BRYANS ANGLE

 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...

At the beginning of this year i fished a small river in Essex, which i had been meaning to try for a few years, in hope of catching some nice perch and chub as i,d heard a few reports and walked the river and it looked good for both species. Luckily i did pretty good on that session and caught both my target species, and not bad sized ones too. Well last week i decided i fancied another trip there to see what else this tiny little river had to offer. My target for this short afternoon session was the perch, probably my favourite species to fish for over the past few years. Now that i know the river holds a couple of decent specimens i feel that its worth putting in the effort to see what size these sergeants actually grow too. Arriving at midday i set of on the 1.5 mile trek to a small side pool, which i had caught small roach, rudd and gudgeon from on my last trip, to tempt out a few small silvers to use as live bait on the main river. Arriving at the pool it was obvious that no one...

So i,ve been suffering from an Incasserated Ubilical Hernia since christmas which basically stopped me from doing much, fishing, walking, working, so i have basically been moping around the house. Fortunately i had an op to repair the hernia mid January which was good but meant that for a couple of weeks i was even more house bound as the wound healed up. I was meant to stay of my feet for a couple of weeks and no activities for a couple more, but i could,t wait and as soon as i was fit enough to walk i packed my pike fishing gear and headed of to a local water for a 'gentle' couple of hours dangling. Upon arriving in my chosen swim i dropped a float fished half herring in the near margins and turned round to set up my other rod, my rods were already tackle up but just needed the rod sections putting together a trace clipped on and bait hooked. I,d just finished hooking up a small roach deadbait, horizontally so it could drift around the swim, when i noticed my margin ...

 So since my last post not a lot has happened on the fishing front unfortunately. I have managed a few early morning 'before breakfast' trips in search of pike to a local and have blanked twice and managed a couple small jacks on a third trip. Its strange as the conditions seemed bang for all of these trips but the pike have had other ideas. Ive fished this water on and off for over 15 years and have caught on nearly every trip, even if it was just a small jack, but since trying back there over the past couple years i have been struggling. The only thing that i can think of that is different is that i used to fish late afternoons to last light instead of the first light sessions i do now. I reckon i,ll switch back to the afternoons and see if that will help me catch more than i have been. I know of a good few areas which i have pike in the past which i have been fishing again so maybe switching to the afternoons is the answer. I,ll keep you informed on how i get on.  Al...

Got these little beauties through the post this morning. I reckon they will be great for perch on a couple of waters that i know. Not bad for £3.50 of Ebay... Slow sinking with an internal rattle, got to have a fish or 2 on these. I,ll give them a try first to see how they fair and then might change the hook for a smaller size..........

 Last week the it snowed as predicated. The weather men had predicted heavy snowfall along with strong winds as a bad weather system was meant to be hitting the country. People started the usual panic buying of food in case we were going to get snowed in for countless days, and what did we get... Barely half inch... And guess what, this small amount of snowfall brought chaos to the country as it usually does. How come Canada can be under feet of snow and no one bats an eyelid and keep going about their business, but we get half a fookin inch and all hell breaks loose. This country is a joke sometimes. Now on that note i couldn,t work the first day of the snow as the boss pulled the plug on the building job we were doing. But this time i wasn,t complaining as i had deadbaits in the freezer and my pike rods were already set up and ready to go from a session a couple of days. So as the sun was rising i was crunching through the now thinning but frozen solid snow on my way to t...

My first trip of the New Year saw me on a perch hunt at my favourite location armed with a couple of pints of maggots to catch some livebait and a tub of lobworms as back-up in case no little silver fish could be caught. Arriving before it was light i sat in my truck eagerly waiting for the sun to rise so i could set of to my chosen spot. I,ve fished this location  quite a bit over the years and have had some cracking perch, fishing small free roaming livies in between the moored boats. My PB of 3lb 14oz came from here as well as more perch over 3lb than i can remember. In fact a few years ago it got to the point that if i hadn,t caught a perch over 3lb in the 2 hours i was there, bit of a naughty place to fish so only had a couple hours fishing before lock keeper was out of bed, then it was a poor session. Anyway, eventually it was light enough so off i trudged through the car park and up the steps to find the whole river frozen solid. OOPPSSS!!!!! Should of checked the weather...

With the unofficial pike season just a couple of days away, although i won,t actually start to fish for them until the weather has cooled a bit more, i,ve been casting my mind back to the pike i,ve caught and the places i,ve fished for them over years. I,ve been fortunate enough to of caught some good fish in the past, but must admit that i havn,t been faring too well for a while now. My guess is because i,ve been too busy using my spare time setting up and expanding my tackle business,  WATERBOUY TACKLE      WATERBOUYS TACKLE on Facebook,   instead of being out in the cold fresh air hunting Esox. Another factor could also be that when i have been fishing there seems to of been a distinct lack of fish. Locally the waters that hold pike get hammered in the winter, not so much when its turned really cold, but i guess the public access fisheries always have been fished hard. The local rivers just seem devoid of any pike above 3lb in weight, but i have noticed an ...

A good few years ago i was diagnosed as having Carpal Tunnel Syndrome in both my hands and also something similar in my elbows. Over the coarse of 2 years i had operations to relieve the symptoms and fortunately they have mostly worked now, but i still have problems with holding small objects and working with fiddly things. None too good when your an avid angler and every rig you tie takes ages and sometimes quite painful. Now tying rigs on the bank is an awkward thing to do at the best of times but couple that with Carpal Tunnel and it can be damn near impossible, especially when its wet and cold. I now overcome this problem by preparing all my rigs before i go fishing. I,m pretty lucky in that i store my tackle at my warehouse so have dedicated a room solely for fishing and its next door to my office, so whenever i feel the need i grab a little bit of kit and sit in the office listening to music, watching fishing online and tying up various rigs for future trips.  Today i sta...

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...