And this is what he had to say…
I went to Bradley Pond last Sunday morning, got there for about 7am, only took about two casts - half an hour for my first fish, which turned out to be the biggest of the day a 10 oz Crucian. The sun was a bit bright to start with but shouldn’t of complained. After 10am I had cold, wind, rain and hail for the next 4 hours and very little on the bite front. At about 2pm I had a nice bite and thought I was into a good fish but it turned out to be weed and a small Skimmer around 6 oz. Great venue, poor weather!
Both Bob and Tim have opened their Fish n Trips accounts this week with some nice fish.
Bob sent this report:
I fished at butterswood, goxhill - right near the train
tracks. I got 2 Carp both about two and a half pound, two Tench about a pound and
a half and two Rudd 4-8 oz. All on a garbalino flatbed method feeder, micro
pellets and corn hook bait on a hair, with maybe an additive or two, think next
time will be better now i have a feel for where to fish it. Might try bradley
again soon. Sounds like it has picked up, went in early september and not much
good.
Thanks to Bob for his pics and report. You can click on any pics to enlarge them. I particularly liked the blood red colouring on his Rudd’s fins. Gorgeous colour.
Tim sent this report:
Had a trip to Snitterby today and what a day it was! Got there at 6am got 3 rods out for half past, first fish 5 to 7 - 15 and half caught on legered Polan. Then went quiet for a bit then had something sniffing on my paternoster float with small trout on, 15lb nicely marked fish, then it did go quiet for awhile about 11am I moved my other float up a bit flicked it out only to see it scream off down river bang 19lb beautiful fish caught on eel section. Then nothing for awhile then float went again hit it but it pulled out felt like a nice fish packed up at 12:30 so all in all a good mornings fishing when you no were to go ;)
So thanks to Tim for his pics and report - which has given me an idea for a new feature on the Fish n Trips page. I’m going to add a % of the record feature for our biggest fish.
In simple terms if you catch a 10lb fish of a certain species whose British Record is 20lb you’ll score 50% of the record. If you catch a 15lb fish of the same species you’d score 75% of the record. I’ll do this for all of our best specimen fish caught during the Fish n Trips Challenge.
So to start the ball rolling Tim will hold the Pike top spot for now with a 19lb fish. The Brirish Record Pike is 46lb 13oz. This gives Tim a Pike Record Rating of 40.58%
Another reason I thought it would be nice to add is because Garry Ornsby caught a monster Carp this week also. The story and pictures will follow, but his Carp was independently weighed and verified at 17lb 4oz. This gives Garry the Carp top spot with a Carp Record Rating of 26.19%
These fish and the new % Record Ratings have been added to the Fish n Trips page above.
After a long break from the coarse fishing (nearly 20 years!) I’m pleased to say I had a pleasant debut comeback at a beautiful little private local water.
After a spell of dreadful January & February weather it turned out to quite a mild and pleasant day at this lovely pond owned by our friends Trev & Ian Oliver.
Tony was first off the mark with a little roach, with me close behind with a small perch. Garry quickly got in to his stride after that though and netted an almost constant stream of small roach and perch. Tony was still getting the odd small fish while I was just getting the odd finicky bite but no action.
Later in the afternoon the slightly larger fish started to show with Tony starting to catch mirror carp around the 1 - 2lb mark. Tony then started to diversify and managed to tick a few boxes on his Fish n Trips species list after netting a small barbel, mirror and common carp, roach, perch, tench, a rudd and a little gudgeon.
Garry continued with a regular stream of small roach interspersed with the odd perch and finally I hit in to a decent fish. It took a while to land ( so Gaz & Tone will tell you), but a 6lb mirror on 2lb line and a size 20 hook can’t be bullied in. It has to be played with sheer mastery; It’s nice to see I haven’t lost my touch :O)
It was the biggest fish of the day, but specimen of the day had to go to Tony with a gorgeous perch approaching 2lb. Infact it was that BIG he daren’t pick it up!!
So in a nutshell: The 3 of us bagged an approximate total of 40lb of fish. First fish to Tony Martin, top weight was Tony Martin as well (though Garry started to catch up with a flurry of small mirrors towards the end of the day), Best specimen was Tony’s too, most fish definitely belonged to gaz with a netfull of roach, and I sneaked on to the board in the latter stages with biggest fish.
