Little n often

And that's not just referring to the feeding regime.
Last weekend saw us back in Kildare and heading for a repeat visit to last weeks venue.
On arrival we were greeted by a horrible wind blowing waves up the canal in the opposite direction to the flow and a quick look had us deciding on a change of venue to somewhere we hoped would be a bit more sheltered. A couple of miles back to the town, a quick phone call for the access code and we were soon setting up just one swim,  in what we hoped would be a good and more sheltered spot for a few bites.
The venue is well known for it's winter fishing and regularly throws up good bags of good silvers.
Everything we're doing for now is based around 4 hour sessions to CIPS rules and that's for Rob to get used to fishing that time frame.
We took a swim on the far side which was empty and got the pole set up to fish at 9M.
Four balls of Sensas Black Roach and Lake mixed 50 / 50 had a few handfulls of caster mixed in and were cupped in to kick it off. The wind was harder than we thought so a .75gr Tubertini float was chosen and sorted to a top 3 with no 4 elastic fitted. The first 20 minutes didn't see and awful lot happen so we made a few changes as one of the lads right opposite was catching well and we figured if he was we should be too.
A slightly heavier 1gr rig with the same float pattern was introduced, we shallowed up by a couple of inches
and the bites started coming. As soon as we started getting bites we began to feed one handed small balls after every fish and boy did that get them going. Very finicky but regular bites became the norm and allthough we were only getting small roach and dace they were regular and quick enough to keep us busy and happy.
If ever there was a demonstration of the importance of making changes there it was.

Tidy

The bites were coming on every put in at this stage but no sign of any decent stamp fish, perhaps we should have upped the feed and cupped in some more bigger balls but with everything going so well decided not to.
On a blustery day that occaisionally saw the pole being blown hard to the left and pulling the float out of position, it was enough to be getting bites and be able to keep things together.
At some stage we were joined by Ollie and The Carlow Mafia who elected not to fish but to sit and
discuss all matters fishing related. As ever we sorted out all angling problems while Rob kept swinging
roach and dace to hand.

And the crowd cheered on...

With a half hour to go he was on 70 fish and it was a case of ship out, feed one handed ball at the float,
bite, lift and ship back and swing to hand. Credit where it's due it was all very tidy and a decent four hour
practise session on a cold and blustery day ended with 81 fish in the keepnet, good job.
Quote of the day from amongst a load of possible winners goes to Rob, who in an instant answer to a
general question that was something like "whats the problem with match angling" answered "to many auld fellahs standing round talking shite and not actually fishing". nuff said........................

Back on the bank,

The last few months has seen very little happening on the fishing front for Team Kavo but we resolved to put that right this weekend and despite being short on some kit, i.e. we've only got one
pole between us we headed for The Barrow. We're slap bang in the middle of upgrading a lot of our kit, boxes, poles all being upgraded, so I was the designated driver and kit carrier for the day while Rob got to kick off our new year on his new (ish) Rive D36 of all things.
A call to one of the locals had us on the main river at 09.00 but after a biteless couple of hours we
opted for a move and that turned out to be a good call. We gave it a go with various rigs up to and including a 15gr Sensas Flat Float but there was nothing to show for it and happily we've learned to know when things aren't going to happen so we moved.
A couple of miles out the road and we're on one of the overflow canal stretches with time to see
what we could do. The last few weekends had seen a couple of knock ups with some decent winter weights so we were hopefull of getting amongst them.

Didn't take to long to get re set and a .75 comfortable top 3 was soon being plumbed up to the far bank. Bit of inside info was that all the fish were coming off the far bank with nothing getting caught down the track or on an inside line. Theres quite a flow on these canals so am assuming they are staying in the slightly calmer water. Three balls of grounbait were cupped in and from the off decent roach were happily taking 3 pinkies on an 18 hook. It's fair to say were well out of practise and our kit needs some attention but we stumbled along, thrashed a couple of rigs, adapted a couple more, and cursed not having heavier hooks / hooklengths. That said we were getting bites regularly enough and hardly a swinger amongst them, only one in fact, a wee dace.

