Tuesday 19 June 2012

The miniature great rod race

Today I woke up and switched the television on, to be met by the great rod race which is hosted by Matt Hayes and Mick Brown and after just watching 10 minutes of it whilst eating my breakfast I had decided that today I was going to try and catch 7 different species of fish from the river starting at the middle reaches of the river and down, hence my post title.

 The possible targets were: Barbel (small ones)
                                            Chub
                                            Roach
                                            Rudd
                                            Brown Trout
                                            Gudgeon
                                            Carp
                                            Dace
                                            Perch
                                            Minnow
                                           
Out of 10 species I only managed 5 of them, with me also locating some Perch that are very rare on this river and losing one at the net, also hooking a Common Carp but slipping my hook almost immediately, so I still would have fell short but ill give it a better go when I give myself a bit more than 3 hours!, Not to mention though it was a very enjoyable trip with 36 fish caught in total.


19 Roach in total to 11oz.

4 Dace in total to 9oz.


11 Chub in total to 1lb 7oz


1 Gudgeon less than 1oz.


1 Barbel at 5lb 2oz. (spawned out)

 The Barbel caught was the last fish of the day and so far the biggest landed but plenty of big ones seen but before I caught that though I had encountered one of my biggest fears in the form of a 6 foot plus polish c*/t that hooked a Chub of about 3 1/2lb who didnt have a landing net so I helped him land it with mine and then he said thank you for landing it and I asked him, "are you going to put the fish back", then came the reply of "nope I'm taking it home for dinner", absolutely seething by now I told him " you are putting that back now and I'm contacting the police and EA to have you arrested you fish nicking polish c/*t", and then he said why do you care? with that I said " because you do it your country 1000's of miles away does'nt mean you can do it here go sainsburys and buy a Trout", after another minute or so of me slating him off bearing in mind he was much bigger built than me, he took the Chub to river and released it to fight another day and hopefully keep populating the river to restock and recover from the battering the river has taken from the foreign scum that feel its acceptable to take our sport and fun from us for the sake of a fish full of bones that probably tastes of crap or mice :)!!.

 ARRRRRGGGHGHGHGHGH. Go home and go to hell Tony Blair for opening up the flood gates to these sort of people, since 2004 when they joined the euro and had access to our borders and the gov getting paid £117,000 per immigrant that came here between 2004/09. But this is a double edged sword as later on in the day just after I had that Barbel, I bumped into a polish man who was Chub fishing aswell and he hooked a cracking Chub well over 4lb and I helped him land it and asked him the same question that I asked the other polish man and he said, "no", its going back, with which I said, "thats the correct attitude", with which I took a couple of pictures for him and slipped the Chub back to live another day, it's not all of them, but the majority do give the poles and so on a bad reputation.

 I'll give the miniature great rod race another go and hopefully achieve the full 10 species.

6 comments:

  1. I recognise that barbel - her second outing in two days. And yet the others wont play!

    Had a bit of a bash at a rod race myself today, managed 3 species, not so good... But spotted a small shoal of perch, possibly the same ones?

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  2. What a greedy bugger, is it the one for sure? I found the perch down towards wandsworth in the king george's stretch, ill give myself more time to do the mini great rod race and have a good bash at it, a great bit of fun!

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    Replies
    1. Same barbel but different perch, saw them where you had your tench at the end of last season. Most of them were tiny, but a few up to 3-4oz. They seem to be the first to suffer and the last to recover from pollution so good news.

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    2. It's good to see a couple of different shoals of Perch, they are a very tenacious fish but so delicate to the levels of pollution.

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  3. Hi james and brian firstly im loving reading your blogs ive spent hours reading them (great stuff)and great fish you have been catching. well done james for making the pol put the fish back good for you (and the fish)nice 1.
    paul tipacepau68@aol.com

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    Replies
    1. Cheers Paul, I'm happy you enjoy the journey! There will hopefully be some more great sessions in the pipeline as I have a week trip planned up onto the Hampshire Avon on the royalty fishery can't wait at all, why can't the foreign fisherman adopt our stance on catch and release it's for the best in regards to ecology and also the younger generation to enjoy fishing and indeed all nature that also comes with the joys of being a piscator.

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