Ryton Pike - Part 2

I started the session off with a good deed. After seeing another angler struggling with a good sized pike I offered a helping hand, it was nicely hooked in the bottom jaw so wasn't to difficult to deal with and after weighing and a little instruction on the best way to hold a Pike, photo's were taken, the Pike weighed 15lb 12ozs. The angler did give me his name but all I can say is that I've had a senior moment since then and have completely forgotten it, apologies, maybe you could drop me an email if your reading this and remind me?

The day didn't go too well for me, after seeing where this Pike was caught I chose to fish the far side of the lake well away from any commotion that may have occurred, I did get one run but this failed to develop into a fish on the end of the line. I tried two other pegs and called it a day when I couldn't see my floats any more for the lack of light.

Another blank!

Avon at Barford

Barry introduced me to another stretch of water, the river Avon at Barford. It was just on a guest day ticket with a view to getting a season ticket for next season.

With my trip to China and Christmas shopping last weekend, I haden't been fishing for four weeks and was eager to get a line wet even if I didn't catch anything.
There was a slight mix up over dates which didn't allow us the freedom to fish the best pegs, this was because of a match between pegs 51 and 100.
I'd heard tales of the Barbel along this stretch as well as big Zander and Pike so I went equipped to target both Barbel and predators. The stretch from peg 50, above the weir, was at our disposal though I really liked the look of the stretch the matchmen had below the weir. The swims we fished were very wide and slow moving with plenty of colour from the recent rain. I put a feeder towards an overhanging willow with a view to catching a Chub or Barbel, anything would do, the second rod was baited with a small Roach and cast around to various parts to try and tempt one of the resident predators. A few hours passed and we hadn't caught anything, we asked the chap fishing the match on peg 52 how he was getting on and he'd had two Barbel of 11 and 14 pound which was good news, even though I wasn't catching it's nice to know fish of this quality were swimming in these waters.
The match finished at half three and I decided to have a go for a Barbel for the last hour before dark, Barry was to fish one of his favourite pegs for a Zander. I tried my best putting a good quality bait out into a spot that looked very 'barbely' but the light faded really quickly and that hour seemed to fly. I made my way down to where Barry was fishing and being the expert on this stretch in that last hour he'd had four runs with one Zander and one Pike on the bank both at the same time.

The Zander looked to be around 5lb

Will have to try again soon!

No fishing - China Trip

I've not added much to my blog for the last two weeks as I've not been fishing. Since bonfire night I've been hard at work in China, three days in Shanghai and six days in Shaoxing with a very long flight at each, However turned out that one of the people I was working with is as passionate about fishing as I am.
I was invited out on a couple of fishing trips but the amount of work I had to do and the jet lag meant that I had to decline. (On this trip, next time I'm taking my own rod!)

All the work was finished last Friday so on Saturday morning I was introduced to the local tackle shop in Shaoxing. My new friend Terry was on hand to translate for me and a couple of photos of fish that I had in a small photo album I take with me on these trips helped bridge the language barrier and brought a sense of mutual respect to the gathering in the shop.

The fishing out there is totally different to here in the UK, rods are much longer and are nearly all telescopic, lines are fished lighter with end tackle looking more like it should be hanging from the end of a 16 metre pole. There were some spinning outfits on display but I was told that these were not good for the fish in the area where we were. I bought a small fly reel for a lighter fly fishing set-up for next year and a couple of lures for my spinning box.