BRYANS ANGLE

Before christmas i manged to grab an afternoons fishing at a small local pond which i,ve heard rumours has produced some big perch to pleasure anglers over the past year or so. I had to work locally to this water in the morning and knew i,d be finished by midday so i sneaked my perch gear in the truck along with my tools and made sure i passed the local tackle shop on my way to work to pick up some maggots and lobworms. The sky was overcast with a little drizzle in the air while i worked which i was very happy with as i like overcast conditions when i predator fish. Unfortunately by the time i had finished what i had to do the sun had come out and the temp had risen a few degrees to make it a lovely day, but unfortunately not what i was after. Nevermind i thought, its my first trip to the water so i,ll just use it as a recon visit. Arriving at the water i was surprised as to how attractive it was, willow trees overhanging the nearside banks with swims in between them and reeds lining...

As most of the country has found out its been raining a bit of late, which has subsequently resulted in many rivers, streams and brooks flooding badly. A couple of local rivers have more water in them than i have ever seen before, flooding across acres of fields as well as flooding some roads making them impassable. I popped into a local area which has two rivers meet before splitting over a weir to see how they were running. I was shocked at the ferocity of the water as it raged and boiled along its track before exploding over the weir. So out with the camera to record what i saw.

Last week i actually managed to get a few fishing sessions in fishing for pike on three different waters, and whats more i actually managed to catch something too. Well the first session was a quick couple of hours fishing on a local syndicate lake. Its a water which hasn,t been fished properly for pike and is over 40 acres so theres plenty of scope there, but as mentioned no one has seen any signs of pike activity let alone seeing any mooching around. Well i did a few hours late one freezing cold afternoon moving from swim to swim around half of the lake float fishing various deadbaits but didn,t even get twitch. The water looks as though it could throw up some good pike as its big, got plenty of weed growth and bankside cover, has plenty of underwater features and is teeming with rudd. I had no luck this time but i,ll give a few more trys over the course of this winter. Ready and waiting The next trip was a dawn trip on a local river for a couple of hours, again after Esox. Th...

 A properly set drop off indicator.  All ready and waiting..   Too close for my liking.  I took these on my iphone today after a walk along a local river. I was getting itchy feet in the office. I,ll be having a go for the pike here when the ice thaws. These two pictures i took on tuesday morning at the field behind WATERBOUYS CENTRAL. You looking at me Guv!!!!!!

The weekend before last i actually managed to blag the day off to go fishing as the other half was working, so excitedly i got my kit together on the saturday afternoon ready for the off 6am the following morning. All tackle was checked, batteries for the bait boat charged, drifter gear sorted out and tea gear prepped. I was ready for a day out at one of my BIG syndicate waters. The morning can around and i loaded up the truck with all my fishing in the freezing darkness, lovely i thought as i do love fishing in a crisp frost first thing in the morning. Watching your breathe as you crunch along the bankside vegetation while you set up your kit is what i love about piking. After a short drive i was pushing the barrow around the lake to the spot i fancied, even though i try and limit the gear i take theres still quite a bit for a days dangling. I arrived at my chosen area and started to set up my rods, first being a close in rod to be lobbed 25 yards out just past the drop off. Sec...

This saturday just gone i sneaked out of the office early to have a couple of hours perch fishing on a local river. I,ve been itching to return after my pike trip there a few weeks back when i mhad a couple of big perch try to take my livebaits meant for old esox. Well i grabbed half a pint of red maggots and a pot of lobworms from the local tackle shop and set of to the river arriving around 2.30pm. I love this little stretch of river, its only about 50ft wide with barely a flow unless its been raining heavily, and has boats moored down both banks creating lots of hiding places for the ambushing perch. There was some big shoals of bleak dimpling the surface just off the boats which i took for a good sign so set about tackling up in their area. My set up for float fishing a lobworm is very simple. I like to use a chubber float as it carries a nice bit of weight as well as being able to hold up a small livebait if i do manage to catch one. This has a float stop either side of ...

Not much to mention on the fishing front lately as the dreaded need to earn a crust has unfortunately been taking presidence. I,m currently trying to complete the  building of a pond which is fighting me every step of the way. Each stage is taking longer than it should and problems abound, but it should be finished in  the next day or so........ I did manage the weekend fishing for pike and zander up the Fens a couple of weeks ago with Ryan, but unfortunately the fish didn,t want to play ball. I think it was probably due to a cold spell which set in the day before. I did manage to bump a double figure pike at the net when we were set up along Ten Mile Bank saturday evening. I also had a dropped run after a couple of thumps when we dropped into fish The Old West for an hour or so before heading for home. The only excitement, if you can call it that, of the weekend was the torrential rain which kept hitting us on numerous occasions saturday afternoon. It was bloody cold as w...