Fishing on the Fast Show, Screaming Reels on 4oD and a few interesting links

The Fast Show goes Fishing

I still love the Fast Show.  A popular opinion is that it revived a genre - the sketch show - which many said was dead, but I think it defined the genre and set a high water mark which no other sketch show has ever reached.  Maybe I'm biased because this programme was on TV during my early teens and was duly lapped up and mimicked by me and my peer group at school.  In fact I specifically remember a golden TV scheduling season, when The Fast Show and Nick Fisher's Screaming Reels (which you can now watch on 4oD here: http://www.channel4.com/programmes/screaming-reels/episode-guide and on YouTube!) were both broadcast on the very same night!

Comedian Paul Whitehouse is famously an angler in his spare time, as well as an Angling Trust Ambassador.  He often allows his passion to influence his comedy writing, whether it's Ted's futile attempts at teaching Ralph how to fly fish, to convincing Aviva to let him create an angling character, Ollie the Fisherman, for a nationwide advertising campaign!

My personal favourite example of Whitehouse writing angling into comedy has to be the following sketch, with Simon Day playing the brilliantly obnoxious "Competitive Dad", who takes his son Peter fishing for the first time... 

"Don't get cocky Peter.  You're not an American!"  Brilliant clip!

 

 

Watching this it's obvious that Whitehouse is an angler.  The tackle and many of the terms & references are authentic; he's obviously had some major input in the writing of this scene.  The angling anoraks ("angloraks"?) amongst us will notice that Simon Day is set-up with a spinner which he just casts out and leaves, rather than retrieving.  No wonder he doesn't catch!

Pike chokes to death on Zander in Netherlands:

We've all heard the bulls*t stories of how gluttonous pike can be, "A pike ate my bull mastif/4x4/mother-in-law...", but this article shows one which really did bite off more than it could chew.  The zander's dorsal spikes failed to put off it's aggressor and this was the result:

You can read the full story on the BBC News website here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-20971848

There's also another related story on the Daily Mail website, about a pike found choked to death on a carp in Suffolk.  I've seen various fishing-related stories on there over the years and they're usually made cringeworthy by the ropey photographs and quotes from their subjects and "experts" (although in this case with Bruno Broughton they at least found an actual expert!), but I had to chuckle at the final sentence, referring to taxidermy costs:  "'So after a couple of days I had to bury it,' said Mr Walker." 

Human sedative drugs making fish greedy?:

Fat Perch!

According to this online article citing the journal "Science", a study carried out on the feeding activities of perch suggests that residues of benzodiazepine passed in human urine may be present in watercourses, in such concentrations that it can "turn fish into greedy, risk-taking loners"!  Maybe that explains why there are so many big perch around nowadays!
http://news.uk.msn.com/odd-news/sedatives-making-fish-greedy

These findings suggest that there is a need to improve sewage treatment so that the chemicals from medications we take don't find their way into rivers, where - as this study suggests - their effects on the natural world can't be predicted.

Hydropower - Environment Agency Consultation ends March 2nd

This is just a quick, but very important one.  The Angling Trust is urging all anglers out there (AT members or not), to respond to an Environment Agency consultation about their "best practice guidelines" for potentially destructive and controversial Hydropower schemes.  The public can add comments to the consultation without logging in to the EA website, which will help sway decisions made about future legislation imposed upon the operators of these schemes.

This type of electricity-generation scheme looks set to become more widespread in the UK but through both water abstraction and the fish-mincing turbines which are driven by water flow to generate electricity, such schemes pose a massive danger to both resident and migratory fish stocks and the quality & availability of river fishing.

This particular consultation focuses on setting water flow rates & abstraction limits and it's important that angling, fish stocks and other environmental issues are given utmost consideration when setting these limits.  As anglers we need to ensure that opinion swings in this direction, which is why the Angling Trust has offered advice on how to respond to the consultation, to ensure we're all pulling in the same direction. 

Please take a few minutes to read through the information and guidance on the Angling Trust website and follow the link to respond to the EA consultation, which can all be found here:  http://www.anglingtrust.net/news.asp?section=29&sectionTitle=News&itemid=1496

Be quick though, the consultation closes on Saturday 2nd March.

