neil r

Few hours early this morning for trout and chub on the lures . Had 3 brownies and lost one on a smith d contact and had 2 chub on duo spearhead ryukis . Was a bit bright though , probably would have been better at dusk

I did have a savage gear rod , can’t remember the name and it wasn’t too bad but it wasn’t as good as the hto . Normally I wouldn’t look at a brand like hto but a few people told me to look at the nebulas and then someone I know bought one and let me have a cast with it and I ordered one as soon as I got home . Don’t know what the other rods they do are like but but the nebula is light with a very fast action and for around the 150 mark I can’t think of anything else I’d get instead of it

I’ve sold my bass gear but when I did it I used a 9ft 12-42gm hto nebula . It’s brilliant with a very fast action and threw lures for miles . You read reviews saying the tip snaps but mine was sound and I’d put money on the breakages being user error

I haven’t seen the last couple of seasons because I don’t really watch tv anymore but I liked the ones I did see . It can be a bit far fetched and the odd episode a bit naff but James spader who plays Raymond redington is brilliant and it’s well worth giving a go

The map I’ve got is in surprisingly good condition for its age and it’s the version with unlined rings . I believe they were built on Harrison gti blanks . I’ve never had a one of the normarks and still bring very good money . And everyone who uses them say they are at least equal if not better than anything on the market today . The titan-avenger and microlight are rods I always look for at car boots but still not seen one yet . They’ve just done a re release of the the 3 rods and they say they are as good as the originals but there’s not much info showing the actual rods and it just see

The wanna be roadmen with the 2 tone grey north face trackies and puffa jackets with the hoods up in summer wearing mongy Nike trainers that have soles that are 5 sizes too big for the actual trainer and worst of all , their little handbags . People in small cars are a nuisance aswell . Whenever you get stuck in a line of traffic you can bet it’s some fcuker in a Peugeot 107 or aygo at the front doing a 1/3rd of the speed limit for no reason at all . They also seem to have trouble getting their cars within walking distance of the curb when parking so it looks like they’ve just abandoned

There’s a very faint code on the reel foot of the Mitchell and I think it’s a 1976 one . The Abu 33 was made in December 1974 and the code is 741200 and is the very first version from the sought after 8 month original production run and runs like a Swiss watch . They were spinning reels and came in 33 -44-66 and 77 sizes with the latter 3 being fairly easy to find but still bringing decent money . The 33 is a lot harder to find and the original version run being only made for 8 months in 1974 brings top money . There’s an original one on eBay at the minute for £814 . Even the later versi

love shops like that , there’s one near me that has secondhand gear and you can sometimes find some real bargains there . Never seen the Mitchell baitcasters but older gear is just better made than most new gear . My mate picked a Mitchell 330 otomatic up a couple of years back from a carboot sale , cracking little reels . I actually picked up a Garcia Mitchell 300 with 3 spare spools the other week from Bolton carboot for a tenner . I’ve serviced it but it needs new line on it before I use it . Old fishing gear is the only reason I go to carboot sales and it’s surprising what you can find on

There’s nothing worse than crowded fishing, I’d rather walk miles than fish near someone if possible. The groundbait approach is only something I’ve done in the last few seasons after trying groundbait feeders for barbel and noticing the dace were straight on it and the ones I caught were bigger fish . Previous to that I used to use 4-6 pints of maggots and feed heavily to try and feed the little ones off . That daiwa rod will be pretty good even compared to today’s gear love older gear for trotting , my reels are closed face Abu 505’s and 503’s from the 60’s and 70’s and my centrepins are

The ribble is like a commercial fishery with the amount of people fishing it , especially the free stretch in Preston where quite a few have done YouTube videos and 20-40lb bags of dace caught with some decent ones amongst them but for some reason they don’t get the really good ones down there . Think the record is something like 1lb4oz so a lb fish is massive . You don’t get them every time but you’ll get a few during the season . I’ve found balling in groundbait with hemp and maggot in and then a small ball every cast brings the better fish in and if you stop feeding groundbait and just use

I fish for dace on the stickfloat a fair bit during the season on the ribble and calder which are 2 of the best dace rivers in the country for both numbers and size with 10oz+fish common on both and 1lb fish not as unusual as you’d think. Simon Ashton the dace record holder did a video for drennan’s youtube channel on radacs day ticket stretch at ribchester float fishing for dace and had them to a lb . The calder also has plenty of gudgeon aswell and if you’re stood in the river trotting aswell as catching them they will be around your feet feeding on any dropped bait

Trying for tench and crucians on the lift method with a centerpin today

Mine and my mates around me are all off the ground and we strim regular and if there’s food in the feeders don’t top them up but there’s people on the pens around them that don’t keep on top of the undergrowth, leave piles of wood and just feed on the ground . The woman who feeds the wild birds only has 1 feeder on her pen and everything else is just thrown on the floor and on top of buckets. Out of 30 odd people there’s only 8 of us actively trying to keep them down but we’re pissing in the wind when the rest of them don’t think feeding on the floor and leaving piles of rubbish is a problem .

They do my head in , just when you think you’ve got on top of them loads more appear . I put one coop up last year and they were there in no time and the feeds off the floor so it’s not like there was food on the floor for them . My big coop didn’t have any for over a year then they suddenly appeared. I did clear that shed and it was clear for a while but I noticed they were back last weekend . I’ve used a bit of poison over winter but mainly trapped them in my fen’s and I’ve had loads . My mate at the back of me has had loads in his traps and my mate at the side as been poisoning along with t