Banana skin safely negotiated!

It had been a busy week at work and i struggled to find a slot for fishing but Phil convinced me to fish on Saturday and I am pleased he did as we managed to catch a few and hopefully resolve him loosing too many fish.

It started off first with a visit to Pete Dobbs give my condolences. Unfortunately his wife Pam had died earlier in the week and it was her funeral on Saturday. Pam was a terrific lady, well like, hard working and just fun to be around. For a good period of time she served up Bangor's and mash at our winter programmes and made an impact on our members. Pete was holding up well and doing things his way, our thoughts are with you.

I joined Phil on the point of the North Shore and Stone barn bay after he had already tried the gravels. The wind got up slightly and became a little uncomfortable but still felt fishy. I saw a couple of fish landed from stone barn bay so fancied a move.

Phil had what he thought was a take and landed a... "banana skin"! Let's hope we weren't going to trip up! can you please be careful where you dispose of such a lethal weapon?

After the move the guy next to me was catching and returning fish like mad, thirteen i think he had returned before I left. I was adamant that it was location not anything else and I think it was confidence that caught me the first fish.

Phil meanwhile had lost a couple being snapped and as I watched hi tying up a new leader it became obvious that he was loosing turns in his knots. This was quickly corrected and hopefully he can now convert all those lost fish. After a chat to the other guy he changed his buzzers to claret and started catching. He had 1 before I left, hopefully more.

I managed 3 on black buzzers one of which fought as though it was twice it's size. The trick for me a couple of weeks ago was to use a melanistic pheasant tail buzzer and they were picking this out. I had another fish on this but it was not as fast and furious this time. At least the banana skin was safely negotiated.

Tying silk: Black

Rib: Holographic gold or silver

Body: Melanistic (Black) Pheasant tail fibres

Thorax: dubbed hares ear

Cheeks: Orange reel backing

Thorax cover: Melanistic pheasant tail fibres

It was then on to my lunch time slot at the beginners course. a new instructor Malcolm was there but the half a dozen beginners were as enthusiastic as ever and I tied up the catching buzzer and a hopper.

Ravensthorpe red

It was the Hector Woolnough floating line competion at Ravensthorpe today and to help a few pals along thought i would go fora few hours yesterday.

A cold wind was blowing into the Dam and for a few minutes I had second thoughts but then headed up to between the tower and the overflow where it was flat calm, this looks better!

As I was tackling up I thought i would cast and walk the bank, down first time with a damsel, daiwl back and a green buzzer (all flies that have been working this week) and then back up with a bung and buzzers.

When I made it to the overflow the boat infront of me was catching but i had only had two pulls. Just as I was changing to a bung a guy from the platforms walked past and said he had 4 from this spot earlier on black and red buzzers. I'll take all the help can get and put two on the droppers.

It is amazing the difference the right flies can make! The best one for me was a black tying silk buzzer on a size 10 hyabusa, it had a back of red holographic, held on with a silver rib. The thorax is just red holographic wound rouns a dozen times. I haven't looked at Bev Perkin's Holly 1 recently and it must be similar.

The fish were running the dam and up the channel so it wasn't non stop but every time they were in front of me, you know, a couple of fish rise and bang your in! I managed to return 5 and had quite a few more takes.

As I sat down and made a few calls it dawned on me that it was back to work on Monday, what a shame I was just becoming confident of catching anywhere, with a little help of course!

Malcolm Eade dies suddenly

I was on the dam at Ravensthorpe and was saddened to hear that Malcolm had died suddenly this week. I understand of natural causes, in the bath, a bronchial attack.

He gave an enormous amount to the Mid Northants. When I started fishing he was competition secretary and as far as I was concerned he was the Mid Northants. He run this in his very effective own way and had a great audience as the club was in it's hey day.

When I joined the Mid Northants committee he had moved to the secretaries role and also put many years of service into run this. Unfortunately though he did have a falling out with the club that he never forgot. He wanted to be Chairman but was beaten by only a few votes at the AGM and with this resigned from the committee and other petty acts he could find. The one that affected me was that i took over as secretary and he refused to hand over any paperwork. It was such a shame and I don 't believe his talents have been used since. These days we would welcome people who had such ambition and leadership.

I never really fished with Malcolm but he took a large number of fish from Pitsford every year and even last week he was mentioned in the Anglian water reports for another great catch and fish.

He will be sadly missed!