Fish deaths caused by Hydropower turbines

I'm all for us producing "green" energy from non-fossil fuel sources; it's an issue the whole world needs to address immediately, but surely when a means of generating power is damaging to the environment in other ways, it can't be considered "green"!  Killing wildlife, preventing migration, disrupting natural river flows and potentially drying up spawning grounds, in my view is neither "green", "environmentally-friendly" or "sustainable".

As anglers, we need to stand united, vehemently against the construction of these hydropower sites, which produce a preposturously low amount of electricity.  The Environment Agency has identified 26,000 sites nationwide which are suitable for hydropower installations.  So even if you don't think this issue affects you, it WILL be considered at a river near you!  Even if all 26,000 proposed schemes are introduced, their combined output will constitute less than 0.5% of the country's electricity needs!  There are far more viable alternatives which aren't nearly as destructive.

Towards the end of last year the Angling Trust's legal arm, Fish Legal, won a landmark case on behalf of anglers to stop the construction of a hydropower scheme on Sawley weir on the river Trent.  The fishing on this section is controlled by Pride of Derby, of which I've held membership for over a decade.  I'm delighted that Fish Legal were able to take on this case on behalf of the club and its members, and won.  This action alone has justified my Angling Trust membership, which I have taken out every year since the Trust was formed (I was an ACA member for years before that). 

It shows the power and influence that a unified body for angling can use and although everything the Trust does may not be in every anglers' personal interest, the many benefits to angling as a whole are clear to see.

There will be a lot of companies looking to make a lot of money from these hydroschemes so they will be very determined to get them pushed through, but if we are vocal against it and stand together, we can stop them.

The Best of my Barbel fishing from last Summer

New Years resolution:  Update my blog more regularly!

Three-quarters of the river season has already flown by since I last wrote, which is extremely slack of me, but hopefully there are still a few people out there interested in reading, so I'll update on how my Summer fishing went and then I plan to do a small post on what I've done since (unfortunately not many fish to write about since November!), by which point I should be back in the habit of writing on here more regularly.

The good news is that the fishing I did over the Summer was generally excellent!  I concentrated on a single river, the Derbyshire Derwent, and on a single species, Barbel.

The regular rain certainly helped this Summer, keeping the levels topped up and keeping the barbel feeding confidently.  So many times in the past 4 or 5 seasons, I've heard anglers moaning - on the bank and on the internet - about the low river levels making barbel fishing difficult.  Personally, I never moaned because I still managed to find a good few fish, but I must say that sport was definitely better this season with a bit of extra water and colour in the system.

I've recently published an article on FishingMagic covering the tactics I employed last year and I have an idea for a magazine feature ready for the beginning of the 2013/14 season too, so I won't cover any of that here but all of the fish were caught using large open-end swimfeeders filled with groundbait, mixed pellets and hemp, in conjunction with long mono hooklengths and a mixture of baits.

As usual, my barbel sessions were short, after-work affairs where I started in daylight but fished on into darkness.  I caught a lot of barbel in the 8 to 10lb bracket, with a few going a bit larger.  I was also very pleased to land a pair of smaller fish though.  People I speak to on the bank have shared my concerns over the seeming lack of small barbel in our local rivers.  Regular floods in the Summers surely haven't helped with recruitment, but there does seem to be a distinct lack of fish below 6lb in the Dove, Derwent and Trent.  So, when I had my first barbel double hook-up, I was glad to see a pristine smallish barbel drop into the net.  After a bit of a struggle I also landed the second barbel without letting the first escape!  What a surprise, after landing nothing even close to this size for quite some time, both fish were like peas in a pod!  Two fish of around the 4lb mark which were obviously of the same year class and probably shoal-mates.  They were both fighting fit and after a quick snap which was sadly blurred by a raindrop on the lens, they were quickly returned to hopefully become the next generation of Derwent heavyweights.  You can now read my article - "A Summer of Barbel" - on Fishing Magic.

 

Double hook-up landed!

