BRYANS ANGLE

I just thought i,d post a picture of my new toy which i,m hoping will give me hours of fishing fun. Shes really lightweight so I can pop her on my shoulder and walk a good distance with her if I choose. I bought the glassfibre hull from a chappy not far from Downham Market and had my Dad fit the gunnels, seats and ancillaries for me. She looks great and I can,t wait to give her a maiden voyage. My plans are to use her on a couple of local small rivers where I can get to areas where its not feasible to bank fish ( and not allowed). Also I fancy having a go at bass fishing from her as a local estaury where I have found some good bass ground has little current and would be ideal to trot a float fished peeler crab down tide or even have a go at lure fishing for them. I might even take her up the Fens and try a couple of drains.

Well its been quite a while since I last posted on here, basically because i,ve been too busy. What with finishing off a large contract at work and then re-locating my business warehouse I just havn,t had any time to actually do any fishing. I wasn,t totally out of the loop with regards to my pastime, as I have been making plans and preparing myself for when the dusk clears business wise. I managed to get a syndicate place at a very large local water which i,ve wanted to fish for years. This reservoir is over 100 acres in size and is best part under fished, its got specimens of most species but only seems to get fished by the carp boys, this is great for me as i,ll happily catch a carp or two, and theres some right big lumps present, but its the tench, bream, roach and perch that are getting me excited. I,ve heard rumours of double figure tench, bream to over mid doubles, big roach and 4lb perch being caught by the boilie brigade and nobody seems to fish intentionally for them, until...

I,,ve been fishing a few times this year but to be quite honest the fishing has been a load of crap. I,ve blanked for pike on two venues, both stillwater and rivers. I,ve also blanked once for perch in my banker areas. Whats going on??? I have managed a couple of fish but nothing to jump and shout about. A nice chub of around a pound or so on my floatfished lobworm. Had this lovely 2lb perch as well. Why the fishing has been so poor I just cannot say. I,ve fished in banker swims at the time in the perfect conditions, but on the whole its been really hard going for very little reward. Maybe it,ll pick up in the new year, heres hoping.................................

A few weeks ago Ryan and myself fished the Fens for a weekend with our expectations high with the thoughts of big pike and glass eyed zander rolling through our heads. We opted to fish a drain that we havn,t ventured upon before to see how it fairs compared to our usual haunts. After a bit of driving around we found a nice looking stretch and set about roving along its length. After a couple of moves I had a run on my livebait but totally missed it as I was day dreaming. We moved along to the start or a reeded area and swung out our baits, my two being a free roaming livie and a deadbait and Ryans being two deads. Within 5mins I had the shout from Ryan to signal he was into a fish, as I got closer to him the shout turned into a more urgent "hurry the fook up its a goodun" tone. And she was a goodun too, after a couple of runs I deftly, I,m getting good at netting other peoples fish, scooped up the pike and proceeded to carry her up ...

After waiting for ages I,ve finally managed to get my custom fishing dinghy afloat. My Dad has made this from scratch in glassfibre to my specifications, its only a small easily manageble 8ft 6in glassfibre dinghy which has been built to take two big blokes and a bit of tackle. The idea being that I can use it on a couple of local rivers as well as take it up the Fens and use it on a few of the drains and smaller rivers there. It may look small but its perfectly formed. Its got a flat floor which has glassfibre sealed epu foam beneath it which gives it exceptionally bouyancy so this baby isn,t going to sink. With the moulded ribs its also really stable. And thats a 4hp yamaha on the back which pushes it along lovely. We used it on a local river and poodled of to fish behind some boats at a near by marina christened her in style with Ryan managing 2 perch over 2lb to just under 3lb. I had 2 pike of 3lb and 8lb on my livies as well as a lovely perch of 2lb 10oz. Oddly I caught thes...

Midday i arrived at a local club stillwater to have a go for the big perch i,ve heard rumoured that live there. I,ve fished it a couple of times last year but as yet have not managed to bank any perch over a few ounces but I keep thinking that there must be some biggies in there as its teeming with stunted silverfish. Anyway I set up half down the right side bank as the other two swims that I was hoping to get in are taken, this doesn,t bother too much as last time I was here in the next swim, which I can easily cast to, I found a deeper hole in the lakes bed close in and had some good fun catching double figure carp on my perch gear. the weather was overcast but mild with quite a strong breeze, jumper weather really. I mixed up a nice dark groundbait mix of 50/50 van den eynde super black and sensas red magic along with chopped worms, maggots, liquid worm and grub juice and feed an area close in along the bank and another  two rod lengths out where the at the bottom of the margi...

A few weeks ago I couldn,t contain myself anymore and had to point the truck Cambridgeshire way and fish the mighty Fenlands for their predatory inhabitants. I normally go for the weekend but unfortunately i could only do the one day so on Sunday 16th October I made my way North at stupid-o-clock to get to my chosen destination at first light. I arrived at my chosen river before light and set about carrying my kit to my first swim, a well known big fish area once upon a time. I set up two rods on floats, one as a deadbait and the other as a free roaming livie rig, cast out the deadbait and them proceeded to winkle out a few nice silvers for the other. When I had enough of them I cast my float to the near margin to my left fishing 3ft deep over a bed of heavy weed. Over the next couple of hours I had 2 mid single figure pike and bumped of a good double on the lives. It was great fishing the lives as the water was really clear and I was fishing just over the top of the reeds and could ...