Another netter,

The few hours flew past, I had a quick dabble myself but in the main it was Robs day and when we packed it in 35 fish, weighed 15lbs 10 ozs. Mainly roach but a couple of dace, skimmers and hybrids were also tempted.

Great Winter fishing,

Good to be back on the bank, all hail The Barrow system,

Getting Close now,

With just a week before the Junior Inter Provincial match and Rob on the Leinster team, we decided on a trip to the venue for a days practise. Inniscarra is a long haul for us, three and a half hours each way so a very early start was called for. That was the first problem we had, I overslept and it was 05.30 before we were on the road. 09.00 and we're parking the car hoping we've got the right place.
Down the hill through the field with the gear and a couple of hours later we're good to go/

Clean comfortable banks, pleanty of room behind and you could almost be on a commercial but we're not. It's the wild open expanse of the Inniscarra waterway. A beautifull spot with some superb fishing and we're there, giving it a go.

We had a plan leaving the house that we'd fish a four hour "match" to CIPS rules and then for a bit of extra enjoyment we'd get the feeder rods out and see what might happen. That was the plan but as is often the case it didn't quite happen.

Faith restored.........

With bait a plenty left over from Cork and with an eye on the Junior Canal Champs on Saturday, we swung up to Ferns for a few hours this afternoon. It was an excuse to get a canal head on and check
out rigs in preparation for Saturday.
After some very carefull plumbing up to try find clear patches in what is a weedy and very clear stretch,
we settled on three lines of attack.
A .6 Grm rig was set for skimmers down the track. This was kicked off with two small balls of  groundbait with choppy and caster mixed through. A .3 Grm rig three quarters across for roach was kicked off with a pole cup half full of hemp and caster. Last was a .4 Grm roach rig fished less than half way across, this was fed with soft balls of groundbait with pinkie mixed through.
Straight out to the Skimmer line and three quick roach are followed by two perch. On to the close line and again the roach are coming to a single red mag. Taking a few fish of both these lines and swopping back and forth had 20 odd roach in the bag in the first two hours. Not hectic but bites none the less and a few good roach too. A look onto the hemp and caster line after two hours produced a roach but it took to long so back to the other lines having fed all three again. Ten more roach off the two lines in the third hour had us laughing at the idea that he'd have more from a canal in four hours than he had had in four
hours on Inniscarra !!!!
A more serious look at the hemp and caster line for the last hour, had fish coming much better than the earlier look. Adding a pot to the tip of the no 1 section meant for more accurate feeding of a few grains of hemp and a few caster with each put in. If you fed on top of the float you got a bite and if you didn't feed you didn't get a bite. The four hours had whizzed past and exactly 40 fish were bagged, yes he'd caught more than Inniscarra and they weighed more. It's funny how this fishing lark goes sometimes.

So, rigs sorted for the weekend and a timely reminder of the importance of precision and
delicacy on a canal and I still havn't got fishing myself,

Just past Dripsey boy,

Having spent hours on Friday getting sorted we were in good shape to head to Cork early on Saturday for the second in the series of 6 NCFFI Intl Qualifers. Rob is fishing these for the experience and some of the proposed venues are amongst the best fisheries in the country, so the series is also an excuse to fish some of these places that we might not otherwise get to. Friday was spent tying rigs, mixing groundbait, tying hooklengths and generally getting ready. It's fair to say there was a high level of
excitement and expectation, it was after all the famous Inniscarra we were heading to. A water with a great reputation for good bags of quality fish.
05.30 hours and were on the road, with a three and a half hour drive ahead of us. After an uneventfull trip we arrived for the draw to be given the great news that all juniors were being given an "end peg".
Happy days and this in turn added to the expectation of a good day. Somewhere along the way that was changed for Rob and his Ireland team mate from last year, Aaron Hutchman. They were both placed mid section, Rob was on "The Garden Centre" stretch and after a look at the draw sheet it was nice to see Rob was pegged next to none other than venue expert and all round good guy, Shane Dunne.