More pictures are available on the Fish n Trips scoreboard here.
Great afternoon of fishing - thanks to Trev & Bov for the pleasure.
What with the freezing cold weather over the past few weeks It’s unfortunate that I haven’t been able to spend a little more of my extended Christmas holiday fishing. However the last couple of weeks haven’t gone completely to waste in fishing terms as me and a couple of others have put in a bit of time checking out some potential future fishing venues.
Our 1st outing was to Doncaster and the river Don. I have it on good authority from a fishing friend that this previously desolate river, choked by the pollution of a once thriving industrial landscape of steelworks and coal mines, has made a miraculous recovery and is now producing some fantastic Barbel & Chub as well as good bags of silverfish.
With this in mind, and after doing further research and finding articles like this one by Bob Roberts, I had to take a closer look.
We started at what was probably the most scenic and inviting of all the spots we looked at - Sprotbrough Weir.
[Click pictures to enlarge]
In the aerial photograph (1) you can see the weir and pool, above it is the canal navigation. You can also see the road bridge from which photos (2) & (5) were taken. Talking to the locals this is a bit of a Barbel hot spot. Not that they are easy to catch - but they are there in numbers. Picture (4) shows the bank access and this is where there was a single fisherman on the day we went. Picture (6) shows the canal downstream of the aerial photo, the canal rejoins the main river Don (6) just past the lock system.
All in all we thought this was a very promising spot to try out for Whiskers and the old wide mouth Chub. Scenic and inviting in the dead of winter, this place has to be a real gem in the height of summer.
With the help of Google maps in satellite mode, following the river I identified what looked like another possible spot to try out.
The aerial shot shows the A1 road bridge over the Don. We parked up in the housing estate you can see to the left of the bridge and walked down to the water. The banks look easily fishable either side of the bridge but as the track from the housing estate is gated off, parking is a problem as you are literally over someone’s drive in a cul-de-sac. For this reason we ruled this one out, rolled the dice again, landed on Take a Chance, and got sent straight to jail…
…Doncaster Prison as it happens.
I’m sure any potential escapees will find this aerial map of the prison very handy, but for our purposes it shows the river Don beautifully. Well actually that’s not quite true. The river Don can be seen running behind the prison in the bottom of the picture. The main stretch of water you can see with the weir and salmon run in it is a drain coming off the Don and rejoining it back down stream. If you look closely at the point of the drain where the fork begins you can see 3 cars parked on the bank and people fishing. That full stretch of bank is no longer accessible by car, but you can park close by and the whole riverbank is pegged out. There are obviously matches held there so there are obviously fish there.
The second photo shows a river eye view of the weir you can see in aerial photograph.
The third photo speaks for itself, and unfortunately we found this to be fairly common along the more urban stretches of the Don. A river is never at its prettiest in the bleak mid winter, but this ugly site just makes things so much worse.
Having said that, things aren’t so bad above the weir and I think it’s a spot definitely worth a day’s outing.
Just a little further down river we rejoin the Don and another hot spot is near the Three Horseshoes Pub (1).
The pub itself has enough parking space for 4 cars, which isn’t surprising as the place looks a dump, but there are a few opportunities to park to the rear. It’s not the prettiest of swims and the area near the pub suffers from the aforementioned plastic bag litter, but a little further down near the main road bridge (top bridge in picture) there were some nicely accessible banks and obvious signs of recent angler activity. Not litter you understand - Wellie marks in the mud and bank stick holes.
Again, this is no Hampshire Avon for scenery, but there are definite fishy possibilities.
Heading out of Doncaster (2) we made our way to another tip off, the canal opposite the derelict Thorpe Marsh power station near Arksey. There’s plenty of parking along the road and this navigation off the river Don looks really inviting. Being more rural it doesn’t suffer from the litter problems further upstream in Doncaster. I have less info on its Barbel credentials but it does look like a peaceful place for a day’s canal fishing.
