Sunday it'll be, great stuff.

This is another thing I like about fishing, the people you make friends with, the places you get to visit and the things you learn, great int it?

Still haven't got rid of this cold bug-man flu, whatever you wanna call it burrit ain't gerrin me down one jot, no I'm still tryna work it outta me an everytime it eases off it seems to bounce back wiv avengance, grrrr.

Time to try some different bait tactics then me thinks, havin had some nice chub and bream out, as mentioned in previous posts, cos it's gerrin coader and nows the time for some curry powder laced maggots with hempseed in the feeder, instead of boilies and pellets, I may even go for the two rod approach, if I can be arsed, we shall see. I've always been one who is prepared to try new things but there aren't that many new things left to try, so a change of approach can been as good as rest!

Might even be worth gerrin back on the worms, although when something works why do you need to change it? well having blanked on the last session it could well be worth a change of approach rather than floggin it out on the same ol 'same ol tactics. Sometimes when I've had a blank it normally means it's sign of needing to change my approach, that's one lesson I've learned in the art of angling and another reason most others moan on about not achieving much, sometimes finding out what others are doing also helps, you know like what bait they are catchin on and how they are presenting it, daft things like that are the key to sucess. Otherwise you'd end up getting frustrated with pluggin away at the same thing to no avail.

So having had an interesting conversation in my local tackle shop a few days ago with another barbel angler, who fishes the same local stretches of river as I do, was very informative! the guy was explaining to myself about how he'd changed his line of the same breakin strain but in a lower diameter, strangely enough his catch rate has improved, strange how changing things such as that, increase your catch rate, well yeah it could do and well worth thinking about when considering a change of approach.

Now what about hooks, there are that many to choose from sizewise and like lines diameters or rather should I say gauges it becomes a hard decision to make, some swear by Drennan barbel hooks others use Korum seamless hooks for knotless knots and then there are others who use those camo coated ones made by Middy, the list is endless again what do you prefer to use and does it work? is it really worth changing what hooks you use? sometimes yeah it can be like take for instance I prefer long shank type hooks for worms and Drennan barbel hooks for pellets n boilies hair rigged. S'pose it's what you get used to.

Then theres backleads, do we really need to use them? again if the swims clear of snags then backleads can be useful in pinning your rig down on the river bed, but if the swims snaggy I wouldn't bother with backleads because you can always guarantee every hooked fish will become tethered down, these things I've learn't about when actually fishing not what others have advised.

Is it really worth using an angling guide? now come on really?  Me I learn't alot of my fishing from the old man and his friends, but if your unfortunate enough not to be able to do just that then yeah having a guided lesson would be practicle and believe me there are some folk that do guiding. Mind you I know of experianced anglers still learning and even I still learn stuff from time to time, but the only guides i'd use more often than not other than the line guides on my rods would have to be venue guides!

Anyhow to all whom are out this weekend, even though it could be a coad'un have a good'un, I shall be.