Right lads, this is the way you tie it.......

Shane to his credit, had given us plenty of information regarding the venue and how to fish it. We'd also had good information from Cathal Hughes so we figured we were in good shape as the mountain of gear was lumped through the trees to his peg.  Thanks to both of them for the help and guidance it was really appreciated. Nothing to complicated was the order of the day and three top 4's were assembled with 2, 3 & 5 Grm rigs to be fished at 9M.
A 6M whip for a back up line was matched with 5 sections of a Trabucco Dream Team  jobby set up to fish to hand (we were expecting big things)

With 20 mins to spare before the 10 minute prebait time there was time for a chat with others and a quick pose.
The match was fished to CIPS rules so 10 mins before the all in it's time to feed the swims, 6 balls on the 9M line and three on the shorter one. Groundbait was Sensas Gros Gardons, Sensas Lake both Black and Black Crumb, caster, hemp and corn were added and chucked in about 2 foot short of the float to allow for the slope. At the all in it was straight on to the short line for a 10 minute look. With nothing doing, on went the 3 Grm rig and out to the 9m line. Straight aaway the float dips and roach on. Under the match rules feeding can only be done with balls made with one hand so it was a small ball at the float after every second fish. After the first hour Mark Theedom (Senior team manager) arrives behind us to see how things are going.  Rob has 18 roach, word is that those to his left have very little and two of the three lads to his right have similar. It's looking good, now keep the roach there and hopefully the skimmers will move in, they didn't. 

The guy to Robs right was in baggin mode and roach after roach came to his line as Robs dried up. Tried upping the feed in an attempt to get them back but it just wasn't happening. Different rigs were tried, lighter and heavier but they made little difference. Adding another section and going further out in the thought that they may have backed off, did bring bites back but they were slow and again only swinging roach.
A couple of hours in and the lads to Robs left are suddenly getting skimmers a plenty,

Getting amongst them now,

Rob and the lads to his right can only get roach, three swims in a row and not a skimmer between them. It's fair to say the stretch didn't fish particularly well and most anglers were dissapointed by the end. 16.30 hrs wasn't long coming around and the final count of 35 roach was enough to ensure a better score than the first round but a dissapointing final weight none the less. The final weigh sheets from the different sections showed that a lot of lads struggled and low weights were the order of the day. Dissapointed and frustrated at the lack of the
expected bigger fish, we headed back to the village for a catch up with lads from the other sections.
Rob dived into the chipper and shortly after, we were back on the road. As ever he's asleep within minutes and it's 3.5 hours driving to get home.
So thats the second of six qualifers done and the next one on The Shannon is in two weeks on June second.
Junior canal champs next weekend, it's all go at the minute for the young fellah. Will I ever get fishing again ?

Catch Up

It's been a funny few months with not a huge amount going on for me. Between a knackered right elbow which had me unable to lift a rod to Rob having various junior commitments I've not had a huge amount of actual fishing.In saying that we've been out and about as ever with some success and in fairness some poor days too.
Off the back of the Leinster Junior Team qualifiers we've been on Corrstown quite a few times. Pleasure days have produced bigger bags with the best going to Rob of 169 fish in 4 hours, that said his few match days havn't thrown up anything like that but around 50 to 60 has been an average. He hasn't had great success in the 2 qualifiers, coming 4th in both but thats enough to keep him in the mix and theres one more to go on the canal at Ferns Lock at the end of May.

169 roach for 16lb and ozs, nice

Getting on that team will see us in Cork at the end of June for the annual junior interprovinces match.