My next trip out took me under the expert guidance of my Dad to the river Witham. My Dad, now resident in the beautiful Lake District, was in the 70’s and early 80’s a top match angler who spent a lot of time fishing rivers all over the country, and some in Europe, with local tackle shop owners George, Roy & Ron - aka the Sparkes brothers.
A favourite spot he took me to was a stretch of the Witham between Tattershall bridge and Kirkstead bridge. Compared to the river Don the Witham looked so much cleaner and more inviting to fish. There are several easy access spots along Witham Bank where you can park just a matter of feet away from your swim. A local blue book is required to fish along this part of the Witham, or you can pay a small fee for a day ticket.
I’m really looking forward to giving this stretch a try. It looks like trotting a stick float heaven!
And finally our latest find, Bradley Ponds, is a lot closer to home, just a few miles in fact.
The complex is made up of 2 ponds. The smaller pond is fairly narrow due to the islands, but has a lot of little twists, turns and bays. The bigger pond has a few small islands but otherwise is a fairly open water.
The picture below is a series of 3 pictures ’stitched’ together to give you a panoramic view of the pond.
We have been reliably informed by the fishery owner ‘Ade’ that both lakes contain 21 species of fish including Barbel and Chub as well as a number of ornamental species that we are not including in our fishing challenge such as Goldfish, Orfe and Koi. Both ponds run to 5 - 7′ deep with the larger pond having a deep hole (top right bay of picture) running to about 13-14′.
The ponds look very well kept and cared for. Ade is on hand most of every day to take your money, offer advice and make the tea (in the caravan). Prices are reasonable at £5 for 1 rod, £6.50 for 2, £10 to night fish, £70 yearly day membership and £90 yearly night fishing membership.
I went down today to see two of the lads taking part in the Fish n Trips challenge Tony Martin and Garry Ornsby. They were just having a swift few hours in the evening until dusk. The weather was nippy to say the least and the fish were shy.
Tony (1) was float fishing close in to a small reed bed (20 and was getting a bite every cast. The bites seemed almost impossible to convert into a hooked fish, but when he did many of them were tiny Roach. Both him and Garry had a few decent Gudgeon but were too cold to get the camera out and photograph them for the challenge so no new pictures there! Tony landed the best fish of the day - a 6 ounce goldfish. Unfortunately for Tone as it’s an ornamental fish it’s not on our species catch list so it didn’t count towards the Fish n Trips challenge. Garry (3) had a few hours on the hair rigged leger and tried the feeder on the quiver tip too, but both to no avail.
So not the most productive day, but we are all reserving judgement on this pretty little venue until we have a full days fishing in slightly warmer weather conditions.
You’ll find Bradley Ponds just off Bradley Road approx a mile or so after Bradley Woods if you are approaching from Bradley crossroads near Grimsby. Watch out for the turn off though, the sign for it is about the size of a postage stamp. It’s definitely worth drowning a maggot though, and we’ll be back soon.
Tight Lines folks!
I’ve fished in some cold weather but this was just ridiculous…
(click to enlarge pictures)
This is what happened to my short baitcaster rod while pike fishing at Bardney Lock a few days before Christmas. After noticing what was happening I put my rod down and tried to remove some of the ice build up from the end eye. The ice was very crisp and solid and I couldn’t remove it without using considerable force and risking damaging the eye. By this time the line had frozen solid through every eye on the rod except the butt eye.
It took two hours for my rod to thaw out!
You wouldn’t mind freezing your b*ll*cks off for a nice double figure personal best Pike, but we didn’t catch a bean. I tell a lie, this is probably when I caught the flu that laid me up for most of Christmas!
In a break from the usual monster Pike horror stories you often hear of as a Pike angler, where huge Pike have been seen taking ducks and chicks off the surface of the water in one gulp - Here we have the tables turned as a cormorant gets one back for the birds and shovels a Jack Pike down his throat. Great picture (click it for biggy).
Me and a few fishing mates are going to attempt to catch every species of coarse fish native to Britain. Being from a town notorious for it’s wonderful quality Fish n Chips, I hope you can see where the name for this challenge came from!
Something similar to the brilliantly engaging tv series by Matt Hayes & Mick Brown ~ ‘The Great Rod Race‘.
