Exeter Float Tube Zeds........ ;-)

I must say this is the most fun you can have with you clothes on....... float tubing is gotta be the best way to explore new and exciting venues...... just the thought gets me smilling ear to ear! you fish light none of this 10tons of gear shite, all the unhooking tools on ya chest a small bag of lures to allow easy movement to unhook fish while there still in the water! you only need to take fish out if you wanna quick photo sheer fun and really good for fish handling. and most of all you wont stop laughing from start to finish by beiing towed around the place by the pike etc.
here's adrian with his first of a very very very long drawn out start to the session on a "apparently" stuffed full venue it was hard going with me losing every single bloody pike that came anywhere near me after a solid 3hours jigging and drop shotting for the crafty Zander that call this place home....... which didnt show a sign of coming out! we decided to head back down the venue in search of pike on the spinnerbaits and that soon showed us some results from jacks around a few pounds but just great to get a bend in the rod :-) Me and Adrian met up with Adrians bass junky mate Kev and he had what can only be called a shite morning for all the wrong reasons...... he's a Spinnerbait virgin and manages to hook from the bank what can only be said as a horse of a pike well over the doubles right in the lillies its going ape shit! he only had on 15lb super PE braid and his trusty Berkley skeletor ultra light gear...... after a explosive 2mins the braid goes and the fish swims off :-( guttin losing a PB but losing it still attached to a lure is truly guttin :-(

after we had fished the sections which had ment to of been a dead cert for the Zeds we thought lets take a short drive to a free stretch we knew of which had saved my bacon a few times over the years for pike and zeds and we had almost instant action! on only my third cast from the tube i see a fish charge up to look at my Delalande buster shad thinking it had been my Zed as it followed up literallt 10inches from my legs i dropped the shad down and smash it was on! i could tell instantly i had a pike! but all good fun :-) i also had two other pike in only a few casts the biggest being this plump of a pike on the sebile magic swimmer. while being towed around by this fish and i mean being towed around the pool Adrian was paddling over to take the piccy. its released and strate away Adrian shouts im in! a big congrats to the Dorset destroyer on his first Zander you should of seen the smile on Adrians face...... this Zed took a fox hornet spinnerbait in hopes of a pike! i couldnt believe how aggressive this fish was literally nailing the lure right to the back of its throat...... you couldnt see the lure unless you opened its mouth, the state of the spinnerbait was awesome! all mangled and twisted! Adrian lost a zed on our last trip out for them and we'v been sayin we wanna come back and hit it with the tubes ever since...... a big well done and at a respectable 6lb 7oz a nice zed for your first! by this point i was a man crazed with the zed feaver! as we released this fish Kev shouts up and he's into a zander too.... :-( where was mine? i frantically cast all my small shads and lures in hopes a zed came out but after another pike i had got pretty pissed off
I turned around to drift back down the pool toward the other where i could see bleak scattin and being chased around so i stuck on the Delalande shad again and it wasnt long before my zed showed up! result at last! after a quick scrap it was mine i tailed it out to unhook the zed which got nailed on my owner st-36 stinger treble took a quick photo etc and got it back safe and sound! a nice plump 5lber....... mission accomplished! the problem is this midlands venue is a good 2hours drive for us which sucks as its doing my head in i wanna get back and break the double figure zed! well it was a slow start but it all came together nicely with Ady and Kev getting the first ever Zeds :-)

Anglers and Danglers..... :-)