More for the experience of it all, Rob is having a go at fishing the NCFFI (float only) qualifiers for 2013 International Teams. We were on The Barrow a few weeks ago and although he didn't have his best days fishing a few fish were caught on what was a difficult day for a lot of serious anglers. Some of the venues being used have been on our "to do" list for a while now so it'll give us a chance to go and finally fish them. The second qualifier is on Inniscarra in Cork, one that we're really loking forward to and allthough Rob will be fishing along side some of the countries best match anglers it'll give him an opportunity to fish the place prior to the Inter Provinces match, which will help.

Mark and Vinnie to his right !!!!

Playing with the big boys now...

One of our clubs FTI AC,  has had a couple of monthly meetings which we've attended, Corrstown was good and very enjoyable but the more recent one on Scur wasn't great, with my dodgy elbow having me in such a mess that I couldn't lift the rod on the odd occaision when the tip did go round.

A cracking Perch for Mac

As ever with FTI AC gigs the social side is more important which was just aswell as the fishing itself was poor enough, we had very little to show for the effort but it never really matters.


Ollie never even wetted a line.....

A Different Angle

I'm in C&J Angling getting bait for the weekend and one of my favourite venues us throwing up
a few fish on the feeder but from the other end of the lake. Theres been a bit of bait going in during the week and a few lads fished it yesterday so up and at 'em. Bad news on the Sunday evening from
Joe, it fished poorly yesterday they struggled.

Oh Yeah, wheres my rod ?

We've arranged to meet Davy from FTI and as we set up and get sorted I'm unsure what might happen.
The wind had changed to a SW and theres more cloud then yesterday, I'm thinking we might be OK.

The word was skimmers and hybrids were coming out but no bream as yet. I decided to take no chances, Kamisan Animal in a size 16 to 4lb hooklength would tame any hybrid I figured.  I knew the area had been fished the day before with nothing much coming out so a bit of a teaser around how much bait to put out. I settled on 6 casts of a closed feeder with caster and choppies and then on went the hooklength. With little happening to three rods it became apparent early that we were going to struggle. I then had 4 wee skimmers on double red mags and thought maybe we might be on to something. The other two lads weren't having any better luck, it was slow.

Another roach going in the keepnet

The SW wind was off our backs and with the odd glimpse of morning sun it was pleasant enough, time for a cuppa. After a brew I decided to slow things down and clipped on a small feeder and a single red maggot. Not long after the tip bangs round and it's something better than a wee skimmer.

A couple of minutes later and a bream, yes an actual bream is gliding over the surface of the water into my landing net. Right then bugger that, bigger hook a 14 Kamizan Animal and big lump of worm on the hook, I'll have a few more of those please. No actually I won't,  an hour ish went by without a bite. Worm, mags, caster, pinkies  and various combinations of them were all tried. Out of the blue a couple of small slow pulls on the tip and before I knew it a new PB Bream of 4lb 4ozs is in the landing net.

4lbs 4 ozs

Not the biggest bream by any standards but my biggest.

Davy was packing up at this stage with little to show for an early start. Rob was getting a few roach having changed to a smaller feeder, a longer hooklength and no worm in the feeder. Not the bream he would have loved but bites nonetheless, he's finally christened the "New" Rod.

The same thing happened after the second bream, my swim went completely dead.

A very quiet hour or so went by after the second bream so we called it a day and started planning another trip, as we do.

F Lock That

Sunday 11th and theres a Royal Enfield CAC match on the canal. I had to miss it but got th results
pegs at one end threw up some decent bags of skimmers, with 12lb and 9lb being best. A midweek trip was planned and GaryK and Ron Durkin joined me for what we hoped would be a god day.
Ah the best paid plans eh ?
We fished away from early, Ron in the swim that had thrown up 9lb, Gary in the one that threw up the 12lb and I got the duffer that had thrown up 4lb. Theres a decent bit of colour in the swims and we're
all confident. Never mind eh, not a skimmer to be seen anywhere , not much of anything to be seen actually.

