A picture paints a thousand words (2)

Date fished 19/07/2026

7am until 10am

Hot weather, no school and a son that has joined the workforce. All great reasons to spend a few hours together at the lake. 

 

well, something like that. 

We drove up to the lake, armed not only with tackle but more importantly homemade sausage and cheese muffins and pain au chocolates (not home made.)

Tackle

Two float rods, 1 ledger rod. Sweetcorn, hemp, Robin reds and breadcrumb. Hot juice, choco breaks and munchy bars.

Sometimes words just don't do it justice. I will leave you to write your own. 

Dad 4 tench

Martha 1 rudd

Rupe 2 tench, 1 roach, 1 rudd

My first tench aka Gary

No, not really

Date fished 22/6/2026

9.30am until tooth hurty pm

GCSE's completed and one more day of holiday for me was a perfect mix for me to take Rupe to the Swale to see if he could catch his first barbel.

We headed to Topcliffe as we could not leave at the  crack of dawn and he had a dentist appointment (brace tighten) at 4.45pm which could be on our way back North. 

First swim

Second swim

The weir swim looked good, sounded noisy and ate two swim feeders in two casts! We moved downstream 100m.

This swim seemed better, we cast our ledgerd pellets just in the flow and waited. 

I like fishing with pellets, they are:

Easy

Cheap

Last ages

Stay on the hook

Different sizes, flavours

Child friendly

I don't like some boilies that I have. I won them years ago and have never really used them. I take them with me on many trips and they come home again. They smell like vomit to me. I decided they were going in the river or in the bin!! 

Suddenly, Rupe's rod wiggled and I let him know, just incase he didn't see it through his fringe. He was in. A cute little chub his prize.

I cast too close to the far bank and lost more tackle. 

Today's mission was to hopefully get Rupe his first barbel, so I changed my rig to a vomit boilie on a hybrid feeder, no respectful barbel would get caught on that! 

A missed bite on that, it must work. I kept with it. 

My second of the week (ish). Big smiles all round! On the vomit too!!

Another angler came to fish this swim as I was releasing the barbel, he warned us of some snags. We had none in this swim so far. 

We reeled in. Snag! 

Another lost feeder. Am going through feeders quicker than............ (fill your own answer in here)

The sun burst through the clouds and although we liked the warmth, the fishing died. We watched birds, river critters and a little mouse having his lunch.

It was lovely to spend time with the boy. 

Oh, the title. I nearly forgot. Speaking of things that annoy me. Ask my son any question and his reply is usually "No, not really".

It doesn't even make sense!! 

Love him though!! 

What is this hair!?

Bloody Tinca!

Date fished 14/06/2026

7am until 11am

It's so nice to walk to and/or home from fishing. That's kinda why today, I fished Wydon in Hexham. 

Arriving at 7am, I walked to the swim I love to fish in. There was someone already in it! In truth the lake was fairly busy ( great to see). 

Realising I knew the guy in my swim, I chatted with him, George,  and then tackled up in the swim next door. 

George and I have talked about fishing together before but work and life schedules have never aligned, not sure this counts but will have to sort one day mate! 

Short rod, hybrid feeder and I was soon fishing down my left, not one rod length away from the reeds. 20 minutes of nothing and I got the 13ft float rod out. I was still fishing close in, but the length helps! (Stop the sniggering).

The float buried and I was in. An angry tench (assumed, not seen) kept deep and low and messed me up around the left reeds, then out in front and then the right hand reeds. I got the rod down and tried to bully him. It resulted in a hook pull and a lost fish. I was raging!

Am not normally an angry chappie, except when driving, but this annoyed me. Soon, I was back to normal when the offspring arrived. 

There is much more to life than a lost fish. 

1. Sunday breakfast

2. Cute pic of the young offspring 

3. My nephew sorting his fishing gear like I used to when I was young 

4. A nice rudd, both Rupe and I caught a few

5. Early morning at the lake

Rupe's chub

This post is not about Rupe putting on weight, or indeed going to the gym or making some kind of protein milkshake concoction in my special beer glass. It's about him trying to catch a chub as I guaranteed him I could help him....