Just recently iv been lucky enouth to tag along with the fly fishing Guru and all round wrongen Lewis Hendrie iv been gaggin to get out using fly gear for bloody ages after being mentally ruined by Nick Hart and the gang watching them fly fish for trout and pike...... its something iv wanted to do in a long time but not having access to this stuff on a reg basis it was always something that never spawned! well Lewis rings me asking if id fancie joining him for a session i jumped at the chance to get out our first session was on one of my local small rivers for wild brownys and it was AMAZING the next session was some pure angling porn!Now i would call myself a sheer dangler when it came to this type of fishing, we fished little bug patterns in teams of twos or new zealand dropper under the rod tip on this STUNNING southwest tiny water....talk about jungle fishing i was beaming with smiles this was exactly the sort of stuff fishing dreams are made of, kinda takes you back to ya childhood waist deep in water, whats not to like! quoting a a Nick Hart comment "if theis style of fishing doesnt get your juices flowing your not a angler" soooooo true..... with the hepl of Lewis i soon got the flick and catapolt technique dialled and was gettin into fish, although Lewis was whippin me big time!

we had Grayling on the brain and after i had spooked and lost a few while Lewis consistantly caught is was my duty to star nailing some of these gorgeous "lady of the streams" and i soon got stuck into grayling! all of which were between a pound and 2lb which are awesome fighting weight for our ZERO weight fly rods..... yeh zero weights! truly stunning gear coupled with some tiny Sage reels this was amazing finesse gear just right for the job and a real pleasure to use. around every corner there was another pool or gully all crammed to the brim of grayling it was amazing to see and be able to fish water that i usually wouldnt get on!

the next session was my kind of thing.... i had told Lewis about some clonkin chub fishing on another southwest venue where i had recently beat my PB on lure caught Chubblys and we chatted about how on light fly gear it would be insane fishing, real hit and hold no holes barred fly fishing! when we pulled up a short walk to the venue i could see Lew's face coming to life he could instantly see the potential here...... everywhere you look in this river you are greeted with hundreds of chub from a pound to 7lb plus! theres also a huge head of big pike here too :-) we took two fly outfits a 2weight and a 3/4weight for the chub etc so we could play around with nympths on the lighter rod and whip out the frogs and mice patterns on the 4, i also had my trusty Sakura Mazzera 742ml and 4000 reel with a bag of tricks

I had a few casts in a small wier with the fly rod and managed a tiny 3/4lb chub instantly but i could see the Perch and bigger chub tucked right in under the wier in all the white water, so it wasnt long before my lure came out to play :-) i rigged a 3" kalin pepper pearly grub onto a offset hook unweighted and popped it above the wier to let it come doen over the wier into the white water..... and on the next 4 casts i nailed 2 perch to around a pound a 1.5lb chub and a 1lb wild browny! while we moved down the river i continued with the lure and found a small raft of weed on the other side and cast out to the clear water behind, let it drop and drift under and started my drift soon as i started to wind i could see the beats turnin and looking at the grub and a 3lb perch come hammering out but doesnt take! i was in pieces i wasnt expectin that! in the next swims down i can hear fish splashing and see small fish scattin from the water in all directions! thinkin it was the pike which normally hang out here i cast out only to see huge perch everywhere...... i couldnt believe my eyes! it wasnt long before the piking pisshead was into his first decent fish of the day! this plumb 2lb perch! well chuffed we carried on up river

we fished a good old stretch teaming with chub and perch where both me and Lewis nailed them on lure and fly we both saw chub over the magic 5lb mark and a few real biggys well over 6lb...... lewis was jumpin around at the thought of nailing these fish but lost every single one ha ha we headed to a really snaggy patch of the river where there is pubic acces and of coarse shopping trolleys, prams, bikes, traffic cones, beers cans Gotta love wild fishing ayyy! and Lewis shouts F%*$in hell look at that browny........ i knew this venue had beasts as i caught a 3lb 3oz wildy only a few weeks back on a surface lure aimed for chub! after about twenty casts snaggin a few times lewis was sure we spooked this fish but as we were pissin about and lewis was actually on the phone i sat down lookin on facbook and Lew shout "I GOT IT!" it couldnt of been a worse swim snags everywhere on a light fly rod it went mental! but we landed it! a beast of a wild browny!
It was getting late now and we headed back to the car fishing the good looking pools on the way back in hopes of one of these beast Chub..... it wasnt long before they came out to play...... i had the fly rod in hand this time with a chernobyl ant pattern on and BOOM up comes those big rubbery white lips it literally smashed me! i had to run the bank after it i had no control in this fast paced river...... but wow what fun! after 2mins of shoutin to lewis that i had one it burys its head deep into the cover, i could still feel it plunging deeper and deeper into the weed so lewis jumps in with the net to try and help out but i get that heart breaking feelin of slack line... the chub is gone :-( a good fish too so lewis says. Lewis had just been snapped off as well by a big 6lber on 5lb flurocarbon leader...... these fish actually abuse light gear! we finished the session with 11 chub and a couple nice trout plus the biggy and my decent perch. that was it game over home time. bring it on next session on here we are gaggin to hit it again. couple that with the 30 odd grayling and 20 odd trout to fly gear its been a awesome couple weeks :-)

