Update

We; The Lion Tamers, have been practising for the forthcoming two leg match versus our great friends, the 'Bivvy Boys'.
We have a good team: Fellow Tamer, Pionton has confirmed he is up for it.. (make sure you got two Sundays free, Yik, we give you the dates),  Bone, Me and Jon. If Jon can't make it, Dino reckons he can do the job!.
They have a great team too, and should stuff us proper on the coarse leg.

The first leg is on Ladyfields at Wetley Rocks. Difficult but full of large carp and tench and stuffed full of bits.
It is a fair venue and I wish I had not sold my pole. However, I am shit hot on the waggler and can even do the carp rigs... so who knows?
I have to say, the BBs' are doing much better than us on the lakes at the moment.
Daz got a 22lb from the haunted lake at Barleston last week. Credit to him! I would not fish there for anything. Too spooky for me. Check it out yourselves! There are plenty of anacdotes of strange Gregorian chants past midnight. Apparently, there was a mass slaughter in a field nearby of the Catholic Monks, who introduced the carp in the lake some centuries passed. The  saying goes is  that anyone who catches carp here is eternally cursed! The curse gets worse depending on the size you catch!  You believe what you like, I'm not sure...

Anyway: Here are our last couple of missions....

Bone and me had a go on the Churnet for a large perch. Not a touch apart from this! PS, I have nothing to do with Bone's complicated rig! I think he was targeting the Signals!

We also had a practise for the second leg. This will be on a commercial trout fishery; so that's where we went today. Here is one that  I photographed  after preparing it for my fish cakes. A good 4LB plus on me own Hawthorn (Dynamite today and only Bone and me had got them!) that I had tied for the rivers. Bone and me were top rods!

After the FA Cup.

The best of four this very cold morning on self timer as I was on me tod.

Was disappointed, but not totally depressed that Stoke had lost in the final.

Time to go fishing! Anyway, I decided to go and get a specimen. Now, a specimen fish depends on where it is caught from. So a specimen from where I was going would be rather smaller than one caught from some other larger venues.

My venue was small. A pond in a field.

Conditions were horrible. It was like the middle of winter with the wind and rain in my face. I soon began to regret my decision to get up early,  as soon as I got there. It was bloody cold. I was very cold... I had turned up in summer gear...

I hid behind a tree  to get out of the wind and rain.

Not a bad morning though.

To sum up: 4  missed, then 4 tench...  all wild from here. Less than an acre but a lovely pond.

Made the pub for 12.00!

Large Perch from the Ch..n.t next ...

Ha Ha. THE LION TAMERS

Bone's done it!

 We have caught  the carp. Well Bone has! The guy is on fire.

Bone's double figure

What a beautiful fish

We have got the technique pretty spot on but I think my hair rigs need some fine tuning...2 lost and one dropped. However I managed a tench about 4lb and had a dabble with the roach on the waggler with bits of luncheon meat. Crazy.I would never have thought you could catch quality roach on luncheon meat. No pics unfortunately. There's some huge roach in there...

Now for a picture of a Tean grayling...I know it is out of season but.we were after the trout. Sod it, I have to show off sometimes. Bone is doing me proper these days! Our club have no probs with takng photos. I just wish I had taken Glen Pointon's advice and took a picture of the one I caught a couple of weeks ago on the Dove.

The Match

The Tamers' have some friends who are carp anglers. We love taking the 'p' when they spend nights together supping beer, eating curries (delivered) in the name of fishing. So we've arranged a match! The Lion Tamers versus The Bivvy Boys.
The deal is:
A four man team  fish a day carp fishing and then a day on a trout pond.
To be honest, we are letting them off lightly as we could have taken them to a river!
We have to get into practice. We've been twice and lost a couple of carp but I am satisfied with my tench and roach.
Line up:
The Tamers: Me, Bone, and depending on availability..Dino, Jon and Glen Pointon
The Bivvy Boys: Polly, Binzy, Daz and Martin.
This will take place during the summer and by then we will have the carp sorted!

LOBSTER!

Look at this crayfish claw:

After seeing this, 'Bone' has given up wading above his knees.

We found this on the bank of the river Dove at Rocester. This thing must have been massive!
 Some sort of animal must have caught it and enjoyed a midnight feast. Probably a mink or otter.

Unfortunately these crayfish don't belong in the UK and are American Red Signal Crayfish, imported for food about 30 years ago. Some escaped!
They destroy habitats, pass on a disease to our native crayfish, eat fish eggs, eat anything, are delicious on a bbq, and burrow under river banks until they collapse. The silt from the banks covers mating areas for our wild fish (trout, grayling, chub etc).