Our feat is not going to be so much of a race though, it’s purely for the achievement and ensuing adventure that we accept this challenge. Everyone taking part has been issued with a little logo of the Fish n Trips challenge, and must include it in every photograph of every fish in the species list to prove it’s capture. You’ll be able to follow our progress here on the newts.net as I update everyone’s achievements with their stories and pictures.
I have set up a new ‘page’ dedicated to our challenge. All information and links to new posts will appear on this page as well as a chart listing all the fish caught and pictures of them. You should be able to see a button (Fish n Trips) for the page at the top of the website page, or you can click this link…
Heaven only knows what he was dangling in the water to catch it!
What with work commitments; a lot of working away / weekends etc and of course keeping my two boys entertained, my time spent on the reel end of my fly rod has been minimal to say the least. Infact in 2007, other than several trips Pike fishing early & late in the year, I think I managed just two fly fishing trips, both of which were to Thorpe Vale Trout Fishery. So by my calculations that makes it over a year since I’ve fished at Toft Newton.
It only feels like a few short years ago that I was there twice a week without fail. At that time you’d be greeted by a great big Alsation named Guiness, and his owner and bailiff Jason Foster. The fishing was always great. A good stock of fish and always a good chance of a 3lb+’er. For whatever reason several years ago Jason left and the fishery slowly suffered. I remember with great fondness in the height of summer Jason would let you fish until an hour after sundown (when he’d signal the all out time with a floodlight), which meant fantastic fun between 10pm and 11pm when out of the blue you’d be covered in 
caenis and the trout would turn a glass calm lake into a boiling couldron with their frantic evening rise to the anglers curse. Not to say that you’d fill your boots in minutes, far from it, they don’t call these gorgeous little fellas the ‘Anglers Curse’ for nothing. But whatever you did, fish or no fish, it was spectacular fun! Happy Days :0) After Jason left though there was a whole new regime instigated (obviously a money saving exercise) and the boats had to be off the water at 8pm. I never witnessed that kind of late evening action again. Not just that, the whole place and staff seemed to take on a less than positive atitude and as a result it declined in popularity and I should think profitability too. The difference was Jason ran the place as if it was his own. He cared. Everyone ever since has just been staff. Eager to get off home asap and not really giving a toss.
So what with doing a bit of pike fishing recently, and a mate mentioning that Toft was open to course & pike fishing for 3 weekends in January, imagine my surprise when I phoned up toft to book a boat and Jason answered the phone!
We went and had a day. Fishing Toft with a spinner was an opportunity too good to miss! No pike, but 12 1.5lb trout landed was good sport. The coarse anglers had a good catch of trout as well, but even me fat mate Bov could catch a trout or three fishing Toft with maggots! Your chance to coarse fish the reservoir has gone for this year, but fly fishing for trout opens on February 1st.
In short I just wanted to say Welcome Back to Jason Foster, I hope you can get this good fishery great again, and please please please can we have the option to fish that incredible late evening rise once again!!
You can visit the new Toft Newton website (including discussion forum and weather webcam) by clicking here
I quite fancy one of these little fellas, they look pretty damn neat. Having seen one for the first time; this one actually, I’ve had a bit of a surf around and it seems there’s a few different outlets in the UK selling these mini fishing rods. They however all seem to be the same rod, whereas the one in the video above seems to be somewhat better quality.
The 2008 model of the Pen Fishing Rod Extreme is a little longer than the common model that’s currently floating around the internet. The Extreme looks the same size as normal pen rods while collapsed, but when it is extended it measures a respectable 4′ 9”, almost 1 foot longer than it’s predecessor. I also saw mentioned on the website that these rods feature titanium line guides right through to the end eye and incorporate a pressed aluminium oxide insert in every eye. I very much doubt the cheaper versions are built to that standard, and unlike cheaper versions, the Pen Extreme comes with a choice of reels including a fly reel, a graphite rear drag, an aluminium rear drag or a bait caster.
It looks a quality little piece of equipment. I’m not totally convinced about the whole keeping it in your ‘briefcase’ thing, not for me anyway, and how many ’suits’ do you see at the riverbank on their dinner hour? However, it’s definitely a gadget worth having on you if you on a recce mission, checking new waters out, or even just an hour or three of an evening at your local water. And brought along to a proper fishing session, I can see this little gem could provide some quality entertainment while killing time listening out for bite alarms on your carp rods or your pike dead baits.