CLA Game Fair.......

I recently spent 3 days working up at Blenheim Palace, just outside Oxford at the CLA game fair. filled to the brim of all the horsey types (fit posh totty ;-).....) farmers, outdoor sports etc and of coarse the fishing village........ where we had our EPIC stand Basslures.co.uk stand had a awesome weekend meeting ang greeting all the lure crazed fishing from all sorts of background! we had the pro's right through to the new'bees all coming over to see our amazing selection of lure brands like Megabass, IMA, Lucky Craft, Lunker City and Delalande

we had the testing tank on site which was a crowd pleaser and let Me and the guys Mike and Nick show and tell all of our top brands and the popular lure styles from the awesome Slug-go to Zonk's...... I managed to get peoples brains churning with my various drop shot styles and funky rigging types of the popular soft plastics which allot of guys werent all that tuned into, its always good to see the look and grin on guys faces when they see what can me done! your be surprised how many of you have all the nice new lures and actually have no clue of its "benifits and actions" the tank allowed us to show you all what was what and we had lots of good feedback from guys and girls who learnt lots of new tricks :-)

As you can see we stocked a fair bit of all the top brands which we sell and import and managed to sell a fair bit as our stand seemed to be one of the busiest in the angling village, mostly lure sales but we also shift some rods and reels to some very happy punters some of which knew just what they wanted and lots of guys who came to us for help and advice which is where i really love to be involved in..... i cant think of anything better than where i can help others learn and get out the experiences iv been lucky enough to have from lure fishing. myself Nick and Mike were all on hand to help out as having that "new bingy" lure is all well and good but not having the foggiest how to use and abuse isnt all that fun :-)

we also had a good selection of the rods from the brands Sakura, Lucky craft and the "secret squirrel club" Megabass rods which literally made me weak at the knees..... the Sakura range consisted of the older Rookie the Shinjin's, Stingrays and the Mazzera's. we had ultra light to 7g right up the the sea monster upsetting 802XH Mazzera tropical beast killer! covering all ground for todays modern lure anger from Bass to fresh water applications and even the GAY'me boys hand there salmon brains ticking with some of the kit we had on board! the Megabass range was beautifully made and i can honestly say out of this world..... if you got the wonga and you dont buy one when you could you need sectioning! the ShadowXX range simply oozed sheer class so did the Indipendance and XIO range! pure lure fishing porn!

the brand that stands out for me in terms of styling and function has to be IMA.... dont get me wrong im a Megabass for life kinda guy but hats off to the IMA guys...... new lures like the super thin Komomo's and new sizes of most the models as well as simply mouth watering new colours that im sure will catch anglers but distroy the UK Bass population ha ha. we had allot of new stuff that isnt even on the topwater catalogue yet all of which will surely rise up the ranks of the finest lure gear on the market! Basslures.co.uk is truly the boys in the retail lure market today and will continue the march to superiour gear for you guys so please please pop onto the site and support Nick and the gang @ www.basslures.co.uk i had a awesome weekend surrounded by awesome people all of which are part of the basslures family a true sign of quality family run business its really a pleasure to be one of the lucky few to be involved :-)