The authorities forbid the general public to do anything about it unless we apply for a licence.
 Now that might have been a good move a few years ago to stop live specimens being accidently transfered to a different river system. BUT: These creatures are not spread by humans anymore, but by riverside fauna.

They are great parents and hundreds of tiny offspring cling to the belly of the mother until ready to fend for themselves. So, for example, a heron fancies a meal and the little critters get a free lift to somewhere else.

However, we have a problem. These creatures have adapted so well, we are now fighting a losing battle to control them. They have spread throughout the UK and I think it is about time we were allowed to catch them and eat them when we want to...without the licence. Some of our Eastern European friends have cottoned on to this (licence?) and who can blame them?
It is not a fault of the crayfish that this has happened so if you catch one, treat them with respect and kill them humanely.
The Trent catchment area is full of them. For some reason the Churnet is stuffed with them.
Make sure that you don't kill any native white clawed crayfish. Difficult to tell the difference sometimes but google 'Crayfish' and you can read up. You will also find some good recipes.

The Tamers are investing in some equipment to catch as many as we can. If I am caught, it will be my first criminal offence. Am I bothered?

We are also planning to collect some from the Trent at Bucknall (Stoke) and the Caldon canal to see what species they are. Obviously, we will put the native ones back.

Bone on fire!

More material for Bone's 'Gay Nymphs'

The Wye and things

Well, Woody and me met up yesterday, looking forward to a super day on the hallowed Derbyshire Wye.
I love fishing with Dave as he always has lots of intelligent things  to say and it makes the fishing a pleasure.
I'm not going to say much more as we really struggled. A couple of rainbows a piece.  Boy do we need some rain!
I don't think it was just the lack of water, I think the weather conditions didn't help.
We know it is a great river so roll on a wet summer!

We noticed that Glen Pointon has been caught short again and has thrown another pair of his pants in the river.
Or is this some devilish plant to lure the fish to this spot as all sorts of larvae drop off, leaving an enticing trail.

THE LION TAMERS HIT THE TEAN HARD

Well to be  honest, this was the headline I wanted to blog but we had no chance.

We should have learned our lesson by now. The rivers are struggling and a stream the size of the Tean is suffering more than most. I know there are some large fish in this beautiful overgrown  river but I was shocked to see the state of it today.

Dino, Jon, Bone and me ventured to Fole to have a crack. I thought the other rivers would have been crowded out. The Tean was almost impossible to fish.

Dino in his nest!

Dino catches a fly on the bonnet. "Let's match the hatch!"

We have a good stretch here and we opted to wander upstream. Unfortunately this is where the river has split and so shared water and even shallower and slower flow. A silly move really on my part, but I wanted the lads to catch and knew a haunt!

We waded (ankle deep) up to where a brook joins the main flow. It is a tunnel of trees. I had my 6" rod with a duo. The other lads were armed with 8 footers. To be honest, my rod was more if a hindrance in this swim.

Jon lands his grayling

I waded further up and anounced I was about to cast. In it went, nothing, second cast I hooked Jon, who had decided on a bad spot to watch. Third cast, I was sure I had a take. Fourth a nice oos Grayling.

But that was it. The other lads took turns, had a few takes but noyhing more. We wandered up stream, saw some large fish, Jon also had a grayling from the original swim but we called it a morning, we departed.

Does my bum look big in these?

We drove up to a trout pool we are members of and had a cracking few hours! And a cracking hour in the pub!

a new fly to me

Attempted a Hawthorn job.

What we need

The Tamers tame Seighford

OK so it's not a river. And it's full of stocked rainbows but where else could we get away from the crowds on a bank holiday? Seighford seemed the best value so off we went.
It was very warm and the water was transparent.
We were also on smog alert and had to check the ozone levels, so our inhalers were ready, just in case!
Not good, we thought.
Bone started on the first of the two pools. Jon and me ventured up to the railway pool. This is next to the main line to London and behind is the M6. So not as tranquil as the rivers and we did have to take the risk of extra air pollution..
It was difficult and there were plenty of other anglers about.
However, we did rather well in the end and Bone is definitely on fire!

My first, a tiddler

Jon into another

We had a break with a bacon butty and discussed tactics

Check this out! Pushing 9lb! Bone is on fire!

After looking in the returns book, we felt rather smug and Lion Tamers celebrated with a pint afterwards.