Autumnal Pike

There are few sights I enjoy more than the brightly coloured top of a pike float settled amongst the newly fallen yellow, brown and red leaves floating on the surface of my favorite pike venue. There can be little to beat that moment of excitement as the once still float bobs for the first time, inches it’s way across to surface and disappears beneath the autumnal flotsam and jetsam. Danny and myself haven’t managed to get out much recently, despite him spending a lot of time with me. it’s either been shocking weather, or he’d rather get dressed as a warewolf and try to extort sweets from the neighbors. We did however manage to get out over the weekend for a couple of short last light trips to a venue I know holds a good head of large pike. This water produces a hell of a lot of pike for me, at a very high average weight. it’s one of the few waters I fish where the cormorants haven’t decimated the silver fish poulations that the pike rely on for food. This trip was no expetion and the action was fast paced and expolsive as the fit and healthy pike took out mackerel and sardine baits with relish. Danny does love to catch pike as do i, and he even turned his hand to photography for the first time. The results were very impressive for a 6 year old.

the biggest of the trip, not far off 20lb

Another big double

The smallest and much easier to hold

Danny tries his hand at photography, with better results than most of my mates can manage.

Double bass

Yesterday I headed down to Brighton to get afloat on the Brighton Diver. I’ve not bean afloat on the sea for quite a while and always enjoy it. We headed out of Brighton at about 7:30 am and motored out to the spot the skipper Paul had chosen. this was a rock wall in relatively shallow water about a few miles out. The target species were to be bass and bream. After arriving Paul positioned the boat and I started by trotting a live mackerel back towards the mark, suspended under a Coca Cola bottle. After a few trots back and one aborted hit, Ste next to me had a hit on his mackerel fished on the bottom, so I took off the float and bounced the lead back to the wall. The rod wrenched over as a nice bass hit the bait. I’ve got to say this is an increadable way of fishing and very exciting. I quickly had a lovely brace of nice bass, before alowing someone else to have a go and I went to do a bit of gentler bream fishing. We all had a great day and we will eat well for the next week.

the last thing my live mackerel would have seen

Lucky horseshoe

Danny and I headed over to Yateley to fish the Horseshoe lake on Saturday night, the mountain of stuff I have to take when the 2 of us fish over night is rediculous. And in my usual way it’s hardly planned to military precision. We had a great time though and despite the lake fishing very poorly for the bigger fish, Danny kept a good stream of roach and perch coming to the net. Non of the crucian or tench put in a show, though he did manage to catch a small chub. I have never seen a chub caught form any of the lakes at Yateley, so can only asume they have found their way in from the river blackwater when it flooded last winter.

Lovely chubbly

Danny holds his trophy aloft

A silver lining

I’ve been struggling a bit of late on the Thames, been putting the time in, baiting heavily and fishing as often as I can. but the carp don’t seem to be around the area. I’m not one to give up though. I had a pleasent suprise the other night though when a couple of beeps and a strong drop back produced a lovely river roach. Not my indened target and not that sporting on such heavy gear, but nice to see the river holds such beautiful fish still, and I’m now thinking about having a crack for them in the winter. Danny is here this weekend and i know he wants to go night fishing. We’ll see what the weather is like before though. Not much fun for the young-un if all it does is blow a gail and rain. Especially for a whole night.

A dry evening

We decided to to spend an evening over at the lake at Syon park with the fly rods. Danny is keen to learn and a friend sorted me out with a little 8ft brook rod so we took it down to try it out. As expected his casting is still all over the place, but we found fish in one corner of the lake that was devoid of anglers to start with. I decided to have a go for them on the dry fly. It was like shooting them in a barrel. We had our limit of 4 in a few hours and Danny lost as many with his heavy handed playing technique. It’s so much fun taking trout off the top. And then seem to put more energy into their acrobatics.  I can’t really think of a better way to spend an evening. Nail a few trout, back home to eat one, then get Danny off to bed and crack open the red wine. Ahhhhhh

keep your eye on that fly

The site of a 6 year old outfishing them soon brings other anglers to our spot

Business end

A lovely Syon rainbow

Your mum can wash that

it’s not all beautiful scenery and peace and quiet

As Idylic as fishing can be, sat by a beatiful stretch of river, next to the wild and open sea. the sounds of nature in your ears and the smells of the flowers and trees, there are on occasions when the fish seem to prefer the more built up and urban areas of the Thames.

