BRYANS ANGLE

Earlier in the year, Easter weekend to be precise, myself and 'she who must be obeyed' dropped in on a large body of water with the intentions of having a nice leisurely stroll along the banks with our two pooches. I,ve heard of the place on and off over the years but never actually got round to visiting the place. Rumours have it there were some good sized pike swimming around beneath this inland sea and seeing as pike are my favourite species it was on the bucket list but the place kept falling out of the memory banks.  Well after months of research, finding out not a lot about the fishing on this 350 acre beast in the process, i bit the bullet and handed over my hard earned for a years permission to fish this behemoth. My research had pulled up a few details and pictures of average sized carp and pike that have been caught over the years, as well as a few blog posts about the good tench fishing and the large roach to be had. Nothing particularly exciting i will admit bu...

 So i had a few hours fishing one evening on a local park lake last week as i felt the need to get the tackle out. It had been scorchio for the week previous with most days getting close and even hitting 30 degrees but i just fancied a quick and easy trip with the chance of having my string pulled.. The temperature was still in the mid twenties when i got to the banks of this water and started to walk down the side i wanted to fish as the wind would be over my shoulder here and not effecting the water for a good 20 yards out, just how i like it for floater fishing. Unfortunately most swims on this side were taken by day anglers, a very loose term for them, so i walked around to the other side with where the wind was in my face. I was particularly happy about this as although the wind was warm it was also quite strong and i try not to use floats when i fish on the surface. Well i catapulted a few pouches of mixers out as far as i could whilst i set up my gear with a Korda s...

I had a walk around a large water that i plan on joining this weekend and as i usually do i was poking around in the margins seeing what lives there and what the fish maybe feeding on. I found the usual water fleas, shrimps and small worms in and around the marginal weed as well as quite a few mussels, but on entering one 'swim' i found quite a few large water snails in the shallows moving towards a small clump of reeds. I only took the one picture but wish i took more now, maybe even a short video, as i,ve not seen a 'clump' of large snails like this before and they all looked on a mission. I,m guessing they were on their way to lay eggs on the nearby reeds. They were big too, between 1"-2" shells.

A nice few mullet i saw a couple of months back whilst walking the dog at Tollesbury marina..

We regularly walk  our dog Paddy over a local country park of a weekend and on our walks there ive noticed theres a lake in the middle of the park. When theres water involved i mhave to explore and upon walking round this small lake i,ve noticed quite a lot of carp activity. On our last visit there it was quite obvious that the carp were very happy to feed on the surface as i saw them bow waving and sipping down insects around the lily pads and marginal reeds. A plan was hatched and later that evening i arrived at the water armed with my stalking rod and a bucket full of mixers and loaf of bread.  It was a red hot evening with not even a hint of a breeze, perfect for surface fishing but not great for a knackered old fisherman walking the 1.5 mile needed to get to the water. After finally getting my breath back i proceeded to chuck out some mixers and straight away the water erupted with carp of all sizes fighting for the free food. Great thought i, banded mixers on the...

So after coming back from my French trip i havn,t exactly had a lot of spare time to get the rods out, so the thinking cap was donned to see how i could get a couple hours dangling in so that i could scratch that nagging angling itch. After finishing work a little earlier than planned i couldn't take it anymore and grabbed a little bit of kit and two of my 9ft stalking rods and took a walk to the local park lake. I,ve fished here a couple of times over the past few years but with its location by a main road being noisy and the fact you get some right old 'Roughuns' wandering the banks sometimes, its not exactly my ideal water. Anyway ignoring the negatives and focusing on the positives, lots of hungry carp,  i opted to give it the evening. Fishing small pva bags full of pellets or stick mix i cast regularly to the ends of the near margin trees in search of a bite. You could see the carp rolling and patrolling these areas regularly so it made sense to fish in close ...

Having booked this trip the previous year it finally came round with alarming speed. It seemed like one day i had no need to worry about getting my kit checked and ready, and then suddenly i,d be heading to Southern France in a weeks time. Oh shite thought I, best pull my finger out and get organised. Fortunately i only had to stock up on a few bits and pieces and get my bait ordered, Eclipse Virus was the bait of choice. 23lb 4oz 18lb 12oz  I won,t bore you with the details of the journey, but it was 12 hours and uneventful with rain falling from the time we arrived in France through the day and also the night. What is worth noting is the amount of sexy looking waters i spotted on the trip that look just ripe for a little dangle. I don,t know if any were private or day tickets but nearly all of them looked like they had not been fished as they were mainly overgrown. A possible bit of exploration soon maybe....... 19lb 8oz 28lb 8oz   28lb 12oz ...

I know I know,  i,ve been a bit quite of late but there has been a good reason for this lack of content. I have been working like a Trojan to pay for a 10 day carp fishing trip to France. Well its been and gone now so i,ll be writing a post about my exploits in the next few days, once i can figure out how to get the bloody pictures of my iphone and onto the computer. Until then i,ll just leave this here to whet your appetite.......

Well its been a while since my last update, again, and in truth there's not a hell of a lot to say really. I,ve had a days carping over my new syndicate on a mild day in December which although a nice break didn,t actually produce any carp. Strange really as i set up on a couple of bubblers and saw a few carp bow waving across the surface in a shallow area of the lake which was bathed in the lovely winter sun. My anticipation was high for a run but it was not to be. Thats carp fishing i guess. Again theres a few things i will store in the old memory banks for latter sessions so not a wasted day really. I had a few hours fishing Wroxham in Norfolk shortly after christmas as we were visiting the other halfs family for the usual celebrations. I promised i,d take Sharons nephew fishing for pike so we set of at first light to try and snag one, but i wasn,t that hopefull as the weather had been horrible for the previous couple of days and the river was high, coloured, cold and pushin...