Not our final 'swan song'

Date fished 15/8/26

7.30am until 5pm

A long day and three swims fished. We gave ourselves 10/10 for effort. But not sure on our results.

Ledgered everything on the Ouse for the elusive, but Ellis guaranteed, chap! 

First swim was a walk, but in the early morning cool air, Ellis was jealous of my jumper. A bream came to see us in the shallows, but turned away before we could throw it some duck food. They ate plenty. 

X marks the spot

Nothing much going on here, so while Ellis lassoed a small skimmer, I spent the time tidying my tackle box.

A jungle walk to another swim. We sat here in the shelter and watched YouTube. The swim was alive with predators snapping at everything. Ellis swapped to a worm and a small tap turned into a heavy lump. A pike grabbing his perch. The former let go and the latter came in relatively unharmed. 

We watched a kingfisher show us up and catch a minnow right in front of us. 

Knocks galore on the spicy sausage, I fear it was pincers and not lips doing the damage. 

One more swim to try and this was again filled with pulls on the spicy sausage! 

Highlight was the pair of swans preening and rewaterproofing themselves for about 5 minutes a few feet in front of us. That even beat the raunchy dancing on board the party boat, but that video evidence is not available yet! 

If trips where you blank were always like this, I wouldn't mind. In fact, I didn't blank, I just ran out of time! 

Two barbel, five bream, six perch!!

Date fished 18/6/2026

7am until 3pm

Ellis and I went to the Ouse today. We had a great, great session. 

Two rods ledgered mid river or towards the tree lined far bank proving to be the tactic! 

I will let you into a secret, the bait today that worked was worms! Many other pellets laid unmolested, but not the worms!!

I actually can't remember the sequence of what we caught when. But I know, I did catch a couple of bream then a barbel and Ellis caught his barbel whilst I had my third bream in the net!! 

3lb 12oz

4lb 12oz

We have never both caught a barbel in the same session,  plenty of chub but never barbel. We wondered if we could top the day off with a chub each from the Nidd. This proved a touch too far for our luck, so we headed back to Ellis's house for a celebratory beer!!

Untold story

Date fished 26/10/2024

7am until 4pm

As I prepared my kit, two blue bottles flew out of my seat box. I felt like a proud father opening the window so they could go forth and enjoy the Hexham air. After that, I got my kit together. The new quiver taking a back seat as I was only taking one rod! I was "promised" pb barbel by Ellis. As this was going to be a new river for me, any barbel or fish would be a pb from that, I wonder if that's what he meant?!

Edit. 

Ellis messaged me to say four rods could fit in the swim he wanted to fish. I grabbed another rod and the quiver was happy! 

Two hours drive and I was soon meeting Ellis, the location was the Ouse. I have never fished it before so was excited. We parked up in the dark and got the kit ready. Another car pulled in to the car park, this put Ellis into speedy mode and we were quickly walking past some cows to the river. 

The swim was perfect. Wide, sandy and the river looked great. 

It's difficult to say how good the swim was, but comfort, social and fishing wise it was spot on. We tackled up as the beautiful sunrise lit up the sky. At 7.49 we cast in the feeders and waited. Regular casting got some bait in the swim. Pellets, meat and dumbbell boilies the hair rigged baits. 

Again you will think this is cliche but this was one of my favourite blanks ever. We talked about so much. Men's health, life, fishing trips, other anglers and there were moments where I was laughing like a school boy! It was such a great day. 

The fish were secondary and on this occasion and stayed in their watery home. There will be times when fish dominate the session and we don't have much time to chat! 

For this reason this blog is special to me, so I am not going to share all the memories. The highlights though. 

Sausage sarnies by Carole

Condiments

Sausage puns

Cow's bodily functions

Bush casting 

Angling etiquette 

Clubs

Would you rather...

Oh, and you never told me that story Ellis!!!