It was cold, very blummin cold and with few fish being tempted we packed up earlier than had been planned and headed for home.

Good day that, FTI A.C.

Kyle tried a feeder line

The second FTI A.C. meet up went ahead last week on Corrstown and what a cracking wee venue it is too. We'd picked it based on the idea that all things being equal everyone should catch. Anyone that knows our club meets will know that we often, far to often have poor days, fishing wise.

It also gave "Team Kavo" another chance to figure things ahead of Robs rapidly approaching
Leinster Junior Qualifiers.

As it turned out only one member of The Team pulled up on the bankside but I'd keep to the plan and fish a short line, so out with a 4M whip and I'd stick with it regardless. We'd done well at
5 & 6 M's but in the never ending quest for speed we'd agreed to give it a go and see if we could get them closer and therefore quicker.
I was using a 1Grm Sensas Guilliamme float a nice to hand float but in lots of ways it didn't suit. We will probaby have one last session on here so might give the float another try. I kick started with 2 large balls of
Sensas Lake &  Gros Gardons (In my prebaited swim !!!) and was getting the standard small roach from first put in. The thin bristle on the float was really good for seeing small bites from small fish but it took to long for the float to settle after each put in. I was using a .75Grm Olivettte with a couple of small droppers under and no amount of moving and adjusting really sorted it. A one handed ball of GBait with pinkies and or caster was chucked (left handed would you believe) on the float as I struck each bite and I seemed to be going along quite nicely.
After a couple of hours it slowed, a few fish for 15 mins, then not a bite for 15 mins. I cut back on the feed, smaller balls and not so often kept fish in front of me but the bites were definitely taking longer.
We eventually called it a day at  2 O' Clock and the weigh in was quickly underway.
Everyone had fish but with Garyd having over 100 we all knew who had the better weight.
So it proved to be, Gary had 9 lbs and some ozs, pretty much all caught at 13M, I think.

108 for 9lb Something, I think.... Sorry Gaz

I had clicked 77 times and was figuring on 6Lb odd and it was enough to give me 3rd.

Davy fished pole tactics with a waggler road !!!! and had a great 7lb something for second place.

Who needs "Automatic Fish Catchers", eh ?

Nice day, nice fishing, nice venue, nice company, like I said, Good day that...............

Strange days indeed

Myself and Rob had planned on a rematch after our recent Roach bashing contest but that bed is just far to comfortable and despite a few calls between 06.00 and 07.00 hrs there was no budging him so I spent a day in the garden, seriously.
I'd arranged a day with my good mate Davy from FTI A.C. and as I scrapped the ice of my windscreen at 05.00 hrs this morning, I might have finally accepted that theres a madness inside me.
We were due to meet a couple of hours later at Annaghmackerrig in darkest Monaghan.
A pleasant enough drive had me there easier than I expected and as the icy darkness gave way to a bright blue sunny sky, I figured it was going to be a tough one. What I never figured on was a locked gate across the roadway !!!!!!!!
Davy bless him, was armed with various angling guides, including the countries latest and greatest
published guide. It's a pity none of these so called guides pointed out the problem with the gate.
I suppose in fairness theres a possibility that the gate wasn't locked on the day that this particular water was sussed out for the guide. We had a bit of a walk around and pleasant and all as the surroundings were we elected to move on.
Thirty short minutes later had us pulling into the car park of Sillan and we dropped our gear on the jettys for what would be a quick couple of hours.

It was feeders all the way, with caster and hemp for feed and red mags for hookers. I think we both knew it'd be tough but a biteless hour or so in what was a bitingly cold wind was tough. We chatted and laughed and then right out of the blue my rod is lake bound. Grab, lift and yep thats a fish and it's tearing round all over the place. Minutes later and it's netted, the hook is re baited and out it goes again, theres fish about and I'll have more please. Well actually I won't at least not immeadiately.
All quiet again and we decided to pack up and hit the road, as I'm putting things away I've an eye on the tip and suddenly out of the blue the tip is banging round. Lift and yep it's another one, this one seems better again and minutes later it's in the keepnet. You just never quite know with this fishing lark, strange days indeed.
Now heres a very very rare photo and for sure I've never seen anything like it before,

And yes, back they went

Out to the local...........

