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Tag Archives: grayling

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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Caught In The Act Review – Parts 3 & 4 – Autumn & Winter

Caught In The Act Parts 3 & 4 DVD

By reading this review, chances are you’re already familiar in some way with the Caught In The Act project, you’ve either watched parts 1 & 2 or read my previous review.  I think it was clear that I really enjoyed the first two films and I must say that the Autumn & Winter instalments in parts 3 & 4 do not disappoint. Just in case you’re not familiar with the format, each of the two DVDs is split into five ‘acts’ of around 15 minutes each.  Stu Walker and Bob Roberts film all of the footage themselves besides presenting the films, taking turns to be behind the camera or behind the rods.  They are also joined in a couple of the Autumn & Winter acts by friend James Gould, who manages to more-than-justify his appearance with the capture of some fine specimens for the cameras.   There’s also a short sketch of what I believe is the first fully animated version of the “Jack’s Pike” cartoon strip by Brian Roberts, which Bob regularly features in his blog. The fishing in CITA is never complicated, just simple rigs and techniques done extremely well.  No angler should feel out of their depth when …

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Happy New Year!

Pike fishing

Happy 2010 everyone.  Let’s hope that this year’s a productive one, whatever we’re fishing for. As I write, the snow is falling and we already have at least 4 inches piled up outside that has fallen today on the Nottinghamshire/Derbyshire border. This really has been an exceptional cold snap and while short cold spells can mean good fishing for some species, prolonged cold weather such as this tends to slow down pretty much everything that swims. With all of the snow falling into our rivers and lakes and the continued cold temperatures (with many parts of the UK struggling to break above 0°C, even in daytime!) the water temperature will be extremely low and lower than most species require to enable them to feed and digest what they eat. When we eventually do get a thaw, be prepared to head out and fish as you could be in for a red letter day. There will be some very hungry pike, chub, roach, grayling and perch out there just waiting for a warm spell to trigger a feeding frenzy. Location will be paramount to a good day’s sport, but get this right and these species will be crawling up your line to get to your bait …

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Hello blogsville!

Barbel fishing tactics summer barbel freelined luncheon meat touch-legering

Hi, this is not a proper blog post – I intend to post one of those very soon – it’s just a test to see how my profile’s looking. A lovely Barbel I caught last-cast on the simplest of methods; touch-legering luncheon meat under a near-bank tree Once properly up and running this is going to be a blog about fishing in the UK and abroad, updated whenever I’ve got something to say in between writing my Fishing Articles. If you like to fish for specimen Barbel, Pike, Perch, Zander, Chub, Roach, Rudd, Grayling and occasionally Carp, then head over to my website to check out some of my instructional articles & videos, then check back here soon for new blog posts. Thanks for checking my stuff out!

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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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Grayling on a Day Ticket

Derbyshire Derwent day ticket grayling 1lb+

Grayling fishing, on a day ticket, on the Derbyshire Derwent First of all, I can’t believe I’ve now been writing for Anglers Today for a year already; and what a year it’s been!  Thankfully the fish have been quite co-operative, giving me some material to write about and allowing me to notch up no less than nine new Personal Bests along the way. In the week leading up to Christmas I managed to fit in two fishing sessions on very different natures. I decided to fish for pike one day and, in the interests of diversity, grayling on the other. In Derbyshire and the surrounding counties, we are quite lucky to have various rivers offering the chance of quality grayling fishing on a day ticket. Many venues are fly only but some are mixed fisheries, recognising bait fishing as a valid method for catching ‘Lady of the Stream’. It’s almost two years since I fished for grayling, but it is a species I shall always long to catch. Firstly, to catch one you must fish clean, fast rivers. Once you hook a grayling, you are then treated to a terrific, spirited fight; where the fish will use all of its …

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