Last nights session...

Must've spoke too soon about 4 local stretches not being fished for some time, I got down the river last night, 2 of the stretches of local river were loaded out with folks settling in for a session.
OK so I went further downstream to a secluded stretch that had not seen an angler, so far this season.

I settled down for the night in a swim of choice with a steep river bank & with 4ft high grass & nettles flattened down later, I tackled up, ground bait feeder & feed pellets were the choice of loose feed & hair rigged boilies for the hook bait.
Now this tactic has produced the goods on numerous occasions for me, but not last night, nope not a sniff, I blanked.

That nice looking coloured floodwater was pacey, it were running off too fast, has if all the sluice gates upstream were wide open & every bit of floating drift weed & leaves were coming through like there was no tomorrow & yet fish were rising on the surface all night long, strange me thinks, somethings not right.
You can only change your rig so many times & yeah it were a humid night, so after all the rig changing & constant re-baiting of the swim @ 0400hrs I gave up, called it a night, thinking to myself maybe night fishing's not the answer, who knows.

Time for some changing of tactics, not so much tackle wise but bait wise, could be the key solution, as an angler I'm always looking to improve the way I fish & coming from a match fishing background, I'm used to the old (ringing the changes) scenario & finding out what others are having success with, but on these occasions when you've got stretches of river to yourself, it's a case of finding out for yourself what works & what don't through putting theory into practise.

After all I've still got the buzz to get back on the river bank & I cannot wait to have another session soon. 

  

Looks good to me....

Just had a bank side recce, it's got three ft of coloured water on that's running off & well worth a good session IMO, So out comes the barbel gear for a session into the early hours & the good thing about it is that it looks like no one has been fishing any of the four local stretches for sometime, funnily enough there ain't no one on the bank this afternoon either so I'm just gonna water the garden then get down there.

Alas the sun is shining...

& I'm gagging for a session on the riverbank, had some nice spuds from the garden to go with my Sunday roast in fact I've got plenty left, I'd just got them out in time last weekend before the dreaded blight got to them, due to all the rainfall, now it's spread to my tomatoes which ain't to much of a problem as I just remove the leafs & they are only just flowering so they'll be late, got some radishes coming through & onions, also leaks & just waiting on the lettuce & carrots.

I went to my local B&Q store yesterday to get some more seeds for when these crops have grown so I can get some stew veg growing such as swedes, turnips & parsnips etc, etc & also because during the winter months I couldn't find mushrooms in the fields (probably due to all the immigrants we have) I'm gonna grow my own.

So yeah things are great at the moment, plenty of grafting & gardening & now it's time I got the rods out but first I need to have a bankside reccy to see how much water has flown under the bridge & what condition the rivers in.

Good race in Germany at the weekend, plenty of rain there to for the Hockenheim grand prix, next it's the Hungarian grand prix & hopefully McLaren do the do the 1-2, after Vettells cheating tactics last Sunday, well done Jenson Button on second place.
Off now for that reccy.

Yesssssss, through to the quarter finals..

We got damn lucky there, with Rooney back, what a scrappy game that were & we should have scored more goals to finish off the Ukraine, but still Michael Caines back with the Italian job on Sunday afternoon lol, bring it on.....

YEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSS, what a game...

Of football that were last night, scrappy but England pulled through to win 3-2 against Sweden, who have now been sent packing for the long trip home.

Next game for England on Tuesday 19th against the Ukraine, bring it on....

Watched Soccer Aid 2012, last night...

It were a good game, England beat the Rest Of The World 3-1, great to see celebrities having a laugh to, the likes of Paddy McGuiness &  Teddy Sherringham having it in for Gordon Ramsey & co all for charity, they managed to raise 4 million smackers, nice 1 & this was some goal to score....

Unbelievable.....

Serie A - Maradona to sue Italy for £40 million - Yahoo! Eurosport


If that's the case then I'll sue Maradona for his hand of god that cost England a World Cup, lets see if he can get outta that 1, the cheatin bastard.

Another song....

Well Done Guys...

On a great job rescuing all those fish trapped in that flood plain after the water returned back to the river, could of been worse had it not been for the Environment Agency who attended the scene & put the fish back in the river.

BBC link

Now that puts things into perspective, I'll never moan about the price of my fishing licence again.

Well, it might aswell rain until September....

Been a wet month so far with all this rain, all because someone forecast a drought & hosepipe ban, pah somebody must've been having a giraffe somewhere, still it's done the world of good in the garden at the very least & there is only 1 more month to go before the glorious 16th comes around again, I've almost completed sorting out my gear ready for the new season in my spare time, just the rod holdall to sort out next & make sure my wheels on the good old trolley are intact.
Thinking whether to stick with previous tactics bait-wise or try out Richworth's new range, ( Xtracta barbel ) sounds a good bait so far from what I've heard of from the carp lads, but like everything else it's worth a trial of my own, if it works then great stuff if not then revert back to previous baits that did.
The one problem I've come across with my fishing over the years has been every time you get used to a new piece of tackle or bait that's doing the business for you, either the manufacturers of tackle or bait go & discontinue the product, it's damned annoying but that's the way things are.

Been back on the landscaping in between work on the spanners, still lots of work out there to be had & even managed to get down the river for a walk with my brothers dog for change, rivers up it's banks & coloured up nicely, if it manages to stay this way for the start of the new season we could been in for some great sport.
Not long now & it'll be time for Euro 2012 & the olympics too.

Right back to the landscaping, got some tree felling to do & some hedges to trim now that it ain't raining so much (-_-).

Well April is here...

Yes 4 months into 2012 & only 8 more to go, Easter next weekend, man time does fly when you get older, I should know I were told years ago by the older generation then lol.

At my grandmothers yesterday & had to watch Andre Rieu on the tv, after a nice Chinese takeaway, the concert he performed was roses from the south, not the best of his operas but weren't bad, plenty of Viennese waltzes & stuff, not my cup of tea but something worth watching when you need to relax & unwind, he is on Sky arts2 regular every Saturday afternoon, most are repeats & the ladies are nice too ;) Here is clip from YouTube.

Just had my Sunday roast, loved it pork n stuffin with apple sauce, roast spuds, Yorkshire pudding & mushrooms laced in aaah bisto.

Todays song of choice is.....

Learn Chinese in 5 minutes, lmao...

Todays Song...

England got unlucky on Wednesday night should've won that friendly, good game to watch though.
Just sorting my gear out now for Sundays session & about bloody time to, its been a fair old while since I got out on the bank & I cannot wait.
Just about finished decorating the house in my spare time only the front room left to do & then I'll be out in the garden, prepping it out for planting, gonna start it with spuds onions n radishes first now it's getting warmer.

So whatever your upto this weekend have a good'un....

Still grafting...

I didn't get out fishing over the weekend because I had a load more work come my way & if things carry on the way it's going I'm gonna have to employ some staff of my own to keep up with the demand, has I don't want to lose the work or sub it out to somebody else.
I've had engine refurb jobs on, which I've been working on through to the early hours to get them done & dusted whilst working on service jobs throughout the daytime, only got the 1 day off last week & ended up working all weekend, I've also took on several MOT jobs for a trader, a cylinder head job & now a clutch job for a new customer, on the plus side I like being busy but boy do I need a break & in the mean time I'm also looking at new premises to work from, still working mobile from time to time as well.

Also this morning I woke up with the dreaded man flu to top it all off, still ya gotta keep going, I don't let it beat me, crack on regardless, now I'm just off back out now to sort out another job regarding a bust starter motor.