www.basslures.co.uk Parkins quality assured ha ha

CLA Game Fair 2011

sooo its that time of year again! next weekend is the CLA game fair in Oxfordshire. where there will be a wealth of Angling, Hunting and general outdoor activities all on show as well as tons of shops and dispalys from all the top names in the Fly fishing world. Hardy/Greys will be taking care of casting displays etc as well as numerous coarse fishing brands now on display!I will be there working on the Basslures/Topwater stand over the three days where we have a awesome selection of Lure brands from the likes of MegaBass, Lucky Craft, IMA, Lunker City, Sakura, Sebile and Delalande. including all the most modern lures from each brand, Rods and Reels as well as a tank to "show and tell" on various products across the ranges. So please come down and visit us for a banter and check out what exciting brands www.basslures.co.uk and www.topwaterlures.co.uk have to offer up to the Modern lure angler.

CLA Game Fair, Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire. 22-24 July 2011

Smashed........

Managed to get out with the Portland Penetrater in search of more monster chub on a different venue last nite...... i knew there was some huge chub here as often spooked them while out Pike and Perch fishing often seein fish over 4lb blasting off upstream when we hook a jack going mental in the swims. we headed out leaving mine for 11pm in total darkness as thats the time to target lunker Chub and Pike and after my recent chub action from the week was buzzing to get out again! it wasnt long before theaction started i was the first to hook up with a tiddler of around one and a half pounds! but still exciting fun when you cant really see a hand in front of your face!

its not long before Mart is into his first of the session! im litterally in the next glide up when i hear the take and turn to see a massive swirl in the moonlight and Marts rod looped over good and proper..... thinking the chap had done it again and caught another 5plus but as you can see it was far from it he was lent into the fish as it had lunged head first into the streamer weed and thats why it looked like he was bent into a monster! after a quick snap the chub was returned for another day, the very next cast see's me being nailed like a gooden behind a sunken tree i had it on for a while i stuck my lamp on and got a glimse of a fish around 4lb before it came off bolting for cover! after a hour or so of F*%k all apart from the odd hit we decided a move was in order as i reckon this stretch has seen a bit of action with the bait boys since open day!

iv fished this river allot over the last 12years and knew a few swims normally neglected due to the stupid weed growth and shallow runs its practically un fishable unless you are willing to get stung bitten snagged or fall in :-) i have done some thinking in to what a chub wants from its night time feeding and this stretch with its gin clear water, shallow runs and cover from lillies, trees and streamer weed offers plenty of hunting ground for big chub and iv seen them moving up into these areas on eveings im guessin to feed...... it wasnt long before we had scrambled down the banks in search of swims as you can see from the photo above its a bit jungle warfare down here! all the better for me as the guys with all there gear wont venture down to these rough spots! well after a few missed hits by smaller chub i decided it was time to stop pissing around so i clipped on my fav surface lure the swampy and within 3 casts in a likely looking swim the magic happens :-)

i get what i think is a pike charge up behind the lure with one huge swipe at the swampy which misses then another miss before smashing the lure with vengeance its on..... still thinking pike at this point the fish takes line heading for the far bank i stop it thinking iv nailed a 7-8lb Jack! we get it to our bank where i lose sight of it as it burys its head in the streamer weed martin shouts its a Chub!......... (shit my pants moment) as i knew this was a large fish, after a bit of a faff and panic stations we netteed the beast. i couldnt believe my eyes and i knew it was a PB with me like a jibbering wreck its weighed and BOOM hovering between 6lb 13oz and 7lb with nervy shakes ill call it 6lb 13oz :-) my PB chub what a moment and wow i wont be forgetting this week in a while, what a awesome weeks chubbing and the season has only just begun :-) i actually couldnt care less about catchin much else so my fishing was a bit half arsed to say the least after one more hour we headed home. ill be giving chub a break for a while in search of more bass and wrasse so keep ya eyes peeled

Danny

What a day.....