Grey skies and green buzzers

Today I fancied Draycote for a change. Fishing with Nathan last week made me realise that it was fishing with him, Mick and John years ago which was the last time I was off the bank at Draycote. I also needed to confirm the Barclays National with Kieth now that we are all fully booked up. We have 12 teams of 4 anglers including the teams Barclaycard, Clearing A, Clearing B, North London, Radbroke 1, Radbroke 2, North East, Reading, Southern, Thames & Solent, Property and a Presidents team. Are you in? If not there is still room for a small one, e-mail me on kevrowley@live.co.uk

So I headed off even though I had a crap weather forecast.

It was raining when I set up off Lin Croft but with no fish I moved across to the cornfield. The hotspot was full up but the next grassy bank had only one angler. As I walked down the bank he was into a fish and in a friendly way turned around and said "damsel mate, loads of fish here", brilliant I thought!


In the next 20 minutes I didn't have a fish and couldn't understand how they could ignore my green buzzers, are they mad?

The fish were rising just out of range so I took off the midge tip and rigged up the shooting head floater and a damsel on a short leader to keep it up in the water. A longer cast into the light wind and I caught straight away and never looked back consistently catching for the rest of the morning. The rain even stopped and while it didn't change from "miserable grey" I could at least concentrate on catching fish.

Draycote is heaving with fish at the moment, there were fish rising constantly - most out of range of course - I didn't feel I had the fly they wanted but was catching just the same. If had the correct fly it would have been embarrassing. I did just check that they were green buzzers and spooned my fish as below. Being colour blind is an occupational hazard but they are green aren't they?

Beginners corner

Tuesday this week Robbie Windram was in the lodge at Pitsford and advised that there were a few fish in the small half so I thought I would drop into the Willows, not as easy as I thought as the guy that was in the lodge was all but running out of the lodge and down the bank.

As I arrived there was already another guy in here as well. After a look round the corner, sod it and muscled in, nicely of course.

With a hole in each of my wellies - I must take these back on guarantee this week- I didn't want to wade but there was about 4 yards of low level reeds so it was going to be interesting landing fish. I took a look around and a few green buzzers were around so on went two of my best green buzzers and a black one, cast out and bang a fish first cast. Returned, sorted lie, cast out again and bang a second one was on it's way in. This was going to be fun.

The guy that raced down from the lodge had been the night before and was also straight into fish. He was fishing a single green daiwl bach on a floater and I ended with just two green buzzers on a midge tip. Both of us bagged up easily even after we both lost fish. I lost loads until I got the knack of playing them out in clear water and then head up and pulled over the reeds into a net.

There were tons of snags and I would definitely recommend sorting your flies, flick them out into clear water, then sort your line and then cast out. It sounds standard but you would be really surprised how many tangles everyone was in. I guess the other way is put the chesties on instead and wade out, fair point!

The good news was that there were two beginners in here to and after a bit of coaching they were both well into fish. Ian was next to me and although I passed over all the catching flies, he struggled until the other guy set his cast up identically, checked the rod himself with a fish and then coached him through his first few. very impressive!

If this was Nathan's secret st ache for beginners then fair play, I know these two beginners are hooked!

Easter Saturday

As I arrived it was flat calm and there were a good number of cars off Stone Barn Bay. Never mind I was here and the least I could do was take a look.

As I settled in I saw a guy in where I wanted to go and then recognised him as Nathan Reilly, excellent I though and went over for a chat. It seemed as though the fish were taking claret buzzer and while I stood there he spooned the next one he caught and sure enough it was full of size 10 buzzers.

I popped in next to him and set up with what I finished with earlier in the week and was then into fish straight away. Over the next couple of hours I managed to return 5 and then fished for the last hour for my sixth without success.

Nathan as usual had some brilliant observations:

There were loads of different chironomids hatching of all sizes but the fish were definitely picking out the larger darker ones, black, purple or claret. They must have an acquired taste! After a look into the deep pool by his feet there wer eclouds of daphnia. I had never seen them this close to shore but I guess it was because the wind had been blowing into the shore and they had got trapped.

Also normally I think of the fish running up and down the bank but these were not doing that and we were sure that they were holding in deeper water further out and then when the conditions were right or they wanted food they would come closer in. This made perfect sense and I guess the shelves around this bank would allow them protection and warmer deeper water to hold in.

......and don't jump in my spot as I'm going back again!

Pier Fishing at Rutland

It was a strong westerly at Rutland and bank fishing was limited. Whitwell Creek or in front of the lodge? well we were at the lodge so a lazy decision really straight into deep water and as I had never fished from here before I was looking forward to it. The boat dock wall was great, wind over your left shoulder and a comfortable rock for a seat. It felt like I was on holiday at the seaside fishing off the pier, damn I forgot my crab line and bucket!!