Here are some of the best shots of a number of 8-10lb barbel that I landed last Summer:

For the first time I took more than three double-figure barbel in a Summer which, considering that I maybe fit in 15 to 18 sessions averaging 4 hours each, I don't think is bad going.  These fish went 10lb 1oz:

10lb 7oz:

10lb 8oz (which I later realised was a recapture of the fish above, 17 days later):

And to top off the lot, I managed to land myself a new PB!  This fish was landed about an hour before the double hook-up above, from the same swim.  Clearly the larger Derwent fish aren't in such an abundance that they only mix with individuals of a similar size and year class, as these fish must surely have been shoaled together to be caught from the same place in such quick succession.  The fish put up an epic scrap, one that I was sure I would lose at several points, which I've described in the FishingMagic article.  The fish weighed 13lb 1oz and added almost 2lb to my personal best.

Other Species

The only brief distraction I had, in terms of other species, was a couple of very short sessions tench fishing.  I chose to fish with the most simple tactics, and used the Lift Method in the margins to land a few hard-fighting tench.

I also used a centrepin reel on a stillwater for the first time and thankfully landed a fish on it too:

I have another article pending about my trips to Brierley Park Pond, where I caught these tench.

That wraps up the highlights of my Summer captures and my intention is to be back in the next few days to summarise my Autumn & Winter fishing so far.

R.I.P. Terry Lampard

Between me starting to write this post and me publishing it, I was saddened to hear of the sudden passing of one of greatest specimen anglers of all time, Terry Lampard. His captures and achievements over the decades speak for themselves and, having never met him, I can't add much that hasn't already been said elsewhere. What I can say is that he was an inspiration to a great many anglers - myself included - and widely revered & respected. Never one to shout his own praises, Terry was understated and humble, possibly even unaware of just how good an angler he was, or of the number of anglers he inspired.

Terry's death is a very sad loss to angling, but his contribution to specimen fishing over a great many years will ensure he will never be forgotten. My thoughts go out to his family and friends.


Ian Welch has written a brief and eloquent Obituary of Terry Lampard on FishingMagic which explains a little about his life and summarises and some of his captures and achievements.

Winter Blues - Pike and Barbel Fishing

I only had time to get out fishing once between Christmas and new year.  I'd had a pike fishing itch to scratch for a while and despite conditions which were far from ideal after the bout of mild weather and heavy rain, I decided to pike fish on the Dove, which is a spate river and therefore it's notorious for the speed at which the level rises and colour increases.  So it was to my dismay, but no surprise, that I arrived to find the river coloured and rising!  I should have been barbel fishing but my heart was set on piking, so I had taken my barbel rods out of the van before I left home!

I sat it out regardless and fished to the conditions as best I could, but I only got a single dropped run all day.  A run I didn't even notice at the time because my float, cast to the far bank, would only stay in the slack water if I let out a big bow of line.  However, It was an extremely blustery day and the combination of wind and the flow meant my float was constantly dancing around all over the place, the drop-off was forever rising and falling and my alarm was sounding every few seconds.  That was frustrating enough, but when I reeled in and found my decent-sized roach was badly slashed but the teeth marks were all between the hooks, needless to say I was gutted!  From the size of the marks on the bait, the pike was probably a good one.  It must have picked the bait up sideways but failed to turn it around head-first before it moved off.  Maybe the movement of the line going down from the float spooked it or something.  I'm 99% sure that if I'd had a proper take I would have known straight away because the drop-off did ping off in the wind the odd time, just not on that cast!  Regardless of that, I decided to try and find somewhere more sheltered where I could fish without fear of unwittingly deep-hooking a fish.

I gambled on a move to the Pride of Derby complex, to try on one of the lakes there for the last couple of hours.  However, when I arrived at the gates, this was the sight that greeted me:

The heavy rain had pushed so much water into the Trent that it had flooded the entire adjacent lake complex.  This seemed like a bad thing until I considered that the floodwater would probably mean I was the only angler there.  I was in a van, and thought I might have the height to drive through the water to get to some high ground that I could fish from.  So, not one to be put off from a fishing trip easily, I unlocked the gates and gingerly inched the van into the water, hanging my head out of the window to both monitor the depth and spot the edge of the track; one place I definitely didn't want to end up was on the surrounding underwater grass, or I'd be stuck there until the waters receded!  Unfortunately my pluckiness didn't pay off, the water got so deep that I feared I might damage my van, so I had to slowly reverse back out of the venue.  Had I had my thigh waders with me I could have walked to a peg, but they aren't part of my usual winter kit so they were at home!  I thought about driving back to the Dove, but the combination of the poor piking conditions and by now, falling light, meant I decided to call it a day.  Sometimes you have to know when it's time to quit.

