Monday 13 May 2013

Anyone for 'T' ?

It was at the last fishing show at the Ricoh Arena that a brief discussion was had about the association not having any merchandise to sell at such events, well, we now have merchandise.
 
Working in the fashion industry it seemed the right time to put my design skills to use and drew up a few ideas, these were presented to the committee and two designs were selected to take through to production, the first small test batch are now ready for association members to buy and wear.

The first design is fairly traditional based around one of the old enamel badges the association produced several years ago, it was given a bit of an 'on trend' twist and kept fairly conservative with black graphics on an olive shirt.

'Splat'
I'm no model but you get the idea.
The second design is aimed at the younger angler, It has a shortened club title and a snappy street style 'graffiti' font, the bright orange on olive looks striking and could quite easily be worm off the bank as well as on.
Graffiti 1
Again, you get the idea.
Keep an eye on the association's Facebook page for details on how to buy.

Saturday 11 May 2013

Going Quackers!

I've had a break from Ryton, the sun was out (for a change) and it was time for some action off the top, so, it was over to Jubilee for a bit of fluff chucking. My first fly flinging session was a bit of a non starter, I lost a good sized 'ghostie' at the net, my leader parted and it wasn't a knot failure, just sheer bad luck. Another spot of bad luck almost saw me land a very good sized goose, you take your eye off them for a split second and....
 
The next day was much better weather wise with hot sunshine and the surface of the pool was peppered with big dark shapes cruising around. A scattering of biscuits started the slurping and out went the first of several casts but these fish were wary of everything that looked like a biscuit, the trouble with sunny weather, everyone fishes on the top. It took a while but I hollered out "Yes" when I hooked the first Carp much to the frustration of Barry fishing the swim next door and it wasn't long till I had a lovely sized mirror in the net.

A zip fourteen.
 
The second fish was hard work, a couple of lads had started spodding biscuits to the middle of the pool and the Carp followed the sound of the dinner bell and out of our swims. The odd fish drifted back and it was one of these that I managed to pick off, it was a lovely common and a little smaller at twelve pound four ounces.

A nice scrappy common.
I had a quick walk around the pool to see if I could find another pocket of fish willing to feed but it was hard to find any, fish just dispersed as biscuits landed on their heads and it took ages to get any to feed, it's a good job I take plenty of biccy's.
 
Barry eventually got a fish on the bank but it was almost the end of the session when he did, this also meant that the little quackers got passed back to Barry again.

Finding it Slow.

I'm finding the fishing at Ryton a bit slow, I'm catching but not what I'd like to see on the bank. The Tench are snaffling up the boilies intended for Carp so the recipe is working, maybe it's more suited to a Tench's palette. The popped up boilies have been on target as well and I've had some lumps roll over the top of the bait so I can only presume that I'm getting done.

Plenty of these.
Quack!
 
I've stuck it out with the hope of a Carp which has cost me some good fishing for the smaller species and I've had to sit next to Barry and watch him bag up on Roach, Rudd, Perch, Bream and smaller Carp, let's just say that I am currently in custody of the ducks.