One of my all time favourites

Friday morning last, had me back on my local canal stretch for the first time in what seemed ages.
Circumstances have meant that my match fishing is on hold for a while and as a result I havn't been on a canal for to long, it really was great to be there.
It was a bit of an odd decision to give it a go as I know it well enough to be aware that there'll likely be nothing there. Despite the mild weather chances are the fish are still in the harbour and so it proved to be. A biteless hour and a half had me quietly doubting my sanity but some times it's just enough
to be there. The sun came up and a quick move was made about a 100 yards to my left. 

Sunny days and canals, hmmmmmmm

The move got my anticipation levels back up but it didn't last long and after another biteless hour,
I finally got the sense to accept that yes, they probaly are still up in the harbour.
Despite the dry net, I headed for home with a dirty big smile on my face. I consider myself very fortunate in that it doesn't happen all that often and consider myself even more fortunate that I still love it even if the fish don't play ball.

Like a nice bit of Cod, Battered......

On the road and todays plan is a wee experiment.  I'm fishing standard pole tactics at 9M and Robs
on a 6M whip. The venue chosen is particularly deep with depths of 15 foot and 10 foot each.
On what was quite a windy day I went with a 2Grm Preston float, tied to Preston .128mm line with
a 6 inch hooklength of .104mm. In "old money" thats 3lb to 2 lb lines. At the bizz end a size 18
Drennan Silver Fish Hook

Rob is fishing in shallower water and using similar enough kit other than the float was  1Grm and the hook was an 18 Drennan Red Maggot.
We also chose to experiment with groundbait, or at least the colour of it. The mix itself was equal
amounts of Sensas Gros Gardons, Sensas Lake and brown crumb. Rob added Black Tracix to his,
I didn't. We decided on a 4 hour "match" so at 10 a.m. it was All In.
I elected to use a pole cup for precise feeding, Rob chucked it in by hand. I started by feeding 4 balls
with caster and chop worm, Rob went with 2 balls with caster and hemp. By the time I'd finished feeding the little beggar had 6 roach in the net !!! It's an early indication of how the next few hours
are going to go I figured and I was right. Initially we were catching at the same speed and he was keeping about 6 fish ahead of me. After 1.5 hours he was 20 odd ahead of me and I knew at that stage how the next few hours would pan out.

I was right and as the time passed by my attempts at keeping up were useless. I stuck with it as we had agreed to see how the two different tactics compared. I had been feeding with a pole cup for accuracy but that just added to my time not catching so I changed to feeding by hand. I was so far behind at this stage it really made no real difference.  So we'd figured a few things out but we've still things to be sure about. Groundbait colour and the amount needed is next on the list, hopefully we'll get out again next weekend and we'll sort that out then.

Next time Rob gets the dodgy tactics.......

163 of the little beauties, top job

More like it.............

Theres fewer better looking things than a natural venue on a nice calm morning.  Theres probably only one way to improve it and thats to slap a seat box on the edge of it and get at it.

