Berkley Powerbaits

For this year I fancied a new challenge, and yes I know I've more or less fell short of most of my goals and challenges but thats fishing for you. I reckon I could quite happily fish all day every day and not fullfill all my goals and aspirations. Anyway back to my point, I reckon that by using small soft lures with a small bag with some odds and ends I could capitalise on short sessions without having to worry about bait. My aim is perch, chub and small pike. To this end I bought a pack of Berkley Powerbait soft perch lures. They're sort silicone weighted jigs. I should probably buy a short light spinning rod but I'll start off with a 12ft Avon and see how we go. Looking at the rod from another perspective the extra length might give extra control down the margin.

Reel Value Abu Savior

I finaly admited defeat over the rebuild of my Abu Ambasador. I contacted John at Reel Value and he told me to put all the parts (of which there are many) and send it down to his workshop in Rotherham. The reel was rebuilt and returned to me within 4 days and at a cost of £8.50 for a basic service and £4.50 postage I cant imagine why anyone would attempt to do their own repairs. He apparently deals with all kinds of reel plus rod and bite alarm repairs. If you need any form of fishing equipment repairing you could do much worse than contacting John. Contact him on 07528 196668 or visit his site www.reelvalue.co.uk From this

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FAQs

I met up with my old mate Jay for some more pike fishing today, this time on the lower Tees. The short version is that we blanked, the long version is that we blanked in driving freezing rain! Fishing mainly with sardnes we leap frogged swim by swim covering about 2 miles of river in what can only be called unfavourable conditions. I seemed to lack confidence almost from the first cast and the more swims we explored with motionless floats the more doubtful I became. The usual questions that frequently go through my mind (FAQ! Its all thought through!) resurfaced. Am I in the right swim? Is my bait in the right part of the swim? Is the weather right? are my baits/rigs right? And so on. I didnt come up with any answers. next time ...

Abu Ambasadeur 9000c

A good friend of mines father recently passed away and knowing I was a keen fisherman my friend passed on his beach caster and muliplyer. Anyway I thought I would strip it down, clean and regrease the reel. Pretty soon the reel became a loose collection of parts and now my confidence in being able to return it to its previous (or indeed any) glory has almost completely evaporated. Whilst searching the web for schematics I discovered an interesting fact about the 9000c, it automatically gears down when put under load to increase the torque of the reel. Built around late 70's or early 80's it would appear I may have bitten off more than I can chew!

Piking Again

I had arranged to go piking with my mate Jay again. We decided to return to the Cundall stretch of the River Swale. The day arrived and it was freezing, the kind of day when the water freezes in the rod rings. We started at dawn on the ox bow lake, a bend of the river which gets cut off and isolated. Every time the river floods fish are deposited into the now isolated bend. Jay managed to bag a pike around 8 lb while I had no luck what so ever. Around lunch time we moved on to the main river and leap frogged upstream. The day remained freezing cold and the river levelwas very low. The floats remained motionless and the buzzers silent for the remainder of the day. As always it was great to fish with Jay and the bonus is he'll be fishing the same local carp water as me next year. Oh and happy new year by the way!

www.fishingsir.com

Fishingsir are a mail order outdoor, sporting and fishing outlet. They have a great web site which is easy to navigate and full of all the stuff you might ever need. Look them up at www.fishingsir.com and see if theres anything that catches your eye. Dont forget to tell them that I sent you.

Facebook

I've been meaning to set up a facebook page linked to this blog for ages and I've finally dragged myself into the 21st century. If you search for angling journey you'll soon find my grinning mug. I'm sure theres a way of posting a link to my page from here so if anyone knows how to do it could you let me know?? Come and make my day and say hello.