Its been a few trips in the making, starting some years ago (sept 2021) when we went to the Swale with my dad. Rupe caught a crayfish that day and declared that was a fish - Fishin' Impossible: Tired out

Then all subsequent Swale trips that were masked by grayling, trout or pike were actually chub trips too! There have been 4 blanks on the chub front. 

Fishin' Impossible: Junior anglers

Fishin' Impossible: Minn-ho ho ho

Fishin' Impossible: Dork hat

Fishin' Impossible: Catching salad

12/7/2025 - 90 mins

A hot day and evening meant we could not be arsed with driving to the Swale. 

Trying to buy a local day ticket was 'awkward' but we managed to visit the Tyne. 

Rupe fished meat and bread flake alternating for an hour and a half in the evening. It was certainly pleasant sat in the shade as the paddle boarders went up and down. No chub though!

A trip to the Swale end of July and it happened - 27/7 - 7am until 1pm

Well, it would of if it wasn't for dad to muck it up.  

We fished the Swale again, all three of us. Two rods. Meat and worm - the worm just got attacked by small stuff and the meat just sat. Eventually some local advice arrived and put us on the potential for a pull. Rupe crept into position and cast mid river, the flow took the bait under the tree and we waited. It wasn't long and the rod began to twitch, I was so excited I shouted at Rupe to strike. He obliged, but far too early and the chub was gone. I mean, it might have been a barbel - who knows. 

We kept on but nothing came back, another blank on the chub front, but a minnow, called Gary (obvs) got impaled on our hook. He went back strongly though. I swear, I will get Rupe to catch his chub this calendar year!

1/11/2025

7am until 10am

I woke Rupe up by switching his bedroom light on. We had agreed a gentle shake does not work and he usually goes back to sleep. Cup of tea, homemade sausage muffin and we were off. Wanting to put everything 'down by my feet' said rupe, I let him pack the car. 

We had not left Hexham and he was fiddling with the radio. November must mean one thing. Heart Xmas! Over an hour of nonsense, but we did get a spaceman and a fairytale! 

Travelling light it was a quick scamper to the river. It was high but fishable and looked good. We started in the swim we ended in last time and started to fish. The cheesepaste we made last night was ledgered on the crease towards the over hanging willows. 

Nothing here, we moved on. 

The sun was warm but blinding. we moved on. 

We came to my usual spot. I helped my dad and Tom catch their first Swale chubs from a particular peg. I tackled up a 7ft rod and shepherded Rupe to the swim. He has fished it before, but would today be different? 

"I've got one dad!" I heard, as I checked the photos on my phone. 

I scrambled down behind him, with a near useless net and scooped up his prize. For a first ever Chub, it looked a beauty! 

At 5lb exactly, we were both over the moon. We rested it and watched it slowly swim down and through the weed. 

Was there time for me to try in the first swim again, if I could only pry the rod out his hands!!??

Not a chance! 

Slop (slip, slap)

Date fished 5/4/2025

9.30am until 1pm

Given the lovely weather we are currently experiencing, Rupe and decided to head to Tilcon for the morning. Not quite slopping on the sun cream, slapping on a hat and slipping into a shirt, it was actually beanies, snoods and coats weather!! 

The wind was cold and the clouds tried to stop the sun, but when it came out it was lovely. We even had lunch sat in the car, that was toastie (warm not a toasted sandwich!).

The first spring session is always tough, Tilcon is not a commercial, but a wild lake. The fish are there and feeding but they are also just 'waking up' from a cold Northern winter. We hoped to get them going with what we called slop. Dead maggots, casters, breadcrumb and some corn, in a very wet mix.

There was more than this, this was post our lunch  

A float rod and a feeder rod between us, we opted for a swim together. For 90 minutes nothing happened on either rod. Then I got caught on a snag and snapped the hooklink. A change of that and some dead maggots on the hook did the trick. An ide each on the float in about 90 seconds and we were all smiles.

I had one more, I had to beat the boy at something. 

Great to be out with Rupe, seems the other child is too lazy!