BRYANS ANGLE

 Lately there have been a few reports of the thornback rays showing up in the local tidal river in good numbers so I thought i,d set out to catch one. I have caught a few thornies in the past but I,m far from proficient at it, so I,ve set myself a little goal of fishing for them more over the next couple of months so that I can learn as much about them for future fishing trips. They're actually not too difficult a species to catch as they're not really rig shy and as long as a nice fresh bait is placed in front of them then you,re in with a chance. Anyways I arrived at my chosen location, after a 2 mile grueller of a walk, an hour before low water planning to fish the tide up until it was pulling too hard, making the fishing uncomfortable.  TRAPS SET As the picture shows the water here is a long way down which makes retrieving your tackle, or fish for that matter, a tricky affair. But its worth sliding down the wall and clambering over the rocks when needed as this spot is str...

So since last posting on here I havn,t had a lot of time to do much fishing really. I,ve spent a lot of my free time building, modifying and writing content for my countryside/outdoors based website/blog, give it a view and see what you think as I,d love your feedback  BRYANS COUNTRYSIDE , I,m pretty proud of what I,ve built to be quite honest with you. Its surprising how much time it takes to write a half decent post though, let alone the time it takes to edit the multitude of photos that I take whilst out and about on my adventures. I do enjoy doing it all though and hopefully I can keep growing the site. Anyways back to the limited fishing I have actually done. As soon as Boris allowed us to fish overnight I was camped up on the Big Water for a couple of nights in pursuit of its carpy residents. In short I didn't even manage to land a bream let alone a carp even though the first night saw lots of small lifts and knocks showing on my alarms. I'm never disheartened if I blank ...

 Its been a long time since I last had a dangle partially due to the lockdown, starting a new job and quite frankly a 'can,t be arsed' attitude of late. Last weekend I finally thought 'bollix' I,m going to have a mornings fishing no matter what. The local reports have been dire really with very few fish showing in my local river let alone any fish of note, but sod it I thought I,m going regardless. I spent a couple hours saturday afternoon getting my sea gear ready and tying a few rigs ready for the off at first light the following day. I hadn't ordered any worms so bait was going to have to be any old fish I found in my freezer and fortunately I had a good supply sitting ready for me. First light saw me in my van poodling along the country lanes to my chosen destination in thick fog, which wasn't expected. Ten minutes after setting off I had pulled into a lay-by and loaded myself up with  rucksack, rods and bait bucket and was setting off for the 1.75 mile walk...

 So last Wednesday I finally got my wish and loaded the van and headed to the big water for a day chasing 'Old Esox'. Weather was forecast to be sunny, cold and very little wind, which is not my favourite conditions to be fishing in, but 'sod it' said I, I'm still going. Arriving at first light I could just see that the area of lake I had chosen was teeming with silverfish dimpling all over the place. Especially along a line about 50yds out from the banks, I believe this is probably where the marginal weed thins out, not that there is much around at this time of year. Barrow loaded and off I went to find the first swim along the bank that I had chosen, one which I have not fished before. I've fished the opposite bank a fair bit but haven't done so on this side, all I have done is have a little lead around, a couple of years ago, just to get a feel for the topography of the bottom, it doesn't vary much until you get further up the bank but more of that la...

 As the title suggests its been quite a while since I posted my last blog so thought it best that we have a little catch up and I explain why I have been so quiet of late. I think my last post was back in July when I had a night trip after smoothound, I didn't catch any but I made up for it by bagging up with bass including a couple of nice size keepers. I've had one overnight session fishing for carp on the big water, between now and then, which was fruitless, not even catching any bream which seem to have been taking anything fished before them. Other than that all I have been doing is thinking off, not actually going,  fishing. I,m still finishing off the work that needs doing to my house, currently in throes of completing the upstairs bathroom after a complete rip out and re-design/re-build over the past few weeks. The house improvements have taken a lot longer than planned but we have been adding to the 'TO DO' list very heavily, but the end is in sight now. I have...