I’ve fished 2 nights on a new spot the seems to be frequented by strange people. Parking behind me and flashing their interior lights. People parking up and enjoying odd looking cigatettes. numerous visits by the police and the odd courting couple who seem to forget to turn off their interior lights. It’s made for a couple of very interesting trips. Possibly not a place to take Danny though.

I’ve managed to lose a carp on the first night and land one on the second, so the spot certainly seems to have potential, and a good element of the unknown. And if the fishing is slow, there’s no end to the entertainment on offer.

dodging the doggers

Smoothie hunt

With reports that the smoothhounds were rampaging off the shore down in Selsey and off the Witterings, Danny and I decided to see if we could get in on the action. Unfortunately best laid plans don’t always work out. And we struggled to find any fish on a poor neap tide. Trying to find bait was even harder as the tide refused to go out and reveal the pools of crabs. Bait ended up being bought and we headed off to the first of 2 marks on the advice of the local tackle shops. We fished through the high tide without any smoothies showing up and again the next day we fished a different mark through the high into darkness and they failed to show again. We did catch bream and bass though and Danny had great fun in the sea and it was hard to keep the boy dry, he once agian showed just how much he loves water and I have to say I’m rather getting into this sea fishing lark. Every time the rod banged over there was that feeling that this could be it. You just never know just what is going to grab that bait.

Watching the tips for signs of action

Not quite a smoothhound, but they are all welcome

Prospecting for silver.

After lunch Danny and myself took 2 pints of maggots down to the semi tidal stretch of the Thames in Petersham and sat about catching whatever we could. It wasn’t long before we had the swim boiling with fish, there were millions of them, bites were incredibly hard to hit and the ones we did were incredibly hard to keep on the hook. A few lessons were learnt. Next time the barbless hooks can stay at home. Not sure what i can do though about the lightning fast bites the dace were giving us. They had the amazing ability to leave nothing but a maggot skin on the hook. I might take a few fake maggots down and see if I can sit through the nibbles, until something proper gets hold of the bait. Despite all that we still built up a good few pound of fish in a few hours. the river is alive with them at the moment, and the amount of fry in the edge beggars belief.

A net full of silver

Daddy, it it a sardine? Can we eat it?

Stoney and Friends’ Yateley bash

Once a year for a whole weekend in August, 150 or so anglers decend on the famous CEMEX Yateley fishery. CEMEX donate the fishery free of charge and all the anglers pay to fish and raise sponsorship. There is a superb raffle and all money raised on behalf of stoney and Friends goes to Macmillan Cancer Care. This weekend we raised in excess of £20,000 and brought the total raised so far to over £300,000. It is an amazing event. And one where people’s generosity always brings a lump to my throat. This year was no exeption. Friends I only meet once a year at this event were all there and a great social was had. the social is far more important than the fishing. Which for myself this year was also excellent.  Visit the site and see what we are all about http://www.stoneyandfriends.org.uk/ You will also find us on facebook.

A 26lb Pads Lake carp

A cracking 28lb carp

And to top it all off a lovely 30

Tidal thames trout

Well a few days after catching our first trout ever out of the tidal Thames we go and get another. In the same spot, on a different tide. A similar sized fish, fought very well and we managed to get a few photos for you to see. I could have stumbled on the best free trout fishery in the country. I guess, despite Thames Water releasing tons upon tons of effluent into the river every year that it has an amazing ability to heal itself. Just imagine how good it would be if they stopped pumping the crap in there. I’ve got to say, I had the best week with Danny, and feel a little deflated now he has gone back to his mum’s. the great news is that he is back next week for more fishing fun. He currently has this obsession with Zander, which i think is going to be a tricky one on the Thames, unless anyone knows any better. If so, please get in touch.

This weekend sees the annual Stoney and Friends charity bash at Cemex Angling’s Yateley complex. Often great fishing, always great company and raising lots of money for Macmillan Cancer Support.  Tight lines to you all.

I managed to persuade Danny to release it, he wanted it for his dinner.

A tidal thames tiger

You'll never walk alone