I spent an afternoon on the Trent with Hursty a day or two before the closed season and we both blanked, not much change there for me but apart from an old chap in the swim upstream from me the only thing that seemed to be catching we cormorants. Chuffing things!

We must have seen about 20 (I guess it might have been 4 flying backwards and forwards). It is time something was done about the black death on our rivers!

I’m just half way through the NASH one as I write this and apart from the usual cock-ups in front of the camera (I mean what does problamatical mean? FFS). Piss taking aside they do seem to have some sensible ideas, not least the new zig bugs, but lets face it, people have been using flies to catch carp for ages haven’t they?

Right more coffee time to watch Mr Fairbrass get all excited and animated, I wonder what new ideas they have for us? I mean we are now told to drop our leads on the lake bed, change our hooks every cast maybe a disposable bivvy perhaps? Having said that, having seen the state of Andy Oaks bivvy after a week in France that might not be a bad idea!

The owners of the lake said someone had been spotted emptying a bin into the lake some time earlier and it is thought that this fish may have just grown too big for the owners tank, either that or he was sick of having his fingers chewed every time he fed the thing!

I guess there will be more as the recession bites.

For the first time in a while syndicate places are becoming more readily available as people have to give them up, good news for those with some spare cash but bad for those who are having to let them go.

Ive had another blank since my last post but earlier in the week eight 30′s came out of the lake! Bad news is they are looking like they are about to spawn and the weed is getting up so it would be nice to get back on the bank and try my luck!

I was a bit late getting off because all my gear needed going through I hadn’t had time to sort it all out after my last trip. I need to get organised a bit better I think, time is precious these days and I need to be able to make the most of what little time I do have.

When I eventually pitched up there were plenty of other hopefuls hogging the best swims, well I guess they must have been the best swims because I blanked so the swim I ended up with must have been a bad one. Although no one else caught whilst I was there but with the amount of line in the water it is hardly surprising the fish weren’t feeding. It seems most folk were using 4 rods, the ammount of bait boats made the place look a bit like the Henley Regatta.

I did get a run though but it came to nothing so I am thinking it could have just been a big liner. I wasn’t happy with the way my line was laying on the lake bed, or rather the way it wasn’t laying on the lake bed. There are plenty of features in this lake and my line (Nash Bullet) just didn’t want to sink and. I tried a flying back lead, leaving the bail arm off for 30 minutes etc but I was still getting liners from the birds that were diving near my line so I know it was hanging mid water.

I was going to get some flourocarbon line but having spoke to Mick at Wickersley Angling I decided against it and instead went for some Pro Gold which is a coated mono which will cope much better than flouro. over the gravel bars due to its better abrasion resistance but still sinks well.

I’m all tooled up with new line, bait and the other bits and bobs I realised I was short of once I got there so hopefully I will be able to sneak away for a 24 hour session soon. I’m quietly confident!

The latest one is the NASH 2011. It seems I am not alone with limited fishing time, it seems that Kevin Nash is too busy to go fishing too. He is busy getting rich by convincing us to part with our hard earned cash. The DVD also features the debut of the world’s first angling apprentice apparently. Or at least the first carp fishing apprentice. I set an apprentice on in here who goes by the name of Hursty but unfortunately he hasn’t clocked on yet and done any work.

The film kicks off with a rousing bit of music that would not seem out of place in the next incarnation of Call of Duty. In fact the whole DVD seems to be a quite expensive production, but then they can afford it can’t they? Especially when you look at the cost of carp tackle these days. Even Kevin admits that he has plenty of money now because he can now afford to spend money on the development of bite alarms. It does seem like money well spent though, the alarms have a few nice features especially for those lazy folk who want to be able to alter all the alarm settings from the comfort of their bedchair, even if you weigh 55 stone apparently ….. you need to watch the DVD.

As always these days the DVD is free, and so it should be as it is mainly advertising, that said, you will pick a few tips up and I would rather watch Nashy than the mentalists from Korda, theya re just too in my face. Nash don’t go over the top and Kevin admits there have been problems with some products and explains why and what they have done to improve it.

Worth viewing.

