FLOOD FIGHTS

Hello to all

The dream of us winning the European cup has once more ended due to the fact that England are cack! I could easily write multiple pages detailing my dispair of pretty much the entire squad, But I wont bore you with all the details so lets talk some fishing.

Rain rain and some more rain has been the forecast as of late which has seen our rivers assume winter-like conditions, running fast and thick with colour and debris. Actually, the words colour and debris are in fact a massive understatement; The water is like mud and I have witnessed actual trees flying down stream like Nordic longboats. Conditions like these can prove a bit daunting but with a bit of venue knowledge and adaptation one can still enjoy a bit of sport. By adaptation I meen stepping up your gear to tackle a large fish combined with the heavy flow in the event of a hook-up.(After all I wasn't going tiddler bashing was I? )

The session in talk was one of those" Oh sod it, I may as well give it a go" affairs which saw me jump in the motor late evening to grab an hour or two's carping before Dusk.I knew what conditions awaited me so I grabbed the relevant equipment to counter the swollen river. Here's a quick tackle breakdown-3.25lb tc rods, reels loaded with 20lb mainline,4oz leads and super strong hook-links made from 25lb coated braid. It may sound like I'm going Cat fishing but believe me river carp fight hard enough in normal water levels so for this occasion the heavy approach was necessity.

For hook baits I opted for some CCmoore Meateor boiley's which I had left to soak in the matching glug for around a month. I also nicked on a pva bag of crushed boiley's and again dipped the whole lot in the glug creating a highly attractive parcel which would leek scent into the murky water.Rods were fished barbel style with the tips sky bound to keep as much line as possible out of the rivers thundering flow. An hour passed when I began to think I was wasting my time, then out of the corner of my eye I caught a glimpse of what looked like a carp rolling on the surface.With my revitalised optimism I waited for another half hour or so when out of the blue the tip hammered down lifting up the rod butt as the free spool span like the wheel of a Ferrari going flat out....Fish on!!! the first run was unstoppable with the fish using the current to its full advantage. 50 yards or so later the reel was smoking but with a fully compressed rod I managed to turn the fish.To make things even harder I now had a 6ft tree branch attached to line and I began to think this was a battle I would surly lose But I hung on for 15 minutes and eventually bundled a beast of a mirror into the net.

This 18lb warrior gave me one of the hardest fights of my angling career so far.River carp are truly amazing creatures, just look at the size of its tail and fins.

Til next time

Good luck yall

SEASONS GREETINGS

Hello to all

At last! June the 16th has come and the river season begins. I have been looking forward to getting back to fishing running water for a long time. River fishing is most definitely my favourite form of angling and for a  while now myself and the boys have been trickling some bait into various spots on our local river Exe.
The idea behind this is to localise the fish and get them used to feeding on our bait prior to the 16th in the hopes of them being in residence when we return and are allowed to fish.

On the opening morning of the season I woke up late with a thick head after pissing it up a bit after England's miraculous win over Sweden. Surely old Woy won't start flippin Milner against the Ukraine after Wallcotts impact? But, with the general cretin-ology that is a credential of being an England manager, nothing would suprise me. On a positive whim, that Judas known as Rooney is off his ban now, lets hope he is on good form ay? Anyway enough of the footy and back to the fishing.
I phoned up Moxy to discover that him and Ty were already bank side and that he had captured his first fish of the season being a pike of around 14lbs. On that note I dragged myself down to the river, disgraceful I know but I really was feeling a bit slow that morning.

Due to all the rain we have had, the conditions of the water had slightly scuppered  plans to fish our pre- baited carp swims. The river was running fast and dirty and most of the day was spent walking around checking out various reaches of the river re-acquainting our selves with old mother Exe.
Even though I was fish-less it was good to be back on the river!

The next day I awoke early and clear headed; hungry to get a couple of carp rigs out on the river. I was greeted with slightly clearer, more gentle conditions to the previous day. Its amazing how quickly the water fines down on the Exe. A chalk stream it was not, but it was certainly a lot more favourable to present a bait in the flow without a ton of litter building up on the line.
And so it was. I flicked out a couple of traps into a nice spot that I had a hunch might be holding a fish or two. There was no tricky rigonomatory or fancy bits involved just a simple bolt set-up and a high attract hook-bait.

I threw a hand full of sweetcorn over each rig and settled down for all of two minutes before a full volume alarm let out a horribly pleasing screech scaring all the wildlife away and probably waking up half of Exeter. In the few seconds it took me to hit the run, the fish had taken a sprint of line and was heading straight towards one of the many snags it had to choose from in a bid to ruin my day. I disengaged the free spool and the rod assumed its full arc. My intuition was correct as I was into a decent fish that most certainly was no bream! I nervously played the fish in quite a tight area on a heavily set clutch, it took me a good five minutes of hanging on and praying the hook didn't pull before I convinced her to give up.When I finally bundled her into the net I was one happy and very relieved angler. I cut the line off and unhooked the fish in the net with no fuss at all.
I now needed a photographer and a set of scales. I stood in the water with the fish in the net for around 10 minutes before Dom and Neil arrived to take the photos and weigh the fish.

At 23lb 12oz I was very happy to have opened my river account. I must thank Dom and Neil for getting there so quickly so cheers boys.
Else where on the Exe Ty was in action testing out his home made garlic boileys. The afternoon was a different picture to the sunny morning I enjoyed but the capture off this PB 24lb 6oz common most definitely brightened up Ty's session.Great angling mate!

A great start to the season! lets hope that England kick on and the carp keep biting.

Til next time

Good luck