Im still smiling my ass off! decided to head out to one of my favorite local Chub spots for a spot of surface fishing for Chubblys the conditions started off awfull with bright sunshine and temps climbing, it was HOT! i could see chub from the get go and they deffo had there minds on sun bathing rather than food with a couple chases and two small chub to about a pound within the first 10mins. then as if the weather man was listening to my moaning about too much sun bothering the fish the cloud sneaked in, it was still really warm and started to get muggy. but the cloud cover is just what the doctor ordered

i got to a nice glide where i sneaked in behind the reeds and stingers i could see four nice chub, two about 2lb and two around 4lb now the sun was not beaming down i felt allot more confident so i cast my tiny Jitterbug (ill talk about this lure at the end of the report) across to the other bank plopping it next to the far bank streamer weed, and slowly crept the Jitterbug up the current and i could clearly see the chub looking for what ever is in there swim and the two smaller fish charging over to it in the gin clear water they were litterally competing for the action and smash this fiesty little 2lber nails the lure and instantly im grinning from ear to ear as this is my favorite type of fishing!

In the very next gap in the streamer weed i only had 3ft to play with and i could see this nice plump two and a half pounder nails the lure almost instantly i wound the handle once if that and smash it was on! and while is was crankin this fish over the weed another massive chub spooks out well over 5lb i was buzzing with excitement as things started to all come together! it was crawling with chub most gaps in the weed had one if not a few chub lurking around and they all wanted a bit of Jitterbug!

I got to a really nice wier pool where it just screamed chub big slabs of rock and feed beds created a really nice looking swim it was clear of streamer weed and had two nice glides where the water was creating some nice eddys and slacks once again the first cast comes up trumps! bang and yet another chub nailing the lure and this time it was the biggest of the session at just over 3lb it scrapped well even taking line i thought for a second it was allot larger, they certainly pull ya string! i put on the side strain to not spook the wier pool and that certainly worked a treat! after two more casts im pleasantly shocked at what happens next! i see a nice dark brown shape turn and then with a explosion of action the fish leaps completely clear of the water, this was no chub! it took a fair bit of braid off my calais before leaping again! i got it to the net and had to weigh this beast! a new PB

3lb 3oz......... stunning fins, not a spot out place and my fish ever Jitterbug trout :-) and went really well considering i had the rod loaded up to deal with snag happy mental chub! the river was now picking up pace and shallowing the streamer weed creating lots of nice creases and runs all full to the brim of nice chub and i know some corking runs and glides where iv caught some big chub over the years in winter on SP's twitched across the bottom will they hold the chub today? only one way to find out! things were looking good as i aproached i could see three big chub all over 4lb and one massive fish i was like a child in the sweet shop! i cast the Jitterbug down the run and instantly could see the chub gettin twitchy it wasnt long before i nailed a biggy! it took 3 casts and then a big bow wave steams up behind the lure and smash the big pair of rubbery lips nailed the lure!

Heres the biggest fish of the session and my daytime surface PB chub of 5lb 6oz...... im gutted i couldnt get a decent picture of this as it really was a barrel of a fish and went mental when it was hooked charging off down stream and then some dirrrrty tactics by ploughing through the streamer weed! i thought for a minute i was going to lose the chub as it charged deeper into the weed i just couldnt get the correct angle on it but after a bit of Parkins persuasion i got the fish to the net shaking like a leaf trying to take the picture i am sooooo chuffed out this fish! and there was a few all around this size through this run, ill be back on a night session to see whats what next week!i wasnt long before i was in again! i crept down the run where i could still see some big chub i took only two casts and bang i was in again!