Those of you who have bothered to read any of my past ramblings will know that I had a big plan to spend my gainful unemployment tossing it off catching carp. Unfortunately some benevolent company offered me some work; which was I suppose nice of them but it has severely hampered my fishing, come to think of it my life! I’m spending week or more at a time out of the country or in Scotland, which is the same thing just colder. Part of my master plan was to buy a Cemex season ticket that gave me access to a whole load of waters for the same price a lot of people are paying to fish just one.

I ended up settling on fishing North Hykeham and the Brewery most weeks and of the two the Brewery was my favourite. Friendly enough bunch of chaps fishing it and a good bailiff but the most important thing was a good head of fairly easy to catch carp …. and eels …. and tench oh and bream. In fact I managed to break my PB on eels, tench and bream, which wasn’t the plan, that was to catch the resident 30lb carp that is in there. Sadly I failed. I never say never though, if I end up out of work again I can always resume plan A and spend a summer doing nothing but fishing.

The reason I won’t be renewing my ticket any time soon is it is just too far away from home. Instead I have managed to get my hands on a ticket for a water that is between home and work so I might be able to get on it more often than I can get into Lincolnshire (the location of the Brewery). I have to say I am not confident though. It is a hard water and I know I don’t have the time to devote to it, but one thing is for sure, if I do catch one there is a good chance I will beat my UK PB.

Right I best start packing my bags for work again. Back to the grind!

Oh, yeah, I blanked, I spent the night freezing my nads off in temperatures just above freezing for nothing, but it was nice to be near the water again.

Slightly different from the usual Korda style of ramming the products down your throat, this DVD is sort of aimed at just tying rigs up, using Nash bits of course.

It is fairly interesting to hear Kevin Nash talking about the old days and the reason he tried different rigs and techniques over the years. It does become a bit boring though towards the end and I have to admit I nodded off

I have to admit though I learnt one or two things about rig mechanics and will certainly watch it again, if only just to find out what I missed when I fell asleep.

Get one, after all they are priced very competitively!

I rang Mr Crabtree (Hursty) the other afternoon as I had a little bit of time to myself and he was just unpacking his tackle (don’t tell his missus) and heading off tot he Dearne in search of that elusive monster barble that we all like to think is in there so I agreed to meet him and give him a few tips. The river was nicely coloured due to the recent rain and for a change there wasn’t quite so much litter on the banks, most of it having being washed under the trees by the look of it.

By the time I arrived he was already fishing, in the swim near …. oh hang on, barbel anglers like to keep the location of the big fish a secret don’t they? Did I say Dearne? What I meant to say was Don or Trent not the Dearne, there are no big barbel in the Dearne anyone knows that. Anyhow, he was fishing in this river using an old sock for bait, I can’t tell you what bait he was really using because it is top secret and river anglers are almost as secrative as match anglers, just much uglier, due to being hit in the face with branches brambles and bitten by nasty insects.

So, to recap, this ugly bloke who isn’t called Hursty wasn’t fishing on the Dearne and certainly wasn’t using meat on his hook. I would like to say I crept up stealthily to the secret swim but I didn’t and once installed we set about putting the world to rights as blokes do. Whilst we were chatting the rod tip was getting occasional knocks which was encouraging. At least the little fish had found the bait.

After a couple of casts without anything interesting happening the rod decided to leave the rod rest and set off down the bank towards the river, closely followed by Hursty slipping and sliding down the bank and just managing to grab the but as the first half went under water. Using all his skill and cunning and 30lb braid he managed to stop the fish and force it back away from the snags. It was all over very quickly (apparently not unusual according to his good lady) and he soon had the fish in the landing net, which promptly broke where it joins to the pole. It was bound to happen though as the pole has had more repairs than a 1980′s Ford Escort.

You aint seen this

After resting the fish for a while in the margin (and himself) we got it weighed and photographed before returning it to the river (where else?). Now obviously the photos are top secret, because apparently some of the uglier river anglers get very upset and feel the need to make threats against fellow anglers if they give secrets away. I have researched this a bit and apparently the ones who get really upset are suffering from a little known disease that affects a small percentage of anglers. The disease is called ‘Getalifesadtwat’ and appears to be inversely proportional to the size of the sufferers genitals. Sadly there seems to be no cure at this time.

I don’t mind sharing information, not that I have any, but to keep Mr Crabtree safe from the small knobbed minority I have had to edit the photo to protect the innocent.