I did bump into James Gould and Stu Walker (who's been filming "Caught In The Act" and previously "Barbel Days & Ways" with Bob Roberts) during the day.  They were barbel fishing and I conceded that this was where the smart money was on such a day.  Why the hell had I taken those barbel rods out!  Both chaps were really friendly and I even got a flattering "It's Andrew, isn't it?  I've read some of your stuff..." from Stu, but I then felt pretty stupid because I recognised him too, but I couldn't quite remember where from, or what his name was.  D'oh!

Despite my feeling that the conditions had been ideal for barbel, I got in touch with Stu & James later and found that they had just the one fish between them all day, which didn't show until after dark.

Before that mild & wet spell ended, I got in an after-work session myself and this time set my stall out for barbel.  I'd soaked some boilies in a spicy, fishy mix and done similar with some luncheon meat in preparation.  There wasn't a fish within a mile that could have avoided smelling my baits!  It was pleasant to sit out in, despite not casting out until 8pm, and despite seeing the odd fish rolling and conditions seemingly perfect, I didn't get as much as a twitch on the rod tip.  So, maybe there just wasn't a fish within a mile!

Autumn Salmon Fishing on the Tyne - Return of the Pretender!

I really enjoy fly fishing.  I don't do enough of it, but when I get the chance to go, it's great fun.  When it comes to using double-handed fly rods and targeting the magnificent Salmo salar, that sentence is all the more true.  I'd only ever had one salmon fishing trip, which was a day and a half on the upper Tweed, almost a decade ago.  I had such a great time there I've been wanting a follow-up session ever since.

Incidentally on this trip, despite various calamities (including setting off my lifejacket inflator on a tangled cast!), I managed to land my first Atlantic Salmon, which was a very respectable 15lb in weight.  The full story, which I shall one day have to tell, will inform you that despite being a complete salmon novice, I managed to land this fish alone, without a net.  The angler I was fishing with had wandered a few hundred yards upstream from me and out of earshot.  He had the shared net, so I had to improvise and tire the fish before beaching it and scooping it up in my arms!

It was one of the proudest moments of my life!  The great pretender in the pink-lensed polaroids managed to outfish all the other experienced salmon fishers on the beat that day.  The score at the end of the day was: me 1-0 everyone else!

The salmon, a cock fish, had been in the river for a long time, which explains its brown colouration.  Despite the water being extremely cold on this November day, I was determined to release the fish and let it complete its life mission of spawning upriver.  It took me almost 15 minutes of getting numb fingers to revive the fish, but it had got this far so who was I to end its journey?  After the TLC I gave it, the fish swam away strongly.

To date, this was my only salmon session, so through complete inactivity I maintained my 100% for years!  I really wanted another crack at them, but knew the odds of me catching another on my second session were very much stacked against me.  I was due to go pike fishing last week, but then the opportunity presented itself to go after salmon and I couldn't pass it up.

This time I would be visiting the Tyne with another angler friend, who had a spare rod available on a productive beat.  The river had been quite low, with salmon apparently stacking up downstream waiting for the chance to migrate.  Rain had been forecast but didn't really materialise, so we knew it would be tough.

In the 9 years since I'd fished for salmon quite a bit had changed.  Returning salmon as I had done previously (much to the open-mouthed dismay of many around me), has become far more the norm, as anglers have reacted to the continuing decline in wild stocks by doing their bit to help the species successfully reach their spawning grounds.  According to the 2012 Scottish Salmon Fishery statistics, the overall number of rod-caught salmon that were returned was 74% this year, compared to just 8% as recently as 1994!

To assist with the easy and successful release of fish, the treble hooks that I used with my tube flies on the Tweed were now replaced with large single hooks, which many contemporary fly patterns are tied to work with.

The morning was fantastic; dull but crisp.  "Down South" in Derbyshire, we hadn't had a frost yet, but the grass and bushes had a crunchy coating in the Northumberland countryside.  It would be tough on the hands at first, to work a wet fly line in the cold air, but the physical effort involved in Spey casting is the perfect exercise to get the blood pumping to warm you up.

The fishing was indeed tough, but I was comfortable and after some ropey casting at the start, I gradually managed to improve my casting.  It felt like a real privilege to be stood waist deep, just fishing as nature went about its business regardless, all around me.