check out the guts on this fat chub at almost 5lb they were built like carp with massive guts they certainly arent short of food here as the belly on this chub shows! i would love to see the size of the chub we caught in the winter from this run they were 6-7inches longer than this fish weighing the same i dread to think! im hoping there show on a nite session next week as i know there still on here! these two fish bumped me up to chub number 21 on this hectic session and i was having a ball even with the tiddlers which plagued the twisty bends on this river, one thing missing today was pike...... you can normally catch a fair few here and i only saw two all day, one of around 8lb and a tiny jack. not one of them taking any interest in the lures, i think if i had syuck on a Sebile soft magic swimmer or something like that i think i could of prob nailed one or two but the chub was my target today and boy did i manage to pull that off..... gutting i didnt have a buddy fishing with me so we could have some decent grab and grin shots specially of the larger fish as im never happy with rod and grass shots but hay its not the end of the world!

Heres the tiny Jitterbug..... deadly for chub and even pike will smash this lure, we cut the standard hooks off as there very poor quality they come with two small trebles i cut them off and attach a small split ring to the rear eye and wack on a nice new small Owner st-36 be sure to use a hook big enough to hook the fish well but not too big it kills the action of the lure. and now it only has one hook its slightly more weedless too :-) i would consider this the premium lure for surface chubbing day or nite, so why not give them a go. ill be trying a night session here again next week ill post up so keep ya eyes peeled

The Postman.......

Well....... i think you can safely say Adrian is the postman, he certainly delivered last night!! we fished a southwest venue which we'v been gaggin to fish for a couple months and it certainly came up trumps :-) we got there about a hour before dark and with the pooring rain it was looking amazing! we had the usuall banter while gettin ready, the whole "im not greedy, a 20 will be fine" which we know there are plenty of those in here :-) and it wasnt long before Ady nails his first fish! actually it was his first bloody cast to be honest..... a fish of around 6-7lb which came off at the reeds in front of us, was that a sign of things to come or the dreaded first cast session killer......but literally in the next swim im happily walking along in the pissing it down with rain! and Bang Adrian is in again! the pike was only a rod length out in from of a big patch of reeds and adrian shouts its a better fish maybe 8-9 lb so i get the net off my back rucksack off and get ready to land it, thats when i see the fish steam off 10ft line i could see it was a double and i would of said 15lb after a few talk walks i start my descent into the depths with my waders on ill be ok right? well i managed to get to the edge of the reeds to a safe landing spot and the water was 2inches from the top of my waders lol :-) the fish was in the net and i passed it over my shoulder to Ady up the bank ofter a quick photo she was weighed a nice tidy 14lb 1oz not bad for less than 10 casts! it wasnt long before it was my turn for the action! in the very next swim i cast my swampy to the other bank into a small hole in the lillies and start my retrieve it isnt long before i see this huge bow wave charging up behind my lure. but it didnt come to a take i think it saw me as i couldnt get it to charge and take :-( judging by the bow wave it was another lump of a pike. Adrian was managing to completely distroy me last nite by this point he was managing a fish or lose a fish in most swims it was awesome! the pike were on fire hitting anything twitched across there swim
by this point adrian was 7 fish up on me after i seemed to lose every single bloody pike that came anywhere near my lures.... awesome sport though when they charge up behind your surface lure and smash it with vengeance! just before we lost too much light i whipped out my camera and decided to film in the next bay, and after two casts Adrian manages to get the chase i wanted and we got the hit on film which was soooooo buzzing and will edit it and crop stuff and try and get the video up on here asap. the problem now was the skys started to clear and we all know what moonlight does to nite piking..... kills it dead! luckily we had trees covering most of the venue we wanted to fish but soon as the light completely went the fishing just died... and it became very hard work! with only a few fish rising to the swampys after dark which its normally happens the other way around, the dark normally turns the pike on big style its like a light switch! but the moon light killed the fishing, Adrian manages a few more fish and for me it was dead :-( in the end we called it a day, as things just got bad to worse. Adrian was 10 fish in front of me but hayy cant win them all and was awesome to get out again on this special venue.