Pike Trip with Paul Garner

I had a cracking day yesterday with good friend Paul Garner we met up on one of his favourite pike waters near St Ives, bad news when we got there as the lake we wanted to fish was frozen, we stuck at it for a few hours on another lake before the milder air at last melted the ice on the water we had wanted to fish.

Paul had the first run only a few minutes after we moved and at just over 20lb he was well pleased

Around an hour later it was my turn as another bait slowly slid away, once in the net first impressions were another 20, but the scales told otherwise with 19lb 4oz recorded, none the less a new P.b for me so I'll settle for that.

News from Galibore camp in India is that the Mahseer are on the feed, local mate Brian Naylor has just returned from his first trip and had plenty of fish including some 30s 40 and even a 50lb fish, thats fantastic fishing but even that can be beaten by My old mate Rich Bedder who had an 83lb Mahseer last sunday the day he arrived in the camp, I know how much that will mean to Rich and good on him for it, just one word thou leave a few of the bigguns for me and Ken to catch.

After 4 Days off You Guessed it's Back To Work

Enjoyed the last 4 days off, caught up with some sleep and been out fishing the first time for a few weeks.

With the mini ice age slowly receding I ventured out into Norwich City centre onto the Wensum for a spot of bream fishing, not everyones cup of tea but Norwich is a great place to live and as the signs say when you enter on the main roads "A Fine City".

The fishing went well and I ended up with a nice haul of bream and a few roach and perch, I had a great day in the company of Mat Woods from Korum and also good friend Pete Taylor turned up and treated us all to a Cappuccino from the local Weatherspoons ,which went down well I can assure you.

                     The Wensum in the heart of Norwich

Just about got the Mac running how I want it, Mac users tell me its worth it in the end, starting to see it that way, but not 100% convinced yet.

I have however turned up another from the Archives, this ones a Pike from the Acle marshes near Great Yarmouth and the year? about 1981 I Guess

With the Mahseer trip to India getting ever closer heres another image from last years trip, has anybody been watching the channel 4 series Indian winter, its been most interesting and from what I saw of India last year very true to life.

Last but not least after a few years of being in decline as far as football goes my home team Norwich City has started to get some results together and are 3 points clear at the top of the league, just hope now they can keep it up and get promotion this season.

"""COME ON YOU YELLOWS"""

Ouch!!!!

I have been busy for a couple of weeks now moving, checking and deleting files from a desk top and laptop and trying to keep what I want without deleting anything from the kiddell archives in the way of pictures or letters etc. The reason being I have treated myself to an I Mac computer, talk about crystal clear display, its fantastic how clear images are displayed and with a 27 inch monitor its a bit tasty.

On the fishing front its been dead for me the barbel are not feeding and I just can't be arsed to do anything else at the minute, I am trying to rest a painful shoulder/back/arm which has been giving me some awful gip, OUCH!

I did venture out into norwich at the peak of the mini ice age, a few brave men were fishing a match, Wayne Anderson managed a tidy net of small roach and perch for nearly 9lb not bad in minus 3 and 6 inchs of snow.

Wayne Anderson with his winning net

In among the Kiddell archives I did find this image which you might like to see

Ade complete with Keegan esk perm and camo kagool

Back to work

Bad news its back to work tonight after a nice long weekend off, had a get together with the family on Saturday.

Looks like the weather is staying cold for a while yet which is knocking the fishing for six, still only a few weeks and we shall be off to India for another couple of weeks of Mahseer fishing in fantastic surroundings with great company.

Here's one from last years trip

It would be nice to see wild elephants again in India, like these from last years trip

Snow clearing

The boss hired this so I could clear some snow
We must keep the wheels of England turning

Snow

This shows just how much snow has fallen in Norfolk, the most for many
years

The Good The Bad & The Dam Right Ugly

The river wensum close to my Norwich home has seen some highs and lows over the years and continues to have both good times and bad.

Firstly the bad times hit again last week when a Barbel that my old mate Ginger Wells caught in the summer at well over 15lb and a fish I had caught in the past at well over 16lb was found dead on the banks of the river after an Otter was chased from its carcass, it had just pulled it from the river and had eaten its eyes and by the look of it its gills and guts were next.

Ginger with the barbel in the summer

Moments after its sad death last week

What hacks me off more than anything else about the Otter plague that has destroyed many of our barbel in the last few years is the amount of idiots out there that still dont see otters as a problem on our rivers.

Either these people have not witnessed the decline of barbel stocks in their river or just dont care but either way they will live to regret their actions or rather lack of them. Some of these anglers are well know and very experienced anglers and should know much better, but I feel its more down to their pecieved status and not wanting to be seen making statements that might do their "status" some harm.

On a much brighter note

Yesterday I was asked to attend a stocking of barbel into the river Wensum.

Well over 800 2nd year barbel were stocked into the River spread over 4 different points

Typical size of the stocked Barbel

 A crowd gathers to witness the stocking

Great news to end with and a big well done to all those who have worked so hard to make this stocking possible.

Night fishing

See the green light in the middle of the picture well if it whacks
over we've got a bite
Keep watching
Had 3 so far best over 7 lb
But the wind is blowing and it's raining
I ain't known a night like it

Lovely view

Back on a flooded Severn river has dropped around 2 foot since Sunday but still coloured and full of rubbish
Managed a couple of barbel yesterday and Graham had 4.

 I just had a small one 1st cast so here's to a few more

Severn on the rise

A few weeks ago we were asking for rain, but now it could do with
stopping
The Severn is rising and the flood barriers are In place in Bewdley