On the Tweed, the salmon had been running well.  I'd seen the best part of a hundred leap from the water that day.  The low water on the Tyne was preventing such a run, I saw perhaps ten salmon leap but that made it even more exciting when it happened, especially when it was just downstream of my fly. 

We fished hard until just before sunset, stopping only briefly for lunch.  We covered the short beat twice each from top to bottom, but apart from a couple of delicate plucks, we had no action.

As it turned out, my best mate since childhood, Matt, went pike fishing to the venue I was due to visit that day.  He landed his first twenty!  Of course, I'm really pleased for him; he was there when I caught my twenties and I wish I'd been there to see his.  Who knows, if I'd opted out of salmon fishing and gone piking that fish could have even fallen to my rod, but I don't regret having another go at salmon fishing.  It was all more experience for me, in a faction of fishing where I have scant little to draw upon.  Next time I'll be that little bit more prepared and practised, which could prove to be the difference between a blank and a fish.

Spring Tench & Carp Overnighter

I managed to pick a couple of days break in the early-May rain, to fit in a 24-hour session with Shane Calton.  We visited Derbyshire's Higham Farm Lakes and tackled up primarily for tench, but with the head of carp, bream and other species in there, we knew it would be difficult to target them solely.  

Higham is pretty local to me, so I used to fish this place quite regularly for the carp when I was 15 to 18, but I worked out that I have only been there once in the last 12 years!

I was field testing a fair bit of Cyprinus night fishing gear, including a bivvy, a memory foam bedchair, a 3-5 season sleeping bag and a tackle barrow, which all performed superbly (Reviews on FishingMagic.com here).

Before I arrived Shane had already landed a few bream in the 4-5lb bracket and as I was setting up he landed a tench of exactly 5lb, which was a very promising start.

It was to be the last tench we had between us, but we each notched up carp overnight and I also had a bream and a strange fantail brown goldfish-cross thing, which I should have really taken a photograph of, though I have caught similar fish from Higham in the distant past too.  I had one breakage and two hook-pulls in the night, which were either the mothers of all tench, or more likely carp.

 

Overnight I was setup on both rods with 6lb mainline through to 5lb fluorocarbon hooklengths to size 14 Drennan Power Hair Rig hooks.  One rod had a helicopter rig above an open-end feeder and I alternated between corn and meat on this rod whilst on the other rod I rigged up a small method feeder and baited this with a 10mm pineapple & banana pop-up which Shane kindly provided!

 

Just as I was settling into my sleeping bag to get some sleep, the alarm on my margin rod - which had its bait placed just in front of a small bush - screamed out as a fish tried its best to swim between every root before I could lift up the rod.  As soon as I felt the rod I knew I was connected to a decent fish which was a huge worry, what with my 6lb mainline being dragged through the roots!  Thankfully I kept my calm, kept the rod tip underwater and applied steady sideways pressure.  I think the fish had run out of ideas, as one-by-one I felt the line 'ping' off each root, my heart fluttering a little each time as I though it was the hook dislodging.  I gradually felt more in contact with the fish and was able to coax it out into open water where I could tire it without fear of it finding more snags.  Shane did the honours with the net and we both gasped as we realised this fish was a little bigger than either of us expected.  It was a beautiful mirror of exactly 18lb.  My biggest carp for quite some time, although I rarely target them these days.

The following day I alternated between taking photos of the gear I was reviewing and fishing on the surface with this floater rig.  I ended up taking another 3 carp off the top and lost a couple too.

After a pretty terrible winter campaign it felt great to be on the bank catching, in fairly pleasant surroundings (I saw a few buzzards, jays & a treecreeper and had a field mouse visiting my groundbait bowl).  Surface fishing got my juices flowing big-time!  And when I latched into this 14lb common on my last cast, I actually caught myself smiling as the drag slowly "ticked" as the fish took line several minutes into the fight.  This year, for probably the first time ever, I was really glad that the river coarse fishing season was over. There's no hiding from it; since the beginning of November I'd had a real stinker of a season and smiles have been sadly lacking from my fishing for longer than I'm happy to accept.  But if this session was anything to go by, the spark is back and I'm loving my fishing again; at last!

