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Tag Archives: float fishing

New PB Grayling!

Andrew's personal best grayling of 2lb 7oz

I got out fishing for the first time this year, yesterday, and obliterated my grayling PB twice in half an hour! I’d never been lucky enough to land a 2lb+ grayling before, but had fish of 2lb 2oz (photo with sunglasses) followed by a beautiful beast of 2lb 7oz! I was trotting maggots on a northern spate river when I managed to find a small group of large fish. My first grayling over 2lb – a PB for all of 30 minutes! Half an hour after landing my first 2lb+ grayling, I set myself a new PB with this beauty of 2lb 7oz! View my other personal best captures on my PB List page.

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Coarse & Match Tackle Department at Phil’s Bait & Tackle – Fishing Tackle Shop in Sutton-in-Ashfield, Notts

Coarse fishing, match fishing & pole fishing department at Phil's Bait & Tackle - Wagglers, stick floats & pole floats for sale at Sutton-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire fishing tackle shop & bait - Drennan, Middy, Sensas, etc.

Click on the image slider below to open a full gallery of the coarse fishing, match fishing, pole fishing, pleasure fishing & specimen / specialist fishing tackle department at local independent fishing tackle shop, Phil’s Bait & Tackle at Sutton-in-Ashfield. Phil’s has a large department catering for general coarse, specialist/specimen, match and pole fishing, with large stocks of: float rods, quivertip rods, avon & multi-tip barbel rods, poles & whips, free spool & baitrunner reels, bait (live maggots, casters & worms, groundbait, boilies, freezer baits, pellets, particles, flavours, glugs, oils, frozen pike deadbaits, hemp, luncheon meat, sweetcorn, etc.), luggage, terminal tackle, hooks, leads & swimfeeders, mainline, hooklinks, floats, lures, rod rests, fishing chairs, seat boxes, metalware, landing nets & keepnets, bivvies, bedchairs, unhooking mats, cookware and many accessories. Brands stocked include: Korum, Drennan, Preston Innovations, Middy, Maver, Shimano, Daiwa, Chub, Guru, MAP, Dinsmores, Matrix, Shakespeare, Fox Rage, Kamasan, Gardner, Dynamite Baits, Mainline Baits, Sticky Baits, Sensas, Sonubaits, Marukyu, Ringers, Van Den Eynde, Baitbox & Bait-Tech. Their well-stocked shop is open to browse and try out the latest fishing gear and there’s always someone on hand to provide advice on tackle, bait and local in-form venues. Phil’s Bait & Tackle also …

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2015 – My Highlights – Part 3: Float Fishing in the Dark for Grey Mullet

Andrew goes float fishing at night for mullet in a southern harbour

So, onto the final part of my 2015 highlights trilogy!  The epic finalé.  Hopefully it’ll be more Toy Story 3 than Jurassic Park III; more Die Hard with a Vengeance than Superman III!  There’s only one way to find out… Cornish manoeuvres in the dark On our first holiday with our (by now, 4 months old) baby daughter, fishing was never going to be high on the agenda, it would be a case of grabbing a chance if and when it arrived.  We stayed in this country, which allowed me to take quite a range of gear with me so that I could exploit any opportunities which came my way.  The first of these came in Poole, where we spent a week. Our hotel was walking distance from a bay of some repute amongst local angling bloggers I’d looked up before we went.  A couple of evening trips produced my first two bass (which would have each fitted in the palm of my hand and they were returned as quickly as possible) and a couple of eels which had me fooled I might have hooked a bit better bass.  Brilliant fun, a new species chalked off and all done without …

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2015 – My Highlights – Part 2: Clear River Stalking for Chub & Barbel

A hard-fought chub of 4lb 10oz, caught on an improvised float rig from an "impossible" swim

In the second of my Highlights of 2015 posts I once again visit the Derbyshire Derwent, but a different stretch this time. The session provided me with a great insight into the lives of barbel & chub when this river is exceptionally low and clear… Fishing for barbel & chub in clear water on the Derwent Every now and again, a fishing session comes along which unexpectedly knocks you sideways.  Sometimes it can be a red letter day in the form of the number or size of fish you catch, other times it’s the things you see or the whole experience. I had one such day last July, where it was the latter which made the day special.  I caught some fish but the overriding highlights of the day were the things I witnessed.  Forgive me if I get carried away describing something you see regularly, but because I don’t fish during the daytime very often, this whole experience was something quite special for me. It started when I decided to head to a stretch of the River Derwent which I had only ever fished once, several years ago.  It was primarily a reconnaissance session to reaquiant myself with the swims …

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2015 – My Highlights – Part 1: Trotting for Barbel on the Derwent

Andrew's first barbel caught on the float - trotting a stick float for barbel.

