Back Out Fishing Once More I Spy Sunshine

Welcome back to fishing for memories,it seems we have at last got some summer like weather which whilst not needed is always nice,given how much rain we have had of late I was begining to consider purchasing Noah`s Ark or similar.Despite the rain the fishing has been very consistent out on the river,and paid off very well this last session being very good also.


It was nice to get out again after I had previously had a bad health scare and had been in A&E and had to have some tests run,thankfully these provisionally showed negative.Robert and I got to our swims in the afternoon we had previously pre-baited them and hopes and excitement were running high as ever,the afternoon went by quietly as did late evening with just the usual boat traffic grinding to a halt,come evening time Roberts left hand rod screamed off downstream and he was into a solid fish that made a dash for an underwater tree snag and after a reasonable fight a nicely proportioned Barbel of 8lb was in the Net,This fish falling to 20mm Halibut pellet






Later that night at 1am Robert had another Screaming take on his right boilie rod and he lent into a solid fish that ploughed off upstream and to a dense cabbage patch after burying itself in the patch and needing some sensible pressure,it moved off again and came back downstream and bolted for an overhanging tree,after a lengthy fight Robert had a lovely Barbel of 9LB in the net.






My swim up till this point had been very quiet and no sign of any Carp either which had graced me with their prescence the previous session,but thats taken as given on a river like the Thames,even with the pre-baiting it`s no guarantee of getting into them every time,nothing more then a little bit of a banker or light guarantee,that they will peruse your area.At around 2am my right boilie rod screamed off upstream and I was into a very strong fish that deceptively nearly managed to snag me,luckily however,the snag which I presume was part of a rotten piece of wood,snapped and allowed me to gain on the fish,this resulted in a lovely Barbel of 9LB exactly.






At 6am I had a vicous take on my right rod again and unbeknown to me my bite alarm had died on me,the baitrunner however alerted me to the take,which was just as well gievn the fish had managed to jump the rod off the alarm I was into another fish it felt decent and sped this time downstream and off over to the mid-water area of the river,eventually it was landed and it was another pristine Barbel this time 9lb 8oz.






Four Barbel in total and despite no Carp showing,it had turned into a good session for us,30 minutes later on the pellet rod I had a stop start rattling run and the result was a perfectly formed Chub of 5lb




This was not to be the end one hour later and I received a large drop back on my right rod,which then belted of upstream,lifting in I felt a solid resistance that powered off to an overhanging tree,eventually it succumbed to the folds of the net and inside lay my first Thames Tench,which looked like it had never seen a hook and was in immaculate condition,it weighed in at 5LB 8oz.







we was within 1 hour of packing up when Robert had another run on his left rod,which resulted in another Barbel of 7Lb 8oz.





So no Carp were about or least not feeding for us,but this was without doubt a superb session,taking 5 Barbel between us,three of which were 9lb or over and with the added bonus of a 5lb Chub and 5lb 8oz Tench and proves that the Thames really is the river that just keeps on giving.

Fishing For Memories A Happy Wet Start To July

Hello and a warm welcome back to Fishing For Memories.

Well the years certainly trundling by fast as it always does when your fishing and it`s now July and still raining,the lakes are full to the brim in the South and the rivers are running high coloured and flooded in places,whatever happened to summer time? Despite this the fishing on the river Thames since the beginning of the season has been good and Robert and I have been having some good sessions.

I can`t help but feel these days many anglers who just go straight into one type of fishing without grounding themselves on other areas of our wonderful sport are doing themself a dis-service,there are many elements of fishing that when learnt can be added to your armoury and mixed up and used when you go fishing for one type of fish ,the significant amount of watercraft you can pick up from other areas of angling that you don`t learn when just sticking to one species or style of angling are in my honest opinion immensely useful,be it running a centrepin and float down the glides on a river after chub or Barbel ,or fishing for shy biting crucians and Roach and learning a different type of finesse as well as studying the water in a myriad of ways.I was brought up as a river angler by my dad (Robert) before branching out into other areas, he taught me a lot of things from the basics of tying a hook to how to fish different methods on the local rivers and what to look for in different weather conditions this I felt helped make me a more well rounded angler and gave me extra perspective and ideas.




