Well in the last week I've had another evening down the lostock with Dave this time. I am pleased to say that he caught his first ever river barbel too! Well done mate! we wandered down to the pool that i had caught from previously and both managed to get a barbel and managed a couple of decent chub as well. What a great evening it was, a brace of barbel from the tiny river however i wont be returning now for a couple of months at least as i don't want to catch them again, i guess that in a habitat like that they would suffer dearly from stress.

What a brace of nice little barbel!
So without the lostock on my agenda i managed to grab an hours plugging for jacks on the lodges, i caught two with this small jack being the largest.

i even managed carp number 3 from the lodges this season in the form of this small common taken on a floating mixer under some marginal trees
That has pretty much been my week, I'm off onto the ribble tonight with my dad, i wont be bothering fluff chucking at tourists but ill take a tub of worms and a tin of spam see what i can latch into, you never know this time tomorrow i may have a picture of a double figure barbel up here, it may be a 5lb chub or even a river carp! the again it could just be a snig or even worse nothing at all only time will tell.

tight lines

nige

To barb or not to barb, that is the question!

The alarm sounded at 7am and i turned over and turned it off. Next thing i realise that Carl is due to be here in ten minutes and I'm not even out of bed let alone got my gear together! One rushed motion saw me fully clothed and down stairs.There was no time for breakfast but the gear was assembled and i only kept him waiting a couple of minutes. Today we were heading down the lostock for the first time this year so are not completely confident but this little river is a gem! A ten minute walk from my house saw us setting upat the first pool of the day. first cast bang a chublet then it went dead, i Lent over in the branches off a willow to see a barbel! Icaught one of these from the very same swim four years ago but not having seen a sniff of them since assumed that it was a lost fish come up river from the Ribble. With my very best Bob James impression i let out a childish high pitch shrill of excitement speaking to Carl like i had a razor stuck in my Adams apple! In a flash i had a size 8 hook and a couple of pieces of cat meat positioned inches in front of Barbus Maximus the hardest fighting freshwater fish in the kingdom!

In went the bait and a violent shake of the head prompted me to strike. The tiny pool erupted as all hell broke loose, with a short but thrilling fight i had her in the net, my 3lb line held good on me.She obliged with a photo for the album too!You may be thinking that a fish of this size is nothing special but when you consider the size of the river, 10 feet wide and only a foot deep in most places even at an estimated 4lb its huge.
Then the rest of the day passed without anything special, catching dace and chublet from every pool or run this is a typical example

Carl even managed to get in on the action with a couple of bootlace eels, as you can see from the facial expression he wasn't best pleased!

on the way home we called in at the pool where the barb had visited the net earlier in the day, as i leaned out over the willow i almost went in as there were another three barbel there all lined up on a slight patch of gravel! as Carl had already packed his rod down naturally i dropped another chunk of cat meat in front of them with the promise that as soon as i hooked one i would give Carl the rod. The best days fishing are always when everyone catches a great fish so i wanted Carl too get one too. well as I'm sure you have already guessed the meat was snaffled in a matter of seconds and Carl was into another barbel! Unfortunately the fish boiled on the surface and Carl didn't loosen the drag and as a result the split shot followed by the hook came hurling back over our heads. I don't know who was more gutted me or Carl but never mind there is always next time. The best part is that it shows there is a small population of these beautiful fish in the lostock !

tight lines

nige

Brazzzeeem!

Well, the lodges was as deserted as ever last night apart from the stoners on the car park. Myself and Dave took to the double peg on the pit in hope of catching a few bream in the darkness of night.my waggler and quiver tip remained motionless all night without a bite. Dave had one bight on the waggler which was a bream of around 5lb. with my ground bait made up with a more than ample helping of that awesome attractor i thought we would of scored a bit better but it just wasn't to be. Down the lostock tomorrow though so who knows what we will catch.

tight lines

nige

So Ill Bring You Up To Date.

Well i can only start by apologising for the dodgy photos, most pics are on Dave's camera, the pics i have are all self takes on my little digi camera. The past couple of months have seen me fishing on a couple of waters mostly. Up North, My local Club water and more on the lodges. Ive now got a couple of good fish under my belt but still not that elusive twenty. My fishing isn't about weights and individual fish however i find it helps to motivate ones self on harsh nights if you have a target you would like to reach before the years out.

One such harsh night was during the big freeze. Me and Dave thought it would be clever to go fishing all night with the temperature plummeting to minus five and still freezing in the day. Although i didn't get a sniff of a carp Dave hooked a fish at 4am. I had to smash a hole in the ice in front of his rods to get the net in! Once the culprit was in the net ( a small common) we noticed another fish sitting a couple of feet out under the ice It was attached to Dave's margin rod! His alarm had froze solid and the fish was just sat there so we bundled it into the net too! One bite and two identical commons on the mat! unfortunately i don't have that photo currently at my disposal.whilst trying to pack up that morning i snapped off twice, the ice was so thick and i guess it weakened my mono.

So times could only get better, and that they did! We stared our campaign on the lodges and i can say that to date i have had two of her residents and Dave's also got in on the action banking one of her elusive carp. By no means have we had any 'jewels' but i think any fish from said water is good going.

We have also had a couple of weekenders up at our northern water which have produced some cracking fish up to 19lb. one such weekend saw me and Dave bank a staggering 1600lb of carp and we reeled in at night to get a nights sleep! an average fish is 8lb so that's a lot of fish in two days fishing. i also found that Big Eels love halibut oil! my boilies glugged in them were like a magnet and saw me land several 4lb+ SPECIMENS. Unfortunately they were slightly less obliging to pose for the camera than the lovely common carp, this one being slightly bigger than the norm.

Thenthere the Club water i have fished a few times, this has given me some cause to rip my hair out! With a good smattering of twenty's and only being a couple of acres you would think they were catchable. Although i seem to be able to catch consistently i haven't had any of the biggies, my most recent trip last week saw me bank several fish topped by this mirror just short of 16lb.Myself and Dave are on the lodges on Friday night so i shall keep you updated!

as a footnote congratulations dad on banking several chub from the ribble i know they are not quite the sea trout you would like them to be however i don't think your complaining!

tight lines

Nige.

How time flys!

Its a little under twelve months since my last diary entry which is a total shambles. However i am back with a renewed enthusiasm. I can honestly say that i don't believe I've enjoyed my fishing as much as i have in the last couple of weeks since my childhood sat at a pond with my farther catching 'monsters' which in reality were small perch and roach with the occasional bream and tench. anyway back to the job in hand, what a year it has bee

Ive had mixed success and some rather nice fish but what makes me most chuffed is that I've been able to help put a smile on a couple of faces along the way. my cousin Carl, a life time pleasure fisherman who went a couple of times a year. In the past twelve months hes accompanied me often and had some cracking fish topped off by this common just short of 16lb.

Another great catch was this 10lb common from the lodges which has only a handful of carp in it!

i think the smiles say it all and hes hooked just like the rest of us! i know have another great fishing companion.

Then there were my younger cousins how visited from France last October. They spent a week here for my sisters wedding and i managed to to get a couple of hours down the river with them one afternoon. As is always the case we timed it totally wrong, the river was up and the colour of hot chocolate, not good when your trying to trot a stick float in this very small river lostock. As you can imagine we didn't catch that many fish however i did manage to get William for different species which he was made up with! his first fish a perch followed by a roach then a dace and a chub. although only small this would have been a dream session for me at that age and i think he enjoyed it too!

Fishing for myself? well i have done quite a bit of that too but that will have to wait until i get home from work.