All for the price of a couple of rapala lures or a maybe a day ticket?? It’s hard to resist! So I won’t!
Shame they don’t sell them in the UK, but you can get your hands on one from ‘across the pond’ with the very nice people at penfishingrods.com where you can also read up a bit more on these great little rods and take advantage of the current two dollars to the pound exchange rate making these rods effectively HALF PRICE!
***PLUS***
If you read the kind comments left by Michael, the CEO of penfishingrods.com, if you mention the newts.net when you order one of these rods you will receive either a discount or, at no extra charge, faster shipping!
Mine’s on order. Well I say mine, it’s actually a birthday present for a mate, but as soon as the 2008 model aluminium rear drag reels are in stock I’ll be placing my second order. So folks, watch this space where I’ll post some more photo’s and a review of the rod in action. Maybe a little bit of video if we get the chance!
…In search of the Pike!
With what little bit of spare time we’ve had recently between jobs, Me and Gaz have been on a bit of a recce mission searching out a few fishing spots where we can chance an arm at a Pike or two.
We managed to get a look round Revesby Reservoir, Bardney Lock and Cromwell lock all in one afternoon.
Revesby Reservoir looked fantastic. A beautiful mature venue with a wide variety of good sized species and a ton of Pike up to and probably over 30lb. Bardney looked equally as inviting, a venue where I have seen BIG Pike emerge for myself. And finally Cromwell Lock Which is an alltogether more difficult prospect from a pike point of view, but I’d be willing to give it a go while Gaz goes in search of the fabulous Barbel on this popular stretch of the river Trent.
On another afternoon, while on the way back from a job, we dropped in to have a look at the much mooted Selby 3 Lakes. A well known Carp water with it’s fair share of reasonably sized Pike. The only problem with this venue is that you can only live / deadbait for Pike as no spinning or plug fishing is allowed. But what with such magnificent carp in the lake you can fully appreciate why they wouldn’t want large treble hooks being dragged through the water at high speed.
So our first port of call to cast a line was Revesby Reservoir. It started well, with me setting up my new baitcasting rod and reel in Gaz’s peg, having a practice flick, and then casting out for real and bringing in a new personal best pike of 8lb 2oz on my shiny new rapala lure. That happened to be the first cast and the best fish of the day. I had a walk round the 34 acre lake and landed a 2lb’er and lastly a 4lb’er to finish a really enjoyable day with 3 nice Pike. Gaz was feeder fishing but struggled in the shallow water. After an hour or so of depth finding we realised that even way out in the middle of this big lake it was only 3 feet deep. We found a stretch of deeper water near the pier at about 8 feet, but it didn’t produce any fish on the feeder rod. Tough coarse fishing in a lake teaming with thousands upon thousands of small fry and jack pike.
A few days later we loaded the fishing wagon up and headed for Bardney Lock. Arriving at first light, we got setup in the reeds just at the junction of the lock and the river Witham. Similar to what happened at Revesby, I set my small plug rig up and had a few casts in Gaz’s swim while he setup 2 dead bait rods and his quiver tip. Within minutes I’d landed the biggest fish of the day. It weighed 13lb 10oz’s in the wet net, and after weighing the net in at 1lb 10oz we settled on 12lb exactly for this new personal best Pike.
A great start, and the action continued soon after. It was only a matter of minutes later that Gaz had his first run on the dead bait. It was a good little fight, and a while before we saw the fish in the water for the first time. Incredibly, it wasn’t a Pike. Not even a Perch or Zander? So what took Gaz’s deadbait? 
Imagine our surprise when we saw this beautiful specimen Bream swirl at the surface! Obviously the slabby didn’t take the dead bait, but managed to get himself foul hooked on the bait. Even so, what a gorgeous fish to see on the bank. Gaz’s pb Bream weighed in just short of the 6 at 5lb 14oz. It would have been a very memorable fish to christen the prodigy feeder rod on, but that happened later on in the day with a wee Perch.