Phil Cross set up on the corner fishing into the bay on a floater as normal and I got the Di7 and boobies out just in case there were loads of stockies. It had only been 5 minutes and Phil had a pull, another 5 and he was into his first fish - no duck today then!

By this time i had had enough of pulling and set about the floater but for the next half hour i had had nothing while Phil continued to have takes and a lost fish. After a chat it was obvious the fish were running the bay but not along the wall so i muscled in between Phil and the bush on the corner and the day became more sociable as we settled in for a great days fishing tweaking a gold head a gold head and buzzers around in the wind.

The first few fish took an pheasant tail in the middle dropper and I then set about getting all three flies working. A gold bead on the point was a must, the hares ear and then orange caught fish but it was only when the tried and tested green pea went on that we found the point fly. Later on in the afternoon I put a pheasant tail buzzer on the top dropper and the cast was complete. Another fish on this and the wind changed slightly and the cast ended in the tree, No!!!

It was my last lite bright green pea and I had to scrat around for similar pheasant tails. It turned out just to be confidence and I settled into more takes and fish on the another green pea and PT's.

There were plenty of fish to be had, I ended with 8 returned and Phil 5 but both of us lost a good number at the net( shook off early to save netting!) and there were many pulls. To top it all it was great company like being in a boat and a nice view to look at all day below.

It has been ages since i had fished the bank at Rutland and after this it won't be so long before the next trip.

Bright sun and clear water

Not the greatest of conditions for a start to a couple of weeks of work. I had a look at Pitsford on Saturday and opted for a walk instead. Sunday was nice and I thought that you could catch in any conditions at Ravensthorpe but no. I had a couple of takes on a dry Leadbeater Emerger but that was it.

Mike said he was heading to Pitsford this afternoon so thought I would go for a look. He had a great spot on the point of stone barn bay with the wind coming across left to right and out a little, a bit too strong but thought it might calm as the evening went on. Geoffrey from the Fly Dressers guild had popped in next to him and second cast was into a fish just as I arrived.

I started on the Di7 and a booby but when your hearts not in it you have to change. So on went the floater, long leader weighted bead black buzzer the point and two pheasant tail buzzers on the droppers. The confidence was rising.

A difficult cast out and it landed a bit messy in the wind. I left it for the current to sort out and as the line went tight on my finger I started a slow figure of eight retrieve. The line went heavy but I continued the retrieve, a bump but I continued and then it just hooked itself and I lifted the rod and it was on, a nice 2 pounder had taken my middle dropper. I had another fish and a few missed takes which turned into a nice evening.

The wind got a little stronger and a little colder so without wanting to miss Man Utd on the tele we headed off. I didn't want to overdo it as I am looking forward to Rutland off the bank tomorrow.

Ravensthorpe all to myself

My wife had a candle party tonight, you know, one of those great excuses to gather a hoard of women together, drink, spend money and gossip! so I thought i would make myself scarce and it was not a bad idea being my first evening on the banks this year.

I thought there would be a few naturals about after a nice day so thought i would head for Ravensthorpe, it was 6.30 but still good for another hour. Bob Church was just returning to his car after a great day and even as much as he has fished still recounted what a great 4 pounder plus he had just caught on a black buzzer and a bung. His enthusiasm for fishing is still awesome! I was planning to head for the platforms in mongers bay and after Bob advised that there were fish there and close in my optimism picked up greatly.

I hadn't been there too long and the last boat headed in, the bailiff packed up and went home and so did the last bankie next to me. He said that the last hour hadn't been great recently, marvelous! It's alright for those that can get there at 4 but i am going to have to make do with what i can.

A look back over to the lodge made me realise I had the place to myself and still over an hour of daylight left.
It wasn't too deep in front of me so I decided to copy the boat tactics and fish a team of buzzers on the bung. I had only a seven foot cast on, 2ft to the first dropper, 2ft to the next and 3ft to the point. A Daiwl Back, Black buzzer and a bead head buzzer on the point to hold it all down. I could now understand where the bankie was coming from as the wind had picked up, gone cooler and was blowing in my face, not too much though and I still managed a decent cast so that i could see my bung.

It was a strange technique, it felt like fishing from a boat where you are drifting towards you bung but in fact your bung is drifting towards you.

I managed to catch and return two fish on the droppers and lost another couple with a few more pulls that I saw but didn't connect with. Nothing over two pounds but very pleasant all the same!

The last 10 minutes I tried of the dam but as i struggled to see my bung, and two Tawney owls were twit ter wooing to each other from the trees behind the dam and those behind the overflow, I thought it was time to head for home to the madding crowd and see if they had left any food and drink.


Not bad for just over an hour ,