Royalty Fishery - Article Online now at FishingMagic

On the ball as always, I thought I'd better mention my latest article, which has been published on FishingMagic for, errrrm, 5 or 6 weeks already!  It details my trip down to the famous Royalty Fishery at Christchurch, Dorset, on the Hampshire Avon.  It was my first time fishing the river and whilst I enjoyed the experience, it was certainly a trip of mixed emotions.  I headed down there for two days with my old friend Matt and we primarily pike fished, although there were a number of barbel anglers who were catching well.  We spent day 1 on the Parlour pool and bought a general day ticket for the second day.

It was a really difficult article to write, it took several drafts to get it to read right, but now it's finished I'm quite happy with the result.  I think it's worth a read if you've ever been to the Royalty, are planning to visit, or have ever considered or dreamed of a trip there.

http://www.fishingmagic.com/features/coarse_fishing/general_fishing/15918-river-fishing-a-right-royal-day-out.html

See what you think and then please let me know what you think of it.  If you're a FishingMagic member, you can post directly beneath the article.  Or if not, feel free to post your thoughts below here.

Brierley Park Pond Anglers Association needs your help! New fishing club in Ashfield, Nottinghamshire

Early this year I heard about a local angling club which had been setup to open fishing on a country park lake, on Brierley Forest Park near Sutton-In-Ashfield.  This lake is within a couple of miles of both where I live and where I work, so I'd known it existed for quite some time and had heard that people would often "poach" there, because fishing wasn't officially allowed but was turned a blind eye to.  I was really pleased to hear that a club was taking control of the lake, because one of the downsides to free, unofficial fishing is that it's totally un-policed.  Anyone could fish there, however they liked, they could leave litter, thieve fish and use questionable methods and baits without anyone to check even if they had a rod licence.

Through hard work and persistence, permission was granted by the appropriate local bodies for a newly formed angling club to lease the lake and and open it up to properly managed fishing.  On June 2nd 2012, Brierley Park Anglers Association* will officially open up the pond to fishing with an open day at the water, featuring various family-orientated events and who knows, maybe even a visit from one of the club's high profile patrons, Bob Nudd, Keith Arthur, Julian Cundiff and Dave Williams.

One of the things which impresses me most about the whole Brierley Pond project is that it has a real "community" feel to it, with a large emphasis put on providing angling opportunities for disabled anglers and children.  Wheelchair-friendly pegs are being installed and tackle donations are being sought, so that on-site tuition can take place, to actively encourage youngsters and those with disabilities to take an interest in fishing.

Help/Sponsors Needed

In conjunction with the Environment Agency, Brierley Park AA are installing numerous accessible fishing platforms and to fund these, club chairman Steve Savage came up with a novel way of funding them.  He's asking bait & tackle companies, along with local businesses, to sponsor a peg, at a cost of £100 per season.  For this price not only will the sponsor be helping anglers fish in comfort, they'll also get a name plaque placed on the peg and should the peg feature in any match-winning catches, it will be mentioned ion the website and in local media by name rather than by number (e.g. instead of "Joe Bloggs won with 12lb of roach from peg 4" you'll see "Joe Bloggs won with 12lb of roach from Terry's Tremendous Tackle peg").  

If you would like to find out more about becoming a peg sponsor at Brierley, or can provide any fishing tackle to be used to help teach local disabled people and children to fish, please contact Gary Barfoot via the Brierley website or search for "Brierley Pond Community Project" on Facebook.

The Fishing

I fished at Brierley during the winter and found it to be chock-full of silver fish.  I was catching quality roach and rudd, more-or-less every cast.  This was on a bitterly cold day and despite this, I was catching in less than 4 feet of water.  The only conclusion I could come to was that I was casting into - to coin an old Yorkshire phrase - "One foot o'watter and three foot o'fish"!  There are also a few carp well into double figures, along with lots of tench, bream, crucian carp, chub, perch and the odd surprise!

The lake is just over a couple of acres in size and is quite shallow on the whole, with 3 or 4 feet being the average depth, but there is the odd trench and hole which go a little deeper than this.  There are beds of Norfolk reeds, sedges and a few overhanging trees as features and one bank is completely fenced-off as a nature reserve, so the wildlife, as well as the fish, can get a little respite.  Brierley lake has a healthy population of waterfowl with the standard coots, moorhens, mallards and swans sharing the water with the fish. 

