Zander in the Don?

One of our readers has sent us this pic of a small fish - which he claims is a Zander he caught whilst fishing under the Neepsend Bridge on the River Don.
We know this is a ruffe, but it got us thinking... Are there zander somewhere in the Don? If any of our Don anglers have caught a Zander - please let us know. - Ed

Gotta have one of these!

Just imagine working in the office with one of these in front of you!

You could have a shoal of roach swim past, perhaps a couple of gudgeon browsing the bottom with a 'herd' of skimmer bream, a few rudd taking biscuit crumbs off the top... sheer bliss!
Imagine how you could watch carp truffling for your latest experimental boilies... or you could check the shotting for your newest pole floats.
Every office should have one.
Thanks to Dave Williams for the pic.



Blue Beak and Yellow Eyes!

With the recent floods, our rivers have been out of sorts, so I decided to take a walk along the River Wye at Bakewell, Derbyshire - and I spotted this indignant little water fowl.
I couldn't believe it's colouring - it had a blue beak!
But it's eyes were so unusual - they were bright yellow!
It really gave me a malicious stare as I tried to get closer with the camera and then it turned tail and scooted off to a quieter pool, well away from this inquisitive, camera-pointing would-be twitcher.
Nope - not a drop had passed my lips. - KM


Thousands of fish put back into River Don to boost stocks

THOUSANDS of fish have been released into a South Yorkshire river after a disastrous pollution incident earlier this year.
More than 100,000 fish are estimated to have died after a sewage spill in the river Don between Rotherham and Doncaster in July.
Oxygen levels in the river plummeted after heavy rain caused sewage from storm overflows to enter the river.
SInce then the Environment Agency has carried out a clean-up and has monitored fish stocks to make sure the pollution had disappeared. And now hundreds of roach from the agency's fish farm near Nottingham have been put into the river in Kilnhurst to boost fishing prospects.
The River Don is a major success story and after decades of being grossly polluted is now a fishing hotspot.
But the pollution incident last year was a major blow for local anglers, who have welcomed the restocking programme.
Agency fisheries team leader Pat O'Brien said: "We have a three-year programme which targets rivers and still waters which would benefit most from restocking – but we need to prioritise this programme to stock those rivers in greatest need.
"Restocking is only one part of the recovery plan for the River Don."


'Walk of Shame' for Mr. Angry!

Our very own Mr. Angry recently appeared on the popular TV programme 'Weakest Link'.
He wasn't very angry...
In fact there wasn't any of the usual banter, so prevalent when he's on the bank.
In fact - he was the weakest link!
What a shame!
Although he did redeem himself a little - with a final 'Walk of Shame' comment of:
'I feel I have been verbally abused by a strangely attractive pensioner' (!)
Well... whatever rings your bell - as they say!
What makes it even better - he doesn't know - we know!

Precision Baiting...

Recently spotted at Pebley Reservoir

When it comes to getting bait out to the island, there's nothing like a hot air balloon to help!
A tad expensive, a little 'hit and miss', but you've got to admit - it's different!

The more bait you deposit - the higher you go?

I'll stick to a bait boat - Ed.

 



Stotz from Preston Innovations

If - like me you struggle getting very small shot onto your line, this is definitely something you should try!

Pictured here are the size 11 Stotz, they are approx 2mm long with a wide cut running their length, they are soft and easily squeezed together with your fingers. Not so good for photographing though!

The Stotz are so easy to put on the line and - even better - you can take them off just as easily.
What's more - they don't 'ping' off when you land a decent fish.

They are ideal for those very delicate pole floats but they can also be used with much thicker lines. They come in various sizes - look out for them in the tackle shops. They're brilliant!
The single size dispenser pictured costs around £1.45 - well worth it.

Hooked on history...

Fishing for answers: Geoffrey Palmer tries a spot of angling on the River Lathkill.

Time went by very quickly for actor Geoffrey Palmer when he joined fishing expert Rae Borras for a TV programme filmed on Derbyshire’s picturesque River Lathkill.
Geoffrey, star of BBC comedy series As Time Goes By, and angling expert Rae, were shown how to make a traditional fishing line out of horse hair for digital channel Discovery Real Time’s Compleat Angler programme, screened on 20th January.
The ten-part angling series is bringing to life Izaak Walton’s 1653 classic, The Compleat Angler — one of the most published novels in the English language, after Shakespeare’s works and the bible.
Rae and Geoffrey get together for the series, to catch some of Britain’s best fish as they compare locations, fish and methods of today with those in Walton’s time.
A spokesman for the TV programme said that though Rae and Geoffrey use ancient and modern equipment to compare fishing techniques through the ages, “they soon discover that while heavy wooden rods may have been substituted for light carbon fibre equivalents, the art of fishing never changes.”
For third episode of the series, Geoffrey and Rae were filmed at the River Dove, where they visited Temple Cotton, a temple built by Charles Cotton for his friend, Izaak Walton.

Intrepid AnglersTimes' journalist lands a record !

Look at the monster I pulled out of my perch swim yesterday!
A very rare (in UK waters anyway), 3-legged patio chair.
It had been in the river for some time as it had lost it's silver sheen that such species have when fresh-run from the sea.
It had obviously been subject to some kind of attack in earlier life - possibly a pike or cormorant, which resulted in the lost leg. It seems to have healed well though.
I was thinking of contacting the EA, because I'm sure whoever put it in there didn't have a section 30 or DEFRA approval for such an exotic species, more usually associated with the balconies and patio areas of the Mediterranean.

I had to hand land the beauty because it wouldn't fit in my net!

Regards
Andrew Kennedy

 


Secret Rig

We sneaked a quick pic of this unusual rig used by mega carp catcher - Dave Williams.

There's fake corn, float stops, swivel and an 'O' ring involved. We can't work out how the corn is connected to the hook, you'll have to sort that out yourselves.

Sorry Dave - we just had to published this!

New hook length

During the recent warm weather I've been doing my share of surface fishing for carp... and as usual - getting more than my fair share of refusals!
During a search for a better hook length, I discovered this - Genesis Smart mono. With a breaking strain of 3 kilo the diameter is only 0.16 ! There's 150 metres on the spool and it only cost a fiver!
I'll let you know how I get on... Ed.

There's a Mondeo in my pond...


It was a strange Bank Holiday for me - or a strange ending to it at least!
On Monday night, a woman crashed off the road into our field (11pm on a foggy night), wrote her car off, but managed to keep it running. She drove to the gate which was locked, so she then headed through the middle of the foggy field in search of an open gate and... well, take a look for yourself!
Fortunately, there was very little pollution and we managed to get the car out with a digger we had in the field. I had to go in with the wetsuit, into the car, wind the back windows down, pass a sling through and attach it to the digger bucket.
At the moment there doesn't seem to be any fish or water vole deaths, but we shall see.
- Andrew Kennedy, AnglersTimes.co.uk. April 05

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