4 more Pike were banked at 7lb, 7lb 10oz, 6lb 8oz & 6lb 14oz. Along with numerous, we reckon over 30, missed runs, grabs and fish on but lost. One memorable missed take was a very fast pike that smashed into my 10 inch goldfish lure the instant it hit the surface of the lock. A great day’s action, and I’m really looking forward to a visit back to Bardney in order to up that 12lb pb Pike :0)
I haven’t cast a line in search of Pike for nearly 20 years now, so when the invitation came for a few hours wobbling a dead bait one early morning I thought yeah why not, it will make a refreshing change from trout. We met up in Brigg and fished the Old Ancholme from a spot just a side street from the precinct in Brigg.
A very simple setup of 12′ Carp rod, 8lb Maxima, 18” wire trace and a wobbled smelt accounted for my first little Pike of around 3lb above.
And not long after this 4.5-5lb’er below.
Not bad for a couple of hours, frosty morning work!
I’ve been thinking for a while now of trying out some form of lure fishing with a small or single handed multiplier reel. Inspired mainly by Rex ‘Yibbida Yibbida folks - Thank your mother for the rabbit’ Hunt, watching him single handedly flicking lures from a boat towards some sunkissed Aussie coastline. I thought that’s one style of fishing I’ve never tried and I really fancy a go at.
So I’ve been on the look out for a decent multiplier reel and a suitable rod. I think I’ve found a good reel in the Team Diawa Viento I managed to get from an American tackle shop via e-bay. Not an easy job as you might think as the Yanks seem to prefer right hand wind reels, but eventually I was lucky enough to win a bid on a left hand wind one. I’m still undecided about which rod to go for. I’d like something that will handle a BIG pike and cast lures big enough to catch big Pike, but it would be nice to have something a little versatile that could throw a smaller lure should if I fancy a spin for trout, perch or even a spot of harbour fishing, Rex Hunt syle, while on holiday. The rods that I have found so far include:
The Greys Prodigy Jerk Bait GPK 050
I think I need a bit of experienced advice for this decision, so right now I’m off to check out the Pike Forums to see if there are any helpful souls in there who can put me on the right line. And hopefully, in the not too distant future, I’ll be armed with my own Pike outfit and posting pictures of some monster fish!
I’ve never seen owt like this before in my entire illustrious fishing career! This is how to catch a boat load of fish with no rod, no reel, no line, no net, no bait… Just a torch! This is fishing made easy.
And so to the first fishing trip of 2005. It’s a shame it took until May for it to occur, but that’s just about the story of my fishing outings of the past few years - not enough of them! However I’m sure that situation will be redressed when Ben’s old enough to come along with Dad. I can’t wait!
So it was off to Toft Newton near Market Rasen to open this year’s account. Me and Willie got there for 1pm and were fishing by 1:30pm as the only boat on the water all day. There were quite a few bank anglers but as the nippy North Easterly breeze was quite strong they were all relegated to the lea bank in order to be able to cast. Me and Willie however, with the benefit of the boat, were able to fish the winward bank with the wind behind us. Always the massive bonus of having the boat.
And it was a great start (Apart from me shearing my landing net handle into 4 pieces on the stern of another boat while leaving the jetty) with Willie into a fish on his very first cast of the day. A feat he’s never managed to do before. That meant that he’d already won £2 off me for the first fish of the day. It was just my luck that my first fish came 1 minute later with my 2nd cast!
The takes were quite plentiful and it wasn’t long before we had 4 fish in the bass bag for dinner and we decided, good spot though it was, we’d have a move and explore some more of the lake. It was pretty much neck-a-neck fish-for-fish catching throughout the day, with all the spots we tried offering up a fish or two.
Flies of choice were buzzers; red being the most popular for me and black for Willie, and while all my fish fell to either a red or black buzzer, Willie did get a couple on a small black hopper. It wasn’t until later on that the newts opened up a small lead winning 7-4, but after giving Wil one of my new experimental hot head buzzers that I’d tied, he quickly caught me up and we ended the day at 9 each.
One of my 9 was this fantastic 1lb 12oz Perch which fell to the red buzzer. It fought and felt like a trout all the way to the net, where we first realised it was a Perch. It’s not uncommon to catch a Perch at Toft, although you can usually tell when you’ve got one on because they’re normally somewhat smaller than a trout, but this fella was an absolute beauty and was bigger than most of the 1 1/2lb trout we caught!