Even with a later than usual start time one half of Team Kavo stayed in bed, so I found myself on the side of this beauty on my own with winter roach once again the target. On what is a very deep venue I decided on fishing the feeder and having a relaxed quiet day. At 25 yards I was getting a count of 17 so a solid 20grm feeder was clipped on and cast 6 times into the lake. Loaded with caster and hemp
and plugged both ends with a mix of Sensas Gros Gardons and Sensas Lake, I was confident.
A size 16 Tubertini 808 was then attached and time to see whats out there. Two red mags to start with
and within minutes a couple of small taps on the 1/2oz tip and it's roach number one. Re cast and it's same again, tap tap and lift, second roach and things are looking promising. It's odd how things go sometimes but after 30 minutes and despite trying different hook baits, shorter hooklength and down to a size 18 hook I'm still on two fish !!! A short wander back to the car for a cuppa and a rethink had me back on the box with my trusty 6m whip in hand. Now their for it I reckoned and as I finished my cuppa I kickstarted the swim with two balls of groundbait laced with caster and hemp. The groundbait was the same, though I added more liquid from the hemp to help bind it so that it would go down better in the 10 feet of water and I darkened it with some black Tracix.
The rig was a Preston 1Grm float with a small bulk half way and 3 droppers to the hooklength, initially this worked well but a bit of a blow got up and I changed up to a 1.5 Grm Preston float.
A 1Grm Olivette half way down and 4 small droppers seemed to be just right and the bites were
now coming thick and fast. It was vintage stuff, cast, feed, strike, swing, unhook, keepnet, clicker and repeat the process. Over the next few hours I did that over and over and ended up with 70 silvers. Mainly small roach, a few perch and some very small skimmers. I missed a few in fairness but thankfully not that many. The feeding was key and as long as I fed a small, very small nugget of groundbait I could almost time the bites. I experimented with loose feeding but it lead to very few bites and was probably bringing fish up off the bottom and scattering them all round the place.
As soon as I went back to the nuggets of groundbait I got the bites back.
Over the course of the day I got chatting to a few lads from Dublin who were pegged to my right,
3 generations of anglers, Son, Dad and Grandad, great to see and as I was catching well I gave the youngest a few casts. Good lad that he was, straight into a few fish and despite it being his first time
swinging he got the hang of it quite quickly. I'd planned to pack up at 15.30 hrs and having reached 50 fish at 14.30 I decided I'd try to get 70, so when the young lad (James) arrived behind me as I bagged number 69 I asked him if he wanted to get number 70 and he duly did.

James' was the one in the middle.......

So ended a great day on what was a new venue for me. It's close enough to home and seems to be
well stocked with  silvers, though they were all small. In the words of a few different bad guys,
I'll be back.

Roach Bashing, not.......

Sunday the 5th saw us up at a spectacularly early time to first head into Dublin to collect Gary and then off up to darkest Cavan for an  FTI AC get together.

Little and Large, ayone remember them

We'd himmed and hawed about going as the weather leading up to it hadn't been ideal. A few really cold days and nights had me doubting whether it would be a productive trip but we bit the bullet and headed off to meet up with our good friends from the club.

It was to have been a days roach bashing and I decided to fish to hand at 6m. Cast / swing, feed,
hit dipping float, swing to hand and repeat the process. Well that was the plan anyway, pity nobody told the roach.

I love my Tubertini Cap

Rob set up the now predictable stick float, he's got it bad. Close in there can be very little tow here and at times it even tows the opposite to the main current. I guess thats why the roach shoal up here
in winter time, big difference in them being there and them feeding though. It wasn't happening for either of us and a wander up the line confirmed it wasn't happening for anyone else either. We scaled down both set ups and had a go in each others swims but that didn't improve things much, if at all.
Rob spent good time with some of the others asking, listening and hopefully learning.
As ever, tips, info, ideas etc were freely given and it's one of the great benefits of being a member
of FTI AC. To be fair it's a great advantage of being in any club.

Here comes the scales............

We weighed in and my 17 fish pushed the scales round to 2lbs !!! Very dissapointing if I'm being honest but the slaggin from peg to peg and the banter between everyone made for a decent day,
despite the poor fishing. After all the gear was packed away and to round off the day Rob was presented with his club award. "Club Angler of the Year 2011"

Davy (Mr Chairman) presents the award to Rob

A really nice touch and an award that means a huge amount, thank you.