The lake is best suited to pleasure anglers, but it also has plenty to offer matchmen and the chance of landing an uncaught specimen; who knows what could be in there!

You can now purchase season permits to fish Brierley for a very reasonable £30 per year adult or £15 juniors & concessions.  There is a £6 joining fee for your first year.  

There are also day tickets available, but these must be purchased prior to fishing (they can be purchased days in advance, provided you know the date you're going to fish), from the Brierley Forest Park Visitor Centre & Cafe, located 250 metres from the pond, near the car park.  

Brierley Visitor Centre & Cafe is open:

April – OctoberMonday to Friday: 11.00am - 4.00pm
Saturday, Sunday & Bank Holidays: 11.00am - 1.30pm

November – March
Monday to Friday: 10.30am - 3.30pm
Saturday, Sunday & Bank Holidays: 11.00am - 1.30pm

A wide range of food and drink is also available.

You can make out Brierley Pond as a triangular shape towards the top-right corner of the map, so you can see how close to the fishing this shop is:
 

View Larger Map  |  Get Directions  |  View Bird's Eye

There are also set to be regular matches held at the venue, so keep an eye out for the results.  See the Brierley Pond Community Project website for further details:  http://www.brierleypond.co.uk/

You can also browse or join the Disabled Fishing Talk forum, which I believe is moderated by Steve who is chairman of Brierley Park Anglers Association, at http://disabledfishingtalk.forumotion.com/f40-brierley-park-pond, where there is further info about the fishing at Brierley.

*Please note that Brierley Park Anglers Association has now been renamed Brierley Pond Community Project

A few new bits and bobs

This little newsflash post is soon to be followed by a fishing update, but I just have a few things of interest I thought I should share...

Firstly, Carl Allman of Rio Ebro Angling, who we chose to fish the Ebro with - for zander, roach, carp and catfish - last September, acheived second place in IGFA's World Record Acheivement Awards, as acknowledgement of him guiding anglers to a total of 18 line class World Records during 2011 alone!  I'd like to say I was one of those anglers... but I'd be lying!


Rio Ebro Angling also have a newly redesigned website http://www.rioebroangling.com/ and I urge you to check it out if you're thinking of venturing to foreign shores in search of fish this Summer.  There is a limit to how many bookings a single guide can take and I assure you Carl is among the best, so make your enquiries sooner rather than later.

I wrote an article a little while ago, about storing and keeping worms, including lobworms and denbrobaenas ("dendras").  I've put it up on my website.  If you want good, plump, fresh worms whenever you need them, without spending a fortune keeping them, it's worth taking a look:  http://www.just-fish.co.uk/articles/41-keeping-worms-fishing-bait.html

I also have three more features up on FishingMagic.com, the first is a step-by-step photo guide on how to make your own buoyant leger stems which are both cheap and robust:  Make your own Leger Stems

The other features are two reviews of Cyprinus products.  The first of which is an oval brolly/shelter called the V3.  It's ideal for spring & summer overnighters or for really windy and wet day sessions; just the job for an all-round specialist like I try to be! 

Cyprinus V3 Oval Brolly Review

The second Cyprinus review is of their flagship "Whole Hog" fishing accessory chair, which comes complete with all the rod support kit and a little side table too.  It even has arm-rests and a reclining back - both luxuries I've never been used to in fishing chairs in the past.  The review is here:  Cyprinus Whole Hog Fishing Chair Review and also, I noticed there were no instructions with this chair when I opened the box.  There are quite a few parts and to put them together for the first time is a bit confusing unless you have diagrams or instructions.  I've since found out that there is a PDF instruction leaflet available on request from Cyprinus, so I've also stuck it on my website for convenience, here:  Cyprinus Whole Hog Chair Setup Instructions.

Lastly, I came across this video yesterday which shows a novel and quick way of removing a barbed hook from your body, should you be unfortunate enough to hook yourself.  It does require another person to assist and it's not for the feint-hearted, but it's a pretty impressive technique:

Underwater River Ebro Catfish Fishing Video

I've put up a little compilation video of all the underwater footage we shot (only with a small hand-held camcorder) when catfishing on the Ebro. You can view it below or on YouTube: http://youtu.be/rROVVKnSzp4

More Ebro videos to come when I get time to edit them!