I haven’t done much on here for months, I didn’t have the urge, I was busy doing other stuff and making merry in other ways, I have had a few good fish, not many but a few nonetheless.The best of which was a grayling I had on the river Wye at Bredwardine, I was supposed to be fishing for chub but there were a lot of grayling in front of me and they were having it, so I gave it to them, most were in the 14oz- 1lb caliber but this one was a bit bigger at 2lb 3oz and gave a very spirited account of itself. Grayling fight like no other fish I suppose it is the big dorsal fin, coupled with the current of the river Wye it must act like a brake and cause them to corkscrew . I also had a decent pike 

and a decent chub that made the 4lb cut off weight for the CSG, I havent had many chub over 4lb over the last season and I didn’t have any big hits so it was with a heavy heart I had to return my CSG catch of the year trophy which had taken pride of place on top of my bookcase

I can’t complain though , I had enjoyed its presence for the last two years so it is only fair somebody else gets to have thier name on it!

BARBEL SOCIETY SHOW 2016

On the first of May I will be doing a talk at the Barbel Society National Convention at Chesford Grange Hotel, a cracking venue that I haven’t stood up in front of.before so I need to get my “game face” on.

I open proceedings and will be the first up on stage at 9.45 am so on the plus side it leave a whole day afterwards for improvement.

I would recommend attending this event to anyone and everyone but I would especially recommend it to anyone wishing to improve their skills  as there will be a huge pool of knowledgeable anglers in attendance who will be more than happy to engage in conversation and pass on some hints and tips.

 

USforIwan

The major highlight of the last few months has been how the USforIwan fundraising went, from humble beginnings it finished when it reached over £80k and an American stepped in to cover the last of the costs , its amazing what happens when anglers move as one with a common purpose.

I won’t take any credit for what was raised in my name as it was Jerry Gleeson that did a lot of the running around for prizes, Jon Preen sorted out the venue for the social, Grazy Roberts sorted out the auction site and many others chipped in with the logistics of making something the likes of which I have never seen come to fruition.

My only hope is that Iwan Clarke now has the cure that he deserves and lives a long and happy life.

The social was fished right at the back end of the season when barbel are generally at their heaviest during legal limits, however the weather was shit, the river was shit and the fishing was shittier…I fished 48 hours for a bust maggot!

Trent Guru?…lol…I think not!!

So was the end of season a flop?

Well, no…

Not really…

But then again I wasn’t on the Trent, I was on a river in the middle of Spain with my old mates Ian “Hobby” Hobkirk, aka the Burmese Barbeller and Tony Rocca. Tony has a place in Extremadura and he asked if I fancied a week long trip onto his local river….errr, yes!

Now it is known that I am not the best at flying but apart from one minor blow out in the third cubicle at Liverpool airport I was fine  

I think it was a combination of not having to worry about Tina and Olivia, not that they need worrying about , they love flying, it’s usually me that is having the entire known universe fall out of his arse! and the thought of seeing and doing something new.

I love wildlife, I love birds and butterflies and all manner of snakes and amphibians, which reminds me I watched a cracking little two minute video recently that I found quite sobering and worthy of contemplation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmVLcj-XKnM

Anyway, moving on and getting back on track, we landed in Madrid and made the drive south to Eztremadura in a very nice big car that wasn’t a Skoda ( know what Skoda’s look like as my wife has a Skoda) but was very nice nonetheless.

Yes, we drove south and when we had driven south we drove a little way more south, we repeated this for about three hours on a massive motorway that had almost no traffic on it, the long and short of it is simple, Spain is absolutely frigging massive!!

Spain is the biggest thing I have ever seen, Extremadura the county where we would be fishing is the size of Belgium but it has the population of Sheffield. Immediately upon hearing these stats I realised something…I LIKE SPAIN!

I like Spain a lot, ok, it may have had something to do with the vast majority of Spanish girls were walking around the airport looking like they were actually making an effort to look good instead of looking like over made up pigs wrapped in stretched leggings, leggings that generally look to be struggling to contain a half tonne of semi congealed lard, for fuchs sakes girls you don’t need to consume 5000 calories a day, you don’t paint your fuching eyebrows on with a pasting brush, you don’t inject your arse into your face to make it look fuller…You you just fuching don’t!!

I thank my lucky stars I don’t have to go out on the pull these days as there are so many fuching gargoyles on the loose its as if everyone of them has crawled down off of a church roof!

I have digressed…

Back in Spain…

The river looks like a cross between the River Trent and the River Wye…I have a “sem”i on as soon as I see it…I go “full throttle” soon after when the rod bangs over…

All I have wanted is a Comizo…If I fished the whole week for a Comizo and caught one I would be happy…The Angling Gods were kind…I had already asked Tony how I would be able to tell the difference between a Comizo and a Small Headed, Tony replied ” If it can swallow an orange its a Comizo”

Yes, I reckon it could swallow an orange

Five minutes in and I have a double figure Comizo at 11lb, happy days!!!