A great day out, we fished til 9pm and the rain held off, although that Nor Easterly was pretty nippy by the end of the evening. It’s nice to start a season off with 7 fish. That always seems to be lucky for me and bodes as a good omen, so I can’t complain with 9! The funny thing was both Wil & I lost a fish each on the very last cast of the day! The fish came on great in the last hour and if it wasn’t for the fading light, I’m sure we’d have been in the ‘teens’ each.
Roll on trip No.2!
Well folks it won’t be long before the first trip of the season, out wetting a line in search of the hardfighting overwintered monster troots.
And just to whet the appetite, how about this photo of a gorgeous rainbow trout taken from a high mountain lake in Colorado, US.
What an absolutely stunning looking fish. Gorgeous!
Wow! Is it really a year today since this?
Today we took Ben to Elsham Hall so he Dad could feed the Carp. They are fantastic, well worth the trip just to feed the fish! Ben had a great day too, he particularly liked sticking his fingers up the pony’s nose in the childrens farm. He was more fascinated by the doves flying around the eves of the animals stables than the animals themselves. He had some fun on the multi coloured climbing tubes and slides too.
After Elsham Hall we had to pay a visit to Toys’r'us in Hull. Ben loved it. We must have spent nearly 2 hours in there it was great! He specifically loved…
…But gorgeous as it was and as much as I’d love to have bought it for him, it was way too big for him. If he sat on the seat he couldn’t reach the floor let alone the pedals! He did love it though, he must have spent 10 minutes stood in it shifting the gear lever back and forwards! So amongst other stuff I bought him a mini quad version. He took to it straight away and can motor up and down the front room and garden at a cool 3mph!
After an entire day of editing, cutting, pasting and adding sound tracks, my first attempt at video production is complete!
The video is of this years trip to Ladybower Reservoir and covers the 3 days of our fly fishing competition. Starring me, Gaz, Bov and Willie (and several trout), with footage from 2 different cameras, my Canon mvx10i and Gaz’s JVC. Filming by me and Gaz with a nice shaky bit in the middle courtesy of Bov.
It’s hardly an epic at 17 minutes long, but take my word for it, that’s long enough for your first attempt at production, especially using the editing software for the very first time. It was edited using Adobe Premiere 6.5, like all Adobe software it’s nigh on the industry standard and has features that I’ll only be finding out about sometime in distant future! Even so, the basics are fairly easy to grasp and that’s all I’ve used to produce this video. My thanks to Wez who gave me a brief tutorial on how to use Premiere and got me started. Wez produced his 5 minute movie ‘Playback’ for the local Meniscus Film Festival using Premiere so he’s a bit more familiar with it than I was. You can download Wez’s film here. (38.4MB - .ram file - Real Player required)
Anyway, enough plugging of Wez’s shoddy workmanship, it’s time to check out the newts’s masterpiece! Are you sittting down? Good because the file is HUGE :0( It’s been trimmed down as much as reasonably possible to make it downloadable but still watchable quality. I’m afraid its gonna be a 7 hour wait if you wanna download this film over a 56k connection. If you’re on 500k broadband it will be with you in 47 minutes, and if like me you’re on NTL’s 600k broadband you’ll be watching it within 39 minutes.
I called it ‘Escaping the Dragons in search of the Monsters’. I hope that needs no explaination!
It’s a .rm file so you’ll need Real Player to watch it. If you don’t have Real Player you can download it for free here.
Escaping the Dragons in search of the Monsters —> [171MB - .rm file]
[Right Click the link] —> [Save to Desktop]
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Day 1. Friday…
We arrived at Ladybower early this year so we managed to get an evenings bank fishing in on Friday as a warm up to the boat competition on Saturday and Sunday. Any fish caught were not going to count towards the main competition scores but we all had a little side bet just to make it interesting. The usual bet on these occasions is FIRST, BIGGEST, MOST. So we all had £2 each on each bet. None of us had ever fished from the bank there before so it was new to us all. We started on the bank near the old fishery office [Between H & G on the HERE!
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