Recently there has been reports of a lot of smoothound being caught from the Thames shores, especially locally to me at Southend on Sea and Canvey Island. This news gained my interest as i used to love catching smoothounds on the monthly boat fishing trips to Hayling Island that i used to take with the guys from a local boat fishing club i was a member of. The power and speed of this members of the shark family was awesome from the boat so catching one from the shore would be fantastic. After doing my homework i opted to fish the closer of the recommended venues, Southend on Sea. I used to fish of the platforms near the casino many years ago and enjoyed some good sport catching winter species and flatfish as Spring arrived, but i,ve not fished the opposite side of the pier before let alone during the summer. I decided to choose a night time time, 1.30am to be precise, as i didn't really fancy being surrounded by the daytrip brigade. I arrived just as it was getting dark and wal...

Since the lockdown was lifted and we have been able to get back out on the bank i have been to the big water 3 times. First time was for a recce and to purchase my yearly ticket and get a key for the various gates situated around the water. I,m glad i took the time for a short walk around as i,ve settled on an area that i will be fishing for a while, which i know, and has also been been confirmed by a regular angler, holds carp, or at least they past through the area regularly. Situated well of the beaten track in a very difficult to access spot, and i,m pretty sure, judging by the lack of trails, that no one fishes this particular area. THIS IS ONLY A LITTLE BIT OF THE UNDERGROWTH I FOUGHT THROUGH  It has been fished in the past though as there was a few, very overgrown, swims cut into the bankside undergrowth. I had actually found this area last year and thought it looked good for a session or two and did clear one swim to fish for a day session. I didn't catch anything then...

On my way to do an overnighter on my syndicate this week i made a pitstop at a small river located  en-route. My aim was to have a wee chuck around with the micro lures for a perch or maybe a chub if  my luck was in. Well i didn't catch anything, my excuse is that it was too hot and too sunny,  but enjoyed a couple of hours stalking along the banks of the crystal clear water and spying on anything resembling a fish. I did have a few follows from micro chub and small perch but no actual takers. I wasn't,t bothered though as i had a great time just watching the fish hold in the flow, before darting for cover as i peered closer. CHUBLETS HOLDING STATION IN THE FLOW  A large part of the river seemed totally devoid of fish where as other parts were teaming with roach and chublets. I did find a couple of nice size chub, around the 3lb mark i reckon, but didn't manage to get a picture of them. I also watched what i thought was a near double figure carp slowly drifting ...

So due to the Covid virus lockdown, and prior to that  being too busy, i actually haven't bee fishing for over 4 months, and i,ve been gagging to get back out and wet a line. Fortunately this week good old Boris started a 5 stage lockdown lift and this week was stage 1 and allowed us back out fishing as well as other hobbies which can be carrie out whilst applying the social distancing rules. This meant that i could dust down the fishing gear and get myself out there fishing. I just had to decide what i wanted to fish for as i have a quite a few options locally. In the end i opted to go to the local saltwater river and try for a thornback ray before they moved out of the river for the rest of the year. Luckily enough i had prepped all the necessary gear, and stocked up on frozen bait,  before the lockdown was brought into force. So yesterday armed with 3 rods and a rucksack i walked the half mile to my chosen spot which was a marshy platform which jutted out into the river ...

After my whiting bash a couple of weeks ago i decided that i fancied another trip out sea fishing but somewhere different to my normal stomping grounds. A venue was chosen and a plan was hatched to take my Dad out for the day to fish Walton Pier as it was meant to be fishing relatively well for whiting, dabs, maybe the chance of a ray, possibly a dogfish or two and even the remotest chance of a 'sea unicorn'. That will do for us i thought and i set about thursday evening tieing lots of different rigs for me and 'old boy' to use. RIG PRODUCTION Friday dawned and as predicted by Metcheck the weather was sunny with a slight breeze, instead of the drizzly rainy days we had prior to this trip. Gear in the van, Dad collected and off we set to the North Essex coastline. Just over an hour and half later we were all set up three quarters of the way along Walton Pier, which i forgot to take any pictures of so here's one i took a few weeks earlier. WALTON PIER ...