By my side in the reeds a Sardinian Warbler whistles a congratulation song and high above a Red Kite shouts down if I have any spare sandwiches as he isn’t much up for a hunt today and would prefer just to scrounge a bit of scran and mess about with the Buzzards.

Soon after I had a Small headed Barbel ( barbus microcephalus), a closely related species that despite its latin name has not been in contact with the Zika virus.

The fishing is amazing, too amazing, I learned something the next day, understand one thing, Comizo and Small headed barbel are not British barbel, they are similar but not the same, they do not act the same , feed the same not occupy the same bits of river.

The best bit of advice I can give anyone wanting to go out to Spain and fish for them is this…” Accept that you know nothing, start again with a fresh palette on a fresh canvass and paint a different picture”

I won’t go on too much about Spain, I am not an expert, I had a great time with good friends, I ate some fine foods that included Iberico ham and T bone steaks

But also included Churros and hot coffee. Churros, the Spanish weekend treat , a donut type thing that soaks up your morning drink and destroys a hangover far better than a paracetamol ever could!

On the Butterfly field

The butterfly season is starting very very slowly, its cool , damp and for themost part cloudy, I have seen Comma, Small Tortoiseshells and a couple of Peacocks, as of yet no Brimstones have been seen and this is worrying me as they are very very late, I would be gutted to lose them.

One thing that has turned up out of the blue however is a ring necked parakeet, its mental, its loud and its fearless and doesn’t give a toss.

It certainly does brighten up the day whilst I wait for the flowers to return to the meadow, I can see movement though, the knapweed is coming through strong as is the Trefoil and this year will be big for teasle, this should go down well with the local goldfinches as it only took them a few days to finish off all the seed heads.

 

Another plant that has started to take off and multiply is a chicory of sorts, it has a very long flowering season and is attractive as a feed plant to numerous bees and butterflies, the sky blue flowers also brighten up the field no end and coupled with the Trefoils do a great job at breaking up the strangle hold of the grasses, last year I also introduced Yellow Rattle a parasite plant that feeds off the roots of grasses, weakening them as it does, I had moderate success with it, so I collected a fair amount of seed from it and spread it around a bit further, hopefully I will get an even greater return this year because the weaker the grasses become the more wild flowers take hold and the more wild flowers the happier I am as the more butterflies and bees get fed.

The one thing I would say though is this, don’t cut the dandelions down just yet as they are providing a lot of early nectar to our bees and butterflies, they are doing a great job, leave them be a while yet!

 Shall we talk about the EU?

I will be voting to come out of the EU, I don’t like what the EU has become and I honestly fear for the future, some people think that I am not seeing the bigger picture, others cannot see the failings inherent in “The Project”, I can and it scares the living daylights out of me. Do yourselves a favour and click on the link.

https://www.facebook.com/UKIPReferendumTVChannel/videos/261391710858937/

The insanity of the EU immigration policy

This is one of the major problems with the EU, the free movement of peoples across the continent, in theory its a great idea, people can move to seek employment and better themselves, on the downside we have all manner of shit arriving at our doors on a daily basis, each one with their hands and dicks out.

What did I just say?

I said with their dicks out….Where the migrants go rape follows, being a bit harsh?

No. I have a daughter and a wife and I have cousins and nieces that are all female and I do not want them placed in anymore danger than they are at already.

As an example of all rapes committed in Sweden and I pick Sweden because Sweden is now the rape capital of the West, of all the rapes committed in Sweden 77.6% of them were committed by migrant Muslims and migrant Muslim males make up just 2% of the Swedish population!

It is a game to them, they love it, they feel that their retarded stone-age barbarous religion gives them the right to take whatever they want from the non-Muslim because they are subhuman.

I am not having that and I don’t care if my opinions on it cause offence, religion is a crock of shit but Islam takes it to new depths

And it isn’t just rape that is on the increase, all violent crimes are on the increase, the people of Europe do not need to feel intimidated and fearful, it isn’t right and it isn’t fair.

The only people that benefit are the people that will make money on the backs of unlimited migration are the liberal elites and the people with old money or self interest.

And it isn’t just the British that have had enough of the EU , all across the Eurozone people are starting to wake up to the dark reality of the Project, they are waking up and saying “No”

No.

Enough is enough, there is no sane reason to carry on with this insanity, I want to be a good neighbour, a friend, a trading partner but at the same time I do not wish to place my culture, my history but most importantly my families future at risk.

The numbers involved are not sustainable, 1.8 million people in a year and every year afterwards is not going to end in a happy solution.

I love my European neighbours, the EU is a disaster for us all.

Vote OUT.

 

And finally

 

It has been said that I am an arrogant right wing racist an egotistical little Englander, a person of low intelligence that would have us out of the EU, close up our borders and deport a hundred thousand people at the drop of a hat.

Yes, all these things have been said about me…..But when all is said and done

“NOT ONE FUCK IS GIVEN”