The not so Glorius 16th

So yesterday was the start of the river season, yipee! Anyway i just had to get out on the river, particularly as i've just join a new angling club with some prime river stretches. As i only had a few hours to fish i decided to do a bit of Spinning for Pike rather than the Bream fishing, which can be excellent but can also require a lot of patience as the Bream on The River Tees are notoriously nomadic and it can take 2-3 hours for the 1st bite to come. Anyway the river was fairly clear (which the Bream hate) so spinning was a no brainer really. Armed with my 8' Spinning Rod and my favourite battle scared shallow diving lure, i began fshing. Its a stretch of river i've never fished before, the banks are quite steep and there's lots of over hanging trees, bushes ect. Good hiding places for the Pike but it makes fishing difficult.

An hour in and i hooked my 1st fish, a Jack of around 2lb which promptly jumped out the water and spat my Lure back at me! Next cast and another fish. This was a better fish. The rod looped over and the fish ran towards the middle of the river, then it dropped the Lure, damn! A few more casts in that spot proved fruitless so i moved along the river. Again, very close in, another Jack of around 3lb took my Lure and was on, but off again just as quickly. A bit further along the river i hooked into another Jack Pike. This one headed straight towards an over hanging bush. Attempting to move along the river and free the line, i stepped on what i thought was solid ground, how wrong could i be, it was a hole covered by long grass and through it i went, straight into the river! Not only was i up to my waist in water, i'd also wiped the side off my face along the nettle infested river bank! I clambered out with full wellies, a soaking wet back pack and a face that felt like it was on fire! Still hoping the fish was on i wound my now soaked Reel to retrieve a fishless Lure.

Definitely time to go home. The pain off the Nettle stings was unbearable. It felt like a blow torch was being held to the side of my head! It took about 4 hours and a cupboard full of Pain Killers, Anti-septic Cream and Anti-histamines before the pain settled down to a bearable level.

Not one to be deterred i went down to the same spot that same night. This time i was armed with Barbed hooks (i'd recently crushed the barbs on my Trebles down but felt the lost fish on the morning was almost entirely down to a lack of barbs). This time i hooked another two Pike, and, you guessed it, lost them both! This time i knew exactly why i'd lost them. The use of an 8' rod on steep banks meant i had little control over the fish and it was almost impossible to stop the fish heading for the undercut river bank. Next time i'll used my 11' 6" Avon Rod which should give me much more control. Lesson learnt and this time i didn't fall in!


I also took my camera down on the evening and took a few snaps. The image at the top is were i lost 3 of the fish.

PB equaling Roach @ The Bricky

So lastnight i squeezed in a few hours at The Old Brick Pond in Hartburn. The 'Bricky' has a lot of problems with litter and unsavories hanging about. There's rumours of stolen cars being at the bottom of its deep depths and there's always empty beer cans floating in it. A local man has recently agreed with the council to take over the fishing rights (its currently free) and has promised to clean the place up, add new stock and start charging £40 a year. But as yet, a year after he expressed an interest, not much has been done. Anyway the fishing itself is pretty hard due low stock density, the prescience of  numerous Jack Pike and a larder of natural food. The thing that brings people back is the size of the fish. Carp to 30lb, Tench to 7lb (fisher mans tales tell of 9lb Tench being caught!), Crucian Carp to around 3lb (although they rarely get caught), roach to 2lb+ and Pike to 16lb. Most people fish Waggler or Pole for the Tench but you also get the Carpers with their Bivvies and Rod Pods down there.

Last night i fished, as usual, Waggler for the Tench with 6lb line straight through to a size 16 forged hook. These Tench can really go so you have to stay on the heavy side or they'll snap you or take you into the lilies. I usually fish Red Maggot but as i didn't have any i used Sweetcorn which can score well at this time of year. The Corn already scattered on the tops of the lilies told me that the peg had probably been hammered during the day so no feed would go in initially. 10 minutes in and the float gently slipped away resulting in a 8oz Roach. Float back in and this time i flicked a few grains of corn out with it. 20 minutes later and this time a more positive bite. I struck what i thought was a small Tench but the flash of the red eye told me it was a big Roach. 1lb 5oz which is exactly the same as my PB Roach from a few years back. Shortly after i hit into a small male Tench of 2lb 13oz which put up a short but spirited fight before succumbing to my Browning match rod. Then the swim went dead for an hour or so before i landed my final fish, a pristine 1lb Roach. Not many fish by most standards but by this venue's its a bonanza! Particularly pleased with the Roach as its commonly thought the Pike take them all.

My Profile Pic

My profile pic is of me holding a 10lb 6oz Pike which is my PB Pike. Not a massive fish but as a twenty is a huge fish on the Tees i'm proud of it all the same. It was caught on the Tees at the Bowl Hole when i was a member of Yarm AC in 2007.  I'd only been fishing a year. Since then i haven't done an awful lot of Pike fishing but this year i've really got back into it and i've joined Thornaby AC with a 20lb Pike being one of my main reasons for joining. Also i took my son on a trip to Semerwater last month. We managed two small Pike that day. The venue holds 30's so i'll be back for those later!

5lb 14oz caught on Deadbait

6lb 8oz caught on a lure

Introduction

So i started angling about 5 years ago at the age of 30. Pretty late to start really so i had a lot of catching up to do! Anyway despite the endless hours of watching an orange float, Quivertip or waiting for a Bite Alarm to scream i still consider myself a relative beginner. I quickly became pretty obsessed and the art form has become a passion for me.

In this blog i'm going to chart some of my fishing trips around the Teesside/North Yorkshire area. With 5 years of obsessive fishing behind me i wouldn't like to go into detail about it all but lets just say i've collected a myriad of rods, tackle ect. I'd also like to think i've picked up a vast amount of knowledge and i've certainly got a  lot of photo's and memories. I also have a PB list which has been quite static over the last couple of years, something i intend to put right this year.