Robert and I set out in the evening to do a 24hr session on the River Thames,main targets being Barbel and Carp,we had pre-baited some new areas,the evening was dry for a change with a reasonable breeze and cloud cover,the river itself was looking high and coloured we opted for 3 3/4oz running rigs,12lb drennan sink braid hooklinks and size 8 kamasan Animal hooks,

Bait wise Robert decided to use 18mm boile with a base mix we have been using a lot this year on one rod and on his other rod opted for doppelganger in sweetcorn flavour shaped into a 28mm hook pellet shape.I opted one rod on the same base mix in 18mm and my other rod on donkey choker pellet,whilst most times this can be a dead cert way of getting bream it has also accounted for quite a few Thames carp for us.

We settled into our swims,the evening drew in slowly with the wind easing and trees being just lightly caressed,the boat traffic had eased down,the old faithful kingfisher flew by with a fish firmly lodged in it`s beak,a wonderful flash of metallic blue,radiant in even the most overcast of weather,as the evening wore on it wasn`t long before we broke out the tea and munchies chatting to each other expectantly of what this session might hold,just at this moment my right rod gave a jerky single bleep followed by a solid take upstream,I locked the baitrunner and started playing what felt a livley fish and I did wonder if I was into one of the Thames Barbel after a few minutes of lively fight a nice looking Mirror with a lovely colour of 12lb8oz was sat in the net 1-0 to the donkey choker.









Robert and I were happy with this start given the colour and flow on the river,the right rod was recast and this time i opted to re-bait it with one of the boiliesfrom the latest base mix we had been using,the evening drew right in and at eleven it started to shower,steadily but remained nice and mild The swans paddled by with their cygnets behind them struggling in the flow,one of them sat on mum`s back taking the smart easy option.


at 10pm the right rod single toned and ripped off upstream,yet again I was met with a solid resistance as the fish went into a marginal cabbage patch and I was worried it would be the last I saw of it,luckily with a little steady pressure and some work from the fish she freed herself and then cruised off downstream to the far bank using the current to its advantage,after a reasonable scrap a long Mirror of 16lb8oz was sat in the net,I was happy,two fish in a short time,






Robert and I sat back and happily re-counted the night so far,Robert`s spot had been quiet no Carp or Barbel so far,but he felt it would come good eventually later that night about 1am, he had a screaming single toner on the left rod on the doppelganger and the fish bolted off downstream to a cabbage patch and slipped the hook,he was gutted it,had felt a decent fish,so he quickly re-cast his rod to the same spot and half an hour later the same rod bolted off downstream,Robert was into another fish that made it to a cabbage patch,but this time it didnt slip and he managed to bully it out of the patch and into a clearer area of water after 10 minutes of downstream sprinting in the pacey flow and a pristine Barbel of 8LB was sat in the net.







The next 2 hours past without incident,owls called out in the night with their hi-pitched hunting calls,a fox past by our swims and briefly halted to take a long solemn look before it padded its way off into the night,it may have been a vixen I couldn`t really tell,if not maybe he was off to find solace with one as they had been calling out during the night with their banshee-esque howls.

At around 3am my right rod bleeped once then 30 seconds later bleeped again and the swinger dropped back then in the same action hit the blank of the rod and my alarm single toned and the line ripped off and rod angled downstream,this was a fish on a mission apparently to try snagging me and nearly succeeded as I lifted in and started to take slack on the fish it found an underwater obstruction i was not aware of and the line looped under at a different position to where the fish was running,the only thing i could do was try to make it change direction,I lowered my rod tip and eased down my pressure and the fish then changed direction and ran back upstream and started heading for some tree routes,I quickly applied some side pressure and this paid off and it finally succumbed to the darkfolds of the landing net,out on to the landing mat and a very nicely proportioned spawn laden Common of 20LB was my reward.







I was very wet and very happy this ended a very good albeit wet overnight session on the Thames for us,a wonderful river you can never tell what is round the corner of each visit to it`s hallowed banks.