In April last year my life was changed forever by the birth of my daughter! So whilst I’ve been experiencing the highs and challenges of fatherhood, finding time to fish has become even more difficult. Time to blog about it has inevitably proved yet trickier to find! I have, however, sneaked in a short evening session most weeks since June and I’ve really enjoyed the fishing I’ve done this season. More than I have in quite some time! So I thought I would write about my 3 angling highlights from last summer; a blog post for each. They include a first, a PB and an exhilarating spot of close-quarters, clear water fishing.  If you like the sound of those, read on… First barbel on the stick float A couple of seasons ago I decided that I really wanted to catch a barbel on the float.  With almost all of my barbel fishing consisting of summer & autumn evening sessions, I only managed 4 or 5 hours of trotting for them last season, with only a few small silver fish and minnows to show for my efforts.  This year I decided to put some effort in at the beginning of the season when, arriving at …

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A Couple of Close-Season Gems

Specimen crucian carp fishing

Well, I didn’t get fishing too much over the closed season, but two of the more notable sessions were fishing for Crucian carp at Carr Vale Pond near Bolsover and Tench fishing with my friend and erstwhile www.anglerstoday.co.uk editor, Kevin Miles. I tried fishing light for the crucians, as is normally required to hook one, but for some reason couldn’t connect with the bites. When I eventually swapped to fishing the lift method (which is one of my favourites for close-range fishing) and swimfeeder, I did start hooking fish. The first came to the lift method on a single grain of corn and it went 1lb 4oz. Later on, my “sleeper” feeder rod – which I’d loaded with a big hook, a whole lobworm and a grain of corn in the hope of a big tench – was nearly dragged in by an absolute screaming run, which I assumed must be a tench or carp. After a good scrap for 30 seconds or so, the fish seemed to give up, almost like a bream would. I brought the fish to the net wondering what on earth I’d hooked. It turned out to be another, bigger crucian at a PB weight …

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Cometh the flour… Trotting for Grayling

Andrew Kennedy strikes into a grayling whilst trotting on the Derbyshire Derwent

Trotting for grayling on the River Derwent What an unpredictable year for the weather last year was! With fluctuating water levels, and temperatures which never really stabilised for more than a couple of days, it was hard to know what best to fish for. My annual winter pike campaign was virtually a non-starter, with only a handful of jacks to show for eight or nine sessions! I’d been promising myself a return to a day ticket stretch of the Derbyshire Derwent ever since I last fished it, about three years ago. With my pike fishing being so dismal, it seemed like the perfect opportunity for some time-out, trotting for grayling on a crisp midwinter’s day. After entering the annual Boxing Day charity raft race on the river at Matlock only two days before, I was a little hesitant at fishing the stretch. I had witnessed first-hand the thrashing of the water with 300 paddles and an incessant hail of eggs & bags of flour; seemingly enough to support a small nation’s grain industry! Indeed, this was still very much evident when I arrived at the river. It was like an eerie, wintry war zone. The streets were very quiet; the …

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Need a Lift? Try the Lift Method!

A tench caught fishing the lift method

Late Spring, into Summer is the perfect time of year to target tench, carp, crucians and bream in stillwaters. This gives me an excuse to use one of my favourite techniques – the humble “Lift Method”. Forget fancy anti-eject combi-rigs and the like; the lift method is simplicity itself. All the terminal tackle you need is a float, a hook, a swivel and some swan shot. The principle of the lift method is to over-shot your float and fish with all of the weight laid on the bottom. The float is set slightly over depth, so that when the rod is set up on rests, the float can be made to sit upright by simply tightening the line, so you can finely adjust how much float tip is visible. When a fish takes your bait, the shot is often lifted from the lake bed, which causes your float to lift out of the water, sometimes even laying horizontal on the surface! It is this action from where the method derives its name. Very often, however, you’ll notice knocks on the float tip before it disappears, just as you would with a waggler. Either of these bite indications are positive enough …

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Surprise Fish Saves the Day!

Surprise mystery fish saves the day on an early spring tench & pike session

As Spring lethargically began to take it’s hold, my latest session had me in two minds. Should I try for some early season tench, or go for some late season pike? I opted to take tackle and bait with me to target either species. There are two different club lakes I fish, within a couple of miles of each other. One holds both tench and small pike, whilst the other holds pike of specimen proportions. I decided to head in the general direction of these lakes and see what conditions I found when I arrived. I arrived at the first venue at first light and as I approached the gate, I noticed a dark figure scurrying across a field in front of me. It was a badger! One of my favourite British mammals, and one which I have seldom seen in the wild. This sighting gave my confidence an early boost and gave me feeling that the day might turn out to be a special one. I had a good walk around the three-acre lake before I set up any tackle. It was a cold morning and it just didn’t feel right for tench fishing yet. After spooking a few …

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Beating the Post-Christmas Blues

Andrew with an upper-double specimen pike from a canal

In the period between Christmas and the end of the traditional fishing season, I’ve struggled to catch over the last few years. Many species are at their largest, but they’re by no means easy to catch! I was hoping this year to buck this trend, but I’ve managed less late winter fishing sessions than I would have liked and the fishing’s been tough.  The unsettled weather has led to heavily fluctuating river levels, which made planning fishing trips very difficult. Despite this, I decided that my first session of the new year should be spent targeting chub on a prolific stretch of river… When I arrived, I found the river high, but falling. It was very coloured, but my confidence was boosted by news that an angler had landed a chub over 6lb on trotted breadflake earlier that morning. This was the size I was aiming for, to set a new personal best. Breadflake was a bait I didn’t have in my armoury; I opted instead to fish strong-smelling, oily baits, hard on the bottom. I fished hard all day, keeping mobile in an attempt to find the fish, but one very half-hearted take was my only reward. No fish, …

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