BRYANS ANGLE

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 ...

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...

So last week myself and a friend took the long 12 hour drive to the lake we fished so successfully last year. Thoughts of big fat carp crawling up our lines were foremost in our minds. I,d had a good session last year landing 17 fish, if memory serves, upto 42lb and was looking forward to hopefully a repeat performance. Once the long haul was over and we had arrived at the lake it was time to set up all the usual paraphernalia needed to survive a weeks carp fishing. After a couple of hours lugging bags from van to swim, setting up bivvies and generally getting sorted it was time to relax. First order of the day was to have a little perch fishing with lobworms from the dam wall as last year a few large stripes were seen following marker floats so it was decided to try for them. After an hour or so we,d had half a dozen perch to half pound and a couple of small jack pike, no big perch showed but it was a bright sunny day so we weren't expecting much anyway. A short walk back to our s...

A spur of the moment decision saw me pulling up to my syndicate water just as it was getting light 2 weeks ago with a mind to catch a carp, well lets face it to try and catch a carp. I opted to fish an easily accessible swim because, to be honest, i was in a lazy frame of mind and didn't really fancy pushing my barrow full of kit very far. I have fished this swim once last October and unfortunately had lost a fish late one night due to a hook pull so know it has form. I,d brought Choccy along to keep me company and he was quite content chilling and soaking up the sun as i went about setting up my home for the night and making myself comfy. Once this was done out came the marker rod and i started to thrash the water to a foam as i searched for 3 likely areas to target the old mud suckers. I wasn't too bothered about the disturbance i caused as my marker was dragged through the swim countless times, or with the depth charge water eruptions as my big balls of boilie crumb and ...

So lately i havn,t had a lot of spare time to go fishing due to work and the ongoing attempts to complete the extension i,ve built on my house, this has meant that i havn,t been to my syndicate for a few months so the limited fishing i have done has been very local and only for a couple of hours at a time. Now i,m not complaining too much about fishing short sessions locally as there is some not too bad waters nearby, and i have caught ok, but its meant i,ve had to scale my tackle down considerably to allow me to be more mobile and chase fish down rather than wait for them to come to me. This has been good fun as i used to be very mobile when i first started fishing and its quite nice to do so again. With two waters being within 1 mile away, another around 3 miles, and miles and miles of  the River Roach and the River Crouch starting within 2 miles away i thought it would be a good idea to kit out the old mountain bike to use as my mode of transport for fishing these venue...

So any of you who have read my Blogs before will know that i have 2 spaniels, Paddy a Sprocker and Choccie who is a Working Cocker. Well i,ve always wanted a furry fishing buddy so have decided that i will have a go at teaching Choccie the ropes at being a 'carp dog'. He has the right temperament for it as he is very obedient, doesn,t roam too far and can quite happily keep himself entertained. i,ve taken him, along with Paddy, on a couple of sea fishing excursions on the local tidal river and both have behaved well so thought it was time to take it to the next level. Instead of just throwing him in at the deep end i thought it best to ease him into fishing so i took him along for a mornings walk around my syndicate as i marker float around a few areas to get an idea of whats under the water. Well i have to say i am really impressed with him as he settled in nicely as i spent time casting around various areas, i did originally think he might be jumping up at anything i wa...

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...

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...

So a couple of weeks ago I re-joined a syndicate I had been a member of a good few years ago. It's a beautiful water of roughly 25 acres with plenty of features to fish too and some pretty impressive common carp to fish for, as well as some big mirrors, big rudd and apparently some good size perch. After joining I fished the following weekend hoping or some action as the weather was spot on and I was looking forward to returning. Well as you,d expect I blanked, much the usual for me,but then so did everyone else fishing the lake. So I didn't,t feel too bad after all. Although I didn,t catch anything I did have a sharp short take on my second morning, and I did learn a few things about the area I was fishing.  One thing I did notice was some big perch striking at the shoals of small fish in my swim. By. The disturbance they made I reckon they were of a good size so definitely worth a try for in the future.   I had a visit from the owners dog on my first morning and got robbed o...