Saying of the Day 1

Always remember that there's a thin line between between fishing and sitting by the river looking like an idiot.

Sunday Is Coming

Morrison's came up trumps today and I managed to get get the sardines I needed to finish off my bait collection for Sunday. Yesterday I bought some frozen roach and smelts, not cheap at around £4 to £5 pounds a pack, the sardines on the other hand cost me around £3 for a dozen perfectly sized baits. Jay sent me a copy of a photo from the rough area that we're heading to, a lovely 19lb 5oz long lean river pike. The fish are there we just have to work out location, baits and tactics (yes only those minor points) to build up some consistency and some confidence.

Sardine Shopping Trip

Got a trip with my good friend Jay on Sunday so I've been getting some dead baits together in the hope of finally nailing a Tees pike before the season ends in a few weeks time. I managed some frozen roach and some smelt and I still have some lamprey left but I've always had a lot of faith in sardines (or dinos as we know them) so I'm planning on escaping work tomorrow to try and track them down. Wish me luck.

Vanishing Gloves

I don't normally buy clothes, or anything except fishing and diving gear in fact, but after Christmas I bought myself a really nice pair of Rab gloves. They were fairly expensive but good quality so I knew they'd last. Well they would have lasted if I hadn't lost one. I can't explain why losing things annoys me so much but it does. My left glove no resembles an old oak table..... varnished.

Norway Part 2

As promised I dug out some photos of the typical jacks and the lake that we.... well Glenn .... discovered. Pretty much unfished.

Norway '94

I served for a while in the Royal Engineers and one of my postings was in an outfit designed to terrify the Soviet Block from daring to invade through Scandinavia and break out into the North Sea. In order to do this we used to hold big multi national exercises every winter. As a return for hosting us during the winter we used to return in the summer on a construction tour. In the summer of 1994 we were based at Kongsberg and my recce sergeant had brought along some pike gear. The REME fitter who was working with us came back from a vehicle test run and told us that he'd found a lake on the Norwegianarmy range and the edge of the lake was full of small, long, green fish. We went for a wander to investigate and he was right, it was secluded lake that I doubt had ever been fished and looked to contain a good head of pike and perch. I managed to scounge some tackle and a small group of us headed over to the lake, we had to find some worms to catch some perch to use as live bait. It was a long process but we managed to put a few jacks on the bank and lost some better fish. It is entirely possible that no one has fished to lake since we left. In a slight side show I was fishing one evening when a huge moose appeared out of the trees on to the bank, I was amazed how big those creatures are. It was a lesson of taking the opportunities as they present themselves.

Chapman Angling

I've just ordered some pike terminal tackle from Chapman Angling, they're not the cheapest place around but the delivery is normally very quick and the range of stock is excellent.

Fruitless Pike

I headed out and braved the rain on sunday in my less than eventful search of pike. I headed to the lower Tees with a box full of assorted dead baits, favouring to ledger my bait as its quite deep. The trouble is that every time I reeled in I was snagged on the bottom so I doubt my bait was ever fishing propperly. I'm a bit perplexed about how I could snag the bottom in every one of the half dozen swims I tried but it seems I did. I even tried switching to a float but the same problems persisted. All in all it was a very frustrating and disheartening day, the kind of day that you don't want to hear the phrase 'still...... its nice to be on the bank'.